Author's Note: I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter, but we've
been kind of busy on this end. My sis, Arien (who is also my Beta), got
married this past Friday! Not only has my Beta been on hiatus, but
apparently my Muse has as well :P. Anyway, my hubby was kind enough to
proofread this for me, so I'm going to go on and send it (and hope my Muse
doesn't desert me again).
Chapter 23 - The Long Silence of Space
Riddick had gotten used to silence. Space was very quiet. In the time he had owned the Persephone, he had come to know every sound she made, every moan, every creak, every beep of the computer. The ship was his home and one of the few places he felt truly safe. It was his sanctuary away from everything and everyone and he liked it that way. He liked being alone in the quiet dark. Strange that after all this time he could so easily learn to accept the sound of another human in the space that had so long belonged to just him.
Jack's muffled whimper woke him immediately. It had been a little over two days since they had left Orion station, and Jack didn't seem to be getting any better. If anything she was getting worse. Weaker, more dehydrated. Riddick had tried to get her to eat and drink, and she did a little, but not nearly as much as she needed. He didn't have anything like an IV setup on the ship. Being just him, he figured if it came to the point where he needed an IV he was probably fucked anyway, so why bother having it if he wouldn't be able to use it. Right about then, though, he was wishing he wasn't such a damned cynic all the time, Jack could have used that IV.
Stretching to work the kinks out of his neck, back, and shoulders, Riddick rubbed his eyes as he untangled himself from the sleeping bag he'd dug out of an old planetary survival kit that had probably come standard when the ship was built. Good thing the pack had been vacuum-sealed or it would have been dry rotted by now. The floor wasn't so bad to sleep on really, he'd slept in a lot worse places, but he'd gotten used to sleeping in a nice, soft bed and he much preferred that. Unfortunately, when he'd purchased the Persephone he'd torn out the bunks in the crew cabin to make room for some exercise equipment so the only bed on the ship was the one Jack was sleeping in. In truth, the pilot's chair was more comfortable than the floor, but he hadn't been able to sleep there or anywhere else, he'd wanted to be close in case Jack needed something. He could have slept in the bed next to Jack, the bunk was big enough, but he'd been afraid of hurting her so that left the floor.
Pushing himself up off the floor, he padded over to the side of the bed, dropping into the chair. As had been his routine for the last day, he automatically pulled down the neck of the shirt he'd changed Jack into, checking the bioscan strip he'd stuck to the skin over Jack's heart. The bioscan strip monitored her heartbeat, blood pressure, and temperature; yet another miracle of modern technology. Riddick was glad to have it, glad it was a standard in the first aid kit since it wouldn't have been something he would have bought for himself and there wasn't a medbed on the ship. He was glad to see that her heartbeat was good, but her blood pressure was down and, more worrying, her temperature was up. 38.8 (102F). "Shit!"
Jack had spent the majority of the last two days sleeping, but for the last couple of hours she had been drifting in and out of consciousness, not just the normal pattern of sleep and wakefulness. Her temp had been higher than normal for the past day, but the fever had stayed pretty low grade, nothing to really worry about under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances. Riddick had stripped off her socks and the thermal shirt, replacing it with one of his t-shirts, and removed the blanket hoping that would keep her temperature stable. Then he'd dug out the bioscan strip so he could keep an eye on her vitals.
Moving to the controls, Riddick took the ambient temp down to 20C (68F). He needed to get her temp down, but he didn't want her to crash, with her already low blood pressure, a sudden decrease in temperature could cause her more harm than the fever. Best to try to bring her down slowly. Crossing back to the bed, he threw aside the sheet and tugged off the stretchy pants she'd been wearing. If she had been awake, he would have tried to get her to drink some cool water, but she hadn't wakened since her temperature had started rising. That worried him more than the fever. "C'mon, Kid. I know you're tougher than this."
Checking his watch Riddick saw it had been more than four hours since he'd given Jack a dose of anesthephine. He loaded the hypo and swabbed her thigh with alcohol before giving her the shot, a whole ampoule this time, hoping the sedative would help bring her temp down. He followed the sedative with another shot of the anti-biotic, hoping that the drugs would help to lower her temperature.
Half an hour later her temp didn't show any signs of dropping. Grabbing the small basin from the med kit, Riddick filled it with cool, but not cold, water and grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom. Sitting on the bed next to her, he began to run the cool, damp cloth over her too warm skin. At first, she shivered, instinctively trying to pull away from him even in her unconscious state, but as the water began to cool her skin, she settled again. Her breathing became more even, her skin no longer seemed hot to the touch, and when Riddick checked the bioscan strip, it told him her temperature had dropped to 37.2C (99F). He knew that was probably about the best he could hope for. Now if she would just wake up he might even start to believe she was going to make it.
************************************************
Riddick had to get out of the room, do something to keep his mind off Jack lying there, not knowing whether or not she would make it to the Areiadne sector alive. He tried to work out on the equipment, but instead of relaxing him, it only served to focus his mind on exactly what he was trying to forget. What he needed was something to keep his mind occupied. Reading didn't work, he'd read every book in his library at least once so they just weren't holding his interest and they were making his body restless. The only thing he could think of was to do something that would require both mental and physical concentration, working on the Persephone.
There was a reason the Persephone was such a clean and well-maintained ship. When you didn't have anyone to talk to for weeks on end, even if you enjoyed the silence of space, sometimes you just needed to do something that could take your mind off everything else. He'd found that working on maintaining the Persephone helped him do just that. It was a good plan but he didn't want to go down into the maintenance area because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to hear her if she needed him. After thinking about it for a moment, he toggled on the shipwide intercom system and want toward the flight deck, the comm unit hadn't been checked out in a while.
*************************************************
~~Jack was running. There was no sound at all but the blood rushing in her ears and her labored breathing. She was so scared that she could hardly think as she ran through the heavy blackness. Pain shot through her like knives dancing along all her nerve endings, but still she ran. She didn't know. She didn't know where she was supposed to be running to, or who she was running from, but she knew she couldn't stop. Even when she fell from exhaustion, she dragged herself up off the ground and kept going. She was so scared, and then something reached out to grab her, she could feel its claws tearing into her side. She screamed in fear and pain, but she fought and managed to get away from it, running even faster. Every cell in her body was screaming for her to stop, but the fear pushed her forward until at last she heard a sound, a voice in the darkness, calling to her. "Jack." It said only one word, but she ran toward the voice reaching out blindly, groping for it. The voice represented safety, love, home.~~
The room was dark save for the dull light coming through the slightly open door. There was a blessedly cool hand on her face and she nuzzled against it, wishing it would cool her hot and aching body. Pain shot through her side as she tried to move. She didn't know where she was for a moment, or why she hurt so much, but then it came back to her in a rush of memory that took her breath away. "Riddick?"
"Who else would it be?" What had been meant as a joke came out flat. She had scared the hell out of him, screaming out in her sleep like that, and it was hard to be really on top of your game when you felt like you were going to choke on your heart because it had jumped up into your throat. He'd opened the shipwide intercom so he could hear her if she needed anything, but he hadn't expected the blood-curdling scream. He'd very nearly accidentally disabled the comm unit he'd been working on. Throwing down the tools, he had run into the room, half afraid of what he might find when he got there. What he found was Jack in the throes of a nightmare, her skin burning like the surface of a sun with fever. He checked the bioscan strip. 40C (104F) *Damnit!* He didn't want to think about all the reasons she could be spiking a fever that high, none of them were good, all he knew was that he needed to bring it down and he didn't have time for subtle.
Careful of her injured side, Riddick sat Jack up and scooped her into his arms. She felt light, as if she had almost no substance. "C'mon, Jack. Hold on for just a little while longer."
Jack wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his, he felt so cool. "Where are we going?"
He hadn't expected her to say anything. "I'm taking you into the shower, need to get your temp down so the water's going to be a little cold." Carrying her into the bathroom, he stepped into the shower stall, glad it was large enough for both of them, and sealed the door behind him. Shifting her weight, he ran his hands over the controls and turned the water on as cool as he dared. Jack shivered violently as the cool spray hit her, but Riddick held her tightly until the shivering passed.
The spurt of cold water woke Jack up a bit. Teeth chattering, she held more tightly to Riddick. "This wasn't exactly what I pictured for our first shower together," she managed to say between shivers.
Riddick laughed, she always had a wisecrack remark for everything, that was one of the things he liked about her. "Yeah, well, me neither." He rubbed a hand over her back.
God, she felt like shit. She ached and hurt over every inch of her body, and the cold water wasn't helping that at all. She couldn't even enjoy Riddick holding her. Another shudder wracked through her body. "How long until we get to Areiadne?" He'd told her it'd take three days but she didn't remember how long ago that was, things were just so fuzzy.
"Just about twelve more hours." *You just need to hold on a little longer.* He just hoped she could make it that much longer. If she had another temp spike, she might go into shock and there wasn't anything else he could do for her here on the ship.
Maybe it was something in his voice, or maybe it was just her own sense of mortality, but she had to ask. "Am I going to die?"
"Not if I can help it." She weighed nearly nothing and he could have held her like that indefinitely, but he wanted to be able to look at her face. Sliding down the wall of the shower, his pants sloshed wetly against the floor as he sat down. He settled Jack on his lap so he could look at her face. Brushing the loose, wet strands of her hair back, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, glad she was feeling cooler. "I don't think you're going to die, Jack. We just need to keep your temperature down."
Jack nodded. It might not have been the resounding NO she would have liked, but she knew he was telling her the truth. On the chance she didn't make it, though, there was something she needed to tell him. "I know you said no, but there's something I need, something from home. Whether I make it or not you have to promise me you'll go to Imam's."
"Jack, I told you before that it's dangerous for you to go home." He didn't even acknowledge the idea of her dying, that was an unacceptable option. They'd already had this discussion and his answer had been no then, he wasn't changing it now. Pulling down the neck of her shirt, he checked her temperature. Thankfully, it was down.
"I mean it, Riddick. It's important. REALLY important." Jack had to make him understand, but she was having a hard time thinking, she lay her head back on his shoulder. "There's a box in my room, under my bed. The key is hidden inside a stuffed bear, the purple one. We have to get that box. It's very important, promise me, please."
It occurred to him to remind her that he didn't do promises, but he could hear the urgency in her voice, feel the tension in her shoulders. He had told himself he wouldn't make any more promises to Jack that he didn't intend to keep, so he knew if he made the promise he'd have to keep it. At this point, though, he couldn't deny her the request. "Ok, Jack. I promise."
Chapter 23 - The Long Silence of Space
Riddick had gotten used to silence. Space was very quiet. In the time he had owned the Persephone, he had come to know every sound she made, every moan, every creak, every beep of the computer. The ship was his home and one of the few places he felt truly safe. It was his sanctuary away from everything and everyone and he liked it that way. He liked being alone in the quiet dark. Strange that after all this time he could so easily learn to accept the sound of another human in the space that had so long belonged to just him.
Jack's muffled whimper woke him immediately. It had been a little over two days since they had left Orion station, and Jack didn't seem to be getting any better. If anything she was getting worse. Weaker, more dehydrated. Riddick had tried to get her to eat and drink, and she did a little, but not nearly as much as she needed. He didn't have anything like an IV setup on the ship. Being just him, he figured if it came to the point where he needed an IV he was probably fucked anyway, so why bother having it if he wouldn't be able to use it. Right about then, though, he was wishing he wasn't such a damned cynic all the time, Jack could have used that IV.
Stretching to work the kinks out of his neck, back, and shoulders, Riddick rubbed his eyes as he untangled himself from the sleeping bag he'd dug out of an old planetary survival kit that had probably come standard when the ship was built. Good thing the pack had been vacuum-sealed or it would have been dry rotted by now. The floor wasn't so bad to sleep on really, he'd slept in a lot worse places, but he'd gotten used to sleeping in a nice, soft bed and he much preferred that. Unfortunately, when he'd purchased the Persephone he'd torn out the bunks in the crew cabin to make room for some exercise equipment so the only bed on the ship was the one Jack was sleeping in. In truth, the pilot's chair was more comfortable than the floor, but he hadn't been able to sleep there or anywhere else, he'd wanted to be close in case Jack needed something. He could have slept in the bed next to Jack, the bunk was big enough, but he'd been afraid of hurting her so that left the floor.
Pushing himself up off the floor, he padded over to the side of the bed, dropping into the chair. As had been his routine for the last day, he automatically pulled down the neck of the shirt he'd changed Jack into, checking the bioscan strip he'd stuck to the skin over Jack's heart. The bioscan strip monitored her heartbeat, blood pressure, and temperature; yet another miracle of modern technology. Riddick was glad to have it, glad it was a standard in the first aid kit since it wouldn't have been something he would have bought for himself and there wasn't a medbed on the ship. He was glad to see that her heartbeat was good, but her blood pressure was down and, more worrying, her temperature was up. 38.8 (102F). "Shit!"
Jack had spent the majority of the last two days sleeping, but for the last couple of hours she had been drifting in and out of consciousness, not just the normal pattern of sleep and wakefulness. Her temp had been higher than normal for the past day, but the fever had stayed pretty low grade, nothing to really worry about under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances. Riddick had stripped off her socks and the thermal shirt, replacing it with one of his t-shirts, and removed the blanket hoping that would keep her temperature stable. Then he'd dug out the bioscan strip so he could keep an eye on her vitals.
Moving to the controls, Riddick took the ambient temp down to 20C (68F). He needed to get her temp down, but he didn't want her to crash, with her already low blood pressure, a sudden decrease in temperature could cause her more harm than the fever. Best to try to bring her down slowly. Crossing back to the bed, he threw aside the sheet and tugged off the stretchy pants she'd been wearing. If she had been awake, he would have tried to get her to drink some cool water, but she hadn't wakened since her temperature had started rising. That worried him more than the fever. "C'mon, Kid. I know you're tougher than this."
Checking his watch Riddick saw it had been more than four hours since he'd given Jack a dose of anesthephine. He loaded the hypo and swabbed her thigh with alcohol before giving her the shot, a whole ampoule this time, hoping the sedative would help bring her temp down. He followed the sedative with another shot of the anti-biotic, hoping that the drugs would help to lower her temperature.
Half an hour later her temp didn't show any signs of dropping. Grabbing the small basin from the med kit, Riddick filled it with cool, but not cold, water and grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom. Sitting on the bed next to her, he began to run the cool, damp cloth over her too warm skin. At first, she shivered, instinctively trying to pull away from him even in her unconscious state, but as the water began to cool her skin, she settled again. Her breathing became more even, her skin no longer seemed hot to the touch, and when Riddick checked the bioscan strip, it told him her temperature had dropped to 37.2C (99F). He knew that was probably about the best he could hope for. Now if she would just wake up he might even start to believe she was going to make it.
************************************************
Riddick had to get out of the room, do something to keep his mind off Jack lying there, not knowing whether or not she would make it to the Areiadne sector alive. He tried to work out on the equipment, but instead of relaxing him, it only served to focus his mind on exactly what he was trying to forget. What he needed was something to keep his mind occupied. Reading didn't work, he'd read every book in his library at least once so they just weren't holding his interest and they were making his body restless. The only thing he could think of was to do something that would require both mental and physical concentration, working on the Persephone.
There was a reason the Persephone was such a clean and well-maintained ship. When you didn't have anyone to talk to for weeks on end, even if you enjoyed the silence of space, sometimes you just needed to do something that could take your mind off everything else. He'd found that working on maintaining the Persephone helped him do just that. It was a good plan but he didn't want to go down into the maintenance area because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to hear her if she needed him. After thinking about it for a moment, he toggled on the shipwide intercom system and want toward the flight deck, the comm unit hadn't been checked out in a while.
*************************************************
~~Jack was running. There was no sound at all but the blood rushing in her ears and her labored breathing. She was so scared that she could hardly think as she ran through the heavy blackness. Pain shot through her like knives dancing along all her nerve endings, but still she ran. She didn't know. She didn't know where she was supposed to be running to, or who she was running from, but she knew she couldn't stop. Even when she fell from exhaustion, she dragged herself up off the ground and kept going. She was so scared, and then something reached out to grab her, she could feel its claws tearing into her side. She screamed in fear and pain, but she fought and managed to get away from it, running even faster. Every cell in her body was screaming for her to stop, but the fear pushed her forward until at last she heard a sound, a voice in the darkness, calling to her. "Jack." It said only one word, but she ran toward the voice reaching out blindly, groping for it. The voice represented safety, love, home.~~
The room was dark save for the dull light coming through the slightly open door. There was a blessedly cool hand on her face and she nuzzled against it, wishing it would cool her hot and aching body. Pain shot through her side as she tried to move. She didn't know where she was for a moment, or why she hurt so much, but then it came back to her in a rush of memory that took her breath away. "Riddick?"
"Who else would it be?" What had been meant as a joke came out flat. She had scared the hell out of him, screaming out in her sleep like that, and it was hard to be really on top of your game when you felt like you were going to choke on your heart because it had jumped up into your throat. He'd opened the shipwide intercom so he could hear her if she needed anything, but he hadn't expected the blood-curdling scream. He'd very nearly accidentally disabled the comm unit he'd been working on. Throwing down the tools, he had run into the room, half afraid of what he might find when he got there. What he found was Jack in the throes of a nightmare, her skin burning like the surface of a sun with fever. He checked the bioscan strip. 40C (104F) *Damnit!* He didn't want to think about all the reasons she could be spiking a fever that high, none of them were good, all he knew was that he needed to bring it down and he didn't have time for subtle.
Careful of her injured side, Riddick sat Jack up and scooped her into his arms. She felt light, as if she had almost no substance. "C'mon, Jack. Hold on for just a little while longer."
Jack wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his, he felt so cool. "Where are we going?"
He hadn't expected her to say anything. "I'm taking you into the shower, need to get your temp down so the water's going to be a little cold." Carrying her into the bathroom, he stepped into the shower stall, glad it was large enough for both of them, and sealed the door behind him. Shifting her weight, he ran his hands over the controls and turned the water on as cool as he dared. Jack shivered violently as the cool spray hit her, but Riddick held her tightly until the shivering passed.
The spurt of cold water woke Jack up a bit. Teeth chattering, she held more tightly to Riddick. "This wasn't exactly what I pictured for our first shower together," she managed to say between shivers.
Riddick laughed, she always had a wisecrack remark for everything, that was one of the things he liked about her. "Yeah, well, me neither." He rubbed a hand over her back.
God, she felt like shit. She ached and hurt over every inch of her body, and the cold water wasn't helping that at all. She couldn't even enjoy Riddick holding her. Another shudder wracked through her body. "How long until we get to Areiadne?" He'd told her it'd take three days but she didn't remember how long ago that was, things were just so fuzzy.
"Just about twelve more hours." *You just need to hold on a little longer.* He just hoped she could make it that much longer. If she had another temp spike, she might go into shock and there wasn't anything else he could do for her here on the ship.
Maybe it was something in his voice, or maybe it was just her own sense of mortality, but she had to ask. "Am I going to die?"
"Not if I can help it." She weighed nearly nothing and he could have held her like that indefinitely, but he wanted to be able to look at her face. Sliding down the wall of the shower, his pants sloshed wetly against the floor as he sat down. He settled Jack on his lap so he could look at her face. Brushing the loose, wet strands of her hair back, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, glad she was feeling cooler. "I don't think you're going to die, Jack. We just need to keep your temperature down."
Jack nodded. It might not have been the resounding NO she would have liked, but she knew he was telling her the truth. On the chance she didn't make it, though, there was something she needed to tell him. "I know you said no, but there's something I need, something from home. Whether I make it or not you have to promise me you'll go to Imam's."
"Jack, I told you before that it's dangerous for you to go home." He didn't even acknowledge the idea of her dying, that was an unacceptable option. They'd already had this discussion and his answer had been no then, he wasn't changing it now. Pulling down the neck of her shirt, he checked her temperature. Thankfully, it was down.
"I mean it, Riddick. It's important. REALLY important." Jack had to make him understand, but she was having a hard time thinking, she lay her head back on his shoulder. "There's a box in my room, under my bed. The key is hidden inside a stuffed bear, the purple one. We have to get that box. It's very important, promise me, please."
It occurred to him to remind her that he didn't do promises, but he could hear the urgency in her voice, feel the tension in her shoulders. He had told himself he wouldn't make any more promises to Jack that he didn't intend to keep, so he knew if he made the promise he'd have to keep it. At this point, though, he couldn't deny her the request. "Ok, Jack. I promise."