Daddy's Little Girl

By: PiercingPrincess

Disclaimer: Don't own TCOR or Pitch Black or Riddick (damn) or Jack or Imam. Nor am I looking to make any profit off of this. Don't sue…please?

Summary: Absinthe Arleen knew her father was a little on the dark side, having left her, her two older brothers and her dying mother to fend for themselves when she was only four,
but she didn't really know how deep that dark side went, or how much of it he passed on to her.

Song Used: No Song Used

Chapter Two: Story Time

Note: I'm just going to go ahead and apologize for the long wait. I don't know what happened with this story, but I'm going to try to keep it updated as much as I can. Again, please forgive me for the long wait, and I promise more chapters in the future. Thanks!

It's been two days since I met my father; two days in which he crashed in my room while Jack and I shared a bed. Two days of awkward glances, or damn near complete silence, or meals finished far too early just so we didn't have to be in the same room together. I was surprised at his childish behavior. I wasn't fully avoiding him; I had work and school, both of which took up a lot of my time. And then there were my after-work jobs that I did and the hours that I spent in front of the Com trying to find new ways for Jackie and me to hack into new software.

This morning, when I was on the verge of opening my eyes and stretching, I felt him in the room with us. Aware that I should be a little creeped out he was watching me curl up next to Jackie on a twin sized bed, I just snuggled into Jackie's warm embrace and sighed as if I didn't know he was standing there and watching. My sunglasses, a different pair, were sitting over my eyes. There was a strap that wrapped around the back of my head to keep them in place when I slept so they wouldn't fall off and my eyes would be blinded by the sunlight pouring into the room. I used these to my advantage and peeked open my eyes to watch him.

He was standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, his goggles around his neck. He was leaning against the doorframe just staring at us. Correction, just staring at me. For once I saw Riddick's face unguarded, and it shocked me. His brow was wrinkled as he stared, his mouth turned into a frown. He was worried about something, I realized. If it was the Furyan blood he'd passed on to me, he can stop worrying about that. I've had the Furyan side of me controlled for a few years now. And then his eyes flicked to mine and somehow I just knew he knew I was awake.

I took my time yawning and stretching, bumping Jackie accidentally and waking her. When we finished our morning routine of taking twenty minutes to get out of bed, Riddick was long gone.

-RIDDICK'S POV-

Watching her sleep probably wasn't the best way to observe her, especially since I had no fucking doubt in my mind that she knew I was standing here. I just couldn't help it. I was conflicted. She was part of my family, of my flesh and blood, which meant that she belonged to me. She was mine. But she didn't need me, didn't even seem to want me around. She got up in the mornings, went to work, did school online and then disappeared into her bedroom.

Her bedroom. I was crashing there until Jackie sent me on my way, which I had a feeling wasn't going to be until Ab and I made up. Her room, everything in it, smelled like her. It was dark, no windows, and simple. A queen sized bed with black sheets and blankets, a dark wood dresser, a little closet and a punching bag over in the corner. I gotta admit that the punching bag threw me off a little bit.

I had expected to lie on her bed and stare at the ceiling all night, thinking. But as soon as my back hit the bed, her scent surrounded me. Sure I stayed up thinking for a couple hours, but I wasn't thinking how I fucking thought I would be. Her smell was comforting, was relaxing. It was a mix of fire and roses, like burning flowers. She smelled like home.

Nine Years Before The Crash

He walked into the door, his blood soaked clothes clinging to his body. Making sure not to wake the other residence in the house, he trudged upstairs, threw his clothes into the washer and stepped into the shower. He scrubbed the drying blood from his body, hanging his goggles from the counter so they wouldn't get wet. The lights were off, the water was hot enough to turn his skin a soft shade of red. Outside, a little girl sat down in front of the bathroom door. She did this every night, although even she didn't know why. She wasn't even two years old yet, barely over one, with curls of black hair around her pretty face. Those eyes, his eyes, stared up at him when he opened the door.

He stood in his cargo pants and stared down at her, pausing to gather his towel and the bloody rag he'd used to clean himself. He stepped into the room next door and tossed them into the wash as well. When he turned around, she was still sitting in the hall, staring up at him. When he knelt down in front of her, his tough guy act faded.

There's only two people that he knows of that can make his bloodthirsty monster purr like a little kitten. One was this girls' mother, who was sleeping in a room down the hall. The other was this girl. She was his daughter, his flesh and blood. She raised her arms and grabbed at the air with her little fingers until he picked her up and stood. She giggled when he threw her a little and caught her. Even though she was little, in the back of her mind she knew that this was one of those moments that would rarely ever happen. He never let his guard down, never.

Unless he was with her.

I snapped out of it when Jack started stirring and left quietly. While I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table with a mug of coffee in my hand, I let my mind wrap around how strange this all felt to me. And then something else hit me.

What the fuck was I going to tell Ab when she wanted to do that stupid bonding shit that Jack's been talking about? I can't exactly tell her I'm still a killer…can I?

Laughing caught my attention as Jack and Absinthe came running down the hall. Jack beat her into the kitchen, a mischievous glint in her smile. She wore her sleeping clothes still, a pair of shorts and a wife beater. Damn has she grown up…and then Absinthe came colliding into her, sending them both to the floor. She was dressed in a pair of baggy sweatpants and a tank top, her long hair pulled up into a pony tail and…

I stiffened when she stood, her arm around Jack and Jack's arm around her. They were grinning and out of breath. A typical morning. Except they weren't dressed for work, they weren't running around making breakfast and getting ready. They were standing in the middle of the kitchen, grinning like morons. And Abs was wearing my goggles.

She noticed me staring and smiled.

"Ya like 'em?" Jack asked, grinning. I didn't say anything. "Well good because you're going to be seeing a lot of them today. I'm going over to Jackson and Jericho's to hand and you two are gonna be stuck here for a while." She hugged Ab and then took off towards her bedroom again. Ab stood there awkwardly, rubbing her arms and looking everywhere but at me. "I don't hear you talking!" Jack yelled.

"Oh can it Jackie!" Ab yelled back, a smile playing on her lips. "You're so nosey!"

"It's for your own good. Now TALK!"

With a surprised yelp, Ab sat down in the chair across from mine and smiled uneasily. "Erm…hi?"

-ABSINTHE'S POV-

Jack had been long gone. Our conversation had consisted of nothing more than simple questions ("You go to school?") and even simpler answers ("Yup."). I felt like I was going to explode. For three days my father has been sitting across this table from me every morning and this is the first time we've talked. I wanted to tell him everything. How I felt, how I think he feels, how I'm not really that angry with him for running anymore because I've been in that position too…

"Jackie and I are hackers," I blurted suddenly. I saw his eyebrows rise in surprise. "Well Jackie more hacks than I do. I track and find new ways for her to hack, so naturally I know a little myself." Realizing I was starting to ramble, I took a deep breath and slowed down. "Jackson and Jericho taught me how to track people, that's what they do. We all do a little of everything, but hacking is Jackie's focus, tracking is the twins' and…hunting is mine."

"Hunting?" He grunted.

I nodded. "I'm a part time bounty hunter. My boss knows I have another life and works my schedule around that. During the day I work at the gym, go to school and when I get home, I hack and hunt."

"Double lives."

"Look who's talking." The comment was out of my mouth before I could stop it. His face darkened a little, letting me know I shouldn't be treading that water. But I always did what I shouldn't. "What!" I snapped, standing. "You led a double life for almost five years before you left. You think I don't remember now?" I faced away from him, leaning on the counter. Ever since I saw him I've been having my memories hit me in waves, seeing things I shouldn't be able to remember. Him walking out of the bathroom with a blood soaked rag, him dumping bloody clothes into the washer, him picking me up and letting his guard down just the slightest.

And then I felt him behind me. How he managed to move so fast when he was so big surprised me. I didn't turn around, didn't even dare. For his sake, I told myself. Not mine.

"How much do you remember?" He asked.

"I remember you coming home late, and I'd be the only one up. I'd wait for you when no one else did. I remember you swearing to protect me, falling asleep with you on the couch watching TV. I remember you leaving…" Now I did turn around. I slid the goggles off my head and placed them in his hand. "I'm not mad at you for leaving Big Bad," I said. His lips twitched into a brief smile when I used Jackie's nickname for him. "I've been in that situation plenty of times."

I stepped around him and gathered his cup of coffee in my small hands. I stopped in the doorway and took a sip, looking back at him. He was still standing by the counter with his goggles in hand. "A postcard or two would have been nice," I said, grinning crookedly. "I've always wanted to see Crematoria."