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Chap 17—The Race is on!—

Wren's P.O.V….

My head was still in my hands when James left the room chuckling. I could not believe that had just happened and it was definitely not one thing I ever wanted to see period.

"Wren?" Zim asked.

I perked my ears toward him. "Yes Zim?"

"Let's never mention that ever again," He said.

"I agree. Let's hope that it never happens again too!" I said looking up.

"Warn me if it ever happens again," He said looking up at me.

"But who's going to warn me?" I whined. "And anyway, I thought that the almighty Zim didn't need help." I added poking my fork at him.

"And who told you that?" he asked raising a non-exist eyebrow at me.

"You did," I replied with my nose in the air while taking another bite of my food.

"Did not. When did I say that?"

I sighed, "Am I supposed to remember everything you say?" I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

He leaned over and placed a finger on my nose drawing my face to look back at him. I crossed my eyes to look at the finger then looked at him. "Of course you are cat nose. For. I. Am. Zim." He then tapped my nose and went back to eating.

I shook my head then looked back to him willing the butterflies in my stomach to calm down. "What is with me lately?" I asked myself but out loud I said, "You're evil." And stuck my tongue out at him.

"Don't you know it," He said smirking, a playful glint in his ruby eyes.

I looked at him and smiled. I shook my head slowly and looked at my plate. "He's almost as bad as James," I thought. "But I'd much prefer a Zim to a James though."

We both went back to our meal, both of us feeding Rouk who was traumatized by the de-toweling incident. We heard screaming and watched as GIR flew through the air. We also watched as he hit the wall giggling.

Rachel's P.O.V….

I soon caught up to GIR and kicked his ass. It comes in handy to have been on the rugby team for a few years. I could kick a ball pretty far and kicking GIR was a breeze. Though it did kind of hurt after I did. I stalked off to the bathroom and headed for the first shower stall. As soon as I shut the door James came in.

"Rachel, listen, that last part with GIR was not planned." He said.

"What? I know that already. I know you too well to even think about it right now. Leave me be for a while. I need to calm down or I'll kick someone else's ass across the room." I said shoving an arm thru a sleeve of my shirt.

"Rachel, I'm really…."

I finished dressing in record time and stepped from the stall with a scowl. "James, shut up. I'm still in a good mood despite what happened. I'm glad we are alive and I'm glad I'm with you. But if you try to apologize one more time I will kick your ass." I walked over to him now without my scowl.

James smiled and kissed me lightly. "You can be so scary sometimes." He murmured.

"Yep." I said. "But you love me for it."

"I know I do, but I have a feeling that you are wrapping me around your little finger," He said as he took my hand and raised my palm to his lips.

I blushed but leaned into his chest. He hugged me close for a few moments then released me. "Let's head back before they think we have done something." He said leading me to the doorway. "Not that I wouldn't mind doing something else. The preview was quite nice."

"James," I sighed "Not now." I followed him out the door without saying anything more.

James walked beside of me and looked his arm around my shoulders. He hugged me close but released me as soon as we got to the mess hall. The sight before us was baffling to say the least because Zim was laughing at Wren for something. The closer we got the more confused we got. Unfortunately when we got there we found out exactly what had happened.

Wren's P.O.V….

After GIR had come flying through the room and hit the wall we shrugged it off. We finished the rest of our meal without too many problems. By now Zim and I were just sitting there relaxing and talking. I had a feeling he was just taking the time to keep me busy and my thoughts off of what had happened hours ago.

"So, you mean that the theory of worm holes is true?" I asked leaning forward to rest my elbows on the table before me.

"Somewhat," he replied propping his feet up on the table after leaning back, "all worm holes are a small distortion in space and that causes the unfortunate ship that comes across it to literally jump across space. Unfortunately for the poor traveler in that ship they're in a completely different part of space with no clue how exactly they got there."

"Ah," I said. Tapping my chin for a moment I then asked, "What about dimensional rips? Do those exist?"

Zim shrugged but answered, "Not in real science theory. In Irken legends though there is mention of rips that helped save us."

"So they could still be possible," I said leaning back in my chair and resting my hands on the back of my head.

"I'm not saying that it isn't a possibility, only that it is very rare. So rare in fact, that our scientists don't even bother trying to test out the possibility," He replied.

"It's still awesome though," I said smiling. "I never thought a few of my theories were actually proven true hundreds of years before me."

While we were talking we were completely ignoring GIR, so I never expected anything out of the ordinary to happen. When out of the blue I felt the back of my pants being pulled away from my back and something cold and wet drop into the open area.

"Bloody hell!" I yelped and jumped up. I started to shake the ice out of the back of my pants protesting the whole time.

Zim by then was laughing at me and so was GIR. Sooner or later I did get all the ice out of my pants and threw some of it at the SIR unit. He ducked at the last second and the bit of ice hit Rouk. Rouk shook it off and growled leaping at him. Soon my muse was chasing GIR and he was running for dear life.

"What did we miss that was so funny?" James asked from the entrance of the mess hall.

"Nothing important." Zim said snickering a little noticing an impish grin on my face.

Since my back was to Rachel and James they didn't see it. They also didn't see the fact that I scooped up a handful of ice into each hand. I turned walking over to them.

"He's right actually," I said, "but what really happened started with this!" I put ice down both their shirts.

It took a second for the shock of what happened to settle in. They started shaking their shirts out but Rachel seems to have a little trouble. It seemed a little bit of the ice got stuck in her bra.

I backed away quickly giggling all the way. "I couldn't help it! Sorry."

Rachel glared at me as she got rid of the rest of the ice from her shirt and bra. "You'd have better start running," She said. "Because if I catch you, you're dead meat."

"Good then," I said with a slight grin. "Because I can get the best room on the ship if I'm running for my life. That is if you chase me in the right direction." I started to slowly step away. "And seeing that I seem to know my way around here better than either of you guys then my chances of getting the better room are lookin pretty good!"

"Oh no you don't!" James said. "I want revenge too here and I'd say that us getting the best room is good pay back."

I gave a smirk and bowed to them. "Well then James. I say finders keepers. Loser's weepers." I turned on my heel and darted for one of the doors.

I ran as fast as I could down the lift that went to the officer and Captain's quarters. I was hoping that I could actually get the Captain's quarters. But if I didn't, I really wouldn't have cared. All the rooms were basically the same except the beds and that the captain's room was just a little bit bigger than the rest.

Rachel's P.O.V…

I sprinted after Wren. There was no way I was going to let her get the best room on the ship. I darted down the hall and soon saw Wren dart into a lift. She was waving at me with a grin as the lift doors closed.

"Damn you Wren…" I growled and headed for a second lift. Luckily it was heading the same way. I got the doors open and just stepped in when Zim and my boyfriend sorta fell into the lift before the doors shut.

"Bez, get us to the same floor as Wren and quick." I said as the doors slid shut.

(Fine by me.) He replied and the lift shot off.

I looked over at Zim and raised an eyebrow. He cut me off before I could even ask my question.

"I want a chance at a room as bad as you do." He said while brushing himself off.

I rolled my eyes as I helped James up and muttered under my breath, "Even though you may end up in her room sooner or later."

Zim shot me an odd look as James gave me a playful glare because apparently he heard me. "Now Rachel," He said, "you know better than to make assumptions like that."

Zim blinked then it all registered. He leaned against the wall with his face cast down, hand splayed across his face. His antennas were flat against his head. We could see a dark blush on his face also. Our time ran out to tease him when the lift doors opened.

We all darted out of the elevator but Wren had too much of a head start. She darted around a corner sliding a little on the metal floor before pushing off the wall and scrambling for purchase on the floor. Making a swift turn to follow her we spotted her ducking into a door. But not before she turned to us and gave us a raspberry.

"Damn." I pouted and stopped as I watched the door slide shut with a click.

James passed me and went to the door beside the one Wren went in. He swiped his hand over the panel by the door and looked in. "I guess we still get a good room." He said looking at me and leaned against the door frame.

"Who's this we?" I ask skeptically with my hands on my hips.

He rolled his eyes but smiled at me. "You know what I mean Rachel." He said.

I walked over to the door and looked into the room. It was pretty big for being on a ship this size. The bed was draped in white silky cloth. Thick forest green carpet lay across the floor like forest moss. In one corner of the room was an open kitchenette. There was a door in the other corner that probably led to the bathroom.

I was so distracted by taking the room in that I was started when I was suddenly picked up. James was smiling evilly and trying to not laugh at my expression. He carried me into the room leaving Zim in the hall to grab any room he wanted. The door closed behind us and James carried me over to the bed. He dropped me onto it with a bounce. I sank in on the second bounce and sighed happily. After the sigh though, I started to giggle. We both were laughing hard by the time he sat down on the bed beside me. We calmed down soon enough.

"I love you Rachel." James murmured as he leaned down and kissed me.

Narrator….

Zim watched as James picked Rachel up and took her into their new room. He shook his head and gave a small sad sigh. It left an odd gut wrenching feeling behind to think about how close of a relationship those two had.

"I don't want to know what they are doing now. I hope I never find out either." He muttered and turned his head to look at Wren's door.

He sighed and cursed silently at remembering what James and Rachel had implied. He lowered his antenna at the few thoughts flitting thru his head. He cursed himself this time though because of what he wasn't used to.

"I don't get it." He muttered turning to the door across from Wren's, "Irkens have had several emotions blocked and love is one of them. Maybe I am different than the other Irkens…. Or it could be the stress of all this crap that's been happening."

He walked toward the door and swiped a hand over the panel to open it. Walking in, GIR followed observing the sad look on Zim's face. He looked at his master funny but smiled happily. In his very small, semi-functional brain he was forming a plan to make his master happy.

While GIR was doing a version of plotting Zim sighed heavily, plagued with his thoughts. This caused GIR to look at his master again, "What's wrong Master?" He asked innocently.

Zim waved his SIR off. "Nothing GIR. Nothing is wrong." He plopped down on the couch and rested his head on the back of it. He slowly started to massage the area between his eyes softly.

The odd little 'bot walked over to stand in front of Zim. He crossed his arms across his little metal chest. "Try me," he said scowling.

The Irken shot a surprised look the SIR's way. He sounded a little like Wren there for a moment and completely not like himself. Zim chuckled a little and shook his head.

"Really GIR nothing's wrong. I promise I'll figure it out on my time."

"Ok!" The robot said grinning. "I'm going to go and bug Rouky!" The unit turned and bounced out the door.

Zim blinked at the retreating form. He shook his head, "I swear that robot is driving me insane." He leaned back again and closed his eyes.

"Maybe," he though, "just maybe, this might work out in the end and everyone will be happy."