From around the house, various other voices raised themselves in protest at the sudden darkness, though it didn't seem as though anyone was going to be actively seeking retribution this time. Behind John, Leia slowed to accommodate for his clumsy movement in the dark, her elven sight utterly unaffected by the lack of light to see by. After watching the soldier stumble for a minute or so, however, she decided she should probably help. "Would you like a light, John?"

"Please," John replied, fingers following the wall to guide himself down the stairs without tripping over his own two feet. It was times like this when a part of him almost expected for some monster to pop out at him around every corner, though he knew it was ridiculous. They were safe here, for the most part, at least from the things that haunted his nights. He halted on the stairs, waiting for Leia to produce a light before continuing on.

The light that was produced turned out to be a small orb of something indefinably sparkling that illuminated the entire width of the hallway and stairs from just behind John's head, saving him from being blinded by the light as it appeared. "Does that help?" the small half-elf asked from the top of the stairs. "Sloti could come and help guide you, if you would like."

"No, that's-that's fine. Thanks," John replied, frowning irritably. It was hard to stay angry when the girl was around. She was just too damned nice. What she was doing with a guy like Jake Jensen, he wasn't quite sure. The guy was a genius in his own way, but as irritating as hell. It was no big secret that he and John Grimm were oil and water. John continued on down the stairs, turning the corner and into the living room in search of a certain computer genius with a knack for blowing fuses.

Leia smiled to herself, sending a gentle sense of warning through the bond that linked her with Jensen. Whether he noticed it or not was another thing entirely, but what mattered was that she had at least warned him that something was coming. As she continued after John, Sloti chittered companionably on her shoulder, small eyes fixed on John's feet as though keeping an eye out for unexpected obstacles.

John froze in place as he turned the corner and stepped into the living room, his mouth dropping in undisguised shock at what what Jensen was up to in there. It took him a moment to find his voice, but it wasn't John's voice or footsteps that announced his arrival so much as it was Leia's warning. "The hell is going on in here?" John asked as he took in the view. What he saw - besides a rather perplexed young man with blond hair and wire-rim glasses - was a seven foot tall evergreen standing in the middle of the living room, covered in strands of unlit electric lights.

As Leia came up behind John, Sloti vaulted over the tall man's shoulder and scurried into the living room, leaping through the loops of lights to stand almost protectively in front of Jake, his bright eyes on John.

"Uh, surprise?" Jake replied, a little uncertainly. The tree was supposed to be a surprise anyway, but it seemed his plan had backfired. He pushed the rim of his glasses upwards and smiled at John a bit sheepishly. He knew the other man didn't like him much; in fact, it seemed he just barely tolerated him. Maybe this was his way of making a peace offering; maybe it was just Jake's way of bringing a little bit of home to Rhy'Din.

"A Christmas tree?" John said, doubtfully. "You're kidding."

"Geez, I guess they don't call you Grimm for nothing," Jake muttered under his breath.

"I beg your pardon?" countered John, crossing his arms against his chest and glaring at the other man.

"What is a Christmas tree?" Leia asked, leaning around John with a warm smile for the sight of her lover being protected by her ferret friend. The tension was already rising in the room, thanks to one unconsidered comment and John's already volatile temper. "It looks like a pine tree to me. What are you doing to it, Jake?"

"If the shoe fits," Jake told John with a shrug of shoulders. He didn't really mean anything by it exactly; he was just saying it like it was.

"You've gotta be kidding me," John continued. "Do you really think a Christmas tree is a good idea" Were you planning on putting a wreath on the door and stockings on the non-existent mantel, as well?" John accused, more irritated with the Grimm remark than with the tree. He didn't want to admit it, but it reminded him of things he'd rather not think about - like his parents and childhood.

"It is a pine tree," Jake said, turning his attention to Leia with a smile. "I was working on the lights, but..."

"You blew a fuse," John finished his sentence for him.

"John, mantels can't wear stockings, they don't have legs," Leia said mildly, inching past the increasingly annoyed mercenary to enter the room and inspect the tree. Sloti climbed up her leg, clinging to the material of her shirt to watch as she touched the string of electric lights thoughtfully. "I could light these without touching the ekeltrickysee," she offered with a half smile. "It's just a simple spell."

"Anything to make our holidays brighter," John remarked, sarcastically. It was going to take a lot more than Christmas lights to soothe his jangled nerves.

"How about some eggnog, little brother?" Sam broke in merrily as she poked her head in the room.

John pursed his lips as he glanced at his sister. "Don't tell me you're involved in this, too."

"As a matter of fact, I am," she replied, stepping into the room and crossing her arms, almost mirroring her twin. "This place could use some cheering up and so could you. Don't be such a humbug, John. It's nearly Christmas," Sam implored with that look on her face that he was going to have a hard time saying no to.

"The winterland?" she asked curiously. Yes, she had heard of Yule, but undoubtedly it was not the Yule he was referring to. "It's a country far to the north, what does it have to do with pine trees that aren't pine trees and brickwork wearing lingerie?"

"No, no," he interrupted, lifting a hand to stop her before she misunderstood completely. "It's a holiday. Do you know what a holiday is" It's like a celebration. I'm not sure about the origins, but I think it started with Yule, and then later it became Christmas." He wasn't especially religious and wasn't about to explain the religious significance of the holiday just yet. It was hard enough explaining why he'd erected a tree in the living room, for starters.

"Are you talking about the Solstice?" Leia threw him a bone with a faint twitch of her lips as Sloti climbed up his leg and side to curl up comfortably on Jake's wider shoulder, nibbling affectionately on the man's earlobe for a moment. "The night of light in the heart of winter?" Yes, she did have a frame of reference, but she had never really celebrated the solstice, despite knowing about it. Perhaps it would be good to learn a little more about it this year.

Jake twitched, batting a hand at his ear before realizing it was Leia's pet ferret who was giving him an affectionate nibble. "Sloti, careful. I need that ear." He arched a brow back at Leia's mention of a holiday he was unfamiliar with. He knew what the Solstice was, but he'd never celebrated it before. "Not exactly," he replied. "It's a few days later, but sort of. It's sort of a winter festival, I guess. There are lots of traditions. This is just one of them." Oh, this was going to be hard to explain.

"I see." She smirked fondly, following the electric string to the plug, where she turned them off finally, pulling the plug free to examine it. "Why have you cut down a tree and brought it inside?" she asked then. "And covered it in lights that explode when you turn them on?"

"Uh..." He frowned uncertainly again. "I'm not sure. That's just what we do. Back home..." He trailed off as thoughts of his sister and niece - his only living relatives - came to the forefront. "They used to use candles, I think, but....Now we use electric lights. It's safer, I guess." Not to mention easier, though keeping them lit was going to be a problem if they couldn't get the electricitiy sorted out.

"Oh." She smiled again, turning her attention to the electric string now in her hands. After a moment's thought, she began to mutter softly, and very slowly the lights began to glow in their various colors, without the need for electricity at all. Looking pretty smug with herself - and to be fair, rightly so - Leia grinned at Jake. "Will that do?"

Jake's face lit up, just like the array of colored lights all lit up and ready to be strung on the tree. "That's awesome, Princess. How'd you do that?" Though she didn't understand the reference, he'd taken to calling her Princess, after Princess Leia from Star Wars - an old crush of his.

Laughing at the endearment she still didn't understand, Leia crouched to tuck the obsolete end of the power cord underneath the tree and out of sight. "It is just a simple spell," she shrugged as she straightened up. "They will stay lit until you tell me to end it, and they do not need your ekeltrickysee to glow." She smiled fondly, reaching up to gently tweak the end of his nose. "I could teach you how to use magic, if you were able to concentrate on a single thing for more than three seconds."

"Magic" Me?" Jake echoed, huffing doubtfully. "I can't even do card tricks!" he confessed. "Here..." he said, reaching for the string of lights and draping them over the boughs to cover the tree in an array of softly colored lights. "When I was a kid, I used to take my glasses off and look at the lights all out of focus. They're almost prettier that way."

"So this is a family tradition, then," Leia guessed softly, moving to help him drape the lights against the dark green of the pine needles. She considered that for a moment, the lack of surprise in John and Sam, and the fact that Rory had not even blinked when he'd come up. "It's a widespread thing on your Earth, is it?" she asked curiously. "Only the others don't seem to find it as strange as I do."

"Yeah, I guess..." Jake paused a moment in thought again, glancing to the kitchen in quiet contemplation, as if he'd find the answer there. "I mean, we're from different Earths, I think. Or at least, different time periods on Earth. From what Sam's told me, she and John are from about thirty years in my future, but I'm not sure if it's the same Earth or an alternate version."

"So ....what is this Winterfest that is being talked about on the streets?" Leia queried in confusion. "Is it Rhy'Din's version of your Christmas?" She frowned, more than a little lost in the conversation as it was. On Jake's shoulder, Sloti chittered in agreement, and deliberately nibbled the man's earlobe again, purely because it was vaguely irritating.

"I think so. Something like that. Lots of cultures celebrate a mid-winter festival, or, I guess, even Solstice. What do you celebrate where you..." He broke off with a wince as Sloti nibbled at his ear again. "Ow, Sloti! Knock it off!" He reached to scoop the ferret off his shoulder and set him on the floor. "If you can't sit on my shoulder without wanting to take a bite out of me, then you don't get to sit on my shoulder!" He flushed a little in exasperation.

Far from being put out with being dislodged, the ferret took this as a signal that it was playtime. He bounced up off the floor the second Jake put him down, scrambling up the man's arm and down the back of his collar, chittering all the while. Leia watched, one hand over her mouth to hide her laughter, as her lover's shirt bulged with Sloti's progress around to his front.

Jake sighed and exhaled a long-suffering sigh as Sloti decided to play hide and seek in his shirt, which wouldn't have been so bad except that he was ticklish and Sloti had claws. "Ow!" Jake exclaimed, which was followed by laughter, doubling over as the ferret found a particularly ticklish spot. "Tell him to stop!"

"But he likes playing with you," she pointed out a little superfluously, letting out a loud cackle of laughter as Sloti's face appeared briefly at Jake's collar once again, whiskers twitching, before plunging back down inside his shirt and making what looked like a spirited attempt to bypass Jake's waistband and get into his trousers. "And you can't say you don't enjoy playing with him, too."

"Did I miss the fighting, or did you send them to do that in front of Rory?" Ailis asked with a grin. Like Sam, she was completely unfazed by the antagonism between John and Jake, of the opinion that if they just got on with things, it would sort itself out slowly but surely anyway. She looked down at the half-elf staring fixedly at her feet with a faint frown. "What's up with this one?"

Sam chuckled again, "I told them to quit screwing around and help Rory with the generator." At least, more or less, that had been the gist of it. She glanced at Leia with a small frown. "I'm not sure. I came in on the end of that. It had something to do with Sloti, I think." Sam left any explaining for Leia, as she had only caught part of what had been going on in the living room and didn't want to make any wrong assumptions. She went about assembling the necessary items she'd need for tea - cups, spoons, milk, sugar. Everything they needed could be found somewhere on Rhy'Din, and one of the first things she'd done upon arriving was get the kitchen in good working order.

Which was just as well, because for everyone else in the little mercenary band, the kitchen was a little lower on the list of priorities. Ailis could cook if she had to, but she preferred not, more of a warrior doctor than a woman, really. She nodded to Sam's explanation, nudging Leia to sit down at the table. "What did the ferret do this time?" she asked, waiting patiently for an answer that was a long time coming.

Leia fidgeted awkwardly. As much she liked being a part of a group, she was still uncomfortable when it came to the bonding part of that role - the girl talk, in particular. Biting her lip, she shrugged. "Sloti was playing with Jake," she explained softly, staring fixedly at her hands. "And then Jake got mad and shouted at me."

"Jake got mad?" Sam echoed. She had never seen Jake Jensen angry even once. Not even when her brother was swinging his fists at him. "I'm sure Jake isn't angry with you, Leia," Sam said, reassuringly. Without even knowing it or meaning to, she'd somehow taken on the mother hen role of the group. "What was Sloti doing that made Jake angry?" she continued, needing more details.

Ailis glanced at Sam as she queried the little half-elf in their midst. She couldn't recall ever seeing Jaken Jensen get mad, either, but she assumed Leia knew what it looked like.

Leia shrugged, rubbing a hand through her hair. "He was just playing," she defended her furry little friend, finally looking up. "They've done it before. Sloti gets inside Jake's shirt and scrummages about, and Jake's ticklish, so he can't really get him out."

"Okay," Sam replied, understanding that, as odd as it sounded. "Did something different happen this time?" she prompted, thinking there had to be more to the story than what Leia was telling them. She leaned against the cupboard while waiting for the rest of the story and for the water to boil.

"I don't really know," Leia admitted, and to be fair, she didn't. It hadn't been clear from outside Jake's shirt just what Sloti had been up to, after all. "You said that maybe it had gone too far, and then ....then he yelled at me. He's never done that before."

Thumping into a seat across from Leia, Ailis rolled her eyes. Boy trouble was a relatively new concept for her as much as either of the others, but in this case, she hoped John had given Jake at least a dead arm for upsetting his elf.

Sam gave Ailis a pointed look. "He was shouting something about children and sounded a little panic-stricken to me," she said, letting Ailis fill in the blanks. She hadn't seen everything that had happened, but it wasn't that hard to put two and two together. Just then, the kettle went off and she turned her back on them to turn the stove off.

"Ah." Ailis smirked as she caught up. "Sounds like he thought the family jewels were in danger, Leia," she explained to the little half-elf sat despondently with her. "Most men get antsy when they think their manhood is about to be bitten by an animal."

Leia looked startled. "Sloti wouldn't bite him!" she protested against the slur on her furry friend. "They're friends!"

"Men don't always think properly when they think their manhood is being threatened," Sam pointed out helpfully, as she placed a teabag in each cup and filled each with hot water. She then turned to carry a tray laden with cups, spoons, sugar, and milk over to the table and set it down. "I'm sure Jake isn't angry with you, Leia. He doesn't seem the type to anger easily."

"Then why would he ..." Leia trailed off, her frown deepening as she recalled the exact words Jake had used when he shouted. "Why did he threaten our future?"

In the process of reaching to add too much sugar to her tea, Ailis paused, her brows rising in surprise. "Threatened your future?" she echoed, flicking a curious look to Sam. "Does one of us need to talk to him?"

Sam set out a plate of cookies she'd just baked the day before and took a seat at the table, reaching for a mug of her own. She had a thoughtful look on her face at Leia's revelation. She had heard most of what had happened, since it had only been in the other room, but she hadn't been paying that much attention. "What did Jake say exactly?"

"If you ever want to have children, get him off me now," the half-elf thief repeated verbatim, curling her hands around the third mug without adding anything to it. Though it wasn't too bad, as shouts went, it had obviously shaken her badly.

Ailis' frown relaxed, however. "That's not so bad, Leia," she tried to reassure the little woman. "It wasn't really a threat."

The thief shrugged, unconvinced.

He needn't worry about being forgiven; that had already happened, the moment he had apologised to her for his outburst. What might take a little time was the very necessary explanation of why it shocked her quite so much whenever she felt he was angry with her for any reason. As it stood, however, all was forgiven, and she didn't want to leave him in any doubt of that, surging forward to wrap her arms about his waist, hugging into him fiercely.

"I'm so sorry, Leia," he apologized again as she surged forward and he wrapped his arms around her to hug her close. "I'm an idiot. I trust you. I do. And I trust Sloti. I just wasn't thinking." He wondered briefly if she even wanted children someday with him or if it was even possible between them. He felt a brief pang of homesickness, though it was more him missing his sister and niece than anything else.

"You're not an idiot," she promised him softly, still holding tightly to him in the gloom that still enveloped the house, despite the new generator. "I'm sorry I didn't call him off sooner." She lifted her head, violet eyes meeting his with gentle amusement. "But you have to admit, it was funny."

"My mom used to say, 'It's funny until someone gets hurt'," he pointed out, unsure why he'd said that. He rarely, if ever, talked about his mother or anything about his past, for that matter. "We should go find Sloti so I can apologize," he added, with a further frown, knowing he had probably frightened the little ferret more than the ferret had frightened him.

Leia opened her mouth to point out that no one would have gotten hurt, but stopped herself. Obviously the situation had been serious enough to shake him badly, and that was hurt, in a way. Instead, her expression folded into one of apologetic concern, sorry she'd found so funny something that had upset him. "He'll come out when he is ready to," she told Jake instead. "It's no use trying to coax him out. He bites when he's upset."

Jake's frown deepened, sorry he'd upset them both. He wasn't quite sure how to explain why he'd been upset. It had been more a reflex than anything, knowing deep down that neither Leia or Sloti would ever consciously cause him any harm. "I was just....worried we wouldn't be able to have kids or something," he said, realizing how ridiculous that sounded when said out loud.

The half-elf in his arms frowned thoughtfully. "You know, in the village where I was born, there's a man who performs with weasels," she offered, attempting to explain why he and his family jewels hadn't been in any danger in a roundabout way. "He puts them down his pants and they dance. It was a very simple place," she added, realising how daft that sounded. "But his weasels aren't even that intelligent. Sloti was a wizard's familiar before he decided to join me. He's very clever."

Jake arched a brow, a little surprised at her tale, though he had long ago realized how very different they were, as were their home worlds. "I know," he said in regards to Sloti's intelligence, that sense of shame and guilt coloring his face again. "I'm just not used to having a ferret for a..." He trailed off, realizing pet was not quite the word he was looking for. "For a friend," he corrected himself.

"It is strange, to begin with," she agreed, reassuring him that it wasn't an everyday occurrence, even in Allansia. "It took me more than a year to get used to it myself. He should have ratted me out to his master when I broke into the old man's tower, but Sloti just decided then and there that he would rather spend time with me than with an old wizard who smelt bad."

He hadn't heard too many stories about Sloti and Leia's adventures and always enjoyed them when he did hear them. "What were you there to steal, and why did he decide to go with you?" he asked curiously, relaxing a little now that she seemed no longer upset with him.

"Oh, I wasn't there to steal anything specific," she admitted with a smile. "I was just curious. Everyone told me I should never break into a wizard's tower or upset a magic user, but no one told me why. So I thought I'd test the theory." The grin on her face was more than a little playful as she recalled the evening in question. "In retrospect, I should have realised something was up when the skull on his desk started talking to me."

"What happened?" he asked, maneuvering himself into a chair and her into his lap, as she shared her story. He was glad she was smiling again and he hoped she would stay that way. He had brought the tree there for her, after all, hoping to bring a smile to her pretty face with the lights and the magic of Christmas, even if he was far from home.

"Well, I'd learned about traps, but I didn't know about magical triggers," she chuckled, curling into his lap easily. It never ceased to amaze her how interested he was in these little episodes from her life, often leaving her wondering how mundane his life must have been to find the everyday ordinariness of hers so fascinating. "I blundered into a trigger and ended up suspended by one ankle above a spiked pit." She shrugged, smiling faintly. "That was when Sloti decided to come out and say hello."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, startled by her answer, though she had obviously escaped successfully, presumably with Sloti's help. "How'd you get away?" he asked, prompting her to share more of the story with him. He'd had his own adventures, but he always thought her stories were so much more interesting than his.

Leia flushed, a little embarrassed by what she was about to relate. She liked to think of herself as a very accomplished thief, but some episodes in her life proved that even accomplished thieves needed help from time to time. "Um ....a ferret tricked a magic carpet into lying over the top of the pit to catch me, and chewed through the rope holding me up," she admitted through her smile. "It's a little humiliating to own up to being rescued from a silly trap by a ferret."

Jake smiled finally, feeling better now that he knew Leia and Sloti weren't angry with him. "I like him, too," Jake said reaching up to stroke a fingers against the ferret's head. "I never really had a..." There was that word again that didn't really define the ferret very well. A pet was something you adopted by choice, raised, and cared for. Their relationship with Sloti was different. He had chosen Leia and stayed with them by choice. By definition, he was more of a friend than a pet really.

Leia chuckled softly, knowing which word was tripping him up. "I don't think he would mind you calling him a pet," she offered sweetly. "It's not a very accurate description of the relationship, but it's a word you're more comfortable with than familiar." As she spoke, Sloti very gently nibbled on the fingers stroking his head, rubbing close to Jake's neck again. If John Grimm thought that the man and the half-elf made an odd couple, he would have goggled at what was going on now.

"He doesn't really belong to me, though," Jake pointed out. "He's-he's....he chose you." He fumbled with his words again, unsure how to explain what he was thinking. He held his hand very still, allowing the ferret to nibble at his fingers, in that show of trust once again, and he realized that Sloti's nibbling was his way of showing his affection for the people he'd chosen as his companions. "Why's he stay with us?" Jake asked. He had always wondered whether Sloti was jealous of his relationship with Leia, though that didn't seem the case.

"He's chosen you, too," she told him in a soft voice. "If he hadn't, he wouldn't try to be your friend. He wouldn't play with you so much." Tucked close, she laid her head against Jake's other shoulder, charmed by the slow growth of the friendship between her lover and Sloti. "He stays because he wants to. If, someday, he chooses to go, he'll just go. We won't see him again."

"Doesn't he want to....I dunno....meet a girl ferret and make little baby ferrets?" Jake asked, equally charmed by the way Sloti and Leia both found his shoulders comfortable and trusted him enough to lay their heads there. He'd never really had that before in all his life, except where his niece was concerned.

"Maybe someday," Leia shrugged. She'd never really considered that. "It's his decision. I'm not even sure if he's a true ferret anymore; most familiars are mutated and adapted by their wizards to fit more easily into their lifestyle. Sloti might not need to procreate."

"What do you mean' You mean he doesn't want to or he can't?" Jake asked, with a curiously arched brow. He wondered whether or not Leah wanted to make babies someday, but he tried to stifle that thought. The timing wasn't really right for that yet.

"Maybe both?" she suggested, lifting her head to meet his curious gaze once again. On his shoulder, Sloti stood up on his hind feet once more, one paw resting against Jake's cheek to balance himself as he then nibbled at the arm of the man's glasses. The ferret had never quite worked out why Jake wore glasses at all, but enjoyed investigating the face furniture in any case. "I don't really know. I've never heard of a familiar mating, that's all."

"What a familiar for?" he asked, carefully, prying his glasses away from Sloti. He only had the one pair and needed them or he was as good as blind. The idea of getting his eyes fixed permanently had occurred to him, but for some reason, scared the heck out of him. "I mean, I don't really know much about magic and wizards and things. I always thought only witches kept familiars."

"They can be for all kinds of things," she shrugged, clicking her tongue gently at Sloti as Jake reclaimed his glasses. The ferret took the hint, dropping back down onto the man's shoulder and curling himself there securely. "Some are kept for companionship, some are used as reservoirs of strength. Others, like Sloti, are kept because they have skills and intelligence of their own that compliment that of their master."

"Are you his master?" Jake continued with yet another question, as curious as a child. He wasn't sure why he hadn't asked these questions before; they just hadn't seem to have come up. They'd been too busy just trying to survive, until they ended up here. Jake wasn't really sure if this whole merc thing was a good idea, but it was all he really knew, all he'd ever really done.

She laughed softly. "No, I don't think so. He chooses to be here with us, there's nothing about us that holds him here. When he broke from the wizard, it hurt him badly. It took weeks for him to recover and come to find me."

"He's fond of you. There's something about you, Leia," Jake said, touching her cheek, as gently as he'd touched Sloti's fur. He couldn't deny there was something about her that was different from any girl he'd ever met before, and it wasn't just because she had pointed ears and a ferret for a pet.

It could just be that she was the only girl who had ever broken him out of prison on their first meeting and then spent the night making herself completely unforgettable. Leia didn't really see herself as all that memorable or special, just another face in the crowd, more apt to blend in on Rhy'Din even than she had been on her home world. "He is fond of you, too," she told Jake, gently nuzzling her cheek into his touch affectionately. "Perhaps he sees in you what I do."

"What's that?" he asked, almost dreading what she'd tell him, though he knew deep inside that she loved him and only saw the good in him. Love was blind sometimes, after all, or maybe he was just too hard on himself. "A clumsy computer geek with poor social skills?"

"Given that I still don't know what a computer is and the word geek makes no sense to me, am I supposed to understand that?" she countered with a fond smile. "I see a good man with a good heart, a man who is loyal and brave and extremely intelligent. A man whom I love, whom I am not afraid to love."

"I'm not perfect, Leia," he pointed out with a small frown, feeling strangely humbled by her assessment of him. She'd said nothing about his confession, made no judgements or condemnation, seemingly willing to accept him as he was, no matter what the transgressions of his past - as he saw them - seemed to be.

"Cobwebs, mostly," he clarified. He hoped he didn't have any spiders crawling around on him. Odd for a man who had gone up against countless zombified humans all on his own. He frowned, his crusty mood softening a little. He'd feel better once he had a shower and some food in him, but a good night's sleep wouldn't hurt. He hadn't resorted to a tranq yet, but if he didn't get some sleep soon, he might have no choice. "Sorry, Ai. I'm not very good company lately, I guess."

"You'll get over it," she promised him. "Maybe taking something to help you sleep would be a start, but in the long term, you're going to have to start looking at what it is that's keeping you from having a full night." her hand crept into his as she gave him a tug toward their own bathroom. "I fixed the shower, too. Come and give it a go."

Fortunately, she hadn't seen what he'd seen back on Olduvai, but he knew she had plenty of nightmares of her own. He knew what was bothering him, and he knew there was nothing he could to do wipe that nightmare from his mind, except to let time put a distance between him and the all-too vivid memories of that place. He wondered if he should talk to the Chief about it, but that would mean swallowing his pride a little. "You gonna wash my back?" he asked, not entirely joking.

"Only if you ask me to," she informed him, leading her reticent bundle of raw nerves toward their own bathroom. He wasn't the best at expressing himself, especially where she was concerned, but over the months, she'd gotten a little more used to it. At least, they hadn't had any more awkward conversations such as the one that had very nearly derailed their relationship altogether after she'd spent a few hours out without him.

He remembered that night, when a small misunderstanding had turned into an argument that had very nearly ruined their relationship before it had barely gotten started. He couldn't very well change who he was, and he wasn't never going to be the warm and cuddly type, but there was no denying his feelings for her. He had been denying those feelings for years, but no more. Life was too short, and despite his grumpiness lately, there was no place he'd rather be than here with her. "Do I need to say please?" he asked, actually cracking a small smirk.

"Manners maketh the man," she teased, pleased to see even a tiny smirk on his face. "Want me to beat a please out of you?" She paused beside the shower, raising a brow as she looked him over. A faint chuckle escaped her lips as she actually took in how dusty and grimy he was. "What on earth were you doing down there, anyway?"

"You don't want to know," he grumbled. He didn't really mind manual labor, but once it was finished, all he wanted was a shower. "Rory doesn't look much better." How Jake had managed to stay somewhat clean was a mystery, but he'd come up from the cellar a lot sooner than the other two. "This place needs a lot of work," he said, stating the obvious. It wasn't exactly homey yet, though that wasn't really all that important. John would be happy with warm and livable. "It's not that I'm not grateful, but I don't really plan on spending the rest of my life here." He tugged the grimy shirt off his back and tossed it into the laundry basket.

"We're getting there," Ailis pointed out, leaning back against the door to watch him as he stripped out of his filthy clothes. She hadn't had the question, or even the please, yet, and had decided to wait for him to make his intentions abundantly clear before she made any move to join him this time. "But I know what you mean. When we get some money together, we should be able to get a better base sorted out." She didn't dare suggest that John might be thinking about somewhere for just the two of them, though it was a distant dream. Still, John Grimm was difficult to read at the best of times; she didn't want to prod too hard at his grumpy exterior today.

"I've been looking into the Spaceport," he admitted as he unzipped his jeans and pushed them down off his hips. Mixing business with pleasure was not unusual for him, though once he distracted himself enough, he was able to forget about work for a while. Now that their numbers had increased, he assumed the Chief had been working on finding them some work, though he wasn't sure exactly what kind of work the man had in mind. "It's a little closer to what we're used to," he added as he stepped out of his jeans, which only left his shorts and boots and socks. And he had yet to say please.

Tucking her arms about herself, Ailis took full advantage of the view slowly being unveiled before her, lips curved in an appreciative smirk as her gaze raked his body. "The technology is definitely closer to our range," she agreed. "The Chief's putting out feelers, but aside from the occasional bit of merchant guarding, nothing is coming up yet. Personally, I think we need to be thinking about secondary jobs to hold down for a while. Perhaps we should get a ship - we'd have a wider range then."

"I draw the line at flipping burgers," John remarked, adding almost as an after-thought, "or whoring myself out." He'd rather starve than do either or those things, though he didn't think it would come to that. He figured it worse came to worse, he could find work doing security or working on the docks or something. "What kind of ship?" he asked, leaning against a wall to keep his balance while he untied and pulled off his boots, one at a time.

She shrugged, enjoying the play of muscles beneath his skin as he pulled at his boots. "I would probably suggest a modified freight ship," she mused. "Something with enough space in the cargo hold for a vehicle to project force. There'd have to be crew quarters, of course, and a lab for Sam. But I don't think it's such a big ask. Given the economy here, we might be able to get hold of a ship like that for less that we would back home. Plus, with freight space, we could take on cargo runs to supplement our income."

"Sounds like you've been doing some thinking. Have you mentioned this to your father yet?" he asked, as he pulled off his socks and tossed them into the laundry pile, along with his jeans. All he had left to remove was his shorts, but before he did that, he wanted to make sure the water wasn't going to be ice cold.

Ailis shook her head. It was a strange quirk of her nature that while she had her own opinions, she rarely expressed them to her father. She'd been brought up as a soldier, obedient to the orders she was given, never encouraged to question or think for herself beyond the boundaries of her role. Unfortunately, that meant that she did not approach the Chief with thoughts like this one, even when she had so obviously spent time and energy researching that thought. "He has his own plans, I'm sure," she said, carefully not admitting to the vague fear of poking her father's temper by expressing an opinion he hadn't put into her head.