Originally posted 3/23/04This, or something like it, has been rattling around in my head for a while. It took uisceboo's sweet little snippet, "Showing" (still on the front page at Kansas, I think) to get me off my duff and writing it....
Thanks, 'boo!
This is basically unbetaed. Shipsister, imloco2 and Atana took a look-see (Thanks very much!), but I wouldn't blame them for anything here.
Rating: G
Setting: a few months post-
Bad TimingSpoilers: Through BT
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my universe, no harm intended! Just playing with them to get through this very long hiatus!
This is really just a little vignette....
And now I really have to bite the bullet and work on one of the things I have floating around that needs a PLOT.... :
From Here to Maternity
What exactly was it about them that made the universe enjoy frelling with them so much?
One microt Aeryn Sun and her husband John Crichton were working their way comfortably through a jumbled back alley on a commerce planet, heading for a dealer in biomechanoid circuitry, and the next, pulse fire erupted around them. There could be no doubt, Aeryn thought with annoyance as they drew their weapons and ducked side by side behind the nearest cover, that they were the target.
John appeared to agree with that assessment. "Who the frell is shooting at us?" he yelled over the noise, as several blasts hit nearby, one splitting a large barrel and sending a staccato shower of some kind of round metallic parts in their direction.
Aeryn closed her eyes and covered her head with her arms, trusting John to do the same, until the rain of metal stopped. Trying to pinpoint how many shooters there were and where they hiding, she spared a bit of attention for John's question. "Peacekeepers?" she suggested, listening to the echo of the weapons.
John leaned around her and got off a shot aimed across the alleyway and one flight up, into a darkened window. "You said those pardons were valid even if we didn't take them!" he groused, irritated because his shot had missed.
He had a point, though. "They are valid," she agreed loud enough to be heard over another blast. "But maybe there are still some older wanted beacons on this frelling rat hole of a planet!"
"Too bad those things don't come with an expiry date!"
Ignoring his comment, Aeryn leaned out and took careful aim at a barrel some twenty motras ahead of them on the same side of the alley, and waited patiently for her quarry to show himself. A pulse weapon appeared over the edge of the container, followed by a scaly-looking head and torso. She squeezed off three rounds in quick succession and was rewarded by a howl of pain. A satisfied grin lit up her face, regardless of whether anyone could see it in the middle of a firefight.
"Good shot," John said, as he crept out in front of her, hoping to get a better angle on their assailant across the way.
"I think there are just two of them," she called, and he grunted his agreement, Winona aimed ahead of him at the window.
The bounty hunter in the window, assuming these people
were bounty hunters, was a better shot than his counterpart on their level, and he -- or she -- sent a volley of shots John's way.
"God DAMN," he hollered, and dove back towards Aeryn. He ended up on his knees, with his face in her stomach. To accommodate the slight bulge of her growing child, she was wearing her lowest-riding leather pants, and had dug out her old vest with the zipper at the bottom. Even with her concentration elsewhere, she could feel his breath on her bare skin, as he panted.
"You know," he said, talking to her stomach, "you might want to think about getting some maternity clothes."
Aeryn got off one more satisfying shot, concluding her target was completely incapacitated, before responding. "What?"
"You know," he said, still on his knees and catching his breath, "so your belly isn't sticking out like that."
Sticking out? Of all the idiotic things to say...she was barely showing. She was busy trying to see the upper window, and didn't bother to answer, but he must have felt her stiffen, because he hurriedly added, "I just meant, so it's not so obvious you're, you know, pregnant."
After a brief pause she asked, "You really think a layer of clothing will protect the baby from a pulse blast?"
"No, but...." He trailed off, and got back to his feet, in preparation to do something foolish, no doubt.
"You out there!" Aeryn bellowed in the direction of the window. "Your partner is down, and no matter what you think, the Peacekeepers won't pay you for us. Leave now, and you can go on your way unharmed."
In reply, a series of pulse blasts hit the ground near their position.
"That's it," John said in disgust. "No more Mr. Nice Guy."
He leaped out into the alley and ducked and rolled, trying to make himself a more difficult target, as he headed for a position with a better access to the window across the way.
Aeryn leaned out to cover him, keeping her midsection protected as best she could.
He came out of the roll with Winona pointing exactly right. One blast, and it was all over. The bounty hunter, a member of the same reptilian species as his partner, tumbled from the window and landed at John's feet with an appalling thump. John grimaced, and poked delicately at the alien with the toe of his boot.
Holstering her pulse pistol, Aeryn walked over to the wounded bounty hunter, who at close quarters appeared to be female. She was holding onto her upper arm with the opposite hand, green blood leaking through her fingers. She didn't seem too distressed over the fate of her comrade. "We did warn him," Aeryn said, shaking her head. "You'd best go now and leave us in peace."
The bounty hunter evidently agreed, because she scurried off without a backward glance.
Aeryn turned to discover that John had made his way back to her. "You all right?" she asked.
"Fine," he said, dusting off his jacket. "You?"
"Fine."
They stood looking at each other for a few microts, and then John asked, "Should we bail for Moya, or do you think we can finish this gig?"
Aeryn looked around. They hadn't drawn a crowd, and no one seemed the least disturbed about the body lying on the ground. "We may as well see if we can get the modules we need. But I'll comm D'Argo and tell him to be prepared in case we need extraction."
John nodded his agreement, and then the two of them started off side by side once again, trying not to think about the attack they'd just survived.
Aeryn glanced down at her bare midriff as she walked. Her belly did stick out just a little bit of course. She was pregnant, for the love of Cholak! Actually, she was surprised, and more than a little pleased, that John had contented himself with the verbal reminder of her condition (not that she'd needed it), and otherwise trusted her to use her training and her common sense to protect the baby while they were defending themselves. It had worked, as did her make-shift clothing choice. But, she realized, as she grew larger, both were going to be a problem.
She looked over at John. "Maybe," she offered gently, "I should get some, what did you call it, 'eternity' clothing?"
John laughed at her, and said, "It's called 'maternity' clothing." And then he laughed again, and said, "On the other hand, from what my sister said about her pregnancy, maybe 'eternity' is the right word after all."
She shook her head at him with a grin and said, "You can help me shop."
"Thanks," he said, squeezing her hand, and she knew he understood that she wasn't only talking about a bit of cloth.
She leaned her head briefly on his shoulder in reply, and then deliberately changed the subject....
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