AN: I decided to sneak in one more chap before things got super crazy with finals;-) And crazy they shall become.

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Jack spent most of the hour long drive calming down, only then did she begin to take stock of her new situation. She'd followed Riddick in the end because honestly, during her short confrontation with him, she'd felt more alive than she had in years. The thrill of a fight...of defending herself...it was intoxicating! And after all it couldn't hurt to spend a few days here giving it a chance to work out, right?

However, the first step would be actually talking to him. With his final comment, telling he she had nice moves, he'd somehow managed to exorcise her venom and she allowed it fade away for the time being. He'd approved of her grace and speed, recognized it, praised it. It had been so long since he'd actually noticed anything she'd done.

She studied him first, trying to judge if the years had treated him well. They had as far as she could tell. He looked no older than he had when he'd left. He'd gotten rid of his goggles and shades, and she suspected he was wearing contacts to protect his eyes. And more importantly, to hide the silver shine that would surly raise questions.

For the first time she noticed that he'd grown a goatee, the same kind that many business men of the day had come to consider stylish. Jack hated it, but she supposed it wasn't terrible enough to give her room to actually complain about his looks.

He was still freaking buff after all.

"So, what're you doing now? How're you making money?" she finally asked.

Jack figured it was critical enough information. If he was into stuff that was illegal, odds were good that Imam wouldn't want her to be there anyway, and she'd have plenty of excuse to leave whenever she wished.

"I work as a security system consultant through a firm in the city. They design programs for everything from stadiums to prisons and I get paid to give my professional opinion on them all. Ironic, huh?"

"Not really, who else would be able to tell them where some genius convict could find a loop hole?"

"Exactly," he said with a scary amount of enthusiasm, similar to the time when she'd asked him about his shine job back when they first met. "And the best part is, since I get to help design the systems, I know where all the back doors are."

Jack snorted, "That's cheating Riddick, now if they send you back to Slam City you'll just slip right out again. You won't have to figure out a plan first like all the other criminals."

Riddick did laugh a little, and that pleased her, but when he cut it short and sighed deeply she knew the fun might be over and braced for whatever was coming.

"Jack, you're going to have to get used to calling me Rick, my name's Rick Costello now. People would still ask questions if they heard the name Riddick."

She almost sighed with relief. For a second there she thought she was in for a lecture for something or other, she'd endured hundreds of them, and usually could pick out the telltale signs of when one was coming.

"I know, it's just...I never thought of you as anything but Riddick."

"Yeah, me either kid, but things change."

"Not everything," she finally said upon hearing him refer to her as 'kid'.

Jack turned away from him, allowing her forehead to rest against the window as she gazed up at the stars. Amazing how they could be so different here than they were on New Mecca, yet many of them were exactly the same constellations of stars that she'd seen on every other planet she'd ever been on.

After a time of silence she felt Riddick's eyes on her for brief periods, and she wondered if that lecture was in the making after all. Eventually there would be one, she knew. After all, he would have ground rules for her to follow, even more than Imam had set on her because Rick wasn't the man everyone here thought he was. She knew his secret, and was at risk to let it slip.

"I miss Imam," she said softly at last, breaking the silence. "I hope he doesn't die."

"Everyone dies," Riddick replied simply, immediately, and without any seeming emotion.

"I know, but I don't want him to go now, I've only had him in my life four years. I won't have anyone I can call family when he's gone."

She expected him to deny the truth of that statement, insist that she would still have him, even if soon it would be time for Imam to return to Allah. He didn't say anything though, and that in itself hurt her a great deal.

In spite of her loathing of the idea Jack had become somewhat domesticated during her years of living in a loving home, and she wasn't entirely sure she was up to the challenge of living the life of an unattached child on the run from the state. Sure she had a little money now, unlike then. She'd saved up from her part time jobs just in case. But things were different now. She didn't want to return to the fear, the anxiety, the dishonesty that the path she'd traveled at such a young age had contained.

But if it came to that what choice would she have? This arrangement with Riddick was only temporary. Neither of them had been able to stand to share a roof the last time, and as far as Jack could tell nothing had changed since then, not really.

While she was lost in thought they'd pulled into a neighborhood that was packed with neat little cookie cutter houses, mostly white or some form of light earth tone. They didn't have picket fences but she figured they might as well have, considering how stereotypically American 20th century they all were. There were even lawn gnomes set up next to the driveway Riddick turned into, lawn gnomes and a bird bath, and what looked like a scene out of Bambi complete with a fawn and rabbit.

Jack tried hard not to gag. No way was living in a place so frustratingly homey Riddick's idea. Shella must have been behind it. Actually, considering how tame Riddick's whole lifestyle had become, Jack figured Shella was probably behind a lot of things.

"This it?" she asked, not in the least attempting to hide the dread in her voice.

Riddick smiled softly as he gazed at his perfect little white house. "Yup, home sweet home. No place like it in the galaxy."

After he got out of the vehicle, Jack really did gag.