blackholesandrevelations

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The room that John shared with Aeryn had suddenly become...uninhabitable as of late.

Uninhabitable here means, John had gone insane again and decided to write equations on every single available source of paper, scribbling them down and then taping them to walls, bed, tables, chairs, doors, floor spaces, his own forehead.

And then he remembered that he actually shares this room with someone...and he invited Sarah Jane up here today and oh shit was that the time?!

And so he began grabbing up all the papers, stuffing them into drawers, into the couch, into his pillow case, into the pockets of clothes hanging in the closet, until everything was clean. Ish.

Except his forehead of course.

The door opened and he grinned innocently at Aeryn, who had just walked in. "Hey babe."

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"Hey." A slight twitch of her mouth was all that betrayed her tolerance of the nickname. The only sign that she'd heard it at all.

Her eyes roamed over the room, eyebrows coming together with a disapproving furrow. Finally they came to rest, on

him

. John Crichton. Astronaut. The love of her life. A mess.

"Did you accidently discharge your weapon?"

"Nothin's on fire." He said innocently, putting a hand to his head and realising the sticky note of wormhole equations is still on his head. He grabbed it off and crumpled it.

He grinned innocently at her again and opened his arms. For a hug. 'Cause he likes hugs. HUGS ARE NICE, HUG HIM AERYN.

"Yet." She responded with a cursory glance at his open arms. She had a reputation to uphold you know. However in the end his manly charms were too much for her and she relented for a couple of microts, laying her head against his shoulder.

The smell of home. That and old sweat from too many wormhole equations. Aeryn wrinkled her nose and wiggled one arm out of the hug.

"You've been drawing on yourself again." She ran her thumb against the wet edge of her tongue and scrubbed at the jagged black marks on his forehead.

"I do that sometimes." He smiled down at her as she scrubbed at his forehead, wincing pitifully. "Ran of paper," He continued in a drawl, "Just be glad you weren't here."

He stooped and threw her over his shoulder, somewhat, then moved to dump her on the bed. "Or I would have used you as paper too."

What? Oh noes, is he trying to tickle her?!

She wasn't flat enough for paper. She had womanly curves and worse...concealed weaponry.

The scowl she threw back at him was quite impressive in it's own right. That was until he started to tickle her. She squirmed, unable to contain the laugh torn from her, feeling her stomach muscles clench in protest; yelling for her to breathe when she clearly couldn't.

"John...stop...frellnik..." She gasped between pants of air, eventually managing to raise her fist and thump him hard on the arm. He's going to feel that.

"Ow ow ow ow." John rolled away from her, clutching his arm. "You hurt me."

He sounded outraged! And sad, look at his wibbliness! "Bad Aeryn, no cookie."

An arched ebony eyebrow was the only protest he got - before she rolled over on top of him, arms either side of his head.

"I can have anything I want, John Crichton." She pressed a firm kiss to his partially open lips.

It is, of course, with all the logic of the universe that Sarah Jane might pick this very exact moment to walk into room, note clutched in her hand.

Her eyes go wide and her face turns a deep red and she just stops, staring.

"Oh."

John kissed Aeryn back, arms wrapping around her waist when he heard Sarah.

Quickly (and quickly means VERY FAST OMG NOO), John sits up, almost making Aeryn fall off the bed and was a very bright red colour. "Uhm...hey Sarah...This...is...Aeryn."

She got to her feet with all the easy grace of a soldier, showing not the slightest bit of embarrassment; only a smidgen of stiffness in her posture borne of defensiveness.

Her eyes flick left, to John beside her and his obvious blush makes her smirk a little - quickly hidden beneath a mask of steel.

She was always uncomfortable meeting John's friends.

"Sarah is it?" Pretending to be momentarily deaf is always a good coping strategy.

The kissing and the arms wrapped around a waist and that position and it seems like Sarah just intruded on such an intimate moment and for a second there, all she can think of is the last time she was held like that.

Sarah Jane coughs, a tint of bright pink still very much present on her cheeks and nods, holding out a hand in greeting. "Yes, yes it is. You must be Aeryn. I've heard a lot about you."

John rubbed at his forehead selfconciously, smudging some of the ink on it. "Uhm, yeah. Aeryn, meet Sarah Jane Smith, a friend of mine...and...Sarah, s'Aeryn."

He grinned. Quite cheesily mayhap.

She felt a little like a prize hound. Pulled out of line for it's sniffing skills and held up to be examined by the newest shine-boot to come out of High Command - some know-it-all born to the privileged life who had his head stuck so far up his own arse he probably couldn't fly a prowler or operate a gun. Crichton's friend or not, she still felt like she was being examined; that it was being determined if she was good enough or not.

Except - then it occurred to her - maybe she was the one expected to do the judging. He wasn't bringing her to meet Sarah, he was bringing Sarah to meet her.

Or none of this mattered at all and it was just a silly human custom.

She rolled her shoulders, stretching out her hand to shake the other woman's brusquely. She'd never get used to shaking hands either.

"I haven't heard much about you." She looked at John again, a hint of disapproval in the glance. "He's only got his mind on one thing."

"If you mean those daft equations," Sarah replies with a snort, "I've noticed."

At least, she realises with a start, she hopes it was those equations and not something...well, something relatively like what she just walked in on.

Sarah glances around the room again, suddenly feeling very awkward (an unusual feeling for the normally plucky reporter). "I...I wasn't interrupting anything, was I? I got your note, John, and I figured I might as well come up..."

"No, I...started something I shouldn't have." John said sheepishly. "I knew you were coming..."

He obviously loses.

"Pull up a chair, Ms. Smith. Want a drink? We have water or beer...I can get you some tea if I have to. Aeryn? You want something? Bueller?"

He might not stop rambling, quick!! Shut him up!!

She did, with a fast well-placed peck on the cheek. It's so fast, in fact, it might not have happened at all. Perhaps that's the intention. Showing affection in front of others didn't bother her as much as it once did, but she's still a very private person.

"I'll just have a beer."

"That --" She said to Sarah, gesturing in a half-shrug. "--is exactly what I mean." She waved a hand at the room and the mess - as she saw it - wormholes had managed to make.

"Sarah," she corrects, shaking her head at John. "And I'll just have a glass of water. No need to make you go running around the bar."

Although, come to think of it, it would give her a chance to ~~question~~ talk to Aeryn without John present.

She looks over to where Aeryn was gesturing and frowns a little. Somewhere along the line, Sarah has gotten used to the military neatness of UNIT and the cozy clutter of the TARDIS. This mess is simply an atrocity.

"Oh, I see. It's simply, well...words wouldn't do it justice" she replies, and then turns to smile at John. "Actually, could you make that a tea?"

John handed Aeryn a beer and eyed Sarah warily. "Sure. You two ladies don't do somethin' stupid while I'm gone. Like join the Scarrans and Peacekeepers in an "I Hate John Crichton" club."

He sidled out, after winking at Aeryn.

But totally eavesdropped on them from outside for a moment.

"There isn't such a club." Aeryn noted quite seriously. "You wouldn't need one, everyone hates him anyway."

She waited a microt, before very calmly unlacing her boot and pulling it off.

"He's such a pain in the eema." She looked at Sarah very pointedly, before throwing the footwear hard at the door.

Sarah Jane laughs and nods, taking a seat on a nearby chair. "Oh, I agree with that one hundred percent."

Whatever an eema is, anyway. But she's used to strange words after travelling with the Doctor for so long.

"He means well, I'm sure, but sometimes..." Sometimes, when he steals her books, she simply wants to smack him.

Or settle for tackling him to the ground.

They could probably hear the manly shriek of pain as John stumbled away from the door, clutching his ear.

And...then nothing, 'cause he finally went away. D:

There was only the sound of smug, smug smirking. Men are easy to control. She leaned across the floor, crouching down easily to retrieve her boot by the lace. As she sat in the chair, deft fingers re-lacing the boot onto her foot, her gaze rested on the companion.

"Sometimes he's insufferable." She said bluntly with the mixture of blissful happiness and blunt honesty most long-term couples seem to suffer from.

"Served him right, eavesdropping like that."

Not that Sarah would ever do anything like that. Not in a million years. Don't you believe me?

Only when I'm drunk.

"How did you meet him?" Straight to the point. A common conversation topic. It helped her avoid questions about herself.

Hmmph.

"He insulted me, actually. Well, made a comment about my cup of tea - rudely." Sarah leans back in her chair and grins. This is the biased version of the story, after all. "We started chatting, and the next time I saw him, he gave me a tea cup for Christmas."

Aeryn gritted her teeth and only barely managed to avoid making a face. After all, she had to make an effort for John's sake. Even if Sarah Jane was fond of the most foul drink in the universe.

"He gave me some strange plant and a lot of potions." They made her think of Zhaan actually. She didn't quite buy John's explanation that the plant was for washing.

"A lou-fah, he called it."

Sarah frowns for a moment, her face crinkling in confusion. As far as the mun can tell, loofahs were not around in the late 70s. And it's not quite something the Doctor would have in that huge (and wonderful) tub of his.

"I think I've heard of that plant. They grow in Asia, don't they?"

"Yes, I'm sure they do." Ignore the complete look of puzzlement on her face. As long as they're both confused it's unlikely the meeting will go badly, at least.

There was a brief pause and blunt as always, Aeryn pushed any manners she had to the side.

"Why do you think he wanted us to meet?" Every single solar day, his actions confused the hezmana out of her. She simply couldn't understand.

"Oh. You see, that would be my fault," replies the nosy reporter, shrugging a little in her seat. She's much more used to being the question-er, not the other way around.

"I kept bugging him to introduce us, you see. Because he kept mentioning you and, well, I was curious."

"Curiosity fulfilled?" The grey eyes fixed on Sarah were more than firm. It's the kind of look that would have small children thinking she was trying to initiate a staring contest.

"Yes," Sarah answers with a kind smile. She's been the alien on enough planets before while travelling with the Doctor to be used to stares.

"You're certainly a match for him -- I can see why he likes you."

"Can you see why I like him?" A sort of laugh accompanied the question. The question that she didn't know why she had asked. The truth was - that no matter how much she loved John - a part of her would never believe it was really happening.

He was dead...and she had spent a long time thinking about that. She was going to do everything in her power to make sure that didn't happen again.

She smiles and nods. "Oh yes. He's a lovely man. Well, for the most part."

There are exceptions. Book stealing exceptions.

"For the most part." Aeryn agree with a snort. Lovely men weren't exactly her type.

She'd refuse to admit that compassionate men were either, despite Velorek, Jack...and finally John.

Her social skills floundered and she folded her arms in front of herself defensively, wondering exactly what to say to a woman she didn't know and had nothing in common with. If this was an emergency, it'd be different. No time for manners, no need to get to know the person. Her eyes fled to the door. Waiting for John's return.

"I heard you were a good shot, too," Sarah continued, knowing perfectly well how to bring up conversation: common interest! "John mentioned it to me once."

"A necessity for a soldier." She smiled, a nostalgic smile that accompanied the far-away look in her eyes. Only for a microt and then they were again fixed on Sarah Jane.

"You didn't seem the type to be interested in that."

Sarah's clearly amused by that assumption, and she chuckles. "Oh, I am actually. I don't necessarily approve of killing - actually, I don't approve of it at all - but I feel like knowing how to fire a weapon is a helpful skill."

She leans back in her chair, smiling at the memories. "One of my favourite neighbors when I was growing up taught me how. He was this horribly crotchety old man that I loved to talk with. Aunt Lavinia was rather surprised the day I came home covered in gun powder."

"Killing is another necessity; for a soldier." The implication that Sarah wasn't one, was obvious enough.

She was a scientist, an explorer - like John. Aeryn knew how heavily killing weighed on such people. If there was one thing she told herself often, it was that it didn't affect her. Lying to herself still came easy.

"Chakan oil, we use for pulse pistols." The Peacekeeper pointed out wryly, still unsure of earth technology.

"Not that there's many places to keep sharp, around here."

Sarah nods, looking curious at the idea of something other than the gun she was used to. "I haven't had that much experience with weapons other than Earth-based ones, surprisingly. Is a pulse pistol some sort of laser or sonic device?"

"A chemical powered energy weapon." She drew the pistol from it's holster on her leg, turning it to the side and running her hand along the edge like a loving parent.

Black and dangerous looking, it was like every sci-fi gun you'd ever seen, except this was real - and therefore much more frightening.

"Pulse chamber allows it to fire energy bullets. No casing. A hit can be fatal if the charge fries your nervous system."

"Sounds painful," Sarah answers, wrinkling her nose. But there's definately a look of interest as she stares at the gun.

She holds out a hand, eyes darting back up to meet Aeryn's. "May I?"

Not as painful as a six inch knife to the gut, but that was a story for another time.

"Carefully." The weapon was placed firmly in Sarah Jane's hand. Aeryn held her gaze steady, watching to see what the woman would do. The first time John got his hands on a weapon from her world, he blew up their only advantage.

She turns it over slowly in her hands, inspecting every fraction of it and carefully keeping her fingers away from any sort of trigger. Sarah Jane smiles, admiring the workmanship before handing it back.

"It's lovely."

A device for killing. A symbol. It was simply her. Who she was; the soldier.

"Standard issue. Shoot to kill." Nothing glamorous about it. "But yes, it's well-built. Better than John's." A slight smirk creeped around her lips.

She laughs.

"Speaking of John, I wonder where he went off to. He's taken an awfully long time for someone who wanted to spy on us chatting."

"Probably tripped over his own feet somewhere along the way." She responded with a snort, despite the way her eyes drifted to the door again.

There was always the very real possibility of danger, even in the bar...if Scorpius came through, if something went wrong...if the door came back...

"He would do something like that, wouldn't he?"

"No" John said, walking back in, with the drinks he was ordered to bring. "He would not do that."

He set the drinks on the table, then dropped a kiss to Aeryn's cheek and patted Sarah on the head. "Who wouldn't do what, by the way?"

PFFFT.

"You. Have the brain cells to have stolen my prowler and flown away just to avoid the company of two very strong women." The answer came without a beat, quickly followed by a good-natured smile at John.

She loved him really.

"Sarah and I were beginning to think you weren't coming back." She tilted the beer to her mouth and took a leisurely sip.

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