Rick didn't get a chance to speak with Lisa the next day or the next couple of days after. Lisa hadn't been lying when she said that the recruits needed training. Barely any of the fighter pilots had any space experience, that training was supposed to have been taken place while the SDF-2 was docked with the satellite factory. Rick helped the squad leaders with setting up training excersizes and giving feedback to the pilots after their sessions in the simulators. For those that had experience in space, Rick took those teams out for practice runs and drills.

Lisa was relieved that Rick was keeping busy and didn't have to deal with him, she was grateful for his help with the squads and couldn't imagine what she would have done without him stepping in. The other squad leaders were good, but Rick had a way to inspire others and organize others to work together as a team. In recognition of his leadership skills, she extended an invitation to join her weekly senior staff meeting and hoped that he would participate. She was pleasantly surprised when she entered the conference room for her meeting and found him in attendence with a status report on the condition of the squads and their training . She couldn't help stealing glances at him during the meeting trying to assess whether or not he was still angry with her, and at the end of the meeting thanked the team leads for their hard work before dismissing them. Rick thought about staying behind and trying to talk to Lisa but found that he wasn't the only one who wanted to talk to her at the end of the meeting and decided to try and approach her another time.

Lisa was miserable, she tried not to show it to the crew and kept up her facade but it was getting difficult. It had been two weeks since the SDF-2 made the jump into space and others were starting to notice the coolness between Lisa and Rick. Not that things were good between Rick and Lisa before they left, but this was a different from the fighting and bickering that Lisa and Rick used to engage in. There was an awkwardness to their conversations that wasn't there before, each being careful with the words that were spoken, both trying to avoid mentioning their last encounter on Earth. Neither knew how longer they could convince others that everything was alright with the other.

Lisa was in her ready room when Vanessa came in excitedly, "Lisa, there wasn't any type of radar malfunction, and it wasn't your fault that Captain Hunter got caught in the fold!"

"What? What do you mean, what could have happened then? Did he not hear the order that we were going to fold?" Lisa didn't know what to think and waited til Vanessa brought up a hologram visualization of what had occurred.

"See here Lisa, after Sammie gave the orders to clear the area, Captain Hunter and Lt. Commander Stirling are clearly fleeing the fold zone. All of a sudden you see the Captain banking right and coming straight for the SDF-2!" The two women rewatched the scenario play out a couple of times and Lisa wondered out loud, "What was he trying to do? It's like he deliberately entered into the fold space. Why would he do something like that?"

Vanessa just shrugged, and said, "He's lucky he made it in time if that was what he was trying to do, if he had been a few minutes later, he would have been like the Zentraedi cruiser." Vanessa happy that her radar readings were not the cause of Captain Hunter's unexpected arrival, left the room to leave Lisa to ponder over this new development. She shivered to think what would have happened if he hadn't made it and realized that she had a second chance to try and win his heart and this time she wasn't going to give up. Mind made up, Lisa left her office, to look for Rick and get some answers.

Rick was in the officer's lounge taking a well deserved break. He enjoyed the work that he was doing with the squads and saw some real promise with some of the pilots. Not wanting to be bothered, Rick slouched in his chair a bit, when he saw Sammie, Kim and Joyce, the nurse from the infirmary enter the lounge and was happy when they took the large booth behind him. He couldn't help but overhear their conversation and was chagrined to hear that they were gossiping about him and Lisa. About to stand up and give them a piece of his mind, he stopped when he heard Sammie ask Joyce, "Is it true, did she really go to visit him everyday?"

"Mmmhhhmmm, everyday, the first night she was really tore up to see him unconscious like that. She must have stayed with him over and hour, just holding his hand and just talking to him, asking him to wake up. " said Joyce with a shake of her head, recalling that night Rick was brought in.

Rick was confused, he didn't ever recall Lisa coming to see him and her name wasn't in the visitors log.

Joyce continued telling the girls of Lisa's visits. "Yeah, she looked really upset about it, she didn't even sign in too when she came in, just rushed in, asked for his room number and ran in as soon as we told her. After that it was so late each night that she came to see him, and the Captain looked so tired, we didn't have the heart to bother her with something so silly as signing in."

"Wow, Lisa must really care about him, do you see the looks she gives him during the staff meetings when he isn't looking?"said Sammie giggling.

Kim defended Lisa and said, "It's not like Captain Hunter isn't doing the same thing to her, I've seen him staring at her too, and he didn't seem to be upset with her. So I wonder what the problem is."

Sammie leaned in to the other two, "I think I know what it is, Captain Hayes feels guilty about Captain Hunter getting caught in the fold. I heard her say something like, "I may have just ruined his life" and she looked sad about it."

As the three woman moved onto another topic, Rick sat behind them stunned with what he had heard. Was it true, was Lisa avoiding him because she felt responsible for him being there? Did she really come to see him when he was in the hospital? What about her cool attitude since he'd gotten there. Realizing he needed to clear the air with her sooner than later, Rick got up and ran from the room in search of Lisa.

As Sammie, Kim and Joyce watched him run from the room, Sammie smiled at her friends and said, "I think our job here is done. We need to tell Vanessa."

Joyce just laughed and said, "I guess the rumors really are true, you three are dangerous."

Author's note: Hee hee...