The Last Place by Lady Smith (PG-13, barely)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm AstroGirl, and I'll be driving the Crack Van for Farscape this month. I have a particular fondness for Stark, so you're going to be seeing a great deal of him, but I won't neglect the rest of the crew, I promise.

To start things off this month, I'm going to continue fbf's trend of recommending stories from the Sprog-a-thon, because (somewhat to my surprise, given the subject matter), that ficathon produced an extraordinarily good crop of fic.

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: John/Aeryn, though I wouldn't exactly call it a "pairing" fic
Author on LJ: lady_smith
Author Website: none that I know of
Why this must be read: I admit to being a bit biased towards this particular story, as it was written for my request. But you hardly need to be me to appreciate it, given everything it's got going for it: a good plot; interesting aliens; Crichton being, well, Crichton; a heck of an emotional impact; and, yes, a well-written post-Peacekeeper Wars Stark.

Here's how it starts:

Give me credit, my first reaction isn't to turn around and scream at Aeryn some more, though it's what I'm desperately wanting to do.

Give her credit, hers isn't to panic, or apologize, or beat herself up, but to shoot me a quick look of "let's deal with what an idiot I am later" and make a beeline for D'argo's room, still occasionally yelling for Pilot through the comms, getting nothing.

I've already forgiven her for whatever we'll find – or won't find – there. I just pray to god she'll forgive herself.

The Last Place