Oh yeah... things were great... couldn't get better. Lucas was whistling as he approached the beach house. He'd talked to Julianna this afternoon and she was coming to visit for a few days before she went to a seminar at New Cape Quest. Definitely a good day!

He started bounding up the stairs, taking them two at a time but as he got to the top step the raised voices inside the house made him stop. A tightness gripped his chest as he listened to the shouting.

"Kristin! I don't know why you're making such a big thing about this. Just because you want it doesn't mean that it has to happen!"

"Oooh, you're just like all the military pea-brains! You think that your big fancy boat can go out on the seas and solve all the problems of the world!"

Bridger's voice was sarcastic. "No! It's gonna solve all the problems of the world from under the sea not on it!"

Lucas felt his breath catch and he sank down on the top step of the stairs as the argument heated up.

Kristin's voice was barely controlled anger. "Some days I feel like I don't even know you! Don't you understand what I'm talking about??? You've got such an opportunity with the seaQuest and you're giving up science space for your military trash! I thought I knew the scientist in you but you've obviously been subverted!!"

Bridger got even more sarcastic. "Oh, I see... and it's the scientists who are building the new boat?? And just how do you figure you science types are going to get anywhere without the military to ferry you around and keep you safe???"

"Ah, now it's you science types?? It looks like to me that we need to be kept safe from you... not by you!!"

"Perhaps you'd like it if we just turned over all the engineering section space to you, too! I'm sure with all your fine minds you'd figure out a way to get the damned boat to move!"

"Nathan, I know you spent years dedicated to science and research. I don't understand how you can turn your back on that now! Aren't you invalidating everything that you stood for?? Have you forgotten all that??"

Lucas was dying inside. This was worse than when his parents argued. At least he expected that. But Bridger and Westphalen... they sniped at each other... but they didn't argue. Not like this... not about things that meant so much to both of them. This was very bad.

Bridger was getting loud now. "Don't tell me where I came from!! I think if you check out this career of mine you'll find that it started in Annapolis... not particularly a place known for its pure science focus. There's a reason they call it a military academy!!"

Westphalen was quieter but her voice was more ominous. "I thought I could count on you as champion for the good that could be accomplished with the seaQuest. However it appears that I was mistaken. How can you just turn your back on it???" That last was spoken with venom in her voice.

Lucas couldn't take it any more. He ran down the steps and out onto the far end of the dock where he sat with his arms clutched around the knees he had pulled up to his chest. He buried his face against his knees and tried to shut out the shouting he could still hear from the house.

The voices raised and lowered but never let up on their intensity. Sometimes Lucas was more scared when the voices got soft. At least when they were shouting he could hear what they were saying. There was no telling how vicious their words were getting when they were quiet. Lucas knew how cruel those soft voices could be and he didn't even want to think about Bridger and Westphalen saying those kinds of things to each other. This couldn't be happening again... not again. Lucas heard a door slam and the voices stopped.

Kristin Westphalen glared at the door to the den that Nathan had just slammed as he went through it. It was almost like she felt that he could feel her stare through the door. She closed her eyes as her breathing started to return to normal. She didn't get angry often... well, perhaps she did, but she didn't get this angry often. She rolled her head back to try and loosen the tenseness in her neck. She'd had a little headache before the argument with Nathan. Now her head was just pounding.

She walked into the kitchen and downed a couple of aspirin from the cabinet. Taking her glass of water with her, she walked slowly out onto the darkened porch. Kristin stared out across the water as she played back the argument inside her mind. It wasn't any better the second time around. She didn't understand Nathan's thinking    there must be some reason he was ‘becoming military' on her.

As she stood lost in her thoughts, Kristin noticed the movement of a small bundle on the end of the dock. The dark shape blended in with the wood at night and it took her a while to figure out that the bundle was Lucas sitting and rocking on the dock. She suddenly realized that Lucas must have heard the argument that she and Nathan had. Her heart was gripped by ice. Oh... if they'd known he was there... they never would have shouted like that. It had to be terrifying for the boy. He'd been through enough domestic disturbances to last a lifetime.

Kristin put her glass down and slowly walked down the steps and out onto the dock. Her shoeless feet made almost no noise and Lucas made no sign that he had heard her. Lucas was sitting with his back leaning against a piling. His face was buried in his knees and he was rocking with one foot tapping out an aggravated pace.

"Hi there," Kristin said softly. The foot stopped tapping but his head remained down. She tried again, "Are you alright, Lucas?" Still, she got no reaction from the boy. Kristin kneeled down next to him. "Lucas..." she started.

"Why do you have to fight?" he said into his knees.

Kristin sat back until she was leaning back on the next piling. "We don't have to fight," she said reasonably. "It's just that sometimes we do." She paused. "It's called a difference of opinion."

Lucas brought his head up and looked at her. His voice was steady and very serious. "People talk when they have a difference of opinion. They don't shout about it. That wasn't a difference of opinion... that was a fight."

She conceded, "Yes, you're right... that was a fight. I guess we got very loud about our differences."

"Yeah, well a wise man once told me that an increase in volume is usually accompanied by a decrease in listening." He put his head back on his knees. "You know, the second problem is that when you lose control like that you have a tendency to say things that you don't mean."

Kristin smiled at Lucas' philosophy. "So are you an expert on interpersonal relationships too?" she said in a kindly bantering voice.

Lucas looked up again completely stone-faced. "No, but I can tell you all about arguments... especially ones like the one you two just had. I guess I get points for experience."

"Touché Lucas," She tried to sooth the boy. "Lucas, it was just a difference of opinion and I'm sure that Nathan and I will work it out."

He kept that monotone voice and looked at her with that blank face. "You should... and just as a sidebar... maybe you should check things out first."

Kristin was cautious. "What do you mean ‘check things out'?"

Lucas stretched out his legs and kept his back leaning on the pylons. He stared out across the water. "Bridger spent almost four hours today, asking, begging, cajoling, threatening, doing everything he could to prevent the reduction in the science spaces..." Lucas closed his eyes. "He lost."

Kristin's voice was small, "Oh... I didn't know."

Lucas let out a sigh. "I probably wouldn't have known either except that I was in his office when he came back." He shook his head. "I thought he was going to bust a blood vessel." A silence dropped between the two of them while Kristin digested this information.

Lucas was the first one to speak. "For what it's worth he was a lot angrier at them than he was at you tonight."

"Oh, I wasn't really angry at her, Lucas."

They both turned to look at Bridger who had walked up on the dock unnoticed.

"You could have fooled me," Lucas said sarcastically.

Bridger sat down on the dock across from both of them.

"You had me pretty convinced too," said Kristin.

Nathan just shrugged. "You were going be mad one way or another. I figured it would be a lot less harmful if you got mad at me."

"You never told me that you went to bat for us," she said accusingly.

Nathan's response was calm and short. "You never asked."

Kristin's tone was still mildly disapproving. "I wouldn't have gotten that mad at you."

Nathan eased up a bit. "I will admit that your response was a bit more vehement than I had expected."

"That's because I was angry with you."

Lucas tipped his head to the side and doubt showed in his eyes. "But you weren't angry with her?"

"No," Bridger responded quickly. "Frustrated, yes... angry... no." He appeared to contemplate a board on the deck. "I'm angry at the idiots at the UEO who think we need to reduce the science spaces... and I'm frustrated that I can't do anything about it..." He looked at Kristin. "And I vented that frustration in your direction... and you vented your frustration right back at me."

Kristin got a half-smile on her face. "No... that was anger. I was venting anger at you because you were in the proverbial ‘line of fire' when I was angry."

"And I represent everything that you were angry at," Nathan said reasonably.

"Exactly."

"Well, next time you two feel a need to ‘vent', do you think you could do it somewhere else?" Lucas asked.

Bridger was serious again. "I'm really sorry, Lucas. We didn't know you were here. We didn't mean to scare you."

Lucas pulled his knees up again and put his arm around them. He leaned towards the two adults. "You two have got to understand something. I watched and listened to my parents have a lot of arguments... but this isn't the same." His voice got a little softer. "My parents didn't love each other. They may have at one time but I never saw it." He paused. "You two do love each other... anyone can see that. What scared me was the real possibility that one of you might do something stupid... might say something to really hurt the other one. You might not even mean it... but once you say it... it's hard to get it back."

Bridger had slid his foot over until his ankle leaned against Kristin's. His voice was contrite. "You're right. I don't think either one of us managed to get totally stupid during that argument..." he looked over at Kristin who shook her head, "...but the risk was there."

"And you're also right that we shouldn't be risking this relationship," said Kristin.

Lucas' voice was playfully gruff, "Or scaring me. Remember my warped childhood. I tend to take things like this very seriously." Lucas was sounding a lot older than his 17 years but then again he had stuffed a lot in those 17 years. He looked over at Bridger. "What was it you told me that your mother used to say about your father? That sometimes she felt like the only adult in the household? That's the way I feel tonight."

Nathan and Kristin both laughed softly as Nathan stood and gave Kristin a hand up. "That's pretty accurate," said Nathan. He slipped his arm around Kristin's waist and she leaned her head on his chest. Nathan glanced towards the house. "How about some ice cream?"

A bright smile crossed Lucas' face. The danger had passed now. "Sounds good to me," he said as he started off the dock.

Nathan and Kristin followed behind him, their arms around each other. Nathan called to Lucas, "Hey Lucas, do you know the only good thing about having an argument?"

He stopped and looked back at the couple with a suspicious look on his face. "No... what?"

Nathan winked at him. "The making up," he said as he leaned over and captured Kristin's lips in a soft kiss.