Nathan slapped the snooze alarm one more time and turned over to get eight more minutes of sleep. He'd had a rather late night last night and getting up for shift this morning was not going to be easy. Sleepily, Nathan thought about last night. Kristin had been off shift and had stopped by. For a change they were able to get several hours alone before she left to go back to her quarters. She claimed that she couldn't be seen coming out of his room early in the morning since that would ruin both of their reputations. As if they had any reputations left to lose. They certainly had passed a pleasurable night and Nathan was sound asleep when Kristin left. The alarm went off and Nathan smacked it again. He put his head back down and then cracked one eye to see what time it was. Oh, he was okay. His head snapped back up... no, he wasn't okay... he had only twenty minutes until he was due on the bridge. Nathan struggled out of his bed and headed for the shower. A fast ten minutes later and he was showered and shaved with only a couple of nicks. He quickly got out his underwear, a turtleneck and a fresh jumpsuit. It was a darned good thing he didn't need to find a name tag. All dressed, Bridger reached for his shoes and socks. At least he reached for his shoes. His socks weren't where they should have been. The drawer where they normally resided was totally empty. Swearing under his breath Nathan went for his dirty laundry. He'd just have to wear the ones he had on yesterday. There were no socks in his laundry bag. This was really weird. Nathan glanced up as he considered where he might find a pair of socks and he noticed the calendar on the wall. April 1, 2019. April first. April Fools Day. Okay, now he knew where his socks had gone. Only one person could have taken them. Bridger put in a quick call down to the medical section.

Wearing his shoes and no socks Bridger made a quick stop by the galley on his way to the bridge. His call to medical had elicited the information that Dr. Westphalen was currently examining patients and couldn't be disturbed. Bridger's mood was not pleasant at this point. He'd make sure that she was disturbed later. For right now he'd avoid anything that made his pants legs go up. His boots were only ankle high and his bare legs were rather obvious. Nathan noticed that a good amount of giggling was going on in the galley while he was there. Given the day, he didn't figure that could bode well for someone. The group hanging around the galley must be waiting for a victim. He grabbed a couple of doughnuts and made a hasty exit. He didn't think they'd want the captain around when they sprang their surprise on their unsuspecting prey.

Ben Krieg had gotten up that day in a terrific mood. This was his favorite day of the year. It was the one day he could pull practical jokes and blame it on the day. Kind of like a cop giving traffic tickets on Friday the 13th. He figured that he was part of the legend and it was imperative that he help the legend continue. Whistling, he headed for the hatch to go forth and cause mayhem. He reached for the door handle but it came off in his hand. Ben looked suspiciously at the handle he was holding. It could be coincidence or someone could be playing a joke on him. He carefully re-inserted the handle into the door and gently turned it. It took him four tries before he got the handle to finally latch in enough that it opened the hatch. Ben checked the hallway to see if anyone had been watching him trying to get out of his room but he saw no one. No, well, perhaps it had been coincidence.

Ben entered the galley and filled his tray with his morning meal. The galley was crowded at this time of the morning. The first half of the night shift had just gotten off and the second half of the day shift was just getting ready to relieve their counterparts. There was one place left at the table where Tim, Miguel and Lucas were sitting and he headed for that. Ben put his tray down on the table and went to sit in the chair. He knew half way down that he was in trouble. The grin on Miguel's face gave it away but Ben was too overbalanced to straighten back up. The chair collapsed beneath him and he ended up sitting on the floor. The other three at the table almost fell out of their own chairs laughing. Lucas finally controlled himself enough to be able to give Ben a hand up from the floor where he was glaring at them.

"We're sorry, Ben," he gasped, "but you were just too good a target."

Ben was not amused. "Very funny, all of you, very funny," he said with little humor in his voice. "But amateur work. You need to stop getting your jokes out of Boy's Life."

Ben sat in the chair that Lucas had pulled from the adjoining table for him. This one kept its feet. The trio at the table had known Ben's habit of snapping open his napkin, of course, so when Ben, as always, grasped his napkin by the corner and gave it a vigorous shake they all backed up. They backed up as a cloud of pepper erupted from the napkin and descended upon the table. Ben was soon caught up in a fit of sneezing. After a few minutes the cloud finally settled and Ben calmly regarded the trio sitting at the table with him.

"That was better," he said critically. "Now do you Three Stooges have any other games you'd like to play or can we get on with the day?"

Tim had taken off his glasses to wipe his eyes from the tears of laughter. "No, Ben," he said. "We've played all the tricks on you that we're going to play today."

Ben looked around the table suspiciously and then at his tray of now inedible food. Everything was covered with a coating of pepper. He looked up at each of the three in turn and asked cautiously, "Do you mean that's all the tricks that are going to be played on me today?"

All three nodded but Miguel clarified, "Well, at least by us, Ben. We can't speak for the other people on the boat."

Ben smiled a tight humorless smile and stood up. As he stiffly walked out of the galley he was followed by peals of laughter.

As Ben walked through the boat he figured that the story of the pranks played on him in the galley must have preceded him since he was followed by soft chuckles and giggles in his travels. His work for the day took him up to the bridge where he was confirming the condition of the emergency supplies stored there. The bridge was being conned by Captain Bridger, who looked to be in less than a cheerful mood himself. Again Ben found himself being followed by giggles and chuckling. It was rather unnerving to be the master prankster on the boat and to find himself the target for a change. Even Commander Ford, who never cracked a smile for anything,, seemed to be finding humor in the situation. Finally Ben went to check the last store of emergency supplies. It was kept near the base of the raised section holding the WSKRs station. Miguel had taken over at the station and Ben took the opportunity to glare at him. He had his back to the Captain, checking the stores, when Bridger called him over.

"Lieutenant Krieg, could you come here a moment?" Bridger was rubbing his eyes.

Ben stood and went up next to the Captain's chair. "Yes, sir?"

"Could you look at the main screen, Lieutenant?" Ben turned his head over his shoulder and looked at the screen. Bridger rubbed his forehead like he had a headache. "No, turn and look at the main screen, Lieutenant." Ben suspiciously turned his body so that he was facing the main screen. He saw Bridger reach around behind him and felt the tug of tape as something was removed from the back of his uniform. Bridger calmly handed the object to him. It was a sign, about six by eight inches with large letters that spelled out "KICK ME". It must have been on the chair that Lucas had pulled from the other table for him.

Ben could only sigh as the Captain gave him the sign. "Thank you, sir," he said. Bridger nodded. Ben leaned towards the Captain and said softly, "By the way sir, did anyone tell you that you forgot your socks this morning?" Bridger returned a cold stare. "I guess they did," said Ben uncomfortably.

By the time the mid-day watch arrived there had been several bursts of pranks on the bridge. A whoopee cushion had claimed at least three unsuspecting victims. There was a joy buzzer going around that almost gave Tim a heart attack when someone managed to connect it to his headset when he had it off. Miguel had almost climbed on top of his station when he spotted the rubber cockroach on the floor next to his leg and even Shan had pounded out a few choice comments upon being the victim of a pencil with a collapsing lead. They would all decide later that none of them had wanted to be around when Crocker became the victim of a dribble cup. He'd blurted out a few words that even the Captain hadn't known. Several attempts by the Captain to contact Dr. Westphalen during the shift had been met with a brick wall.

Bridger got up to turn the bridge over to Commander Ford. Ford was looking very uneasy.

"Are you alright, Jonathan?"

Ford leaned towards the Captain and confided in him. "You know what day it is, sir?" Bridger nodded. "Well, there have been a whole lot of pranks going on aboard this ship today."

"Yeah, I noticed," said Bridger dryly.

Ford looked around nervously, "No one has played any pranks on me today, sir."

Bridger looked mildly surprised. "Really? None??" Ford nodded and Bridger appeared to consider his position for a moment. "Then if I were you, Commander," Bridger leaned in towards him, "I'd be very, very nervous." Ford straightened up and looked suspiciously around the bridge and then back at Bridger who just shrugged. "You've got the bridge, Commander," he said as he turned to go.

"Aye sir, I have the bridge." Since Bridger had turned, Ford missed the smile that crossed his face. Ford glanced around the bridge suspiciously once more and went to sit in the Captain's chair. He just remembered to check it for a whoopee cushion before he sat down.

Bridger took a guess on where he might find Westphalen and headed for the sea deck. As he entered the deck he saw that Lucas had also just come in through the other door. Darwin had been waiting for him.

"Lucas play."

It appeared that Lucas had come ready for that exact activity since he was holding a ball in his hands. "Sure Dar. Let's play catch." Lucas threw the ball out over the water and Darwin gleefully turned to chase it. The ball, however, was on an elastic string and came right back to Lucas. Lucas was laughing as he watched Darwin try to figure out where the ball had gone. Darwin finally returned to the side of the moon pool and saw the ball in Lucas' hand.

"Lucas not throw ball?"

Lucas laughed again and explained. "I threw the ball Darwin, but it's on a string that makes the ball come back to me."

"Why"

"Because today is April Fools Day. It's the one day of the year that everyone plays jokes on everyone else. April Fools Day, Darwin."

Bridger didn't think Darwin would understand Lucas' explanation until the dolphin turned in the pool, raised his back fin out of the water and brought it down again causing a deluge of water to engulf Lucas.

The boy backed up, soaked to the skin. "Hey, what did you do that for?"

"April Fools Day, Lucas," the dolphin replied.

Bridger spotted Westphalen working over on the science side of the deck. He wandered over to her. As he approached she looked him over. "Going for the Hawaiian look these days, Captain?" she said taking in his sockless dress.

Bridger smiled tightly. "Someone stole all my socks last night."

Westphalen looked appalled. "No, who would ever do something as nasty as that??"

Nathan fixed her with a hard stare and said softly, "Whoever it was had better not be too attached to that peach nightgown she had in my bottom drawer because it's gone too."

"You wouldn't dare," hissed Westphalen. Bridger didn't answer but only continued with the hard stare. Kristin looked around to be sure they weren't being watched. "You gave me that nightgown for my birthday."

"How about that," was Bridger's flat response and he turned and left despite the shocked look on her face.

Kristin glared at his retreating back and hurried to finish up the experiments she was working on. After she cleaned up she gathered up a clipboard and headed for Nathan's quarters. Kristin knocked on his door and waited for a response. When none came she cautiously opened Bridger's door and slipped into the darkened room. Kristin turned on the soft light on the desk and headed for Nathan's dresser. She opened the bottom drawer and pushed all the clothes around looking for the peach nightgown but not finding it. Kristin suddenly gasped as she felt strong arms grab her around her waist and pull her up. The arms were holding the peach colored nightgown she had been looking for.

"April Fools," she heard Nathan whisper softly into her left ear before he placed a kiss at the nape of her neck.