“Fuck…” Duncan yelped, landing on his injured leg when he hit the deck. He quickly managed to get his fist in his mouth to stifle the next cry when Theo pulled him up off the deck, rolling him off the wound. His hand was pulled away, Duncan opened his eyes and blinked back the glaze of tears. Johns cupped the back of his friend’s head and helped lower him more gently this time, before he worked a strap of webbing, most likely the harness from his weapon, between his teeth. That made it easier; it gave him something to concentrate on besides the pain.

He panted around the strap and worked to slow his breath, his heartbeat, before he bled out on the deck. Johns hadn’t left him but sat close by, his hand rested on his shoulder while he looked nervously at the others. Riddick and Theo in particular.

Riddick took a look at Duncan, at the blood that seeped out onto the deck, before he moved across the deck to the bridge. “Jack! Get us the fuck out of here!” She shot him a dirty look but said nothing and he ran his hand over his face to stop the apology he felt tug at him. Jack had spun the ship around masterfully and had her at a full run the moment they were all aboard. He shouldn’t have yelled at her. Rather than leave it like that he passed her quickly and squeezed her shoulder on his way to pull out medical supplies which he had left on a desk on the bridge just in case.

The rogue villagers came back out of the forest but they didn’t shoot; they stood and watched as the Moorglade flew by and Riddick wondered what they must think of the sight. So far everyone that had come in contact with the ship was hit with the same sense of awe and he couldn’t think of a reason why it would be any different for them.

“We need to get him off the deck, onto the bridge.” Riddick spoke to Theo as he passed him. It wasn’t cold but what wind there was pulled and the cold could kill him before the wound got a chance to.

Shazza and Johns followed behind as Riddick and Theo carried him inside. Jack glanced over her shoulder at the commotion, concerned, but didn’t step away from what she did. Johns went back to his place at Duncan’s shoulder and Riddick took a moment to watch him. He had seen guys in love with other guys before; that didn’t have any effect on him, not the way it did with some people. In Slam you do what you can to survive and take what affection you can when it presents itself, there was no shame in it.

This was more like hero worship, but deeper. Johns had stood over a fallen Duncan, turned towards those villagers and had even stood against Riddick until he realized that Riddick wasn’t there to hurt Duncan. So when Riddick spoke, he made a point to speak directly to Johns. “I’ve killed a lot of shit and seen a lot of fatal wounds. This isn’t one of them; he’ll have a limp, maybe. But he’ll live.”

Johns dropped his eyes from that hard black-goggled gaze and Riddick watched as Johns looked away, eyes jammed shut to fight the tears of relief. Riddick watched as Duncan reached up to hold Johns’ hand on his shoulder. There was hero worship there but Duncan clearly respected Johns in return.

Riddick turned to Theo who knelt close to Duncan’s legs, with Shazza. “I want Jack here to help with the bandaging.” Theo just nodded and quickly rose to replace Jack at the helm, and Riddick turned back to face Duncan this time. “We don’t have anything that’s going to deal with the pain, Warfield, maybe some stuff to help you sleep later, but….”

“It’s Duncan.” Duncan spat out the webbing strap so that he could answer before he continued. “I don’t want anything, not yet. That Company ship is going to hit tomorrow and I need to be clear.” Shazza moved up a little and settled her weight astride Duncan, just below the knees to hold him down, after she took a quick look at Riddick to make sure he would be okay with it. Johns leaned a little harder on Duncan but Riddick wasn’t sure if he would be able to do it, to hold Duncan down, when the time came.

“Riddick…?” Jack hunkered down close to Riddick’s side and he handed her a roll of bandages. She had shown skill before when she bandaged his hands and she would do well now. He nodded to Johns, who slipped the strap of webbing back between Duncan’s teeth and leaned a little harder against his shoulder.

With the tip of a blade he cut the pant leg away to expose the wound which still seeped blood out onto the floor. Duncan gritted his teeth and Johns gasped but held on as Riddick’s skilled fingers gently probed the wound. It was clean and there were no fragments. The bone wasn’t hit. The bullet had passed cleanly through the thigh. He looked at Shazza before his next move and nodded as she settled her weight heavily, braced against the struggle she was about to face.

The alcohol burned as it cleaned and Shazza felt Duncan try to arch beneath her as she leaned forward, to press his chest down. John’s face was pale but he held Duncan pinned to the deck. The scream was muted to a hard growl between Duncan’s teeth but he didn’t black out.

Shazza shifted her weight to the uninjured leg and Riddick nodded to Jack who ignored the blood and moved closer to expertly wrap the leg while Riddick’s hand held Duncan’s thigh still. It was done soon enough and the clean bandage shone against the mess of clotted blood.

Shazza eased back down to Duncan’s side again once it was done. “We should leave him up here. There’s no bloody way we should move him down those stairs, not with his leg like that.” Riddick just grunted his assent and looked up to catch a glimpse of Joanne who stood in the corridor with Anna held behind her. Anna pulled and fussed to look past her mother but Joanne held the girl firm before she nodded and disappeared quickly, to reappear several minutes later with bedding and a heavy blanket. Johns and Riddick lifted Duncan and set him in a safe warm place on the bridge after Joanne had arranged the bedding.

When he was comfortable, Riddick prepared a hypo. He noted Duncan’s concern, that he didn’t want to be drugged, not that they had anything to give him anyway. “Antibiotic.” The wound was clean but it didn’t hurt to be safe.

Johns stayed beside Duncan when it was done and Riddick didn’t think he would leave Duncan’s side. His face was ashen and streaked with tears which he swiped at furiously but he wasn’t about to be moved. Joanne had left him a blanket as well.

Riddick spoke quietly to the kid when Shazza and Jack had stood to leave them alone. “What do we call you, kid?

“J…Johns.” His voice was thick with emotion and trembled.

Riddick reached out and clapped his hand on Johns’ shoulder and a snort of laughter echoed in the funereal air of the bridge. “That is one unfortunate fucking name, Johns.” Johns looked puzzled, but kept it to himself. “He’ll be okay, it was a clean shot.” Johns looked at him hopefully but stayed silent for which Riddick was grateful. It was one thing to comfort Jack but he didn’t want to make a habit of it.

Riddick stood and noticed that Joanne was on her hands and knees to clean up the blood. She had started with the pool on the bridge and from the pile of rags she had with her he figured she intended to clean all of it, all the way outside to the deck. Anna stayed just back from her and handed her rags.

He watched as Jack moved up behind the girl and whispered something in her ear. Anna grinned hugely, her eyes alight for a moment before she looked seriously at her mother, who nodded, with a look of relief on her face. His lip pulled up in a grin as he watched Jack cross the bridge towards Theo and repeat the same quiet conversation. Theo looked back over his shoulder towards Joanne, his expression pulled with worry, and relief when Jack took her place at the wheel again, this time with Anna beside her.

He watched Jack for a moment longer and bit his lip against the smile that threatened. She might scowl, glare and curse, but she did what needed to be done and he was proud of her. Anna chirped excitedly at her side, fascinated by everything. Theo helped Joanne clean the blood from the deck.

Shazza leaned against the stair at the other side of the bridge and watched Riddick directly, what she wanted clear. Nothing else existed for him when she looked at him like that and he crossed the bridge in a few short strides to grab her waist and pull her to him, not that he had to encourage her. The first kiss was hard and deep, a moan pulled from them both as his hand tangled in her hair.

Shazza pulled back first which confused him a little until she took his hand and eased down the stairs to the cabins below, to their cabin. Her steps sure and determined, she walked backwards with Riddick just a step behind.

He caught up to her when she reached the door and pressed her hard against it to kiss her again, deeper and slower this time. He murmured softly to her but he had no idea what he said; endearments weren’t something that was familiar to him and he wouldn’t have recognized what he said anyway. Shazza looked up at him and cupped his jaw, the expression in her eyes unreadable to him. It raised all his soft hair at once and made his heart race faster.

She reached down and finally got the door to their cabin open and he was on her again. They both froze mid kiss at the thump on the deck floor above them. Riddick listened intently but didn’t let go of Shazza, and only relaxed when he heard Anna’s giggle.

His eyes traveled back over Shazza when he no longer listened to the girl’s laugh upstairs. That intensity still shone brightly in her eyes; it didn’t matter that she couldn’t see in the dark, he knew that she saw him anyway. His fingers threaded through her hair as he pressed her backward and caught her before she would have fallen, to ease her across the bed.

They didn’t have an awful lot of time, just a brief moment before they were needed above deck again. Before war would fall on them. It didn’t seem like enough time. Settled comfortably between her thighs, he held her face cupped in his hands, his lips hovered just over hers, to breathe in her breath, her scent, everything about her.

Tomorrow that Company ship would arrive. Not enough time. Riddick watched the line between her eyebrows deepen as she peered up at him, concerned. For not the first time he wanted to run; to just take Shazza and Jack and whoever else could come with them and just run. He had seen what the Company was like and right then he was more scared of losing them, of losing Shazza, than he knew how to say. “When it happens, Shazza….”

“When it happens, it happens. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to fight for my home.” Shazza reached up and pulled Riddick’s chin closer to her, her voice sure. “To fight for what’s mine.”

The growl was a rumble against her chest as Riddick crushed his mouth over hers, the kiss heated and passionate. ‘Mine’. Shazza slid her hands down over the lines of his powerful neck, down over his shoulders and over his arms. A whispered word of need from her when he came up for air. “Now…”

No other words were needed. They didn’t undress, not fully, just pulled clothes free enough, just enough. She gave out a short cry as he entered her in one hard thrust, only to have it muffled by another kiss that blazed a trail of fire straight through her. His hands settled in her hair and his thumbs caressed over her cheekbones as he pounded into her. The fucking answered the call of their bodies but the kiss gave them what they really wanted, what they really needed.

“Shazza,” he whispered her name as he came, her cry quiet but no less intense for that. Riddick nuzzled across her nose, across her cheek to bury his face in her neck and inhale the warm scent of her hair. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and she buried her face in his neck too. He stayed within her and they held each other like that for a while longer, until the sounds that people made as they walked on the deck above brought them back.

“We’ve both seen worse, Riddick.”

He looked down at her hard beautiful face, and thought of all that they had seen together already. He pulled back and kissed her softly, more gently than he had ever kissed any other, ever in his life. His lips parted, just over hers, but he didn’t know what to say. They were so close that when his tongue flicked out to wet his lower lip he wet hers as well. He blinked slowly and pulled back to look at her again. “Don’t leave my side, Shazza.”

She knew that he didn’t only speak of the fight they were about to face. She couldn’t see anything but the dark silver glint of his eyes in the darkness, so she felt his face with her hand, her fingers traced over the line of his lip. He hid nothing from her; there was no mask to hide his emotions this time. She couldn’t see him and he couldn’t say what he felt but she felt it anyway, the intensity of everything that made him who he was came through clearly. She reached up to return his soft kiss, to return the same powerful emotion he had shared with her. “I’m not going anywhere.”

They stayed close enough to touch as they got dressed and cleaned up and he followed her back up to the main bridge, his goggles slipped over his eyes last. Johns hadn’t moved from Duncan’s side, but his eyes drooped and he fought off sleep. Joanne crossed the deck and brought him a cup of coffee and the scent filled Riddick’s nose and made his smile. Theo had a cup already, and a half empty cup sat near Jack. He thought he should tell her not to drink coffee but it felt awkward and he wasn’t really sure where it came from.

Joanne smiled when she saw Riddick and Shazza come around the corner into the galley and moved to pour them cups as well. Riddick was quicker, and poured one for Joanne first, his quiet heartfelt thanks enough to make Joanne blush. Shazza kissed him softly again when he handed her the cup, smiled and walked up to the front to stand next to Jack at his puzzled look.

Copyright © January 2007 xxxevilgrinxxx

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