Hello all and Merry Christmas, this is the Christmas installment and Chapter 22, this does not mean however that it is Christmas in the story, it's not. Anyway, the next lot of news is that the name of this story is going to be changed in the next few days from One More Step To Defining Moments, after an e-mail or two to Cateyes120, who has again proof read this chapter for me, we decided that Defining Moments fitted the storyline somewhat better.

Anyway, and as always, thanks so much for the reviews, they mean a lot to me and I love to read them, have I ever mentioned that they help give a little bit of a will to write? Hahaha, anyway, enjoy.

Kayla

Chapter 22: Club Nights

"You still going out tonight Jack?" Candace asked from the doorway into the bathroom, a small frown on her young face as she watched Jack bundle her hair up into a knot on the back of her head and pull out a small make-up bag.

"That's the plan Stan." Jack nodded applying silvery eye shadow and black mascara, turning her green eyes slightly smoky, a hint of gray appearing in them with the makeup application. "Riddick is being a stick in the mud about everything, which is lucky for you because it means that you don't have to spend the evening with Damien but it doesn't mean that I'm not going to go. Riddick has to realize that he can't avoid me for nearly two full days and still expect me to do as he tells me like I was a kid."

"Thank God I don't have to go over there. The boy's a royal ass!" Candace snarled as Jack pulled out her eyeliner, a lipstick and a tube of clear gloss from a very small make-up bag that had been stuffed in the cabinet below the bathroom sink.

"An ass?" The older woman looked skeptical as she applied the eyeliner. Halfway through, she looked past her own reflection in the mirror and looked at Candace. "Ever put on eyeliner?" Candace nodded. "Ever notice that you can't keep your mouth closed when you put it on?" The teenager laughed and Jack went back to applying her make-up, a smile on her face. She liked it when the kid laughed; it meant she wasn't doing anything wrong at that moment.

"Why do us girls subject ourselves to the horrors of make-up application anyway? I mean, if guys are so hung up on the make-up then why don't they date lipstick or better, foundation?" Candace picked at a little bit of loose wallpaper. Jack laughed as she put on her lipstick, the mental picture of Joe or Johnny walked along the road with their arm around the middle of a giant lipstick running through her mind's eye as she finished her own make-up application.

"Make-up is as much of a hang up for us girls as it is for the guys, I've known too many girls who would get up an hour or two earlier then the rest of us at the academy just to put on make-up. Anyway, all it really is is the means to an end. It's not like I'm going out on the pull or anything, but I am going to a club and there are dress codes at clubs hun." Jack rubbed her lips together before applying the clear gloss and letting down the hair that she had spent what seemed like forever straightening, satisfied that the time she had had it up hadn't put any kinks in it.

"Dressed like that?"

"What? Every girl likes to be noticed. It's not like I'm taken or anything, so I can afford to have a little bit of fun." Jack ran her fingers though her hair a couple of times before looking at herself critically in the mirror and turning around with a slight frown on her face.

"What about Riddick?"

"Doesn't have time to love anyone." Jack answered and shrugged as she looked at the teen, it was matter of fact for her so it made it easy for her to say now. "What do you think?"

"You sure you're not going out on the pull? That outfit is going to turn heads in a big way, you look great in it." Candace shook her head incredulously, a half smile on her face.

"I'm not going out on the pull." Jack shook her head and reiterated firmly.

"'Cause you're already spoken for?" The teenager tried again, but Jack didn't even take the bate.

"Because I work on a 'look don't touch' policy." Jack fixed silver hoops in her ears and tied a pendent choker style around her neck. She fingered it for a moment before slipping on a couple of simple Celtic style silver bracelets to match the pendent. "Anyway, I've already told you, there isn't any time for love in the kinds of lives that Riddick and I have. You heard what happened to my only serious boyfriend because of me."

"Yeah, but Riddick is a scary bad ass. He's not going to go and die on you."

"He almost has before. This is totally off the point, Candace. There is no romantic relationship where you're looking so stop trying to look for it, Riddick and I have both agreed on that point."

"You've talked about it?"

"A while ago." Jack nodded. "Now enough, alright?"

Candace nodded and watched as Jack gathered the things that were to go back into her make-up bag, and put the bag back in it's place under the bathroom sink. "What does it represent? The pendent I mean?"

"It's a warrior's shield. It protects it's wearer against physical and spiritual evil. The knot represents the four elements, the four angelic guardians of the earth, the four corners of the earth and the four realms that are forever connected but never meet. In other words, North, South, East and West." Jack touched it again. "Iwas given to me as an eighteenth birthday present. Just Celtic superstition and sentimental value, it couldn't actually protect me from a lot but I like it anyway."

"True. Who gave you it?"

"Give you one guess."

"Riddick?"

"Yeah. It was out of the blue, thought my birthday was going to go unnoticed once more and it basically was until I was about to turn in for the night then he rather unceremoniously dumped a small wrapped box in my lap and told me the woman at the store wrapped it and that it was nothing fancy. One of the best presents I've ever been given." Jack smiled.

Candace nodded her understanding. "What are you going to wear on your feet; you can't go out with bare feet?"

"Black boots, they're in the hall closet with my bag." Jack answered her as she smoothed down the front of her skirt, leaving the bathroom in favor of the living room.

She loved nights when she was able to go to the club as a guest rather than to work, they were excuses to do something different, meet contacts both new and old, get dressed up and have a little fun. She was dressed all in black tonight, but really that wasn't a shock, black was her normal night color. She was wearing a black pleated cord mini skirt that went down to mid thigh and rode low on her hips, her black top just went to above her bellybutton and only had one tank strap over one shoulder on which was attached a light flowing see through black sleeve that fluttered around her wrist, leaving her tattoo clearly visible on the blade of the other shoulder.

She extracted her knee high black boots from the hall closet, along with her bag and short cord jacket before taking a seat in the living room and pulling the boots onto her feet and doing up the zippers along the inside.
"When you said black boots, that's not exactly what I thought of."

"Don't like stilettos and I don't do pointed toes, my stupid feet are big enough without adding inches to them." Jack shrugged as she rummaged through her bag making sure that she had everything that she needed. Credits, shiv, lipstick and gloss, a pen and an envelope with a note in it that she had to pass along to Kelly that night. "Anyway, if I got my ass in trouble, there is no way on this earth that I would be able to run or fight in three inch stilettos. Though, it might be fun to try fighting in them someday."

"Riddick's going to kill you for going out like this you know. The fact that you're sneaking about it isn't going to make things any better."

"I'm not sixteen anymore and I don't take orders for no reason. I've lived by my own rules for a long time, and unless Riddick has a reason he's willing to disclose to me then I'm going to keep living by my rules. They've kept me alive so far and will continue to do so. I'm an adult Candace, and I'm not putting myself in any position that I shouldn't be or haven't put myself in before. This is my life, I can't not make an appearance tonight, may I also mention that I actually want to go. I've been stuck on a ship and been taken back to the planet of my nightmares in the past two months, I deserve to go out and have a little bit of fun for once." Jack rolled her eyes, sick of having to justify everything.

"Don't sound so much like you're having to justify it then. You sound like you're a sixteen year old sneaking out of the house." Candace chastised.

"Never got to do that when I was sixteen. If I had done that, I would have been left behind." Jack shook her head. Candace would make a good mother one day if she ever got around to it. "If he asks where I've gone then tell him but he shouldn't be back here for a while. He's gone to get a few things of his from an old ship of ours."

"You really are sneaking out of here like a teenager." Candace scolded as a car horn blew loudly outside the apartment building. "Did you send him to do it now so you could leave or did he volunteer to leave while telling you to stay put?"

"That would be Joe, my partner in crime. I'll see you later. Won't be back till late or rather early this morning, around three or four, but if you need me you know where I am. Don't hesitate to come get me or call or whatever alright, I will come home if you need me?" She put her coat on and put her bag over her shoulder as Candace nodded with a shrug.

"I'll be fine."

"Glad to hear it. But really don't hesitate-"

"Just go before he gets back and your plans are spoiled!"

"Alright, I'm gone!" Part of her felt bad, Candace was right, she was skulking off like a teenager, but she didn't want to get into a discussion about going out or what she happened to be wearing with Riddick of all people. This night was meant to be fun for her, so she put the whole thing out of her mind as she practically skipped down the steps to greet Joe at the door a huge grin on her face by the time she appeared.

"Ready?" He asked giving her an apprizing look. "You look great!"

"You know it." She wrinkled her nose at him and nodded as Joe slipped an arm around her shoulders. "Just gotta have a bit of fun for once."

"And don't you deserve it." He let his arm around her tighten slightly as they made their way along the road to Zion.

It felt good to walk through the doors of Zion again, to hand her coat and bag to Brit to put behind the bar where she felt that it would be safer than in the cloakroom and walk into the main building. The loud beat of the music hit her; her eyes took a second to adjust to the different colored lights and the strobe light pulsing to the beat of the music. The alcoves were all filled with people, each alcove with a barrier and a man standing at it to stop unwanted guest from entering. The dance floor was heaving with people, all moving to the same beat only in different ways while artificial smoke rolled around their feet.

A smile broke out on her face as she leaned up against the bar and Johnny sent her a smile as he mixed drinks for a couple. One of the girls who tended bar stopped in front of them, two bottles of Stella in her hands, one which she handed to Joe and the other she gave to Jack.

"Missed ya, Kit. When you going to be tending bar again like the rest of us mere mortals?" She asked as Brit made her way past and winked at Joe. Jack laughed when she saw the look on her friend's face and elbowed him gently in the ribs.

"Sooner then you probably think, Angie." She answered. "What do you wanna bet I'll end up back there at some point tonight?" Angie laughed and shook her head.

"Johnny will bring your usual to your alcove when he's done here." She said. "It really is good to see ya again, Kit. And tell Johnny where to shove it if he asks you to tend tonight, you're never that great behind bar when you start getting tipsy."

"Thanks!" She rolled her eyes. "Don't drop any bottles Angie." She took a sip of her Stella as Joe's fingers intertwined with hers and they moved through the throngs of people, her body moving lightly with the beat of the music, as she scanned the people moving around them. She recognized quite a few of the people in the alcoves, mainly Joe's contacts and clients and Johnny's 'trust worthy' people, though it seemed as if the major had waved the right amount of cash around in front of Johnny's eyes to get his daughter a slot too.

"You looking for Luke?" Joe shouted in her ear above the level of the music as she took another sip of her drink and nodded.

"It's a dangerous game of sorts with one rule. Find Luke before Kevin finds me. Kevin doesn't mess with Luke, Luke is too good with a gun." She answered as Joe took the nearly finished bottle from her hand and gave her a nudge into the before mentioned man's arms. He understood the dangers. Sober Kevin knew what was good for him and kept his hands and his advances to himself, drunk or with a little bit of kick behind him, he didn't seem to be able to control his impulses but Jack never let that spoil her fun. She smiled up at Luke as his arm settled about her waist and he led her out onto the dance floor.

---

Riddick was ushered into Zion with little incident, easily bypassing the queue of people waiting to get in when a bouncer approached him and told him to go right through. Apparently they had been expecting him or at least that was what the man had told him. He had moved slowly through the crowded club, his goggles still settled firmly over his eyes to protect them from the erratic lighting as they hovered over the people looking for any sign of her.

He sat down at the bar and looked around at the dancing people trying to pick Jack out from the mob. It wasn't hard to find her and it was damn near intoxicating watching her move. The grace she displayed while doing something as simple as walking wasn't lost on her dancing, if anything the dancing only seemed to enhance that grace.

"What can I get you, Mr. Richardson?" A female voice behind him asked and he turned around to look at her. She was a pretty little thing, very petit with short curly blonde hair and a quirky little smile. She motioned with her head to along the bar where her boss was working. "Johnny told me that you were a friend of his and to explain the advantages. Drinks for his friends are on the house and the top alcove," She pointed to the one that she meant, "Is reserved for those friends."

"I see." There was suspicion in his voice but that was over ridden by the offer of something to drink. "In that case, I'll have a Black Russian." Riddick answered her, turning his back on her while she mixed the drink, his eyes back on Jack.

Jack was moving seductively to the beat of the music, her hips swaying, arms weaving a hypnotic spell around her and her dance partner who looked as enchanted by the whole affair as Jack herself looked. At times her straightened hair fell across her face obscuring the smile on her lips from clear view but that didn't mean that it wasn't there or that he wasn't very aware of it. His blood almost hit boiling point, however, when a tall male with dusty blonde hair settled his hands on her hips and together they picked out a new beat, a beat that he set and she followed adding her own step or two as they went along.

"That would be Luke dancing with Kit. Lovely thing isn't she?" The barmaid had leaned over the bar and followed his gaze. "We were told that you had vested interest in her, but Johnny wasn't sure if you were her lover or not, but from the look on your face you either are or you want to be." He gave her a cold look that would normally have stopped the chatter of any person but this woman seemed as impervious to it as Jack herself. "I can read people well Mr. Richardson, it comes with my job."

"What would you know about it?" Riddick took the drink she handed him, never taking his eyes off Jack. She had her arms around the man's neck, her eyes were closed, his hand on the bare skin of her lower back supporting her as she moved into him, their hips closer to each other then he liked.

"Don't look so possessive. Luke's no threat, as gay as can be, not that you'll see him act the stereotypical part, but come on. I mean, what straight guy do you know that can dance like that?" The girl laughed. "There's only one man that Kit has to worry about on nights like this one and that's Kevin, he's a friend of Johnny's, if you haven't already met him. He's an ass at the best of times but he gets ten times worse when he's drunk and he thinks he's in love with her, not a good mix, drink and unrequited love. If you wanna sorry about anyone trying to take your girl from you, then it's him. That's what I know about it."

The song changed and Jack stopped dancing, motioning to her throat and then a seat area as she moved away from her dance partner, toward where he was sitting at the bar, her eyes settling on him as she moved through the crowd. She smiled at him as she reached where he as and her hand extended past him and then she pulled her arm back a drink was in her hand.

"White Russian too please Brit." She said to the barmaid who had been talking to him before and picked up the drink when it was handed to her. "Come on." She motioned with her head for him to follow her and loved off into the crowds again without another word or a sign then she knew he was behind her, but he knew that she knew his every movement as he walked behind her, he had entered a world that she was one hundred percent comfortable in and he was going to have to play by her rules so it seemed, she was just making it very clear to him in her own way.

He followed her, her lithe body moving in and out of his vision as she half walked, half danced through the crowds, people every so often almost totally obscuring her from his view because of the route that she was taking. The beat seemed to have as much of a part in intoxicating her as the drink in her hand let alone the alcohol she had undoubtedly already consumed before he had arrived. According to the time frame that Candace had given him, she had been there for close to three hours and he already had seen enough to know what she had been up to while she was there.

The sights, sounds and smells in this club were as strong and similar in nature to those of every other club that he had been in, in his lifetime. The air smelled heavily of alcohol and arousal, the flashing lights and heavy beated music was almost as effective in disorientating some of the clubbers as it did creating atmosphere that would lead to one night stands and drunken antics, but Jack seemed to have been more then enjoying herself, but then he knew her enough to know she was there not to become another notch on some guys bedpost but for her own ulterior motives.

With the ease of one skilled in dodging both the inebriated people and the young men who would, it seemed, having liked nothing better then to dance with her, Jack slipped through them all, weaving her way through the crowd, just in front of him. Always just in front of him, she weaved through the crowd, noticed but unnoticed. The crowd parted for him, like it always did in a somewhat unconscious fashion, it didn't take a lot for a person's subconscious to recognize danger. The smile never left his face, somehow drawing him on with her.

She walked through a barrier, having a whisper in the bouncer's ear before walking in and sitting down on the couch next to the man she had been dancing with before. Jack handed him the White Russian and he smiled gratefully as she leaned against his side and he settled an arm around her. Riddick sat down and looked at the man with her and then her. He didn't like the whole touchy feely thing that was going on and he was making that very clear.

"You came after all." Jack took a sip of her drink before setting it down on the table and entwining her fingers with Luke's, ignoring his glare completely.

"You do my head in Jack." Her eyes flashed angrily for a moment and Luke looked at them both, a frown on his face.

"Jack?" He asked.

"My middle name is Jacquelyn. He calls me Jack for short, something he's always done. It's just a nick name." Jack said quickly. Back to hiding who she was, Riddick noted, how interesting. "Luke, Richard, Richard, Luke." She introduced them and he couldn't help but find it strange to hear her call him by his first name instead of his last name. Luke extended his hand to him and Riddick took it after a look from Jack that told him just how pissed she was going to be if he didn't at least humor her and play nice with her friends.

"I thought you weren't going to come here tonight. We talked about it." He focused his attention on her again.

"You decided that I shouldn't. I didn't agree. I deserve to have a little bit of fun every now and then. So I came here and met Luke as planned. Live a little Richard." She took a gulp of her drink, draining most of what was left, as Luke finished his off completely. There seemed to be a signal of some sort working between then. "I'm feeling like another dance so unless you want to dance..." She left the sentence open and when he didn't move or say anything more Luke took her hand and she followed him back onto the dance floor.

Riddick picked up the glass she had been drinking from and breathed in the sent. Tequila Sunrise. A smile touched the corners of his mouth and he settled to just watching her, his Jack hadn't changed a bit.

---

"A little bit of a hostile character?" Luke asked as he spun her and she ended with her back flush against his front, one of his hands on the flat of her stomach. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. What was it about Riddick that always made a bad first impression?

"A little hostile, a little over protective, a little bad at playing nice even when he knows better." Jack turned her head to one side to look at him as she followed the body patterns that he was setting, the list at times could be totally endless. That was the thing about Luke, he was a decent guy and he could pick out a rhythm and pattern out of a beat and turn that into movement, all she had to do was follow and add movement that would complement his, and he made that easy enough.

They didn't get far into the third song before Luke's partner turned up for a few drinks and a dance. Even though he told her he would stay, save her from unwanted advances for a while longer, she refused him and sent him off happily into the arms of his lover with a smile on her own face as she watched him smile as he reached Brian. It was time for her to do a little bit of shoptalk with Johnny anyway and pick up her new rota.
It was strange, for once she didn't feel like she had to watch out too much for very potentially bad situation, she could feel Riddick's eyes on her back as she moved from the dance floor to the bar where Johnny was talking to Joe while he mixed drinks. It was sad how aware of him she had become and how that awareness had made her feel more secure in herself, there went all of the independence that she had once had but then at the same time she felt safer.

She understood the price she had had to pay and strangely wasn't as upset about it as she felt she should be. Joe put a hand lazily on her shoulder as she came to stand next to him, her forearms resting on the bar as she watched Johnny work. His red tinged eyes blinked blearily at her and the smile on his face told her that he had had a little too much to drink even for him.

"You want some juice?" He asked her, holding out a vile of deep red liquid. She laughed at him and shook her head.

"I'm not on a night flight am I, Joe?" She shook her head. He was well gone, she could tell just because he was offering her his shit; he only ever went that far if he was off his face.

"Doesn't mean you don't want a nice, feel good kick." She bit her lip and gave him an amused look.

"None of your red stuff Joe but I'll take a Malibu and lemonade. Eh John, and has Kevin turned up yet?" Jack leaned against the red-eyed man, a small frown on her face. The arrival of Kevin would change the whole tone of the night; she would become far more wary when that man arrived and with good reason. He wouldn't be coming in sober and the likely hood was if he wasn't sober he would be on a high too and the combination of strung out and drunk was never a good one.

"He's here. Turned up not long after Riddick." Joe shrugged as if it didn't matter that much. "He's drunk as shit. Completely out of it and still madly in love with what he can't have, even in his dreams."

"I can have what I want to have Joe." Kevin announced his presence and slid an arm around Jack's waist, pulling her away from Joe's side and earning an evil glare from Jack in the process.

"Move your fucking hand Kevin. You're drunk and high and I have nothing to do with drunkards." She hissed putting her drink down on the bar a little more violently then she had meant to, but it got his attention as she continued to glare at him. He grinned and instead of moving away like she had asked him to, leaned in closer to her, causing muscles in her shoulders to tense slightly and for her to pull back from him.

"Back off Kevin or go sleep it off. I don't want you starting trouble in my club. Go get some air Jack, you look fare to chuck." Johnny said as he served a young man on the other side of Joe. He watched Kevin for a minute and then Riddick standing up in the alcove that Jack used caught his attention as Jack slapped Kevin hard across the face. "I mean it Kevin, let her the fuck go!" Johnny snapped as Riddick started to make his way through the crowds on the way to the bar.

"The problem is she wants me." Kevin said with a weird grin on his face.

"The problem is I'm a temptress. You can look all you want but you can't touch. Not many can touch a girl like me and you're not one of the not many." She plucked his hand from her waist and moved away from him, leaving the club through the back door with a warning glance to Joe. Jack wasn't stupid; she knew Kevin, and Kevin would be most defiantly following her, even if it was in a round about way.