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Chiana came bounding into the room at that point. "Pilot says they're coming in!"
"Yes," said Aeryn, double-checking that TJ was safely corralled in his play area.
Jack made a move to pick up the child, but Aeryn stopped him. "No. Not until John believes you're you."
"I'm his father," Jack said, as if that was enough.
"You are his father," Aeryn agreed. "And he thinks you're on the other side of the galaxy, not here on Moya waiting for him."
"And wormholes are a big issue," Chiana added helpfully. "He won't like it."
Jack and Ron exchanged a look, full, once again, of the concerns they'd buried while they waited to see if Jack's son was truly a part of this very odd group. In the end, Jack took a deep breath and nodded sharply at Aeryn. "All right," he said quietly.
When the docking web let D'Argo's ship to the floor, Chiana kept herself back with the humans while Aeryn walked forward to meet the arrivals.
Aeryn could imagine John standing impatiently at the airlock inside the ship, waiting for the door to cycle. Her mouth twitched in amused anticipation of a typical Crichton entrance, and she ran her fingers through her hair as she stood at the base of the ramp, waiting nervously for him.
Sure enough, John came barreling down the ramp with a worried scowl on his face, Winona in one hand, duffle in the other, eyes scanning the bay. When he saw Aeryn standing there calmly, her own pulse pistol holstered, he paused and put Winona away, without actually locking the holster.
"Hey," he said, cocking his head.
"Hey yourself," she replied, smiling.
Without any further thought, he dropped the duffle he was carrying and pulled her to him. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his head in her hair. She wrapped her arms around him in return, squeezing him tight. Reassured, John lifted his head up and slid his hands to hold her upper arms. He began a barrage of worried questions. "You said visitors, did they come through the wormhole? Where does it go? Where is—"
Aeryn stopped his talking with her fingers on his lips. When he looked at her, she removed her hand from his mouth and drew her face slowly towards his, replacing her fingers with her lips. She teased his lips open with the tip of her tongue and then pressed her mouth firmly to his.
John closed his eyes, wrapped his fingers in her hair, and surrendered to the power of the kiss. He came up smiling and a good deal calmer when she finally released him. "What did I do to deserve that?" he breathed. "I'd like to make sure to do it again!"
"You came back," she told him, patting him on the chest, and lest he misunderstand and think she had been afraid he wouldn't come back, she added, "I've missed you. And," she continued, "I'm really glad to be able to hand these visitors over to you."
D'Argo chose that moment to arrive at the bottom of the ramp. He, too, was carrying a duffle over his shoulder, but dropped it quickly when he spotted Chiana running towards him. Chi leaped up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and threw her arms around his neck. "You're back!" she exclaimed.
The Luxan twirled Chiana around briefly, and then set her down. "I'm glad to see you, too," he said. "But what is this about visitors?"
Aeryn and Chiana exchanged a glance, and then Aeryn said, looking back at John, "Actually, we have two humans on board."
John stared at her. "….What?!" He whirled around, looking to see where the visitors were.
Ron stepped out into the light from where he and Jack had been standing on the sidelines, observing the reunions. "Hello, Commander Crichton," he said.
John looked at him quizzically. "Do I know you?"
"We met a couple of times, at IASA functions," Ron said. "You were dressed a little differently."
John looked down at his clothes. He'd been wearing the leather and T-shirt for so long now, he hardly remembered wearing anything else. He shrugged. "Well, this is practical," he said. "I'm sorry, I don't remember you," he added.
"I didn't think you would," Ron drawled. "But I think you might know my co-pilot."
Jack made his move then, stepping out from behind his partner.
John stood stock still, totally stunned. He blinked several times, but that was the only sign of life on his face.
Ron stayed where he was, while Jack walked towards John. He finally stopped about two feet from his son and whispered, "John?"
At the sound of his father's voice, John's hand moved to hover over his pulse pistol, and he turned to Aeryn, questions written all over his face.
Before she locked eyes with John, Aeryn saw the look of hurt surprise cross his father's face as the human realized that John didn't trust him any more than she had when she first recognized him three days before. Another bitter legacy of five cycles in the UTs. She found her eyes brimming with tears, and bit her lower lip to avoid actually crying. "He is real," she told John simply.
He studied her face for a moment, measuring, and then looked back at Jack. "Dad?" he whispered, reaching out tentatively to touch Jack's arm, as if afraid the man was an apparition that would vanish at any moment.
"I've come a long way to see you, Son," Jack said, his voice cracking with emotion.
It was enough. John's eyes filled with tears and he closed the distance between himself and his father, wrapping him in a bear hug. Jack, too, was near tears, as he wrapped his arms around John in return. Neither father nor son noticed when the others in the bay quietly melted away, giving them their privacy.
"I, uh, I was supposed to say, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume,' if we found you," Jack said, trying to keep from being overwhelmed by the fact that his son was right there, in front of him, alive – after five years of believing him dead.
John took a deep breath, and began shakily, "Where did you come from?" Then realization struck him, and he demanded, "Is that wormhole yours? When did you come through?"
"Three days ago."
"Three – why is it still open?!"
Jack replied sheepishly, "We don't know how to close it. We thought we'd do a little exploring and then be able to turn right around and go back. But the ship was damaged. We're making good progress, though, Aeryn's been helping a lot."
"You opened a wormhole you didn't know how to close?" John demanded, appalled. "Of all the stupid. . . ." He looked at his father's face, and stopped. "I'm sorry Dad. It's just there's a lot of bad guys out here, and I've been busting my butt trying to keep them from finding Earth." He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to make all this feel real.
TJ's childish voice rang through the docking bay. "Da!" he called. "Dada! Out!"
John's eyes immediately went to the child in his play area. TJ was trying to get to his father, climbing on the fence that they'd set up to create his corral. John grinned and said to his own dad, "Just a minute."
In a few quick strides, John crossed the bay and plucked the child off of the fence, tossing him lightly in the air a couple of times before hugging him. "Hey, TJ, how's it goin' man? What have you and Mommy been doing while I was gone?"
"Teef! Ow!" said TJ, sticking a finger in his mouth.
"Oh, man, that's no fun, is it? Hey," John said, snapping his fingers. "I brought you something!" He carried his son back to where he'd left his duffle, and knelt down with the boy still in his arms and opened the bag. Extracting the figure of Bishan with his free hand, he offered it to TJ.
"Pah-key!" TJ announced excitedly, grabbing the figure in his two small hands and holding it up in front of him.
John laughed. "It looks like Sparky, doesn't it?" he said. "But this isn't Sparky, TJ, it's Sparky's evil cousin! You know, the Wicked Witch of the West."
The toddler giggled, and promptly gratified his father by absentmindedly gnawing on the head of the plasticene figure.
John kissed the top of his son's head and then smoothed out his hair. Feeling solidly grounded in his world again, he walked back to his father, who had been watching his every move. "So, I take it you've met your grandson?"
"M'pah!" TJ gobbled around the head of Hyneria's soon-to-be ex-ruler.
* * * * * * *
The Crichton men, including young TJ, were back in the maintenance bay. John wanted a look at the ship that had brought two more humans from Earth to the Uncharted Territories, and both he and his father had been happy to postpone discussion of more emotional issues.
D'Argo had taken it upon himself to brief Rygel on the results of their trip, and Chiana left with him, whispering not-so-subtle suggestions about what they could do when he was done with the Dominar-in-exile. After a brief look at Jack, Ron wandered off in search of Jool, claiming a headache.
Aeryn accompanied John and his father, and took TJ from John when they arrived in the bay, settling the child on her hip. "You two go look at the ship," she told John, squeezing his hand lightly. "I'm sure there's something TJ and I can do over here," she added, indicating the far side of the room.
"He's too young to learn how to clean a pulse pistol," John teased.
Aeryn's eyes glittered with amusement, but she flicked the back of her free hand into his stomach anyway. "I know that, John," she deadpanned. "Even in the Peacekeepers, you have to be at least three cycles old before you're allowed to handle pulse weapons."
Jack looked as if he wasn't entirely sure she was joking, but John's face was twisted up with the effort not to laugh. "Well, all right then," he said when he could finally get words out. "We'll be over looking at what the best minds on Earth have come up with!"
She nodded briskly, gave Jack a cautious smile, and then turned and took TJ across the room to find something to play with.
Having climbed up onto the ship, John was surprised at how familiar it was, and how "alien" at the same time. "Earth is like a dream to me now, sometimes," he remarked to the bay at large as he leaned over and examined the dual cockpit. "I can't even remember what it was like to live there."
His father, standing near by on the floor of the bay, looked at him sharply. "You'll get used to it again in no time," he said.
John's head came out of the cockpit in a hurry. He looked over to where Aeryn was keeping TJ out of mischief, and once he concluded she hadn't heard the comment, he turned his attention to his father. "I'm not going back, Dad."
Jack looked at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about? Of course you are."
"No I'm not, Dad. I can't."
Jack Crichton set his jaw and glared at his son. "John, there's an awful lot going on around here that I don't understand. Are you going to enlighten me?"
"Like what?" John asked, stalling for time as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say to this man he had missed so much, had wanted to tell so many things to.
"Well, for one thing, Aeryn only just admitted the boy is yours this morning. That baby looks just like you, but she wouldn't tell me *anything*! Now what is up with that? I was beginning to think you two were on the run from an irate husband."
"Dad!" John was torn between being hurt at the accusation and laughing his eema off, even attempting to picture Aeryn running away from some redneck husband toting a shotgun. "Didn't you raise me better than that?" he said.
"You want to tell me why your…wife?....was so evasive?"
John glanced over to where Aeryn was sitting cross-legged, back straight, helping TJ make designs with magnets, designs that looked suspiciously like troop deployment patterns. His eyes glowed with contentment. "We're not exactly legal," he said, turning back to his father, "but we've definitely passed the 'til death do us part' test." Taking a breath he said, "Dad, I'm sure you scared the crap out of her when you showed up. She recognized you right off, didn't she?"
Jack nodded.
John sighed. "I didn't have your photo in my wallet when I flew into space, Dad. She's seen a simulated version of you more than once, and it's been bad news every time." He hesitated for a minute and then added, "Aeryn was born and bred a soldier, Dad, she's one tough woman, but she has been to hell and back because of me."
While Jack digested this, John ran his hand through his hair. "Have you seen what I've done with my Farscape module?" he asked abruptly.
Jack shook his head. "No. I didn't know it was here," he said, puzzled at the shift in topic.
"Let's go look at it," John said. "Come on." He nodded towards the doorway to the docking bay.
Jack's frown eased into understanding. "Sure, Son," he said, and followed John back into the docking bay.
They settled themselves on the floor in front of the Farscape One module, John touching it as a talisman, for strength.
Jack stayed quiet and waited for John to talk.
John rubbed his thumb over his chin, and finally spoke. "I did a really stupid thing, Dad. I didn't mean to do it, and I suppose it wasn't really my fault, but it happened. I got myself twinned a while back, split into two people." John paused and looked up at his father, face screwed up in question, wondering what his dad was thinking.
Jack blinked at him, a look of blank incomprehension on his face. "Twinned?" he asked finally. "What, like cloned?"
John sighed. "It's complicated, Dad. I don't think I can explain it to this day. Two perfect copies, right down to the memories and the DNA. We were two of the same guy. And the other me, the other John Crichton, he was as much your son as I am. And he….died." He couldn't stop himself from glancing back through the doorway where he knew Aeryn was.
Jack's eyes followed his son's gaze, but he waited for John to continue.
"He, uh, he died keeping some really bad guys from getting a really badass weapon. He was a hero, Dad, and he missed you as much as I have." He paused, blinking away the moisture that appeared in his eyes. "I promised myself, if I ever got to talk to you, the two most important things I had to tell you were that I'm okay, I have a life here, and a family that means everything to me. And that your other son, the other me, he died a hero. And he never stopped thinking about going home."
Jack looked at him, his face an unreadable mask. "You were….close?"
John shook his head and bit his lip. "I hardly knew him," he said, "except that we both wanted the same life. We got separated almost right away, the crew got split up for a while."
This time it was Jack who looked through the door. "That was one of those times your wi…Aeryn… met 'me'?"
John took a deep breath. "These guys, they call themselves the 'Ancients,' they pulled your picture out of my brain the first time we met, and they've used it to talk to me a few times . . . . And the last time they showed up . . . he died."
John's father cocked his head to the side and looked at his son, gray eyes piercing. "You're seriously telling me that you had a . . .a . . . twin?"
John nodded.
"He died?"
"Radiation poisoning. He sacrificed himself to keep the biggest baddies out here from getting their hands on a wormhole weapon," John explained briefly.
"And Aeryn?"
John's smile was tinged with regret. He cocked his head to one side and said simply, "She loves John Crichton. John Crichton died in her arms. It took a long time for her to get over it."
Jack looked like he wanted to ask a lot of questions, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. "Okay," he said carefully, "I guess I can see why I might be persona non grata, at least at first glance. . . ."
"You do not know the *half* of it, Dad," John said, finally launching into a carefully edited version of his first few years in the Uncharted Territories, including his descent into madness under the influence of Scorpius' neural chip, and Aeryn's death at his hands. "And just about all of it can be traced directly to these guys sticking wormhole knowledge I didn't ask for into my brain," he ended. "Trust me, they are *not* popular in our family."
Jack looked down at the floor, took a deep breath. He ran his fingers through his hair and then said, finally, "John, forgive me if I don't understand, but how can you not want to come home? This seems like a horrible place. I look at you, and I see. . . . I don't know *what* horrors I see in your eyes. . . ." He took another breath. "I remember exactly – exactly," he emphasized, "what you looked like, that morning when I walked with you out to the shuttle launch pad. The nervousness in your eyes – and also the excitement." His eyes glistened with moisture. "And I look at you now, and I see . . . I see a man who's aged way more than five years. A man who lives in an armed camp, and who jokes about teaching his toddler son to shoot."
"It's not an armed camp, Dad," John said gently, tears in his own eyes. "It's just . . . .well, kinda like the Old West, you know? You have to be your own law sometimes, and especially your own protection. We're friends, we're a family here on Moya, but you never know when trouble is going to come knocking. You just have to be prepared." John cocked his head. "You get used to it, it's not so bad. Hell, it's kinda like being in 'Star Wars.' Without the lightsabers." He cracked a smile, and looked to see if his father was getting it at all. "Beyond all the horrors, and there *are* horrors," he acknowledged, "there are wonders here, too. It's a pretty amazing place." He looked beyond his father into the maintenance bay. "And I have Aeryn, and TJ. Nothing else matters."
Jack seemed to see the truth of the last statement, anyway, and lightened up and said, "What kind of a name is Teejay, anyway? Is that some sort of alien name?"
John laughed. "It's his initials, Dad. 'T.' 'J.' He's named for Aeryn's dad, and you, 'Talyn John Crichton.'"
Jack's eyes widened at this information. "Well, he's awfully cute," he said. "Your sisters would love to meet him. You know Mary has a little girl just about TJ's age."
"No," John said softly. "I didn't know."
"Come home with us, Son. Please. Bring your family. Just come."
John shook his head. "I can't. For the same reason that you and Ron have to get your ship fixed and get yourselves the hell out of Dodge."
It was odd to have his father look at him the way his alien friends did when he talked. John continued, "Too many extremely unfriendly people are interested in following me back to Earth, or finding their own way there. I don't dare lead them back home – and your wormhole is a blazing beacon even without me as the extra added value. I need to send you back through it and shut it down, the sooner the better."
Jack started to balk, but at that moment, TJ came running into the room chasing a DRD, Aeryn following behind him. John looked up at her and smiled.
"How are you two doing, then?" Aeryn asked.
"Good, we're doing good," John said, happy for the distraction.
Sensing the tension in the room, Aeryn said, "Well, Jool says it's time for dinner. I was just going to get TJ cleaned up. Shall I meet you in the galley?"
"Yeah, that's good Babe," John said. "We'll be there."
"Right," she said, herding TJ back into the corridors. "Come on, time to get ready to eat," she told him briskly as she scooped him up and headed down the corridor in measured strides.
John stretched and stood up. Jack stood up also and the two men looked at each other for a few moments. Finally Jack said, "We're not through talking about you coming home."
"We can talk," John agreed, heading for the galley. "But it's pretty much a no-brainer. I stay here, Earth is safe. I go back to Earth, big nasty critters with even nastier weapons follow me, Earth is toast."
The set of Jack's jaw matched John's, but somehow they both knew that for the first time in their lives, the son was going to win the argument.
