Lisa took a final look around the room, making sure that they didn't leave anything behind. She was sad to leave Longbourne and hoped they would be able to return soon. It had felt good to come home and to share her family home with Rick. He had fit in well on the estate and even Mrs. Reynolds had pulled Lisa aside yesterday to give her approval of him.

She had hugged Lisa tightly and said, "I wasn't prepared to like him so much, but he's a good man Lisa. I just hope he does you two right." Lisa just hugged Mrs Reynolds and whispered back, "I'm sure he will. Don't worry so much, everything will be ok."

Caressing her belly, Lisa headed downstairs for a final time and wandered through the rooms of her childhood home and vowed to do whatever she could to protect this property and the planet for their future generations. The Reynolds were waiting at the car to drive them back to the airfield and there were many hugs and kisses given to both Lisa and Rick and a huge basket of baked goods and food to take with them for the trip back.

With a final wave to Mrs. Reynolds, they entered the car and as Henry started the drive down the long driveway, Lisa couldn't help but let a few tears escape. Watching Lisa wipe the few tears from her eyes as they left the property, Rick held her hand tightly and said, "Thank you for sharing Longbourne with me Lisa, I can see why you love it so much. I promise, we'll come back again soon."


The final weeks of Lisa's pregnancy passed quickly. After spending the week together at Longbourne, Rick couldn't fathom being apart from Lisa on a daily basis and that weekend the two decided that they would be happier living with one another. Rick loved nothing more than being able to hold Lisa at night with one hand curved around her belly. It had taken both of them some adjustments to living together as Lisa's place was much smaller than Longbourne and there was no one to see to their meals or cleaning as there was at Longbourne, but there were few misunderstandings between the two of them and Rick and Lisa found sharing their lives together very natural.

They moved the furniture in Lisa's second bedroom to Rick's home and one weekend Rick and Max painted and setup the nursery to Lisa's satisfaction. The woman helped Lisa finish her registry and threw her a wonderful baby shower, with Charlotte and Mariah coming from Monument City to join the celebration. The Skull Squadron not to be outdone, presented their Captain and the Major with their gifts, a cute one piece with the skull emblem embroidered on the chest, a beanie knitted to look like Rick's helmet, a tiny orange flight suit, which made Rick and Lisa laugh, remembering the first time they had met over the TacNet, and a small pedal airplane that was modified and painted to looked like Skull-1. Both Rick and Lisa thanked the pilots profusely for their gifts. For some of the pilots, this was the real first time that they observed Rick and Lisa interacting with one another and the general consensus among the pilots was that Rick was a very lucky man and that the two were very much in love with one another.

The atmosphere on the base was much different too, everyone enjoyed seeing Captain Hunter and Major Hayes together and although they maintained their distance and did not let their personal life interfere with their professionalism, people couldn't help but smile when they saw them together.


Lisa's due date was coming up fast and for her, life couldn't be any better. Lisa was amazed at the changes her life had gone through in the last few months. She made sure that there were no loose ends to the items she was working on and transferred her remaining work to others that could take over in her stead while she was out on maternity leave. Rick and Claudia had convinced her to start her leave a week before her due date and with Gloval's permission, Lisa started her maternity leave and spent her days at home, reading, resting and talking long walks while she waited for the baby to come.

Rick, wished he could stay home with Lisa but wanted to use his paternity leave for after the baby was born. Mrs. Reynolds had let them know that she wanted to come and help out for a few weeks at the beginning and so Rick and Lisa prepared his small home for the Reynolds' use as her home wasn't big enough and Lisa didn't want them to stay at a hotel.

Rick hated saying goodbye to Lisa every morning and not seeing her on base even though she would come and have lunch with him sometimes on base. They had just finished eating lunch and made plans to go out to dinner that night when the sirens and klaxons starting to go off notifying the base of an attack. Lisa, wanted to head to the bridge but Rick stopped her and had an MP escort her to a shelter.

"Please Lisa. I would feel safer knowing you weren't on the base."

Lisa nodded her head and went with the MP while Rick ran to the hangar to take the lead on the defense with the Skull Squadron. The attack was over quickly, a few rebel Zentraedi who had managed to get a hold of a few battle pods and were running around destroying buildings in a small town 100 miles away from New Macross. Rick and his team were able to wipe them up quickly but were ordered to stay on patrol search for other rebels. It was 8 hours before Rick was able to return to base and was close to landing when he was contacted by the bridge. "Skull Leader this is Delta-1, please come in"

Opening up his comm and making visual communications, Rick acknowledged the request and was surprised when Sammie showed up on the screen. "This is Skull Leader..."

Sammie had a big grin on her face and yelled in excitement, "Rick, hurry back, Claudia called and said that Lisa's having contractions, you need to come back as soon as you can."

Rick sharing Sammie's excitement responded with a whoop and said, "Understood, ETA is half an hour, please let her know I'm on my way." Spurred on by the news the Skull Squadron applied their afterburners and hurried home to make sure their Captain didn't miss his son's birth.


Rick ran into the base hospital 45 minutes after being contacted. After asking the nurse about Lisa's whereabouts, he was directed to the maternity ward. Following instructions, he knocked on Lisa's door and entered to find Lisa standing by the bed with Claudia holding Lisa's hand while she went through another contraction.

Rick quickly went to Lisa's side and kissed her on the cheek. Lisa look relieved to see him and as he took her other hand, she said, "I'm so glad you made it back, is everything ok?"

After reassuring Lisa that everything was ok, he asked about her "How about you? What happened? When did the contractions start?"

Lisa feeling much better now that Rick was with her responded as the contractions faded. "It started a few hours ago after I went back home. I wasn't sure and didn't want to be alone so I called Claudia and she stayed with me until we felt the contractions coming faster. After calling Dr. Wu, she advised me to come in and after a quick check, she had me admitted. She doesn't think it's going to be much longer."

Just then Dr. Wu came in to check on her patient. Rick watched her as Dr. Wu checked Lisa's condition and said, "the baby's on his way, but you never can tell with these babies, they come when they come. You still have a bit of time."

Claudia decided to take this time to excuse herself saying that she wanted to grab a bite to eat and asked Rick if she could bring him something. He thanked her and Claudia left with Dr. Wu, giving Rick and Lisa some privacy before the baby arrives.

Rick, helped Lisa to sit in the chair and rest for a bit before the next contraction hit. He held her hand and kissed it and she gave him a loving smile and asked, "Are you nervous?"

Rick gave a shaky laugh and said, "Yeah a bit, we did everything so ass backwards.. I'm sorry Lisa, if I could do it again, I would do it so much differently."

Lisa smiled, "Yeah, like what?"

Rick ran a hand through his hair and said, "I don't know, pretty much everything when it comes to you. I think the biggest regret I have is not being able to do this properly"

Lisa looked confused at first, until Rick dropped to one knee and pulled from his shirt pocket an antique style diamond ring. Taking her hand again he said, "Lisa, I know that I have done nothing to deserve your love and know that I am the luckiest guy in the world to have it. You are my best friend, my one love and the most amazing woman I know. You're the one that I want to spend the rest of my days with and hope you feel the same way. Lisa Hayes, will you marry me?"

Lisa, who had started tearing up when Rick got down on one knee and started his proposal, was silent. Staring at Rick and the ring, Rick was worried that he screwed up again and felt he needed to apologize. "I'm sorry Lisa for springing this on like you like this, I wanted to take you out to dinner tonight and asked you in the park where we had our first date, but well this (indicating the hospital room) happened first."

Lisa just shook her head and said, "it's not that." Deciding to settle all her doubts she asked in a low voice, "Are you sure Rick? We don't have to rush this."

Rick just leaned his forehead on hers and looked Lisa in her beautiful green eyes and said, "Lisa, baby or not, I just want to be with you forever. I love you! I always have and I always will."

Kissing her softly on the lips, Rick repeated his earlier question to her, "Lisa, I love you, will you make me the happiest man in the universe and marry me?"

Lisa had no time accepting this time and with a "Oh Yes!." She kissed Rick long and hard until the next contraction hit.

Rick helping her to stand up again, slid the ring onto her finger, satisfied to see that if fit so well and how pretty it looked on her hand. Rick helped Lisa to breath through the next contraction and rubbed her back until the contractions subsided. Over the next couple of hours, this was the routine, Rick and Lisa walked around the room and the hallway around the room and Rick held her hand and rubbed her back when the contractions hit.

Claudia returned to help as well and between the two of them they helped Lisa as best they could through the contractions. Rick hated to see Lisa in pain and wanted her to take the epidural for the pain but Lisa didn't want any drugs in her system.

As Lisa started to go into active labor, Lisa was taken back to the birthing room and Rick dressed in a pair of clean scrubs. The nurses brought in an isolette for the baby and Rick was instructed to stay with Lisa and help her through the pain. This was something that they had gone through during birthing class but the reality of it was much different then the class. Rick couldn't help but laugh when Lisa swore like a sailor during one of the most painful contractions which earned him a ferocious glare from Lisa. Dr. Wu was encouraging as were the nurses and the doctor let Lisa know when to push. After a few hard pushes, a very sweaty and tired Lisa and Rick were rewarded with the cries of their son. "Congratulations, it's a boy!" said Dr. Wu.

Holding an exhausted Lisa in his arms, Rick kissed her as they waited for the doctor to finish with Lisa and for the nurses to bring the newborn to them. Lisa cried as they placed him in her arms and she pulled back the little blue and white hat they had placed on his head, to see the shock of black hair. Checking all his little fingers and toes, Lisa wrapped the little one back up and Lisa and Rick just stared at their son taking him all in and memorizing his little features. Giving the new family a few moments together but before the nurses and doctors left them, one of the nurses asked, "Do we have a name yet for the little one."

Still staring at their little boy, who yawned and stared back at them with his big eyes, it was Lisa who responded, in a loving voice, "Roy, his name is Roy Hunter."

Rick and Lisa just smiled at one another. They had agreed to the name months ago after finding out the baby's gender but decided to keep it a secret. It had driven the Trio nuts guessing and coming up with names and it gave Rick and Lisa a laugh the last couple of months as the three women tried to trick Rick or Lisa into revealing the name.

They called Claudia in to meet her nephew and Claudia had tears in her eyes when they told her his name. "I knew it, " she said softly cuddling the baby. After promising to come back in the morning and to spread the good news to their friends, Claudia left to allow the new family time to rest.

It was early morning when Roy was born and both parents were exhausted. The maternity nurses offered to move Roy to the nursery, but Lisa couldn't bear to be away from him yet and Roy spent his first night held by Lisa in her loving arms, as she was too keyed up to sleep for the few remaining hours of the night.

Rick, exhausted from the battle and the last few hours, fell asleep on the fold out bed that was supplied by the hospital, eager to wake up the next day and care for his newborn son and his fiancee.