20. The Truth Will Set Us Free

It had been five hours since Jack stormed out of the ship. Her parting shot about not having to take orders from him still hung in the air, though. Riddick had almost been able to hear the real meaning behind her words. "Go to hell. I don't have to take your shit anymore." He was almost proud of her for having the balls to stand up to him.

But now Gin was staring at him, having finally woken up from her exhausted stupor, and Riddick really didn't feel like analyzing the thoughts that were probably turning the wheels in her head.

"Damn it, Riddick. Go to her."

Riddick clenched his jaw and glared at Gin. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't fuck with me, Vic. I might have been out of it, but I wasn't completely unconscious. Give me a little credit, aight?"

Riddick rubbed a hand over his head and stared at the wall. Abandoning all pretense, he finally said what he was really thinking. "Why? She doesn't want me to. She can take care of herself."

Sighing, Gin propped her head in her hand and rested the palm of her other hand on his thigh. "It has nothing to do with her being able to take care of herself. Don't you want things to be right again?"

Her gentle, understanding tone touched a spot in Riddick he didn't want to examine. "I don't give a fuck," he replied a little more forcefully than necessary.

"Liar. Admit it. You've got a soft spot for the kid."

"Fine!" he snarled, standing up and looking down at her. "You want to hear it? Wanna hear that Jack was the first person I can remember having ever treated me like a human being? That when I took her with me after the crash I woke up just so she could tell me she liked planet hopping with me more than she'd ever liked anything? You wanna hear that leaving Jack back on Dres hurt more than it should have?" Riddick took a breath. "Fine. There. You've heard it. The truth."

Gin smirked at him and rolled back to lay flat on her back. "So go make friends, asshole."

------

Riddick tracked Jack easily enough. She hadn't bothered trying to hide her trail, so her footprints in the alternating dirt and grass were easy to spot.

He came up behind her near a stream. The girl was sitting with her back to a tree and she tensed slightly when she heard him approaching.

"Jack," he said quietly, knowing she could hear him anyway.

The sound of her putting something away in her pockets reached his ears and he wondered what she was hiding.

"Yeah, Riddick?"

Stepping closer, he rounded the tree and stood over her. Jack lifted her head and leaned back against the tree trunk. He noticed her hair had grown while they were in cryo-sleep when a breeze ruffled the short, spiky strands. It was only a little shorter than Gin's now.

The silence seemed to stretch on forever and Riddick tried to think of something to say. Sarcastic, maybe? No, he thought. Strike that. Parental? The thought almost make him shudder, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "Your hair is getting longer." The comment came out a little more gruff sounding than he liked. Sounds a little lame, too, dipship.

Jack seemed to be thinking of a reply as her eyes narrowed slightly at him. "Hair still grows in cryo," she said finally.

A taut, uncomfortable silence stretched out between them and Riddick wondered what Jack was thinking. Probably thinking your acting like an idiot, he cursed himself. Staring at her, remembering the way things were before he left her, Riddick felt a sense of pain and loneliness course through him. It was almost confusing in its intensity. Riddick couldn't remember the last time he'd been lonely for someone.

Pulling off his goggles, he rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate the headache he could feel building just behind his eyes.

"Can we try this again?" he questioned, pulling his goggles back on.

Jack's eyes narrowed and the suspicion in her gaze deepened. "Try what again?" she questioned.

He made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "This," he repeated. "You, me. Us. Can we try again?"

Riddick watched Jack slowly stand up, her back sliding against the tree trunk. "Us?" She shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back on her heels, her chin coming up so she could give him a dark, assessing stare from beneath her eyelashes.

Clasping his hands behind his back, Riddick clenched his jaw and shifted back away from Jack slightly, balancing on his heels. He cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes slightly beneath the dark goggles. "Ain't gonna make this easy for me, are you."

The girl pulled her goggles over her eyes and then stuffed her hand back in her pocket. "Nope."

"Gonna make me spell it out?"

"Yup."

"Fine."

"Glad we understand each other," this remark with barely leashed sarcasm.

Riddick knew he wasn't getting anywhere, so he said something he hoped would get Jack's attention. "Do we?"

The question seemed to take the teen by surprise, and he waited while she took her time in considering the answer. Finally, cocking her head to the side, she said, "I thought we did, once. Seems like long ago."

"You were right. We did understand each other," he replied, his voice low and quiet. He wondered if the loss he suddenly felt himself experiencing in the face of her wary sarcasm was evident in his voice.

When he saw the anger start to twist her delicate features he wondered if he'd said the wrong thing. He was surprised when she suddenly launched herself at him so that she was standing only a few inches from his chest.

"Then why the hell did you leave me, you fucking bastard?" she screamed at him, throwing the words in his face. Her sudden shove caught him off guard and he took two quick steps back before she was in his face again. "Why? Why? Why?" she continued to rage.

Riddick saw her hand curl into a fist at her side. He saw the tightly clenched ball of anger swing with perfect accuracy toward his jaw. He knew he could block it, and from the look on her face, so did she. But she didn't check the swing and the set of her mouth and the pain in her words seemed to beg him to deflect the blow and smash her down to the ground. So he let her swing. Let the small, hard fist slam full force into his jaw and send his teeth to snapping together.

His head jerked slightly but he didn't rub at the offended area. Damn, kid hits hard, he thought. Riddick almost thought she was going to swing again, but instead all the anger seemed to drain out of her, leaving her weak.

Jack collapsed to her knees and let her head fall forward. Her hands fisted in the green grass. "Why?" she whispered, her voice weak and defeated sounding.

Feeling his heart contract painfully in his chest, Riddick kneeled before the girl, noting the way her body tensed as if in anticipation of the blow that would send her sprawling. She didn't look up at him, though, so he placed his fingers under her chin and forced her eyes to meet his. The goggles still blocked her gaze from his, and he wanted to see her eyes. Very carefully, Riddick reached out and pulled Jack's goggles off and let them fall into the grass by her hand. There was a look of longing, confusion, and suspicion on her face and in her eyes.

"I never should have left you," he whispered, knowing in his bones that it was the truth, and it shocked him a little. The truth, he wondered to himself. Maybe the truth will set us free. He continued to stare at her for a moment before he was able to continue. Finish it, Dickie. Ask her for one more thing. "Say we can try again, Jack."

The relief that suddenly flooded Jack's face was mirrored by the sudden contracting of Riddick's heart in his chest. He felt like he'd finally been freed from some enormous weight when he opened his arms and Jack threw herself against his chest.

"Riddick," she sobbed as she collapsed against him, burying her face in his shirt.

Riddick suddenly knew what family was like.