TRUST
By Izzy
Disclaimer: I don't
own the characters from Farscape. They
belong to the Jim Henson Company. I
make no money from them.
Author's note: POSSIBLE
SPOIL ALERT. I'm from the UK so
Season 3 is pretty much a mystery to me except what I read on the web. This story comes from a summary I read about
Green Eyed Monster where apparently Crichton is shown an image showing Crais
and Aeryn having sex. Aeryn and
Crichton arguing is always good fun so this is my take on part of the possible
conversation/confrontation that must surely follow such a discovery. This is not accurate spoilage or episode
enhancement, girls and boys. This is
just make-believe. Hope you like.
TRUST
"AERYN!" John
Crichton shouted at the former Peacekeeper's retreating form. "We haven't finished here!" He lunged after her, catching her arm and
spinning her around to face him.
Aeryn Sun threw off his grasp and took a threatening step
towards him. Her eyes flashed in
anger. " I have! If you think I'm staying here to listen to anymore
of this, you're delusional!" She
started to turn as if to leave again but Crichton grabbed both arms this time
and forced her backwards until her back hit the wall.
He placed his hands firmly on either side of her,
deliberately invading her space as he leant into the wall. He spoke quietly, his mouth close to her ear,
but his tone was anything but gentle "Let's
try that again, shall we?". Aeryn stared
over his shoulder, refusing to look at him.
He brought his face around,
blocking her view, demanding eye contact.
"Crichton, have you lost your …"
"Mind? Nope. Been there, done that. No, Aeryn, I'm seeing things very
clearly."
She struggled to push past him but she had limited leverage
and he contained her easily.
"Uh, uh. You're not
going anywhere until we sort this out.
I want you to look me in the eye and tell me what the Hezmana is
going on here."
"You want to know what is going on?" A broad smile appeared on her face but the
anger was still all too evident in her face.
Crichton usually found the combination unnerving, but today he barely
noticed.
"Aeryn, so help me.."
He broke off and hit the wall beside her head in frustration, causing
her to jump a little. "Quit
stallin'. Just tell me the truth."
"FINE!" She shouted. "You are acting like a frelling idiot! That is what is going on!"
"Oh, no-no-no-NO!
Don't you try and turn this around.
I saw you!"
"And just what, precisely, do you think you saw?" She jammed
her face up close to his, her voice dripping venom.
"I saw you. Offering
yourself to Crais like a tralk. And
then I saw you. And Crais. In the sack.
Naked. Doing the wild thing," He snarled.
"You saw this?"
Outrage mixed with confusion in her voice now. " Where?"
"Seems your boyfriend likes to make home movies." He said, bringing the chip out of his pocket
and waving it in front of her face.
"Recorded images of past misdeeds just always seem to be catching up
with you, don't they Sweetheart?"
She used the opportunity to break away from the wall but she
did not try to leave the room. Crichton
made no move to follow. He leant his
forehead against the wall and closed his eyes.
Aeryn took a deep breath
"Can I see it?" She asked.
He rolled his head to one side against the wall to regard
her for a moment. His eyes were red
rimmed and his expression told of his contempt for her. He wordlessly held out the chip and she took
it, placing it in one of Talyn's control panels.
The holo screen was immediately filled with images of her
and Crais. She looked on in disbelief,
tears coming to her eyes. When she
looked at John he was leaning against the wall again, back to the image,
chewing on the side of his thumb.
She ripped the chip from the panel and clenched it in her
fist. She remained standing poker
straight in front of the holo screen, eyes ahead, not looking at Crichton, as
she began to speak.
"John, you must believe me.
This is not what it looks like…"
John's laughter bordered on the
hysterical. He was looking at her now,
his eyes wild and filled with unshed tears.
When he spoke his voice was loud and thick with his native Southern
accent. "I gotta tell you Aeryn,
when faced with the techno colour, surround sound evidence, I thought
you might say that it was a mistake. You were drunk, had that whole
ex-Peacekeeper thing going on that no one else understood and that one
thing led to another. It'll never
happen again, John. Please forgive
me" He mimicked a woman's voice "Hell, I was even prepared for the 'I'm
sorry you had to find out like this John, but I love him' speech. But I didn't expect you to try and pull off
a full denial! You're just full of
surprises, Darlin'! How can it not be
what it looks like? Oh! Oh, wait! This isn't going to be one of those stories
that start off with 'I was doing the housework in the nude and I tripped and
fell blah, blah, blah' is it? Because you
can save your breath."
"No, you don't understand…"
"What's not to understand Aeryn?" He crossed the room to stand before her "It's one of the classics!
Boy meets girl. Boy falls in
love. Boy kills girl whilst under the
influence of evil bad guy. Girl comes
back from the dead. Girl tells boy that
she loves him too but can't take things any further because she has
issues. Girl finds she doesn't have
quite so many issues with some other guy and frells our hero over. Boy's eyes are opened to the true character
of girl and wonders what he ever saw in her.
Simple."
"Frell you!" She screamed into his face.
He grinned back at her without humour. "No thanks, Sunshine. I'm not interested in Crais' sloppy seconds."
"I..." She was blinking hard to keep her tears from spilling
down her cheeks, but she kept her gaze straight ahead, her stance straight.
"You what, Aeryn?"
He caught her face with one hand, squeezing her cheeks as he brought his
own face nose to nose with hers, forcing her to make eye contact. "You're sorry?" His tone held an incredulous note. "Well, guess what? I'm
sorry too. I'm sorry I ever laid eyes
upon you." He pushed her face away from
him in disgust and made for the door.
"The image is faked.
I don't know why. I don't even
know how. But…" She trailed off.
He stopped in his
tracks "But what?"
"The first part is me, but it has been taken out of
context?"
John walked back to her, his eyes narrowed "Out of context
how?"
"Talyn. Show us the
original material of the conversation on this chip between Crais and me around
half a cycle ago. And then perhaps you
could explain who is responsible for this dren." She slammed the chip down on the panel.
The holo screen was filled with the image of Aeryn trying to
persuade Crais to help rescue Crichton from the Shadow Depository and offering
herself out of desperation in return for his assistance. Crichton watched in silence.
"I don't know about the second part. It looks like me, but I swear to you that it
is not." Her voice sounded ragged but
she lifted her chin defiantly. The
tears were running down her face now.
"But you have been with Crais." More of a statement than a question.
"No! John, listen to
me…"
"No? Come on,
Aeryn. Stop playing me. You made the deal right?" He looked at her demanding an answer. "Right?"
She nodded. " And that was Talyn that saved our asses at
the Shadow Depository, right?"
"Yes, but…"
"Were you ever going to tell me?"
"Talyn came of his own free will."
"What?"
"Talyn came to the Shadow Depository of his own free
will. Crais had nothing to do with it. The deal was never concluded."
Crichton took a moment to process this new piece of
information. Did that make things
better or worse? She had still been
willing to sleep with Crais, hadn't she?
But to save him. "Aeryn…." He started then stopped, uncertain what he
wanted to say.
She ignored him and turned away." Talyn. Who is responsible
for this?" Aeryn demanded. The young Leviathan's control panels flashed
and beeped.
Aeryn let her head fall back in frustration as she addressed
the ship again. "That was incredibly
stupid. Does Crais know what you've
done?"
More beeps and flashes, "Talyn, Crais and I will never be
together in the way you want." The beeping stopped.
Aeryn put her hand over her eyes, shielding them from the
light, lost for a moment in her own thoughts.
She had no idea what to do or say now.
Every alternative seemed fraught with difficulty. Even turning to look at Crichton seemed like
a risk. What if that look of disgust
was still there? What if she looked at
him and was unable to forgive him for the things he had said. As she debated whether to open her eyes as a
first step, she felt John coming to stand close behind her. He touched his forehead to her shoulder and
began to bring his arms around her.
"No!" Aeryn shrugged
him off, instinct taking over "A microt
ago I was a tralk that you wished you'd never met."
"A microt ago I was an idiot." He said quickly. "A stupid, jealous madman who said spiteful
things to the woman he loves to make himself feel better. I just felt so betrayed."
"And now, I suppose, you are sorry?"
"Yes." He caught her
again bringing her close to him despite her halfhearted protests. "I'm so sorry, Baby. Please forgive me." He said softly into her ear.
She couldn't help but lean back against him for a moment,
closing her eyes. Feeling his breath,
warm against her neck, and his arms wrapped possessively around her. She relished the peace his embrace gave her
and wondered briefly how close she had come to never feeling it again. But thoughts of his earlier harsh words
caused her to once again reject his arms.
She spun around to face him and slapped him hard.
Crichton thought his eyes were going to pop out with the
force. He brought a hand to the side of
his face and rubbed at it gently. "I
suppose I deserved that." He said
ruefully, trying to read her expression.
He knew she could have hit him harder if she had really wanted to hurt
him, so he had a chance to make things right.
She looked pretty pissed, though.
"Didn't you even
give me the benefit of the doubt for one microt? Have I ever given you a reason to mistrust me?" She said with feeling. "Do I flirt with D'Argo all the time, the
way that you flirt with Chiana? Did I
go around kissing everybody on the Royal Planet and getting myself married in
the process? Did I have sex with a
Peacekeeper agent? No. I have kept true to you. Have you not been paying attention as I have
struggled to get to this point with you? For you! I'm sorry that
I still have these 'issues', as you call them, but I would NEVER betray
you. We've come too far for that."
She calmed slightly.
"I did offer myself to Crais, that is true, but I was sure that you
would not last long in Scorpius' grasp and I didn't know what else to do. I bargained with what I had and I would do
the same again. Would you not do the
same for me?"
He brought his hand up to her cheek and fingered a strand of
her hair as he studied her face. She
looked hurt and tired. Very tired. But the anger had already drained away from
her eyes.
"Aeryn." He said
seriously. "I would do whatever it took to keep you safe."
Aeryn gave a little nod, apparently satisfied, but Crichton
continued. "You stir up strong feelings
in me, Aeryn Sun. It brings out both
the best and the worst in me. Sometimes
you make me crazy, but I never want to be without you."
"And I never want to be without you." She returned, smiling slightly at him. His thumb rubbed over her lips gently and
then returned to her cheek to allow his mouth take its place. Aeryn felt his hand move to her hair whilst
the other settled at the small of her back, both drawing her as close to him as
possible. She snaked her arms around
his neck and returned the kiss.
When they broke apart, Crichton touched his forehead to
hers. "I think we could both do with some sleep." He said reaching for her hand.
She nodded solemnly and followed him towards Talyn's sleeping quarters.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
In another part of the ship, Bialar Crais watched them on a
small holo screen. He had failed to separate
Aeryn Sun from her human but at least Talyn had covered for him. There would be other opportunities. Aeryn Sun must acknowledge her destiny, and
his place in it. It was only a matter
of time. He could wait.
The End
