Darkness, Be My Friend
Chapter Twelve : Picture Perfect Moments
Jack was wearing the clothes she'd been wearing on the planet again; them being the only ones that properly fit her, it wouldn't have been good if she were seen walking around the spaceport in the loose garments she'd been wearing around the ship. She sat in the co-pilot's seat, watching in fascination as Riddick expertly landed to ship in the docking bay the control tower had directed them to just minutes before.
Someday, I'm gonna be able to do that...
She grinned as the ship powered down and she undid the buckles on her harness, eager to see daylight again, even if it was the clouded kind of daylight that could only be found on Dulroon. Watching impatiently as Riddick did the same, Jack wondered if she'd be able to get new shoes; she'd found some money in one of the cabins and that was the only article of clothing that she desperately needed. That and underwear; she blinked and looked down at herself, consciously aware not that her once loose boy's shirt was slightly tighter over her chest.
"You need new clothes," Riddick observed, his voice making her jump slightly; she'd temporarily forgotten he was there, lost in her own thoughts.
"Just shoes and stuff," Jack muttered, feeling embarassed.
"What, you're going to keep wearing stuff that's ten times too big?" he asked, frowning down at her; he was wearing his goggles now, the lenses glinting in the dull grey light from the clouded sky outside the window. Jack shrugged at him in answer. "No, kid. You're getting new clothes. We'll do that first, then come back for the ship's supplies."
He moved past her and out into the hall; it was several seconds before she followed, trailing behind him to the pressure sealed trap door that led down into the cargo hold. He climbed down the ladder into the darkness and Jack didn't hesitate to scramble down after him even though she couldn't see; thoughts of getting a shine job like his fluttered through her head and she grinned.
Want one anyways, even if he says I shouldn't...
She waited by the edge of the ladder for him to open the cargo hatch so they could get out; the doors screeched open moments later, flooding the hold with the same dull grey light. Jack ran to catch up with Riddick as he stepped out onto the loading dock; she gave a quick glance at the sky as she jumped outside, noting that the clouds were darkening. It was going to rain soon, not that she minded the rain; it was the thunder and lightning she hated the most about the storms on Dulroon.
Sticking close behind Riddick, she followed him into the spaceport terminal, glancing around at the newscreens on the wall and the registration desk that he walked up to, the clerk giving him a dull look that basically said 'I hate my job'. Jack waited next to the counter as the clerk reviewed the IDs that he'd set to the ship, staring around at the scuffed gray walls; her eyes fell on a digital calender mounted on the far wall. It was tilted as if someone had knocked into it, but she could read the date perfectly fine; she stared at it for a moment before turning to Riddick.
"Is that date right?" she asked in a whisper and he glanced over at the calender.
"Yeah," he muttered, glancing at the clerk to see that the bored man was still fumbling with the out-of-date computer system. "Why?"
"It's my birthday," Jack said; she gaped slightly at the calender, astonished by the fact.
I'm thirteen and I didn't even know it...wow...
"Come on, kid," Riddick said, putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her towards the door; he let her go as soon as they were outside again. The sky had darkened considerably, threatening the rain this planet was famous for; Jack followed him down the street away from the spaceport. "So it's your birthday?"
"Yeah," she muttered, looking down at the grubby pavement. "Doesn't matter much, I guess."
She glanced back at the spaceport just then, a prickly feeling on the back of her neck as if someone were staring; she shrugged it off and turned back to Riddick who had stopped, his face bearing an expression of contemplation.
"Let's go, kid," he said after a moment, gesturing for her to follow him.
She had to jog to keep up with him, he had set his pace much faster than normal; she knew the reason why, of course. Dulroon wasn't a place to walk slowly, not when storms could strike up at any moment like the one that was turning the sky black now. They ducked into a covered street just as the first rain drops fell; they plummeted like hailstones against the metal awning, loud in Jack's ears at first but she soon grew used to them like she had during her previous time there.
She glanced around the street, taking in the shops that lined it, although there was a small building at this end with a white sign bearing a red cross and the words 'Clinic' in stamped black letters. There was an old woman with crinkly black and grey hair sitting just inside the open door on a metal chair, eyes closed as if listening to the rain. Jack had seen that building before, but it had been unoccupied when she'd last seen it; she had once used the attic as a place to hide from a particular gang of street rats who thought she'd make a good punching bag.
Taking her eyes off there, she followed Riddick down the covered street towards one of the clothing shops; it wasn't a big store, but it carried clothes her size, she saw that immediately by the dusty display in the window. Someone walked by them as they went inside and the store clerk looked up, glancing them over with tired eyes before turning back to her magazine; Jack looked up at Riddick, who nodded towards the racks, obviously meaning for her to pick out the clothes on her own.
She walked into the racks, rummaging through the articles with a frown on her face; she found a couple things that would work, some shirts and a couple pairs of pants. There wasn't much of a choice between colors; everything was shades of grey, dull green, and dark blue. She glanced around between the short rows, looking for anything else that might work when she saw something in the very back corner of the store.
Holy crap...
She stood there staring for a moment, then hurriedly ran back towards the front of the store; smiling. When she reached the edge of the clothes, she waved for Riddick to come and see; he gave her a look but came anyways and she let her smile widen even more as she took his hand and led him towards the back of the store.
Civilization, the last place in the universe Riddick wanted to be; there were too many people and too many buildings, too many street lamps that would make it hard to see at night. He wanted nothing more than just to leave and never look back, yet here he was, following this kid through the clothing aisles; she had a few things from the racks in her arms, but evidently this wasn't what she was so excited about.
In the back corner of the store was what appeared to be a large blue painted box with black curtain for a door on one side of it; Jack let go of his hand and walked over to it, still smiling. Riddick followed somewhat reluctantly, frowning at the box, unsure of what it was that she found to be so great about it; he watched as she disappeared behind the curtain, then reappeared, waving her hand for him to come over.
"Come on!" she called and he stepped up to the box, still frowning. She grabbed his hand again and tried to pull him through the curtain, which, of course, didn't work. "Aw, come on!"
"What is it?" Riddick asked, still frowning at the box.
"It's an old novelty photo machine," Jack answered, holding the curtain open and pointing at the small computer screen and the miniature camera stuck in the wall underneath it. "They have a couple of them on Old Earth, they're really cool!"
"A photo machine?" he echoed, frown deepening. "Don't know, Jack. I don't like getting my picture taken."
In reality it had been years since he'd last gotten his picture taken and that had been a mug shot; not exactly a great memory or a great picture. Jack's smile faded somewhat and she looked away off towards the clothing racks, biting her lip for the first time in days.
"Um, that's okay," she said, not looking back at him. "I mean, you don't have to. Sorry I dragged you back here."
She looked disappointed, but was trying to hide it; visibly you wouldn't have been able to tell, but her voice was a clear indication. Riddick sighed inwardly and shook his head; stepping up and pulling aside the curtain.
What the fuck, it's her birthday...
"Move over," he told her and she grinned, scrambling out of the way so he could sit down next to her. She leaned over him and pulled the curtain shut, cutting off most of the outside light; Riddick pushed his goggles away from his eyes and glanced at her. "So?"
"Might want to put those back on, there's usually a flash on these things," Jack informed him, nodding at the camera.
"You've done this before?" Riddick asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," she answered, smile fading again as she looked away. "About a week before my parents died, we were going to pick up my step-dad from the airport. They had one of these things there."
Riddick watched her for a moment, not moving to put his goggles back on as she had warned him; he was trying to understand how it would feel, happy and loved one moment only to have the source of it ripped away not even a week later. He couldn't make the comparison; there was nothing remotely close in his life to compare it to, but he knew it must have hurt her. A new thought crossed his mind then and he frowned, gaze flicking towards the camera...
She's afraid...afraid you might leave...and that's always going to be an uncertainty isn't it? Never know when the mercs will drop in...or worse...
"Riddick?"
"Yeah kid?" he responded, looking back at her.
"You don't have to get your picture taken with me if you don't want to," Jack told him, her voice sounding careful. "I'll just get the clothes and we can go."
"It's alright, Jack," Riddick said with a slight laugh. "Just take the damn picture so we can get back to the ship."
Jack grinned down at the two strips of photo paper, six pocket-sized pictures to a strip; she liked the last one best, because she'd gotten him to smile. She stared at them as she followed Riddick out of the store; she carried her clothes in two bags with her other hand, but didn't realize she was falling behind until she looked back up again.
"Hey wait!" she called at Riddick's back and he paused for her to catch up, looking back over his shoulder at her. She reached him and held up the photos with a smile. "Here, one of them is yours."
"Why don't you keep it?" he asked, turning to walk away again. Jack blinked and jumped quickly ahead of him, blocking his path and frowning up at his face.
"But your supposed to have one!" she protested, still holding the photos out. "That's the whole reason there's two sheets!"
"Look kid, what am I supposed to do with it?" Riddick asked, looking slightly annoyed now. "Not like I carry a fucking wallet or anything to keep it in."
"Neither do I," Jack informed him, finding herself glaring.
Doesn't he understand?
"Yeah? So what was the point of getting them then?" he asked, a slight growl creeping into his voice. He looked more than a little menacing right then and Jack felt her glare break down; she bit her lip, feeling tears start to sting her eyes. She swiped them angrily away, managing a frown as she looked back up at him.
"It's a friend thing," she informed him, one fist clenched around the handles of her shopping bags.
Riddick stared at her, the annoyed frown vanishing from his face; instead he appeared to be momentarily stunned or perhaps too mad to muster an expression. Jack watched his face and wondered what he was thinking; did he think she was being stupid? Slowly he reached out and took one of the photo sheets, glancing down at it for one long moment before shoving it into one of his many pockets.
Jack saw movement out of the corner of her eye at the other end of the street and glanced past him; there were people standing there and for a moment the sound of the rain on the awning over the road ceased to reach her ears. That horrible feeling she'd had the day before welled up again and she frowned; Riddick evidently noticed her unease and turned, following her gaze. He tensed, seeing something she didn't in the stances of those standing at the far end of the road; turning back he grabbed her shoulder and started walking.
Jack didn't protest, but now she was scared; what had he seen that she hadn't? A shout startled her and suddenly Riddick broke into a run, dragging her along with him; she tried to keep up, her bags banging against her knees with every step. She heard a loud crack like a bolt of lightning and something struck a nearby wall, sending chips of stone flying; suddenly she was pushed ahead of Riddick.
"Keep running!" he commanded, and she did, racing past the clinic at the end of the street and out into the rain, nearly falling as she ran around the corner. She was nearly back at the spaceport when she skidded to a halt, realizing that Riddick wasn't right behind her. She turned and stared wide-eyed back through the rain, looking for him. It hadn't been raining long enough for the lightning to start, so she knew it wasn't that when another crack echoed through the downpour.
Oh no...no...NO!
Without a second thought, Jack dropped her bags and started running back.