Hey hey! another chp, hope ur excited! haha...umm...a little more is in this one and it's only gonna get better. The other 2 were a lot of background and things...but things are gonna start picking up soon. Hope you enjoy. R and R to let me know.


TRUST

Jack walked into the garage right on time and got to work right away. She wasn't really in the mood to chat and 'shoot-the-shit', so to say. Either her co-workers noticed or they were too busy working, because no one bothered her much.

"Hey, Jack, can you slide me that wrench to your right?" Nick hollered to her from under a car near her.

"Huh? Oh...yea..." she absentmindedly slid him a wrench, not paying any attention.

"Yo, your other right girl"

"Huh?"

"This is the wrench that was on your left. I need the one on your right," he explained in an amused tone, sliding out from under the car he was working on.

"Oh...right, I knew that" Jack grabbed it and slid out from hers and sat up. "Here...sorry."

"Don't sweat it... you ok?"

"Yea, I'm good. Didn't sleep much last night," she explained offhandedly.

"Oho, what were you going last night?" Nick asked with a chuckle, raising his eyebrows and smileing.

"Not like that," Jack slapped his arm and smiled. "Just couldn't sleep...ya know?"

"Yea, I know what you mean. But hey, you're off in a hour so you can go home and sleep."

"This is true...but first I have to finish," she waved her hand at the car she still needed to finish up before laying back down and rolling back under it.

The truth was, she wasn't very tired anymore. She was just caught up in thinking about other things...anything, really, other than the car and the task at hand. She felt fidgety but couldn't seem to focus that energy on quickly finishing up the work in front of her.

Finally, a little over an hour later, she was done and heading for the door. She felt like she was in need of a long run and then a hot shower. Unfortunately, it was already pretty dark, so Riddick wouldn't like her going for a run. She'd just have to settle for taking a go at the punching bag or something. Riddick had managed to rent out a small room in the basement of their current apartment, and had a weight bench set up along with floor mats and a punching bag. Simple, but perfect for what they used it for.


"I'm home," Jack called, tossing her keys onto the table when she walked in.

"Hey" Riddick was sitting on the couch watching the news on the TV.

"Um...I think I'm gonna go down to the basement, ok?"

"Sure...want me to come?"

"Only if you want to," Jack said as she headed to change into different pants. She knew he was coming, though,because he wouldn't have offered if he didn't want to. He usually went with her anyway, so it wasn't a big surprise.

She came back out a few minutes with gray sweat pants on instead of her jeans, and followed him down the flights of stairs and down a dark, dank hall to the small room they rented. They turned the lights on dim before stretching out.

"So, how was work?"

"Same shit, different day"

He nodded and they quickly finished up their stretches.

"Ladies first," Riddick smirked and motioned to the bag.

Jack rolled her eyes before laying into the bag. The pent up energy from the day came out and it felt good. Always did.

"Hmm...bad day?" Riddick asked with a chuckle as he grabbed the bag to hold it for her.

"Nah...just boring..."

He nodded and waited for Jack to finish before taking his turn. Jack stood back and watched with awe as he went at the canvas bag. His sheer power was amazing and fascinating, but it had never scared her. She knew he'd never hurt her, and her trust in him was absolute.

Her trust was the reason she'd spar with him. With the extremely obvious size difference, the only reason she wasn't scared of working with him was that she knew he'd hold back. He'd give her a chance, and used anything she did wrong to help teach her. She was getting better, with his help, and liked to learn.

"You ready?"

Jack nodded and they faced off. They circled each other a few times before Riddick decided to get things started. He lunged at her and she quickly dodged it and landed a kick to his chest. Riddick grabbed her ankle and pulled her down with him. She fell near him and quickly rolled over and scrambled to her feet.

They resumed their stances and Riddick faked another lunge for her, making her jump back. As soon as her feet hit the floor, Riddick swept his leg out and she fell on her back. He was quickly on top of her, pinning her arms to her sides. She attempted to bring her knee up between his legs but he quickly pinned her legs down as well. He'd learned the hard way that she'd play dirty if she got the chance and, while he was proud of that, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of a kick in the balls.

"Say Uncle," He growled.

"Never," she hissed out, trying to free herself from under him.

"Not happenin' babe," He smirked and tightened his grip on her, making it almost impossible for her to move much. "Say it or I ain't gonna let go."

"Ugh... fine...Uncle," she spat, and his grip went slack and he sat back.

Jack took advantage of his guard being put down a little, and heaved her weight to the side, throwing him off balance, and rolled over on top of him.

"Hey, you said Uncle," Riddick complained, amusement evident in his voice.

"Yea well..." Jack shrugged and hopped up to her feet, offering him her hand.

Riddick took it and used it to pull her to the ground before getting up on his own with a smirk.

Jack mumbled something incoherent and got back up to her feet. They circled each other and Riddick grabbed her arm when she swung at him and pulled it to pin her against the wall. She grunted quietly when her back made contact with the wall and he lifted her off the ground a little.

"You seem a little off today," he said lowly in her ear.

"Yea, whatever," she grumbled, trying to loosen his grasp, but to no avail. She didn't even know why she bothered to try.

"Hmm..." he looked her over and let her drop back to her feet before grabbing her by the neck.

She didn't do anything and he tightened his grip. She rolled her eyes and brought her arm up and her elbow down on his forearm, just like he'd taught her.

"Good...lay down"

"What?"

"Do it," he said simply and she complied, knowing it was some kind of lesson.

She sat herself in the middle of the mat and laid back.

"K, close your eyes"

She obeyed with a sigh and heard the soft pat of his feet on the mat, slowly circling her.

"Alright, say your enemy's got you down on the ground and maybe you hit your head. They think you're out of it, but your not...listen to me move..."

He stopped talking and Jack mentally followed him moving around her.

"You're enemy's gonna wanna make sure of it, and as sure as he's a coward he'll kick you. But you know it, right? So you'll be ready..."

He moved around some more and Jack kept listening to him. She heard a soft rush of wind and blocked his oncoming foot with a quick hand.

"Good job... and remember that. Your man will always kick you when they think you're down, you got that?"

Jack nodded and got back to her feet.

"Alright, wanna head up?" It wasn't exactly a question. He was putting his boots back on and obviously expected her to do the same. He was right, she was a little off today, but she still had energy.

"Nah, you go ahead. I'm gonna stick round down here for a while"

"You sure?"

"Yep"

"Ok, remember to lock up when you're done"

Jack nodded absently and turned back to the punching back, which was something that didn't fight back, leaving her to spend all of her energy. She heard Riddick leave but stayed until she was breathing heavy and feeling spent. She sat for a few minutes before putting her shoes on, locking up, and trudging upstairs.

She walked into their apartment and made a beeline for the shower. Riddick must've just taken a shower because the water wasn't as hot as it sometimes was, but it felt good all the same. She kept it short and just rinsed off to get rid of the sweat.

She found Riddick in the living room, starting a sandwich, and went to the kitchen to make herself one before joining.

"Feel better?"

"Yea"

He nodded and they silently watched the rest of the news. Then they were reduced to aimlessly flicking through channels, trying to find something worth watching. Nothing really was, so they left it on some stupid made-for-TV-movie and watched it with half hearted interest.

Jack shifted and stretched herself out on the couch, using Riddick's lap for a pillow. His hand fell to her hair and he ran his hands through it lightly.

"Jack..."

"Hmm?" she rolled onto her back so she was looking straight up at him and found him returning her gaze.

"You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Course I do"

"About anything?"

She shifted a little. "Uh...yea"

"Well...?"

"Well...this is something I have to try and figure out myself, ya know?" She looked up at him, hoping he wouldn't be upset.

"Yea...but if you wanna talk about it..."

"I know"

"Ok" He nodded and went back to stroking her hair and watching the TV.

Jack sighed and turned her attention to the TV as well. She figured Riddick could understand. She knew he had plenty of his own demons that he'd had to deal with, so he could probably understand the feeling. It wasn't that she didn'twant to talk to him about stuff...but she thought it might be better if she tried to figure things out on her own. If she needed him she knew he'd be there, and that was comforting and made it easier to face.

Riddick flicked the TV off a little after midnight and Jack groaned before sitting up. She'd probably be a little sore in the morning. Riddick chuckled while she stretched. "Gonna suck going to work tomorrow"

"Probably won't have to. I have the day off, but Randy said he might have to call me, soI guessit depends."

"Ah. Well I'm gonna go pick up a job tomorrow but that shouldn't take long. We'll find something to do"

"Ok"

Jack got up and went to the bedroom while Riddick went and made sure the door was securely locked before checking the windows. He always did that. Call him paranoid, and he wouldn't care. Jack didn't bother commenting about it because she knew he'd had enough people sneaking up on him that he was always going to be careful, and she could understand.

He came into the room after she'd already crawled into bed, and stripped off his shirt, so he was in only his sweat pants. He kept his shirt in hand and found Jack's clothes and threw them all in the basket they had of dirty clothes. That was another thing Jack had learned early on about Riddick. He was a subconscious neat freak. If there was a little mess somewhere, he'd take a minute and pick it up. Jack had asked him about it once and he'd simply shrugged and told her there was no point in having shit lying around if it didn't have to be. Made sense, but she still gave him a hard time about it once in a while, just for the heck of it.

Riddick climbed into bed and draped an arm around Jack and pulled her closer. Jack closed he eyes, hoping she wouldn't have a nightmare, and soon fell asleep.


Well, there it was.A new chp should be coming soon because i pretty much know where i'm gonna go with this.

R and R

OH! i took some lines from the movie 'Enough.' The lines about your man kicking you when you're down are kind of from it. Not the exact words or w/e, but thegeneral idea...so yea...don't sue me!