Nathan Bridger waited patiently while the last of the coffee worked its way down from the filter into the carafe before pouring himself his first cup.  Then he gathered up the cup and his bowl of cereal before moving over to sit at the dining room table.  Deep in perusal of this week's production schedule he barely acknowledged Kristin's arrival until he heard her sniffling.

"You getting a cold?"

"Yes, I think so," she said stuffily.

"So you're gonna stay home today, right?"

"No," she answered shortly.  "It's not that bad... it's just a cold."

"And it'll be a little cold if you stay in bed and take of it or it'll be a big cold if you decide to work through it," Nathan said insistently.

She frowned over at him.  "Nathan, it's a cold... nothing big... nothing drastic... just a simple cold.  I'm a doctor, I know how to take care of myself."

"Is it true that doctors make the worst patients?"

"No... ship's captains make the worst patients," she countered.  He continued to stare at her with a disapproving look.  "Nathan," she said reasonably, "I have to go to work today.  I've got two meetings with people who are coming in from out of town so there's no choice... besides, I don't feel that bad."

"You sound that bad."

"I'm fine," Kristin insisted.

"Yeah, sure," he said doubtfully.

Lucas sat at the dining room table digging the last little bit of rice out of the cardboard container.  He glanced across the table to where the Captain sat with a frown on his face.  He'd been frowning ever since the Doc had called to let him know that she would be tied up at work for a while.

"Did she say how late she'd be?" Lucas ventured.

"No... just that she was going to be late."

"She's late a lot these days."

"I've noticed," Bridger said unhappily.  "And she complains that I run myself into the ground."

"How's her cold?"

"Her cold's doing great... *she* sounds lousy but her cold's doing great."

"She should have stayed home."

Bridger stood up with his plate in his hand and turned towards the kitchen.  "Yeah, she should have... but try to convince her of that," he said in a frustrated voice.

Nathan was sitting in the dark on the porch watching the soft rain that had fallen throughout the day and now continued into the evening when he heard Kristin's footsteps on the stairs.  He heard her sniffling even before she had gotten up to the porch.  She came around onto the porch and spotted him sitting there in the dark. Kristin walked over to his chair and smoothly slipped onto his lap.

"Ah, Kris... you're all wet," he protested.

She just snuggled closer into his shoulder and his arms went around her despite the dampness of her clothes.  "Um hmm... but you're all warm."

Nathan placed a soft kiss on her forehead feeling the fever in her brow.  "How are you feeling?"

"I've got a cold," she said miserably.

"And you're running a fever."

"Mmmmm," she mumbled tiredly.

"And you need to go to bed," Nathan said softly.

"Um hmm," she said making no move to get up.

Nathan sighed and held her a little tighter for a moment before shifting, "Come on, let's get you to bed."

Nathan kept his arm around her as they walked to the bedroom and he helped her undress.   Getting her settled into the bed, Nathan sat on the side while he tucked blankets around her.

"Are you going to sleep here tonight?" she asked tiredly.

"Whatever you want.  I can sleep here or I can sleep in the den... whatever makes you more comfortable."

"You don't mind sleeping with someone with a cold?"

He kissed her on the forehead again.  "No, I don't mind."

"Oh good, sleep with me then."

"Alright, let me get dressed and I'll be right in there."

"Mmm, okay," she snuggled further into the blankets until Nathan slipped under the covers with her.  He moved one arm under her and with his other held her against his chest.

"This probably doesn't help but you don't sound good at all."

Kristin was lying on her side with her head resting on his chest.  "That's probably because I got stuck out in that bloody rain today."

"Kris," Nathan started in a frustrated voice.

"Could you hand me a tissue?" she interrupted.

Nathan reached over to the nightstand and brought back the requested tissue.  Kristin heartily blew her nose and then settled down against Nathan again.  He kissed her brow again.  "Go to sleep, Kris."

He heard her breathing become more regular but noticed a certain rumbling in her breaths.  A worried frown covered his face as he rested his cheek against her forehead and listened to her breathing. Throughout the night he never slept instead he kept his arms around her and listened.  Listened to the wheezing in her chest, listened for her next breath, listened to her sniffle, listened to her occasional sigh and listened to the welcome steady beat of her heart.

The next morning Lucas wandered into the dining room to the sight of an exhausted looking Bridger staring at his coffee cup.

"Good morning."

"Hi," Bridger responded softly.

"How's the Doc?"

Nathan shrugged, "She slept all night.  She still sounds lousy but at least she slept all night."

"She going to the doctor today?"

"No, she's not," Kristin said coming around the corner with a cough.

"What do you mean she's not?" Nathan asked.

Kristin settled down into a chair and smiled at Lucas as he placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of her and she pulled her robe closer around her.  "I'm fine, Nathan."

"You're not."

"I don't need a doctor... I am a doctor."

Nathan closed his eyes tiredly and gave a frustrated sigh.  "Well, then doctor, listen to yourself... you need to see a doctor," he insisted.

"Nathan, I'm perfectly capable...." she started.

"Like hell," he spat out.

"Cap," Lucas hedged.

Bridger turned to him sharply, "Don't you start."  He closed his eyes again and a grimace covered his face before he opened his eyes and looked at Kristin again.  "Kris, you're too close to it.  You need to see a doctor," he repeated.

"I'll be alright," she reassured him.

Nathan shook his head.  "No, there's something wrong with your breathing."

"It's nothing," she said and then was racked by several deep coughs.

His stare was making her uncomfortable.  "It's Carol all over again," he said finally softly.  He dropped his eyes to stare at the table.  "I can't go through that again.  I need you to go see a doctor, Kris."

Kristin looked across at him and saw the concern etched into every tired line on his face.  "Alright," she relented, "I'll go see a doctor."

"Thank you," he said softly.  He looked across at Lucas.  "Can you find your own way to work today?"

"No problem."

Nathan sat in the waiting room of the doctor's office absently flipping through the magazines from the table.  Occasionally he glanced back towards the treatment rooms impatiently.  Kristin had been back there for quite a while and Nathan was beginning to get nervous... well, getting more nervous than he was to begin with.

As he looked up for the God only knows how many time, Nathan saw Doctor Bernie Salem coming from the treatment area.  The young doctor sat next to Nathan and leaned towards him with a smile.  "I don't know if you noticed, but she's sick."

"Yeah, I noticed," Nathan said seriously.

"She'll be okay, Nathan," he watched as the older man released a relieved sigh.  "She's got pneumonia."

"I thought she might...." He saw the doctor's quizzical look.  "I could hear her wheeze when she breathed.  It just didn't sound right."

"Yeah, well, I don't know what you said to her before you got her here but she's even agreed to be admitted to the hospital."

"That bad?"

"She needs some concentrated antibiotics and some oxygen to help her breathe for a day or so but that should do it."

Nathan nodded.

A couple of hours later Lucas watched the Captain on the vid-phone.

"So they're going to hold her in the hospital for a day or so while they pump her full of antibiotics and help her breathe."

Lucas frowned at him, "but she'll be alright?"

"Yeah, she just needs some rest."

"You look like you could do with some rest yourself, sir."

Bridger smiled a half-hearted grin at him.   "Visiting hours are over at 8.  I'm going to sit with her until then and when they kick me out I'll come home and get some rest."  Lucas was still frowning.  "I promise."

Lucas shook his head.  "Alright, but do me a favor and be really careful driving home."

"I will," Bridger said as the connection faded.

Lucas watched the blank screen for a while.  It wasn't so much that Bridger looked tired... and God knew he looked tired.  Lucas was used to seeing that occasionally.  It was something else... there was a kind of a vulnerable look to him that Lucas hadn't ever seen before and that was a little unsettling.

Lucas was sitting in the dark on the porch watching the water when he heard Bridger's measured tread coming up the stairs.

"So, it's your turn to sit in the dark, huh?" Nathan grinned wanly.

"Hey, you were right.  It is relaxing."

Bridger sat heavily into one of the wicker chairs.

"How's she doing?" Lucas asked softly.

"Better," Nathan stretched his legs out and leaned his head against the wall.  "She slept most the afternoon but she sounds better.  The doctor said they'll probably keep her for one more day just to be sure the antibiotics have a chance to work."

"That's good."  Lucas looked across at Bridger as he stared at the porch ceiling.  "How are you doing?"

He saw Nathan's small smile.  "Also better."

"How did you ever convince her to go to the hospital?"

The Captain took in a large breath and released it.  "We had talk before we went to the doctor and I just explained my concerns...." He shrugged, "and she agreed to go along with what Doctor Salem said."

Lucas grinned.  "You must have been very persuasive."

He watched Bridger shake his head slowly and close his eyes for a moment. When he started talking again Lucas was surprised at the emotion in his voice.  "I was so scared last night, Lucas."  A grimace almost like pain crossed his face.  "Holding her last night.... with her fever running so high... it was almost like Carol all over again."

Bridger never looked down but kept staring at the ceiling and Lucas could see a little sheen in his eyes.

"Carol never was really sick... just a little under the weather... I don't know, like the flu or something."  He shrugged.  "Then one evening she started running a fever... a really high one... and there was a storm and I couldn't get her off the island... and the doctor couldn't get to us."  He shook his head again. "He finally made it the next morning by helicopter," his voice choked a little.  "But it was too late."

"The fever kept spiking, kind of like Kris' did last night but with Carol it was an even higher fever."  His voice had kind of a hollow quality to it as he continued.  "All I could do was to try to get the fever down and try to keep her comfortable... and all she wanted me to do was to hold onto her."  Lucas heard the catch in his voice and saw a tear slide down his face.  "So I cooled her off and I held on."  He paused a bit.  "Towards the end she didn't even know I was there... she kept calling for me."  He closed his eyes and continued with pained look on his face.  "Then she just stopped breathing," he swallowed hard.  "And nothing I could do could bring her back... she just died in my arms," he said almost in a whisper.

He was quiet for a moment before he started shaking his head again.  "And then last night, with Kris.  Holding onto her as the her fever kept going up and down and listening to her breathing become more labored through the night... it was happening all over again."

"But she'll be alright, sir," Lucas said softly.

Nathan lifted his head from the back of the chair and looked at Lucas with a soft smile but the young man could see the tears in his eyes.  "Yeah, I know.  She'll be alright."  He sighed a little and used the palm of his hand to wipe his eyes.

"Right now, I think we need to get you to bed."

"Okay."  Nathan wearily pushed himself out of the chair.  Lucas joined him and in a reversal of the normal roles, Lucas put a comforting arm across Nathan's shoulder.  Nathan stopped as they reached the doors and he glanced over at the young man.   "I love her so much, Lucas," he said fervently.

"I know," Lucas responded with a smile.  "For what it's worth, you've been a hell of an example."  He smiled at Nathan's questioning look.  "Through my life I haven't had much of anyone showing me what a loving relationship was like.  You and Kristin have showed me what it's like."  He shook his head in amazement.  "I just hope that I'm lucky enough to find a love like you two have someday."

Nathan's patted the young man on the shoulder.  "Oh, you will, Lucas... and trust me, it's worth waiting for."