Author' Note: Thanks to EVERYONE for all the reviews, I really appreciate
them. They help me keep motivated to write :) Hope you enjoy this
chapter, and I'll have the next one soon.
Chapter 25 - A Bit Of Bad News
Doc drove the jeep through a large opening in the side of a mountain, taking the terrain as easily as he could to keep from jostling his newest patient. The cave was more like a tunnel, smooth stone walls forming an arch over the road as it descended at a steady decline for a while before leveling out several hundred meters down. The jeep's headlamps gave the only illumination in the narrow passage but as they drove through another, wider, arching opening, the dark tunnel gave way to a lighted 'street' and a large open space that was amazing to behold.
The cave system under the surface of the planet was more than just a winding maze of dark, dank tunnels, it was truly an underground city. Complete with a "safe sunlight" lighting system, not unlike the ones used on space stations, though obviously of a much older vintage. The inhabitants had made the underground a habitat as viable as any on an alien world could hope for. The cavern they drove through, one of at least a hundred that Riddick knew of, was probably fifty feet high and at least two hundred feet wide. All along the narrow road were houses and openings in the rock walls that lead down other paths, other roads, some leading to caverns even larger than the one they were going through. Like many cave systems, there was no uniform shape or size to the caverns. Unlike many caves, the caverns of this planet were large and dry and strangely warm.
The geothermal warmth from a stable core kept them at a steady 25.5C (78F), making it feel like spring year round. Also, unheard of in most systems, the axis of D2 was exactly parallel to that of the star it orbited, making the days a uniform half daylight/half dark, fifteen hours of each in the thirty hour day. The, only slightly, elliptical orbit afforded the surface very mild changes of season. Not that it mattered to the underground inhabitants beyond the extra long growing season. Fortunately the strange radiation didn't affect the ability to grow the fruits and vegetables they needed to survive.
The underground city of Dionysus 2 was a truly amazing place. Especially when you considered it had been built, literally, from nothing and without the backing of a major company or interest group with funds to make the place habitable. Everyone who came to D2 brought something to the city and everyone worked to make it a home. Hard core criminals weren't anymore welcome than the hunters or mercs that looked for them. D2 was a place of escape, a safe haven for the people who could no longer live in a society that cast them out. It was a place for families as well as individuals who just wanted to be left alone. D2 was, above all other things, a community. More than that, it was a family and everyone who lived there contributed to the well being of the whole.
Turning sharply, Doc maneuvered the jeep through a narrow opening into another cavern, this one not quite as wide as the main one, not quite as densely populated. He drove a bit before turning again and stopping abruptly in front of a long, low, wooden structure. "Home sweet home," Doc said, breaking the silence as he shut the electric engine off. He climbed out of the jeep and headed toward the door. He paused a moment, waiting for Riddick and Jack. "Well, c'mon. Let's see what we've got."
Carefully extracting himself from Jack's side, Riddick jumped out of the jeep, his heavy booted feet kicking up a small cloud of dust. He gently picked Jack up and carried her, like a child, into the house after Doc. From what he'd seen on the trip through the city, things had changed very little in the eight years since he'd been there. There were a few more houses, a few more kids playing, but everything else seemed exactly as he remembered it. Except for the attractive woman who met them at the door.
The woman looked to be in her early forties. She was about five four and curvaceous, with short hair, Riddick figured it was probably red since Doc liked redheads, and a sweet smile that made her seem younger than the maturity in her eyes would suggest. There was concern on her face as she looked at Jack. "What have we here?"
Doc moved past her, urging Riddick to follow. "Rick, this is Amy, my partner. Amy, this is Rick and our little patient here is Jack." With little time for pleasantries, he bypassed the living room, moving through a set of swinging doors into the 'clinic' area. "Follow me, Son. Amy, I'm going to need some help." He moved quickly through the softly lit rooms and pushed through a wide, metal door, holding it open so that Riddick could carry Jack through. "Right in here."
Nodding to Amy, Riddick followed Doc through the door, blinking in the sudden light as he flipped the switch, though the dark contacts helped a bit. Beyond the door was a bright, sterile room that smelled of antiseptic. The floor and walls were covered with white tiles, the counters were metal and there was a padded operating table in the center of the room with a huge light suspended over it. The operating room and the equipment in it were another new addition to Doc's home. Riddick hated the smell, the cold feeling of the room. Though he knew he should be glad for the updates for Jack's sake, his stomach tied into knots as he laid Jack down onto the cold table. He'd never liked hospitals or doctors much, except for Doc, but he especially didn't like that he was there because of Jack. He'd always thought it was bad when he was the patient, this was much worse.
Jack shivered as her skin touched the cool surface of the operating table. "Are we there yet?" she asked, opening her eyes and blinking up at Riddick. Her nose wrinkled as she smelled the unmistakable odor of antiseptic.
Frowning, he nodded down at her, holding onto her hand as Amy appeared at his side with a warm blanket to drape over her legs. "Yeah. We're here." He managed a small smile. "Doc's going to fix you right up."
Turning on his best bedside manner, Doc smiled down at Jack, taking one small hand in his. "Hey there. I'm Doc, an old friend of Rick here, and this is my partner Amy. It's nice to meet you Jack."
Amy moved efficiently around him, pulling out the equipment and supplies they would need. She set up an IV at the head of the bed and handed Doc the supplies he'd need. Stopping for a moment, she brushed her fingers over Jack's forehead, combing back the loose hair that had worked out of her now tangled braid. The look on her face was concerned but serene, almost maternal. "You just relax, we're going to take good care of you." Pulling out a small drawer at the head of the bed, she punched in a series of codes and waited while the med-scan came online.
Doc sprayed Jack's hand with anesthetic mist and swabbed it with antiseptic. "Ok, sweetheart, you're dehydrated and you've got a nasty old infection, so I'm going to be on the safe side here and get you set up with an IV." He spoke to her the whole time, telling her exactly what they were doing. "Now, while I do that, Amy is going to use the med-scan and try to see what we can see before we do anything else. You just hold on to Rick's hand and this won't take but a minute."
Jack knew she was in some kind of hospital and that the people talking to her were doctors, but beyond that she was a little fuzzy. The bright light of the room hurt her eyes, so she just let them drift closed. "Who's Rick?"
Riddick might have laughed if the situation were different. "That's me. I was incapacitated with a bit in my mouth for a while when Doc first met me, so when he started calling me Rick I couldn't correct him. And he's old and set in his ways, so he just decided that's what he'd call me whether I liked it or not."
Smiling at the younger man, Doc finished setting up the IV and started the saline drip, attaching a bag of broad-spectrum antibiotics to the IV unit. "There you go, that didn't even hurt, did it?"
Wearily shaking her head, Jack could feel the cool liquid as it entered her veins. It was an unpleasant feeling, but it didn't hurt. She tightened her loose grip on Riddick's hand, hospitals had never been one of her favorite places, and she avoided them when at all possible. "When can I go home?" Even in her confused state, all she wanted right now was to be back on the Persephone, heading for some nice, quiet planet, with Riddick holding her as she slept. When had she started thinking of the old ship as 'home'? But it wasn't the ship, it was Riddick. Wherever she was, as long as she was with him, would be home.
Didn't she remember she couldn't go home? Probably not in the state she was in. Riddick wasn't exactly sure how to answer that. "I don't know," he said truthfully.
Amy looked up from the med-scan readouts, frowning. She slid a sidelong glance at Riddick before looking over the table at Doc. "You might want to look at this."
"What is it?" Riddick didn't like not knowing what was going on and he had the distinct feeling that there was something important that they weren't telling him.
Doc looked over the readouts, the frown on his face matching Amy's. "It looks like there's a little more to it than a nasty flesh wound and an infection." He nodded at Amy and she started moving about, gathering more instruments and supplies and setting up the sterile field. "Son, it looks like the shot grazed her kidney. The kidney itself looks like it's not been in the best of shape for a while, and this was just the last straw. That's where the infection is coming from." He rubbed Jack's arm. "Darlin', we need to get in there and take out the source of the infection. That means we're going to have to do surgery."
Frowning, Riddick unconsciously squeezed Jack's hand more tightly. "You mean you're going to have to remove the kidney? What will that do to her?" *I should have just taken her back to Orion Station,* he chastised himself. *DAMNIT! If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't be here in the first place.*
Doc could see the anger and guilt that passed across Riddick's face before he schooled his features into the familiar emotionless mask. "Rick, I don't think, from the looks of things, that this kidney has been working the way it should for a very long time. The gunshot wound was just the catalyst that set things into motion. It would have had to be removed sooner or later anyway."
Riddick remembered what Jack had told him that first night he'd gone to her apartment. About her father and how badly he had beaten her that last time before she ran away. The kidney had probably been damaged then. Unfortunately, that knowledge didn't make him feel any better. He looked down at her, she looked so small and fragile, nothing at all like the brave young woman who had followed him down the corridor, broken into his ship, faced him down on his own flight deck, faced down an armed mercenary just to free him. "You still didn't tell me what it would do to her."
"She's young and in seemingly good health otherwise, her other kidney is functioning just as it should be," he lay a hand on Riddick's shoulder and it spoke volumes as to their friendship that the larger man didn't pull away. "She should be just fine." A nod from Amy told him everything was set, whenever he was ready. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, though. You just go on out into the house and make yourself to home. Get some rest, get something to eat, whatever you need to do, and I'll be out just as soon as I'm done."
Jack held tightly to Riddick's hand and opened her eyes, squinting in the glare of the bright lights. She understood that Doc wanted to do surgery, and she knew she could trust him, but she was scared. "Please don't leave."
The small voice, the look of fear in her eyes, clawed at Riddick's heart. Leaning down, he kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry, Jack. Doc will take good care of you."
Amy laid a small hand on Riddick's arm, giving him a sympathetic smile. "If it would be easier, you can stay until she's asleep."
Doc smiled down at Jack, brushing his hand over her cheek. "Ok, sweetheart, this isn't going to hurt a bit, I promise." Inserting a hypodermic into the IV in her hand, he slowly depressed the plunger. "Just count back from a hundred and the next thing you know, you'll be waking up." Jack felt a warmth spreading up her arm. Before she even had time to think about counting she was asleep.
Riddick held Jack's hand until he felt her grip loosen. The feeling was disturbing, as if her life was slipping away. He watched her for a moment, making certain she was still breathing, before he lay her hand down to her side and walked out of the operating room, leaving Doc and Amy to their work.
Chapter 25 - A Bit Of Bad News
Doc drove the jeep through a large opening in the side of a mountain, taking the terrain as easily as he could to keep from jostling his newest patient. The cave was more like a tunnel, smooth stone walls forming an arch over the road as it descended at a steady decline for a while before leveling out several hundred meters down. The jeep's headlamps gave the only illumination in the narrow passage but as they drove through another, wider, arching opening, the dark tunnel gave way to a lighted 'street' and a large open space that was amazing to behold.
The cave system under the surface of the planet was more than just a winding maze of dark, dank tunnels, it was truly an underground city. Complete with a "safe sunlight" lighting system, not unlike the ones used on space stations, though obviously of a much older vintage. The inhabitants had made the underground a habitat as viable as any on an alien world could hope for. The cavern they drove through, one of at least a hundred that Riddick knew of, was probably fifty feet high and at least two hundred feet wide. All along the narrow road were houses and openings in the rock walls that lead down other paths, other roads, some leading to caverns even larger than the one they were going through. Like many cave systems, there was no uniform shape or size to the caverns. Unlike many caves, the caverns of this planet were large and dry and strangely warm.
The geothermal warmth from a stable core kept them at a steady 25.5C (78F), making it feel like spring year round. Also, unheard of in most systems, the axis of D2 was exactly parallel to that of the star it orbited, making the days a uniform half daylight/half dark, fifteen hours of each in the thirty hour day. The, only slightly, elliptical orbit afforded the surface very mild changes of season. Not that it mattered to the underground inhabitants beyond the extra long growing season. Fortunately the strange radiation didn't affect the ability to grow the fruits and vegetables they needed to survive.
The underground city of Dionysus 2 was a truly amazing place. Especially when you considered it had been built, literally, from nothing and without the backing of a major company or interest group with funds to make the place habitable. Everyone who came to D2 brought something to the city and everyone worked to make it a home. Hard core criminals weren't anymore welcome than the hunters or mercs that looked for them. D2 was a place of escape, a safe haven for the people who could no longer live in a society that cast them out. It was a place for families as well as individuals who just wanted to be left alone. D2 was, above all other things, a community. More than that, it was a family and everyone who lived there contributed to the well being of the whole.
Turning sharply, Doc maneuvered the jeep through a narrow opening into another cavern, this one not quite as wide as the main one, not quite as densely populated. He drove a bit before turning again and stopping abruptly in front of a long, low, wooden structure. "Home sweet home," Doc said, breaking the silence as he shut the electric engine off. He climbed out of the jeep and headed toward the door. He paused a moment, waiting for Riddick and Jack. "Well, c'mon. Let's see what we've got."
Carefully extracting himself from Jack's side, Riddick jumped out of the jeep, his heavy booted feet kicking up a small cloud of dust. He gently picked Jack up and carried her, like a child, into the house after Doc. From what he'd seen on the trip through the city, things had changed very little in the eight years since he'd been there. There were a few more houses, a few more kids playing, but everything else seemed exactly as he remembered it. Except for the attractive woman who met them at the door.
The woman looked to be in her early forties. She was about five four and curvaceous, with short hair, Riddick figured it was probably red since Doc liked redheads, and a sweet smile that made her seem younger than the maturity in her eyes would suggest. There was concern on her face as she looked at Jack. "What have we here?"
Doc moved past her, urging Riddick to follow. "Rick, this is Amy, my partner. Amy, this is Rick and our little patient here is Jack." With little time for pleasantries, he bypassed the living room, moving through a set of swinging doors into the 'clinic' area. "Follow me, Son. Amy, I'm going to need some help." He moved quickly through the softly lit rooms and pushed through a wide, metal door, holding it open so that Riddick could carry Jack through. "Right in here."
Nodding to Amy, Riddick followed Doc through the door, blinking in the sudden light as he flipped the switch, though the dark contacts helped a bit. Beyond the door was a bright, sterile room that smelled of antiseptic. The floor and walls were covered with white tiles, the counters were metal and there was a padded operating table in the center of the room with a huge light suspended over it. The operating room and the equipment in it were another new addition to Doc's home. Riddick hated the smell, the cold feeling of the room. Though he knew he should be glad for the updates for Jack's sake, his stomach tied into knots as he laid Jack down onto the cold table. He'd never liked hospitals or doctors much, except for Doc, but he especially didn't like that he was there because of Jack. He'd always thought it was bad when he was the patient, this was much worse.
Jack shivered as her skin touched the cool surface of the operating table. "Are we there yet?" she asked, opening her eyes and blinking up at Riddick. Her nose wrinkled as she smelled the unmistakable odor of antiseptic.
Frowning, he nodded down at her, holding onto her hand as Amy appeared at his side with a warm blanket to drape over her legs. "Yeah. We're here." He managed a small smile. "Doc's going to fix you right up."
Turning on his best bedside manner, Doc smiled down at Jack, taking one small hand in his. "Hey there. I'm Doc, an old friend of Rick here, and this is my partner Amy. It's nice to meet you Jack."
Amy moved efficiently around him, pulling out the equipment and supplies they would need. She set up an IV at the head of the bed and handed Doc the supplies he'd need. Stopping for a moment, she brushed her fingers over Jack's forehead, combing back the loose hair that had worked out of her now tangled braid. The look on her face was concerned but serene, almost maternal. "You just relax, we're going to take good care of you." Pulling out a small drawer at the head of the bed, she punched in a series of codes and waited while the med-scan came online.
Doc sprayed Jack's hand with anesthetic mist and swabbed it with antiseptic. "Ok, sweetheart, you're dehydrated and you've got a nasty old infection, so I'm going to be on the safe side here and get you set up with an IV." He spoke to her the whole time, telling her exactly what they were doing. "Now, while I do that, Amy is going to use the med-scan and try to see what we can see before we do anything else. You just hold on to Rick's hand and this won't take but a minute."
Jack knew she was in some kind of hospital and that the people talking to her were doctors, but beyond that she was a little fuzzy. The bright light of the room hurt her eyes, so she just let them drift closed. "Who's Rick?"
Riddick might have laughed if the situation were different. "That's me. I was incapacitated with a bit in my mouth for a while when Doc first met me, so when he started calling me Rick I couldn't correct him. And he's old and set in his ways, so he just decided that's what he'd call me whether I liked it or not."
Smiling at the younger man, Doc finished setting up the IV and started the saline drip, attaching a bag of broad-spectrum antibiotics to the IV unit. "There you go, that didn't even hurt, did it?"
Wearily shaking her head, Jack could feel the cool liquid as it entered her veins. It was an unpleasant feeling, but it didn't hurt. She tightened her loose grip on Riddick's hand, hospitals had never been one of her favorite places, and she avoided them when at all possible. "When can I go home?" Even in her confused state, all she wanted right now was to be back on the Persephone, heading for some nice, quiet planet, with Riddick holding her as she slept. When had she started thinking of the old ship as 'home'? But it wasn't the ship, it was Riddick. Wherever she was, as long as she was with him, would be home.
Didn't she remember she couldn't go home? Probably not in the state she was in. Riddick wasn't exactly sure how to answer that. "I don't know," he said truthfully.
Amy looked up from the med-scan readouts, frowning. She slid a sidelong glance at Riddick before looking over the table at Doc. "You might want to look at this."
"What is it?" Riddick didn't like not knowing what was going on and he had the distinct feeling that there was something important that they weren't telling him.
Doc looked over the readouts, the frown on his face matching Amy's. "It looks like there's a little more to it than a nasty flesh wound and an infection." He nodded at Amy and she started moving about, gathering more instruments and supplies and setting up the sterile field. "Son, it looks like the shot grazed her kidney. The kidney itself looks like it's not been in the best of shape for a while, and this was just the last straw. That's where the infection is coming from." He rubbed Jack's arm. "Darlin', we need to get in there and take out the source of the infection. That means we're going to have to do surgery."
Frowning, Riddick unconsciously squeezed Jack's hand more tightly. "You mean you're going to have to remove the kidney? What will that do to her?" *I should have just taken her back to Orion Station,* he chastised himself. *DAMNIT! If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't be here in the first place.*
Doc could see the anger and guilt that passed across Riddick's face before he schooled his features into the familiar emotionless mask. "Rick, I don't think, from the looks of things, that this kidney has been working the way it should for a very long time. The gunshot wound was just the catalyst that set things into motion. It would have had to be removed sooner or later anyway."
Riddick remembered what Jack had told him that first night he'd gone to her apartment. About her father and how badly he had beaten her that last time before she ran away. The kidney had probably been damaged then. Unfortunately, that knowledge didn't make him feel any better. He looked down at her, she looked so small and fragile, nothing at all like the brave young woman who had followed him down the corridor, broken into his ship, faced him down on his own flight deck, faced down an armed mercenary just to free him. "You still didn't tell me what it would do to her."
"She's young and in seemingly good health otherwise, her other kidney is functioning just as it should be," he lay a hand on Riddick's shoulder and it spoke volumes as to their friendship that the larger man didn't pull away. "She should be just fine." A nod from Amy told him everything was set, whenever he was ready. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, though. You just go on out into the house and make yourself to home. Get some rest, get something to eat, whatever you need to do, and I'll be out just as soon as I'm done."
Jack held tightly to Riddick's hand and opened her eyes, squinting in the glare of the bright lights. She understood that Doc wanted to do surgery, and she knew she could trust him, but she was scared. "Please don't leave."
The small voice, the look of fear in her eyes, clawed at Riddick's heart. Leaning down, he kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry, Jack. Doc will take good care of you."
Amy laid a small hand on Riddick's arm, giving him a sympathetic smile. "If it would be easier, you can stay until she's asleep."
Doc smiled down at Jack, brushing his hand over her cheek. "Ok, sweetheart, this isn't going to hurt a bit, I promise." Inserting a hypodermic into the IV in her hand, he slowly depressed the plunger. "Just count back from a hundred and the next thing you know, you'll be waking up." Jack felt a warmth spreading up her arm. Before she even had time to think about counting she was asleep.
Riddick held Jack's hand until he felt her grip loosen. The feeling was disturbing, as if her life was slipping away. He watched her for a moment, making certain she was still breathing, before he lay her hand down to her side and walked out of the operating room, leaving Doc and Amy to their work.