Here we go! All tweaked, cleaned up, rearranged... Don't you kids know I got work to do? Lots & lots of... Oh who am I kidding? That shite'll never get done.

I don't own any of the Riddick or Firefly stuffs,

"You should be glad to know that other than the past abuse, it looks like he's a healthy adolescent. I'd put his age around ten standard years old." Simon continued his evaluation. "Beside being drugged and stuffed into that crate, like an animal, he seems to have suffered no further abuse in months."

Riddick frowned at the medic. "That makes no sense." The kid is way too young...

"It happens all the time." Simon shrugged, "Someone takes exception to a child and acts on it, one way or another. Maybe smuggling him onboard was someone's idea of a kindness...?" Riddick glanced in surprise at the medic then to Mal who's nonplussed expression almost made him laugh. It was looking like child abusers didn't rank high on their 'Do Not Kill' list, either.

"Not what I meant," He shook his head. He turned to go and the doctor spoke up.

"Well... What are you going to do?" He asked, as if he expected an elaborate plan to eradicate child abuse in the entire Blue Sun system.

"Things have already been done, Doc. " He walked out the door and called over his shoulder, "I might start supper, though."

~:}Y{:~

Riddick didn't cook much, or very well, but he didn't burn the rice and the protein seemed sufficiently meaty. He doused it in soy sauce and beef gravy-ish protein and called it 'Teriyaki Beef'. The rest of the crew didn't seem to care if it kind of looked like wet dog food...

"If it were up to me," Jayne blustered as he sat with the rest of the crew at the dining table, "I'd toss the kid out at the next port."

"Well, it ain't up to you, Jayne." Mal grunted back and waved his chopsticks in the vague direction of Riddick who sat next to the child in question. "It's never gonna be up to you, Jayne."

Jayne glared at the child who had buffeted the whole crew with sound for most of the afternoon. The child glared right back.

"Whut?" He tried to put as much menace in his tone as possible. "You gunna serenade me sweetly with another a yer gorram temper tantrums?"

"No." Piglet growled at Jayne. "Jiangui." And he continued to eat.

"Oh, that's nice." Kaylee frowned at Riddick. "Teaching the kid to cuss, now?"

"He didn't learn it from me." Riddick was also frowning. Then he shrugged; the kid might as well get used to telling people to go to Hell... he'd probably be doing it often enough. Come to think of useful things, it might do the kid some good to learn some martial discipline. At least wear the little hwun dan out a bit so the rest of creation can get some shut-eye.

Kaylee shifted her judgemental gaze to Piglet and put on a more stern face. "Now... You really shouldn't go repeating words that make people angry, hun."

The boy looked up at her with wide, steady eyes for a moment before shrugging and returning to his meal.

"You know..." Mal commented with a mouth full of rice and protein chunks, "Sometimes I think that kid knows exactly what we're saying."

"He comprehends your words," River spoke up from her seat by the door, "But their meaning escapes his notice."

"There ya go again, sayin moon-brained shit that don't make sense." Jayne growled at her and was hit in the face by a flying protein chunk. "Whut tha!?" He picked up the gooey piece of food from where it landed and glared at the child who had thrown it. "This is for eating, not throwing at people!"

The child didn't flinch away from Jaynes outburst. Instead he shrugged and made a simple hand gesture that would be rude in any other context. 'Eat it.' Jayne sputtered and the other menfolk chuckled, while Zoe rolled her eyes and rose from the table.

"You got yer self a lively one, Rick!" Mal picked up his empty plate and walked it to the kitchen, ending the sit-down portion of the meal. "We're gonna be dirt-side in 10 hours or so. Make sure everything's ready."

Riddick glared at his tiny charge who had hastily shoved every last bit of food that remained on his plate into his mouth and was now trying to chew with his cheeks puffed full. It was as if he thought the food might get taken away as a punishment. The child continued to grind through the stuff in his maw as he gave Riddick another wide-eyed look.

"Alright, you." He stood and collected both of their plates. "Time to sleep."

He didn't miss the way Mal ruffled the kid's long-ish hair on his way toward the bridge or Kaylee slipping the kid a chocolate wafer before she headed off to whatever chore she had planned.

"Don't feed the Animals..." he muttered under his breath.

~:}Y{:~

The people had given a name but it felt odd. What was a Piglet? Why would they give a name like that? Could a name like that be a person? There was a doubt. Until there was a name, there was no person.

The Dark One had a name. What was a Rick? Why would he want to be called that? The rest had names, but they weren't worth learning... Except the woman who talked. She wasn't nice either, she knew how to kill a person. She knew things about people that had never been told to her. She was safety... sometimes.

The rest of the crew threatened grounding or spacing. Either choice might be better than the killing and eating of persons that the last crew did. They had lost their names to the ferocious misery of their existence. This was a novel idea. They existed, they had lost their names... were they still people?

The Dark One tugged on the arm and guided to the soft bed that smelled of soap and dust. He was a killer, every action told of this, but still safer than the last crew. There was things to eat and places to hide. These things were essential to the safety.

Sooo...? Tell me what you think!