82) I Started Running But There's No Where To Run To

"Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ." He'd had vague worries about this sort of situation when River had presented her plan.

He hadn't much liked having someone on the boat with no loyalty to the crew or Mal even before River's plan though. That was a danger to all of them. He wasn't a nice guy; he wouldn't have minded throwing her off the boat right after Jubal Early had made his move (and been put down like a dog, which he still thought about with great pleasure).

He hadn't thought Bea would try something like this. Hadn't gotten that specific in his mind really. He'd known, the minute he showed his face, the possibility of mercs being alerted that he was alive. Even if within a day he 'died' in the desert, there would be mercs who wouldn't believe it.

A ship crash, sure. All souls lost. That they might believe, though he wouldn't have been surprised if a few of the more enterprising clans retraced the Hunter Gratzner and found the wreckage. They'd never find the bodies (thank you sky sharks), but the crash site would tell a tale of its own.

He might have been able to stay 'dead' for the rest of his life, working on Serenity and keeping his head down. Even that was risky since he wasn't exactly hiding his existence, only his name. But Carolyn had been right. His reputation said he was a loner, no use for other people, he'd never stay on a boat like this, work closely with a crew, develop ties.

He'd had his doubts he'd be able to do it. Had wondered how badly other people would grate on him. Hell, he'd been concerned about sticking with Carolyn and Jack and whether or not he'd be able to stand that. His ladies.

But he'd liked Serenity. Pretty much liked the crew, took a while to get to know them but none of them tempted him to find the sweet spot. Mal, a good Captain, fair and not a yānguò de huàidàn when things went wrong. He'd never met a more unflappable First Mate than Zoë, and Kaylee, for all her cheer and candor, was a genius mechanic. Simon was a little harder to know, polite and reserved, until he was around his sister or Kaylee. Riddick would never have guessed upon meeting him that Simon would work so hard to take care of his crew, to help Riddick with his eyes. Inara…she was helpful, kind, compassionate and distant. Not part of the crew but she wasn't rude to him either. And helpful, as much as she could be.

And River. He didn't have words for his initial reaction to her. Lust, for that mouth, skin, hair and body. Curious beyond belief about the way she spoke, the way she moved. He'd felt a funny kind of kinship, when she'd understood what he meant when he talked about cherry trees. And then he'd seen her teaching Jack and that curiosity and kinship had ratcheted up several notches because that was tiān shā de unusual. Getting to know her…learning about that adaptability, seeing how skilled she was with a gun or blade, and damn did he like her brain. The woman was a genius and when she came up with a plan it was almost guaranteed to work.

Everything he learned about her just made him want to learn more. That was a first for him.

He'd done this to himself really. He'd agreed with River that her plan was the best, safest, way to get Zoë out. Mal had come up with a plan too but the chances of it working…were kinda slim. Mal's plan involved the mule, most likely a gun fight with the potential for injuries, and it would put the ship on the run from the Alliance for certain. Mal didn't seem to care about that (at that point anyway) but it was a short-term kind of plan. River planned for long term.

But now there were people who knew he was alive. Would try to track him to Serenity. If mercs found him here the entire ship was in danger. He wouldn't have cared about that before Carolyn's challenge. Would've said that was their problem, not his. He looked out for himself first.

Now…tiào chū fǔ dǐ jìn huǒ kēng. If Bea hadn't already given him away it would come soon. If she lived. And he didn't think Mal had it in him to kill her just to silence her. And he'd be really unhappy with Riddick if Riddick did it for him. Truth be told, since arriving on Serenity, Riddick had been a lot more hesitant to kill someone who wasn't trying to kill him. Honestly, it hadn't been an issue until now. Everyone he'd killed had already been trying to kill him.

It had been a nice change truthfully.

So now he figured he had two choices. He could run. Leave Serenity, River, the crew, his ladies, and make it completely obvious he was somewhere not on the ship and then go to ground again. Start the whole cycle of lying low, getting caught, escape and repeat. He could kill Bea and hope River could erase all the tracks (or an effective amount) of what Bea had done on the cortex. That would piss off Mal and he might end up having to leave the ship anyway.

He couldn't see any other options.

A day out from Dyton. River hadn't said anything about the internal debate he'd been having. He knew damn well she was aware of it. There wasn't a damn thing the woman wasn't aware of when it came to him. No one knew him better, not Carolyn, not Jack.

He wasn't any closer to figuring out what to do. Trying to find a third option and coming up with zilch. His temper was gorram close to foul and only stopped short of that because River managed to soothe him enough that he didn't bite the head off every crew member who came near him.

Speaking of River, here she came, with that gorgeous gliding step that just tantalized everything in him. Every now and then it hit him all over again how beautiful she was, how lucky he was that she'd chosen to be with him. Those long perfect legs as she turned and locked the door behind her. She rarely wore a skirt, but she had one on now, and no shoes.

"He worries," She smiled, a sweet, concerned curve of her lips and straddled him as he sat in the pilot's chair. Her hands settled on his shoulders as she leaned down to press a kiss to his mouth. Instinct, reflex, to put his hands on her, that slender waist, rub one palm up her spine and the other down to her ass, pulling her closer.

"Yeah," No point lying to her. "Situation ain't good."

"He flies Serenity, situation rarely is," She murmured against his lips and her hands tugged his shirt out of his pants, her palms caressed his chest. "Not used to having people behind him, believe in him, care about him."

Well with the blood from his brain rapidly draining to his dick thanks to her, he wasn't feeling terribly coherent, but he could agree with that. "No," His fingers found the hem of the skirt and slid under it, up her thigh and found absolutely nothing between her ass and his hand. "No, usually on my own."

"Not on his own anymore," She pulled off the thin sweater and he groaned. Nothing on under that either.

"You tryin' to seduce me into putting you all in danger," Riddick pressed his fingers between the cheeks of her ass and felt her warm slit, growing wet as he touched.

"Seduce him into listening to his woman," She admitted as she unbuttoned his fly. That nearly did the job right there, 'his woman' and he groaned as she drew his cock out of his pants. "Working?"

"Mā lege bā zi, baby," He pressed his palm between her shoulder blades and her back arched, pushing her breasts up to his mouth for him to suck and nip at the tight dark rose tips. He loved her moan and the shiver of her skin, how he could feel her pussy get so hot and slick. "You know my brain ain't workin' right now."

"Hmm… āi yā," That low elegant voice, breathy with want. "Riddick…"

"Want to ride me," Riddick pulled her skirt out from between them, using his thumb on her clit and felt the shock of sensation roll through her body. Since he'd asked the question as he moved back and forth between her breasts, sucking them into his mouth with long hard pulls, she wasn't really able to answer him, the only sound she could make, those gorgeous moans he loved so much. Damn he loved that her genius brain fizzled out when he touched her like this.

"Yuàn Fótuó réncí," River's hands clutched at his shoulders. "Riddick please…"

"Ride me River," He growled against her breast. "Wanna be inside you." Her legs trembled as she lifted her body, and he gave her ass a good squeeze as he helped her rise over his cock. Wrap a hand around his dick and rub the head against her (fuck, so wet) before she began to slide down him with a long low moan. "Oh, cào dàn baby…so tight…"

"He is so deep…" Those graceful hips undulating against his, her body flexing around him.

"Too much," Riddick groaned the question as she kept pressing down until her hips met his and she ground against him with a gasp as he hit the end of her.

"Soo…sooo good…" He loved how she shivered around him, how when his thumb found her clit again, she gasped and tightened around his dick. And then she began to roll her hips to his and he thought his eyes would roll back in his head.

"Tiān shā de River," He loved her neck, the sensitive skin there, how she trembled when he sucked on her collarbone and growled his enjoyment of her taste. "Can you come like this baby," Take her tits in his mouth, back and forth, suck harder and harder, feel her pussy clench around his dick.

"Fuck me Riddick," The words of a command but the tone pleading, and he put his hands on her hips, grasping her firmly and began to pull her on and off his cock, letting her feel how he hit the end of her with each stroke. Her fingers on her clit, working that hot little bundle of nerves as he sucked her tits, and he could feel her body gathering tightly around him. "Ohh…oh god…Riddick…"

Suck a love bite into her neck as he tried to hold back, wait for her, and shudder as she bent her mouth to his jugular and scraped her teeth over that sweet spot. Fuck that was a kink he hadn't known he had, and he lost it, roaring against her skin as he jerked her hips down and ground into her. Empty his balls into her womb as his cock pushed even farther, tight, slick, hot flesh around him.

"Tā mā de niǎo," He shuddered and kissed her. He'd lost control, left her behind, and she was still trembling with need. "Gonna take care of you River, just stay right there," He'd get hard again inside her, take longer to come the second time, and he'd be damned if he didn't make this good for his woman. Hands still on her hips, adjust his grip so his thumb pressed to her clit and begin to stroke it, up and down, a bit rough the way he'd learned she liked now and then. His other hand, dip between those cheeks and gather some of her slick. Tease and press, caress that puckered little hole and listen to her moans.

Damn she got him hard faster than anyone he'd ever known, writhing in his grip and trying to roll her hips again. But she came harder, faster, when he held her still, when she could strain and beg but she couldn't move in his grasp. And he wasn't going to let her, Riddick looked up as he had that thought, so clear in his mind, she was going to come, over and over while he held her, stuffed full of his dick, playing with her ass, and her eyes widened.

Shock and pleasure and need filling his nose and she jolted in his hands, the power of her orgasm crashing over her body, shaking and trying to grind against him with mewling hungry cries. "So good, so beautiful," He crooned against her skin. "We're gonna do that again and again baby. You're gonna sit on my dick and come on it, soak me with that slick and then I'll come in you after."

He loved playing with her, showing her just how good her body could make her feel, how the two of them together was even better. She shuddered and moaned, begged and mewled for him as he brought her over and over until she was close to limp, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold out any longer.

Now drive into her, hard, fast, rub her clit in time with his cock as it hammered into her body and hear her heart race as she strove for one more climax. "You're gonna come with me River," He growled in her ear and sucked on the tender skin below it. "And when I'm off the bridge, you're gonna be in our bunk and we're gonna do this all over again."

"Oh…oh…god…Riddick…please…yes," She moaned into his ear. "I'm… it's…"

"That's right baby," He increased the power in his thrusts, letting go and rubbing her clit harder, push one thick finger into her ass and feel her shocked pleasure, the beginning of her orgasm, rolling through her body and her gasp of ecstasy. "Come on my cock River," He ordered and damned if she didn't obey, a low scream stifled in his shoulder, and he groaned as his control gave up the ghost and he emptied his balls into her again.

He'd helped her get dressed, sent her to his bunk, good that it was the closest to the bridge, then got cleaned up in the little head off the bridge.

If she'd wanted to seduce him into staying, she'd done a damn good job, but once the blood drained out of his dick his brain clicked back on. Inevitable as time and taxes.

Go down to his bunk and keep his word, fuck her until they were both too exhausted to think, until his senses were full of her, and they both slept.

Morning, breakfast, and River looking at him very seriously after he'd had a cup of coffee, "Please do not leave." She said simply, "Please." She took his hand and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, "Does not know the whole of the plan. Please listen before he makes a decision."

"You been conspirin' behind my back," His mouth jerked into a half-amused smile.

"Mal conspires," River shrugged. "She only draws the inevitable conclusion." She leaned forward and kissed him, so sweet to feel her lips on his, "Please do not leave."

"Leave," Jack's shocked voice from the aft door of the galley. Yeah he'd heard her coming but he hadn't really considered how she'd react to the conversation. "Why?"

"Believes himself to be a danger to us," River told her quietly. "Bea is a problem."

"Yeah, no shit," Jack snorted. "But if she has her way, we're all screwed, not just you." She looked at Riddick as she limped into the galley with her cane. Simon had given her a couple of injections and her ankle was on the mend, but she tended to limp in the morning because the muscles stiffened overnight.

"What's this," Mal and Carolyn, him coming from the bridge, her out of the Captain's bunk. Zoë emerging from her shuttle with Emma, the only ones missing were Jayne, Kaylee and Simon.

"Rick's thinkin' he oughta take off," Jack told him plainly.

"Uh huh," The Captain shook his head. "Let's just…put that conversation off for a bit." He bent his eye towards River, "'Tross, you, me an' Rick, on the bridge after breakfast. Make sure you ain't found any issues with my plan. All the loose ends tied off well enough for safety. Dǒng ma?"

River nodded, "Dǒng de." Riddick raised an eyebrow at her, and she just smiled, "All will be explained in time."

Oh, well that was just fuckin' great. He always loved to hear that.

Jayne was the first to admit that it was his fault Bea was on Serenity. He'd thought he was following Book's advice, 'if you can't do somethin' smart, do somethin' right'. And it seemed like takin' Bea's money to find Serenity was smart. Maybe a little bit right too.

He sure hadn't figured on things turning out like this. But he felt pretty obligated to see the whole thing through, considering her being here was on him.

He checked the bag again, yep, a bottle of water, a meal size protein bar, an' a old gun with one bullet.

"Got it all here," He nodded at Mal. "They're all clean." River had wiped everything down and put it into the sack wearing gloves the entire time (hell, she'd taken the gun apart, cleaned it and wiped down the bullet, while wearing gloves). If the Feds found anything tracing back to them they'd out-geniused her and that just was not gonna happen.

"Right, let's head out to those co-ordinates River got for us," The Cap'n nodded back.

Rick had taken the pilot's chair of the shuttle and River sat in the co-pilot's seat keying the information into the console. The shuttle detached from Serenity smooth as silk and Jayne looked at Mal, "You told her yet?"

"Nope," Mal shook his head as he stared at Bea. "Figured to do that once we got there."

Jayne looked at Rick and guessed that from the relaxed set of the man's shoulders he was okay with the plan. Didn't take long to get where they were going either. But they didn't set down. Just hovered about ten feet off the ground while Mal opened the side door.

"Bea, you got three choices," Mal told the girl Jayne had hog-tied and literally tossed into the shuttle. "From where we are, there's a settlement 'bout a hundred fifteen miles west. You can try to walk there, if you make it, guess you've earned your freedom." Jayne snorted because that was damn near suicidal. Short woman, one bottle of water that maybe held twelve ounces and scorching desert heat? She'd last four days at the most. Dyton wasn't like a normal desert where you could find cactus or other places to get water. The place was a wasteland.

Mal gave the girl a chance to absorb that and gestured in the other direction, "And about twelve miles northeast you've got the Dyton Double Max Slam. You walk that way you'll live."

Jayne smirked as Bea's eyes widened. He guessed she was feelin' a little more hopeful.

"Except the Alliance has you tagged as one of the leaders of the 'New Resistance'," Rick turned slightly in his chair to impart that bit of news. When Bea struggled furiously against the gag Jayne had stuck in her mouth Rick shrugged and turned back to the controls.

"Ain't anythin' we done," Mal shook his head. "Guess when you were doin' all that snoopin' you shoulda looked for your own name. Alliance found the wreck of your boat, Early's body, an' apparently the man was sendin' regular transmissions as to who you and your crew were. So you weren't steppin' so quiet when you were looking for us either."

"You done it to yourself," Jayne shrugged.

"So you head for the Slam, you're turnin' yourself in," Mal finished. He held up the bag Jayne had given him. "Last option; got a gun in here, one bullet. Ain't enough to hijack a prison shuttle or win a fight if you end up at the settlement. But you can put a bullet to your brainpan."

Bea just stared at him. Jayne had to wonder just how much she'd bothered to learn about Mal before she'd hired Jayne to track the Cap'n down. It was like she couldn't figure how Mal could be this ruthless. This was the Mal who'd stuck Jayne in the airlock. Who had strapped bodies to Serenity's hull to look like a Reaver ship and made a run through Reaver space to get to Miranda. The man who'd led that entire swarm of Reavers back to Universe's moon in order to get the message out. Mal would stop at nothin' to protect his crew.

"Jayne," Mal nodded to him and Jayne picked her up, sliced through the rope around her wrists and shoved her out the door. She fell the distance to the ground with a muffled shriek of pain and rage. Mal dropped the bag after her and slid the door shut. "Okay Rick, take us home."

Jayne hadn't been let in on the details of the plan, just generalities, and now looked at the Cap'n. "So how much a what you said sorta was the truth?"

"Well…the prison might be fifteen miles out," Mal shrugged. "I didn't bother to memorize the numbers specific like."

"Settlement is one hundred fifty-three point four miles out," River clarified. "Transposed the numbers."

"So unless she takes the coward's way out," Rick had a smirk in his voice, not that Jayne blamed him.

"She's in a Slam, or she dies of exposure in the desert," Mal concluded.

"Will monitor the settlement and the prison to see if she arrives at either place," River commented as Rick flew them back to Serenity.

"Well, we gotta offload the cargo we brought so we'll be here for a day or so," The Cap'n shrugged.

"Plenty of time to determine the rebel's decision," She leaned back in her chair. "A relief to have her off the boat. Very loud."

"Wish you'd said somethin'," Mal frowned and Jayne looked between the two of them in alarm.

"Not terrible, just harder to block out."

"Uhh…" Now he was feelin' a little worried.

"Riddick knows," Mal waved off Jayne's stuttered attempted warning.

Huh. Okay.

Author's Note: So, Mal's version of marooning someone. Seems appropriate. But do we think Riddick will stay? I was really tempted to make this more of a cliffhanger but the chapter would have been stupid short and the next one wouldn't flow well...so here we are.

Chinese Translation:

Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ. (Fuck everyone in the universe to death.)

yānguò de huàidàn (castrated bastard)

tiān shā de (Goddam! / goddamn / wretched)

tiào chū fǔ dǐ jìn huǒ kēng (out of the frying pan into the fire)

Mā lege bā zi (fuck! / motherfucker! / fucking)

āi yā (interjection of wonder, shock or admiration)

Yuàn Fótuó réncí (May Buddha be merciful / May the Buddha be merciful)

cào dàn (damn it! / fuck! (vulgar) / Satan (loan) / devil)

Dǒng ma? (Understand? Got it?)

Dǒng de (to understand / to know / to comprehend)