A/N: new chappie! enjoy!
Chapter 2: Paradise
"Looks a lot better," Deirdra nodded, examining Riddick's leg as they both sat at the edge of the hole they'd been hiding in. "Some gnarly scars from the break and the makeshift splint. But what woman doesn't love scars?"
"You gave me half of 'em," Riddick muttered.
"Well, I had to make a splint for that broken leg, didn't I?" she shot back before shifting to examine Fisher's arm as he and Faith sat with them. "Your arm's healing up good, too. You'll both be ready for the hunt tomorrow morning."
"My first hunt?!" Fisher grinned before pumping his fists and calling, "Yes!"
"Ain't gonna be much of a hunt without weapons," Riddick retorted, pulling down his pant leg and looked out to the doorway of the temple they were in. "You and the kids stay here. I'll go out to the wreckage and dig up what I can find."
"And if you can't find any?" Faith wondered as they all watched him stand, but he kept his gaze outside.
"Then I'll make some," he replied, pulling his goggles over his eyes "I'll be back tonight. Stay outta sight…of everything."
"You should take one of us with you," Deirdra advised, standing as well.
"I suppose you mean you?" he guessed.
"Actually, I think you should take Fisher along," she replied, nodding to the teen, who grinned up at the two before she looked back to Riddick. "We spent two weeks in a hole together. I think we're both due for a break, don't you?"
"I promise I won't get in your way, Riddick!" Fisher insisted, scrambling to his feet and racing toward the two, but Deirdra noticed the worried glaze over Faith's eyes as she remained in her spot. "I'll follow your lead. You need someone to watch your back, right? With all those things out there – the dogs and bird…things – you'll need a spotter."
"And if I take the Kid with me, who's gonna protect you girls?" Riddick shot back at Deirdra, making her give him a bored stare.
"Have you met me yet?" she retorted before sticking her hand out for a mock handshake. "Hi, I'm the girl that pulled you out of the rubble back there, not to mention saved your ass more than once before that. I think we'll be able to take care of ourselves till you get back."
"Does Blondie agree with you?" Riddick shot back, nodding toward Faith, making the other three look to her fearful gaze she kept glued to Fisher. "Looks like she's ready to puke just think' about it."
"Babe, what's wrong?" Fisher asked, stepping back toward her, catching her when she threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest and shuddering with quiet sobs. "Aw, don't cry. I'll be back before you can even miss me."
"I'm not worried about how long you'll be gone, I'm worried about whether or not you'll come back at all!" Faith cried, gripping him a little tighter and making him sigh in hopelessness.
"I ain't waiting for this," Riddick snapped, irritably before turning to head out.
"Fine, then I'll go with you," Deirdra sighed as Fisher still tried to calm Faith.
"Hell no," Riddick shot back, stopping to glare at her through his goggles. "Stay with them. I'll be back."
"Riddick—"
"Stay!" he barked, making her glare back at him, but he didn't wait for her to respond before he turned and marched into the landscape.
"Asshole," she snapped, glancing to Fisher and Faith as the blonde began to calm down, the young man still holding her close. "You two up for some exploration?"
"Wouldn't Riddick want us to stay here?" Fisher asked as Faith wiped her face and sniffled.
"We're just gonna have a look around this building," Deirdra assured him, looking around it. "It's pretty big. There might be a place that's a bit more closed off where we can camp out. We'll stick together."
"What about the animals around?" Faith wondered as Deirdra led them deeper into the building, Fisher still holding Faith as he followed the red-head.
"As long as we stay out of puddles and under this roof, we should be fine," Deirdra assured her, stopping as she noticed a corner that looked a bit like a cave.
Deirdra slowly made her way toward the corner as Fisher held onto Faith's hand. Deirdra took a good look at the corner and noticed how the structure was made.
"Whoever built this built it right from the cave walls," she murmured, lifting a hand to stroke the stone. "Clever. We could stay here a while. A good long while, if we need to. And we'll need to."
Fisher ventured aside, Faith in tow, to have a look at another doorway as Deirdra examined the darkened space. The teens looked over the horizon and Faith swallowed anxiously before looking to their surroundings. Fisher looked to her with a frown of wonder as she turned back to him.
"Faith?" he called, gently as he turned to her completely. "What's wrong?"
"When the mercs took me from my home…I thought I would end up on a place like this," she replied, meekly. "Taken as a slave and stranded…in a place like this."
"Hey," he murmured, lifting his hands to cup her face and meet her gaze. "Nothing's gonna happen to you. Riddick and Dee are gonna us off this rock and somewhere we can be happy. Where we won't have to run for our lives from anything, or anyone."
Faith chewed on her lower lip and gave a nod before leaning into Fisher and he wrapped his arms around her, pressing his lips to her hairline in a comforting kiss. He shifted to rest his cheek on her head as she snuggled closer, but he gave a frown when he noticed something in the distance of the horizon they were looking toward. Faith looked up at him with a frown of wonder when he lifted his head, still looking toward the horizon, making her follow his gaze.
"What is that?" she wondered, just as Deirdra stepped up on the other side of Fisher, noticing the same thing. The sky was beginning to darken as a huge cloud rolled toward their direction…and closing in fast.
"Sand storm," Deirdra realized, grabbing onto Fisher's arm to drag him back toward their hiding places, Fisher grasping Faith's hand in a death grip. Deirdra shoved the two of them into one of the holes, shouting, "Get down and stay in there!"
"What about you?!" Faith called, poking her head out of the hole.
"Don't worry about me!" Deirdra snapped, shoving Faith back by the shoulder and into Fisher's arms before she scrambled toward one of the ends of the broken slab and began pushing it over the hole.
"Deirdra! Wait!" Fisher shouted, shoving himself out to look at her, making her stop and stare at him in rage.
"Stupid! What do you think you're doing?!" she snapped, glancing back at the ever nearing storm that was nearly upon them now. She scrambled over the slab to head toward him, and he grabbed her arm, desperately meeting her gaze. "Get in the hole!"
"Not without you!" he insisted, his grip on her arm tightening.
Deirdra growled in anger, looking over her shoulder at the storm before looking back to Fisher and sighing, "Sorry, Fish, but I hafta go Riddick on ya."
With her free arm she wound up and landed a punch to his face, making Faith shout in fright as he fell back, unconscious, into the hole.
"Take care of him," Deirdra told her before moving back toward the edge of the slab to shove it over them.
Just as she sealed the slabs together, a gust of wind shoved her forward so hard that she tumbled over the stone and slammed into one of the pillars, her head slamming into the stone so hard that her world went dark.
Night...
Riddick trudged back toward the building where he'd left Deirdra, Fisher and Faith, their weapons in his hands and belt, having found them in the wreckage. He'd stopped to fill the only canteen he found that wasn't obliterated in the crash and made his way back to the waterfall they'd found to fill it with fresh water. He then found a place to hide out during the storm until it died enough to allow him to make his way back. He stopped at the entrance and surveyed his surroundings with his glowing silver pools of eyes, enjoying the fact that what passed for a moon was a smoldering red star hanging in the dark sky.
He frowned when he heard the sound of muffled pounding on stone, and equally muffled shouting, making him turn and look to the stone slab where the sounds were coming from. He marched toward the slab and shoved it aside to find Fisher had been the one shouting and pounding on the underside of it, while Faith was huddled in a corner, sobbing.
Now both stared up at him in shock before Fisher scrambled out of the hole, demanding, "Where's Deirdra?!"
"How the shit should I know?!" Riddick shot back. "I just got back here! What the hell happened and who the hell gave you that shiner?!"
Instead of answering him, Fisher began looking around the building as Faith struggled to pull herself out of the hole.
"Deirdra shoved us in here to protect us from the storm, but we don't know what she did after that," she explained as Riddick gripped her hand to pull her out of the hole.
"She's not here!" Fisher shouted, looking over the other hole before racing around the area. "I can't find her! Riddick—!"
Fisher was cut off when Riddick shoved what he was carrying into Fisher's hands then pushed past him and toward the other exit of the in a determined march. Fisher and Faith frowned at him as they watched him before Fisher raced after Riddick who was kneeling in the sand and lifting a figure from the ground.
"Dee?!" Fisher called tossing the weapons on the floor and racing to meet Riddick halfway, seeing Deirdra hanging limp in Riddick's arms as he carried her back. Fisher tried to look her over, but Riddick pulled her out of his reach with a growl, making him frown at the man, who only kept marching to set Deirdra on one of the slabs and lean his ear next to her mouth to check on her breathing. "Is she…breathing?"
Riddick didn't answer as Faith stepped up next to Fisher, both teens staring at the scene in panic. Riddick felt her pulse on her throat, having not felt her breath fan his face, but he could feel her pulse fluttering, barely keeping her alive. He tilted her head back, plugged her nose and breathed into her mouth several times before she finally coughed up a throatful of wet sand from her saliva then turned over and took in a deep breath before hurling up her guts as well.
"Deirdra!" Faith gasped, racing to help her as Riddick stood to step back, and Fisher stepped on the other side of Deirdra as she took in a breath. Faith looked to Riddick and pleaded, "She needs water."
Riddick silently made his way toward the things Fisher had tossed away to grab the canteen and toss it to him again. Fisher caught it mid-air and quickly opened it to hand it to Faith, letting her give it to Deirdra. The red-head chugged before nearly choking herself, making her cough before she looked up at Riddick, who was only glaring at the three.
"Riddick—"
"Shoulda got in the hole with them, Girl," Riddick cut into Deirdra's call.
"Don't pretend like you wouldn't have done the same thing," she snapped.
"You ain't me!" Riddick snarled, making the teens jump and stare at him in disbelief, but Deirdra glared at him, not at all shocked or afraid. "How many times I gotta tell you?! Being Furyan doesn't mean you're exactly like me! You know you were suffocating to death before I found you?!"
"And did you know you were buried alive before I found you?" she shot back, calmly before slowly standing with Faith's help, shoving the canteen into Fisher's chest. Her voice was still raw from the sand that had been down in her throat, and her eyes were bloodshot as she glared at him, adding, "I may not be as good as surviving as you are…but I'm damn close."
"Alright, Dee, that's enough talking," Fisher advised, handing the canteen back to her. "You just puked up sand. Your throat needs time to heal."
"Fisher's right," Faith nodded, keeping her eyes on Deirdra before glancing at Riddick and adding, "I think we should all get some rest. Now that we have some weapons, Riddick and Fisher can go hunting tomorrow. Deirdra, you and I will stay here."
"Kid better not slow me down," Riddick snarled, climbing into one of the holes as Deirdra still glared at him before nodding to Faith and making her way toward Riddick.
"Guess we don't need to be closed in anymore, right?" Fisher called as he pulled his and Faith's knives from the pile of weapons between their sleeping places. "I'll wake up if I hear anything."
"Great," Riddick muttered as Deirdra settled next to him in the space, turning to lay on her side, her back facing him as he stared at the back of her head in the dark.
He gave a small frown when he noticed a spot on her head glowing a bit more than the rest of her in his silver gaze, but his frown soon fell when he realized what it was…blood. He sighed and shifted closer to her to slip an arm around her waist, making her frown in wonder, but she remained still.
"You hurt bad?" he muttered, making her frown disappear as she realized he'd seen the blood she could feel on the back of her head.
"Only the headache from slamming into a pillar then being thrown around by the wind and having sand shoved down my throat," she shot back. "If you're gonna apologize, don't bother. Just get some sleep so you're not in such a mood."
Riddick couldn't help but smirk, slightly before pulling her a little closer and pressing his mouth to the back of her head. Deirdra frowned before sighing when she felt something warm and wet run over her injury, slowly.
"You know how blood tastes, right?" he murmured.
"Yeah, yeah," she sighed again. "Like copper. It's why I carry peppermint snaps for you. Unfortunately, they fell out when we crashed, so I can't give you any."
"I don't need 'em…when I taste your blood," he replied in that low tone she loved so much, making her give a shudder. "Yours is sweet enough."
"Twisted bastard," she sighed.
"Yeah, I've been called that," he replied.
The Next Day...
Riddick and Fisher trudged through the sandstorm, both carrying their spoils from the hunt, Fisher grinning the entire time. He was sure he'd impressed Riddick before the storm hit when he bagged his first big beast, and now they were on their way back to the cave to show it off to Deirdra and Faith. He was sure Deirdra wouldn't think too much of it, but Faith would be completely impressed.
Fisher suddenly bumped into Riddick's back when he stopped, something catching the older man's attention in the storm. He heard a small, pathetic whimper above the wind whistling through his ears, making him turn to what had caught Riddick's attention. Three puppies lay in the sand, two of them dead and one clinging to life. Riddick reached forward to lift the pup and hand it to Fisher, making the teen look at him with huge eyes under his goggles.
"Wrap it in your cloak!" Riddick ordered, yelling over the wind. "We're taking it!"
"What for?!" Fisher wondered, surprised that he would want to take any kind of animal with them, even if it was near death.
"Just do it!" Riddick shot back, and Fisher obeyed, silently.
The pup hardly squirmed as he held onto it, both men trudging against the wind again and before long, they reached the cave where Deirdra and Faith were waiting for them. Once they crossed the threshold of their old hiding place and into the cave attached to it, they set everything down and shook the sand off.
"Fisher!" Faith called, rushing toward him and throwing her arms around him just as he caught her with one arm. She frowned when she heard a small yelp under his cloak and pulled back enough to frown in the direction of the sound. "What was that?"
"We picked up a hitchhiker," Fisher smirked, releasing her and revealing the pup Riddick had handed over.
"A puppy!" Faith grinned, lifting her hands to pet it, but soon saw how weak it was. "Is it sick?"
"It's nearly dead," Riddick explained, unloading their catch. "And don't go treating it like a cute little pet. That thing is gonna be trained to protect us. Where the hell did the Girl go?"
"She went to get water before the storm started," Faith replied through a slight pout over his comment about the pup. "She's probably waiting it out."
"Or being stupid again," Riddick muttered, standing and pushing his goggles up onto his forehead.
"You could talk, Big Ugly."
The other three looked to the entrance of the cave to see Deirdra in a cloak of her own to protect her and the canteens she carried. She shook herself off and pulled the canteens out from under the cloak as she stepped in, then handed the canteens over the Faith.
"I found a couple more canteens in the wreckage," she explained, turning to Fisher to take the pup from him as Riddick began constructing a cage for him out of bones he'd collected on the way. "He needs water. Faith, hand me back one of those canteens."
"I'll start skinning the eels," Fisher offered, stepping toward of the bags to open it up and pull an eel out, slipping his knife from his boot.
Deirdra tried coaxing the pup to drink the water as Faith helped her, and the red-head couldn't help but glance between Riddick and Fisher as they both worked on their tasks. She looked back at the pup as he began to drink, slowly, and murmured, "Just another beautiful day in paradise."
A/N: reviews?