"My apologies Lieutenant, for keeping you here past the end of your shift, I had a hell of a time getting Lucas out of bed this morning." Bridger said quietly to Brody as he stepped onto the bridge and made his way to the command chair.
There was still something that felt silly about captaining the Seaquest while resorting to 'the babysitter was late' type of excuses. At the end of this he owed some serious shore leave to Wendy and Piccolo. Regardless of any of his personal feelings on the situation, he could certainly see why the UEO had a strict "no children" policy regarding it's passengers. With the exception of Lucas, of course; well, the 16-year-old version, anyway. The considerably younger version was quickly approaching unwelcome status.
"Oh? Is Junior not getting enough rest?" Brody asked. Nathan could hear the smirk in his voice.
"Oh trust me – 'Junior''s getting far more rest than his –" Bridger stopped speaking suddenly as if he had hit a brick wall. His what? Friend? Babysitter? Guardian? His…oh. "than his Captain." Bridger finished, ignoring Brody's puzzled look.
"Anything to report from your shift?" he continued.
"Nothing. Steady as she goes sir, we're basically dogpaddling around the ocean and the other sub wreckage." Brody replied, unable to completely conceal his frustration at their lack of action. Bridger threw one of his patented pointed-yet-amused looks at the Lieutenant. "Dismissed."
Jim turned as he walked away, "oh, Captain, Dr. Smith and Dr. Gravel paged the bridge at some ungodly hour and asked that you come see them in the labs once you get a chance."
"Noted. Thank you Lieutenant."
So the Doctors were pulling an all-nighter? He hoped that maybe they had managed to catch up to the original timeframes they had meshed out for the project. As eager as he was to see the progress, something told him 7:00 am was not the time to approach the good doctors.
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"I can't make any sense of it, but it certainly looks impressive."
"Well, Captain," Dr Gravel began, "it's the most core functionality of the FOY. Dr. Smith and I managed to remove the parts and reproduce it. Now I hope to be able to work with the machinery on board the Seaquest to adjust it to fix your…issue. And this will also prevent any further shuttle mishaps." He said with a smile.
"You're a patient man, Dr. Gravel – I appreciate that. As you may guess, I have my hands full these days."
"It happens, Captain."
"Do you know what work needs to be done to be able to reverse things?"
"I have a place to start, from there – well, we'll see."
Nathan glanced around the room quickly. "From the distinct lack of him, I'm assuming Lucas wasn't much of a help? Where is he?"
Wendy made a face. "No, not much help I'm afraid. And I don't think hindrance would be too strong of a description."
"Ouch."
"Mmmm.
He needed a nap, so I took him back to your quarters. Lonnie's with
him right now."
Nathan couldn't help laughing. Seeing Wendy's questioning look he replied, "A nap. The idea is just a little funny, and more than a little satisfying. There's been many a time I've wanted to put 16 year old Lucas down for a nap. And I've actually managed to trick him into it a few times", he finished, clearly proud of himself.
"Too bad you weren't
here earlier, then. He put up a hell of a fight."
"Was he
still awake when you left him with Henderson?"
"Oh yeah."
"I'd
better go see if she's survived, then." With that Bridger headed
to his quarters, still chuckling to himself.
000000000
"Is he awake?" he asked quietly, sticking his head into his quarters.
"Captain," Henderson smiled. "No, he's still asleep. In fact, he only stopped fighting it about half an hour ago."
"You're a saint, Henderson. I really appreciate this. I feel like I've been imposing on too many members of the crew already."
"Any time, Captain. You know what they say: 'It takes a village'." Henderson said as she left his quarters.
"Or a UEO Flagship." Bridger muttered to himself. Peeking behind the curtain to where Lucas lay asleep on his cot, the Captain couldn't help smiling to himself. "Hello there Addison." He whispered quietly upon sight of the bear held tightly in Lucas' arms. Seeing the flush in Lucas' cheeks, in quietly pulled down the blankets a little. "Sweet dreams kiddo."
Nathan basked in the relative peace and quiet for the next 20 minutes, doing absolutely nothing but putting his feet up and reading a book. His few moments alone were interrupted by a very emphatic knock at his door. "Come in" he called with a sigh, quickly putting both his feet and the book down. He had barely finished his greeting when Wendy Smith stalked into his cabin looking like she was was ready to kill.
"Doctor?"
"This stupid FOY is making me insane, Captain!"
"Care to elaborate?" he knew she would anyway, he might as well pretend he actually wanted to hear it.
"The machinery Dr. Gravel put together? Fell apart!"
Nathan's eyebrows raised at this. "Fell apart?"
"Well, a few pieces came loose. He thinks that one of the connections was loose and when he went to go work on it they just – fell off."
"Oh boy."
"Exactly!"
Just then he felt a presence at his side. Lucas was standing there, rubbing at his eyes, chin trembling.
"What's happening?" he asked the Captain.
"Did we wake you, champ?"
"There was yelling."
"That was me, Lucas. I was just upset about the FOY and all the delays we keep running into."
"You can go back to sleep."
Lucas looked up at him – chin still trembling. "You need to trust me on this Lucas. You're safe ok?"
The boy gave a small nod, and then retreated back to his cot. Bridger was fairly sure he wouldn't actually go back to sleep.
0000000
"You've been petty quiet all day Lucas." Bridger said several hours later.
Lucas just shrugged, not looking up from his book. "Just reading."
"You ready for dinner?"
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to eat. You've barely eaten all day."
"But I'm not hungry!"
"This isn't negotiable, Lucas. Now up of the bed." Lucas didn't move. "March!"
Lucas grumbled under his breath, but got up off the bed.
"What was that?"
"Nuthin'" Lucas said sullenly.
"That's what I thought."
At the mess, Lucas refused to cooperate in choosing what he wanted to eat, so Nathan proceeded to fill a plate for him. Part of him wished that liver had been on the menu.
As he set the food down in front of the boy, Lucas made a face. "I don't wanna eat any of that."
"Well, you had the chance to choose your own supper and you didn't, so you'll eat what's on your plate."
"But –"
"I mean it Lucas."
Spotting Drs Smith and Gravel, Bridger waved them over.
"Hello Captain, Lucas." Dr. Gravel greeted them. Bridger smiled and returned the greeting; Lucas said nothing.
"Lucas, it's impolite to ignore someone like that. What's gotten into you today?"
"Hello." He muttered.
Everyone ate in companionable silence for a few minutes until Dr. Gravel broke the silence. "Can we meet tonight Captain, to discuss some more about the FOY?"
"Certainly."
"I wanna go swimming with Darwin tonight."
"Sorry, you have to come with me. It'll be too late to swim."
"I don't wanna go I wanna swim."
"Lucas, that's enough!"
Dr. Gravel tried to break the tension. "When you're at the meeting with us you can learn more about the FOY."
"I don't care about the FOY, the FOY is stupid!"
"That's it!" Bridger said standing up. "You're going to bed."
Lucas immediately started crying as Bridger took his hand and led him out of the mess.
"Let's meet in the wardroom." He called over his shoulder.