Well here ya go, Chapter 5. I know that Jack and Riddick's characters are screwed up, but hey, Jack has been married and had a kid! (I was going to mention that the guy was sorta abusive to Jack, but I didn't, so now you know…) And Riddick isn't chased by the mercs anymore. They love each other deeply, but they can't admit it to each other. At least when they are in their right minds, lol. I don't think I made it clear in this chap or the others, so here is a sort of "timeline" as to what has been going on for the last 14 years.

1) They get off the evil planet (2) They spend two years in New Mecca with Imam (3) Riddick makes plans to leave because a merc is on his tail, Jack decides to go with him, and neither him nor Imam say no. (4) Riddick and Jack run around the galaxy for 3 years, being chased by one merc after another. (5) They come to the planet they are on now; Riddick decides to leave Jack behind to deal with some issues by himself. (6) During the months Riddick was gone, Jack got her job at the morgue, and her apartment she has now, and meets her future husband (7) Riddick comes back sometime later, and wants to take her with him because he settled the matter that needed settling; Jack refuses because she is finally getting the chance at a normal life, and plus she thinks she is in love with this new man, so Riddick goes away (8) Within the same year, Jack marries this man, but only because he knocked her up and he thought it would be the right thing for them to marry. (9) After Jack has Caitlyn, her marriage begins to fall apart because she doesn't really love him, and he starts hitting her. Jack leaves him when Caitlyn is 3 yrs old. (10) Jack gets to keep Caitlyn for 3 more years, then Riddick returns, and he stays. (11) When Jack's ex comes to visit Caitlyn one day, he discovers Riddick there at the apartment, and Jack isn't around at the time. Riddick threatens him, and tells him he if he knew what was good for him, he wouldn't come by anymore. (12) Within the next few weeks, Jack's ex sues for custody of Caitlyn, and convinces the court that her new boyfriend is too dangerous for Caitlyn to be around, so he gets custody of her, and also puts up a restraining order against her. He then moves to a city over 200 miles away, and Jack doesn't see Caitlyn again. (13) Over the two years up until the beginning of this story, Jack gets depressed because she thinks she will never get to see her daughter again, and she goes over the top and tries to kill herself by taking an entire bottle of anti-depressants, but Riddick finds her just after she swallowed them, and called the hospital to come get her and pump her stomach. Afterwards she gets the job at the strip joint for something to do. But it isn't enough so she turns to drinking. Riddick meanwhile, is always disappearing during the daytime, and never tells Jack where he goes and what he does. At night, they barely ever see each other except when he picks her drunk ass up from the bar, and then in the morning he sees her off to her job at the morgue.

I hope that clarifies many things for everyone. I know it's a lot to read, but I think its necessary.

P.S. THIS STORY IS FINISHED. If you have a problem with that, you can email me.

Normal People

"No, no I understand Cassidy……No, I'll be fine……Seriously Cassidy……No, don't bother calling here again……Yes I'm fucking serious!…Well why don't you tell the others they can go fuck themselves!" I slammed the phone back on the receiver.

"Jack, what in hell was that about?" Stacy shouted from the bathroom.

"Cassidy from the coroners office just called to tell me that I was fired. And the only reason she gave me that that the others were "uncomfortable" with me. God I swear if I ever see her again…" Stacy come out from the bathroom and marched into the kitchen were I was.

"Jack, its just a job. You'll find another one. Besides, it couldn't have been a good one if you hated everyone you worked with." She grabbed a banana from the counter and began to search for her stuff around my apartment. "Hey, at least that means you will have more time to spend with your "man". Are you ever going to tell me his name?" Her voice was barely audible as she searched under the couch and armchairs for anything she might have missed.

"No, he has to keep a low profile, if you know what I mean." I sipped my soda.

"I always knew you were the bad-boy type." Stacy giggled at me as she hiked her backpack over her shoulder. "He's coming over right? Are you sure you don't want to me stay? The three of us could have some fun, if you know what I mean." She laughed at me even more, and twirled her fingers in my hair before I finally gave in and laughed a little myself.

"No, I don't think so Stacy. Surprisingly he's not into that. But maybe I can talk him into it someday." I smirked at her, and she walked out the door. "See you later Slut!" I shouted down the hallway.

"Yeah, see ya Bitch!" Saying things like that to each other was all in fun of course, but it made the other tenants in the hallway pop out of his or her doorway to see if there was a fight or something. This time everybody was already at work. I walked back inside and slowly closed the door. There was three hours to kill until Riddick was supposed to show up. The apartment didn't really need cleaning, and I had already showered. What was there to do? I paced around for about ten minutes, ate lunch, watched TV, and by the time I bothered to check the clock again, I still had an hour and a half left. I decided to take a short nap. I took my hair out of the usual ponytail and settled down on my bed with a blanket. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

I awoke later, but I didn't open my eyes. I lay there for quite a long time until I heard movement. I peeked an eye open to see Riddick in front of me, and the room was dark.

"Hey." I whispered. A large grin began to play upon my face. He pulled his goggles off and we just looked at each other.

"You know, sleeping the middle of the day will keep you up at night." He smirked at his own smartass remark.

"Well maybe I thought you would give me a good reason to stay up." He stood back when I sat myself up and whipped the blanket off of me.

"Maybe I will." His semi-cryptic message perplexed me. It seemed he had something planned, but at the same time, it was like he was just bullshitin' me. He walked off out of my room, and I got up and ran to the bathroom. I checked my watch. It was 6:00pm; I had slept a lot longer then I intended. My hair was a mess. I brushed it out about a hundred times until it finally cooperated with me. I put my hair back into a ponytail and shuffled to the living room. The lights were dimmed of course, and the TV was on the local news, boring like news usually is, but Riddick seemed slightly interested in it as he reclined on my couch. Most likely seeing if anything was about him. As always, there was nothing. The news ended and some soap opera came on. I jumped onto the couch next to him and snatched the remote away. I turned to my favorite channel, MTV2. I knew I was probably getting too old to still like this stuff, but now that I didn't have anyone to take care of but myself, I found that I was trying to enjoy the life that fate had given me by doing and liking whatever the hell I wanted to.

"You actually like this crap?" Riddick said after a music video ended. I turned to him and smiled.

"Of course I do! I thought you would know after being with me for so long." I thought that after years of being together, that he would know almost everything there was to know about me.

"Actually I don't know shit about you. Just because were together for five years, and then these last two, doesn't mean I know anything about you." He had a good point. We never actually "talked" to each other, and we hardly ever spent any time together that wasn't so awkward that one of use ended up leaving.

I began to think back to the times that we spent together when the mercs were constantly following us. It was hurried, it was uncomfortable, it sucked complete ass. I still cannot understand why I went with him when I knew it would be like that. We never talked to each other, it was always, get to the new place, hide out for a few days, hijack a ship, then move on. Sometimes it was fun. But when we came to this planet, and we almost got caught, everything changed. He left me for a long time, and when he came back, I thought that our relationship would grow more, yet we still couldn't speak to each other.

The last few weeks have really changed the relationship between us. And last night reminded me of the love I had for him. I was so wrapped up in my own twisted life that I had almost forgotten that he was always there for me. I got up from the couch and went outside on my balcony. The sun was just beginning to set. Riddick soon came out to me.

"Well here is one thing that you might not know. I love sunsets," I said in a quizzical kind of way. I wiggled my toes against the cold concrete and sighed. Riddick didn't do anything other men would, like come and hold me. No, he just went back inside, and stayed inside until the sun finally was completely below the horizon. It was almost 8:00pm. Now that it was dark, it was Riddick's time to do whatever he wanted with complete freedom. The glass door clicked when I shut and locked it. He was standing in the kitchen with a beer in hand. I went and got one too. He looked at me when I snapped the bottle cap off.

"What? I can have one beer if I want to." He was still eyeing me. "I will only have one Riddick, I promise." I drank some of it and went back into the living room. He followed me. We sat in silence for an hour as I watched the television intently. Then he abruptly turned it off in the beginning of the next show.

"Hey I wanted to watch that!" I threw my empty bottle at him but he caught it and set it down on the table. I jumped off the couch and walked to the kitchen and was about to get something else I could through at him, when I noticed a green envelope on the counter. I picked it up. It was from Tyler Rice, my ex-husband.

"Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you that I'd gotten your mail for you before I came up," he said standing up and facing me. I slowly opened the envelope with a kitchen knife. I pulled out a piece of computer paper, he had typed me a letter. I scanned over it and saw "picture of Caitlyn" in the middle, and sure enough, also inside the envelope was a picture of my girl. I clapped my hand over my mouth at the site of her. With her blonde hair in a French braid and her emerald eyes shining along with her smile. A tear fell down on her, and I found myself crying. Riddick came over to me and took the picture.

"She looks a lot more like you now then she did two years ago. Been wondering where the blonde came from…"

"When I was little my hair was blonde, then when I hit puberty it turned brown, and later it got black. It's happened to all the women in my family." I picked the letter up again and began to read it. The content caused me to shake slightly. I had to sit down.

"Something wrong?" Riddick questioned as I sat down on the couch.

"He says that he is dropping the restraining order against me. He says I can take her on the weekends if I want to…" I burst into more tears. I dropped the letter and fell back into the cushions. I pressed my face against one of the pillows, soon getting it wet. I felt Riddick sit down next to me. When I faced him I was embarrassed by my actions. He didn't understand what she meant to me, therefore, he couldn't even being to understand how happy I was. His next movement shocked me. He cupped my face in his hand and wiped a tear away with his thumb. I smiled and pulled his hand down. I decided it was time for a subject change.

"I got fired from my job at the morgue today." I stood up and walked off to the bathroom to wash my face.

"How come?" Riddick watched me from the doorway.

"Cassidy said it was because the others were uncomfortable with me there, and she left it at that."

"You are better then that job anyway. You deserve something more then that." I supposed he was right. A job like that really was beneath me.

"I know that, but most people won't hire anyone who never got to finish high school. They all think I'm an idiot because I don't have anything to put on my resume." I finished up in the bathroom and walked past Riddick towards the living room. "So are we doing anything in particular tonight? Because, I want to go see Caitlyn as soon as possible tomorrow." I grabbed the two empty beer bottles from the coffee table and carried them to the trash in the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter when I turned around to go to my room.

"I didn't have anything in mind. I assumed you would." Odd for him to assume things, but then again, now that the mercs had stopped chasing him, he had lightened up a lot.

"I'm going to bed then. You can come too if you want, but I'm not doing anything with you tonight." I smiled at him and walked off into my room. My face got red as soon as I knew he couldn't see it. I went over to my closet and pulled my shirt and pants off, oblivious to the fact that he was watching me. I jumped slightly when I turned around and he was there.

"You know, if you aren't going to do anything, then you shouldn't wear things like that." I had forgotten that I was still wearing my semi-see-through bra and panties. I could see the lust beginning to spark in his eyes; I didn't want that, not just yet.

"Then leave the room for a minute so I can change." I stated flatly. He did so, and I changed into a pair of boxer shorts and a gray t-shirt, and let him back in. I crawled under my bed sheets and comforter, and as soon I was done getting situated I flipped over on my side and he was already there facing me with his head in his hand. I laid there flat with my hands under my pillow while he looked slightly downward at me. "I like this," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"I like this. Us just being here together. It feels like….like we are a real couple. Like we are normal people." He just looked at me. During these quiet moments I realized that his eyes weren't cold and unmerciful. They could be…beautiful and accepting. Even though he would never say it, I knew he loved me. He has always loved me, and I was always too stupid to realize it.

"Are you going to bring Caitlyn back with you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, if I can. Will you be here when I wake up?"

"Probably not, it wouldn't be a good idea if I was here when Caitlyn came.' There was more silence, and soon my eyes started to droop.

"Riddick?

"Hmm?"

"Why don't the mercs chase you anymore?"

"Those seven years I was away, I killed everyone who had a personal vendetta against me, and ghosted every merc who would be stupid enough to accept a job of capturing me. I got everyone who would have a reason to put a price on my head." I sighed.

"That's good Riddick. That means you'll never have to leave me again…" My eyes closed completely, but before I would let sleep take me, I managed to mumble one last thought. "Riddick…"

"Yeah."

"I love you."