Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own Red Dwarf or any of it's characters. So there you go.

Author's note: My longest chapter so far, and definitely the most fun to write with the possible exception of Chapter 2.

Rimmer sprang out of bed. Today was his day with Nicole, and he wasn't going to waste it by doing anything as trivial and unnecessary as sleeping. True, it was midnight and it was highly unlikely that she would even be up, especially considering Lister had just got in from his day with her a couple of hours ago. But he wanted to be prepared in case...anything happened. Which he sincerely hoped it would. He went to the mirror and stood up straight. He pulled back his shoulders, stuck out his chest and clenched his buttocks, before launching into a series of well-worn and overly-obvious facial expressions, in an effort to practice his 'sexy' look.
"You might want to keep practicing, Rimsy," said a little voice in his head. Rimmer sighed and shook his head. Suddenly he found it incredibly difficult to keep his eyes open and he yawned heavily. His eyes couldn't help but wander back to his pillow. Even though right now he was a soft-light hologram and couldn't feel anything, the sight of a lovely, squashy pillow was really appealing. Originally he had wanted to use the time before Nicole woke up to smarten himself up a bit. Take a shower in hard-light form, clean and iron his best blue uniform, maybe even go for a (very) quick jog. But just the thought of doing all those things made him doubly tired, and if he actually performed them, he may even end up looking worse than he already did. He clambered back into bed after deciding that maybe sleeping wasn't as trivial and unnecessary as he had previously thought.

Lister being out of bed already should have been a BIG clue.
"Holly, what time is it?" Rimmer asked the blonde head.
"26.3 degrees centigrade, Arn," she replied confidently.
"No, Holly," Rimmer corrected her impatiently, "what time is it?"
"Oh. Sorry. One o' clock, Arnold."
"In the morning?"
"No. Afternoon."
Rimmer was out the door quick as a flash. Then back in again.
"Holly, dress me!"
She did so with a cheeky grin.
"Nicole's in her room still," said Holly as he saw Rimmer about to ask her the question. Rimmer was startled.
"How did you know...?"
Holly gave a facial expression equivalent to a shrug, "Just did. But I'd get there quick. Lister's headed in the same direction."
"Thanks, Hol."
And as quick as Kryten'll jump at the chance of folding sheets, Rimmer was out of the door for the second time in sixty seconds.

As it turned out, Lister wasn't going to Nicole's room, but to Blue Giant Bar for a couple of drinks with the Cat. This actually greatly annoyed Rimmer who had ran the entire way to her room. All twenty-six floors of it. To discover he'd gone the wrong way and had to repeat the trip backwards. To discover Lister wasn't there and all the running had been for nothing. To discover hot, sweaty, puffy men aren't what women--especially Nicole--were looking for.
"Rimmer? What happened?" she said as she opened the door to let him in. Too exhausted to reply, Rimmer simply waved his hand and shook his head in a dismissive way.
"OK," Nicole said uneasily, "Um, do you wanna come in? I'll just be five minutes getting ready."
"No, that's OK," Rimmer found his voice at last, although it was throatier and shakier than he would have liked, "I think I'll just..."
He leaned against the wall with one hand and put the other on his knee. Whilst Nicole finished getting ready, he tried his best to catch his breath and steady his nerves. Things weren't going well, and the only thing that was going to carry him through this date was a cool head, a calm attitude, and suave sophistication. He was determined to end the evening with at least one of these intact.

The day wasn't exactly a disaster, but it could have been better. Rimmer had planned to take her to the ship's cinema to see 'The Secret Garden,' her all-time favourite film, only to find Kryten had traded it to GELFs for supplies. So instead he took her to Parrot's Bar for a drink, only to find all the taps were dry (evidently alcohol wasn't one of the things Kryten had traded 'The Secret Garden' for). After trying, and failing, to get Blue Midget started up to take her moon hopping, Rimmer gave up.
"I'm sorry," he said as they made their way back to Parrot's, "This isn't going very well, is it?"
Nicole just laughed, "Actually, I'm having fun!"
"Really?" Rimmer said after a pause to check for sarcasm.
"Yeah! I mean, all those embarrassing stories about Lister were hilarious! Thinking a backwards universe was Bulgaria, being a foot-tall superhuman, falling out with his own clone," Rimmer winced. He'd run out of funny anecdotes about Lister, so took one of his own and changed the name, "The Space Mumps..." she trailed off and started laughing again. To his astonishment, Rimmer found himself laughing too.
"He did look like an idiot. I think I've got some pictures somewhere," he said as he opened the door to the bar.
"Oh you have to show me!"
Was she doing what he thought she was doing? Was she...was she asking for, or at least hinting at, another day spent with him? Rimmer smiled for the thousandth time that night. They both got drinks (water) and sat down. Rimmer was really surprising himself; conversation was in full flow and he didn't feel awkward at all.
"So, what about you?" Nicole asked, "Any tales of terror of your own?"
About a million, he thought to himself.
"A couple," he said, vaguely.
"Go on then."
Rimmer hesitated. He wasn't sure their relationship had developed enough to tell her about the holo-virus, or going to meet the girls on the Nova V, or wiping out an entire planet's population, or Captain Smug-Git himself, Ace Rimmer.
"If you don't want to tell me," Nicole was suddenly serious, "that's OK."
Rimmer smiled yet again. He began:
"So it was a few months ago, and we found this woman called Doctor Lanstrom..."

A/n: Phew!

P.S. I've planned the rest of this fanfic and it's in the region of.......22 chapters! Although it could change, all those with a short attention span just don't bother reading any more!