It was another long day for Lisa. The SDF-2 was was about ready to start the long journey back home. The ship was almost fully staffed as most of the personnel were prepping the ship for their departure when the ship folded. Lisa had reached out to each of the teams on the ship and explained the situation that they were in and answered any questions that they had. Those on board appreciated Lisa's candor and openness to discuss the plans to return home. Many on the ship commented on how Lisa seemed to be more approchable than she had in the past and wondered what could have caused the change in her demeanor and attitude.
For Lisa, she didn't feel that she was behaving any differently but in reality she felt a freedom she hadn't felt in a while. Even though she dreaded the first meeting with Rick, telling him how she felt was cathartic for Lisa and she realized that keeping her feelings bottled up for so long had affected her without her even knowing it.
Satisfied with the work that she had done today, Lisa left the bridge and headed towards her quarters for a nice hot cup of tea before going to bed. She was sad that she didn't get to see Rick today but knew that he had been discharged from the hospital and probably settling into his new quarters. She made herself promise that she would seek him out tomorrow to apologize for his current situation.
Rick had been discharged during the day and with the help of some of his friends, picked up the necessities from the supply room and settled into his new quarters. Lisa still hadn't contacted him or reached out to him in any way and Rick was secretly fuming. He didn't know if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life chasing after a woman just because she said that she loved him. He didn't believe that Lisa would act in that manner, telling him something and then acting entirely different.
Annoyed, Rick decided to wait for Lisa to return to her quarters that night and see if he could talk to her. He had been reading a book in his living room when he heard light footsteps passing his rooms. There were no others assigned to rooms down this corridor other than hers and as he heard the footsteps start to pass, Rick ran to the door and slide it open just as Lisa was about to open the door to her quarters.
"Lisa!"
Lisa froze at her door, her hand still on the keypad. Having Rick confront her was not a scenario that she had anticipated and she swore under her breath. She didn't even hear him coming from the hallway. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned to face Rick and moved forward to greet him. "Rick, I'm glad to see that you are feeling better, I want to tell you how sorry.."
Lisa didn't get to say another word, at that moment an aide came running down the corridor and saluted Lisa. "Captain Hayes, I'm sorry to bother you but you are needed immediately in the engine room."
As the aide went on to explain the situation, Lisa excused herself with apologies to Rick and promises to catch up as soon as possible, while the aide continued to talk to Lisa. Glad for the excuse, Lisa left with the aide, leaving Rick in hallway.
Rick watched the two leave, he smiled as Lisa grilled he aide on the situation and asked a series of questions she expected him to have answers to. He felt bad for being upset with her about not visiting him and realized as the Captain of the ship she probably had a lot to worry about right now. He had noted how tired she did seem, but also noticed how good she looked in her black Captain's uniform and regulatory hat. Deciding that their conversation could wait to the next day, Rick returned to his quarters to get some rest.
Lisa returned to her quarters an hour later and was relieved to see that Rick was not waiting for her in the corridor. She entered her room, quickly got ready for bed and fell into a deep sleep, unaware that only a wall separated her bedroom from Rick's bedroom.
Lisa left her quarters early the next day and was on the bridge directing efforts that needed to be completed today in order for their journey home to start. All the scrap that could be collected from the Zentraedi ship had been gathered and the final step before they were to start their head home was to deploy a long range satellite that would allow for early warning if anyone entered their solar system. As the satellite was deployed and activated, Lisa made a brief announcement to the crew that they were indeed ready to start their long way home.
Rick listened to the announcement with pride, Lisa sounded so confident in the announcement and many of the pilots commented in his hearing how they were glad that they had someone that knew what they were doing in charge. He spent the day meeting his new squad and familiarizing himself with them and overseeing fixes to Skull 1.
It was late again when Lisa returned to her quarters and Rick this time was waiting at her door. She paused as she saw him standing there with a definite unhappy look on his face. Knowing she couldn't avoid the conversation with him, she approached quietly, "Hello Rick."
Rick looked up from where he had been thinking with his eyes closed. He frowned seeing how tired Lisa looked and knew that she wasn't getting enough rest.
Lisa saw his frown and her heart fell. She had known that this wasn't going to be a pretty conversation and she steeled herself for the tongue lashing he was about to give her and decided to preemptively strike.
"I'm glad you're here Rick, I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am about the current situation you're in and I hope that my unprofessional emotional outburst the last week can be overlooked and that we can move forward and work together like we did before. I will admit that I am rather desperate for your help in training the fighter pilots as many are néw recruits and do not have experience flying in space. Training under an ace like you would be an honor for many."
Rick was confused by Lisa's cold attitude. Recalling that she hadn't come to see him when he was in the hospital and then her rather impersonal speech, only briefly touching on her confession of love as an 'emotional outburst", Rick had second thoughts about telling Lisa about how he felt about her. He didn't know what the hell was going on with her, how could she only a few days ago be crying her eyes out and telling her that she loved him and the next minute asking him to train recruits. His initial worry over her being overly tired was replaced by annoyance.
"Sure Captain," Rick said, emphasizing the word captain, "I hear you loud and clear. I'll do as you request and help out with the training. I have some ideas that should help out. If there is nothing else, excuse me, I feel quite tired all of a sudden."
"Of course,"murmured Lisa and she watched in horror as Rick walked to the next door down from hers and roughly punched In a few numbers in the keypad and entered the room.
Of all the rooms that Kim had to assign him to, why that room? She knew the girls were just trying to help, they didn't know that she had confessed her feelings to Rick and been rejected. Figuring that there was nothing she could do about it now, she would just have to live with the situation as is, but at least there was no uncertainty of where Rick's heart lay.
Over the next few days, Lisa and Rick avoided each other. It wasn't hard for Lisa to do so as she had a lot of responsibilities to oversee but Sammie, Kim and Vanessa didn't know why she was overworking herself. The SDF-2 was on its way home and long range sensors showed no sign of any Zentraedi. They figured that it must have something to do with Rick and felt bad for putting Lisa in a situation where she could easily run into him near her quarters and wondered if that is why she spent so much time in her ready room.
Rick also noticed that Lisa retired late every evening and for some reason, he couldn't retire to his bedroom til he heard the soft clicks of her heels that always seem to hurry past his door.
Sighing a great big sigh, Rick went to bed determined to talk to Lisa about the situation as she couldn't avoid him for the next two years, the ship just wasn't that big.