AN: It's a short one, but the next one WILL be better. I swear on a stack of Bibles. Lol.


The Viper killer did do one thing for her. He scared the members of the Flames so bad that they completely forgot about her. Well, the ones that didn't flee town after Johnny Matthews was murdered even more brutally than Steve Jackson had been. The killer use the same MO. A quick, efficient knife wound to the heart, broken neck. The only difference was that Johnny's guts were spilled all over the pavement, while Steve's had been left intact. The killer was either becoming bolder, taking more time to enjoy his work, or he'd simply had an extra strong lust for blood when he'd hunted Johns down.

Jack found no comfort in either possibility.

Several members of the Flames were sent off to stay with relatives by horrified parents. Others simply disappeared on their own for a long while. The important thing was that Jack hadn't been forced to defend herself that first Tuesday afternoon of the school year. The day she found out that Steve was dead.

She went to Riddick's office after she got done with classes, wondering if she should confront him about the extremely interesting timing of Steve Jackson's murder. However, once she saw, and was thoroughly sickened by, the way he was treated by both his coworkers and his boss at work, she changed her mind. Riddick got pushed around by everyone, absolutely everyone. He wasn't a serial killer, he wasn't a killer at all. It was so obvious in the way he would laugh, pretend that it was all a joke, when the other guys were making fun of him...manipulating him...

They walked in, unannounced, just moments after Jack arrived that afternoon. Four of them, probably all in their mid to late twenties. They settled in, sitting on any surface available, whooping it up about some party, some thing they'd done, cheating on their girlfriends. All the while they went about planning their next escapade for the weekend. They spoke of freely of their plans right in front of Rick, but made no attempt to invite or include him.

Then, while she was waiting to get a chance to talk to Rick alone, to grab the job applications and run, his boss came in and screamed at him because none of them were getting any work done. It wasn't even Riddick's freaking fault! He'd joked with them, but occasionally attempted to remind them that they all had things to do. His coworkers had just been giving him shit because he never missed a day of work, even came in on weekends sometimes to get ahead. He was this asshole's best worker! And just because he didn't talk back like the other guys would've, he got pushed around?

And the worst part was that even though normally she wouldn't have held her tongue, she would've told Riddick's boss EXACTLY what she thought of him barging into a worker's office and immediately pointing fingers, she didn't. She didn't say a word. She just sat in a corner and watched her old hero take the blame without a bit of complaint. At least he didn't try to pass it off on anyone else; took it like a man in that regard. But he didn't stand up for himself.

It broke her heart to see it.

That was what she blamed the melancholy on. That was the reason for the disinterest in positively everything that overtook her in the following days and, eventually, weeks. She went to school, came home, worked out, did her homework, and went to sleep shortly after dinner. She settled into the lifestyle that Riddick and Shella dictated for her without any more fuss or bother. It was the easiest thing in the world. And she excused it, because inside, her heart felt like it had been crushed under somebody's boot.

She spoke little, rarely finding herself with anything pressing to say. Things became so simple. The regular, consistent lifestyle she settled into rocked her into a complacency she'd never known before.

Maybe, just maybe, this was what it was like to be a normal child, a normal kid. She didn't have to worry about anything. All she'd had to do was stop fighting. If only she'd known, if only she'd figured it out years before that she didn't have to carry the load of worries that so often nearly suffocated her...

Nearly killed her...

The nightmares stopped. Upon his request, she began joining Riddick at his anger management sessions, where she learned and practiced techniques for dealing with her rage. She learned how to take calming breaths, how to deal with completely unreasonable people, and lastly she learned mental exercises that she had to practice not only while trying to control how she expressed herself, but every night before she fell asleep.

After a couple weeks she went shopping with Shella, and they got along fine. She'd never seen Riddick so happy in her life. And that...that almost made it all worth it.

Everything was going great, it was so perfect. But for some reason, she still felt sad. It was like she was forgetting something, and she would try and try to remember what it was but it was always just beyond her reach. She completely forgot the verses of her rhyme. Started to forget a lot of things, actually. She didn't blame Riddick for thinking he wasn't as sharp as he used to be. That was how she felt too. Like things just dulled, hazed over.

But on the other hand, what kind of crazy person would she be if she didn't enjoy finally having a family looking out for her, so she didn't have to be constantly on the lookout? It was, really nice...

School was going great. She had some of the best grades in the class for the first time in her life. Most of her evenings were spent studying, so it was no wonder, really. She had become part of Hope's group, now as something of a lackey. But Jack couldn't bring herself to care. She liked doing things for Hope, helping her out. The girl never asked anything truly bad of her, just simple things. Things that, normally, she probably would've recognized as being drug-related things.

She went to the occasional movie and sleepover with the group, but never to any of the parties they attended. She didn't drink anymore. Didn't eat meat. Didn't do a lot of the reckless things that used to eat up her spare time.

She did finally cave, and went to one party on a Friday night with Riddick and Shella's encouragement. Her quarter-term reports came back straight A's, and Shella told her to think of the party as a reward. The thing she was too slow to pick up on was that it was quite obvious Shelly wanted her out of the house for the night, so she could have Riddick to herself. He'd been spending more time at work and with Jack than with her lately and her jealousy had never truly abated. She was just so subtle about it that Jack didn't notice anymore.

Or worse yet. Because Jack didn't care.