Disclaimer: You thought I was going to forget it this time, huh? Well, poo on you! I don't own it.

A/N: That's right, I'm back with another good dose of torture for you. May you endure to the end.

Cindy had long since lost herself in her own thoughts as she sat staring out a large window, watching the stars go by and hugging a cushion to herself. Jimmy experienced a strange sense of deja vu when Francis, the overly-enthusiastic assistant of Commander Baker, walked up and sat down in front of her. Jimmy continued to pretend to read the open book he was holding, anxious to see how Cindy would deal with the pompous supervisor. (It was become a bit of a treat. Other than the disposal of Cody, he had already had the immense enjoyment of watching her snap and deliver a punch to Nicolette's left eye when Nicolette had the audacity to ask whether Jimmy – who was eavsesdropping, unnoticed by either woman – was as quick to make a move on Cindy as he had been on herself.)

"Hello!" he chirped. "I'm afraid we didn't have the chance to be properly introduced yet. I'm Francis, and what is your name?"

Cindy didn't look at all in a mood to create small-talk, but she nevertheless answered cooly, "Vortex."

The young B.T.S.O. member looked detered for a moment, but doggedly pressed on in his attempts at socializing. He smiled stupidly. "Like the disaster," he said with a small, airy chuckle. "You're parents must have had a sense of humor…"

Cindy's lip curled slightly. "Not really."

Fancis' smile flickered. "Oh. Well, I …I mean, Vortex…"

" – would be a surname." Cindy finished, adopting the tone one would use when explaining something to a young – and very stupid – child.

"Oh." Her young wooer blinked a few times in perplexity. "I thought – "

"Really?" Jimmy was surprised she had been able to keep the sneer out of her voice thus far; it must have been taking her a lot of self-control. "Listen, Frankie – "

"Oh, it's, uh, Francis!" Francis said brightly, turning slightly so Cindy could see the rectangular plastic card that was pinned to his chest. Cindy stared at it disbelievingly. She had maintained thus far and continued on in a sofisticated composer that Jimmy knew to be a warning sign but Francis naively believed to be a break-through.

"Right, right, Fran-snot." (She paused to collect her thoughts, giving Jimmy a chance to snort into his hand.) "I'm going to give you a highly-advised suggestion, even though my exposure to your species and their abysmal mental density tells me it will only be by some miracle of God that you listen: don't talk to me. Like, at all. Ever."

Cindy's face remained blank as she watched Francis try to work up enough presentation to falteringly half-smile before getting up and walking abjectly and stiffly away. Jimmy had doubled up in is seat, bringing his knees to his chest and trying to hide behind his open book, red in the face from contained laughter. It was so nice to see someone else insulted and blown off by Cindy; it made for a nice change.

Commander Baker, who was sitting a few feet away from Jimmy, asked concernedly, "You all right there, Agent Neutron?" Jimmy emerged from the book, hoping he looked more composed than he felt.

"I'm fine," he said, glancing across the ship at Cindy who had once again turned her attention to the stars beyond her window. "I just…read something funny."

As his good fortune had it, the ship began to slow and Vox's voice rang through: "Now landing on desert asteroid B-918. Preparing to unload cargo."

Jimmy stood to file out with the small party, but Cindy caught his eye – the look on her face was a sure sign his death was nearer than he thought. She skated over to walk beside him and hissed, "Is it your life-long goal to purposely land me with the most painfuly idiotic people on this – or any other – planet! I swear Nicolette was about to lose part of that pretty little face of hers; I don't think I've ever had a longer conversation about shampoo!"

"Was that before or after the black eye?" Jimmy choked out through a laugh. "And the Francis thing wasn't my fault, and if you continue to claim it was, I will be forced to take drastic measures."

Cindy gave a dubious snort. "Like what? Boring me to death with the 400 uses for phosphate?"

Jimmy made a scathing noise in the back of his throat as he paused to wait for Tee and Carl to pass through the door in front of them. "You'd be surprised at how much better I've gotten at arm wrestling…"

Cindy, obviously noticing the look he had thrown back at the bench in the middle of the space car, threw an arm around his neck as they started walking again and pulled him down; he grinned as she whispered into his ear, "Forget it, Citrus Boy. Orange is so not your color…"

"Guys, there's no need to look like you're at my funeral!"

Jimmy was exasperated beyond all reason. He knew bringing his friends along for the ride would result in this, but he wanted their company so dearly he hadn't been thinking properly when he agreed to it. They were all currently staring at him with ranging degrees of sorrow.

"Might as well be," Libby muttered. "Jimmy, we all know what Goobot's capable of; how do you plan to do this on your own?"

Jimmy chewed on his lower lip and glanced at Cindy, who shrugged. "I'm not; Cindy's coming with me."

He had taken Cindy aside just before taking off and asked her just what she was willing to risk for the saftey of everyone, failing miserably at trying not to sound like some cheese-coated corn-ball; nevertheless, "everything" had been her defiant and immediate answer. (Her only request was she obtain some of her own clothing before they set off; Goddard consented to teleport to her apartment and fetch some for her, returning with a fear for Cindy's fawning roommates, who aparently thought a mechanical dog to be a "cutei-pie".) Jimmy hadn't been lying when he'd turned up on her doorstep and said he needed her help. Cindy made it very clear now that she was willing to give it and consented to come along.

Jimmy hadn't, however, relayed this to any of the others yet. Their shock was rather humorous. Libby opened her mouth again, ready to work up another argument, but Cindy linked elbows with her and pulled her away from the rest of the group, saying, "Come, my uneducated friend, and let me fill your mind with wisdom."

Jimmy wished she had taken Carl and Sheen along and worked her amazing skills at convicing on them as well. But she hadn't, so he was forced to face them alone and defenseless. With his eyes averted to the ground and one hand running nervously through his hair, he said guiltily, "Look, I hope you guys understand, but…"

"That's okay, Jim," Carl interjected quickly, sounding thoroughly relieved. "We know Cindy is far more capable than the pair of us in a lot of aspects, especially when it comes to kicking alien butt."

Sheen grinned broadly at Jimmy, who grinned back. "Besides the butt-kicking skills," Sheen said, winking knowingly and throwing an arm around Jimmy's shoulders, "it gives you another open shot with la muchcha de tus sueños!"

Jimmy ducked from beneath Sheen's arm, flushing – and with a bit more than anger. "Sheen, I'd advise you not to say that again if you are satisfied with the current physical condition you are in."

He never needed to wreak revenge Cindy style, though, because Cindy herself walked up with a happier Libby in tow. The former gave a stasfactory sigh and said, "Well, let's get going!"

And so final goodbyes were said, hugs were given, wishes of good fortune spread for the travelers of each separate journey, and another wink was thrown from Sheen. Cindy asked Jimmy what he was growling at as they settled themselves into his Strato XL with Goddard, and since he found himself unable to find an answer that would not embarrass himself further, he settled for some indistinctive muttering, mostly random curses aimed toward Sheen. Cindy was irepressibly distracted, though, and accepted the lack of proper answer indifferently, once again turning her thoughts to the stars.

For some reason, this irked Jimmy. He found himself repeatedly turning his head to watch her with a strange mixture of curiosity and forboding. Cindy only moved twice during the entire trip: the first to adjust her position, the second to clutch Jimmy's seat for dear life when he had been staring at her – once again – but for too long and had to swerve suddenly to avoid hitting a small meteoroid.

"Eight years, and you still havn't mastered the concept of driving?" Cindy scoffed, one hand still gripping his shoulder rather tightly. (He felt uncomfortably warm.) "Geeze, Neutron, how much longer until I can risk a breath?"

Jimmy grumbled under his breath, glancing down at the lit control panel to check their coordinates. "Don't you know by now the moon is in quadrant – "

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Cindy interrupted, waving an impatient hand and finally – blessedly – removing her other from his shoulder. "Could you just get us there without killing us? I think Goobot really had his heart set on that, and I'd hate to rob him of the opportunity…"

Jimmy fell silent, as did Cindy. They both remained that way, lost in deep thought, as Jimmy landed the Strato, helped Cindy exit, and began unloading supplies from his hypercube. Finally, when the horrible feeling in his gut had nearly doubled in intensity, he burst out, "You shouldn't think like that."

Cindy, who had just taken her backpack from him, stopped and stared. She grinned after a silent moment or two of this. "Oh, just ignore me. My roommate and I were disscussing a bit of fine-print about God a few nights ago, and I'm afraid it's gone straight to my pessimism."

"I wouldn't think your painting friend would be one to start a conversation like that," Jimmy commented, pulling out a sleeping bag for her and unrolling it out by her pack. "She's seemed to be moreof a … agriculturally depending person."

Cindy laughed. Jimmy realized how much he missed that sound. "No, not Emily… and it is okay to say 'hippie', you know…No, I'm talking about Miles. The one whose sneakers I stole?"

Jimmy glanced at her feet, as though the vivid orange color would ever have slipped his mind. Miles…Perhaps it had been the extreme pressure and anxiety he had been feeling upon the short exchange at Cindy's shared apartment, but something that had gone over-looked finally clicked into place. "Miles is a boy's name."

"Yeah, he's Emily's brother; we share his place." Cindy seemed unabashed at this and was carefully picking moon rocks near her sleeping bag up and chucking them away with no regards what-so-ever to what she had said and the terrible, crushing impact it could have upon Jimmy.

Jimmy was outraged, of course. The thought of Cindy – his innocent Cindy! – in the vulnerable hands of some strange boy! It made his blood boil. He needed to know who had put her up to this, because Cindy – his Cindy! – certainly wouldn't have lost all common sense and agreed to such an atrocious idea on her own. He expressed his thoughts: "You live with a boy!"

Cindy blinked at him. "It's amazing it took NASA sixteen years to recognize you. With an I.Q. like that… well, I'm just shocked the Universities weren't flocking to you in kindergarten!"

He scoffed, both at Cindy and his poor choice of words. "Well… I just never… thought you'd, heh, actually do some – "

"You're adorable, do you know?" She plopped herself down next to her bag, unzipping it and pulling out a thick notebook. "I'm all grown up now, Jimmy, and as cute as the 'caring big brother' bit is, I really don't need it – especially since we are in the middle of something much deeper than co-ed living quarters right now."

Jimmy, by no means, wished to leave the conversation (if one could call it that) standing, as he was still enraged at the prospect of Cindy living in the same enclosed proximity of some other male, but she had made it painfully clear the topic was closed, even managing to mortify him with the "big brother" lable at the same time.

He continued unpacking, taking out some of his excess frustration on his own sleeping bag by ripping the ties loose with a bit more force than was necessary, and he threw some well-chosen words after every rock he kicked and scuffed away from his pack. He threw himself onto the ground, seething internally, and lay on his back.

"You've met him."

Jimmy, who had been fuming almost-silently for a whole minute, jumped when Cindy spoke again. "Oh really?" he said, not entirely caring. "When?"

"In the gym," she said, scribbling something out on the notebook that was on one knee and underlineing something in a book resting on the other. "I was beating the snot out of him."

Jimmy smirked, recalling upon the memory with slight satisfaction. He felt quite a bit better knowing he couldn't handle Cindy. (Few people could, as Sheen and Carl had pointed out to him not that long ago, but it would have been entirely intolerable had this Miles been able to best her.) He turned his head to look at her again, incredulously asking, "What are you doing?"

Cindy took the excessively chewed pen out of her mouth to respond, "Homework." Whether she heard Jimmy scoff or not, she carried on with her work.

"You're pessimistic enough to think we are going to die, yet you hamper yourself with school work?" Jimmy was miffed.

"Just in case," Cindy said, waving a hand dismissivly. "Now shush; I'm trying to study for your test. Ooh, or you could help me practice my lines!"

As was Cindy's nature, she didn't even wait for Jimmy to give his opinion before chucking a thick packet of papers at his chest. Amazed at how he even missed that, Jimmy bent his knees and proped the script up against them, flipping through it bemusedly and recognizing it at Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

"Page thirty-two," Cindy instructed, settling herself against the side of Jimmy's leg, missing entirly the glare Jimmy threw darkly at her. Jimmy complied, though, and flipped to the respectable page – and flushed. In the name of Albert Einstein…!

"So…ahh, where are we?" He scanned the page, wondering why God chose to torment him so by allowing her to choose such an open section.

"Line 290," Cindy said, picking at a fingernail. "'Tarry, sweet Beatrice.' Holds passionately, look deep into each other's eyes, blah blah, all that jazz… 'I am gone, though I am here; there is no love in you. Nay, I pray you let me go!'"

Jimmy had watched her, enraptured at her skilled capability to turn such a simple line into a masterpeice of its own, and didn't realize he was supposed to respond until Cindy gave him an impatient look. "Oh… 'Beatrice – '"

"'In faith, I will go!'"

"'We'll be friends first.'" Even though they were not his own words, Jimmy felt it was the corniest thing he'd ever said. Who in the galaxy would go for a line like that?

"'You dare easier be friends with me than fight mine enemy.'"

I've got plenty of my own, thanks. "Umm, 'is Claudio thine enemy?'"

Cindy didn't miss a beat, and despite Jimmy's less-than-adaquete skills in dramatics, she went on with fervent passion that gave him goosebumps. "'Is 'a not approved in the height of a villan, that hath slaughtered, scorned, dishonored my kinswoman? O that I were a man! What, bear in her hand until they come to take hands; and then with uncovered slander' – no, dammit – 'with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancor – O God, that I were a man! I would it his heart in the market place!'"

"Aside from the very un-Shakespearian oath…ahh, 'hear me, Beatrice – '"

"Oh, shut up. 'Talk with a man at a window! A proper saying!'"

"'Nay, but Beatrice – '"

"'Sweet Hero, she is wronged, she is sland'red, she is undone.'"

"Cin…"

"What?" Jimmy blushed profusley as Cindy turned her head to look at him questioningly. He attempted to hide his profound mortification at getting caught up in the moment behind the script as he said, "Sorry, nothing; it's..." hypnotically flawless, he thought, … really good. Carry on, Beatrice…"

"Thanks, Nerd-tron. 'Princes and counties! Surely, a princley testimony, a goofly account, Count Comfect; a sweet gallent surely! O that I were a man for his sake! Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into cursies, valor into compliment, and men are only turned into trim tounge. He is now as valiant as Hurcules that only tells a lie, and swears it. I cannot be a man with wishing; therefore I will die a woman with grieving.'"

Jimmy had once again been staring,cursed silentlyand stupidly fumbled for the proper place. "'Tarry, good Beatrice.' Er… 'By this hand, I love thee'."

"'Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.'"

"'Think it in your soul that Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?'"

"You really need to work on stringing the words together. It's not Chinese. 'Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.'"

"'Enough, I am engaged'… and don't frankly care, but I'll keep that in mind for a future reincarnation where I might. 'I will kiss your hand, aaah-and so I leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account. As you hear of me, so think of me.' Geeze, has Shakespeare always been this corny?"

"You weren't any better back in Paris with you serious eyes and deep concern," Cindy quipped, smirking.

"Oh, shut it. Ummm – ah, 'Go comfort your cousin. I must say she is dead. And so farewell.'" Jimmy nearly sustained a serious paper cut as he rounded of his final line and Cindy whipped the script away.

"Dramatic music plays, insert passionate kiss, whatever they think will buy tickets… Uhg! I can never get her insults and threats straight. They're so extensive! '…and men are only turned into tounge, and trim ones too.' Oh well, no one knows the difference anyways." She shrugged and leaned back against Jimmy's knees with a wide yawn.

"You'd think with your own extensive insulting," Jimmy commented airily, "you'd be able to keep up easily."

"Oh, ha ha," she said dully, yawning again. "Whhhooa, I'm tired. What time is it?"

Jimmy glanced at his watch. "On Earth, nearly eleven. But we lost a few hours in travel time."

"No wonder we're not up to standards on the insults," Cindy sighed. She smiled at Jimmy – who was still laying on his back, knees up and supporting Cindy lest he move and she topple onto him – and said, "Thanks for your help. I'm going to turn it in."

She patted his hand before using his leg to lever herself up. Jimmy hadn't felt more… GAH! in all his life.

His skin seemed to be burning where Cindy had touched him and, despite the fact that the fear of her falling into no longer remained, he was stiff as a board and unable to move – save for his eyes, which seemed to be magnetically drawn toward Cindy as she settled herself down to sleep. Horrified, he turned onto his side – away from Cindy – and blamed it all on Shakespeare.

A/N: SHAKESPEARE RULES, AND I LOVE MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING! (Obviously. I mean, it's JC in Rennaissance times.) Anyways…I'm afraid I've been reading around too much, because I've become horribly angsty! I've got these feelings of bitterness welling up inside of me, and I'm strongly tempted to write vaguely! You can clearly see how disasterous this is. I'd like to blame it on pop-ups and info-mercials. (Alright, so I did have a few good posts in Halfa's site, but now I've gone back to my stubbornly appalling ways. I need a pickle. And some sleep. Will you all forgive me for posting GROUP REPLIES to reveiws? I'm sorry, it will never happen again. I still love you, but I'm so gosh-darn TIRED! I hate school already.)

Flower Powerer: Thanks, and I've really enjoyed all your posts on Retroville Advanced! They're so hilarious and well-written!
pokey: Head-first into another adventure! Yay! LOL, I'm glad you're enjoying the small things – like Tee and Libby, the crazy jam woman.
Bette Bavette: I'm so glad you like it – it's so rare to find fanatics like myself – but don't taunt me with sending into the show, as it will NEVER happen. Madness! But, never fear, I'm a JC addict. Unless I go insane or suffer from sudden amnesia, it'll happen.
Elynsynos 18: Haha, thanks! Will do!
Kyuugi and Iisha: You guys are hysterical! I'm honored you would concider my story in the same classification as an all-nighter book. I'm enjoying your reveiws just as much you are my story, so don't leave me hanging and I promise I won't do that to you!
Numba1JimmyFan: It's not, which is the bizare part. Meh, c'est la vie. Hope you liked this chap!
ficca: Thank you so much! I'm afraid my spell-check doesn't work, actually, so if you are wondering about those few OOPS's, it's not my fault. And I'm so glad you are totally for my plot so far; I've had quite enough of the copy-cat fics myself.
Arien: Haha, why thank you so much! I don believe you are the first person to be on my Mythological side. And good point about the color-coded blow-up buttons. Stupid eggs. Meh, my summer's been nothing. That nothing is but a memory now… basically, trips to Wal-Mart with some of my friends and making an idiot out of myself for their pleasure.
Hermione Granger63: I bowed first, I WIN! Ahem…thank you again!
popsluts A.K.A. Lil and Lis: Well, I'm glad you're here now and hope you continue to think such silly things about me!
Phantomhobbitses and Angela Jewell: I'm glad I could satisfy your update needs! I did a stinky job of it this time, so I hope you can forgive me.
The Opal Fairy (GASP, stealing is bad…lol), ReddistheRose (crazy-head! You did WHAT?), coughdrop101, Kitty Nikki Chow, and Lils: Thanks so much!
And as for Barlee and The CheezHead … it's nearly midnight, it's the Friday night after my first week of school, and I just had a rather heated game of blackjack with one of my dear compadres (which I won, of course; the sweetarts are MINE,) so would you mind if I were to just send you an e-mail? Shortly, of course; just after I get a few hours of sleep. You guys still rock, though, and are the winners of World's Longest/Best Reviews!
To anyone I may have fogotten in my sleepy haze: I'm sorry, thank you, and I still luv ya!