::THIRTY THREE::

“Be still, Jane. We’re being watched.”
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::THIRTY TWO::

“Fuck, Riddick, I’m sorry…..”

Kid looks scared. Not that I can really blame him. Jenkins isn’t really a kid, and, at some point, I’m going to have to stop thinking of him as one. Today seems like a good place to start. I could say that he’s just damned fast, but I have to look at the truth. I’m getting slow in my old age.
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::THIRTY ONE::

“Is he awake yet?”

She’s sitting in a chair, beside Johnson. Comes down here quite a bit, and, if I couldn’t find her anywhere else, I know she’d be here. I’ve only left her side a couple of times, and, even at that, it’s only been in the last two days. She’s armed. Enough people here know Jane wouldn’t hesitate to shoot. Still makes my guts knot up every time I leave her alone. Had to start dealing with it sometime.
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::THIRTY::

Tried not to hear the knock on the door when it came. Stayed watching her for a moment, the corners of her mouth turned up, in the start of a grin, as we both lay still, and pretended not to hear the door. Knew we couldn’t stay in here forever. I throw some pants on, and answer the door, shielding Jane from view. It’s the kid that handled the comm system. I don’t say anything. He came down here for a reason, better to just find out what it is.
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::TWENTY NINE::

“Riddick…”

Nothing but a murmur answers me, nuzzling over my cheek, as he carries me back to my quarters. My arms around his neck, pressed hard into his chest, arm under my knees. Carrying me back to bed. I’m not big. Theoretically, I guess, a guy could carry me pretty easily. Never happened in this context before.
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::TWENTY EIGHT::

“I want to know the second that signal clears…and send somebody down to the med bay….”
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::TWENTY SEVEN::

“Jane, wake up.”

She wakes instantly, making a move to roll out of bed, move up front. Not quite fully alert. Just going through the motions now, her instincts taking over. Reasoning will come later. I pull her back at the last moment. Franks has already turned away, respecting her nakedness, moving to the back to bring my clothes, left by the bathroom door. He drops hers, sticky and heavily clotted with blood still, stiffening as they dry. Pull the sheet over her, as I sit up beside her.
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::TWENTY SIX::

“I need you to scan out further, Franks. I don’t believe for a second I’d be lucky enough for them just to send one after me.”
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::TWENTY FIVE::

The last time she cried she was sleeping. Couldn’t have helped it even if she’d known she was doing it. She cries almost soundlessly now. To look at her, you’d think she was just sleeping, not sleeping well, but sleeping. Sitting with her in my lap in the back bay of the Virago, on the floor against the bulkhead. How can she be so small, so fragile? I never forgot she was a woman, but sometimes I forget just how small she is.
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::TWENTY FOUR::

Her head rests against me for a second longer, her heart racing, before the screams in the hallway come back to us. A whisper in her ear, a kiss, not minding the blood there, as long as it’s not hers.
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