Hang in there

Its the day after Valentine's day. Lizzy and Alex are sitting in the office. She is reading while Alex works on a Soleil.

"How was school Lizzy?" Asks Gramps.

She doesn't reply. "Did you hear something?" She says looking at Alex.

"Could be the thieving office mouse." Alex replies coldly.

Gramps knows that they know. 

"How should we catch it? Mouse trap? Live trap and release it in front of a cat? So many options." Asks Alex.

"If you rat me out to Grams I would be in the dog house!" Gramps pleads.

"Then stop eating my sweets that people made for me without asking!" Alex points his finger at Gramps.

"But what if you don't share?" Gramps gives his best puppy dog eyes.

"You know I will but since you don't ask I get upset then don't want to share the rest!" Alex huffs and puffs with frustration.

"Gramps just apologize." Lizzy says.

"Ahhh." Gramps sighs. "I'm sorry son. I have little control over sweets. Especially the ones Grams make."

Alex is touched. "Alright I can share some with you."

"I'm good Lizzy made me my own tin of sweets." He holds up a variety pack of cookies Lizzy made.

"You son of a-" Alex gets cut off.

"You all are a lively bunch." Amethyst says hoovering in the doorway.

"When did you get here?" Alex sits back and gains his composure.

"A little bit ago. I came to ask Lizzy if she would be interested in giving tours of the facilities this spring to students."

"Like walk them around, explain things and answer questions tour?" Lizzy looks like a deer in headlights.

"That's the basics of a tour, yes." Amethyst agrees.

"I guess I can help out." Lizzy says cautiously.

"We will teach you what you can say and will pay you well. The idea is for kids to understand where food comes from. And a small history lesson of people's involvement with farm animals. And if they want to become involved with agriculture that would be a nice bonus." Amethyst explains.

"I guess that doesn't sound too awful." Lizzy replies. "When do tours start?"

"They will start in April but you have a lot of studying to do til then. I'm hoping that human interaction will be more intriguing than a Soleil spewing off facts. You will be missing school to give these tours so you will have to play catch up outside of school hours. Will this be alright with you?" Amethyst inquiries.

"I can make it work." Lizzy agrees to helping.

"I will send what you need to Karen. Thank you for helping." Amethyst says gratefully.

The Soleil takes off back to the government building after exchanging good byes and thank you's.

"Still can't believe you can talk to her so casually." Alex admits.

"Why? She, it?, is just another Soleil right?" Lizzy asks.

Gramps and Alex exchange looks. 

"That bot is the head of pretty much the world." Gramps explains slowly. 

"What?" Lizzy is taken back.

"Yea, she was specifically built for keeping peace and monitoring everything that goes on. Amethyst can predict future events and redirect people. So Tiger and them might have actually been redirected to you." Alex's voice is gentle not to alarm Lizzy.

"Huh. Well that's cool." Lizzy hops down from her stool. "So she needed us to come to the future for something.... I wonder for what."

"Well do the tours like she asked and that might help paint the picture to why." Gramps tries to sound wise.

"Well I'm going to head out. It sounds like I have extra studying to do. See ya guys!" Lizzy grabs her coat and things. The guys say their goodbyes back.

.     .     .     .     .

For the next month and a half Lizzy prepares for tours of all ages. Lizzy has to have fun and engaging tours for preschool all the way to college level students. Luckily it's spring time. Meaning most everyone will get to see baby animals. And what's more captivating than fuzzy animals? Little fuzzy animals.

There are eight days where Lizzy has to give two to three tours per day. She is almost through all of the tours already but her favorite are the younger kids.

Lizzy has a part where she is sitting in a chair holding onto a lamb and the children are in line waiting to pet the lamb. Their expressions are priceless to see how dense and soft the lambs hair is all at once. Some are scared but most are excited and happy they are seeing and petting animals. Lizzy does her best to make it more fun for the kids that are scared.

Her classmates were a fun class too. Thanks to the guys they were able to bring quite a few goats out to be brushed. Dragon, Tate and Stephen seemed to hit it off fairly well with some other classmates. Hitohito and Stacy showed everyone how sweet Bea is. Bea of course was in heaven with attention. The newer couple had a fun time talking about Bea to others.

The college students are more difficult to give a tour too. With Lizzy being younger most people didn't take her seriously. Lizzy tried talking about more advanced topics but they rubbed off as being a show off. One tour went well thanks to Tiger and Angel showing up. Angel did end up getting scouted for a few modeling gigs so some of the college students were fans of his. So she asked Alex to tag along for today's afternoon tour.

"Thank you for helping today. I know this stuff isn't your favorite thing to do." Lizzy smiles to show how grateful she is for Alex.

"I'm only doing it incase of some guys get too touchy feely." Alex bluntly says. He has his glass control device that he taps away on. It makes it look like he is busy while Lizzy does the talking. 

Lizzy looks over at him in his pristine white jump suit and white hat. His tuffs of red hair sticking out wildly from underneath. The way he is working would make any girl into aloof smart men fall hard for him.

"What?" Alex asks catching her staring at him.

"Nothing. Just wondering how many girls are going to ask for your number today." Lizzy turns and starts walking away.

"Wha? Hopefully none." He catches up to her.

"Mmhhmmm." Lizzy jokes with him to see him get all flustered. "Calm down, I'm only messin' with you." Lizzy giggles.

They get to the college students that are showing up and start Lizzy's tour. Things are going about as well as Lizzy planned they would be. With some interest but not a whole lot. Many people were scared of dirt and animals. As they neared the end of the tour Lizzy asked if they had questions.

"Let's try that thing people did back in the day. Wasn't called bull riding?" A guy whispers to his friend.

"Yea man! That sounds fun!" The guy whispers back. They sneak off.

"Alex can we get your number? You seem like the kind to enjoy a drink." A group of girls were giggling in disbelief their friend had the courage to ask the question.

"I'm happily taken. Sorry." Alex partly lies. He keeps looking over his control device.

"Hopefully not by the girl there. But we can go as friends, right?" This girl was not backing down.

"Sorry he can't be with me since I'm a minor. Now please keep the questions agriculture based please." Lizzy tries to take the authority again.

"Eww. I'm sure he is disgusted to be working with you on this tour. He has been keeping himself busy the whole time." The girl attacks.

"And we're ending the tour." Lizzy comments flatly. Alex puts his device down by his side.

"Let me make one thing clear. This girl can out work any of us here. Don't get me started on her dedication she has put into this facility. Oh, by the way." He looks at Lizzy with the kindest eyes. "I'm not clocked in. I volunteered to assist her on this tour."

The girl is rather upset with his statement. She opens her mouth for another verbal attack.

Bing! Bing bong! Bing! Alex's device sounds very loud alarms.

"Oh no!" He quickly starts tapping away at the screen.

"What is it?" Lizzy asks frantic from never hearing that alarm.

"Some one broke into the cattle barn." He is pulling feeds and data up. "Two guys are trying to get into Bob's pen!" 

Alex's and Lizzy's eyes meet. They know they have to get them out of there and fast. In a full on sprint they kick up dust as they run to the barn. The door is still open. Lizzy follows Alex in. The guys are being chased by Bob in the pen.

Alex starts yelling at them to get out of there and where to run. Lizzy grabs a halter and jumps the fence not really thinking. That's when Lizzy sees Bob is only seeing red. Over 2,000 pounds of muscle is out to get anything and everything. There is no reasoning with him today. 

She gets his attention so the guys can try climbing out of the fence. Lizzy side steps Bob's charge. She gets the halter on but it's not good. Cattle can't move side to side easy when they are in a run, but if they aren't running, side to side moving is deadly.

"Lizzy I will hold the gate open for you!" Alex yells.

"No! You keep that gate shut! We can not let him out!" Lizzy tries to keep her distance.

Lizzy was able to distract him enough to get to the gate. Not fast enough though. Bob pins her chest to the gate. The gate clatters louder than the sound of Lizzy's ribs cracking. She goes limp from the air being knock from her. Alex jumps onto the gate and grabs her before she hits the ground. He pulls her up but not before Bob pins her leg to the gate. That snap could be heard through the barn. He pulls her over the gate.

Alex lays Lizzy on the ground beside the pen. The two guys are terrified of what they just saw. The one even threw up. Alex doesn't know what to do. His hands are trembling from fear and adrenaline.

"Stay back!" Karen barks. She morphs over Lizzy's chest. Her screen becomes Lizzy's vital information. Karen does her best to do basic repairs. "Don't touch her. That way I can get a decent reading of her heart rate. Help has been contacted." She informs the now small crowd.

The other Soleil Alex programmed for medical emergencies showed up. It begins treating Lizzy's leg. Alex wishes he could hold her and for her eyes to open.

"Ow." Lizzy whimpers softly. 

Alex lays down so his head is by hers. "Hang in there. Help is coming." He tells her quietly. There is a tremor in his voice from anger.

"Alex?" Lizzy whispers. She tries opening her eyes looking for him.

"Yes? I'm here." He props himself up so she doesn't have to turn her head to see him.

"Don't blame 'em." Lizzy whispers before loosing consciousness.