Protection

Rating: PG
Setting: AU set about six months past BT
Spoiler: DWTB and past
Synopsis: Rygel's views of John's protective nature of Aeryn and their child.
Disclaimer: I don't own them I only borrow them for a time. We all know to who the real credit for this genius belongs. Thank you.
Notes: This was a story that I wrote a while back and posted on the Farscape Kansas forum. I ran across it again and decided to post it here. I hope that you enjoy.

Rygel boggled at the oddity of the human for perhaps the thousandth time since they had met. How any being could change moods and personalities so quickly, smoothly and completely was well beyond the Dominar's comprehension. Yet this human did just that with an ease born of monens experience.

Upon seeing the Scarran soldiers, the John Crichton that had killed tens of thousands and was feared throughout known space quickly replaced the happy and relaxed John Crichton that existed only when Aeryn was near, and danger was far. The mask that fell over his face in that microt was one that struck a chord of fear and self-preservation within the hearts of all that beheld it. All laughter and innocence were locked from his soul with a resounding thud. Only to be released again when Aeryn and their unborn child were returned to a place of safety.

It was an unexpected consequence of Crichton's alien nature, Rygel decided. According to Jool, Interon males become increasingly protective of their mate's when pregnant, but nothing to this degree. Aeryn had once questioned how much of John's acute protectiveness was born of genetics and how much was born of his last four and a half cycles on this end of the universe. But in the end, even she, despite many loud and rather disruptive discussions and threats, was unable to quell the human's drive to defend her.

So they all simply adjusted to this persona of John Crichton, and the unfortunate fools seeking to harm them adjusted to death at the hands of a human determined to guard his family and new home in a style that the Uncharted Territories had taught him well.

Rygel simply hoped that the Scarrans had the decency to wait for him to finish his meal before they forced Cricthon to kill them, because kill them he would. He had become quite adept at it.