On five separate surfaces Jack had placed lightly scented candles, in her favorite fragrance. Besides feeling very relaxed because of them, her room smelled like her room back on Hellion Prime and made her body and mind reject any stress from the birth, the escape from New Mecca and their mad dash across the universe.

The very subtle fragrance helped her, when Riddick walked down the hall he remembered what Salim had said. Jack was a creature of routine and ritual. It gave her a sense of normalcy that others didn't understand.

He smiled watching her from the doorway. His eyes watched her, still radiantly beautiful in the wash of natural light, thanking Imam's god again for looking at him kindly. Never had much use for you, but I'm not gonna say shit when this happens.

Jack pulled out her most comfortable pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top she could wear over her bra and stretched. Her muscles were sore and she looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. Flab was definitely everywhere. She adjusted her breasts and he suppressed a laugh watching her move to look at her profile and back to the front rolling her eyes and giggling herself.

"Two weeks Jack and it's back to training." She told herself. Sasha had told her that her residual flow would stop by then and she'd be able to give her something to prevent further pregnancies if she desired to only have once child for the present.

She would bring that up at the appropriate time but she figured Riddick wouldn't want her pregnant every time they got around to actually enjoying themselves.

"You look fine kid." A voice came from behind her.

"So glad you think so." She told the voice as it came up closer. "Missed you."

"Ain't goin nowhere." He growled slowly putting his arms around her waist and pulling her back against him biting her ear lobe. "Stuck with me, officially for good."

"Heard something about that, but at the time I was screaming my brains out. Refresh my memory." She said as he pulled her to the couch.

"House." He said kissing her neck, "garden," he said nipping her jaw, "beach." He finished kissing her hungry lips. "For the rest of your life."

"Mmm." She moaned against his lips. "Now I remember."

"Bet you do." He said pressing up against her as she straddled him. Her eyes went wide and she smiled.

"Well, hello." She said running her hands up and down his shoulders. "He missed me."

"That he did." He growled as he kissed her neck. "A lot."

"Maybe I can help you with that."

"I know you can help me with that." He quipped back at her purring in her ear.

She laughed as he ran his fingers through her hair and pulled her head back. "Jack, I love you."

"Heard that." She quipped whimpering. Even after giving birth her appetite for him had not diminished. Smelling her new scent, her arousal he took full advantage of that fact by teasing her but ended up teasing himself in the bargain.

He groaned as she leaned against him. "Jack…" I miss you so much…

"You're torturing yourself you know. I'm sorry for being on the bench for two weeks." She told him smiling smugly.

"Can't help it. You're too tempting." He crooned smiling in the dim light, his eyes glistening into hers. "Smell good enough to eat. Sugary…"

After a few moments of touching and nuzzling she leaned up and began petting him. She knew he was tired, his workout, the birth, he'd been up almost twenty four hours.

"So." She said caressing his face, his neck, and rubbing his temples.

"Mmm., so." He said leaning his head back enjoying her petting him.

"Where's my present?" she asked like a kid at Christmas time.

"Oh that." He said smugly. His lips never left her neck once he started kissing her again and spoke, punctuating each word with a kiss, while placing both his hands on her perfect cheeks. "Well, if you must now, I have something very special for you. But, you need to uh, move."

"Don't want to." She pouted. She like having his hands on her. She liked it very much.

"Jack." He warned playfully. Your ass is driving me insane baby and your scent, damn I could eat you alive…

"If I have to." She said smiling. He rose and walked to his wardrobe and opened one of the drawers.

She sat on the couch with her knees up and waited holding one of her pillows. "Whatcha got there Captain Riddick?"

He liked the sound of that. Captain Riddick, it almost sounded normal…

"Present for my wife." Wife. he thought to himself. God, I didn't see any of this coming…

But I wouldn't have it any other way now.

"Really…" Jack told him as he brought out four small black satin boxes.

"First, this is because you were the only one who believed in me." he said handing her the first long box.

And because you love me, the animal, the murderer, the convict, everything.

Her eyes lit up when she saw it. It was a new necklace, an intricate silver chain with a tiny silver key on it. "What's the key for?"

"It unlocked this." He said taking her hand and placing it on his heart.

She began to cry as he put it on her neck. "Now, Jack, baby if you're gonna cry every time I give you a gift, we're gonna stop cause you with a plugged up nose is NOT pretty." He quipped.

"Ass." She smirked back.

"Yes, you have a lovely one. But moving on." He said handing her the second small box. "This is what I promised. But Jack, it means nothing, everything I need is right here." He said taking his knuckles and running them against her heart.

Tears threatened and he put his finger up and said, "Uh huh. No Jack."

She sniffed and dried her face smoothing her hair. "OK."

She opened the box, and a ring, crusted with beautiful white and amber diamonds sat in her hand. "Salim said women are entitled to something beautiful and personal when they give their lives up for a man."

"He did, did he?" she said as he slipped it on. It fit on her middle finger, the one he intended it to stay on.

"Furyan women wear it there." He said smiling. He leaned over the discarded boxes and hungrily devoured her lips growling when her hand roamed to his abduct muscles. "I love you Jack. You were already mine, didn't need this to make it real."

"I know. It's beautiful. You're such a softy. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone, it'll be our secret."

"Good. Now, this is a two part gift and has nothing to do with having Layne." He said pulling her into his lap. Her smirk when she sat down made him smug and cocky, in every sense of the word.

The next gift was a shiv, shiny and perfect in design. "After this last little run in, I wanted to make sure you had something useful to defend yourself with. In two weeks, when you're strong and Doc says you can, it's back to training, got it?"

"Absolutely." She said feeling it in her hand. "You made this?"

"Yeah." He said looking at her his silver eyes smiling.

"I love it. Thank you." she answered pecking his cheek.

"Now, onto my favorite gift. Took me a while to find this. But that's what I like about New London, lots of old places to find that, one of a kind present."

"It's a book." She said confused. "It's an old book."

"Yes." He answered her. "It's my favorite."

"You read?" she asked sarcastically, "do tell."

He smacked her ass and smiled. "Ow." She said pouting. He rubbed where his hand just smacked making her growl in satisfaction, something she knew turned him on.

"Moving on." He quipped. "This book is called The Count of Monte Cristo. It is written in 1851 on old Earth by a French guy. It's about an escaped convict."

She smiled. He started to rub her back, absentmindedly as he spoke leaning against her ample bosom when he talked inhaling the scent of baby, milk and essence de Jack.

All my favorite flavors his beast purred.

The sound was like music to her ears. His low rumble always gave her goose bumps and this was no exception. "He returns to seek revenge on those who put him there. He gets everybody in the end. You see, when he was young, he was in love with a girl named Mercedes. His best friend dicks him over cause he wants the girl and gets him framed for murder. Then he gets thrown into a slam where he never saw daylight. Yeah, that was a surprise too. He breaks out and goes all over the world traveling getting ready to get his revenge. In his travels, he saves a Persian Princess named Haydee. He takes each of the bastards that put him in jail down, one at a time. All the while, his Persian Princess, sticking by him, never lets him down, and completely trusted him all the while secretly in love with him. Once his revenge is complete he sails off into the distance with…."

"Mercedes?" she asked leafing through the book, it's leather cover soft to the touch. "You'd think after all those years he'd pick up where he left off."

"Jack…" he purred into her chest as he nuzzled it.

"Am I your Mercedes?" she asked closing the book and resting her head on his shoulder.

"No, you're my Haydee."

It was after midnight when Riddick woke up. Jack was gone and the bed felt odd without her in it. She'd left two candles lit bathing their bedroom in a dim amber light. He sat up, ran a hand over his face and wondered where she was.

Dressed in sweats and one of his white tanks he got up and looked around their quarters. She wasn't there.

He started to worry when he heard her coming towards them, smelled her too. She had the baby with her, he knew it. He couldn't get enough of her, her smell, the way she sounded when she walked and how she felt. "Sh. I just got him to sleep." She told him smiling. He noticed that Layne had a fist full of her hair and kept it close to his face.

That's my boy, know where the good stuff is.

She stepped up onto the platform and placed him down between them and slipped under the covers. She sighed as she laid back down, resting on her side. He followed suit and looked down at the baby they had made together. The perfect little life. The second good thing he could depend on.

"Hey baby." Riddick said looking at her. She was so beautiful.

"Hey." He said kissing her and pulling Layne's fingers freeing her hair.

"Thanks. He was a hungry boy again." she told him pulling the blankets free so his legs kick if they wanted to. They watched his legs stretch and kick both suppressing a smile.

"Bet he was." He whispered kissing Layne's closed fist. "God I love this kid. Best thing I've done in a while. Besides coming back for you."

"So, in your wildest dreams did you ever picture yourself like this?"

In the deep darkness of the night, lit by the natural light of the candles she saw Riddick blush, an honest to goodness blush that rendered her speechless.

"NO!" she whispered to stunned to utter anything else. "When?"

"Not telling." He said running his fingers along Layne's cheek.

"You're no fun." She pouted.

"I have evidence to the contrary princess." He quipped with an evil grin.

She smiled back and winked. "Love you."

"Love you too Jack."

"We're gonna land tomorrow on Talos Prime. Then it's onto Talos 4 and then we'll dig in and make a stand when Toombs and his crew comes to call." He told her putting his hand on hers as she held onto Layne's. "Jack, nobody matters except you two. I'm serious. Love the old man and Kal and Anne, but they don't matter, just you two. When the shit goes down, keep your head down and take care of the little guy. But shit is NOT gonna happen."

"I'm tired of running aren't you?" she asked looking into his eyes and sighing.

"Been running my whole life. Wanna have normal, anyway I can get it." he said his deep baritone voice lulling her to sleep. "Rest Jack, I'm gonna protect you."

"I know. I've always known." She said with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.