*~*~*
The five people in the boat waited for a very long time, watching the departing dolphin pod with Lucas among them. They saw how the forms of the animals grew smaller and smaller in the distance, until the people couldn't make them out any longer.
And still they waited on, staring in the direction where the pod had disappeared from sight. And waited. Waited for their young friend to change his opinion, to turn around and come back to the boat.
But they waited in vain.
One time they thought it would really happen. When the pod was about 500 feet away from the speedboat, Lucas turned around and looked at them. But just when the five adults began to hope that the boy might start heading back to them, he turned away again, and let a dolphin pull him further away from the boat.
After more than an hour – Lucas had long since disappeared from sight – Dr Westphalen cleared her throat and suggested in a toneless voice that they should head back to seaQuest, since there appeared to be nothing they could do here anymore. Hitchcock turned to Captain Bridger for his consent, and when he nodded slowly, she started the engine of the speedboat and steered it to where they had left the shuttle. Darwin who had been drifting idly next to the boat all the time followed them slowly.
All the way back to the shuttle, Captain Bridger kept his head turned in the direction that Lucas had gone to, and stared at the distant horizon. No words were spoken during the entire trip back.
The seagulls watched how the humans climbed into their shuttle, leaving this small kind of world; a world of its own in the ocean – a world they didn't belong to. And when the shuttle had disappeared completely under the surface, there were no signs left that it had ever been there. For the sea nothing had changed, yet it had just turned the life of many people upside down.
*~*
As soon as they were aboard the seaQuest, Justine requested that a shuttle brought her upworld to the next port as soon as possible, from where she intended to take the next flight back home. With Lucas gone, there was nothing to keep her on seaQuest, or to justify her stay there and she knew it. Captain Bridger understood her reasons perfectly well, and granted her this request. He had a shuttle take her upworld the very same day.
Their farewell was short, and barely enough cover the minimum of good manners – nobody felt the need for big words right now.
After that was done, Bridger went to the Bridge where he informed the crew in brief words what had happened on the surface. A part of the Captain noticed the reaction of the crew, their obvious sadness; noticed the unusual silence on the Bridge after he finished his short speech; noticed that Dr Westphalen was missing – she had already retreated to her quarters in the desperate need to be alone. But even though he noticed these things, Bridger never acknowledged them – he simply couldn't do so. He couldn't bring himself to care about anything right now, feeling once again completely numb inside.
So the Captain just handed the responsibilities of the submarine over to Commander Ford, and left the Bridge.
*~*~*
That had been three days ago.
Three days.
Seventy-two hours.
Four thousand three hundred and twenty minutes.
Two hundred fifty nine thousand and two hundred seconds.
And Captain Bridger had hated every single one of them.
No. Hate was too strong a word. It marked a strong emotion – and Bridger didn't seem to be able to feel something like that anymore. All he felt was this numbness that had suffocated everything else.
The world around him went on in the same way it had done before, but Bridger wasn't part of it anymore. He was rather a watcher than a participant, detached from everything.
Was that what Lucas had felt those last days while he had been with them? Felt like a stranger in world that he didn't want to live in anymore?
Before he had... left them; Bridger forced himself to finish his thought. For that was what the teenager had done: He left. On his free will. More than that, on his own request. Nobody had forced him to leave or had denied him other options. Lucas had wanted to leave.
Obviously he hadn't felt that the seaQuest could be the right place for him; could be his home. Or that Bridger – or anybody else from the crew – could give him what he needed; whatever that might be.
Somehow the Captain felt that he had failed the boy. That he should have done more for him; even though he did not know what. What else could he have done for Lucas? What could he have said? What signs had he missed?
Seen realistically, these questions were in vain now. It was too late. But still they had Bridger riled, and his incapability to answer them left him numb to the world.
Kristin had tried to get him out of his zombie-like state, had tried to talk to him about it all and about his feelings. But Bridger had blocked off her efforts – rather harshly. He eventually told her point to black that he didn't want to talk about it, and that she should leave him the h*** alone.
And the doctor had done just that, hurt by the Captain's harsh words. Bridger knew that he was being mean and unfair to Kristin. With Lucas she had lost a dear friend just as much as he had, and she was just trying to help him cope with it. And he had driven her away.
But Bridger simply wasn't able to deal with the nearness and kindness of anybody right now. He fulfilled his duties like a robot, giving orders, handling the ship, and retreated to the solitude of his cabin whenever he wasn't needed.
Of course this did not go unnoticed by the crew, and several of them tried to talk to him about it; among them Commander Ford, Chief Crocker and Lieutenant O'Neill. But again Bridger blocked all their attempts. He wouldn't have any of it.
However, the Captain wasn't the only one on the submarine who was depressed. It was like a dark shadow had fallen over the boat; everybody seemed to feel the loss of their cocky teenager, and the moral was at an all time low. Normally it would have been Ben Krieg's job as Moral & Supply Officer to raise the crew's mood as much as possible. But the best that Ben could manage these days, was a polite smile and a nod when he walked past someone on a corridor. Gone were the Lieutenants constant jokes, gone his ready smile, and gone his talent to lighten up the worst mood. All gone with one teenager.
Probably for the thousand's time Bridger wondered how this single boy had been able to affect them all so much. When and how had he managed to sneak into all their hearts, without anybody noticing it? As much as he thought about it, the Captain didn't come up with a proper answer. All he knew was that they had lost far more than an ordinary crewmember with Lucas, more than a Chief Computer Analyst – even though that seemed to be the only thing that the UEO cared for.
Like he had promised, Admiral Noyce had informed his superiors, only after Lucas had returned to his family. Shortly after that, Captain Bridger received a call that ordered him to New Cape Quest, to a 'crisis meeting' concerning his actions. This was why the seaQuest was now heading for its home port. Bridger highly expected that a disciplinary proceeding was waiting for him there. After all, he had let the UEO's most promising young genius go without – at least in the UEO's opinion – seriously attempting to hold him back. But the truth was that Captain Bridger couldn't care less about what the UEO was going to do about his actions, for he intended to hand in his notice of withdrawal personally, as soon as he set foot on dry land.
He just didn't want to stay aboard the seaQuest anymore; there were too many memories laced with this place – and no real reason to stay.
When Bill had first brought him aboard the submarine, Bridger hadn't intended to stay for much longer than a short time visit, but the circumstances had forced him to take over the post of the Captain. Still, Bridger could have left after the 'Stark incident' but he found that he actually liked it aboard the seaQuest; so he decided to stay. And even though Lucas wasn't the only reason for this decision, he certainly was one of the main factor for it. In the teenager Bridger had found an attentive listener who actually understood the Captain's ideas, a caring friend, and a surrogate son as well. Lucas' carefreeness, his enthusiasm and his radiating joyfulness had shown Bridger how beautiful life could be.
And now all this was gone. Living aboard the seaQuest would never be the same again without the little genius. In his lifetime Bridger's life had often been completely changed: By his decision to join the Navy, marrying Carol, by his son Robert's birth, and his and his wife's death, and finally by Bill who had gotten the Captain out of his solitude on the island. Every time his entire world had changed; sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Bridger feared it would be the same in this case. But this time he didn't plan to stick around and watch it all. Watch the sudden and the gradual changes. Of course, they all would miss Lucas incredibly, they already did, but in the end life would just go on. Slowly the shared memories of the teenager would begin to fade, and even though he would never be completely forgotten, he just wouldn't be an important part of their lives anymore.
But Bridger was determined not to let that happen. It would feel like betraying Lucas after he had been such an important person in the Captain's life. He would not let himself forget.
This determination not to forget, was also why Bridger was here in the middle of the night. He was sitting on the bunk in Lucas' room, with the lights turned off, brooding. The room still held the teenagers scent, it lingered in the air, and in the clothes that lay strewn across the floor. On the table and the shelves, various computer parts, discs, papers, magazines and books were piled up. All together it looked just as if the teenager could come storming in any second, ready to launch himself at a new project.
But he wouldn't.
Bridger sighed deeply as this realization him again with full force.
Lucas wouldn't come back.
Out of the corner of his eyes Bridger saw a movement, and turned to see Darwin drifting idly in the aqua tubes behind him.
"Hey, pal." Bridger greeted him. The dolphin nodded to him, tapping the glass with his nose. Bridger looked around, and quickly found the vocoder that Lucas always kept around in his room, and switched it on.
"What Bridger doing?" Darwin asked as soon as the item took up its work.
"I'm saying goodbye." Bridger answered truthfully.
"Bridger miss Lucas."
"Yeah. That and I am leaving soon as well." The man admitted.
"Bridger no like seaQuest-home anymore?" the dolphin asked him.
"It's not that, Darwin. I just can't stay here any longer. There are too many memories here; do you understand?" Bridger stared at his hands, unable to look at the animal anymore.
Darwin nodded. "Bridger sad." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, I'm sad, pal. I miss Lucas very, very much."
"Bridger no reason be sad. Lucas pod." The animal explained simply.
"That's right. Lucas is with his dolphin pod, and I'm happy for him. But I'm also sad." Bridger said, mostly to himself, unsure if the dolphin would understand what he meant.
"Lucas no dolphin pod. Lucas new pod." Somehow the vocoder managed to give this simple statement a triumphant sound, and it made Bridger look up at Darwin again.
"What do you mean with 'Lucas new pod'?" Bridger demanded. "We left him with his family!" He swore that the next sound coming from the vocoder resembled a snort, and he knew, had the glass not separated the two of them, Darwin would have sprayed him in annoyance.
"Lucas new pod." He stressed again. "Lucas seaQuest pod."
Bridger was startled by the response; he gasped in too much air, which caused him to start coughing violently before he could gather himself. "Lucas seaQuest pod?!?" he repeated, almost yelling. "Darwin does that mean that...?"
The dolphin didn't grace his uncompleted quested with an answer. He shot the Captain a last, almost reproachful glance before he swam away. For a minute Bridger sat speechless, staring at the now empty aqua tube. Could it really be? Could Darwin have meant it that way or was he imagining things?
There was only one place for Bridger to find it out. Finally regaining his composure to some extent, he scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the room, nearly falling when he tripped over some junk that was lying on the floor. The Captain practically ran down the empty corridors, plainly ignoring the few crewmen he passed on his way. The men only shrugged mentally at this behavior – the Captain was beginning to act strange these days.
It seemingly took an eternity to reach the Moon Pool area. Nobody worked there at this time of the night, it was dark and quiet, and the room had an almost supernatural atmosphere about it – as if something incredible was about to come.
Bridger slowed his pace, trying to catch his breath after the run, and walked around the working benches. As he neared the pool, the Captain could hear the soft calming sound of splashing water, echoing through the otherwise quiet room. And finally Bridger a figure: Sitting on the 'catwalk' that led across the pool, his feet trailing in the water, as if everything was perfectly normal, as if nothing special had ever happened. In the pool Darwin was swimming around him, from time to time nudging against his feet.
"Lucas..." Bridger whispered astounded, unable to say anything else.
The boy looked up at him at the sound of his name. His face held a solemn expression, and he didn't reply, but only stared into the Captain's eyes for a long time. Then he looked down at Darwin again. Bridger slowly inched closer, afraid that if he moved too fast, the teenager in front of him would simply vanish like a ghost or a dream.
But he didn't disappear, and so Bridger carefully sat down next to him on the small bridge. Lucas didn't look at him, but instead kept his gaze fixed on the dolphin. The Captain in turn couldn't take his eyes from the boy. He felt the incredible urge to hold him close and never let him go again – but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to do it. It was as if a barrier had built up between the two of them. So much had happened... This person in front of him wasn't the same Lucas he had known anymore.
Thousands of questions were flashing through Bridger's mind. What was Lucas doing here? How did he manage to get in here, first place? When did he come back? What was he doing here, sitting alone in the darkness?
Unable to ask all his questions at the same time, the Captain only stammered out: "Why, Lucas?"
The teenager looked up at him for a short moment, a quizzical look on his face since he didn't understand what the Captain meant.
So the elder man rephrased his question. "Why did you come back?"
There was a pause, during which Bridger unconsciously held his breath. Lucas sat still, looking down with a pensive expression on his face.
"Because you let me go." He finally said simply, as if the statement made perfect sense for him.
And when Bridger thought about it, maybe it did. Almost all his life, strangers had determined what would be best for the boy; the decision whether to stay or to go had never been his. But now his friends from the seaQuest had let him go; he had probably for the first time in his life been able to choose his own way. And this had proved to Lucas, that he was finally being accepted as a complete human being, that he had found a real home and real friends. And so he had come back to them.When he realized all this, a heavy lump came to Bridger's throat. "Oh, kiddo..." he murmured, trying to control his emotions. Then he reached over and pulled Lucas in a hearty embrace. After remaining stiff for a moment, the teenager hugged him back, and buried his face in the Captain's shoulder.
At their feet Darwin whistled happily. Without the vocoder Bridger had no means of translation, however, he would have sworn that the dolphin wore a smirk that said "See? I told you so."
The Captain couldn't contain the grin that caused his mouth to twitch at this sight. More than once Darwin had proved them that he loved nothing more than to outwit his fellow humans – and he had scored once again. Then Bridger turned his attention back to the boy in his arms.
After a long time, Lucas freed himself gently from the Captain's embrace and looked up at him. They both were silent as they stared into each others eyes.
Then an impish grin suddenly spread across Lucas face, and it was as if he had never been gone. In his eyes sparkled a joyful mischief, and their color had returned to their beautiful, deep blue that resembled the ocean on a sunny day. It seemed to Bridger that in front of him he saw the very same carefree teenager he had met on his first day aboard the seaQuest, the one who had made fun of his hand signs.
Bridger also began to smile, and ruffled the boy's hair affectionately. "It's good to have you back, kiddo." He told him.
"Aye." Lucas replied. "And it's also good to be back."
They fell silent again for a while, until Bridger spoke up again. "Will you tell me what happened out there with your family?" He asked hesitantly.
Lucas shrugged. "Maybe... someday." He said vaguely.
Bridger nodded. For the moment that was good enough for him. Then he slowly stood up, stretching his muscles that protested against their uncomfortable position on the floor. He gave Lucas his hand and the boy pulled himself upright.
"Come on, kiddo." Bridger said. "Let's get you into some real clothes." He said, nodding towards the swimming suit that the teenager still wore.
"Alright." He agreed, and started walking out of the room with the Captain. "I hope you didn't let Ben sell my stuff yet..." He joked as they walked through the door. Bridger's good-natured laughter sounded from the hallway back into Moon Pool area as the two humans slowly left.
Darwin was left, drifting in the Moon Pool, whistling happily. He was highly satisfied with the outcome for his favorite humans. Even though they had proved, once again, to be pretty dense about some things.
It took them long enough to figure out how things were supposed to be. He could have told them so from the beginning – but as usually, nobody ever listened to him. After all, he was just a dolphin.
The End
*~*~*
I finally did it! I can't believe it! Man, took me long enough, didn't it? Thanks to all my reviewers, beta readers (especially to Persephone to stayed with me till the end) and special thanks to Tanja who wouldn't leave me alone until it was done. So here it is!
I know it's not a very good ending, and I'm not too happy with it either. But my muse left me completely in the end, and I was having a hard time finishing it at all. Maybe someday my muse will return, and I'll rework the ending; who knows.
So, feedback anybody? *g*
Sheela
©2001/2002
