Title: Meant to Be

Author(s): Elflore and Rehanna (No, Reh didn't ask if she could post this. He already told me I could do whatever I wanted with it.)

Rating: PG ...Reh was naughty and made John say "damnit" (pretty mild compared with some of my others. :)

Summary: It's John and Aeryn getting together. Isn't that enough?

Spoilers: None. Vague references to "Throne for a Loss," "Thank God it's Friday, Again," "The Flax," "DNA Mad Scientist," "Nerve," "Picture if You Will." (Don't worry if you haven't seen PiFYW, we don't give anything away. It's not even a quote we use. )

Feedback: Pleeeeease? You'll get a cookie! I promise!

Note: This was an rp for random shippiness to start with and SOMEHOW it turned into a story.. Don't ask us how, we don't know.

Disclaimer: We don't own the characters, wish we did, and then we'd be making all the money, not Jim Henson Productions, Hallmark Entertainment, Nine Networks and the SciFi Channel. Anyway, please don't sue us; you wouldn't get anything. While the characters don't belong to us, the story DOES so please don't steal it, or plagiarize it or anything like that. © Elflore and Rehanna, 2000

*New Author Note* I want a story with chapters. This one would kinda be perfect (I remember having to break it up when I sent it out for feedback). And it will have short chapters. Sorry.

Oh, and so all the lovely people who keep reviewing my J/C stories don't think I'm giving that up on them, I'm not. This was written over a year ago, but I'm becoming a review junkie, so I thought I'd post it here ;) . All reviews will be shared with Elflore (

Dusk on yet another dusty, bazaar-style (and just plain bizarre) commerce planet. John was the first one out of the transport pod, and as Aeryn emerged behind him, he turned to gallantly offer his arm.

"Shall we stroll the shops, m'lady?" he asked in his silliest British accent.

Aeryn rolled her eyes, though she did take his arm. "You get stranger every day."

John thrust his nose in the air in a fit of mock-pique. "I shall take that as a compliment." He made the mistake of glancing back at her reaction, though - the usual 'are all humans insane, or just you, Crichton?' look-and burst out laughing.

"Come on." Aeryn sighed and started them moving. "I don't want to stay down here one microt longer than we have to."

John stuck his tongue out at her. "You're no fun anymore!"

"Oh really?" she replied calmly, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Wait a minute, are you thinking we should get back to the ship soon because..."

"Because?" She was looking right at him, now, but he still couldn't see what she was getting at.

He did have some...interesting theories, however. "Because...you've got some sort of plan? Something we might do, you and I, when we get back?" "Maybe. You'll just have to find out when we get there, won't you?"

"Oh." A goofy grin began to spread across John's face, and he tried in vain to banish it. "Well. We'd better hurry, then, hadn't we?" Aeryn only nodded, and John scrubbed at his eyes with one hand, struggling to pull his thoughts back down to earth. Or wherever they were. "Let's see...we need...what? Some spare parts for the DRDs, and some more food cubes?"

"And more chakran oil, if we can find it."

"Right, chakran...chakran oil..."

Suddenly John froze, a vague, shadowy...memory? Hallucination?

Something, flashing before his eyes. He could see a squat frog-like creature, having a rather...dramatic reaction to some sort of food containing chakran oil.

Aeryn stopped too, still holding his arm, her eyes concerned. "John...are you all right?"

John shook his head, clearing it as best he could. "I'm...fine, really. We just...we really need to find some new food cubes. I think that last batch must be going bad. I'm getting some pretty whacked out mental pictures...whew, that was not something I needed to see!" Finally he forced himself to start walking again.

Arms still linked, they walked through the market. John made his usual, misplaced comments about everything he saw and Aeryn tried not to laugh at or murder him.

They stopped at a clothing stall and Aeryn felt the Sebacean equivalent of deja vu.

John noticed the fact that she didn't keep going and then the look on her face. "Whoa, you okay? Now you're spacing out on me."

Aeryn reached over, her hand hovering over the cloak, almost touching it. "What? ...Oh... I'm fine... I just recognize this and I don't know why..."

"Well, we've been to enough commerce planets, seen enough..." he hesitated as he took a close look at the cloak for he first time.

"You're probably right," Aeryn was saying.

John shook his head, slowly, "C'mon, the sooner we back home, the better."