FSL Exchange Fic for: dizzydame
Title: Christmas Story
Rating: PG
Written For: dizzydame
Written by: jacquelee
John had pretty high hopes for this Christmas. It would be Livvie’s very first Christmas and for the first time, Deke had been able to be actively involved in the preparations. The little guy seemed to like Christmas very much already and cherished helping to find a treelike plant that they set in the main chamber and decorated together.
Afterwards, both Chiana and Deke looked more like Christmas trees than the tree itself, but their beaming faces made up for any inconsistencies in the decorations - even though John had to admit that the food cubes they hung here and there did look… interesting.
Now they sat at the table to share a traditional meal - not that the contents were very traditional, but at least they were all together. Aeryn was a very good sport about all this.
She understood how important it was for him and she even told stories about their Christmas on Earth - gently brushing over the not so happy parts.
He had to admit that she had become really good at telling stories. So good that she succeeded in drawing him in and only the sound of the spoon being hammered onto the table reminded him now and then that he was supposed to feed his little daughter. When Aeryn reached the Screeth attack, nobody on the table even thought about eating. She told it as if he had been the hero and when the Screeth was finally down, everyone let out a sigh of relief - only to gasp in shock when he stood up again. Deke let out a cry and seeked shelter in his mothers embrace, who stroke his hair and relieved them all with the surprise appearance of D’Argo in his ship, who blew the Screeth to pieces.
“Boom!” Deke commented, while laughing loudly and clapping his hands. Livvie hammered her spoon happily on the table and Aeryn and John exchanged a meaningful look, both very aware of the tears Chiana tried to wipe away secretly.
“I vote we clean this up later and get to the real fun part now.” John said to get back to the topic of the day.
“So, how about we open a few presents?” Of course, Deke was immediately game, he had been eyeing the colourfully wrapped gifts under the tree the whole day.
Aeryn gave him a curt nod and smiled, and Chiana, who seemed to have found her balance again, was just as excited as Deke when she rushed with him to sit in front of the tree.
Aeryn and John stayed behind a little. John had taken his daughter out of the high chair and with her in his arms he leaned over to take Aeryn in a one armed embrace and to kiss her. She responded in kind and they shared a wonderful moment full of promises, until Deke’s demanding voice and Livvie’s giggling brought them back to the here and now.
“Later” John whispered and Aeryn answered with such a promising smile that his knees went all wobbly. And not for the first time he thought what a lucky man he was that even after having been married four years, still one look from Aeryn was enough to make him want her.
When they joined Chiana and Deke under the tree, Aeryn took Olivia out of his arms and settled comfortably on the floor with her daughter in her lap. John chose the tried and true system they had always used in the Crichton household and told Deke to close his eyes and choose one present at random. The person that present was for would than open it.
Deke really liked that idea, and when he closed his eyes and still made his way very determined to the biggest present there was, John flashed back to his own childhood. He had always been able to get to the biggest present first, with absolute certainty, much to the disdain of Suse and Liv.
When Deke had reached the gift and held it up with a triumphant sound, John waved him over to check whom the present was for. And after a little dramatic pause he announced to Deke’s delight that the present was indeed for him. With shining eyes and very little patience he ripped the wrapping apart.
When he saw what was inside the package, he just stared at it for a few seconds with wide eyes. Then he beamed and looked at his parents.
“That’s like daddy’s!” he said, holding the leather coat in his hands like it was a rare treasure.
Aeryn and John exchanged looks again. Obviously it had been the right choice, even though they hadn’t been sure if it was a good idea to get a four year old a coat like that, but Deke had always admired their coats. And well, they were a family, why not show it?
Deke donned the coat and John whispered to Aeryn “You know he’s gonna sleep in that tonight, right?” but she just smiled at him coyly and told Deke to get the next present.
After everyone got their presents - even Pilot, who was there on the clamshell and who was very moved by his new drum, even though it was pretty clear he didn’t have any idea what to do with it - there was one present left that John didn’t know about.
Deke brought it to him, but there was no card attached.
“Well, I guess this is for everyone then.” He said with a shrug and gave it to Deke to open, shooting a curious look in Aeryn’s direction, who seemed to be really occupied with Livvie happily rummaging around in all the wrappings and not paying attention.
When Deke had finally ripped the present open, he seemed to be a little disappointed.
“It’s a box. There’s a picture on it. Strange picture.”
“Show me.” John waved the little guy over and looked at the box.
“That’s a jigsaw puzzle.” he said incredulously. He looked at Aeryn again, who now looked back, and he saw something he rarely saw in her face. Insecurity. It was clear that she had bought this on Earth, probably nudged by Olivia, and kept it hidden all these years. There had been surprises for the last years, things from home she had kept from him until the right moment, but still he had to swallow hard to keep away the sentimental tears.
His son looked at him, obviously waiting for further information on this odd present.
“It’s a game” he said, swallowing his feelings. “You put the pieces together to form an image.”
Deke frowned but seemed to be intrigued. He opened the box and took some of the pieces out.
“Can we make it now?” he asked.
“Why not” John said, clearing a spot on the floor. Chiana moved closer.
John told them to first put all the pieces up on the side with the picture and to then try putting the pieces together, starting on the frame.
Chiana got bored after a while and left and Aeryn conceded that this was a father and son thing and went to change Livvie and put her to bed, but Deke turned out to be a great puzzler.
They stayed up quite a while to finish the puzzle. Aeryn came back just as they were putting in the last pieces.
Deke beamed when he put in the final one. But then he frowned.
“The picture is still odd. Why do these machines have faces?”
John didn’t really know what to say. Of course his son knew TV, but they didn’t really get all the latest kid shows here in the UT’s so he had never seen Bob the Builder. Or machines like that for that matter, but obviously it struck him as most odd that they had big eyes.
“It’s a kid show, like what we watch on TV, only for kids. The machines talk because it’s funny.” Aeryn looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Well, he knew himself that that sounded pretty lame but that was all he had. Deke seemed to be okay with it though and just yawned.
“Time for bed, little guy.” John said, happy to change the subject.
For once, Deke didn’t complain, but just let his father carry him to his bed. But, as John had anticipated, Deke insisted on wearing the coat in bed and even though Aeryn frowned on it, they both didn’t have the heart to tell him off.
“I like Christmas” the little boy said, already half asleep “and I like talking machines with big eyes. I wanna have a talking machine.”
John hoped Deke would fall asleep before he had to explain that that wasn’t likely to ever happen, but the boy seemed to have latched on to the topic, so he tried to explain as simple and as gently as he could that those things weren’t real.
It didn’t really help that Aeryn seemed to think that talking machines with big eyes were absolutely no big deal and totally believable. John thought about the way she reacted when he had first mentioned Yoda and he chuckled a bit. Well, they were living in a living spaceship controlled by a four armed lobster and little yellow robots with eyestalks, so talking machines weren’t that far fetched.
And he wasn’t about to get into a fight with his wife on Christmas over a kid show, so in the end he just resorted to the old, ‘they only live on Earth’ routine, which seemed to work and Deke finally fell asleep.
“So what are we doing now?” Aeryn asked playfully after they left the room. John turned to her and cocked one eyebrow. “Well, there’s that other Christmas tradition, you know.”
She smiled and took his hand. “Why don’t you tell me about it.”
That was all the invitation he needed. He drew her in for a long kiss and afterwards they both hurried to their room to celebrate Christmas their way.
The next day started pretty normal. Deke wore his leather coat the whole time, Aeryn went to the shooting range to try out her new pulse pistol and Chiana enjoyed her new bedsheets so much that she didn’t even come out of bed till late that afternoon.
John was left with taking care of Livvie and Deke, which wasn’t really a chore for him, even though both had inherited Aeryn’s temper. But he was doing pretty good and even got Deke settled down to draw something while he played with Livvie.
In the afternoon they visited Pilot in his den. He had been practising on the drums and even though he still thought them to be pretty silly, he seemed to enjoy himself. Even more so when Deke climbed up on the console and started drumming too.
When Aeryn came back for mid meal, Deke showed them what he had drawn.
At first John didn’t recognize it at all, it looked like two fishes with faces. But seeing that Deke had never seen any fish, that was highly unlikely.
When he saw that his parents were obviously clueless, Deke pointed at one of the shapes.
“See, that’s Mr. Module.” he said with a knowing smile. “And this is Mrs. Prowler.” He pointed at the other shape and looked at his parents, beaming.
“They like each other.”
John laughed and cuddled his son. “Yeah, you’re right. They do like each other.”
Aeryn just smiled and nodded. When they went to the table, he held her back a little and whispered: “How about Mr. Module taking Mrs. Prowler on a little trip tonight?”
She cocked her eyebrows and whispered back with a coy smile: “If you think Mr. Module can handle that.”
“Oh, I assure you, he can.” John answered and drew her in for a quick kiss before they joined the others on the table.
Sitting there in the middle of his family, anticipating a nice evening, laughing and joking, John thought that this Christmas really had been a good one.
Mr. Module was a lucky guy.
Author’s note: This is a picture of the puzzle I was thinking about while writing this (in case someone is unfamiliar with Bob the Builder).
Rating: PG
Written For: dizzydame
Written by: jacquelee
John had pretty high hopes for this Christmas. It would be Livvie’s very first Christmas and for the first time, Deke had been able to be actively involved in the preparations. The little guy seemed to like Christmas very much already and cherished helping to find a treelike plant that they set in the main chamber and decorated together.
Afterwards, both Chiana and Deke looked more like Christmas trees than the tree itself, but their beaming faces made up for any inconsistencies in the decorations - even though John had to admit that the food cubes they hung here and there did look… interesting.
Now they sat at the table to share a traditional meal - not that the contents were very traditional, but at least they were all together. Aeryn was a very good sport about all this.
She understood how important it was for him and she even told stories about their Christmas on Earth - gently brushing over the not so happy parts.
He had to admit that she had become really good at telling stories. So good that she succeeded in drawing him in and only the sound of the spoon being hammered onto the table reminded him now and then that he was supposed to feed his little daughter. When Aeryn reached the Screeth attack, nobody on the table even thought about eating. She told it as if he had been the hero and when the Screeth was finally down, everyone let out a sigh of relief - only to gasp in shock when he stood up again. Deke let out a cry and seeked shelter in his mothers embrace, who stroke his hair and relieved them all with the surprise appearance of D’Argo in his ship, who blew the Screeth to pieces.
“Boom!” Deke commented, while laughing loudly and clapping his hands. Livvie hammered her spoon happily on the table and Aeryn and John exchanged a meaningful look, both very aware of the tears Chiana tried to wipe away secretly.
“I vote we clean this up later and get to the real fun part now.” John said to get back to the topic of the day.
“So, how about we open a few presents?” Of course, Deke was immediately game, he had been eyeing the colourfully wrapped gifts under the tree the whole day.
Aeryn gave him a curt nod and smiled, and Chiana, who seemed to have found her balance again, was just as excited as Deke when she rushed with him to sit in front of the tree.
Aeryn and John stayed behind a little. John had taken his daughter out of the high chair and with her in his arms he leaned over to take Aeryn in a one armed embrace and to kiss her. She responded in kind and they shared a wonderful moment full of promises, until Deke’s demanding voice and Livvie’s giggling brought them back to the here and now.
“Later” John whispered and Aeryn answered with such a promising smile that his knees went all wobbly. And not for the first time he thought what a lucky man he was that even after having been married four years, still one look from Aeryn was enough to make him want her.
When they joined Chiana and Deke under the tree, Aeryn took Olivia out of his arms and settled comfortably on the floor with her daughter in her lap. John chose the tried and true system they had always used in the Crichton household and told Deke to close his eyes and choose one present at random. The person that present was for would than open it.
Deke really liked that idea, and when he closed his eyes and still made his way very determined to the biggest present there was, John flashed back to his own childhood. He had always been able to get to the biggest present first, with absolute certainty, much to the disdain of Suse and Liv.
When Deke had reached the gift and held it up with a triumphant sound, John waved him over to check whom the present was for. And after a little dramatic pause he announced to Deke’s delight that the present was indeed for him. With shining eyes and very little patience he ripped the wrapping apart.
When he saw what was inside the package, he just stared at it for a few seconds with wide eyes. Then he beamed and looked at his parents.
“That’s like daddy’s!” he said, holding the leather coat in his hands like it was a rare treasure.
Aeryn and John exchanged looks again. Obviously it had been the right choice, even though they hadn’t been sure if it was a good idea to get a four year old a coat like that, but Deke had always admired their coats. And well, they were a family, why not show it?
Deke donned the coat and John whispered to Aeryn “You know he’s gonna sleep in that tonight, right?” but she just smiled at him coyly and told Deke to get the next present.
After everyone got their presents - even Pilot, who was there on the clamshell and who was very moved by his new drum, even though it was pretty clear he didn’t have any idea what to do with it - there was one present left that John didn’t know about.
Deke brought it to him, but there was no card attached.
“Well, I guess this is for everyone then.” He said with a shrug and gave it to Deke to open, shooting a curious look in Aeryn’s direction, who seemed to be really occupied with Livvie happily rummaging around in all the wrappings and not paying attention.
When Deke had finally ripped the present open, he seemed to be a little disappointed.
“It’s a box. There’s a picture on it. Strange picture.”
“Show me.” John waved the little guy over and looked at the box.
“That’s a jigsaw puzzle.” he said incredulously. He looked at Aeryn again, who now looked back, and he saw something he rarely saw in her face. Insecurity. It was clear that she had bought this on Earth, probably nudged by Olivia, and kept it hidden all these years. There had been surprises for the last years, things from home she had kept from him until the right moment, but still he had to swallow hard to keep away the sentimental tears.
His son looked at him, obviously waiting for further information on this odd present.
“It’s a game” he said, swallowing his feelings. “You put the pieces together to form an image.”
Deke frowned but seemed to be intrigued. He opened the box and took some of the pieces out.
“Can we make it now?” he asked.
“Why not” John said, clearing a spot on the floor. Chiana moved closer.
John told them to first put all the pieces up on the side with the picture and to then try putting the pieces together, starting on the frame.
Chiana got bored after a while and left and Aeryn conceded that this was a father and son thing and went to change Livvie and put her to bed, but Deke turned out to be a great puzzler.
They stayed up quite a while to finish the puzzle. Aeryn came back just as they were putting in the last pieces.
Deke beamed when he put in the final one. But then he frowned.
“The picture is still odd. Why do these machines have faces?”
John didn’t really know what to say. Of course his son knew TV, but they didn’t really get all the latest kid shows here in the UT’s so he had never seen Bob the Builder. Or machines like that for that matter, but obviously it struck him as most odd that they had big eyes.
“It’s a kid show, like what we watch on TV, only for kids. The machines talk because it’s funny.” Aeryn looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Well, he knew himself that that sounded pretty lame but that was all he had. Deke seemed to be okay with it though and just yawned.
“Time for bed, little guy.” John said, happy to change the subject.
For once, Deke didn’t complain, but just let his father carry him to his bed. But, as John had anticipated, Deke insisted on wearing the coat in bed and even though Aeryn frowned on it, they both didn’t have the heart to tell him off.
“I like Christmas” the little boy said, already half asleep “and I like talking machines with big eyes. I wanna have a talking machine.”
John hoped Deke would fall asleep before he had to explain that that wasn’t likely to ever happen, but the boy seemed to have latched on to the topic, so he tried to explain as simple and as gently as he could that those things weren’t real.
It didn’t really help that Aeryn seemed to think that talking machines with big eyes were absolutely no big deal and totally believable. John thought about the way she reacted when he had first mentioned Yoda and he chuckled a bit. Well, they were living in a living spaceship controlled by a four armed lobster and little yellow robots with eyestalks, so talking machines weren’t that far fetched.
And he wasn’t about to get into a fight with his wife on Christmas over a kid show, so in the end he just resorted to the old, ‘they only live on Earth’ routine, which seemed to work and Deke finally fell asleep.
“So what are we doing now?” Aeryn asked playfully after they left the room. John turned to her and cocked one eyebrow. “Well, there’s that other Christmas tradition, you know.”
She smiled and took his hand. “Why don’t you tell me about it.”
That was all the invitation he needed. He drew her in for a long kiss and afterwards they both hurried to their room to celebrate Christmas their way.
The next day started pretty normal. Deke wore his leather coat the whole time, Aeryn went to the shooting range to try out her new pulse pistol and Chiana enjoyed her new bedsheets so much that she didn’t even come out of bed till late that afternoon.
John was left with taking care of Livvie and Deke, which wasn’t really a chore for him, even though both had inherited Aeryn’s temper. But he was doing pretty good and even got Deke settled down to draw something while he played with Livvie.
In the afternoon they visited Pilot in his den. He had been practising on the drums and even though he still thought them to be pretty silly, he seemed to enjoy himself. Even more so when Deke climbed up on the console and started drumming too.
When Aeryn came back for mid meal, Deke showed them what he had drawn.
At first John didn’t recognize it at all, it looked like two fishes with faces. But seeing that Deke had never seen any fish, that was highly unlikely.
When he saw that his parents were obviously clueless, Deke pointed at one of the shapes.
“See, that’s Mr. Module.” he said with a knowing smile. “And this is Mrs. Prowler.” He pointed at the other shape and looked at his parents, beaming.
“They like each other.”
John laughed and cuddled his son. “Yeah, you’re right. They do like each other.”
Aeryn just smiled and nodded. When they went to the table, he held her back a little and whispered: “How about Mr. Module taking Mrs. Prowler on a little trip tonight?”
She cocked her eyebrows and whispered back with a coy smile: “If you think Mr. Module can handle that.”
“Oh, I assure you, he can.” John answered and drew her in for a quick kiss before they joined the others on the table.
Sitting there in the middle of his family, anticipating a nice evening, laughing and joking, John thought that this Christmas really had been a good one.
Mr. Module was a lucky guy.
Author’s note: This is a picture of the puzzle I was thinking about while writing this (in case someone is unfamiliar with Bob the Builder).