Theo pressed back into her hand. Joanne. His back ached and he stretched, unsure of how much time had passed. Pale golden light filtered through the open windows of Sunhillow, spilling across the table strewn with charts and papers.
Joanne, one hand on his shoulder, reached around him to leave a cup of coffee on the table before she took a seat. He had so many things to ask her once they had managed to clear out the debris and open up some of the rooms. They hadn’t even managed to look into most of them and he was amazed by the things he had found.
Maybe another person wouldn’t have understood. It was hard to explain how ancient texts that crumbled to dust at the slightest touch or a simple cup had pleased him so completely. Like the Moorglade, everything he found only made his dream more solid.
He had fallen asleep one day, exhausted after he had cleared out the first of one of the huge rooms they had entered. He dreamt, a fevered dream, his life the monotony it once was. He was a merc again and trawled the Sol Trek shipping lanes. He fought to wake and when he finally sat up abruptly a shout just behind his lips, it was Joanne that lay beside him, her arm around his chest and concern in her eyes.
While he slept, Riddick had pulled down vines from the roof above that had obscured the windows and that same golden light washed through the window and bathed them both in its glow. He was here, he was really here, and he would never be anywhere else. Theo had made love to her then, slowly, in the sunlight with the call of morning birds in the air and she had cried softly when he told her that he loved her. He had never meant anything so deeply in his life.
It had been nearly a week and Joanne had been quiet for a couple of days. She sat by him and answered whatever questions that he had asked but then she would look at him and her voice would still. Theo would watch her as she bit at her lip and know that what she wanted to say was right there at the surface, it just needed time. He would give her all the time in the world.
Her hand pressed against his shoulder and trailed down his arm to take his hand in hers as she sat in the chair beside him. Joanne took a deep breath and blinked back tears, her face flushed. “Joanne?” He moved the cup away so that he could lean in towards her and stroked her arm.
She took a deep breath and their gazes locked before, in a quiet but sure voice, she spoke words she had never said to another man in her life before. “I love you too.”
—
Duncan chuckled under his breath as Anna danced around Johns again. The little girl had grown fond of Johns too, even though her idea of fun and Johns’ seemed to differ somewhat. Johns chased her around the table they had brought up to the roof again, Anna just a few steps ahead of him. She giggled wildly and tried to hold Johns’ hat on her head. It was miles too big for her but the fun was in the taking not in the wearing.
Johns caught her on the other side of the table and swept her up in his arms. Duncan lowered his head to hide his huge grin as Johns growled at her which just made Anna squeal louder.
Her cries of ‘Uncle Johns’ had Riddick peek around the corner of one of the large fallen stones on the roof and Duncan and Riddick shared a look. To the little girl they were all ‘Uncle’ now but it was still funny to hear it. Anna collapsed in a heap and giggled as Johns pulled her down to tickle her, the peals of laughter echoed all around.
Duncan winced and flexed the muscles in his leg and put his head back, eyes closed, to listen. It wasn’t a place he had ever imagined he would be, or a life that he thought could ever be his. Johns hadn’t left his side, wouldn’t leave his side, and Duncan couldn’t picture his life without him now. With Bishop, that tension had always been there as he pushed and tested the other man to expose his weaknesses, to prey on him. Maybe that’s what was different with Johns.
Eyes closed, Duncan listened to Riddick and Shazza behind him. They were quiet but not quiet enough. They would talk softly and Riddick would say something to make her laugh. Their conversations grew more infrequent and Duncan knew that it was time to leave them on the roof alone. The air felt different, charged somehow, when they were up here with each other and he knew that they wanted, needed, to be alone.
With a nod to Johns, Duncan got up and they slowly made their way downstairs where Joanne had made them something to eat.
—
Shazza leaned into Riddick’s chest and sighed, contented. She could live on the Moorglade, on any ship really, but never really felt at peace until she had a home somewhere, something that was hers that she built with her own hands. That she hadn’t built Sunhillow didn’t make it any less hers. It had been hard work to clear out the rooms and as strong as her body was from years of hard work, she was sore at the end of each day.
Silent, they would patch each other’s cuts, clean and soothe whatever hurt and then they sated that deeper ache. They weren’t gentle, and fucked passionately, loudly, wherever they could find a moment alone, as they pulled at each other in need. Afterward she would sleep in the warm, solid curve of his body, his occasional growl as he nuzzled through her hair to press his nose into her neck made it clear that he dreamt of her.
Riddick put down the book he had been reading, the ancient copy of the Koran that Theo had given him. He had nearly finished it. He liked to read in the mornings when it was quiet and he thought about Imam.
He pressed Shazza’s hand against his chest where she had touched him before and branded him with fire. That simple gesture was enough to make her remember, to make them both remember. His hand covered hers, their fingers interlaced.
Fate.
Shazza and Riddick were a lot alike that way. Fate wasn’t something either had much time for, it didn’t fit into the practicality of their lives. Until they came here. ‘No, until the Hunter-Gratzner.’ Their lives had been altered the moment they, Jack included, had boarded the Hunter-Gratzner; they had been tied to each other from that moment. Even if they hadn’t ended up on Trieste 9, they would have stayed together. Somehow. But it wouldn’t have been the same.
‘Mother’ had made the long trip out across the grass sea to visit them at Sunhillow. Her face had crinkled up in a wide smile when Anna ran out to meet her, the others just behind her. She took note of everything; the open doors of Sunhillow, newly fixed, the small garden that Joanne had planted. She had watched all of them together in this place, where no one had lived for centuries.
Mother’s eyes settled first on the banner that fluttered in the gentle breeze above Sunhillow and then on Shazza. It was Shazza that she had come to see. David Underhill had returned to tell her about what had happened and had related the tale of how the Company ship had been brought down. Of who had brought it down.
Shazza had eyed Riddick warily as Mother took her hand; Riddick thought of Old Thomas and rested his hand on Shazza’s back to press her forward. Mother smiled and hummed quietly as her hand covered Shazza’s, then she reached out and traced where Shazza had touched Riddick’s chest. The handprint could no longer be seen but Mother traced it all the same. Then she had returned her attention again to Shazza and pressed Shazza’s hand between her two wizened ones. Everyone gasped at the flare of blue light that danced over their linked hands.
Mother didn’t explain. It was a thing beyond explanation as though words couldn’t express the depth. She just patted Shazza’s hands and leaned on her as they walked into Sunhillow for a meal that Joanne had prepared.
That had been yesterday. David and Jacob Underhill had returned with her and hadn’t left yet. Tomorrow would be Jack’s thirteenth birthday.
“She’ll need more than just us, Riddick. And you’ve seen the way she looks at him; you won’t be able to keep them apart for long.” Shazza leaned against Riddick’s chest. Riddick wouldn’t let Jack out of his sight but with Shazza’s persuasion he was at least willing to watch Jack and Jacob Underhill from a distance.
Jack’s laughter carried up to the roof. Jacob stood behind her and held her arm as she pulled back the bow of one of the elegant crossbows the villagers used. So far, Jack hadn’t hit anything with it and had been frustrated. Finally, she had whipped out the blade that Riddick had given her right before he left the Moorglade. Gracefully, the sharpened piece of steel was flicked up and thrown at the makeshift target.
Shazza grinned at the low growl that reverberated through Riddick’s chest. It would have been a warning to anyone else that heard it and she knew that if young Jacob had heard it, he would have taken his hand off of Jack’s shoulder in a heartbeat. She was still ‘his Jack’, right now more than ever as she strode forward and pulled the makeshift blade out of the center of the target and secured it once again in a loop at the back of her cargos.
—
“You’re not eating, Jack.” Riddick reached around and took the sandwich from Jack’s hands. At another time he would have grinned at the low warning growl from Jack. Probably not a good idea to get between her and her food. Another time.
Jack gave Riddick a puzzled look, her head tilted to the side, so much like Riddick. Then she looked down at her cargos, held her shirt out, patted her belly. “What, am I getting fat or something?” Her voice dripped sarcasm, one eyebrow cocked up as she eyed the plate of dinner Riddick had snatched away from her. Riddick didn’t eat either, she noticed.
“No. But it will slow you down.” He didn’t elaborate.
Jack sat back against the low stone wall, taken with curiosity. He was different. It almost made her afraid and if he wasn’t Riddick, she would be afraid. His voice was harder, his movements more fluid, dangerous. It wasn’t quite dark yet but the light had fallen swiftly, the air grown cool. Jack shivered slightly as he spun to face her, crouched, and raised his goggles all in one fluid, soundless motion.
His face was expressionless except for his eyes. If Jack had the experience of age, she would have been aroused; many women would have been, by the predatory gleam in them.
He leaned in close to her; she didn’t pull back, she would never pull back, but raised her chin defiantly. The expressionless mask flickered and he smirked at her, amused. “You still have the knife I gave you?”
Jack pulled the blade out easily and reached for the other weapons she had begun to carry with her as a matter of course. “Yea, and….”
“No ‘and’, Jack. Everything else stays.”
Jack gave him another puzzled look as she tried to understand what he meant. He said nothing further as she took out the rest of her weapons and laid them on the stone until all she had was the one knife.
Riddick pulled her up by the arm and then turned to look out across the forest, and the grassland beyond, before he turned back to her, his voice softer. He let out a deep sigh and raised his hand to cup her face. “You will always be mine, Jack.”
Riddick had told her that he loved her and she knew it deep in her heart, something she didn’t have to think about, something she just knew. She knew that being his was to be loved by him. She opened her mouth to speak and he placed his thumb over her lips to silence her.
His face softened again as he looked down at her as he thought of her growing up. Of her leaving one day. He had never thought it would be possible for him to grow so attached to anything, or anyone, before. He loved Shazza but it wasn’t the same. Because Shazza didn’t need him the same way that Jack did. Shazza could take care of herself.
“We’re a lot alike, Jack.” Riddick smiled at the burst of pride she couldn’t hide, and continued. “Don’t want you to forget that, no matter what happens.”
Riddick’s gaze hardened and an image of Jacob popped into her head; Riddick looked at him the same way, with that same hard gaze.
“I won’t forget.”
He growled softly at her, her face still in his hand, before he looked back out over the grass. “It’s time.”
“But where are we going? Shouldn’t I grab…”
“No. You don’t need anything else, Jack.” The intensity, the bright spark of a lethal intelligence, flared across shined eyes as he pinned her with his gaze. “We are a LOT alike. I don’t ever want you to forget it. Let’s go.”
Copyright © may 2007 xxxevilgrinxxx