Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just playing. I'll put'em back when I'm done.

Rating: G

Synopsis: AU. Time travel can have its advantages.

The streets were fairly empty, but enough cars were going by to make crossing the street a bit precarious. People were mulling through their lives, going their merry way, not one of them giving the woman in the ankle-length black leather coat another look. She walked slowly along the pavement, her boots hardly making a sound. The world around her was busy even though it was a suburb. Her eyes, a peculiar grey-blue, scanned her surroundings, a slight smile on her lips. This world had not been ready for her kind when she had first visited it and it was even less ready for her now. But it didn't matter. Nobody bothered her and she bothered nobody.

Green lawns rose from the edge of the pavement toward the houses, all clean and well-kept, the air a tad warm. Children were playing on the lawns, trees rose toward the sky, well-kept and neat. Everything was in its place and there was a place for everything. Cars in odd colors were parked in driveways while women in white, flowery dresses were hanging clothes or setting tables on the patios. This neighborhood breathed peace like nothing she had ever experienced before. Everything was neat, tidy and friendly.

Aeryn Sun could not help smiling. There was something very dream-like about this whole setting, but it made her feel good inside, made her mind settle and her body relax. She scanned the area, not for danger, but for familiar settings she had seen before.

It was at that point that she caught sight of the child, no more than a few cycles old by the look of it, tottering down the lawn in front of one of the houses. The child – she assumed it was a boy by the clothes – wobbled a little precariously, caught himself and tottered on. He was on a straight course for the curb and the busy street beyond.

Aeryn frowned, glanced at the cars driving by, then back at the child, then up at the house. Nobody around had seemingly noted the toddler and she could not in good conscience let a child that young waddle into a street where he risked being killed.

She sped her steps toward the child and reached him just before he wobbled off the curb. "Hey," she said softly and squatted down, stopping him by reaching both hands out for him. "Where do you think you're going?" She smiled at him and could not help but admire the depth of his blue eyes. He was a beautiful child.

To prevent an accident, she rose with the child in her arms and he didn't seem to mind. He started babbling incoherently, caught a handful of her dark hair and started playing with it. Aeryn glanced around and finally spotted a woman who came rushing toward her.

"Oh my God," the woman exclaimed, worry in her eyes as she reached for the boy.

Aeryn handed him over and had to pause a microt to disengage his little fingers from her hair. "He was about to walk into the street," she explained, feeling the need to justify why she would have picked him up.

The woman cradled the little child to her. "He does things like this all the time," she lamented, then smiled. "Thank you so much for being here," she added and finally smiled.

Aeryn returned that smile. "You're welcome," she said.

"You have to be more careful, Johnny," the woman said and kissed the boy's brow.

The child turned his head and looked back at Aeryn, giving her the big, innocent smile of a being that doesn't know how the world works yet.

Aeryn felt her eyes fill with tears, but smiled nonetheless, and reached a hand out to touch his hair. "He's a beautiful child," she said.

John's mother eyed her closely for a moment. "Thank you. Do I know you?" she asked.

Aeryn shook her head. "No," she replied. "I just happened to be walking by."

"Well, thank God you did. He could have been badly hurt," John's mother replied. "Thank you again," she added, turned around and hurried back to the house. And all the while, the toddler in her arms was watching Aeryn with big, innocent blue eyes.

And Aeryn smiled with a warm feeling pooling in the pit of her stomach. It was always nice to know what your future children might look like, she mussed, and with that smile still on her lips, she turned around and walked back the way she'd come.

THE END