I kept staring at Cress as she is eating from her packed plate, seriously how does she eat so much but stay so small, to see if I could figure out what she was hiding. She usually isn't very good at keeping secrets, but for some reason she is determined to keep whatever she is hiding a secret. "Are you sure you don't want to tell your dear old husband what you are hiding?"

"Captain, I am not going to tell you until we are with the rest of the team. I want you all to hear it at once."

"Can you just give me a little hint?" Or at least answer a question?" I was getting desperate some type of answer.

Cress looked at me and rolled her eyes, "I will answer one question, but that is it. After that no more pestering me. Okay, ask your question."

"It's a very simple question: Will everyone like this surprise? Or if you don't want to answer that one then, answer this one: Is the surprise good or bad?"

"Just to be nice, I will answer both of the questions. The answer to the first one is 'I hope everyone likes the surprise and the answer to the second question is 'The surprise is good, some would say it was very good."

"Then what is it?" I tried to give her a look that used to get her to talk when we first met and while I was still blind from the crash, but for some reason it didn't work. She just sat there, eating her waffles, with a tiny bit of a smug look on her face. That's weird, when does Cress ever have a smug-look on her face?! What she is hiding can't be that bad, she looks really happy.

"I already told you, I am not going to tell you until we are with the rest of the crew. So stop asking, Captain! The answer won't change until we get to the palace." She says it with a finality that also wasn't there when I met her. I can't believe that she has changed so much, but with every change I fall more in love with her. Not that I would ever say any of this out loud. Never in a million years.

"Are you done yet? I want to leave soon, so when can get there and you can tell ALL of us the surprise." I finished eating about 5 minutes ago.

She gave me a way to be patient look. "Yes, I am done, all I have to do is throw my plate away."

"Let me do that, miss. You just sit right there and wait," I grabbed her plate ,now completely empty except for her fork, put it on mine and walk to the trash cans at the far end of the room, dropping the plates in. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Cress look at me from her chair and puts an innocent but in a weird way, almost mischievous smile on her face that makes her beautiful blue eyes sparkle. Which is really strange, someone can't be innocent and mischievous at the same time, can they? I walked back to her. "You ready to go, C?"

"Duh, I have been waiting for you to get back from a simple task for ten minutes! How long does it take to throw something away?" She slides down from the chair and starts walking. I catch up to her and match my long strides with her short ones.

"That was not ten minutes, it was one at the most."

"Was not,"

"Was too!" I was silently laughing in while thinking, We are bickering like an old married couple when we have only been married a few months,it was a good sign, right? I thought to myself.

We reached the elevator and I reached out my hand to press the Up button, and a few seconds later the elevator dinged and the doors opened. I let Cress go in first, then followed her in. She reached out and pressed the button to go to our floor, so the doors closed. As the elevator started moving up slowly. While the elevator was going up, Cress's face looked like it was turning green, but as soon as the new color appeared, the green disappeared just as quickly. I wasn't even sure if the color changed happened at all or if it was just a figment of my imagination.

"Cress, you feeling okay, babe?"

"Ya, Cap, why?"

"No reason, I just thought you looked a little under the weather. It was probably just my imagination."

"Well, your imagination could make you go insane at some point."

"Really? That explains a lot about you, having only your imagination to keep you company while growing up on a satellite circling Earth!" The elevator dinged and we stepped out of the elevator together and started to head to our room.

"The only reason I am sane and not a raving 'Lunatic' was because I focused on finding out all I can about Earth and you." Her blue had a sparkle in them like she was mentally laughing.

"That is very sweet and kind of creepy that you were stalking me from space, but it would be strange if you weren't a little weird from your little stay in a satellite orbiting around Earth for about 10 years hadn't made you do weird things while trying to keep being sane!"

"I am glad you understand! Though you already know that I was 'stalking' you from space, I told you after the crash and you lost your sight. Your memory shouldn't have been affected by what my dad gave you to help restore your eyesight. Do you remember me telling you?" I nodded.

We got our room and I put the key in the slot, pushed open the door and let Cress go in before me. As she walked her light blue dress flowed with the steps that she took. I followed her into the room and shut the door. Cress walked over to her suitcase and started making sure everything was in it. Following her lead, I did the same. When I was done, I went into the bathroom and got our bathroom items and split them into what was mine and what was Cress's. I put my stuff into my bag ,zipping it up, and handed Cress her stuff. She smiled, put it into her bag and zipped the bag up. I picked up both suitcases and headed to the door while Cress did one more sweep to make sure that we didn't forget anything. She followed me out, shutting the door, and toward an elevator. I pushed the button with a finger that wasn't needed to hold a suitcase.

"Need any help, Cap?"

"Nope, babe, I got it." I said smiling at her. The elevator door dinged and opened. We stepped in, I pressed the 1st floor button and the door closed. Cress took a step closer to me.

"Are you excited to go see Kai and Wolf again?"

"No, I don't miss them at all! They are just some guys who helped us with something hard. It's not like we became best friends or anything." I looked away so she wouldn't see that I was lying. I am very excited to see Kai and Wolf, not that I would let anyone else know that, I have to keep my fake reputation alive!

"Okay, sure you don't, it's not like you haven't bonded over anything," Cress was smirking in her own sweet way, with her eyebrows up and a smile on her face. The elevator slowed down, stopped and the doors smoothly opened. We stepped out and went to the front desk to check-out. When that was done, we went out the front doors and start walking to the building I was keeping the latest Rampon in. 

"Can you D-COMM Kai and Cinder to tell them that we are on our way, please?" I stop walking so that she can focus on typing and not worry about running into people.

"Ya, sure." She pulled out her port, type a message really fast and sent it.  She looked up and said, "Let's go." I nod and start moving with our luggage pulling behind me. Cress follows behind me like she is pondering about something, her beautiful sky blue eyes are a little glazed over and for once she isn't constantly talking. What on Earth could she be thinking about that has her not paying attention to anything that is going on in front of her?  

When her port dings, she ignores it, almost like she didn't hear it. It dings again. No response. And again. Still nothing. I nudge her arm with my arm, she shakes her head like she is trying to clear her thoughts, then looks up.

"What is it?" her eyebrow is raised and she sounds slightly annoyed. Annoyed, why would she be annoyed because I nudged her?

"Your port dinged."

"Oh, sorry," She pulled it out and read the message. "Cinder said that they are waiting our arrival and they miss us."

"Thanks babe. You okay?" My question was either unheard or ignored.  Never mind. I will ask her later. She's too distracted by something.

 We arrived at the building where I was keeping the Rampon II.  I went up to the door, unlocked it with my fingerprint, and pushed the door open. Cress went in silently with a vague nod of gratitude while I held it open for her. I followed. She pressed the the gate to open and the responding sound was deafening as the big gate pulled itself slowly open. We climbed up the stairs and entered the ship. I went to the cockpit and powered up the ship. Cress came in and sat down. 

"Cress, do you want to help me pilot the Rampon ? It could use a beautiful woman like you as the pilot."

"Maybe later, Cap. I am just going to take a little nap." She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

~

Three hours later, we were a little more than 15 minutes out from the palace, Cress started trembling in her chair, still fast asleep, as if she was trying to get away from something scary.

"Cress, wake up. It is just a dream." Nothing. "Cress." After putting the Rampion in auto-pilot, I went to her chair, putting my hand on her arm and gently shaking it. "Baby, it's just a dream, wake up. You are on the Rampion, safe." I pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Cap? You got shot, the guards were taking you away." Her eyes,  shot open and were wide with fear.

I sat back on my chair and held me hands out to her. She took them hastily ."Oh, Crescent. You were having a nightmare about the revolution? How long have these been going on?"

She was silent for a long time, her hands went almost limp in mine, I was starting to think she went back to sleep, when she spoke,"Since the night that I woke up in the hospital, when the revolution was over."

I drew a little breath in, " You have been having nightmares for almost 3 months without telling anyone?What were you afraid we would do? Laugh at you or something else like that?"

She nodded looking miserable, "I have never had very good friends, like you and the gang."

I squeezed her hands lightly. "First, I am your husband and would never laugh at you meanly, I love you far too much for that. And second, the gang adores you, too. We have all been through so much together, that none of us would ever do that to each other."

"I knew that too, but was still scared to admit that I was ------"

 A weird metallic voice said "Captain Thorne, we are approaching the landing strip of the Commonwealth palace. Prepare to land?" The autopilot sound system, Forgot about that. The look on Cress's face said she had too."Captain?" 

"Prepare to land," I answered, releasing her hands and put my hands on the ship consol. I took back full control of the ship.

The Commonwealth landing strip came into view and I lined the Rampon up with the dark lines on the ground, making sure that the landing would be smooth. 

Landing in 3, 2.... 

"AAAAAHHHHHH," someone just screamed....

Thump, screech.  Oops, the landing wasn't as  smooth as I wanted it to be, but then again, someone screamed and I think it was Cress. Why in the world did she just scream?! I quickly brought the Rampon to a stop, shut her down and opened the boarding ramp. Then I rushed to my wife, who was drenched in sweat and as pale as a ghost....

         Hello all of my readers! There are a lot of new people, so I just want to say thank you for reading my fanfic!!! I greatly appreciate it!! I am so sorry it took me almost a year to update! I am horrified... Promise to not take that long again! Please forgive me....... With that be said, I made this chapter really really long (2151 words!) to compensate and I left it at a cliffhanger. Love you all! Feel free to comment, vote, do whatever... See you peeps soon, promise!