AN: Hopefully this works this time. I exported ch 28 and tried to save myself an upload by copying and pasting. Unfortunately the file didn't save correctly and I ended up reposting ch 28. Gotta hate that. Well, here it is, the REAL ch 29. And by the way,thanks to you guys who let me know that I screwed up, lol. Twas much appreciated.


Surprise number two wasn't truly a surprise at all. Dom HAD said he'd see her on Monday. She just hadn't fully expected him to follow through on the words. After all, she'd been under the assumption that he'd only said them to impress upon Riddick and Shella that he would be around.

Then again, she hadn't expected to find a rose in her locker from him after lunch, either, but it had her grinning the rest of the afternoon all the same.

That boy was just chock full of surprises.

He fell in step beside her while she was walking out of the building after school, casually handing her a flier for the upcoming homecoming dance that weekend.

"What's this?" she asked, furrowing her brow a bit as she read the neon pink sheet. They'd been posted all over the school for weeks, but in her recent haze she'd somehow managed to overlook them until that moment in time.

Conte smirked. "Thought I'd make sure you were aware that there's a dance this weekend."

Jack shrugged, crumpling the sheet up into a ball and tossing it over her shoulder. "Yeah, what about it? You know I've already got a date planned for this weekend," she said, smiling a bit as she snaked one arm around his, just above the elbow, and hugged his bicep as they walked toward the bus stop.

Her large green eyes staring up at him so complacently made him smile too, his slow gait taking on a bit of a swagger almost of its own accord. Having such a beautiful girl on his arm felt pretty damn good, as a matter of fact. "Tell me something, Jack," he began as they approached the place where the city bus would pick her up and take her to her neighborhood. "That woman the other night, that was Shella, right?"

"Don't really wanna talk about her right now, Dominic," Jack said playfully, mirth just below the surface of her pleasant tone.

Conte's grin turned wicked. "Oh, I think you'll want to talk about this, baby doll. Cause I'm just sure that I've seen that girl before while I was working. She was with a man a little older than her, like Rick. But the guy she was with definitely wasn't Mr. Costello. I don't suppose you'd know anything about that, would you?"

Jack's brow furrowed slightly. "No, I don't know anything about that. And I'm sure Rick doesn't either. I can't imagine he'd let that slide. Then again, at this point, anything's possible. But if I can, I'm going to find out exactly what's going on. I'll use anything I can get against her."

Dom chuckled. "I know, that's why I wanted to make sure I told you..."

Jack quickly cut him off. "I've been thinking, about our plan. Are you sure that you want to do your part of it? Cause if you don't..."

"Jack, don't worry about it. You do your part, and I'll do my part. I have done worse, you know. Way worse," he said, smiling suggestively as he winked at her.

Jack smacked him playfully. "Stop it, you're making me jealous! I might just call it off cause I don't want to share you with her, for any length of time! It's bad enough she practically has Riddick all to herself..."

Conte tweaked her nose, wondering if and when she'd realize her slight slip of tongue, and wonder why he hadn't said anything about it...Ah well, just another piece of the growing puzzle that she would have to fit together on her own. She was a smart girl. He had confidence she could do it. The only question would be, could she do it in time?

Her bus was approaching from down the street and he paused to slowly disentangle himself from her. "Don't worry, babe. After this weekend you'll have him back all to yourself. Then all you'll have to worry about is keeping him. I'm the one who should be jealous, really. Knowing how much you like the guy, I'll probably have to share you with him all the time."

Jack grinned up at him wolfishly. "I like that, you being jealous of Rick. Makes me feel..."

"Like your bus is about to leave without you?" Dom deadpanned before she could finish her sentence.

Her smile turned from wolfish to a bit sheepish. "Yeah, that too. Talk to you later, Domy. And thanks for the flower," she added quickly, going up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before practically bouncing over to the bus and jumping onboard.

By the time she took her seat and looked for him out the window, he was long gone.


Overall, Jack was feeling pretty dang good when she got back to Riddick's. But all her good feelings bottomed out upon noticing Shella's car was parked in the driveway. Old Horny was home early from work.

How, interesting...

Slipping soundlessly into the house, Jack was hoping to make it to her room without alerting the old bag to her presence. However, with one foot on the bottom stair, she heard the most unexpected thing. From the kitchen Shella was practically shouting at...someone. And while over the past several weeks Jack had taken that to be a fairly normal practice in Riddick's homely pit of dysfunction, hearing Shella shouting while Rick wasn't around to hear it wasn't exactly typical. As far as Jack knew, anyway...

Jack pulled off her shoes, tying the laces together and stringing them around her neck as she went into full stealth mode, silently approaching the rampaging woman in the kitchen. With her back pressed against the wall just outside the room in question, Jack did what she did best. She stood still, waited, and listened.

And what she heard, was quite interesting indeed.

"I don't care what you have to do, Michael! I've had it up to here with the little tramp! She monopolizes all of Riddick's time, and he's been acting so weird ever since she came back. Weird how? Weird like how he acted when we first started dating weird! I don't want him going back to the way he used to be, and I know you sure as hell don't either. Cause you know that if he does he'll clam up again and you'll never get your precious information."

A long pause during which Shella fumed, yet seemed to be listening to whoever was on the other end of the line. Jack held her breath, as even it seemed far too loud in the sudden silence.

"Of course this is all about me, stupid! I know we can't talk about this on the phone! I want one of your guys to come pick me up, now! Just do it!"

Another pause, shorter this time.

"Alright, fine. Fine! I'll drive over myself. I'll be there at five. I know how to make sure no one's following me, you drilled that into my head enough times. Prick."

Jack heard the woman throw the phone back into its cradle, probably nearly breaking the damn thing. Only when she began wordlessly screaming her frustration did Jack decide that perhaps it was time to go. Go and plan how exactly she was going to figure out where it was Shella thought she was going.

It wasn't until she turned to escape to the safety of the stairway, and eventually her bedroom, that she noticed Pooky sitting just a few short feet away, staring at her hungrily while very conveniently blocking her path.

Unperturbed, Jack slowly revealed the knife she'd resolved to carry on her at all times while she wasn't in school, and used the tip to point directly at the evil toy poodle. "Don't make me get shiv happy on your ass," she threatened low in her throat, trying to keep the same subtly frightening tones that Riddick used to pull off so well.

From the very beginning of their standoff, Jack knew the day had come. The day that she and Shella's prized pet would face-off, get square, rumble in da Bronx. They would go at it head to head, day and night until it was finished. Whenever and wherever it was going to take them, it started right that moment, right at that instant in time.

Jack instinctively fell into a fighter's crouch, at the ready for any sudden attack, her blade poised to send fur flying. She extended her free hand, mocking her opponent by beckoning her to strike. Jack's eyes narrowed slightly as she did the one thing that only the extremely unbalanced or the incredibly over motivated ever did.

She egged on the dog.

"You wanna get nuts, Pooky?" she asked, her voice still hushed, yet forceful. A gleam of impending victory was already shining bright in her jade eyes. "Well, do ya? Come on, bitch! Let's get nuts!"