The blue light of the television basked the room in an eerie glow. In the quiet, cerulean stillness of the room, gunshots sounded, followed by several piercing screams that were abruptly cut off, and replaced with the Looney Tunes theme and then a brief 'Meep meep' from the classic Roadrunner, escaping the coyote's clutches once more. The cartoon sounds disappeared and a woman's voice, cold and ominous cut through the dark, stating her case. "And in other news, the mysterious alien, supposed wife of as --" Even the woman was cut short as the T.V. switched off, and the eerie blue light faded, leaving the occupant of the room in utter and total silence. And somewhere within that utter and total silence of the dark living room, a man sighed sadly and then fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.

It was green. A metallic green with a long black hose extending from one end and a snake like cord at the other. Holding the end of the cord in her hand, Aeryn eyed the two prongs warily and then shifted her gaze to the hose.

"This is useless." She muttered, dropping the cord and sitting down next to the hideous green object.

What was it John had called it? A bak-vuum? Aeryn rolled the word around in her mind as she once more attempted to figure out how to use it, determined to show John how well she could adjust. He had said that Erp women used it to clean, but that she didn't have to if she didn't want to, he would do it. She silently cursed herself for having been so persistent in her quest to get him to let her bak-vuum the house. Sighing, she reached over and picked up the other end this time, the hose. Attached to the hose was a long black pole that had some sort of head on it with a brush. *Oh who am I kidding, I'll never get the hang of things.*

Aeryn studied the bak-vuum closely and that's when her eyes fell upon the array of buttons on the top of the machine. She looked intently at the words printed next to the black buttons and on the red one. In doing so she found that the red one was, in fact, a lever and not a button at all. Printed in white letters on the red surface was the letters L-I-F-T. Her dark eyebrow quirked as she did as the word instructed. Almost instantaneously the bak-vuum split into two green halves. Aeryn shrieked as dust flew everywhere, blanketing not only her, but the entire room in a shroud of dust. Coughing and sputtering, she shook the dust from her head only to find that it stirred up the cursed element even more. Trying to be free of it was utterly futile. A grumble began in her throat as she stood up in anger, lashing out and violently kicking the hopelessly confusing contraption.

"PIECE OF DREN!" She shouted in anger. Her shout ended in a hacking cough as even more dust was raised, clogging her nose and mouth, causing tears of frustration to begin falling from her eyes. "ARRRRGGGGHHHH!" She finally screamed, sliding to the floor and burying her head in her hands.

A knock came at the door and then it opened slowly, a head peering around the frame to carefully survey the scene. Two blue eyes searched the cloudy room before falling on a small, dust coated figure sitting in a heap next to a dust coated lump. The head withdrew and a man walked in, trying his hardest to hold back the laughter that was building up inside of him. He padded carefully across the floor, attempting to not make a sound, and then, bending down next to the frustrated woman, he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened Aeryn?" He asked, failing to conceal the widening grin that was spreading across his face.

She looked up at him, muddy paths streaked across her face from where the tears had mixed with the dust and the dirt, and angrily sobbed. "That frelling piece of dren," she pointed to the lump as she continued, "It exploded!"

"Oh," he laughed, "Aeryn ..." John gathered her into his arms, despite the fact that he was wearing his good shirt and pants, and stroked her hair, softly shushing her until her sobs died down to mere whimpers. "It's okay."

He took her hand in his and helped her up, dusting her off. "I told you you didn't have to do this. Daisy was going to drop by later on. She offered to clean."

"But I didn't want her to do it," Aeryn cried, "I wanted to do it. I wanted to show you that --" He put a silencing finger to her lips and finished for her.

"You don't need to show me anything." He hugged her close. "You're here ... with me ... that's all I need. I could care less about this damned vacuum cleaner and this damned house and whether or not it's clean. All I care about is you," John tilted her head upwards so he could look into her eyes, "and if you're happy. You are happy, aren't you?"

She nodded and he flashed her a trademark grin. "Good," he said, "Now do you really want to learn to use this?" Aeryn nodded again and he turned her to face the machine. "First off, don't ever touch this red lever unless you're emptying the vacuum. Otherwise you'll end up looking like the Gobi Desert all over again." He pointed at the mechanism to make sure she knew. "Now, " he bent down and put the two halves back together, wisely locking the lever in place, "to get this thing to do anything you have to plug it up. This, " picking up the end of the cord he held it in front of her, "is a plug, and that, " John pointed to the outlet in the wall, "is an electrical outlet. You put the plug in there, " he did so, "and then you turn this baby on." His fingers reached down and expertly flipped the on/off switch. The vacuum cleaner suddenly came alive in a whir of sound and suction.

John picked up the hose and placed it in Aeryn's hand. "What the frell do I do with this?" She asked, half shouting over the din of noise from the vacuum cleaner.

He came up behind her and snaked an arm around her waist, placing the other on her own arm. Wrapping his hand over hers on the vacuum cleaner hose, he guided her arm forward, pushing the long hose across the floor to reveal the cream colored carpeting underneath. John continued following her around the room, helping her run the vacuum across the floor until they had a small path cleared out in the center. Then he stepped back away from her and watched her go, a smile on her face, as she cleaned up every spot of dirt that blocked her path. After a few moments she stopped, realizing that John was no longer following close on her heels, and turned to find him standing by the door, studying her intently with that same trademark grin on his face.

She expertly switched off the vacuum with a grin of her own and then looked over at him, confused. "What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head, walking over to her and looking at the nearly spotless floor. "I was just thinking how lucky I am to have a woman like you for a wife." John slid his arms around her waist, pulling her in close.

"Yeah?" Aeryn raised an eyebrow playfully as she let him pull her in closer, wrapping her own arms tightly around his back.

"Yeah." He nuzzled at her neck and nipped at her ear before sliding his mouth around to meet her lips. The two locked in a tender kiss.

Meanwhile, in the doorway to the small room, another man stood watching. His gray hair was slicked back atop his head and he wore the NASA patch on his jacket proudly, remnants of his legendary career as an astronaut. Gazing intently into the room, Commander Jack Crichton's worn blue eyes watched his son and his son's wife share a moment of tenderness. He remembered that cold November evening when he had gotten the call from IASA that there were strange magnetic readings coming in from the upper ionosphere, readings that were unlike anything they'd had before ... well, those had been the conclusions until they compared the readings with those of the day his son, Cdr. John Robert Crichton, Jr. had left Earth and disappeared for what seemed like an eternity. The memories of that evening came flooding back into his mind.

"Yes Rich ... Yes I understand ... A wormhole? ... Are you sure? ... yes but ... Something came through it? ... Get me Carter on the phone, I want to talk to him ... I don't care if he's on the other line with the president of the United States, I want to talk to Carter and I want to talk to him NOW! ..."

CRACK! Jack whirled around towards the direction the sound had come from. Walking over to the window, he noticed a tiny crack in the upper left hand corner. *Damn kids*, he thought, *Can't leave a poor old astronaut alone*

"Jack, you there?" A voice came screaming over the phone. He went over and picked it back up, warily looking back over his shoulder before devoting the majority of his attention to the man on the other line. "What exactly came through that wormhole Carter? ... Yeah well you better be getting your ass working on it ... Uh huh ... Right ... And you call me, I'm the first to know anything ... uh huh ... before you tell any of those yahoos elsewhere in IASA, you tell me, understand? ... good Carter ... now get on it!" He hung up the phone and raised his head up from where it had been intently focused on the grain of the mahogony in the telephone stand. Now it was intently focused on two icy blue eyes staring right back into his.

"Hi Dad." The familiar voice of his son came wafting to him. But Jack knew better. Almost as if it were reflex, he reached for the gun in the kitchen drawer, loaded it, locked it, and aimed it right between those two icy blue eyes. "Who the hell are you?" He shouted at the face in front of him.

"Whoa, Dad, put the --"

"Don't you 'Dad' me! Who the hell are you?!" The barrel of the gun was now pressed against the forehead of the man in front of him.

"It's me ... your son ... John Crich --"

"I know who my son is ... and you are not my son. My son is ... my son is ..." Tears began forming in the corners of the old commander's weary blue eyes. Years of suffering from the loss of his son betraying him and causing his emotions to come shattering through.

John reached out towards his dad with one hand and cautiously pointed the barrel of the Browning in the other direction with his other hand, away from his forehead. "Your son is me Dad, I'm not dead."

"John?" Jack stared in disbelief. The man in front of him looked exactly like his son. Same shaggy brown hair, same face, same mouth, same goofy grin, same blue eyes, same -- but there was something different. There was something deeper in his features that hadn't been there before. A sadness, a pain, a deep wound that would never dissipate.

He reached out and hugged his father, clutching him tightly, years of missing his dad overwhelming him. Jack was hesitant at first, but then after a few moments, returned the embrace, tears falling from both their blue eyes. Behind them a woman stepped out of the shadows, her long black hair blending in with the shadows cast in the dim light of the kitchen hall. Jack froze upon seeing her and the hand that had been clutching John's head was now clutching the handle of the gun, aiming it at the new intruder. John noticed the change in his dad and spun around to see what his father was aiming at. He quickly threw himself in front of her, blocking his dad's view of the target.

"Don't shoot!"

"Move son! Move so I can shoot!"

"Dad, I mean it! Put the gun down."

The woman opened her mouth to speak, and did, but all Jack heard was a jumbled mass of clicks and rolls, and then saw the ferocity mixed with confusion and fear in the raven haired beauty's eyes. John, however, seemed to have heard differently and whispered to her, "I'm working on it Aeryn."

"John?" Jack eased his hold on the gun and let his arm fall to his waist, no longer aiming at the woman.

"Dad, this is Aeryn," he moved to the side, slipping an arm around her and moving her forward a bit until she was standing beside him, "my wife."

Confusion was written all over Jack's face as he listened to his son present his wife to him.

"Aeryn this is my dad, Jack Crichton." John introduced.

Aeryn extended an arm, just like John had taught her so many cycles ago, towards her lover's father. "Neuway ::click:: newah cunah ::click,roll:: di aye ::click::." A forced smile spread across her face.

Jack continued to be confused, and, after about a minute of silence, John finally realized that his father had no idea of what Aeryn was saying. Aeryn turned to look at him, a pleading look on her face, silently asking him to translate what she had said to his father.

"Oh right." John scratched the back of his head and then stood to the side of his wife and father. "Aeryn says 'hello' and 'it's a pleasure to meet you.'."

"You understand her?" Jack asked.

"Yeah." He tapped his head, "Translator microbes. She's got 'em too ... can understand every blessed word we're saying."

"Oh," was all Jack could manage to say. The 'Oh' was a mix of slight understanding and utter confusion. "Well, tell her 'hello' and 'it's a pleasure to meet you' for me."

John clapped a hand on his father's back with a slight chuckle, "Don't have to Dad. You just told her yourself."

And now he stood, watching them again. They still hadn't noticed his presence in the doorway. Instead they stood there, locked in their embrace, oblivious to the world around them. Jack could remember when John had told him the truth about Aeryn. The language issue had been a dead giveaway, but Jack simply considered the possibility that she was foreign. *Foreign doesn't even begin to describe her ...*

"AN ALIEN?!" Jack screamed, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'ALIEN'?"

His son had just informed him that his wife, Aeryn, was, basically, an alien from outer space.

"I mean 'alien' Dad ... little green men, U.F.O.s, flying saucers, giant spaceships, Mars Attacks... etcetera etcetera ..." John explained.

Jack stopped and spun around, his facial expression the epitome of confusion and shock.

"It's a whole new world out there Dad. There are hundreds of planets and other worlds, billions of different kinds of aliens -- and Aeryn's one of them."

"So she's really an alien?"

"Yes. Her species is called Sebacean and she looks exactly like us, only she's cold-blooded and we're not. She was part of this group out there, the Peacekeepers, bunch of overly cocky assholes if you ask me, but she was one of them and then I got her contaminated." His dad gave him a strange look. "Not like that dad. That didn't happen until later." He gave a small wink to his father before continuing. "They have these rules about contact with other species and she was near me for too long and she became irreversibly contaminated and some other crap like that. But we were on this ship, a living ship Dad, a real live living creature that was a space ship, called a Leviathan, and her name was Moya, and we were on there with these other aliens. Blue ones, green ones, gray ones, little muppet ones, and ..."

He listened as John continued to explain the entire story to him of where he went to after the wormhole had 'sucked him up and spewed him out into the middle of a giant space war'. But the fact still remained that she was an alien. And yet she looked so much like a human ... well, except for the fact that she had a stare that could freeze hell.

"... but I love her dad, and she loves me. It took us forever to tell each other, but just a few weeks ago, after Zhaan brought her back from the dead, " Once more, a strange look. "real long story ... but just a few weeks ago we finally got it out into the open and well, we're married dad ... sorta ... and ... "

After that, the conversation had all melted together into one giant jumble of love and mushy stuff. They weren't truly married, more like engaged, but they certainly loved each other enough to be married. *Kids.* Jack laughed inside his mind, *Kids.* He glanced over at them. They were still wrapped up in each other's arms and kissing passionately, sharing a quiet moment together, before the worries of the day consumed them.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat. Aeryn and John both turned to see him, their cheeks reddening slightly at being caught. Jack smiled, "It's time for work, son."

John gave his wife a small, short kiss and whispered in her ear, "Sorry babe, looks like we'll have to cut this short." And then he turned to his dad, "Right Dad." He looked down at his shirt and pants, noticing that they weren't exactly clean, and grinned. "Just let me go get changed." And with that he took off upstairs, leaving Aeryn alone in the room with his father.

It was silent for a few moments before Jack finally looked at Aeryn and dipped his head, "Aeryn."

She nodded and replied, "Good morning Jack." Each word was slow and deliberate as it came out. English was something new for her and John had been helping her in learning it so she could communicate with others around her. Not to mention, knowing the language did aid them in helping keep the fact that she wasn't exactly from around there a secret.

"Your English is getting better." He commented. "Working hard?"

Aeryn smiled and lowered her head, blushing just a tad, "Thank you." This came out faster, as if she had practiced this phrase more often than others. "Yes, " she continued, "John and I pr...practi...practice ev...every night." She stumbled a little on the more complex words in the sentence, but still got the meaning across.

"That's good." He said simply before John came back into the room and both turned to look at him.

"I'm ready." John announced and then walked over to Aeryn, the pair sharing one last embrace and one last kiss before he had to leave. "I'll be home this evening babe. See you then." He kissed her again. "I love you." And then John turned to go.

"I love you too." She whispered before he was lost from her grip.

Jack walked out of the room and before walking out, John spun around and shouted at Aeryn, "Oh yeah babe, Daisy'll be dropping by in about an hour to hang with you, show you some of the ropes."

Aeryn shook her head at his almost always confusing phrases. "Alright."

He dashed over to her quickly for just one more kiss and she playfully shoved him away, "I love you ... now, go!" One final kiss and then he was gone, that goofy grin still spread across his face. "Love you! Bye!" He shouted. She watched him disappear through the doorway, her heart sinking as she heard the front door shut and then heard the faint sound of the car starting up in the distance.

A sigh escaped her as she bent down to pick up the vacuum cleaner, her hand fumbling for the handle. Without looking down, she pulled, hefting the vacuum into the air. CRACK! Dust flew everywhere, filling the room once more and coating everything, including Aeryn. She had pulled on the red lever, not the handle.

"ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.