Sorry that it's sort of been a while. Besides school, now i have softball so that keeps me busy. bleh, anywho, this chapter is longer than some of my other chapters so yea...i was gonna make it 2 chapters, but u all seem to like longer chapters so i made it one. Happy? haha, anyway...hope u enjoy.

TheMoosey: Yea, 200lb teen...but i don't mean like 12 or 13. i'm talking like 17 or something... not too out there, i have 16 year old guy friends who are 6'2" and 220...anyway... just in case i made it sound like a young teen, i didn't mean to cuz it isn't. And it's not fat 200lbs...it

Enjoy


IF ONLY...

Jack slowly walked the halls of the ship, letting her feet wander around. She was pretty bored and Riddick was busy at the moment. They were going to stop at a space port in a few hours and Riddick was getting some parts and things ready in the cargo bay so he'd be able to get right to work when they landed.

The past few days hadn't been extremely exciting, but she hadn't expected them to be. The first few days up were always slow because it was mostly making sure everything was where is was supposed to be and making sure everything worked properly. The ship was big, though, so, now that they were done checking up on everything, they'd be able to do more of whatever they wanted. They had a room that was rather like a living room, with a couch and chair and a vid, and quite a few movies to watch.

Jack walked down the hall from the kitchen to this room and sat down in front of the little case that held the movies. She looked through them and decided she definitely had to up the collection. Maybe that's what she'd do with some of the free time she'd have while Riddick worked. She might be a good car mechanic, but cars were much different than a spaceship, so she'd never been too great with the ship. Riddick had taught her some simple things and said he'd show her more sometime, but Jack had the feeling that he wanted to get this stuff done as quickly as possible so she didn't want to slow him down.

Riddick still hadn't told her exactly where he planned on going, maybe he wasn't even sure yet.

"Jack!...yo, Jack, where are you?..."

Jack turned when she heard Riddick's deep voice calling through the ship.

"In here!" Jack called back, getting up and walking to the open doorway.

She all but ran into Riddick, stopping herself just in time as she stepped out of the room.

"Whoa, you ready to go up front? We're landing in a little bit."

"Yep, after you"

Riddick nodded and led the way up to the front of the ship. Jack couldn't help but check him out from behind. He had a great butt, nice and tight, and his gait was strong and confident and, well, damn sexy. 'Ok, stop looking now...'

Jack tore her eyes away and they were soon in the cockpit, strapping into their seats. Riddick made all the preparations for landing and when they were close to the space station, a voice came over the com speakers.

'Eclipse, please state the length and purpose of your stay,' a male voice requested.

"We're stopping to make some repairs. It should only take a few days."

'Alright... dock 46 has just been vacated; please direct yourself there. Enjoy your stay.' The man concluded with disinterest before closing the signal.

After flipping a few switches, Riddick was expertly steering their ship into a perfect landing.

> -> -> ->

"What're you gonna do while I'm working?" Riddick asked as he lowered the ramp in the cargo bay. They'd landed and were stable and Riddick wanted to get right to work.

"Just gonna go look around the shops and whatnot in a little bit"

"Alright"

"I'm just going to go change and then I'm gonna go, ok?"

"Yea, knock yourself out"

Jack went back up the stairs and headed towards their room while Riddick started getting out tools and whatever else he was going to need. Jack doubted it would take him long since he was sure to know pretty much exactly what he was doing. He always did, and Jack wondered if there was anything he really couldn't do. 'Probably not...'

She quickly changed into some low-riding khaki cargo pants and gray beater. She brushed through her thick, straight dark hair and pulled it up into a messy bun before grabbing her wallet and heading down the hall back to the cargo hold.

She didn't see Riddick as first, but, after going down the steps and peering around, she saw his legs sticking out from under some sort of console and could hear the light clinking of something. She momentarily entertained the idea of sneaking up on him before remembering that he'd already know she was there. He always did.

"Hey, I'm gonna get going now, ok?"

"Sure...you ok going alone?" he asked, moving out from what he was working on to look at her seriously.

"Yea, it's fine"

"Ok... see you later then."

"Yea, later. I'll probably only be an hour or two"

Riddick watched Jack walk away and his eyes drifted to watch her ass on their own accord. Once she was almost out of site he turned away and shook his head to clear it of some thoughts that had started stirring up. He had to concentrate on installing the parts. The faster he worked, the sooner he could get done and do something with Jack. They hadn't been able to do much the past few days, since they'd both been occupied with checking everything and making sure everything was ok. If anything was wrong or missing, it'd be best to know before they got to the space station so they could get it fixed then, rather than find out about it later and make an unnecessary stop. With that in mind, he got to work, thinking maybe he'd go find Jack down by the shops later if he got done earlier than planned. He hardly ever went shopping with her but it proved fun sometimes.

Jack walked off towards some shops, wanting to look around and remembering to look for some movies. She looked up and smiled. This station, like most new ones, had a simulated sky to make it look natural. Clouds and sun during the day, and stars at night. Looking back to where she was going, she saw a sign for a movie store, but decided to look around at some of the little booths out in the open first.


It was mid afternoon and a young 'sleeper' sat at a table of an outside café. He'd recently gotten word that he had to start doing some reconnaissance, but he was sure he had time to eat lunch first. He'd been at the same damn station for over a year now and nothing note-worthy had happened. It was his first assignment and he'd been pumped for it at first.

'Lay low and always be on the watch. We'll call you if we think he is close.'

Those had been his orders and he'd been sure that meant his superiors thought he would be coming around soon. He hadn't known at the time that the powers that be had put 'sleepers' at all space stations in the relative area of the base, which meant there were 14 sleepers in the closest 12 stations.

He was not especially important, this sleeper, but he was willing to do his job. This is what he'd signed up for when he joined the army and he'd volunteered for this particular mission. A small mission that one man had started up from nothing had become a whole special operation once the details and idea had gotten to the right people. Inspired by one man on the loose and started by a man who didn't want to give up; that's what it was.

When his food came, Shane gave the older waitress a gracious smile and dug in. As he ate he watched the people that passed this way and that by him. He always watched, as was his job, but he paid close attention today because of the call he'd gotten. It could be a false alarm...or it could be for real. You always have to be prepared.

Shane was half way through his meal when he spotted someone that made him do a double take. Not because it was the person he was looking for, but because this particular person was extremely attractive. A young woman, maybe 19 or 20, walked past and stopped and one of the open booths to look at whatever was being sold. She talked quietly with the man and smiled. Oh man, her smile was radiating and made her only more beautiful.

He ran a hand over his short blonde hair and would have very much liked to go talk to her and see what would happen. He was a good-looking young man, tall and well built, so maybe she'd be interested. The only problem was that he was 'on the job,' so all he could do was look, so look he did. It wouldn't hurt anyone for him to just watch her; it wasn't against the law.

The young woman walked across the street, away from him, and his eyes were glued to her as she went. Her pants were loose but fit snugly around her perfectly sized hips, which swayed in a sexy way that seemed very unintentional. She walked into a shop across the street and he could still see her through the window. She turned and he got a perfect profile view of her body. She was lean, probably somewhere close to 130 pounds, and had a great body. He could imagine how she'd feel, firm but soft in all the right places.

He glanced up to see what shop she was in. It was a movie store. No reason not to stop in...maybe talk to her for a minute or something...

He glanced back to her and she was facing the window now, stray hairs hanging loosely around her soft oval face. Yea, there was no harm in going in there for a minute. He wasn't doing anything wrong and he'd go work on the recon as soon as he left the shop.

The waitress would know to charge his meal to him, so he pushed his chair back to get up. The only problem was that his chair barely moved before hitting something.

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't mean to..." he stopped his apology for hitting the person when he felt a thin piece of cool metal on the back of his neck.

"Don't even think about going into that shop," a dangerous voice growled in his ear. "Don't even look at her that way again, hear me?"

Shane nodded and the metal that had been a knife was gone. He swallowed and turned around to see who it was, but the man was gone. Shane turned abruptly to scan the area, and the only thing suspicious he saw was a large man dressed in dark clothes walking away through the crowd swiftly.

'Holy shit...was that...? No, that couldn't be...why would he care about that girl?...unless he...they...no way!...but they could...oh whoa, I gotta call this in...'

Scattered thoughts raced through Shane's head but he knew he had to get back to his apartment and call headquarters. He hurried home, hoping this was what he thought it was. If it was, his boss would absolutely love him.


Jack spent more time at the stores than she'd meant to because she wanted to get something, but wasn't too worried about it. The lights that gave the station an earthly night and day were just staring to dim, so it wasn't too late but she headed straight home anyway.

The day had been pretty enjoyable and she'd gotten some movies and a few other things. The station was really pretty nice and she decided she'd go looking around again the next day since Riddick would probably just be working on the ship again. Maybe she'd be able to get him to look around with her, but she doubted it.

She walked onto the ship and up the steps with her two bags. She dropped the one with some movie in the living room and put the other one in the bedroom, grabbing something out of it before going to look for Riddick.

She ended up finding him in the kitchen with his back turned to her.

"Hey"

"Hey," he responded curtly. "How'd it go?"

"Fine"

He nodded and turned half towards her, looking at her from the corner of his eyes. "You have any idea someone was watching you today?"

"Huh?"

"Did you know someone was watching you today?" he repeated, slower this time.

"Where you? Did you follow me to keep tabs on more or something?" Jack asked, annoyed at the thought.

"No. I went out and I saw you... also saw some guy watching you like a fucking piece of meat," Riddick snarled, more at the idea of someone looking at her that way that at Jack herself.

"Ok...so?"

"So?" Riddick repeated loudly. This time some of his anger was directed at her. "So he had his eyes all over you! That doesn't bother you?"

"Well it's nothing new..."

"What?"

"What? People look, Riddick, what do you want me to say? I can't help it," Jack stated, angry and confused. What was he getting at?

"So guys just look at you like that and you don't care?" Riddick asked quietly, turning to face her completely now.

"Oh yea, Riddick, I love it when guys have their eyes glued to my ass or something. That just makes my day," Jack answered flippantly.

Riddick either didn't catch the sarcasm or wasn't in the mood for games.

"Oh you do, do you?" He snarled out, stepping towards Jack angrily.

"No," Jack said quickly, stepping back. What the hell was his problem? "But there's nothing I can do about it. If people wanna look then they're gonna look. It's not like I run off with any guy who checks me out."

Riddick remained silent, staring at her long and hard.

"You thought I did, didn't you?" Jack said suddenly. "You thought I'd just run off with whatever guy you're talking about because he thought I looked good...didn't you?" Jack prodded, sounding more accusing as she continued.

Riddick winced at the accusation but didn't deny it. That thought had briefly entered his mind before he brushed it aside, knowing Jack wouldn't do something like that. All he'd wanted to know when she walked in was if she knew there were guys looking at her like that. Apparently that was a stupid question and she knew perfectly well how guys looked at her. Did she know how he looked at her? '...Don't go there, ass, this isn't the time or place to wonder that...'

He looked down at her, anger etched on her face. Anger at him. How had he let this conversation turn into this? It was probably because he hadn't quite gotten over the anger of seeing someone look at Jack like that so openly. He'd probably projected the anger at Jack. 'Shit'

"Look, Jack, it's not..."

"Did you, or didn't you," Jack interrupted him, speaking quietly and calmly but angrily.

He couldn't lie to her. She already knew. The look on his face when she'd first accused him of it had probably told her everything she wanted to know. He hadn't been able to hide the surprise of her saying it quickly enough.

"I did, but Jack"

"You...what...ugh!..."

"No, Jack..."

"Fuck you!" she spat, shoving the thing in her hand into his chest.

He grabbed it and watched her storm off down the hall. Shit, he really had to fix this.

He heard the bedroom door snap shut and sighed, looking down at what she'd shoved into his hand. It was a book; The Count of Monte Cristo. He'd watched the movie quite a while ago with Jack and he'd mentioned that he'd like to read the book. He liked movies and all, but he also liked books and had ever since he was a kid. He had tried to find it in a book store where they'd been living but they didn't have it because it was really old and Jack hadn't been able to find it either. This station must've had a classic bookstore or something and that explained where Jack had gone after the movie store and the booths he'd seen her at. That served to guilt him even more.

'Good job, ass hole...fuck, I am stupid... gonna have fun fixing this one...'

Riddick set the book down on the counter and walked down the hall silently. He stopped and the door and hesitated before just walking in without asking. Jack was sitting on the floor by the closet with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms crossed over her knees with her chin resting on them. She looked up when he stepped in and he could see trails where tears had streaked down her cheeks.

He just stared at her for a minute, hating himself for being the cause of her tears. He'd never wanted to do that, make her cry. "Jack..." he started, stepping towards her.

"Don't," She said quietly and he stopped right beside her.

"Just let me tell you what I meant," he pleaded, trying not to sound as desperate as he felt. All he could keep thinking was that he might have, in his moment of stupidity, lost her. He wouldn't be able to stand that.

"What you meant! Riddick, you practically called me a whore! You thought I ran off with some guy I didn't even know!" She spat, lowering her legs and shifting to look up at him, glaring through her tears.

"Jack, I didn't mean that. I mean... the thought came up for a second but, Jack, I know you're not like that"

"How could you even think that?" Jack asked quietly. "After everything that's happened and...and you know I'd never...don't you?"

"Course I do, Jack..." He sighed and crouched down next to her, not making a move to touch her. "It's just...I didn't really think you did but then you accused me of it and I was just surprised... fuck, I dunno. You just gotta know I never really thought you did...God, Jack, I'm sorry..."

Riddick couldn't really think of how to explain. He couldn't even think of the words to tell her how ashamed he was that the thought came up at all. He turned and leaned up against the wall next to her, stretching his legs out, and sighed. He'd make it up to her somehow, no matter what it took. He couldn't loose her.

"How long are you going to hate me?" He asked, trying to see how deep he was in.

"I don't hate you," Jack mumbled after a minute. "I just think you're stupid right now."

Riddick nodded and then chuckled softly. "Yea... I'm stupid for thinking you'd be into that guy. Looked like a punk to me...not your type."

Jack laughed a little, loving him for people able to make her feel better, even if she did have a right to be mad at him. "And how would you know what my type is?"

Riddick shrugged and looked down at her, glad she was still talking to him and not storming out on him or something. She looked up and met his eyes. She still had wet trails on her face. He gently wiped them away with his thumb and held her chin to keep her head tilted up at him. Her bruise was all but completely gone and there was just a small light mark on her cheek from the cut now that the small scab was gone.

"Really Jack, I'm sorry..."

Jack nodded. She could tell he was, but there seemed to be something else he wanted to say. She stayed silent and unmoving, waiting for him to come out with it.

"I don't want to lose you...especially over me thinking something stupid," he finished quietly.

Jack was taken aback by that. Had he thought she was going to leave? She wasn't...she hadn't even considered it. She couldn't see herself ever leaving.

"I'm not going anywhere, I want to be here with you" She assured him with a small smiled.

"Good, cuz I want you right here"

Jack smiled just as her stomach growled. Riddick let go of her chin when he heard it and shifted.

"I'll make dinner," Jack offered, getting up after a moment and walking out.

Jack walked to the kitchen and thought over what Riddick had said. He didn't want to lose her...that just made her love him more. She known that her crush on Riddick had grown over the years, but, with the words he'd just said to her, something deeper had grown. She'd always been scared of the idea of having a more intimate relationship with him, but suddenly that fear was quieted and now she felt something else; a longing. 'Oh man, if only you knew what I really meant when I said I wanted to stay with you... if only you meant that you wanted me in a different way...'

Jack sighed and started getting stuff out for dinner.

Riddick stayed seated on the bedroom floor for a few more minutes, thinking things over. Even though Jack said she didn't hate him, she still had to be angry with him. He'd make it up to her somehow to show her how sorry he really was.

At least she didn't hate him and want to leave. That thought was reassuring. She'd said she wasn't going anywhere and that was calming. The idea occurred to him that she might leave someday, if she ever met a guy and married him or something. That thought was extremely unsettling and he didn't know what he'd do if that ever happened. 'Jack, if only you meant that you wanted to be with me in a different way, that'd make this all easier... if only you knew how much I want you...would you still want to stay if you knew?...'

Riddick sighed and hauled himself up to go help Jack make something to eat. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen and watched her for a while. 'Beautiful...'

He cleared his throat to make his presence known after a few minutes and walked into help her.

"Thanks for the book, by the way"

"Yea, I saw it in the book store and thought you'd like it"

Riddick nodded and gave her a small but meaningful hug from behind, planting a small kiss on the top of her head. Jack smiled and inwardly frowned when he let her go.

'If only you knew...'


Well hope you liked it. Review to let me know what you think...ya kow, just use that nifty little button down there. Next chp. should be soon.

R and R