Smiling Olivia holds the door for Aeryn, who's back in her leathers. "I know you're preparing for a private dinner, so I won't stay long." Olivia closes the door behind her, not sure what to do with this new Aeryn, somehow less a sister than before. "Is he...is John here yet?" Olivia leads her into the house: "Um, no. Not yet." Aeryn offers Olivia her clothes back, and Olivia asks if they didn't suit her, laughing awkwardly. This need to reach out. The damnable, wonderful tentacles of family drawing you in. Aeryn apologizes with her eyes and says she's more comfortable in black leather. "It's what I am, I guess," and they laugh like sisters. "And I brought the books, as well. I really appreciate it...everything." The sadness in her eyes, watching maybes and somedays drop like dead flies, like fantasies. Unrealized realities. "Are you leaving?" says Olivia, leaning in for a closer look. "You'll be here tomorrow morning to open presents with the rest of us, won't you?" The of course love that Aeryn has such trouble understanding. Aeryn: "I may not." Olivia worries -- "What's happened?" -- but Aeryn puts a calm, sweet face on it. "Nothing bad. It's not bad." The echo of John's scene with her earlier, the need for Olivia not to worry as the world's falling down around them. As the rejected love and bad wisdom ripple out, breaking apart this new family in ways that Jack and Olivia can't know. Leslie died and John got ate by a wormhole, and even DK marrying Laura didn't make them less alone. They did their best to make a home and a family, just the two of them. Olivia never married. It was just the two of them. And then John came back, bearing a beautiful new black-clad sister. And the world fell apart, and she doesn't even know it yet. Aeryn protests that no, she'll just probably be needed back on Moya for a while. "It's all right." Olivia goes to check on dinner, assuring Aeryn she'll be right back. Begging her not to leave. In this family, I bet her shit's fine-tuned.









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