Part one

Sitting on the rock, Crichton finally had the chance to observe his surroundings. He was on the side of a mountain. From his vantage point, he could easily see the valley that they had come in through. He was struck, again, by how similar it looked to Earth. He picked up a dead leaf and examined it. He fingered the leaf with five little leaflets meeting in the center for a minute.

“Compound palmate,” he said automatically, then grinned. “Mr. V sure did pound that Bio into me, didn’t he?” he asked himself, grinning.

That same thought eventually sobered him. He really missed Earth. He felt as if a piece of his heart was missing ever since that day he took the Farscape 1 out for the first time. And he felt that ache straight through him every time he came down to a planet exactly like this one. His soul was becoming weary and he yearned for home. Home. That word had never meant so much to him as it did now that he didn’t have one anymore. If things were different, and he had it all to do over, would he make the same choices? He really didn’t know anymore. On one side there was his dad, DK, his work and on the other there was Crais, Maldis, Durka, and scores of other bad thing, but there was also D’Argo, Zhaan, hell even Rygel, and…Aeryn. He knew he was attracted to her, hell, she was probably even attracted to him, but he did enjoy living. Not that she would actually kill him if he ever did anything, but, well, the two times they had ever even kissed was when they thought one of them was gonna die. But if that was the case, then why couldn’t he shake the feelings he had for her? He didn’t understand. It was never this way with Alex. With her he had felt so…comfortable. Aeryn just ended up confusing the hell out of him. She challenged him, she never listened to him, hell, she even made fun of him. So why did he find her so irresistible?

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he looked around and realized it was getting windier and the sky was darkening. “Oh, man!” he exclaimed. “I don’t even know where I am, let alone the transport pod!”

He looked around and decided waiting for Aeryn was out. He needed to find shelter before this storm broke. He walked in what he hoped was the right direction. After about fifteen minutes, with the sky quickly getting darker, he spotted something. At first, he thought it was just the mountain, but he soon realized that it was actually a cave. It was small, but it would provide shelter. It was almost completely hidden, but just obvious enough so that someone looking for it would see it while someone who wasn’t would walk right by. He looked out as thunder began to rumble in the distance.

“I should gather some wood,” he said to himself. He went out to do so, gathering the biggest sticks and pieces of wood he could find lying around. In the end, it was about enough to last through the night if need be. “I hope Aeryn and D’Argo are alright in this storm,” he thought to himself.

*****

As Aeryn made her way slowly down the mountain, she thought about John. Why did he always send her mixed signals? At first, he helped her escape and was even going to stay with the Peacekeepers until that little incident with Crais. Then he was going off and giving his allegiance to a bunch of escaped prisoners. And then he was kissing a tech. A tech of all people! Then he was kissing her and after that telling her he was sick of her, then kissing her again. She didn’t understand what was going on with him. She didn’t understand what was going of with her! These feelings for this human just made her weak and vulnerable.

“I don’t even know what I see in him. He doesn’t know a thing about anything out here. He can’t defend himself or anyone else. He’s completely useless. He’s gullible and far too trusting. And why the frell does he keep wandering off?!” she yelled. It was at that point that she realized she had been talking to herself.

“Oh, now I’m turning into Crichton,” she said with annoyance.

Deciding she really needed to find shelter soon and that she had to stop thinking about Crichton, she walked a little faster. The sky was getting darker by the microt and she knew this was going to be a big storm. No matter how much she tried, though, her thoughts kept straying back to John. So he wasn’t completely useless. He had gotten them out of a few situations that could have turned out very bad. He did have a good heart and, she had to admit, he was trying. All of those thoughts quickly vanished as the first drops began to fall. She did like the rain, as John called it, but she knew that it wouldn’t do to stand outside in it all night. She had to find shelter…and fast.

*****

D’Argo looked up to see the skies darkening and the wind picking up just as he was passing the transport pod on his way to help Aeryn find Crichton. He recognized the signs of a storm and decided it would be better to stay in the pod and wait it out than to go out looking for those two in the storm. “They’re just going to have to entertain themselves,” he thought somewhat amusedly.

*****

Once John had actually entered the cave, he realized his mistake. From the outside, it looked small, but on the inside, it opened into a small cavern that connected to a much larger one. In the back of the large cave, there also were several smaller openings to other caves. John thought those would be fun to explore if he got bored. He decided to start a fire to warm up, as it had gotten quite cold, even with his IASA jacket.

“Man, I’m glad my dad put me in Boy Scouts,” John muttered to himself as he got to work.

Soon, he had a moderate fire going. He lay back and looked out at the rain in the darkness. It was raining harder now. The glow from his fire made it look like a blanket of water was pouring down. He was extremely glad he had found this cave. He let his mind wander to the circumstances that got him here and everything that had been happening to him. It was nice to be able to sit back and reflect again. That was one thing he missed out here in this end of the galaxy. The only time he had actually had the time to reflect was on Acquara when he had accidentally been left behind. That had been a peaceful time, but he had known that that was not the path his life was destined to follow, no matter how much he might have wished it to be so. He was never meant to live that life.

Crichton was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of something splashing through puddles outside the cave. He picked up a log, fearing it was some sort of animal and quickly dropped it again when he realized it was Aeryn. She was soaked to the bone with her ebony hair plastered to her face and neck. She entered the cave and dropped her stuff on the ground with barely a glance towards him. Crichton had thought she looked good normally, but now he couldn’t even describe her with her clothes stuck to her body and water dripping down into small puddles collecting at her feet.

“Wow,” he breathed.

“What?” she asked. “Crichton, are you alright?”

He realized he had a goofy expression on his face and quickly controlled himself. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “But you look…uncomfortable. A little wet out there?”

Aeryn threw him a glance that would have withered anyone who didn’t know her better. Crichton merely grinned and took it in stride, still joking with her.

“Yeah, I think it might be raining, but I’m not exactly sure,” he said with a grin. Saying nothing in reply, she crouched down on the opposite side of the fire from him and tried to warm herself.

*****

Aeryn was so happy to see the light coming from the cave. If there hadn’t been a fire, she probably would have missed it entirely. She had the thought that she should be wary of enemies as she walked into the cavern, but as soon as she glimpsed Crichton, she knew she was fine. Well, almost fine. She was tired and needed to rest. Once she was into the main cavern, she dropped her sack and pulse rifle. A glance at John let her know that he had lay back down and was now watching her every move with a stupid expression on his face. He said something she couldn’t hear and she had asked him about it and if he was alright. He just said he was fine and proceeded to make light of her being soaking wet with what she guessed was human humor. That expression that had been on his face was gone, but she could have sworn she had seen it before. She told herself she would think about it later and crouched down next to the fire to warm herself. The only trouble with that was that in that position, she couldn’t help but look into his eyes.

*****

He watched her as she tried to both warm herself by the fire, and avoid his gaze. She really did look uncomfortable. He felt sorry for her, but didn’t voice this out loud. He knew the reaction that would get. Typical Aeryn. She would never show any weakness, or what she perceived as a weakness.

“Well, this is quite an adventure wouldn’t ya say?” Crichton asked.

“Adventure? Is that what you think this is?”

“Well, yeah, I mean, it could be worse.”

“Yes, but it also could be better. If you had stayed with me like you were supposed to, we would have been off this rock arns ago,” she stated as she stood up and began to walk around the cave.

“Stayed with you?! You’ve got to be kidding me. You left me behind!”

“I did no such thing.”

“Yes, you did. All I did was stop to catch my breath and the big Peacekeeper commando was gone!” he said as he stood up as well and walked up to her, his anger growing.

“Well, if you weren’t a useless human, you wouldn’t have gotten left behind, now would you?” she said, her tone pure acid.

“Useless?! I can’t believe…how many times have I saved our lives, huh Aeryn? How many?”

“And how many times have you messed everything up by wandering off?”

“I didn’t wander off!” he practically yelled.

Throughout the whole argument, they had been getting louder and louder. Now they were practically nose to nose yelling at each other. John was so mad at her. Did she really think he was useless? That had hurt him, especially considering recent events. He sighed. This had to stop, he didn’t want to fight with Aeryn.

“Look, this isn’t helping us any,” he said softly.

She just sighed and walked to the opposite side of the cave and sat down. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself trying not to shiver from the cold. John looked over to her and thought she seemed so vulnerable. He mentally laughed at himself. Aeryn, vulnerable, yeah right! He noticed she was shivering and realized the temperature had dropped yet again.

“Aeryn, would you stop being a baby and come over here?” he asked. “You’re freezing and it’s only gonna get colder as it gets later.”

She gave him a withering look, but eventually relented. She moved over to the other side of the cave, but stubbornly refused to sit next to him. John rolled his eyes and pulled her towards him.

“It’s called sharing body heat Aeryn,” he said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to loosen up you know.”

“Loosen up?” she asked, snuggling closer to him despite her earlier protests.

“Yeah, you know, it means to relax, be cool,” he said, wrapping an arm around her.

“Be cool? I will never understand why you humans just don’t say what you mean!”

“Oh, but that’s not as much fun!”

“Well, it’s much more efficient.”

“Nah, any human would know what I meant. And we haven’t met any other species yet, so there’s no need to keep it simple.”

She said nothing, just closed her eyes and shifted closer still. He was busy playing with her hair when he finally realized how tired he was.

“Come on Aeryn. We should get some rest,” he said as he lay down on his side using his arm as a pillow and pulling Aeryn down next to him with the other. She resisted for a minute, but then reluctantly lay down next to him facing away from him, close but not touching. John smiled at that. “Always the stubborn Peacekeeper,” he thought to himself. He sat up and leaned over her to put another branch on the now dwindling fire. As he was pulling his hand back he looked down at her. She just looked back up at him, waiting for him to say something.

“Goodnight,” he whispered, after which he leaned down and gave her a light, tender kiss. He then lay back down to try to get some sleep.

*****

Aeryn, for her part, had resisted the urge to pull him back after he had kissed her, and instead found herself unable to sleep. She kept replaying that kiss in her mind coupled with the other two he had given her before. Damn him. Why did he have to make her life so difficult? Nothing like this had ever happened while she was still a Peacekeeper. No one had ever made her fell as foolish and inexperienced and…alive as he now did. It was particularly disconcerting.

She sighed. “Oh, well,” she thought. “There’s nothing I can do about it now.” So she turned over and again tried to go to sleep. It wasn’t working very well, however, because every time she fell asleep she had nightmares of John kissing Gilina and choosing that tech over her. She must have been making some noise in one of them because, the next thing she knew, Crichton was shaking her awake. She sat up quickly looking around the unfamiliar surroundings wildly. Realizing immediately where she was, she lay back down, still keeping her back to John.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, now intensely aware of the hand which was gently rubbing her shoulder.

“You sure? You can talk to me about it you know.”

“I said I was fine,” she snapped.

“Alright, just checking,” he said, instantly removing his hand.

Aeryn just fell back into a troubled sleep without another thought of him or the ultimate meaning of her dreams.

*****


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