Originally posted 12/21/06I really enjoyed playing with the muse writing this one. It's probably sappy, and it's definitely shippy, and I hope you'll enjoy it, too.
Rating: PG
Setting: AHR, TF, and shortly after PKW
Spoilers: Through PKWars
Disclaimer: Not my universe, not my characters, no money being made here.... Additional acknowledgement with this one -- I stole a good chunk of Justin Monjo's dialog from AHR, and several lines from Burt Bacharach and Hal David's song, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head."
Many thanks to imloco2, shipsister, and MadScientist for the beta chores! You all nudged me just a bit in all the right directions!
Rain
Prelude:
She leans her head back, trying to catch raindrops on her tongue. John calls, "Aeryn, pick it up. I wanna get out of this rain. This is the place."
"Rain...is that what you call this? I like it," she says, like a little child, but she "picks it up," as he asked, so that they can get out of the open, hole up for the night. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
John stares out the window at the drizzly, dreary scene spread out in front of him. "Look at that," he muses.
Aeryn looks at him. "What?"
"That's it," he sighs. "Earth...minus the sunshine."
She thinks about it for a microt or two, and admits, "You know you were right...it's actually very beautiful."
He stares out the window at the rain and the Earth for just a little longer, then sits beside her on the bed. They're so close, their shoulders touch.
"Were you scared to join me when I left Moya?" he asks.
"Yes."
That simple answer illuminates their relationship at that moment.
But they both understand they'll likely die tomorrow, and slowly, deliberately, they cross a line they've been dancing around for months, into what she calls "recreation," and he calls "making love".... * * * * * * * *
Intermission:
John methodically searched the "gilded cage" -- his term for the waterfront mansion that Uncle Sam was providing for his friends from Moya. He knew they hated being under lock and key, more or less literally, but it was only for a little while. As soon as that frelling wormhole stabilized, they were all heading straight back to the UTs, he knew that for damn sure.... Meantime, "the aliens" (and
that term told him everything he needed to know about the state of human culture) were doing their darnedest to play nice. Well, everyone but Sikozu, anyway. Which made it all the more odd that Aeryn was MIA. There was a car waiting to take her and Chiana to the airport for a good will visit to Paris, and while Chi was happily chatting up the driver, Aeryn was nowhere to be found.
John wasn't worried for her safety -- this was Aeryn, after all -- but it wasn't like her to miss an appointment unless something was really bothering her. There were an awful lot of places to hide in this house, if that was what she was doing, though her packed duffle had been waiting by the door with Chi's. He'd started his search with her room, and had nearly finished with the upper floor without any sign of her. If she didn't turn up soon, he wasn't going to be able to stop the Secret Service calling in reinforcements for the search, which would not be popular with IASA's Project Director for Extraterrestrial Studies, otherwise known, when John was in a rare good mood, as Dad.
He paused in the middle of one of the spare bedrooms, staring out the large bay window at the raindrops coming down. Yup, it really did rain in the Sunshine State, and he was going to have to go back out in it a little later to get to a meeting at IASA. He sighed. He shouldn't even
be at the house this morning, but, even with Granny's home remedy to take the edge off, he just couldn't let Aeryn go as far away as Paris without in some sense seeing her off. He was beginning to get pissed, now, though, imagining this to be some bizarre game of hide and seek, and he whirled around and took a deep breath, preparing to bellow her name. That was when his brain kicked in, and he realized he'd seen a thin dark-haired figure standing outside in the back yard -- in the rain....
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Aeryn!" he yelled, from the shelter of the back door. When she didn't react to his call, he didn't bother to dig up protection from the elements, just strode out the back door as he was, cotton pants and a long-sleeved shirt. He felt the water on his face immediately, felt where the drops made dark splotches on his shirt. He shivered just a little as the cold began to seep in, but right then he was more concerned about Aeryn than himself. When he got a little closer and she still didn't look at him, he called, "Aeryn! What the hell are you doing out here?"
She looked up, but simply waited for him to reach her position.
When he got there, he parked himself a foot or so in front of her and snapped, "They're holding a plane for you and Pip. Why the hell are you out here standing in the rain catching your death of cold?" Now, there was a scary thought.
Was she sick? Had she gotten a cold? Was the common cold deadly to Sebaceans? Earth conquers the Martians?
Oh, for Pete's sake!
Still, he studied her for a moment, taking in the water streaming down her face, dripping off the ends of her clumped hair. She was wearing some of Livvy's clothes, not her leathers, and she was very wet indeed. Her dark button-front shirt was plastered against her body, and she looked....cold. She must have been standing out there for some time.
Why? "Aeryn?" he asked, more gently than he'd intended.
She shook her head with dignity, even though her hair was soaking wet and plastered against her, and brought her chin up high. "I was just looking about," she said, nodding in the direction of the bay and the other homes across the water. "It....it's very beautiful."
"It's not beautiful, it's wet," he snapped, feeling beads of water crawling around his scalp, and wishing he'd grabbed an umbrella after all.
She set her jaw then, but not before he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes. He'd just flunked a test. He'd flunked a lot of them recently, mostly on purpose, but this time, he couldn't quite stop the regret from surfacing.
Damn, he was letting her get too close....and with that thought came the sudden memory of her standing in the rain in a faux Sydney, Australia, three cycles ago. They'd been together then, the two of them against the entire human race.
It wasn't that way now, maybe it never would be again, and maybe the laka was wearing off, but he couldn't help reaching a hand out for her face. Surely a sympathetic touch, person to person, wasn't wrong? He could see a glimmer of hope -- no, make that fear -- in her eyes, and he closed his own so she couldn't reach inside him and see how much he still loved her....
Before his hand actually made contact with her cheek, an unfamiliar male voice boomed, "We've been looking for you, Ms. Sun!"
John opened his eyes and dropped his hand quickly to his side. Aeryn had on her PK poker face, though he could feel the effort she was making to keep it there.
The newcomer, one of the agents assigned to accompany Aeryn and Chiana to France, clucked in disapproval and said from under a large umbrella, "You can't travel like that!"
Aeryn looked down at her wet clothes as if seeing them for the first time. "I'm sorry. I'm used to a controlled environment. Weather interests me."
John knew that was a lie, but the spook seemed to think it made sense, and nodded.
"I'll change quickly," she said, and headed for the house without waiting for a response from either of them.
Watching her walk, the agent whistled softly. "Man, I wouldn't mind seeing her in a wet T-shirt contest!"
Resisting both the urge to deck the guy, and the urge to ask,
How much wetter could she get? John snorted. "I wouldn't say that kind of thing too loudly if I were you," he offered. "She's killed way more people than you have."
The young agent scowled, and headed back inside to rearrange their travel plans.
John stood in the pouring rain, wishing his life made some kind of sense, until he saw Aeryn and Chi ushered out to the car under a pair of huge black umbrellas. He prayed that Aeryn wouldn't turn around, because if she saw him standing there, in the rain, she'd know. She'd know how he felt, and he couldn't allow that, not now.
When she
didn't turn around, he felt like dren.
* * * * * * * *
Finale:
John was thoroughly enjoying not having anything better to do than put his feet up on the Hynerian equivalent of a sofa, take a swig from the bottle of fellip nectar in his hand, and watch his wife clean her pulse pistol. He had a sneaking suspicion that Rygel's palace guard wasn't too happy about the fact that two of their guests were packing weapons, but he also suspected that even Sparky was carrying a knife or two about his tiny person. It had only been a sixth of a cycle since Dominar Rygel XVI had returned in triumph to his throne. True, with the Empire in chaos due to the Scarran war, Ryge had been welcomed home with open arms, but that didn't mean Hyneria -- or the palace -- was actually safe! It was only last weeken that John and Aeryn had deemed the planet secure enough to leave Moya for an extended visit. Rygel's people had provided them with a guest house on the palace grounds that had been designed for species larger than Hynerians. The place had a few quirks, but it was pretty comfortable.
Aeryn glanced up and caught him looking at her. Her brow, which had been furrowed in concentration while she worked, smoothed out, and a gentle smile spread across her face. "Don't you have something constructive to do?" she needled, indicating the work spread out in front of her.
"I'm on vacation," he retorted, not bothering to elaborate. More like sticking his head in the sand than vacationing, really, but they were both okay with that. They needed the time to put their lives back together, to get their heads on straight (especially his, he admitted), and get a better handle on this whole wonderful new adventure of parenthood.... They could figure out what they were going to
do with their lives
later.
Aeryn shook her head and went back to cleaning her weapon, and he went back to watching her work. Damn, she was beautiful!
Gradually he became aware of a steady plink, plink, plink coming from outside. Ah, the soothing rhythms of raindrops on the roof.... It was the first time one of Hyneria's regular summer showers had caught them sitting inside their temporary home, and he smiled at the sound. The beginnings of an old song popped into his head:
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head.... "John?"
"Hmm?"
"What"s that noise?"
Aeryn was holding her reassembled pulse pistol at the ready, and he strained to hear any other sounds above the sharp splats of falling water. The baby was still fast asleep, and nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. It was possible her hearing had caught something he missed, but.... "You mean the rain?" He saw immediately by her embarrassed expression that the patter of the rain, less familiar to her ears than his, was indeed what had worried her.
"You'd think they'd soundproof a royal cottage better than that," she sniffed.
John shrugged. "Some people like to hear the sounds of nature."
Aeryn shook her head. "That's not natural. Air recirculation is natural!"
"Raindrops and wind and chirping birds are natural!" he countered cheerfully, and broke into song to emphasize his point. "Raindrops keep falling on my head, and just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed, nothing seems to fit--"
Aeryn was staring at him in mock horror, but that wasn't what had stopped his singing. He'd long since forgotten most of the words, anyway. No, he'd just realized that those few words he did remember described rather exactly his state of mind the last time he and Aeryn had been out in the rain.
Nothing seems to fit.... God, he'd been such a mess on Earth, and Aeryn had suffered for it. What a difference half a cycle or so made! His life was so much better when they were together. He had to believe hers was, too....
Impulsively, he set his drink on the floor, got up off the sofa and held out a hand to her. "Hey! Put your gun down and come with me!"
"Where?"
Ah, his beloved bride, still not good with surprises. "Out there."
"Out there? In the rain?" She wrinkled her nose, but there was a twinkle in her eye nonetheless.
"Uh-huh. Baby's sleeping, he'll be fine for a little while. Come on." He jerked his head towards the door to emphasize his plan.
Aeryn studied him for a few microts, weighing who knew what. After due consideration, she put the weapon down on the table where she'd been working, and shoved her chair back. She stood up and crossed the room in long strides. When she'd reached his side, she widened her eyes in indulgent inquiry.
With a grin, John took her hand and, before his enthusiasm failed him, dragged her outside into their private garden, where they were immediately splattered by huge drops of warm, tropical rain. The storm was local, it seemed, and late afternoon sunshine gleamed in the distance, beyond the tall cane grass that surrounded the garden. Aeryn gasped, and when he followed her gaze, he saw a huge rainbow. It was very nearly a half circle, and its brilliant bands of color took his breath away, too.
"It's beautiful," she breathed, and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Worth getting wet for?"
"Yes." And then she picked up her head and laughed. "But we could have seen it just as well from inside."
"Ah, but then," he said, turning so they were face to face, "we couldn't do this." He leaned in slowly and kissed her, full on the mouth, and she returned the kiss with fervor.
She pulled back briefly and wrinkled her brow. "Yes, we could."
He chuckled at the puzzled expression on her dripping wet face. Damn, she was
cute when she looked like that, even if she was likely to shoot him if he ever used that word out loud! Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her tightly against him, and kissed her again, long and leisurely, feeling the passion build. "The rain's out here," he murmured, nibbling on her ear.
"Someone's going to see us," she mumbled into his neck, but her hands were roaming freely over his body. Was that steam she was raising with her touch?
"Do we, um, do we care?" he managed to ask, shivering.
Aeryn answered by meeting his lips with hers, and sucking all the air out of his lungs.
No, John thought,
we do not care. This is how it should always be. Me and Aeryn, together, rain or shine. There would no doubt be thunderclouds....life was like that. Maybe a whole lot of thunderclouds. But there would also be rainbows.
Glorious rainbows!
Tugging at wet clothes, laughing at each other's awkward efforts, they settled down to make love, in the rain....
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