Originally posted 1/29/06I'm really not sure why this ambushed me at work the other day. I've been working on a Fallout fic (yes, Livvy on earth at last!), and this came out of nowhere.... What can you do when the muses are insistent?
Anyway, this is PKW filler, hope you enjoy it!
Many thanks to imloco2, shipsister and MadScientist for the beta work!
Rating: PG (-ish....for some sexual inuendo)
Setting: Very late in PK Wars -- shortly after John wakes up with the baby
Spoilers: Through PK Wars
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my universe, just playin' with 'em 'cos I *need* more Farscape!
Just the Three of Us
Aeryn settled the baby, drowsy after feeding, down on their bed for a nap. He did seem to sleep an awful lot, but John had confirmed Pilot's assertion that that was normal for newborn infants of most species.
John.... She took a deep breath and let it out, willing the tension and the fears of the past two solar days to leave her as well.
If she lived to be 200 cycles old, she would never forget the sight of him collapsing on command in a shower of sparks and smoke, or the coldness that had gripped her heart and turned her stomach to lead. She'd been terrified she'd lost him for good.
But that was in the past! He'd woken at last an arn or so ago, and after tears and kisses and cuddles, she'd gratefully allowed him to go do something so ordinary as take a shower while she tended to their son.
Now, listening to the sound of the spray from the other room, she realized that the water had been running an awfully long time, far longer than John normally spent in the shower. Assuming he was standing under the warm water to loosen sore muscles and work out the stiffness of two days' immobility, she headed for the sanitary alcove, intending to tease him about wasting water.
She found him standing in the shower, water rolling in streams over his body – staring off into the distance. He wasn't washing, or stretching, or rinsing his hair....
He didn't even blink when she came into view.
What the frell?This was
way too much like the state he'd just emerged from! Fighting panic, Aeryn reached in to turn off the water. Her hand slipped on the controls, and she had to fumble a bit before she got it shut off, but even so, John took no notice of her presence.
"John?" When he didn't respond, she repeated sharply, "John!"
That seemed to reach him. He blinked and looked at her. It took a few microts for him to focus in on where he was, and then he let out a deep, shuddering breath. He looked down at his body, apparently taking in the fact that he was naked and dripping wet, and looked back up and said, "Uhhh...hey."
It was good that he was talking, but he still seemed somewhat dazed, and given the fact that Moya's temperature still wasn't stabilized, it worried her that he wasn't complaining about freezing the boys off. She could see what he called goose bumps forming on his skin. Frell, she was cold herself! Letting anger cover her fear, Aeryn snatched up a towel and began to dry him off, none too gently.
"Oh, ouch, baby, easy there," he said, resting a hand on her shoulder to steady himself, as she scrubbed the rough fabric briskly over his chest and started to work her way down.
His protest had been weak, but she forced herself to take more care as she finished the job. When he was dry, she stalked from the sanitary alcove into their room and grabbed some clothes almost at random out of his drawers, just enough to warm him up a bit. He'd followed her partway into the room, she noted with approval, so she tossed him the clothing instead of bringing it to him. He caught it, and, still moving in something like slow motion, began to get dressed. He pulled the soft, black T-shirt over his head, and then struggled briefly with the loose drawstring pants.
When he finished, John simply stood there, clothed but barefoot, and they gazed at each other from just outside of arm's reach. She took in the red scratches on his face and neck and hands, seemingly minor souvenirs of the terrible events of a few days past, and once more willed herself to calm down. It was just that the fear of losing John Crichton made her lose all reason – well, most of it, anyway.... She sighed, and a ghost of a smile reached her eyes.
John saw it, she could tell. He tossed his head back towards the shower and said softly, "Thank you."
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, babe, I'm fine."
"Then what the frell was that all about?" she demanded.
John took a deep breath and looked away so she couldn't see his eyes. Finally, he looked down at his feet and came clean: "I was lookin' for Harvey."
Her eyes narrowed, and her brow wrinkled, more in curiosity than concern. "Did you find him?"
"I, uh, I think he's gone." He nodded his head in the general direction of command. "Einstein took the wormhole knowledge, and I think after that, Harvey just...died."
She looked him over, thinking of the other John's giddy, happy expression when he'd realized he was free of Harvey. The man in front of her looked nothing like that. His shoulders were slumped, and the corners of his mouth turned down. "You don't sound very happy about that," she ventured.
"No, no, I am, it's just...." He cleared his throat. "I was just trying to be sure the sumbitch was really gone."
"Oh," she said, voice so low she almost didn't say the word aloud. One of her clearest memories from the fuzzy times immediately after John rescued her from the scarrans was of him ranting in anger about how Scorpius had tricked him, hadn't removed the neural clone after all, despite their agreement. Thinking of John's pain and anger then, she understood his reluctance to believe now. But still, they had to be practical. She moved a step closer to him, and reached out and cupped his cheek with her hand. "Can you ever be sure?"
Beginning to come to life at last, John nodded. "I think so. I, uh...." He scratched his head and continued, "After the last time he came back, I kinda went looking for all the places he could hide.... I think I know them all."
"That's what you were doing? Looking in all of them?"
"Yeah." He looked away and then looked back, catching her eyes. Holding his arms out, he said, "Come here."
She slid gratefully into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his waist, feeling the warmth, the strength of his body, even after all he'd been through these past few days.
He kissed the top of her head and murmured, "You and the munchkin are my life now."
She believed that, and she was glad of it; the last two days had been both joyous and painful, getting to know her son, fearing she'd lost his father.... None of that mattered any longer. "That's all I want, too." She rested her cheek on his chest and listened to the steady beating of his heart. Right this microt, it was her favorite sound.
"It is kinda strange though," he mumbled into her hair.
"What?"
Apparently, he hadn't meant to say that aloud. "Nothing," he said, bending down and kissing her.
She kissed him back, relishing the taste of him, but her mind went on trying to decipher his meaning. Sometimes John Crichton was an enigma, but just then, Aeryn thought she knew what he was thinking:
It is kinda strange, though... not having Harvey in my head.... She suspected he was not as happy to be free of the neural clone as his twin had been on Dam-ba-da. Should she call him on it? Remind him that without Harvey, they wouldn't have been dragged into the war that had just cost the life of his best friend, that had nearly taken their lives, and their son's?
But even having given birth just two days before, she found she was definitely susceptible to her husband's physical charms. Any thought she had of confronting him dissolved as his hands roamed over her body, slipping under her shirt....
John broke it off when he realized how close they were getting to ripping each other's clothes off. He unwrapped her arms from around his neck and picked her up by the waist and moved her far enough away that they weren't actually touching any longer. "Uh-uh," he said, taking a deep shuddering breath. "I don't care how fast you heal, Mrs. Crichton, you're not ready for sex two days after giving birth."
"You started it," she said, with an exaggerated pout, but she knew he was right. She still felt stretched, and sore, and achy, but she was feeling better every day. "Tomorrow, perhaps," she said with a grin that dared him to argue.
He snorted and shook his head, then reached and stroked her hair. "Don't think I don't want to right this minute," he said.
Hah! She slipped her hand down between his legs and squeezed gently. "Oh, I know you want to."
"Wench," he snickered, bending down and nuzzling her neck. So much for separation....
Trying not to get lost in the touch of his nose and lips, the warmth of his breath on her skin, Aeryn let her thoughts wander to their baby, to that mysterious thing called family, and something John said earlier came back into her thoughts. She looked up so she could see his eyes, and asked, "Einstein removed the wormhole knowledge from your brain?"
"Wormhole weapon knowledge, anyway. That's what Harvey said, just before he went all Stanley Kubrick on me."
She assumed he meant before Harvey...died. "But you might still have the knowledge to go to earth one day?"
"I don't know." He turned his thoughts inward and searched his mind for a few microts, and then he shrugged. "I might," he said, reaching out and taking her hands. "But unless this peace sticks....I can't go. It's not safe for them."
"So it's just us," she said, thinking that everyone else was leaving Moya, and she was staying this time.
"Yep. Just us. You, me, and the little guy." His smile was broad and genuine. It was the happiest she'd seen him in cycles. She decided then and there, if he was missing Harvey just a little, it didn't matter.
"Just the three of us," she echoed, with a wide smile that matched her husband's. "I like that."
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