This is a sequel piece to my first story Nathan, Kristin, Moira, and Finally Lucas. To understand this piece more you might want read the first one, but it isn't necessary. This takes place about 5 1/2 - 6 monthes after NKML. I've added Tony Piccolo in this.
Goodbye to Lawrence
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"Ummm...", Kristin said, thinking, "Lucas took it when he took Moira. He said he needed for the Stinger."
"Great. The last time he needed something for the Stinger, the entire boat didn't have Vid-links for 3 days. The crew is never going to let me forget that."
"So, I'm never going to let you forget the day we got married." Kristin remarked putting her arms around her husband.
"That wasn't my fault! You were the one who had to have it at the island. How was I supposed to know Lucas was going to bring Juliana?", Nathan defended, pulling away, thinking about how after the ceremony he disappeared with Juliana. Nathan had had everyone looking for them. Lucas had gotten an earful even thought they'd only been talking.
"That wasn't what I was thinking of."
"Then to what were you referring?"
"You let them take bets on if I would really go through with it." Kristin said, matter-of-factly.
"Ben told me 10 minutes before the Ceremony. What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know.", Kristin said, as a muffled beep was heard, "I think that might be Joshua. He said he wanted me down at the Moonpool around 10 o' clock."
"He's an hour early.", Nathan replied, bending over to dig through a pile of laundry that Moira had trown on the floor in one of her late night insomia episodes.
"I think I have to get some shore leave and go find some child saftey locks that a 1 and 1/2 year old can't open.", Kristin said, thinking that maybe Moira was spending too much time with Lucas.
Nathan chuckled and continued digging through every pile of clothes and toys in the room, while the muffled beeps continued to be heard. He stopped and paused, ovisly thinking. He looked up, smiled at Kristin, and walked over to Moira's crib. Nathan reached down and pulled Moira's blanket back, revealing the small object. He held the down the button, "Yes?", He said in to it.
"Sir, Secretary-General Noyce is asking to speak with you.", Tim's voice rang through.
"Tell him I'll talk to him when I see him later."
"Sir, I believe you should take this call.", Tim's message was clear - the trip was canceled for one reason or another.
"Patch it through to my quarters."
"yes, sir.", Tim said, Shutting of his PAL.
A moment later, Secretary-General Noyce's image appeared on the screen. His face was a bit sullen, covered by his poor attempt to look concerned, but not upset.
"Sorry to interrupt.", He began, ovisly searching for words.
Nathan looked toward Kristin, who walked over and looked up at the screen, "Something's happened?"
"I don't know how to say this...Lawrence...he...he passed away last night."
A gasp was heard prompting Kristin and Nathan to turn around. Lucas stood at the door, Moira in her usual position on his hip. Lucas put his arm up on the door for support and Nathan got up to help his son. Instead, Lucas handed Moira to him and sat down on the floor, sobbing hard.
"Sir.."Kristin began.
"I know." He reached foward and the familiar 'transmission ended' came on the screen.
Lucas cryed harder and harder, prompting Kristin to walked to the door, stopping momentarily. She turned around picked up Moira, and placed her in her crib. She loooked to Nathan, who nodded at her, and she turned to leave their quarters to get a something to calm him.
Nathan, who'd aready knelt down, rocked his son, looked around. Moira began to cry as Nathan realized she had to go spend time with someone else while Nathan and Kristin comforted Lucas.
He picked up his wife's PAL agian, "Katie."
"Yes?"
"Are you off duty?"
"Yes, do you need something?"
"Could you come take Moira and inform the crew that our trip has been cancelled?"
"Sure." She anwsered, a slight tone of couriosity in her voice, "I'll be there in a minute."
Nathan put down the PAL and looked at Lucas. In Lucas' 17 and 1/2 years, Nathan thought somebody would have talked to him about what could happen to his parents.
Nathan was still rocking Lucas, who was now crying hysterically, when Kristin came in to room a few minutes later, followed by Katie Hitchcock. Katie took Moira, quieted her, picked up her blankie, and left the room.
Kristin looked at Lucas, his face had turned red from all the crying, and his eyes partially swollen. Kristin wasn't even sure Lucas had known what was happening through all his crying. 'Sleep now, Lucas. Please.', Kristin begged and a few minutes later, he'd fallen asleep. 'Thank you.', She thought, hopeing God would let him sleep and let him be okay.
Cmdr. Ford looked up, "Katie, why do you have Moira?", He asked.
"Sir, the captain and Kristin asked me to take her so they could be with Lucas."
"What's the matter with Lucas?", He inquired.
"Lawrence passed away last night.", Katie anwsered quietly, not even needing to mention Lucas.
Ford's eyes trained on the floor,then he looked over at Tim, "Is this why you made the captain take the call?"
"Yes, sir."
The cmdr. shook his head. 'Poor Lucas'.
Nathan had taken up residence in the rocking chair, and very intenally watched Lucas.
"What are we going to do with him?", Kristin spoke up, "He's not going to want to talk about it."
"I don't know." Nathan anwsered. he sighed, "I do know that Lawrence wanted Lucas to help with the funeral arrangements. I know that he's not going to want to do that."
Nathan rose from the rocking chair, walked over to Kristin, and sat down beside her, "There is nothing that we can do right now. We just have to make sure he understands that he has a mother, a father, and a sister that loves him and that he has friends that love him, too." Nathan said, wraping his arms around her.
The next day
They had had some activity that night, with Ben and Katie having a late night talk with Jonathan, Miguel, Tim, Crocker, and Joshua Levin at the moonpool, which resulted in a shouting contest between Ben, Katie, Tim, and Crocker.
Of the rest of the crew, some of Lucas close friends were makeing a video to cheer him up, others sat around and discussed Lucas's relationship with Lawrence in the Mess halls. Katie and Kristin had walked in to each other in the Officer's Mess around 3 am, and sat together to talk about nothing in particular. Since Katie had already brought the sleeping Moira back to Nathan, they talked for almost 2 hours, before Katie had to leave, and Kristin remained at the table.
She had decided after she and Nathan had married to keep a journal, so she could one day share what she wrote with Moira and Cynthia's twin daughters, James and Jordan. She pulled it out from the bag she had with her.
17 of July
Lucas has been asleep for about 16 hours now. He hasn't taken Lawrence's death well, which is to be expected. Nathan and I have made all the arrangements for Lawrence's Funeral. There are some details that we are going to ask Lucas about, so at least he knows he did something. The crew has been kind to think of Lucas, making him videos and such. I just hope it's like this for awhile. He's going to need it.
Kristin finished her short entry and put the book back in her bag. She got up, picked up the bag, and left hopeing Lucas was awake.
"Good Morning." Kristin said, her usual personality shinning through.
"Hey." Lucas mumbled, "I guess you want me to talk about how I feel."
Kristin sighed and began to talk, "Lucas, I can't force you to talk about your emotions. I would like to talk to you, but it's up to you. When you decide you want to talk, we're here." Kristin finished, sitting next to him. She brushed a few stray strands of hair away from his eyes and hugged him.
Lucas got up and walked over to Moira's crib. Moira's blue eyes stared up at him, and she began to giggle, "Good Morning, blue eyes.", Lucas said picking her up, "Want to go see Darwin with me?", Moira clapped her hands and smiled. He picked up her blanket and walked out of the Bridger's quarters.
"I wonder if we can hide a microphone or something in the Moonpool.", Kristin said.
"Kristin.....", Nathan said, "We are not going to evesdrop on our son."
"Well, I want to talk to him. The only way we are going to do that is if we either dress up as Darwin, or dress up as Moira, or if we evesdrop." She stopped, "Maybe we can hide a microphone in Moi's blanket."
"Kristin!"
"Sorry." She said and got up the get dressed, since working in a satin nightgown might not work the reputation she had.
Lucas was also jaggering away, but in low tones, and words Tony knew weren''t supposed to be said in front of Moira, since she'd taken up the annoying habit of repeating words - especially the few choice words the crew happened to say now and then. Lucas had opened the yellow vocorder's plastic covering, and had a towel in his hand. Tony figured the vocorder had acted up agian, Lucas got mad, and had thrown it into the Moonpool.
Tony walked up behind Lucas, "Hey, Luke."
Lucas jumped, nearly dropping the wet vocorder on the floor, "Geez, Tony! You scared the daylights out of me!"
"Sorry. You missed the staff meeting, so I came to find you. Why are you so jumpy?"
"Nice try. I got out of Ben that Katie told you, him, and Crocker about my Dad. I don't want to talk about it if that's what you came down here for." Lucas said, bluntly. He turned back to the vocorder.
"You might want to talk to someone, because Katie told the entire boat. There isn't a chance that you've heard the end of this." with that, Tony turned around and walked out the door.
Lucas turned to Moira, and smilied, "Well, Moi, since I'm never gonna hear the end of it until I talk to someone - I'll talk to you." He talked to Moira for hours, feeling a little better every minute. Moira laughed and smiled when Lucas did, and gave him her stuffed doll when he frowned or looked like he would cry. 'You know, Moi, I think you are the best listener on the ship, and I think you are smarter then you look.'
The crew walked past every 4 or 5 minutes, stuck their heads in, than walked away smiling. Eventually, though, Moira wanted to eat, and Lucas was hungry, too. Lucas picked her out of the playpen, and almost forgot her blanket, but Moira reminded him with a short yell. 'I can't wait until you get rid of this blanket.' He thought, reminding himself that he was the one who had given Moira the pale pink blanket with her name and birthday on it, even though Kristin thought it would be a bad idea.
Lucas looked around for Moira's highchair, which as usual, was in the corner. He repositioned Moira on his hip, and picked up the highchair, so it would drag on the ground. Ben saw him and motioned for Lucas to sit with them. He walked over, put down the highchair, and put Moira in it.
"Hey you. We were wondering where you were." Nathan said, as Lucas sat down.
"I was down in the Moonpool with Darwin and Moira. Besides we both got hungry, and there isn't any other place to eat. Unless, Darwin when and got us fish, but you know I have this funny thing about my baby sister eating raw fish. Besides, I figured by now Ben had gotten into some sort of trouble, and He'd need me to bail him out." Lucas smiled and got up to go get something to eat.
"Lucas, remember - Moira can't have dairy." Kristin called to him.
"I know, Mom." Lucas said. He walked back to the table, a tray on each hand, "This okay?" He asked.
"Yes. Just so long that you aren't going to give her chocolate." Nathan said, referring to the chocolate bar he'd picked up for himself.
"No, that is for me. I'm gonna need it. I'm gonna be up all night, fixing the vocorder." He watched the confused look on Nathan's face, and sat down, handing Kristin the jar of baby food and the bottle of soy milk he'd grabbed for Moira, "You know the soy stuff is disgusting. It tastes horrible."
The people at the table laughed. Tony looked at him, "how would you know?"
"I was in my room and I heard Moira trashing the quarters so I got up. Everyone here remembers that I took one of her bottles because it doesn't spill right?" They nodded it was a well known fact that Lucas had taken a blue bottle Moira never used, and drank out of it because he could drink something in his room and not worry about spilling it. "When I went back to bed, I didn't realize that she had come in my room and had switched the two bottles. I went to drink out of it, I got a mouth full of that stuff. It tastes awful!"
The people at the table were laughing when Lucas finished. He was laughing too, and he turned around to look at Moira, "She's already learning how to play tricks on me."
The laughter died down and the group began to talk agian, sharing stories of what Moira and other siblings had done.
Lucas looked around the table, 'Dad, wherever you are, Thank you. You will always be in my heart. I never thanked you - but you were right in sending me to SeaQuest. I see it now, and I thank you. I will miss you.' He thought, finally seeing that his father hadn't abandoned him on the SeaQuest - He had put him there to learn disiplaine, but to be happy, too.
THE END
(Sappy, Lame, whatever - I already know. It's late and I really should be in bed sleeping.)