"Lisa, I'm home," Rick announced from the doorway. He usually came home with Lisa but was informed by Cindy that she had already left when he went to fetch her.
"Hi," Lisa greeted him while wiping her hands on her apron. "Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes."
"You didn't wait for me to help you?" He was a little disappointed that she hadn't let him cook with her. He had gotten so used to the two of them working on practically everything together that this exclusion made him feel uneasy.
"You can clean the dishes," she said and kissed him on the cheek when she passed him to get to the dining table. She knew he wanted any excuse to be with her but thought that he could just relax a bit before dinner. She turned to go back to the kitchen.
"Alright then," he agreed. "But I think I deserve more than just a kiss on the cheek." He caught Lisa by the waist and turned her back to him for a deeper kiss.
No matter how many times they have kissed, Lisa still found each one quite a surprise. She wondered if she'd still feel the same way when they were married. She then chided herself for thinking it would lessen later on.
Rick sensed some hesitation in her kiss and decided to pick her up then carried her into the living room. He sat on the couch and started nuzzling her neck. Dinner was half forgotten until the timer rang.
"Dinner," Lisa said unceremoniously and got up. She couldn't help but chuckle when she heard Rick groan instinctively.
"I'm not hungry, maybe we can just skip it and have dessert," he suggested.
"Well, I'm hungry," she countered. She wasn't about to let Rick get his way just yet.
Rick woke up alone in bed. He raised his head to look at the time and hoped he hadn't overslept. When he saw that he didn't, he wondered where Lisa could be. He got up and found a small note card by her night table.
"See you later," he read the scribbled words. He was again feeling a bit upset that Lisa had excluded him from their daily routine.
The drive to the office was quite uneventful. The lieutenant driving was a bit chatty for Rick's liking. He just wanted to get to the base and find Lisa. He tried hard not to show his impatience when they got stuck in traffic on the short cut that the lieutenant took.
"Admiral Hunter," Cindy greeted him when he arrived at Lisa's office.
"Is she in?"
"She's actually at the hangar, sir."
"What is she doing there?" Rick wondered out loud. He hadn't realized he had spoken the words until Cindy answered him with some lame excuse about checking on VTs.
Rick started heading for the hangar but stopped when Cindy tugged at his arm.
"Admiral Hunter, I just wanted to say, Happy Birthday sir," Cindy said as quickly as possible.
"Thanks," he managed to say before heading on to the hangar.
Lisa was speaking with an elderly man when Rick arrived. He didn't recognize the man but he didn't let that bother him. He was just glad to finally see Lisa.
"Thank you very much," Lisa was saying when he approached. "I promise you we'll take good care of it."
The elderly man started walking away when Rick arrived alongside Lisa.
"Who's that?"
"Oh, it's just someone who's helping me out," she dismissed casually. "Shouldn't you be in your office checking duty rosters and making plans for patrol or exercises?"
"I'm well aware of my duties, Admiral," he said dryly.
"Ouch, someone's grumpy today," she noted, looking at him curiously.
Rick was about to reply when a mechanic came up to talk with Lisa. He was beginning to feel like he was invisible all of a sudden.
"I have to go," Lisa announced when she was done talking with the mechanic. "I have a meeting in a few minutes. Walk back to the office with me?"
Rick followed her without another word. When they were inside the elevator, he hit the stop button which brought it to a halt.
"Rick!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
"I need to talk with you," he said angrily. "And this seems to be the only way I can get you alone right now."
"I have a meeting," she reminded him.
"I heard," he acknowledged. "You'll just have to be late for it." He grabbed her by the waist and planted a harsh kiss on her lips.
"What is the matter with you today?" she asked after pushing him away.
"Why are you avoiding me?" he demanded, not bothering to hide his anger.
"Avoiding you?" she asked with a confused look. "I just spent the night with you."
"You know what I mean."
"Rick, we'll discuss this later," she said with finality and hit the stop button again to release the elevator.
Rick was about to protest when the elevator doors opened and Cindy's cheerful face appeared.
"Admiral Hayes, Admiral Hunter," she greeted. "They're ready at the conference room."
"Thanks, we'll be right there," Lisa acknowledged. "Are you coming or going to sulk?" She didn't wait for his reply and started to head for the meeting.
Rick opened the door as a gesture of courtesy to Lisa. He preferred to take her to somewhere private and talk about what he was feeling.
"Surprise!" everyone in the room shouted when Rick and Lisa entered. Hung around the room was all sorts of decorations and everyone had a funny looking birthday hat on them. Rick was flabbergasted.
"Happy Birthday," Lisa said sweetly beside him. Then she walked a short distance away while well-wishers gave Rick either a hug or a pat on the back.
"Thanks," Rick instinctively said to each well-wisher but looked at Lisa with sudden realization of what she had been up to.
When the cake arrived, everyone sang a song and Rick had to take a deep breath to blow each candle out. He was greeted with cheers when he did so successfully.
"You know you're not the first one to greet me today," he informed Lisa when everyone gave them some private time. "Cindy was the first one to greet me today."
"Is that so? Well, I think she had to do that to delay you," she reasoned.
"Delay me? For what?"
"You'll see later," she said mysteriously.
Rick was curious but he decided to be patient. He decided he was working himself up for no reason.
Lisa and Rick returned to the hangar when the party was over.
"What are we doing here?" he asked her.
"Because of that," she said happily. She watched as the vintage biplane was pulled in by the ground crew.
Rick's eyes widened as he saw it. He couldn't believe that such a plane still existed in operational condition. He turned to ask Lisa but she nodded to confirm his assumption.
"You can take it up for a spin," she told him. "Just don't break it because I promised Mr. Bernhard I'd get it back to him in one piece."
"Come with me," he suggested. "Let's take it up for a spin."
Rick and Lisa took the plane out for a leisurely flight. He did some aerobatic maneuvers which gave Lisa's stomach sensations of being on a roller coaster.
"You okay back there?" Rick asked.
"I'm fine," she replied. She was glad that she hadn't eaten much at the party or she would've had a rough time.
"Should we land over there?" he asked, banking the plane to show her what he was referring to.
"Sure."
Back on the ground, Rick helped Lisa out of the plane. He stepped back and looked admiringly at the plane.
"I can't believe it still works. Where did you find it?"
"An airplane museum," she informed him. "I asked someone who knew someone, who knew someone."
Rick wondered how many favors she had to call in to get him this priceless aircraft for a day. He turned and drew her in his arms to show her how much he appreciated what she had done.
"You thought I forgot your birthday didn't you?" she asked, wondering why since she hadn't in the past few years.
"No, I just worried that you were getting tired of me hanging around you all the time," he admitted.
"Rick," she whispered with sudden realization what he might have been thinking. "I've just been busy trying to organize this. Even with Cindy's help, it couldn't have gotten off like clockwork without getting other people involved."
"You mean the lieutenant who deliberately drove into traffic?" He now pieced everything together and wondered if she had a plan B if it didn't work. Knowing her, she probably had a plan C.
Lisa knew she had been discovered and explained to Rick her elaborate plan which involved quite a number of personnel.
"How did you know about that plane?" Rick finally asked, reclining on the grass and watching Lisa sitting nearby.
"You had a model plane of it," Lisa reminded him. She thought back to when she first saw him playing with it in the hospital when she visited him. She saw his expression change, knowing that he remembered it, too.
"You know so much about me," he admitted.
"Except how you felt about me," she added. She watched his mood change and wished she hadn't said that.
"You would have gone into space without me right? You would have placed a galaxy between us because I was with Minmei."
Lisa nodded. She knew it was a cowardly act but when it came to love, she didn't know how to fight.
Rick sidled next to her. He cupped her chin so he could look into her eyes. He could see both the love and the pain she had endured while he tried to understand his own feelings for her. Now it was clear to him.
"Lisa, I'm sorry," he began to say but she silenced him with a finger to his lips.
"It's not your fault," she assured him. She knew he never lied about his feelings for Minmei.
"I'm glad you told me how you felt. It made me realize my own feelings for you."
Lisa thought of Claudia who had told her repeatedly to tell him her feelings. Tears started to fill her eyes.
"Did I say something wrong?" he asked, misunderstanding her tears.
"No, I just thought of Claudia who kept pushing me to tell you before it was too late."
Rick thought of the subtle hints that Claudia had also dropped on him. He was just too wrapped up with Minmei to understand.
"You probably would've laughed at me if I had," she said, piercing through his thoughts.
He knew she was right. But he also knew that the timing had made it difficult for either of them to make admissions of their true feelings even if it was already there.
Lisa leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I guess once we did admit our feelings, it got easier," he noted. "If I recall correctly, you made sure we stayed together in Monument City." He was thinking back to the first night they spent together.
Lisa felt herself blush as she recalled how she shed her inhibitions and took bold steps to keep him by her side.
"I want to be with you," he confirmed for her. "You'll have a tough time to get rid of me now."
Lisa chuckled softly. She knew that but couldn't imagine why she'd try to after all she'd done to win him.
"The sunset is beautiful," he commented idly.
"We have to get back to base," she said, suddenly getting up that broke the magical moment.
"Why?"
"I promised Mr. Bernhard that we'd get back in time for him to return the plane to the museum," she explained.
Rick and Lisa returned to base with barely a glimmer of light from the sun. Mr. Bernhard was already pacing back and forth at the hangar when they came in.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Bernhard," Lisa said when he approached them.
"I need to get it back to the museum," he replied, quickly checking on the condition of the plane.
"The crew will have it ready for you to take back," she said, motioning to them to begin conditioning and tying it down to a carrier.
"He's not flying it back?" Rick asked in a whisper.
"He's a curator, not a pilot," she informed him quietly. "He said where the plane goes, he goes."
Rick found it very amusing as the man walked quickly beside the plane as the crew pushed it to the carrier.
"So have you had enough excitement for the day?" Lisa asked and faced an amused Rick.
"I believe I still have a few hours of birthday time left," he declared. "Is there anything else you have planned?" He looked at her with a bright smile.
"Maybe back at my place," she said with a seductive smile in return.