TVU Challenge 610: FS Fic, "The Second Time Around" (G)
Totally sappy Farscape fic written for TVU Challenge 610, Inspired By A Song Challenge.
Setting, a year or so after PKW.
Neither Farscape nor the Frank Sinatra song are mine. No warnings, no beta. Written straight to the board in a hurry to meet the challenge deadline.
Words: 1024
The Second Time Around
“Merry Christmas, John,” Aeryn smiled indulgently at her husband as he unwrapped her last present. It was a CD entitled, for no reason which she had been able to determine, “Torch Songs”. The title must have been one of those incomprehensible Ooman things. Not that she minded incomprehensible Ooman nonsense any more. In fact, there were times, like right now, that she thoroughly revelled in it. She truly had been thoroughly, irreversibly contaminated by her time with him.
“Oh, wow!” John exclaimed, his face lighting up with pleasure as he pulled off the wrapping paper and revealed the precious item within. “A new CD! I thought that was it with stuff from home last year!” She felt a momentary pang of jealousy that he unthinkingly referred to his planet of origin as home, but quickly pushed it aside. She knew that he had long since chosen her, their infant son and Moya as his home. They were married. He no longer ever spoke about returning to Erp, but her old insecurities could still sometimes come back to haunt her.
This particular CD had been in storage for nearly two cycles now, ever since their brief, ill-fated visit to Earth. John’s ever- and over-helpful sister, Olivia had helped her to pick it out on one of their shopping trips. With all of the traumatic events which had followed their return to Moya, Aeryn surmised it had fallen down the back of a crate and been lost, right up until a monen ago. She’d actually forgotten all about it. But then a DRD had discovered the recording, brought it to Aeryn, and she had decided to keep it secret until Christmas. Getting something from Erp would make John’s day.
“I thought,” she suggested, her tone tentative and hopeful, “That you could teach me to dance?”
“Yeah. We’ll stay in, we’ll listen to some songs, we’ll eat popcorn. We’ll act like normal people,” John chuckled. She treated him to her broadest of smiles in reply. “You want me to teach you now?” She nodded enthusiastically.
“Have you anything better you want to be doing?” She snorted in challenge.
“Hell, no!” John was already standing, moving over to the CD player to put it on. Aeryn watched him, still entranced by the simple pleasure of watching him move. “Today is meant to be all about enjoying ourselves.”
“Then maybe we shouldn’t..?” she teased him.
“Come on then, up you get, twinkle-toes,” he turned and grinned at her, holding out a hand to help her to her feet. “Let’s cut a rug.” She inclined her head in acceptance and reached out to him. Humming happily to himself, he pulled her close and arranged her hands on his shoulder and hip.
“OK, blue-eyes, we’re good to go,” he declared.
“If I’m blue-eyes, then you must be Ginger,” she smirked back at him.
“Shut. Up,” John arched an eyebrow, leant across towards the CD player and pressed a button. “And dance,” he teased as the first song started to play
Aeryn had heard enough Erp music to know within microts that the song’s tempo was slow and relaxed. It was going to be what John called a slow dance. A deep male voice started to pour across the instruments, his delivery smooth and sweet like treacle. John started to move in time to the music and she moved along with him, doing her best to follow his lead. Since their first dance in the elevator on Katratzi John had danced with her often, teaching her the basics of how to move to his planet’s music.
“Love is lovelier
The second time around
Just as wonderful
With both feet on the ground”
Second time around? Funny how some songs could seem so appropriate to one’s circumstances, she mused. Like her and John, or rather her and her second John, another John Crichton having died in her arms three cycles previously. She pushed the thought away. They were together now, her and this John Crichton, with the angst of all of those terrible events behind them.
“Comfortable?” John purred as he moved them both in time to the beat, such as it was, oblivious to her line of thought. Good. It was probably best that he did not know.
“It's that second time you hear
Your love song sung
Makes you think perhaps that love
Like youth, is wasted on the young”
“Very,” Aeryn replied. She’d never really understood why John called this dancing. To her it seemed more like shuffling around to a musical accompaniment, an excuse to set the mood for recreation.
“Love's more comfortable
The second time you fall
Like a friendly home
The second time you call”
Actually, Aeryn decided, that wasn’t quite true. This slow dancing thing wasn’t just a prelude to recreation. She could quite happily spend arns shuffling around to music in John’s arms like this without subsequently dragging him off for a frell. Especially when he held her close and gently caressed her back like he was doing right now. To say nothing of the way his nose was nuzzling her hair. It made her feel special, wanted. Loved.
She laid her head on his shoulder and pulled him closer.
“Who can say
What brought us to this miracle we've found
There are those who'd bet
Love comes but once and yet”
The words were almost too much for Aeryn: she could feel mixed emotions welling up inside her, brought on partly by the dancing, but mostly by the song and how it seemed to speak to her own strange life. She was happy, happy beyond words, beyond all her expectations just a few cycles ago, before she had met this strange creature who was her husband. Before she had lost him and finally found him again. It was such a bitter-sweet thing, this love that hurt almost too much to bear.
“I'm oh so glad we met
The second time around”
“I love you Aeryn Sun,” he whispered in her ear.
“I love you too, John Crichton,” she replied, sealing her lips to his as the last notes of the song faded.
The end
Setting, a year or so after PKW.
Neither Farscape nor the Frank Sinatra song are mine. No warnings, no beta. Written straight to the board in a hurry to meet the challenge deadline.
Words: 1024
The Second Time Around
“Merry Christmas, John,” Aeryn smiled indulgently at her husband as he unwrapped her last present. It was a CD entitled, for no reason which she had been able to determine, “Torch Songs”. The title must have been one of those incomprehensible Ooman things. Not that she minded incomprehensible Ooman nonsense any more. In fact, there were times, like right now, that she thoroughly revelled in it. She truly had been thoroughly, irreversibly contaminated by her time with him.
“Oh, wow!” John exclaimed, his face lighting up with pleasure as he pulled off the wrapping paper and revealed the precious item within. “A new CD! I thought that was it with stuff from home last year!” She felt a momentary pang of jealousy that he unthinkingly referred to his planet of origin as home, but quickly pushed it aside. She knew that he had long since chosen her, their infant son and Moya as his home. They were married. He no longer ever spoke about returning to Erp, but her old insecurities could still sometimes come back to haunt her.
This particular CD had been in storage for nearly two cycles now, ever since their brief, ill-fated visit to Earth. John’s ever- and over-helpful sister, Olivia had helped her to pick it out on one of their shopping trips. With all of the traumatic events which had followed their return to Moya, Aeryn surmised it had fallen down the back of a crate and been lost, right up until a monen ago. She’d actually forgotten all about it. But then a DRD had discovered the recording, brought it to Aeryn, and she had decided to keep it secret until Christmas. Getting something from Erp would make John’s day.
“I thought,” she suggested, her tone tentative and hopeful, “That you could teach me to dance?”
“Yeah. We’ll stay in, we’ll listen to some songs, we’ll eat popcorn. We’ll act like normal people,” John chuckled. She treated him to her broadest of smiles in reply. “You want me to teach you now?” She nodded enthusiastically.
“Have you anything better you want to be doing?” She snorted in challenge.
“Hell, no!” John was already standing, moving over to the CD player to put it on. Aeryn watched him, still entranced by the simple pleasure of watching him move. “Today is meant to be all about enjoying ourselves.”
“Then maybe we shouldn’t..?” she teased him.
“Come on then, up you get, twinkle-toes,” he turned and grinned at her, holding out a hand to help her to her feet. “Let’s cut a rug.” She inclined her head in acceptance and reached out to him. Humming happily to himself, he pulled her close and arranged her hands on his shoulder and hip.
“OK, blue-eyes, we’re good to go,” he declared.
“If I’m blue-eyes, then you must be Ginger,” she smirked back at him.
“Shut. Up,” John arched an eyebrow, leant across towards the CD player and pressed a button. “And dance,” he teased as the first song started to play
Aeryn had heard enough Erp music to know within microts that the song’s tempo was slow and relaxed. It was going to be what John called a slow dance. A deep male voice started to pour across the instruments, his delivery smooth and sweet like treacle. John started to move in time to the music and she moved along with him, doing her best to follow his lead. Since their first dance in the elevator on Katratzi John had danced with her often, teaching her the basics of how to move to his planet’s music.
“Love is lovelier
The second time around
Just as wonderful
With both feet on the ground”
Second time around? Funny how some songs could seem so appropriate to one’s circumstances, she mused. Like her and John, or rather her and her second John, another John Crichton having died in her arms three cycles previously. She pushed the thought away. They were together now, her and this John Crichton, with the angst of all of those terrible events behind them.
“Comfortable?” John purred as he moved them both in time to the beat, such as it was, oblivious to her line of thought. Good. It was probably best that he did not know.
“It's that second time you hear
Your love song sung
Makes you think perhaps that love
Like youth, is wasted on the young”
“Very,” Aeryn replied. She’d never really understood why John called this dancing. To her it seemed more like shuffling around to a musical accompaniment, an excuse to set the mood for recreation.
“Love's more comfortable
The second time you fall
Like a friendly home
The second time you call”
Actually, Aeryn decided, that wasn’t quite true. This slow dancing thing wasn’t just a prelude to recreation. She could quite happily spend arns shuffling around to music in John’s arms like this without subsequently dragging him off for a frell. Especially when he held her close and gently caressed her back like he was doing right now. To say nothing of the way his nose was nuzzling her hair. It made her feel special, wanted. Loved.
She laid her head on his shoulder and pulled him closer.
“Who can say
What brought us to this miracle we've found
There are those who'd bet
Love comes but once and yet”
The words were almost too much for Aeryn: she could feel mixed emotions welling up inside her, brought on partly by the dancing, but mostly by the song and how it seemed to speak to her own strange life. She was happy, happy beyond words, beyond all her expectations just a few cycles ago, before she had met this strange creature who was her husband. Before she had lost him and finally found him again. It was such a bitter-sweet thing, this love that hurt almost too much to bear.
“I'm oh so glad we met
The second time around”
“I love you Aeryn Sun,” he whispered in her ear.
“I love you too, John Crichton,” she replied, sealing her lips to his as the last notes of the song faded.
The end