NOTEBOOK CHALLENGE

Fic written in answer to CrystalMoon’s Fanfic Challenge

Requirements:

- J/A conversation or shippy scene

- 3^rd cast member of your choosing

- John’s star notebook (which I believe served other purposes like wormhole study for instance)

- Less than 2500 words

Timeline: post-Fractures

*****

“Here you go!” D’Argo spat, practically throwing the notebook at John’s face, startling him out of his work. “I managed to get hold of it for you. Now you’ll stop complaining about having to start all over again!”

He started striding out of the room the way he had come. Glancing back at John from the threshold, he stopped dead in his tracks, touched by the look of disorientation on his face. He strode back inside and gave him a crushing bear hug.

“It takes time,” he mumbled, nearly knocking the wind out of John’s lungs with his awkward and powerful pats on the back. “One blett of a long time.” He released him and this time, strode out of the room without a look behind.

John stared numbly at the notebook that had landed on his desk right under his nose while he had been concentrating on wormhole equations. He sat back in his chair and started leafing slowly through the notebook, his shoulders slightly sagging as he went further through it.

“Frell!” He muttered dejectedly.

Aeryn strolled aimlessly through Moya’s corridors. She particularly enjoyed doing it during the sleep cycle when all was peaceful and quiet. It was much better than tossing and turning in her bed, unable to find the sleep. She could always pretend that she was running an inspection of some kind. She was passing the entrance to the lab when she noticed an unexpected source of light from inside of it and wondered what Jool might be doing there at this time. Curiosity got the better over her recent distant behavior. She entered the room and rounded a tall stack of shelves toward the source of the light only to find herself standing right in front of John, sitting at one of the tables. He didn’t even look up, too concentrated on his task to notice her presence. He was bent over his notebook, holding a fine brush in his hand, which he regularly dipped into a transparent and pungent liquid in a tiny bottle next to him, carefully smoothing the tip against the top of the bottle so it would not spill, applying it on the notebook in careful strokes, his brows furrowed in deep concentration then softly blowing over the page before starting the whole process again. She stood there silently, watching his little game for a while yet with no inkling whatsoever as to what he was up to.

“Hey,” she said at last, curiosity again getting the better.

He looked up sharply. She saw the surprise in his eyes and embarrassment too it seemed.

“Hey,” he replied, a bit circumspect, brush poised over the notebook.

“What’s all this for?” She asked with a nod toward the brush and the stinking liquid.

“I… huh… I’m trying to remove the tea… I mean, the water stains,” he cleared his throat noisily. “They splattered on the pages, making the writings sometimes almost unreadable.”

“Oh. I see,” she murmured.

“I had important work in here,” he added apologetically.

“I know,” she replied tonelessly, taking a seat in front of him on the other side of the table.

He looked at her expectantly. She was staring absently at the notebook. Not daring to push her further, he returned to his tedious and meticulous task.

She remained there, her chin resting on her hand, watching his slow progress as he went through page after page. Now that he had explained to her what he was doing, she could see how each stroke attempted to outline the signs that were no longer completely alien to her, removing the blurs caused by the stains. She felt herself getting drowsy with the sense of quiet and comfort in the room. There was something very soothing about the way he carefully worked around each and every little sign, trying as best he could to bring it back to its original state.

“Aeryn?” John started hesitantly, biting his lower lip.

“Hmm…”

“You returned all of my other stuff in the bag, why did you keep the notebook?”

“I didn’t,” she replied softly. “Rygel did.”

He gave her his most puzzled look.

THE END