Kristin frowned as she heard Lucas and Nathan yell as she came through the French doors of Nathan's beach house.  Lucas was sitting forward in one of the recliners staring at the large vid-screen that Nathan had just gotten installed in the house and Nathan was sitting on the couch.  He was leaning back and shaking his head.

"Do you believe that, Doc," Lucas asked her.  "The guy gets inside the 20 and he almost throws an interception."  The boy shook his head and frowned, gesturing at the screen.  "Unbelievable."

Kristin smiled at him.  "I'll take your word for it."  Nathan still had his head leaned back against the couch and she placed a quick kiss on his lips.  "Hi there."

He smiled up at her.  "Hi."

"So what are you guys doing today?" Kristin asked as Nathan and Lucas turned their attention back to the vid-screen.

Nathan frowned and then quickly looked back at her.  "We're watching football."

"And eating munchies," Lucas said leaning forward for some chips and dip.

"And you're more than welcome to join us," Nathan said patting the couch next to him.

Kristin moved over to sit next to him.  "I'm not too good with football."

Nathan shrugged.  "That's okay, we'll let you stay anyways."

Kristin rubbed the top of his thigh and grinned wanly at him.  "How nice you."  She watched the screen for a short time before looking over at Nathan.  "When is the game over?"

"About 2," Nathan said picking up his bottle of beer.

"Oh, good.  Afterwards do you want to go shopping with me?"

Kristin saw him and Lucas exchange a quick glance before he answered.  "Um, after this game there's another one."

"Yeah, and then there's another game tonight," Lucas grinned.  "I love football Sundays."

"You're going to sit and watch the vid-screen all afternoon?" Kristin asked.

Nathan shifted forward in his seat intently watching the screen. Kristin looked at the screen just in time to see a player carrying the ball get tackled by about five of his opponents.  "Oooh, I betcha that hurt," Nathan mumbled and then turned his attention to Kristin, although he kept his eyes glued to the vid-screen.  "Yeah, that was the general idea."

"C'mon, you only have 7 seconds," Lucas pleaded to the vid-screen.

"Last play of the half," Nathan commented.  They watched the snap. Then the quarterback faded back, stopped, scrambled over to his right and then finally threw the ball.   Kristin saw both Lucas and Nathan move forward in their chairs, eyes intent on the screen.  She looked back at the screen and saw the ball pass right through the hands of the intended receiver and hit the ground.

"Oh, man," Lucas yelled.

"Ah, for Christ's sake," Nathan said shaking his head.  "Gotta hold on to those balls."

Lucas stood and gathered up his glass and the Captain's now empty beer bottle.  He moved into the kitchen and Nathan stood up to stretch.

Kristin looked up at him.  "You're not really going to spend the entire day just sitting in front of the screen, are you?"

"Yeah, what else would we be doing?"

"Something constructive?" Kristin said in a rather unkind voice.

Nathan glanced towards the kitchen and then back at Kristin and frowned.  "Come here," he said moving towards the porch.

He stopped out on the porch and turned towards her.  "Yeah, we're gonna spend the whole day vegetating in front of the vid-screen watching football."  He shrugged.  "It's Sunday... that's what you're supposed to do on Sunday."

"I just thought you might want to do something a little useful instead."

"No."

"You're serious."

"Absolutely."  Nathan glanced over her shoulder towards the screen.  "But you're welcome to stay and watch with us if you want."

"No... I think I'll see what I can do about making something useful of my day off," Kristin said as she moved towards the stairs.  It was obvious to her that she'd lost Nathan's attention.

"Uh huh," Nathan said still watching the screen.  "Have a good time."

Kristin shook her head and left the house as Nathan moved back into the living room.

Just before noon the next day Nathan went looking for Kristin to see if she'd like to eat lunch together.  He eventually found her just coming out of a lab a few doors down from her office.

"Hi there," he said cheerfully.

"Hello," Kristin's response wasn't near as cheerful and he could see the tell-tale signs that she was irritated with him... for a change.

"I thought I'd see if you'd like some company for lunch."

Kristin fixed him with an impassive look over her reading glasses.  "Not particularly to tell you the truth."

Nathan sighed and looked away from her a moment.  "What did I do now?" he asked dejectedly.

She started walking past him.  "You didn't do anything... that's the point."

Nathan fell in walking beside her.  "We gonna talk about it in your place or mine?"

Kristin stopped outside her office door.  "My place obviously."  She turned and strode into her office followed by Nathan who shut the door behind himself.

"You know we're getting really good at this fighting part," Nathan said with a sigh.

Kristin glared at him.  "So how did your football day go yesterday?"

"It went great.  We sat there and watched one game after another all day long."

"And you consider that to be a great day?"

"Yeah, I do... Look Kris just because you don't understand football doesn't mean that we have to spend our Sundays keeping you amused."

Kristin slammed her paperwork down on her desk.  "It also doesn't mean that spending the entire day glued to a vid-screen is good for that boy... or for you for that matter."

"There were a few exceptionally good reasons for spending the day watching football yesterday," Nathan insisted.

"Oh, pleeease," Kristin interjected.

"Kris, you don't understand..." Nathan started.

"I understand just fine.  You two spent the day vegetating in front of the vid-screen seeing what you could do about raising both of your cholesterol count and your blood alcohol level and reducing your intelligence factor."

A highly irritated look covered Nathan's face.  He had that calm sound to his voice that Kristin had heard before when he was angry.  "Did you want to listen to my explanation or did you just want to make one up on your own?" he said in an unpleasant voice.

"Get out of my office," she retorted angrily.

Nathan turned quickly towards the door.  "I'm gone," he spat out as he went through the door slamming it closed.

Friday that week Lucas was sitting in the cafeteria of the UEO Headquarters building across the table from Bridger.  As he sat munching on his chicken and avocado sandwich he was watching the Captain push his pasta around his plate.  It looked like he wasn't going to be eating too much at this meal either.  It had been like this all week.  Him moping around the house, barely talking, barely eating.  He was driving Lucas nuts.

"Can I ask you something?" Lucas asked.

Nathan glanced up at him.  "Sure, go ahead."

"Did you and the Doc have a fight?"

"Yeah," Nathan said as he speared a piece of penne pasta bringing it up on his fork and staring at it a while before putting it in his mouth.

"Was it about me?"

Nathan put his fork down on his plate and looked right at the boy.  "No... no it wasn't about you."

"Was it a bad fight."

"Nah.." Nathan shook his head.  "It was a stupid fight."

Lucas frowned in confusion.  "Then why are you still fighting?"

Nathan shrugged.  "It's not so much that we're still fighting.  We're just not talking."

"Why not?"

"'Cause we're both too stubborn, I guess."

"You gonna talk?"

"Yeah," Nathan reassured him.  "We just need to be sure that we're calm enough when we talk that we don't say anything stupid to each other."

"Try to be sure you know where she's coming from, huh?"

"Oh, no," Nathan shook his head.  "You never quite understand them, Lucas."  He stopped and frowned.  "If you ever get to the point that you think you totally understand the woman you have a relationship with then you're kidding yourself and you really have no comprehension about what she's talking about."

Lucas frowned, "That sounds kind of scary."

"Nah, as long as you understand that you'll never quite understand them that's all that counts."  He smiled, "And they're worth it... trust me they're worth it."

"And you two are gonna be alright... right?" Lucas asked worriedly.

Nathan nodded.  "Yeah, we'll be alright."  He smiled a little... just a little.  "Just give it a little time."

"Okay," said Lucas doubtfully.

Late that afternoon Nathan was sitting behind his desk in his office reading over various reports relating to the construction of the new boat when a soft knock sounded against the frame of his open office door.  He looked up to see Kristin standing there.

"Come in," he said standing and starting to come around the desk.

"Stay there," Kristin said quietly as she moved towards his desk. Nathan stopped and leaned his hands against the desktop.  Kristin looked at the edge of the desk for a moment before looking back up at Nathan.  "You said you had a reason for spending last Sunday in front of the vid-screen."

Nathan nodded, "Actually, several of them."

"What were they?" she asked quietly.

He stood and folded his arms across his chest.  "First, we just had the vid-screen installed last week and we needed to be sure it worked alright or if it needed any adjustments.  Second, Lucas has been working really hard the last couple of weeks on getting the vocoder equipment working here and the last couple of weekends we've worked on the house and he needed a break.  Third, both he and I have been working late hours for the last couple of weeks and the only time we see each other is during our drives to and from work and I thought we needed to spend a little time together."  He hesitated a moment and Kristin nodded.  "Fourth, I wanted to spend some time watching football with him because it's something I know his own father never did and I figured he needed a chance to know what it was like to have someone just waste an afternoon with him."  He hesitated again and looked at the desktop.  "And fifth, because I needed a break and I wanted to just spend some time doing absolutely nothing."

Kristin nodded.  "I see," she said softly.  She turned and started out the door.

"And we're going to do it again this coming Sunday," Nathan said calmly to her back.

She stopped with her hand on the door frame for just a moment before nodding and continuing out the door.  Nathan watched her leave and then watched the door for a moment before uncrossing his arms and dropping down into the desk chair.  He stared at the pile of paperwork a while before releasing a big sigh and picking up the paper he had been reading and looking at it again.

They were in the same places they had been just one week before. Lucas sitting in one of the recliners and Nathan stretched out on the couch with a plate on his chest.  Their eyes intent were on the game showing on the vid-screen.  Ten minutes had run off of the play clock in the first quarter of the game when they heard footsteps out on the porch and looked over to see Kristin standing in the French doors with a box in her hands.  Nathan stood quickly and went over to the door to meet her.

"Can you take this?" she asked handing him the box.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Um, spinach dip and some hor d'oerves."

"No kidding," Nathan said heading for the kitchen with the box followed by Kristin.

She watched Nathan put the box down on the countertop between the dining room and the kitchen.   Lucas had followed them over and was looking in the box.  "Would you two mind if I watched the games with you?" Kristin asked.

Lucas was taking containers out of the box.  "Not at all," he grinned.

"We'd be happy to have you join us," Nathan commented as he got a plate from the cabinet.

"I may ask stupid questions," Kristin warned.

"I love stupid questions," Nathan grinned as he returned to where they stood.  "That usually means I might even know the answer."

Kristin organized the spinach dip on the plate with rye bread for dipping and handed it to Lucas.  "I'm going to need to warm up the hor d'oerves."

Nathan watched Lucas head out towards the living room with the dip.  "I'll help," he said watching Kristin put the tray into the microwave.

She hit the buttons and turned as the hum of the microwave started up.  Nathan was standing not more than a foot away from her.  "Hi," she said softly.

"Hi," Nathan said and then grinned as he moved closer to her and slipped his arms around her waist.  He ducked his head a little and her arms came up to circle his neck as their lips met in a deep, heartfelt kiss.  Their arms tightened pulling each other closer almost desperately.

Lucas wandered into the kitchen with his empty glass and with Bridger's empty beer bottle.  "Oh, I see that the hor d'oerves aren't the only things that are hot in this room."  The couple smiled as they broke the kiss and Bridger snaked one hand out to smack Lucas lightly on the shoulder.

The couple separated and Bridger moved to the microwave to take out the hot food.  Lucas was taking down a clay tile to put beneath the hot tray.  Kristin pointed at the beer bottle and looked over at Nathan.  "Do you want another one?"

"He's already had his one," Lucas said.  Kristin frowned at him not understanding.  "He has to work tomorrow.  That means he only has one beer today."

"Oh, I see," Kristin said nodding.

"I'll take a coke," Nathan said heading out into the living room with the tray followed by Lucas.

Kristin got a couple of glasses from the cabinet and filled them with ice.  Then she took a couple cans of cola from the refrigerator and poured out the glasses.  She looked up as Nathan came back into the kitchen with the bowl of chips for a refill.  He opened the bag of chips and filled up the bowl before looking over at her.

"I'm really glad you came."

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to your explanation.  I should have known that you had a good reason."

Nathan shrugged.  "That's alright.  I figured we'd settle down eventually."  He took a plate for Kristin to use for her munchies out of a cabinet.

Kristin smiled and brought her hand up to stroke his cheek before picking up the glasses and heading back out to the living room with him.  Nathan put the chips down and sat at the end of the couch. Kristin put one glass in front of him and sat down on the couch tucking her legs up and leaning against him.  Nathan put his arm around her shoulder and rubbed her upper arm.  She leaned back and tucked her head into his shoulder with a contented sigh.

Lucas leaned back in the recliner and surreptitiously watched the two adults.  He shook his head silently.  They'd had what sounded like it was a pretty bad argument, hadn't talked for a week and then with barely a mention of it they were suddenly a number again.  Lucas knew that he didn't have much of a background to draw on when you talked about personal relationships... but he had a feeling that in the next few months he was going to get an interesting education.