He Didn't Come

The old man, Riddick, and Jack were trying to choke down dinner. It was, quite simply, gross. There was no other way to describe it. The food was stored in individually wrapped packets, and all they had to do was add water and wait. Whoever designed the rafts was a bit short-sighted, though. There was no way to heat up the food.

Jack swallowed her cold imitation meatloaf and grimaced. They had been in the raft for two days, and she was getting more and more disenchanted with the idea of total freedom the more she lived it. Would she have been better off at the hospital, waiting for them to just dump her in another foster home?

No way. She was gone as soon as the trio made it planetside, wherever that may be. Where she would go, she had no clue. She only had one skill, but she had left that life behind her forever. Sure, things hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but nothing ever did.

She finished what she could and jettisoned the rest before going into the bathroom. “Does anyone want some of those washcloth things?” she asked.

Imam shook his head, and Riddick didn’t respond. Jack didn’t even know if he had been listening. She went into the little cubbyhole and closed the curtain. Before getting the cloths, she changed her makeshift pad. Bloody paper in hand, she gave a little scream when Riddick stuck his head inside the curtain.

“Hey, kid, could I get one of those….” Riddick’s voice trailed off, and he cocked his head, looking at her through those impenetrable goggles. They seemed to bore right through her.

“I- I- um-“ Jack couldn’t speak. She was torn between complete embarrassment and total fear, now that her secret was out.

Imam came over and stuck his head into the small cubby, as well. She was about to die of shame. She tossed the toilet paper into the toilet, quickly pulled her pants back up, and sat on the toilet with her head in her hands. There was no way she could pass herself off as a boy now. They wouldn’t trust her anymore, not after this. She deceived them, and who knew what would happen?

A nasty little voice whispered, this is what you get for running away from the hospital. This is what you get for trying to take charge. You can’t win. You’ll never win.

Imam was the first to speak. “Child, please explain.” She didn’t answer, and he tried to coax her out. “It is all right. You are still safe. But you must explain this to us. Come out here, and we will discuss this.”

She didn’t move. She didn’t make a sound. She just sat there with her head in her arms, trying to will herself away from the little skiff, trying to will herself anywhere else.

Eventually Imam gave up and went back into the main cabin.

Riddick didn’t budge. She could feel his eyes on her, sinking past her skin into her mind and soul. It felt like he could look right into her center. It was unnerving. He was so quiet. Their silent standoff stretched on and on, until finally she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Get out of here,” she whispered.

He didn’t answer.

“I mean it. Leave me alone.”

He replied, “I have a better idea. Why don’t you tell me your real name?”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s Jack.”

“Right.”

“No, really, it is. It’s just short for Jacqueline.”

Riddick snorted. “Right. What are you running from?”

She kept her head down. “I’m not running from anything.”

“Quit bullshitting, kid. What girl would shave her head just because she could? Why go to all the trouble of hiding it from us, if you weren’t running?”

She shrugged, and Riddick’s face darkened. “I’m not patient, Jack. I could kill you like that-” he snapped his fingers to punctuate- “and not think twice about it.”

“Yeah, but you won’t,” she sneered.

“What makes you say that?”

“You would have done it already.”

Quietly, dangerously, he asked, “Are you sure?”

Well, she was pretty sure. She idolized this man, yes, but did she trust him? He wasn’t trustworthy, was he? He had saved her life, but what did that mean?

She was sick of questions with no answers. She was sick of everything. Why couldn’t she have a normal life?

She rolled her eyes again and sighed. “It’s none of your business what I’m running from. I’m just trying to start over. I figured that if people thought I was a guy, no one would mess with me.” Please, she pleaded silently, just leave me alone.

~*~

Wow. He was right. The kid was a girl. She didn’t do a half-bad job, to be fair. Riddick had smelt the menstrual blood, which had tipped him off, but he hadn’t been positive. In time he would have figured it out, he was sure, but this solved his quandary for him.

Surprisingly, his respect for the kid rose. Not a whole lot, but she was able to fool even him, so he gave her some credit. She had balls, in a manner of speaking. It took guts to pull something off like that.

He said to her, “Come out here, kid.”

She glared at him, and he sighed. This was exactly what he’d wanted to avoid. He’d managed to escape going back to slam, but now he was stuck in a tiny skiff with a mysterious old man and a kid who probably wasn’t going to speak to him anymore. Shit.

“Just leave me alone,” she said stubbornly.

He answered simply, “No. We’re in this together, like it or not. All three of us. Get over it and get out here. Quit the bullshit.”

She stood with an uncertainty to her posture and scowled as she brushed past him and flopped down on one of the seats. She looked at both of them, blatant aggression evident in her gaze. “What?” she said, radiating defiance.

Imam stepped in, surprising him. “Listen to me, child. Boy or girl, it does not matter. I do not know what you are running from, but I do know that if we are to survive our time together, we must not fight. Now that we know that you are a young woman, can you trust us not to take advantage of it?”

Riddick knew that that was probably her biggest fear. Anybody on the run learned fast that it was much safer to be a guy. Her guise had been pretty convincing, but she didn’t seem completely comfortable with it. He’d come across people pretending to be who they weren’t quite often in his desperado existence, and some of them were completely flawless in their act. They were more comfortable in their fake personas than they were at being themselves.

Jack was nodding a response, looking suddenly tired. Riddick understood and backed off, moving to the cockpit without a word. She’d been through a lot and needed space. Imam took the hint, and handed her one of the thin blankets found underneath the seats before moving to the other side of the raft, giving her an illusion of privacy. She set it aside and went back to the bathroom to complete what she had been attempting to accomplish in the first place. Fresh makeshift pad in place, she curled up in the blanket and stared silently at the two men around her. Riddick noticed her isolation, and respected it. He’d give her space for now.