False Dawn

To Dee: Thanks so much for reading, and thanks for your thoughts on my poor characterization of Riddick, and others. Never wrote a baby before, so of course it was off. The biting. Well, I don't have Jack becoming a Zombie, but maybe this chapter will clear it up a bit, there's some Info Dump going on here. Also: There's only one more chapter. 31 is the last, though it's a doozy, almost 5000 words. I normally aim for 1500-2000 words, but obviously I overshot that. If you're just hungry for good Riddick, I have another fic posted here, Treacherous. I think I do him better in that one. Also, shoot over to VinXperience some time. There are some awesome fics over there. Thanks again for reading.

~Chapter 30~

Chapter 30

An insistent beeping brought reality into focus. The feel of soft hair rubbing against his face tickled his nose, yet he pressed closer, breathing in the soap and sweat scent of the woman before him. Moving from this place was the last thing he ever wanted to do. His family lay here in this bed with him, the only people in the whole fucking universe that he cared about, or cared about him. All he felt like doing was pulling Jack tighter against him and never letting her go, but he wouldn't do that, not wanting to wake her.

Riddick took another deep breath of the scent he had dreamed of, and missed so much over most of the past two years. Then he carefully rose from the narrow bed, trying his best not to wake his woman and his son.

The baby, Aiden, he smiled at the name, pleased that they had created something so beautiful. He murmured in his sleep, a soft whimpering noise that only a child could make, but otherwise didn't wake. Jack didn't budge at all. That she didn't react to his moving away from her settled around his heart some. He knew she needed her sleep, but he wished like hell she'd cling to him and ask him to stay. She had always been a light sleeper, coming awake at the slightest noises, and with her new profession he doubted much had changed. The drugs he had given her were helping her sleep, as well as exhaustion from their ordeal, and blood loss.

He could see the discoloration of bruising around her neck, darkening much worse in the back where there were neat rows of purplish dots where his fingers must have dug into her. The band of white around her upper arm was stained from within by more blood. Knowing she was infected with the virus, and thinking of how his injuries always healed quickly, he figured hers would too. Though he knew her body would take a day of so to recover from the blood loss, and the injury would most likely take even longer to heal.

His jaw hardened as he thought of what he had done to her. His stomach rolled again in that sickening way at the thought of eating part of her. How could he have hurt her? Even if he'd been out of his mind he couldn't imagine not remembering how much he cared for her. He was her protector, yet she had had to tie him to keep him from hurting her. The guilt and rage he felt towards himself were nearly overwhelming.

He stood over them for long minutes. Aiden was snuggled closely to Jack and he knew he'd have to come and check on them often to make sure she didn't roll onto the baby. He could smell a distinctive odor in the room and it made him smile and wonder if Jack had supplies to change the baby's diaper, because the kid was ripe. They had only been asleep for a couple hours, but how long could one diaper hold?

The continued insistent beeping drew him to the cockpit finally where a message was flashing there from the Gallimaufry. He sat in the pilot's seat and hit the button to open the connection.

Trow's face appeared before him and he watched the man stare at him through the comm. link for a long moment. "What happened?" he finally asked and then after a long pause said as an afterthought, "Chip lost the connection to you."

Riddick glanced down at himself, seeing the dark patches of dried blood on his arms that the man was obviously looking at. He could smell the blood on him, had known he was covered, but had pushed it out of his mind to deal with Jack's injury. Jack hadn't mentioned losing the connection to Chip through the headsets, but then there had been other things going on. "We were successful." He looked back up at the comm. link, "Were we followed?"

Trow nodded, sitting back in his own seat with a thoughtful frown as he answered. "Yeah. You were even scanned, but with the name changed and a complete legal record to back it up they never suspected. And for some reason there only appeared to be two life forms when they scanned."

Riddick nodded, knowing that if what Jack had said was true, that he wouldn't have appeared as alive.

Trow continued, "We've stopped to wait for you. Without them following there is no risk to us."

Riddick leaned forward looking at the controls, seeing that Chip was going to just reel them in, having already adjusted their course. It had been discussed, that if they were unable to control the ship or stay conscious due to injuries that it would be safer to just allow him to bring them in. Riddick hadn't believed at the time that it would be necessary, but it could have been invaluable. The course showed that they had another two hours before making contact with the combined ships Ohanzee and Atramentous, now aptly named the Gallimaufry.

The connection between the two men was broken with little else said. Riddick knew that Trow was full of questions, but that he would wait to speak to Jack. He respected Jack's friend, even if he was slightly annoyed. He honestly didn't even feel like getting angry over it. If Trow found out what had happened he figured the man would probably want to kill him all over again.

With a reluctant sigh he stood and moved to the blood spattered area in the back where he had obviously bitten Jack. The pack that she had worn was there, things spilling out of it now. It was there that he had caught a glimpse of a file before they had gone to bed.

He picked up the gun lying nearby, turning it over to look at the chip sticking out the front. He recognized the piece of equipment and knew of at least some of its uses. He put it in the pack and slid the file out, tucking in the escaping pieces of paper.

He set the file down on the tiny table with two attached seats. After washing himself and changing into a clean shirt, he returned to the blood spattered floor. The disinfectant cut through the dried blood quickly, and he wiped at the mess with a frown. Disgust and guilt at his own actions was something he'd never felt before. He was Richard B. Riddick! He did what needed to be done, no second-guessing, no looking back. But then he'd never loved anyone before either . . .

When all the visible evidence of what had happened was cleaned away, he moved back to the small table and stood glaring at the file for a minute. Then he turned and walked away from it and the cursed information it would hold. He stepped into the bedroom silently. Jack and Aiden hadn't moved, both still sleeping soundly. He stood inside the doorway for an unknown number of minutes before turning back to the main room. With a sort of sigh, he sat at the small table and opened the dreaded file carefully.

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Jack came awake suddenly, not jerking, or even thrashing as she had once done. But just opening her eyes, allowing her senses several moments to awaken fully. The lack of warmth at her back alerted her that Riddick had gone. Pain was the next matter, it radiated through her arm, making the whole side of her body stiffen reflexively against the throbbing ache. She rolled onto her back, trying to do anything to relieve the discomfort, but her stomach rebelled at the new position. To keep her stomach in its place she quickly rolled onto her side, her good hand holding her belly as if it would do some good. She whimpered softly, swallowing as quickly as she could to try to force the nausea away.

After several minutes of slow deep breathing she felt in control again. Carefully, testing each move on her annoyingly delicate system, she sat up. Being careful not to use her left arm, she checked that the baby was still covered, and then cautiously stood. A rush of near vertigo had her gripping the edge of the table beside the bed for a moment, but it passed quickly and she was able to stand on her own, only wavering slightly.

A glass of water and a neat row of four pills lined up on the table made her smile at Riddick's thoughtfulness. She quickly downed the pills, whatever they were, her throat hurting with each swallow as she gripped the table so she wouldn't lose her balance. She set the glass back down and just stood with her eyes closed for a moment trying to will the all-consuming pain away and hoping that the pills worked quickly.

She knew she shouldn't be up. With the exhaustion and blood loss she was due for a couple days worth of sleep, but her responsibilities nagged at her. Riddick was capable of handling everything, there was no question of that. Though with Chip's precautions there was very little to 'handle' at all. The ship was controlled completely by him. All they had to do was sit back and be brought home. Yet, considering everything that had happened since they took off from Mars, she had to check on Riddick. What if he'd lost so much blood that he died again and came back in to have them for dinner? That she so easily accepted what had happened didn't seem strange to her at all. She'd seen it. Yeah, it had been unbelievable, but after witnessing it, she had no choice except to believe it.

With cautious steps she moved to the door, her mind going over what she could use to sling her arm.

Riddick looked up from where he sat at the table across the small room. His goggles lay on the table before him among a collection of scattered papers. His unguarded eyes met hers and she saw pain there. It bothered her to see him hurting, and she moved as quickly as she dared to him. He seemed wary, or doubtful of her intentions, but when she stood before him she just used her good arm to pull him to her. He came willingly then, an audible sigh escaping him, as he pressed his face to her stomach. His arms lifted to wrap around her, holding on tightly, returning her hug.

Jack just held him, knowing that this man rarely needed such comfort, and even more seldom did he accept it. Her hand stroked his back and neck. He'd changed into a clean shirt from their pack of supplies, and she could see that he'd washed up some. It just felt good to hold him, and have him holding her.

"Jack, I feel so horrible," he mumbled into her.

Her hand continued to stroke down his back, keeping him in place, "Tell me."

He shook his head, his arms tightening almost painfully. "I can't," she just managed to hear.

Minutes passed with them just holding each other. Riddick's face was pressed so tightly into her belly she wondered how he was even breathing. Though she was comforted by the steady rise and fall of his chest, leaving no doubt that he WAS breathing. Eventually she urged him again, "Talk to me, Riddick."

He took a long deep breath. She knew he was breathing in her scent, recalling him doing that from their time together before. It had made her feel special that just her mere presence, her smell, was something that he enjoyed.

He slowly released her and she swayed slightly at the loss of support before she found her balance and moved to sit in the chair across from him. She carefully settled her nearly useless arm on her lap, and looked up to see him watching her intently. "So what is so horrible?"

He scowled, "Look what I did to you."

She waved her other hand dismissively. "I don't blame you for this. You didn't do it on purpose. Now, tell me what you know."

He sat back, his face still locked in that hard expression, but he did eventually start to speak. "This file you got covered a lot that we hadn't known." His gaze remained lowered, staring at the papers between them with obvious disgust. "The AR-virus was so experimental that Chem Industries had no idea what it would do. They were learning of its capabilities and side effects as they happened."

He was quiet for a long time before going on. "Subject four, a male, died during one of his missions. His partner, male subject seven, brought back the body as ordered. That's when they learned of the virus's effect on death.

"They determined that the virus regenerated cells so rapidly that the brain stayed alive, functioning on a primal level, even though the body was clinically dead." His eyes rose to meet hers finally. "They kept him contained for weeks, testing him, experimenting. His basic need was to feed, and all he wanted was live flesh."

Jack shivered at the horrible mental picture of the undead man eating.

Riddick continued, "Another group was infected years after the initial group and they tested this new discovery on them." He shook his head. "They killed several, containing them, feeding some, but in the end what brought them all down finally was their bodies literally rotting out from under them. Their injuries would heal almost instantly at the moment of death and then after a varied amount of time they would wake back up, only dead."

Jack listened, not really wanting to, but needing to know what they were, what they had become, and what they could turn into. She nodded at this last bit, remembering not being able to find the bullet holes on him that she had known should be there.

"On the fourth one they killed they discovered a way to 'reanimate' them. It was a young woman." He stopped for a moment, his head shaking slightly as his eyes moved over the papers before him. "They kept killing her, leaving her dead for longer and longer periods of time. After fifty hours or so, they couldn't bring her back."

They sat in silence for several long minutes. Jack could feel the consuming waves of pain from her arm lessening slowly, the drugs slowly taking effect. "Is that it?" she asked finally.

He nodded. "There's a lot of detail, but basically, yeah. It explains why they suddenly raised the bounty on me and changed the terms. The timing is perfect."

"They didn't want anyone else to kill you and discover that you weren't human."

He grimaced at her words, but nodded slightly.

"So you know how I brought you back?"

"The chip in my back."

Jack frowned as she looked at him, "You knew."

He nodded that little bit again and met her eyes, his flashing in the dim light. "Yeah, I knew it was there."

"But you didn't know what it was for?"

"It was for them. CI could get a playback of my jobs for them. It recorded everything, sounds, sight, everything." He chewed the inside of his lip for a moment. "I tried to have it taken out years ago, but it's in the spine. Too dangerous to remove."

"You never told me," she whispered.

He shrugged, "It didn't matter to me. I kept cutting around it until the skin grew across it. It just looked like another scar."

She nodded, "My hair covers mine."

His steady gaze bored into her as his eyes narrowed, "Yours?" he asked, his tone dangerous.

Jack lifted her hair with her good hand, exposing her neck and turning so he could see the back of her head. "Didn't know it was there myself. Aiden showed me. He's got one too."

Riddick's face tightened, his rage nearly radiating from him. "They put them in you because of me."

She let her hair drop and shrugged, "From what I can see it's not all bad."

He just stared at her and she stared back.

"I can't change what has happened, Riddick. I understand that it pisses you off. It pisses me off too, but . . ." she shrugged and smiled, "I don't mind being immortal."

"Immortal?"

"The files that I saw were questionable on the age of the subjects. Even you." She smiled again. "You have to admit you're in pretty damn good shape for being almost forty."

The small crinkle appeared between his eyes, a sign that he was thinking. "How do we live a normal life though, Jack?"

She smiled again, "Normal? I don't know what normal is, Riddick. We have Aiden, we have each other. Whatever we do, it'll probably never be normal."

He was staring at her hard, and it took him a minute to speak. "We're still a 'we', Jack?"

In that moment she felt both powerful and guilty. She held the universe's most wanted killer in the palm of her hand. And she had abused that. She knew Riddick was a hard and dangerous man, and she knew that he cared for her more than he would ever willingly admit.

She stood and moved to stand before him. Ignoring the pain caused by moving her arm, she cupped his face in both of her hands and lifted it the bit she needed to so that he was looking up at her. She could feel the sting of tears threaten. In the tiniest little ways he told her how much he loved her, even if he would never say the words. No one else would be permitted to touch him so familiarly and she couldn't stop the slight smile.

"I'm sorry, Riddick. I wanted you safe that day, but then I blamed you for leaving me." She smiled again, loving the flash of his eyes on her. "I've always loved you. We'll never stop being a 'we'."

With his hands at her waist he urged her down to straddle his legs. His mouth found hers and she groaned at the hot engulfing sensations. Gods! She had missed kissing this man. He groaned as well, holding her tightly against him, his hands roaming her back while his tongue roamed her mouth. She was breathless within moments, lost in his simple touch, nothing else mattering.

Especially not a repetitive beeping noise, or, minutes later, the garbled voice coming over the comm. link. It was Riddick who finally pulled back, leaving her panting and wanting more.

She saw his head rise, looking in the direction of the cockpit, and she clung to him, refusing to let him push her aside. "It's just Trow, they don't need our help," she told him almost frantically.

He hesitated a moment longer, his lack of trust in anything apparent, and then his head dropped to beside hers. His mouth on her ear sent shivers racing through her, his arms tightening to hold her in place.

"Are you okay, baby?"

That gruff voice in her ear was like waking up from a nightmare. She'd missed his low gravelly voice, his hard arms holding her against an even harder body. "No, Riddick. I missed you so much, and then I thought I'd lost you for good." She was crying, her face pressed into his neck, wetting his skin, and she didn't give a shit.

His hand came up to brush along her hair. A low rumble of sound came from his chest, more comforting to her than anything else. His inability to speak in that moment let her know how much he truly felt, even if he couldn't tell her.

"I know, baby. I thought I'd lost you too."

She clung to him, but raised her face to his, which he quickly took advantage of, fitting his lips to hers. Minutes passed, during which she was only conscious of him. The pain in her arm and neck faded, the fear and worry were gone. She was only slightly aware of the thumping sounds as their small ship was drawn into the large landing bay of the Atramentous and then minutes later a grating sounds as the hatch lowered.

"So I guess you two made up."

Trow's voice finally cut through and she pulled away from Riddick, her eyes lingering on his for long moments before turning toward the sound of their visitor. "Hey, Trow."