Chapter 4

Riddick gave off the impression that he had been napping when she returned home for the day, little Grayson anxious to get down and run around his own home. He watched Carolyn laugh at his antics as she set a basket full of food down beside her, removing the boy's outer clothing, putting them away neatly in their place by the door before removing her own.

He was standing right next to her when she turned, the basket of food hanging from his hand.

"Oh!" She squeaked reaching out for the basket. "Did you have a good nap? I told Marty I thought it was a little soon to be getting you out and about but he was determined. I think he wanted to show the new stallion off to the herd," she said with a devious smile, dropping the basket off on the counter.

"You could say that," he drawled out thinking about the bathhouse. "Been a while since I felt that violated."

"Must have been quite a sight, the way all the men dropped what they were doing to go trotting on over."

Riddick laughed out loud enjoying the banter between them. Feeling a tug on his pants he looked down to see Grayson hanging on to him. Picking the boy up, he continued to lean against the counter where his mother was working.

"So, did they offer to move you somewhere else?"

"In with a fellow named Doolittle?"

Carolyn shuddered,"Tommy Doolittle? Hope you don't mind bugs. Or dirt."

Riddick smirked. "I told'em if it was alright with them and you, I was perfectly happy staying were I was at, at which point I was sat down and told exactly what I was getting myself into and how the community wouldn't look favorably upon that."

"Well, if you're brave enough to stay after all that, I suppose you deserve to hear the truth of it." she replied with a grim smile setting dishes upon the table. Riddick placed Grayson into his seat and sat as well.

"I grew up on a mining planet. Richest daddy on the continent." She said as she fed Grayson his dinner. "And I was determined that I was going to do something other than be known as Henry Fry's spoiled daughter. When I turned twenty-one I convinced him to let me take over one of the mines. Granted it was the worst mine, in the worst area. A real money pit. Why he still had it I have no idea. But it didn't matter, because as it turns out I was my father's daughter. I was turning a profit after eighteen months, had even doubled our production after a few years."

Riddick watched as she sat Grayson's bowl on the table, her hands shaking every so slightly.

"One night, I was in the office going over the books for the week. It was late, but I wanted to get it done. I was leaving the next week to go visit my younger sister. She had just had her first baby." Carolyn smiled in remembrance as she broke up bread to give to Grayson.

"I heard a noise outside and had just got the pistol out of my desk drawer when they broke in. I remember them taunting me about how they were going to spend the money my daddy had given them for teaching me a lesson. When my foreman showed up the next morning I was huddled in a corner, the pistol in my hand, both of them sprawled on the floor dead."

Carolyn stood, going to the sink to run water in a pot to heat. "My daddy paid the judge off to keep his name out of the news. I was given the lightest sentence of banishment from our planet since it was self-defense and all. The judge himself volunteered to escort me to Rigel 7. A newly terraformed little nothing of a backwoods planet that people were just beginning to populate. He had the audacity to tell everyone that we were married so that we could share a room and none of these fine folks would think a thing about the noises they heard. When the ship crashed, they found his body with a knife through his heart."

While all of this was related to Riddick very dispassionately with no emotion in her voice, he'd be blind to miss the tear that ran down her face. "And the boy?"

"Belongs to a dead man."

Riddick looked over at the child. "Doesn't that bother you?"

"No. My only regret is that he'll probably never be accepted by the community because of me. While they couldn't prove I'd murdered 'my husband' they were still quick to judge with an impromptu trial. I would be forever referred to as Widow Fry. No one in the settlement is allowed to call me by my first name. No man is allowed to come into my home alone, other than Marty. I work two jobs in exchange for firewood and food and I was branded."

Riddick did the dishes as she bathed the boy in a tub by the stove.

"And what about you?" Carolyn asked wanting to change the subject. "Don't you remember anything about how you got here?"

"I remember being drug out of bed and beaten, then waking up here."

"Well, that would explain the injuries," She replied wrapping the boy in a towel and carrying him to his room.

Riddick watched her go. At the very least, things would be interesting until he could get off this rock.

Later that night, someone opening and closing the front door woke him. Slipping out of bed, he padded quietly through the house. Carolyn's bed was rumpled and empty. Peering in the boy's room he saw Grayson fast asleep in his crib but no sign of his mother. Going back to his room, Riddick put on his boots and grabbed a shirt, quietly closing the door behind him.

Taking a few moments to determine which footprints were hers, he followed, coming to stop a few minutes later in front of the bath house. He could hear water running on the women's side and entered through the door. Walking around another barrier, he came to a stop, leaning against the partition. Carolyn stood in a spray of water letting it beat down on her head as she rotated her head, massaging her neck muscles with her hands. Gathering soap and a cloth he watched as she ran the soapy rag over her skin, turning her back to him as she rinsed off. He must have unconsciously made a noise as her head whipped around and her eyes came to rest on him.

"Riddick. You startled me." She said lowly turning off the shower wringing the water from her hair, not bothering to reach for a towel.

"It's late. I wanted to make sure you were alright," he said striding over to where she stood naked as the day she born.

He looked down at her.

She met his eyes. "I learned quickly to come late at night by myself."

He growled as he handed her a towel. "Get dressed."

Carolyn nodded and began drying off with the towel, Riddick not moving an inch as she dried and dressed. Ushering her from the bathhouse, Riddick hurried her along the settlements lanes back towards her home. Letting her check on the boy while he secured the door. He pulled her across the house and into her room pushing her up against a wall when she reemerged. He watched the rapid rise and fall of her breasts before her tongue darting out to moisten her lips got his attention. Tilting his head slightly he hovered his nose around hers for a moment their warm breath mingling before reaching up to grasp his neck, she pulled his mouth down to hers.

The faint sound of thunder roused Riddick from where he was sleeping, Carolyn half on top of him. Maneuvering himself out from under her, he pulled the blanket up around her shoulders. Dressing in just his pants and boots he stepped outside trying to locate the source of the noise. As he turned towards the Junk Mountains he found it. High above their peaks, dumper ships hovered, depositing steady streams of refuse on the heaps below. It was the refuse tumbling down the steep slopes that was making the noise.

Carolyn appeared by his shoulder the blanket wrapped around her. "Dumpers. They come every twenty or thirty days. Odd to see them so soon."

Sparing her a glance, Riddick watched as the ships disappeared.