Part 6. Woohoo! The penultimate part. Nooooo! I don't want it to end! I'm gonna cry! There's an epilogue coming after this but then it's all over.

Anywho, hope this is okay. Wanted to get it out and put you all out of your misery. Too many cliff-hangers, I know! Thank you all for continuing to review I really appreciate it and I'm glad you like it so much!

Okay Happy Reading.

Gem

xxx

The Job (part 6).

"What the fuck is that?" he demanded again and Jack shut her eyes, squeezing them together so tightly that brilliant dots danced in the blackness of her eyelids. When she didn't answer he shook her slightly, knocking her into the wall. He was starting to get angry.

"Piss off!" she snarled, face still crunched up against the coarse wall. "It's got nothing to do with you! You shouldn't even have seen it!"

Silence met her retort and then the sound of Riddick's shoes scraping against the floor as he knelt down, her hands still captured within his much larger palm, burning hot about her freezing cold wrists. Desperately she pleaded that he would take his investigation no further. That he would simply be content to look at the thing that emblazoned the small of her back. But Riddick was not one to do things by halves and she felt the heat from his free palm, wavering slightly as he debated whether to reach out and touch it. And he did. She winced when his rough fingers stroked over the skin, tracing the intricate, beautifully interwoven pattern of words that she had paid to have forever inscribed upon her flesh.

She'd had the tattoo done years ago. Long before the mercs came and stole her away from the life that she loved. It had been right after Riddick had left and the direct result of a long conversation with Imam about those that had died upon the treacherous world that had thrown the ragtag band of humans…and animals, together. Imam had not been best pleased but had relinquished his anger when she had told him that it was her prayer for them…for Fry, for Shazza and Zeke, for Paris, for Ali, Rashad and Hasan…even for Johns.

Jack was torn out of her memory by Riddick's fingers tracing over the stunning black lettering, spelling out the words, reading them almost like a blind man would read brail. He let out a breath, the warm air fanning out across her back and sending a shiver up her spine involuntarily.

"You wanna tell me about this?" he queried a little more gently, punctuating his final word by giving the offending tattoo a prod. His eyes scored into the side of her face that was visible and she frowned, turning away from his soul-invading stare.

"It's nothing." She snapped, grinding her teeth as she sensed Riddick smiling to himself.

"It's somethin', Jack." He bit back, though his words held a ring of the laughter that was no doubt desperate to spring forth from his throat. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and slap the stupid grin from his face. "It says somethin'." He continued, hoping to coax her into an explanation of any degree but Jack didn't want to play that game, didn't want to go there. He cocked his head to the other side, bringing her furious profile back into view and continued. "Says 'Hunter Gratzner' if I'm not mistaken and I very rarely am."

Jack scowled and turned her face away from him again, angry at herself more than anything for having the desperate desire to commemorate those who she had loved, though she had barely known them a few hours.

"Seems to me…" Riddick purred as he stood, lifting her arms above her head as he went and turning her so that she faced him, back forced up into the place that her front had just been. Both of his larger hands pinned hers above her head and he smiled, a broad, triumphant smile, leaning in so that she was prevent from movement by his weight. Jack struggled at first but halted when he began speaking again, every syllable rumbling through her, from his chest to hers. She didn't even need to hear him, didn't need to see his lips forming the words as he spoke, for every single one ricocheted deep inside her, almost as if she had spoken and not him.

"It seems to me that you ain't the cocky, cold-hearted little bitch that you make yourself out to be." He neared her, moving his face so that they were cheek-to-cheek, his mouth grazing against her ear. "Now why do you sell yourself short like that, huh?"

Jack kicked out with her spurred heels again, a cry of frustration clawing it's way from her throat, but it was more to stop his words than inflict any pain and again it ended in failure. Riddick stifled her desperate onslaught by spreading her legs wide with his own and covering her booted feet with his, standing on her toes to keep them still.

She clenched her teeth, finally looking him deep in the eyes, nostrils flaring like the wild mares that used to run free on Earth. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, her voice quiet as she pleaded for answers, any answers at all. "Why are you here at all?"

And Riddick smirked in elation. The tattoo upon her back was the last clue, the final piece to the puzzle that told him that Jack could be saved, that she wanted to be saved somewhere deep down in her subconscious. She could have paid a few measly credits to get it removed if she had actually turned into the cold, calculating little shit that she was pretending to be. But she hadn't. The mark of remembrance was still there, still elegant and ferocious all at the same time as it curled and swooped in wide, skilfully crafted, arching script, staking it's claim to her body like he wanted to.

"There's only one reason why I'm here, Jack." He replied softly, his lips quirking upwards in a gentle smile that made Jack more furious and more nervous. Her bright eyes darted around seeking any means of escape, frantic almost in their quest, clawing at the walls, the ceiling, the floor, anything and everything. Riddick jolted into her slightly and her wandering eyes snapped back to him and she stilled, even the breath in her lungs stopped for the few seconds that they were linked together by some force unknown. "What?" he chuckled suddenly, breaking the bond briefly. "You actually thought that some stupid little merc fucker caught me?" his clicked his tongue in mock-disappointment. "Shit, Jack you're denser than I thought!"

Amazingly his use of her earlier comment against her did not provoke the rage that he thought it would, Jack simply stared at him, her expression clear and unguarded for once, as if something profound was finally dawning on her. Like the secrets of the many universes were unfolding before her very eyes as she stood there crushed between the hard, cold stone and the firm warmth of Riddick's body.

"You came for me?" she queried finally, her voice so quiet that Riddick wasn't certain that he had actually heard her speak.

"I always collect my debts, Jack, and I've been waiting five years, five fucking long years to collect this one."

The breath caught in Jack's throat again as her mouth opened and close several times in succession from the shock. Never before had she been so lost for words. And suddenly a slight shimmer of tears formed in the eyes of the small but hardened criminal, though they didn't fall, she would never allow them to fall. However, instead of smiling the great, wide smile that she had as a child, the smile that she had always smiled just for him and the one that Riddick had expected from her when she finally realised why he was in Butcher's Bay for the second time, her brows knit together in panic and she began struggling again with more fury than he had ever known in the slip of a girl.

"Let me go, let me go!" she cried and her voice quivered with the vehement desire to be free.

Confused, Riddick did as she demanded, relinquishing his tight hold and stepping back from her, allowing her to slip away from him. What was the problem? She shook as if he had almost slit her throat. Her eyes were wide, spooked, as she placed her back to the wall as far away from Riddick as she could possibly get. He had almost strangled her and not an iota of fear had passed through her veins, but at his mentioning that he had in fact returned for her like he had promised her he would, she looked like a frightened child, the child she had been on that planet.

She was speaking, mumbling really, to herself at first but when she realised that Riddick was concentrating on her again she looked up at him, irises shining with her unshed tears, with all the emotions that she had kept back from him during the entire night.

"I-I don't think I can do this…" she stammered, high and breathy as if she had been starved of oxygen and then suddenly allowed to breathe it again.

"Do what, Jack?" Riddick questioned, scrubbing a hand across his head in weariness. She had worn him down, simply talking with her had made him feel bone-weary, exhausted like he hadn't in many years.

"This." She responded, gesturing between herself and the man opposite her with a quick flick of her wrist. "The whole 'feeling' kick." She shook her head almost sadly before glancing up at him with fluid eyes. Cracks in her mighty façade forming in front of Riddick as he watched the myriad of emotions flashing behind those eyes like rapid-fire.

Finally she sighed, breaking the silence that had fallen upon them and held her hands out palms up in a pleading gesticulation. She looked as tired as he felt and the fear in her eyes told him that this was likely to be the last chance that he ever had to help her, to bring 'His Jack' back out from the shadows of the hardships that she had endured. They were walking a knife edge and everything rode upon their next exchange of words, the air about them suddenly becoming thick and balmy with the tension that pulsated about them.

"Ask me to fuck you, Riddick." She stated blatantly, her face blank and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. "That I can do and do it well." She paused with a sneer of self-loathing. She hated what she was, Riddick realised with quiet astonishment. She hated what she had become. "I just…I don't know if I can feel anything. I can't cope with feeling things…I don't know how." She paused again, seeing that the confusion at her sudden skittishness had ebbed from his face though it hadn't entirely dissipated and she smiled another poignancy filled smile, deigning to let Riddick in on her feelings finally, laying her soul bare before his scrutiny. She was tired of the charade her life had become.

"It took me five years to forget what emotion is, what feelings are. I spent five years killing any feelings that I had off just so that I wouldn't have to feel the pain anymore." She began, moving slowly as she spoke to right the tables and chairs that they had knocked asunder during their scuffle, placing them almost religiously back into their rightful positions. She turned to him, pure, glinting eyes searching his face as she continued to speak. "Before, when I told you that I didn't believe in love, I wasn't lying, Riddick. I'm numb to it all now and I don't know if I can ever feel how I did before…" she shook her head, tearing her gaze from his and turning to move towards the door to her cell, intending to leave him there.

Riddick stared after her, hopelessly as she moved slowly towards the exit, subdued and diminished, her brilliant, incensed, stunning demeanour gone entirely, leaving a hollow shell of a girl. She was likely to get killed if she returned into the labyrinthine cell-blocks as she was. He cleared his throat and shifted slightly and causing a pause in her steps, though she kept her back turned to him.

"Before the Hunter Gratzner, Jack, I was the same. Numb, immune to emotion. It's a requirement if you're gonna survive in a place like this." He motioned around the room but Jack didn't see, her gaze firmly intent on studying the metal door before her. "Wouldn't have given two shits and a bitch 'bout ghostin' your skinny ass." She snorted at that, her head bobbing with a brief flash of amusement and Riddick swallowed. He'd never been good with words, with expressing himself to others, but he had to…for Jack. And so he swallowed a second time and continued. "Carolyn helped me to see that it isn't so bad feelin' for someone. She helped me to realise that carin' and shit ain't a weakness, more of a strength. It's what drove her, made her a tough-assed fucker when it came down to the heavy-shit." He paused and noticed, with a small smile of delighted amusement, that Jack had tensed at his uncharacteristically fond mention of the spunky, blond woman who had died for them. A smirk ghosted across his lips at her twinge of jealousy despite the events that had occurred between them since they had come together again. She didn't realise that the only reason that he spoke of Carolyn Fry lovingly was because she had given him back his ability to care, paving the 'would-be' way for him and Jack…if he ever reached her.

"She set the ball rollin', Jack. But you!" he paused as she finally turned back to him, sending her wary glance over her shoulder and swallowing the hard lump that had risen chokingly in her gullet. "You, Jack, made me actually feel again. Made me believe again." His smile was broad as he placed his hands palm down on his chest, though the gesture still held a certain male cockiness about it. "How 'bout you give me a crack at returnin' the favour?"

Silence panned out around them as Jack soaked up his words, swilling them around her head as if she couldn't comprehend them. Doubt still tingled at the edge of her awareness. So many people had betrayed her, too many people…

"I said I'd come back for you, Jack." Riddick said suddenly forceful, a scowl darkening his brow. "I ain't leavin' this shit-hole without you!"

Her eyes shone with true understanding, as if a flame had sparked, igniting the fire that had burned deep within her old self, though the fire needed immense fanning before it burned as bright as it had in her youth, when they had been together.

"I can't promise you that it can be the way it was." She warned, turning to face him fully. "I don't even know if I can feel what I felt for you again." She sighed and shrugged her shoulders but Riddick simply smirked, a wickedness streaking through his silvery eyes. He stepped closer to her. To his Jack. To his changed Jack.

"One step at a time. If them's your terms for coming with me, then I'll accept them. I ain't gonna force any emotionally ties on you until you are ready-"

"If I'm ready!" Jack interrupted tartly and her mask, her hard outer shell slowly began to rebuild itself.

Riddick laughed, tossing his head back letting the relief flow freely in his deep tones of humour. "Alright, smartass-if you're ready." He amended, tossing her a devious grin. He stopped before her, resting his hands on his hips and cocking his head to one side, looking her up and down properly.

Finally Jack growled, crossing her arms across her breast and frowning in irritation at his lingering stare. "Well! I thought we were getting' out of this fuckin' dump! That is unless you're getting' all choked up about the memories of when you where here last."

Riddick released a snarling laugh before moving towards the door, to their exit, to their freedom. He'd done Butcher's Bay before and that had been alone. With the shiv sharp mind of Jack to speed them along, Riddick had no doubt that they would be out of there within the next twenty four hours.

"Whenever you're ready, Jackie-girl. Whenever you're ready."

-00000-

Don't worry that's not the end, got an epilogue coming up so you can see where they end up and whether that's together. And yay! I didn't end on a cliff-hanger! Go me! Hope you all enjoyed this one. I can't believe it's nearly the end! s'gonna be sad to finish this…