I'm growing older but not up
My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck
Let those winds of time blow over my head
I'd rather die when I'm living
Than live while I'm dead.
                                  ~ Jimmy Buffet
 

'...a relationship has a momentum, it must change and develop, and will tend to move toward the point of greatest commitment.'
                            ~ Carolyn Heilbrun
 
 

Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Storm

All the windows down, music cranked up, sun shining in the sky and a clear road out ahead. What could be better? ‘Well,' Nathan thought to himself, ‘the road ahead isn't quite clear but three out of four ain't bad.'

There was an almost unbelievable combination of events today. The weather was great, it was Friday and Nathan had actually made it out of work on time, there were no apparent catastrophes looming up to destroy his weekend, no one had managed to irritate him all day so he was in a great mood and had he said it before? ...it was the weekend. The only problem he could see was that since he'd gotten out of work on time for a change he was now sharing the road with half of the drivers in the state. Actually, that was probably a good thing too since it made him keep his speed down... something he wasn't particularly known for.

Nathan pulled into the drive of the beach house he shared with Kristin and Lucas. Kristin's little green sports car was parked in its place but, not surprisingly, Lucas' car was nowhere to be seen. Since he'd gotten that car they'd certainly seen less of him. Nathan climbed the steps to the house and crossed the porch. As he entered the house itself he could see Kristin messing around in the kitchen. Nathan put his briefcase down on a chair in the dining room and snuck up behind her, grabbing her around the waist.

Nathan could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "Goodness, Nathan, I hope that's you."

He lowered his head to nuzzle the side of her neck. "I hope it's me too."

Kristin turned in his arms and raised her head until her lips were captured by his. Working in adjacent buildings should have meant that they'd be able to see more of each other during the day but sometimes it was like they were miles apart at work. They rarely got a chance to sneak out for lunch or anything and then, these days, it seemed like one or the other of them was always working late on something. Nathan trailed little kisses down Kristin's chin and throat, his hands roamed her back, his arms pulled her closer to him.

Kristin hated to break the embrace. "Nathan, as much as I'd like to continue this, Lucas and the crew are going to be here in about 15 minutes."

Nathan's voice was muffled as he kissed the soft skin at the base of her neck. "Why?"

"Lucas is hosting a poker game here and unless you plan on us being the entertainment..." she moaned as he found a tender spot on her right shoulder, "...and at any other time I'd love being entertained by you... you'd better stop."

Nathan didn't stop but instead reversed his course and placed feather-light kisses up her throat, across her chin and then on her mouth. He pulled back and then seemed to think better of it and planted a quick kiss on the end of her nose.

"I guess I better go change then."

Kristin trailed a finger across his lips and chin. "Well, I don't know about changing but if I were you I'd put on different clothes," she said with a smile.

Nathan grinned and released her. He picked his briefcase up off of the chair. As he turned to head back to the bedroom Kristin's voice stopped him.

"Oh, and by the way," her voice took on a familiar timbre from an old web browser system, "You've got mail."

"That sounds ominous."

Kristin had gone back to setting up the pizzas for Lucas' game. She glanced back at Nathan. "Actually, it looked rather ominous too."

Nathan just grinned and headed back to change his clothes.

Lucas came through the door with his hands full of bags. He made it as far as the dining room table before dropping them.

"Did you buy the store out, Lucas?"

Lucas shook his head and started unpacking the bags. "Hey, Doc, you can never have too many munchies for a poker game." He listed the items as he pulled them from the bags. "Potato chips, pretzels, nuts, nachos, cheese, dip, salsa, those little goldfish cracker things and who could forget jalapenos."

"Ummm, sounds like major indigestion to me. I've got four different pizzas ready for you. They just need to be popped in the oven and there are more in the freezer if you need them."

"Doc, you're too good to me," Lucas grinned as he started searching for bowls for the munchies.

Now dressed in chinos and a chambray shirt, Nathan headed into the den to check the mail on the screen. Pretty much the normal trash until he came upon a letter from the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Kristin and Lucas were surprised to hear a long string of expletives come issuing out of the den.

Lucas turned an innocent face towards Kristin. "I gather he's home."

"Umm hmmm. And at the moment I don't think he's particularly happy."

Nathan came down the hallway from the den a short time later. He didn't appear to be angry but his face held a look of more than a little bit of frustration. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair as he looked at Kristin. "God, I need to go to sea."

Kristin grimaced. She'd seen that one of the letters for him was from the DMV. "I was afraid of that. So is that the only reason you still have a license?"

"Oh, yeah," Nathan nodded, filching some of Lucas' peanuts. "Every time I'd build up too many points it was time for me to go to sea. After being out at sea for a while everything was fine when I got home."

Lucas was following this conversation looking at first one of them and then the other and becoming more confused as it went along.

Kristin, of course, hit upon the common sense question. "How are you going to get to work?"

Nathan crooked a thumb Lucas' way. "Him."

Lucas suddenly realized what they were talking about. He looked at Bridger. "Hey, you didn't lose your driver's license, did you?"

"Yeah, for the next 30 days."

"Why?"

"Too many points," Nathan shrugged.

Kristin walked behind him trailing her hand across his back and shoulders. She glanced at Lucas as she walked behind Bridger. "Too fast, that's his problem."

Lucas couldn't believe it. "You don't have that many points on your record."

Kristin was now taking small plates out of the credenza. She gave out a rather unladylike snort. "Really? Why don't you ask him about his last ticket?"

Bridger made a face at Kristin. "Hey, I can get into enough trouble on my own. I don't need your help," he said indignantly.

Lucas ignored him and instead asked Kristin. "What about his last ticket?"

Kristin headed back into the kitchen. More to avoid the disapproving glare that Nathan was sending her way than for any other reason. "Have you ever heard of anyone getting a ticket for 100 miles over the speed limit?"

Lucas' eyebrows went up and he couldn't help turning an admiring glance towards Nathan. "You're kidding. I didn't think that car of yours could go 100 miles over the speed limit."

Nathan looked uncomfortable. "Yeah well..." he hedged.

Sudden realization flooded Lucas' face. His look of admiration turned immediately into one of shock. "You didn't get that ticket on your motorcycle, did you?" he said in disbelief.

Bridger didn't say anything. He just looked more uncomfortable and continued to glare at Kristin. He was taken unawares by Lucas' next reaction.

"Does insanity run in your family?" asked Lucas loudly, obviously very angry. Both Bridger and Kristin looked at him in surprise. Lucas was astonished. "What are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?"

"Hey, wait a minute, I've gotten this lecture already," Bridger said defensively. He'd already heard more than he cared to on the subject from Kristin.

Lucas was only a little more controlled. "Not from me you haven't." Lucas walked away from him shaking his head and then stopped and looked back. "Seems to me that it's supposed to be the kids who are the problem... not the adults."

"Alright, so I've got a little bit of a lead foot."

"Get real, Nathan," said Kristin, "you'd speed in a submarine if you could figure out how to make it move fast enough."

Nathan could hear the others coming up the steps and wanted to end this discussion pretty quick. "Well, the State of Florida is going to make sure I behave myself for the next 30 days."

Lucas went to greet the new arrivals. As he walked by Nathan he shook his head. "Sometimes you are just unbelievable. This discussion is not over." His tone was not pleasant.

The porch and the door were filled with the members of the seaQuest crew laughing and joking with one another. Miguel Ortiz was there as well as Tim O'Neil and Bill Shan. Behind them was Jonathan Ford with a surprise guest. Katie Hitchcock had come to visit while her ship was in port.

At the sight of her, Bridger's face lit up. "Katie!" and he gathered her in his arms for a big hug.

Katie was smiling too. "Captain, it's good to see you."

"Somehow I think you've hit the point where you can call me Nathan, Captain."

"Alright, Nathan. Are you joining us for the poker game?"

As Bridger shook his head the other crew members tried to convince him to stay.

"More than enough seats for you, Cap," said Miguel.

"And we'd be happy to take your money, sir," chimed in Tim.

Bridger shook his head again and smiled. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm afraid that gambling with your crew is one of those ‘expressly prohibited activities' that Captains are supposed to avoid." He grinned Tim's way. "And besides, you guys couldn't afford me." He wandered towards the porch and as he passed told Kristin, "I'm going to go and talk to Darwin." He threw in as an aside as he walked by Lucas. "At least he won't yell at me."

Lucas made a face. "That's only because he's never seen you drive."

Nathan patted him on the back as he passed. "Have a nice game," and he left the house.

The players sat down around the dining room table and a rousing game of poker was soon underway. Every once in a while Lucas or Kristin would glance out at the end of the dock where Nathan was sitting talking to Darwin.

Lucas looked out at the dock and did a double-take. He looked at Kristin across the table and cleared his throat. "Hmm mmm, cop on the dock."

Everyone looked out on the dock and saw that Nathan was now standing having a discussion with a uniformed police officer.

Darwin had just swum away saying that he was hungry and going to find some food when Nathan heard footsteps on the dock. He looked up to see a police officer approaching him and stood up. He smiled as he recognized the officer.

"Officer Valdez, how're you doing?" putting his hand out.

The smiling officer exchanged handshakes with Bridger. "Doin' pretty good, Captain." He glanced away from Nathan and out over the water as he said, "I thought I'd... um... come over and give you a friendly warning." He looked back at Nathan, who raised his eyebrows. "Well, you gave us quite a hand catching those burglars we had hitting the neighborhood a couple of months ago so I figured you were due a little break."

Nathan was interested now. "In what way?" he said cautiously.

The officer looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, at roll call they read out a list of the locals who have recently had their licenses suspended or revoked. It seems your name is on the list today."

Nathan gave a rueful smile. "Yeah, I know."

"Well, you see, there are some officers who might be expecting that you're going to drive despite the suspension." He hesitated some and looked out over the water again. "The bets are that you can't go 30 days without going for a spin in that car or on the bike." Nathan cocked his head and Valdez looked right at him. "I just wanted to let you know that there just might be some officers who are going to make it their business to watch for you during the next month."

Nathan nodded. "I appreciate the warning. Don't worry, I don't think the two other members of this household are going to let me get anywhere near to sitting behind the wheel. I'll behave myself."

Valdez smiled again. "I'd appreciate that, Captain. I'd really hate for you to get arrested for something quite so dumb, and a month isn't all that long a time."

Nathan chuckled. "Yeah ,I've been through it before." He grimaced. "You know, it's a lot longer from this side of the coin though."

"I can imagine. Just do us both a favor and behave yourself for the next 30."

Nathan shook hands with Valdez again. "I promise, Officer. I'll be a good boy."

Valdez waved and walked off the dock back to his squad car. Bridger sat down again on the dock and stared out over the water.

Kristin and Lucas had been watching the exchange. Lucas looked relieved when the officer left. Kristin folded her poker hand and announced to the others. "I hope you people don't mind but I think I'm going to go and see what he plans on doing for dinner."

Lucas shook his head. "Yeah, it's not like he can drive over to Captain Casey's to pick up a burger or anything." Kristin bestowed a disapproving glance on Lucas. "He's not really going to be able to hide the fact that I'm driving him to work every day," Lucas said defensively.

Ford closed his eyes and slowly shook his head, "Ohhh... don't tell me that the Captain lost his driver's license."

"Yeah," nodded Lucas. "For the next month. Seems he's got this lead foot..."

Katie grimaced. "Boy, that's an understatement if I've ever heard one."

"He drives like an idiot," said Lucas firmly.

Kristin stopped on her way out of the door. "Well, to be fair to him, he does speed rather badly most of the time... but he's a very careful driver."

Lucas wasn't convinced. "No one who travels 100 miles over the limit on a motorcycle is a careful driver... they're just a lucky idiot."

Kristin smiled. "Alright, I'll concede that one to you. Well, maybe this will straighten out his act for a little bit. After all, he's only got to manage to stay out of trouble for another six months or so."

Miguel had a quizzical look on his face. "What happens then?"

"Then, he's back at sea. There aren't any motorcycles under the waves although, knowing him, I'd really hate to see him pilot a speeder." Kristin smiled and walked onto the porch.

The poker crew watched as Kristin walked down to the end of the dock. She came up behind Nathan, leaned down and put her arms around his shoulders, kissing him on the back of the neck. They saw Bridger turn with a smile as Kristin sat on the dock next to him. They talked for a short time and then Nathan reached his hand up and stroked the side of Kristin's face.

"They're becoming quite a number, aren't they?" said Katie.

Miguel snorted. "I'd say that shacking up qualifies them for more than being ‘a number'."

"You are so crass, Miguel" Tim chastised Miguel.

"What would you call it?" Miguel said defensively.

"I don't know, how about sleeping together?"

"Or sharing their lives," piped in Katie.

"Or just the standard old living together," said Jonathan.

Miguel wasn't buying it. "I don't know. Lucas and the Captain live together in the same house but it's not quite the same thing."

Lucas made a face at him. "Yeah, but we don't live together in the same bedroom."

"So what's going to happen when the new seaQuest goes to sea?" wondered Katie.

Lucas just looked out at the couple on the dock. A quick look of concern crossed his face and he sighed, "I have no idea."

Miguel got back to more direct things. "Hey, are we playing poker here or are we critiquing a soap opera?"

The crew turned back to the game.

Chapter 2: Gathering Clouds

Nathan was sitting on the dock reflecting that it really hadn't been a good idea to eat those peanuts of Lucas' when he heard the footsteps coming up the dock. He could tell they were Kristin's so he wasn't surprised when her arms encircled his shoulders and he felt the warm touch of her lips on the back of his neck. He leaned his head momentarily against her arm as she came around to his side and sat on the dock.

"Come to commiserate with me?" Nathan asked.

"Oh no, you deserve the suspension. Hell, you deserve to have your head examined for driving that fast." Nathan grinned a little, reached up his hand and ran his fingers down the side of her face.

He nodded slightly. "Yeah, probably. It's like I told you before... it's just that sometimes when I've got that open road out in front of me and the mood is just right I just have to go fast." He shrugged. "Fact of life."

Kristin shook her head. "Nope, not buying it. Probably has more to do with the inherent daredevil in you... to say nothing of a lack of common sense occasionally." Nathan grimaced. "You know that Lucas is right, don't you?"

Nathan frowned. Kristin wasn't going to let him joke this one away. He glanced out over the water and decided to try a different tack. "You know, I thought that I'd slow down as I got older but it doesn't seem to have worked that way."

"Your reactions aren't what they used to be when you were 20, you know... you really could get yourself killed."

‘Okay, she isn't going to drop it,' thought Nathan. He looked away as a quick, sharp stab of pain in his stomach caused him to grimace again. By the time he faced Kristin again he was trying out what she referred to as his ‘contrite little boy' face. "Yeah, I know, but today is turning into a really lousy day... do you think you could harass me about this later?"

Kristin put her hand on his knee and shook it. "Oh, alright. Feeling hungry?"

At the moment, food was far from Bridger's mind but he smiled and said, "Sure, if you're driving." He started to stand.

"Deal. How about Captain Casey's?" she asked, accepting his hand of assistance in standing up.

"Hmmm... how about Denny's?" as they walked off the dock.

"You're kidding." Denny's wasn't quite what Kristin had expected.

"Yeah, I feel like breakfast."

Kristin looked over at him with a small smile. "That's probably because you've got your whole system messed up." Nathan didn't understand. "You probably forgot to eat lunch again, didn't you?"

Nathan stood and thought for a while. For the life of him he couldn't remember eating lunch. "Well, I don't remember eating lunch so I must not have."

Kristin put her arm around his waist and they continued their walk to the car. "You've got to stop that, you know. You've been losing too much weight."

"Ah, I needed to drop a couple of pounds anyway."

"Perhaps, but you've dropped about 10 pounds and besides which it's just not good for you to get so involved in work that you miss meals like that."

"Yeah, yeah... and I don't think I've lost that much weight," Nathan said a little impatiently.

Kristin gave him a hug with the arm she had around his waist. "Trust me. I'm intimately familiar with your waist... you've lost too much."

They had reached the cars and Nathan turned towards her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Have you ever thought that maybe I'm getting too much exercise and that's the reason I've lost weight?" There was laughter in his voice.

Kristin pinched him on the side. "The only exercise you're getting these days is in bed and I don't know about you but I'd rather keep that up... so to speak."

Nathan laughed at her unintended play with words. He turned and automatically reached for his car door. Kristin tapped him on the shoulder and indicated her car with her thumb. "Sorry, Charlie, you're the passenger for a while."

Nathan made a face and turned back to Kristin's car. "Force of habit I guess." Kristin opened his door and headed around to the driver's seat.

Once they reached Denny's, Kristin ordered up a salad with a pop and Nathan asked for French toast and a milk. Kristin looked at him a little concerned. "You feeling alright? I don't think I've ever seen you order milk for dinner."

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said shortly, "but if I'm eating breakfast, I may as well have milk."

Kristin had a feeling that he wasn't being quite honest but thought it best to just let it drop for the moment, considering that their discussions during the last few weeks had been pretty strained as it was. Their talk during dinner centered mostly on bringing each other up to date on what had happened at work during the week. They hardly saw enough of each other these days to keep current. Kristin and her staff had completed some very exciting experiments dealing with the effects of thermal variance on certain types of corals while Nathan's week had been filled with completing the joining of the last of the modules which comprised the new seaQuest, sorting out different requests for space allocation and doing a juggling act between the science community and the military community concerning their different views about the ultimate use of the seaQuest. Altogether, Kristin figured that she'd had a much better week than he had.

Kristin patted her lips with her napkin as she finished her salad. "Oh, and by the way, I'm going to need to go into work for a while tomorrow."

Nathan glanced up at her. "It's Saturday."

"Yeah, I know, but I've got this pile of paperwork waiting for me and I seem to get so much more done when I don't have everyone bothering me."

Nathan looked a little put out. "You going to be there all day?"

Kristin covered his hand with hers and gave it a small squeeze. "I hope not, but realistically, it's a really huge pile of paperwork that I need to finish. It'll probably be most of the day." Nathan had gone back to finishing his French toast and was frowning at his plate. "Unless you'd rather I stayed at home with you tomorrow."

"No, no," Nathan quickly responded. "That's okay." He shrugged, "It's not like I haven't left you at home more than a few times while I worked late. I understand."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. You'll probably get lots of work done. It's okay," he repeated.

They completed their meals and Kristin excused herself to go to the washroom while Nathan remained in the booth. After she left he closed his eyes momentarily and rested his head on his hand as he tried to calm his stomach down. The milk and food had stopped the shooting pain but his stomach still wasn't a happy camper. Eating those peanuts had been a really dumb thing to do. He should have known... he hadn't been able to eat things like nuts for the better part of the last three weeks. By the time Kristin came back he was sitting up as if everything was normal. They paid their bill and walked out to the car. Nathan held the driver's door open for Kristin before going around the car to get into the passenger side.

He leaned towards her when he got in. "See, I remembered this time."

Kristin grinned and put one hand on the side of his face. "Good, now just remember it for the next 30 days and we'll be just fine." Nathan grimaced and secured his restraints. They were almost home when Kristin spoke up again. "You know, that poker game will still be going on... would you rather go for a drive or a walk or something?"

Kristin could hear the smile in Nathan's tired sounding voice. "First, I consider your suggestion of a drive to be rather tactless to a guy who's vehicularly challenged at the moment and second, one of the problems with me being the passenger is that it puts me to sleep. Tell you what... why don't we go back home. You can rejoin the poker game and I'm going to bed. That is unless you'd like to go somewhere to talk."

Kristin rubbed his thigh. He'd been dropping those not at all subtle hints about wanting to talk for three weeks now but Kristin wasn't biting. "No, that's okay," she said. "I'll take you home so you can go to bed. Must be hell to get old," she teased.

Nathan was leaning his head back against the headrest with his eyes closed. His lips curled up into a smile and he shook his head slightly. "I'll let you know when I get there."

Shortly afterwards Kristin was seated again playing poker and Nathan had said his goodnights and wandered back into their bedroom. By the time Kristin gave up on the poker game it was 2 a.m. and she slipped easily into bed next to Nathan's softly snoring form.

Shortly before 9 the next morning Nathan became dimly aware of Kristin sliding out of the bed and heading for the bathroom. He lay in the bed with his eyes closed, half awake as he heard the gentle fall of the water in the shower and Kristin moving around under it. A short time later Kristin came back into the room and Nathan slid his eyes open just enough to see her slipping on a white shirt and a pair of jeans. Kristin sat down at the end of the bed to put her shoes on.

"Where'ya going?" asked Nathan sleepily.

Kristin turned towards him and rubbed his calf through the sheet. "Work."

"It's Saturday," he mumbled.

"Mmm humm, I know, we talked about this last night. I need to get some paperwork done and I'm going in today since I seem to get a lot more done on the weekend than I'll ever get accomplished during the week when people are interrupting me."

"Hmmm. Gonna be all day?"

Kristin stood and leaned over the bed to place a soft kiss on Nathan's cheek. "Probably. Why don't you go back to sleep?"

"'Kay," Nathan said as he turned on his side and fell asleep again. Kristin smiled gently at him and quietly left the room.

Kristin walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find Lucas there cleaning up after last night's game.

"Good heavens, what are you doing up so early?"

Lucas grimaced. "The thought of all the money I ‘donated' last night kept wandering through my head and made it hard to sleep."

Kristin grimaced, too. "Ooooh, that bad?"

Lucas shrugged. "Coulda been worse." He got a half smile on his face and turned towards Kristin. "The Captain or Chief Crocker could have been playing and then I would have really lost my shirt."

"Yes, that would have been worse. Look, I'm going to head into work... anything you need before I leave?"

Lucas glanced at the dirty dishes and the crumbs of the various snacks all over the room. "Not unless you've got a handy maid packed in your trunk."

"'Fraid not, you're on your own on that one."

Lucas glanced back towards the bedrooms. "He still asleep?"

"Yes, he was pretty tired last night."

"I noticed. I'll try to be quiet and let him catch up on his z's."

Kristin patted Lucas on the shoulder. "I'd appreciate that," and she headed out the door.

An hour later found Lucas in a much improved kitchen and dining room. The crumbs and debris from the previous night had been swept away and the dishes now stood neatly in the rack. Lucas was just wiping down the table when Bridger made his appearance, still not looking quite awake.

"'Morning."

"Good morning, sir." Lucas looked him over as he headed for the cereal in the cabinet. "You look like you could have used a few more hours sleep."

Bridger took his cereal bowl over to the refrigerator and poured milk over the cereal. "Nah, can't stay in bed that long." He brought his bowl and a glass of milk to the table. "I'll catch a nap later on."

Lucas poured a glass of milk for himself and sat down across the table from Nathan. After a few quiet moments he asked, "Can we talk about last night?"

Nathan looked up from his cereal bowl. "Which part of it?"

"The suspension."

Nathan just sighed and focused his attention back on his cereal.

"You don't seem too upset about this."

Nathan shrugged. "There's not a heck of a lot I can do about it. No point in getting upset."

Lucas sat back in his chair. "You ever get suspended before?"

Nathan glanced up at him and then down at his cereal again. "Yeah, twice."

"Twice???" asked Lucas surprised.

Nathan nodded and shrugged. "Yeah," he said shortly. "Once for 30 days and then once for six months."

"What did you get suspended for six months for???"

There was a palpable pause from the other side of the table but Nathan finally answered. "For getting caught driving during the 30 day suspension."

Lucas just stared at Nathan and then finally shook his head and closed his eyes in amazement. He rubbed his hands across his forehead and then leaned his head on his hand. He looked across the table at the Captain. "You know, you've got a problem."

Nathan breathed in a long sigh and looked out across the porch to the water. He brought his gaze back to Lucas. When he spoke, his voice wasn't angry or upset but had more of a resigned tone. "Let me ask you something, Lucas. What do you figure you're going to gain here?" Lucas raised a quizzical eye his way and Bridger continued. "It's not like I've never been through this discussion before. Carol never could stop me from speeding. Robert didn't slow me down. Kristin isn't having much luck either and trust me, this has been a topic of discussion. So what makes you think that you're going to be able to convince me to take it easy when I drive?"

Lucas met Nathan's stare. "I don't know that I will... but I've got to try." For lack of anything better to look at, Lucas looked down at Nathan's hands. One circled the cereal bowl and one was poised above the bowl with a spoonful of cereal ready to eat. Lucas let out a long breath. "You've probably heard all this before but you mean a lot to me and I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to lose me," Nathan said quietly.

Lucas looked back up at Nathan. "How do you know that?"

Nathan shrugged. "I may drive fast but I'm careful... and I like to think I'm a good driver." He put a spoonful of cereal in his mouth. "Do you know that in all my life I've never had an at-fault accident with another car?"

"What do you call that little bang up where you drove off the side of the road last year and rolled your car?"

"That wasn't with another car," said Nathan reasonably.

"No, Mr. Good Driver, that was you falling asleep behind the wheel," Lucas said sarcastically. Nathan started to respond but Lucas interrupted him. "And anyways, it's not your driving that I'm particularly concerned about." Nathan paused with the spoon in the bowl and looked up at Lucas. "It's the other idiots on the road."

Lucas paused and gathered his thoughts some before continuing. "Do you remember what you told me when you started to teach me how to ride the motorcycle last year?"

"I told you a lot of things."

Lucas leaned forward with his elbows on the table. "Yeah, but probably the smartest thing you told me was that when I was on the bike I should drive like everyone else out there was trying to kill me." Nathan put his spoon into the bowl and sat back. "You were right," continued Lucas earnestly. "When you're on the bike, you've got to expect that people are going to do things they shouldn't be doing and that they don't see you."

"Your point?" Nathan said calmly.

Lucas closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his forehead with both hands. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Bridger. "My point is that the faster you go the less time you have to compensate for the idiots on the roadway trying to kill you." He shook his head. "It's only a matter of time before someone does something stupid in front of you and you get hurt or killed. It won't be your fault... but you're still going to be on the losing end."

Lucas felt uncomfortable at the way that Nathan just stared at him, not saying a word. Then Bridger smiled a little. "Do you know that you're the first person who tried to slow me down that hasn't told me that I was acting like a kid and I should grow up?"

A small smile crossed Lucas' face. "With all due respect, sir. I'm not that far away from being a kid myself and even a kid isn't stupid enough to drive at 100 miles over the speed limit."

Bridger's smile widened and he shook his head. "No, I suppose you're right. It takes a special kind of stupid to drive that fast."

"I'm not implying that you're stupid, sir," Lucas said quietly. "Quite the contrary, you're far from stupid. But you do have this one little personality flaw."

Nathan leaned forward and picked up his spoon again. He gently swirled the spoon through the cereal while staring at the bowl. Finally he sighed and said, "Yeah, you're right." He glanced up at Lucas. "But you know, I've been working on that personality flaw for a long time." Lucas grinned and nodded. "Well I'm not going to lie to you. No promises... but I'll try. I'll try to slow it down." He grimaced. "That is when I get my wheels back."

"Yeah, the state has no sense of humor about things like that."

"Nope. So I get 30 days to think about it. Meanwhile you've got a passenger."

Lucas stood up and headed for the kitchen with his now empty glass. "Oh, I can put up with you for a month, I guess."

"Yup, that's if I can put up with you."

Lucas leaned back into the dining room. "You don't have a choice, sir."

"Good point," said Nathan as he attacked his cereal again.

Lucas came back into the dining room. "Um... you know, before all this happened I had made some plans for today."

"Yeah, so?"

Lucas shrugged. "But I can stick around if you want me to."

Nathan grinned at him. "What were your plans?"

Lucas looked a little embarrassed. "Well, you know Becky? Doctor Standal's daughter?"

Nathan put his spoon down in his bowl again. "Yeah, nice girl."

"Well... we were kinda planning on spending the day at the zoo."

Now Nathan leaned his elbow on the table and put his chin on his fist. He fixed Lucas with a quizzical look. "Let me get this straight... you're thinking of giving up a date at the zoo with a girl to spend the day here with me??"

Lucas shrugged. "Yeah well... yeah, if you need me."

A skeptical look crossed Nathan's face as he leaned back in the chair. "I don't think so. If I were you, I'd be out that door."

"You sure?"

Nathan crooked his thumb towards the door. "Get outta here."

Lucas headed back to his bedroom. "Um, I gotta grab a jacket." A moment later he reappeared and started for the door. He turned back to Bridger. "You're sure??"

Nathan grinned over at him. "Have a good time... and say hello to Becky for me."

"You got it," Lucas smiled back. "And stay away from the car and the bike," he tossed in as an aside.

"Aye, aye, sir," Nathan replied and Lucas left with a wave.

Nathan finished his breakfast and cleaned up his dishes. After getting dressed he sat down on the porch to decide what he should do today. A grin crossed his face as he heard Darwin chattering out at the dock. Nathan made a quick stop back in the bedroom and changed again, this time into his swim trunks. Grabbing a towel, the vocorder and a sponge ball from the porch, Nathan headed down to the end of the dock. He put the vocorder on the dock and switched it on.

"Good morning, pal."

"Morning Bridger," came the reply from the dolphin in the water. "Bridger sick?"

Nathan sat on the edge of the dock. Sometimes Darwin's ability to get inside his head was a little unnerving. "No, I'm not sick, Darwin."

"Bridger sure?" Darwin was floating in the water watching him with one eye.

"Well, no, but I'm not very sick. It'll be okay, Darwin, don't worry," Nathan reassured him.

"Bridger sad."

"Yeah, well, we went through that last night."

"Darwin help?"

"Yup, you can help." Nathan tossed the ball out into the water. "I need to play."

"Bridger play, Darwin play," said Darwin happily as he turned for the ball, splashing a good amount of water over Nathan as he flipped his tail.

"Darwin, you rat!" yelled Nathan as he jumped into the water to begin a rousing game of catch with the dolphin.

Forty-five minutes later Nathan climbed out of the water thoroughly wet and exhausted by the workout that Darwin had given him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd taken the time to play like this with his best non-human friend. Darwin tossed the ball up onto the dock at Nathan.

"Darwin hungry," he said with a cheerful lilt to his voice. "Darwin find food."

"Darwin, you're always hungry. Happy hunting," Nathan called as the dolphin swam out in search of his meal. Nathan toweled himself somewhat dry and brought the ball and vocorder back into the house.

As he sat on the porch again after dressing for the third time Nathan reflected that perhaps something good could come out of the suspension. It had been ages since he had nothing better to do than play with Darwin. He'd almost forgotten how much fun and how exhausting it was to play with him. He considered starting work on a couple of projects around the house but realized that he needed supplies for all of them and since he couldn't use the car, that kind of put a stop to those plans.

Nathan sat back and looked out over the water. He really wished that Kristin hadn't decided to go into work today. He'd been looking forward to actually getting to spend some time with her for a change and this would have been perfect with Lucas gone for the day. Besides which they needed to talk. She was still avoiding talking to him. It seemed like lately they'd only seen each other when they met in bed. One of them was usually home asleep already when the other one came in and slipped into the bed. Sometimes the one in the bed woke up but when that happened they usually had other things to do besides talking.

Nathan winced and groaned a little from a sharp pain that flashed through his stomach. He sighed as he headed into the kitchen again to get something bland to eat. He was really getting tired of bland food. Not that he had much choice. He knew that if he tried to eat anything spicy he'd have a lot more than an occasional stab of pain.

Armed with a jelly sandwich and another glass of milk, Nathan gathered up a book he'd been trying to read and went back onto the porch. Although he tried to concentrate on reading the book, his thoughts just wouldn't stay with it. He was right. What he really needed was a good long talk with Kristin. Hell, he'd been trying to get her to talk since they'd had that fight three weeks ago. Nathan's unfocused gaze wandered out over the water. It always seemed to calm him to look at the water. A quick twinge from his stomach got his attention. Yeah, and then there was his stomach. He hadn't told Kristin about the problems he was having with his stomach.

But things had changed in the last three weeks. There were a lot of things he hadn't told Kristin. His mind wandered back over that night. The night when everything changed. It was only three weeks ago yesterday. He'd thought it was perfect. That he'd done everything right. That was until everything went wrong.

Chapter 3: Prelude to the Storm

Nathan remembered that hooking up with Kristin for dinner had been like trying to set up an appointment. He'd finally managed to get Kristin to commit to taking a night off so they could go out. Then he'd made a late dinner reservation at that fancy restaurant she liked right down on the beach and even arranged for a table outside on the deck where she liked to sit. He'd waited in the living room while she finished dressing, casually talking to Lucas, Tim and Miguel, who were going to spend the evening out at the Rocky Horror Picture Show again. Kristin had appeared from the back of the house looking like a vision. She was wearing a magnificent dress of peach chiffon that just amazed Nathan. Every time he thought she couldn't look more beautiful, she did. She even stunned the boys into silence. That was until Lucas spoke.

"You know, Doc... when I grow up I want to know someone who likes me enough to dress that nice for me."

Kristin had been flattered but Lucas was right. She looked fabulous. It was going to be perfect.

And dinner was perfect. They'd sat out on the deck at a table lit only by the light of a candle. The stars shining above them filled the sky. Most people said that when they'd been below the ocean in a submarine for a while, they missed the sun. Nathan had always missed the stars and those stars danced and twinkled in the sky, setting the stage for the night's events. They'd enjoyed a leisurely meal accompanied by some exquisite wine and then a tasty dessert. After they finished their meal he'd asked Kristin if she'd like to go for a walk on the beach.

They'd strolled slowly, hand in hand or arms around each other down the beach. Despite the beautiful night there really weren't very many people out enjoying the view. As they neared the spot where they'd started their walk he'd known that this was the perfect place, the perfect time.

"Kristin?" he'd said softly. She had turned towards him in the moonlight. He really didn't think that there was any woman in the world more beautiful than she and he had brought his hand up to caress the side of her face. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and then pulled back to gaze into her deep brown eyes. He swallowed hard and took the plunge.

"Kristin, you know that I love you."

He'd felt the softness of her hands on his back as they pulled him close to her. "I love you too, Nathan," she'd said in that wonderfully accented husky voice of hers.

"Kristin, will you marry me?" There he'd said it. He didn't know what kind of response he had expected. Surprise? Joy? Laughter? Tears, maybe? But not this... not the stricken look that had suddenly enveloped her face. The small ring box sitting in his pants pocket suddenly felt like it weighed ten pounds.

She'd just stared at him with that look. Nothing like what he'd expected until she finally said in a tremulous voice, "Nathan, I don't know what to say."

Her response had made him nervous. "How about saying ‘yes'?" he'd asked.

She dropped her eyes from his. "No," she had said in a voice barely over a whisper.

Nathan was confused... more confused than he could ever remember being. His hand dropped to her shoulder and he pulled away from her a little. His voice was just as quiet as hers had been. "'No' as in you need to think about it, or ‘no' as in hell no?"

Her head was still bowed and Nathan had to struggle to catch her words. She had brought her hands from his back where they had held him tight to his front where they rested on his chest. To Nathan it felt almost like she was pushing him away. "No as in not right now, Nathan."

He'd shaken his head and bowed it to be close to where her head was. "I'm sorry, Kristin, I don't understand. Not now or not ever?"

He could see the tears falling down her cheeks. This time she did push him away slightly with one hand as she brought the other up to stem the flow of the tears. "Please, Nathan don't."

He'd let his hands fall down by his sides as he watched this woman -- this woman who had become such a huge part of his life -- say no to the question he'd thought she'd wanted him to ask for months now. "Kris, I don't understand," he had repeated.

"Neither do I," she'd choked out between the tears. "Can we go home?"

Nathan remembered just staring at her for a while before wordlessly turning towards where they had parked the car. Kristin had followed along next to him, never saying a word. Not a word as he had automatically held the car door for her, not one word during the ride back to the house, nothing as they had walked to the door. She had started up the stairs as he'd stopped at the bottom.

"Kristin. We can't just go to bed and not talk about this." She had stopped on the stairs but didn't turn around. "Kris, if I've done something wrong... if there's something..."

Kristin had turned towards him. "No, Nathan. It's not you." She hesitated a moment. "I can't talk about it right now. Please, just come to bed."

Now it was his turn. "No."

And now it was Kristin's turn to be confused. "What do you mean, ‘no'?"

He had watched the pain play across her face as he had explained. "Kris, six months ago when we started this part of our relationship we both agreed that living together was a commitment but that we weren't ready at that time to expand that commitment into marriage. I thought that we had gotten to that point. I guess I was wrong." He had stopped and swallowed hard before continuing. "If you're not willing to explain why I'm wrong... I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I'm willing to continue to ‘play house' with you." Her eyes had sparked with anger at his words. "This isn't a game to me, Kris."

"And you think it is to me?" she had asked sharply.

"I don't know... after tonight I just don't know, Kris." Nathan had felt his voice choke as he fought to keep hold of his emotions.

Kristin had brought one hand up to stifle a sob which escaped her lips and then turned and ran up the stairs. Nathan had followed her up one stair before stopping, shaking his head and turning to walk out to the end of the dock where he'd sat with his back against a piling, his arms around his legs and his head leaning on his knees until the early hours of the morning.

The next morning Nathan had surprised Lucas when the boy came in to use the vid-phone in the den and found Nathan sleeping on the futon. "Whoops... sorry, didn't expect to find you here."

Nathan had just pulled the sheets up tighter and kept his eyes shut. "That's alright, you're not bothering me."

"Ummm, you and the Doc have a fight?"

Nathan had turned over on his side away from Lucas. "Something like that."

"You okay?" Lucas had asked, concerned.

"No, at the moment I'm tired."

It had been obvious to Lucas that now was not a good time to talk to him. Lucas had left the room saying, "I'll let you get some sleep then." He had closed the door behind him and leaned back against it, his hand still on the doorknob. A worried look had crossed his face as he turned his gaze to the closed door of the bedroom normally shared by the Doctor and the Captain.

Nathan had gotten up an hour or so later and was sitting at the dining room table toying with his breakfast when Kristin made her appearance. She was dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans and it looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep either. Lucas was out playing with Darwin so they had the house to themselves and Nathan watched her wander wordlessly into the kitchen and then come out to stand in the middle of the living room as she watched Lucas and Darwin play. She hadn't acknowledged his presence at all.

"You ready to talk about it?" asked Nathan.

Kristin had just stood there staring out into the water for a while. "Not yet," she'd said quietly, never turning her head towards him. "I'm going to be spending the day at work today," she'd said as she started for the porch door.

"Kristin."

She'd stopped at his voice but never turned.

"You've got to talk to me sometime."

Nathan had seen her lift her head and shrug her shoulders before she responded. "Not now," she had said as she had continued out the door, leaving Nathan staring at the place where she had stood and drumming his fingers in irritation. The twinge that he had felt in his midsection just then was only the precursor of what he'd be feeling for the next several weeks.

For the next three days they had managed to avoid each other, probably sharing no more than a dozen words during that whole period. Nathan had remained on the futon in the den and neither of them looked like they were getting much sleep. Lucas hadn't fared much better. He hadn't quite known what was going on. All he knew was that the two people he cared the most about appeared to have had a tremendous fight and to put it lightly, the atmosphere in their house was unpleasant. It had been Tuesday when Nathan realized how tense the problems between him and Kristin were making Lucas.

It was late morning when Nathan had walked in on a sharp exchange between Lucas and one of the computer techs he worked with. Lucas was in the workup lab standing no more than six inches from Dan Kelster. He was definitely getting in Kelster's face and his voice matched the tense and strident posture he had taken. "Do you think for once you could just do what I ask you to do and not give me a problem about it?"

Nathan had seen Kelster's glance slip off of Lucas and rest on him as he came through the door. Lucas followed Dan's eyes and as his gaze had fallen on Bridger, his face had cleared and he'd looked embarrassed. His eyes moved from Bridger to rest on the floor just in front of his feet. Kelster hadn't said anything but just turned and walked away.

"How about you and I go grab some lunch?" Nathan had asked levelly.

Lucas nodded and they both went to make purchases from the cafeteria on the first floor. Armed with their food they started searching out a place to sit among the large lunchtime crowd. Nathan indicated the outside tables. The temperature had risen during the last couple of weeks and most of the crowd was taking advantage of the air conditioning. Lucas and Nathan had wandered outside and Nathan indicated a table which was away from the rest of the lunchers.

Lucas had looked over Nathan's choices for lunch as he sat and shook his head.

"Milk and a jelly sandwich?"

"I happen to like jelly sandwiches and you ought to try drinking more milk yourself," Nathan had said defensively.

Lucas had sat staring at the table for a while and then said, "I'm sorry for losing my temper in there."

Nathan had just looked up at him with a frown. "It's Dan Kelster you should be apologizing to for that." He had paused for a bit and then continued. "I'm afraid I have to apologize too, Lucas."

"What for?"

"For keeping you out of the loop at home. I have a feeling that your current bad mood is partially my fault." Lucas hadn't said anything but had just nodded. "I guess it's pretty obvious that Kristin and I have a little problem."

"Why did she kick you out?"

Nathan had smiled a little. "She didn't kick me out. I left."

"What did you do?"

Nathan had supposed that it was natural to assume that the fight was his fault. "I didn't do anything." He paused a moment and glanced out at the marina. "Well, I guess I did do something... I asked Kristin to marry me."

Lucas had gotten a momentarily excited look on his face which was immediately replaced by a look of confusion.

"She said ‘no'," Nathan had said quietly.

"Why?"

Nathan had shrugged. "She won't say." He had played with his sandwich a little before taking a small bite from it. "And I told her I wasn't willing to continue playing house if she wouldn't tell me why."

"Oh, and I bet that met with a great reception," Lucas had said with a little bit of sarcasm in his voice.

"Yeah, well, that's why we're not talking at the moment."

"So what happens now?"

Nathan had lifted his glass for a drink of milk. He'd stared at the glass as he put it back down on the table and sighed. "Now I get to try and figure out what gives first... my principles or the relationship."

Lucas had suddenly realized that the Captain was talking about the possibility of ending his relationship with the Doc and even the thought of that was something that completely surprised him. "Do you want to end it?" he had asked in confusion.

"Oh, no," Nathan had answered hastily. "God, no. I want to give her time " He had shrugged again. "Time to figure out what she wants. Time to talk to me."

Lucas' face had been clouded by confusion and concern. "Is there anything I can do?"

Nathan had shaken his head. "Nah, it's just something we've got to work out between us." He'd looked back out, staring at the boats entering and leaving the marina. When he had spoken again his voice was quiet and strained. "It's just that I don't want to push her too hard and end up losing her, Lucas. I'm trying to give it time ."

"I know, sir," Lucas had responded gently. "It'll be alright. I know you two will work it out."

Nathan had looked back at him. "Yeah, I sure as hell hope so, Lucas." He had patted Lucas on the shoulder. "In the meanwhile, I'll try to keep you a little more informed about the complexities of our domestic situation."

Lucas had grinned. "I'd appreciate that, sir. You know, that place has been just a little tense during the last few days."

"I can imagine."

Nathan had worked late that evening and it was well past 10 before he made it home. Kristin was already in bed and Lucas was sitting up in bed reading a book. He had heard the Captain walk towards the back of the house and then wander back out onto the porch. Lucas had put his book down and gone to see what he was doing.

He'd found Nathan sitting on the porch dressed in his pajamas in the dark staring at the sky.

"Hi, what'cha doing?"

"Watching the sky," had been Bridger's quiet response. Lucas had just looked at him, staring out at the sky until Bridger had raised a hand and pointed. "Meteor shower."

Lucas had looked out at the sky in just enough time to catch the tail end of a meteor streaking across the sky as it burned up in the atmosphere. It was almost immediately followed by another meteor stretching its sparkling wake through the heavens. "Wow," he had said with his voice laced with wonder as he sat in one of the chairs.

Bridger had kept watching the sky. "I figure with this many shooting stars around it should be good for more than a few wishes."

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Lucas had asked quietly.

Nathan sighed and glanced over at him. "Well, I figured out this afternoon that one of my problems is that I want her to talk to me, but that's a little hard for her to do if we're not talking."

"Good point."

Nathan had looked back at the stars in the sky and was quiet for so long that Lucas thought that he wasn't going to talk anymore. They had both sat there just watching the aerial display. Finally Nathan had slowly shaken his head and said, "You know, Lucas, it's a damned good thing that women are so much fun to be around. Otherwise they'd drive us crazy."

"So you're saying that she's not driving you crazy?" Lucas had said with a smile.

"Oh, she's definitely driving me crazy, but I'd be going crazier without her." Nathan had smiled a big grin and looked over at Lucas. "And that's the crazy part about it." Nathan had stood and gathered up his empty milk glass and headed into the house. As he passed Lucas he had patted him on the shoulder. "Good night, kiddo."

"Good night, sir."

After putting his glass in the kitchen, Nathan had walked back to the closed door of the bedroom he normally shared with Kristin and stood for a while with his hand on the doorknob before he had gotten the courage to open the door and slip through it. Kristin had turned in the bed towards him as he entered and even in the dim light he could see that she'd been crying.

"Mind if I join you?" Nathan had asked softly.

Nathan saw the surprise on her face and then her weak smile as she had lifted the covers to welcome him into the bed. He had shut the door behind him and went to lie with her. Sliding in beside her, Nathan had put one hand up to her face to wipe the tears away.

"Nathan, I love you," she had said quietly, her hands resting on his chest.

"I love you, Kristin. Oh God, I love you," he had said as their lips had met in an intense, desperate kiss.

Chapter 4: Advance of a Cold Front

Some time later, satisfied and exhausted, Kristin had laid on her side with her head pillowed on Nathan's chest as she slept peacefully. Nathan, however, had found that sleep wouldn't come so easily. He had lazily run his fingers through her auburn tresses as he had replayed all that had happened in his mind, eventually leaning his cheek against her hair as sleep finally captured him.

The next morning it had been Nathan who woke first. He laid still so that Kristin wouldn't be disturbed and considered how pleasant this was to wake up with Kristin curled against his side, with her head and arm on his chest and her leg thrown over his. He idly wondered if this was going to last.

Kristin stirred a little and ran her fingers through the hair on his chest. She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and lazily raised her eyes to meet his.

"I was afraid that this was a dream."

Nathan had brushed some of her hair out of her eyes. "No, it's real."

Kristin had brought a finger up to trace the curve of his chin. "Why?"

Nathan had chuckled slightly. "I figured out that it was a little difficult to get you to talk to me if we weren't talking."

Kristin had rolled over to be more on top of him and returned his smile. "Yes, I suppose so. What now?"

"Now we try for a return to normality," Kristin had raised her eyebrow. "Well, as close to normality as we ever seem to get." She smiled and snuggled closer. Nathan had lifted his head so that he could look at her. "We still need to talk though."

Kristin had also raised her head and traced his lips with her finger. "Later... later," she had said as their lips joined again.

For the next few days it was as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Nathan reflected that even his stomach had decided to behave itself for a few days. That was at least until two weekends ago. It was beginning to seem like weekends were the danger times for them. Maybe that was because they usually couldn't avoid spending at least some time together during the weekend.

They had both worked on Saturday but managed to find time to eat lunch together. On Sunday, both Nathan and Kristin somehow managed to be off. Lucas had taken off on a date so they had the whole day together in the house. After they had finished their breakfasts Nathan had tried once again to bring up the subject of a talk.

Nathan had just finished drying the last dish from the cleanup as Kristin wiped down the countertop.

"Do you think we could talk today, Kris?" Nathan had said to her back as she wiped the counter.

Kristin just ignored the question. "Were you going to spend the day here or did you have a project to work on?"

Nathan had tried again. "Well, I thought that you and I might talk."

Kristin had kept her focus on the countertop. "Because if you had nothing to do I thought you might want to come shopping with me."

The frustration of her refusing to answer finally got to Nathan and he had slammed his hand down on the counter next to her. "Dammit Kristin, will you talk to me?"

Kristin had casually looked over at him. "Is there anything else you'd like to throw around while you're at it?"

Nathan had regained control of his voice and almost gained control of his temper. "I didn't throw anything," he had said tightly, "I slammed my hand down on the counter."

"And a very grownup demonstration it was," she had said as she turned away from him.

"This isn't going away, Kris."

Kristin had stopped and let out a deep sigh. "Just let it drop, Nathan."

"I can't."

"You won't," she had firmly.

"No, I can't." Nathan had moved so he was standing to her side and she had finally looked at him. "Kris... it seems that I'm good enough to shack up with but not good enough to marry."

She had shaken her head. "That's not true, Nathan."

"Really???" Nathan had asked a little sarcastically. "Then how would you explain our current situation? Am I on a test drive or something?"

"Nathan," she had said in an exasperated voice.

"Then just tell me why... that's all I want to know, Kris."

A frown had clouded her face. "I can't talk about it, Nathan," she had said in a little voice.

Nathan had just closed his eyes in exasperation and clenched his teeth. He had shaken his head and looked up at her. "No, you won't talk about it. There's a big difference there, Kris. For God's sake just tell me how long you intend to drag me through the tide pools on this."

Kristin had stood there for just a moment and then turned towards Nathan. She had brought her hands up and started playing with the buttons on his shirt. "Nathan, don't you think we could come up with something better to do than argue?" she had asked as she unbuttoned the top two buttons and slid her hands inside the shirt onto his bare shoulders.

Nathan's hands had come up to firmly grasp her upper arms. "Yeah, we could talk."

Kristin had shaken her head in irritation and pulled her hands out of his shirt. "Oh, forget it," she had said as she tried to turn away but Nathan had a firm hold on her arms. "Nathan, let go of me."

He had locked his gaze with hers and then dropped his hands off her arms and took a step back. Frustration had taken over where reason should have been. "Well, I know that it's not marriage as an institution that you object to. God knows you've tried it often enough already."

A shocked look had crossed Kristin's face and she had brought her right hand up and delivered a resounding slap to his left cheek. "You bastard," she murmured as she turned and fled back to the bedroom. Nathan had just stood there with an irritated look on his face before grabbing his helmet and jacket and leaving the house.

He'd made it all of three blocks away from the house before he had gotten the first ticket... and of course it had to be Officer Dragen. During the year that Nathan had lived in the beach house he'd had occasion to meet with several of the police officers who patrolled the area. The only one he didn't like was Dragen and Dragen didn't like him. That ticket hadn't been too bad though. Only 45 in a 25. It had been putting up with the smirk on Dragen's face as he issued the ticket that had started Nathan's stomach churning.

He'd been more careful on his way out of town after that. He knew where he wanted to go to, it was a favorite section of road. Nice and straight, well, mostly straight, with hardly any traffic, where he might be able to open it up a little without attracting too much attention. On the way there he'd run through the conversation with Kristin in his head... if you could call what they had a conversation. It just amazed him sometimes. He could captain a billion dollar boat, smooze with politicians he couldn't stand, suck up to industry and businesses to get money for additions to the boat, but he couldn't manage to have a civil conversation with the one person who meant the most to him in the world. ‘Nice job, Bridger', he had said to himself. ‘Terrific use of your famed suave and style.' Just about then he'd reached the section of road that he liked. Traffic was almost non-existent and Nathan had taken advantage of the clear roadway to crank the bike up to as fast as it could go. He'd traveled about ten miles before a glance in his rear-view mirror showed the flashing lights following him. For just a moment he'd toyed with blowing the cop off and sliding down a side road, but he didn't want anyone getting racked up in an accident trying to catch him at this speed, so he had throttled back and pulled over until the officer caught up with him.

When the squad car pulled in behind him, Nathan had been sitting on the bike with his helmet off glaring at the ground in front of him. Not surprisingly, the officer had been a little hesitant in his approach from the squad. Nathan knew what kind of adrenaline rush could come from a chase like that so he had made sure that his hands were nice and visible to the officer. He had glanced over at the young officer as he came up level with him.

"You ever have one of those really bad days?"

The officer had nodded, still wary. "Yeah, but I think it just got worse." Even Nathan had to chuckle at that as he handed his license to the officer. "So I'm curious... why did you stop, Mr. Bridger?"

Nathan had slid off the bike and leaned up against it. "Two reasons. One I didn't want you chasing me and maybe ending up in an accident trying to catch me." He paused a second. "And two, if the flash that I caught in my rear view was right, you guys have set up a speed catcher about four miles back that got me anyway."

That had elicited a small grin from the officer. "Yeah, we did and it did catch you. That's a pretty fast bike you've got there... 165 in a 65 mile an hour zone." Nathan had grimaced and stared at the ground in front of his feet. "That's too fast for a signature, Mr. Bridger. You're going to need to put up a bond."

Nathan had groaned and shook his head a little. "How much and do we do this here or do we need to go into the station?"

"You're going to need to put up a $500 bond and we'll need to go to the station."

"So the only question left is if I'm going to have a perfectly shitty day and you're going to tell me that I need to ride in with you or if you're going to let me follow you in."

The officer had been kind of enjoying getting a reasonable violator for a change and grinned back at Bridger. "Well, you're going to have at least one thing go right today. You follow me in." His instructions had been carefully emphasized. "You stay behind me. You don't speed. You don't try and run away and I hold onto your license."

Nathan had put his helmet back on. "If I was going to run, I would have done it already. You lead the way." He'd followed the officer carefully into the station and posted his bond. By the time that he'd left the police station Nathan had pretty well calmed down and he'd cautiously, and slowly, driven back to the house. Nathan had parked the bike under the house and slowly walked up the steps. Although Kristin's car had been parked in it's place there was no sign of her in the house and Nathan just deposited his helmet and his jacket on the credenza. He'd headed into the kitchen to make himself some lunch and then carried that back to the den to work on his thesis some more.

Kristin had been out on the beach walking. She'd been walking for probably about an hour and a half. When she'd finally come out of the bedroom, Nathan's jacket and helmet had been missing so he must have taken off on the bike. Kristin had hoped that the fresh breeze on her face and the sound of the waves would help clear her mind but she was disappointed. She just didn't know how she was going to talk to Nathan about her reasons for not wanting to get married. How could she make him understand? How could she even bring herself to talk about it enough to make him understand? Or how could she just get him to accept that this was the way that it had to be?

She had walked up the steps to the porch and found the door open. One of the men must have returned and she wasn't taking any bets on it being Lucas. Sure enough, Nathan's helmet and jacket lay on the credenza where he had put them when he came in. That was one of his particular faults... he was always dumping the helmet and jacket somewhere when he came back from a ride rather than putting them where they belonged. Kristin had picked up the helmet and jacket to put them away. As she had hung up the jacket a couple of notices fluttered out of the inside pocket and Kristin had glanced at them as she picked them up.

‘Oh, he isn't going to be happy, getting a ticket from Dragen,' she had thought. She didn't know why but the two of them definitely didn't care for each other. Her glance had fallen on the second notice and she had visibly blanched. She could hear Nathan typing away in the den and she'd walked that way and just stood in the doorway staring at him until he noticed her. He'd looked up at her with an irritated look on his face and then turned back to his typing without ever saying a word.

Kristin had held up the two notices. "These fell out of your jacket when I hung it up because you didn't."

Nathan had leaned back in his chair and in a monotone voice said, "Gee, thanks." He had turned back to stare at his computer screen.

Kristin's voice was just as level and calm. "Can I ask you one question?"

Nathan had thumped his thumb against the chair arm in irritation and finally glanced at her quickly and said, "Yeah, go ahead."

She had held up one of the notices. "I can understand the ticket from Dragen, although I'm sure you made his day by letting him give it to you." She had held up the second notice with the bond receipt attached. "But do you think there's a point somewhere in your life where you just might grow up?"

There had been quite a pause before Nathan had crossed his arms over his chest and answered. "No, why should I?" he had sighed. "It doesn't seem like it's much fun being a grownup."

She had held up the first notice again. "Nathan, this is stupid." Then she had waved the second. "But this is insane. You're going to get yourself killed."

He had looked back at the computer. "I didn't think you cared."

"Nathan..." she had started to say in an exasperated voice.

"No wait," he had stopped her. "Tell you what. How about we talk." He'd held up his hand to forestall her objection and continued. "But instead of me wanting you to talk you listen to me talk." Nathan had indicated the folded up futon and Kristin sat down there.

"Maybe I need to explain why this is important to me... why it matters to me." He had taken a breath and appeared to gather his thoughts. "You may have noticed during the last year, and for that matter the year before, that... that perhaps due to my age but more likely due to my upbringing, I'm a little old fashioned." A small tender smile had crossed Kristin's face. "I open doors for women, I pull out your seat... things like that. It's just the way I was raised, Kristin," he'd said earnestly. "I'm old fashioned when it comes to relationships, too. I believe that there's a natural progression in a relationship and there comes a time when a commitment is required."

"That didn't seem to worry you six months ago," Kristin had said quietly.

He'd sighed and looked down at his hands. "Maybe I should have worried." He'd been quiet for almost a minute before continuing. "We've always had a..." he'd struggled for the word, "...volatile relationship. We're both tremendously stubborn... but I've got no doubt in my mind that I love you tremendously... and I've got no doubt that you love me."

"No, neither one of us has to worry about that."

"But I'm not sure that's going to be enough."

Kristin had closed her eyes and tented her hands. "Nathan, I just don't understand why you've got to have this ‘traditional' relationship. I mean, it's not like you've followed this ‘natural progression'. We'd been sleeping together long before we started living together."

"I know."

She'd opened her eyes and looked at him. "And you're not even going to tell me that you were a virgin when you married Carol, are you?"

He'd raised his head at that. "Hell no. I'd been married before."

Kristin had sat back on the futon. "You what?" she had asked, surprised.

"It didn't last long," Nathan had replied in a discouraged voice.

"You never told me that."

Nathan had sighed again. "It seems like an unwritten rule around here I don't ask you about your husbands and you don't ask me about my wives." He'd continued in an exasperated voice. "Oh, and to answer your original question no, I didn't even get it right the first time around." Kristin had cocked a quizzical eyebrow at him. "It's supposed to be ‘you get married, the wife gets pregnant, and you have a baby'. It seems we got the first two switched a bit."

"You mean you've got another child out there?"

"No," Nathan had shaken his head and glanced out the window. "My daughter died." There had been a silence between the two of them for quite a while before Nathan spoke again. "And you're diverting... you're getting me off the subject of this relationship." Nathan had swiveled his chair so that he was facing Kristin. He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "Kristin, as it stands this relationship has six months to go."

"What do you mean?" Kristin had asked in a shocked voice.

"Kris, in six months the seaQuest is finished and one way or another, I go back to sea." He had stopped and continued in a strained voice. "And as it stands right now there's no way we can continue."

"But what if I'm part of the crew?"

Nathan had leaned back. "And what?? As an unmarried couple we shared a cabin?? I don't think so."

"Well, what if we had separate cabins?"

"Nope." Nathan had folded his arms and shaken his head. "Somehow, knowing the two of us we'd have a little trouble staying out of each others beds between shoreleave and that would be a great example, wouldn't it?? The Captain and the CMO shacking up and creating the best little soap opera on the boat?"

Kristin had leaned forward in the chair. "What about if I'm not part of the crew. If I stay here on land?" she had said quietly.

"Then I want that commitment," he had said just as quietly.

Kristin had narrowed her eyes a bit. "You mean you don't trust me?"

Nathan had sighed again. "No, I don't mean that I don't trust you and quite honestly, the fact that you'd be willing to take a set of vows wouldn't keep you from cheating on me if you wanted to."

"Then is it for you?"

"Nope, I've never had a problem with that. I never cheated on Cassie and I never cheated on Carol."

"Never?"

He'd slowly shaken his head. "No, never... got close a couple of times but I never did."

Kristin had rubbed her face with her hand. "I don't understand, Nathan. You say that you know that getting married wouldn't stop the other from cheating... then why is it so important to you to get married?"

Nathan had frowned and seemed to concentrate on his answer. "Marriage is about a commitment. There's no commitment, no substance in what we've got now." He was getting frustrated again and rubbed his eyes. "This isn't even a test drive because you're not even looking for something permanent at the end of the drive." She had started talking but Nathan had just shaken his head. "This is convenience... at least that's where it started out at... this is shacking up, just a fling."

Kristin had drawn a deep breath and looked him right in the eye. "This is love, Nathan," she'd said sincerely.

"That isn't enough," he'd said quietly.

Kristin had blinked a couple of times and stared at him. Abruptly she had risen from the futon and walked out of the den without saying another word. She pulled the door shut behind her. Nathan had stared at the closed door for a while and then went back to working on his thesis.

Over the next couple of hours Nathan had heard Kristin moving around in the house but after that it got quiet. He supposed she'd gone out for another walk or something. Burying himself in this damned thesis at least gave him something to do to keep his mind off the whole situation. By the time he had realized that he was hungry, his stomach was sending him painful signals that he needed to pay attention to it. Nathan had headed into the kitchen and made himself a couple of jelly sandwiches. As he walked into the living room he had noticed that the hall closet was open and then he had noticed the gap on the rod where Kristin's coats usually hung. A hollow feeling had settled in his stomach as he had headed into the bedroom almost afraid of what he'd find. Not everything was gone but most of it was. Drawers were pulled out and the closet door was open. Kristin had packed up her clothes from the dresser and most of her dresses from the closet. Her suitcases were missing and even her pillow was gone. For that matter, the only thing of hers remaining on the bed was a stuffed blue bear that Nathan had won for her at a fair last summer. Nathan had sat heavily on the edge of the bed and buried his face in his hands.

Several hours later Lucas had arrived home from his day at the beach. He'd climbed the stairs to the darkened porch wondering if the Captain and the Doc had already gone to bed. It seemed a bit early but then again nothing was normal in this household these days. As Lucas had walked across the porch he was almost frightened to death by the sound of someone letting out a heavy sigh in the darkness.

"Geez, Cap, you scared the crap out of me."

"She's gone," Bridger had said in a quiet voice.

Lucas had sat down in the chair opposite the Captain. "What do you mean, ‘gone'?"

Lucas had seen Nathan lean back in his chair in the dark and stare at the ceiling. "She's gone," he repeated. "Packed up her things and left."

Lucas had been quiet for a while trying to think of something to say. He'd never heard Bridger sound so empty before. "I'm sorry," was all he could come up with. Then, "Is there anything I can do?"

Bridger had brought his head down and looked at the floor. He shook his head slowly. "No, nothing thanks," his voice was almost a whisper.

Lucas could only get up and pat Bridger on the shoulder as he went into the house. After a while, Nathan had gotten up and headed to bed himself. As he lain there he had wondered if this was what it had felt like for Kristin a week ago when he'd stayed away from their bed for three days. He didn't like it at all. The bed was too big, too cold, too lonely for one person. And that night it was also the place where no one got any sleep.

Knowing that he was in no shape to drive, Nathan had caught a ride into work with Lucas the next morning. Being a passenger in a car always had the effect of making him sleepy and just as they arrived at the UEO complex, Nathan had fallen asleep in the car. Lucas had almost hated to wake him up.

He knew better than to touch him. "Cap," he had said loudly, eliciting a small groan from Bridger. Lucas had tried again. "Cap, we're at work you've got to wake up."

Bridger had sighed heavily and opened his eyes. He'd rolled his head over so he was looking at Lucas. "Hell."

Lucas had grinned over at him. "You keep this up and I'll have to drive you around at night so you can fall asleep."

Nathan had made a face at him, yawned and reached for the door handle. "Thanks for the ride."

Nathan had managed to get through the day on autopilot and was more than ready to leave when Lucas showed up for the ride home. This time they were barely out of the UEO complex before Bridger was sound asleep in the passenger seat of the car. Lucas had driven home slowly and when they arrived at the beach house he had helped Bridger up the steps and into bed.

It had been three days later when Bridger and Westphalen had run across each other in the UEO cafeteria. Nathan had gotten his tray of food and was searching out a place to sit when he saw Kristin sitting at a table alone on the fringes of the cafeteria.

"Hi," he'd said. "I needed to see you. Mind if I share your table?"

"Oh, really," she'd answered in that beautifully accented voice of hers. "Sure, why not."

As Nathan sat down Kristin had inspected his tray with a quizzical look. "What is it about you and jelly sandwiches these days?"

"I happen to like them," Nathan had answered defensively.

"Uh huh... what did you need to see me about?"

"I did the laundry last night and I've got a bunch of your things that were in with the dirty stuff. I... um... washed, dried and folded them and if you'd like, I'll bring them in for you tomorrow."

Kristin had smiled. Lucas was coming out way ahead in this deal. Kristin knew that it was his turn to do the laundry this week but Nathan must have done it to give himself something to do. "Or I suppose I could come and pick it up."

Nathan had looked at her over his sandwich. "Yeah, you could do that."

"How about tonight, right after dinner?"

"How about tonight for dinner?" Nathan had countered.

"I'd like that," Kristin had smiled. She had glanced at her watch. "Rats, I've got to be in a meeting in five minutes." She had stood and taken her tray. "So I'll see you tonight."

"Right, about um... six, six-thirty?"

"That would be lovely," she had said as she deposited her tray and gave a small wave as she left.

Shortly after six that night Kristin had pulled her small green sports car into the spot it had occupied for the last six months. She'd mounted the stairs and crossed the porch before spotting Nathan busy in the kitchen. It had felt rather strange but she had softly knocked on the frame of the door as she came in.

"Knock, knock," she had called.

Nathan had raised his head from the pot he was stirring. "Hi there, come on in."

The aroma which had wafted through the air was absolutely delicious smelling and Kristin looked over the dining room table which was set for two. Her eyes took in the short, colorful arrangement of fresh flowers in the centerpiece and the candles which graced the table. "This is lovely." She wandered to the island separating the kitchen and the dining room. "Did you throw Lucas out?"

Nathan had chuckled. "No, he and the boys are at a concert tonight... some group I've never heard of. It's not ending until 2 or something so he's staying with Miguel tonight."

She'd smiled back at him. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"You could put the wine on the table," he had said indicating a bottle of white wine sitting on the opposite counter.

They'd enjoyed a quiet, peaceful dinner. Carefully avoiding any discussion which could cause problems. Nathan had cooked up a delicious chicken stroganoff with noodles and a fresh vegetable garnish. The wine he'd chosen perfectly complimented the meal although Kristin noticed that Nathan wasn't drinking much of it. After finishing her meal Kristin was sipping on her wine and her gaze wandered over Nathan's shoulder to take in the colorful closing of the day.

"What a lovely sunset."

Nathan had shifted to take in the changing sky and then turned back to Kristin. "Want to go sit on the porch and watch it?" Kristin had nodded and they had both picked up their wine glasses and moved to sit in wicker chairs on the porch where they had silently watched the gentle dance of the colors as they shifted through the evening sky.

As the last glimmer of the sun slipped down below the horizon Nathan had gently placed his glass on the table between their chairs. He'd looked over at Kristin until she shifted her gaze his way. "What are we going to do, Kristin?" he had asked quietly.

She had taken a small sip of wine and also put her glass on the table. "I can tell you one thing. I've discovered that I don't like sleeping without you next to me," she'd said in a small voice.

"Nope, me neither." He had rested his elbows on his legs and put his chin on his folded hands. "It seems to me that if we spend the next six months apart then this relationship has no chance." He had glanced over at her quickly and she had nodded. "If we go back to where we were, at least the last time we were somewhere, then there's at least a chance that we could make this a permanent thing."

"Yes." Her voice had been almost a whisper.

Nathan had sat back and looked at her and shrugged. "And if nothing else we've got the next six months."

Kristin had smiled softly and slowly stood. She had walked over to his chair and lowered herself into his lap. Her arms had circled his neck as his had found their familiar place around her waist. She had leaned her head against his shoulder as he stroked her back and side. "Can I come home?" she had asked softly into his ear.

"Absolutely," he breathed into her soft auburn tresses. They had sat like that on the porch for a long time, just finding comfort in each other's embrace.

Chapter 5: Shelter From the Storm

And that was how they had gotten to where they were today. Nathan sat back in his chair on the porch and watched the forming and sifting of the high, white clouds in the sky. It was astonishing to think that so much had occurred in just the last three weeks. They'd slipped back into a normal, comfortable routine with only a few changes. The gentle reminders he gave her about wanting to talk sometime and her even more gentle refusals had set an undercurrent for him. It bothered him that she didn't care enough to explain her problems with marriage. Nathan knew that her silence had a lot to do with the condition of his stomach. He really didn't want their relationship to end but unless she changed her mind and talked to him, that was where it was heading. Normally, he would have had no problem seeking her advice about this stomach pain but when it had really started acting up was when they weren't talking. Then, by the time they'd gotten back together he wasn't about to let her know and get the lecture that he knew would accompany it. He was getting enough lectures about his driving Not that he had to worry about that for a few weeks now and he could take care of his stomach. He'd had this problem before and all it took was a little judicious regulation of his diet and trying to calm down some. He really didn't need to bother her about it.

A couple hours later Nathan stopped at the top of the steps to secure the house. It was such a nice evening that he was going to take a walk down the beach. May as well see if a walk could be a substitute for a drive... he was going to get a lot of practice in that. As he turned to walk down the stairs he spotted the top of a set of police lightbars over the dune to the north of their house. Curious, Nathan walked north on the beach for about a quarter mile and then slipped in between a cut in the dunes to check out the roadway. Sure enough there, was Dragen sitting in his squad car watching Bridger's house. He'd picked his spot well and from what Nathan could see, Dragen probably could see if he crossed the driveway from the house and headed for his car while keeping the squad car mostly hidden. Nathan headed back to the beach and his house with a small smile on his face.

Ten minutes later Kristin pulled her little sports car into her spot next to Nathan's car. She got out of her car and walked around it to the driver's door of Nathan's car. She looked down into the car where Nathan was sitting.

"Hi," he said with a grin on his face.

"What in heaven's name are you doing?"

"I am sitting in my car."

"You can't drive that car, Nathan."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know, the keys are upstairs."

A look of confusion covered Kristin's face. "Then why are you sitting in the car?"

Nathan grinned again. "I'm sitting in the car because Dragen is sitting in his squad on the street watching the house. I'm trying to drive him crazy."

Kristin smiled and shook her head. Sometimes he could be the goofiest guy she knew. She opened his car door and said, "Slide over."

"Huh?"

"Slide over," she repeated a bit more forcefully.

Nathan shrugged and slid over into the passenger seat. Kristin lowered herself into Nathan's driver's seat and put her key for his car into the ignition. She looked over at Nathan with a conniving smile and put on his seaQuest ballcap that had been laying on the console. "Duck down," she ordered. Nathan grinned and did as he was told.

Just moments later Officer Dragen was surprised but not so surprised when he saw Bridger's blue Mercedes pull out of the drive and head away from him down the street. He'd been looking at another house at the moment it pulled out but he could see that there was only one person visible in the car... and Dragen knew who that person had to be. He pulled out but didn't catch up to the blue car until it had reached the stop sign at Manatee Road. Dragen grinned and turned on his overhead lights. The Mercedes pulled smoothly into the curb and Dragen pulled up behind it. He got out of his squad and walked to Bridger's driver's door with a smug smile on his face. When he looked through the driver's window he was surprised to see that red-headed doctor that Bridger was shacking up with in the driver's seat and Bridger leaning over in the passenger seat.

"Good evening, Officer Dragen," said the woman in a British accent. Dragen glanced from her to Bridger.

"Just tying my shoe," explained Bridger.

The officer glanced back at Kristin. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked innocently.

Dragen narrowed his eyes and then glared at Bridger. "Goodnight," he said and walked back to his squad without another word.

Nathan and Kristin both sat in the car quietly until Dragen had pulled his squad car out and headed down the road. As soon as he was out of sight, Nathan leaned back and erupted in laughter. Kristin sat chuckling with her hand on Nathan's leg. Nathan finally subsided into an occasional chuckle. He put his hand up to cup Kristin's face and gently caressed the side of her cheek with his thumb.

"Thank you... that was great."

Kristin shook her head with a smile and turned the ignition back on again. "Okay, you were right. Don't ever grow up, Nathan." She looked quickly over at him as she pulled out on the road again. "As long as we're out, do you want to get some dinner?"

Nathan reached over to rub her thigh. "Sure. I chose last night... you get to choose tonight."

"Umm, how about Mexican?"

Nathan shrugged. "Okay."

After dinner they'd gone straight home and Kristin had gone back to the den to check her mail. Nathan snuck around to the bathroom to hit the medicine chest. About the blandest thing he could find at the Mexican restaurant was nachos and they were doing the flamenco in his stomach right now. He downed a double dose of his stomach medicine reflecting that it would have worked a lot better if he'd taken it before eating. He went into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of milk. Shortly after he sat down on the porch he heard the vid-phone ring and Kristin answer it. She'd come out on the porch a little bit later.

"You're doing a lot of this sitting on the porch in the dark these days."

Nathan chuckled. "That's the way you see the stars."

"Nathan, it's cloudy."

He pointed out at the sky. "There's breaks in the clouds... you can still see the stars."

"Uh huh," she said doubtfully. She reached down and squeezed his shoulder. "Look, would you mind if I went out again?" Nathan looked up at her. "The phone call was from Ken at work. Sandra O'Conner, you remember her, she was that blond lab tech who left to get married last year." Nathan nodded. "Well, she's back in town for a visit and several of the team are meeting over at Casey's to see her."

"Sure, no problem."

"Unless you'd like to come along?"

"Oh no," said Nathan hastily. "All I need is another meeting with Kelly." Kelly was one of Kristin's employees who had made a move on him. Every time Nathan went to any of the Department of Biological Oceanography functions Kelly almost drooled over him.

"Chicken " teased Kristin.

"Have a good time without me," Nathan grinned.

"I won't be too late," called Kristin on her way out the door.

After she left Nathan relaxed and gave into the grimaces caused by the turmoil in his stomach. That was the real reason for sitting on the darkened porch. When he was sitting out there Kristin and Lucas couldn't see the occasional flashes of pain that he didn't manage to hide. Tonight was definitely not a good night. He wouldn't have thought that the nachos could have caused this much commotion in his midsection. Besides, sitting in the dark like this helped him calm down and he'd found that keeping calm was a major help to his stomach.

Lucas called to let him know that he and Becky were going out to dinner and then a movie so he shouldn't wait up for him. A little after ten Nathan had given up himself and headed back to bed. He heard Lucas come in a little after eleven and just before midnight Kristin slipped into bed beside him. The comfortable warmth of her curled beside him lulled him off to sleep.

An hour or so later Nathan was awake again. It appeared that the nachos were making their presence known again and he woke to sharp pains in his stomach. As he became fully awake, Nathan realized that there was something more than the nachos wrong here. The sharp pains he felt were deeper than they had been before and didn't seem to pass quite as quickly. Nathan started to turn to get out of the bed but was momentarily doubled over by a much more severe pain than he'd had before. Struggling to keep from groaning aloud, Nathan consciously took deep breaths until the pain subsided some. Then he tried once more to turn out of the bed. He had no better luck the second time around as another serious sharp pain hit his midsection. This wasn't good. He reached over and shook Kristin's shoulder.

"Kris."

"Ummm?"

He shook her shoulder again. "Kris," he said a little more insistently.

"No, Nathan, not tonight. Go back to sleep," she responded sleepily.

Nathan sighed and shook her shoulder again. "Come on, Kris."

"Nathan..." she started in an exasperated voice as she half turned towards him. Suddenly another severe pain lanced through Nathan's stomach and he groaned. Kristin turned towards him, immediately awake. "Nathan, what's wrong?" Her hand went to his forehead which was sweaty and hot. "Your appendix?"

"No, stomach ulcer."

"Nathan, no one gets stomach ulcers these days," she said disapprovingly as she sat up in the bed to check him over.

"I do," he said through clenched teeth. "It's happened before." He was doubled over in pain.

Kristin grabbed her medical case from the dresser, checked out his vitals and gave him a quick examination. "Nathan, I need you to stay here. I'll be right back," she said as she patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said in a small, pain-laced voice.

Kristin opened the door to Lucas' bedroom and crossed to the bed. Lucas was lying on his side facing away from the door. Kristin grabbed his shoulder and gave it a shake. "Lucas, I need you to wake up," she said loudly and headed back out of his room towards the den.

A surprised and barely awake Lucas stumbled out of his bed and followed her down the hallway. He got to the door of the den just as she got her connection on the vid-phone.

"911. Where is your emergency?" asked the surprisingly alert looking man on the vid- phone.

"I need an ambulance, please at 428 Gulfside Drive." That woke Lucas up. Kristin knew what kind of information they'd need. "I've got a 57 year old male with severe abdominal pain, conscious and alert. It might be a bleeding or perforated ulcer."

"Alright, ma'am," he could be seen checking a screen off to the side. "And that would be the Bridger residence?"

"Yes."

"I've got an ambulance on the way. Will someone be able to meet them at the door?"

"Yes."

"Alright, 428 Gulfside Drive. The ambulance should be there shortly."

"Thank you," said Kristin severing the connection. She turned towards Lucas, who was standing in the doorway looking concerned.

"Is he alright?"

"Lucas, I'm not sure what's wrong with him yet. It could be an ulcer, it could be his appendix, it could be any number of things. He needs to go to the hospital to be sure." Kristin could see the worry in Lucas' face. "I need you to let the ambulance in. Can you do that?"

Lucas nodded soundlessly and headed towards the front door.

Kristin returned to their bedroom where Nathan was still lying doubled over on his side. She sat down beside him and checked his forehead again. It was even warmer than it had been earlier.

"What did you do?" Nathan asked suspiciously.

"I called an ambulance, Nathan."

Nathan was shaking his head. "No I don't want an ambulance," he said between stabs of pain.

Kristin leaned closer to him, putting one hand across his chest and rubbing his back with the other. "You don't have a choice, Nathan. There's no way I can diagnose you here and with the kind of pain you're having this could be serious."

"I hate hospitals." He was quieter now.

"I know, darling." There were advantages to living close to the fire station. Kristin could hear the ambulance pull up outside.

"Kris?" he said softly.

"Hmm?"

"This really hurts," he said in a voice tinged with pain.

"I know, Nathan. Another good reason for the hospital. They can help the pain." She held him close as another stab of pain caused him to groan.

And then the paramedics were at the door efficiently moving Nathan to a stretcher while obtaining his vital signs. Lucas watched helplessly from the doorway, shocked by the chalky pallor of the Captain's skin. Kristin slipped into the bathroom to make a fast change of clothes so that she could accompany the ambulance to the hospital. When she came out she checked quickly with the paramedics and then went to Lucas.

Lucas had a scared, lost look on his face. "They're going to be taking him to St. Mary's. I'm going to ride with the ambulance. Could you close up the house and follow us there?" Lucas kept his eyes glued on the sight of the stretcher being rolled through the living room as he nodded to Kristin. She put a hand on his arm and looked him in the face. "Are you alright?"

His gaze shifted to Kristin's face. "Yeah, I'll be alright... just take care of him," he said in a small, choked voice.

Kristin patted his arm and gave him a small smile. "Be sure you bring his car. We'll be optimistic and say that we'll all be coming home in it. Drive carefully."

Lucas feebly returned the smile and headed into his bedroom as Kristin followed the stretcher out the door. After the tricky exercise of getting the stretcher down the stairs Nathan was wheeled into the ambulance for the short ride to the hospital. During the ride Nathan kept his eyes closed as the paramedics started an IV and rechecked his vitals. A grimace of pain was always on his face, sometimes only showing a mild discomfort and sometimes showing evidence of a sharp, severe stab of pain.

When they arrived at the hospital Kristin got out and walked next to the stretcher holding Nathan's hand. He opened his eyes enough to glance up at her. "Are we having fun yet?"

Kristin smiled down at him and shook her head. "I don't know about you, but I can't imagine having more fun than we are right now."

He smiled just a little and said softly, "Yeah, that's the problem with a limited imagination."

As Nathan was moved from the stretcher to a treatment bed Kristin was pleased to see that the attending doctor was someone that she knew. Doctor Frank Carson had been the one on duty when Nathan and Lucas had managed to have a little run-in with some neighborhood burglars a couple of months ago. He smiled at Kristin has he came into the treatment area. "Kristin, you're looking good." He shifted his attention to the patient. "Nathan, you're looking like hell."

"That's better than I feel."

Doctor Carson looked up at Kristin and the paramedics. "So what have we got here?"

Kristin answered, "Severe abdominal pain. He seems to think it's an ulcer."

Carson glanced up at Kristin. "No one gets ulcers these days."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Nathan said in a small voice from the bed.

Kristin gave Carson a knowing look, "He says he's had one before."

"I've had two before," Nathan corrected. He closed his eyes and an uncomfortable look crossed his face. In a strained voice he continued, "And I think that in just a moment I may convince you."

"Are you going to be sick?" Kristin asked in an alarmed voice.

"Um hmm," groaned Nathan as one of the paramedics quickly, strategically placed what was commonly referred to as a ‘barf bucket' next to Nathan. Kristin rubbed his back while he made use of the container and gently smoothed his hair back when he was done.

"For what it's worth I feel better," he said softly after taking a small drink of the water that Kristin offered.

"And for what it's worth I believe that your diagnosis is probably right. You probably do have a bleeding ulcer," said Dr. Carson. "So, how long have you had your stomach pain?"

Nathan glanced quickly at Kristin. "The better part of three weeks now but it wasn't really that bad until tonight."

"Three weeks?" asked Kristin.

Nathan grimaced and rubbed his eyes. Carson thought it might be a good idea to deflect the conversation. "You know we can do wonderful things with endoscopes these days."

Nathan glared over at the doctor. "Does that mean you want to go in and have a look?"

Carson shrugged. "Well, it's that or a barium x-ray."

Nathan laid back and made a face. "I've had both. I'll take the endoscope."

"I can't say as I blame you," said Carson. "I'm going to need to do an exam first and then we'll be doing some blood workups and such on you first to eliminate any other problems and get you something for the pain."

"I don't suppose we could get the pain part taken care of first?"

Carson grinned down at him. "I'll be as quick as I can, I promise."

Kristin went out to the waiting room to let Lucas know what was going on while Carson completed the exam. She found the young man pacing the end of the emergency waiting room and it reminded her of watching Nathan pace when things got tense. Lucas had picked up some of his mannerisms. He stopped and stared as he caught sight of Kristin. "Is he alright?"

She pulled him down to sit beside her in a chair. "So far he's doing okay. It looks distinctly like he might have a bleeding ulcer."

Lucas glanced over at her with a disbelieving look. "No one gets ulcers these days."

"So I've been told," Kristin said chuckling, "but it does appear that he's managed to get one. They're probably going to need to use an endoscope to go have a look."

Lucas sat back in his chair. "Oh, that sounds pleasant."

"I don't think he's really looking forward to it but at this point I think he'll settle for anything that makes it hurt less." She patted Lucas' hand. "Doctor Carson is examining him now and we should have a better idea of how he is after they get some lab tests done."

Lucas shook his head slowly. "It's always something, isn't it?"

Kristin smiled a little grin. "Yes, always something. I'm going to go back and check on him some more. I'll let you know whenever we find anything out."

Lucas gave her hand a little squeeze. "Thanks for the update. Sometimes he drives me crazy."

"I know the feeling," Kristin said as she stood up. She patted Lucas' shoulder. "It's just the creative ways in which he drives me crazy that drives me crazy."

Lucas smiled a big smile up at her. "Funny, he said something similar to me about you not too long ago."

Kristin cocked an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really. Perhaps we'll discuss that later," and she headed back into the treatment area.

Doctor Carson was just finishing with the exam as Kristin got back to the treatment room. There were several vials of blood sitting in the tray next to the bed.

Kristin glanced over at the tray. "So do you have any blood left in you at all, Nathan?"

That got a small smile from him. "I don't think so. I think this guy's nationality is Transylvanian."

Carson smiled and held up one more syringe. "As promised something for the pain. Roll over, Nathan." Kristin went to stand next to Nathan as Carson injected the painkiller into his hip. She rubbed his arm as he flinched at the needle stick. "About 10 minutes or so and that should start kicking in." Nathan rolled onto his back again. "The lab should take a little while to get the results up here and to tell you the truth, I'd rather hold you until dayshift to have the endoscope done."

"Why?" Nathan flinched again as another sharp stab of pain worked its way through.

"Dayshift today we've got one of our best gastro-intestinal people on and I'd like her to see you for two reasons. One, she's the best we have with the endoscope and two, she doesn't get too many chances to see a stomach ulcer, or for that matter a duodenal ulcer if that what it turns out to be. I expect she'd like to have a look at it."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere."

Carson patted him on the shoulder. "I'll let you know when the lab results are back," he told Kristin as he left the room.

Kristin smoothed Nathan's hair off his forehead. "How are you feeling?"

Nathan grimaced. "Like a pin cushion... but a little better. I'll be a lot happier when the painkiller kicks in."

"I would think so." Kristin pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down. She put her hand over his and squeezed it. She looked up at him. "So this has been going on for three weeks?"

Nathan made a face. "Yeah."

"And you didn't say anything to me?"

"Well, when it first kicked up we weren't talking."

"That was that Friday night you asked me to marry you?" she said quietly.

"Um hum. Then when we settled down for a little while so did my stomach so there was no reason to bother you with it." Kristin just nodded with a doubtful look on her face. Nathan sighed and put his head back on the pillow. "Then the next weekend when we had more problems it really went into high gear but we weren't talking again." Kristin just sat there looking at him. "And by the time we got together again, well, let's just say that you had other topics to lecture me on and I didn't want to add to them."

"You should have told me, Nathan."

He shrugged. "I figured I could handle it myself. I thought that watching my diet might give it time to heal."

Kristin nodded. "That's why the sudden taste for jelly sandwiches."

"I am so tired of bland food you can't imagine."

She shook her head at him. "I'll have to make note that you're good at hiding things from me. I knew you were occasionally getting upset stomachs but I never suspected that you were really ill. I suppose now that I look back at it and put the jelly sandwiches and the weight loss and the way you've been acting together it makes sense."

"I did have the added advantage that we haven't seen a whole lot of each other in the last three weeks. Other than bed and when we're getting ready in the morning we've both been too busy... or we've been fighting." Nathan grimaced again but the pain wasn't as severe as before.

"Well, I can tell you one thing. I am certainly going to have a serious discussion with Bill Noyce about this," Kristin said firmly.

A quizzical look rested on Nathan's face. "Why Bill?"

"He's been having you work too damn hard on that boat... that's what caused this."

Nathan leaned his head back on the pillow again and shook his head. "Nah, I've been dealing with the boat for over a year now, that doesn't bother me," he said through a yawn.

"Then how do you explain it?"

"It wasn't the boat, Kristin," he was blinking sleepily and he yawned again. "It's you."

"What... because I wouldn't marry you?"

"No, because you won't tell me why you won't marry me." His eyes were almost closed now. "Hey, was that shot supposed to make me sleepy?"

Kristin stood and brought her hand up to stroke his cheek. "Along with the fact that it's four in the morning... yes and probably a little unfocused too."

"Guilty," was the sleepy reply.

"Why don't you try to get some sleep and we'll wake you when the test results are back."

"Okay," Nathan closed his eyes. He continued sleepily, "Why don't you tell Lucas to go home and go to bed. He can pick us up later."

Kristin's fingers traced the curve of his chin. "I'll see what he wants to do."

Nathan settled his head on the pillow. "Kris?" he said softly.

Kristin ran the back of one finger down his cheek. "Yes, I know. I love you too."

Nathan smiled and drifted off to sleep.

She went back out to the waiting room where Lucas was stretched across three chairs trying to sleep but having no luck. He started getting up but Kristin motioned for him to stay. She squatted down next to the chairs to talk to him.

"He's sleeping. We have to wait for the test results to come back and then they'll probably wait until dayshift to do the endoscope."

"Why?"

"There's a very good gastro-intestinal doctor on dayshift and they'd like for her to see Nathan." Lucas nodded. "Nathan suggested that you go home and get some sleep. You could always come back and pick us up later today."

Lucas was shaking his head. "Nope. I'm staying."

Kristin reached out and patted him on the arm. "I understand. Why don't you try to grab some sleep. I'm going to go back to sit with Nathan."

"Okay," said Lucas as he settled himself on the chairs.

Kristin returned to the treatment room where Nathan was still asleep. She sat in the chair next to the bed and placed her arms over his arm and hand to pillow her head on the bed.

By noon Nathan's stomach pain had been confirmed as a stomach ulcer, bleeding but not perforated. He'd gone through the thrill of having an endoscopy and the gastro-intestinal doctor had decided that it wouldn't be necessary to admit him into the hospital but instead he'd be sent home with loads of medications and strict instructions as to his diet and lifestyle for a while.

Lucas had gone out to the car and brought in Nathan's gym bag so he was now dressed in sweats as he sat on the edge of the bed in the treatment room and waited for last minute instructions from the doctor. Kristin sat in the chair next to the bed. All three of them were looking pretty tired.

Doctor Kaye Planchet walked into the room with a med-slate in her hand. "Alright, Nathan, do you understand the ground rules?"

Nathan let out a soft chuckle. "Yeah, watch what I eat, try to calm down, get some sleep, don't work so hard, try not to worry, and don't forget to take my meds. Oh, and check in with the Navy doctors."

Planchet smiled and nodded. "That about covers it. Also, if there's any recurrence of the pain be sure you get in here." Nathan nodded and Planchet turned to Kristin and smiled. "So, do you think you can handle this character?"

"Oh, yes I can handle him." She fixed Nathan with a severe look. "Right now he's going to go home and go straight to bed for the rest of the day." Nathan grimaced but went along with no protest.

The rest of the Sunday was spent relaxing at the beach house. Lucas had gone out to the drug store and come back with a sizable amount of medications that Nathan needed to take. Even though they had all taken naps after arriving home, they all decided to go to bed early.

Nathan lay in bed on his back with Kristin curled up next to him, her head pillowed on his shoulder and her hand softly kneading his chest.

"You going to take the day off of work tomorrow?" Kristin asked sleepily.

Nathan sighed. "Can't. I've got to go to sick call in the morning."

Kristin shifted her head a little. "You know I never have understood that. You take someone who's sick and tell them that they need to get out of bed so you can tell them that they're sick."

Nathan chuckled. "That's the military for you." He leaned his head over and kissed the top of her head. "Go to sleep. We'll talk about it in the morning."

"Um hmm," was Kristin's soft response as her hand stilled on his chest and her breathing became steady and even as she fell asleep.

Chapter 6: A Port in a Storm

The next morning Kristin drove Nathan into the hospital over on Ft. Gore for sick call. She let him out in front of the west entrance. "How are you going to get back to headquarters?"

"I'll just get ahold of a duty driver. I'll see you later."

"Okay... let me know what they say."

In all the years he'd been in the military Nathan had never liked going to sick call. At least he felt better today with all the meds he was on. He checked in with the corpsman at the front desk and was directed to a seat in a waiting area. He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. A short time later he felt someone sit in the seat next to him and opened his eyes and turned his head that direction.

"Captain, I'm Doctor Dave Wright," the young Navy commander sitting next to him said. "So, you ended up in the hospital yesterday?"

Nathan nodded. "Yup, ambulance ride and all. Probably the most fun I've had in at least the last six months."

"I would think so," the doctor chuckled. Then he looked at Nathan with a skeptical face. "An ulcer????"

Nathan sighed. Here it came again. "Yup."

"Captain, I hate to tell you this but no one gets stomach ulcers these days."

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "Well, doctor, I've been told that I'm unique."

That brought a smile to the doctor's face. "I can imagine that's pretty true." He stood up. "If you'll come this way, sir, I'll check you over and see about getting you out of here."

An hour and a half later Nathan had a duty driver drop him off in front of Kristin's building. After a few false starts he found Kristin working in one of the microbiology labs.

Her face brightened as she looked up from her seat at a work table and spotted him. "So what did they say?" she asked as soon as he got close enough.

"Not surprisingly, the sick call doctor agreed with Dr. Planchet and told me to be sure to take my meds, watch my diet, etcetera. He also said I should take the rest of the day off."

Kristin leaned her head on her hand. "Really. Would you like some company?"

"I was kind of hoping you'd say that," Nathan smiled.

"Hmmm. Let's see, you're supposed to be relaxing, right?" Nathan nodded. "How about if we go pick up something to eat for lunch and go out to the Point?"

The Point was a remote outcropping on the base at New Cape Quest that overlooked the water. It was unreachable by vehicle and well off the beaten path. For that matter to get there you had to walk a half mile through brush down a barely defined path. Kristin and Nathan had discovered that the remoteness of the location meant that few people ventured up there and that the sounds and views from the Point were very relaxing on their own.

The idea of an afternoon away from everyone was very appealing to Nathan. "Sounds good to me. I've got a change of clothes over at my office and I have to let them know what's going on anyway."

Kristin closed her notebook and stood. "Great. You go change and I'll get the food. I'll meet you down in the parking lot in 30 minutes."

"Deal."

Chapter 7: Conquering the Storm

Nathan and Kristin sat back in the shade of the trees ringing the tip of the Point. >From far below, the water could be heard crashing on the rocks and the seagulls wheeled and floated through the air almost close enough to touch. Nathan sat facing Kristin across the gym bag full of food and drinks as they lazily consumed their meal, exchanging only a little small talk and spending most of their time watching the water off of the Point.

Finally Nathan sighed and leaned contentedly back against a tree closing his eyes. "This was a good idea. I don't remember the last time I got to relax like this."

Kristin leaned back against another tree. "It is calming isn't it?" She turned her head so that she could look at Nathan. Her eyes took in the strong cut of his chin and the now too slim frame. She was going to have to see about getting some weight back on him, keeping in mind that his diet was a little restricted for a while. She resisted the urge to slide over next to him and pull that strong body close to hers. He deserved some explanations.

"You know, I think you were probably right."

Nathan cracked one eye open to look at her. "Pray tell... about what?"

"About our unwritten rule that we'd never ask about each other's spouses."

Nathan closed the eye and leaned back again. A quick look of concern flitted across his face. "You don't need to talk about that unless you want to."

"I think I want to." Kristin sat forward with her legs crossed playing with a blade of grass. She shrugged her head. "Well, Alex you know about. He died when Cinny was two years old." Nathan opened his eyes and sat forward with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms leaning on his knees. Kristin wasn't watching him but instead was keeping her gaze focused on the piece of grass. "I already had my medical degree but that was when I decided to go back for my oceanographic biology degree." Her voice held a tone of wonder. "I'd always been fascinated by the things that lived and grew under the water and that gave me a good opportunity to feed that fascination... and also to get away from the places that reminded me of Alex." Kristin discarded the blade of grass and pulled up another one to torment. "I met Jack when I was doing some field work in the Chesapeake Bay area." She glanced over at Bridger quickly. "You know, those politicians need to get out of the Beltway a little bit every once in a while and Chesapeake Bay is a good get-away." Nathan grinned and just continued to watch her.

"Cinny was four at the time and was getting to be quite a package to handle."

"She takes after her mother," Nathan slid in.

Kristin made a face at him. "Actually, I'd probably say that eight of the ten years that Jack and I were together were very nice." She straightened up a bit. "Oh, he liked to parade me around some and have me decorate his arm but it was interesting and he was a very good father for Cynthia. At the parties we went to we met the big shots of the day and he was always in the midst of some great political adventure or two." Kristin sighed and pulled a couple more pieces of grass. "I didn't know that he was having a few more adventures on the side at the same time." She smiled a little self-depreciating smile. "For that matter I was probably the only one in the District of Columbia who wasn't aware that he was sleeping around."

"How'd you find out?"

"One of my friends thought it her duty to tell me." Kristin stopped for a moment in reflection. "I, of course, thought that she was lying. That was until I started putting all the little things together." Nathan nodded with a small grimace on his face. "In the end I just came out and asked him. I'll give him credit... when asked right out, he didn't lie." She tossed the tormented pieces of grass away from her. "So that was the first divorce."

Kristin leaned back against the tree again and hugged her arms around the legs she had pulled close to her. "And then there was Dan." Her voice was almost flippant. "Very dashing, very charming." She cast a disapproving eye over towards Nathan. "Ex-Navy Seal."

He held his hands up. "I never said all sailors were angels."

Kristin smiled a little and leaned her chin on her knees and her voice was a little more tenuous. "We weren't idyllic for quite so long. The honeymoon lasted for all of about four months." Kristin stopped talking and stared out at the water. Nathan wasn't sure if she was going to continue. When she did her voice had a certain hollow sound to it. "Do you know, before I was married to Dan, it really didn't occur to me that a woman could be raped by her own husband?" Kristin still had her eyes fixed out on the water and didn't see the tightening of Nathan's hands on his crossed arms. She shook her head slowly while talking. "He was a big man... very strong... and he certainly didn't like the word ‘no' about anything." A quizzical look replaced her vacant stare and she spoke hesitantly. "Sometimes I can still feel his hands on me, holding me down, tearing my clothes, touching me... hitting me... " Her voice faded away towards the end. She looked up at Nathan who was doing his best to maintain a stoic face. Her voice was still small and had a little catch to it. "I know I shouldn't feel this way but I've always thought that there must have been something that I could have done to stop it or something that I did that caused it."

Nathan sat up and took a deep breath. "No, rape victims don't ‘ask for it'. That's only the rapist's power ploy, whether it be a stranger or someone you know."

Kristin looked back out at the water again. "Yes, well that didn't last for long. One night I noticed that he was watching Cynthia like he watched me right before he attacked." She paused and took a deep breath. "I couldn't let that happen to Cinny. We were out of there that night." She seemed to shake herself some. "Dan didn't argue about the divorce either. I guess he just moved on to gather in another victim." Her eyes narrowed. "I swore then that I'd never fall in love with anyone again."

Kristin closed her eyes and sat there silently for several minutes. Then with her eyes still closed she continued. "I've never told you this but did you know that you were the first man I let touch me since Dan?" She opened her eyes which were glistening with tears and looked over at Nathan. "Honestly, I don't think I've ever been as comfortable with a man as I am with you."

Nathan's voice was a little shaky when he talked and his brow was knotted with concern. "I wish that you'd said something." Nathan wanted nothing more than to move over to Kristin and hold her but he knew she needed space to feel comfortable in her explanations.

A small smile crossed Kristin's face. "Nathan, I've never told anyone about this before." She rubbed her eyes, wiping away the tears. "I'm sure that Cynthia knew but Dan was very good at not leaving visible marks." She shook her head and closed her eyes again. "He certainly left a lot of invisible ones though."

Kristin seemed to gather herself and sat up facing Nathan. "Do you know, though, that as much pain and anguish that Dan inflicted on me, I still believe that I think worse of Jack? I didn't have much in the way of expectations for Dan. I expected some comfortable companionship and perhaps a little fun now and then... but Jack... Jack was a betrayal." She looked at Nathan with an intense look on her face. "It's hard to explain that kind of betrayal and how it clouds your view of things. I don't know that I could explain it well enough for you to understand. Everything always started out so perfect, so right and it went so bad. It always starts out right but then..." Kristin's voice faded and she went back to tormenting the grass near her feet.

Nathan turned his head and silently watched the water for a while before returning his glance to Kristin. He took a deep breath himself and refocused his gaze on his knees. "I was a Machinist Mate Third Class when I met Cassie Meadows." He glanced quickly over at Kristin. "Quite a name, isn't it?" He looked away from her again. "She was a Storekeeper Third Class and was attached to a shore unit at Norfolk where I was stationed aboard the Kidd." Nathan started tormenting his own blades of grass just in front of his feet. "We met at some dance somewhere and started dating hot and heavy." He grimaced a little. "Emphasis on the ‘hot' part. I guess about three months after we started dating she met me at the dock with the announcement that she was pregnant." He gave his head a small shake. "We were married the next weekend. Couldn't get base housing so we moved into a one room walkup just off base." He glanced over at Kristin. "And I do mean one room. The sofa turned into a bed and the kitchen was no more than a countertop and small range at one end of the room... but we did okay "

Nathan stopped a while and Kristin couldn't help but ask. "Did you love her?"

Nathan raised his head and looked at her. "Oh yeah," he said nodding. "I loved her."

"Did she love you?"

Nathan sighed. "Ah, therein lies the rub," he quoted. "I don't know," he said almost to himself. He took a deep breath and continued. "I didn't even manage to be there the night my daughter was born. We were out on trials, just coming back from Roosevelt Roads. One more day and we would have made port in time. As soon as she was born she started having problems They tried to get me off the ship that night but the weather was too bad and we had to wait until morning." Nathan stopped and Kristin wondered if he'd continue. He seemed to have turned inside on himself. Finally he frowned and started up again. "I got there just in time to touch her in the incubator. She was so tiny and there were all those tubes going into her little body." He held up his right hand with his fingers splayed. "She put her tiny hand around my little finger and held on. I know she didn't know what she was holding onto but that didn't matter." He slowly pulled his hand back down. "Then she just died."

He crossed his arms and refocused his gaze onto the water. "Cassie and I just continued normal life... what do you do?" He shook his head a little. "Three months later I got called up on a Captain's Mast. I had no idea what I'd done wrong. It turned out that it was a meritorious Mast. An idea that I'd had for an engine repair had really worked out and the Skipper gave me a two day liberty. Well, I wasn't about to argue. I was off that ship in a flash and on my motorcycle heading home. I went up the stairs, opened the door, turned on the light... saw the two of them in bed." He shifted just his eyes over to Kristin. "I'd caught them at a very inopportune moment." Then he looked away again shaking his head. "I turned the light back off, closed the door and went back to the ship." He leaned back and shrugged. "A week later I was served with papers saying she was filing for divorce. The guy turned out to be one of my shipmates and apparently he wasn't the only one or the first."

They both sat there in silence for a while watching the seagulls come in to partake of the crumbs left from their meal. Nathan again shook his head slowly and pulled up some grass. "For you it was the betrayal. I don't know, I guess that was there... but for me it was how stupid I felt."

Nathan heard a whispered, "Yes," from Kristin.

"It's just I felt like everyone in Norfolk must have known she was messing around except me. I felt like such a fool." He turned towards Kristin and started talking with more emphasis. "And it's not like we were particularly celibate at the time either." He shrugged his hands. "How can someone do something like that... how do you keep the names straight? Just how do you remember who it is that you're sleeping with at the moment?" He shook his head again. "I just don't understand."

Kristin's voice was more pensive than Nathan's. "Isn't it amazing?" Nathan cocked an eyebrow her direction. "It's been what? thirty years?" Nathan nodded. "It's amazing how much it still hurts."

"Yeah," said Nathan, looking to where a tanker was sliding across the water. Again they were quiet for quite a while. Nathan intentionally didn't look at her. He wanted her to be comfortable with whatever decision she made but at the same time she was frustrating the hell out of him. "So I guess it just comes down to trust... that and whether you decide to live your life under an overhang or if you decide to come out into the sunshine." His voice got a bit softer. "I can't promise that there won't be clouds, Kris, but if I've got my way there'll be a lot of sunshine."

Again they were both silent, caught up in their own thoughts.

"Do you know what we need, Kristin?"

"Hmm?"

"We need a vacation." Kristin tilted her head at him and he turned his gaze to her. "Lucas can be on his own for a week. That's what we need... we need a week off."

Kristin had tented her hands and leaned her chin on them. "Can you get away?"

Nathan moved a little closer to her. "Yeah, they won't have a choice... they're going to have to let me go. How about you?"

She smiled at his eagerness. "Yes, I can get away. Where do you want to go?"

Nathan sat down next to her knees. "I don't care... just away from here... away from building boats... away from coral reef experiments... away from the Navy... away from the UEO... just away."

Kristin thought a little. "How about the island?"

"Yeah, we could do that... or anywhere you want to go to."

"Alright," said Kristin leaning back against a tree.

Nathan turned back towards the water and let his eyes wander out to watch the tanker again and Kristin took the opportunity to watch him and think how wonderful, how right it felt to be sitting with him like this. She'd had many arguments with herself over the last three weeks and she knew now that she'd lost them all. Or perhaps she'd really won them all.

"I've got a better idea."

Nathan looked back at her. "What?"

Kristin took a deep breath. "Why don't we spend that week on a honeymoon?" Nathan turned the rest of the way towards her with a look of surprise on his face. Kristin reached one hand up to rest it against his cheek. "Would you like to try again?"

Nathan shifted around until he was on his knees sitting on his ankles looking at Kristin. He reached up and took the hand that caressed his face in his hands. "Kristin, will you marry me?"

She nodded with tears in her eyes. "Yes... yes, my love," she breathed.

Nathan slowly lowered his face to hers and placed a feather-light kiss on her mouth. "Kristin, I love you," he said just before their lips joined in a kiss that was both tender and heartfelt.

Chapter 8: The Eye of the Storm

The couple sat in companionable silence in the peaceful venue of the Point. Somewhere along the way Nathan had ended up sitting on the ground leaning against a tree and Kristin was now sitting sideways in his lap. It was amazing how well they fit together this way. Nathan's left arm lay naturally across Kristin's shoulders and her head was pillowed against his shoulder. Her arm fit under his and her hand was aimlessly caressing Nathan's back. Her other arm lay gently against his chest, absently fingering the buttons on his shirt. Nathan's right hand traced lazy patterns on Kristin's face and neck as the light breeze on the Point ruffled her hair.

Kristin sighed softly.

"Hmmm?" mumbled Nathan.

"I was just thinking."

"'Bout what?" asked Nathan quietly.

"We've got some decisions to make, don't we?"

Nathan leaned his head over to look at her face. "Like what?"

"Like do we want a big wedding or a small wedding?"

"Yeah..." Nathan leaned his head back again. His voice was calm and gentle. "I don't know, what do you want?"

She looked up at him a little. "Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"I've had my big wedding. I don't think I need another one."

"Good... that sounds like a plan to me too. Plus the bigger the wedding, the longer it's going to take to put together. I don't know about you but I'd rather not wait very long to get this done."

He could feel Kristin smile against his chest. "Afraid I'll change my mind?" she teased.

"Nope." He traced his finger along the curve of her ear. "I'm just tired of waiting."

They were quiet for a while more.

"Nathan?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you wear your uniform?"

Nathan pulled his head back to look at her again and then lowered down to look her in the eyes. "You want me to wear my uniform?"

Kristin looked up at him and finding his chin in a good position planted a quick kiss on it. "Yeah. If you don't mind."

"Kristin, I'd get married in a pair of swim trunks if you wanted me to."

Her hand moved up to caress the side of his face. "No, I won't do that to you." She leaned in to snuggle against his chest again as Nathan leaned back. "I guess there are some really important decisions we have to make, too."

"Like what?" Nathan repeated.

"Like what happens to Lucas."

Kristin felt Nathan hold his breath for just a second. "What do you mean, ‘what happens to Lucas'?"

"Well... in my book he stays right where he's at... but we may want to check with him to see if that's what he wants."

Nathan chuckled a little. "Somehow, considering the fact that he's put up with us living together for the last six months, I don't think that us getting married is going to make a big difference to him."

"No, I don't think so either... but we're going to have to be sure he understands that he's still welcome in the house."

Nathan nodded. "Yeah."

"And then there's the question of children."

Nathan paused in his caress of her neck. "What about children."

"Well, I hope I'm not going to upset you... but I've done the mommy routine and I'd really rather not do it again." She looked up at him. "Unless you'd really like to have children."

Kristin could have sworn that there was a moment of panic in Nathan's eyes before he slowly started to shake his head. "No... Not having any more children is just fine with me."

"You're sure."

"Ah," he hesitated, "...yes... I'm sure."

Kristin snuggled down again. "Good, then I'll get my prescription refilled next week."

Now Nathan really did stop breathing for a moment and got very quiet. "Prescription?"

"Yes... prescription. Why do you think there aren't any little Bridgers on the way? It's not like you took any precautions during the last ten months."

Nathan gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Um... we never talked about this... did we?"

"No reason to... I assumed that you weren't looking for any children out of wedlock and I took care of it."

"Uh huh," Nathan said shortly and cleared his throat. "Ummm. You know... when Carol had Robert she had some problems." Kristin raised her head again and looked Nathan in the face. He flashed her an embarrassed smile. "The doctors were afraid that if we tried for another child things might get worse." Kristin narrowed her eyes and kept watching him. "It was kind of a choice between having her tubes tied or mine... and since mine was minor surgery we went that way."

Kristin sat up in Nathan's lap and looked at him. "Nathan Bridger... are you telling me that you've had a vasectomy?"

The embarrassed smile returned. "Um... yeah."

"And I've been taking contraceptives for the last ten months for no reason?"

He raised his eyebrows. "It kinda looks like that." Nathan wasn't at all sure how Kristin was going to react to this revelation and he was relieved to see the beginning of a smile start to cross her lips.

"My, my... we are models of communication... aren't we?" she said chuckling.

"It would appear so," said Nathan returning her smile.

"Alright... no children... see that's two hard decisions we've made already."

Kristin settled down once again and Nathan planted a short kiss on her forehead before leaning his cheek on her head. "Any other big decisions you feel like making now?"

"Well, we haven't talked about when we want to get married, other than you saying you want it soon so I don't change my mind."

Nathan chuckled and shook his head. "It seems to me that the timing won't be all our choice... I'm assuming that you want Cynthia there." Kristin nodded. "Then we need to check with her to see when she can get down here." He paused and sighed. "Anyone else you can think of to invite who doesn't live close?"

"Your mother."

"I'm not inviting my mother."

Kristin flashed Nathan a disapproving look. "Do you plan on telling your family at all?"

Nathan sighed again. "I'll tell George, if it makes you feel better."

"Mmmm. Yes, that would make me feel better."

"How about Malcolm?"

"Oh, we have to invite Malcolm."

"Anyone else?"

"Gator."

"Yeah... hmmm, anyone else who's not local?"

Kristin leaned back to look at him. "No... I don't think so." Nathan had his head leaning back against the tree and she lowered her gaze until she was contemplating a certain spot on Nathan's neck. Stretching just a little Kristin placed several baby-soft kisses on the spot. Nathan groaned and his breathing speeded up. That spot was an especially sensitive one. Before either one of them could carry the action further there was a rustling in the undergrowth and two security police officers stepped into the clearing.

Nathan looked up from their spot on the ground. "Good afternoon, officers."

One of the security police recognized him. "Good afternoon, Captain." He looked around the clearing a little before continuing. "In about 20 minutes the sun's going to start going down and we thought we should warn you that the path down from here gets pretty darned dark when the sun starts fading. To say nothing of the fact that the Point is off-limits after dark."

"Hmm. I imagine you're right. I guess it's about time for us to pack this up and head for home."

"I'm afraid so, sir." He nodded to Kristin. "Sorry ma'am."

Kristin smiled up at him. "Oh, no. I understand completely. Thank you for the warning." She started getting off Nathan's lap.

Nathan stood and looked around the clearing. "We've just got a little cleanup to do and then we'll be on our way down again."

The officer smiled and nodded again. "Sounds good. Have a nice evening, sir, ma'am."

The officers turned and left the way they came as Kristin and Nathan cleaned up the remains of their lunch. Gathering everything into the gym bag they'd used to carry the stuff up in, Nathan slung the bag over his shoulder and put his arm around Kristin. She smoothly turned into his arm and brought her lips up for a heady kiss. They broke apart after several minutes both breathing raggedly.

Nathan grinned at her. "You keep that up and we'll be on this point all night."

Kristin played with the buttons on his shirt. "That might not be all bad," she said in a suggestive tone.

"Yeah, but Lucas would wonder where we were... and considering how well we've been getting along during the last few weeks, he'd probably decide that we'd managed to kill each other."

Kristin chuckled and slid her arm around him again as they headed for the path down to the car. "A couple of times in the last few weeks he wouldn't have been that far off."

Chapter 9: A Cloud on the Horizon

By the time they reached the car it appeared that the officers had been none too early with their warning. Dusk had set in and the car was barely visible in the small, unlighted parking lot at the base of the Point.

Kristin started the car and turned on the lights. She turned to Nathan in the passenger seat. "Do you want to stop somewhere for a bite to eat?"

Nathan grimaced. "We didn't tell Lucas that we were going to be so late and it's almost 8."

"Do you want to call him now?"

Nathan leaned his head back on the headrest as Kristin pulled out. "Nah, we won't be that long."

Kristin glanced over at him with a knowing look. "This isn't payback for last Wednesday night, is it?"

"Would I ever give him a problem just because he didn't call and then finally showed up after 2 a.m.?"

"Yes..."

"Okay... yeah, it's payback but we're still getting in earlier than he did."

"Are you going to tell him about the wedding?

"Yeah..." he paused for a moment, "if it's okay to tell him."

Kristin reached over and patted his leg. "Yes, it's okay to tell him."

After a stop at a drive-thru to pick up a couple of chicken sandwiches they arrived home at the beach house. Kristin pulled her car in next to Nathan's and they both climbed the stairs to the darkened porch. Nathan could just make out Lucas' shadow sitting in one of the wicker chairs.

"I thought it was supposed to be me who spent all my time on darkened porches."

They heard Lucas chuckle in the dark. "You told me once that you found it calming to sit on the porch at night in the dark."

"Is it?"

"No," Lucas answered shortly. "You two are late."

"Yeah, we are..." Nathan answered as Kristin took their dinner into the house to get a couple of plates. When she turned on the kitchen light it cast a soft glow on the porch. Lucas could see Nathan's grin in the dim light. "Beginning to worry about us?"

Kristin came back out and handed Nathan a plate with his sandwich on it before sitting down beside him on the sofa.

Lucas didn't look nearly as amused as the Captain did. "Yeah... I thought we might be getting into a Gingham Dog and a Calico Cat situation." Nathan chuckled.

Kristin glanced between the two men with a perplexed look on her face. "A what?"

Nathan only smiled. "I'm impressed, Lucas. You know your Eugene Field."

Lucas grinned. "A childhood favorite," he said dryly.

Kristin was still regarding the both of them with a less than believing air. Nathan tried to explain. "It's a poem called 'The Duel' by Eugene Field..." Kristin didn't look any more convinced. "Oh boy, let me see if I can remember it."

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
T'was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I wasn't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

Lucas took over on the next two verses.

The gingham dog went "Bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "Mee-ow!"
The air was littered for an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place
Up with its hands before its face,
For it always dreaded a family row!
(Now mind: I'm only telling you
What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)

The Chinese plate looked very blue,
And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"
But the gingham dog and the calico cat
Wallowed this way and tumbled that,
Employing every tooth and claw
In the awfullest way you ever saw—
And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!
(Don't fancy I exaggerate—
I got my news from the Chinese plate!)

Nathan grinned and recited the last verse.

Next morning, where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole the pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!
Now what do you really think of that!
(The old Dutch clock it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)

Kristin cast a gentle smile at Lucas. "You were afraid we'd eaten each other up?"

"I was wondering."

"Nah," Nathan said between bites of his sandwich. "We were even civil to each other all day long." He glanced over at Kristin, who nodded.

"Yes, we were." She tilted her head at Lucas. "I will admit it felt a little strange for a bit there."

Lucas knew when his leg was being pulled. "Umm hmmm," was his only comment.

Nathan looked up from his dinner. "Actually, I've got a couple of questions for you though." After the last exchange, Lucas didn't know whether to trust him so he just kept looking suspiciously at the Captain waiting for him to continue. "If we were to take off for a week, do you think you'd be able to handle things on your own?"

Lucas sighed. At least that question made sense. "Yeah, no problem. You two taking a vacation sounds like a pretty good idea." Nathan nodded and went back to his sandwich. After a few minutes of silence Lucas prompted him, "You said you had two questions."

Nathan looked back up at him. "Oh yeah... the other one." He intentionally paused for a moment and took another bite of his sandwich before looking back up. "The second question is will you be my best man?"

Lucas' expression never changed, he just stared at the Captain beneath lowered eyelids. Without moving his head his gaze shifted to Kristin who was smiling as she stared at her plate and taking a bite of her sandwich. A slow smile crept across Lucas' face as he started shaking his head. He moved forward until he was kneeling next to Kristin at the end of the sofa and looked at her eyes as she raised her face.

"You're getting married?" Kristin responded with a short nod of her head. The smile on Lucas' face increased to three times its original size as he enfolded Kristin in a bear hug. He looked across her shoulder at the smiling face of the Captain and nodded. "Oh yeah... yeah, I'd be honored to be your best man."

The rest of the evening was spent with Kristin's phone call to her daughter and Nathan's call to his brother. After consulting with Cynthia it was decided that the wedding would take place two weeks from the next Saturday. Kristin and Nathan sat down with a pad of paper to start coming up with a list of people who needed to be invited. After an hour and with Lucas' help they were still working on it.

Kristin leaned her head against the back of the sofa. "How many does that make?"

Nathan frowned at the list as he counted the last few they had added. "Not counting my family because I don't know if they'll come... ninety seven." He looked up at Kristin and raised his eyebrows. "That doesn't sound like a small wedding."

Lucas shook his head. "Can you imagine what it'd be like if you two didn't have a lot of the same friends?"

"We could just invite the entire town," Nathan said frustrated.

"Where are we going to put all these people?"

Nathan sighed. "I don't know... we'll think of something." He glared at the list again. "Do we have to invite all this brass?"

"We have to invite some of them, Nathan."

"Yeah... I guess so." He scratched his head and put the pencil down. "The hell with it... why don't we go to bed?"

Kristin brought her hand up to rub the back of his neck. "What a good idea." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

Lucas leaned back in his chair and groaned. As Nathan stood he looked over at him. "I told you before, kiddo. Get used to it." Nathan winked at Lucas as he helped Kristin to her feet.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny and Kristin drove all three of them to work so that they could continue their discussion about who to invite to the wedding. By the time they reached the UEO complex Nathan was suggesting that they just rent out the local baseball stadium to hold the wedding in. Kristin dropped him off at the door with instructions to let the people he worked with know about the wedding so they could reserve the date.

By the time that Nathan arrived at the Secretary General's office the meeting he was supposed to be attending had started. He quietly snuck in the back door to the conference room and took a seat at the end of the table. His entrance didn't escape the eye of the Secretary General, Bill Noyce, who pointedly glanced down the table at him and then returned his attention to the speaker who was presenting the morning brief.

Nathan sat through the morning update thinking that whoever came up with the idea of briefings first thing in the morning was obviously an idiot. It was bad enough that he had to sit through them but he also wasn't allowed to drink coffee until his stomach was better and he didn't function well without coffee in the morning. He stood as the briefing ended but sat again as Noyce motioned to him to stick around.

Noyce watched the last of the others leave the conference room and glanced down the table at Nathan. "How are you feeling?"

Nathan made a face and leaned back in the chair. "I'm fine."

"Uh huh... That's why you ended up in the hospital on Sunday?"

Nathan sat up in his chair and grinned a little. "No... I ended up in the hospital because I've got an ulcer."

Noyce shook his head and stood. "What??? ...Again." He motioned to Nathan to follow him. "You do know that no one gets ulcers any more?"

"Yeah... so I've heard," said Nathan as he followed Noyce into his office where they both sat down in the comfortable chairs at one end of the room.

"Boy, I remember the first time you had an ulcer." Noyce shook his head and grinned. "We sure spent a lot of time hiding that one from the doctors at the Academy."

"Yeah... but we had to tell them eventually."

"You passed out, Nathan. Right in the middle of an inspection."

Nathan grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "I was just trying to provide a little excitement. Inspections can be so boring."

"Oh, you livened it up alright." He looked over at Nathan with a look of concern on his face. "You're okay now though?"

"Yeah... I'm alright, Bill... I've got a load of medication and strict instructions on what I eat... and trust me... Kristin is keeping an eye on me. She didn't like the fact that she hadn't figured this one out before it got to be a problem."

"Well, who expects anyone to have an ulcer these days." Noyce shook his head again. "You two are doing okay then??"

Nathan sighed at Noyce's concern. "Yup, we're doing okay," he nodded. "For that matter, what are you doing two weeks from Saturday?"

Noyce reached across to the terminal on his desk and hit a key. "Nothing so far," he said looking at the screen. "Why, what do you want me to be doing?"

"Well, how about you and Janet coming and watching us get married."

Noyce rolled his head around until he was staring at Nathan silently. Then he shook his head slowly and grinned. "Really??"

"How come everyone seems so surprised?" mumbled Nathan in frustration.

"Probably because not too long ago you two weren't talking to each other."

Nathan frowned. "That can be a good thing for a relationship sometimes," he countered.

Noyce got an innocent look on his face. "Okay... I'll believe you... and yes, Janet and I would love to come to your wedding."

There was a short knock on the door and an aide stuck his head in. "Mr. Secretary, just to remind you, sir, that you've got an appointment with General Corton in 10 minutes."

Noyce nodded, "Thank you," and the aide closed the door. Both Noyce and Nathan stood up. "So... where do you plan on holding this wedding?"

Nathan frowned again. "We haven't quite worked that one out yet. She only agreed to marry me yesterday so we've got to go looking for somewhere to hold this thing... and the list she's coming up with is unbelievable... it's beginning to sound like well over 100 people."

Noyce stopped with his hand on the door and turned back to Nathan. "Why don't you two have your wedding at our place?"

"Aw, Bill, that would be a hell of an imposition on you."

"You know, Nathan... just once while we're stuck up at that big house... I'd like to have a celebration for something I want to have it for rather than some UEO function that's imposed on me."

Nathan stopped for a while and considered it. Noyce's house would be perfect. The UEO had provided him with a spacious estate with lots of open area and more than enough parking for a huge crowd. He nodded. "Bill... let me ask Kristin. Your place just might work..." He grinned. "But don't you think you should check with Janet first?"

Noyce patted Nathan on the shoulder as he went through the door. "Trust me, Nathan. She'll be so happy that the two of you finally decided to tie the knot that she'll agree to anything."

Nathan spent the rest of the day letting various people know about the upcoming wedding and working on a myriad of jobs for the seaQuest construction. Kristin showed up at his office just before lunchtime. She found him in intense discussion with Ford over some adjustment that needed to be made on the placement of some access hatchways. She knocked quickly on his door and came in the office.

Both men looked up from the plans that they had spread out all over Nathan's desk.

Kristin smiled at Ford. "Good morning, Commander. I need to steal him away for lunch."

Nathan narrowed his eyes and looked at her with a mock fierce frown. "Keeping an eye on me?"

"Absolutely... God knows you can't be trusted to take care of yourself so someone's got to do it."

Ford grinned over at her. "I'm glad someone is... congratulations by the way."

"Thank you," Kristin smiled, "...are you going to be able to be there?"

"Oh, yeah... I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Wonderful..." She glanced over at Nathan. "Lunch," she said in an imperious voice.

He grinned back at her. "Aye, aye, ma'am."

The couple headed down for the cafeteria and after they had found a seat and Kristin had ensured that Nathan had taken all his noon-time meds, Nathan brought up Noyce's suggestion.

Kristin slowly twirled her fork through her pasta. "You know... that's not a half-bad idea. Their place might just be perfect."

Nathan looked up at her over his fork. "Yeah, it could be... we could get a tent just in case the weather doesn't cooperate."

"It wouldn't dare," stuck in Kristin ominously.

"And we could have it catered... that would take a lot of the burden off of Janet and Bill."

Kristin nodded in a slow, pensive way. "Providing that Janet really does say that it's alright I think we should take them up on the offer."

Nathan grinned across the table at her. "You know, this is getting pretty scary... since we've decided to get married we seem to be agreeing about a whole lot of things."

Kristin fixed him with a look of mock disapproval. "Don't worry... it won't last."

The couple parted after lunch and went back to their own work. After work Kristin wandered out to her car and was surprised to find Lucas and Nathan sitting on the hood.

"Good heavens... don't tell me you both got out of work on time today?"

Lucas hopped off the hood. "Well, I figured that it's my responsibility to be sure that he doesn't work himself too hard." He crooked a thumb in Nathan's direction. "So I dragged him out of the office."

Nathan glared at the back of Lucas' head. "He's not kidding either... the little runt set my computer up so it closes down everything at five minutes to five... then he comes by acting innocent and almost literally drags me out of the office."

Kristin walked by Lucas and patted him on the shoulder approvingly. "Well, done."

"It's a conspiracy," Nathan grumbled as he stood up and headed for the front passenger side door.

As Nathan settled into his seat Kristin leaned across and patted him on the thigh. "Yes it is... and get used to it." She pulled out and headed the car for home.

Nathan leaned his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes. He was quiet for a couple of minutes. "Hey, do you know that I finally figured out a problem with this wedding?"

Kristin shot him a suspicious glance. "What would that be?"

Nathan crossed his hands over his stomach and started twiddling his thumbs. "I'm not going to be able to drive until a week after the ceremony... that means I get out of a lot of the legwork." He had a little satisfied smile on his face.

Kristin's glance this time was a disapproving one. "No... that just means that you're going to be in charge of anything that can be done over the vidphone. Besides... I know of someone who will be more than happy to act as your chauffeur if needed."

"Hey, there's a lot of stuff that I can't do with you around."

"Perhaps not... but you can do it with that guy in the back seat."

Nathan looked into the back seat where Lucas was sitting just grinning at him. "Yeah, I guess so," he said dejectedly.

Kristin patted him on the thigh again. "Nice try, buddy, but you're going to get to do your share of the work here too."

When they arrived home, Darwin was circling the end of the dock and after grabbing the vocorder Nathan and Lucas went down to talk to him. Kristin smiled at the two of them goofing around on the dock as she went in the house. She deposited her briefcase on the sofa in the den and brought the computer on line to check her mail. It was amazing how the age of junk mail had just degraded into an age of spam mail. After summarily deleting several obvious items of garbage Kristin was left with just a few messages to check. The first two were standard things. One being a notice that a bill had been automatically deducted from her account and the other being a note about a class she was scheduled to attend. The third message had a subject, "Your Wedding", but there was no one indicated as the sender. She'd received several congratulatory messages at work today and this was probably another. She brought up the message.

Kristin stared at the screen. There was a way to send messages with animated letters... and there, against a stark white background, where large red and black letters that looked like they were oozing blood.
 

"I've heard you're thinking of getting married.
I don't think so!!!"

Chapter 10: Darkening Skys

Kristin sat staring at the screen of the computer. In the back of her mind she heard Nathan and Lucas come in from the dock but she was transfixed with the threatening message sent to her. She involuntarily pulled back as graphics which looked like little tongues of flame started at the bottom of the screen and soon engulfed the whole message. Then just as suddenly as they had appeared the flames and the message itself disappeared from the screen... nothing was there. Nothing in her mailbox... nothing in the delete queue... nothing.

She'd heard Lucas come back towards his bedroom and after staring hard at the screen for a while Kristin got up and went to his room. Although the door was open Kristin tapped on the doorframe before entering. Lucas was sitting at his desk checking his own mail.

He glanced back at her. "Hi, Doc. The Captain said he was going to make up that Chicken Parmesan thing you like and he went to start dinner."

Kristin smiled wanly at him. "That's nice... Umm... Lucas? ...could I trouble you to have a look at something for me?"

He glanced back at her again. "Sure... what do you need?"

She indicated back towards the den. "I've got little problem with my mail."

Lucas stood and accompanied her to the den. He sat at the computer and quickly glanced over the screen. "Umm... it looks okay to me, Doc."

Kristin sat down on the futon next to the desk. "What happened was that I got a message which kind of deleted itself while I was looking at it."

"You mean you accidentally hit the delete button?"

"No," Kristin said in a tenuous voice. "It deleted itself." Seeing Lucas' patronizing look of disbelief Kristin decided she'd have to explain herself. "Lucas... it was an anonymous threatening message. After it had been on the screen for about 15 seconds it apparently was set up to make it look like it had been set aflame and it just disappeared. It's not in my inbox or my delete box... it just disappeared."

Now it was Lucas' turn to stare at the screen. "Whoa... that's nasty."

"Is there any way you can bring it back or at least find out who sent it?"

"What kind of message was it?"

"Animated text."

Lucas was punching at the keyboard trying various things to bring the message back or at least find a trace of it. With each attempt his frown became deeper. Still looking at the screen he said, "Should I ask what it said?"

Kristin sighed. "It said ‘I've heard you're thinking of getting married. I don't think so.'"

Lucas looked over at her sharply. "Who would want to stop your marriage?"

"I have no idea, Lucas. But I certainly would like to find out."

Lucas shook his head at the screen and leaned back. "I'm afraid you're not going to find out this way... there's nothing there. Nothing in your post office, not even a record of delivery... nothing in your computer... nothing... just like it was never there. Very nice work."

Kristin frowned at the computer also. "Well, thank you for trying."

"Are you going to tell the Captain?"

Kristin's reaction was sharp. "No. And I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't tell him either."

"Don't you think he should know?"

"Not really. I mean it was barely a threat... and I don't want to upset him. His stomach is in bad enough shape as it is." She looked at the face that Lucas was making at her. "Please, Lucas. Just let it drop."

He sighed and looked back at the computer. "Alright," he said grudgingly. "But if you get any more you let me know."

Kristin stood and patted him on the shoulder. "I will... and thanks again."

It was amazing how much work had been completed on the wedding preparations during the next two days. First, Kristin dragged Nathan all over the town to select a caterer. In all his life Nathan never considered that having an ulcer could come to be an advantage but since it kept him from having to taste test the various caterer's wares he was more than happy to leave the sampling of the canapés to Kristin. For that matter, they should have brought Lucas with them, he could probably have been considered to be an expert tester. With a caterer selected it was left up to Nathan to arrange for the tent and chairs for the event. Between the two of them they finalized the invitation list and were actually able to get the invitations sent out with only a little grumbling from Nathan that the electronic version just wasn't the same. That brought them to Thursday night and only a little over one week before the wedding. Kristin had plans for tonight too. Tonight she and Nathan would be visiting their favorite jeweler to pick out their wedding rings.

She'd dragged Nathan out of work and drove him home so that they could go to the jewelers. Now Nathan had wandered out on the dock while waiting for Kristin to finish changing. He looked down at the dolphin floating next to the dock. "Darwin, you don't know how lucky you are not to have to deal with a woman who needs to get prettied up to go out." Since he didn't have the vocorder with him, Darwin couldn't talk back but instead just floated on his side staring at Nathan with one eye and his perpetual dolphin smile.

The sound of footsteps behind him heralded Kristin's arrival and Nathan stood from where he had been kneeling down while rubbing Darwin's melon. As he stood Kristin smoothly slipped her arms around his waist and his hands found a comfortable place on her hips. "Are you about ready, fella?"

"I've been ready for a half of an hour."

Kristin leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss. "That's what I like. A prompt man."

As Nathan pulled back to make his response neither of the people on the dock was aware of boat anchored down the intercoastal waterway. The boat where a man lay against the cockpit with his eyes riveted on the couple. They also weren't aware of the crosshairs now centered on Nathan's left temple.