Chapter 2
John Crichton watched the extremely stiff departing back of his lover and wondered for the umpteenth time in the last few days what the hell was going on. If it was PMS it had reached new proportions! He must have done or said something but for the life of him he didn't know what it was. Usually when they disagreed about something, which was fairly frequently, they bickered or shouted at each other but pretty quickly made up in the time-honoured way of true lovers. But for about the last week every time they had disagreed about something Aeryn had just clammed up, said, "I don't want to talk about it, John" and stalked off. She eventually came round, usually in the middle of the sleep cycle, and crept into their bed, letting him wrap his arms around her and hold her like someone comforting a frightened child, but each morning when he awoke she was gone. Something was definitely up and he was going to get the bottom of it.

Things had been going so well for them. He had worked as hard as he could to help her in her recovery and had been amply rewarded. "She takes time," his twin had said and he couldn't have been more right, but it was time well spent. He could only be happier if they had a more stable lifestyle that didn't involve getting shot at at regular intervals. He knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Aeryn, that they should have a family together. He had even thought about asking her to marry him, but he wasn't sure that she was ready for that next step and he didn't want to rock the boat. Now was also hardly the right time. The long threatened Peacekeeper-Scarren war had finally broken out, although only in small skirmishes at present if the few news reports they had obtained were to be believed. Funnily enough this had actually given them a little breathing space as the Peacekeeper units and command carriers that had been searching for them had been recalled and were now occupied elsewhere. Scorpius was obviously also tied up with the Scarrens because they hadn't heard anything from him since the debacle on the High Command planet. John had a horrible feeling that he was just biding his time for the next suitable moment to make his life hell.

This didn't mean that they could relax entirely. The Peacekeepers had made sure that every bounty hunter in the galaxy was after them by putting such high prices on all their heads. John reflected that this end of the galaxy wasn't so very different from his own: everything always boiled down to money in the end! It meant that they had to be wary wherever they went. This understandably led to stress and tensions among the crew. No, not a good time to be broaching the subject of marriage and kids with Aeryn, even without her current bad mood!

Whilst John was contemplating the best way to find out what was up with Aeryn without having her remove vital parts of his anatomy, Pilot appeared on the clamshell.

"The planet we are approaching seems to be highly inhabited, possibly indicating a commerce planet. I'm afraid Moya's memory banks do not hold any data about the various planets in this system; we are so deep in the Uncharted Territories as to be beyond her knowledge."

"Thanks Pilot, we'll check it out. We could do with a trip to the grocery store. Hey, Aeryn, honey, are you coming?" Maybe a trip down to the planet, just the two of them, would give him an opportunity to find out what was wrong. He turned to the others who were in command with him

"Hey guys, me and Aeryn will do the shopping run today, if that's OK with you. You know, a chance to spend 'quality time' together!"

"You're welcome to it. I've known Charrids with better personalities than her at the moment, " moaned Rygel. "And make sure that you get some better provisions than the last lot."

"That was all that was to be had, Rygel and you know it" responded an irritated D'Argo.

"Can I come? I really need to get off this ship for a while" said Chiana. D'Argo gave her a warning look. He was very aware of the tension between Crichton and Aeryn at the moment and would be extremely relieved if they could work it out.

"Ah, Chiana, I thought you said you were going to help me with trying to work out some more of Lo'la's commands?"

"Do I have to?" Another look from D'Argo finally registered with the Nebari. "Oh, yes, OK, that'll be fun" she lied valiantly.

John was preparing the transport pod when Aeryn appeared in the cargo bay strapping on an additional weapon.

"You think that's necessary?" he asked. "We don't want to scare people"

"Of course it's necessary, John. Just because we are a long way from Peacekeeper space doesn't mean that there isn't knowledge of the bounties on our heads"

"Point taken, but we'll have to take the transport pod instead of the Prowler as we need to do the supermarket run!"

"Whatever" was her only reply.