When John woke, he shook the cobwebs out of his head. “What? Where?” He looked across the room as he sat up. “What are you doing here, Chiana?”

“Hiding.”

“From…?”

“Aeryn. She’s storming all over the ship. I saw her come out of here … and decided she wouldn’t return anytime soon, so ‘here’ was safe.” She walked over and sat beside him. “Of course, you were sleeping…Why were you sleeping, Crichton? In the middle of day? When Aeryn left?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“Aeryn knocked me out.” Chiana gave a sly, teasing grin. “Literally. With her fist. Hand. Something.”

“Ahhh. Then it’s you she’s mad at. Good. Then I’ll be on my way. Unless you want me to stay… for any reason…” She leaned against his arm.

John good-naturedly grinned back, “Nope.”

Chiana put her face close to John’s, cocked it, laughed and left.

“That girl’s gonna seriously confuse me some day,” John mused.

Zhaan, busy in her apothecary, didn’t notice Aeryn at first. “Aeryn. Why didn’t you say something? Is everything alright?” Zhaan became concerned at the lost, confused expression on the soldier’s face. “Aeryn?”

Aeryn shifted her weight to her other leg. “Ummm. Ah. Zhaan, do you…? I mean, is there…? Oh, dren!” Aeryn collapsed, more than sat, onto a bench.

Zhaan walked over, sat next to Aeryn and saw the tears in her eyes. “What do you need, Aeryn?”

Then it all came out, in a rush of words and tears. When Aeryn was finished, Zhaan calmly said, “You need to talk to John.”

“NO! I am a soldier! I cannot… And this certainly is NOT the time. And Crichton… And being hunted... And Crichton…” She sighed as if exhausted, “Just give me a potion, Zhaan.”

“I’m sorry, Aeryn. Talk to John.”

That night at dinner, tension filled the air. Rygel was oblivious as he teased Chiana. Chiana teased back, but that didn’t keep her from noticing the questioning look that D’Argo gave Zhaan. Nor did she miss Zhaan’s almost imperceptible shake of the head. Aeryn just broke her food cubes into multiple pieces, but didn’t eat any of the resulting crumbs. Crichton looked confused.

“Hey, Aeryn,” John softly began.

Aeryn abruptly stood up. “I need to, umm, work on my Prowler.”

As John watched Aeryn’s retreating form, Chiana purred, “Crichton, if Aeryn’s ignoring you…I could…ahhh…take her place in your…”

“Chiana,” Zhaan cut in. “Isn’t it your turn to clean up?”

John stood half up, leaned toward Chiana, and gave her an enigmatic smile. “I’ll let you know, Pip.” He gave her a quick wink as he left the room. Chiana laughed and then her face became reflective. She watched his back as he left the room.

‘Nice back,’ she thought. ‘ Nice…’ She jerked her head to clear the thought out. ‘Flirting with Crichton was fun. Flirting with Crichton was safe.’ Chiana was surprised to find she was more than a little scared at her next thought: ‘What would I do if he ever said, “Yes.”’

‘At least she went where she said she was going,’ John thought as he found Aeryn working on her Prowler. John climbed up on the opposite side of the Prowler from Aeryn. “Talk to me.”

Aeryn tapped the wrench against the powerful machine, chewing her lower lip. Then she looked John right in the eyes. ‘So blue.’ She pushed that thought away. “Crichton, I…that is, we, when we, on the Earth that wasn’t Earth…”

“Yeah?” John tilted his head.

“We. I . Now. I’m…ummm…”

“You’re…?” He stared into her eyes. “You’re…?” John’s face broke into a huge grin, “WHOO-HOO” He had to grab the side of the Prowler to keep from falling off when he flung his hands in the air.

Sternly, Aeryn said, “This is NOT good news. This is definitely NOT good news. NOT the time for this, Crichton.”

John, still grinning, leaned forward and softly said, “Don’t you think you should call me ‘John’? I AM the fa…”

“If you say it, I’ll knock you off that step!”

John kissed her forehead, quickly, before she could stop him and jumped down from the step.

“We will deal with this, Aeryn. It’s not such a terrible thing. It could actually be…”

“I asked Zhaan for a potion to end it.” The only emotion in Aeryn’s voice seemed to be fatigue. She couldn’t look at John.

“NO, Aeryn,” John said firmly. “We will work this out. No. That is NOT an option. …Is it? Aeryn?”

The pain in his voice caused a knot in her stomach as Aeryn jumped down. Her eyes filled with tears as she stepped back and sat on a bench. John came around the Prowler, sat next to her and put his arms around her, enveloping her. He felt her silent tears wet his tee shirt. “Everything’s going to be fine, Aeryn.” He buried his face in her hair. After a while, he softly inquired, “Aeryn?”

“Don’t worry, John. We’ll work it out.” She held him tighter. Somehow, she knew it was only an option if he never found out. And maybe not even then.

For the next few days, the crew noticed John smiling and humming a lot while Aeryn seemed pensive and moody. John seemed to be almost attending to Aeryn, which D’Argo figured was WHY she was moody. They seemed to spend a lot of time in the maintenance hanger together, working on Aeryn’s prowler and Farscape I, but not saying much. All too often, one would catch the other staring. John would smile; Aeryn would sigh. Sometimes, Aeryn would almost smile back. Yes, there were definitely the beginnings of a smile.

‘I should be happy. Isn’t this what I wanted? Isn’t this the way it should be?’

“Yo, Aeryn!” Aeryn was again working, this time on Farscape I. She didn’t look up. “Hey, Aeryn, let’s go for a drive. See the sights.”

She still didn’t look up. John moved next to her. Softer, “Aeryn, what’s wrong?”

Then she looked into his eyes, into his impossibly boyish face. So innocent, yet so intelligent. His countenance belying what he’d endured this past cycle.

“John, it was a mistake. I was wrong. I’m not… I’m not.”

John tilted his head. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know, maybe the blue-light Moya, maybe everything that’s happened… I don’t know.” She took a deep breath, then let it go in a rush. “This wasn’t the right time, anyway.” “No,” he whispered.

“This is the way it should be.”

“Hmmm.”

“So,” her voice cracked, “This…This…is the way it should be.”

He pulled her close. “Someday. When things settle down.”

She put her arms around him and rested her head against him. “Will they ever?”

“Yes. I promise.”

end