30 Days of Shipping Day 3: Whose Turn is it?
Day 3: Your OTP (One True Pair)
Title: Whose Turn is it?
Fandom: Farscape
Characters: John, Aeryn, Noranti, Little D
Pairing: John/Aeryn
Rating: Gen
Orientation: Het
Size: 1,012
Prompt: (Spoilers) - at bottom
John Crichton had seen a lot of strange since stepping onto Moya. Each time he thought he had run into the ugliest species, or tasted the most disgusting food or heard of the most bizarre cultural practice, the oddest religion, the weirdest government, he was forcefully reminded that he was a very long way from Kansas. He saw more strange.
“Aeryn, something is wrong,” he stumbled to the flight deck looking for her. She set Little D down on a blanket that was spread on the floor and quickly crossed the cabin to catch John as his legs went out from under him. His wife was so strong.
“What’s wrong?” Her hand stroked over his brow. “You do not have a fever.”
“I think I’m gonna hurl.” And he did, spectacularly, decorating the hull with a wild variety of colors. He clung to Aeryn. “Don’t let Grandma touch me, please, she’ll make it worse, I know she will, she always does.” He had begun to associate the old woman with stomach ailments.
“We’ll see. We have no other medic, John.” Gently shoving him back against the bulkhead, she held him in place with one hand and waited to see that he wasn’t going to fall over before going to collect the baby. “Let’s go put you to bed.” She looked down at the baby in her arms and said, “Daddy has a sick stomach.” Returning to John’s side, she put an arm around his waist and led him back to bed.
John did not remember going to sleep. He opened his eyes and Noranti was leaning over him. He groaned and tried to pull the blanket over his face. She touched a finger to his forehead and muttered something unintelligible, even the translator microbes couldn’t understand he words. Noranti pulled the blanket away, fighting him for it when he tried to keep hold of it. She stuck her hands up under the edge of his t-shirt and pressed cold palms against his belly.
“What’s wrong with him?” Aeryn demanded, looking worried.
“Baby,” Noranti said.
“The baby is wrong with him?” Aeryn rolled her eyes and shifted Little D to the opposite hip, eying her son skeptically.
“Not that baby. This baby!” The old woman tapped a finger against John’s middle.
“Aeryn?” John asked in a wavering voice.
She chewed her on her lower lip and finally replied, “I suppose I should have told you about the reciprocity factor, I didn’t think it would affect you, being human.”
He stared at the women, shocked as he began to catch on to what they were implying. “No. No, no, no! Do not tell me this now!” He sat up and tried to get off the bed, getting tangled in the blanket. This was too weird, and all wrong. He loved Aeryn, he did, but sometimes he hated the surprises that came up out here. This one, he hated most of all. He was freaked out beyond all freaking out.
“It’s just a baby John, What are you getting upset about? Men have babies all the time!” Aeryn said, blowing her hair out of her face as she moved to get between him and the door. “Where are you going?”
He stopped and looked around helplessly, hugging his arms around himself. “I don’t know!” he replied, turning in circles and tugging on his hair. “I can’t do this! I cannot be pregnant!”
John looked down at his belly, which had suddenly begun to expand outwards. He clasped his hands to it, trying to push it down. “No, no, no!!!”
“I thought you loved me, don’t you want to have my baby?” Aeryn asked. Her face suddenly right in front of his, her features distorted. “Why, John? I had a baby for you; it’s your turn now!”
She took a step back as his belly expanded, pushing her away. Horrified, John looked down. His gut was churning, sore and painful. “Something is wrong, something is completely wrong here! Aeryn, help me! Stop being mad at me, I’m scared, help me!”
Little D was staring at him and he opened his mouth and began to wail loudly, matching John’s wails in intensity and volume.
“Shhh, John. John!” Aeryn’s hands gripped his shoulders and she gave him a brisk shake. “It’s all right, John!”
“I don’t want to, I don’t, I can’t!” he wailed as he stared into her eyes and grabbed at her elbows.
Her hands clasped his cheeks and she pressed a kiss to his forehead. “John, you’re dreaming again. Wake up, come on, all the way.”
Aeryn kept hold of his face until he gave a shuddering sigh and nodded. Another nightmare, it was just a dream. “Okay. I’m okay. Damn, I woke the baby again, sorry.”
“He would have woken soon anyway.” After smoothing her fingers over his face, she gave him a half smile and slid off the bed to go to the baby’s cot. D’Argo’s cries subsided as soon as Aeryn picked him up and walked around the room rocking him. After changing his nappie, she settled him back into his bed and tucked his blanket around him.
Aeryn then returned to their bed where John was curled on his side, rubbing at his sore but flat stomach. She stretched out one her side next to him. She clucked her tongue and softly coaxed him over onto his back, pushed his hand away and began to rub circles on his belly.
“You have to stop eating Noranti’s experimental cooking. Every time you do, you have nightmares, and belly pain.” She smiled to temper the rebuke.
“It isn’t easy. She’s so insistent.” He was feeling better as the dream faded. “Baby, does reciprocity factor mean anything to you?”
“No, should it?”
“Nah.” Relieved to hear her answer, he closed his eyes and sighed as he started to drift back to sleep. He smiled as Aeryn pressed a kiss to his cheek and snuggled up against him. When he shivered, she pulled the blanket up around his shoulders and kissed him again.
The End
Prompts:
Dark Bingo Fill: “Nightmares”
Love Bingo Fill: “Pregnancy”
10 Tropes Fill: “Mister Seahorse” Originally posted at http://rinkafic.dreamwidth.org/