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Disclaimer: I own no part of Farscape or its characters.
Season/Spoilers: Through Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2 before LATP 1. John and Aeryn’s feelings for each other are just beginning to really take shape.
Summary: John accidentally creates a wormhole while on maneuvers with Aeryn in his Farscape I module and they are sucked through to the real Earth.
Rating: G
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Part I--Old Love
It was a humid Florida evening. One of those nights where even if he could fall asleep, it would be difficult to come by unless you were lucky enough to have man’s greatest invention in the free world, central air. It has been 48 arns since he and Aeryn were drawn into the wormhole he accidentally created while flying his sling shot maneuver in his module. He was “hot dogging” trying to impress Aeryn with his growing flying ability. When the wormhole appeared, they both assumed at first that it was the Ancients trying to contact John again but soon found that they were actually being drawn into an honest to god wormhole with Earth at the end of it. Pilot’s last transmission confirmed this before they lost communication.
It has been 48 arns since they crash landed. 48 arns of tests, tests, and more tests to determine if he was truly John Crichton but most importantly it has been 48 arns since he had seen Aeryn. He didn’t know where she was or what they were doing to her. He had overwhelming guilt for putting her in this position, yet again. Before the incident with the Ancients on the “false” Earth John believed that Aeryn could find a way to make a life in his world, but knowing what he knows now he is not nearly as confident. Events of the passed two days have done nothing to ease his fears.
Within 24 arns…hours (he had to get use to speaking his language again), his father, Jack, and DK were with him at the IASA holding facility. Jack tried to find out what he could about Aeryn and her whereabouts but the military was keeping it extremely quiet, ‘need to know’ basis only. John was given lodging on the base and limited access to restricted areas around the base once he was released from the medical facility.
*******
The sun began to set on John’s third day on Earth, he found himself quite restless. He decided to go for a run. He put on a pair of military issue shorts and a t-shirt. He jogged vigorously around the base trying to wear himself out hoping that sleep would finally claim him this night.
When he got back to his bungalow his father was waiting for him on the steps.
Jack: “How was your run? Did it help?”
John sat beside his father.
John: “Nothing is going to help until I find out about Aeryn. I can’t get a straight answer out of anyone around here.”
Jack: (sighing) “She is being kept in a high security facility on the other side of the base.”
John felt a glimmer of hope.
John: (excitedly) “Then she is here and she is alive?!”
Jack: “Yes.”
John saw a look in his father’s eyes.
John: “What? I know something is up. I saw a lot of big trucks coming on to the base last night.”
Jack: “It is some high tech military issue medical equipment. They have a research team in to do testing on the creature.”
John: (sounding annoyed) “Her name is Aeryn, Dad.”
Jack: “I am sorry. I know she is your friend.”
John: “I have to get in to see her Dad. She must be so scared. I wonder if she even knows that I am alive and that I am here?”
Jack: “John, there is more.”
John: “What?”
Jack: “The medical research team….It is being headed by Alexandra.”
John looked at his father.
John: “Alex, is here?”
Jack: “She is inside. When she heard about what happened to you two years ago we kept in touch and when you were found she contacted me.”
John stood up. At one time in his life he thought he would marry Alex. He thought she was the love of his life but career circumstances parted them. It had been nearly two and a half years since they had seen each other. John looked down at his father.
Jack: “I will wait out here.”
John walked up the stairs into the bungalow. As he walked inside he saw Alex standing by the window.
John spoke softly.
John: “Hello Alex.”
She turned and smiled at him. She was wearing a crisply pressed suit and her shoulder length blonde hair was hanging loose about her shoulders, just the way John used to like it. She walked toward him with her arms outstretched. John stepped away.
John: “Oh no don’t. I have been jogging.”
Alex: “Do you think I really care?”
They smiled at each other. He walked into her outstretched arms. They held each other for a long time.
Alex: “Welcome home spaceman.”
John: “Thanks Doc.”
He buried his face in her hair. She stroked the back of his head as she used to do.
Alex: “Where have you been John Crichton?”
He looked in her eyes.
John: “All over the universe.”
She smiled slightly.
Alex: “I want to hear all about your travels.”
As much as John wanted to play 20 questions with Alex and catch up on her life and tell her all that he saw and did while traveling through amazing galaxies, Aeryn was foremost in his mind.
John: “I need your help, Alex.”
Alex stepped back and looked into his clear ocean blue eyes.
Alex: “Name it.”
John: “I need to see her.”
Alex: “Name anything but that.”
John: “Please, I know you are head of the research team. I know you can get me clearance.”
Alex: “I don’t know John. Her visitors are limited. She has been quite disruptive and has been put in restraints.”
John lowered his eyes.
John: “All the more reason to get me in there. I am the only one who can get her to cooperate.”
Alex: “You know most astronauts go out into space and bring back rock samples, water, or dirt. Leave it to you to come back with an alien. A female alien at that.”
John: “Her name is Aeryn. Aeryn Sun.”
Alex took a breath.
Alex: “I was told of the foreign bodies that they found at the base of your brain. This is how you communicate with her?”
John: “They are translator microbes.”
Alex: “She has them as well?”
John: “Yes.”
Alex: “So she understands when we talk to her?”
John: “Some things, if they are not to ‘earthy’, that microbes can decipher them to help her understand.”
John heard the sound of trucks and walked over to the window at. He got a desperate look on his face and moved over to Alex. He took her hand in his.
John: “Aeryn is a soldier, a warrior, by birth, by nature. Her first instinct is to fight when she feels threatened or frightened. I can calm her. I can explain what is happening but you have to let me see her.”
Alex searched his face.
Alex: “You really are worried about her, aren’t you?”
John: “She is my friend. She is here because of me.”
Alex: “Let me make a call.”
John: “I am going to get changed.”
Alex: “No promises, John.”
John went to shower and change. It took Alex nearly an hour to get the base commander to agree to allow John to assist with the alien. John’s father came out of the kitchen holding a glass of ice tea.
John: “Dad, Alex got permission for me to see Aeryn.”
Jack put the glass down.
Jack: “Well let’s go.”
The three of them left the bungalow.
******
As they were approaching the facility John was looking around at all the military guards posted. Jack touched his arm when he noticed what John was doing. He whispered in his ear.
Jack: (whispering) “Casing the place.”
John looked over at him.
Jack: “I know that look.”
John walked through the facility door behind Alex. He spotted DK. DK kissed Alex’s cheek.
DK: “How are you doing Alex? I heard you were heading Project Alien.”
John: “Project what?”
Alex: “You know how military is. They have to give everything a name.”
DK: “It is good to have our boy home again, isn’t it?”
DK put his arm around John’s shoulder. Alex smiled.
Alex: “Yes, it is.”
John: “What are you doing here anyway DK? Is the module being kept here to?”
DK: “No, it is in Hangar 9. I am curious about the alien just like everyone else.”
DK pointed to a group of scientist and some military personnel. John got a sick feeling in his stomach. They were all standing around a glass partition in the middle of the room. He walked over slowly and looked down. There was Aeryn. She was lying almost in a fetal position in a corner of the room on the floor. Her legs were drawn tight up to her chest. She was wearing a pair of white hospital pants and was bound by a straitjacket. Alex walked up beside John and looked down.
John: “Why is she in that?”
Alex: “Because our soldiers don’t have her fighting skills. We couldn’t control her.”
John looked at the people standing there with a disgusted look on his face.
John: “Are there people here all the time watching her like this? Like a circus sideshow.”
Alex: “No, she has private quarters. She is brought into this room when tests are being run. It is a controlled environment. You are a scientist John. I don’t have to tell you about controlled conditions.”
John: “She is not a test tube. She is a person.”
Alex: “Correction. She is an alien.”
John: “I want to see her…without the audience.”
Alex gestured for him to follow her. John looked at his dad and then at DK.
John: “I will come by the hangar later to see the module.”
DK: “Okay buddy.”
John: “Dad, come with me. I want you to meet Aeryn. I have told her a lot about you.”
*******
When Aeryn heard the lock on the door to her rounded cell click she rolled over so that her back was facing the door. She tried to make herself as small as possible in that room hoping that all of this was just some horrible nightmare and would go away. She heard three sets of footsteps approaching her. She moved closer into the corner. Her mane of thick raven hair was covering her face.
John kneeled beside her. He reached out slowly to touch her but she pulled away like a frightened child, a position he has never seen her in before. His face filled with concern and fear.
John: “Aeryn?”
She didn’t respond. Aeryn was afraid to look and not see Crichton there. She had imagined him so many times since they stuck her in this place but each time he turned out to be a cruel trick her mind was playing on her.
John: “Aeryn, Baby?”
Alex and Jack shot a look in John’s direction then at the female alien. John reached out again and touched Aeryn’s hair. Aeryn turned her head slowly. When her eyes met his, he smiled at her.
Aeryn: “Crichton!”
She rolled over into his reassuring arms. He stroked her hair soothingly. He pulled back and looked in her beautiful, yet tired, eyes.
John: “Are you all right?”
Aeryn: “They put me in this contraption. I can’t move my arms. They said I am uncontrollable and violent.”
John: (sarcastically) “Aeryn…”
Aeryn: “I didn’t hurt anybody who wasn’t trying to hurt me.”
Alex stepped forward.
Alex: “What is she saying John?”
Aeryn backed away and pushed further into the corner.
Aeryn: “Who is that? She was with those people taking my blood earlier.”
John looked over his shoulder at Alex and Jack.
John: “I am going to take this jacket off of her. She has promised to behave.”
John looked in Aeryn’s eyes.
John: “Right?”
Aeryn reluctantly agreed. John turned her around and began to unfasten the straitjacket. Aeryn pulled her arms out of it. She started to stretch her arms to get the feeling back in them. She looked over at Alex and at the man who she recognized as John’s father from when the Ancient was impersonating him.
Aeryn: “Is that your Dad?”
John: (smiling) “Yes.”
John gestured for his father to come closer. He helped Aeryn to her feet.
John: “Jack Crichton, I want you to meet Aeryn Sun.”
Aeryn held out her hand as Crichton has taught her and D’Argo. Jack looked at John.
John: “It is okay.”
They shook hands. Aeryn said something that Jack didn’t understand but from the tone of her voice he got the gist.
Jack: “I am happy to meet you Aeryn Sun.”
She smiled at him slightly. When they released hands Aeryn looked over at Alex.
Aeryn: “Who is she?”
John: “She is a friend. This is Alex. She is head of the medical research team in charge of...”
His voice trailed off.
Aeryn: “In charge of me?”
John: “Yes.”
Aeryn: “A friend?”
John looked at Aeryn. From the look in his eyes, Aeryn could tell there was something about this woman John wasn’t telling her.
John: “Yes.”
Alex: “What is she saying John?”
John: “She is scared Alex. She doesn’t understand why she is being kept in here like this.”
Alex: “We just want to understand your species. You look like us and some of your physiology is the same but there were anomalies in your blood that we are interested in studying more. We also want to look at your brain wave patterns and your internal organs to see if they are also similar to ours.”
Aeryn remembering the false Earth and what was done to Rygel immediately went into peacekeeper mode. She lunged toward Alex. Jack backed away. John got between her and Alex. A couple of MPs rushed into the room with tranquilizer guns ready. John yelled.
John: “No, don’t!”
He held Aeryn from behind with her arms pinned under his.
Aeryn: “I am not going to let them cut me open to look at my organs.”
John: “Stop it Aeryn or they will shot you with those darts.”
She looked at the guards and then over her shoulder at John.
John: “They are not going to cut you open. They have machines that take pictures of your insides with no pain and no incisions.”
Aeryn looked from Alex to John.
Aeryn: “I will not be a lab rat like with Namtar or like when we were on your ‘false earth’. I will not be studied like some animal.”
John: “Aeryn, you have to take it easy. Trust me, Baby. I am not going to let anything happen to you. You have to relax or they are going to put you back in that.”
He gestured to the jacket on the floor. She slowly relaxed her arms. Jack and Alex released the collective breath they were holding. John let her arms go. He turned her around so he could look into her eyes. He gently stroked her cheek with his fingertips.
John: “Just like when I first got to your world, I had to trust you. You have to trust me now. This is my turf. You have to follow my lead.”
Aeryn: “More Sundance to your B-u-t-c-h?”
He smiled slightly.
John: “Yes.”
Aeryn backed away and sat down on the table in the middle of the room. Alex waved the guards away. John went over and sat next to her. He looked at Alex and Jack.
John: “Could you give us some time alone?”
Alex: “John?”
John: “Just a few microt…minutes. Please.”
Jack walked over to the door. Alex walked over and stood in front of Aeryn. They looked into each other’s eyes.
Alex: “I am not trying to hurt you. We just want to understand you, your species.”
Aeryn looked at John then back at Alex. Aeryn held her hand out. Alex and Aeryn shook hands. Alex smiled at her. She turned and followed Jack out of the room. John watched her leave. Aeryn saw the way he was looking at her.
Aeryn: “You knew her before you left Earth?”
John: “Yes.”
John didn’t elaborate. This wasn’t the time or the place.
John: “I am sorry I got you in this mess. I always seemed to be doing something to complicate your life.”
Aeryn: (sarcastically) “Yes, you do.”
John smiled.
John: “Well, I am glad to see you are getting your sense of humor back.”
She looked at him.
Aeryn: “I can’t stay here John. I am sure you trust your friend but she is a scientist. It is just a matter of time before these pictures will not tell them everything they want to know and they decide to…”
Her voice trailed off.
John: “I will find a way to fix this. I promise.”
Aeryn looked in his eyes. The door opened. Alex stepped inside.
Alex: “John, she has to be prepped for her CT scan.”
John looked at Aeryn.
John: “This will not hurt and I will be here watching. You just have to drink something that tastes a lot like your raslak. Remember your promise.”
Aeryn nodded. John slipped off the table. He looked back at her as he reached the door. He winked at her. She nodded her head slightly. When he left the room, she sat back on the bed and curled her knees up to her chest
