VI.

They finally had made it out of the bed and were sitting in the kitchen, wolfing down a meal; since the food replicator finally worked they actually got tasty meals to eat. It's been a long and somewhat … unappetizing … way to get it completed.

Hope smiled at the memory. Riddick had been a good sport when it came to try a bite of what the replicator had produced; most of the time he had told her that even slam food tastes better.

Riddick was curious about her smile. "What's so funny?"

"I thought about the things you had to eat when I tried to complete the food replicator."

That let him smile himself. Ugly sometimes sounded like a compliment for the 'food' he had to taste. Every now and then she came out of the kitchen where she was tinkering with the replicator, asking him to have a bite of something looking very strange, asking for his opinion. She always had tried it first and never got tired to reassure him that it was eatable and would do no harm but he still felt his stomach turn just at the memory of it. Only once he had tried to deny her request:

'No, I'm not going to eat THAT.'

'Pleeease. Just a bite.' She had looked at him with those biiig puppy eyes and those pouting lips he always had a hard time to resist.

'Not going to happen. Hope, I'm a brave man but I have no death wish.'

'Oh, come on. It looks just a biiiit strange, but the taste is good this time, I swear. I've already tried it.'

'Hope, face it, the food replicator doesn't work.'

'It will. And you know how much I hate cooking.'

'Yeah, tell me. I have to eat it.' That had gotten him a hit from her.

'Then do it yourself you jerk. You knew I'm no cook when you took me with you!'

'Yeah, but you didn't know how to fight either and you've learned it. Don't be mad, you know that your cooking in the best case is just barely non lethal.'

'Riddick, you know what, kiss my…'

He had spun her around when she started to stomp out of the cockpit and had put her on his lap. 'Mmh. Tempting offer. Maybe I'll have a bite of you. And while I'm at it I can also taste you here … and there …' He had walked the talk and the replicator had been forgotten for the moment.

The memory of them christening the pilot's chair let him come up with some ideas ...

It still was like a miracle for him how at ease he felt with her. It didn't seem strange anymore to make a joke once in a while. His thoughts wandered back to that blonde woman … Carolyn … asking him on that godforsaken planet if he didn't want to rejoin the human race. "I trusted that some part of you wanted to rejoin the human race!" He had told her that he wouldn't know how … "Truthfully? I wouldn't now how." … but Hope finally had shown him.

"What now?" Her question startled him somewhat.

Riddick shrugged his shoulders. "Find that bastard that had set us up. And quit that stupid search. I don't think Aereon had a clue where to find Taylor. We don't even have proof that he exists; she just wanted us to start the search. There are already enough of them on Furya to search for the others for themselves." After a glance at her face he continued. "We'll still search for Taylor. But at first we go back and kill the fuck causing all that trouble."

"I can't imagine that one of us would do that."

Riddick shook his head. She still just saw the good in all the people she met even if there was none. "Why? Coz of some DNA? We don't know them and vice versa. Most of them seem to be loyal to the idea of a rebuilt Furya but not everybody agrees with me as their 'leader' although I'm sure each of them loves you. As soon as we've found Taylor we'll leave all that crap behind and continue with our life." He washed down the last bite of his meal with a glass of water. "Hope..."

Oh oh … she knew that tone. "You won't nag me about not killing Simmons on the spot, will you? I've been just too furious. I've seen him with his boot on your back and he had to pay for that. And I had everything under control all along." Offense is the best defense, isn't it?

Riddick shook his head and grinned. "No, I enjoyed the sight too much to argue. But you should be aware that I'll kick your ass from here to the next universe if you get hurt coz you couldn't resist and played with mercs. Now tell me what happened." he demanded.

"The short version? Got hit, got dumped, found a friend, did my cyber thing, played ho, killed five mercs. That's about it."

Riddick didn't like her suddenly snotty tone. And he didn't like what he had heard. His face went blank. "You did what?"

Hope knew what he was referring to but something seemed to posses her and let her answer "Yeah, the hit and dump part was hard to understand for me as well." She stood up to get herself another cup of tea, ignoring his rising anger and turning her back to him.

"Hope!" There it was; belly deep, rumbling, intimidating. "What about that ho part?"

Hope was glad he couldn't see her face. She still tampered with the tea cup, her voice was casual. "Had to lure them out of the bar." She shrieked and dropped the cup when she suddenly got twirled around and stood face to face with a very angry Riddick.

"The ho part!" he thundered. His hands dug painfully into her upper arms, the vein on his temple was pulsating, he was the allegory for intimidation and rage and anybody less than Hope might have pissed his/her pants by now.

If she hadn't decided to not get frightened by him a long time ago her knees would have buckled under his glare. She knew she shouldn't have brought it up again but the damage was done and she refused to be intimidated. She held his gaze when she snapped at him "You are hurting me."

Riddick immediately released her. "All right, I had that coming. Are we even now or will you continue with that immature game?"

He left the kitchen without giving her the chance for an answer. She hadn't intended to enrage him, just wanted to rub it a last time in his face that she still wasn't completely over his ignoring her decisions; in fact she was more than surprised by his extreme reaction.

She was curious enough to follow him to the cockpit and to ask him. He sat there, staring out in space, his jaw clenched, his hands fisted; he was visibly struggling to calm down. At first Hope thought that he wouldn't answer her and he still stared outside when he finally choked out between grind teeth:

"Coz you are mine and nobody touches what is mine!"

His answer surprised her even more. First she was baffled but then she got angry.

"I just had to open a few buttons and to drink a shot with him. A drunken merc follows you everywhere when he sees enough cleavage. He didn't touch me once and he was dead before he knew what was hitting him. And how can you think you own me? Have you lost the plot? Maybe, and just MAYBE I am with you … but I'll never ever be your property!"

And it's been her then who turned around and walked away without as much as a glimpse back.

It's been a silent journey back to Furya. Riddick was brooding and Hope not in the mood to lighten him up. They had looked through each flexi that might contain information about the identity of the traitor but didn't find the slightest hint. Hope still couldn't get used to the thought that it had to be one of them and Riddick didn't get tired to lecture her and call her dewy eyed.

'Cryo sleep' Hope decided 'is absolutely underrated.'

The events on that planet had gotten to them but both of them refused to talk about it. At first it had seemed that they could get past it but two stubborn people not able to talk about their feelings together on a tiny ship stuck with a frustrating search for a backstabber was a situation calling for trouble. Hope couldn't put up with Riddick's possessiveness and he couldn't understand her rage about it.

They nearly had reached Furya and Hope sat alone in the kitchen, wading through a mountain of flexis. She felt lonely and was fed up with the silence and Riddick's coldness. He had once told her that he was not an easy person to live with and he was absolutely right with that; it would be up to her to make the first move.

She abruptly stood up and dropped the flexi on the table; things couldn't go on like this. She found Riddick in the cockpit. Again.

"Riddick?"

He didn't look up from his research but she couldn't sense any rage in him.

"Hm?"

"Riddick, I hate it when you are mad at me. Can we please talk about it?"

That got her his attention. He watched her for a whole minute before answering her, still stony-faced.

"I'm not mad at you. If I remember correctly you are mad at me."

She knew he wouldn't make it easy for her but she was willing to do everything necessary to clear the air.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. For a while I thought I'd lost you and seeing that merc with his boot on your back didn't help either. I was still freaked out and …" She paused for a moment, chewing her bottom lip. "I wouldn't have liked it but I'd have done anything to get you out of that ship and your reaction hurts me. You made me feel like … if I'd have done something awfully wrong … like if I'd have betrayed you." She sniffled, struggling for words. "And … you know … I mean … you know that I'm yours, don't you?" Hope had her eyes fixed at the armrest of his chair, not yet ready to look into his face; she was too much struggling for composure.

Her voice was thin and Riddick could tell that she was short of crying. He hated it when she did that; he couldn't stand seeing her that miserable. His face softened when he took her hand to pull her on his lap. He enveloped her in a tight embrace, tucking her head under his chin. He nearly choked on the words but he said them nonetheless: "I'm sorry, Hope."