The courtyard was beautifully decorated. It was one of the few things Rafe could remember from her sighted days. The jasmine was along the right of the bench she always sat on, to the left was the roses that her mother had planted every year. Lanterns adorned the walls giving a soft inviting glow to the place once the suns set. Over the walls she could still hear the sea and everything around her commanded to her senses to embrace peace, tranquillity and calmed the beast that continued to beat at her well honed calm.
Revenge, it growled again and again. You remember everything now.
"Uncle Danny, you need to be a little more quiet if you want to sneak up on me. Remember who my teacher is." She said smiling. She was in a long skirt and loose fitting shirt that flowed against her skin as the breeze hit it. "I can hear you coming a mile away."
He loved watching her in the darkness. "Shit Rafe, can't sneak up any of you Riddicks." He chuckled. "Okay, I admit it, stealth was never one of my strong points. You're right."
"Everyone's treating me like I'm glass. The only ones that don't are you and David, and he treats me like we're still in grade school and he's kicking my ass." She said rolling her eyes and putting her feet up.
"That's a sign he likes you." he said remembering the 8 year old mentality.
"That man couldn't express himself out of a paper bag." She said laughing. "He smells good though and isn't afraid to tell me off."
"That's always good squirt. Don't let them push you around." He quipped. He watched her smile.
"You're always smiling. Why?" she asked looking towards his face.
"You can see me?" he asked instantly on edge. That miracle would be an answer to prayer.
"No, but your voice changes slightly, most can't notice it but I do." She said moving to touch his face. "See, your face muscles are making the sound out of your mouth differently."
"If you say so." He said amazed at her powers of perception. "You're mom and dad worry squirt, you've all been through a lot."
She rubbed her eyes. "I know that but…"
"This skinny fuck bothering you?" A deep voice said from the darkness.
"Daddy!" a happy voiceexclaimed as she stood and ran towards the sound of his voice. She threw her arms around his waist and he held her close and twirled her around the courtyard.
"How does she do that Riddick?" Daniel Roper asked stunned. "She's blind for Christ's sake."
Riddick laughed loudly and put her down letting her answer that for herself. "My senses as a Furyan female are much more attuned Uncle Danny."
"Hey Riddick, good to see you." he said shaking his boss's hand.
"Danny," he said looking at him and smiling as Rafe went back to the bench and sat down. "I need to talk with Rafe give us a minute." He asked and it only took a second to realize what it meant.
Danny hoped he could convince her since everyone but her knew why he went on this last trip to Talos Prime. He mouthed Good Luck… "Sure see ya squirt." He said ruffling her hair.
"I hate it when he does that…" she smirked rolling her sightless eyes.
Riddick took a deep breath and sat next to her. She'd always been the brightest part of his life and his favorite among his children even when he told himself that he didn't play favorites.
"Rafe," he started. "Listen, there's a Doc that can give you your sight back."
She scoffed at the idea having heard that one too many times and it ended up not being true. Remembering the countless times since the attack when she'd get her hopes up only to have them crushed, she paid little attention to any talk of rehabilitating into a normal life again.
Riddick could smell the fear on her. It covered her like a bad perfume and he hated it.
Some things couldn't be helped. He knew that but he didn't have to like it.
"He's wrong. They all say that and they're always wrong. I can't go through that again."
He could understand her reticence. He stood up watching her cry. He hated that sound more than hearing Jack cry. "What if I told you I knew this would work?"
She chuckled. "Honestly? I tell you that you were full of shit and to drop it while you're still standing upright."
Nice Rafe, just like your mother… he thought laughing out loud.
"Nice mouth you kiss your mother with that?" he asked loving this sarcastic streak she'd been showing lately.
"You should talk you kiss my mother with yours?"
"Every chance I get squirt, now answer the question." He playfully demanded.
"I don't know. I've been hurt too many times to believe it." she said honestly.
"Do you trust me?" he asked looking at her. When she didn't answer he asked her again raising his voice. "Do-you-trust-me?"
She closed her eyes and looked in the direction of his voice and answered quietly, "Of course Dad."
Dad. That was the way she'd answer him when she was evading him and being polite.
"Rafe," he started wanting her to really listen and not blow him off. "ask me the question."
She thought about it for a moment and started to laugh. "You're kidding right?"
"Ask me the question." He repeated.
Come on kid… he thought come on, play with me again, like you used to..
She rolled her eyes and realized he'd knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on her knees. She removed his goggles and her small delicate fingers ran over his closed eyes. "Hey, where can I get eyes like that?"
He laughed and touched her hands. "Funny you s hould ask that...You lay on a table and let a Doc removed the lenses and the scar tissue."
"You trust this guy?" she said pulling her hands away. "Is he better than Papa Joe? How many menthol cools his this costing you? God I hope more than twenty…"
He didn't want her to know that it cost him almost 100,000 credits to have this guy do it right. He could care how much he just wanted her to see again.
Her father laughed a deep throaty laugh filled with irony. "Yeah kid."
"I need to think about it." she said her hands shaking.
"Okay sweetheart." Ht said kissing her forehead and walked out into the darkness. He left her just as quietly as he had come and she resumed her quiet observance of the sounds of the sea contemplating what life would be like if she could see again.
No Braille. No cane. David's face… Who am I kidding…. She thought… It's not going to work…
She smiled still skeptical, walking back to her rooms and fell straight asleep dreaming of seeing everything and looking in the darkness for her sister's killer.
Sweet dreams all, revenge foremost on her mind.
"Hey you." a familiar voice said from the stone wall. The suns were shining brightly and he had to shield his face to see her. She was wearing a flowing skirt and shirt, and her feet were bare. She looked calm and peaceful but he knew something was wrong. They had known one another for years and he learned long ago not to take anything she did or said at face value.
"Hey yourself." Rafe said sitting on the beach wiggling her toes in the warm sand.
David Ib Haben Maz walked towards her and plopped down tossing sand on her legs. "You mind?" she asked brushing her skirt and flipping him off angrily.
"Not at all." he said triumphantly. Her sunglasses didn't move from looking straight ahead and he knew even though she didn't show it, that he'd gotten her riled again.
He noticed her quietness and the lack of fight and knew something was on her mind. Having known her since infancy he'd be surprised if he was wrong.
"Something you want?" she asked and he smirked. He had begun to notice her not as the skinny little sister of his best friend but as an entirely different animal. It had come upon him gradually and one day while he was working out with the rest of them. She'd flipped him on his back straddling his hips and clutching a shiv against his throat and he got hard. VERY hard. That surprise got him noticing her more and more. She was very sexy with a knife and damn if it didn't bother the hell out of him.
She was always the gawky little sister who would bump into him, piss him off, flip him off at every turn and always got under his skin. But not anymore.
"Nothing string bean. You okay?" he asked looking at her. Colored like her Aunt Anne and skin more like his father he looked at her cocking his head as if trying to read in her body language the cause of her thoughtfulness.
"Sure, it's not like I died or something." She told him leaning back on her elbows. He looked down and noticed her hard body and smiled. "Stop gawking you perv."
He hated that even though she was blind she could feel his movements like radar.
"No, you didn't Rafe. I can see that, nice rack though." He smirked looking at her and laughing.
"Ass." She snapped. "Can't say anything nice, can you?"
"Hey, I just paid you a compliment string bean, at least you can acknowledge that." He quipped, he loved getting her going.
"Shut it. I'm thinking." She told him throwing his voice a look.
"Don't hurt yourself." He said laughing and she smacked him squarely in the chest for it. "Hey," he said clearing his throat. "I just saw your dad."
"So." She said sarcastically. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay. But he told mom and dad that they're gonna shine your eyes." He said looking at her and playing in the sand with a stick. "You'll have the same kind of vision that Uncle Riddick has."
"It's a lie, they all say they can help me but you know the truth as well as I do."
He knew all about the doctors promising her sight and falling short. No one wanted her to go through that again. But if Uncle Riddick believed, he trusted that.
"But what if you could see?" he asked and again her mind flooded with images of a man's face, tattoos and the door that he left through. "What would you do?"
She looked at him and gave him the deathly quiet glare he'd rarely seen, "You have no idea."
Hours later, Jack went to Rafe's room to help her dress to go to the club that she owned with Riddick. Refuge, a techno club that catered to the elite of Talos 4 was hosting a band called Devil's Playthings.
"You want me to help you pick something out?" she asked sitting on Rafe's bed.
Her room was neat and bore a very personal style that Jack admired. Her bed faced the window, a large twelve foot high plate glass that had deep billowy curtains and a screen, overlooking the jasmine in the garden. Many a night did she and Riddick see the glass was slid aside and feel her presence enjoying the cool sea breeze.
"I wear what the tags tell me mom, I can read the dots just fine." she said walking over to the closet and picking out her favorite black hip huggers. "You and Dad get along okay?"
"Just fine. He's worried about you." she told her daughter as Rafe got dressed. "We heard you screaming again last night. More bad dreams?"
"No. I had a flashback. The one where I saw the killers again. This time I can see their faces, I could recognize them if I could see again. I remember everything that happened that day, like it was yesterday…" she told her pulling a tight black shirt over her head. "Mom, I'm gonna kill them all."
"Stand in line kiddo." She said looking at her. "Damn baby you're turning into quite the hottie. Fran meeting you there?"
Francine was a friend that stuck by her after the attack. She saw her at school and occasionally down on the beach but never came to the house. That was a rule that Rafe never disobeyed. No one but family was ever allowed into the compound. Daniel thought it was best that way and he was the head of security.
"Yeah, it's her first time at the club. Should be fun, she's got a thing for Layne." Rafe answered running her fingers through her hair and playing with the earrings she put in.
"I hear David's gonna be there." She threw out there wanting to see a response.
"So, it's a free planet now, why shouldn't he?" She answered putting on her mechanic's boots and taking three shivs of the dressing table. One she put in each boot the other in a specially made belt she wore around her waist.
"I saw you two on the beach today. Very cozy." She kidded.
"Shut it mom. He's a big fat pig who still thinks it's funny to pull my hair." She said putting her shades on and grabbing her stick. "Get ready, you gotta go to work."
Layne sat in the large living room dressed to impress in his vintage blue jeans and a black wife beater. "Come on Rafe, we're wasting time. Right David?"
But his best friend didn't answer because conscious thought eluded him when she walked in.
"What David's not saying is that yes, I'm ready to go. Honestly, if those fuckers hadn't taken my eyes I'd of been ready twenty minutes ago." she said sticking her tongue out at David who she knew sat to her right. "Come on. I feel the need to let the animal out. I've been moping around enough for the entire family."
David rose and walked behind her enjoying the view and got a smack from Layne who wasn't too keen on his best friend staring at his sister's ass. "Ow."
His meaning was clear enough. Hands off, meant hands off.
"Daniel is driving tonight. He's being super cautious." Rafe said looking towards her brother. They still couldn't understand how she knew where they were standing but never said anything and she enjoyed keeping them wondering.
Riddick had taken special pains to teach her the art of sightless seeing. He trained her other senses to take up where her eyes could not and Rafe was a very adept pupil.
The ride to the club didn't take long and Layne noticed a bevy of beauties waiting outside along the rope line. Daniel took Rafe's arm and escorted them to the side entrance and inside where the music played loudly over the sound system pounded like a heartbeat in her head.
"Rafe!" a bubbly voice screamed, "Rafe it's me Frannie!"
Rafe smiled and handed Daniel her cane. He always took it when they were inside because no matter how much she wanted to be functional, she didn't want to appear blind. It caused too many questions. Sunglasses on, she just looked cool. "Hey Frannie, you get in all right?"
"Yeah, your dad sent a car! Wow this place is sick!" she said her deep brown hair and blue eyes shining with excitement. Her perfectly demure body held curves soft and lush and many had already looked at her before her friend's arrival. Dressed in a black mini skirt and boots her pink top showed just enough skin to get noticed. Against Rafe, she looked ready to party. But Rafe just wanted to relax, something she looked forward to at every turn.
"We've got about twenty minutes before the band starts want a drink?" Rafe asked as she allowed Frannie to discretely walk with her to the bar.
"Hey Robbie, the usual for me and something without the go juice for my friend." She said smiling. Robbie was the best bartender, allowing her to be herself just like Daniel and David did.
"Sure Rafe, coming up." Said the big guy smiling at Frannie who was just awe struck by the sleek design, and sea of people undulating to a kicking beat.
"Rafe, there are so many hot guys here!" she said checking everyone out. "There's a hot one over there."
"Describe said hottie to me." she said smiling and leaning on the bar.
"Well, he's tall, great ass, big muscles and a kick ass smile. He's so hot DAMN!" she said looking away.
"Is he dark skinned or light?" was her next question.
She covertly looked his way, and he seemed to be staring at Rafe. "Kind of in the middle, but light if you had to pick, not milk toast white but you know…"
"Go on." She said calmly sipping her drink and smiling.
"Oh my God! He's looking over here." She said jumpy.
"Does he have anything distinguishing about him?" Rafe asked touching her forearm.
"Well, outside of the fact he keeps staring and looks delicious, he's…"
"Does he have a pair of goggles on?" she asked smirking at her.
"Yeah, come to think about it he does. Why? How did you know?" she asked perplexed.
"Frannie, that's my dad." She said laughing as the man came over. "Hey dad, this is Frannie, she can't talk cause you like a ten on 'the man you are hot' meter."
Fran turned a deep shade of red and he laughed out loud kissing Rafe's forehead.
"Nice to meet one of Rafe's friends, have a good time. Come up to the office I want to see you later."
"Sure Dad. Don't have too much fun with mom up there. I got a rep to protect." She smirked as he walked back up the stairs to the mirrored room.
"Damn Rafe, how old is your dad? He looks too young to be old enough to have grown kids." She said shaking her head.
"Young, but old enough to still kick my ass." She said laughing as they turned to listen to Devil's Playthings.
