Thanks to these reviewers:

TotallyRiddickObsessed – do you know how happy it makes me when I post it, then maybe less then a hour later my mail pops up and I think 'Well, that can only be one person…' – yes, it was between Kell and Khan, and Kell was picked. Why? Well, you'll find out later. Mwahaha.

crematoriacon – I do believe you're a new reviewer! If you aren't, I apologize, my memory isn't…well, we can say that my computer's memory is about infinity times better than mine. Thanks for reviewing.

NightmareWeaver – heh. The mysterious ways of the world, yeah that is kinda of strange, but neat. See? People do get gifts when they return from vacation. Glad you liked it.

FluidDegree – Let's hope he thought positive thoughts with the subject of chilluns. Glad you liked it!

Joker – yes, twas sad. Thanks for reviewing.

NOTE (please read): it seems that there will be more then just 'a few chapters to wrap up the story'. Is this a good thing? Let's hope so. If it seems like I'm prattling on about nothing interesting, for all things caffeinated and good, please tell me in the reviews. And, if you think there is something being left out, tell me as well. I like to hear from all of you, really I do. hands out Riddick chibis

Chapter XXXX: Riddick's Squishy Emotional Insides…and Rick getting what he deserves

The pair walked in silence, Jack glancing up to see how close they were to Imam's house. She tightened her grip on Riddick's hand, suddenly exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally. When he noticed this he stopped and watched as Jack's eyes blinked rapidly, showing her fight against the fatigue that was creeping up on her. Slipping his arm around her waist, he pulled her directly next to him. Startled, she looked up and he smiled down at her, making her smile shyly back.

"Gonna make it?" He whispered, nuzzling her hair. Snorting when flakes of blood came off, he decided to kiss her neck instead.

"At this rate? With you torturing me like this?" She stopped, enjoying the attention being given to her. "Doubt it…"

He nuzzled her now red neck and grinned. Jack felt this and tensed…if he was thinking of something…well she'd be damned if it happened to her. With a sudden movement she was swept up into his arms.

"Thought you might like a little chivalric knightly heroics." Riddick said, chuckling as her face lit with pleasure. He knew she had always loved the idea of knights in shining armor, rescuing their lady loves from terrible dragons. But, this was no maiden in distress, certainly the opposite if anything. All the same Jack wound her arms around his neck and almost giggled the whole way home.

As Riddick stepped over the threshold they were met by a waiting Imam, who raised his eyebrow in question when he saw them. He waited as Jack finished laughing and smiled, happy to have them home. It was lonely without the two bickering or just talking in quiet tones late into the night.

"I wasn't aware you two were just married." He observed, making Jack break out in hysterical laughter, amused at the sour expression Riddick wore. "Well you know, the groom carries-"

"I know, Holy Man. We aren't married but let me tell you, the wedding night has already passed." He smirked now at Imam's suddenly alarmed face. Jack gently punched Riddick in the shoulder, annoyed at him for saying that…or at least telling Imam in general.

"Well. Congratulations." Imam offered in reply, becoming stiff, if not completely cold. "Jack, I thought you of all people would-"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Imam. I'm quite old enough to do what I want." Jack growled at her mentor, twisting out of Riddick's arms to land on the floor with ease. "Riddick is what I want and no lesions in chastity or any of that crap is going to change me, so lay off."

"Jack, c'mon. Let's go upstairs." Riddick said, with a tense command beneath it. His eye contact never broke with Imam and it showed a harsh cruelty, as if warning Imam that he shouldn't bring it up again. Ever. Guiding her almost rigid body to the stairs, he gave a final soft growl in Imam's direction then turned his attention to Jack, who was shaking off whatever emotion she was currently feeling.

They didn't say a word as they entered their room, locking the door behind them. Riddick slipped into the bathroom and turned on the shower, wondering if Jack's offer still stood. Hoping it would, he exited the bathroom and found Jack disarming herself and carefully depositing each blade or gun on the window sill. He noted that each one was already completely clean as he approached her from behind.

Sighing, she stopped as he stood behind her, but not touching her. Turning suddenly, she braced herself on the ledge and looked into Riddick's eyes, which were still un-goggled from before. He wasn't sure what she was thinking or what was about to happen. 'She's the only thing out there that I can't predict,' he mused, while watching various emotions flit across her face.

"I wasn't lying."

He was taken by surprise.

"Come again?"

"When I said you're what I want, I wasn't lying." She restated, waiting for his reaction. She was patient and watched as his brows furrowed, evened and his breathing pattern change ever so slightly from even to barely hitched. "Jesus, Riddick, I mean it. I want you with me, I want to have you near me, I want your protection and…"

"And…" he continued, his voice barely audible.

"And I just don't know if that's what you want." She lied directly, not wanting to say that four-lettered word that he had heard maybe once in his life, maybe never before. "You want your freedom, that I know, but do you remember the last thing you told me before you left?"

He stared at her in response. He remembered alright, but he didn't want to say it.

"'Freedom comes in many forms.' Is that still true?" Jack asked, praying for acceptance. If he rejected her, she would undoubtedly throw herself into Liege's service, regardless of what her friend warned. Without Riddick she could be an ultimate fighter, because she really had nothing to lose.

"It does." He responded, taking a step back.

"Fuck! Is it that fucking hard to see? I love you, Riddick!" She yelled, taking up a blade behind her and throwing it, catching him on his cheek. The only noise heard was the thunk of the blade as it embedded itself into the behind him. Jack approached him, surprised she had actually cut him and he hadn't ducked. "I…" her anger and determination gone now, she couldn't say anything. Stopping in front of him, she raised her hand to his face, making direct eye contact. It wasn't broken as she rubbed the blood away with the pad of her thumb, or as unbidden tears began to well up and fall from Jack's eyes.

Riddick turned his head, holding Jack's hand to his face and began to kiss it, tasting his blood on her skin. Placing light kisses on her wrist, he felt her pulse going at a hyper speed beneath his lips. Pulling away he looked down at Jack who was still crying.

"Jack. I…" he couldn't find the words. She waited, ignoring the pain of his hand crunching hers as he struggled to say the same. "I love you." He finally whispered, not surprised by the sudden onslaught of kisses that he received.

He shivered as Jack tightened her leg hold around his waist and inched a little lower, making his pants too tight and showing a little too much cleavage. She leaned forward and he had to close his eyes as her breath tickled his ear. "Now, I believe there is a shower awaiting us."

"Alright, kiddos. 'm probably not going to sleep tonight, so ye can sleep in separate rooms. Unless ye two are…happy sharin' a bed together." Liege announced, leaning on the kitchen counter and facing Falc and Rick who sat at the table.

"I'm comfortable either way, it's Ricardo's decision." Falc replied, not looking at the other man.

"It's Rick, you bastard."

"Ricardo is just so much more…" Falc trailed off.

"Sexy." Liege filled in.

Silence met her as she watched the faces fall into realization. Liege began to smirk as she turned around to rummage through the fridge for something that was hopefully un-alcoholic. No such luck.

"Liege! I'm not a fag, you know that!" Rick exclaimed and even a deader silence met him. Liege turned around with a positively hateful glint in her eyes and a low growl came from her throat. Falc had gone paler than usual and turned in his seat, getting up and leaving the room.

"Ye fuckin' bastard, can't ye use better terminology!" Liege hissed, pushing Rick up by the collar of his shirt and pinning him to the wall.

"Well, at least the room problem is cleared up." Rick said, nonchalant of what was happening. This resulted in his head being smashed on the wall, accompanied by a feral snarl from Liege. "Calm the fuck down, Liege. Christ."

"I will fuckin' calm down when ye go apologize to Falc." She said, dropping him to the floor. As he stood, brushing himself off as if nothing had happened, he snorted in her direction.

"The hell I will." He replied, turning to leave the room. He shouted as his collar was roughly grabbed again and he was being dragged down the hallway. Liege ignored the curses and continued to pull the body through the hallway. Finding the door, she kicked it open and threw Rick in there. This was no easy task considering he had more body mass than she, but with pure adrenaline as her blood, Liege had little to no issues.

"It's a fuckin' order, Ricardo." She said evenly, watching him get up, stumbling in the dark room.

"Where the hell are we?" He asked, ignoring her statement.

"In a gym. And I will beat ye into submission unless ye go apologize right now. Keep in mind, 'm goin' to be there so ye won't be bullshittin' it." Liege informed him, cracking her neck. She could use some practice.

"Well, get ready to be beaten, Liege." Rick spat, going into a fighting stance.

"Thas 'sir' to ye, ye fuckin' bastard." She replied, throwing the first punch, catching him right in the eye and throwing him the ground. "That'll be a right nice shiner in the mornin' won't it?" She mocked, backing up.

"You bitch…" He lunged forward off the floor only to be kneed beneath the chin then kicked back down by Liege's foot. He had bitten straight through his lip when she kneed him and as he went into a crouch, he wiped away blood and saliva that dripped from the side of his mouth. Looking up at her he stood, determined to still beat her. The next few minutes were jabs and parries between the two fighters, Liege dodging from punches that were a little too close. She knew he was tiring himself out, wasting his energy on fake combat like this. Raising her lip in disgust, she dealt a rather nasty uppercut, catching him perfectly and he was on the floor again. She got there before he could even think about getting up. Pinning his body to the floor, she sharply jabbed his stomach a few times, knowing it would leave nasty bruises.

As he coughed up blood, she refused to notice and re-clenching her fists, she began a direct assault on her face. Liege became wrapped up in the steady breaking of bones in Rick's face and didn't notice Falc look in the doorway and shout in alarm. Glancing up she saw Khan behind him and the next moment she was being pulled back by the well-muscled merchant. She fought back against his vice grip that kept her pinned to his chest, feeling angry not only at Rick but at everything else.

"Liege! Stop this!" Khan hissed in her ear, taking note of how her eyes glinted and narrowed at Rick who was curling into a fetal position on the floor. It seemed that she didn't even hear him. "Falc, take care of your friend. I will deal with Liege."

Falc immediately ran to Rick's side, wincing at the brutal beating that marked his face and body. Gently cradling him against his chest, Falc stood and moved quickly out of the gym, setting off to the med bay, which was thankfully well-stocked. When they left, Khan let Liege go and she stumbled forward, still blind with anger.

"He called him a-" she started, wrath dripping from her distorted voice.

"I know, my friend, I know. You want people to follow you, and you beat them into it? Your father would be very disappointed, Liege." Khan spoke in soft tones, trying to soothe the young woman who raged in front of him.

"No, not beating…" she trailed off, angry now at herself for doing such things. Yes, Rick was a bastard, but he didn't need to be beaten into apologizing to Falc. She hoped he would do so when Falc fixed him up. Liege realized with a slight horror and fascination that she didn't know the extent of her cruel treatment. "Khan."

"Yes?"

"Kell wasn't supposed to die…he was goin' to meet da, 'n maybe things would've progressed from there…but I can't show da a jar of ashes 'n say 'Well, da, meet me boyfriend.'" Khan chuckled as she said that, but it was soon silenced by her somber look. Yes, he had been jealous of the attention she had bestowed on the Irishman, but he knew deep within it would be sinful to form any sort of real, identifiable emotion for Liege. He also know she didn't know exactly what had happened to her mother, and how she didn't know that he was directly involved.

"Liege, look at me." Khan directed, and cautious eyes met his, the copper flaked with angry molten gold. "You think of no higher power, correct?" He was answered with a nod. "But perhaps you put some faith in fate?" Another nod. "So fate would have it that McKellern died. Perhaps there is a deeper reason for him dying?"

This left Liege silent and unmoving. She had never been against the idea of fate, but never placed any holding faith in it either. She would like to think there was no direct reason that Kell had died, that he had died because it was made that way. No matter how she looked at it, he still died protecting her and she would never forget that. Sighing, she sank to the floor, suddenly exhausted.

"Do ye think I should check on Rick?" She asked Khan, who know knelt beside her. She assumed he took on the duty of advising her and helping her. He patted her arm gently and helped her up when she raised her hands to his standing form a few seconds later.

"Falc should be taking good care of Ricardo. Undoubtedly whatever you were beating into the poor Italian will be figured out now between the two. I would suggest a shower, maybe a change of clothes?" He asked, watching as she stretched, popping her neck and cracking various joints.

"Sounds good. Can ye be around afterwards so we can talk?" She asked, starting to walk out of the still darkened gym. Liege was surprised at the snort behind her. "What, what did I say?"

"Liege, you need not ask me to stay, it is my place to stay. You give orders and you can be sure you do not need to beat that into me." He said, laughing. Smirking back at him, she padded back to her room, calmed at the thought of a thorough shower.

Discarding her clothes on the floor of her makeshift bedroom, Liege wondered about what Khan had said. Kell dying for a reason. Was she supposed to be with someone else, or maybe no one at all? Deciding to bring this up with Khan after her shower, she stepped beneath the warm spray and almost moaned with pleasure. Never had she appreciated a shower this much.

Scrubbing out the caked blood from her hair, Liege soaped up, for once taking the time to make soap bubbles that would float in the shower stall until they popped against something. She used to do this when she was younger, her father had taught her how to do it when they were washing dishes together one night after dinner. Cupping her hands together she blew a few more bubbles before she went to wash her hair once again. Finally feeling clean she turned off the shower and dried off, her hair presenting a bit of problem. Quickly braiding it, Liege moved into her room to get dressed.

As she opened the small closet, she spun around with a knife in her hand and found it to settle inches from Falc's throat, who stood behind her. Growling, she resheathed the knife and pulled the towel tighter around her.

"Wha' the 'ell are ye doin'?" She asked, not bothering to keep the anger out of her voice.

"Liege, you really did a number on Ricardo and he although he used…derogatory language, that was not a reason to beat him almost to an unrecognizable pulp." He began to reason, calm as ever.

"Falc, it was a personal insult as well. If everyone in me family are goin' to be comrades they should act as such 'n take care to respect one another. 'sides, needed to beat some sense into him." She mumbled the last part, turning back to find something to wear. She stepped into the closet to change and listened to Falc as he responded.

"More like beat him senseless. Liege, you know I'm…" he trailed off, not exactly comfortable.

"Yes, 'n I always knew, Falc." She confirmed, stepping out of the closet dressed in a black long-sleeve shirt and black pants, both with reflector strips on them, shining white and red. "Ye'll make some man very happy one day, me lass. Now, if only ye could step out of the closet just like I did."

"You're asking-"

"Shush, I wasn't serious. Although ye should consider it."

"I told Ricardo and that was enough."

"You told…him!"

"Yes, it would only make sense after storming out after his comment. He took it well enough but something else is bothering him. Perhaps you could figure it out."

"Sure," Liege said, pulling on her boots, "leave it to the cap'n of this makeshift crew to sort out all this shite. Thanks, Falc."

He smiled in response and they both left the room, not without Liege checking her weapons first. Always better to be prepared, was a good general rule to go by.

Jack cuddled against the bare warm body behind her, not caring that her still wet hair would piss him off. Purring as one strong arm locked around her, she shivered as he blew against her wet neck.

"That, was in short, amazing." Jack mumbled as she felt sleep begin to take her. The rhythmic beating of Riddick's heart behind her lulled her into a deep sleep as he nibbled at her neck. "Now, it's time for sleep."

"Fine." Riddick grumbled, pulling away from her neck and content when she moved to tuck her head beneath his chin. He now had complete coverage over her, able to protect her from just about anything. Satisfied with this knowledge, he waited for Jack's breathing to even before he too fell into a much-needed rest.

At one point during the night Riddick's eyes snapped open and two suspicious silver eyes checked the room, much like a wolf scouting if someone had trespassed its territory. From Jack's breathing he knew she was still fast asleep and he knew there was no need to worry her by waking her. Trying not to move too much, he untangled himself from her and rose from the bed, wondering what had woken him. Pulling on a pair of black working pants, he silently walked to the open terrace that overlooked part of the city. Quickly scanning the streets and roofs, he was even more disconcerted that he still couldn't find what woke him up. Hearing mumbling, he turned to see Jack looking for the missing source of warmth in her sleep, but soon sighed discontentedly and fell back into her deep rest. Heaving a short irritated sigh, Riddick glanced at the streets once again, needing to know that someone or something wasn't lurking there. Suddenly he saw a purpleish figure slip behind the corner of a building in the street. Lips raised in defiance and anger, Riddick let out a quiet snarl, waking Jack. Quickly rising from the bed, she slipped on one of his oversized shirts and her pants and walked to the terrace to see what was up.

"Riddick?" She questioned, approaching him with care. "You ok?"

"C'mere, Jack." He didn't look at her but reached an arm behind him, beckoning her to step into his embrace. Doing just that, he pulled her tight against his chest, making her let out a 'whoof' of air.

"Seriously, what's up?"

"Close your eyes, let go and tell me what you hear, feel and smell." He ordered, whispering it in her ear. Still unnerved by his actions, Jack hesitated but soon did as she was told. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths before she could fully use her senses. First she heard the usual sounds of the night – breezes rattling wind chimes and curtains, the occasional snort from someone's sleep and mice or cats running in the streets, their nails clicking along the stone paths. Concentrating, she heard a singular pair of footsteps running in the opposite direction of Imam's house. She felt not the calm of the dark breeze but the tension of someone, probably who had been running away. When she sniffed the air, she first smelled the deep scent of Riddick, then the pollen of night flowers then fear. Snapping open her eyes, she put these three together and looked at Riddick who was patiently waiting for her confirmation of his thoughts.

"Someone's been watching us." She said simply, now ignoring the general calm of the desert night.

"That's my girl." He sighed, kissing her temple and tightening his hold. "Jack, we've got a choice to make." He continued, not liking the tension he felt from her body that was lax just a few second before.

"Stay and endanger Imam or leave, find freedom and protect ourselves. You know I want to stay but Imam must be safe, so we will leave. But with Liege?" She asked, not looking at him but out at the city she loved.

"I'm with her on this one, we should stay out of it. Doesn't mean we can't have a ship of our own and…travel a bit." He tried to make it sound positive, knowing Jack would have trouble parting from Imam and this home.

"And by travel you mean attempt to relax but still be on the run from mercs, right?" She asked, someone sarcastically.

"Now why would say that, Jackie?" He mocked returned.

"Well," she turned around and looked up at him, a devious smile on her face. "You are the sexiest convict alive, so it's no wonder mercs are chasing after you. That is, ignoring the huge-ass bounty on your head."

"Right, so their second motive is chasing me for my…sexiness?" He replied, amused but skeptical.

"Well duh. Ever think. Doesn't mean we can't have a ship of our own and…travel a bit." He tried to make it sound positive, knowing Jack would have trouble parting from Imam and this home.

"And by travel you mean attempt to relax but still be on the run from mercs, right?" She asked, someone sarcastically.

"Now why would say that, Jackie?" He mocked returned.

"Well," she turned around and looked up at him, a devious smile on her face. "You are the sexiest convict alive, so it's no wonder mercs are chasing after you. That is, ignoring the huge-ass bounty on your head."

"Right, so their second motive is chasing me for my…sexiness?" He replied, amused but skeptical.

"Well duh. Ever think why you're always chained up with bits and handcuffs?" She asked, raising her eyebrows in a suggestive manner. He thought for a second, trying to ignore the actual subtext of her question.

"Jesus, Jack. You've got one sick mind." He finished the banter, rolling his eyes.

"Damn skippy."

"Damn what?"
"Never mind, Riddick. So ship? We're gonna steal or actually do something legal. For once." She changed the course of conversation, not resisting when he guided her back into the room and sat down on the bed, pulling her towards him.

"You think I'd actually go somewhere without having a way out? There's a ship prepped in a port about three hours out of the city."

"Seriously?" She asked, turning around and staring at him.

"Yes, seriously, Jack. Now go to sleep."

"Wow, Big, Bad, Dark and Evil has a solid plan." She was silenced by a light cuff on her hip. Smirking as she snuggled into him, Jack was relieved that she could keep Imam safe and still be with Riddick.