He Didn't Come

Riddick was pacing around the bridge. “Why aren’t they answering?” he growled.

Jack adjusted her sling as she fed Nat. She was trying to keep calm, but it wasn’t working very well. Anthony was in the corner playing with something that looked like bolts or screws. He seemed fine where he was, so she focused on Riddick. “What now?”

“Why aren’t those fucking ‘rats answering me? I’ve been hailing them for the last half-hour. We’re gonna need to confirm that the computer’s working on their end. If it’s not and I can’t get someone to walk me through this, you know what happens.”

Jack knew all too well what would happen. If the computer was on the fritz again, then they had to navigate the docking procedure themselves. Riddick had no experience in handling a ship as large as the one they were traveling in, and there would be no margin for error in the delicate procedure. If they were off the tiniest bit, there would be major damage done to the hull of the ship, and to the station itself. In the worst possible scenario, they would get a hull-breach… if not blow up completely.

The whole situation was beyond her. She couldn’t believe the turn her life was taking. Riddick just ended up pissed at everything and everyone, and Jack had ended up trying to become ‘Aunt Jackie.’ Necessity dictated that she rig up a sling for her arm and start trying to take care of the two little boys. Riddick hadn’t been happy that she was up and moving, but when he tried to make her stay in bed, she just asked him, point-blank, “Would you rather take care of the babies all by yourself?”

He had stuttered an indignant ‘no,’ and she smirked. “Well then, quit whining.”

Riddick tried hailing the station again, but there was still no response. Nathaniel finished his bottle and started trying to slurp down air. Jack winced as she put him to her shoulder and patted his back, trying to burp him. She didn’t know if she was doing it right, but Anthony hadn’t said anything about her technique, so she guessed that it was similar enough to Libbie’s style not to be a problem.

The bridge was relatively spacious, and the effect was doubled by the emptiness of the ship itself. When Jack had ventured from the hospital room, the maze of hallways in the gargantuan ship echoed in an eerie fashion. Anthony had run up and down the length of the main hall cheerfully, and Nat fussed as he nestled into Jack’s chest, supported by the sling Riddick helped her fashion out of a spare sheet.

Nat was the fussiest baby she had ever seen. Riddick growled something unintelligible as he paced some more, and Jack stroked the infant’s tiny head, trying to sooth him. “Shh. It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s okay, Nat,” Jack murmured.

Riddick finally stopped his pacing and stood at the console, supporting his upper body with clenched fists. His head was bowed, and Jack could read the tension in his shoulders.

“I’m gonna have to maneuver this on my own,” Riddick said. “I’m not taking the chance that the computer isn’t fried.”

Jack stood carefully, and walked over to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, look at me,” she said softly.

Riddick finally turned his head and stared at her.

“Lights off,” Jack said. Anthony cried out in surprise, but Jack said, “Hush, Anthony. I’ll turn the lights back on in a minute.” To Riddick she said again, “Look at me.”

Riddick slowly removed his goggles and stared at her. Jack could feel the raw, untamed power in that gaze as it studied her through the blackness. She put out the hand from her wounded shoulder. The other arm was busy supporting the baby. After a pause, she felt Riddick’s huge, calloused hand meet her own. Their fingers entwined. “I trust you, Richard Riddick,” Jack murmured.

Riddick pulled her hand gently toward his face. His lips were warm and dry when he kissed her palm. “I know, Jack,” he said hoarsely. The gravel of his voice smoothed off the rough edges on her nerves, and she smiled.

“Good,” she answered simply. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. The electric jolt that had raced through her entire body when he touched her palm like that left her feeling slightly shaky. It had been a totally unexpected feeling. It reminded Jack of their encounter just before they were attacked by ‘rats—was it only a week ago? Those flagrant emotions and physical sensations Riddick roused within her were back with a vengeance, but—and this was the amazing thing—there was no fear.

“Put your goggles back on,” Jack said. She heard Riddick do so, and she said, “Lights to full.”

Anthony was still sitting next to his little pile of bolts, and as Jack sat back down and Riddick started fiddling with the controls on the console, the child walked over to her. “Can I sit on your lap, Aunt Jackie?” he said.
Jack shook her head. “No, sweetheart. Not unless you go back to the room and get that crib Riddick rigged up.”

Anthony scurried out of the room, and Jack leaned back and sighed. “When did I become so damn maternal?” she muttered.

“Comes with the territory, I guess,” Riddick said from the from the front of the bridge. “You become a surrogate mommy, you start feeling like a real one.”

Jack smiled. Nat was a headache and a half, what with trying to synthesize formula and diapers and keep him from crying in the meantime. Anthony, though, was a jewel. She already loved him. When Libbie came back, it would be hard to give them up.

Riddick, too, was acting more and more naturally toward the boys. After the last of the ‘rats left, he had done a recon of sorts, trying to find a stash of baby supplies. Finding nothing, he established where the synthesizer was located and made a crib out of blankets and half of an old packing crate. Anthony had tried to help, and while Jack expected Riddick to blow him off like an annoying bug, he had surprised her. Riddick let Anthony hold the crate still while he cut it with a cutting torch he found in the bowels of the ship—very near the drive room, as a matter of fact.

Riddick wasn’t taking to Nat very much at all, but Jack didn’t mind too much. As soon as Libbie came back, it wouldn’t be a problem and they could head off again. She had no idea where they would go. Riddick had intended to take her back to New Germany, but Jack had no intention whatsoever of heading back there. She wanted to just forget her past.

She asked, “Should we try and lock everything down?” She didn’t see how it would be possible, because the ship was huge. But if it needed to be done….

“No,” Riddick replied. “Too much there. None of it’s ours, so I’m not too worried about it anyway. Anything in storage should be fine.”

Jack shrugged and nodded. Nat had finally stopped fussing and appeared to be asleep. Just as she began to wonder where Anthony had gotten to, he reappeared, dragging the makeshift crib behind him.

He walked backwards into the room, and the crib made a loud scraping noise as he maneuvered it closer to Jack. The noise made Nat wake up and let out a mighty squall.

“I’m sorry, Aunt Jackie,” he began. His little-boy face was screwed up with worry, but Jack sighed and tried to force a smile.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It was an accident.” Carefully she lay Nat down on his stomach and patted his bottom with her good hand. Anthony walked up to the opposite side of the crib and watched. Jack suddenly felt very tired. Suppressing a yawn, she gestured for Anthony to walk around the crib. Nat must have been exhausted, because he quieted down almost immediately. Jack reflected too late that she would need to hold him while the ship docked.

“Shit,” she muttered.

“What is it?” Riddick asked.

“Nothing,” Jack said wearily. “I just got Nat to sleep, but I’m gonna have to wake him up in time for the docking procedure.”

“Well, pick him up now. We dock in five minutes.”

Jack smiled apologetically at Anthony. “Sorry, sweetie. I’ll hold you soon, I promise. Go buckle yourself in. Would you help him, Riddick?”

Riddick grunted a response, and plopped the boy in a seat about ten sizes too large for him. “Hmm. On second thought, you’d better sit with me,” he said. As Jack picked up the sleeping baby, she winced as she settled him into her arms and tried to calm his crying. Looking up, she watched in amazement as Riddick sat down, with Anthony in his lap, and strapped them both in.

I really don’t understand that man sometimes, Jack thought. There’s always a surprise with him.

The ship shuddered as it began to dock. It was the moment of truth—would they make it, or would their ship explode in a fiery conflagration of destruction? “I really don’t want to be incinerated,” she whispered under her breath. “Please, please let this work.”

It seemed as though all four occupants held their breaths. The tension was plain, and Jack closed her eyes as she held Nat more tightly. It was pointless, of course. If they were going to die, they were going to die. It didn’t matter how she held the kid. If the ship exploded, they were all fried. Still, she tried to protect him as best she could with her good arm.

The shuddering increased exponentially, but it was nothing extraordinary. Every massive ship had a rough docking. Jack supposed that it just seemed that much more threatening because of the situation they were in. The tension grew and grew, until suddenly… the shuddering stopped.

Jack opened one eye, then the other. They were alive. “Ri… Riddick?” she asked in a shaky voice. “Did we make it?”

Riddick turned to her and smiled as he released himself and the little boy in his lap. “Yeah, we did,” he said. “We’re okay.”

Jack felt as though a huge load of something was released from her stomach and chest. Relief washed through her body, and she struggled to release her own buckles. As she stood, however, she sagged almost to her knees.

Riddick was immediately there, supporting her. “You okay, baby?” he murmured anxiously.

What the—did he just call me baby? Jack wasn’t sure if she trusted her own ears. She stared into Riddick’s face, and suddenly wished, in a rush of irritation, that he didn’t have a shine on his eyes. She wanted to look past those fucking goggles and really look at him, at the man she loved.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hit the brakes, Jack. Love?

Yes, love. She loved him.

Holy shit.