AN: Sorry it took so long, but here's chapter six at last. More soon, I promise.


She had to insist on carrying her own bag inside. Jack couldn't help being more than a little disturbed by how Riddick become so gentlemanly all of a sudden, offering to carry it for her. It was like he'd completely transformed not only from the hero she'd loved, but even from the man who'd met her at the spaceport.

He opened the front door for her, politely ushering her in ahead of him, pulling some slick line about 'ladies first' out of his ass. Ha, ladies first. Jack just bet he thought that one up all by himself!

The inside of his house was far flashier than the outside. There was a crystal chandelier hanging high above the entryway, and from her vantage point she could see the walls of the living room were covered with foreign tapestries and oddly placed mirrors. The worst of it all was the far too pleasant and feminine shade of pink that stood as a background in seemingly every room.

"Were the walls painted this color when you bought this house Riddick?" she asked, a little overwhelmed that he'd slipped so far. Gone so, (dare she even think it?) soft!

"No, actually they were off-white. We painted them before moving everything from our old apartment," he said, walking to the kitchen.

Jack followed absentmindedly a short distance behind. "Holy shit, you really have lost it," she mumbled, still trying to process all the antique furniture and the ridiculous knickknacks.

Richard B. Riddick had knickknacks in his pink-walled house! A whole fucking trove of them! Unbelievable.

The mere shock of it all was quickly draining her of strength, and when she entered the kitchen Jack let her bag fall to the floor and immediately collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table. However, upon looking down at the oak chair back she realized that even the chair had little heart shapes carved into it! What the fuck?

Jack rolled her eyes, letting her jaw rest heavily on her fist. "Well, I guess I don't have to worry about worshiping the ground he walks on anymore. Don't have to. It's already covered with pretty pink flower petals and the stuff love's made of," she mimicked cruelly below her host's sensitive hearing.

By then she knew it was getting clichéd, but she seriously wondered if she should try to find a bathroom before she came upon anything else 'too sickeningly sweet to behold' and her stomach decided to part ways with the space-junk she'd eaten for breakfast/dinner.

On second thought, she decided she'd better stay away from the bathrooms.

Jack shuttered upon thinking of all the horrible items she might find in one of those. Hell, the guy probably had lilac scented candles sitting around his pink heart-shaped Jacuzzi built for two. Ack!

Riddick stopped by the fridge, reaching in and pulling out a large Tupperware bottle half full of some kind of red electrolyte drink, instead of his regular beer. He asked Jack if she wanted anything, then asked her again before it finally sank in that he was speaking to her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. If you got anything hard around I'll take it," she replied absently, never thinking he might mind that according to intergalactic law she was still several months away from legally being able to drink.

Heck, he'd been the one who'd gotten her onto tequila and Jack Daniels in the first place, letting her sneak sips when Imam wasn't watching.

Riddick chuckled, bringing her attention somewhat back to the plane of reality. "Sorry Jackie, there's no booze of any kind in this house. That's rule number one by the way. We'll get around to the rest of the rules later on, but I know you've had a long day so I won't push it."

Jack absolutely could not believe her ears. Riddick didn't drink anymore? Since when?!

"What, you go out to drink?" she asked rather stupidly.

Again, she drew a rough laugh from him, but she was no longer enjoying the fact. He shook his head as he had to wipe away tears from laughing so hard. Jack was NOT amused in the slightest.

Riddick's fit of laughter soon calmed, mostly. A chuckle or two still managed to escape him periodically. "I'm sorry, really, I am. No Jack, I don't drink anymore. Shella asked me to give it up, take up her lifestyle, and I did. Looking back I have absolutely no regrets, and I hope you won't either."

I won't either? Riddick, you really ARE evil if you think for one second that you can turn me into...

Jack growled, too agitated to even complete her thought.

After a short moment of silence Riddick took a long pull from his bottle, crossing the kitchen and pausing by the phone, checking the answering machine. As the tape rolled through a couple nonsense telemarketing messages he smiled at her, and it was almost friendly.

"So, what do ya think of the place?" a hint of pride present in his tone as his gaze swept around what had become his home.

Jack looked around as well, hoping to find something semi-nice to say about it. Honestly she still couldn't believe he lived here. Maybe it was a cover for the illegal activities he was likely still up to, in some form or another.

"Um, well, it's not exactly what I expected," she admitted, looking around at the spotless tile floor and counter tops.

Did anyone really live here? It was insanely clean, nothing like Riddick's old room back at Imam's.

"I know, it's nuts isn't it! I love this place though. I seriously do nothing but sit around here on the weekends, just soaking it up."

Jack shook her head, trying to get the image of "Richard B. Riddick, pansy, loser" out of her mind's eye. "Yeah, that's great Riddick...I mean, what better to do on a Saturday night than sit around at home and look at your pink walls? I mean, I seriously wish Imam would've let me do that more often..." She honestly did try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but some of it managed to slip in anyway.

"Well, actually on Saturday nights I have to go out, I have a minimum number of management hours I have to get in every week. It's kind of a drag sometimes, cause I'd really rather just stay in."

"Whoa, management hours? What're those?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Oh, when we got here Shelly got me enrolled in these anger management and relaxation technique classes. Seriously, if I didn't go to them, I'd probably go crazy. They're great classes, I swear by them. But they're all the way across town, and sometimes it's just a hassle you know?"

Jack stood up, feeling the urge to dig in her bag until she found something sweet to chew on. "No, actually I don't know. Why are you taking anger management classes? You could be like the most controlled guy I knew. Control was like your freaking specialty, it was amazing! You could stand in the dark when we would play hide and go seek for like an hour and every time I walked past where you were hiding I never once..."

"Ah, I don't know," he cut her off. "I had some problems with handling my anger. Lots of stuff from my past used to get me all worked up sometimes, but I've dealt with it now. I'm better. I'm really active with the company racquetball team too, so any other pent up anxiety I get rid of that way..."

Jack, still digging in her bag, attempted to wrap her head around that little surprise. And failed... "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're telling me you play racquetball? Holy shit Riddick, have you become a complete God damn pussy at this woman's bidding?"

The last time Jack had lived with Riddick, saying something like that would've sent him off into a blind fit of rage. At least she was pretty sure it would've; she'd never been bold enough to try it. Anymore though, it didn't even seem to faze him at all.

He gave her a confused look. "Why do you say that Jack?"

She finally stopped digging in her pack, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Why? I'll tell you why Riddick! You ARE a God damn pussy! You're so off your game that if a merc came after you, he could dig a hole outside your front doorstep and even if he didn't bother to cover it up you'd fall in it face first on your way out the door while reading the paper and drinking a double cream latte espresso! And you can't sell me on you liking this façade of a life!"

"I love this life Jackie, it's all I've ever wanted. It's normal. I do think I know where your hostility is coming from though. I know that in the past you had feelings for who I was, you were a kid on the run attracted to the strength I represented. Your frustration is a perfectly normal reaction. I just have to tell you, I wasn't what I seemed to you at the time. This is who I always was, it just took me time to discover it. Richard B. Riddick was a shield, nothing more."

"Bullshit!" Jack snapped at him, her eyes flashing. "You can't convince me that for just a second back in that parking lot you didn't feel completely and totally alive while you were fighting with me! I know how that feels Riddick, because until that moment I thought I'd never feel it again! The adrenaline rush, the fear, the pain! It reminds you that you've still got the power to fight, and it doesn't matter what the fuck it is you're fighting for or against, the important thing is that you've got enough life in you to give it everything you've got! You used to be just as addicted to that as I am!"

Riddick shook his head as though she were too young and naïve to understand . "I'm sorry Jack, I didn't know things had gotten so bad with you. Listen, come with me to my classes, they really do help. The instructor is great, if anyone can help you deal with whatever happened to you that makes you so angry all the time, it's him."

Now Jack was positive she needed a candy bar. She at once resumed scrounging in her bag, only to find that her supply of chocolate was long since tapped, and more wouldn't be coming until the rest of her things came in the post.

"Ah, dammit! Riddick, do you have any candy?" she demanded forcefully. Surely in this gingerbread house of horrors there had to be something sugary to eat!

He smiled, wagging a finger at her. "Na, uh, ah Jack. While you live in this house there will be no junk food, and that includes sweets." he scolded teasingly. "Shella's really strict on that sort of thing. She's a vegan, remember? I know it might be a little strange at first, but soon you'll get used to the diet and you'll see how much good it does you. Once you're hooked, you'll never go back!"

Jack's hands balled up into fists and she clamped her mouth shut as hard as she could, trying to hold back the scream that wanted to erupt from deep within her chest.

She'd had no idea when she'd gotten on that ship three days before that she'd boarded the train to hell. Because surely, this was hell.

The real thing couldn't possibly be worse.