Originally posted 8/2/04I've been poking at this off and on for several weeks now. Or is that a month? More? Anyway, the beginning just wrote itself, and then it kind of came to a screeching halt while real life got in the way, and also while I cogitated on how to....well, you don't want to know how to do WHAT until you've read it....
Anyway, many, many thanks to the Bunnies for encouragement and betaing on this one, especially to imloco2, shipsister, and Crash for full beta duties (MadScientist, too, but he's not a Bunny!), and to Crash, CretKid and Atana for creative suggestions on, well, on that thing you don't want to know about yet, and to CrystalMoon for a very helpful look-see this afternoon.... I have a suspicion that I've left at least one person out, but I've been working on this for so long, it's all a blur! Thanks to everyone who suggested or encouraged, you've all been fantastic! (And the best line in the piece belongs to Crash!)
Rating: Um, maybe PG-13 plus a little more for language....
Setting: Terra Firma
Spoilers: Through Twice Shy
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my universe.....no money being made....just trying to get through till October 17....
We Came in Peace
Please, please, please, do not let us be having this conversation, not now, John thought, as Aeryn stood her ground.
"Look, I'm not trying to pressure you, John," she said, voice trembling. "I'm actually trying to take the pressure off." She was so obviously struggling to get the words out with dignity, without sounding as if she were begging. "Would you be happier if I wasn't here on Earth? You don't have to justify it or explain it. Just give me an honest
yes or
no."
Finished, having said her desperate piece, she waited for an answer. No pressure.
God, John thought. How was he supposed to answer that? She didn't have a clue what he was going through.
His father interrupted then, coming in from the kitchen. Seemingly oblivious to the vibes in the room, ever the genial host, or maybe this time the matchmaker, he invited Aeryn to dinner.
She tried to beg off casually, but his father persisted, and it made John's heart ache to see how hard she was trying.
No pressure, John. No pressure.The trouble with Dad was, you had to be blunt. "Could I get some eggnog, please?" John asked, trying to take the pressure off of Aeryn, at least, and get them a little privacy at the same time.
But she
was trying to pressure him, he thought, as his dad left the room. She wasn't pressuring him to take her back -- she was leaving that up to him, God bless her -- but just to be
straight with her. Straight with her as he hadn't been for months, straight with her as he'd accused her of not being with him when she'd arrived back on Moya.
And as he looked at the misery in her face, John tried to be strong, he really did. He needed to be strong, he had to, for all their sakes. But his last dose of lakka was wearing off, and for the first time, looking at her as she stood there in his father's front room -- tears streaking her cheeks and so much pain in her gray eyes, trying so hard to follow rules she barely understood -- for the first time, he realized how much this charade of his was hurting her. How much pain he was causing to the woman he -- yes, dammit, the woman he loved....
He took a step towards her.
Screw the universe.
Besides, he told himself, the universe wouldn't really be screwed, would it? Scorpy wasn't there. There was nothing the SOB could do, nothing he could see, no way he could use her.
And Scorp wasn't the one who was hurting her just now. He was. John Crichton, astro-frelling-naut, was breaking the heart of the woman who was carrying his child. He hadn't even told her he claimed her child as his own. Some hero he was.
John took a breath and leaned into her, intending to rest his forehead on hers. A strand of her hair tickled his cheek and then he heard the sharp intake of her breath as she gasped when his skin touched hers.
For just a microt, he drank in her essence, and oh, lord, she smelled like...
Aeryn.
But forehead to forehead, he could feel her trembling. She was holding her breath, waiting for him to answer her, waiting to know if she should stay, or go. A simple
yes or
no.
Make up your damn mind.
Screw it."Stay," he whispered, pushing the wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
Screw it all. He closed his eyes. "I want you to stay."
She didn't move, except to lift her hands and take hold of his upper arms, and he wished futilely that he were wearing a T-shirt or something else with short sleeves so he could feel the warmth of her fingers directly on his skin.
His father chose that moment to reappear with the eggnog, which maybe was just as well, because John had no idea what he was going to do next. They straightened up, and Aeryn let her hands drop to her sides, but she gave him a wan smile before turning her face towards his dad.
"So, can I take it you'll be staying for dinner?" his father asked, aiming the question at Aeryn. It must have been a real struggle for the man not to gloat.
She snuck a quick look at John before she answered, no doubt just to be sure he hadn't changed his mind in the last 20 microts, and he gave her a small reassuring nod.
"Yes, thank you," Aeryn said then, and somewhat numb, John let his father sweep them up into his Christmas Eve festivities....
* * * * * * * * *
It turned out to be a happy evening, the kind you look back on with nostalgia when you get older (if you
got older....). "Remember that first Christmas at your father's house?" "Oh, right, that's when...."
In the end the family dinner party consisted only of four, John, Aeryn, Olivia, and his father, because Susan and Frank's plane was delayed. They would be coming in on an early morning flight with Bobby, the teenage terror and would-be Steven Spielberg, who'd been back at home for a couple of weeks. And so, gathered comfortably at one end of the dining room table, they ate their fill of the meal, and talked about anything but aliens and politics and the Farscape project.
After dinner, they tidied up the dishes and made short work of the kitchen. They were heading out to the living room when Olivia remembered that there was a sticky burned mess on the bottom of the oven where one of the pies she'd baked that afternoon had bubbled over. She dashed back into the kitchen to take care of it.
Without turning around to check, John assumed that Aeryn had continued out into the living room with him and his father. When he realized with an all-too-accustomed pang that she wasn't there, he excused himself and headed back to the kitchen. There he found Olivia spraying the inside of the oven with a caustic cleaner while Aeryn watched intently.
"Getting a bit domestic, aren't you?" he teased, just happy to be in the same room with her after working so hard to keep his distance.
Aeryn turned and grinned at him, then shrugged, and said, "I just want to see how they do things here. Might come in handy, you never know."
John shook his head. He couldn't imagine what use knowing how to clean an oven on Earth was going to be in the UT's, but...you never did know....
"Yeah," Olivia said, picking up on Aeryn's comment. "She's getting pretty good in the kitchen! She made a great tuna sandwich for Bobby a couple weeks ago!"
"Once he showed me how to use a can opener," Aeryn said, grinning at Olivia.
"He's probably got it all on one of those tapes of his," Livvy replied, rolling her eyes.
John stared at Aeryn, trying to cover his surprise, and his guilt. He'd had no idea she'd been spending so much personal time with his family, or learning about Earth, either. Hell. He'd been pushing her away, and here she's making sandwiches for his pesky nephew.
He shook his head and bailed for the next room where his father was flipping channels on the TV.
When the girls finally made it out of the kitchen, a chance remark led to Olivia producing a deck of cards and declaring her intention to teach Aeryn how to play Go Fish. John privately thought that was a much better idea than watching "It's A Wonderful Life" for the forty-zillionth time and wholeheartedly seconded the motion. It didn't take Aeryn long to master the game, and they played for nearly an hour. John couldn't remember seeing Aeryn so relaxed in...well, maybe ever.
He was grateful that neither his father nor his sister made any assumptions about what had passed between himself and Aeryn earlier in the evening. No winks or knowing looks or hints about their relationship...thank God! He didn't think either of them could have dealt with that. It was enough to be in the same place right now without the tension between them. Still, he knew he and Aeryn were going to have to talk, and very soon. Until he explained why he'd been holding her at arm's length, they were just in a different sort of holding pattern.
At the end of the evening, his father enacted one more Crichton Christmas Eve ritual and brought out a few last gifts he'd kept hidden in his room.
Falling right into the old groove, John helped arrange them under the tree. "I'm telling you, Dad, the big one goes here," he insisted, going for a nice balance on both sides of the tree.
"Nope," his dad said decisively. "That'll make it too easy for Bobby to spot."
John could feel Aeryn's eyes on him, or maybe on both him and his father, trying, he guessed, to understand why it made any difference at all. He whirled around. "Aeryn! It looks better here, right? Tell Dad I'm right."
She bit her lip and smiled shyly, but shook her head and said with a throaty laugh, "I don't get in the middle of family arguments."
"Smart woman!" Olivia applauded. "Seriously, guys, just get it done! It's getting late!"
While they finished haggling, John could hear Olivia explaining to Aeryn about how as children, they were always excited to come downstairs Christmas morning and find the one new gift that had been brought to the house by "Santa." Aeryn's replies were too soft for him to hear, but he glanced at her occasionally, and was glad to see her smiling. There'd been way too little of that lately, and that was his fault....
At last, when everything was arranged under the tree to everyone's satisfaction, Olivia prevailed on Aeryn to stay the night since she was invited to spend Christmas day with them. With Susan and her family not arriving till the morning, the last guest room was free, and it seemed silly for her to make the trip back to the gilded cage just to return again in the morning. "I can lend you something to sleep in," Olivia offered when Aeryn seemed just a little reluctant to spend the night.
Aeryn tossed a faintly nervous glance at John before answering. He let his eyes say, again,
Stay, and so she turned to Olivia and agreed. "Yes, thank you."
"Come on, then," Olivia told her warmly. "I'll show you your room, and Dad and John can lock up."
The prospect of Aeryn being out of his sight even for a little while distressed him a lot more than he'd expected, all things considered, but he forced himself to smile at her and say casually, "See you later. In the morning," he added, for the dubious benefit of his father and sister, both of whom struggled not to snort.
Aeryn, on the other hand, replied simply, "Yes," with such a serious expression on her face that John really wondered what she was thinking. She thanked his father for his hospitality, then followed Olivia up the stairs.
* * * * * * * *
He'd almost made it to his room safely. He and his dad had made their rounds of the first floor, checking windows and doors in companionable silence, probably the first time that had happened since he'd been home.
But on the upstairs landing, his dad had started for the master bedroom and then stopped and turned back towards John and cleared his throat. "This is probably none of my business," he began, and John cut him off.
"When people say that, Dad, it usually means it's really not."
His father squinted at him, searching his eyes for something. Then he nodded. "All right. I'm just going to say this. I've come to admire that young woman," he said. "And I'd hate to think I'd raised a fool."
Aw, Dad, you have no idea.... "The jury's still out on that," John said, and turned and headed for his room without waiting for an answer.
And now, finally, the lights were out, the house was quiet, and John headed stealthily towards Aeryn's room. He was reminded of the time in college when he'd brought a girlfriend home for Thanksgiving, and he'd snuck into her room to spend the night with her.
He'd bet anything he was a much better sneak in the dark these days....
That night, half his lifetime ago, there'd been hushed sex, lots of it. And muffled giggling. More sex. And very little talking. He'd barely managed to get back to his own bed before his mother got up to start the turkey. God, he'd been green....
Now here he was, another guest room, another holiday season, another woman. He wasn't sure there was going to be any sex at all this night. In fact, he thought there probably shouldn't be sex, not here, not yet.... His stomach and other parts lurched at the mere thought, and he knew he wanted there to be sex, whether there should be, or not.
He knew
Aeryn wanted there to be sex. He'd caught her looking longingly at him once or twice when he and his dad were arguing over the placement of presents under the tree.
But there were things to be said, at least a few of them, things she had to understand, and he didn't know how she was going to react.
He stood outside her door for a little while, fighting the urge to take a hit on the bulb of lakka he had in his T-shirt pocket, his security blanket. It might keep him dispassionate, but he couldn't, wouldn't do that to her again.
An honest yes or no, she'd asked for. And honesty was what she was going to get from him tonight.... Honesty about Scorpy Sue, about his fears, maybe even about Granny's poppers, though he didn't think she'd be very happy about the drugs.
But he had to believe she'd forgive him.
"John?" Aeryn's whispered voice came from just the other side of the door.
So much for his claim to stealth. Of course, she'd probably recognized his footsteps, maybe even his breathing, but it was a hell of a thing for her to have said if it
hadn't been him.
He opened the door carefully and stepped inside, face to face with Aeryn Sun.
With his eyes adjusted to the dark, there was enough light coming into the room from the outside for him to see that she was wearing only a light-colored T-shirt and underwear. If Olivia had given her more, she had chosen not to wear it.
What a difference from that morning on the phony Earth the Ancients made, when he'd awoken after their one and only night together to find her wearing every piece of clothing from the closet that she could manage to get on.
She'd changed so much since then....
John himself was wearing a T-shirt and cotton pajama bottoms with a drawstring. They come off real easy, some corner of his mind pointed out.
He opened his mouth to speak, and Aeryn reached her fingers up to his mouth to stop him.
"Kiss me first," she said softly, and he wondered what she thought he was going to say.
Didn't matter. She'd asked for a kiss, she was going to get one.
He gave her a soft smile and when she took her fingers away, he bent his head down slowly, reaching for her mouth with his. She closed her eyes first, and he watched her face as he got closer, watched her waiting for him. Her mouth was open, just a little, and her lips were full. She flicked her tongue out briefly to moisten them.
Oh, Baby.... He closed his eyes too.
One microt, their lips barely made contact, and the next, he was crushing her to him, kissing her with everything he had, his tongue already exploring her mouth, searching for remembered textures and tastes, even as her tongue explored his.
This, his brain screamed at him, was home. Earth, the UT's, Tormented Space, it didn't matter.
Aeryn Sun was his home.Her strong arms wrapped around his back and somehow pulled his body even more tightly against hers. Through the soft fabric of their T-shirts, the part of his brain -- or was that his body? -- that was already getting all hot and bothered noted that she wasn't wearing a bra. But she was pressed so securely to his chest, that he couldn't get his hands on her breasts, and he groaned into her mouth in frustration.
Aeryn trembled against him and then pulled back just a little.
Dammit woman! Do not start with me!No, wait, she was right. There was too much at stake this time to leap into bed and sort it all out later. Wasn't that what he'd been telling himself all the way here? He licked his lips and cleared his throat and, arms still holding her possessively, opened his mouth to speak.
He hadn't even gotten a single word out when Aeryn jerked to full attention.
"What--" he began, but then there was an enormous crash behind him. He whirled around just in time to see the bedroom door burst open, wood splintered, hinges hanging ajar. Something moving very fast followed the shards of wood into the room. Before John was even fully aware of what was happening, Aeryn had shoved him to the floor and dived for the bed, rolling across it and coming up on the other side with a pulse pistol in her hand.
"Stay down!" she screamed, and started firing at something big and very nasty.
John got up on his hands and knees, trying to understand what was happening. The flashes of pulse fire revealed it to be a critter of some sort, nothing he recognized, an amazingly brilliant shiny green color that would have been reserved for an insect on earth, or possibly a reptile. As far as his flummoxed brain could tell, this damn thing was as big as a man, and five times as cranky! It didn't seem to have a weapon, but it was demolishing the room, trying to get at Aeryn.
Her pulse fire didn't seem to be fazing it much, but apparently the creature wanted to put a stop to the nuisance factor, with the result that even though she was trying to avoid being pinned down, Aeryn was rapidly being backed towards the window. She flicked a glance at John and frowned to see him standing, then turned her attention back to the advancing critter.
Thinking frantically for options, he figured the fall from the second-floor window probably wouldn't hurt her much, unless she was really unlucky, and it would get her away from the beast...but...what about the baby? Even with the kid in stasis --
With a mindless roar, John charged the creature from behind. He got a good bounce off the remains of the mattress and while he was in mid-air, still screaming at the top of his lungs, Aeryn flung herself sideways out of his path.
He didn't manage complete surprise, as the creature started to turn just as John's full weight came crashing against its body. It was damned solid, that's for sure, but the impact was enough to unbalance it, and while John bounced back and landed on the floor, the beast crashed through the closed window and landed outside with a sickening thud that they could actually feel vibrating up through the walls to the floor.
John crawled forward and stuck his head over the window ledge long enough to see that the damned thing was lying on the ground, stunned or worse, and then Aeryn was there, pulling him away from the window, trying to see if he was hurt.
"I told you to stay down!" she snapped. "I have a weapon, you don't!"
He ignored her anger, as she would have ignored his in the same circumstance, and wrapped his arms around her even while she was still speaking. "You okay, Baby?" he asked softly, his world momentarily narrowed to her being. "You're not hurt?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she whispered back. "Are you sure you're all right?"
And then there were pounding feet and panicked voices in the hallway, and Jack and Olivia burst into the room, both of them loosely wrapped in bathrobes, calling for John, and for Aeryn as well. Light from the hall streamed into the room, illuminating the pair still standing with arms around each other.
"What the hell is going on, Son?" Jack demanded, looking at the devastation the creature had left in its wake. "Is that a hole in the floor?" he challenged, tightening the belt on his robe and pointing at a spot in the middle of the room that sagged ominously.
"Johnny?" Olivia asked in a tone that fully expected an answer. "What were you shooting at?"
"Actually, that was me," Aeryn owned up, moving just a few inches away from John. "We were attacked --"
Explanations were interrupted as a series of thuds began, and the house started shaking. The sound came from the outside wall, and simultaneously John and Aeryn dashed to the window and looked down where the creature had fallen. The effing thing was climbing back up to the window, punching holes in the wall to use for footholds.
"Damn that thing is fast," John muttered, and glanced at Aeryn to see what she was thinking. Right! They turned simultaneously toward his father and sister and yelled, "Get out! Right now!"
"Out!" Aeryn shouted when they didn't move fast enough to suit her. "Now!" She scooted over to the window, pulse pistol ready for an ambush.
His father looked for a microt like he was going to argue, and then he grabbed Livvy and ran for safety just as the thing poked its head in the room and Aeryn got off a shot with her pulse pistol. But what John saw when he turned his attention back to her chilled his blood. The damned critter had its arms wrapped around Aeryn, and as she struggled to get a point blank shot to any part of its body at all, it lowered its mouth and bit the end of her pulse pistol. John couldn't tell if it merely squashed it enough that it wouldn't fire, or if it had actually taken a bite off the end of the barrel, but clearly, her weapon was now useless.
And the goddamned tenacious beast was still hanging on to her. As it lifted her off the ground and prepared to fling her one direction or another, John moved like a madman. Hoping to provide her a distraction, any distraction, he pulled Granny's popper out of his pocket. He shoved his arm forward and popped the bulb right in the son of a bitch's face.
The critter snarled and loosened its grip, and Aeryn gave it a somewhat sloppy pantak jab. The green goblin howled in pain and dropped her, then backed away from them both, towards the window again.
Breathing heavily, one eye on the beastie, Aeryn nodded towards John's hand. "What's that?" she asked briefly.
Puzzled, he looked down. Oh, frell. She'd seen the popper! "It's nothing," he said, cutting off discussion they had no time for.
And, sure enough, their unpleasant guest recovered very quickly and began stalking them again. Glancing at her own useless weapon, Aeryn ordered, "Winona!"
"On it!" John shouted, sprinting out the door and down the hall to his room, blood pounding in his ears, and only half wondering how she knew his pulse pistol was here, even if he wasn't carrying, and not back on Moya.
Even over the noise his own body was making, John could hear the thuds and crashing as the incredible green machine chased after him. Another surge of adrenaline spurred him to even greater speed. Once in his room, he tore through the dresser drawer where he'd stowed his pulse pistol, flicking the safety off just as the thing came smashing into the room.
He didn't even think about it, he just let off as many shots as he could, as quickly as he could.
Winona made no more impact on the thing than Aeryn's pulse pistol had, and the critter just kept coming. The creature from the black lagoon got its hands on him, and was squeezing so hard John was absolutely sure this was it, he was going to die, when something slammed into the back of the killing machine with an impact that rattled John's bones.
Taking advantage of the distraction, John yanked himself loose, though Winona ended up in the critter's scaly hand.
"Get - away - from - him!" Aeryn bellowed as she bashed the predator again and again with the remains of a chair.
The creature was only slightly stunned by the onslaught, but it was enough to allow John time to look for something else to use as a weapon. If he didn't find something, and quick, that thing was going to turn on Aeryn again.... Brain working on overdrive, he yanked open the closet door and grabbed the first thing he saw, which was an aluminum baseball bat. Wishing it had the solid heft of wood, he held it up in a batter's grip and yelled, "Hey! You want me? Come and get it!" With a roar, the menace started his direction and he got ready to swing, figuring the head was his best target.
The bat connected with a sickening thud that would probably have killed a human, but the monster was barely stunned. John started to dance backwards, but once again, there was Aeryn, another hefty chair in her hands, and finally the tide turned in their favor. Using the bat and chair alternately as makeshift clubs and cattle prods, they were able to herd the damn thing towards the window in this room and at last shove it through the pane, more glass crackling as they did so. John couldn't help feeling a pang as Winona went out the window with his attacker.
Together, John and Aeryn looked out into the night. This time, the frelling thing was impaled on a wrought iron fence post, dark blood visible in the moonlight. It wasn't moving, and as far as they could see, it wasn't breathing, either. They looked at each other and heaved a sigh of relief.
"It wanted you, didn't it?" Aeryn asked softly.
"Seems that way," John agreed, suddenly very tired.
From downstairs, but inside the house, his father called into the silence, "John? You all right? Aeryn?"
They looked at each other for a moment, seeking reassurance that neither was seriously hurt, and then John let out a deep breath and called, "We're fine Dad, stay there, we're coming down!"
"We're in the kitchen," Olivia called.
"We're coming," John repeated, and he and Aeryn picked their barefoot way down the staircase, which, though undamaged by the battle, had accumulated some chunks of debris from both the efforts of the critter and the effects of their pulse pistols on the walls and furniture.
Olivia and his father were standing close together just inside the dining room, watching them advance across the room. "Is it gone?" Jack asked when they reached him.
John and Aeryn exchanged a look, and then he said, "Yeah, it's dead. It landed on the fence this time," he added, nodding towards the front yard. Winona was out there and his fingers itched for her, but he knew his dad and sister needed their nerves soothed first, so he tried to be patient.
His dad digested that for a minute, while John could see Aeryn and Olivia sharing a look. "What the hell was that, Son?" his dad finally asked.
John shrugged. "I have no idea. Aeryn?"
"I've never seen anything like it," she said, shaking her head. Her gray eyes were deeply worried, but she didn't say anything more.
"It came from, from out there somewhere?" his dad asked, jerking his head in the general direction of the sky.
"Yep," John said curtly, not wanting to go there, wanting to go back ten minutes to when he had had his soulmate in his arms, and his mouth on hers.... Abruptly he said, "Gotta go make sure it's really croaked." He turned sharply towards the front door, Aeryn automatically shadowing him.
"You said it was dead," Olivia whined, and started to follow.
"Stay there!" John said without turning around, not ready to deal with her fear, and more than that, his responsibility for what had just happened here.
Before they'd moved two feet, though, there was a bang, and a smash, and a roar, and the incredible hulk incredibly came crashing through the front door, trailing green blood!
"No!" John exclaimed. The fucking thing couldn't possibly still be alive! "No, no, no, no, no!" Still protesting, John reached for Winona while Aeryn reached simultaneously for her own pulse pistol, and they both muttered "Frell!" as they realized they were unarmed.
"Out, out!" John yelled, shooing his father, Olivia, and Aeryn all three into the kitchen and towards the back door.
The creature might have been moving more slowly than before, but only just. It caught up with them in the middle of the kitchen and reached for John with a roar.
John twisted away, but, frantic, Olivia grabbed the can of cleaner that was still on the counter after she'd sprayed the oven earlier, and, making a stand, pointed it in the direction of the impossible critter.
When it took notice of her and moved in her direction, she let loose a spray of the caustic liquid, cringing as the thing actually winced when the drops hit its skin.
Seeing that the chemical actually seemed to be doing some damage, John grabbed the can from Olivia's shaking hands and barreled forward, the arm holding the can stretched out in front of him, and shoved it right into the beast's ugly green face. He sprayed, point blank, into the creature's eyes and nose, hoping like hell that there was enough left in the can to actually kill the thing, or at least do it enough damage to stop it coming after them again.
The green horror let out an ear-piercing shriek, and tried to cover its face with its hands, but John kept on spraying. The creature's skin puffed up and blackened where the white foam hit it in a way that promised the make-shift weapon was really doing some damage. "Die, dammit!" John yelled, and, no doubt through sheer coincidence, the beast at last collapsed on the floor.
John stood there in the sudden silence, staring at the body, hoping that it really was dead. Breathing hard, he looked over his shoulder, to see the rest of the group only a few feet from him, staring at the horror on the floor. He had to stifle his irritation at the fact that Aeryn hadn't gotten his father and his sister out of the house. Yeah, right, like she'd leave him with this thing, even when she didn't have a weapon.... He caught her eye and sent his apology for getting her into yet another mess, and she gave him a small smile in return.
While his father and sister stood there, stunned, Aeryn came forward and took the near-empty can of oven cleaner from his hand, caressing his arm with her fingers as she reached for it. She leaned down and carefully poked at the body on the floor with the can, testing systematically for any indication it might still be alive. When she stood up, John asked, "Really croaked this time?"
Aeryn looked at his dad and Olivia and then back at John. "It would appear so," she said, shaking her head.
John looked at the can she still held and then down at the body on the floor. "Better living through chemistry," he said with an offhand shrug.
Aeryn set the can back down on the counter and sighed. "Merry frelling Christmas," she said with resignation, glancing beyond him towards the dining room where decorations could still be seen.
Damn, he thought. Try to show a girl a good time....
The phone rang then, and it occurred to John that he was going to have a whole lot of explaining to do. Trouble was, he didn't have a clue what the damn thing was or where it came from. But it had come through the wormhole somehow, looking for him, of that he was certain. As his father picked up the phone, John headed out the front door to fetch Winona before the cavalry arrived, way too late, thinking how glad he was that the wormhole was nearly stable enough to let them get the hell out of Dodge. They were going to have to take the critter with them, whatever it was....
After a few moments searching in and around the pools of light coming through the downstairs windows, he recognized the sleek black shape of his pulse pistol lying under a bush. He picked up his weapon and hefted it momentarily. He realized abruptly that it was a part of him now, however much he'd tried to pretend that it wasn't since he'd been back on Earth.
Winona in hand, he headed back into the house, wanting to be near Aeryn, who understood him, but when he reached the kitchen, all three of them were standing there with stricken looks on their faces.
His stomach turned to ice and he managed to ask, "What?"
Tears overflowed Olivia's eyes, and his father wouldn't look at him. It was Aeryn who bit her lip and said, "It's DK. And his wife. They're both dead."
And just like that, the universe punished him for thinking the people he loved could be safe, even for a little while.
* * * * * * * *
John stood in his father's office at IASA Headquarters while the old man took a bathroom break or a coffee break, or maybe both. It was late at night, nearing Christmas morning, and they'd both been struggling hard to keep it together since the news about DK and Laura.
This wasn't the way John had expected to come home, when he had dared think of it at all. It wasn't the way he'd expected to leave again, either.
Truth be told, he'd half expected to sneak off quietly in the night....
Instead, they would be
running off in the early morning hours, as soon as Moya was loaded and he'd passed on to his dad everything he could think of that might be helpful to the brains at IASA for protecting this fragile little planet, though what he could give was little enough, should any of the many hostile races out there come looking for them....
It was over. He couldn�t stay here any longer. Just as he'd feared, he'd brought death and destruction in his wake. It was over.
Any chance of squaring things with Aeryn was over, too, and he knew she knew it. She knew him so well.... Not daring to look at her, still he'd felt her eyes on him there in the kitchen while he calmly told his father and his sobbing sister that they were leaving. That his presence was a threat to their safety.
And when he
had looked at Aeryn, when he asked her to see to getting their companions and their gear up to Moya pronto, her eyes went dark, not with anger, but with pain. She knew the moment was gone, knew, or thought she did, that he was withdrawing his trust from her once more.... But she sucked it up, and nodded, and did as he asked without question, without tears.
And he couldn't tell her the truth -- that it wasn't her he didn't trust, but himself -- because they were heading back to the place where Scorpius ran free, to the place where Aeryn Sun was John Crichton's Achilles heel, she and the baby...and he couldn't allow Scorpius to know that. There wasn't time to explain, to make plans together to keep them somehow safe. It was back to plan A, Noranti's frelling plan A....
It hurt like hell to hurt Aeryn again, especially after having raised her hopes, especially because he loved her
beyond hope....
But that was a pain he'd been living with for a while now, and he pushed it aside, because he had a new pain, a sharp pain, more guilt, more deaths on his hands, more danger brought to his home world, to the people he loved.
Standing by the window, he listened to the familiar roar of what his father would have called alien space ships as Aeryn and D'Argo shuttled Moya's crew and whatever treasures they wanted to take away from this place up to Moya.
He refused to allow himself to cry, though how he was going to hold it together when it came down to saying good-bye to Livvy and his dad, he had no idea.
His father came back then, and he swiped the back of his hand over his eyes, just in case, before he turned around and got back to Alien Invaders 101....
A brief author's note:
Obviously, this is an AU/UR version of "Terra Firma." I just really wanted to see what would happen if the frelling Skreeth hadn't turned up and interrupted John and Aeryn's Christmas Eve confrontation. Not surprisingly, it ended up pretty much back where TF ended, but, as one of my betas said, "At least she got a kiss!"
Anyway, all the clever suggestions from Bunnies mentioned in the intro were related to how to kill a Skreeth without D'Argo and Lo'la. We did have fun tossing ideas around! Thanks to everyone!
Author
