Okay, I´ll admit it, I did write myself into this story as well as my friend Kathy. This was just one of those spur of the moment kinds of things. See the disclaimer for copyright info on Darwin, Tim and Lucas. Their actions are completely copyrighted by me. The other 2 characters, well, I guess you could say that they´re copyright by the person that they´re modeled after. (Yes, Kathy has read the story prior to my posting it!) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Friends" by Michelle Vincenti June 9, 1997 Darwin looked very lonely. Lucas was gone for a couple of days, visiting upworld friends and Bridger was busy with some repairs that needed to be done. "Darwin lonely," he thought, swimming almost lazily in his tank. "Darwin friends gone. Darwin need new friends." Tim walked into SeaDeck and headed straight for Darwin. "Hi, Darwin. I thought you might be a little lonely since Lucas isn't here, so I came to visit." "Tim play with Darwin!" the vo-corder translated, sounding excited. "That's what I'm here for." Tim grinned. "So what do you want to play? And _don't_ say hide and seek, 'cause then you'd have an unfair advantage." "Darwin play catch. Darwin no like hide and seek." "Catch sounds good to me, Darwin. Let me find the ball, okay?" Tim started searching for the ball and found a bright red ball tucked away in a corner. He picked it up and walked back to Darwin. "Darwin wants blue ball." he said when he saw the red ball. "This is the only one I found, Darwin. There were no other balls around. You saw me searching. I didn't find anything else except this." "Tim throw ball!" Darwin was getting impatient now. "Okay, here goes." Tim tossed the ball and Darwin raced to get it. Darwin "threw" the ball back to Tim. They continued to do this for a half hour. Finally, Tim glanced at the chronometer. Once he turned away, Darwin "tossed" the ball and hit him in the head. "Ow! Darwin!" Tim turned around and glared at the dolphin. "That hurt!" "Darwin sorry. Darwin no _want_ to hurt Tim." "It's okay, Darwin. I understand. Just don't do it again, all right?" He quickly checks the chronometer again. "Oh, man! I'm gonna be late if I don't hurry. I'll see you later, Darwin." Darwin splashed Tim and within seconds, Tim was soaked. Darwin didn't want Tim to leave. "Great. Now I've gotta go change. Thanks _so_ much, Dar." Tim looked annoyed. Darwin got scared. No one had ever gotten annoyed at him before. Not even Bridger. "Darwin sorry. Tim forgive?" Tim relaxed. "Yeah, I forgive you." He leaned over and petted Darwin. "You silly dolphin." ************** A young girl walked into SeaDeck with a friend. They'd just recently met, but seemed like really good friends. Darwin saw them and got excited. "Kathy play with Darwin?" Kathy grinned and pushed her blonde hair out of her face. "Only if my friend can play, too." "Friend play. Darwin like friends." Kathy laughed. "Maybe I should introduce you to my friend first. Darwin, this is Michelle." Michelle leaned over and gently petted Darwin. "Hiya Darwin. It's nice to meet you." "Kathy and Michelle play with Darwin?" The cetacean sounded anxious. The girls glanced at each other and grinned. "Sure. Why not?" Kathy answered. "What do you want to play, Darwin?" "Catch. Tim no good." The girls grinned and started laughing. "Okay, Darwin. We'll play catch," Kathy said and tossed the ball to Darwin. After a few minutes, Lucas enters quietly. He sneaks up behind Michelle and grabs her in a huge bear hug. "Hey!" she exclaimed, startled. She whirled around and saw Lucas. "Oh, it's only you, Lucas." She sounded sarcastic, but her eyes were glowing. Lucas pretended to act hurt. "Only me? What's that supposed to mean?" She grinned and then kissed him. "That's what it means." "Oh, _that_. Okay." He grinned right back at her. Kathy watched this exchange, smiling. Then, she gently cleared her throat. "Well, aren't you going to introduce me?" "Oh yeah. Kathy, this is Lucas. Lucas, Kathy." "Hi," Lucas said and warmly shook her hand. "Lucas no visit friend?" Darwin looked at him curiously. "No, because it turns out that the one person I went to visit was actually here -- without telling me that she'd be here." Lucas put his arm around Michelle and smiled at her. She returned the smile and hugged him. "Lucas play?" Darwin sounded hopeful. "Yeah. Of course." He leans over and pats Darwin. "So what were you doing?" Kathy laughed. "We were playing catch since Darwin claims that Lieutenant O'Neill is so bad at it." Lucas burst out laughing. "Darwin really said that?!" Michelle replied, "Yeah. I think his exact words were, 'Tim no good'. You have a dolphin with some sense of humor, darlin'." "Tell me about it," Lucas groaned. "He's getting to be worse than Ben!" "Darwin want to play!" the dolphin squealed impatiently. "Okay, Darwin. Don't be so impatient." Lucas retrieved the ball and tossed it to Kathy. "Here. You throw it first." "Sure." Kathy tossed the ball to Darwin, but it went over him and halfway across the moonpool. Kathy started giggling. "Um, whoops. I guess I threw it a little too hard." Lucas and Michelle were both laughing, too. "What was your first guess?" Lucas responded. Darwin returned with the ball, but didn't throw it to them. Instead, he splashes them and gets them soaked, much as he did with O'Neill. "Darwin!" Lucas was surprised. "What was that for?!" "Nothing," Darwin answered innocently. Lucas and Michelle both rolled their eyes and Kathy laughed. "Y'know, I've never actually _seen_ all of _seaQuest_..." Michelle tried to hint, but Lucas wasn't getting it. "I wouldn't mind seeing it myself." Kathy tried to help. After a few moments, Lucas finally got it. "Oh, do you want me to give both of you a tour of _seaQuest_?" "Isn't the genius in that little brain obvious?" Michelle teased. "Of course we'd like a tour, silly." "Darwin? You mind?" Lucas knew how much Darwin wanted to spend time with him, but also wanted Lucas to be happy with his human friends. "No mind. Go tour. Darwin wait." Darwin swam around in the pool, lazily. "Okay, Darwin. We'll see you later." Lucas put his arm around Michelle. "Bye, Darwin," both girls said and all three left SeaDeck. ************** Several hours later, Darwin was swimming in the swim tubes and passed Lucas' room. Lucas and Michelle were alone, talking. Darwin tapped on the window to get their attention. They both looked up and Michelle waved to him, but they continued talking, ignoring Darwin. Darwin gave the dolphin equivalent of a sigh and headed back to SeaDeck. When he got there, he found Kathy sitting by herself. "Lucas, Michelle abandon Kathy?" Darwin looked concerned. "Oh, no, Darwin. They didn't abandon me. They just needed to talk, so I gave them the time." Kathy looked at the cetacean with a faint smile. "Kathy alone?" "No, I'm not alone...Well, now that you're here, I'm not." Kathy petted Darwin in a gesture of gratitude. Darwin started swimming in circles and doing various tricks, trying to get Kathy to smile. After a short while, he succeeded. Kathy grinned and started laughing softly. Darwin was happy. He felt like he'd done something good. Lucas and Michelle entered SeaDeck, still talking. "So you can send the program, right? It's not classified?" Michelle sounded anxious. "Oh, no. Only copyrighted." Lucas smiled and Michelle started to get nervous. "Relax. It's a joke. It's not officially copyrighted -- or else the UEO would probably try to market it or something. It's just self-copyrighted," Lucas said reassuringly and Michelle relaxed. "Great. Hey Kathy, you hear that? Lucas is going to send me that dolphin program so we can work with that one dolphin. Maybe we can even find out what's wrong with him." Michelle sounded excited. "That's great! Thanks, Lucas. We really appreciate it and I'm sure the dolphins will, too." Kathy sounded happy. "Hey, no problem. They _are_, after all, letting us try to understand them. We might as well try to give something back. Right, Dar?" Lucas grinned at his dolphin friend. "Yes, dolphins help. Dolphins accept help." "I'll walk you ladies back to Launch Bay." Lucas put his arm around Michelle and gestured towards the hall. "Shall we?" They started to leave and Lucas called over his shoulder, "I'll be right back, Darwin." Darwin "nodded" and decided to go outside for a little while, rather than wait inside for Lucas the whole time. From the looks of things, it would probably be a long goodbye. But Darwin didn't mind. He knew Lucas was happy and that's what he wanted - to see his friends happy, just as he had managed to cheer up Kathy. Darwin was happy. He loved to see people smile, especially those close to him like Lucas. ************** Copyright September, 1997 by Michelle Vincenti Return to fanfic index Return to main page