Nathan Bridger slipped a finger under the collar of his dress uniform and stretched his neck uncomfortably.  Bad enough that he got stuck attending this damned formal dinner, now the host's wife was hitting on him.  At first he wasn't really sure what she was doing.  He thought that she was just making conversation until it started turning personal.  Hell, he'd always been the type where you almost had to hit him over the head before he figured out that some woman was making a move… he just never considered that he was the type that any woman would necessarily want to take home with them on a whim… hell, he knew he wasn't, how come it wasn't obvious to the women around here??

At first Barbara's… yeah, she insisted that he call her Barbara rather than Ms. Colter… Barbara's conversation was your normal every day type… What do you think of the weather? …What's it like sailing in a submarine all the time? …Aren't the decorations in the hall beautiful? …Your normal creating conversation for the sake of conversation type questions.  Then they started to slip into a little more personal mode.  Was he married? …Wasn't it hard to maintain a relationship with a woman when he was away from home so much? …Didn't he ever get lonely for some companionship?  Lord, he thought, how did he end up in these situations?  Teach him to let Noyce con him into attending this blasted dinner.  Not like he had much of a choice.  Thankfully, for the moment, Barbara was talking to the Army colonel seated to the right of her.  Maybe he'd get lucky and she'd decide he was an easier target.

The sound of gentle laughter drew his eyes to the other side of the table and he smiled a little as he watched the tilt of Doctor Kristin Westphalen's head as she enjoyed a joke told by the ambassador sitting next to her.  How she'd managed to come up with that formal dress when she was living on a submarine, he'd never know.  All Nathan knew was that she looked great.  He was used to seeing her in your normal UEO issue jumpsuit or maybe in a casual shirt and jeans but he hadn't seen her in a dress like this since that time aboard the George.  She sure looked a lot better in the dress than in a jumpsuit.  As if knowing that he was watching her, Kristin suddenly glanced across the table at him and Nathan felt the red flush of embarrassment surge across his face as he realized he'd been staring at her.  He relaxed as she gently smiled at him before turning her attention back to the ambassador.

Barbara had grown tired of the colonel to her right and renewed her attack on Nathan.  Each time a dish was passed or a condiment container moved she made sure that she touched him and Nathan became more and more embarrassed and uncomfortable as the dinner proceeded.  They had finally reached the dessert course when Nathan felt the unmistakable touch of her hand on his thigh.  He cleared his throat self-consciously and reached under the table, gently removing the hand.  He could feel Barbara's eyes boring into the side of his head and he glanced at her quickly giving an almost imperceptible shake of his head before turning his attention to the dowdy but pleasant wife of a local merchant who sat to his left.  It would appear that Barbara wasn't the type to give up easily because a short time later Nathan felt the press of her foot against his and he moved his leg out of reach as she started to slide her now shoeless toes up his calf.

Thankfully, the last course ended without further incident and Nathan sighed in relief as he stood from his chair.  He smiled politely at Barbara as he slid her chair out and watched warily as her eyes burned into his.

"You know this could be very interesting and enjoyable, Captain," she said in a low suggestive voice.

"I appreciate the thought," Nathan responded just as quietly, "but it's not possible."

"Are you sure?"

He smiled slightly again keeping his voice low.  "Positive.  I'm afraid I'm taken," he lied.

"Oh," she said with a disappointed sigh.  "Are you sure?" she asked again.

"Yes," he said keeping up the wan smile.  "And rather monogamous to boot."

"Pity," was all she said before turning away from him.

Nathan let out a small sigh and glanced across the table again to where Kristin was watching him with an amused look on her face.  He made his way around the table to stand next to her.

"How was your dinner?"

"Not as much fun as yours was, I bet," she said with an impish grin.

"Meaning?" he asked cautiously.

Kristin smiled at him again.  "Meaning that it looks to me like the ambassador's wife is very interested in you in a most intimate manner."

Nathan looked uncomfortably around the finely appointed room as Kristin slipped her arm through his and directed him towards the ballroom where the rest of the guests were heading.  "Was it that obvious?"

"Only if you were looking for it," Kristin reassured him.

"Wonderful," he said morosely.  "I think she's going to try it again," he said looking across to where Barbara Colter was eyeing him speculatively.

"Would you like a solution?" Kristin asked softly, leaning a little into him.

He looked down at her and saw the mischievous twinkle in her eyes.  "Like what?"

"Like you're with me."  She grinned broadly again.  "That is unless you'd like to share her company."

"No, thank you," Nathan said firmly then he frowned.  "You mean pretend we're together?"

Kristin tilted her head and smiled up at him fondly.  "You can't be that dense, Captain."

He sighed and she saw that this time the tips of his ears had reddened in embarrassment.  "Not usually… and you'd better make it Nathan if we're going to pull this off."

"Alright, Nathan," Kristin said smiling and pulling his arm closer.  "I think you had best make some kind of move quickly because she's heading this direction."

"Oh hell," he said glancing at the band which had just started playing.  "Do you want to dance?"

"I'd love to," she said with a tilt of her head and ignoring the woman approaching from his back, Nathan led Kristin onto the dance floor.

The first dance was a slow one to get the crowd in the mood and Nathan gingerly rested his arm on Kristin's back while they danced barely touching. In the beginning she didn't say anything to him but after a minute he saw a slow smile cross her face and she looked up at him.

"You're not very convincing, you know."

"Huh?"

"We're dancing like a couple of high school kids in social dance class."

"Oh," he said with a crestfallen face.  "I'm a little out of practice, I'm afraid."

"Might I suggest that you at least hold me a little tighter?" Kristin smiled.

"Okay," Nathan said hesitantly pulling her closer to him.

"And you might want to consider talking a little."

"Um, about what?"

Kristin's hand had rested on Nathan's shoulder and now she brought her hand up to stroke the side of his face softly.  "Nathan, relax," she said soothingly.  "Try breathing deeply a little and don't look so stiff."

She felt him nod a little and take a couple of deep breaths.  "I'll try," he said softly and then he smiled just a little.  "You know, you dance very well."

"Thank you," she said with a pleased smile.  "You dance pretty well yourself."

Kristin leaned her head down against his shoulder as they moved to the soft music.  "I need to ask you something," Nathan said softly.

"Hmm?"

"Where in God's name did you come up with that dress?"

She lifted her head and looked at him.  "You don't like it?"

"Oh, no," he answered hastily.  "It's great but I didn't expect that you'd have something like that on a submarine."

Kristin smiled softly and settled her head down again.  "I figured that there was a pretty good chance that we'd need to attend at least one of these damned dinners so I always pack one formal dress just in case it's needed."

She felt Nathan's smile against her cheek.  "So you can't stand these dinners either?"

"No.  As a general rule I find them to be boring and tedious."

"How's this one doing?"

"It's improving," she said gently kneading the muscles in his shoulder.

They danced to a couple more songs, smoothly moving around the floor before Kristin lifted her head to smile at him.  "As much fun as the last several dances have been I suppose that we should mingle some."

Nathan reluctantly nodded as they moved off the floor and into the crowd of people.  Although they stayed together as much as possible it was inevitable that they eventually ended up on opposite sides of the room.  Nathan was listening to a rather tedious story being told by the Army colonel who had sat near him during dinner.  He found his attention wandering and his eyes scanned the room until they found Kristin.   She was standing with her back to him but as he looked over at her she turned and their eyes met, almost as if she knew he was looking for her.

The Colonel's story ground to an end and Nathan smiled politely at him before looking over at Kristin again.  He pointed to a waiter who was circulating with glasses of wine and leveled a questioning look in her direction.  He saw her smile and nod and he turned to procure two glasses of wine.  As he turned back to cross the room towards her his path was blocked by the ambassador's wife.

"Captain, you're avoiding me," she said with a sly smile.

"Am I?" Nathan asked with a slight smile.  "Why would anyone want to avoid you, Mrs. Colter?"

"Barbara," she reminded him.  "I don't know, Captain.  Perhaps I make you nervous."

"Perhaps," Nathan said shyly.  He felt a hand on his arm and turned that way.

"Are one of those for me or are you going to drink both of them?" Kristin asked with a smile.

"One is for you," Nathan smiled back handing her a glass of wine.  "Kristin, have you met Mrs. Colter yet?"

Kristin smoothly slipped her arm through his before turning to the ambassador's wife.  "Yes, we met before dinner," she said with a pleasant smile.

"I wasn't aware that the two of you were together, though," Barbara said in a slightly disapproving tone.

Smiling pleasantly, Kristin answered.  "Yes, we're both stationed aboard the seaQuest.  Rather convenient, isn't it?" she said as Nathan slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

"I suppose it is," Barbara responded in a rather prim voice and then turned her attention to Nathan.  "It's been a pleasure meeting you, Captain," she said with a nod and slipped off into the crowd.

"Phew," Nathan said in a relieved voice. "I think that means that she's given up."

"Good," Kristin said with a smile as she looked around the room and then leaned towards him.  "Are you about ready to ditch this party?" she asked sotto-voice.

A thoughtful look crossed Nathan's face.  "How about one more dance?"

Kristin smiled happily and put her glass on a table.  "I'd love to, Captain."

Nathan smiled back as the orchestra struck up a slow, gentle tune.  Putting his own drink down he smoothly slipped his arm around Kristin's waist and led her to the dance floor.  This time there was no hesitation on his part as he pulled her close as they swayed gently to the music.  Kristin again rested her cheek against his shoulder but this time she noticed that as they danced he seemed to relax.  The muscles in his back and shoulders seemed much looser than before and occasionally he rubbed his cheek against hers. Although they didn't speak during the dance it seemed to her that they were saying volumes.

When the dance came to an end they separated a little and Kristin glanced up to Nathan's face.  Their eyes met and locked. For some unknown reason Nathan found that he was having a little bit of a hard time catching his breath and Kristin felt an unexpected flush rise from her neck to cover her face.

"I guess we should be going," she said hesitantly.

That seemed to break the spell.  "Yeah, I guess so," Nathan said dropping his gaze.  He politely led her over to where the ambassador stood and they tendered their goodbyes.  Once outside Nathan slipped Kristin's shawl over her shoulders as they walked out into the crisp autumn night and  Nathan saluted his driver as they got into the car.

The ride back to the boat was spent in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts but Kristin noted that Nathan was sitting a lot closer to her than he had on the ride there.  Not quite touching but definitely closer.  Chief Ortiz met them as they came through the entrance portal of the seaQuest and smiled at them.

"So how was the dance, sir?"

"Have you ever been to one of those things, Chief?" Nathan asked with a grin.

"Negative, sir."

"Generally, their rather boring," Bridger said holding Kristin's arm as he steered her towards her quarters.

"Was this one boring?" Kristin asked quietly when they were alone in the passageway.

"Not exactly," Nathan said gently and then smiled at her, "but that was only because of the company."

They had reached Westphalen's quarters and she turned to him as they stood outside the hatch.  "How gallant, Captain," she smiled back.

Nathan smiled wanly.  "Gallant I can be.  My mother raised her boys at least with a modicum of manners."  Then he dropped her arm and backed away a little.  "Good night, Doctor."  He frowned a little at how he felt when she tilted her head a little and smiled at him.

"Good night, Captain," she said softly, turned and closed the hatch behind her.  Nathan stood staring at the door for just a moment before turning and slowly walking to his quarters.

In her cabin Kristin slowly walked into the head and brought her hand up to touch her cheek.  She could still feel the touch of his light stubble against her skin and her eyes gradually came up to look at her reflection in the mirror.  "Don't be ridiculous, Kristin," she said out loud to herself in a depreciating voice.  Turning back to the cabin she took off her dress and carefully stowed it before slipping into bed and to a restless sleep.

For his part, Nathan was lying on his back on his bunk staring at the overhead.  Every time he closed his eyes he saw Kristin's face and smelled the soft aroma of her perfume.  'What the hell is the matter with you, Bridger?' he thought to himself as he turned on his side, punched his pillow and then frowned as he resolutely closed his eyes and sought for the sleep which eluded him for several hours.

Early in the evening of the next day Nathan was seated at the desk in his cabin frowning at the pile of paperwork that he was making slow progress on when the communication circuit beeped.  He reached over and punched the button in the middle of the device.

"Yes?" he said turning to the vid-screen on the wall.

The face of Lieutenant Tim O'Neil filled the screen.  "Captain, I've got Secretary General Noyce on the line for you."

"Put him through, Lieutenant."  O'Neil's face was replaced by the smiling and slightly corpulent face of his friend, Bill Noyce.

"Bill, what are you up to?"

"Up to?" Noyce said in an offended voice.  "What make you think that I'm up to anything?"

"Because when you grin like that you're always up to something, Bill."

"Oh, well, I'm not," Noyce said letting the grin drop a little.  "I just wanted to check and see how you were."

A doubtful look crossed Nathan's face.  "You called all the way here just to ask how I am?"

"Well," Noyce shrugged, "that and how the party went last night."

Nathan frowned again.  "It was like most of those kinds of parties, Bill.  Boring, boring and then for a change a little boring."

"Nothing exciting?" Noyce asked in a hopeful voice.

"Not that I saw."

"Oh," Bill said dishearteningly and then shrugged.  "It's just that… um… well, I kind of heard that you… ah…."

"That I what?" Nathan frowned again.

"Found yourself a date?"

Nathan stared at his friend for a little while before realization crossed his face.  "Oh, you mean Doctor Westphalen."

"Yeah," Bill nodded.  "I heard you two were kind of a number."

Nathan leaned back and folded his arms while he shook his head a little.  "Bill, have you ever met the ambassador's wife?"

"Barbara Colter?  Yeah, she's predatory."

Now Nathan sat up and stared at Bill.  "You knew that?" he asked in an incredulous voice.

"Yeah," Noyce said shrugging.  "She made a move on me when she came here for that dinner for the UEO anniversary."

"And you didn't think that it might be a good idea to tell me about it?"

"Never occurred to me," Noyce said shrugging again.  "You can handle yourself… And what does that have to do with you and Kristin Westphalen getting to know each other a little better?"

"Bill," Nathan said in a stern voice.  "Kristin came to my rescue."  He took in the quizzical look on Noyce's face.  "Barbara Colter was doing her best to jump in my pants and Kristin agreed to act like we were together so she'd leave me alone."

"So there's nothing going on between the two of you?" Noyce asked disappointedly.

"No, Bill," Nathan answered patiently.  "Nothing is going on between me and Doctor Westphalen."

"Oh," Noyce said looking at the table in front of him.  "It's just that I was hoping you might find someone."

"Let me worry about that, Bill," Nathan said with a sigh and then frowned at Noyce again.  "Wait a minute.  How the hell did you hear that Kristin and I were together last night?"

Bill looked back at him and smiled wanly.  "Oh, it's all over the diplomatic gossip circuit."

"Wonderful," Nathan said disgustedly.  "Any thing else you want to tell me about?"

"Um, I don't think so."

"I'll talk to you later, Bill," Nathan said reaching for the disconnect switch.

"Later," Noyce answered as his image faded from the screen.

Nathan frowned a little while he stared at the fish tank built into the wall of the cabin before reaching for his coffee cup.  His frown deepened when he realized it was empty.  Sighing a little he stood and headed towards the galley to pick up some more coffee.  At this time of the evening the population in the galley was pretty sparse but as he turned from the coffee dispenser Nathan saw Kristin Westphalen sitting alone at a table at the back of the galley staring at her coffee cup.

"Mind if I join you, Doctor?"

Kristin hadn't seen him approach and looked up surprised.  Then she smiled at him a little.  "Certainly, Captain."  She watched him as he pulled out a chair and sat down.

He smiled gently over at her.  "I wanted to thank you for your assistance last night."

"Oh, it was my pleasure, Captain," she smiled back.

"Yeah, well it might not be after you hear what happened afterwards," he said in an embarrassed voice.

Kristin straightened up a little.  "What happened?"

"Apparently the diplomatic channel picked up the fact that we were supposedly together last night and Bill Noyce called today asking me what was going on between us."

"What did you tell him?" she asked hesitantly.

"I told him the truth," Nathan shrugged.  "That you were helping me keep Mrs. Colter at bay and that there isn't any relationship between us other than the professional kind."

"Oh," she said rather glumly and then nodded and seemed to recover.  "Yes, of course."

"I'm really sorry about this."

"That's alright," Kristin said hastily and then she smiled at him again.  "After all, it was my idea."

Nathan looked at the table and nodded with a frown on his face.  He kept his eyes on the table since he wanted to do anything but look Kristin in the face.  It seemed like every time he did that his heart started to race and he had trouble breathing.

Kristin saw the fierce frown and looked down herself.  "I didn't mean to cause any trouble," she said softly.

Nathan's face cleared and he looked hastily up at her again.  "No, no… you didn't cause any trouble.  I just don't want people getting the wrong idea."

"No," she said sadly.

"I'd better get back to my paperwork," Nathan said standing and picking up his coffee mug.  "Goodnight, Doctor."

"Goodnight, Captain," Kristin answered and then watched him as he walked out of the galley.

In his own cabin again Nathan tried diligently to make some headway on the paperwork but his mind was elsewhere.  Finally after throwing down his pen he stood and went over to the imager.  He turned on the machine and a gentle smoke column filled the center of the room.  A face formed in the smoke and he sat back on his bed, leaning against the wall as he silently watched the face of his late wife waver a little in the smoke.  He sat there for a long time unmoving before he dropped his eyes and then stood from the bed and crossed back over to his desk.  Opening a drawer he took out a stack of pictures that Lucas had given him after a picnic they'd held for the crew the last time they had a liberty port call.  He thumbed through the images until he came to the one he was looking for and moved back over to the imager.  The smoke column went blank when he opened the imaging port and he slid Carol's picture from the glass.  He held it in his hand for just a moment before slipping it back between the pages of a well-worn book.  Then Nathan hesitantly placed the picture in his hand into the imager port and closed it.  He turned and crossed back to the bed, never looking at the image which had formed in the smoke column until he sat back again, sighing as he leaned against the wall.  Then he raised his eyes and looked at the image.  She hadn't known the picture was being taken.  It had caught her laughing, her eyes twinkling in amusement… and the movement of the smoke in the column almost made it look like her auburn hair was waving in the wind.