I'm about 15 chapters later on this, but thank you all for your great reviews. I started this fic as a way to deal with my Bridger/Lucas father son relationship love (can you make sense of that?), and I'm lad others like it too.

After much discussion about how the damage could have occurred and how far back it set them, Captain Bridger left Drs Gravel and Smith to finish recreating the work that was lost and took Lucas to the mess for supper. Lucas reached up for his hand and held on tight as they walked through t he corridors, but the boy said nothing. All through dinner, despite Nathan's best efforts, Lucas remained silent, staring at his plate and playing with his food.

"You've barely touched your dinner, Lucas."

"I'm not hungry, sir."

"Can you at least try and finish your carrots for me, please?"

"Yes Cap'in."

"Are you ok champ? You look a little down in the dumps."

"I'm ok Cap'in."

"You know you can tell me if anything was wrong."

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, if you need to talk later, you'll let me know, right?"

"Uh huh."

"Do you promise?" Bridger asked with akind smile.

"I promise Cap'in."

oooooooooo

Giving up any hope of Lucas even finishing his carrots, 15 minutes later they headed back to their cabin.

"I've got some paperwork to do. Do you have anything to keep you occupied for a while?"

"Can I go on the Internex? I need to look somethin' up."

"Sure, go ahead. Maybe you can find something on the FOY."

Bridger did not see the boy roll his eyes at the mention of the machine. He only heard him grunt noncommittally.

Settling in, Nathan lost himself in his paperwork. Indeed, almost an hour and a half had gone by when he heard Lucas exclaim "Whoa!"

Glancing up, he quickly saw what had caused the boys reaction. On the screen in front of Lucas was a very graphic, very realistic, sex site. Lucas was staring in rapt attention, jaw dropped. Bridger got up from his desk and quickly headed to Lucas and covered the boy's eyes with one hand, flicking the power off on the computer with the other.

"I think that's quite enough of that for one night."

Lucas automatically went into pout mode. "Why? What'd I do?"

"How'd you end up on that Internex site, kiddo?"

Lucas looked down, but not before Bridger noticed the colour drain from his face.

"I'm sorry Cap'in! I di'int meant to! It came up by accident when I was tryin' to get to asite. I musta typed it wrong. I was stupid an' I won't do it again I swear!"

Bridger noticed Lucas slamming his fist into the side of his leg – hard. He grabbed the punishing fist mid-swing, causing Lucas to look at him. Staring him in the eye, Bridger slowly pried Lucas' hand open breaking the fist.

"Remember the other night when I told you that nobody was supposed to be hitting you? Well, you shouldn't hit yourself either, Lucas."

"But I was stupid."

"You're not stupid Lucas. It's against the rules."

"That isn't no rule!" Lucas eyed him suspiciously.

"It is now. I just made it up. I'm the Captain I can do that. So new rule. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"Good. Now come sit down for a second. Do you understand what you just saw on that site?"

"Yeah, it had naked people and it said it was about sex. I know what sex is."

The Captain raised his eyebrows. "Do you now? Well why don't you tell me what you know."

"Sex is for makin' babies. The girl's got eggs and the boy's got sperm and they meet in the girl and grow into a baby. The sperm gets in there when the boy puts his pe---"

"Ok, ok," Nathan cut him off, with a slight blush rising in his cheeks. "Clearly you know the technical side, but there's a bit more to it than that. Like the fact that sex usually happens between two people who love each other romantically."

"The people on that site di'int look like they was in love, Cap'in."

"No I'm guessing they didn't. There are exceptions to every rule, kiddo."

Lucas looked puzzled for a few seconds. "But Cap'in, why would people wanna put that on the Internex?"

"Well Lucas, sometimes people – grown ups – like to look at those kinds of pictures because it makes them feel good physically."

"Really? I thought the pictures was scary Cap'in. Does that make me weird?" the childish concern was apparent in his voice.

"No, not at all kiddo. Like I said, it's some grownups that look at these pictures. They're not meant for children. Kids your age shouldn't see them because it might confuse or scare them. They're not ready to understand adult actions like in those pictures."

"Is that why you covered my eyes?"

"Yep."

"So," Lucas said, standing up behind where the Captain was sitting, "do I get to cover your eyes now?" With a smile he clapped his hands over Bridger's eyes.

"Oh! Who turned out the lights?" the Captain cried with false alarm. "Where'd my Lucas go? He was right here a minute ago!"

Lucas bit his lip to keep from laughing.

"I'm sure he must be here somewhere…" the Captain began flailing about with his hands, patting the couch as if looking for the boy. Lucas couldn't help himself, and a giggle escaped.

"Oh!" cried Bridger, "I heard something! It sounded much like the laughter of a little boy!"

Lucas began squirming with suppressed laughter.

"I think it's coming from…HERE!" With the last word, Nathan grabbed Lucas and flipped him over his head and began tickling him mercilessly. Lucas howled with laughter. The Captain stopped after a few seconds and let his charge catch his breath.

"Ok you. Time to get ready for bed."

"Now? Really!"

"Yes, no arguments."

And with that, the Captain hauled Lucas over his shoulder, carrying him like a sack of potatoes. This set Lucas off into a fresh set of giggles.

Neither one noticed the bemused stared of the other crew members as they headed off to the showers.

Or, if they did notice, they didn't care.