CHAPTER 8 – The FOREST

The next morning at breakfast, Jack was worried about his law enforcement capabilities. Trained to be observant, he prided himself on his attention to detail and recall ability. But for the life of him, he didn't remember what color Ally's bra and panties had been last night despite the fact that she had been standing directly in front of him and he had perfect vision. All he could remember was how Elizabeth had looked in his tee-shirt. And the small freckle she had on her left thigh.

When Seth had remarked about the small bow in the deep cleavage of Ally's dress, Jack had been surprised that he hadn't noticed it himself.

How did I miss that?

How do I not remember the color of Ally's bra and panties? Purple. Yes, that's it. They were deep purple. Or was it black?

Elizabeth's were navy blue with a little bit of lace. And when she climbed the ladder and I saw -

Jack shook his head to clear the image from his mind. He pierced a piece of fruit with his fork and shoved the melon into his mouth.

"There's Elizabeth now", Seth said casually and nodded towards the cafeteria doorway.

Jack choked slightly on the melon and glanced at Elizabeth who had now picked up a tray and was moving down the food line. He found himself wondering what color panties she was wearing today.

"Good morning, Elizabeth. I heard you had quite an eventful evening," Abigail remarked as she handed a muffin to Elizabeth. "Blueberry. Your favorite."

Elizabeth's cheeks turned pink. "What did you hear?"

"That you and Jack had a visitor." Abigail smiled and handed Elizabeth a cup of fruit.

"I can't believe that Jack told you" Elizabeth said in disappointment.

"He didn't. He's got more class than that. It was Ally who spread the word. She got back to her room pretty upset and a little inebriated last night. She told her roommates what happened and word has spread pretty quickly this morning. It's a small transporter. Although I'm not sure how much is true. I suspect that maybe she embellished it a bit."

Elizabeth frowned and looked around the room before returning her attention to Abigail across the counter. "What did you hear?" she whispered.

Abigail chuckled. "That you threw yourself at Jack while dressed in his tee-shirt and waiting for him in his bed. Ready to pounce on him. And that you assaulted Ally."

"Assaulted her?!"

"She wants to press charges against you. She's got a bit of a bump on the head," Abigail said with shrug. "I wouldn't worry about it. Jack doesn't seem too interested in filing the paperwork."

"Charges? She crawled into my berth!"

Abigail couldn't stop grinning. "I believe it was Jack's berth."

I can't avoid this forever. I may as well get it over with, Elizabeth thought as she stood in the Cafeteria with her tray and looked around the large room. She normally ate at the same table as Jack and realized it would look odd if she didn't. She wasn't about to let Ally and her rumors alter her daily routine. Besides, she liked eating with Jack and her roommates and other friends.

"Morning, guys."

"Morning", Jack said as Elizabeth sat down at the table a few seats away.

"You look pretty good", Bud said as he looked at her appraisingly. "I thought you might have a few bruises after your bed tumble last night."

Elizabeth ignored the smattering of snickering that Bud's comment brought out in the other diners.

"Do you want me to move so you can sit next to Jack?" Victoria, a nurse from the infirmary, asked and then sniffed the air in an exaggerated manner. "He doesn't smell sweaty or like laundry detergent but you may be attracted to him anyway."

There were more chuckles from the table, which Elizabeth tried to ignore as she concentrated on the muffin on her plate.

"Be serious everyone. Stop teasing her", Seth said earnestly. "I have an important question for her", he continued as focused on Elizabeth with a look of worry.

The table became quite as they waited for Seth to voice his concern.

"Elizabeth, I'm a little worried about the state of our students in Coal Valley," he said as he tried now to suppress a laugh. "How do you expect to teach them when you can't even read a simple name on a tee-shirt? Do you even know the alphabet?"

The diners erupted into laughter.

"Guys, come on. Give her a break", Jack suggested with a grin. "It's not her fault that I'm so tempting."

"Ha ha. Very funny," Elizabeth replied. "Get your laughs now."

"So, is that the last time you'll ever be wearing one of Jack's tee-shirts?" a slender engineer asked with a not-so-innocent smile as she paused while eating her yogurt.

Jack choked on his cup of coffee and wiped the liquid from his face while Elizabeth's cheeks turned pink causing all the occupants at the table to knowingly look at each other and smile. It was no secret that Jack and Elizabeth seemed to enjoy each other's company.

Within a few minutes, Elizabeth found herself alone at the table with Jack as the other diners had already been finishing up their meals when she had sat down.

With just the two of them, the situation suddenly felt even more awkward. At least while the others had been there, she didn't have to look Jack in the eye. She had been able to pretend that last night had been one big funny misunderstanding.

But now. Now it was just her and Jack. Sitting silently at the table.

Elizabeth kept her head down and concentrated on her spoon of oatmeal as if she were the world's most interesting object.

'So, anything new happening with you?" Jack finally asked as he tried to be casual and lighten the strained mood.

Elizabeth couldn't help but giggle at his attempt to be nonchalant. "Not since last night."

"Last night. Last night." He paused as if trying to remember the prior evening. "You must mean when you were searching for your runaway student. Or do you mean the bean soup that was on the dinner menu?" he said as he tried to hide a smile.

"You know perfectly well that's not what I mean", she replied with her own smile.

"It was a most interesting situation."

Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief. "Never in all my life would I have expected that to have happened when I was planning for this trip."

Jack chuckled. "I have to admit I hadn't exactly envisioned seeing two scantily clad women in my berth fighting with each other. Although, now that I think about it again, it wasn't such a bad thing. Maybe we could have repeat tonight."

Elizabeth smacked Jack with her napkin and then her face grew worried. "Does she really want to file charges against me?"

"Don't worry about it." Jack took a final sip of coffee and set his mug back on the table. 'I'll handle her."

"If anyone should press charges. It should be me. She bothered me. I'm the victim here."

"The victim?" Jack scoffed. "You're not a victim."

Jack stood up from the table and picked up his tray with his empty plate and mug as Elizabeth looked at him in surprise.

"Yes, I am! I was a victim!"

"You?"

"Yes", she answered firmly.

"A victim?" he asked with a jeer.

"Yes! Me a victim!"

Jack chuckled. "The only things you're a victim of are my good looks and irresistible magnetism."

Before she could think of a retort, Jack had already winked at her and walked away. Leaving Elizabeth to realize that Jack was right. She wasn't a victim of Ally. She could handle the red-haired woman just fine.

Elizabeth bowed her head and held it in her hands when she realized the irrefutable.

She was a willing victim.

Elizabeth Thatcher, Earth Citizen number EK 0951984, had become a casualty of Jack Thornton's charm.

After two days, the teasing had finally stopped. Elizabeth had also decided to fortify her heart against Jack. While sharing afternoon croissants and cups of tea, Elizabeth and Abigail had discussed the idea of romance on a transporter.

Abigail set her cup of tea down on the table and gave a shrug. "It happens. People stuck on a transporter for months often hook up with each other. Close quarters. Nowhere to go. It's like summer camp. And then, they get to their destination and reality sets in and they realize their little romance was a mistake. I'm not saying that would happen to you and Jack, but I understand your concern. I've seen my share of these short-lived affairs. And from what's you've said, Jack had no interest in starting a serious relationship when he arrived on this transporter."

"Neither did I. Neither do I", Elizabeth clarified. "We're just friends and roommates."

"But?"

Elizabeth's shoulders slumped in defeat. "He's just so adorable."

"That he is", Abigail agreed with a smile.

After Abigail went back to work, Elizabeth sat at the otherwise empty cafeteria and lazily stirred her cup of tea. She looked around the room and sighed. The scientists were busy with their experiments or reading abstracts and studies. The crew members were in the control center or at their assigned duties or – those working the night shift- were now sleeping. Even Jack was busy working on some investigation; he had brushed it off as unimportant when she found him studying computer images and diagrams, but she suspected it was something actually quite important by the way he had been concentrating when she walked in on him.

Everyone was busy but her.

Elizabeth realized that a malaise had set in. The transporter doctor had warned her that this may happen. Days of being confined to a ship had been known to cause a person to feel discontent. Uneasy. Restless. Melancholy. In fact, it was expected that at some point, most passengers would feel it.

At the time of her two-week periodic check-up, Elizabeth had laughed off the doctor's warning. But this morning, she had woken up and stared at the ceiling with no hurry to get out of her berth. Why bother. Every day was the same schedule.

This morning, she had given her lecture three times before she had managed to get the sound and lighting adequate enough to send the recording to Coal Valley. Twice the power had flickered and erased the hologram.

After lessons- which didn't take long when there were only three students- she had sent a hologram message to her family but soon became discouraged when she realized that by the time they received it and then she received their response, she probably wouldn't even remember what she had said in the first place. Two weeks would have passed.

At lunch, she had eaten a piece of chocolate to help with her mood, and then had stolen Jack's piece from his tray when he wasn't looking. It still wasn't enough to lift her spirits.

She had gone to the gym to use the treadmills, but there had been another power outage and she didn't feel like starting her three-mile run again. Even though she had only been a quarter mile into it when the machine had stopped working.

Now Elizabeth took her dishes to the front of the cafeteria and added them to the pile of dirty ones, before heading towards her living quarters. She looked at the long boring hallways that ran throughout the ship. She was tired of them. She was tired of all of it. The boring rooms with their sterility. The boring uniformity of everything. Even looking out a window from the control center or one of the few other areas which provided a view outside the transporter didn't help; it was just blackness speckled every so often with a twinkling star.

She didn't know how she'd be able to handle three more months of the monotony.

So, this is what cabin fever is all about.

She realized it wasn't just cabin fever it was something more. It was sameness. The sameness of man-made functional items.

The ship's doctor had told her that there was no magic pill for cabin-fever but that when she found the thing that made her smile again, she should hold onto to it and try not to let it go.

Hold onto it? How the heck can I hold happiness? she thought with a disgruntled frown.

The sound of the shower through the bathroom door which was ajar greeted Elizabeth when she walked into her living quarters.

She recognized Jack's shoes on the floor and rightly assumed that he was the person in the shower.

Elizabeth kicked off her own shoes and looked around the simple living quarters. Four boring berths. Four boring lockers.

She noticed the open sketchpad on Jack's berth and picked it up. He's likes old-fashioned things. Just like I like real books made of paper, he likes drawing with pencils and paper rather than a computer art program.

Elizabeth stared at Jack's drawing with its shades of green and brown and felt herself become teary-eyed. She knew she was being overly sentimental but she couldn't help it.

"You like it?"

Elizabeth wiped away a tear and turned to look at Jack as he moved towards her. He had put on his pants in the bathroom but a few drops of water from the shower remained on his bare torso. He reached past Elizabeth and grabbed a shirt from his locker.

"Well? Do you like it?" he asked with a smile after pulling the tee-shirt over his head and running a hand through his messy hair.

Elizabeth nodded. "I do."

"Then why do you look so sad?" he chuckled.

"I miss it," she admitted sadly with a shrug.

"It?"

"Earth. I miss Earth."

She looked at the color-pencil drawing in her hand. "I just didn't realize what it would be like. So far from home. I was so caught up in the excitement of an adventure that I glossed over what I would be leaving behind."

"I know how you feel. That's why I sit and stare at the trees. Usually every night before I got to bed. It reminds me of the forests in Canada."

"I miss forests," Elizabeth said wistfully. She set down the drawing back on Jack's berth. She gave a little chuckle and tried to lift her own spirits. "But your drawing's not very realistic."

"What are you talking about? It's totally realistic", he argued.

"Jack, you've got pine trees next to apple trees next to maple trees next to a palm tree! I know I've been gone from Earth for a month, but I remember that trees don't grow that way. You're very good at drawing but the trees don't go together."

"They do here."

Elizabeth laughed. "Fine. In your drawing, they grow that way."

"I'm serious. That's how they grow."

"Okay. It's your drawing. But I still wish that they were real."

"They are."

"I mean here on the ship", she explained. "Not just in your memory. And not just in your sketch. I wish I could see real trees whenever I wanted."

"You can."

"Jack, I don't mean in a picture. Just forget about it." A disappointed Elizabeth flopped down on the bottom bunk.

"You can see it for real. That's what I'm trying to tell you. But for a teacher you seem to be used to talking and not listening," Jack said with a chuckle.

"Don't tease me. I don't want to see a hologram of a tree or a video of a tree. I want to smell nature. I want to feel leaves and pine needles. I want to see a real live tree."

"That's what I meant. They are real", Jack declared as he sat on the lower berth and put on his shoes.

"What are you talking about?"

"They. Are. Real", he said deliberately. "Come with me", Jack instructed as he stood up and took her hand.

"Oh, Jack, they're beautiful", Elizabeth said in awe.

Jack had held her hand as he led her to the elevator, and then held it again as he led her down a hallway and to a stairwell, and then once again as they passed through another hallway. By the time, they came to the Sub-level B door marked "Propagation/Horticulture Nursery ", Elizabeth wasn't sure if Jack was taking her on a wild goose chase or if he really was going to show her a live tree. But she didn't care at that point. He had held her hand. Three times! And it felt wonderful.

But then the door had slid open and she was so amazed that she had dropped his hand in surprise as she walked into the room.

They were standing among sixty small trees destined to be planted in Coal Valley. Each species with a unique purpose.

"How did you know about this place? I can't believe I didn't know!"

"I know every inch of this ship. At least I should. I can scan it on the cameras from the security office, but I like to walk it instead. I come here almost every evening. Just to see them in person. And remind myself of Earth."

"Those are pine trees next to apple trees next to maple trees next to palm trees!" Elizabeth exclaimed with a laugh. "You drew them just like you saw them!"

"The pine trees are tough and can tolerate heat, drought, cold, and a wide range of soil conditions", Jack explained as they moved through the trees. "They're good for erosion control and the pine needles will help provide nutrients to the soil. The apple trees – well that's obvious – they'll provide apples one day. And the maple trees are my favorite. Canada all the way," he said with a grin.

"And the palm trees?"

"Coconuts. They're not sure which tree will grow best on the planet but with the bio-dome, they can try different things. Hopefully get them all to grow in different areas. With the right conditions."

"And over here is a special surprise." Jack motioned Elizabeth to stand in front of him. He gently pulled down a small branch of a nearby tree to reveal a bird sitting silently.

"She's not supposed to be here. She flew in from the aviary next door and made herself a home here so they're letting her stay", he said quietly as Elizabeth stood against him. His warm breath tickled the back of her neck. Elizabeth suddenly wished that Jack would kiss her. He smells delicious. And he's so manly.

Jack moved over to another tree and took hold of a branch. "Smell this," he instructed.

Elizabeth walked the few steps to him, closed her eyes, and inhaled the scent of the leaves in front of her. "Eucalyptus!" she exclaimed in delight. "From Australia!"

"Yep. They're great for drying up wet areas. Like Area 740."

Elizabeth frowned slightly. "Where they had the accident?"

"Yeah. Whatever the scientists did there apparently made a colossal mess. It's been raining almost every day for five months."

"That's how Abigail Stanton lost her husband. In the explosion. She said her husband was worried about the safety of splitting the particles of silver iodide and mixing them with the supercooled water. Or something like that. I have to admit that I didn't understand a lot of it. But I feel so terrible for her. That explosion must have been awful."

"It killed a lot of men and women. And now they can't get it to stop raining. Whatever they did, they created an ecological nightmare in the biodome. All these trees are our attempt to create an Earth-like home for us. That's the thing about humans. We love what we know. No matter how advanced we are, we still need the basics. Like simple nature."

"I do love it." Elizabeth said as she looked around. "I can't wait until we can have maple syrup and make apple pies and have eucalyptus sachets and – oh Jack – we'll have a tree for Christmas! A real tree!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Jack laughed. "It will be quite a while until we have maple syrup and apples for pie, but I think the sachets are do-able. And I promise to help you decorate a tree for Christmas."

Elizabeth's face broke out into a large grin.

When she thought about it for a moment, she realized that it wasn't the idea of Christmas or being surrounded by trees that was making her so happy and breaking her out of her earlier discontent. And it wasn't sachets. Or even the idea of maple syrup. All those things were nice. But not enough.

It was much more than all that. And at the same time, it was much more simple.

She had been holding hands with her happiness. He was standing right next to her.

She knew that if Jack kissed her right now, she would eagerly return it. I might even make the first move, she thought happily as she looked out of the corner of her eye at his handsome face. He was lifting up a branch of white pine for her so she could feel the soft needles. His arm brushed against hers and she paused. He paused. They stood next to each other. Their arms touching.

Elizabeth held her breath. Waiting. It was the perfect place. The perfect moment. For a kiss.

"Jacques, you are early tonight", the female voice with a European accent called out.

Elizabeth, who was about to close her eyes in anticipation - even though Jack had not made any move to kiss her, looked toward the petite brunette woman who was walking across the room as the door slid closed behind her. Who the heck is she?! She's interrupted my first kiss with him!

"Usually you do not get 'ere 'til later", the woman said in a friendly manner. She was clearly familiar with Jack's nightly visits. "Who ees your friend?"

"This is Elizabeth. One of my roommates. She's going to be Coal Valley's school teacher. Elizabeth, this is Lori. This is her nursery", Jack said with a smile as Lori reached out her hand to shake Elizabeth's.

Elizabeth felt a slight irrational jealously go through her. He said he comes here every night to see the trees. I bet he comes to see her too.

"Welcome, Elizabeth."

The woman continued talking but Elizabeth didn't pay much attention. Not only did the woman's accent make it a bit hard to understand but Elizabeth found herself involuntarily assessing the other woman.

The laundry must have shrunk her tee-shirt, Elizabeth thought with a frown as she noticed how the woman's size 38-inch bust was filling out her tee-shirt into nice full curves. I don't look like that in mine.

And how does she get her waist so small? Elizabeth wondered as the attractive woman continued to converse with Jack. I wonder if Jack finds her curls sexy. They're like perfect chestnut-colored ringlets!

"I want to have sex," the woman declared causing Elizabeth to jerk herself back to attention.

What?!

Lori grabbed Jack's arm and pointed towards an area in the back of the room where three small potted plants were standing. "I em a whore to culture. I should have sex. Do you not think so?"

When Jack just nodded in agreement, Lori turned towards Elizabeth. "Eeelizabeth, you must agree. Females need males. No?"

What?! Does she want to have sex with him right over there by those trees?! What kind of immoral people does Jack hang out with?!

A gob-smacked Elizabeth stood there while Lori continued to hold Jack by the arm and talk animatedly. "What good ees a female without a male? Eet ees no good!"

When Elizabeth heard a friendly Jack tell Lori that she could obviously teach him thing or two, Elizabeth turned on her heels and began to storm out of the room. She would have made it to the hallway without Jack even noticing, if she hadn't bumped into a man carrying a tray of seedlings who was entering at the same time.

"Watch your step, Missy."

"Sorry," a flustered Elizabeth apologized as she knocked over the tray and spewed its contents onto the floor. "I was just leaving." She bent down and began picking up the plants. Damaging the thin stems and tossing about small bits of dirt as she clumsily tried to help.

"Oh, no! My plants", Lori exclaimed as she hurried over and began to pick up the tiny plants. Several of which now had broken stems.

Two minutes later, a nice but obviously upset Lori had assured Elizabeth that everything was fine as she eagerly ushered her and Jack out of her nursery before Elizabeth could cause more damage.

Elizabeth stomped down the hallway forcing Jack to keep pace with her.

"Is everything okay? You seem kind of upset. Lori said it was okay that you ruined the plants. She's a real sweetheart."

"I bet she is", Elizabeth said angrily. "With that thick seductive accent of hers."

Jack was perplexed. "I think everyone in her country sounds that way. It's just the way they talk."

"And her sexy clothing?!"

Jack frowned in puzzlement. "She's wearing the exact same top as you."

"Well it looks different on her!"

"I have no idea why you're mad at me. I'm not responsible for her country of origin or her attire."

"She has absolutely no decency!" Elizabeth fumed when they entered the elevator.

"What are you talking about?" a bewildered Jack asked.

"That stuff she was saying!"

"What stuff?"

"You know what stuff!" Elizabeth refused to look at Jack and watched the digital lights as they showed the floor levels changing. How can he not know why I'm upset? Men are such pigs!

"You could have just agreed with her", Jack offered pleasantly.

"Agreed with her?!" Elizabeth stared at Jack in horror. Agreed with her that she should have sex in the plant nursery?! With Jack?!

"Just to be polite," he suggested. "It would have been the nice thing to do."

Elizabeth crossed her arms and fumed. "I am not that kind of girl."

"Not a nice girl?"

"Of course, I'm a nice girl! That's the problem. I am a NICE girl and I didn't like what she was discussing!"

Jack put his hand on the "stop" button and the elevator came to standstill. He looked curiously at Elizabeth.

"I have no idea why you're upset. I don't see what difference it makes to you if she wants another three plants. I agree. It makes sense to have six."

"Six?" Elizabeth said hesitantly. Six? Not sex? Oh God! What did I misunderstand? "Six plants?"

"Well, yeah. I mean if she has those three female trees that she was showing us in the corner, they can't be pollinated without males. It's not her fault that the shipment was messed up. What good are three female trees going to be if they don't have male trees? We'll never get fruit from them."

Elizabeth's face felt flushed. Trees. She was talking about trees.

"She loves her job. That's why she was so emotional about it. She's a horticulturist. They get that way around plants."

"A horticulturist?"

"Yeah. She told you that. Weren't you paying attention?"

I thought she said she was a whore to culture! Whatever that meant. I just thought she was a whore!

"Her husband – the guy you bumped into – is a horticulturist too. Well, he's more arborist."

"Um hum," Elizabeth said meekly. "He . . um . . seemed friendly too."

"He is. They're a nice couple. "

Jack began chuckling as he pulled out the stop button and the elevator began moving again. "I think I have an idea of why your mood suddenly changed when Lori walked in."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked with a shrug which she hoped looked indifferent.

"You thought that there was something going on between her and me."

"Don't be silly. I thought no such thing. And I wouldn't even care."

"If you say so, my little lemon meringue", Jack replied with a grin.

Jack sat in his office completing the evening log books.

He and Elizabeth had parted ways when the elevator door had opened but he couldn't stop thinking about her. He smiled at how she had become jealous in the plant nursery. He realized that he almost always smiled when he thought about her. He loved teasing her; making her eyes light up with passion. The way she didn't even realize how sexy she was when she was fired up in anger and trying to remain a lady. She's so darn adorable.

He shook his head to clear her face from his mind. I am not going to get involved with someone. Not with her. Especially when I plan to return to Earth as soon as I get reassigned.

Elizabeth sat on the edge of her berth thinking of Jack. I totally misread that entire situation. He really is a gentleman.

My little lemon meringue. Why did he call me that? And yesterday morning, he called me apple. And at bedtime last night, he said 'goodnight pumpkin". He's so sweet. I guess he just likes having words of affection for me. Because we've become close friends. That's nice.

Five minutes later, Elizabeth was brushing her teeth when she suddenly spit out a mouthful of paste and her face tightened in anger.

Lemon meringue! Apple! Pumpkin! They're all tarts!

Up next: Chapter 9

Dear Readers: Thank you for all your reviews and messages. I really enjoy reading your thoughts, and getting ideas from you. The conversation between Jack and Elizabeth with her claiming she was a victim was inspired by a reviewer's comment. 😊