EPILOGUE:
"I miss Daddy," Rori said as she helped Jack plant flowers in the wooden boxes by the front steps.
Sitting back on her knees, Jack looked at her three and a half year old. "I know, Sweetheart. We all miss him," she reassured the little girl. "But remember, he would want you to have fun and smile." That was something she seemed to tell her daughter often.
Kayden, who was now eleven, came running out of the woods near the newly finished room addition on the house. "Mom, guess what happened over at Brent and Marcy's," he said, a little out of breath.
Jack smiled up at him, "What?"
"Did the baby ducks come out of their eggs?" Rori asked as she stood up, excited about possibly seeing the babies.
Putting his hands on his hips like his mom, he tilted his head and looked at his sister. "Out of everything you could have guessed, how did you guess that?" he asked her.
Rori grinned at him, "Don't you remember, brother? Marcy said the eggs were gonna break soon."
He smiled back and nodded. "Oh, that's right," he stated. "Do you want to come see them, Mom?"
Taking off her gardening gloves, Jack looked up at the playpen on the porch. "I would but it's still nap time. Maybe once it's over we can all head next door and see the ducklings," Jack told him.
"Can I go now, Mommy?" Rori asked and stuck out her bottom lip. "I promise to be good."
Jack smiled at her, "And you promise to listen to Kayden?" She was willing to let Rori go if it got the little girl's mind off missing Riddick.
Rori nodded her head as she was already running towards the woods.
"Don't touch the ducklings," Jack told the kids quickly and watched them disappear into the woods.
With a sigh, she wiped her forehead with her sleeve. "Sure is hot out today, guys," she mentioned to the two dogs who were laying in the shade of the porch.
Cole, whose gray fur showed his old age, lifted his head when she spoke to them. His tail thumped once on the wooden porch before laying his head back down.
The much younger male pup, that the kids named Jazz, stood up and bounded down the steps to see his owner.
"You remind me so much of Cole when he was a puppy," she told Jazz, scratching him under his chin. "Always willing to get petted by anyone who was willing."
From the playpen came some soft babbles. Jack looked up just in time to see Alexander pull himself up and stand looking out over the edge of it. "Mama, ow," he said softly while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"You don't have to get out the first second you wake up, Xander," she whispered with a smile as she walked up the steps and along the porch to get him.
Picking him up, she sat down on the newest wooden bench that Kayden had helped build soon after the renovations to the house were completed. "Do you feel like a big boy since it's your first birthday today?" Jack asked quietly.
Alexander laid his head on her shoulder, but didn't respond.
"We get to have yummy cake and ice cream," she smiled as she ran her hand up and down his back slowly.
Looking out towards their fields that had given them record numbers of fruit that season, Jack thought back to the day her life changed twenty one months ago.
After she laid Rori on a blanket on the floor, Jack paced the room. As soon as the doctor entered the waiting room, Jack went to him. "How is he?" she asked quickly. "When can I see him?" Her voice was shaky with emotion and her hands protectively laid on her still flat stomach.
The doctor, who looked just as tired as the rest of them, shook his head, "I'm sorry..." Jack's eyes got wide at his words. Taking a step away from him, she slowly shook her head. "Wh...What do you mean, you're sorry?" she asked, her own hand covered her mouth as she tried to keep down the water she had just drank.
"We lost him a couple of times while we were operating on him, Mrs. Richards," he stated. "The bullet had grazed his heart, and by the time he was brought to us, he had lost a lot of blood." "Just tell me he's okay," she demanded. Nodding, the doctor continued, "He's stable, but with us not having his blood type on hand, I can't promise he's going to make it through the day."
That was all that Jack could stand to hear before she bolted towards the trash can and did what she had been trying not to. Brent seemed to be dumbfounded with what he had just heard. Kayden on the other hand was shaking his head.
"Don't you say that. My Dad is a fighter," Kayden said, pointing his finger angrily at the doctor. "You'll see. My Dad's going to be just fine." The tears started down his face again. Going to her son, Jack gave him a huge hug.
Jack snapped out of her memory as she felt her own tears start to form in her eyes. "Your Daddy would have loved to be here today to help celebrate your birthday," she told Xander. "I bet you would have gotten him so messy, just like Kayden and Rori did on their first birthdays."
Off in the distance she heard Rori and Kayden coming back through the woods. Standing up, she carried Xander along the porch and down the steps. "Who's coming to see us?" she asked him when she stood him on the ground.
Xander stood by his mommy and looked towards the woods where the voices and laughs were coming from.
Jazz and Cole both came down the steps too. Cole sat down near Jack while the young pup darted off to greet his younger owners.
"Mommy," Rori called out as they came out of the woods. "Marcy says Brent is comin' home soon."
Putting her finger to her lip, Jack quietly reminded her daughter that they needed to continue to be quiet for a while. "I bet they are super excited over there," she replied quietly.
"And if Brent is coming home, do you know what that means?" Kayden asked them with a smile.
"Party time," Rori said with a giggle and clapped her hands.
Xander grinned at his big sister for a moment before he clapped his hands.
Jack smiled too, "We are all so excited for the party. We still have a little bit before we can start to set up for it." She pointed back to the flowers that still needed to be planted, "Would you two like to fill the buckets so we can water our new flowers?"
"If that will help you out mom, then yes we will fill them for you," Kayden said. "Can Alexander help us?"
Nodding, Jack looked down at her little one as he hugged Cole's neck. "If he wants to, he can. But be careful he doesn't wander off," she reminded Kayden.
"Come on," Rori said to Xander and took his hand. "You can carry the baby bucket."
Xander was eager to go for a short walk with his siblings, "Bye bye, Mama!" he waved to her.
"Bye bye, Xander," Jack waved back to him. She watched them walk around the house and listened as Kayden talked to the younger kids.
"If we help out a lot, hopefully we can get to the cake and ice cream faster," he told them.
When she couldn't see her kids anymore, Jack looked up to the sky. "You've seemed to help us out in the past when we've needed it, Imam. Please help us have a happy first birthday party. I just want my kids to remember this day as one with lots of smiles."
"So he's still alive?" Jack asked the Sheriff as she continued to sit next to Riddick's hospital bed and hold his hand. With a sigh, Sheriff Chester nodded. Jack shook her head and reached her hand up to gently caress her husband's cheek as he laid unconscious. "I guess you didn't want him dead, did you, baby?" she whispered to Riddick.
"What makes you think he didn't want to actually kill Mr. Camp?" Chester asked, leaning against the wall. Lifting her head, Jack narrowed her eyes at him. "If my husband wanted Camp dead, Camp would be downstairs in the cooler," she looked back to Riddick. "What were his injuries?" The Sheriff took in a deep breath before he listed everything, "He had a deep stab wound to his left shoulder."
Jack's eyes scanned across Riddick's body and stopped at the bandage on his left shoulder. "Camp also had a sprained neck, broken elbow, small but deep cuts on his back," Chester tilted his head as if thinking about the injury he was about to say. "He also had a large gash to the bottom of his foot."
"Pay back's always a bitch, Sheriff Chester," Jack said, not taking her eyes off Riddick's face. Chester shifted, "You think your husband did the injuries as a simple pay back even though he basically told me he would take Camp out if I didn't do anything about him?" He stood there silently as he thought. Every injury, including Cole's paw being cut by the broken glass, were things that happened tonight to Camp.
Nodding, she finally looked at him again. "You're a smart man; think about how each of the injuries Camp sustained correlate to the injuries my family and I have received due to Camp," Jack stated; her voice cold and steady.
Jack watched as the imaginary light bulb flickered on over the Sheriff's head. "Every scar he got tonight will forever remind him that he shouldn't mess with a man's family," she looked back to Riddick. "And from what I've been told, sometimes slam is worse than death, Sheriff."
Jack had only a few flowers left to plant in the ground. She sat back and looked at her work as she listened to the distant giggles from her kids.
She had been in the courtroom a few towns over when Matt Camp, Sr. was sentenced to ninety-eight years in slam. Jack knew that Riddick had done the right thing by forcing Camp to suffer for the rest of his life; after all, Camp had made their family suffer more than they deserved.
It had been a few months after Camp was sentenced that Mrs. Camp showed up on Jack's porch. The woman said she had been wanting to come over and apologize for her now ex-husband's actions, but she knew she no longer needed to apologize for the monster. Instead, she thanked Jack for helping to get her husband put away for all the horrible deeds he had done, not just to the Richards', but also to Mrs. Camp and her son.
As of late, the rumor around town was that the man who took over Camp's Wood Mill swept Mrs. Camp off her feet. From what Jack witnessed during the school's parent night, Matt, the once troubled child, had a decent man in his life to pay attention to him and treat him how all children should be treated: with love.
Jack quickly wiped the few tears off her cheeks as the kids came back around with the buckets. Kayden and Rori had taken off their shoes so they could get their feet wet. Alexander, who hadn't been wearing shoes, had a huge grin on his face as he helped his big brother carry the large heavy bucket.
"Our feet were dirty, Mommy," Rori told Jack with a grin. As she set her small bucket down next to the new flowers, she frowned. "Why are you crying?"
Jack smiled, "I was just listening to you three laughing and was thinking about how I wish your Dad was here to hear it."
Carefully, Kayden put the bucket down and went to give his mom a hug. "Don't be sad, Mom. I'm sure Grandpa Imam is helping Dad hear us," he tried to reassure her.
She hugged him back, "Thank you, Kayden. You know me, I just sometimes need to have a little cry to make myself feel better."
Kayden kissed the top of her head, like she still did to him, "I know. Now come on, no frowns. Dad wouldn't want us to be sad today. After all we have a party to set up and have."
Three hours later the backyard was filled with lots of laughter from Brent and Marcy's five children along with Jack's kids.
"I really need your recipe for that noodle salad," Marcy told Jack, since all five of her kids wanted extra helpings of it.
Jack nodded. "Sure thing," she said before looking over to Elaine and Chase as they helped each of the younger kids get ready for their turn to hit the dinosaur pinata.
"Hey," Marcy said quietly, reaching across the table to hold Jack's hand. "How you holding up?"
Shrugging, Jack sighed. She looked down at her wedding ring before answering Marcy's question. "I'm okay. Some days I feel better than others," she bit her lip. "I try hard not to break down in front of the kids, but today I got thinking about things and they saw me."
"They are smart kids, Jack. They have to know it's hard for you right now, but if you don't let the emotions out, it will eat you alive," Marcy told her friend.
"I know," she sighed. "Come on, let's go help the kids get the candy out of that ugly dino." She wanted to keep her mind off Riddick not being there.
It was a short time later that Jack sat on the picnic table with her lap filled. "Ask Brent to hurry lighting the candle," she told her youngest.
Cole and Jazz got up from where they had been sleeping in the grass. Both started to bark as they headed to the front of the house.
"You expecting anyone else?" Brent asked, as he shut his lighter off before he was able to light the candle shaped like the number one.
Jack shook her head, "No, I didn't invite anyone other than you guys."
Brent nodded, "Wait here and I'll see who it is." He quickly followed the dogs.
"Aww, we don't get cake yet?" Aurora asked from her spot at the table.
Marcy laughed, "Don't pout. We will get cake as soon as Brent comes back."
Nodding, Jack smiled at her little girl, "Remember our talk about being patient? Well, now is a time we have to practice being that way."
Just as Jack was going to ask Kayden to pass out the empty plates and spoons to everyone, Rori jumped up from her seat.
"Daddy," Rori screamed loudly as she ran around the picnic table towards where Brent and Riddick were coming to the back yard.
Kayden's head turned quickly and he grinned. "I knew he would make it," he said quietly as he too stood up.
Jack put Xander on the ground and let him walk to his daddy. With her arms still full, she stood and smiled at her husband. "Thought you wouldn't make it back because of engine problems?"
"You have no idea who I had to bribe to get here, Jack," he grinned and squatted down to hug his two kids that greeted him.
Jack and Kayden walked over to him as well. She could already feel herself become happier just watching him hug their kids.
Riddick hugged Kayden before pulling Jack in for a kiss. "And like I would miss a birthday party," he told her with a wink. He took Michael from her and gave him a big hug too.
Kayden and Rori helped Alexander go back to the picnic table.
"We missed you, Riddick," Jack whispered as they walked back to where Brent was about to light the candle. "You have no idea how much we all missed you."
Michael clung to his daddy, something he did every time Riddick came home from being gone.
"I know, baby. I'm sure it was just as much as I missed you guys," he told her. "But I'll always come home to the family," he kissed her lips. "No matter what, I'll come home to you."
Riddick could hear her while she spoke to him as he laid motionless in the bed. He tried to concentrate on Jack's breathing, her heart beat, but the sound of his own heart monitor was distracting. Her cheek felt wet with tears as she pressed her cheek to his.
"Riddick," Jack whispered to him. Her hand rested over his heart. "You are my Furyan King, baby. You are strong and can fight this."
"I can't do this alone, baby. I need you to wake up, to come home to us," she whispered into his ear.
I'm trying, Jack, he thought. He had never felt this tired before in his life.
As he laid there, a memory from his past floated through his head:
"Because you do not believe in God does not mean God does not believe in..." Imam was cut off.
Riddick responded quickly, "Think someone could spend half their life in a slam with a horse bit in their mouth and not believe? Think he could start out in some liquor store trash bin with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and not believe?"
"Got it all wrong, holy man," Riddick mumbled softly. "I absolutely believe in God..." "Riddick?" Jack jumped up from her chair and caressed his cheek for the millionth time. "I wanna go home, Jack," his voice was soft and raspy.
"Candle is lit," Kayden announced.
Jack and Riddick helped their twins stand on the bench. As one, everyone began to sing happy birthday to the birthday boys.
When Jack and Riddick blew out the candle together, Jack smiled. "What did you wish for?" she asked her husband.
"I wished for this to be only the beginning of more first birthdays to come," he told her, placing his hand on her growing stomach.
THE END!
Thank you all for reading and double thank you for all those that reviewed for me! A special thanks goes to my beta, because without her my stories would be lost! If and when I write another story I hope to see you all follow me on that wild ride too! Thank you again.