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Rating: PG
Setting: Shortly after the tag of John Quixote
Spoilers: Through John Quixote
Summary: D'Argo and Aeryn clear the air, and Aeryn learns something useful in her fight for Crichton.
Aeryn hadn't appeared for dinner, even though Chiana had commed them all, Aeryn more than once.
After a few awkward microts, Crichton called, "Pilot! Where is Aeryn, please?"
"She is in the gym, Commander," Pilot replied promptly.
"Thank you, Pilot," the human told him, and turned to his meal without another word.
D'Argo stared at him in annoyance, then pushed his chair back and stood up. "I'll go get her," he said, and stalked out of the center chamber and headed for the gym.
Frell these two, even if they *are* my friends, the Luxan thought. It would have been better if she hadn't come back.
He expected to find Aeryn pounding something to pieces, or perhaps to a fine paste, and he was surprised, as he neared the gym, that he heard no sound coming from the room. He entered the room cautiously. "Aeryn?"
The ex-Peacekeeper was sitting on a corner bench, back against one wall, knees drawn up, looking contemplative. She didn't appear to register his presence.
Worried that she was suffering more aftereffects of her illness than they had thought, he crossed the room and planted himself in front of her. When Aeryn looked up at him he announced, "It's dinner time. John was worried when you didn't show up."
Aeryn snorted, and though she smiled, her expression dared him to tell the lie again.
D'Argo shrugged. "Come and eat. You and John have been on the outs before."
"Not like this," she said, shaking her head slowly.
"You still need to eat. You're eating for two now."
Aeryn shook her head. "No more than before."
That made no sense, and D'Argo didn't even try to keep the question off his face.
Aeryn sighed. "I was a Peacekeeper, D'Argo. The fetus has been in stasis since it was conceived. I may have been pregnant as long as you've known me."
"Oooohhhh," D'Argo said, throwing his head back. "That's why you don't know who the father is...." He trailed off, not sure if she knew he knew that.
"Did John tell you that?" she asked with casual curiosity.
"No. Ah, I told him." D'Argo winced, but continued bravely. "Chiana told me."
"He must have thought the entire ship knew."
Even more chagrinned, D'Argo admitted, "Uh, yeah. He did."
Aeryn's face took on that distant look it wore when she was assessing options, calculating battle plans. She came back to the now and sighed. "I didn't want to tell him until I knew if I had conceived before I met him.... I didn't want him left wondering....I just made it worse."
Comprehension dawning, D'Argo growled, "Frell!"
Aeryn looked at him, inviting him to explain.
Buying time to think, D'Argo sat down on the bench next to her. She swung her feet from the seat to the floor, giving him room. They sat in silence for a few microts and then he said, "You haven't been unfaithful to him, have you? Except with the other Crichton."
"Of course not." She shook her head. "I'm not Chiana," she said without apology.
"Frell," he repeated.
"D'Argo?"
The Luxan heaved a huge sigh. "Aeryn, John is my best friend. I have watched you break his heart, over and over again, for three cycles. "
She gave a small nod, accepting the accusation.
"And when Chiana said you didn't know who the father was, I thought...."
Her eyes narrowed in hurt at the assumption, but she let it pass without comment.
"I told him to protect himself." D'Argo shook his head in disgust.
Aeryn almost smiled. "It wouldn't have made any difference. He doesn't trust..." The "me" at the end was clear, but barely audible.
"Well, you did bring Scorpius aboard, and you won't tell any of us what the frell you've been doing," D'Argo said reasonably.
"I know, and I'm sorry. But I can't." She was quiet again, looking out into the distance. Finally she turned back to the Luxan and said, "What's wrong with him, D'Argo?"
"What's...wrong.... with him?" D'Argo frowned. "You can ask that?"
She looked down at her feet for a moment. "The man I knew on Talyn" -- D'Argo didn't miss the small catch in her voice as she covered and continued -- "even the man I left behind on Moya, would have trusted me, at least enough to let me prove myself. But there is no trust in him now. Apart from everything I've done, there *is* something wrong."
D'Argo scrutinized her, taking her measure. "You mean to win him back, don't you?" he asked gruffly.
"Yes. Whatever I have to do. I will make this right."
D'Argo came to a decision and nodded. A soldier needed intelligence. "Besides you walking out on him and him spending monens alone on board a dying Leviathan....Grayza is probably the worst of what's wrong with him."
"Mele-on Grayza? The one he called Commandant Cleavage on the command carrier?"
D'Argo nodded.
"What happened?" she asked resignedly.
"She captured John on Arnessk, and she....interrogated him. Her drug of choice was Heppel oil."
"Heppel oil?"
"You haven't heard of it?" he grumbled, embarrassed because that meant he'd have to explain. "Ah, it works as a truth serum....and, ah, an aphrodisiac."
"So...he....recreated with her," Aeryn said, disappointment in her voice.
"No!" D'Argo said forcefully. "She took him, completely without his consent. He fought it with everything he had, we saw it happen, but he couldn't overcome the drug."
"She raped him," Aeryn said flatly.
D'Argo nodded. "And after he escaped, we sent him to her again to....ah...distract her while we worked out our escape."
"You did what?"
D'Argo stood firm against the menace in her voice. "Aeryn....we knew she would get whatever information he had out of him if he had another part to play and was captured again. The Heppel oil is....very effective. It was the best of a bad situation. He took one for the team."
"I will kill her one day," Aeryn muttered under her breath, hands balled up. She looked at D'Argo again and said, "And because of what she did to him, he trusts no one. Not even himself."
D'Argo nodded.
"As if there weren't already enough between us." Aeryn covered her face with her hands and rubbed her forehead and her eyes. She paled slightly, and D'Argo accused, "You're still not well."
She shrugged.
"Even Peacekeepers know when to take care of their bodily needs," D'Argo told her. "Come to dinner."
Aeryn looked the Luxan in the eyes. "I will need all my strength."
"Yes, I believe you will."
Aeryn nodded and stood up. "Well, come on then."
The two warriors headed out of the gym and through Moya's corridors to join the others at dinner.
