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CHAPTER 11 – THE DATE

The movie didn't start for another two hours so a grinning Jack grabbed a pair of swim shorts and headed to the Fitness Center.

He decided to avoid playing racquetball with the well-endowed red-headed Ally who may get the wrong impression of his interest, and he had too much energy to wait his turn for lifting weights. Instead, he ducked his head and entered the short plexiglass enclosure which contained a small jet-current swimming pool.

The slender rectangle pool – which was only twelve feet in length and four feet deep– had a constant flow of high pressured water pushed by jets at one end, allowing Jack to swim against stream for twenty minutes without moving more than a foot or two.

He moved his arms in the water. Stroke after stroke. Breathing rhythmically. He had asked out Elizabeth and she had said yes. There was nothing left to think about.

"Elizabeth, I don't have but three blouses. I'm usually wearing tee-shirts", Abigail explained as they looked at their combined assortment of attire now laid out on Elizabeth's berth. Elizabeth had messaged Abigail the second Jack had left to go to the Fitness Center. "With the weight limit, there wasn't a lot I could bring. Sorry."

"That's okay. What about this one?" Elizabeth asked as she held up an emerald-green flowing blouse.

"A little low-cut but I like it."

"Me too." she said as she moved to her locker. "I can wear my boots. Julie says they're sexy."

Abigail looked at the boots and nodded. "They'll be perfect with your jeans."

"Sweater or no sweater?"

"No sweater. That way if you get chilly and he sees you shiver, he'll put his arm around you to keep you warm."

Elizabeth stopped putting away her clothes and blushed slightly.

"There's just so much to think about! Should I do my nails?"

"I wouldn't bother."

"I'll put on a bit of make-up. And I'll wear my hair down. I only have two pairs of earrings to choose from. I have a huge jewelry box back home", she lamented. "Gosh, I hate living on this ship! I need my wardrobe back home!"

"If you were back home, you wouldn't have met Jack", a smiling Abigail reminded her.

"Good point."

One hour and forty five minutes later, Jack smiled at Elizabeth as they left for the movies.

"Jack, don't keep her out too late. It's a school night," Seth instructed from his perch on his bunk.

"Don't listen to him," Carl said. "You two kids have fun. Just no drinking and driving."

"We'll be waiting up. We want her home at a decent hour!"" Seth called out as the door started to slide closed and a giggling Elizabeth took Jack's hand.

"You look very pretty", Jack said when they were out of ear-shot of their roommates.

"Thanks. So do you. – I mean you look handsome", she corrected herself. We've been living together almost two months! Why am I so nervous?!

"I have to admit it's strange wearing a long-sleeved button-down shirt after wearing mostly tee-shirts and sweatshirts for weeks."

"I like it. Very handsome", Elizabeth replied as she gave him an appraising look which caused Jack to grin.

"Are you cold?" Jack asked when he noticed Elizabeth shiver a bit.

They were sitting in the same seats that they had been sitting in during lift off weeks earlier. Elizabeth felt like that day had been a life-time ago. Instead of clutching the leather arm-rest in terror like she had back then, she was now happily anticipating holding Jack's hand for the next two hours.

"The ship's temperature's been kind of erratic lately. I can go back to the room and get you a sweater if you want", he offered.

"No, that's okay. The movie's going to start soon."

"Are you sure? I don't mind."

Elizabeth nodded. "I'm fine. Really. Just a little cold. But I'm sure I'll warm up."

"I can't let you sit there being cold. Come closer. I'll keep you warm", he suggested as he lifted up the arm-rest between their seats, and moved his arm around her. "Lean against me."

If the lights hadn't dimmed at that moment, Jack would have noticed Elizabeth biting her lip to keep from grinning. Thank goodness for temperature control malfunctions, she thought giddily.

"That was good. Really good!" Elizabeth said two hours later when the lights came back on. "What did you think?"

"I liked it. I just wish the power hadn't flickered off in the middle of that one scene. Kind of ruined the suspense a bit."

"I know", Elizabeth agreed. "Especially when the whole audience starting booing until it came back on," she added with a smile. "But it was still really good. Thanks for asking me to join you."

"You're welcome", Jack replied with his own grin.

They walked leisurely back down the corridors. Changing levels of the transporter and nodding good night to people they passed. Holding hands. Talking about the movie. Laughing. Before they knew it, they were back to their living quarters.

"This is me," Elizabeth said with a chuckle when they stopped in front of their door.

Rather than wave her bracelet in front of the sensor for the door to open, she stepped to the side and leaned against the wall. Her hips hitting the metal handrail that ran the length of the hallway.

Jack stood just a few inches in front of her. Her back was pressed up against the hard wall but she didn't care as he reached out to touch her.

He gave her a boyish grin. "I'm not sure how this works."

"The door?" she teased.

"Us. Living together."

"We've been doing it for weeks", she reminded him.

"It's just kind of unusual for a first date."

"It is", she said with a giggle.

"The guys are probably in there waiting to harass us." He nodded towards the door, and then picked up a lock of her hair and twirled it with one hand, while the other hand stayed gently on her waist.

"They'll be merciless."

"I'll defend you," he joked but his smile faded away and his eyes were serious as he concentrated on her face.

"I know," she replied weakly. Her heart was racing and she no longer felt like talking about their roommates.

His fingers dropped the long lock of hair and moved to her neck. Softly caressing the skin.

"Maybe we should be just friends inside our living quarters?" he suggested.

His index finger lightly trailed a pattern just under her jawline and then casually moved to her bottom lip. Smoothly and slowly traveling across it in one direction– and then back in the other direction as his eyes focused on it.

"And outside our living quarters?" she asked softly. She gulped in anticipation.

"Outside our living quarters I would very much like to kiss you right now," he said quietly but with deliberation as he moved his face closer to hers.

Her eyes closed.

Now it was his lips and not his finger which touched her mouth.

She had been dreaming about this moment since the day they had met. Since even before then; since the day she had been in her bedroom in Hamilton and seen his hologram image.

Now it was real.

His mouth touching hers.

Softly at first, and then she suddenly felt like she was on a cloud. It was the oddest feeling and somehow familiar. Like nothing in her body felt anything. Except his lips gently -deliciously - moving on her lips. She felt weightless.

Elizabeth felt that it was going to be the beginning of a long absolutely perfect wonderful blissful kiss.

But it wasn't.

Because instead of moving to taste her more, Jack hit her in the jaw and she dropped to the floor.

"What the hell?!"

Jack and Elizabeth were both lying crumpled on the corridor floor.

"Are you okay?" he spoke again.

Elizabeth rubbed her face and then her elbows. "I'm okay. Ouch. That hurt my back. What happened?"

"Grab ahold of the railing", he instructed as stood up and then pulled her to her feet.

Elizabeth obeyed his instruction.

"Did I hit you?"

"I think your elbow got my jaw."

"Damn, sorry about that." He looked at her face while he kept one hand on the railing. "It looks okay."

"Attention. Attention. All passengers."

Jack and Elizabeth both looked towards the intercom on the wall farther down the corridor.

"We had a momentary loss of gravity. There's nothing to worry about, but please remember to hold the handrails while moving throughout the ship should we experience it again.All essential personnel please report to your duty stations. This is a Code Yellow One. All essential personnel please report to your duty stations. All passengers should ensure their areas have not experienced any damage."

Elizabeth realized that she had been lifted off her feet – not by Jack's kiss – but by a loss of gravitational pull. In just over a second she had floated up several feet towards the ceiling and then immediately slammed to the floor when the gravity came back on. She had been so busy concentrating on the kiss – and apparently so had Jack – that neither hadn't comprehended that their feet had left the floor.

"It's fine. Probably just a small malfunction," Jack said.

"What if it happens again?"

"Gravity's not that important. We can float around this ship just fine. It's when it comes back on suddenly and without warning and we hit the ground that it's a problem. I'm going to go find out what happened. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. I may just have a few bruises tomorrow."

"What happened with your date? You scare him away?" Carl asked when Elizbeth entered the room alone.

Carl was sitting on his berth next to a dark-skinned woman with short-cropped almost shaved hair and a shirt with the Union Jack and "God Save the King" emblazoned on the front. Elizabeth seemed to remember that the woman was a scientist but couldn't recall what type.

"I did not scare him away", Elizabeth replied disagreeably.

"Did you lose him? 'cuz the ship's not that big," Seth noted.

"It was that stupid gravity fluctuation", Elizabeth responded as she looked curiously at a short chubby man who was crawling out from under the bottom berth.

"Is he okay?" Seth asked.

"He's fine. He just went to check on what happened. You guys?"

"It ruined our game of multi-person chess", Carl replied as the chubby man handed him a small black object. "The pieces went flying everywhere and we can't remember what goes where."

"We're going to start a new game. You want to join us?" Carl's female companion asked.

"I'll just watch." Elizabeth took her place next to a woman that worked in the cafeteria who was sitting on her berth. The cafeteria worker- who introduced herself as Louise - shifted closer to the chubby man and put her hand on his knee before turning and giving Elizabeth a sympathetic look.

"Sorry it didn't work out. We were all rooting for you."

They're all rooting for me. Like I'm some love-struck female chasing after Jack, a contrary Elizabeth, who had changed into shorts and a tee-shirt when everyone had left, thought as she zippered her blanket around her to secure herself to her mattress if the anti-gravity mechanism stopped working again. Does the whole ship know I'm attracted to him?!

The group had left after an hour when they realized that they had lost interest in the game of multi-person chess. Carl and his companion had been too busy making out with each other to move their pieces to the next level, and Louise and the chubby man – who Elizabeth discovered was named Malcolm -had been discussing recipes instead of game strategy. Seth had taken off to the Communication Center when he received a message that a hologram from his wife and young daughter had just arrived.

Gravity is the force that pulls things to the earth.

Gravity is the thing that just ruined my first kiss with Jack! That's the better definition, Elizabeth grumbled as she plopped her head onto her pillow. A disappointed Elizabeth finally dozed off to sleep before Jack had returned to the room.

"No oatmeal today?" Elizabeth asked as she looked around the cafeteria food line the next morning. "It's oatmeal day."

It was 0730 and the cafeteria was abuzz with the normal people and activity. When Elizabeth had gotten out of bed in the morning, Jack was already gone. His clothes from last night lay on his bed, but there was no other evidence of him.

No evidence that last night he had been planning on passionately kissing her.

No evidence that she had been desperately wanting him to kiss her.

No evidence except her memory that their lips had briefly touched.

Abigail – who normally was friendly and upbeat – seemed grouchy as she handed a muffin wrapped in plastic to Elizabeth.

"Sorry. Not today. Nothing that will make a big mess if we lose gravity again. It happened twice during the night. Each time just for a few seconds, but they haven't figured out why," Abigail replied and then handed Elizabeth a granola bar.

"What's going on? You seem out of sorts and you haven't even asked me about my date with Jack", Elizabeth said.

"Oh, Elizabeth, I'm sorry. How was it?"

"It was wonderful until we lost gravity and he had to go to work. But what's bothering you?"

"The gravity isn't the only reason why we aren't having oatmeal. The ship's doctor is going through my kitchen today. Apparently, someone was feeling sick yesterday after dinner, and she thinks maybe some of my food went bad. As if I would serve bad food! That's why you're getting packaged food."

"Did Jack have breakfast already?"

"He's over there," Abigail nodded towards a table across the room. "Eating with Alex, one of the electrical engineers."

A somewhat surprised Elizabeth looked in the direction Abigail had gesture. She recognized the back of Jack's head. He was sitting at a round table that was empty except for him and Alexandra, a five-foot ten-inch slender perfect specimen of a female. Elizabeth had seen her in the Fitness Center running on the treadmill as if she was a gazelle. When she was on the treadmill next to her, Elizabeth always felt like a hippo plodding through the mud.

Jack didn't even seem to notice as Elizabeth carried her tray to their normal table and sat down with the usual breakfast crowd.

The rest of the day was no better. Jack never showed up at lunch. And at dinner, he ate quickly and then excused himself to do some work.

It was almost bedtime and Elizabeth was sitting on her berth preparing a lesson plan when the door slid open and Jack walked in. He frowned in irritation when he noticed Seth and Carl in the room.

"Elizabeth, can we talk outside?"

"I'm really sorry about last night", Jack said as they stood in the hallway outside their room.

"It's okay. Did everything work out?"

"With us? You were there." Jack gave her a confused look. "I thought everything was working out really well up until the kiss - I mean not the kiss – that was starting off good but then the gravity thing happened and –"

Elizabeth giggled. "I meant did everything work out with whatever you ended up having to do. I know you've been busy with something."

"Oh, yeah," a relieved Jack answered. "I'm still working on it and –"

Jack stopped talking when his bracelet buzzed.

He turned to look at the message now being portrayed from the mechanism on his wrist, and then glanced back at Elizabeth who looked at him expectedly.

"I'm sorry," Jack apologized. "There's a message for me in the Communications Center. We'll talk later, okay?"

"It's been two days, and you still haven't talked about your date? Or another one?" Abigail asked.

The two women were walking back from the Quartermasters on Level A. Abigail was carrying two large bedsheets which they had convinced one of the laundry staff into giving to them, and Elizabeth was carrying scissors and a roll of thin elastic.

"He's been busy. I never see him anymore. Except briefly in passing. Or at meals when everyone's around. It's okay. We're not in a rush."

"I suppose. But still. That's got to be the shortest relationship in history," Abigail noted with a comical shake of her head.

"It's not over! It just has stalled a bit. And besides, I'm busy with Wayne and our talent act for the show."

"I'll do the best I can with the limited supplies we have here, but I'm not a miracle seamstress."

"I appreciate it. And it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm meeting Wayne again this evening."

"What's Jack think of your act with Wayne?"

"He has no idea I'm even in the talent show. He's so preoccupied with whatever he's working on, that I haven't mentioned it."

Another two days later Jack and Elizabeth still hadn't spent any time alone together. They were back to being just friends. Roommates. Occasional meal companions when Jack had time to join the group.

Jack closed his laptop computer and sighed. The investigation part wasn't so complicated. It was the science and financial aspects that he wished that he knew more about. He had had all the basic classes at the Academy but his duty experience leaned more towards misdemeanors and routine felonies rather than corporate espionage and insider trading.

It had been four days since his date with Elizabeth and they had barely spoken. I wonder what she's doing now? He glanced at his watch and realized that if he hurried, he might still catch her for dinner at the Cafeteria.

I'd love to finish that kiss.

Jack surveyed the screens on the wall. When he didn't see Elizabeth's familiar form on any of them, he pushed a button and the screens changed to twenty new camera views.

Wayne, he thought with disgust when he saw the man's image appear on the screen entering a room on Sublevel B. It hadn't escaped Jack's notice that over the past week, Wayne had been seeking out Elizabeth's company. What's that guy up to? He's way too obsessed with Elizabeth. He's practically stalking her. I should talk to her about him.

What does anyone even know about the guy?

Jack opened up his laptop again, looked up Wayne Hayward's Earth Citizen number, and entered it into his criminal database. The machine made a soft hum as it transferred data from a larger file and sifted through EC numbers. Jack set down his bottle of water when the screen lit up with the results.

Wayne Hayward. 35 years old. Male. Not married. Blood type: A Positive. DNA: Northern European. 672309106ABCCBABCCAB. Materials Engineer. Ph.D. University of Stockholm. Criminal Record: Assault.

Assault? It couldn't have been anything serious or he wouldn't have passed the security clearance. But still. I don't like him around Elizabeth.

What's he up to at this hour?

Jack pushed another button and the screen changed from the hallway to the inside of the room which Wayne had entered.

Jack looked at the screen and froze.

No. It can't be.

He kept his eyes on the screen and moved closer until his face was just inches away.

The room was empty of any occupants except for Wayne who was standing in front of a female figure, the room's other occupant, who was sitting in a chair.

She was tied to it. Her hands held together behind her back.

Her ankles bound together.

Jack watched as the man put a blindfold on Elizabeth and then ran his hand through her long hair.

NO! Jack screamed. He slammed his finger on the sound button but nothing happened. It was obvious that it wasn't working. He had no idea what Wayne was saying to Elizabeth.

Jack moved to the intercom button. Frantically pressing it over and over. Yelling at Wayne to move away from Elizabeth but he could tell from the lack of reaction from either Wayne or Elizabeth that the button was also broken. What is he doing to her?! He's kidnapped her!

Elizabeth was now struggling to get out of the binds. Desperately twisting her body left and right. She said something to Wayne but Jack couldn't hear.

When Jack saw Wayne reach his hand inside Elizabeth's blouse, he turned and ran from the security office.

Wayne sighed in exasperation. "I told you to hide it somewhere you could get to it."

"Stop yelling at me", Elizabeth responded grouchily.

"I'm not yelling at you. But why the heck would you put the key down your blouse?"

"You said to hide it!"

"Where you could get to it! How were you going to get to it down your blouse?! With your tongue?!"

"Just reach down and get it", Elizabeth said in exasperation as she pushed her chest forward.

Wayne shook his head at her ineptness but reached into her cleavage and retrieved the key. Elizabeth knew he wouldn't be fazed by reaching into her blouse. He did everything in a scientific manner. Making her feel like his lab rat rather than his assistant.

"Darn, I dropped it again!" she said angrily after Wayne put it in her fist which was now sweaty from her struggle. The key dropped to the floor and made a clinging sound.

Wayne bent down and picked up the key. "Maybe I should get someone else as my partner."

"No, I can do it. Just give me some more time."

"We only have ten seconds to each escape and trade places before the sheet comes down. Maybe you should just give up."

"I am a Thatcher! A Thatcher does not run away from a challenge! Now, just let me do this."

They had been planning their magic trick for a week and Elizabeth was still horrible but she refused to give up or let Wayne replace her.

Jack burst into the room and threw himself at Wayne, knocking the man to the ground. He punched him twice in the jaw and then, confident that the engineer wouldn't fight back, Jack ran over to Elizabeth.

"Are you okay?" He pulled her blindfold off her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked in bewilderment. How did he even find out about our act for the talent show? she wondered.

"Getting you out of this."

Elizabeth looked over at Wayne who was getting up off the floor, holding his face. "You hit him?"

"Of course, I hit him. He touched you."

Jack was surprised to find the key in Elizabeth's hand, but he quickly used it to undo the handcuffs and then began tugging at the ropes on her feet. He was again surprised when Elizabeth pushed him away.

"Stop. You're ruining everything", Elizabeth exclaimed.

"Ruining everything?"

"Yes. Ruining everything! I want to do this. I told him to reach into my blouse."

"You like this?" Jack asked in puzzlement. "You wanted him to touch you. To tie you up?!"

"Well, it's kind of awkward and the handcuffs were digging into my wrists but it's kind of exciting. I like it", Elizabeth explained.

"You wanted him to tie you up?" Jack shook his head. She's into being tied up? Impossible. We've been living together for weeks. I would know it. "You can't be into this."

"Yes I am. I'm getting good at it. Okay, maybe not good, but I'm getting better." Elizabeth said as she struggled with the ropes.

"She's the worse I've ever had", Wayne said with a scowl.

Feeling the need to defend Elizabeth's honor, even if she was an active participant in something sordid, Jack hauled off and punched Wayne again. Sending the man reeling backwards.

"I swear to God, if you hit me one more time, I will hit you back! I don't give a damn if you're law enforcement," Wayne exclaimed.

Jack ignored him and returned to help Elizabeth untie herself.

"I don't understand. Why are you doing this?" he asked. I thought she was a nice girl! And I was going slow with her!

"I wanted to do something with you but you haven't mentioned it again. And well, Wayne asked me if I was interested and I thought why not?"

"Why not?! I can give you lots of reasons why not!"

"I'm always game for something new."

"This?!"

"Everyone on-board is doing something. Well not everyone but most everyone. I wanted to get in on the fun. People have been pairing up."

"You and him?!" Jack asked incredulously. "Pairing up?!"

She nodded.

"Elizabeth, if you wanted to do be with someone, why didn't you just tell me. I know I've been preoccupied and this isn't my kind of thing but we could have worked something out. "

"I know. I know. But you've been so busy. And this is better than nothing."

Jack wasn't so sure he agreed with her statement, but he wasn't about to lecture her right now.

"This couldn't have been your idea?" he said as he finished taking off the ropes at her feet and moved to untie the one around her waist.

"It wasn't. At first. But he talked me into it."

Jack turned his attention to Wayne who was now sitting on the floor, holding his head. "Don't go anywhere!" he forcefully instructed the injured man.

"Stop fighting him! He didn't do anything wrong!" Elizabeth said in exasperation. "I asked him to reach down my shirt and it's my fault he got frustrated with me. I'm not fast enough for him."

Jack shook his head in bewilderment.

"You don't need to be fast, Elizabeth! He took advantage of you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. We've been doing it for days. Every evening after dinner. You'd think I'd be better at it." Elizabeth frowned. "My wrists are killing me. And my ankles too now that I think about it."

"This?! For days?!"

For the first time Jack noticed the bedsheet on the floor beside Elizabeth and the soft music playing in the background. He felt disgusted, bewildered, shocked. Elizabeth into bondage?! What the hell did Wayne say to get her to agree to this?!

"I suppose it will be worth it once the audience sees us."

"Audience?! You're doing this for an audience?!"

"Of course, Jack. Don't be silly. The thrill is to see the audience's reaction."

If it's anything like my reaction, there'll be more than a few heart attacks.

"I guess it looks kind of odd. But wait until you see me in my outfit! Wayne says it will add to the excitement and the mood."

Without a word, Jack crossed the room, pulled up Wayne by the collar of his shirt, and punched him.

Thirty minutes later Jack was feeling like an idiot as he left Wayne at the infirmary. The nurse couldn't stop laughing hysterically at the idea of Elizabeth as either the victim of a "mad scientist" or as some sort of participant in erotic bondage.

Word had spread quickly enough when passengers had seen Jack and Elizabeth help Wayne, who was sporting a bloody nose and black eye, walk down the corridors, all the while Jack apologizing profusely to him.

It didn't take long for the teasing to begin. As Elizabeth made her way back to their quarters, she was already bombarded with comments about whether she preferred lying in wait in Jack's berth to pounce on him, assaulting Ally, or being tied up in some kind of suggestive game.

Elizabeth, who had gotten over being the "Transporter's Tart" weeks ago, was now jokingly being referred to as the "Ship's S and M girl".

By the time, she reached the door to their quarters, she was refusing to speak to Jack.

It was never this hard to kiss a girl on Earth, Jack grumbled as he stood outside their living quarters and gently banged his head on the wall. Elizabeth had locked him out so he had to wait for Seth or Carl to return from wherever they were and buzz him in.

Of course, I never met a girl quite like Elizabeth. Why did I rush in there to rescue her without knowing the situation? Totally against protocol.

She makes me crazy.

I can't think straight around her.

I shouldn't even bother with her.

She's probably not even a good kisser.

Ah, who am I kidding? I would love kissing her more. I love even just talking to her. Hell, I love just being in the same room as her.

Jack realized that he had a lot to think about.

Like where to take her on their second date.

How to get her to agree to go on a second date with him.

How to get her to start speaking to him again so he could ask her out on a second date.

How to get her to agree to be in the same room as him so he could start speaking to her again.

Charlotte Thornton would be grinning from ear to ear if she knew what was going on. Jack had finally met a girl who got to him.

Jack realized that the only good thing about the whole incident was that Elizabeth couldn't escape from him. They were stuck on the ship for another two months.

Up next: Chapter 12