Welcome to another installment of Defining Moments. I know that since I moved down south that I haven't been very good at updating and for that I apologize. As it turns out, I don't have as much time on my hands as I thought I would but never fear, this story is by no way put by the way side. I have been working hard on this particular installment for some weeks now and I hope that you all enjoy.

As for the next installment, it should be out sometime within the next two or three weeks but please bare with me, my internet access isn't what it once used to be.

Kayla

Sara – Don't worry the story is not abandoned, it is only about half way through. I just don't have the time to work on it that I used to have.

Cutilichick4ever – I'm glad you like my story, I hope you keep reading.

NightmareWeaver – I'm still plugging on.

K-Marie-M – Candy's Daddy will happen when you least expect it to. As for Jack's family I'm afraid that that will be chapter 26.

Destiny – We are only half way through the story, there are thing yet to come that might throw our dear Jack way over her head and the question then will be how she chooses to try and survive them. I'm just very glad that you like the story and I'm sure there are still a few more surprises up my sleeve before it comes to it's own end.

a – I know I haven't updated for a long time but I think that this is a chapter that you have been waiting for and clamoring for, for quite a while.

Lady Crucio – I'm sorry it wasn't quiet as quick-smart as you would have liked.

Pendragon4 – Hey there, hope you haven't given up on this fic yet. I'm glad you're still around and enjoying it.

POO Piles of it – That was a whole lot of FANSTASTICs. I'm glad you like it so much and I'm now in the lake district…I think that it's beautiful here, a little secluded perhaps but still lovely. Not scabby at all.

Chapter 25: Said And Done

She typed in the code to let her back into her ship, knowing that Riddick would most likely be awake and aware now. Awake, aware and angry. The tightening in her own gut made her realize that she was probably more then a little fearful of what his reaction was going to be to her arrival back at the ship. She hadn't thought about that when she had made the decision to leave. Although, she realized that she would probably have left anyway, she had needed to talk to her old teacher.

Jack took a deep breath as the door slid open and she walked up the ramp into the ship. The lights were on low, maybe twenty or thirty percent, enough for her to see around her clearly but not bright enough for the light to aggravate Riddick's very light sensitive eyes. Riddick's back was to her as she walked up into the cockpit and he didn't show any sign that he was going to acknowledge her presence.

"Morning." She said when he didn't even stir as she walked up behind him.

"Where did you disappear to?" He asked instead of greeting her in return. Was this the way that teenager's caught coming home after having been out when they weren't supposed to be felt when confronted?

"Just went for a walk and to see Sarg." She answered truthfully with a slight shrug. "You must have slept well, you didn't even hear me go."

"Don't get used to it." He said turning around but the frown on his face was normal, the one he tended to wear almost every day, not one that said he was particularly angry or annoyed with her. "You should go take a shower, clean up a bit. We have to go deal with the clean up at some point today and I'd rather not have a bunch of angry people jumping down my throat because you look worse then you are."

"Thanks for caring so much." She snapped sarcastically. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

"That's not what I meant Jack, so stop now." He answered, his eyebrows knitting together. "How about I make a pot of coffee while you go take a shower. You'll feel better for it and it might not be the best afternoon. I'd rather have you feeling better about yourself before you have to face that." His whole manor and tone had changed completely and were somehow, in his own way, softer.

"Hazelnut coffee?" Jack asked.

"If you want." He nodded and received a smile as she put her bag down out of the way and walked away from him, through the bedroom door that closed behind her.

It didn't take her long to move to the bathroom that adjoined the room. She shed her clothes and took a look at the damage: she had a nice plate sized bruise on the middle of her back and the shoulder she had hurt while aboard The Aurora felt stiff as she rotated it. The cut on her abdomen would heal quickly without leaving a mark. She was able to assess but she couldn't say the same for the deeper cut on her hand that was still wrapped up in a bandage.

Kevin had given her a couple of nice reminders of his passing. Jack grimaced and set the shower to sonic rather then water, that way her hair would at least be cleaned without needing anyone's help. The smell of fresh hazelnut and coffee drifted through the air as she stepped into the shower.

She took a deep breath as the ten-minute cycle kicked in and she let her mind wonder over everything that had taken place the night before, including in her thoughts the things that she had talked about with Bill but she got no peace from it. As much as she tried to concentrate on the details of Kevin's demise, her mind just kept asking her the same questions over and over again.

What would Kelly and Jonathan have to say about the fact that one of their friends had died because of her? And would that be the end of her friendship and relationship with them? Had this whole thing meant that finally she had over stayed her welcome? Was she now causing these people more harm then good?

Yet as much of her regretted the fact that Kevin was dead just as much of her didn't regret it. He had tried to kill her and Riddick had saved her. He had saved her again, just how many times had he saved her now and it only served to make her feel more attached to him. Hero worship some would call it but he knew different, hero worship had died out a long time ago for her.

He was the known universe's most wanted killer, living with him, she already knew, wasn't exactly a bed of roses but it wasn't like she couldn't handle it, she could and she would willingly. And yet following him would mean she would more then likely have to leave the life she had built for herself to keep them safe but she would have him in her life again and somehow that made her feel better about the whole thing. It seemed that life had her pegged to be a nomad.

She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes. There had only been one short spell in the last two years where she hadn't wanted Riddick to appear again and wouldn't have dropped nearly everything for the life she had led with him. A short eight-month period where she had learned what it felt like to be loved but even then she had wished that Riddick had loved her that way.

He said he cared about her, not loved her and she knew it. Cared about her in a way that made her more then just a friend to him, made her attractive to him and he cared enough not to make her a casual fuck.

Who was to say, however, that the love she had for him was the screaming-from-the-roof-tops-can't-get-better-then-this kind of love anyway?

Love was a fickle thing, that she knew well enough. Her parents hadn't even loved each other; it had just been a high society match that turned out alright because they had been friends since they were young children. Bret had loved her, had been crazy enough about her to ask her to marry him, but for her it never got past physical attraction and emotional attachment coupled with friendship that had held everything together.

Because of the way that Riddick and her were, she wondered if either of them were really capable of loving another person like that anyway. Yes they could care, but the killing had made her feel more and more guarded about letting people get close enough to her to let herself start really loving them. Life was just too finite. But then, Riddick had got close to her before she had killed, had made her feel safe before she had learned how to terminate life herself, how easy it could be to just end everything. By that time he was an old professional at the game.

Had he ever let her get as close to him as she had let him get to her?

"Jack?" Riddick knocked on the door a little while later as the cycle was coming to an end. "Coffee and breakfast are ready."

"Be out in a minute." She called back as she slipped on a robe and walked out of the door that led into the bedroom. There was a smile on her face as she found cargos and a tank top to wear. One thing that Riddick had never made her before was breakfast; he had always insisted on no set meal times and that if she wanted to eat she could have what she wanted as long as she made it for herself. Often enough however, if he had been around in the mornings and evenings and hadn't fed himself, she would make enough food to feed them both and just leave his portion in the pan. When it came to clean up it was usually gone.

Maybe he was trying to be nice about everything. Though she had thought that instead of making her breakfast he would be preparing the biggest telling off that she had ever received in her life. But the offer of coffee and then breakfast made it seem more and more possible that the issue had ended the night before, when they got back to the ship.

Jack had just pulled on her cargos and was in the process of pulling the nondescript tank top over her head when Riddick knocked on the closed door.

"Breakfast's getting cold." He said as he opened the door. He looked her up and down, a look that she couldn't decipher on his face.

"I remember using that line a time or two in the past." Jack smirked and walked past him into the main part of the ship, which also served as a galley choosing to ignore the look rather the puzzle over it.

The table had been set nicely; each plate was piled high with scrambled eyes, bacon, biscuits and sausage. There was a cup of juice, from the look of it, it was probably peach juice but sometimes that food synthesizer got the color wrong so it could really be anything (she really had to make a note to upgrade the thing sooner rather then later) and a mug of steaming hazelnut coffee next to each place. Jack turned around and gave him a thankful smile.

"Looks good enough to eat." She commented.

"Should taste pretty good too unless your new food cards aren't any good." He answered as they both sat down.

"Knew you couldn't have made all this from scratch in the time you had." She picked up the pepper and gave her eggs a friendly helping.

"Just eat." He said dryly and she laughed as she cut a sausage in half and speared it onto a fork that made it's way quickly into her mouth. After that they ate in relative silence, Riddick eating more then she thought was humanly possible but that was fairly normal, he had always eaten like a horse.

"There are a few things that we have to talk about, about what happened last night and this morning." Riddick's voice pulled her out of her own thoughts after they had finished their meal and sat there for a few minutes neither saying anything. Her head snapped up from where she was drawing nonsense patterns on the table top with her finger, a habit she had picked up in school when she was eleven or twelve that helped her think clearly, her eyes slightly wide as her mind started to whorl with excuses and defenses.

"What about last night?" She asked guardedly as she refilled her mug with coffee.

"Don't look so spooked Jack." He snapped.

"I'm not spooked." She snapped back but he ignored her.

"What were you thinking last night?" He asked.

"About what?" She frowned at him, her eyebrows knitting together.

"Leaving Candace to tell me where you'd gone? Dressing like you had to go to a place where anyone could have gotten their hands on you? You wanna know how fucking stupid that was?" The tone of his voice told her that the telling off had started and there she had been thinking she wasn't going to have to deal with a telling off either.

"I'm an adult Riddick, if I want to go out to a club then I'll go out to a club. It wasn't like it was just any club, I know every escape route in that place and trust me there are a few that only the family know about, that's what happens when you have someone who's on a wanted list in your family." She shook her head. "And what the hell was wrong with the way I was dressed? Please tell me that you didn't take offense to that, most people don't!"

"Most people or most men." He snapped.

"Fuck you!" She glared at him.

"Why exactly do you think you got so much attention in there Jack?" There was a look on his face that she did not appreciate.

"Girls like to get noticed Riddick or hadn't you realized that? I like to know that I've been noticed. You sure as hell weren't noticing me, I needed someone to!" She couldn't stop herself snapping at him. She hating being dictated to and she did not like the suggestion that was behind his words.

"Well done Jack, you certainly got people to notice you."

"Why don't you just come out and call me a fucking whore then?" Jack slammed her coffee cup down on the table. This was a conversation that she had never expected to have with Riddick. She gritted her teeth. What right did he have to start criticizing the way she dressed and what she did to relax when she had put up with his relaxing habits for years? She hadn't ever said anything when he'd come home late at night after a shitty day, smelling of cheep skank and sex, all she ever did was knock a few back and dance, where the hell was the comparison.

"I didn't say that."

"You were thinking it, why don't you just say what you think, at least that would be the truth." She scolded. "God damn it Riddick! Be real for once!"

"Well you did look pretty goddamned available last night, grinding out on that dance floor, maybe even looking for a good score out there last night." He said back coldly before she had a chance to think.

That blindsided her, she never actually expected him to comment further than he had. It was like she had been slapped, the blood drained from her face and she lost all hope of a good comeback. She stared dumbly at him for a moment, her eyes wide, mouth slightly open and face deathly pale. She saw regret pass across his face for the briefest moment as she pushed back her chair from the table, the metal chair scraping against the metal of the galley floor.

"Jack…" He said, trying to stop her but she held up her hands as she moved away from him.

"Don't, just don't!" She said in an aggressive whisper. "Maybe you should stay here for a couple of days and cool off, I'm going to go grab my things and head home to face whatever is there." Jack was shaking her head. "On my own!"

"Jack…" He stood up and closed the gap between them faster then she thought was possible. He grabbed her arm before she was able to twist away and she wasn't able to get away once she was in his grasp.

"Don't touch me!" She said as her voice quavered and she was glad that she hadn't put her hair up as it fell partially across her red face. She found herself shaking again, with a combination of suppressed anger and hurt. "I don't want to fucking hear it."

"I will touch you!" He barked at her and it only made her struggle more. But she knew she wasn't going to get away unless she thought up something slightly more spectacular then a tug.

"What? So you can add me to your list of skanks that you've fucked? Jack, your little whore!" She glared up at him, tears filling her eyes. Her jaw was clenched tightly and her chin quavered slightly as she fought for control over her emotions. Why did he have to go and swing an underhanded blow like that? "Fitting isn't it."

"Jack…"

"Just so you're aware." She said, one tear slipping down her cheek. "I've only slept with one man and that was just because it felt right, all those men that I told you about I learned skills from, engineering, different types of fighting skills, medic skills are you getting the picture? I did NOT fuck them!" Jack took a deep breath and wiped another tear away with her free hand. "Welcome to my life Riddick, I go to that club mostly to work on my down time so I can pay the bills and keep my ships running. When I go there to have a little fun, I've never had anyone look at me in comparison to the rest of the girls in there and compare me to a whore. Next time I'll stick to a jump suit, my piloting gear or grubby coveralls, or would a pair of jeans and a tank top be too revealing?"

After her speech she tired to break free of him again with a sharp twist but it didn't do her any good so she just stood there, looking defiantly at him, her anger making her breathing slightly heavier and her jaw clench. He said nothing at first, just looked at her with a typical 'no shit' expression on his face. This was Riddick…why had she let herself forget that?

"Feel better now?" His reply was a hard slap across the face.

"Don't you dare!" She snapped, her tone icy as her free hand snaked out and slapped him as hard as she could manage across his face. "You wanna know what would make me feel better? What would make me feel better would be for you not to have accused me of being a whore or you letting me go and pack my things and letting me leave without saying another word to me because you can't take back the things you say!"

"Jack you're not a whore. I shouldn't have said that."

"Ever heard the expression; from the heart the mouth speaks." She shook her head; he wasn't getting out of it that easily.

"Jack…"

"Let me fucking go! I don't care if you meant it or not, you said it." She glared at him and they fell back into silence, a silence that felt like it lasted for hours though it was only minutes and during those minutes she seethed.

"Are you going to listen to me now, Jack?" He asked softly.

"Why the hell should I? You've made me feel like a low life piece of shit and now I'm meant to listen to you? I don't think so!" Jack growled. "Now let me fucking go!"

"Not until you listen to me."

"Then fucking talk." She snapped, glaring at him.

"I shouldn't have called you a whore Jack. You got me riled up last night when I found you in that club looking like… god, you were so damn seductive and the way you moved… All I wanted to do was make you mine and let all those fucking guys know it, make them realize that they couldn't have what didn't belong to them." There was a possessive snarl in Riddick's voice as he spoke and Jack wanted to hit him over the head with something hard and scream 'Caveman' at him at the top of her lungs.

"I don't fucking belong to you either, so that little plan of yours was just slightly flawed." She said instead with a tone that said the rest quite clearly.

"You belong to me more then you belong to anything or anyone else in the worlds Jack and I intend to keep you." He was adamant.

"Well you're not doing a very good job of it are you, calling me a whore and all." She said dryly and he chose to ignore her words. He used a hand to gently wipe the tears from her eyes, the look on his face as intense as his tone had been.

"I need you to understand that I don't share with people and I don't play nice like the other guys you've dated. What's mine is mine and anyone who touches what's mine gets burned." There was that possessive snarl again and she gritted her teeth against the tenderness in his touch.

"I'm not dating you. I'm not fucking you. I'm not in any sort of relationship with you past friendship. Get over it." She glared at him.

"Don't twist this Jack. I've already told you, you are mine."

"I wasn't asking you to share Riddick, there is no one out there but you that I'm interested in at the moment but we've already had this conversation. I had better hope that you don't bloody behave this way if I do ever decide that there is someone else out there for me. I can take this kinda shit from most people but I would have expected more from you until now." Jack said and took a deep breath as his fingers wiped at her tears, his palm lightly cupping her cheek as his fingers moved almost wistfully, keeping her head tilted up looking at him even though she seemed to want to look at the floor instead. "Please, just let me go." She was pleading with him and she hated herself for it.

"I told you Jack, I'm not going to let you go." Riddick said and pulled her to him.

Then she did something he hadn't been expecting; one foot connected with his instep, her knee connected with the inside of his thigh near his groin and her arm that wasn't being held in his vice-like grip rammed into his stomach. It was the first time in her time with him that she had ever made Riddick let go of her when he was pissed off and she had done it physically.

"Thank you!" She said aggressively and started to walk away, only to have her legs kicked out from underneath her. She landed flat on her back, letting out an 'OUFF' as she hit the floor, the bruise on her back throbbing again.

Riddick was on top of her before she was able to get her breath back and move; he pinned her arms tight at her sides and glared at her. He was angry as hell and she had made him that way and she didn't know what to do next. Then she found herself laughing, of all things she could have decided to do at that moment, she was laughing and she didn't care if it made him more angry at her or not.

"What the fuck are you laughing about?" Riddick growled at her.

"This whole thing is just really, really funny. I mean, think about it from where I'm laying. I've been waiting for you to touch me and refuse to let go for weeks now but it's only after you see me dressed the way one of your fucking skanks dressed for you once or twice that you stop talking bullshit and act on your fucking feelings. And it's only after you call me a fucking hoe that you wanna touch me and won't let me go which is right around the time when I don't want you touching me and I would rather that you did let me go." She laughed again, trying hard not to concentrate on the fact that the object of her desire was hovering above her, his face inches from her's, the perfect contours of his body not far enough away for her to imagine it away. 'Not fair!' Her mind screamed.

"You're not a whore Jack, stop saying that since I've already apologized for that shit. May I add with credit that, that move fucking hurt too?" Riddick's face was less then two inches from hers, his shined eyes were glaring into her defiant green eyes, his mouth was a thin angry line, her lips curled sarcastically at the corners.

"Glad to hear I was able to give some of my own back." She said but the sarcastic smile was gone. She frowned at him. "I just dunno why you have to say shit like that. Did I really deserve it?"

"Jack, what I said wasn't right but you shouldn't have gone out like that, not without telling me. You wanna know how damn worried I was about you? You scared the shit out of me when I got back to your flat and you weren't there." He meant it and that in itself shocked her a little.

"What did you think was going to happen to me?"

"I thought that Merc had caught up with you. I got news that someone is digging for information on you, a guy who knew a little more about you and I then he should, turned up dead on New Mecca not so long ago and then his killer found Imam and threatened him for more information, most of which the holy man couldn't give anyway, not that he told him anything regardless of the threat." He answered her.

"You still talk to Imam?" The look on her face told him just how shocked that she was by that revelation.

"Rarely."

"Rarely? How did he get all of this information to you then?" She asked frowning and he suddenly wished he could take that look off her face.

"Because he has a way of contacting me and after some merc chases him about you or I, he lets me know about it. It's an arrangement that we made years ago so that I would have a better chance of keeping you safe and alive while you were with me, since I wasn't about to abandon you anyway and leaving you with Imam, even though I know he would have taken you in, wasn't an option because you made it deathly clear at the time that you hated the old man for leaving us."

"You know all of this could have been avoided if you had just told me what was going on instead of demanding that I didn't go. You know that doesn't work with me. You should know that by now." Jack shook her head.

"I didn't know until last night." He answered with a shrug.

"Then you really are an arse." She scolded and looked up at him, a soft smile appearing on his face as he looked at her. There was no regret there but she hadn't expected him to feel regret, it was enough for her that he had apologized (in a very Riddick sort of way) for what he said to her. Riddick wasn't the kind of man to apologize for or regret much; it just wasn't in his emotional and physical make-up. "I know how to be careful when I need to be and I know more then most just how guiltily I am of a good number of crimes. It's not hard for me to lay low when I know I need to."

"Did I ever mention that that whole thing bothers me Jack?"

"What you don't like the predator in me?" She cocked her head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

"Jack, don't play games."

"And yet games are so much fun to play." She answered.

"Jack, enough." He said in low tones.

"You not liking what I've done in the past two years doesn't change much, I'm afraid. The past is the past, there is no machine to change time and it's better that way, you just have to accept and live with the consequences of what you've done." She said. "It's the only way to learn from your mistakes."

"I wish I could change your past." He said and she knew he meant it as her eyes searched his and their lips were suddenly locked in a kiss that seemed to be initiated by magnetism. Because Jack's hands were trapped by Riddick's, the only way she could initiate more contact was by arching into him and he made a noise at the back of his throat that she understood all too well. Gods, he tasted better then she had ever imagined that he would.

"I'm meant to be pissed off at you, not kissing you. Not fucking fair!" Jack whispered when they broke apart and he released her hands. He chuckled at her comment as he stood up, pulling her up with him but keeping her close, her body flush with his. He knew the affect that he was having on her, damn him and he was taking plenty of pleasure in the fact that she was no longer able to think straight.

"You can try and be pissed with me all you like but it's not going to help you at all!" Riddick said as she moved into him, letting him wrap his arms around her without a fight and he felt the soft sigh that she fought from escaping her lips, her breath moving like butterfly wings over the skin of his shoulders.

She had her head buried in his shoulder as she let the remainder of her anger disappear and he knew without a doubt that he had stung her worse then he had intended too just by her actions, but then he had said some things that he hadn't intended to say. Jack had always been able to wind him up in ways that no one else could, she was one of the only people alive that could make him loose his temper.

She leaned back slightly so she could look at him better and he raised one hand to her face gently smoothing his fingers across her cheeks. She smiled softly at him, running her hands across the extremely tense muscles in his shoulders. "Relax, you're always so bloody tense, it gives me a headache."

"There's many different types of tension Jack, it just happens that I have a nice mixture of a lot of those different kinds of tension." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh? Like what?" She wrinkled her nose at him, not being able to stop herself from teasing him a little as her fingers went to work, kneading the knots out of his shoulders and neck. A habit she had gotten into over the months she had been with Bret. Riddick growled lightly from the back of his throat and she grinned at him. She loved it when he did that because it was as close to a content purr that Riddick would ever get close to making.

"You have no idea what you're doing to me."

"Oh, I have a fare idea. Remember, I'm not as innocent as I may look." The look on his face that she got as a reaction to her words made Jack laugh before pulling him in for a hot opened mouthed kiss.

"You're just encouraging me Jack." There was a breathy warning there a few moments later that she totally ignored as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her in tighter to him, close enough that she could feel just how she was encouraging him.

"Ever think that that was the whole point?" She raised her eyebrows at him and gave him an impish smile, not even trying to pull away from him. She just looked at him expectantly with that smile on her face and her lips slightly parted, her breath already caught in the back of her throat.

"Slowly Jack, slowly." He whispered as he purposefully tilted her head and brought his lips to hers.