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Kayla

Chapter 7: Turning Around.

"What's with the sudden change of heart Jack?" Riddick asked, the look on his face stony.

"I am the pilot of The Aurora. There are passengers aboard that ship that don't deserve to go through the shit that I went through. I can make sure that we get on and off that planet safely and as I remember it, that's half the battle." Jack answered and swallowed hard. "I'm scared shitless Riddick but I know I have to do this."

"Are you fucking crazy girl? I thought I spent five years teaching you how to survive, how not to throw your life away. I thought I taught you how to be smart!"

"You did but someone else taught me the value of a person's life." Jack argued back. "You saved me when you shouldn't have, when your own survival was being put at risk. This is the same idea, these people know shit about what's on that planet but I do and maybe I can save them from getting killed or done in by those creatures."

"Me saving you was an entirely different story Jack." He growled.

"Was it hell!" She snarled right back, not about to let him intimidate her. "Until I'm back aboard The Aurora, The Chancer is still my ship, after that, you can take her and leave if you want but I have to do this, wither you understand or not. I have to!"

"I saved your fucking ass Jack, because I knew you, because I thought you were smart, thought that you would learn."

"Well sorry I'm such a fucking disappointment." She stood up and made to leave him alone at the front of The Chancer until she had figured out some way of making him turn around her ship that didn't involve anyone getting hurt or killed. His hand snaked out and caught her wrist and gave it a sharp tug that landed her sitting on his lap looking into his flaring silver eyes.

"You couldn't get off that ship fast enough." He said in a low voice that frightened her. It was the same voice she remembered him using when he was threatening the people that tried to hurt her or stop them from leaving a planet.

"I was scared," She whispered. "The fear and the survival part of me took over and I was stupid enough to let it. I can't let those people die because of a fucking piloting error and I can't let those scientists thinking their all smart and shit take one of those things off that planet."

"That's Captain Manor's business not yours."

"It is my business. Manor doesn't know what those things look like; he doesn't know what the hell they can do to a person. What if those stupid fucks thing that it would be cool to take a breeding pair off there. Any planet with a night and a day will be screwed because once those things figure out how to get free there will be hell."

"Whose to say that you could stop something from happening to that ship or stop those scientists from taking those things off that planet. The Aurora isn't your ship."

"I know I might not be able to do anything but that crew are my friends and I owe it to them to stay and do my best to keep anything stupid from happening when it comes to piloting and them getting killed over it." She shrugged. "I don't expect you to come with us, like I said, I'll give you The Chancer after you drop me off aboard The Aurora."

"You don't expect me to stick around?"

"That's what I said didn't I? God Riddick you can be so fucking thick sometimes!" She shook her head exasperated.

Neither of them said anything for a moment or two. Jack was acutely aware that she was sitting on his lap with one of his arms around her waist, his hand on her side holding her in place and aware that he hadn't as of yet actually let go of her wrist. He had a look on his face that seemed to scream murder but the last thing she wanted at that moment was to be scared of him.

"What the hell do you want me to do Jack?" He said finally looking at her and making her look at him. She could feel his fingers digging into the flesh of her side slightly but she didn't let herself wince. He knew he had power over her but damn if she was going to show the fact that he was hurting her. She wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of her recognition of the fact that he had the upper hand.

"Honestly?" She asked giving him a look that told him she'd tell him exactly what she was thinking if it was what he really wanted. He nodded. "I want you to come with me aboard The Aurora. I want you to make sure I stay sane and alive. I wanna feel safe because I can't do this on my own. That is what I honestly want from you Riddick."

"And I make you feel safe?" Jack nodded and took her lower lip between her teeth.

They sat in silence again. Jack refused to look at him but she knew that he was looking at her. She couldn't force him to come with her but she wanted him to. The idea of loosing him again so soon after she had found out that he wasn't dead almost was enough to make her burst into tears again. But she would never be able to live with herself if something happened to anyone on The Aurora that she that she could have possibly prevented. She nervously crewed on one of her nails.

"Stop that." He said.

"Sorry." She answered and they went back to their silence.

"Alright." He said simply as he released her and she stood up again.

"Alright?" She looked at him as she sat down in the chair next to his.

"You had better start thinking up something to tell your Captain Jack because when we get back to that ship, I'm not going to let you out of my sight."

Candace Dalton sat in the room she shared with her mother on board The Aurora and played with the carpet with her toes while her mother spoke to one of the hostesses, Carla or Carly or Cara or something like that anyway. To be honest, the conversation didn't interest the sixteen year old in the least and she was getting more and more bored by the second.

Candy had only been on the ship for five days but already she had had enough of it. She was sporting bruises now, not only from her mother's hand but also from when she had been thrown out of bed by the emergency manoeuvres that had stopped the ship from crashing and everyone being killed. She was a girl that hated not being in control and suddenly she had no control of her life at all and she was hurting.

She had been planet hopping with her mother for over a month and all because her stupid ass father had turned up early from work one night to witness her mother laying into her, he had pulled her out of her mother's grasp and turned the tables, instead of her mother beating the tar out of her, her father was beating the tar out of her mother. Her mom had packed them up quicker then Candy had ever thought possible and made her leave in the middle of the night when her father wouldn't be able to stop them. Stupid fool, she would still have been with him if he hadn't walked in. She was used to her mother's foul tempers and could take the beatings alright but she missed her father.

"I got into hosting around you daughter's age. It's certainly a good profession to start in as soon as parents are willing to let their kids go. If she's good, she might even be able to get herself a job working for Captain Manor." The C named women was saying, a smile plastered in red lipstick across her highly made up face and her mother was grinning like a Cheshire, drinking it all in like she thought it was the most wonderful idea in the universe.

"Gods have mercy on my soul." She thought. It wasn't as if she didn't know that her mother would get rid of her sooner rather then later but she hadn't been expecting to be sold into a job that she had no interest in at all. The only reason her mother had even taken her with her was so that her father couldn't have her around anymore, because that was the one way that her mother knew to wound the man that didn't directly involve killing or maiming him.

Candace Dalton was good with her hands, a practical person like her father had been and she was smart too with a good GPA and learned quickly if the subject was one that caught her interest. Hosting however was not one of the professions that she was interested and she would kick up hell of a fuss before she ever accepted that as her fate. Didn't her mother know the other less spoken about jobs that Hostesses were known to take up on ships? Half the time the damned Captains didn't even know about the little side business that the women had going and that was a business that Candy wanted nothing to do with.

The teenager rolled her eyes as her skinny mother jabbered on and on and on about her skills like the owner of a race horse that she was trying to sell and Candace even caught the hostess looking over her like she was a piece of meat or horseflesh that was about to be sold. That kind of look made her sudden and she was sure that if she could avoid it, she would try not to get a job working with that particular women. She was in no doubt of what a women like that would try and make her do.

"How are her people skills?" The hostess asked and Candy looked at her coldly out of her piercing blue eyes.

"Why don't you ask me the fucking questions? You wanna know how my people skills are bitch or what my GPA is then ask me got it? I won't be talked about like I'm not in the fucking room you stupid wench." Candace spat out and the two women looked at her. Her mother's face went dark and she only just got out of the way in time to miss being back handed across her already sore face. She had lost her rag again and she knew she was in some deep shit the minute that her mother and her were alone again. She was going to get leathered.

"Sounds like she'd be better up with the main crew." The hostess narrowed her eyes but Candy didn't stop glaring back at her. She wasn't about to let the stupid slut intimidate her; she wouldn't let her know that she was scared. Hell, the only problem was that she was scared; her mother didn't seem to mind the idea of selling her off. It would just be another twist of the invisible knife in her father's chest. "You should hear the mouths on Jack and Sam, the pilot and the security officer. You wouldn't know that they were women the way they behaved. Looks like your daughter might be better off becoming one of those grease monkeys."

"She's not normally like this." Her mother said and tagged on a fake laugh for effect. "She's a little out of sorts with me at the moment, normally she's as sweet as cake. Really soft spoken and good with people and her hands."

"Yeah fucking right I am. Don't lie to the fucker mom, you know as well as I do that I'm not as sweet as cake." Candy said under her breath and this time her mother's hand did connect with the side of her head sending her crashing to the floor. She let out an "Umph." She had got the wind knocked out of her but she knew from experience not to squirm around because it would only stress her muscles out more as she fought for breath again.

"Shut up Candace!" The women snapped and turned back to the hostess as her daughter clutched her sides and made little groaning noises as she struggled for air.

"I really don't think that she would work to well in the hosting sector but you might want to check with the Captain about jobs going among the main crew if you're wanting to off load her at the next stop. Like I said, there might be an apprenticeship going in a more, well, less people orientated profession." The hostess stood up at the same time as Candy pulled herself back to her feet. The women had another of her fake smiles plastered across her face but the teenager just glowered her at.

"I'm outa here." Candy snarled, looking somewhat like a caged wild animal she opened the door before her mother could stop her and left the room.

Jack checked the ship's scanner for the hundredth time just because it gave her something to do while she waited for The Aurora to come into communication's range. The Aurora was roughly two days away from the planet and getting closer, all that Jack could hope was that she would get back to the ship before Tex had decided to let Danny try his hand at flying the beast.

"You did that two minutes ago." Riddick's voice said from the back of the ship.

"I know." She answered and swivelled the chair around to look at where she knew he was sat with his back up against the wall.

"Come here Jack." He said and she found herself getting up and doing as he said without even thinking about it. Being that automatic with anyone wasn't a good idea and she made a mental note to train herself out of the habit when she next had time but she couldn't be bothered kicking up a fuse at that moment and plonked herself down beside him.

"What?" She sighed as she leaned back against the cold metal wall, her right foot twitching nervously.

"Relax." He answered, "We got about four hours before we dock with The Aurora and it'll be another hour before we're within communications range."

"Easy for you to say." She grimaced. "Grovelling for my job back is not going to be fun as for telling Tex Manor that the only way I'll grovel for my job back in the first place is if he lets a convicted murder become my shadow. The whole thing is not going to go down so well."

"Leave the paranoia to me Jack and try to relax eh? Your nervousness is giving me a headache." Riddick cracked his neck and a few other joints before relaxing against the wall again.

"You really gotta stop doing that, it gives me the shivers." Jack said and made a face.

"What you going to do about Manor anyway? It is his ship and you're going to be asking hell of a lot of him to have me on that ship and free to move around especially in places like the control centre and the cockpit."

"I dunno yet Riddick, all I know is that I can't do this on my own. I need you this time." She said as she got up again and moved to the pilot's chair again and sat down. That was her signal that she didn't want to talk anymore and as far as she knew not talking didn't mind Riddick too much. He talked far less then she did anyway.

Jack couldn't quite get over her sudden desperate need to now that Riddick was right there next to her or behind her, in front of her or at the very least near by. She had managed total of six whole hours of dreamless sleep so far with him watching over her and she was as afraid of the nightmares returning as she was of the monsters themselves. She had admitted it to him, she shook her head slightly annoyed at herself, admitted that she need him, that he made her feel safe.

She closed her eyes and saw the beast that almost killed her again. She felt again the panic and terror of seeing her own death coming at her with teeth and claws and being powerless to stop it, powerless to get away. She had known that that stupid bone she was under wasn't going to protect her forever, she had hear it crack at the same time as she heard Fry's voice shouting and felt light on her face. And then Riddick had come back and it was all over.

Jack rubbed her shoulder blade conscious of the tattoo that was stencilled there in black ink. Her little reminder of them, a bitter keepsake because she couldn't get them out of her head. They had marked her from the start. She had drawn that creature so many times since they had left that planet. She had drawn on memories like the one of Riddick killing that beast that was trying to kill her to stop herself from being afraid. It had worked too, that was until he had no longer been there.

A button in front of her flashed red, she flicked a couple of switches almost automatically and the flashing stopped.

Jack loved to fly. That was the one skill that Riddick had given her that she prized above all the others. She wouldn't have lasted two seconds on her own in 'The Real World' if he hadn't taught her how to pilot. In a way, piloting had become the release she used to make herself feel real and alive, to stop the fear and the memories.

She remembered her personal dill sergeant from the Academy fondly. He had reminded her of Riddick. He was a tall man, a good six one, six two feet tall and was built like a solid muscled tank. His hair was black and cut army style, his eyes angry brown ovals in his head, his nose slightly crooked from the times it had been broken. Sergeant Bill Cody wouldn't take shit from anyone and he wouldn't give an inch. He was the best!

The Chancer had been the first ship that Bill Cody had ever let her pilot on her own. It was sturdy ship, The Chancer, a cruiser that was reliable with up to date equipment and systems, a sentimental gift that had been given to her on her graduation. There were two small wing rooms, one, which she had fixed into a small bedroom with a connecting bathroom, the other room she hadn't started converting yet. She had never really needed to; she flew The Chancer alone more often then not.

The fingers of one of her hands started kneading the tight muscles in her shoulders. She was conscious of the fact that she had to come up with something to tell Manor and quickly too. The middle aged Captain was responsible for hell of a lot of cargo and lives and if he took it into his head to panic about Riddick then she was screwed and the man behind her would have more mercs on his tail then she cared to think of. Her only other problem was Sam. Sam knew what Riddick looked like; she had seen the man's one and only recent photograph.

She sighed.

The communications button flashed telling her that The Aurora was once again in communications range. Jack looked over her shoulder at Riddick, his eyes were closed, hiding the silver shine but she knew that he would only be dozing. Completely and totally aware of every moment in his surroundings even if he was resting. It was just the way that Riddick was.

"Are you going to put a call out or not?" Riddick asked his eyes still closed, the only part of him moved was his lips as he formed the words.

"I guess." She nodded and put on a headset. "Aurora, this is The Chancer please come in." Jack said. She repeated herself a few times and then went silent, only to look over her shoulder at Riddick again but he hadn't moved an inch and his posture hadn't changed.

She tried again. "Aurora, this is The Chancer please come in."

"Chancer, this is The Aurora. Is that you Kit?" It was John's voice that finally answered her after a couple more minutes of calling.

"Yeah it's me. Any chance I can talk to Captain Manor?" She asked.

"I'm here Jack." Captain Manor's voice said. She let a faint smile cross her lips and then concentrated again.

"I'm about two and a half hours away from your position. Permission to come aboard The Aurora and grovel for my job back sir?" She said.