Chapter 20.
It was late into the night when the SeaQuest crew got back to their hotel. They had been held up in traffic for over half an hour, before the police got the roads moving. Baz, Matt and Emily had been held up at the conference and weren't going to be back till much later, much to Lucas's relief.
"All I want to do is lie down, go to sleep and never wake up again. Remind me, why are we doing this?" Ben asked anyone who was listening.
His question remained unanswered as Ben found his shared hotel room and let himself in, still complaining loudly as he closed the door behind him. Soon everyone was in their shared rooms and not a sound was to be heard from any of the rooms.
***
Tim woke up suddenly, his heart racing. He glanced at the clock, which read 8:00. He looked around the room, sensing that something was wrong but not realising what. Miguel, he noticed, had already gone. He rested his head against the pillow again, knowing that his mind wouldn't allow him any more rest. As his eyes flicked around the room, he noticed that there was a piece of paper on the floor with his name on it. Compelled by curiosity, Tim climbed slowly out of bed and over to the paper. Opening it up, he barely suppressed a gasp as he read the threatening words,
Watch out, I'm about and whoever I find it will suffer the consequences!
Tim felt dizzy, who would do such a thing? He knew none of his friends would and began to feel threatened by the mystery note sender. Tim began to shiver, as he suddenly became aware that he was standing in the middle of the hotel room with only his pyjamas on. Trying to forget about the note, he had a shower.
***
Forgetting about the note seemed to be harder than Tim imagined and he was still thinking about it when he got his breakfast and sat down with his friends. Matt and Emily were sitting by Lucas, as usual but there was strangely no sign of Baz.
"Morning, sleepy head," Ben commented, as he saw Tim sit down beside Miguel. Tim just grunted his reply, looking slightly disorientated in Ben's opinion.
Tim watched the conversation flow past him and, as his head was filled with different theories about the note sender. He didn't even notice when Bridger called his name several times, until Miguel poked him in the ribs.
"Tim, you OK? You seem kind of distant." Bridger asked, concerned about the lieutenants quiet behaviour. Matt and Emily had left and it was just the SeaQuest crew sitting at the table. Tim felt over whelmed as he felt all eyes boring into him.
"Well… Um, yeah. I'm fine. Tim stammered. "I guess I still haven't recovered from yesterdays conferences yet!"
Bridger seemed to accept the explanation, with some difficulty. Looking round the table, Tim was glad to see everyone else had carried on with their separate conversations. His gaze fell upon Lucas, who was still staring into space. The door to the restaurant suddenly opened and Baz entered. Tim noticed that as soon as Baz went to get his breakfast, Lucas slipped silently out of the room. It didn't take long for the elder man to figure something had happened between the two.
***
After the conference, it was plain for all to see that something wasn't right between Lucas and his uncle. Every time Baz tried to approach Lucas, the youth would deliberately walk off in the other direction. The crew could see that Baz was hurt deeply by the rejection, but refused to talk to anyone about it.
That night in their hotel room, Bridger decided to talk with Lucas. He sat on the bed and waited patiently for his room mate to return from the restaurant. He didn't have to wait long before the door opened and closed and Lucas entered. He noticed Bridger sitting on the bed straight away.
"Hi. What have I done wrong now?" Lucas began. He could tell from the look on Bridger's face that he wasn't going to like the topic of discussion.
"What's going on between you and your uncle?" Bridger replied, after motioning for the teen to sit down on the bed next to him.
"I don't want to talk about it." Lucas replied shortly and turned towards the bathroom.
Bridger studied the teen silently, before saying.
"You know he is concerned about you. You could tell that from the beginning, and whatever it is that's going on between you is really hurting the both of you. Anyone can see that."
"What do you know about it? You only met him a couple of days ago!" Lucas was beginning to get annoyed and the elder man realised he had hit a nerve.
"What's wrong?" Bridger tried again.
"It's none of your business!" Lucas was nearly yelling now. "What I do with my life is up to me and nobody else. If I don't want to talk to someone, that's my problem. Nobody else's."
"Fine." Bridger could see he wasn't going to get any answers when Lucas was in this mood and allowed him to temporarily escape to the safety of the shower.
***
That night, Lucas found it difficult to empty his mind of thoughts and drift off to sleep. His mind kept returning to the conversation he had with Bridger and, more importantly, to Baz. He hid his pain during well during the day, but it was the nights that he felt pain over the betrayal. The rational part of him desperately wanted to tell Baz he was sorry and that it wasn't his fault, but the other part wanted nothing more to do with him.
Lucas sighed, rolling over to face the wall and wishing that life would somehow become less complicated. At last the troubled youth fell into a restless sleep.
TBC…
Sorry this part took longer than expected to finish. I'm on half term, so the next part shouldn't be too hard to do, but I'm not making any promises. Also my computer's on the blink (Well broadband anyway). The next part should be more interesting (I hope).