Lee dropped his tray down on the table next to Chip. The XO had yet to take his nose out of the report he was reading to take a bit out of his breakfast. "Lee," the first officer muttered as he turned the page he was reading.

"Is that the same report you were reading last night?" asked the Captain before slamming back half of his coffee. He smiled when he received no response.

Crane tried again. "A real page turner?" Still nothing. Lee crumpled his napkin and tossed it at Chip. He pegged his friend right between the eyes. The wad of paper plopped down on the table next to the untouched plate.

Morton glared over the edge of the report in his hands. "Really?"

"Really," chuckled the skipper. Seeing no retaliation was forthcoming, he stated, "Must be something in the water or should I be offended that you and the Admiral seem to be ignoring me?"

Chip closed the file and gave his friend his undivided attention; he could take a hint. He had to admit he wasn't being overly social on this trip. Somehow work had piled up and it didn't seem like Morton was ever going t get his head above water.

"Actually Chip, I'm a little concerned." A deep frown settled on Lee. "Does the Admiral seem a little… distracted… worn out lately?"

Morton pondered over the question. He hadn't really seen a lot of Nelson. The man had locked himself in his lab claiming he was working on some top secret project, which wasn't anything unusual per se, but he had looked rather run down when he ran into Chip at dinner two days ago.

"Have you mentioned it him, Lee?"

"I did before we made port. I was hoping he'd take a few days and get off the sub but he just locked himself in his cabin." Crane's casual demeanour shifted to one of outright concern.

Morton shoved a forkful of cold eggs into his mouth. He made a look of disgust before moving onto his lukewarm coffee. If breakfast was cold, maybe he was a little too focused on work. "If he won't listen to you, you could always sic Jamie on him," offered Chip. It would be a nice change to watch the doctor go after someone else.

The Captain drummed his fingers on the table. He would definitely be able to get Jamie on his side and the Admiral did tend to bend to the doctor when threatened with being put into sickbay for exhaustion. "I think I'll do just that. Thanks Chip," said Lee as he got up from the table. He paused for a moment. "You might want to give this conversation some thought, I'd hate to have to use your own advice against a certain first officer who's burning the candle at both ends too."

Morton grabbed the crumpled napkin that had been chucked at him and tossed it back at Lee. He offered his hand to Lee and introduced himself, "Kettle, you must be pot."

Chip made his way back to the control room. Figures and diagrams were still running through his head so he wasn't paying a lot of attention to the Admiral's boisterous voice drifting down the corridor. The closer he got to the lab the more he realized it was a one sided conversation he was hearing. Paying more attention, it was a very heated one sided conversation. He pitied whoever was on the receiving end of this rant.

Crane's concerns about Nelson flared up in Chip and he decided to poke his head into the lab. Maybe he could help calm things down a bit and get a first hand assessment of his own on the Admiral's current state.

"Just what is it you want?" yelled the Admiral. There was a hint of desperation mixed in with his fury. "I'm not going to do anything you ask! You tried before and I'll be damned if I let you succeed this time."

"Admiral, is everything alright?" asked Chip. He looked around the empty lab; a knot of fear was starting to grow in his stomach. "Who are you talking to?"

Nelson jumped when he heard the XO. He wasn't aware that someone else was in the lab. He turned to face Morton, his hands smoothing out the wrinkles in his shirt. His face was still flushed with rage. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Lucy had vanished once again.

She had been unrelenting the last few days; constantly whispering in his ear, always there with the smug smile and lyrical voice. Every time Nelson thought he had a second to himself, there she was. Clearly Morton hadn't seen her, no one gave any indication that they ever saw or heard her.

If it wasn't Lucy weighing down his thoughts, his mind automatically replayed the times as a child sitting in the corner of his grandfather's room at the nursing home. His grandfather had been one of the most exhilarating adults that ever gave him the time of day. Even as a young boy it didn't take long to figure out that grandpa was a little off. The man had had an imagination that no one other than Nelson seemed to appreciate but as Harry got older the nurses' words began to have meaning and the private conversations the old man was having with the shadows on the wall became less entertaining. Maybe this was the point where the head of NIMR finally lost his mind and had to be locked away?

The Admiral could see the worry in Morton's eyes. He didn't think he could put his boys through what his grandfather had put his mother through. He stormed over to the door and Chip reflexively took a step back. "I don't think that's any of your concern Commander," snarled Nelson s he slammed the door shut. If he was crazy and he drove everyone away, then they would be spared having to watch him deteriorate into a raving madman. Six more days until they arrived in Santa Barbara; he could hold it together until then.

Morton stood there staring at the door for a few moments. Once the shock had worn off he took a deep breath and doubled his pace to get to the control room. They were definitely going to have to stage an intervention of some kind for the Admiral.