Pillars and Pyres

Chapter 4

After seeing Persephone off, Riddick made his way back to the infirmary where the doctor was getting ready to work on Carolyn's leg.

"Do you have any idea what made the marks on her back?" The doctor asked as he moved effortlessly around the room gathering his supplies.

Riddick rolled her to her side looking at the damage done to her back. The level of scarring was impressive. "Monsters in the dark," he murmured causing the doctor to look at him.

"This will take a little while. I'll have someone get you when I'm finished."

He had been barely gone an hour. "What happened?" he demanded upon his arrival, finding Carolyn strapped down to the bed.

"She was fighting the anesthesia" the doctor groused as he dug around in the wound on her thigh "every time she shook it off she was either screaming your name or crying for Persephone" the doctor said with a sideways look.

"Fine, I'll stay." Riddick said sitting down in a chair next to the bed. "How's it looking?"

"There's a lot of muscle damage. She'll need to be off her feet for a while."

"We've got plenty of room, Doc."

Opening her eyes, he was the first thing she saw. "Oh God," she said with a moan turning her head in the opposite direction.

"I don't think God is going to help you now, Carolyn."

"I can assure you that was not a plea for help."

Riddick clicked his tongue, watching as she became aware of the fact that she was restrained and began to struggle.

"Get these off of me!" she demanded as she squirmed in her bed.

"You're going to hurt yourself, Carolyn."

Carolyn couldn't control herself as the fear and helplessness of being tied down overwhelmed her. Shouting at the top of her lungs she was writhing so violently, Riddick had to stop the bed from toppling over before lying down beside her, holding her body still with his.

"Stop fighting and I'll let you go!"

Carolyn went instantly still. Riddick sat up unfastening the straps on her feet and the arm directly behind him before lying back down and casually reaching out to unbuckle the last restraint on her free arm leaving his arm draped across her.

Carolyn brought her freed arm up to her chest and rotated her wrist.

"Thank you," she said her voice coming out strained and scratched.

Reaching up he took her hand and starting rubbing the red skin.

She rested her head against his shoulder, "My ship, their were things…" Riddick watched her bottom lip tremble slightly. "My crew."

"Snow?" he asked harshly.

Carolyn was quiet for a moment. "Snow was a distraction. A bad one." She pushed against him with a sigh, "My leg hurts, could I see the Doctor?"

Silently, Riddick got up and walked out the door, stopping the man before he could go in. "Everything you've got, send to the terminal in my quarters."

"Of course," the Doctor agreed without hesitation.

He watched from the doorway as the Doctor talked quietly with Carolyn before giving her a painkiller and helping her turn to her side away from the door, propping her leg up.

Back in his quarters, he was reviewing the recording of Carolyn and Snow in the holding pen when a beeping noise alerted him to incoming information, the information that the Doctor had promised him.

There were a few unexpected surprises.

"She can be moved anytime you like." The doctor said as soon as Riddick entered his domain.

"Already?"

"Ms. Richards has been a particularly difficult patient. I believe she would heal and rest better if she had her own personal space." The doctor said with a sigh rubbing his forehead.

Riddick suppressed a grin.

Sitting down next to her bed he turned on the info pad in his hands bringing up everything he had on Demeter Richards, AKA, The Poppy Queen and Captain of the Aganippe. Flipping through stills he found one of the destroyed ship, her nose plate still intact with the black winged horse bearing a mane full of snakes. Aganippe. Night-Mare. Very fitting on so many different levels.

"What are you doing?" he heard a groggy Carolyn ask.

"Demeter Richards. The earliest records for her start about a year after our sojourn together. A few years later there was a particularly vicious attack. And then suddenly ten years ago, a year after that attack, Demeter Richards dropped off the grid, rumors' circulating that she had been killed, kidnapped, any number of things until eyewitness reports of the Captain of the Aganippe connected the two women. A mercenary transporter, very unusual for a woman."

Carolyn lay flat on her back looking up at the ceiling. "What do you want from me, Riddick?"

"I'm curious, why were you attacked?"

She kept her eyes on the ceiling. "Because of you. Someone leaked my identity. People, men, came looking for Riddick."

"Who would have leaked your identity?"

"The group that helped create it. They would have been the only ones who knew my connection to you."

"Changing your identity. That was a drastic decision."

Carolyn turned a deadly look on him. "And one that is none of your business."

Riddick leaned forward. "This is not your ship and you're not the Captain."

He watched her left eye twitch as they faced off. "It was a personal decision based on past experiences. Can we leave it at that for now?"

"For now. And the transporting?"

"It was difficult for me to stay in any one place for long. I had what you could loosely call a home base, but worked mostly out of "establishments" on different planets. I transported anything, no questions asked, from Point A to Point B.

"And Snow?"

Carolyn huffed and looked away from him. "I took him on as a crew member about four years ago. My contacts checked out his background, asked a few questions and told me he was good to go. They'd never been wrong before."

"And?"

Carolyn pursed her lips together for a moment before swinging her head back in his direction. "And what? Do you want to know all the little details? I didn't know you were such a pervert. Long story short, he was put on my ship for a reason. That reason being you. It always comes back to you." She answered her voice cracking slightly.

Riddick stood, looking down at her as he moved his jaw back and forth. "Doc says you can leave. I've got a room you can use."

"And if I don't want to stay with you?"

Riddick looked around the room. "I hope you enjoy the Doc's company."

"Fine" Carolyn growled.

Picking up a pile of clothes he tossed them on the bed next to her. "What are these?" Carolyn asked holding up a scaly looking thing with one finger.

"Clothes."

"Where are my clothes?"

"Not here."

"You can't possibly expect me to wear this?" She stuttered holding up the offending piece of clothing.

"You can wear it or do without."

"Ok." Carolyn responded without blinking an eye. Throwing off her blanket, she maneuvered her way off the bed, naked as the day she was born. Holding onto the bed frame she looked to Riddick, ignoring the gasps she heard from some elderly women walking by the door. "I'm going to need a crutch or something." She said as the sweat beaded upon her forehead.

"GODDAMN… stubborn woman…. has to have it her way…. nothings changed…. fifteen years…" Carolyn heard all this muttered as Riddick stalked to the door, said something, waited, and then turned back. "A robe. Until we can find something more acceptable." He ground out, holding it up for her inspection.

"Thank you." Carolyn replied waiting for him to hand it her. She rolled her eyes when he walked around and helped her into it.

After being around so many half dead women, touching a live warm-blooded one was almost sensory overload. All the "living" women he had surround Persephone with were old enough to be her Grandmother.

"Riddick?" Carolyn questioned. She was sure she would bruises on her upper arms in a few hours, he was gripping her arms so tightly.

Dropping his hands as if they were on fire, Riddick bent down scooping her up, his arm under her knees well away from her thighs. Carolyn wrapped an arm around his neck and hung on. He looked at her a few times as she smiled sweetly at the gasps and exclamations of passerby's.

Entering his quarters', Vaako was waiting for him.

"Who's this?" Carolyn asked looking him up and down.

Riddick noticed that the hand grasping the front of his shirt was a bit tighter and there was a sheen of perspiration on her forehead. "Vaako, my first in command."

"Hmmm."

"They don't share here," Riddick said blandly.

"They should give it a try." Carolyn said undressing Vaako with her eyes. "Nothing like three bodies tangled up in a bed together."

"Don't tap on the glass, Carolyn," Riddick chided as he continued on to his room laying her upon the bed. "Get some rest. I'll be back in a while."

"Ay, Ay, Captain," She said giving him a lazy salute as he popped a needle into her uninjured thigh. A few moments later she was sighing in pain-free bliss. Riddick covered her with a blanket as the pain meds caused her to doze off almost instantly. The woman hadn't lost her bluster that was for sure.