Part II

Aeryn strode through the front door of the mansion and swept through the living area with what John might have called a face like thunder. Except, of course, John was not there. Everyone who was present looked up at her passing, even the two secret service agents who happened to be there. In a microt Aeryn was gone, the sounds of her heavy boots receding up the stairs.

Chiana's jaw dropped: In recent days things had been going so well for Aeryn. That afternoon, she had even been invited round to the Crichton elder's home for some private time with his family. When Aeryn had left, after lunch, she had been so happy and excited. Frell, she had even been smiling, and the crew of Moya had seen precious little of that from her in recent monens.

Chiana stood to follow her friend, to find out what the matter was.

'Let her go,' D'argo advised in a low growl, laying his hand on Chiana's wrist.

'Frell you!' Chiana hissed, jerking her arm away, and hurried up the stairs after Aeryn. Chiana knew that D'argo thought Aeryn deserved everything that John was dishing out to her. Chiana saw things differently. She knew well enough, better than D'Argo, even, what John had gone through in the monens when Aeryn had been away on Talyn and then with the assassins. But, unlike D'Argo, she thought that, despite the pain that Aeryn had caused John, the couple would be better together than apart.

Outside Aeryn's room, Chiana stopped and pressed her ear to the door. Was that a sob she heard? She gave a single, soft knock on the door. 'Aer. You in there? You OK?'

After a couple of microts delay, Aeryn's voice came from the other side of the door, sounding huskier than usual.

'I'm fine. Go away.'

Chiana ignored the warning. Taking what she knew to be a big risk with her own safety, she pushed the door open and slipped inside, driven by worry for her friend.

Chiana found Aeryn seated on the edge of her bed, her pose rigid, staring straight ahead. Then the black veil of hair turned, revealing dark, blank, sad eyes, looking towards Chiana.

'You don't sound OK. Frell, you don't look OK.' Chiana stated, her nervous half grin trying to cover that she was trying to avoid meeting Aeryn's gaze.

'What do you want, Chiana?' Aeryn asked, her voice flat, controlled.

'N.. nothing. That is, I'm…. Look, Aer… You sure you're OK?'

The elder woman's shoulders slumped in defeat. 'No, actually. No I'm not.'

Encouraged by Aeryn's uncharacteristic admission of weakness to chance the depth of her welcome, Chiana made her way over to the bed. Aeryn didn't protest or in any other way disapprove of the approach, so Chiana risked a further approach and sat next to her friend. As she did so, Chiana noticed that Aeryn was twisting her long fingers around each other in her lap, worrying them around a small, decorated bottle, barely more than two denches long. The skin around her eyes seemed puffy and reddened. Had Aeryn Sun, badass former Peacekeeper commando and, more recently, assassin, really been crying? The Universe was surely tinked if that were true.

Aeryn seemed to look at the bottle she was holding for a few microts. 'Well, that worked well,' she muttered to herself, before looking ceilingwards.

'D.. do you want to talk..?' Chi began.

'Do I want to talk?' Aeryn echoed with a derisory snort, her tone heavy and resigned. She shook her head. 'No. Perhaps. Oh, frell it. What good would it do, anyway?'

'What'd he do this time?' Chiana asked, hazarding a sound guess as to the likely cause of her friend's distress. 'Or not do?'

Aeryn took a deep breath. She didn't want to talk. It wasn't something that came naturally to her. Besides, she couldn't see the frelling point, despite all John's encouragements over the years. Actions, not words. And besides, Chiana had not exactly proven herself to be a discrete listener. But something inside her burst, and the words just spilled out.

'It was all going so well. Jack was there, and Olivia, with John and me. We were having a good time, laughing, getting on well. It was almost like we used to have…. Then one of his old recreation partners showed up. Everything changed. I had to sit there and watch them….' Aeryn brushed a forming tear from the corner of her eye. 'It was.. It was humiliating.'

'That frelling pewnkah…' Chiana sympathized. 'Hasn't he done enough…?'

'But worse, worse is knowing that he wants to be with her, not with me.' There was another long pause. Chiana felt she had to fill it, because it seemed unlikely that the stoical ex-Peacekeeper would do so.

'Sometimes…. Sometimes people do things like that to hurt someone else. Someone they love. Like with me and Jothee. And D'Argo,' Chiana tried to explain. Her friend may have been older by several cycles, she may have known how to fight better than any of them. But she knew so little about how relationships could work, how they could be as vicious as any hand-to-hand combat.

'I thought. I thought things were getting better between us. Until she showed up.'

Chiana could scarcely believe what she was hearing, although she could picture the scene in her mind's eye. How could John treat Aeryn like that, she wondered? It had clearly affected the ex-Peacekeeper deeply. Although Aeryn hadn't said much, it was unlike her to be even that loquacious or forthcoming. She would have to have some serious words with John at the next opportunity. She hazarded a comforting arm around her friends shoulder and, to her slight surprise, was not rebuffed. Aeryn pouring her heart out, accepting a hug: it was a night of firsts all round, reflected Chiana.

After a while, sitting in companionable silence, Chiana ventured an opinion.

'You know what? You need something to cheer you up. Take your mind off that stupid fekkik.'

Chiana knew what would she would use to cheer herself up, and she went through the options in her head: A good frell? All things considered, don't even go there. Snurching? Nah, that wouldn't sit well with the whole PK-honour thing the Sebacean woman had going. Shopping? It was evening now, all the shops would be shut, even for the VIP aliens. Getting drunk and partying? Perhaps, but she couldn't see the men in the black suits helping out with that one. No she'd have to have a word with Olivia Crichton about how to go about getting Aeryn drunk on a girls' night out. No. Something more… more Aeryn seemed called for.

'Do you fancy a trip home? Up to Moya?' Chiana asked. Aeryn scarcely acknowledged the suggestion. She just played some more with the small bottle in her hands. Chiana was getting desperate. 'You, you could get all your guns out, shoot some targets?' Chiana added, more in jest than in hope. But somehow Chiana seemed to have hit on the right suggestion.

'That would be nice,' Aeryn said. She may not have actually smiled, but she seemed less glum. She wiped the back of her hand against her cheek. 'Thank you.'

'Great! Let's get going!' Chiana bounced up to her feet.

'I'll just get a few things,' Aeryn responded, sighing as she wearily got to her feet.

'Here, I'll take that, you get packing,' Chiana said, gesturing to the small vial Aeryn had been clutching. Aeryn glanced down at the bottle, then back at Chiana, She handed the bottle over and made for her bathroom. Chiana looked around her for somewhere to set the bottle down. There was a small chest of drawers beside the bed, with a lace runner and a mirror set on top. That would do.

A few microts later, Aeryn emerged from the bathroom carrying a black leather clutch bag, a Earth acquisition which Chiana had not seen before. Chiana couldn't help but wonder what the ex-Peacekeeper, with her Spartan tastes, might have in there.

'You pack light,' Chiana teased, motioning to the bag. Aeryn shrugged. It was who she was. With her free hand, Aeryn picked up her long black coat from the bed and stepped towards the door.

'Ready to go?' Aeryn asked. Chiana nodded.

The bedroom door slammed shut behind them. The bottle, precariously balanced on the lace runner, tipped over and fell on it's side, dislodging it's lid. A last trickle of oil dribbled out, soaking into the fabric of the runner. The spilt oil filled the room with it's pleasant fragrance, although there was no one now who would enjoy it.