CHAPTER 71 – OPPOSITE GOALS

Elizabeth clicked the 'next' button on her keyboard and looked through possible topics for her first class, but choosing on what to lecture was hopeless.

She glanced over at her son who was crawling on the floor in an odd style that he seemed to prefer. With his hands planted in front of him, he kept his little legs straight as if he didn't want to get his knees dirty or scraped while he explored the small living quarters.

It was Elizabeth's turn to keep an eye on Aaron while Jack was in the fitness center playing racquetball.

With Becca.

Perky Breast Becca.

Elizabeth shouldn't have been surprised by the number of crew she recognized from her earlier flights, but she had forgotten – until they ran into each other in the hallway - how incredibly gorgeous her old roommate Becca looked in a sports bra and tiny shorts.

"Jack! Elizabeth! I heard you guys were back with us," the navigator had exclaimed when they had turned a corner on their way to the Cafeteria yesterday evening and had come face to face with her. "Oh my goodness, is this him? The little one you had in your protected belly on the last flight? He's adorable!" the woman had exclaimed before cooing over Aaron. "You are going to be sooo handsome, you little thing. Handsome just like your father." Within minutes, Jack and Becca had enthusiastically agreed to a game on the racquetball court for this afternoon.

Elizabeth wasn't threatened by Becca but she was finding herself jealous that the navigator was spending one-on-one time with Jack.

He's getting hot and sweaty right now, Elizabeth thought as she sat on one of the bottom berths. Jack looks good when his hairs all messed up and he's glistening.

Even when Jack wasn't with Elizabeth, she couldn't stop thinking of Jack and their 'problem'. They had now been on the transporter for six days and she and Jack hadn't discussed the scarcity of birth control once.

And there was no need to discuss it up. Because she and Jack had barely had time alone together. She loved that Jack had enthusiastically thrown himself into his role as a father, even if she didn't see the need for it – he had always spent time with the baby, but his surprising and sudden desire to have Aaron in his arms whenever Elizabeth was with him, meant they had little alone time as a husband and wife.

Yesterday, she had suggested that they all go swimming together, but Jack had taken one look at her in her snug-fitting bathing suit, and decided that it would be better if he took Aaron alone. That her post-pregnancy breasts – which were the main reason that the suit was so snug-fitting – might cause the baby to concentrate on the idea of feeding rather than swimming hadn't even occurred to Elizabeth. But Jack's reasoning made sense, she supposed. And so, she had agreed with his suggestion that she stay in their quarters. She certainly didn't want Aaron to drown just because he was hungry.

And this morning when she had put on her tiny and over-tight gym shorts, began bouncing in front of Jack, and suggested that they all go to the gym together for aerobics, Jack had taken one look at her and declined. "Umm. You go ahead. I'll stay here with Aaron. It's probably not a good idea for his tiny ears to be subjected to the pulsating music and foot pounding," he had advised.

It's really amazing how protective and in tune Jack is with Aaron's needs, Elizabeth contemplated from where she sat on her berth. He's such a good father!

Gosh, it makes him even sexier.

In an eager mood to keep the few children on the transport on an equal level with the students on Planet Assaymark, and in an effort to keep herself busy so she wouldn't dwell on what she had forgotten at the doctor's office back on Earth, Elizabeth had obtained a copy of the Coal Valley syllabus.

She had thought that education topics would be so far from her own situation – that of a happily married woman with an attractive husband and a limited supply of condoms - that she would soon forget about wanting to be intimate with Jack and her own stupidity of not getting a birth control implant. Unfortunately, every topic from the Coal Valley school list reminded her of Jack . . . . or condoms. Her eyes scanned the words on her computer screen one more time.

Evolution

The Age of Romanticism

The Sexual Revolution

Vulcanized rubber

The Trojan war

Sperm Whales

Great Seamen in history.

This is hopeless. Everything reminds me of being with Jack!

A disgusted Elizabeth slammed her laptop closed. Why fight it?

The noise caused Aaron Daniel to shift his focus from an air vent to his mother.

"It's okay, sweetie. I just have to deal with something," she said in a sweet voice. "Do you miss your daddy? . . . . I do."

We have enough condoms to last a while, she rationalized. Why not start using them?

Because Jack's been so busy being a good father.

"Your daddy has been so focused on being a great father, I should thank him in a special way. I need a plan on how to spend romantic time with him and just forget about future problems. Won't that make your daddy happy?" a smiling Elizabeth asked the infant.

We just need some alone time together.

But he's so focused on being a good father, and his rounds, and catching up with old friends, how do I get alone time with him?

When the baby started babbling and grabbing at one of her legs, Elizabeth looked down at him.

"That's it, little buddy!" she said happily.

Fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth had brushed her teeth, put a light dab of a perfume stick on the base of her neck, and shoved her boring clothes back into her locker. She was now wearing one of Jack's button-up shirts, which she had left mostly unbuttoned, and nothing else.

She sat cross-legged on the bed, staring at the door. Watching it as it began to slide open.

She wasn't so much nervous as she was giddy. Smiling, she imagined Jack's expression when he saw her provocatively waiting for him.

Jack had one foot in the door when he stopped short and stared at her. His mouth started to open and his eyes got wide; if Elizabeth didn't know better, she'd think he looked afraid.

"Hey, what's up?" he said after a long pause and then moved towards his locker.

"What's up?" she giggled. "What do you think?" She tossed her hair over her shoulder and then began to finger one of the few buttons on his shirt, drawing his attention to her cleavage.

"Um. Where's Acorn?" he asked as he nervously averted his gaze and looked around the room. For a split second, his expression reminded Elizabeth of a gazelle about to be pounced on by a lion, but she realized that didn't make any sense.

She gave him a big smile. "Susie and JoJo - its short for Joyce -are babysitting him."

"Is that a good idea? Aren't they like five or something?"

Elizabeth chuckled. "They're eight. And actually, their mother, Linda is babysitting him. But we're letting the girls think that they're in charge. They took him down to the tree room."

"You want me to go get him?"

"No, I don't want you to go get him, silly," Elizabeth responded. "I want them to keep him for an hour."

"Um. Okay."

Jack started to take off his sweaty tee-shirt but then stopped in mid-movement. He looked at Elizabeth then dropped his shirt back down over his abdomen. "I'm going to take a shower."

Without waiting for a response, he walked fully clothed into the bathroom and turned the cold-water handle before the door had even slid closed behind him.

He needed a cold shower. A long cold shower. A very long cold shower.

To heck with limited water-minutes, he thought.

On the other side of the door, Elizabeth scrambled from the berth and went to her locker. She smoothed clear soft balm on her lips and then hurried back to her mattress where she once again stuck a pose.

She pushed her hair behind her shoulders, and then, deciding that it was more seductive to have some showing, she carefully arranged a few of her glossy locks over her right shoulder.

He's going to get clean and fresh for me. I love when he smells like soap. We haven't been 'together- together' since we've been on the transporter. It's been almost a week. He must miss me. Goodness, I miss him. Especially when he's so good looking.

Ten minutes later, Elizabeth was tired of striking a pose. One of her arms was starting to feel numb from leaning on it. And her legs had cramps from remaining seductively bent at an angle.

Why's he taking so long?

He never takes this long.

Maybe he wants me to join him in the shower?

Oh, I'm so stupid! That's it. He's waiting for me to join him!

An eager Elizabeth scrambled off the lower berth.

"Ouch!" she grumbled when her left leg buckled and she fell on the floor. Banging on her shin with her fists, she attempted to get rid of the feeling of pins and needles in her lower limbs.

Finally, when the painful tingling had stopped, she got to her feet and listened. The shower water was still on.

She moved across the room to stand in front of the door and waited.

And waited.

Elizabeth frowned and waved her hand in front of the sensor but the door remained shut.

By the time that the door finally slid open, Elizabeth had almost fallen asleep on one of the berths. Her head jerked up and she plastered a smile on her face. Jack, a towel wrapped around his waist and another around his neck, walked out, and glanced at her.

She expected him to walk towards her, but instead he headed towards his locker.

"Jack?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you like my outfit?" she asked with a grin when she thought about what they would be doing. She sat up straighter and decided not to mention that he must have accidentally locked the bathroom door. The new activation system was bound to cause problems, and she didn't want him to feel bad about her being locked out.

"Why are you wearing my shirt? Do you need something clean? Because laundry was delivered," he said with a nod towards the foot of the bed.

"This is comfortable," she said coyly.

"Half-dressed?" Jack gave her a puzzled look.

"Half-naked," she corrected him with a gleam in her eyes and a smile.

"You'll catch a chill," he nodded again towards the pile of laundry. "You should put on something."

Goodness, he's worried about my health.

A perplexed Elizabeth frowned at Jack, and stood up from the berth to try another tactic. "I'm fine. Actually, a little hooooot," she hissed.

"Hot?" his voice cracked.

"I thought maybe you'd like me to take off something." Her voice was low as she tried her best at a seductive tone.

"Take off? . . . .You're right", he exclaimed as if he had just remembered something. "I need to take off and go get Aaron. It's been about an hour since you dropped him off, hasn't it?"

"It's been twenty-five minutes!" she protested.

"That's it?" he asked hesitantly and with what Elizabeth thought seemed oddly like disappointment.

"Yes, silly. We have at least thirty minutes to ourselves. Totally to ourselves." She padded the mattress next to her but Jack didn't seem to catch her hint.

"Are you sure he's okay with them?"

For Pete's sake, he's obsessed with Aaron's well-being! she thought in bewilderment. He's such a good father that he doesn't even notice that I'm trying to seduce him!

"Jack, he's fine. I'm the one that could use a little bit of attention. And I thought you could too," she suggestively told him as she moved closer to his damp freshly cleaned body. "Don't you want some attention?"

"You know young kids. They're probably tired of babysitting him," Jack said hurriedly as he ignored her question. He reached into his locker and pulled out a pair of shorts. "It's probably not a good idea to leave Aaron with them. What do we even know about them? They're strangers to us. They could be part of a gang. "

"They're eight!"

"Do they know basic CPR? The Heimlich maneuver? How to use a defibrillator?"

"They took him to the tree room! Not into battle! What has gotten into you?"

"What do you mean?" he asked a little too innocently as he averted his gaze from her body.

"I am wearing nothing but your shirt and perfume, and you are acting like I'm wearing over-sized sweatpants, fuzzy socks, and a hair-net!"

Jack didn't say anything. His face contorted as if he was struggling to make a decision about something.

"Jack", she said placed hands on her hips. "I'm waiting. What is going on with you?"

Jack scrunched his face and closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see her expression when she heard what he had to say. "I don't want to make love to you," he blurted out.

"You don't want to make love to me?" she repeatedly slowly. "You don't want to make love to me? You don't want to make love to me" she said for the third time as if trying to decipher a foreign language.

Jack slowed opened his eyes and looked at her. "Not tonight. . .. But tomorrow night is okay. . .. tomorrow night is totally good with me," he added eagerly.

"Oh, this had better be good," she said as she flopped onto a berth.

"We only have twenty condoms," Jack needlessly declared after a long pause.

"I wasn't planning on using all twenty tonight!" she exclaimed as she looked up at him. "I would have been happy with just one!"

"Listen. Now don't get upset. I made a schedule."

"Another schedule?!"

Jack hurried over to his laptop and opened it as he enthusiastically explained his plan. "We have twenty condoms and a minimum five months until a new supply. That means we can use four a month, or one a week. We've been on the transporter six days. It's too soon. We have to wait until tomorrow. We're on a once-every-seven-days schedule."

"A once-every-seven-day schedule?"

"Yes. Isn't that a great idea?"

"No, it's a stupid idea. What if I'm not in the mood every seventh day? What if I'm having my period on the seventh day? What if you're busy working on a case on the seventh day? What if we don't have someone to watch Aaron on the seventh day? What if it's still on the SCHEDULE for you to have him in your berth on every seventh day?"

"That's a lot of what ifs?" Jack grimaced.

"I got one more for you. What if I divorce you on the grounds of stupidity?"

Up next: Chapter 72.

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