Chapter 13 - Obsession
Jack woke to an insistent buzzing. Instinctively shooting her hand out to turn off the alarm, she succeeded only in sending an empty beer bottle clattering to the floor. Still sleep dazed, she awoke slowly, rubbing her hand over her face. Her face felt gritty and her eyelids felt like sandpaper. It took her a moment to remember that she'd cried herself to sleep the night before, but the memories of last night came flooding back in a rush.
Sitting up slowly, she rolled her head from side to side, stretching her arms over her head, trying to work out the kinks in her spine from sleeping all night on the small couch. A quick look at the clock told her she'd been sleeping for ten hours. "Shit." She'd slept hard, a dreamless and restless sleep that left her feeling more tired now than she had been last night. She found herself wishing she were back home so she could have a nice, long soak in a bathtub full of bubbles. Her shower was nice, a lot of people couldn't afford the water-based showers, but it just wasn't the same as a good hot bubble bath.
The buzzing came again and she realized it was someone calling her, that must have been what had wakened her. "Ok! I'm coming," her voice was hoarse, harsh sounding to her own ears. "Chill out!" Pushing herself up from the couch with a groan, she stumbled over to the computer station, toggling on the comm-unit. "Yeah," she said a little more harshly than she had intended.
It was Carson's voice that came back to her through the speaker. "AJ? What the hell's up? I waited for over an hour."
"What?" she asked. Tired, sore, and not in any mood to take any crap, she started to get a little pissed at his tone.
"Racquetball. Remember? You, me, eleven o'clock?" Carson's Irish temper was showing itself. "I waited for you and you never showed."
Sinking wearily into the computer chair, she combed her fingers back through her hair. "I'm sorry, Carson. I completely forgot."
"Yeah, right." Carson said, sarcasm dripping from his words. "I don't suppose your lapse in memory has anything to do with that guy that was leaving your apartment at 2am this morning?"
*Fuck!* She wondered for a moment how he could possibly have known Riddick had been there. "What were you doing, watching my apartment?" she asked him, a mixture of anger and wariness.
"No, I wasn't watching it," anger was fairly humming over the connection. "I was at Alejandro's last night, you know, after you told him you were 'going to bed with a good book'. Well, he called me to watch vids and eat pizza. I was leaving about the same time your 'mystery man' was." There was a humorless laugh on the other end of the line. "That must have been one hell of a book."
She found herself tapping her fingers angrily on the console. "You don't even know what you're talking about, so why don't you just shut up now before you say something you're going to regret." *Good advice,* she thought to herself, *calm down, Jack.*
"Yeah? Well, I know that ever since you ran into that guy yesterday on the concourse you've been acting weird. And then what? You just ask this guy you don't even know back to your apartment?"
Jack could feel her temper taking control of her, never a good thing. "You know what, Carson. It's none of your damn business what I do or who I do it with. If I want to fuck every single man that comes through this station, it's my business." A cruel smile touched her lips. "Are you sure you're not just jealous that it wasn't you keeping me warm last night?" She was immediately sorry she'd said it, but her pride wouldn't let her apologize.
Silence stretched over the line before he spoke again. "Yeah, maybe I was. But that was stupid since I'm not a criminal or a drifter and I'm not interested in fucking you once then disappearing." He was quiet for a while; his voice was low when he spoke again. "You know, if I had been the one in your bed last night, I wouldn't have left you that quickly." With that, the line went dead.
"Shit." Jack cradled her head in her hands. She shouldn't have said that to Carson, shouldn't have let her temper get the better of her, but when he'd jumped to the wrong conclusion it had just angered her further. It was bad enough that Riddick had left her last night, wanting, and never knowing if she'd see him again. Having Carson assume something had happened just made the fact that nothing had that much worse. Pushing herself up out of the chair, she gathered up the remnants of the previous night's visit and deposited them in the kitchen before heading to her bedroom to get cleaned up and dressed.
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Carson severed the connection before AJ could say anything else. Running a hand through his bright hair, he cupped the back of his neck, massaging the tense muscles there. "That was brilliant, you ass." He knew that he never had a chance with her, he'd known that since school, but seeing that guy coming out of her apartment last night had just opened up all those old jealous feelings. He hated that he just couldn't seem to get over her. It was almost as bad as her obsession with that Riddick guy.
She'd never told him about Riddick, so far as he knew she'd never told anyone, but when you are in love with someone you do some fairly strange things. Carson remembered back to one night when they'd still been at the engineering academy. There had been a big party, lots of people, and AJ had gone off with some jock looking guy and it had pissed Carson off. He'd gotten drunk and had ended up in her room of the apartment they both shared with two other students. At first, he just wanted to be in there, just to feel close to her. When you're drunk, though, you do some stupid stuff. If you were drunk and in love, well, all's fair in love and war, right?
He first started going through her stuff, looking through her clothes. Then he'd broken into her diary. What he'd found in there was mostly sappy poetry, sketches of hands, strange eyes, a man's muscular back, nothing that really made any sense. Then he'd found the stories. It didn't take long to realize that the 'stories' were fantasies she'd written down, pretty sexy stuff too, revealing new depths to AJ that he hadn't known lay beneath the smiling, sweet exterior and making him that much more pissed that she'd gone off with the jock. But though the entire thing seemed to be dedicated to one purpose, one focus, one person, there was no name anywhere. It was like she had created him out of thin air and forgotten to name him, or maybe she was afraid to reveal his name. He found he needed to know who it was that she fantasized about. That's when he remembered the box.
Under AJ's bed there lived a lock box, just a bit larger than a large shoebox. The only remarkable thing about it was that it was a security box, and she never made a trip home without taking it with her. Not only was there an electronic combination, but it also required a tiny key-card. She always kept the card on a chain around her neck, like a dog tag, she even showered with it. Given enough time he could probably crack the combination, but he wouldn't get anywhere without that card. The only question was, how to get it?
Carson was a patient person, and he waited. His opportunity didn't arrive for another three months. He'd managed to figure out the combination during that time, but he needed the key-card. Finally the time came. Melissa, another of their roommates, had convinced AJ that she should go out with her and two guys. It was a formal affair and so that meant she'd be carrying the card in her purse. If he timed it just right, he could slip the card out of her purse and get it back before she knew it was gone.
It hadn't been easy, but while she and Melissa were chatting with the guys in the living room, Carson slipped into AJ's bedroom. With hands shaking from excitement, he'd taken the card out and unlocked the box. He'd barely had time to replace the card before she'd returned to the bedroom to retrieve her purse. That night while they were gone, he'd learned a few more interesting things about AJ and her obsession with one Richard B. Riddick.
A frown furrowed his brow. It couldn't be, could it? He shook his head, laughing at the very idea. "Yeah, right, Carson. What are the odds that this guy she's not seen in something like thirteen years has just shown up all of a sudden?" But what if it was him? He'd be damned if he was going to lose her to someone like that.
Half an hour later, he had a very old picture of Riddick. He looked young, early twenties, close-cropped black hair, dark brown (almost black) eyes. The picture was taken shortly after Riddick had been taken into custody, so the man's jaw was set and his eyes glinted with anger and hatred. He looked dangerous. Carson made himself think back to the man on the concourse. He'd been wearing a baseball cap, dark sunglasses, and a goatee, but the build was the same, approximately the same height, and the set of his jaw was the same. It could easily be the same man, but he'd want to make sure before he went any further. He needed to be sure before he made any calls.
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Riddick hadn't slept much the night before, so when the clock chimed 7am he didn't see any reason to keep trying, wasn't like he ever got much sleep anyway. Climbing out of his bunk, he showered, shaved, and dressed for the day. Most everything on the station would be opening for business soon, he could get something to eat then get to work on resupplying the Persephone for the trip to TO4.
He ate breakfast at the same cafe he'd watched Jack from the previous day, consciously keeping an eye out for her. She was a persistent person, and he'd rather avoid any contact with her today if he could. He'd already accepted the fact that his old image of her was completely shattered now; he just couldn't bring himself to think of her the same way anymore. It made him feel like some kind of pervert child molester anytime he'd tried to dredge up that old picture of her in his mind. No, she'd forced an entirely new image into his mind, one he was fighting very hard to forget.
The rest of the morning, and most of the afternoon, was spent in shops and offices arranging for the resupply of the Persephone. Throughout the day as he waited, he found his thoughts drifting back to Jack and he'd have to mentally kick himself. *Damn the girl for being so soft and sexy,* he thought. Didn't she know she wasn't supposed to grow up? He'd just be glad when he left the station. He was starting to think leaving this system altogether might be a good idea, it wasn't like there weren't other places he could go.
Several hours later, and several thousand credits poorer, the Persephone was all supplied and ready to go, just as soon as the damn fuel shipment got there. Not wanting to go back to the ship, just in case Jack had decided that turnabout was fair play and was waiting for him, Riddick found himself back at Carnal Pleasures. Well, it was as good a place as any to spend the remainder of the evening. *Who knows, I might even see what's- her-name again,* he thought, a small smile on his face. If not, any other 'what's-her-name' would do.
Jack woke to an insistent buzzing. Instinctively shooting her hand out to turn off the alarm, she succeeded only in sending an empty beer bottle clattering to the floor. Still sleep dazed, she awoke slowly, rubbing her hand over her face. Her face felt gritty and her eyelids felt like sandpaper. It took her a moment to remember that she'd cried herself to sleep the night before, but the memories of last night came flooding back in a rush.
Sitting up slowly, she rolled her head from side to side, stretching her arms over her head, trying to work out the kinks in her spine from sleeping all night on the small couch. A quick look at the clock told her she'd been sleeping for ten hours. "Shit." She'd slept hard, a dreamless and restless sleep that left her feeling more tired now than she had been last night. She found herself wishing she were back home so she could have a nice, long soak in a bathtub full of bubbles. Her shower was nice, a lot of people couldn't afford the water-based showers, but it just wasn't the same as a good hot bubble bath.
The buzzing came again and she realized it was someone calling her, that must have been what had wakened her. "Ok! I'm coming," her voice was hoarse, harsh sounding to her own ears. "Chill out!" Pushing herself up from the couch with a groan, she stumbled over to the computer station, toggling on the comm-unit. "Yeah," she said a little more harshly than she had intended.
It was Carson's voice that came back to her through the speaker. "AJ? What the hell's up? I waited for over an hour."
"What?" she asked. Tired, sore, and not in any mood to take any crap, she started to get a little pissed at his tone.
"Racquetball. Remember? You, me, eleven o'clock?" Carson's Irish temper was showing itself. "I waited for you and you never showed."
Sinking wearily into the computer chair, she combed her fingers back through her hair. "I'm sorry, Carson. I completely forgot."
"Yeah, right." Carson said, sarcasm dripping from his words. "I don't suppose your lapse in memory has anything to do with that guy that was leaving your apartment at 2am this morning?"
*Fuck!* She wondered for a moment how he could possibly have known Riddick had been there. "What were you doing, watching my apartment?" she asked him, a mixture of anger and wariness.
"No, I wasn't watching it," anger was fairly humming over the connection. "I was at Alejandro's last night, you know, after you told him you were 'going to bed with a good book'. Well, he called me to watch vids and eat pizza. I was leaving about the same time your 'mystery man' was." There was a humorless laugh on the other end of the line. "That must have been one hell of a book."
She found herself tapping her fingers angrily on the console. "You don't even know what you're talking about, so why don't you just shut up now before you say something you're going to regret." *Good advice,* she thought to herself, *calm down, Jack.*
"Yeah? Well, I know that ever since you ran into that guy yesterday on the concourse you've been acting weird. And then what? You just ask this guy you don't even know back to your apartment?"
Jack could feel her temper taking control of her, never a good thing. "You know what, Carson. It's none of your damn business what I do or who I do it with. If I want to fuck every single man that comes through this station, it's my business." A cruel smile touched her lips. "Are you sure you're not just jealous that it wasn't you keeping me warm last night?" She was immediately sorry she'd said it, but her pride wouldn't let her apologize.
Silence stretched over the line before he spoke again. "Yeah, maybe I was. But that was stupid since I'm not a criminal or a drifter and I'm not interested in fucking you once then disappearing." He was quiet for a while; his voice was low when he spoke again. "You know, if I had been the one in your bed last night, I wouldn't have left you that quickly." With that, the line went dead.
"Shit." Jack cradled her head in her hands. She shouldn't have said that to Carson, shouldn't have let her temper get the better of her, but when he'd jumped to the wrong conclusion it had just angered her further. It was bad enough that Riddick had left her last night, wanting, and never knowing if she'd see him again. Having Carson assume something had happened just made the fact that nothing had that much worse. Pushing herself up out of the chair, she gathered up the remnants of the previous night's visit and deposited them in the kitchen before heading to her bedroom to get cleaned up and dressed.
********************************************************
Carson severed the connection before AJ could say anything else. Running a hand through his bright hair, he cupped the back of his neck, massaging the tense muscles there. "That was brilliant, you ass." He knew that he never had a chance with her, he'd known that since school, but seeing that guy coming out of her apartment last night had just opened up all those old jealous feelings. He hated that he just couldn't seem to get over her. It was almost as bad as her obsession with that Riddick guy.
She'd never told him about Riddick, so far as he knew she'd never told anyone, but when you are in love with someone you do some fairly strange things. Carson remembered back to one night when they'd still been at the engineering academy. There had been a big party, lots of people, and AJ had gone off with some jock looking guy and it had pissed Carson off. He'd gotten drunk and had ended up in her room of the apartment they both shared with two other students. At first, he just wanted to be in there, just to feel close to her. When you're drunk, though, you do some stupid stuff. If you were drunk and in love, well, all's fair in love and war, right?
He first started going through her stuff, looking through her clothes. Then he'd broken into her diary. What he'd found in there was mostly sappy poetry, sketches of hands, strange eyes, a man's muscular back, nothing that really made any sense. Then he'd found the stories. It didn't take long to realize that the 'stories' were fantasies she'd written down, pretty sexy stuff too, revealing new depths to AJ that he hadn't known lay beneath the smiling, sweet exterior and making him that much more pissed that she'd gone off with the jock. But though the entire thing seemed to be dedicated to one purpose, one focus, one person, there was no name anywhere. It was like she had created him out of thin air and forgotten to name him, or maybe she was afraid to reveal his name. He found he needed to know who it was that she fantasized about. That's when he remembered the box.
Under AJ's bed there lived a lock box, just a bit larger than a large shoebox. The only remarkable thing about it was that it was a security box, and she never made a trip home without taking it with her. Not only was there an electronic combination, but it also required a tiny key-card. She always kept the card on a chain around her neck, like a dog tag, she even showered with it. Given enough time he could probably crack the combination, but he wouldn't get anywhere without that card. The only question was, how to get it?
Carson was a patient person, and he waited. His opportunity didn't arrive for another three months. He'd managed to figure out the combination during that time, but he needed the key-card. Finally the time came. Melissa, another of their roommates, had convinced AJ that she should go out with her and two guys. It was a formal affair and so that meant she'd be carrying the card in her purse. If he timed it just right, he could slip the card out of her purse and get it back before she knew it was gone.
It hadn't been easy, but while she and Melissa were chatting with the guys in the living room, Carson slipped into AJ's bedroom. With hands shaking from excitement, he'd taken the card out and unlocked the box. He'd barely had time to replace the card before she'd returned to the bedroom to retrieve her purse. That night while they were gone, he'd learned a few more interesting things about AJ and her obsession with one Richard B. Riddick.
A frown furrowed his brow. It couldn't be, could it? He shook his head, laughing at the very idea. "Yeah, right, Carson. What are the odds that this guy she's not seen in something like thirteen years has just shown up all of a sudden?" But what if it was him? He'd be damned if he was going to lose her to someone like that.
Half an hour later, he had a very old picture of Riddick. He looked young, early twenties, close-cropped black hair, dark brown (almost black) eyes. The picture was taken shortly after Riddick had been taken into custody, so the man's jaw was set and his eyes glinted with anger and hatred. He looked dangerous. Carson made himself think back to the man on the concourse. He'd been wearing a baseball cap, dark sunglasses, and a goatee, but the build was the same, approximately the same height, and the set of his jaw was the same. It could easily be the same man, but he'd want to make sure before he went any further. He needed to be sure before he made any calls.
********************************************************
Riddick hadn't slept much the night before, so when the clock chimed 7am he didn't see any reason to keep trying, wasn't like he ever got much sleep anyway. Climbing out of his bunk, he showered, shaved, and dressed for the day. Most everything on the station would be opening for business soon, he could get something to eat then get to work on resupplying the Persephone for the trip to TO4.
He ate breakfast at the same cafe he'd watched Jack from the previous day, consciously keeping an eye out for her. She was a persistent person, and he'd rather avoid any contact with her today if he could. He'd already accepted the fact that his old image of her was completely shattered now; he just couldn't bring himself to think of her the same way anymore. It made him feel like some kind of pervert child molester anytime he'd tried to dredge up that old picture of her in his mind. No, she'd forced an entirely new image into his mind, one he was fighting very hard to forget.
The rest of the morning, and most of the afternoon, was spent in shops and offices arranging for the resupply of the Persephone. Throughout the day as he waited, he found his thoughts drifting back to Jack and he'd have to mentally kick himself. *Damn the girl for being so soft and sexy,* he thought. Didn't she know she wasn't supposed to grow up? He'd just be glad when he left the station. He was starting to think leaving this system altogether might be a good idea, it wasn't like there weren't other places he could go.
Several hours later, and several thousand credits poorer, the Persephone was all supplied and ready to go, just as soon as the damn fuel shipment got there. Not wanting to go back to the ship, just in case Jack had decided that turnabout was fair play and was waiting for him, Riddick found himself back at Carnal Pleasures. Well, it was as good a place as any to spend the remainder of the evening. *Who knows, I might even see what's- her-name again,* he thought, a small smile on his face. If not, any other 'what's-her-name' would do.