CHAPTER2COC

CHAPTER 2

When Audrey and Toni had come through the door and seen him sitting at the table, they had stood stock still. Trying to figure out a way to tell Richard about the trouble that was sure to come.
He was staring at them like a snake about to strike. A very grumpy, irritated, big snake. It didn’t help the flow of words. But finally Audrey seemed to take a deep breath and gird herself to handle his anger. She was sure she was going to experience it when the tale was done.
Nervously wetting her lips, she glanced at the miserable Toni. She figured it would go better if Toni wasn’t in Richard’s sight at the time. She knew he’d never been too keen on her, though she didn’t know why.
“Why don’t you take Hill into my room and lay down?”
Toni grabbed the chance to escape with evident relief.
“Okay! Thanks, Audrey.” Walking cautiously in front of Richard as if she thought he was going to grab her, she took the baby from Audrey and hurried from the room.
Never taking his eyes from Audrey, he waited till he heard the soft swoosh of the door closing before he spoke.
“Out with it Jack... I mean Audrey. Damn, I can’t stop calling you Jack.” She would always be his Jack.
Grateful for something to talk about other than the coming mess, Audrey latched on.
“Yeah...why do you call me Jack sometimes? Zar even does it.”
Richard knew she was stalling. He’d let her have a small reprieve. A very small one.
Audrey had suffered permanent memory loss after her suicide attempt. A combination of the interrupted cryo-sleep from the crash, the trauma to her brain due to a lack of oxygen from the loss of blood and the Profearaben (a body-chemistry altering drug) in his blood that he gave her in a transfusion, was the mostly likely cause. She hadn’t remembered anything after stowing aboard the Hunter-Gratzner. Everything after that, almost a year of her life, was gone.
She didn’t remember the crash of the ship on the planet that teemed with virulent life. That she had led the survivor’s to believe she was a boy named Jack. She didn’t remember him, Fry, Imam or Zar. She didn’t remember that Richard was really Riddick, an escaped convict who turned out to be her savior and best friend. Or that Zar had taken the three weary survivor’s in when they had managed to make it to Polaris Station. She didn’t have any recollection of Zar and Richard’s being lovers. Of Richard stalking and killing a man from Zar’s past. A man named Elson Brenner who had orchestrated the horrifying murders of Zar’s child and husband years before. Who had left her raped and dying.
She didn’t remember his breakdown in the alley where he had killed Brenner. He had lost his grip on reality after watching Brenner strangle Zar to death. Or so he had thought at the time. Till Jack had come to the alley and roused him to the fact that Zar was still alive.
She didn’t remember his desertion of her and Zar. The seven month span of time where he had succumbed to the demons of his past. Sure that he was the worse thing that could be in their lives. Never contemplating that he was the best.
She didn’t remember the ugly confrontation between herself and Richard at his dive of an apartment. The physical attack he had made himself carry out. The brutal words of repudiation and humiliation he had hurled and shoved down her throat. The final threat of rape and death that had been the severing blow to the love Jack had felt for him. All done with the ass backwards idea that he needed to keep them out of his life for their own good. That all he could bring them was death and destruction. And he had. But the Alliance Security Forces and their hired mercenaries hadn’t been responsible for driving a fragile teen-age girl to slit her wrists. He had.
It had taken Jack’s close brush with death to wake him. That and the love and forgiveness of a woman he knew he wouldn’t deserve ever in a million years. But finally he’d seen the light of redemption. The chance of a new life with a new soul. The chance to be someone else other than Richard B. Riddick, convict and murderer.
For Jack’s, now Audrey, sake, he and Zar had agreed not to tell her his real name or past. Or to tell her of the rift between Richard and Audrey that had resulted in her quest to kill herself. The hadn’t even told her that she had tried to commit suicide. She had awakened a new person in that hospital bed. One who never had looked at him in fear and loathing. He was a brand new hero to her again. He selfishly wanted it to remain that way.
But old habit’s died hard. And though he loved the new Audrey, he missed the irrepressible Jack also. The Jack that had a bad ass attitude so thin you could see through it. The Jack that had shaved her head in imitation of him. The Jack that had so willingly lied about him to the merc ship they had encountered soon after escaping Taurus 2 and it’s beasts. The Jack that had cried out his name whenever a nightmare had invaded her sleep.
So he called her Jack unconsciously.
“When the Hunter-Gratzner crashed, you were trapped in your cryo-tube. Two more survivor’s, free miners called Zeke and Shazza, torched you out. You told them your name was ‘Jack.’ You did it to have a better chance of not being messed with, and maybe fool anyone looking for a runaway named ‘Audrey McAllister.’ It wasn’t until later that it came out you were a girl.”
Audrey sat stunned. She never would have envisioned calling herself “Jack.” Being that brave.
“How’d they find out?”
“I knew from the start something wasn’t quite right about it. You looked like a boy with cropped hair and the clothes. But you didn’t smell like one. There were some creatures on the planet that we had some trouble with. They tracked their prey on the scent of blood. I kept smelling blood, but I knew no one was bleeding from a wound. You had started your period and they were signaling you out. I saw them do it and put two and two together.”
Richard smiled without joy at the memory of the reaction he had gotten with his announcement that Jack was a girl. The smile turned more sincere as he watched Audrey’s face turn red. She had been embarrassed by his mentioning her period. It always amazed him how people were so uptight about the natural workings of the body. They were just part of being human. Disgusting to him was watching a man’s entrails escape from their cavity due to a shiv swipe. Disgusting was a mother selling her child for drugs. Disgusting was throwing a baby to it’s death in a trash bin. Disgusting was watching an officer rape a child.
“Oh.”
The one word sentence she uttered let him know she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Afraid he would say something embarrassing again.
But she wasn’t about to bring up Toni and Hill again either.
He would have to drag it out of her.
So be it.
“Why are they here Audrey?”
Audrey sat down in the chair next to his, earnestness and anger pouring off her in waves.
“Her stepfather raped her! He’s been using her ever since her mother died. She’s thinks he killed her! What kind of man does that to his own family? A kid?”
Audrey ended with tears in her eyes. Looking to him to explain why life such a bitch.
He returned her stare with studied nonchalance. Inside he was seething with the rage that always seemed to inundate him whenever someone hurt a kid.
He couldn’t give Audrey the answer’s she needed. They were answer’s she needed not just to explain Toni horrible life, but also to explain why her own earlier life was so sucky. He knew there was more to her past than she had told them. Actually she had told them next to nothing. Neither he nor Zar knew what had made her run away. The therapist Zar had sent her to after the wrist slicing affair most probably was the only one who knew.
Richard knew the repercussions of repressed memories. He’d seen Zar almost torn in two because of them. As long as Audrey didn’t show any signs of emotional distress because of it, he was fine with the situation as it stood. Something’s a man just didn’t want to know about the people he loved. Things he couldn’t do anything about.
“Some people are just warped fucks, kid.” His mind gave a snicker of self-disgust. Not so very long ago they were saying the same thing about him.
In all truthfulness, was he really that different than Burt Leffner? Oh his crimes were perpetrated on a different type of victim, never children. And yes, many of the stories attached to his legend were just embellishments to raise the bounty on his head or make more money off his name in the prison fights organized by the warden.
But those facts didn’t negate the fact that he had perpetrated some really heinous acts against his victims. Part of the responsibility lay with Profearaben. The drug forcibly injected into his body by the warden with a vested interest in the prison fights. It gave a person, if they survived the injection, amazing healing abilities. Along with better vision, hearing, quicker reflexes and a higher tolerance to pain. And, oh yeah, turned them into psychopath’s.
The real question lie in how much responsibility Profearaben had for his crimes and personality, and how much was just his natural state? A result of his upbringing lacking caring and love. Would he really have been that much different if he’d never been injected? Hell, would he have been different if he’d been born to a mother that had actually wanted him? It could be genetic for all he knew.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It didn’t matter anymore. He was who he was. And what he was. Rolling it over in his mind again and again accomplished nothing.
“The baby’s his isn’t it?”
Audrey looked down at the floor and nodded. Ashamed for Toni.
“He’s going to come after her Audrey. You know that. He’s not going to give up what he thinks of as being his. There’s going to be trouble. Trouble I can’t afford.”
Audrey head snapped up at his chiding tone. Anger flashing out of her blue eyes, her neck stiff with fury.
“He threatened to kill Hill if he ever saw him again! Toni told me he hates the baby. Sees it as a threat to his time with her. What was I supposed to do Richard?! Let him kill the baby?! And what do you mean ‘trouble you can’t afford?’”
“Come on kid, you didn’t really think I was clean as the driven snow did ya? Let’s just say I don’t want any attention from the ASF. That means I don’t go around inviting men like Burt Leffner into my life.”
Audrey gave him a considering look. Really looking at him for the first time since she had come to in the hospital almost six months ago. She remembered the flash of fear in seeing the tall and muscular man leaning against the wall in her room. But then she saw his milky eyes and the fascination had set in. Awe was added when she marveled at his size and intimidating face. She knew instinctively that this man would never harm her. That he would protect her with his life if necessary. It didn’t make sense considering she didn’t even know who he was.
She remembered that he almost seemed nervous around her. Like she could lash out and hurt him at any time. Ridiculous!
Then Zar had reintroduced herself and Richard, telling her what had happened over the last year. Audrey had been distracted from further investigating the strange bond that invisibly pulsed between her and Richard. When they had taken her home, she had been too busy just trying to cope. But he was always there for her. Talking to her, helping her, giving her strength to fight the fear of knowing she had lost a year of memories.
One day she had built up the nerve to ask him some personal questions. There were so many things she wanted to know about the man that represented the first true security she’d ever had.
She asked him why his eyes were like polished disks. He’d responded that he’d been a deep bed Sargimite miner and that some of them had an operation that made it easier to see in the dark.
She asked him why he kept his head so closed shaved. He’d told her it was for convenience and it kept him looking mean. She had understood the convenience part. But why he would want to intimidate people left her confused.
So she asked him why? His face became instantly closed off from her. Unsmiling, he’d told her it wasn’t anything she needed to know. She’d gotten the “don’t tread on me” message and backed off. Fearful of making him mad at her and withdrawing his friendship.
Wanting to thaw his sudden reserve she asked if she could get the same kind of haircut. She was rewarded with the biggest smile she ever seen him give. His laughter roared throughout the room as he threw back his head in joy.
Together they had shaved their heads. Zar had come in and shaken her head in smiling exasperation and confusion. But there were no barriers between Audrey and Richard after that day. Though she knew not to press about his past. She understood. She didn’t want anyone asking about hers either.
And now he was all but admitting that he was wanted by the law. She felt a little tremor of fear as the knowledge that she might have put him in jeopardy took root. She’d never dreamed there’d be these kind of consequences in helping Toni and Hill. But it still didn’t change the facts.
Richard watched as fear for him slowly bloomed over her young face. He was still amazed at the love this kid gifted him with.
Taking pity on her, he decided the milk had been spilt. He might as well as make the best of it. Toni and the baby boy were here. There was no going back now.
“Alright. We’ll deal with the rest later. Zar will be home soon and she’ll need to know what’s going on. Huh, she’ll probably be thrilled at what you did. Both of you are crazy with compassion. Even if it could get you killed!
Why don’t you get Toni something to eat. Did she bring anything to feed the baby with?”
Knee weakening relief poured through Audrey. He was going to let them stay! He would protect them if Leffner came. Richard would figure a way for this to work.
“Yeah, she brought a bag of clothes and stuff for her and Hill. I’ll go get them in a while. She’s exhausted! Can we let her sleep for little bit?”
“Yeah, fine.” He paused and a hard look came into his eyes. A calculating expression that showed he was gearing himself up for a fight. “Audrey, don’t answer the door. For anyone. Let me get it at all times. Understand?”
He was anticipating Leffner’s reaction.
“Okay. I understand.”
She got up to start getting dinner ready for Zar. Not something she usually did. But she figured she owed the two of them extra housework since she was dumping some pretty heavy duty shit on them.
It made her grateful that she had the kind of family she did.
“Thanks. For understanding. And for backing me up.”
“Don’t thank me yet kid. If it comes down between you and Zar’s safety versus Toni and the brats, well guess whose shit out luck? I feel bad for them. I really do. But I won’t allow anyone to hurt either one of you. Period.”
Audrey could only nod in understanding. Praying it never came to that point.