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Epilogue

A few days later, everyone was thoroughly sick of Aken and Kassandra. Crichton kept referring to them as "the old married couple," as they were certainly acting like it: fighting loudly and long and then making up quickly. Then arguing, making up, screaming, making up, pointless bickering, making up... it went on like this for some time, until Aeryn finally got annoyed to the breaking point. In the middle of the 'evening' meal, during yet another Aken/Kassandra argument, she stood up and yelled at them, "WILL YOU SHUT THE FRELL UP!!!"

Something extremely odd and extraordinary happened.

They shut up.

As the others breathed silent sighs of relief at the sudden quiet, Aeryn continued, "If one or the other of you raises your voices again until this time tomorrow, I swear to all I hold dear, I will cut your tongues out. Got it?"

"Got it," they responded, much subdued.

As Aeryn seated herself again, John leaned over and whispered a fervent, "Thank you," to her. "I think my ears were about to fall off."

"Oh, now, we couldn't have that, now could we?" she asked playfully. "Besides, I like them just where they are." She finished, running a fingertip along the edge of the nearest of the ears in question.

John, much to his delight, had found in Aeryn someone who seemed to instinctively know where he was coming from. She was a surprisingly experienced partner, and, man, could she give backrubs! He found her every quirk something new to revel in, and enjoyed doing just about everything with her, from cleaning deckplates to just talking.

Aeryn, for her part, had found in John just about everything she could ask for: a loving, caring partner, who knew just what to say to make her feel like the most precious thing in the universe; who knew just how she felt, and accepted it whether he himself liked it or not; and someone who seemed to complete her, to complement her, bringing strengths to her weaknesses, and having weaknesses to her strengths. She was head over heels in love, and cherishing every arn of it.

Because each knew how very close they had come to missing this, they guarded it all the more carefully. They knew of course that the road ahead of them might very well be rocky, and be very hard to walk. But they both also knew that with each other, walking the road would be no problem.

For with each other, they could fly!

THE END

P.S. To anyone who wants to know what happened to Aken and Kassandra:

Well, they spoke before their 24 arns were up, so Aeryn chased them about Moya trying to cut their tongues out, as promised. She kicked Aken's ass, but Kassandra avoided her and helped him get away long enough to manage to lock her in her quarters. Then they demanded to be put down on the next inhabitable world. John, D'Argo, Rygel, and Zhaan, thoroughly sick of the two galaxial freeloaders, agreed quickly and let Aeryn out with her promise to John that she would behave.

As agreed, the next inhabitable planet was quickly found (All right, they looked for the closest one, but can you really blame them for wanting to get those two off of Moya as soon as possible?) and accordingly Aken and Kassandra were left on the planet with a reasonable amount of supplies.

What Aken and Kassandra found out that the others didn't know was that the inhabitants of the planet were xenophobic, and prone to use outsiders as food... They didn't last too long. Kassandra went first, as the heroic Aken tripped her while the natives were chasing them. Consequently, his own death was viciously long and painful; they took their fine time about killing him.

And as for Aeryn and John...? Well, if enough people want to hear, I'll let you know what happened next, on that planet they visited... But then, that's another story.

THE (final) END

Thanks to all those who hung on throughout the ride! I appreciated it, and especially all of those who emailed me about the fic. My offer still stands: if you want to see something in a fic, email me at Alara7777@hotmail.com and I'll see what I can do!

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