Vocabulary:

drink: ocean
quals: flight qualifications

A/N: I'd like your help in congratulating my GMW Rucas One Shot Challenge winners, which are: LillyBean23, Stay Gold – Pebblemist, and 4evaSummer! And here, I will give some praise to the second place winner, Pebble. If you haven't checked out her works yet, you need to. She is an amazing writer, and puts a lot of time and effort in making sure she's giving you her best work. Her current fic, Unexpected Ties, is one of the few fics that gets me on the edge of my seat. So, what are you waiting for? Go check her out!

Once Farkle had closed the hatch behind him, Lucas sat down and opened the email from Riley. His heart rate started to escalate as he began to read her message.

Hey Lucas!

How's it going? Forget that we were emailing tonight? ;) Just teasing, I know how busy you can get. Duty must come first; don't want you getting court martialed on me. Anyway, I hope everything is going well. I really can't wait to see you in three days! Maya and I should be down in Norfolk the day before you dock; she wants to get some shopping and sightseeing done. That and it's good best friend quality time, plus the drive down. It's going to be great!

So, is Farkle keeping you in line? He better be, especially in the air! I don't want to have you getting fished out of the sea.

Hope you see this soon!
Your Princess

Lucas smiled as he read over her message. He had told Riley that they were arriving a day later than they actually were. His reasoning? Lucas wanted to surprise her at lunch. That, and there would be so many visiting family members at the dock to see their returning sailors, and he knew how much Riley hated crowds so he thought he'd spare her from that. To make sure his plan would work, he enlisted Maya to help him, and from Riley's email, it looked as if she was still in the dark which was perfect. Not that he expected Maya to let something slip, but if Riley got whiff that something was being planned, she'd do everything that she could to figure out what that was.

He looked at when the message was sent, and saw that she had mailed it about twenty minutes ago. With any luck, she should still be at her computer, Lucas thought as he began to type his response.

Hi Riley,

Everything is going pretty well right now. Yeah, it did slip my mind for a bit… but when I'm flying traps I can't have any distractions, especially if you don't want me getting fished out of the drink. Just got done with my day quals; still have the night ones left, but that shouldn't be any problem. I can't wait to see you, too!

Glad you and Maya will be able to spend some time together. How's her job going for her? Know it takes a lot of her time now. Or has she been able to manage her time better?

Yes, Farkle is keeping me in line. If anything I should be saying I'm keeping him in line so he doesn't get too cocky.

How are your parents doing? And Auggie?

Talk to you soon
Your pilot.

Lucas hit the 'send' button and relaxed in the chair. As much as he enjoyed having a way to contact Riley while he was onboard, he really couldn't wait to see her. Just talking to her via email made him realize how much he missed her. He knew he missed her, but he didn't comprehend how much until now; he was less than two days out, and yet it still seemed so far away.

As Lucas predicted, Riley's reply came in rather quickly. He opened the email and his eyes began to read.

As long as it was for a good reason, I forgive you ;) No really, I'd rather you forget because you're focusing on your job. Glad your day quals went well! Hopefully your night ones will go as well as you think they will be. I know I wouldn't be able to do that; guess that's why I'm not there and you are.

Maya's job is going well. She has been able to manage her time more, but being a commercial artist isn't easy. Her available time does vary from project to project; but she loves it so that's good. We've been able to see each other more often now, about once a week on the weekends, but again it depends on how big the project is.

Farkle, cocky? Never! ...okay, if you couldn't tell I was being sarcastic there. What's he doing now?

My parents are doing well. Mom just won a major case, and dad is still griping about annoying high schoolers who won't do their work. So, everything is pretty much normal for them. Auggie is doing well, I guess. He's sort of overwhelmed. Right now he's trying to figure out which college to go to. I can hear him debating the pros and cons for each one right now. He must be in the hallway… so many colleges are begging him to come to their school, and he's not sure which one he should go to.

Lucas chuckled as he began to type his response.

That's good to hear from Maya. I bet she's happy about getting a break for a couple of days.

Oh, Farkle is being Farkle. He doesn't understand how I'm not letting my scores get to my head, and he keeps calling me one of the best pilots on the ship. I honestly don't care if I am or not. There's two reasons why I'm not letting my scores get to my head: my friend, now Captain McCall, told me confident but not cocky so I don't get into trouble. You remember him, don't you? Anyway, the second reason is you. I'd think that's good enough for me, how about you?

Oh, Auggie... I guess I was lucky to not have to worry about that. I knew what I wanted to do for a long time. Tell him don't stress over it. If the college has the classes that he wants, then that should be ranked higher than the others. Distance and where it's located (rural or urban) should be a major factor, too.

He clicked send and then looked up at the clock hanging on his wall. Lucas probably had time for one more response before he had to go eat and get ready for his night traps. He felt his heart drop a little bit. What he wanted was to be able to stay and talk with Riley some more, but he reminded himself that he would have plenty of time in less than forty eight hours.

Riley's next email came in just as he came out of his daze.

Yeah, those reasons sound good enough for me. And yes, I do remember him! Didn't someone you know almost crash because he was so full of himself?

I'll be sure to tell him. Hopefully that will help some.

Lucas nodded as he began to write back.

Yeah, it was actually Captain McCall. It helped him realize that he wasn't invincible, like some pilots often think, and he doesn't want me to experience firsthand. So I'll take his word for it, and just focus on doing the best that I can. However, I can definitely see the cocky attitude he's talking about, even more so than Farkle, although it can be hard to believe at times, haha.

Well, I hate to do this but I have to go eat before I fly for the last time tonight. See you soon, Princess. Love you!

After Lucas sent his reply, he waited for Riley's response before he headed down to the chow hall, which didn't take long at all.

Okay. See you soon :) Love you, too!

Lucas smiled as he closed out of the last email and let out a satisfied sigh. Less than forty eight hours. You can do it, he reassured himself. He shook his head as he walked out of his quarters and headed down to the chow hall, making sure not to trip on the knee knockers or bang his head on the doorways (which he had done several times since he was aboard). It was getting harder and harder to be away from Riley. Luckily, his tour was almost over, so at least he would be state side for a while. But he had a feeling it wouldn't be enough. So while the Enterprise was in port, he was going to take the first step in fixing that.

He was going to ask Riley's parents' permission for her hand in marriage. And the next time he was home, he would propose to her.

A/N #2: Okay, I need your help. I'm trying to write a chapter for this fic so there's not a huge time jump in between the reunion between all the friends and the chapter I have after that (which would be about a 3-6 month time gap). I know I want it to focus on Lucas and Farkle on board ship, but other than that I have no clue. Let me know what you want to see! Pretty please? Once I have that chapter written, there will be a greater chance that I'll update twice a month, and believe me, I think you'll want that ;) Also, if you could leave a review on what you thought of it that would be great. Until next time!