Sunrise over the tango factory's A/N: Just a quick note, cheers for those who reviewed: lucid-03-days, cazflibs, kippersvindaloo and SnkNJak! You all rock! Huggles for each and everyone of you! :)Enjoy.
Warning: the following chapter includes scenes of an upsetting nature; people (women mainly) who are overly hormonal should have a large quality of tissues nearby as well as a large bar of chocolate. This is an order! (don't you just love me, i'm giving you an excuse to eat chocolate!)
The next morning, Rimmer received some bad news.
"We've got to go…" he repeated, feeling his heart (or what would be the hologramatic equivalent of his heart) crack.
Lister felt unbearably guilty, the way Rimmer looked the night before was still fresh in his mind.
He looked so happy; he'd found someone he'd waited so long for.
They'd been brought back together again, and now he was being told he had to leave.
Kryten was near short-circuiting with his guilt "I'm terribly sorry sir, but if we wait around here any longer, Red Dwarf could be out of our scanning range…"
Rimmer went quiet before finally answering in a hoarse whisper "it's hardly like we're going to miss a dirty, big spaceship like the 'dwarf' are we? It's huge; we'll spot it miles off, if we could just stay for one more night…"
His voice was tinged with desperation, last night Elizabeth had agreed to go on a date with him.
It was, if you looked at it properly, rather pointless as both of them loved the other, it was merely a chance for them to feel like a real couple.
Rimmer had been dreaming of this since he was 13, he couldn't have his dream taken from him, not now, not after he'd found Elizabeth again. He couldn't bare it.
Kryten lowered his eyes, anything to avoid Rimmer's devestated look "I'm sorry sir, but we still have to go!"
Rimmer turned his back on them, and wrapped his arms round his shoulders as if protecting himself from the harsh outside world. He hadn't felt this awful in a long time, it was as if a large part of him had been torn from his body, he felt if left without seeing Elizabeth again, he'd need to be switched off, because the pain would be that insufferable, death would come as a relief.
Lister was the only one out them that knew partly what Rimmer was going through. He was the only one who'd been told about Rimmer's previous relationship with Elizabeth as teenagers.
He'd sat there and listened to the hologram relive every heart breaking moment, right up until the point when he realised, he'd lost Elizabeth seemingly forever.
Lister knew what it felt like to be madly in love with someone who could never be obtained. He felt he'd come to know Rimmer a lot better, and finally understood why he renounced affection of any kind, why he never let his heart do the talking, because since the age of 13, his heart had belonged to Elizabeth.
Lister could only begin to imagine what it must be like to hold someone in your arms that you'd pined for, only to have them wrenched from you, and then to rub salt in the wound to be told you've got to leave, without even saying goodbye.
'Not if I have anything to do with it' thought Lister, his hand sneaked out and discreetly tipped over a full can of larger all over the console, making it spit, fume and emit tiny sparks as the bubbly liquid dripped in through gaps and drowned it's circuit boards.
"Oh crap!" he exclaimed making everyone turn round "I've just knocked my larger all over the console" he paused, and shrugged his shoulders in a 'oh dear, well accidents do happen' way, he then caught Rimmer's eye "looks like we'll have to stay here a week...at least!"
He couldn't help feeling a tiny flicker of satisfaction when Rimmer suddenly beamed at him and mouthed 'thank you'.
"I hate to correct you sir, but I'm sure I could fix the console in under say…4 hours" said Kryten, moving the now empty can out of the way.
"No" said Lister slowly turning to face him, "it'll take a week…"
Kryten shook his head "it'll only take 4 hours"
"A week!" said Lister forcefully, glaring at the mechanoid.
Kryten grimaced, he hated having to correct humans, it made him seem so pompous "sir, I assure you it would only take me 4 hours…" Lister came close to the mechanoid's face, and said frowning.
"It. Will. Take. A. WEEK!"
There was a pause, before Kryten spoke up "is this what you could call 'taking a hint'?"
Lister nodded.
"You know" sighed Kryten, leaning close to inspect the fizzing console "the more I think about it, this console will take a least a week to fix" he then shot Lister a easily visible theatrical wink. Lister groaned, dragging his hands down his face in exasperation.
"Lister" said Rimmer somewhat coldly, "a word please" before walking out of the cockpit.
"Actually" stammered Lister; quickly after jumping to the conclusion of what this 'word' would be about "I've got stuff to sort out here!"
"NOW!" shouted Rimmer,
Lister groaned, and reluctantly followed the hologram.
"See you in 5 buddy" grinned the Cat supportively
"Don't bother" murmured Lister "I'll be dead in 3."
Lister found Rimmer sat on the grass outside, staring into the canopy of the trees that surrounded the clearing; he had his back to Starbug.
Lister cleared his throat to grab his attention.
"Sit down" ordered Rimmer, without even looking at him. Lister did as he was told; something about the way Rimmer was acting told him to go against his wishes was foolish.
A moment of silence existed between them, the birds were twittering and the mid morning sun was warming the clearing, it was have been the ideal situation for Lister, had he not been on tenterhooks.
Rimmer finally spoke "I'd like to thank you for what you did back there…"
Lister frowned "Why, what did I do?" he lied,
Rimmer looked at him for the first time since they left cockpit "don't play dumb, Lister"
"I'm not playing dumb, I really did knock over me can of larger over the part of the console we need the most…it was an accident" he paused, chewing his lip "oh stuff it" he groaned, "I did on purpose. Smeg you've waited long enough for her, you deserve at least one date with Elizabeth"
Rimmer looked uneasy "I don't think I'll go" he mumbled
"What!" Lister screamed, causing several birds that were nesting in the trees to fly off, squawking and jabbering in distress.
"What if when she gets to know me better, she might hate me…"
Lister found himself taking hold of Rimmer's shoulders and shaking them much to his surprise, "I've just made it so we're stuck here for another week, you are going on that date if I have to drag you there meself!"
"Can you stop shaking me now?" asked Rimmer "I think my head might fall off…"
"Sorry, man," said Lister, allowing the grateful hologram to drop to the floor.
"You love her don't you?" he asked, staring at Rimmer, who lowered his head. "Come on man, answer the smeggin' question"
"Yes" Rimmer replied, smiling.
"Then get out there, and work a bit of that 'Rimmer magic!"
Rimmer stood up, chest puffed out, head held high, and he went to march off, but stopped
"I can't," he said,
"And why not?" demanded Lister, annoyed to see what little effect his counselling was doing.
"The date doesn't start for another 9 hours"
Lister paused "my mistake…"
It was raining when Rimmer arrived at the restaurant, he was a few minutes late, but he hoped it wouldn't matter. He walked in through the doors and instantly spotted Elizabeth, she looked beautiful, dressed in a rose pink dress, and she'd let her hair down it rested on her shoulders in playful curls.
Rimmer suddenly felt very nervous. People were bound to question what was a gorgeous, intelligent woman like Elizabeth was doing with a slime ball like him.
Once Rimmer's paranoia decided to take a ride on his train of thought, it was difficult to persuade it to get off, it clamped itself to the inside of his head, occasional spitting out another thought up catastrophy usually filled with severe embarrassment and shame.
Instead of carrying on walking to Elizabeth's table, Rimmer quickly sat at another, it was positioned perfectly, he could see Elizabeth but she couldn't see him.
'I'll wait here, prepare myself, I'll only be here a few minutes then I'll go over' thought Rimmer.
A few minutes became half an hour, he watched dry mouthed, as Elizabeth got more and more flustered, glancing at her watched, gazing out of the window, tucking her hair behind her ears, tearing her napkin into tiny confetti like pieces.
Each time Rimmer stood up to go over, his well-fed paranoia piped up 'what do you think you're doing?' it laughed, 'she doesn't want you, sit back down and leave her to enjoy her meal without being nauseated by you…' So Rimmer would sit down, vowing to himself next time, next time he'd make it to the table.
This happened 14 times, each time his paranoia became bigger and bigger, showing him various slides of what would happen if he talked to Elizabeth, each one was worst then the last: Elizabeth telling him to shove off, Elizabeth slapping him across the face, Elizabeth throwing her drink in his face, Elizabeth trying to stab him to death with her fork and perhaps the worst Elizabeth saying she hated him…
Of course none of these events were ever likely to happen, but try telling Rimmer's paranoia that.
After 3 agonizing hours, Elizabeth stood up, grabbed her coat and marched out of the restaurant, wiping tears out of her massacred eyes. Rimmer watched her go with baited breath, he was longing to stand up and shout 'Elizabeth wait', but instead his paranoia laughed ' just don't have the balls to deal with women do you' it teased.
Rimmer stared out into the rainy night, his eyes locked on the departing figure of Elizabeth who despite the storm that was raging, was walking slowly across to the market square, even at this distance it was easy to see she was distraught.
Rimmer didn't know what to do, the only thing that seemed plausible was to cry, and that was what he did…he cried non-stop until the maitre de asked him to leave…some 4 hours later, and was still crying when he got back to Starbug.