Nathan Bridger and Lucas Wolenczak walked slowly towards the house. About ten feet short of the stairs they had to stop. Lucas was having a giggle attack.

"You keep that up and she's going to know that we're up to something," warned Bridger.

"Sorry, Captain, it's just I can't stop thinking about the look on her face tomorrow."

"How about if you think of the look she'll have on her face if she figures out what we did tonight rather than tomorrow... or perhaps you'd like to spend the rest of the night reversing the process."

Lucas shook his head. "Umm, no. That wasn't the easiest project to begin with... I sure don't want her discovering it now."

Bridger put one hand behind Lucas' head and put on his ‘stern Captain' voice. "Then knock it off. If you giggle inside she'll suspect... then even if she doesn't get anything out of you, I'm going to have to live with her all night picking at me to find out what's going on. If you're not afraid of her just think of what kind of mood I'll be in if I don't get any sleep tonight because of you."

"Alright, Captain. I'll control myself." He looked Nathan up and down. "But how are you going to explain all the grease you got on yourself?"

"We had car problems... you got that?" Lucas nodded. "But the car's just fine now."

"Got it."

Lucas and Nathan climbed the stairs into the beach house and walked through the porch into the living room. Kristin Westphalen was sitting in the big stuffed chair dressed in her robe with her legs curled up beneath her reading a book. She looked at them over her reading glasses as they came through the door.

"Well, about time you two got home. It's after eleven, you know."

"Is it that late?" said Nathan glancing over at the mantle clock. "Sorry about that. You didn't need to wait up for us."

"I didn't... I just haven't gotten around to going to bed yet." She stuck a bookmark in the pages of the book she was reading and closed it. "It's a good book. How did your researching go?"

Lucas answered this time. "Oh, pretty good. The library over at the base has some good examples on formatting thesis papers. That's what we were really trying to find. I think we both know what we're going to write... it's just the format of how we present it that we're working on."

Both Nathan and Lucas were in the process of writing up thesis papers for their doctorate degrees. Kristin thought it was terrific that they had a project that both of them could relate to. She noticed that Nathan had grease on his pants and shirt sleeves.

"Good heavens, Nathan, how did you get so dirty?" Lucas turned to go into the kitchen.

"We had a vacuum hose pop off the engine on the way home. I had to do a little climbing in the engine compartment to get it back on. Nothing big."

Lucas came back out smiling and drinking a glass of milk. "Yeah, and I got to hold the flashlight for him."

"Well, good for you Lucas."

"I think I'm going to go to bed," said Lucas as he headed down the hallway.

Kristin called after him, "Good idea, don't forget that you and Nathan have that meeting early in the morning tomorrow."

"Goodnight," called Lucas.

Kristin got up off the chair and went to put her arm around Nathan's waist as they also headed back to their bedroom. "Why in heaven's name did they set that meeting so early in the morning tomorrow?"

Nathan shrugged. "Admiral Kelsy has to be in Washington by one in the afternoon. So since they wanted him there we get stuck with a 7 a.m. meeting." They were at the door to their bedroom. Nathan planted a quick kiss on Kristin's forehead and said, "I'm going to grab a quick shower. You go ahead and go to bed."

"Alright, goodnight, darling," Kristin said as she and Nathan shared a kiss that was just a little prolonged.

Kristin was enjoying herself the next morning. Usually the three of them were involved in a precise little dance around who was using the bathroom at any given time. Between shaving, showers, makeup and hair, one bathroom was a little tight for three people. This morning, with Nathan and Lucas gone to their meeting she had the bathroom all to herself. Kristin took her time readying herself for the day and just before 7:30 started down the stairs to her car.

She was still rather excited about her new car. She'd only had this one for a couple of weeks but she'd fallen in love with it immediately. As she turned the corner to the drive she smiled at it's lovely forest green color and sporty lines. Kristin touched her hand to the lock pad on the door and the car unlocked automatically. She opened the door and started to put her briefcase in before she noticed that something was wrong.

It took Kristin just a moment to figure out that the seats in her car had been reversed. She reached into the car and tried to shake the driver's seat to see if it was loose but it was firmly attached to the floor of the car. Kristin just sat there for a moment staring at the absurdity of the reversed seats in her car. Gradually she began hearing a sound. The sound was behind her and off to her left from a set of bushes on the edge of the driveway. The sound was someone laughing... no, the sound was two someones laughing.

Kristin heaved a large sigh and called over towards the bushes, "Alright... both of you over here... right now!"

Lucas and Nathan came out of the bushes. They were frantically and mostly unsuccessfully trying to hide their smiles.

"Hi," said Lucas... a giggle snuck its way through.

"Good morning, dear," said Nathan as he brought his hand up to cover the smile on his face.

Kristin was not nearly as amused as these two seemed to be. "Don't ‘dear' me Nathan. What the hell did you two do to my car?"

"Is something wrong with your car, Doc?" Lucas almost made it all the way through that question before he busted out laughing. Nathan joined him.

"You two think you're very funny don't you?" Kristin's face was more than a little red.

"Kristin, come on... it's a joke... a practical joke," said Nathan looking over at the car. "And you do have to admit it has a bit of imagination into it."

Lucas was chuckling now. "Only an engineer would have noticed that the footprint for the mounting brackets on your seats was a perfect rectangle." He busted out laughing again.

"I see," said Kristin in an ominous voice. "That's where you got the grease all over you last night..." She looked over at Lucas, "And don't tell me... you held the flashlight."

The two men were now laughing so hard that neither one could look at Kristin. If they had they might have noticed that she didn't think this was funny. She was looking very angry.

"I suppose you two clowns have some idea of how I'm supposed to get to work now?"

Nathan had finally regained control over himself. "You can come with us. We'll even give you a ride home tonight."

"How big of you," Kristin said sarcastically as they walked to where Nathan had parked his car behind the bushes. "I suppose the both of you know what you'll be doing tonight?"

"We'll make it all better... we promise," said Nathan. Kristin glared at him as he held the car door open for her.

Lucas sat in the back of the car and was mostly quiet except for an occasional chuckle. Kristin just stared out the front windscreen of the car and refused to talk to them. Finally Nathan decided to break the silence.

"Kristin, it's not a big thing."

Kristin exploded. "Not a big thing... NOT a big thing... you turned the bloody seats around in my car and you say it's NOT a big thing?"

Nathan tried to calm her, "It's alright, babe..."

That was as far as he got when Kristin broke in, "Don't ‘babe' me, don't ‘darling' me, don't ‘honey' me. You mucked about with my brand new car." She folded her arms and stared out the windscreen.

"Kris..."

She exploded again. "And DON'T ‘Kris' me... just shut up and drive to work!"

Nathan exchanged an ‘uh-oh' look with Lucas in the rear view mirror and the remainder of the trip to the base was spent in silence. For the whole ride Kristin kept staring straight ahead out of the car with an angry look on her face. Nathan stole little side glances at her occasionally but she never even acknowledged that he was there. Lucas just sat quietly in the back seat trying to keep the smile off his face.

When they arrived at the UEO Headquarters complex Nathan drove first to the building that housed the oceanographic biology department to drop Kristin off. She had the door open almost before he brought the car to a stop.

"Have a good day, Doc," called Lucas.

"See you tonight," said Nathan.

Kristin's response was to slam the door of the car and stalk into the building.

Nathan stayed at the curb as they watched Kristin enter the building. Then he turned to look at Lucas in the back seat.

Lucas glanced up at the Captain. "Correct me if I'm wrong... but I think we're in deep doo-doo," said the teen.

Nathan nodded. "Oh, yeahhh." Then he got a pensive look on his face. "I thought it was funny... didn't you?"

Lucas glanced quickly at the building and then back at the Captain. "The look on her face was just... hilarious," he smiled.

Nathan smiled as he put the car back in gear and pulled into the parking lot. "Maybe she'll calm down by this evening."

They'd had one of those really busy days and neither Lucas or Nathan had a chance to break for lunch. They'd just wolfed down some food in between meetings and inspections. Both were glad when 5:00 came around and they could head for home. Lucas went up to meet Bridger in his office. He ran into him just on his way back with a sheaf of papers in his hands.

"Ready to go?" asked Lucas.

"Absolutely... it's been one of those days," said Nathan with a little frustration in his voice.

"Captain Bridger?" one of the petty officers called over to him. Nathan turned towards him. "Doctor Westphalen called and asked us to tell you that she'd gotten a ride home and she'd see you there." Bridger nodded his understanding.

"You think she's calmed down?" asked Lucas.

"I have no idea," said Nathan with a sigh. "I certainly hope so…"

When they got to the house Nathan pulled the car up into the drive with plenty of room between his and Kristin's car so they had room to work on switching the seats back. Both of them got out of the car and started towards the house only to find Kristin sitting at the bottom of the stairway in a white cotton shirt and denim jeans.

"Don't you two even think of trying to get into this house before you fix my car."

Nathan and Lucas looked at each other. Nathan looked down at his khaki uniform. "Can I at least change into some work clothes?"

"No," was Kristin's firm response.

Lucas leaned close to Nathan and said sotto voice, "She hasn't calmed down."

Kristin stood, "The car, gentlemen... and I use that phrase lightly... NOW!"

With a chorus of ‘yes ma,am's, Lucas and Nathan turned back to Kristin's car.

Kristin sat on the hood of Nathan's car and carefully watched the proceedings. She occasionally stood to look over their shoulders when they were moving some piece or another and generally kept a hawk's eye on the both of them.

"There had better not be one single... solitary... miniscule... trace of grease on my tan seats when you get done." Her tone of voice was not a pleasant one. Nathan and Lucas just exchanged glances at that.

In little over an hour they had removed both front bucket seats and the rear seat and reversed them back to their original position. Then they carefully checked the operation of the seat adjusters to be sure that nothing was damaged in their little joke and checked that no dirt or grease had marred the fabric of the seats. Once they had satisfied themselves that everything was as it was in the beginning they stepped back and let Kristin inspect their work.

Lucas stood next to Bridger. While Kristin was busy going over the seats with a fine toothed comb Lucas leaned towards Bridger. "How do you do that?"

"What?" Nathan said through the side of his mouth.

"You get grease on your face, grease on your uniform, grease on your hands but you don't get any grease on the seats."

"It's a talent," Nathan said softly. "Takes years of engineering school to develop."

Lucas was grinning at that when Kristin looked up over the car at them. It was the wrong thing to be doing.

"Do you find something funny here, Lucas?" She sounded just like his grade school teachers.

Lucas put on his serious face. "No, Doctor."

"Good," she said in an ominous voice coming around the car. She stood there and stared at the two of them standing in front of her just like a couple of grade school kids caught writing dirty words on the whiteboard. They were looking anywhere but at her. Nathan was kicking at stones with his shoes.

Eventually, Nathan started casting her quick glances. Then he decided to be brave.

"Kristin, don't you find this in any way amusing?"

She stared right at him. "No."

Nathan cleared his throat.

She looked at Lucas. "From you I might consider it to be normal teenage mischief," she turned her glare on Nathan, "but from you..." She just shook her head and turned to walk into the house.

Lucas and Nathan watched her turn the corner of the house and then looked at each other. Lucas spoke first. "She finds no humor in this at all..."

Nathan shook his head. "Nope." He shrugged his shoulders, "Oh well..." and they turned and walked into the house.

Kristin was just heading back towards the bedrooms as they entered the house.

"Would you like something for dinner?" Nathan called to her.

"I've already eaten," was her terse response.

Lucas and Nathan settled for making sandwiches for their dinner. Just as they had finished cleaning up Kristin reappeared with an armful of clothes and a pillow which she dumped on the couch.

"What's that for?" asked Nathan... not really wanting to hear the answer.

Kristin just glared at him. "Goodnight," she said, stomped back into their bedroom and slammed the door.

Lucas stood staring at the items on the couch and pursing his lips. "Somehow I get this feeling that you're not spending the night in your own bed."

Nathan stared at the couch too. He let out a long sigh, "Nope."

Lucas looked up at him. "Tell you what, sir, I'm just as guilty as you are... why don't you sleep in my bed and I'll sleep out here tonight."

Bridger patted Lucas on the shoulder. "Lucas, my boy, let me give you one piece of advice. When your significant other says you're sleeping on the couch... never... and I mean never... let anyone else take your place. If she wants you on the couch... she wants you on the couch. Thanks anyway." He went over to start setting up his bed.

Lucas stood there with a pensive look on his face. "So... do you think it was worth it?"

Nathan glanced up at him and then looked around him to be sure his bedroom door was closed. "Yeah," he smiled. "It was worth it."

Lucas' face split with a wide grin. "Did you see the look on her face?"