He Didn't Come

Through the haze of drug-induced sleep, Jack swam lazily. She knew in an abstract way that something happened, and that her shoulder should be hurting her terribly. She couldn’t feel a thing, though. She felt like she was drifting with an aimless purpose through the black expanse of space. Above her, there was a white light that made her squint painfully. It was easier to sink back down into the calming dark. She was safer there. Riddick was in the darkness with her.

That light hit her again, and she tried to turn her head away. Her shoulder suddenly bloomed with pain, and the light grew brighter.

“Okay, the drugs are wearing off. Is she stable?”

Who was saying that? Where was Riddick? And who had she seen? There was something nagging at her, something familiar that she knew she needed to remember. What was it?

The pain doubled before cooling again.

“Okay, I’ve given her another injection. She should sleep for a while longer while we finish up.”

The light faded, and Jack resumed swimming.

~*~

The first thing she was aware of was that she had to go to the bathroom.

Her shoulder hurt like hell, but she could live with it. She was also a little cold, but she could live with that, too. If she didn’t get to a bathroom fast, however, she was going to start drowning.

She opened her eyes slowly, and frowned. She didn’t recognize a thing. This wasn’t her bed. Where was her bed? This wasn’t her room. Was she even on Riddick’s ship?

Getting up slowly, she saw that she was in a private hospital room. She immediately thought she was back on New Germany, but she noticed that there were no bars on the window in the door. There didn’t appear to be any locks at all, for that matter. This wasn’t the psych ward, then. She was relieved. For a moment there she had feared that she had dreamed the past five years up during one of her attacks, though she had never hallucinated the future before. Most of her psychotic problem was that she couldn’t get out of the past.

Okay, then. She was herself, and she hadn’t imagined anything. So why was she in the hospital? What happened? Where was Riddick?

“Riddick!” she called out. He didn’t appear. Where was he? Where was she? What was going on? She swung her legs to the floor and stopped when she realized that she was wearing her own clothes. This was making less and less sense. If she was in a hospital, shouldn’t she be in one of those awful nightgowns? She shrugged and stood. Her shoulder immediately started throbbing. Her face wrinkled for a moment as she fought a slap of pain. Focus on the little things, Jack. Bathroom. Find a bathroom.

There was a narrow door across from her bed and just to her left. Probably a bathroom. She gingerly put her weight on first one foot, then both, and didn’t topple over. So far, so good. She had only taken a single step, however, when she felt a sharp tug on her arm. Looking down, she saw that she was hooked to a free-standing IV drip. Looking at the drip itself, she saw that it was about a quarter-full of blood. Why the hell did she need a blood transfusion?

The hospital room door opened, and Jack sat back down as quickly as she could. She tried to arrange herself comfortably, so it would appear that she hadn’t moved, but whoever it was stepped into the room before she could quite manage it.

Looking up with a guilty face, she felt her expression change and she smiled broadly. Before he could say anything, she said, “Help me to the bathroom.”

With a grin, Riddick picked her up and started to carry her to the bathroom, but she stopped him. “The IV,” she said.

“Oh,” he said. “Can you walk?” Jack nodded, and he set her down. “Hold on a second.” Riddick put a hand on the IV and wheeled it after her. “Go on.”

Gratefully she walked as fast as she could through the door, sat down, and sighed in relief.

When she was done she stood and washed her hands. Pushing the IV in front of her, she suddenly felt very tired. Riddick saw this and picked her up. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“No problem, kid. How’s the shoulder?”

She still hadn’t had a chance to figure out what was going on. After he settled her back in bed, she smiled wanly and looked at her shoulder. There was a small bulge underneath her shirt. She lifted the sleeve as much as she could, but when she bent her upper body to get the best leverage, her shoulder screamed in angry protest.

“Oww! Oh, fuck,” Jack swore through gritted teeth. “The shoulder hurts, Riddick.”

Riddick crossed the room and set next to her on the narrow bed. “Remember that next time you decide to take a bullet for me.”

“A bullet…?” Suddenly it all came back to her. Brutal as a space crash, her memory caught up to reality and felt like it should have left her gasping for breath.

Pirates attacking the ship… the fight… waking up in an empty room… a ‘rat coming and heckling her, probably getting ready to rape her… another ‘rat coming to get her… getting away from the ‘rat… seeing Libbie… the ‘rat almost shooting Riddick….

Hold on. Libbie? No way. But she saw her, looking much older, holding a gun and staring back at Jack, before Riddick had grabbed her and pulled her away.

She grabbed at Riddick’s arm. “Libbie’s here! I saw her! Riddick, I saw Libbie! Where is she? Oh, don’t tell me I’m crazy, don’t tell me I dreamed it, Riddick, please tell me where she is….”

Riddick put a hand to her lips, quieting her. “Shh. Yes, Libbie’s here. You need to relax, though. She’ll be here soon to see you, I promise.”

Jack was confused. “Riddick, what the hell happened? I remember seeing her and I remember getting shot, but how did I end up in a hospital?”

“You’re not in a hospital. The ship was an Alliance medic unit before the ‘rats took it over, so you get all the benefits of being in a hospital without those stylish clothes.”

Jack laughed. “Lucky me. Seriously, though, explain what happened. I blacked out, right?”

“Yeah. Before anybody could do anything, though, Libbie- that sister you told me about, right?” Jack nodded and he continued, “Your sister told everybody to hold their fire. She walked over to us and looked at your shoulder. When she realized how badly you were hurt, she ordered you to the clinic and locked herself in a room with me, I guess so I couldn’t get out. She’s insane, you know that? She locked herself up with me. I could have broken her in half and she wouldn’t have had time to take a breath.” Riddick shook his head with what Jack recognized as admiration, and laughed.

Jack smiled, but she really wanted to know about Libbie. “So?” she prompted him.

“Right. So. She started asking me about you, about how I met you, about me… she asked some intelligent questions. She’s smart.”

“So, okay, you told her about me. What did she tell you about her? Did she say why she left?”

Riddick shook his head. “No. I tried to ask, but she didn’t tell me anything. Then we had to jump to get closer to Neb 4, so she left and went to the bridge.”

Jack lay back and put her head on the pillow. For a pirate ship, the facility was really nice. Even if it had been an Alliance medic vessel, she would have assumed the ‘rats would have ripped it up for creds on the black market.

She asked Riddick, “So, why is she here? Is she a prisoner or something?”

Riddick said seriously, “Jack, do you think a prisoner would have the authority to get you medical treatment and order a ship full of pirates not to kill me?”

She shook her head. He had a point, but she couldn’t imagine what else it could be.

There was a knock at the door, and Riddick rose to open it. A dark-skinned man wearing a cargo vest over a once-white tank top and some work pants walked in with a tray of food, of all things. Jack stared at him as he wheeled over a trolley she hadn’t noticed from the corner, set the food on it, and looked at Riddick.

“Move,” he said simply.

Jack watched as Riddick’s face darkened, and she put a hand on his arm. “Just do it, Riddick.”

“Why?” he asked, staring at the pirate with distrust.

Jack whispered, “If he were going to kill me, do you really think that he’d be bringing me food?”

“It could be poisoned,” Riddick muttered.

“Oh, come on, Riddick. Grow up and move. I’m hungry.”

The pirate and Riddick exchanged a glare that promised later violence, and Jack rolled her eyes. Now that she’d had a chance to pee, however, she was too hungry to intervene. “Just don’t kill each other,” she snapped.

Riddick gave her a falsely innocent face. “What?”

Jack just frowned at him and asked the pirate, “What’s your name?”

“Peter,” he said. “Can you sit up?”

Jack nodded, and Riddick supported her as she adjusted the bed settings. “You didn’t have to do that, you know,” she said.

“Sure I did,” Riddick said, shooting another evil glare at Peter, her… nurse, odd as that sounded. She had a pirate for a nurse. Her world was more fucked up than she had given it credit for.

As she began to eat her sandwich hungrily, Peter checked her IV and stuck a thermo-pad to the back of her neck.

“Okay, no temp. Let me double check on the transfusion, but the surgery went fine and I think you’ll be okay,” he said gruffly, fiddling with the tubes coming out of the pouch of blood. “There’s a button to your left. Press it if you need anything.” With a glare of measured distrust at Riddick, he left.

Riddick looked at her with an earnest expression. “Why can’t I just kill him and get us the fuck out of here?”

Jack swallowed her mouthful of food and said irritably, “If they were going to hurt us, they would have done it already. Shut up and let me eat. Want my pickle?”

Riddick accepted, and together they cleared her tray. As she drank the last of her juice, someone knocked on the door again. Riddick rose to answer.

“Be nice, Riddick,” Jack warned.

“Uh-huh,” he grunted, and opened the door.

Libbie strode into the room, shot a glare at Riddick, and hurried to Jack’s bed. Jack put down her cup and straw and stared at her sister.

“Get me a chair,” Libbie said to Riddick in a voice that sounded used to giving commands.

Jack rushed to counter Riddick’s reaction before it could mature into a real problem. “Riddick, please?”

Riddick as good as threw a chair from the same corner as the trolley at Libbie and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

“Will he be okay?” Jack asked quickly, ready to call him back.

Libbie answered, “He’ll be fine. Everyone’s under orders not to harm either of you.” She arranged herself in the chair and stared at Jack.

Jack stared back. She didn’t know what to think. Libbie was the first person she’d ever really cared about, the first person ever to try for her. It was hard to believe that they were back together. Libbie was plump, which was a shocker. She looked healthy and satisfied with life, but she was definitely a maturing woman. She had to be twenty-eight. Her hair was long and curled softly at the ends. It shone like gleaming mahogany as she smoothed it behind her ears.

Libbie spoke first. “My God, Jackie, how did you end up here?”

Jack arched an eyebrow at her sister. “What do you mean, how did I end up here? How did you end up here? What happened?”

“What, when you were six?” Jack nodded, and Libbie waived a hand dismissively, saying, “That was years ago. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does so matter! Why’d you leave me?”

“It’s not like I wanted to, Jackie.”

“Then what happened?” Jack demanded.

Libbie sighed. “I was working and someone decided it would be nice to have their own… you know.” Jack nodded, and Libbie went on, “Anyway, I managed to get away after a few years on Februus Eight and met Brand. I didn’t know who he was at the time. He seemed to like me, and since he was only on the planet for a few days, I tried to make a deal with him.”

“How did you meet him?”

Libbie’s face flushed and she looked away. “Don’t worry about that,” she said softly.

Jack was confused for a moment. Why was her sister being so vague? Then it hit her. She didn’t want to mention whoring to her baby sister! Jack burst out laughing so hard her shoulder throbbed indignantly.

Libbie was the one who looked confused after that. “What’s so funny?”

Jack managed to calm herself enough to say, “You don’t need to beat around the bush with me. You were hooking. Go on.”

Libbie looked shocked. “What do you know about hooking? Jackie, what happened to you?”

Jack sobered up quickly. “Everything happened. The point is that you don’t need to treat me like some sheltered kid.”

Libbie’s expression deepened to one of concern. “Jackie, what are you talking about?”

It was Jack’s turn to be vague. “It’s not important. Okay, so you met this Brand guy. I guess he took you with him?”

Libbie frowned and was silent for a moment, but finally said, “No. Well, yes. Not exactly. Oh, hell.” Another pause. Jack was getting ready to throttle her. “I told him that I would exchange sex for security.”

It made sense to Jack. She didn’t know what there was to be so ashamed of. Yes, it was a terrible thing, but Libbie seemed to be taking it a bit overboard. Jack just shrugged. Libbie looked disconcerted, but went on, “But he refused. He did take me with him, though. He wasn’t what he told me he was.”

Jack said, “Well, go on. What was he?”

“The ruler of Nebulus Four.”