OK...Don't hate me, but sorry for ppl who were lookin for a little 'somethin somethin' this chap,but it's coming i promise! soon! i just had to get this out of the way cuz i'm gonna tie this into something in the next chapter...at least i'm going to try...we'll just have to see how i get it to work. Anyway!...on with the chap.

It's had one of those flashbacks in it, so i hope it's not confusing...tell me if it is.


...AND IT FINALLY CLICKED

Colonel Shavers had been thinking about the pictures sent from Cercus Station for the past few days, knowing something in the back of his head. Somehow, he knew the pictures fit with Riddick in an obvious way, but for the life of him he hadn't been able to figure it out.

That is, until he happened to glance around and his eyes fell on the report of the Hunter-Gratzner crash, and it finally clicked. He grabbed the report and whipped it open. The only survivors were William Johns (it wasn't until a while later that they found out it was actually Riddick), Abu 'Imam' al-Walid, and a kid registered under the name Jack, who was really a girl named Jacquelyn.

He found the picture of that 15-year-old girl and held it up to the woman in the more recent photos. Besides the obvious maturity and growing, he could see they were the same person.

"Well I'll be..."

I large smile spread across his face. She hadn't ran away as the holy man had led them to believe. Riddick had taken her in and had apparently taken very good care of her. She looked healthy and all right, certainly pretty and he was sure she'd be quite smart if she grew up around Riddick. Riddick had always been extremely smart and his IQ was off the charts. Just one more reason the military had wanted him so much...

:FLASH BACK:

Riddick had been very wary when he'd first moved into the house but had actually started relaxing after a week or so. He'd started talking a little more and that was when Nathaniel had started noticing things about him...

The Shavers' lived right next to a public park where a lot of people spent time on nice days. The younger kids ran around and played on the swing sets while the older ones would play catch or something 'cooler' than what the little kids did. Teenagers tended to hang out there at night.

It was on one of these evenings when Nate caught something more to Riddick than just toughness and passiveness.

When Riddick wanted to run he'd run the paved path around the park and Nate would often join him to maintain his own fitness.

"Hey babe, you're looking good," some teenaged boy drawled at a girl who was passing by him in a skirt that showed of her nice legs.

The girl gave him a glare and kept walking.

"Oh, come on honey, don't wanna give me a little lovin?" The boy asked cockily, egged on by the snickers of his friends.

"No!" the girl spat contemptuously.

"Aw, even if I say please?" The boy followed behind her, grabbing her ass and grinning broadly when he was met with 'whoops' from his friends.

"Ew, get off!"

The boy's hand was traveling lower to the bottom of her mini skirt when his arm was suddenly in a vice-like grip, yanking him bodily away from the girl.

"That is NOT the way you treat a girl," Riddick had growled at him, perfectly calm but threatening all the same.

"Sorry dude, I didn't know she was your girl," The boy stammered.

"She's not, but you don't treat girls like that. Apologize"

"What?"

"Tell her you're sorry," He'd repeated, slower this time.

The boy looked at Riddick like he was crazy before realizing he was serious. "Sorry, sorry we were just jokin', ya know? Really, I'm sorry."

Riddick had let the boy go and left his run unfinished, choosing instead to walk the girl home before going back to the house. Nathaniel had watched him go and was struck by the act. Sadly, most people tended to turn a blind eye to those type of things, saying 'these things happen,' and just don't step in. Everything he'd been told about Riddick said he'd probably do the same thing. 'He's mean,' he'd read. '...Likes to start trouble and rebel against authority,' that's why he'd been sent to boot camp; to learn to 'respect authority.'

But, as Nate walked home that day, he thought maybe there was more to it. Maybe Riddick saw society and authority for what it was: flawed. What he'd done for that girl was right. Society's standards would've suggested that he should turn a blind eye like others, so that made society wrong.

'He has no respect for others...' another statement had read. Only he did...he'd just showed that. Maybe he just had even more respect for himself. Yes that had to be it. Most of his problems had been in his foster homes and Nathaniel had heard bad stories about foster homes. He decided to look closer into Riddick's past homes and what he found was both surprising and insightful.

The incident in the park was only the beginning of Nate seeing more into Riddick. Riddick had settled down with him and his wife and, within a month, had seemed pretty happy there; a happiness which only seemed to grow with time. They took him in like their own and his wife was particularly fond of him, never having had a kid of her own. Sure she hadn't raised him, but she had turned into a doting mother nonetheless.

Nate had always left his room quite a bit in the night for a glass of water or something to eat when he couldn't sleep and he often found Riddick sitting in the kitchen. It seemed that Riddick hadn't been a great sleeper either. They had many a long talks during those nights and Nate had often wondered if Riddick would even want to go into the military and finally asked him during one of their late night talks.

"What do you want to do when you grow up?" Nate asked casually during a conversation about what classes Riddick wanted to enroll in for his senior year, which was coming up.

"I dunno"

"Oh come on, there must be something you want to do"

"Well…I thought about the military when I was at boot camp cuz I was good at it and all, but…" he trailed off, shrugging.

"But what?" Nate pressed while trying to sound as though he didn't care either way.

"I dunno…I guess I want a family and none of those drill sergeants seemed like people who would have a family…and you don't. I mean, you're married to Clare but you don't have kids or anything…"

"No, we don't have kids of our own…" Nate agreed quietly with a nod. If he regretted anything about his career it was that he hadn't really had the time to adopt a kid as his own.

"I dunno…hell, maybe I wouldn't even be a good dad…"

"What makes you say that?" Nate asked curiously, his psychiatrist side kicking in.

"I dunno…I get pissed pretty easy. Like…I don't now how to explain but….when I fight, I like it, ya know? I know I won't lose, i just won't…is that strange?" Riddick looked up at him and Nate could see it in his eyes that he was confused. Confused about himself and who he was.

"That's not strange, that's just you knowing yourself and your abilities"

"But part of me likes it…"

Nate only shrugged. He didn't know what to say. He knew plenty of people who liked to fight; they're called bullies. He didn't think Riddick was a bully though. Riddick didn't fight if he didn't have to, but he thrived in it when he did and he was right, he did always win. Nate hadn't read anything about the boy losing a fight to another kid who'd messed with him.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a while after that before slipping back off to their bedrooms. Nate hadn't known at the time, but that was the last late night talk he'd have with the boy. If he had known, he would've said something more. He would have tried to tell Riddick what he really thought of him, what he saw in him. He never did get the chance to…

"I hope this is my chance…" Colonel Shavers said quietly, gazing at the picture of the girl that could be his link to Riddick…his link to what he'd been trying to get back every since he lost it.


um...yea..hope that wasn't too bad. The 'surprising and insightful' things that Nate found out are what i'm gonna try to tie into the next chapter...

I'm gonna try to get the next chap up tomorrow morning b4 i leave to Florida, so hopefully i'm able to or else it's gonna be a few days, AH! but the next chap should be nice and long (any guesses why? heh heh)

So tell me what u think...i was a little unsure of this chap so tell me if it's bad and i'll take it down and rethink it...

huh...there was something else i was gonna say but now i forget...i hate it when this happens...hopefully it wasn't important...

R and R