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Part 1: DK

DK had arrived at his office at IASA about an hour earlier that morning, and was studying data that had recently been returned from Mars by an unmanned probe. The phone on his desk rang, and DK picked it up distractedly. “Hello?”

There was a slight intake of breath and then a silence on the other end of the line.

“Hello?” DK asked again. There was still no answer, and he shrugged and started to hang up the receiver. As he did so, he heard a voice, and returned the receiver to his ear.

“No, no-no-no-no-no, DK, don’t hang up!” came a frantic voice that sent shivers down his spine. He shook his head, pushing unbidden remembrances away, and said cautiously, “Yes?”

“DK, uh, DK, it’s me, man. John.” The voice and the name were that of his best friend from childhood – a man he had helped send to his death four years before. “DK? Are you there?”

“I don’t know who you are, but this is a pretty poor joke.” He reached to hang up the phone once again, but something stopped him.

“DK, DK, please don’t hang up,” the familiar voice was saying. “I know I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, but not on the phone. Please. Can you do something for me?”

In a bit of a daze, DK heard himself saying, “What?”

“Does my dad still live in the same place? And is he still at IASA?” Now, that, DK thought clearly, sounded like John Crichton. His father had always been the defining factor in his life.

“Yes, to both questions,” he said, thinking he was being remarkably lucid here, considering how much his brain was whirling around. “Why?”

“DK, I’m asking you to make a really big leap of faith here. I know you must be wondering who the hell this really is, and why I’m bothering you…. I’ll explain, I promise. But can you do something for me? Can you get my dad? Call him, ask him to come with you, no questions asked? Bring him out to the house. I’ll be there, in the backyard. I need to talk to you both, privately. Please.”

“You’re asking a hell of a lot, John, if it really is you…. Your dad’s going to want explanations, you know how he is…. I haven’t talked to him since, since we stopped looking for you.” And what the hell am I doing, talking to a ghost?

“It’s important. You can do it, just tell him, I don’t know, tell him anything.”

The voice on the other end of the phone was getting agitated. DK took a deep breath. “Why don’t you just call him yourself?” he asked reasonably.

“Because,” John, or whoever it was, said softly, “I need to see him, and I want him to be able to see me from the first. And I don’t want my voice on his phone where it might be recorded by random security.”

“What is this all about?”

“Do I have to spell it out, DK? We both know if I’m who I say I am, a lot of people are going to want to talk to me. And I don’t want to talk to them.” There was a pause, and he continued, “Please, DK. Just do this one thing for me. Don’t tell anyone. Bring my dad to the house, let me talk to you both for a little while. After that, we’ll see what you need to do, okay?”

This is insane, he thought, but he heard himself saying, “I’ll try….John. I’ll try. Where can I reach you?”

“There’s nowhere you can call. Just bring my dad to the house. I’ll be in the back. Please, DK, I’m begging you, don’t tell anyone else.” And with that, he hung up.

DK sat and held the telephone receiver in his hand, listening idly to the dial tone and staring at the portrait on his desk of his wife and 2-year-old son, while his mind raced.

As he drove to Jack Crichton’s home, DK kept looking over at the man in the seat next to him. John’s father had a studied blank look on his face. DK couldn’t think of anything to say, since he was sure John didn’t want his father forewarned – and why was he thinking of the mysterious voice as John? John was dead.

“This is about John, isn’t it?” said Jack. He turned and looked at DK. “They’ve found the module.”

Careful, careful. “Sir, do you really think that if they’d found something, they’d have sent me to tell you about it?”

Neutral, but a little more relaxed, Jack said, “I suppose not.” After a few more moments, he asked, “Where are we going?”

“Your house, Sir.”

“Why?”

“In all honesty, I’m not sure. If it turns out to be nothing, you can kick my backside all the way back to IASA.”

“I’ll do that, son,” Jack said, and lapsed back into silence. After a few minutes he changed the subject. “How’s the baby?”

DK smiled. “He’s doing great! He’s two now, and walking and talking and getting into everything!”

“That old already.” Jack shook his head. “He must keep you and your wife busy.”

“He sure does. We wouldn’t miss it for the world, though.”

After a moment Jack commented, “John was sure a handful at that age. I imagine you were, too. Make time to enjoy his childhood.”

“We do. Every minute.”

“Good. I wish I had.”

They pulled up in the driveway of the house, and got out of the car. Jack started towards the front door, but DK led him around the side of the house to the gate for the backyard. Unconsciously, DK kept to the front, intent on seeing what was waiting for them. But Jack was right behind him as he opened the gate and they started through together.

At the back of the yard, standing in front of the gazebo, were two figures clad in long black coats, facing each other and leaning together so their foreheads touched, hands on each other’s upper arms, as if they were holding each other up. There was some kind of bag on the ground next to them. For a long moment, they didn’t move, though they must have heard the gate open. Jack started across the lawn without speaking, and DK followed a few steps behind.

The figures across the yard stood up straight, and DK could see that they were a man and a woman, both dark-haired, the woman with a tight braid down her back. Primed as his brain was by the phone call, the man certainly looked like John Crichton. Jack saw it too, and stopped, as “John” started towards him slowly.

The woman stayed where she was, as DK did, watching warily.

“Son?”

At the sound of his father’s voice, John stopped. “Dad.”

“John?”

The coated figured started moving again, and this time the two ended up staring at each other from only a few feet apart. The woman in the distance shifted her stance, giving every appearance of watching anxiously. DK was fascinated. He didn’t even see the two men make the decision to wrap each other in a bear hug, but the woman picked up the bag and started moving forward immediately when they did, to stop four or five feet back of John, hovering.

DK shifted his attention back to the father and son, and John looked over his dad’s shoulder at his friend. “Thanks for trusting me, man,” he said.

“I, uh, couldn’t take the risk. I mean, if it was you…hell, I had to see you.”

“There’s not a squad of Marines or a SWAT team preparing to move in, is there?” John asked in all apparent seriousness.

“No.” It was all he could think of to say, but apparently John believed him. DK realized that he really did believe that this was John, back from the dead somehow.

John backed off a little from his father and smiled.

Still stunned, Jack said, “Is it really you, Son? Where have you been?”

“That,” he said, including DK in the reply, “is a very long story. The short of it is, yes, it’s me. Stuff has happened, a lotta stuff, but, it’s me…. The Farscape module and I got sucked into a wormhole and ended up a long ways from here in a very bad place and couldn’t get back. I, uh, can’t stay here forever. How long I can stay depends on whether you guys think you have to turn me in…. “

DK blinked. “I knew it was a wormhole!” he said to John, letting the rest of John’s statement washed over him uncomprehended. “We never had any good readings, but it was the only thing I could think of that fit the data we did have. There wasn’t any debris….” He trailed off suddenly.

“Aw, DK,” John said softly, and moved over to hug his friend. “I’m sorry,” he said, “both of you,” he added, looking over at his dad. “I’m so sorry.” He backed away from DK, and the three men looked at each other for a moment.

Then John looked back over his shoulder and smiled at the woman with him. DK followed his gaze. She smiled for the first time, and DK found her face dazzling without the anxiety showing. John reached for her free hand and pulled her forward to stand beside him.

“Aeryn,” he said, gesturing to Jack and DK, “this is my dad, and my best friend DK.” He put his arm around her waist and continued proudly, “Guys, this is Aeryn Sun, my wife.”

“Hello,” she said in oddly accented English. She held out her hand awkwardly to Jack, who looked back and forth from John’s face to hers, and then took her hand. She shook hands solemnly, and nervously, DK thought.

Aeryn retrieved her hand and looked around the yard critically. After a moment she spoke matter-of-factly to John, but her words were incomprehensible. Jack and DK exchanged glances then. John, oblivious, said to Aeryn, “Probably a good idea.”

He turned back to his father and said, “Can we go in the house? It’s pretty exposed out here.”

Jack and DK exchanged more glances. Jack nodded. “Sure, Son. If that’s what you want.”

John sighed, but Aeryn nodded in apparent satisfaction and said clearly, “Thank you.” John took her hand, and the two of them and DK followed Jack into the house.

Once inside, Jack led them to the family room, and old habits of hospitality kicked in. “Would you like something to drink?” he offered.

John brightened perceptibly at the question. “What do you have? Do you have Coke? Root beer? Any beer? Lemonade?”

Taken aback, Jack said, “Well, I’m sure there’s a fair collection of different things, why don’t you come with me to the kitchen and pick something out?”

“This is great!” he exulted. “Aeryn, what do you want? I bet he’s got Coke! You can try Coke! Or orange soda!”

Aeryn gave him a long-suffering look and said something briskly. John grinned, and she smiled and added something in a softer tone. He said, “Okay,” then leaned over and kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen.

DK was sitting on a chair kitty-corner from Aeryn. He studied her openly, fascinated by her beauty and the odd language she spoke – and by the fact that she appeared to understand English with ease even though she didn’t seem to speak it.

It wasn’t until John was completely out of her sight that she stopped following him with her eyes, and then she looked around the room cautiously, as if something might leap out to bite her. DK himself she seemed to dismiss from her concerns, until his voice startled her.

“So, you’re John’s wife,” he said, kicking himself for stating the obvious.

“Yes,” she smiled.

“You look happy together. How long have you been married?” he asked.

Aeryn replied in what he had come to think of as her own language, though it didn’t sound like any language DK had ever heard. “I’m sorry,” she said in English, realizing he didn’t understand her.

“You understand English, don’t you,” he asked, “even though you don’t speak it.”

“Yes,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“And John doesn’t speak your language, does he?”

“No. A little.”

“But he understands you. How,” he started, “No, I’m sorry, too complicated for you to answer, right? John can tell us.”

“Yes,” she nodded seriously, and looked back towards the kitchen, from which could be heard clinking and clanking, and John’s excited voice.

“I can’t believe he’s all right,” DK heard himself saying. “I thought I’d killed him with that damned project. He was so excited about it, he worked so hard – and then he was gone.” Embarrassed, he gave a crooked smile. “But here he is, back from the dead.”

This time it was DK who glanced towards the kitchen, and Aeryn followed his gaze hopefully.

“Hey, don’t worry, he’ll be okay. His dad would fight off the hounds of hell to protect him.”

Aeryn gave him a look that he found hard to interpret, but his best guess would have been, “What ARE you talking about?”

As John and his father still hadn’t reappeared, DK continued playing twenty questions. “There are humans where you come from. Is that what John is worried about, our reaction to there being humans outside this solar system?”

“No.” She smiled wistfully and continued in her own language. The only words he understood were, “human,” “Earth” and “John.”

“You look human,” DK said slowly. “But you’re not.”

“No. Sebacean.”

“Se-bay-shun,” he tried.

“Sebacean.” Aeryn nodded, apparently indicating he was close.

At that moment, Jack and John came back in, Jack with a somewhat bemused expression on his face, and John carrying a tray covered with assorted cans and bottles.

“Aeryn, Baby, look at all this!” he enthused as he set the tray down on the coffee table in front of her. “Look, this is Coke, Dr. Pepper, um, here’s a Heineken – that’s real beer, not fellip nectar – um, this is a different beer, this is 7-Up….” He stopped when he saw that she was looking far less excited than he was.

Aeryn gestured towards the tray and said something very bluntly.

Pulled up short, John replied, “Most of them. Except for the beer. They’re soft drinks.” He popped the tab on the Coke can and handed it to her. She sipped gingerly, and made a face that said very clearly, “THIS is what you’ve been telling me about since I’ve known you?”

“Try some more,” John encouraged. “You’ll like it! There isn’t a place on the planet where they don’t drink Coca Cola!”

She made a droll remark in what DK now thought of as Sebacean, and drank some more. John continued to hand her cans and bottles, taking sips himself, while Jack and DK watched. John seemed completely caught up in sharing the beverages with his wife, though occasionally he would turn to DK and say something about how much he’d missed things from home.

Finally Jack interrupted. “John, you said you can’t stay. I don’t understand. You’re home now…”

John closed his eyes briefly and sighed. He stopped playing with the drinks, and sat down next to Aeryn again, holding her hand in his lap.

“Dad, I’m not stupid, I know I should march right in to IASA and announce I’m back. They’ll examine me, debrief me – and they’ll never let me out again. I have a home out there, Dad, and friends….I’ve changed so much. So much has happened to me. I’ve seen so much ugliness, and so much beauty. I can’t stay on a planet that doesn’t even have space travel – and I can’t ask Aeryn to stay. I’ve already cost her too much.” He turned and looked at her.

She smiled, but Jack and DK were shocked to see tears appear in her eyes.

“A lot has happened,” John repeated. “I’ve been away from Earth for four cycles – years – in the hell hole of the universe. If the IASA goons ever get a chance to do a physical, they’d lock me up and throw away the key, never mind what they’d do to Aeryn.”

“Son, I think you saw too many science fiction movies as a kid. We don’t dissect people at IASA,” Jack said soothingly.

Privately, DK wasn’t so sure, but he didn’t contradict John’s father.

“Maybe. You’ve probably noticed Aeryn and I can understand each other, and she can understand you. That’s translator microbes. They colonize the base of your brain and translate for you. That’s just for starters.”

John paused for a moment, and Aeryn leaned her head against his shoulder.

“Besides that,” he continued, “I’ve had…a….a brain injury, I’ve got alien brain tissue in my head just so I can talk. I’ve got some memory loss. But I’m me. I’m not brainwashed, I’m not a clone, a copy, a twin, a shape shifter, or a robot… But, they’d never trust me. Hell, I don’t even know if you will….”

Once again, DK ended up searching Jack’s face for a clue as to what to do. Jack was keeping that neutral expression again. “What do you want us to do, John?” DK asked.

“I have some stuff for both of you. Tapes, a kind of diary. All the info I have on what happened to the Farscape I module. As much information as I’ve collected on wormholes. And some information about some really bad guys out there who might be coming this way eventually. I can give you guys this stuff now, and we” – and here he looked over at Aeryn again – “can leave. You can turn it over to the proper authorities, and say we overpowered you, or ran off before you could stop us. Or, hell, say you came home and found the stuff sitting on the front porch. At least this time I know that you guys know I’m okay, and we got to say goodbye.”

Jack was beginning to look rebellious, and DK felt an emptiness in the pit of his stomach.

John ran his hand through his hair, took a breath, and started again. “Or, if you’re willing to take the risk of being found out, Aeryn and I can stay for a little while, we can catch up in more detail. You guys,” he said, looking wistfully from his dad to Aeryn, “can get to know each other a little better. Maybe I can see the girls somehow…. have a pizza…. some chocolate…. Hell, maybe even watch ‘Star Wars.’”

“I got the DVD’s for you,” Jack said softly.

John grinned at Aeryn, who suddenly had the look of someone who had just had a revelation. “What do you think?” he asked her.

Her reply this time had some recognizable words in it.

“Did she say ‘Yoda’?” Jack asked.

“And ‘Dagobah,’” DK confirmed.

John laughed. “Yeah, well, I did what I could to keep Home alive….”

Jack looked dismayed, though exactly what had upset him, DK wasn’t sure. He threw a glance at DK, and then said to John, “Give us a minute, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.”

Jack and DK moved off towards the kitchen and spoke in low tones.

“Where did he come from, DK?”

“I swear, I don’t know any more than you do, Sir. He called me on the phone just before I called you, begged me to bring you here. I didn’t know what to think, but I really couldn’t just hang up and take the chance it really was him.”

“It is John, isn’t it?”

“You think so, don’t you? He’s your son.”

“And you were a lot closer to him than I was.”

Both men stopped and looked over to where John was sitting next to Aeryn, one arm around her shoulder, hand playing with wisps of her hair that had escaped the braid, the other hand in her lap, playing with her fingers. His gaze, however, swept the room, lingering on family pictures here and there.

DK shrugged. “He adores her, that’s for sure. If some alien race was going to send us a spy, I don’t think there’d be any point in inventing an alien wife…. Leave it to John to find a soulmate even when he’s lost halfway across the universe.” He looked at Jack again. “Yes, I think it’s him. There’s probably no way to tell for sure without medical tests, but he seems dead set against that. Maybe if you spend some time with him, get him to relax….”

Jack made up his mind. “I’m not doing anything that will betray him. I’ve got my son back at least for a little while, and I want him here as long as I can have him. What about you?”

DK agonized for a long moment. John had been his best friend – his only friend, often enough – for most of his life. When the Farscape I had vanished in a flash of blue, he’d been devastated, especially since he blamed himself. But…. “I can’t betray him any more than you can. Wherever he’s been, it looks like he’s been through hell. But I don’t think I can take the risk of being found out. Heather and Joey….”

“I understand.”

DK nodded, and the two moved back across the room. John and Aeryn looked up expectantly.

Jack took a deep breath and said, “I won’t deny that you seem different from when we lost you…. But….my heart says that you’re my son John. And I really don’t want to let you go again so soon after just finding out you’re alive. I’d lie to the President of the United States if I had to, to keep you here a little longer.” He looked over at DK and then back to John and Aeryn. “I’m an old Hero whose son just came back from the dead – even if they were inclined to give me grief, I can call in enough favors with the government or the media or whatever I need, that I’ll be okay if they find out that I didn’t tell. You can stay here for as long as you’re willing. I’ll call in sick. They owe me.”

John gave Aeryn an “I told you so” look.

“But I have a family now, John,” DK said reluctantly. “A wife and a little boy.”

“All right! Congratulations, my man!” John slapped him on the back. “What’re their names?”

“My wife’s name is Heather, and our son is Joey. He’s two, and quite a handful.”

“Well, he’s your son, that explains it!” John said jokingly, and Aeryn gave him a pointed look that DK didn’t miss.

“Do you have children?” DK asked her. He immediately regretted the question. After all, she was an alien. Hell, he didn’t even know if they could have sex!

But, Aeryn only replied, “No,” with the ghost of a smile, and then added something in Sebacean.

“Not yet,” John translated quietly. “We know we can have healthy kids though. When the time is right.” He looked at Aeryn again and grinned. “That’s the story of our relationship! ‘When the time is right’!”

Looking at DK, Aeryn spoke urgently to John.

“She’s right, DK,” John said, for all the world as if they’d all been able to understand her. “We have no right to endanger you – your family needs you. You should go now before someone notices you aren’t at work.”

Reluctant to leave, DK asked curiously, “How do you know I won’t tell someone?”

“You’re my best friend,” John whispered. “And besides, if Aeryn trusts you, believe me, I trust you.”

“I should go, I guess. Can you get back to IASA for your car, Sir?” DK asked, looking at John’s father.

“I’ll figure something out.”

“DK, maybe you can come by later, while we’re here. We could catch up on old times….”

“I don’t think so,” DK said quietly. “If I do come, Heather’s going to know something’s up. I can’t bring her into this. The more people that know, the more chances for them to tell someone else. I don’t think you need to have anyone looking for you….”

John flashed him a grateful look and reached out to hug him again. “You don’t know how good it is to see you,” he said.

“You too.” DK smiled at Aeryn, who gave him a blinding smile in return. “I gotta run. Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” said John.

DK let himself out the front door. He could hear John talking to his father as he left….

* * * * * * * *

Part 2: Aeryn

Aeryn Sun looked skeptically at the ground vehicle her husband John Crichton was attempting to start – he called it “hot wiring.” In the early morning gloom, the car looked even more primitive than his Farscape module. Much to her surprise, its engine quickly ignited with a roar. She wondered if he’d known how to do that before, or if his skill came from all his tinkering with the module over the past four cycles.

John, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, leaned over and opened the passenger door for her. “See! Get in, and we’ll get going, just in case the guy who owns this car happens to come looking for it any time soon….”

Aeryn shrugged. “Well, since this is your plan, that’s probably guaranteed.” She put the carry bag full of John’s “gifts” for his father into the back of the vehicle, then wrapped her long leather coat around her and climbed awkwardly into the front.

John leaned across her and pulled the door closed. As he sat back up, he paused for a moment and ran a hand down her cheek. “It’ll be all right,” he said. She hoped it would be.

Aeryn found the seatbelt with no problem and settled back into the seat as John began to drive. He was uncharacteristically quiet, and she found herself worrying about his state of mind. Being inside a vehicle, and worrying about John, helped keep her mind off the fact that they were not only planetside, but that the planet was John’s potentially hostile homeworld, Earth.

The chance to visit Earth had come as a complete surprise, a gift from a race as advanced as the Ancients, and it still had involved a lot of planning on their part. If John hadn’t been determined to see his father and his friend DK, it would have been a lot easier, but because of the risks of contact, things were very complicated. Aeryn just hoped that their friends on Moya wouldn’t have to come in, guns blazing, to rescue them from some sort of incarceration.

After they’d been driving for a while, John said, “Hey, check the glove compartment, why don’t you?”

“The what?”

“The glove compartment.” He gestured with his right hand to what seemed to be a hinged door in the panel in front of her. “People keep all sorts of things in there. There might be something we can use.”

Aeryn fumbled with the latch and opened the door. She recognized a roadmap from her visit to the false Earth three cycles before. “Do you need this?” she asked.

John gave her discovery a quick glance and said, “No, we’ll do fine. This is the main highway. If my dad hasn’t moved, I can find the house in my sleep.”

Some of the items she recognized – protective eye coverings, a hair brush – and others she didn’t. “What’s this,” she asked, holding up what appeared to be some sort of small electronic device.

“Jackpot!” exclaimed John. “That’s a cell phone! Scourge of mankind, but it means we don’t have to find a way to pay for a phone to call DK.”

This was the part of the plan she liked least. John wanted to meet with both his father and his friend at the same time, contacting DK and asking him to bring his father to his father’s house. That meant two possible people to betray them, instead of just one. Indeed, if they simply showed up at his father’s home unannounced and made their presence known, they would be a lot more secure. There would be no opportunity for an ambush. But John wanted to meet with them both at once, and for some reason – probably emotional – he preferred this more complicated scenario. Well, it was his world. He knew every one of her objections; for now, she would play it his way.

She put the phone back into the storage compartment, and settled back to watch the countryside go by. It was actually quite beautiful; different from the “Australia” that had been created from John’s memories three cycles earlier, but still, a pretty planet, as planets went.

John reached forward and pressed some buttons on the control panel. Sound burst forth, and he broke into a grin! “All right! Radio!”

“And you call this?”

“Music,” he announced gleefully. “Well, I don’t recognize this, exactly,” he said with a small frown, “but it’s rock and roll. You want to tune it for me? If we find an oldies station, there’ll be stuff I know.”

She looked at the controls dubiously, but soon found that punching one set of buttons made the music change.

“Just keep going till I tell you to stop,” he said.

After a little while in which Aeryn listened to a series of alien noises, he said, “There! That’s perfect! All right!” He started bouncing in the seat and tapping his hand on the wheel he was using to control the car. He wasn’t actually singing, but he was humming along with the music.

Aeryn watched him curiously. The music meant nothing to her, didn’t strike any chords with her, culturally or emotionally…but she’d never seen John seem so at home anywhere as he did at that moment. It made her surprisingly anxious.

After a while he subsided into quiet again, which made her even more anxious.

They abandoned the transport and its contents along a busy street, and walked into the open land behind the neighborhood John’s father lived in. His back yard opened onto this large undeveloped area, and allowed them to approach outside of the view of any neighbors who might be at home. John had called DK on the cell phone, and John and Aeryn both hoped he was bringing Jack Crichton to the house. John figured it would take something between one and two arns for DK to get his father and make the trip, if he made it at all. All that was left at that point was to wait and see if DK would let him down or not.

John led them through a gate into a manicured yard and looked back and forth, satisfying himself that it was the correct house. In the back, near where the lawn turned into more wild growth, stood a wooden shelter John called a gazebo. He walked up and slapped a white post in satisfaction. “This is it. Mom loved this gazebo. It’s why they bought the house.” His gaze swept the yard and up to the back of the house.

“Did you ever live here?” Aeryn asked.

“No, I was in college by the time they bought it. My sisters did for a while, though, and I came to visit a lot, at least till my mom got sick.” He stopped abruptly.

Knowing better than to ask about his mother, she surveyed their surroundings, from the house in front of them, to the scruffy vegetation behind. There was definitely enough room for D’Argo to land a transport pod if they needed to leave in a hurry, and the low fence presented no real barrier to exit from the yard. With luck they wouldn’t need the backup.

John set the bag of tapes and notebooks down on the steps of the gazebo, and began to pace around the yard, stopping to touch trees, or flowers, or even a wall made of some sort of stone. Aeryn watched him, but let him be. She sat down on the gazebo steps next to the bag and commed D’Argo, just to be sure he was on the alert.

She could see that each time John heard the sound of one of the ground transports, he froze. Eventually he came back towards her, and she picked up the bag and carried it over to where he stood.

“What if he doesn’t want to see me?” he whispered. “What if he doesn’t believe it’s me?”

“Shhhh,” she whispered, brushing his cheek with her hand. “The man I met risked his life for us.” When he started to protest that that had been a construct, not his father, she slid her fingers over his lips and said, “You believed in him then, why not now?”

He leaned forward, touching her forehead with his. “You’re right, I guess. I just really need to talk to him, I need for him to have missed me as much as I missed him.”

Aeryn’s heart ached for him, the more so because she only had a void in her past where he had memories of a family he adored. She reached across to put her hands on his upper arms, lending him strength, and he followed suit.

They stood quietly for a little while, leaning together. When the sound of one of the noisy ground vehicles stopped suddenly somewhere near them, Aeryn could feel John hold his breath. Two banging sounds followed. “They’re here,” John whispered, but he didn’t move, and she continued to be his support.

When the gate at the front of the yard creaked open, they both glanced in that direction, still not breaking contact. “Two men,” she said quietly. “Is that them?”

She knew the answer when John let go of her arms and stood up in relief. She flashed him a brief reassuring smile, though now she was the one who was terrified. If she were honest with herself, she knew she had been hoping that, as badly as John wanted them to, they wouldn’t come. Then, John would have left the tapes and things he had brought in some place his father would find them, and they could have left without this risk. Now, as he started walking forward, she watched his back as she never had before.

She easily recognized the man who was walking towards John as Jack Crichton, though he seemed older than the version she had met. She assumed the younger man was DK, or John would have said something. DK held back, as she was doing.

John and his father started towards each other again after a brief pause; the senior Crichton seemed as nervous as his son. She gave a brief glance to make sure DK wasn’t moving, and then looked back at John, wishing she had a weapon in her hand. She shifted her position to make sure she had access to her pulse pistol if she needed it.

After looking at each other for a long moment, John and his father wrapped each other in a hug so tight it looked like they would break each other. It reminded her a little of D’Argo’s ill-fated reunion with Jothee, except that Jack had been caught completely unawares, and had obviously thought his son was dead. Reassured somewhat, she relaxed a little and picked up the bag still sitting at her feet. She crossed the lawn to stand a little ways behind John.

A quick glance at DK showed he had followed her lead and was standing awkwardly behind Jack, looking at her curiously. She made a snap judgment that he was harmless, and looked back at John and his father, who seemed to have loosened their grip a little, but who still held each other as if afraid they would vanish.

John looked over his father’s shoulder at his friend. “Thanks for trusting me, man,” he said.

“I, uh, couldn’t take the risk. I mean, if it was you…hell, I had to see you.”

“There’s not a squad of Marines or a SWAT team preparing to move in, is there?” John asked. Aeryn had no idea what marines or a slap team were, but the intent of the question was clear.

DK said “No,” and she could see John relax. He backed off a little from his father and smiled.

Still stunned, Jack said, “Is it really you, Son? Where have you been?”

“That,” John said to both of them, “is a very long story.” Afraid he and Aeryn were going to have to leave soon, he gave them the short version of how he had been sucked into a wormhole and stuck in the Uncharted Territories. Though he didn’t say so yet, if either of these men decided that they had to report his presence to the proper authorities, Aeryn would call D’Argo. Depending on the urgency of their situation, either they would work their way back to the more secluded area where he had dropped them off, or he would come to pick them up NOW, no matter how much attention landing one of Moya’s transport pods in the middle of a suburban neighborhood would cause.

DK responded, not to the implied question about whether he would keep the secret of John’s presence, but to the news that Farscape I had been lost through a wormhole. From the look on his face, Aeryn realized that he had blamed himself for the accident that had pitched the module into the wormhole and caused John to vanish, apparently to his death. Interesting. John always blamed himself.

“Aw, DK,” John said softly, and moved over to hug his friend. “I’m sorry,” he said, “both of you,” he added, looking over at his dad. “I’m so sorry.” He backed away from DK, and the three men looked at each other for a moment. Watching John with these men he loved, Aeryn found her eyes filling with tears.

Then John looked back over his shoulder and smiled at her, a happy grin that brought an answering smile to her face. He reached for her free hand, the one that wasn’t still keeping hold of his precious tapes, and pulled her forward to stand at his side.

“Aeryn,” he said, gesturing to Jack and DK, “this is my dad, and my best friend DK.” He put his arm around her waist and continued proudly, “Guys, this is Aeryn Sun, my wife.”

“Hello,” she said in English. Over the time she’d spent on Moya, she’d picked up a very little English from John (probably not suitable for polite society, but then, they weren’t polite society on Moya!), and for this trip, knowing that his father would not be able to understand her without the translator microbes, she’d had John teach her a few simple words and phrases.

DK blinked, and Jack looked surprised at John’s announcement. Well, Aeryn herself still found it amazing at times that she was actually someone’s wife. Peacekeepers didn’t take life mates, and a large part of her inner core would always be a Peacekeeper. But despite everything, meeting John and being thrown out of the Peacekeepers was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and being married to him brought her a sense of security she had never known before. The possibility of losing him to this planet nibbled at the edges of her thoughts.

She knew a gesture was expected after the introduction, and she feared Jack was going to draw her into a fatherly embrace. Slightly panicked, she held out her hand awkwardly to him to forestall any emotional displays. Her father-in-law – that was what John had called him – looked back and forth from John’s face to hers, and then took her hand. She shook hands solemnly, then retrieved her hand and looked around the yard critically to distract herself.

After a moment she spoke matter-of-factly to John in Sebacean. “Look, can we go somewhere less exposed? If you trust them, can we go inside to talk?”

John nodded and said quietly, “Probably a good idea.”

He turned back to his father and said, “Can we go in the house? It’s pretty exposed out here.”

Jack and DK exchanged glances. Jack nodded. “Sure, Son. If that’s what you want.”

John sighed, but Aeryn nodded in satisfaction and said in English, “Thank you.” John took her hand, and the two of them and DK followed Jack into the house.

John tensed up again as they walked through the house to a room Jack called the family room. John looked at the walls, the photos, the furniture, and held her hand tightly as they walked. She squeezed his hand in reassurance, making note of the doors, hallways, and windows.

When they reached their destination, they sat down and everyone awkwardly waited for someone to speak. Jack offered to get everyone something to drink. John kicked into what she thought of as “crazy human” mode and started asking excitedly about different kinds of beverages – at least, she assumed that’s what they were. When his father offered to take him to the kitchen to make a choice, he turned to her, eyes shining. “This is great!” he exulted. “Aeryn, what do you want? I bet he’s got Coke! You can try Coke! Or orange soda!”

Aeryn gave him a long-suffering look and said in Sebacean, “You know I don’t know what any of those things taste like. Just bring me something you think I’ll like.” Undaunted, John grinned, and she softened and added, “Or something you’ve been telling me about for the last four cycles!”

He said cheerfully, “Okay,” then leaned over and kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen with his father.

It wasn’t until John was completely out of her sight through the doorway that she stopped following him with her eyes, and then she made a brisk visual survey of the room, marking the exits once more. That done, she looked around with more curiosity. There were pictures on the walls of what she assumed were family groupings. Again, she was reminded of D’Argo, with his treasured portrait of Lo’Laan and Jothee. She wondered if any of the children in the pictures were John.

DK’s voice startled her.

“So, you’re John’s wife,” he said.

“Yes,” she smiled. He looked uncomfortable.

“You look happy together. How long have you been married?” he asked.

Without thinking, she replied in Sebacean. “He wore me down just over a cycle ago, but we’ve been together a lot longer than that.” She paused for a moment, and then, realizing he didn’t understand her, added, “I’m sorry,” in English.

This led to a halting discussion about language. DK deduced quickly enough that she and John could understand each other’s languages without actually speaking them, but unfortunately, her small amount of English didn’t allow her to explain about translator microbes. When DK suggested that John would be able to explain, she agreed.

“I can’t believe he’s all right,” DK said suddenly. “I thought I’d killed him with that damned project. He was so excited about it, he worked so hard – and then he was gone.” Apparently embarrassed, he gave a crooked smile. “But here he is, back from the dead.”

“Back from the dead” made her shiver, but he didn’t notice. He had glanced towards the kitchen, where John was. She followed his gaze, thinking about everything the fates had done to them.

“Hey, don’t worry,” DK said. “He’ll be okay. His dad would fight off the hounds of hell to protect him.”

That sounded so much like John that she gave him the same “Whatever!” look that she used when John was in full human mode. DK looked more concerned by it than John ever did. It made her realize how well John understood her, despite all their differences.

As John and his father still hadn’t reappeared, DK continued asking questions. “There are humans where you come from. Is that what John is worried about, our reaction to there being humans outside this solar system?”

“No.” She realized suddenly how John must feel all the time, being continually mistaken for a Sebacean. She smiled wistfully and continued in her own language. “John is unique in our world. Humans only seem to exist on Earth.”

DK contemplated her statement, alien, but peppered with words he did understand. “You look human,” he said slowly. “But you’re not.”

“No. Sebacean.”

“Se-bay-shun,” he tried.

“Sebacean.” Aeryn nodded.

At that moment, Jack and John came back in, Jack with a somewhat bemused expression on his face, and John carrying a tray covered with assorted cans and bottles.

“Aeryn, Baby, look at all this!” he enthused as he set the tray down on the coffee table in front of her. “Look, this is Coke, Dr. Pepper, um, here’s a Heineken – that’s real beer, not fellip nectar – um, this is a different beer, this is 7-Up….” He stopped when he saw the look on her face.

Aeryn gestured towards the tray and asked, “Are any of those non-intoxicating?”

Pulled up short, John replied, “Most of them. Except for the beer. They’re soft drinks.” He popped the tab on the red can he had called “Coke” and handed it to her. She sipped gingerly, and wrinkled her nose.

“Try some more,” John encouraged. “You’ll like it! There isn’t a place on the planet where they don’t drink Coca Cola!”

“That explains why humans are still confined to this world,” she said, but she drank some more to please him, and thought privately it was…interesting.

John continued to hand her cans and bottles with enthusiastic recommendations, taking sips himself and obviously savoring the tastes he’d missed for so long. Aeryn found it all rather overwhelming, but she was grateful to see he was careful to go easy on the beers.

Finally Jack interrupted. “John, you said you can’t stay. I don’t understand. You’re home now…”

John closed his eyes briefly and sighed. He stopped playing with the drinks, and sat down next to Aeryn again, holding her hand in his lap.

“Dad, I’m not stupid, I know I should march right in to IASA and announce I’m back. They’ll examine me, debrief me – and they’ll never let me out again. I have a home out there, Dad, and friends….I’ve changed so much. So much has happened to me. I’ve seen so much ugliness, and so much beauty. I can’t stay on a planet that doesn’t even have space travel – and I can’t ask Aeryn to stay. I’ve already cost her too much.” He turned and looked at her, and the expression on his face broke her heart. She smiled reassuringly at him and squeezed his hand.

“A lot has happened,” John repeated. “I’ve been away from Earth for four cycles – years – in the hell hole of the universe. If the IASA goons ever get a chance to do a physical, they’d lock me up and throw away the key, never mind what they’d do to Aeryn.”

She knew he was thinking of their experiences on a false Earth that had been created from his memories to test the probable reaction of humans to sharing their world with aliens. It had not been a good experience, though in some ways she had taken more positive impressions from it than he had, especially once she understood it wasn’t real.

“Son, I think you saw too many science fiction movies as a kid. We don’t dissect people at IASA,” Jack said, sounding just like John when he was trying to be soothing.

“Maybe,” John said neutrally. “You’ve probably noticed Aeryn and I can understand each other, and she can understand you. That’s translator microbes. They colonize the base of your brain and translate for you. That’s just for starters.”

Knowing what was coming, Aeryn leaned her head on his shoulder as he began a litany of trauma. “Besides that, I’ve had…a….a brain injury, I’ve got alien brain tissue in my head just so I can talk. I’ve got some memory loss. But I’m me. I’m not brainwashed or insane, I’m not a clone, a copy, a twin, a shape shifter, or a robot… But, they’d never trust me. Hell, I don’t even know if you will….”

Aeryn hoped her face hadn’t betrayed the deep pain he still felt at the references to the damage caused by Scorpius, and the twin they had lost, mixed among his hypothetical examples. John’s father was wearing a neutral expression again, so perhaps she hadn’t.

“What do you want us to do, John?” DK asked.

John explained the plan, that if they felt the need to report his presence, he and Aeryn would simply go, leaving behind the taped diary he had made in his early days in the Uncharted Territories, plus all the information he’d been able to collect on wormholes and potential threats to Earth.

Neither Jack nor DK looked very happy with this idea, and John continued, “Or, if you’re willing to take the risk of being found out, Aeryn and I can stay for a little while, we can catch up in more detail. You guys,” he said, looking wistfully from his dad to Aeryn, “can get to know each other a little better. Maybe I can see the girls somehow…. have a pizza…. some chocolate…. Hell, maybe even watch ‘Star Wars.’”

“I bought the DVD’s for you,” Jack said in a tight voice.

Aeryn sat up, stunned with the sudden understanding that everything John had talked about for four cycles was really REAL, and it was all here, now. She’d accepted everything he said, but she’d never really believed in his world, the world he had lost. All of it was HERE.

The look on her face was apparently amusing, because rather than looking concerned, John grinned and asked her, “What do you think?”

“Yoda from Dagobah?” she asked softly, eyes shining. “I’d like to see that.”

“Did she say ‘Yoda’?” Jack asked.

“And ‘Dagobah,’” DK confirmed.

John laughed. “Yeah, well, I did what I could to keep Home alive….”

Jack looked dismayed at John’s offhand comment. He threw a glance at DK, and then said to John, “Give us a minute, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.”

While his father and friend talked quietly across the room, John sat next to Aeryn, one arm around her shoulder, hand playing with wisps of her hair that had escaped her braid, the other hand in her lap, playing idly with her fingers. His gaze, however, swept the room, lingering on pictures here and there. She thought about asking if any of the pictures were of him as a child, but didn’t want to disturb him. She could ask later, if things worked out and they were able to stay for a while. For now, she sat quietly, trying to feel calm.

When John’s father and friend finished their whispered conference and came back to where they sat, John’s gaze settled on his father.

Jack took a deep breath and said, “I won’t deny that you seem different from when we lost you…. But….my heart says that you’re my son John. And I really don’t want to let you go again so soon after just finding out you’re alive. I’d lie to the President of the United States if I had to, to keep you here a little longer.” Aeryn had no idea what specifically that meant, but she could feel John relaxing, and that was good enough for her.

Jack looked over at DK and then back to John and Aeryn. “I’m an old Hero whose son just came back from the dead – even if they were inclined to give me grief, I can call in enough favors with the government or the media or whatever I need, that I’ll be okay if they find out that I didn’t tell. You can stay here for as long as you’re willing. I’ll call in sick. They owe me.”

John gave Aeryn an “I told you so” look, which she greeted with skepticism, but she was happy to see HIM happy, and so she didn’t challenge him.

But DK, it seemed, would not be able to stay. His concern for his wife and small son if he should be implicated in hiding John and Aeryn reminded Aeryn that this was still a potentially hostile planet.

John, on the other hand, was thrilled to hear that his friend had a family, and chatted with him about them. John’s teasing comment about young Joey’s rambunctious behavior being hereditary caused her to imagine what life would be like with little copies of John. It was a scary thought!

“Do you have children?” DK asked her, apparently reading her mind.

“No,” she said with the ghost of a smile. “But someday,” she added in Sebacean.

“Not yet,” John translated quietly. “We know we can have healthy kids though. When the time is right.” He looked at Aeryn again and grinned. “That’s the story of our relationship! ‘When the time is right’!”

How could he look so happy about that? Thinking about their past still gave her nightmares. And yet – he was thinking of their future, of having children with her….not that she had a maternal bone in her body…. Still, it made her feel better about being here on this planet, at least for a little while.

Looking at DK, Aeryn spoke urgently to John. “I know he’s your friend, John, and I know you want to see him, but if he’s sure he needs to go, he should go now. The longer he’s here, the more dangerous it is for us, and for him. He has a wife and child to protect.”

“She’s right, DK,” John said, for all the world as if they’d all been able to understand her. “We have no right to endanger you – your family needs you. You should go now before someone notices you aren’t at work.”

John and his friend exchanged unwilling good-byes. Aeryn knew John wanted to spend more time with DK, and sensed DK wanted to do the same. She was grateful and touched when DK reluctantly declined John’s offer to come back and see them later, on the grounds that it was safer if no one else knew they were there. No wonder John had been so determined to forge friendships on Moya from the very beginning, when no one else had even been willing to try.

John and DK exchanged a final hug, and Aeryn gave DK her most heartfelt smile. He let himself out the front door, leaving John, Aeryn and his father to stand awkwardly, wondering where to begin.

John broke the silence by saying, “So, do you have any chocolate?”

His father laughed then, and Aeryn thought everything would be all right.

Unless Jack agreed to take the translator microbes they had brought, this would be John’s visit more than hers, but that was between John and his father. In any case, she would watch, and share, and learn more about her husband and the world that had shaped him.

* * * * * * * *

Part 3: Jack

After four years, Jack Crichton forgot for weeks at a time that his son was dead. And then something would happen that would bring it back with a shock that was almost as sudden as it had been when the Farscape I module had vanished, taking John with it.

This time, the reminder had come in the form of a very odd phone call from John’s best friend from early boyhood, DK. An hour later, Jack was sitting in DK’s car, going somewhere, and remembering the days immediately after the accident. DK had been John’s partner on the Farscape project, and was the leader of the IASA team that tried desperately to analyze what little telemetry and data they had recorded when the module had been hit by a radiation wave and vanished from sight in a flash of blue light. Jack, as a senior member of the astronaut corps and the father of the missing pilot, had bulled his way onto the team, and lead the search for some sign of the module in case it had crashed on Earth. But there was very little to go on; the radiation had made the data iffy at best, and there was nothing on the radar indicating a crash. No matter how much they wanted to find some trace of John, they had had to conclude that he was gone. The official report suggested that the module had broken up during John’s slingshot maneuver and been destroyed in some sort of electrical storm. Privately, DK told him he thought the ship had been sucked into a wormhole; the two of them took comfort in the possibility that John was still alive, somewhere. But they didn’t really believe it. They hadn’t been in touch with each other in almost four years.

And now, out of the blue, here was DK with some cryptic story about needing him to see something. Just hearing DK’s voice on the phone was enough to bring back memories of the accident, and he knew that DK was remembering the same things, and feeling the same loss. What had possessed DK to call? And for that matter, why had he agreed to go on this mystery tour?

It hit him suddenly, and he turned to DK, sitting silently in the driver’s seat. “This is about John, isn’t it? They’ve found the module.”

“Sir, do you really think that if they’d found something, they’d have sent me to tell you about it?”

Thinking about standard protocol, Jack said, “I suppose not.” After a few more moments, he asked, “Where are we going?”

“Your house, Sir.”

“Why?”

“In all honesty, I’m not sure. If it turns out to be nothing, you can kick my backside all the way back to IASA.”

“I’ll do that, son,” he said, and lapsed back into silence.

Thinking about John reminded him that DK had gotten married and was a father himself. “How’s the baby?” he asked.

They talked for a while about Joey, the two-year-old. DK obviously enjoyed fatherhood.

After a moment Jack commented, “John was sure a handful at that age. I imagine you were, too. Make time to enjoy his childhood.”

“We do. Every minute.”

“Good. I wish I had.” It wasn’t that he’d neglected John, or his younger sisters, exactly. But he knew that John, especially, had been fit into the corners of his busy life. At least with the girls he hadn’t had so many missions to train for, or to fly, and there’d been more time. He wondered, sometimes, if John would have fought so hard to fly Farscape I if he hadn’t still been trying to get his father’s attention.

DK pulled the car into the driveway and turned off the engine. Jack looked at him questioningly. “We get out,” DK said.

All right, thought Jack, we’ll just play this out, whatever it is. He climbed out of the car and started towards the front door, pulling out his keys.

“No, this way. The back,” DK said, heading for the gate.

From the way DK craned his head trying to see over the fence, Jack had no doubt that he truly wasn’t sure what would be waiting for them. Still, it was HIS house, and Jack kept pace with DK. He was right behind him as DK opened the gate and they started into the back yard together.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but he was startled to see two figures in long black coats standing by the gazebo. They were facing each other and leaning together so their foreheads touched, hands on each other’s upper arms, as if they were holding each other up. They look like fugitives from a ‘Matrix’ movie, or members of a terrorist group, he thought. Well, they were in HIS yard, and he started across the lawn towards them, DK following silently.

Then they straightened up and looked at him, and he could see they were a man and a woman. The woman wore her dark hair in a braid down her back; the man – Jack inhaled sharply and stopped dead. The man couldn’t possibly be who he seemed to be. John was dead. His brain repeated it over and over, but his eyes insisted that the figure across the lawn was John.

It looked like John, and yet it didn’t. He looked leaner, sparer, tougher. Older. Maybe a lot older. The coat, the boots, the leather pants – his son would never have dressed that way. But now “John” started towards him slowly, and the body language added to the general physical appearance to increase the illusion. He moved like John.

Afraid the figure would vanish, Jack called out, “Son?”

John stopped walking, tension apparent in every line of his body. “Dad,” he said.

“John?”

Once again John started moving towards him. Some part of Jack’s brain noted that the woman behind John was standing where she’d been, surveying the scene and taking in everyone’s movements.

But then he was standing in front of John, and he could see unshed tears in his son’s blue eyes. Without any more thought, he wrapped his arms around his lost son and held him tightly, trying to take the pain away, his own eyes tightly shut against threatening tears. He dimly noted that John was still solidly there. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t hallucinating.

After a moment, John looked over Jack’s shoulder and spoke to DK. “Thanks for trusting me, man.”

“I, uh, couldn’t take the risk. I mean, if it was you…hell, I had to see you.”

“There’s not a squad of Marines or a SWAT team preparing to move in, is there?” John asked, apparently quite seriously.

“No.”

John backed off a little from his father and smiled. The smile helped. He looked more like the man who had gone into space four years ago and never returned.

Behind John, Jack could see his companion. She had left her post by the gazebo and come up to hover protectively. Still stunned, Jack said, “Is it really you, Son? Where have you been?”

“That,” he said to both Jack and DK, “is a very long story. The short of it is, yes, it’s me. Stuff has happened, a lotta stuff, but, it’s me…. The Farscape module and I got sucked into a wormhole and ended up a long ways from here in a very bad place and couldn’t get back. I, uh, can’t stay here forever. How long I can stay depends on whether you guys think you have to turn me in…. “

Turn you in? Jack thought blankly. To whom?

While he was trying to form a coherent thought, DK apparently said something that sent John over to hug him as well. “I’m sorry,” John said, “both of you,” he added, looking over at his dad. “I’m so sorry.” He backed away from DK, and the three men looked at each other for a moment.

I cannot believe he’s here, Jack thought.

Then John looked back over his shoulder and smiled at the woman with him. Jack looked at her face for the first time, as she smiled at John. She had a kind of severe beauty about her, and a remarkable air of dignity. John reached for her free hand and pulled her forward to stand beside him.

“Aeryn,” he said, gesturing to Jack and DK, “this is my dad, and my best friend DK.” He put his arm around her waist and continued proudly, “Guys, this is Aeryn Sun, my wife.”

“Hello,” she said in oddly accented English.

It was the last thing Jack had expected John to say. Maybe it was the identical coats and boots, or the ‘Matrix’ image, but he’d assumed she was a comrade in arms, or a bodyguard, but now, looking at the way she leaned into John’s embrace….. He realized he’d misjudged her. Well, well, a son reborn, and a daughter-in-law….

Aeryn held out her hand awkwardly to him, surprising him yet again.

Jack looked back and forth from his son’s glowing face to his wife’s more tentative expression, and then took her hand. He smiled at her, and she smiled cautiously back, as they shook hands. She reminded Jack of a deer – skittish is the word he would have used to describe her at that moment.

But as soon as they were done shaking, Aeryn retrieved her hand and looked around the yard critically. After a moment she spoke matter-of-factly to John, but her words were incomprehensible.

Jack looked at DK then, both of them realizing suddenly that if John were telling the truth about where he’d been, she might well be from a very long ways away.

John, unaware of their scrutiny, said to Aeryn, “Probably a good idea.”

He turned back to his father and said, “Can we go in the house? It’s pretty exposed out here.”

Jack and DK exchanged more glances. He wondered again what John was so afraid of. Still, paranoid or not, he was not letting John get away until he had some more answers about what had happened to him. He nodded and said, “Sure, Son. If that’s what you want.”

John sighed, recognizing the tone of voice, but Aeryn nodded in apparent satisfaction and said clearly, “Thank you.” John took her hand, and the two of them and DK followed Jack into the house.

Forcing himself not to look behind to make sure John was still there, Jack headed for the family room. It was a comfortable room, and had enough places for all of them to sit.

There were so many questions swirling in his head, Jack couldn’t seem to sort even one out to ask. He finally fell back on Southern Hospitality. “Would you like something to drink?” he offered, hoping fetching refreshments would give him more time to think..

John brightened perceptibly at the question. “What do you have? Do you have Coke? Root beer? Any beer? Lemonade?”

Taken aback, Jack said, “Well, I’m sure there’s a fair collection of different things, why don’t you come with me to the kitchen and pick something out?”

“This is great!” John exulted. “Aeryn, what do you want?” As John gave her a rapid-fire list of suggestions, Aeryn gave him a look Jack could only think of as long-suffering, and said something briskly. John grinned, and she smiled and added something more gently. He said, “Okay,” then leaned over and kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen.

Jack followed him, watching his body language as he went through the doorway and headed straight for the refrigerator. If it wasn’t John, he was doing a very convincing imitation of someone who knew his way around the house.

“Hey, you got a new fridge!” John announced. He stood looking at it for a moment.

“The old one crapped out about 3 years ago,” Jack told him. “Go ahead and take a look, I think there’s a little bit of everything in there. When your sisters and their families come, everyone wants something different.”

“Are they okay?” John asked wistfully.

“They’re fine, they’re fine. The kids have grown, of course.”

“Of course,” said John, subdued. After a moment he shook himself and pulled open the refrigerator door.

Jack watched as John started pulling out cans and bottles. The mention of families brought Jack’s thoughts back to the woman John had brought with him. He thought back to his initial impression of her.

“Aeryn carries herself like a soldier,” he offered. “Like she ‘s always watching your back.”

“I thought you might notice that.” John looked up for a moment, and then was distracted by something in the refrigerator. “All right! Coca Cola!” He put several cans on the floor, and then continued as if he hadn’t stopped. “Yeah, she was born in space, raised to be a Peacekeeper – They’re kinda like Nazis….. “ Once again he pulled out a drink in triumph. “Meeting me got her thrown out – irreversibly contaminated by contact with an unknown species.” He made a dramatic face and thumped himself on the chest with both hands. “Unknown species, that’s me!”

Jack took this in. “You’re saying she’s not human. She looks human. She’s very beautiful.”

“Nope, she’s Sebacean. It’s a good thing humans look Sebacean, though. It probably kept me alive more often than it almost got me killed.”

Jack filed away the word “Se-bay-shun” for future reference.

As John pulled out a few more cans, muttering, “Aeryn will love this one,” Jack watched, amused at his pleasure in such ordinary things. Somehow, more than anything else, that convinced Jack that wherever his son had been for the past four years, it hadn’t been on Earth. He looked at the collection that was growing, and went to a cupboard.

“Here,” he said, handing John a tray to put his drinks on. John looked a little sheepish, but accepted it and began filling the tray. Watching, Jack went back to the subject of Aeryn. “Nazis, you said?”

“Well, not exactly Nazis. But not very nice guys. Aeryn was a Prowler pilot. Um, like a fighter pilot, but more of a grunt. You follow orders and do what you’re told,” he continued, not noticing that he was hardly reassuring his father.

Just when Jack was about to offer another comment, John stood up with his tray and added guilelessly, “But that was a long time ago. She’s an ex-Peacekeeper now, has been for a long time. It’s been amazing watching her bloom away from the PKs. She’ll always be a soldier, but she’s become so much more.” He grinned at his dad. “This is SO cool! She’s gonna love this stuff!”

Jack looked at all the bottles and cans on the tray and remarked, “If she doesn’t float away….”

As they came back into the family room, Jack heard Aeryn’s voice saying what sounded like the word John had used for her race. DK was leaning forward and had obviously been enjoying a conversation with her. Jack wondered if she spoke more English than he had thought. She obviously understood it.

Jack watched as John shared his loot with Aeryn. He couldn’t help remembering John sitting at the dining room table with a bag of Halloween candy, sorting through it and giving his little sisters the pieces he knew were their favorites. He must have been what, 10 or 12? But this time, obviously, his wife had no favorites for him to bestow, because nothing was familiar to her.

She gave John a very dubious look when she tried the Coke. When he encouraged her to give it a second chance, she made a wry remark, but gamely went along. Watching them interact, Jack began to relax. John was bouncy, almost hyperactive. Aeryn was much more reserved – but obviously willing to indulge him in his excitement. She tried a series of drinks after John had opened and tried each one himself, savoring every remembered flavor.

It was comforting to see that wherever John had been, however far away, he had found someone who cared for him, in every sense of the term. THAT thought, however, reminded him that he still had a lot of questions, and he also had the sudden thought that John was using the drinks as an excuse to avoid talking. He interrupted the tasting session. “John, you said you can’t stay. I don’t understand. You’re home now…”

John closed his eyes briefly and sighed. He stopped playing with the drinks, and sat down next to Aeryn again. He reached out and grasped her hand, pulling it into his lap.

“Dad, I’m not stupid, I know I should march right in to IASA and announce I’m back.”

Damn straight you should, Jack thought, but he didn’t interrupt.

“They’ll examine me, debrief me – and they’ll never let me out again. I have a home out there, Dad, and friends….I’ve changed so much. So much has happened to me. I’ve seen so much ugliness, and so much beauty.” He looked at his father earnestly, and said, “I can’t stay on a planet that doesn’t even have space travel – and I can’t ask Aeryn to stay. I’ve already cost her too much.” He turned and looked at her, guilt written all over his face.

She smiled reassuringly, but Jack was shocked to see tears appear in her eyes.

“A lot has happened,” John repeated. “I’ve been away from Earth for four cycles – years – in the hell hole of the universe. If the IASA goons ever get a chance to do a physical, they’d lock me up and throw away the key, never mind what they’d do to Aeryn.”

Jack was beginning to get an idea of why John was so nervous. “Son, I think you saw too many science fiction movies as a kid. We don’t dissect people at IASA,” he said soothingly.

“Maybe. You’ve probably noticed Aeryn and I can understand each other, and she can understand you. That’s translator microbes. They colonize the base of your brain and translate for you. That’s just for starters.” Aeryn leaned her head on John’s shoulder then, and Jack was unaccountably alarmed. “Besides that, I’ve had…a….a brain injury, I’ve got alien brain tissue in my head just so I can talk. I’ve got some memory loss. But I’m me. I’m not brainwashed, I’m not a clone, a copy, a twin, a shape shifter, or a robot… But, they’d never trust me. Hell, I don’t even know if you will….”

Jack kept his face blank as he listened. Brain injury. Memory loss. Speech problems. These were not things any man wanted to hear relating to his son. He sensed that they must be true, though there must be a lot more to the story. He could see the lines in John’s face from more than just the passage of time.

But John had indeed hit the nail on the head in terms of all the dire possibilities that would be considered, and for which tests would be devised. Simple tests, complex tests, painful tests, short tests, long tests – probably never enough tests to allow the government to declare him to be John Robert Crichton, Jr., back from the dead. No wonder he didn’t want any part of that world.

Jack and DK looked at each other in concern. DK asked John what he wanted from them, and at last John explained what this whole cloak and dagger routine was about.

“I have some stuff for both of you. Tapes, a kind of diary.”

A diary, Jack thought. To know what had happened….but John was continuing. It seemed he had brought all the things a scientist would think were important – Data on his trip, information about wormholes, even material about potential threats to Earth.

“I can give you guys this stuff now,” John said, “and we” – and here he looked over at Aeryn – “can leave. You can turn it over to the proper authorities, and say we overpowered you, or ran off before you could stop us. Or, hell,” he shrugged, “say you came home and found the stuff sitting on the front porch. At least this time I know that you guys know I’m okay, and we got to say goodbye.”

Jack set his jaw and he saw that DK was looking upset too. No way you’re running out on us yet, Son, he thought.

As if he had read his father’s mind, John ran his hand through his hair, took a breath, and started again. “Or, if you’re willing to take the risk of being found out, Aeryn and I can stay for a little while, we can catch up in more detail. You guys,” he said, looking wistfully from Jack to Aeryn, “can get to know each other a little better. Maybe I can see the girls somehow…. have a pizza…. some chocolate…. Hell, maybe even watch ‘Star Wars.’”

Thunderstruck, Jack heard himself saying, “I got the DVD’s for you.” He had never admitted that to a soul, not even his daughters. When the first ‘Star Wars’ movies had come out on DVD at last, a year or so after John had disappeared, he had found himself standing in front of a display in a video store thinking, John would have been so thrilled….and he couldn’t stop himself from buying the set. For John. And then he’d come home and put them in the back of his bedroom closet, where they remained, unopened.

He wasn’t sure if John had heard or understood the comment, since he was asking Aeryn about staying for a visit. Her reply this time had some recognizable words in it.

“Did she say ‘Yoda’?” Jack asked.

“And ‘Dagobah,’” DK agreed.

John laughed. “Yeah, well, I did what I could to keep Home alive….”

Jack suddenly realized how alone John must have been, lost in a hostile end of space. He threw a glance at DK, and then said to John, “Give us a minute, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.”

Jack and DK moved off towards the kitchen and spoke in low tones.

“Where did he come from, DK?”

“I swear, I don’t know any more than you do, Sir.”

DK continued on, but Jack ignored him because it was the answer he had expected. When DK ran down, he asked, “It is John, isn’t it,” hoping for confirmation.

“You think so, don’t you? He’s your son.”

“And you were a lot closer to him than I was.” It was an admission that nearly every parent had to make eventually – their children grew up and away from them, no matter how strong the bond.

DK seemed surprised.

Jack turned his attention back to John, and he couldn’t help but observe Aeryn too, since they were still sitting side by side on the sofa. She had a faint, enigmatic smile on her lips. John had his arm around her shoulder and was idly playing with wisps of hair that had escaped her braid. His other hand was in her lap again, playing with the fingers of her hand. Although his eyes roamed the walls, his attention seemed to be totally on Aeryn. They’re joined at the hip, Jack thought. If he stays, it’s going to be a two-for-one deal. And if he goes, it’ll be because she thinks it isn’t safe for him to stay.

DK came to much the same conclusion. Soulmates, he called them, and then, going back to the issue at hand, he declared, “Yes, I think it’s him. There’s probably no way to tell for sure without medical tests, but he seems dead set against that. Maybe if you spend some time with him, get him to relax….”

Jack, thinking of the tests he’d already imagined, and many more that he couldn’t, made up his mind. “I’m not doing anything that will betray him. I’ve got my son back at least for a little while, and I want him here as long as I can have him. What about you?”

He watched DK agonize for a long moment. In the end, DK came to the conclusion he expected – he wasn’t prepared to risk his family’s security, but neither would he endanger John. Satisfied, Jack briefly rested a hand on DK’s shoulder, and the two moved back across the room.

John and Aeryn looked up expectantly.

Striving to reassure Aeryn almost more than John, Jack took a deep breath and said to his son, “I won’t deny that you seem different from when we lost you…. But….my heart says that you’re my son John. And I really don’t want to let you go again so soon after just finding out you’re alive. I’d lie to the President of the United States if I had to, to keep you here a little longer.” He looked over at DK and then back to John and Aeryn. He could see the tension ease in both of them. With satisfaction, he continued, “I’m an old Hero whose son just came back from the dead – even if they were inclined to give me grief, I can call in enough favors with the government or the media or whatever I need, that I’ll be okay if they find out that I didn’t tell. You can stay here for as long as you’re willing. I’ll call in sick. They owe me.”

John gave Aeryn an “I told you so” look and Jack smiled to himself.

“But I have a family now, John,” DK said reluctantly. “A wife and a little boy.”

John was excited to hear that, and they talked for a few minutes about Heather and Joey. Jack was idly wondering if he would ever see John’s children, or if it was even possible for John and Aeryn to have a child when DK asked Aeryn, “Do you have children?”

He looked as if he regretted the question, but Aeryn only replied, “No,” with the ghost of a smile, and then added something in Sebacean.

“Not yet,” John translated quietly. “We know we can have healthy kids though. When the time is right.” He looked at Aeryn again and grinned. “That’s the story of our relationship! ‘When the time is right’!”

Jack found that the prospect of half-alien grandchildren didn’t bother him in the least. He was sure that John wouldn’t be staying on Earth, and the thought that he could have some kind of “normal” life where he was, was appealing.

Looking at DK, Aeryn spoke urgently to John.

“She’s right, DK,” John said, for all the world as if they’d all been able to understand her. “We have no right to endanger you – your family needs you. You should go now before someone notices you aren’t at work.”

DK asked curiously, “How do you know I won’t tell someone?”

“You’re my best friend,” John whispered. “And besides, if Aeryn trusts you, believe me, I trust you.”

Now that, Jack thought, was the truth.

“Jack,” DK asked, “I think your car’s still at IASA. Are you going to be able to get it?”

Truthfully, Jack had forgotten he’d left it in the parking lot when DK picked him up. He assured DK he’d work something out, and watched DK and John say their good-byes.

DK let himself out the front door, leaving Jack to stand awkwardly with John and his wife, wondering where to begin.

John broke the silence by saying, “So, do you have any chocolate?”

Jack felt the tension drain out of him, and he let out a huge laugh. “If not, I guess a trip to the market is in order. We should probably get you two some different clothes, too, if we’re going to go out. You’re kind of conspicuous,” he said, with a smile to soften the criticism.

Aeryn said something to John with a grin, and he laughed and kissed her.

“I promise,” John told her. “We can find some jeans or something. Obviously PK chic is out of fashion.”

Jack looked back and forth between them and said, “Did you bring any of those translator microbes with you?” John looked dumbfounded, and Jack explained with a big grin, “Well, how else am I going to get to know my daughter-in-law?”

* * * * * * * *

Part 4: John

John Crichton looked out the viewscreen in the front of the transport pod at the fragile blue and white sphere in front of them. Earth. Home. Or not. He’d been on an emotional roller coaster from the moment he’d been granted this reward. Damn it, why did everyone in the Uncharted Territories think they could go rummaging through his mind! In this case, the Do’ya had reached in and found his heart’s desire – the chance to go home for a visit, knowing that he wasn’t making a one-way trip. It was the equivalent of Dorothy, clicking her heels and saying “There’s no place like home” three times…and being able to do the same thing to return to Oz.

But getting there and back was only half the story. There was still the issue of what to do, who to see, what to bring, how long to stay – how to get down to the planet without being seen, how to get OFF the planet without being seen….and the little green guys had left all that up to him. One thing he knew for certain was that he didn’t want to stay. He’d been in the Uncharted Territories too long, had been irrevocably changed, for good and for ill. And he was still haunted by memories of a visit “home” in which he’d failed to protect D’Argo and Rygel, and then had fled with Aeryn, fully expecting to die. No, he couldn’t stay.

But the thought of being able to see his father, and his best friend DK, to let them know he was okay, of being able to show Aeryn just a little of his homeworld, of who he was, where he’d come from – it was irresistible. He wanted to show off to Aeryn – and he wanted to show Aeryn off to his dad and DK…. In the end, he had accepted the gift, and tried to think what he most wanted to do while he was there.

Now they were on their way down to the planet.

He knew he’d surprised Aeryn when he strapped on his gun before they left Moya. She’d expected to have to argue with him. They’d argued for days over this trip, and his plans, but he knew it was because she was afraid for him, so he didn’t let it upset him. Besides, her Peacekeeper training showed him every flaw, every potential pitfall. He might choose to disregard her advice, but he did pay attention to what she said…..

The plan was to hope they could sneak in from high orbit without being detected, and for D’Argo to drop them off in a relatively sparsely-populated area not too far away from where John’s father lived. John thought that they ought to be able to hitchhike into town and then walk to the house. Between himself and Aeryn, he wasn’t concerned with the potential dangers of hitching. Even a serial killer wouldn’t stand a chance with Aeryn…

He could feel her standing behind him as he looked at the viewscreen and the home he’d been away from for so long. He knew she wasn’t happy about this. Sometimes he couldn’t read her at all, but this one, he understood. It wasn’t that she begrudged him the chance to visit his homeworld. She didn’t. She was afraid she would lose him here, one way or another. He turned towards her – away from Earth, even as the planet was growing larger in the viewscreen – and pulled her to him, holding her tenderly in reassurance. He ran his hands gently up and down her back, and she leaned into him, accepting the comfort. John knew it would be the last time she allowed herself the luxury until they were back aboard Moya.

“Hey. I love you,” he whispered.

“I know,” she said to his chest. “I love you too.”

D’Argo growled a warning that they were entering the atmosphere and things would get rough. “Okay,” John said quietly. He reluctantly let go of Aeryn and they both sat down and strapped in for the landing.

John slapped D’Argo on the arm and said, “All right, Big D! Here goes nothing! We’ll be back!” Carrying a bag with all the things he wanted his dad to have, he headed down the ramp, aware of Aeryn still behind him, confirming contact plans with D’Argo.

It was early morning, still somewhat dark but lightening rapidly, and it was chilly. He was glad to have the long Peacekeeper coat, though he imagined Aeryn wouldn’t feel as much need for hers. When Aeryn came down the ramp, he grabbed her hand and scurried for the cover of some nearby trees.

The transport pod took off again quickly, and John was amazed at how much noise it made in this context. Aeryn scanned the skies for any sign D’Argo was being pursued, and John did a visual sweep of the area, hoping that the noise hadn’t attracted any attention to their presence. Although the area was basically rural, there were a few scattered homes, and there were some drivers on the road as well. No lights turned on, no cars stopped.

When it appeared that they were down and safe, John allowed himself to just stand still, breathing in the sights, sounds and smells of Earth. Traffic. Cattle. Electric power lines. Dry brush. Exhaust fumes. A jet flying overhead. Birds. Constellations he recognized. The familiarity was so overwhelming, he had to shut his eyes and bow his head.

Aeryn watched him quietly, but didn’t intrude. After a moment, he shook his head to clear it, and said, “Well, come on. We’ve got a plane to catch. The highway’s over there.”

John slung the bag over his shoulder and held out his hand to Aeryn. They walked towards the roadway quietly, both of them looking around with curiosity. John didn’t think he’d ever been here before, though he’d lived less than an arn away at one time, but it still screamed “home” to him.

Once they reached the highway, he explained the genteel art of hitchhiking to Aeryn. “See, you stand by the side of the road, and you hold your thumb out like this,” he said, demonstrating by holding out his right arm, hand in a loose fist with the thumb sticking up. He was overtaken by another wave of nostalgia – hitchhiking with DK to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break in college. God, he’d been so young.

Aeryn stiffly imitated the gesture.

John looked at her for a moment, stifling a smile, then moved in close behind her, putting his outstretched arm alongside hers, and trying to mold her body to his own looser stance. “Like this.” He couldn’t resist leaning forward and whispering it in her ear, his left hand on her hip.

“Stop it,” she snapped, pushing back at him sharply with her hips. “We’re supposed to be hitchhooking!”

“Hitchhiking,” he amended, not at all repentantly, though he knew she was right. Focus, he thought. Focus. You’re trying to get to your dad’s. “Okay, try again.” They practiced for a while until Aeryn relaxed a bit. It wasn’t much better, but it would have to do.

It was light enough now that traffic was picking up. He hoped they wouldn’t have much trouble. They started walking along the road, prepared to thumb a lift.

“Well, now what?” Aeryn demanded half an arn later after a long series of vehicles had passed them without so much as slowing down for a better look.

“Well, to be honest,” John said, discouraged, “I wouldn’t pick us up either.” Somewhere during the time they’d been walking, he’d taken a good, long human look at the pair of them. They looked like a surefire recipe for getting carjacked. Between the coats and the boots they both wore, and the way Aeryn carried herself – totally on the alert, no matter how much she tried to “fly casual” – it just wasn’t going to happen. Not even one of those serial killers he’d joked about would pick them up.

Aeryn searched his face, then said, “Well, if we’re going to follow your plan, we need to get to your father’s house somehow. Can we get one of those transports?”

“Cars,” he corrected absently. “Well, we sure can’t buy one, we don’t have any money. And I’m sure my credit history’s toast.” Not that they could buy a car even if they HAD money. That required identification, and he couldn’t provide any.

“We’re just going to have to borrow one.”

“Don’t you mean steal?” Aeryn asked.

“Borrow,” John said adamantly. “We’ll only take it as far as we have to, and we’ll leave it where it’ll be found and returned. Borrow.”

Aeryn shrugged. “Borrow,” she agreed, soothing his conscience. “Where are you going to find one to borrow?”

He looked around. They had walked several miles down the highway, and were near several houses. One had a car in the driveway that looked similar to the last car he’d owned. It seemed quiet enough still at that hour that with a little luck, they ought to be able to get it started and get going without anyone noticing. “That one,” he told Aeryn, pointing. She gave him an approving nod and started towards it.

“I’m going to have to hotwire it,” he said.

“Whatever.”

Well, John thought, all that tinkering with his module over the past four cycles had been good for something. The engine started with a roar. Feeling more cheerful, he leaned across the passenger seat and opened the door for Aeryn. “See!” he said in triumph. “Get in, and we’ll get going, just in case the guy who owns this car happens to come looking for it any time soon….”

Aeryn shrugged. “Well, since this is your plan, that’s probably guaranteed.” She put the carry bag full of John’s “gifts” for his father into the back of the car, then wrapped her long leather coat around her and climbed awkwardly into the front.

John leaned across her and pulled the door closed. As he sat back up, he saw the nervousness in her eyes. He paused for a moment and ran a hand down her cheek. “It’ll be all right,” he promised. He really hoped it would be.

Aeryn buckled her seatbelt, and John put the car in gear, backed out of the drive and started down the street. It was an odd sensation, initially. It had been four years since he’d driven a car. But driving seemed to fall into that old category of “just like falling off a bike,” and soon he was much more comfortable. He got out on the highway and pointed the car towards town.

After they’d been driving for a while, John had an inspiration. “Hey, check the glove compartment, why don’t you?”

“The what?”

“The glove compartment.” He gestured with his right hand to panel in front of her. “People keep all sorts of things in there. There might be something we can use.”

Aeryn fumbled with the latch and opened the door. She held up a roadmap and asked, “Do you need this?”

John gave her discovery a quick glance and said, “No, we’ll do fine. This is the main highway. If my dad hasn’t moved, I can find the house in my sleep.”

After sorting through sunglasses, a hair brush, packs of tissues, and other items that populated the average suburban glove compartment, Aeryn came up with something she apparently couldn’t even guess the function of. “What’s this,” she asked, holding up some sort of small electronic device.

“Jackpot!” exclaimed John. “That’s a cell phone! Scourge of mankind, but it means we don’t have to find a way to pay for a phone to call DK.”

He’d been a little worried about that part of the plan. His father’s house, assuming Jack Crichton hadn’t moved in four cycles, had a back yard that opened onto a sort of greenbelt that would allow them some flexibility. They could run without being trapped, if they had to, and D’Argo could actually land the transport pod there and pick them up, in a real emergency.

Aeryn had made it plain she didn’t like the fact that he intended to telephone DK and have his friend bring his father to the house. It made more sense to just show up unannounced. She was right, but he desperately wanted to see both his father and DK, and if something went wrong and they had to run, there wouldn’t be another chance. They would have to go back to the Uncharted Territories without spending any more time on Earth.

So, the plan was to get DK to bring his dad home, talk to them both, and hope they’d be willing to keep his visit a secret. At least he would be able to see them both, have the chance to say goodbye….

Aw, screw this, he was getting morose again…. Dammit, I’m HOME, I’ve got Aeryn, and I’m going to see my dad! he thought. To distract himself, he reached forward and pressed some buttons on the dashboard. Sound burst forth, and he broke into a grin! “All right! Radio!”

Aeryn had been staring out the windows; now she turned towards the sound. “And you call this?”

“Music,” he announced gleefully. “Well, I don’t recognize this, exactly,” he said with a small frown, “but it’s rock and roll. You want to tune it for me? If we find an oldies station, there’ll be stuff I know.” At least, he hoped there would be.

Aeryn looked at the controls dubiously, but soon found that punching one set of buttons made the music change.

“Just keep going till I tell you to stop,” he said.

After a series of stations that either had commercials or unfamiliar music, Aeryn landed on one with a song he knew. It wasn’t even a song he had liked very much, but he hadn't heard a single piece of human music that didn’t involve his own voice in four cycles. He said with delight, “There! That’s perfect! All right!” He started bouncing in the seat and tapping his hand on the steering wheel. He wasn’t actually singing – he didn’t actually remember the words, since it hadn’t been a favorite – but he hummed along with the music, loudly.

Aeryn watched him curiously.

At that moment, everything that had happened in the past four years fell away. He was driving down the highway, playing the radio, with his girl – no, even better, his wife – by his side. For the first time in four cycles, he was truly relaxed. A knot in his stomach that he hadn’t even been aware of, disappeared.

He flashed Aeryn a giddy smile, then turned back to the road in front of him.

But as he drove along, the giddiness drained away.

I just stole a car, he admitted to himself. John Crichton, Astronaut, had just stolen a frelling car, even if he was planning to “give it back.” And what was more – it hadn’t only been Aeryn, with her PK “Don’t frell with me” attitude, that people were shying away from when they tried to hitchhike. A glance in the mirror on the sun visor confirmed that he had the same hard look in his eyes. You can’t go home again, he thought.

Though he didn’t actually turn the radio off, he did turn the volume down. They drove along in silence until they reached the turnoff.

“Okay,” John announced, “this is the neighborhood.” They were driving down a street with row after row of homes. “Can you see into the back, behind the houses?” This was the key to his plan – that there had been no change in the undeveloped land behind the back yards.

Aeryn peered out the window, studying sightlines. “I can see a little,” she said, “not enough to tell if there’s really no one there.”

“That’s okay, most people wouldn’t be trying to look over the fence anyway. Privacy issues. Can you tell how far back the yards go?”

“Yards?”

Damn, the woman had gaps in her vocabulary. The translator microbes surely understood his meaning – which meant Aeryn didn’t. “The stuff without any buildings on it….”

“I can’t tell,” she said. “Is there a way to see this from another angle?”

“Yeah, we’ll drive around the block and look from there,” he said, throwing a glance over his shoulder to check for cars. And just as suddenly as that, John recognized his father’s house, and it stopped being an abstract exercise. He nearly stopped breathing, and he did slow down the car to a crawl, despite all instincts to the contrary.

Aeryn looked at him, mildly alarmed.

“That’s the house,” he said, pointing. “Right there.” After only four years, it didn’t look much different. A few different plants, but everything else was the same, at least, as much as he had ever really paid attention. ”The trees look bigger,” he said.

Aeryn watched him some more, and then reached a hand out to touch him gently on the upper arm.

John told his heart to stop pounding, and picked up speed with the car.

Driving around the block, he confirmed that the area was pretty much unchanged. “Okay,” he told Aeryn. “Let’s go park someplace and I’ll call DK.”

But when the time came and he held the phone in his hand, he panicked. What if DK said no? What if DK wasn’t there? What if his father had moved, wasn’t even with IASA anymore?

Aeryn watched him stare at the phone. After a moment she reached out her hand for it, and said, “Show me.”

“Huh?”

“Show me how that thing works.” He still didn’t quite comprehend, and she added, “I’ll do it.”

That actually made him smile. He could just imagine her talking to DK…. “No,” he said gently, “I’d better do it. He knows me.” He tilted his head sideways and added with a smile, “He thinks I’m dead, but he DOES know my voice….And besides –” he added, as the thought struck him, “no translator microbes.”

Aeryn gave him a look which said, “I knew that, you idiot! Now do it!”

Chagrined, he touched her cheek, then dialed the number for IASA headquarters and asked for DK’s office. There was a pause before the phone rang, and then a brief delay before someone picked up the phone and said distractedly, “Hello?”

John froze. He couldn’t quite form a thought beyond the recognition of DK’s voice.

“Hello?” DK asked again.

“Is he there?” Aeryn asked, and John realized he hadn’t said anything. If it had been him answering the phone, he would have decided it was a junk call by now.

“No, no-no-no-no-no, DK, don’t hang up!” John said frantically.

It seemed he’d caught him in time. “Yes?” came a cautious voice on the line.

“DK, uh, DK, it’s me, man. John.” This was the moment of truth. Could he get DK to listen to him? Believe in him? “DK? Are you there?”

“I don’t know who you are, but this is a pretty poor joke.”

John just kept babbling, hoping he’d be able to get through. “DK, DK, please don’t hang up. I know I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, but not on the phone. Please. Can you do something for me?”

After what seemed like forever, DK asked, “What?”

John mentally breathed a sigh of relief. DK was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Does my dad still live in the same place? And is he still at IASA?”

What DK made of that, John couldn’t tell, but he answered, “Yes, to both questions.” After a pause in which John mentally thanked the fates, DK asked, “Why?”

John took a deep breath. “DK, I’m asking you to make a really big leap of faith here. I know you must be wondering who the hell this really is, and why I’m bothering you…. I’ll explain, I promise. But can you do something for me? Can you get my dad? Call him, ask him to come with you, no questions asked? Bring him out to the house. I’ll be there, in the backyard. I need to talk to you both, privately. Please.”

“You’re asking a hell of a lot, John, if it really is you…. Your dad’s going to want explanations, you know how he is…. I haven’t talked to him since, since we stopped looking for you.”

John began to get edgy. He understood why DK was so reluctant to get involved, but….he NEEDED for this to work. “It’s important. You can do it, just tell him, I don’t know, tell him anything.”

DK took a deep breath that was audible over the phone. “Why don’t you just call him yourself?” he asked reasonably.

“Because,” John said softly. Because I couldn’t handle it if he didn’t believe me, he suddenly realized. Because I couldn’t handle it if he talked to me, and he still wouldn’t come. But he only said, “I need to see him, and I want him to be able to see me from the first. And I don’t want my voice on his phone where it might be recorded by random security.” That last was true enough, and he could see Aeryn agreeing with him.

“What is this all about?”

“Do I have to spell it out, DK? We both know if I’m who I say I am, a lot of people are going to want to talk to me. And I don’t want to talk to them.” He definitely didn’t want to talk to them! He continued, “Please, DK. Just do this one thing for me. Don’t tell anyone. Bring my dad to the house, let me talk to you both for a little while. After that, we’ll see what you need to do, okay?”

John could guess that DK thought this whole situation was insane, but he was relieved to hear his friend say, “I’ll try….John. I’ll try. Where can I reach you?”

Knowing DK, he probably felt at this point that he’d made a commitment, and would do his best to fulfill it. It was the best John was going to get. “There’s nowhere you can call,” he told DK. “Just bring my dad to the house. I’ll be in the back. Please, DK, I’m begging you, don’t tell anyone else.” And with that, he hung up, afraid to give DK the opportunity to talk himself out of coming.

He looked at Aeryn, and she searched his eyes. “It’s okay,” he told her. “He’ll come. I think. Without telling anyone.”

“All right,” she said. “How long?”

John thought for a minute. DK would have to work up the nerve to call his dead best friend’s father and invite him on a wild goose chase. Then he’d have to get John’s dad, and drive out here from IASA, where they both worked. “An arn or two,” he told her. “Depends on how much my dad argues. No more than two.”

She nodded. “Should we go then?”

“Yeah. But I need to make a some random phone calls with this thing.” When Aeryn looked puzzled, he told her as he dialed, “To keep the billing record from leading straight back to DK. This way it’ll look like kids making crank calls.” This didn’t clear things up, but it apparently convinced her he had a purpose, and he went ahead and made the calls.

“There. The cops will find it, and get it back to the owner,” John said, as he and Aeryn walked away from the car. “No harm, no foul. Well, I guess he’s out a little gasoline….” He wondered what a gallon of gasoline cost these days, and wished that he had something to leave to “pay” for the inconvenience to the car’s owner. But didn’t see what else they could have done. He sighed and put it out of his mind.

They walked a few blocks and then detoured into the parkland behind the house. It was more than a greenbelt, but less than a real forest. It was easy to walk through, and comforting. All the plants, even the weeds, were things he’d taken for granted all his life, until four cycles ago. He mentioned that to Aeryn, and she gave him a wry smile.

“Remember, I was born in space. All plants look alien to me.”

It was an interesting perspective.

He counted yards, and reached the one he thought was right. He led Aeryn forward and unlatched the gate.

Aeryn followed him quietly into the yard. The back had changed more than the front, and he looked around, trying to satisfy himself that this was the right house. There was a whole new patio, and he didn’t remember so many bushes along the north fence. Then he turned to his right, and saw the gazebo. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He walked up and slapped a white post in satisfaction. “This is it. Mom loved this gazebo. It’s why they bought the house.” His gaze swept the yard and up to the back of the house.

“Did you ever live here?” Aeryn asked curiously.

“No, I was in college by the time they bought it. My sisters did for a while, though, and I came to visit a lot, at least till my mom got sick.” He stopped abruptly, unwilling to revisit those memories.

Instead, he set the bag of tapes and notebooks down on the steps of the gazebo, and began to pace around the yard, stopping to touch trees, flowers, even a brick wall. The leaves were beautiful, the flowers overwhelming. He stood for a moment and just inhaled the fragrances of home.

John could feel Aeryn’s eyes on him from where she sat on the gazebo steps. Her voice washed over him as she quietly commed D’Argo, no doubt making sure he was on the alert. How odd that she was his anchor, even here on the world that had shaped him.

His thoughts turned to his father. He hoped DK was having luck convincing the very stubborn Jack Crichton to come along, no questions asked. Every time he heard a car drive by in the neighborhood, he froze, waiting to see if it would turn into the driveway.

It was ironic. On the one hand, he’d spent his childhood worrying that his father might not return from a mission. On the other, it had been John himself who hadn’t returned from a flight. He imagined his father’s face when he saw him there, alive – part of him couldn’t wait, and part of him felt incredible guilt over having put his father through the pain in the first place. Go figure. He was the one who’d been lost, chased, mind-frelled, tortured, doubled….and he was worried about his father. Humans.

He walked around the yard some more, trying to push aside his fears that DK would be unable to convince his father to come. He finally headed slowly back towards Aeryn.

She must have realized how nervous he was, because she picked up the bag and carried it over to where he stood.

“What if he doesn’t want to see me?” he whispered. “What if he doesn’t believe it’s me?”

“Shhhh,” she whispered back, brushing his cheek with her hand. “The man I met risked his life for us.” When he started to protest that that had been a construct, not his father, she slid her fingers over his lips and said, “You believed in him then, why not now?”

He leaned forward, touching her forehead with his. “You’re right, I guess. I just really need to talk to him, I need for him to have missed me as much as I missed him.”

Without a word, Aeryn reached across to put her hands on his upper arms, lending him strength, and he followed suit, accepting her support gratefully. He would be lost without her, and he knew it.

They stood quietly for a little while, leaning together. When a car stopped somewhere near them, John hold his breath. The sound of two car doors slamming followed. “They’re here,” John whispered, but he didn’t move, not ready to see if DK had been successful in getting his father to come.

When the gate at the front of the yard creaked open, he and Aeryn both glanced in that direction, still not breaking contact. “Two men,” she said quietly. “Is that them?”

John let out a sigh of relief and straightened up as he saw that it WAS his father and DK. His father started across the lawn determinedly, and then stopped, a stunned look on his face. Nervous, but unwilling to wait any longer, John started towards his father. Aeryn stayed behind and watched him.

Jack called out, “Son?”

John stopped walking, tension apparent in every line of his body. “Dad,” he said simply, unable to get any more out.

“John?”

Once again John started moving towards his father, and Jack did the same. This time they didn’t stop until they were standing only a few feet apart. John could feel tears fill his eyes, and then his father wrapped him in a hug so tight he could hardly breathe. Overwhelmed with relief, John tightened his own arms around his father in return.

After a moment, John looked over his father’s shoulder and spoke to DK. “Thanks for trusting me, man,” he said with all his heart.

“I, uh, couldn’t take the risk. I mean, if it was you…hell, I had to see you.”

“There’s not a squad of Marines or a SWAT team preparing to move in, is there?” He didn’t really think there was, but he had to ask.

DK took the question seriously. “No,” he said, without trying to joke it off.

John backed off a little from his father and smiled at both DK and his dad.

Still stunned, Jack said, “Is it really you, Son? Where have you been?”

“That,” he said to both Jack and DK, “is a very long story.” He’d practiced the capsule summary, still not completely sure that he and Aeryn weren’t going to have to run. “The short of it is, yes, it’s me. Stuff has happened, a lotta stuff, but, it’s me…. The Farscape module and I got sucked into a wormhole and ended up a long ways from here in a very bad place and couldn’t get back.” That was an understatement. He continued, some of his nervousness showing, “I, uh, can’t stay here forever. How long I can stay depends on whether you guys think you have to turn me in…. “

DK blinked. “I knew it was a wormhole!” he exclaimed. “We never had any good readings, but it was the only thing I could think of that fit the data we did have. There wasn’t any debris….” He trailed off suddenly.

John was astounded. It had never once in four cycles occurred to him that DK would blame himself for what had happened to Farscape I, even though they’d been co-creators of the project. He went to DK and hugged him, an apology as well as a greeting. “I’m sorry,” John said, “both of you,” he added, looking over at his dad. “I’m so sorry.” He backed away from DK, and the three men looked at each other for a moment.

Then John looked back over his shoulder. Not surprisingly, Aeryn had moved up behind him, carrying his bag of tapes and notes. He smiled at her, to reassure her, then reached for her free hand and pulled her forward to stand beside him.

“Aeryn,” he said, gesturing to Jack and DK, “this is my dad, and my best friend DK.” He put his arm around her waist and continued proudly, “Guys, this is Aeryn Sun, my wife.”

“Hello,” she said in English.

His dad and DK looked properly surprised! John grinned at them.

Aeryn held out her hand awkwardly to his dad, surprising John as much as his father.

Jack smiled at her and took her hand.

But as soon as they were done shaking, Aeryn retrieved her hand and looked around the yard critically. After a moment she said to John, “Look, can we go somewhere less exposed? If you trust them, can we go inside to talk?”

She had a point, now that it looked like they were going to get a chance to talk. “Probably a good idea,” he told her. He didn’t even notice his father and DK react to the fact that Aeryn was speaking Sebacean.

He turned back to his father and said, “Can we go in the house? It’s pretty exposed out here.”

Jack and DK exchanged more glances. Jack nodded and said, “Sure, Son. If that’s what you want.”

John sighed, recognizing the stubborn tone of voice, but Aeryn nodded in apparent satisfaction and said in English, “Thank you.” John took her hand, and the two of them and DK followed Jack into the house.

John had never lived in this house….but it still held memories for him. He tensed up again as they walked through the house to the family room. He looked at the walls, the photos, the furniture, holding Aeryn’s hand tightly as they walked. She squeezed his hand in reassurance, and he was sure she was making note of the entrances and exits…

His dad offered to get everyone something to drink.

John brightened perceptibly at the question. It made him think of all the things he missed, living on Moya. “What do you have?” he asked. “Do you have Coke? Root beer? Any beer? Lemonade?” He really didn’t care – he would take anything that was made on Earth!

When his father offered to take him to the kitchen to make a choice, he turned to Aeryn, eyes shining. “This is great!” he exulted. “Aeryn, what do you want? I bet he’s got Coke! You can try Coke! Or orange soda!”

Aeryn gave him a martyred look and said, “You know I don’t know what any of those things taste like. Just bring me something you think I’ll like.” Undaunted, John grinned, and she softened and added, “Or something you’ve been telling me about for the last four cycles!”

He said cheerfully, “Okay,” then leaned over and kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen with his father.

“Hey, you got a new fridge!” John announced. He stood looking at it for a moment.

“The old one crapped out about 3 years ago,” his dad told him. “Go ahead and take a look, I think there’s a little bit of everything in there. When your sisters and their families come, everyone wants something different.”

“Are they okay?” John asked wistfully.

“They’re fine, they’re fine. The kids have grown, of course.”

“Of course,” said John, subdued. He didn’t think there was any way he’d be able to see his sisters’ families. He realized with a pang that he missed being “Uncle John.” After a moment he shook himself and pulled open the refrigerator door and started looking through the shelves.

“Aeryn carries herself like a soldier,” his father commented. “Like she‘s always watching your back.”

“I thought you might notice that.” John looked up for a moment, and then was distracted by something bright red in the refrigerator. “All right! Coca Cola!” He put several cans on the floor, and then continued as if he hadn’t stopped. “Yeah, she was born in space, raised to be a Peacekeeper – They’re kinda like Nazis….. “ It seemed an apt analogy, for most of the PK’s he’d known, anyway.

Once again he pulled out a drink in triumph and continued, “Meeting me got her thrown out – irreversibly contaminated by contact with an unknown species.” He made a dramatic face and thumped himself on the chest with both hands. “Unknown species, that’s me!” Actually, it still upset him to remember how much pain that had cost her, and for how long, even though in the end she assured him it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

His father took this in. “You’re saying she’s not human. She looks human. She’s very beautiful.”

John grinned at the compliment. “Nope, she’s Sebacean. It’s a good thing humans look Sebacean, though. It probably kept me alive more often than it almost got me killed.” Another understatement, he thought. The almost getting killed part, anyway. Peacekeepers were remarkably unpopular in the Uncharted Territories. He kept pulling cans and bottles out of the fridge, amassing a nice pile on the floor.

“Here,” his father said, handing him a tray to put his drinks on. John looked a little sheepish, but accepted it and began filling the tray.

Jack went back to the subject of Aeryn. “Nazis, you said?”

“Well, not exactly Nazis. But not very nice guys. Aeryn was a Prowler pilot. Um, like a fighter pilot, but more of a grunt. You follow orders and do what you’re told,” he continued. He was so used to tossing out half-appropriate references that no one else understood anyway, that he didn’t notice that he’d punched some worry buttons, and was hardly being reassuring.

When his tray was full, John stood up, careful not to tip any of the cans and bottles over. “But that was a long time ago,” he told his father, thinking of how much Aeryn had changed since they’d met. “She’s an ex-Peacekeeper now, has been for a long time. It’s been amazing watching her bloom away from the PK’s. She’ll always be a soldier, but she’s become so much more.” He grinned at his dad. “This is SO cool! She’s gonna love this stuff!”

His father looked at all the bottles and cans on the tray and remarked, “If she doesn’t float away….”

“Aeryn, Baby, look at all this!” he enthused as he set the tray down on the coffee table in front of her. “Look, this is Coke, Dr. Pepper, um, here’s a Heineken – that’s real beer, not fellip nectar – um, this is a different beer, this is 7-Up….” He stopped when he saw the look on her face.

Aeryn gestured towards the tray and asked, “Are any of those non-intoxicating?”

Leave it to Aeryn to be thinking about being able to shoot straight when he had the Nectar of the Gods to offer her! He replied, “Most of them. Except for the beer. They’re soft drinks.” He popped the tab on the Coke can and handed it to her. She sipped gingerly, and wrinkled her nose.

“Try some more,” John encouraged. “You’ll like it! There isn’t a place on the planet where they don’t drink Coca Cola!”

“That explains why humans are still confined to this world,” she said, but she drank some more to please him.

John continued to hand her cans and bottles with enthusiastic recommendations, taking sips himself and savoring the tastes he’d missed for so long. If he were honest with himself, he knew he was using the drinks as a delaying tactic – but he really did miss Diet Mountain Dew!

Finally his father interrupted. “John, you said you can’t stay. I don’t understand. You’re home now…”

John closed his eyes briefly and sighed. It was time to try to explain the unexplainable. He put down the can he had picked up, and took Aeryn’s from her as well. He sat down next to her and took her hand for security.

“Dad, I’m not stupid, I know I should march right in to IASA and announce I’m back. They’ll examine me, debrief me – and they’ll never let me out again.” A bit melodramatic, he thought, but he really did think that was what would happen. “I have a home out there, Dad, and friends,” he said earnestly. “I’ve changed so much. So much has happened to me. I’ve seen so much ugliness, and so much beauty.” And you’ll never truly understand, he thought. However much I miss Earth, I can’t stay. Resolutely, he said, “I can’t stay on a planet that doesn’t even have space travel – and I can’t ask Aeryn to stay. I’ve already cost her too much.” He turned and looked at her.

She smiled, but he wasn’t surprised to see tears appear in her eyes.

“A lot has happened,” John repeated. “I’ve been away from Earth for four cycles – years – in the hell hole of the universe. If the IASA goons ever get a chance to do a physical, they’d lock me up and throw away the key, never mind what they’d do to Aeryn.”

“Son, I think you saw too many science fiction movies as a kid. We don’t dissect people at IASA,” his father said soothingly.

Well, Dad, you didn’t live through an incredible simulation where they did dissect Rygel, John thought, but he only said noncommittally, “Maybe.”

It was time to try to tell his father some of what had happened to him. “You’ve probably noticed Aeryn and I can understand each other, and she can understand you. That’s translator microbes. They colonize the base of your brain and translate for you. That’s just for starters.” Actually, he thought, those little guys were pretty helpful. Civilization in the U.T.’s depended on them.

But, now the hard part…how to explain without getting into stuff he didn’t want to talk about, not just yet, anyway. Again, he had practiced it on Moya, at least trying to figure out what needed to be mentioned. Aeryn leaned her head against his shoulder, and he gathered strength from her closeness. “Besides that, I’ve had…a….a brain injury, I’ve got alien brain tissue in my head just so I can talk. I’ve got some memory loss.” All true. “But I’m me.” Also true. “I’m not brainwashed, I’m not a clone, a copy, a twin, a shape shifter, or a robot…” He’d hidden the twin in a nice long list, most of which had never happened, but it still hurt. He knew Aeryn was thinking of him too.

It was a pretty damning litany. He figured it boiled down to being locked up for the rest of his life. Despite the injuries and damage, despite everything, he was still John Crichton. “But, they’d never trust me,” he said to his dad and DK. “Hell, I don’t even know if you will.”

His father was looking at him with a studied neutral expression; it was hard to guess what he was thinking. It was DK who answered. “What do you want us to do, John?”

“I have some stuff for both of you. Tapes, a kind of diary. All the info I have on what happened to the Farscape I module. As much information as I’ve collected on wormholes. And some information about some really bad guys out there who might be coming this way eventually. I can give you guys this stuff now, and we” – and here he looked over at Aeryn again – “can leave. You can turn it over to the proper authorities, and say we overpowered you, or ran off before you could stop us. Or, hell, say you came home and found the stuff sitting on the front porch. At least this time I know that you guys know I’m okay, and we got to say goodbye.” Being able to say goodbye was the one thing he was counting on.

His Dad and DK both looked unhappy.

John ran his hand through his hair, took a breath, and started again. “Or, if you’re willing to take the risk of being found out, Aeryn and I can stay for a little while, we can catch up in more detail. You guys,” he said, looking wistfully from his dad to Aeryn, “can get to know each other a little better. Maybe I can see the girls somehow…. have a pizza…. some chocolate…. Hell, maybe even watch ‘Star Wars.’” He’d talked about Star Wars so much, even Aeryn could probably summarize the plot!

“I got the DVD’s for you,” his father said softly.

John grinned at Aeryn, who suddenly had the look of someone who had just had a revelation. “What do you think?” he asked her.

“Yoda from Dagobah?” she asked softly, eyes shining. “I’d like to see that.”

“Did she say ‘Yoda’?” his dad asked.

“And ‘Dagobah,’” DK confirmed.

John laughed. “Yeah, well, I did what I could to keep Home alive….”

His father looked dismayed, though exactly what had upset him, John wasn’t sure. Jack threw a glance at DK, and then said to John, “Give us a minute, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.”

While his father and friend talked quietly across the room, John sat next to Aeryn, one arm around her shoulder, hand playing with wisps of her hair that had escaped her braid, the other hand in her lap, playing idly with her fingers. His gaze, however, swept the room, lingering on family pictures here and there. The boy in those photos was so, so, so VERY lost now. But John hoped he could find him again, for a few days, visiting here with his father.

When his dad and DK finished their whispered conference and came back to where they sat, John’s gaze settled on his father, hoping that they would be able to stay.

His dad took a deep breath and said, “I won’t deny that you seem different from when we lost you…. But….my heart says that you’re my son John. And I really don’t want to let you go again so soon after just finding out you’re alive. I’d lie to the President of the United States if I had to, to keep you here a little longer.”

All right! John thought. That’s some serious lying coming from my dad…. It sounded like this was going to work out.

Jack looked over at DK and then back to John and Aeryn. “I’m an old Hero whose son just came back from the dead – even if they were inclined to give me grief, I can call in enough favors with the government or the media or whatever I need, that I’ll be okay if they find out that I didn’t tell. You can stay here for as long as you’re willing. I’ll call in sick. They owe me.”

This sounded so much like his father that John gave Aeryn an “I told you so” look, even though she knew how worried he had been. Wonder of wonders, she didn’t argue with him!

“But I have a family now, John,” DK said reluctantly. “A wife and a little boy.”

John was surprised, and delighted. “All right! Congratulations, my man!” He slapped DK on the back. “What’re their names?”

“My wife’s name is Heather, and our son is Joey. He’s two, and quite a handful.”

“Well, he’s your son, that explains it!” John said jokingly, and Aeryn gave him an odd look.

“Do you have children?” DK asked her, whether on the spur of the moment, or in response to her expression, John couldn’t tell.

“No,” she said with the ghost of a smile. “But someday,” she added in Sebacean.

“Not yet,” John translated quietly. “We know we can have healthy kids though. When the time is right.” They really hadn’t talked much about kids yet. But she had just said, “Someday,” and he filed that away in the back of his mind. He looked at Aeryn again and grinned. “That’s the story of our relationship! ‘When the time is right’!”

Looking at DK, Aeryn spoke urgently to John. “I know he’s your friend, John, and I know you want to see him, but if he’s sure he needs to go, he should go now. The longer he’s here, the more dangerous it is for us, and for him. He has a wife and child to protect.”

“She’s right, DK,” John said, forgetting no one else could understand her. “We have no right to endanger you – your family needs you. You should go now before someone notices you aren’t at work.” He didn’t really want DK to go – he’d barely had the chance to speak to him – but he could see how far apart they’d grown, and he respected DK’s new life.

DK asked curiously, “How do you know I won’t tell someone?”

“You’re my best friend,” John whispered, even if it wasn’t true any more. “And besides, if Aeryn trusts you, believe me, I trust you.”

“I should go, I guess. Can you get back for your car, Sir?” DK asked, looking at John’s father.

“I’ll figure something out.”

“DK, maybe you can come by later, while we’re here. We could catch up on old times….” John really wished they could, no matter the risk.

“I don’t think so,” DK said quietly. “If I do come, Heather’s going to know something’s up. I can’t bring her into this. The more people that know, the more chances for them to tell someone else. I don’t think you need to have anyone looking for you….”

John flashed him a grateful look for his perception, and reached out to hug him again. “You don’t know how good it is to see you,” he said.

“You too.” DK smiled at Aeryn, who gifted him with her most blinding smile in return. “I gotta run. Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” said John.

DK let himself out the front door, leaving John to stand awkwardly with Aeryn and his father, wondering where to begin. Well, humor usually worked on Moya. At least, that’s what he usually tried first. He broke the silence by saying, “So, do you have any chocolate?”

His father let out a huge laugh. “If not, I guess a trip to the market is in order. We should probably get you two some different clothes, too, if we’re going to go out. You’re kind of conspicuous,” he said, with a smile to soften the critici