Originally posted 6/3/04I wrote this for my own challenge here at the Fluffy Bunny Board for a fic with some sort of fallout regarding John's abortive marriage to Katralla in LATP. This is basically upbetaed -- Shipsister did take a quick look and said, "Too many frells in the beginning" (that's the WORD, guys, don't get your hopes up!).... So, I've read it over and tidied it once, but it's really just for fun.
Rating: G
Setting: Sometime after BT
Spoilers: Through BT
Disclaimer: Not my characters, no money being made, etc....
Falling Towards Matrimony
Aeryn Sun stomped across the untamed coastal plain of the Royal Planet, heading towards the cliffs by the sea. Truthfully, she wasn't much thinking about either her destination, or her companion, that silly puppy Dregon, who'd been following her around for the past several days.
No, it was good to be outside, to be moving, to be carrying her gear with her, and know that she could handle herself out here.
Because she certainly wasn't handling Crichton.
Frell! Where had
that come from?
She wrenched her mind away from the human, or tried to, and picked up speed.
Dregon called for her to slow down, but she ignored him.
Crichton, the idiot, was going to marry these people's frelling princess, and be stuck here for the rest of his frelling life, not that she should care. It wasn't as if she had expected to marry him herself. Peacekeepers didn't take mates.
She looked behind her to see that Dregon had nearly caught up, and they were nearing the base of the cliffs. Good. Climbing was a good way to use up energy, and she had plenty to spare right now.
She'd told Crichton, the idiot, that he could run away, with her, with the others. But he wouldn't. He was too afraid of that frelling half breed, Scorpius.
So, he was marrying that tralk Katralla, who didn't even love him. No, worse, who loved someone else!
Well, frell him.
She hadn't been going to marry him anyway. He was annoying. Frustrating. Infuriating.
She looked up at the cliff, assessing its potential for climbing. She stalked along the base before choosing the spot for her assault and starting up.
Unfortunately, she'd paid so little attention to her companion, she hadn't realized how big a liability the man was until they were actually falling towards the sea and the rocks....
Before she hit bottom, Aeryn awoke abruptly from the dream. It didn't qualify as a nightmare, she thought, because her heart wasn't pounding, and she wasn't in the least disoriented or distressed. She knew exactly where she was: Safe, on Moya, in bed with the man she'd been trying so hard to distance herself from in her dream of events from several cycles past....
She opened her eyes and looked at John in the dim nighttime illumination. He was sprawled in an ungainly, well, sprawl, face down on the bed, arms and legs akimbo, semi-tangled in the blanket, with just a hint of a snore sounding from him. He hadn't bothered to put on any nightclothes after they'd made love, and she admired the parts of his well-muscled body that weren't covered by the golden cloth.
Tomorrow, she was going to marry him.
Aeryn Sun, Peacekeeper, ex-Peacekeeper, was going to take a mate. Was already carrying his child, and had actually cried when this man proposed to her....
She smiled at him, and at her own feelings. No matter what she'd told herself all those cycles ago on the Royal Planet, she'd known deep inside, even then, that she wanted to bind herself to this man for as long as they lived. It was why she couldn't bear to watch him take vows with another, even under duress.
Wait a microt.
Katralla.
He had married Katralla in good faith, even if not happily.
He'd left the princess behind, another man in his place, another man to raise his child -- he'd put the affair behind him....but they'd never actually talked about it.
Aeryn knew his heart was bound to her, no one else -- but was he actually, technically, free to marry?
Did it matter? After all, someone was there with Katralla, honoring that marriage contract.
She'd just decided that no law would hold him to that abortive, unconsummated marriage, so it didn't matter at all, when John shifted in his sleep and turned his head towards her. "Hey, babe," he murmured drowsily, with a smile in his voice. "Is it our wedding day yet?"
She reached out and touched his cheek. "A few arns yet," she said softly. "Go back to sleep."
But he yawned, and said, "Why are you awake? You're not getting cold feet, are you?"
She knew the idiom, but she rolled over to face him and pressed her feet against his legs anyway, smirking in the dim light. "Do they feel cold to you?"
"Guess not," he admitted, shifting just a little. "So what's up?"
"Just a dream," she told him. "It's not important."
John reached out and touched her arm gently. "Need something to distract you?" he asked impishly.
She chuckled, knowing they were both too tired for that, and then said, "No, but you can hold me while I go back to sleep."
He held his arms out and she rolled over and scooted back against him. When she was settled, he draped his arm over her and whispered, "Love you, soon-to-be-Mrs.Crichton."
"Love you too," she told him, and settled down to sleep, remnants of the dream still in her mind.
As she was drifting off, she realized that she and John weren't falling off a cliff tomorrow -- they were stepping off one, together.
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