Carolyn worked at the circuit board in front of her, barely seeing it, her hands going off of pure muscle memory by now. Gotta get off-world. Find a crew about to head out, sign on as a pilot, and then . . . She shook her head. There would be no telling where they might go, what intel they might already have, not to mention there would be no way to ditch them. One of the wires briefly touched another and she hissed when it shocked her, her hand jerking away. Can't talk to that Boss Johns again. All high and mighty and talking about monsters in the dark . . . Put him on a planet where everything thinks you're dinner, see how much your moral superiority impresses them . . . She kept working, her mind slowly drifting back five years.
"Here's your story, when it starts fallin apart," Riddick said. Carolyn almost didn't hear him, she was so exhausted from the last 72 hours. Her eyes felt like they had a fine layer of sand behind the lids, her shoulder ached where she had had to roll forward and hit a wall to escape Chillingsworth's monster. The cut on her back still stung, and she was pretty sure she could feel more blood seeping.
"Listen, Carolyn. Your story." She finally focused on Riddick's silvery eyes. He moved, then suddenly one of his hands was around her neck, keeping her head still, the other holding his shiv to her jaw. This is it. He played us the whole time. He saw me watching him looking at info on UV 6, and he's going to kill us alll for it. The surprise she felt was no greater than dull; she had no fight left in her for this. She could almost feel how he would jerk her chin to the side, breaking her neck, then move on to slice up Jack and Il-Imam, painting the shuttle red with their blood. "Shh, shhh," he soothed, then she felt a bright pinprick of pain as the shiv cut just into the surface of her skin, moving lightly toward her chin, then gone. He released her as she put one hand up to feel for the cut. Barely a scratch . . . Her knees went weak at the sudden relief that flooded through her.
"Sorry. You'll eventually have to tell them something. When that time comes: I overpowered you and forced you into that pilot's seat. This shiv was at your throat for 14 hours before we finally got to New Mecca. I told you I would find you and kill you if you ever told the real story." He brought out the first aid kit, gently dabbing at Carolyn's cut with an antiseptic wipe. She swallowed hard, met his eyes.
"Will you?" He held her gaze for a long moment.
"No. Because you won't." He finished doctoring the new cut, then sunk back into the co-pilot's seat.
Carolyn sat in the sun's last dying rays, safe in the back courtyard of Il-Imam's deceased father. She leaned forward, as if to press herself into the last of the light. The click of the gate drew her attention, then she relaxed again as the dark, bald figure slunk next to the walls. Seems like a huge risk to still be hanging around here.
"Cuz they'll have a head start, they won't be looking behind them for prey." The deep voice startled her, but she tried not to show it. Had she said that out loud, our had he only guessed what she was thinking? She stood up from the lounge, and headed in. He followed closely behind, the heat coming off of his body practically scorching Carolyn.
CRACK!!!
The sky outside lit up with lightning as Carolyn sat up, still blinded with sleep, screaming. Rain pounded the roof, and suddenly she was back on that killer planet, skin soaked with rain and creature's blood, in mud up to her ass practically. Her bedroom door opened, quickly but quietly, and her heart nearly stopped when the bald silhouette appeared.
"Carolyn, stay with me . . ." The deep voice crooned out of the shadows, hands out at his side non-threateningly. "Shh, it's just a dream . . ." She heard Jackie's light footsteps in the hall, then Riddick said something too low for her to make out, then Jackie's footsteps as she retreated back to her room. Her room . . . New Mecca . . . We got out, we survived . . . She sagged back down on the bed, her heart still pounding as she caught her breath. Suddenly her muscles seized up and she began to shiver uncontrollably. Riddick approached, hesitating, then sat on the edge of her bed. He took hold of one of her hands in both of his, rubbing it gently, blowing on it. The shivers didn't stop; they seemed to start somewhere in her brain stem and end in her heart, spreading pain because they had lost so many of the passengers from the Hunter-Gratzner, her lingering shame that there would have been many less if she had managed to blow the passenger container.
Riddick gently turned her onto her side, then folded his long, muscled body into bed beside hers, cradling her. "Stay with me." His lips brushed her ear as he said it. She buried her head in her pillow, trying to hide from the thoughts. His arms came around her, completely enfolding her, his hand holding hers. It could've have been seconds, or hours before the shivers finally stopped, her body probably too exhausted to keep them up.
She was disoriented when she finally woke up, his arms still around her. For a moment, she struggled to sit up against the dead weight of his arms, but then he was slightly awake and lifting them off of her. He sat up as well, leaning back against her headboard. He reached out and took hold of her hand.
"Are you with me?" He asked. She smoothed her thumb over the back of his hand.
"Yes."
After that night, Riddick had slept in her bed every night. Only once had they tried to do more than hold each other, and that had ended when another storm moved in and Carolyn panicked, pushing him back from her mostly-naked body as soon as the thunder rolled. His only reaction to her rejection was to grab his pillow and lay down on the floor beside the bed. Always there now . . . Keeps following me whenever I go out. She frowned; Riddick should be staying out of sight, not hovering in her vicinity where any drone could pick up footage. Even though he wore the robes of a pilgrim and sunglasses whenever he went out during the day, she still worried. Mostly, she just wanted him gone so she could sort through her feelings and get him out of her mind. Life as I know it is probably over. Last thing I need to do is get involved with him on any level.
Silver eyes met blue eyes from across one of Helion Prime's main hangers. Carolyn gave Riddick a little half smile, and a wave, not wanting to risk more than they already had by any other reaction. His head disappeared briefly into the crowd, then suddenly he was at her side, arm coming around her. He his sunglasses were down again, but Carolyn felt his eyes burn into her. His thumb traced across her bottom lip briefly, then his lips branded her forehead with a kiss.
Then he was gone again, melting into the crowds . . .
"Ground Control to Major Tom, do you read me?" Ash's icy accent was at its most frigid. Carolyn focused on her, vaguely surprised not to see Helion Prime golden evening light behind her. "You done with that board?" Carolyn plugged it into her tablet and ran the test. It lit up green.
"All done." Ash's grey eyes met Carolyn's blue. Ash looked behind them, then back at Carolyn.
"Whatever it is, you should tell Grif. You'd be surprised at what he can make go away around here." Carolyn's eyebrows went up.
"Advice? From you?" Ash's eyes turned to stone again.
"Maybe I just don't want to have to train a replacement," she snapped, walking away with the circuit board. Carolyn checked her watch, realized her shift had actually been over two hours ago. The daily movements of getting up, stretching, swinging her arms as she walked toward the front, taking off her shop coveralls, had a certain rhythm that kept her calm. The calm stayed with her until she was halfway back to her apartment, realized the sun was fading fast, and that she had been hearing the same thump-THUMP from the same set of work boots for far too long. She braced herself to run even as a fist crashed into her jaw, throwing her off-balance and causing her to hit her head against the wall. Stars exploded behind her eyes and the world grayed out, until a set of hands, viciously strong, dug into her upper arms, yanking her up, slamming her into the wall again. Bald head, blazing eyes, tattooed--
"Stupid dyke bitch . . . Think you can just humiliate me like that?" The whiskey on his breath was enough to nearly overpower her, and she fought to hold onto her gorge. His hands closed around her throat, and she began clawing and fighting, far too late. "What's one more dead whore?" The man snarled. She managed to rake twin sets of nails down his face and he let go of her, throwing her onto the ground in the alleyway, winding her. She tried to move backward, cringing as he advanced, hand going to the back of his waistband--
CRACK!!
The shot deafened Carolyn, and she stared at the man, uncomprehending, his blood on her face from the shot that had blown through his side. He fell forward, a questioning look the only expression on his face. Carolyn pushed herself backward until she hit the nearest wall, then leaned back against it. Another figure emerged from the shadows: young man, maybe an inch taller than her, buzz cut, rifle smoking from the end. He moved forward and took ahold of her above her elbow, levering her to her feet.
"C'mon, that was bound to attract some attention. Out of the lights." He hustled her along, turning her down different alleys that she had never taken before, but somehow emerging just across the street from her original path. Somewhere along the way, he had managed to hide his gun, so when they emerged across the street from the lethargic investigation that had barely begun, they drew no one's eyes for long.
Carolyn began walking towards home again, barely registering that the kid was following her. If he was going to jump me, he had his best chance back there . . . She glanced behind her briefly. Skinny. Probably wouldn't react in time if I attacked. He made her stop just outside her building, tilting her head back in the light to check her pupils.
"You should get some ice on that," he remarked, gesturing to her jaw. "Don't worry about reporting that. I witnessed, and he was the aggressor." She nodded, turning toward her building's front door, her door card sliding out of her nerveless fingers. He bent down, quicker than she expected, and caught it before it hit the ground, scanning it over the door for her. She finally managed to croak out "Thanks," and nodded at him as she turned to the door.
"Evac's the name. I'll tell em what I saw, if they ask, which ain't likely." He tipped two fingers to his brow before turning to walk away. She focused on each step to get to the elevator, then down the hallway to her apartment, then to her bedroom, to wedge the back of a chair under her doorknob and sit rigidly on her bed all night, watching the patterns in the stars of the night sky overhead.
A communicator rang, the beeps bouncing off the building around him. He picked it up, listened lazily. Then, "Yeah, I scanned it. 12 hours to copy, probably. Maybe 8 if we push him." A pause while Evac listened. "Understood, over and out."