TITLE: Their Other Lives

AUTHOR: VIDZ

PAIRING: Cam/Vala, John/Gilina - Farscape

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc of the TV shows Stargate: SG-1 and Farscape are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fic. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

SUMMARY: when Cam and Vala have a wormhole-surfing accident, it turns out things on the other side aren't as they'd expect them to be.

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"That's just completely wrong!" Vala complained as she and Cam sat in the back of Central Chamber, observing.

"I don't know," Cam muttered "she's beautiful. The cute type, the one you'd want to write love poems to, take home to meet your Momma, buy rings for and push baby carriages around with."

It was then that he made the mistake of looking up at his companion. Big mistake. The fire of Vala's glare almost turned him to ash.

"They're us, you and me!" Vala whisper-yelled "And it doesn't bother you they're not together, that he's with someone else, some blond bimbo?"

"Hey! I wouldn't call Gilina a bimbo, she seems pretty intelligent and down-to-Earth woman." he was quick to defend his opposite's choice "But, yeah, I didn't expect this."

At first he'd been surprised to meet their own counterparts (with different names) roughly 3 months after he and Vala had been catapulted through the Stargate, even more when he'd realized they weren't together.

While he was pretty much still himself here, if you ignored the mad-scientist part, Vala was far from Vala. The cheery, flirty, bouncy Vala he knew had nothing in common with this cold, brutally efficient beauty. While Vala liked to pamper herself and was always perfectly groomed, make-up and all that jazz; Aeryn did even wear a lipstick, yet could still pull it off. It showed just more what Cam had been trying to tell Vala for a while now.

Yet, the differences were mostly in their personalities. Vala was a lover, while Aeryn was a soldier. Almost an automaton, she never let out any other feelings but anger and aggression.

He was sure that with a lot of psychotherapy or with a forceful personality constantly engaging her in one-on-one interactions, one could have Aeryn break out of her breeding and become a more-or-less-adjusted member of galactic society, but the only one who could do that or, looking around at the escaped convicts, be willing to do it, already had someone else taking up most of his time, affections and attention.

He couldn't blame John, though. When you're in a longterm relationship like marriage you have to put your partner first before other people. Relationships among humans were complicated already, but a relationship between a human man and a Sebacean woman, such two completely cultures, was even more so difficult and complex.

Even worse when the woman had been part of the shunned, inferior and lesser cast of technicians of her civilization her entire life, a cast whose members are used to be trampled on, overseen, looked down upon and abused. Add to that, there was another woman on the ship, a member of that exact opposite, superior cast, and she had probably had an interest in Gilina's husband as a recreational partner at one point in the past.

There was no way John could really help Aeryn without inadvertantly hurting his wife.

But, the fact remained that Gilina really was a very nice person. A little shy - and, yeah, Cam could see that being attractive; with a strong, resourceful mind showing through her blue eyes. She was what a man of John's level of intelligence needed... a wife who would not only satisfy his base urges and bring out tender feelings in him (and return those feelings with her own), but also intelligent enough to challenge him and keep him interested. After all, a couple can't have only sex, at some point they will have to have conversations, exchanges of opinions, and for a relationship to succeed in long term it's better if they are of similar level of intelligence. She was also compassionate, caring, gentle and loving, a born loving mother and wife to some lucky son-of-a-gun.

While small in stature, she was very curvy in all the right ways and flat, firm in all the right places. And those full, pouty lips and eyes... Yeah, adding that to her personality and brain, he could definitely see why John had fallen for her.

Not that Cam wasn't happy with his own choice (even if there were days he was sorely tempted to strangle Vala and zat the body 3 times), but he could still understand.

"How long did you say has he been here?"

Vala was still maintaining stony silence, armes crossed over her breasts, back straight and turned away from him.

Letting his hand lightly caress the small of her back, with satisfaction noting a shiver go through her slim frame, he thickened his southern drawl as he leaned closer to her ear, murmuring things in her ear that were not for public consumption.

Little by little her defences crumbled and in no time she was answering with a grudging tone "Over a year."

"And he's still here. Hopefully it won't take us that long." he muttered, but privately thought the other guy wasn't in any hurry to get back home anymore anyway.

They hadn't really talked much, both a little freaked out by the other's existence, but John had still shared his fears about going home. There was no way he'd leave Gilina behind to return to Earth and on the other hand he wasn't sure about taking her with him, afraid of the government keeping the whole thing quiet to abduct her and experiment on her, ending with killing her so they could cut her open to see what she looks like inside. That left only one option and it was apparent that while he would miss Earth, as long as he had Gilina he'd be okay.

Cam understood his opposite's reluctance. This universe's Earth wasn't his Earth where aliens could live among humans and not be vivisected. Well, at least not anymore...

Hopefully.

"Think they'd let us take one of these yellow robots back home?" he asked, deep in thought, as a small yellow shape sped past them.

When Vala didn't reply he looked back at her. Vala's impish grin answered everything.

Oh, yeah, he was in trouble alright.

But compared to this trouble, the one with being lost in an alternate universe, on the other side of the Galaxy, looked like a cake-walk.

THE END