Room 209, Sunday afternoon/evening

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After leaving Sanctity, Aeryn's really impressively agitated. She's on the phone as soon as she's out the door, heading back to the dorms.

And once she's back there, she opens the door to 209 and waits.

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[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"A pastry?" He shrugs but tries to remember anything out of the ordinary happening. "He just talked to me."

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"Talked about what?" she presses. She trusts Zhaan to tell her the truth, so she wants as much information as possible.

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"That the other me and him got in each other's way until they resolved their differences to unite and take down a tyrannical empire," John tells her.

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Aeryn sits on the bed, looking at the floor as she tries to work this out. On one hand, that kind of fits with what Scorpius told her, too. Put Earth at risk and John would probably help his torturer if it meant doing the right thing. On the other hand... "He also told me I brought him aboard the Leviathan," she says. "After you'd been tortured. I don't believe him."

In one small case, it's a disappointment to make the decision not to believe it. Because after all she's finding out, that John deserved to have things work out.

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"How did he torture me?" John asks because he can't avoid that question forever.

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"Something called an Aurora Chair," she answers. It's easier to hear than it is to repeat. "Zhaan didn't tell me much about it, but... It didn't sound pleasant."

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"I don't know what that is," he says lamely. And he frowns because this is something he never expected to hear. "But I don't know anything about wormholes! Why would he do anything to me now?"

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"Zhaan seems to think he would do it just because he could."

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John covers his face with his hand and shakes his head again.

"I don't want to be tortured," he admits.

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She stands again, walking over to him. "He won't do anything," she assures him. "He hasn't so far, he can't get into the dorms... At least not without me shooting him in the head."

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"I have a headache," he says quietly.

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She touches his face and asks, "Are you okay?"

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"I believe him and he was lying to me," he tells her. "He lied to me and I didn't do anything."

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"You couldn't know," says Aeryn. "If he hadn't started off questioning me, I probably would have just believed it, too. You had no way of knowing."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I guess."

And there's a shadow in the corner, brief and looming. It catches John's attention and he jerks his head towards it, staring.

There's nothing there.

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Aeryn follows his gaze. "John?"

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He blinks a few times to make sure there is, in fact, nothing there.

"What?"

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She tilts her head a little at him and frowns. "Are you all right?" she asks, because he didn't actually answer the question.

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"I'm tired," he says and continues avoiding that question because he's really not sure. And he's still glancing at the spot where the shadow was.

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Aeryn looks back at the spot again because she has no idea what he's looking at. "There's nothing there," she says.

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"I know," he says, tearing his eyes away. "I was just thinking."

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"Tell me," she says.

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He shakes his head at her. "It's nothing important. Just stuff."

And there's laughing from the corner and the shadow drifts away in a slither of smoke.

He frowns this time, shaking his head again.

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Aeryn doesn't even know what to say, because it seems like he's not really with her at the moment. She just watches for a moment and says, "It's okay to be a little freaked out..."

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"It's not that," he says absently. "I'm not freaked out."

And there's more laughing, closer now, flitting around his ears and John squeezes his eyes closed, trying to ward whatever this is off.

He's still got his eyes closed when the laughing stops.