Thanks to:

TotallyRiddickObsessed

tamekabu

NightmareWeaver – you update too! Please.

Nimiriewen – new reviewer! Exciting. Glad you like it and you shall see what happens soon enough. Hope yer patient.

Chapter XXV: Who is Home?

Brushing away offers to help her, Liege climbed the stairs and immediately went to the bathroom. As she showered, she forgot how her cuts stung and her bruises ached. It had hurt her to see all those boys she had grown up with to betray her father like that. But, she assumed, they didn't have much of a choice.

McKellern had been her…boyfriend so to say. Liege growled in frustration and slammed her fist sideways into the tiled shower wall. Why had he of all people done that? He was almost as loyal as she was to her father.

Closing her eyes in confusion and shame, she thought of how he had looked when they had confronted each other only hours before. He had grown up to be a very handsome man, well muscled, but not ask bulky as Riddick. His fiery red hair was darker than hers, but he had it cut very short and his bright blue eyes had burned with emotion. He too had tattoos, a medieval cross down his right bicep and a thick intricate cuff on his left wrist. She knew he would have others, for everyone in her family of crime did.

When they were younger, he had always gone by the name "Kell", because real names were never revealed and almost never used. Liege cursed again when she realized that the water had gone cold and shut it off, shivering in the shower. She tugged a towel off its rack and dried herself off, growling as she stained the cloth with blood.

Deciding she needed to clean herself up, Liege quickly dressed and braided her wet hair. Walking down the hallway, she quietly knocked on Riddick's door, hearing the shower running.

The door opened to reveal a tense Riddick, who immediately opened the door further to admit Liege. Without saying anything, she sat on the floor, feeling it wasn't her place to sit on the bed.

Guessing that Jack was in the shower, she waited patiently as Riddick took the first-aid kit from the bathroom. Sitting in front of her, he asked her where the worst cuts were.

Replying that it was the one over her eye, he got to work. Thankfully, they had the technology so it wouldn't scar, but it hurt as the gel basically burned the skin back together.

Assuring him that the smaller cuts would heal on their own, she stood and walked out of the room, glad that she was housed with two people who knew first-aid. She had never learned them, since she hated medical-related anything, and she was always with someone who could fix her up, so she never worried.

"Liege." Riddick's voice followed her and she stopped in the hallway and turned around. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

"Soon enough, soon enough. Ye will keep Jack 'ere, 'n I'll return." Liege replied, wincing when she breathed, considering how massive the bruises were along her ribs.

She thanked her lucky stars Riddick hadn't been out in the hallway to see her wince, but she knew that he must've heard it in her voice. Liege turned back into her room and climbed up the ladder to her loft bed, where she instantly fell asleep.

Shutting off the water, Jack reached for a towel and instead was met by a dry, warm hand. Instantly recognizing it, she didn't have time to protest, but was pulled out of the shower. Tripping into him, he held her slick body against his dry one, nuzzling her wet hair.

"You smell good, Jack. Clean." He growled, his hands spanning across her back. Jack was overwhelmed by the physical and emotional feelings that ran amuck through her. Deciding to just do what felt best, she leaned against him and closed her eyes.

Riddick removed one hand from her back to get a towel, all the while eyeing Jack's beautiful body. Her skin colour was naturally tanned, from being exposed to Helion weather for roughly five years. Trying not to growl, he resisted just taking her right then and there. It wasn't the time for that, he thought to himself.

Surprising by the feeling of warm terry-like cloth being draped over her, Jack opened her eyes to be greeted by Riddick's, who swooped down and captured her lips in a quick kiss. Comforted by this gesture, Jack had little protest when he began to towel her down himself.

Soon she found herself dressed in one of his oversized shirts and sitting in bed, waiting for him as he showered. Brushing her hair again, Jack wondered what Liege was going to do, now that there had been an open attack.

Jack refused to accept the fact that Liege was going to leave, but she knew it would be for the best. She needed to regain control over her family, free her father and then disappear again. Yet, for that last part, she knew Liege would never 'disappear' to her or Riddick, considering that if she was tracked, they would be the first people looked for. Jack wasn't going to stop Liege, but she would try to help her, no matter how much she protested.

And then there was the matter of Riddick. Jack thought back to the intimate scene in the bathroom only minutes ago, and the other times she had been close to him. She cared for him deeply, but was he willing to be with her?

Closing her eyes, she pulled the brush through her long hair one more time before she let it fall from her hand to the bed. Flopping back onto the soft mattress, she reached for Riddick's pillow and held it tightly against her. Her eyes still closed, she concentrated on her sense of feel and smell. Riddick's scent was unlike any other.

As she lay there, she heard him shut off the shower and enter the room, then pulling on a pair of sweatpants. She opened her eyes when she felt him sit on the bed and watched as he too fell back into the mattress.

"Tired?" She asked, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Maybe." He replied, a smirk in his voice. "Would be if someone hadn't stolen my pillow."

"You weren't here to use it at the time, Richard, so it was momentarily abducted by me." She said in an authoritative voice, making Riddick turn to her and raise his eyebrow.

"Richard?"

"Yeah, you call me Jack, so I can call you Richard. Besides, can't really go around in the streets calling you Riddick, now can I?" She argued, moving the pillow from her face, but she still hugged it.

"Imp." Was his only reply as he tugged the pillow out of Jack's grip and slid it under his head only to be plopped on by Jack.

"Possible, but I look more human than that, don't you think?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Shut up and sleep, Jack."

"Of course, Richard. Dear." She joked, sliding off him and using him as her real pillow. Sighing as he commanded the lights off, she welcomed his comforting arm that tied her to him and the other hand that crept up into her hair as she lay resting her head on his chest.