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There’s an old saying: “Good things come to him who waits.” And I have finally got my Good Thing.
The expression on my face is probably insufferably smug right now. Aeryn is in my bed. In my arms. Asleep. And neither one of us has a stitch on.
Yes!
She cried a little when we made love, and part of me wants to be really pissed that he was here with us, our first real time. But she says she knows I’m me, not him, and I believe her. So I told myself that she was letting him go, and the funny thing is, I believe that, too.
God, I love this woman.
If I don’t stop playing with her hair I’m going to wake her up. Hmm, what would be so bad about that? You’ll just have to imagine the evil grin on my face right about now….
No. Seriously. I just want to lie here and hold her. Begin to memorize how her curves fit. Smell her. Feel her breathe. Feel her skin on mine. It’s been way too long coming.
Sometimes I think we must have done something to piss the universe off.
The ultimate joke, of course, was splitting me in two, just when Aeryn was finally ready to take the risk. And then the universe made me unique again and broke her heart.
It’s been a long way back. An impossibly long, impossibly painful half cycle since she came back to Moya without him, and couldn’t even bear to speak to me….
But I think we’ve made it. She’s smiling in her sleep. If she smiles when she wakes up and sees me, we’re home free….
The commerce planet was primitive, as commerce planets went. It was also dry, dusty, and hot. Hotter than John thought Aeryn should spend much time in, but she rarely left his side these days when they were off of Moya. He wished he could believe it was because she loved him, but he suspected it was because she felt she was in some way responsible for the death of the other him. Still, it meant that they were together, a lot, and he couldn’t complain about that.
They were here to meet up with Rygel and Chiana, who had been negotiating for some needed repair parts. John and Aeryn were supposed to help carry the supplies once the deal was concluded.
“Are you sure we can get the power converters we need here?” Aeryn asked, glancing around dubiously at the series of low, thick-walled stone buildings that made up the main street of Rhea. It seemed to be a sleepy little town, and there were few people about.
John shrugged. “Yeah, I know, it kinda looks like Tatooine to me, too.” When Aeryn shot him her usual ‘What ARE you talking about?’ look, he elaborated, “A planet that’s pretty far from the bright center of the universe. Two suns, too, just like this one.”
“I don’t know why I bother to ask,” she said with a smile. “You’re as crazy as he was.”
“Hey, it’s me,” John said, hoping that her recent more frequent casual references to her lost Crichton meant that she was beginning to come to terms with his death.
“I know,” she deadpanned in response to his comment, arching her eyebrows. Then she added, “I was thinking more of Dam-Ba-Da, though.”
Damn! Every time he thought things were going okay…. “We’ll find Furlow eventually, you know that,” he told her. “She didn’t go to Scorpius, we’d have found her when we took out his base. So she’s prob’ly working some deal with the Scarrans, or the Nebari. Or worse.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “She doesn’t have anything left to sell,” she added as an afterthought.
Privately, John thought that the mechanic had almost certainly had a copy of her data stashed somewhere, maybe several somewheres, but he wasn’t going to bring that up just now. *Furlow doesn’t matter.* That was new. He doubted it meant she no longer wanted to see the mechanic pay for her part in John’s death, but some of the urgency seemed to be gone.
Both their coms crackled and Rygel’s voice came through. “Crichton? Aeryn? Where the frell are you? Lynkx is getting tired of waiting.”
“Keep your shorts on, Sparky,” John drawled. “We’re just down the block.” John looked at the empty streets again, and said, “I can’t believe he’s got a lot of other customers makin’ offers for the stuff.”
Nevertheless, there was something odd about Rygel’s voice. John and Aeryn picked up their pace and were soon in front of Lynkx’s shop. They stood in the darkened entranceway for a moment, letting their eyes adjust to the change in lighting, which was an error. Even before they could see, they heard the unmistakable sound of weapons being drawn.
Simultaneously, human and Sebacean moved out of the doorway into the shop, turning back to back and pulling their pulse pistols out of their holsters. “Rygel,” Aeryn called in annoyance, “what’s going on?”
When there was no answer except a muffled grunt, John called, “Chiana? What’s up?” with even less result.
By this time their eyes had adjusted, and they could see that Rygel was in the hands of several members of a race that neither John nor Aeryn recognized. The expressions on their boar-like features looked less than friendly, however, and the weapons they were pointing at John and Aeryn suggested they were NOT good guys. Of Rygel’s throne sled, there was no obvious trace. A Rhean they assumed was Lynkx, the junk dealer, also appeared to be detained.
“Okay, boys,” John said, keeping his weapon aimed in the general direction of their antagonists, “we appear to have a stand-off here. I assume you don’t want us dead, or you’d’ve shot us while we were standing there making good targets. Care to let us in on the game?”
“Are you John Crichton?” the largest of the three asked, pointing at John with his snout.
“Who wants to know?” Aeryn replied.
“There’s a bounty for a rebel band led by a Sebacean named John Crichton. And it’s a lot larger if you’re alive,” the gunman said. “You must be the PeaceKeeper traitor Aeryn Sun.”
“Look,” John interjected, “before this gets personal, if that bounty was offered by Scorpius, I think you should know you’ll have a little trouble collecting it. He’s dead. So how about you just back off nice and slow, leave the slug behind, and we’ll all leave this planet nice and peaceful like.” They didn’t seem to be going for it, and John started trying to come up with a plan to get out of this latest mess.
Just then the door to the shop creaked open, and when their would-be captors turned their attention to the new arrival, John and Aeryn both leaped into action, firing at will.
Aeryn dropped her chosen target with her first shot, leaving only two bad guys, and dived behind a counter for cover. Unfortunately, one of them had the presence of mind to use Rygel as a shield, leaving John with two enemies shooting at him, and only one he could fire at himself. He scrambled unsuccessfully for some kind of shelter inside the shop, looking around frantically for Aeryn. He was relieved to see she was protected, even though he still wasn’t.
“Hey,” he shouted into a brief silence, “what happened to ‘we’re worth more alive’?”
A blaster pulse caught the edge of his coat, and he heard Aeryn shout his name. “I’m all right,” he called, and finally got a clear shot off at the man who wasn’t holding Rygel. Bullseye!
“And then there was one,” John said, standing up. Aeryn followed suit on her side of the room.
Rygel was muttering into the gag that was tied around his mouth, and being less than a model hostage. He was squirming and struggling, and John had no doubt that his captor was finding it difficult to hold onto the Hynerian. It was only a matter of time before he or Aeryn had a clear shot at the critter.
The two exchanged glances, with Aeryn agreeing to keep her pistol trained on Rygel’s playmate. John moved forward, intending to disarm him, when several things happened at once.
An unsuspected fourth member of the gang came out from the back room just feet from Crichton, a pulse rifle at the ready. Aeryn screamed, “John!” and Chiana’s voice came from nowhere yelling, “DOWN!” As John hit the deck, Rygel’s throne sled zoomed across the room, hitting the last man squarely in the chest and knocking him down.
In the chaos, Aeryn vaulted across the room and freed Rygel, hitting his captor in the head with the butt of her gun. The bounty hunter was on the floor with her foot on his throat before he knew what had happened.
When the dust cleared, Rygel had pulled the gag off of his face and said darkly to Chiana, “If you’ve damaged my sled, tralk, you’re going to pay for the repairs!”
Chiana only laughed, and reached over to help Crichton up.
“Hey, Pip, where’d you come from?” he asked.
“Hiding back there,” she said, gesturing towards a spot behind a pile of spare parts for some sort of transport. “I had a flash that there was going to be trouble, and got the chance to fade just before these guys came in.”
“Slick move with Sparky’s sled.”
Chiana gave him an “aw, shucks” look.
Aeryn came over then, and heedless of Chiana’s presence, she reached out and touched John’s cheek. “Are you okay? Did you get hit?”
“No, no, I’m fine,” he told her, moved by the concern in her voice. “This coat will never be quiet the same, though,” he said, holding up the vaporized spot on the edge.
“Okay, good,” she said, looking suddenly embarrassed. She turned to Chiana and said, “You might have let us know there was trouble instead of letting us walk into a trap.”
Chiana shrugged off the complaint, and went to untie the shop owner.
No one wanted to do anything more than get the parts they’d come for and leave before the local constabulary arrived. Lynkx was only too happy to be rid of them. He took the agreed upon price and ushered them out of the store. Fortunately Rygel’s sled was undamaged, making it easier for the four of them to return to the relative safety of their two transport pods. They loaded the power converters in with Rygel and Chiana, and left the planet as quickly as possible.
On the trip back to Moya, Aeryn sat quietly, brooding. At least, brooding is what Crichton would have been doing, if he’d had that expression on HIS face. John didn’t dare ask her what she was thinking, even though she never took her eyes off of him as he piloted the transport.
All he knew was, they’d damn near gotten killed AGAIN. He was surprised that Aeryn hadn’t given him a dressing down for walking into the shop without being more careful….
She just kept looking at him.
* * * * * * *
All through dinner, John could sense Aeryn’s eyes on him when she thought he wasn’t looking. He wasn’t sure what it meant, and it was giving him an incredible knot in his stomach. He really didn’t want to eat. But Jool and D’Argo had worked hard on the food, and so he made himself finish what was on his plate. Chiana was regaling those who had been on Moya with a suitably elaborated version of her part in the events on Rhea, so no one besides Aeryn paid him much attention, for which he was thankful.
When they’d finished cleaning up after dinner, John excused himself and went to his quarters. Too edgy to stay there, he picked up his notebook and headed up to the terrace and plopped himself down in the middle of the floor. For a while he lost himself in charting the stars, and then he started in recording an account of the day’s adventures on ‘Tatooine.’
*So that’s it,* he finished. *Something’s up with Aeryn, I can feel it, but whether it’s good or bad, I don’t know. She scares me to death, I need her so much. I LOVE her so much. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.* As he finished writing those words, he became aware that someone was watching him.
“Your life is in that book, isn’t it?” Aeryn asked quietly. She was in the doorway, leaning against the wall.
John was too startled to do more than look back at her without speaking, and after a moment, she turned away and left. He had no idea what she wanted, or even what she meant.
Frustrated, he tossed the book across the room.
* * * * * *
He retrieved the book and went back to his quarters, too exhausted from the events of the day to want to do anything except sleep.
He already had his shirt off and was looking for the dentic for his teeth when someone knocked at the doorway. He absentmindedly called, “Whoever it is, it had better be important,” and started for the door.
He stopped dead in the center of the room. It was Aeryn. She wasn’t dressed any differently than usual, but her hair – her hair was completely down, not even a ponytail. Her dark tresses spilled over her shoulders and down her back and framed her face in a way that took his breath away. Her eyes held him – he’d seen that look only once before, when she had brought him the compatibility test from the Royal Planet.
This time, too, she held something in her hands. It was his old notebook, the one HER John had taken with him to Talyn…the one he’d told her to keep, for as long as she needed to.
The knot in his stomach came back with a vengeance, as John waited silently for her to do whatever it was she had come there to do. This is it, he thought, the beginning or the end.
Aeryn never took her eyes off of his as she crossed the room with deliberate steps and stopped right in front of him. With two hands, she held the notebook out to him as an offering.
John looked down at it, and back at Aeryn. *What do you want me to do?* was plain in the expression on his face.
“I don’t need it any more,” Aeryn told him, her voice soft and full of emotion.
He took the notebook from her then, still uncertain how far she meant to go, and dared to reach out and cup her cheek with his other hand. It was a toss-up which of them was trembling more.
She smiled at him encouragingly, her eyes glistening with just a trace of tears.
John’s control broke at last, and he wrapped her in a fierce hug, still clutching the notebook behind her back. “Oh, Baby, I love you!” he whispered into her neck and her hair.
“I love you, too,” Aeryn told him with relief.
She pulled back from him then, just enough to reach her mouth hungrily for his. As their kiss deepened, she pressed her body against his, running her hands over his bare back.
He shivered at her touch, and his hands moved up to tangle his fingers in her hair – only to hit her in the head with the notebook he was still holding.
“Ow,” she said, rubbing the side of her head dramatically. But her wide grin belied the complaint, and they both laughed, catching their breath.
John said, “I’ll just put this away before I knock you unconscious, okay?”
“Mmmm, good thinking,” Aeryn replied. “There are better ways of making me unconscious.”
“Don’t move,” he said seriously. Her eyes never left him as he walked over to the shelf and carefully set her gift down on top of the other notebook he’d been using for the past cycle.
John paused for a moment with his back to her and took a deep breath. He was almost glad he’d inadvertently broken the mood. What was happening here? Was it possible he was reading her wrong? The last thing he wanted to do was to overreact. *Stop it, you idiot. ‘I love you’ seems pretty clear. Accept it,* he told himself sternly. It helped a little.
He turned and walked back, somewhat reassured and totally enchanted by her hair and the soft expression on her face. “Now where were we?”
“I think,” Aeryn replied with a smile, “I was about to do something like this,” and she reached for the bottom zipper on her vest.
Frell! One more sanity check before he surrendered….
John reached out and covered her hand with his, stopping her from unzipping it. When she looked at him in surprise, he asked quietly, “Aeryn, are you sure you want to do this?”
“Don’t you want to?” she asked.
“Hell, yeah,” he assured her. “I just want to make sure… you know….”
“I have never been more sure of anything in my life,” she said. “What happened today…we could have both been killed.”
“That happens all the time,” he said. “It’s always been par for the course for our happy little family.”
She nodded. “I know. But I knew, today, in that shop, that if you died without our being together, it would be the biggest regret of my life. I love you, John Crichton. And I can’t bear to live without you any longer.”
*The biggest regret of her life.* More than losing HIM. Come on, John. Let it go.
He smiled at her then, a big smile, and took his restraining hand off of hers and reached for her hair, brushing it back with his fingers. “I can relate to that,” he said, leaning forward and kissing her gently.
“So, you’re not going to send me away?” she asked with a wicked grin.
He looked around the room as if to ask, is there someone else here you’re talking to? “Um, No,” he said firmly.
“Good.” She went back to fiddling with her zipper, and he reached out his hand again.
“Let me help you with that,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
I felt Aeryn stir slightly, and turned my head so I could see her face. She opened her eyes, saw me, and smiled. A big, wide grin, just like I wanted. Part of me wanted to do handstands. Another part of me was still terrified.
“Hey, Baby,” I said.
“Hi,” she smiled back.
“You okay?” I asked quietly.
“I am MUCH more than okay,” she said lazily, reaching over to run a hand down my side.
*Much more than okay.* Somehow, that did it. Something inside me let go, finally, and I knew that she was really mine. I couldn’t help the tears, even though I knew they would puzzle her. They did.
With concern, she reached for my face, caressing my cheek. “Are YOU okay?” she asked.
“MUCH more than okay,” I reassured her, pushing a strand of her hair off of her face.
“Then why are you crying?”
“Just one of those human things, Darlin’,” I told her. “Sometimes we cry when there are just no words to say how happy we are.” I smiled to prove I meant it.
She accepted that, and arched her neck up to kiss me.
Oh, yes, I could do with a lot more of THAT.
When we broke off for a microt she asked, “What time is it?”
“Late. Early. What does it matter?” I said, nuzzling her neck.
“Because I don’t want to get up yet,” she murmured.
I couldn’t resist it. It was too big an opening. “I’m already up,” I smirked.
She giggled. Aeryn giggled. It’s definitely going to be okay. We’ve made it.
