Mark kicked the door open. His team ran into the grungy room, their guns ready.

" He's gone." He said kicking over a lopsided chair.

The room was completely abandoned. It wasn't like anyone would want to stay there to begin with. The hotel was shity anyway, and the room was no different. The pale green walls had mold and water stains streamed everywhere. A trail of ants and a species somewhat like a cockroach walked along the floor. The bed was small and tattered, the sheets where dirty, and the pillow was flat. The cover lay strung out on the floor along with half the sheet, and the TV was broken along with one if the windows.

" Who's room was this again?" asked Keerie, a young merc, from across the room.

Mark looked at his palm computer. " Richard B. Riddick. Infamous killer. He must have skipped Town."

" Why is it that every time we get to this guy he's never fucking here?" cried Larrio, the co-captain.

" I dunno, but he's gone!" he yelled.

" Where the fuck are you getting your fucking info Mark!" He said stepping closer.

" From the fucking chief, you wanna talk this shit over with him!" he scream at his face.

" Hey, hey, calm down." Said Chris, the goody-to-shoes of the bunch, " Mark, he couldn't have gotten very far, no ships come here, except…" he said staring off out the window.

" The Hunter Grazna 2. The one we came here on." Said Keerie.

" Nah, I used to be a pilot." Said a young man from the back.

" So?"

" You supposed to leave at like six in the morning. It's already ten, their long gone by now."

" Maybe he hopped the flight at six this morning, you don't know Tomothin!"

" Lets just go back to the docking port and see if the ships left yet." Said Mark moving towards the door, " Now!" he yelled.

The men jumped and hurried behind him, their feet shuffling against the brown carpet.

Caroline looked at her watch.

" Fuck, we should be in quarter nine by now!" she growled, " Fuck it, I'm taking a shower while where still in a place with gravity."

She walked out of Jacks room, tossing the pills on her bed. Fry headed for her room and walked in. Her room was much larger than Jacks, which always pissed Jack off. The walls where metal along with the floor. The bed was large and soft. The covers were a material not very popular, but hell they worked. She stripped from her gray jumpsuit and slipped into the bathroom.

" Shower on."

The water began to pour from the showerhead, the steam rising from the floor. Fry shivered and got goose bumps.

" Cold, cold, very cold." She said stepping into the shower. She moved the clear curtain in place and began to savor the warmth of the water.

Riddick stopped in his tracks. His feeling of anger was taken away as soon as he actually though of what he almost did. He felt sorry for the poor girl. Her words had finally struck him. She was abandon. That's why she took his leaving so hard. He turned to look at Jack. She was curled up in a dark corner. Riddick could see her, but as he stepped closer she kept backing up. He knelt down beside her and she flinched.

" I'm not going to hurt you." He said in soft voice.

She took in a short breath and stared into his eyes, they glittered in the dark. His eyes were so beautiful.

" I'm sorry Jack." He said in a defeated voice.

She started to cry again, softer this time, like she was trying to hide it. Most people wouldn't be able to see her crying, more or less her, but Riddick could, and every tear that she cried, it ate him up inside. How badly he wanted to just embrace her, and tell her every thing was going to be OK. That he was sorry, and he would never leave her again, that no one ever would, but that wasn't true. He was a convicted murderer, and he knew, and she knew that he wouldn't be able to stay. He wanted to hug her and let her cry all the pain away, just to hold her like a baby, and let her know that it was OK to cry. He sighed. There was no way her could. It just wasn't him. It wasn't like him to let his feelings come out. The only emotion that he had ever felt was pain, and anger, and hatred. All of those created the tough exterior that made him who he was. He remembered when they were back on the other planet with the dam aliens. When it had her trapped under the massive bone and he was going to leave her and actually let her get killed, but her cries weren't to Caroline, or to Iman, they were to him. She wanted him to come and save her. She had worshipped the very ground he walked on, now look at her. She was fleeing from him like a scared puppy. He actually felt bad for bringing the shiv to her throat. Then he though of what she said.

" Kill me Riddick, please. Kill me." She whispered, her eyes tearing.

She was wanted to die. She wanted to end her life. Maybe she was just fronting. Fucking with him. Trying to push him, to test his limits. He growled. All this thinking and reaching deep inside himself to find some reason to feel sorry for her had taken over. Before he even realized what he was doing he was hugging Jack. She cried hard into his chest. Her arms clinging to him like a scared child, and that's what she was really, a scared child. He didn't have to say anything to her. Nor did she have to say anything to him. The feeling was mutual. All the sorry's in the world couldn't express the feeling they were sharing. Riddick held Jack like a baby. He didn't care how unlike himself he was being. She needed him and he needed her.