A Day in the Life.
Author: Sabine
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nerve, The Hidden Memory, Family Ties.well, basically Season 1 & 2.
Notes: A big thank you to SCAPER2 and Kavanne for beta-reading it for me. I *really* appreciated it. This is another Crichton family story. Other stories include: "What The Future May Hold In Store", "Unexpected Confrontations" and "Quality Time".
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Farscape characters. All Farscape characters, names and situations are trademarks of Jim Henson Company, Hallmark Entertainment, Nine Network Australia, and the Scifi channel © 1999, 2000& 2001.
Moya:
"Meara...please honey do your daddy a favour and eat your food," John almost begged the 1 ½ year old. A spoon filled with some sort of nutritious liquid goo dangled in front of his daughter's face, but no matter how hard he tried she refused to open her mouth and eat the stuff. Meara sat in her specially carved chair at the table, with John sitting next to her and trying to feed her. The bowl filled with the green liquid substance was still full and was placed on the plate attached to Meara's little chair.
" Meara...please?" John tried again, but she shook her little head and pushed the spoon away with both her hands.
" C'mon...it's really not that bad, honey. Daddy will prove to you that it's okay to eat," he spoke as he brought the spoon to his mouth. " Yummy, yummy," John continued as he opened his mouth. Oh man, how he hoped that it tasted good. If not, then he'd have to be able to convince his daughter to she needed to eat the stuff. The problem was that the 1 ½ year old definitely had a mind of her own and could be just as stubborn as Aeryn when she wanted to. * Here goes nothing.* John thought as he swallowed the substance.
Meara giggled as John desperately tried to cover his disgust with a huge smile. He quickly placed the spoon on the table, reached for the cup filled with herbal tea and drank all of it to get rid of the horrible taste. No wonder Meara refused to eat it.he had never in his life tasted something that horrible. John didn't care how much vitamins were supposed to be in it and how good the shop vendor had said it would be for little children, he was never again going to feed that crap to his daughter.
" Daddy's going to find something else for you to eat. Just behave while I'll go looking for it, okay baby?" John smiled as he got up from his chair.
Meara's blue eyes followed her father until she got bored with it and decided that it was time to concentrate on something else entirely. The brown bowl immediately caught her attention. Even though it stood near her, it was still a bit too far away for Meara to easily grab hold of it. After a few attempts her little hands finally managed to grab it. Triumphantly she pulled the bowl towards her.
Meara carefully studied the bowl as she looked at the shiny golden Delvian symbols, which were inscribed on the side of the bowl. She quickly lost interest in the symbols and the outside of the bowl. What was inside it seemed a lot more interesting to her. A mischievous smile appeared on her face and her eyes started to sparkle as her hands moved towards the green substance.
***
Aeryn Crichton-Sun was on her way towards the Center chamber when she passed the bay. She had just finished checking all of the items in the storage room together with Zhaan and Jothee. Their supply run to the space station at H'lan 4 had gone smoothly, which was a nice change for once. John had stayed behind with Ben and Meara on Moya. Aeryn was looking forward to hearing John tell her the things she had missed out on while she was away. Their two children meant everything to Aeryn. They were the proof of the love she felt for their father, the human named John Crichton and the man who had forever changed her life. Where Ben was starting to look more like his father with every day that passed, Meara looked exactly like Aeryn at that age. Both her children had pitch-black hair and dark blue eyes, but where Ben had the same eyes as she did, Meara had John's.
Aeryn and John had been very busy lately with keeping an eye on their daughter, because Meara had a habit of wandering off. Either she was crawling after the DRDs or she saw something that caught her attention and wanted to take a closer look. Meara reminded Aeryn of her husband. Like John she was very curious and fascinated by things she did not yet know. Aeryn had no doubt that her daughter would one day become a scientist. As for her son...
" Take that you bastards and that."
Aeryn stopped as she heard the voice. Curiously she entered the bay to find her 7-year-old son sitting in his father's Farscape One module. He was wearing John's old helmet, which was somewhat too big and it shifted every time Ben moved his head. Too caught up in his game, Ben hadn't noticed his mother standing at the entrance of the bay, watching him.
" Yihaa!! So long ya idiots."
A smile appeared on Aeryn's face as Ben's eyes suddenly met hers. He looked at her with a surprised expression. Ben immediately realized that she had heard everything he had said. He just hoped that she wouldn't tell dad that he had snuck into the cockpit of the Farscape One, which was off limits to him most of the time. Ben wasn't exactly looking forward to another one of his father's lectures. " M...mom? What are you doing here?"
" I was just passing by when I heard your voice and decided to have a closer look. So tell me...who was so unlucky to come across you in the heat of battle and in this part of the Uncharted Territories?" Aeryn teased.
" A bunch of Peacekeeper Prowler pilots," Ben blushed as he removed his father's helmet and placed it on the floor of the cockpit. He climbed out, jumped and safely landed on the floor. " They were patrolling the system and discovered Moya, so you and I had to defend her and destroy the Prowlers before they could contact their Command Carrier."
" Ah...I see. So you were flying in the Farscape One and I was flying in...?" Aeryn asked somewhat curious and amused. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at her son. He was wearing his brown army styled pants, black jersey and black boots. His brown vest lay on top of the Farscape One's right wing. Ben's spiky hair reminded her of the way John had worn his hair years ago, after the whole ordeal in the Aurora Chair and Crais taking Talyn.
" You were flying in some sort of Prowler, much like the one you used to have, but way faster and much more manoeuvrable," Ben grinned. "Your were doing okay, but I still got most of the Prowlers."
" And how many did I destroy?"
" Two. You managed to destroy two of the prowlers, mom."
" Two out of?"
" Ten. Two out of ten. I was really proud of you, considering you weren't having such a good day," Ben spoke, his grin growing bigger. There was nothing wrong with it in his mind, since it was after all his fantasy adventure, and thus he was also the hero of the tale.
" Well, that's just great. I had a bad day...where was your father when we were fighting the Prowlers? Cooking or doing the laundry?"
" Um...something like that. There were only two ships, so dad had to remain onboard Moya to monitor what was going on. D'Argo, Jothee and he were making preparations just in case the Peacekeepers got onto Moya. Zhaan and Stark were meditating, Rygel was hiding and Chiana was looking after Meara," Ben said as he grabbed his vest and put it on.
Aeryn shook her head laughing. Leave it up to Benjamin to characterize Zhaan, Stark and Rygel that way in his little tale. A couple of years ago she would have totally agreed with her son on the subject, but not anymore. People change, and she had changed. As a Peacekeeper she would never even have thought that she would marry and have children. She would have been disgusted with the thought. She was born a Peacekeeper and she would die as one. To take one mate for the rest of her life would not have made much sense, and it would go against the rules. You never let yourself get too attached to anyone and you never stayed with one person for a long period of time.
"Mom?"
"Yes Ben. What is it?"
" Please don't tell dad, cuz I don't want him to get angry at me. I know I'm not supposed to be around the Farscape One module without you, dad or someone else to watch me. It's just that dad was taking Meara to the Center Chamber and I was walking around a bit. When I walked passed the entrance of the bay no one was there, so I thought that it would be all right to sit in the module for a little while just as long as nobody saw me there. As I sat in the cockpit I imagined flying the Farscape One, mommy. I imagined myself flying there...in space, among the stars. It was fantastic, dag-yo. I kinda realized that you must feel the same way whenever you are flying."
" Yes honey, I feel exactly that way," Aeryn smiled, giving her son a warm hug. " I could really use something to eat...what about you, Ben?"
Ben smiled and nodded. He hadn't eaten yet as he had been too caught up in his fantasy to notice his growling stomach.
" And Ben?"
" Yes mommy?"
" I won't tell your father if you won't."
***
The Center Chamber,
Several microts later:
After thoroughly searching the supplies in the kitchen's storage room, John had finally found something he believed to be suitable for Meara to eat. He had stumbled onto one of Rygel's hidden stashes and in the little Hynerian's possessions John had found some sort of fruit that reminded him of apples.well except for the colour and form, but it did taste like an apple when he had taken a bite from it.
John took at least six of the UT version of an apple with him to prepare a meal for his daughter. He was going to peel them and mash the fruits to a pulp, so that Meara wouldn't have any trouble eating it. Just before he had gone into the storage room, John had commed Pilot and asked him if one of the DRD's could keep an eye or two out for Meara. Pilot had promised to contact him if anything happened and so far that hadn't happened. John just hoped that his daughter had behaved herself. Sometimes she was just too curious for her own good and it hadn't escaped the attention of Aeryn and himself. Luckily Ben was now at an age where he could take care of himself if need be, or at least knew how to keep away from most kinds of trouble, and out of danger.
John started to whistle as he walked back into the Center Chamber until his eyes settled on Meara, who was partially covered with a green liquid. He should have known that this would have happened, he should have just taken her with him. That same green liquid was now dripping from his daughter's chair and spreading over the table and floor.
A soft beeping noise alerted him that there was still something else in the chamber. It was only then that he noticed the yellow DRD banging against one of the chairs because the brown bowl, in which once the green liquid had been, had landed upside down on top of it. Meara had obviously been playing with the bowl, and probably pushed it off the plate on her chair and onto the DRD. The same DRD who had been dispatched by Pilot to watch her.
John walked over to his daughter who had a big smile on her face, which quickly disappeared when John picked up a cloth to clean her up. All of her protests did her no good as John skilfully managed to clean most of the green goo off her little hands, face and clothes. After finishing, John freed the DRD from its uncomfortable situation and watched it scurry towards the entrance.
" Da-da." a small voice spoke.
John chuckled softly as he smiled at his daughter. If he ever had the opportunity to talk to his dad again he would ask if he had been like that at Meara's age. She reached for him with her little arms and her eyes were once again shining brightly. He picked her up and hugged her. He softly kissed the top of her head as she snuggled closer to him, trying to throw her arms around her father neck. In her own language she started to talk to him, and weirdly enough he understood every word she said. He had never been able to understand exactly what babies said until his own children had started talking in that peculiar baby language.
Just as he intended to turn around and leave, so that he could wash his daughter and dress her in some clean clothes, John heard a surprised voice.
" John, what the frell happened here?"
John turned to face his wife and son, who were standing in the entrance of the Center Chamber, looking at the mess Meara had created with the help of something that should have been her meal and a brown bowl with Delvian
symbols." Um...honey...can I get back to you on that one?"