Chapter 28 - Separation Anxiety
Awareness came slowly back to Jack as she fought her way through the fog that would lead her back to consciousness. Pain was first, then the brightness trying to penetrate her closed eyelids, then she felt something covering her nose and mouth. Panic set in, and her hand moved to push the mask away. The simple effort made her feel weak, powerless as her hand dropped back to her side. She sighed, trying to open her too heavy eyelids, despite the bright glare.
The room was stark white, and she squinted her eyes against the glare. Her first thought was, *am I dead? Is this heaven?* But if it was heaven she wouldn't feel so much like shit. "Maybe this is hell," she said aloud, but the sound was muffled by the oxygen mask.
Amy heard the change in the monitors a few moments before she heard Jack speak. Smiling, glad Jack was starting to come around, she crossed the room and sat next to the girl's bed. "Well, well. Looks like someone finally decided to wake up." Amy was beginning to wonder if the painkillers were too much for her ravaged system. "Just breathe deep, the oxygen will help clear the cobwebs out of your brain." She settled the mask more comfortably on Jack's face.
Jack turned toward the voice and a woman's face swam in front of her eyes before she finally focused on it. Taking deep breaths as she was instructed, things did seem to gain clarity. She vaguely remembered the pretty red-haired woman from before. *What did she say her name was?* It was hard to make voice work as it should, like she'd not used it in ages. "Where's Riddick?"
Amy frowned. *Leave it to men to leave me here to explain to this poor child that she's just been left on a strange planet with people she doesn't even know. As if she's not got enough to deal with.* "Hon, I'm afraid that Mr. Riddick is gone."
*Gone?* What did she mean gone? Gone to the store, gone to the bathroom, how gone was he? "Where?" Jack felt a tightening in her chest that she was pretty sure had nothing to do with her injuries.
"Doc just took him back to the ship a little bit ago." Amy pursed her full lips. "He didn't fill me in on all the particulars, but I got the impression that Mr. Riddick was going to try to be off planet before sunrise." She could see the distress in Jack's eyes. "Now don't you worry, sweetheart. Doc and I will take good care of you." Feeling her natural maternal instincts welling up inside her, she took Jack's hand in one of hers and brushed her free hand over the girl's face. "Doc will be back soon, hon, I'm sure he'll be able to tell you a lot more about it than I can. Just don't stress yourself about it now. You just focus on getting better."
*Focus on getting better?* Right now she just felt like someone had pulled her heart out. How did you get better from that? *How could he leave me like this?* She didn't want to cry but she was never very good at being sick, she always ended up weepy. Knowing that she couldn't have traveled anyway didn't make it feel any better. Knowing that she would have slowed him down didn't make it any better. Knowing that she may never see him again definitely didn't make it any better. She felt warm tears well up in her eyes and even as she tried to blink them back one escaped and flowed in a hot line down her cheek. *He didn't even bother to say goodbye.*
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As the ship lifted away from the planet, Riddick's thoughts drifted back to Jack. A part of his mind told him that he'd be better off, she'd be better off, if he'd just leave her there on D2 and disappear again. She'd certainly be safer there than hanging around with him and he didn't need the hassle of having to watch anyone's back but his own. But he knew that he wouldn't do that, he couldn't just leave her again, she didn't deserve that. He knew if there was any way possible, he'd be back for her. She was his responsibility now, even more so than when she was a kid. A responsibility that he took very seriously.
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The day stretched on and Jack became more aware of her surroundings, more conscious of everything that was going on and every speck of pain in her body. When Doc had returned from taking Riddick to the Persephone, he had assured her that Riddick had every intention of returning for her after her recovery, but what was that old adage? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. He also explained part of the problem, that the people of D2 became a bit nervous with someone has high profile as Riddick hiding out on their planet. Jack knew it was logical, maybe even noble she supposed, for him to leave to avoid bringing any undue attention to the planet and its inhabitants, but that didn't seem to assuage the pain in her heart. Doc made sure to tell her that Riddick made him promise to take care of her and keep her safe, but she didn't want safe, she wanted Riddick.
In an attempt to divert the conversation away from the topic of Riddick, Doc patted Jack on the leg. "So. You already know that I'm Doc and this is Amy. Do you usually go by Jack, or is there something you'd rather we call you?"
"You can either call me AJ or Jackie." *No one calls me Jack, but Riddick,* she added silently. It was strange now that she thought about it. It hadn't even occurred to her to correct him and he hadn't bothered using the feminine version of the name. Just like she'd never bothered asking him if wanted to be called something other than Riddick. She didn't mind. *I wonder if he minds,* she thought idly. "I can even stand Jacqueline, that's what my father calls me. Just don't call me Audrey," she let a ghost of a smile to play over her lips. There was nothing wrong with the name, she just never did really see herself as an Audrey.
"All right, Jackie it is then." Doc smiled down at her. "I know you're in a lot of pain right now, but I promise it's going to get much worse before it gets better." He was talking as much about her pain at Riddick leaving as he was about the surgery. "Seriously, though, I'm going to start weaning you off the IV drip meds, so it's going to get more uncomfortable. If you get to hurting too bad tell me or Amy and we'll try to get you feeling better." The look in his eyes was kind, and a little tired. "I don't know how much you remember from before surgery, but we had to remove one of your kidneys. It looked like it had been damaged before the gunshot wound, were you aware of that? Do you know how that happened?"
Jack just nodded, shuddering at the memory. She remembered back to when Imam had taken her to a doctor for a physical as soon as they had reached New Sydney. It had been part of the process of him filing to become her legal guardian. The doctor had explained that there had been extensive trauma damage to her right kidney and pointed out scar tissue and evidence of cracked ribs and other trauma related injuries that were consistent with abuse. That was when she had been forced to explain about being beaten by her father. The doctor hadn't even bothered checking out the story, something in his eyes told Jack that he believed her story, and he had pushed through Imam's petition no questions asked.
Doc recognized the look on Jack's face and didn't want to press her to say any more than she wanted to. "Ok. I'm sorry we aren't advanced enough to be able to do organ cloning, but I think you're going to be just fine. I'm going to be monitoring you closely through your recovery but nobody knows your body better than you so I want you to pay real close attention to it. I need for you to tell me if anything seems off. It'll be at least a month before you're completely recovered and obviously for the first little bit everything is going to be off, but after a while you should go back to normal. If it doesn't feel right after a while, let me know."
"I will," she agreed. *Geez, a month? No wonder Riddick skipped out while he could.* Who would want to hang around for a month waiting for her to recover. It'd be like watching paint dry. At least she had Doc and Amy, though. Riddick had left her with someone he trusted. Again. Even though she didn't know these people from Adam, she felt safe. She knew she could trust them. "Thank you both for taking care of me."
"That's what friends are for." Doc hoped she would allow them to be her friends. He could see her begin to drift again, she had only so much energy after all and the pain medications were strong. She needed her rest. "Now, why don't you get a little more rest. We'll wake you up soon enough to do even more fun things like breathing exercises and trips to the bathroom." He made his voice sound like a carnival barker.
Jack found herself smiling, despite the fatigue and pain that was dragging her back down. "I just can't wait." Before she knew it, she was asleep once more.
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The first thing Riddick did as soon as he was a starjump away from the Areiadne Sector was to erase all records of ever having been there from his computer systems. Not that he anticipated having anyone going through his computer files, but it never hurt to take precautions, just in case. He wouldn't want some asshole finding out about D2. Next thing he had to do was to set up a series of starjumps that would take him on an erratic course through the known systems. He had already set up the ship's ident with a new set of stolen codes and a new name. In a few days he'd be able to head toward New Sydney.
Through all the years and the many ident code changes, Riddick's ship had only had two names. Sisyphus and Persephone; he had always enjoyed Ancient Greek mythology. It didn't usually matter that the ship's name didn't change because most places looked more at the codes than names, plus he normally tried to keep a pretty low profile. The only reason he bothered changing the ident codes was to make it harder for someone to see where he'd been last, just in case someone got nosy. But this time everyone knew Richard B. Riddick was last seen on a ship named The Persephone. He didn't like having to give up the name, but keeping it now would just be stupid and asking for trouble. And life goes on (if you're lucky) so he'd get over it. A few more changes in the computers, and she was now the Bellerophon.
Over the next week, Riddick took the Bellerophon through three more starjumps before turning 'toward' New Sydney. It wouldn't be for lack of trying if somebody managed to actually track him. They would just about have to have shoved a tracker up his ass without him noticing to be able to follow his course. Since he knew he was personally clean, and the ship was clean, he didn't worry too much about that, which was a good thing since he had his mind on other things.
The week was harder than Riddick had anticipated. No matter how much he tried not to, his thoughts kept returning to Jack. He wished he could have kept contact with Doc to check on Jack's progress, but that just wasn't possible. He'd just have to trust Doc would take the best possible care of her.
The bad part of being in space alone was that no matter how much time you spent reading or exercising or doing routine maintenance on the ship, you couldn't do it all day every day. There would always be time in the day for random thoughts to pop into your mind. Random thoughts like, *just what the hell am I going to do about Jack?* and other hard questions Riddick didn't know the answer to. He was glad it was time to head toward New Sydney, at least that would give him something else to focus on.
Awareness came slowly back to Jack as she fought her way through the fog that would lead her back to consciousness. Pain was first, then the brightness trying to penetrate her closed eyelids, then she felt something covering her nose and mouth. Panic set in, and her hand moved to push the mask away. The simple effort made her feel weak, powerless as her hand dropped back to her side. She sighed, trying to open her too heavy eyelids, despite the bright glare.
The room was stark white, and she squinted her eyes against the glare. Her first thought was, *am I dead? Is this heaven?* But if it was heaven she wouldn't feel so much like shit. "Maybe this is hell," she said aloud, but the sound was muffled by the oxygen mask.
Amy heard the change in the monitors a few moments before she heard Jack speak. Smiling, glad Jack was starting to come around, she crossed the room and sat next to the girl's bed. "Well, well. Looks like someone finally decided to wake up." Amy was beginning to wonder if the painkillers were too much for her ravaged system. "Just breathe deep, the oxygen will help clear the cobwebs out of your brain." She settled the mask more comfortably on Jack's face.
Jack turned toward the voice and a woman's face swam in front of her eyes before she finally focused on it. Taking deep breaths as she was instructed, things did seem to gain clarity. She vaguely remembered the pretty red-haired woman from before. *What did she say her name was?* It was hard to make voice work as it should, like she'd not used it in ages. "Where's Riddick?"
Amy frowned. *Leave it to men to leave me here to explain to this poor child that she's just been left on a strange planet with people she doesn't even know. As if she's not got enough to deal with.* "Hon, I'm afraid that Mr. Riddick is gone."
*Gone?* What did she mean gone? Gone to the store, gone to the bathroom, how gone was he? "Where?" Jack felt a tightening in her chest that she was pretty sure had nothing to do with her injuries.
"Doc just took him back to the ship a little bit ago." Amy pursed her full lips. "He didn't fill me in on all the particulars, but I got the impression that Mr. Riddick was going to try to be off planet before sunrise." She could see the distress in Jack's eyes. "Now don't you worry, sweetheart. Doc and I will take good care of you." Feeling her natural maternal instincts welling up inside her, she took Jack's hand in one of hers and brushed her free hand over the girl's face. "Doc will be back soon, hon, I'm sure he'll be able to tell you a lot more about it than I can. Just don't stress yourself about it now. You just focus on getting better."
*Focus on getting better?* Right now she just felt like someone had pulled her heart out. How did you get better from that? *How could he leave me like this?* She didn't want to cry but she was never very good at being sick, she always ended up weepy. Knowing that she couldn't have traveled anyway didn't make it feel any better. Knowing that she would have slowed him down didn't make it any better. Knowing that she may never see him again definitely didn't make it any better. She felt warm tears well up in her eyes and even as she tried to blink them back one escaped and flowed in a hot line down her cheek. *He didn't even bother to say goodbye.*
*****************************************************
As the ship lifted away from the planet, Riddick's thoughts drifted back to Jack. A part of his mind told him that he'd be better off, she'd be better off, if he'd just leave her there on D2 and disappear again. She'd certainly be safer there than hanging around with him and he didn't need the hassle of having to watch anyone's back but his own. But he knew that he wouldn't do that, he couldn't just leave her again, she didn't deserve that. He knew if there was any way possible, he'd be back for her. She was his responsibility now, even more so than when she was a kid. A responsibility that he took very seriously.
******************************************************
The day stretched on and Jack became more aware of her surroundings, more conscious of everything that was going on and every speck of pain in her body. When Doc had returned from taking Riddick to the Persephone, he had assured her that Riddick had every intention of returning for her after her recovery, but what was that old adage? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. He also explained part of the problem, that the people of D2 became a bit nervous with someone has high profile as Riddick hiding out on their planet. Jack knew it was logical, maybe even noble she supposed, for him to leave to avoid bringing any undue attention to the planet and its inhabitants, but that didn't seem to assuage the pain in her heart. Doc made sure to tell her that Riddick made him promise to take care of her and keep her safe, but she didn't want safe, she wanted Riddick.
In an attempt to divert the conversation away from the topic of Riddick, Doc patted Jack on the leg. "So. You already know that I'm Doc and this is Amy. Do you usually go by Jack, or is there something you'd rather we call you?"
"You can either call me AJ or Jackie." *No one calls me Jack, but Riddick,* she added silently. It was strange now that she thought about it. It hadn't even occurred to her to correct him and he hadn't bothered using the feminine version of the name. Just like she'd never bothered asking him if wanted to be called something other than Riddick. She didn't mind. *I wonder if he minds,* she thought idly. "I can even stand Jacqueline, that's what my father calls me. Just don't call me Audrey," she let a ghost of a smile to play over her lips. There was nothing wrong with the name, she just never did really see herself as an Audrey.
"All right, Jackie it is then." Doc smiled down at her. "I know you're in a lot of pain right now, but I promise it's going to get much worse before it gets better." He was talking as much about her pain at Riddick leaving as he was about the surgery. "Seriously, though, I'm going to start weaning you off the IV drip meds, so it's going to get more uncomfortable. If you get to hurting too bad tell me or Amy and we'll try to get you feeling better." The look in his eyes was kind, and a little tired. "I don't know how much you remember from before surgery, but we had to remove one of your kidneys. It looked like it had been damaged before the gunshot wound, were you aware of that? Do you know how that happened?"
Jack just nodded, shuddering at the memory. She remembered back to when Imam had taken her to a doctor for a physical as soon as they had reached New Sydney. It had been part of the process of him filing to become her legal guardian. The doctor had explained that there had been extensive trauma damage to her right kidney and pointed out scar tissue and evidence of cracked ribs and other trauma related injuries that were consistent with abuse. That was when she had been forced to explain about being beaten by her father. The doctor hadn't even bothered checking out the story, something in his eyes told Jack that he believed her story, and he had pushed through Imam's petition no questions asked.
Doc recognized the look on Jack's face and didn't want to press her to say any more than she wanted to. "Ok. I'm sorry we aren't advanced enough to be able to do organ cloning, but I think you're going to be just fine. I'm going to be monitoring you closely through your recovery but nobody knows your body better than you so I want you to pay real close attention to it. I need for you to tell me if anything seems off. It'll be at least a month before you're completely recovered and obviously for the first little bit everything is going to be off, but after a while you should go back to normal. If it doesn't feel right after a while, let me know."
"I will," she agreed. *Geez, a month? No wonder Riddick skipped out while he could.* Who would want to hang around for a month waiting for her to recover. It'd be like watching paint dry. At least she had Doc and Amy, though. Riddick had left her with someone he trusted. Again. Even though she didn't know these people from Adam, she felt safe. She knew she could trust them. "Thank you both for taking care of me."
"That's what friends are for." Doc hoped she would allow them to be her friends. He could see her begin to drift again, she had only so much energy after all and the pain medications were strong. She needed her rest. "Now, why don't you get a little more rest. We'll wake you up soon enough to do even more fun things like breathing exercises and trips to the bathroom." He made his voice sound like a carnival barker.
Jack found herself smiling, despite the fatigue and pain that was dragging her back down. "I just can't wait." Before she knew it, she was asleep once more.
*****************************************************************
The first thing Riddick did as soon as he was a starjump away from the Areiadne Sector was to erase all records of ever having been there from his computer systems. Not that he anticipated having anyone going through his computer files, but it never hurt to take precautions, just in case. He wouldn't want some asshole finding out about D2. Next thing he had to do was to set up a series of starjumps that would take him on an erratic course through the known systems. He had already set up the ship's ident with a new set of stolen codes and a new name. In a few days he'd be able to head toward New Sydney.
Through all the years and the many ident code changes, Riddick's ship had only had two names. Sisyphus and Persephone; he had always enjoyed Ancient Greek mythology. It didn't usually matter that the ship's name didn't change because most places looked more at the codes than names, plus he normally tried to keep a pretty low profile. The only reason he bothered changing the ident codes was to make it harder for someone to see where he'd been last, just in case someone got nosy. But this time everyone knew Richard B. Riddick was last seen on a ship named The Persephone. He didn't like having to give up the name, but keeping it now would just be stupid and asking for trouble. And life goes on (if you're lucky) so he'd get over it. A few more changes in the computers, and she was now the Bellerophon.
Over the next week, Riddick took the Bellerophon through three more starjumps before turning 'toward' New Sydney. It wouldn't be for lack of trying if somebody managed to actually track him. They would just about have to have shoved a tracker up his ass without him noticing to be able to follow his course. Since he knew he was personally clean, and the ship was clean, he didn't worry too much about that, which was a good thing since he had his mind on other things.
The week was harder than Riddick had anticipated. No matter how much he tried not to, his thoughts kept returning to Jack. He wished he could have kept contact with Doc to check on Jack's progress, but that just wasn't possible. He'd just have to trust Doc would take the best possible care of her.
The bad part of being in space alone was that no matter how much time you spent reading or exercising or doing routine maintenance on the ship, you couldn't do it all day every day. There would always be time in the day for random thoughts to pop into your mind. Random thoughts like, *just what the hell am I going to do about Jack?* and other hard questions Riddick didn't know the answer to. He was glad it was time to head toward New Sydney, at least that would give him something else to focus on.