A Kid Like Her (A Riddick - Jack Romance/Adventure Story)

The Final Confrontation

Jack and Riddick emerged from their room only ten minutes before her mother showed up with Sophia. Needing to see his daughter, he didn't even let Kellan get three steps through the door before he took Sophia from her. She squirmed in his arms and let out a squall of hunger that Jack came to answer. She held her hands out for the baby.

"Your lunch is ready in there. Let me have her and you go eat."

He shook his head. "No way. I want her while she's awake. I'll feed her."

"Okay, Daddy. Let me get you a bottle."

In the brief time it took her to heat one up, Sophia had worked herself into a full blown crying fit, rooting at Riddick's chest for the source of her food.

"Soon, baby girl. Soon," he soothed.

Jack handed him the bottle and she latched onto it immediately, letting out a few stray mewls of discontent, just to voice her opinion about the amount of time it took for her food to arrive. Instead of joining the rest of the adults at the table, he walked to the nursery and kicked the door partially closed behind him, wanting a little alone time.

He begrudgingly sat in the rocker. Him, of all people sitting in a rocker with a baby, his baby. Yeah, even holding her, he still couldn't quite wrap his head around it. Had anyone told him this day would come he would've laughed them out of the room.  Yet here he was...rocking. After a few minutes he found the chair wasn't half bad, comfortable actually, though that was a fact he'd keep to himself.

As Sophia noisily ate, he spoke to her and she watched him, pausing every once in a while as if to absorb what he was telling her, although none of it was important; it was mostly drabble on his part just to keep those green eyes of hers open and focused on him. He was actually looking forward to when she wouldn't sleep as much. He liked her eyes and didn't get to look into them nearly enough.

Jack had finished her lunch and returned to the living room, but found no sign of Riddick. She headed to the bedroom and noticed the door to the nursery was mostly shut. She pushed it open a little more and found them. She had long finished her bottle and appeared to be asleep as he rocked her. She crept into the room and he finally glanced up at her.

"You need to eat."

He nuzzled Sophia, kissing her forehead before Jack took her from him. She laid the baby in her crib, and they went to go sit with the others in the kitchen.

"Vaako has something interesting to tell you."

"Oh? What might that be?"

"He wouldn't divulge, but I think it has something to do with Eve."

Riddick acknowledged everyone before he sat at the table across from Vaako, who appeared to have a slight smirk on his face.

"Jack said you got somethin' to tell me?"

"Indeed. First, where is Eve?"

Riddick shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. Why?"

Jack got up and flipped open an access panel. "She's still upstairs."

Knowing they wouldn't be interrupted, Vakko informed them, "She was at the construction site earlier providing...entertainment for select men."

Riddick almost choked on the food in his mouth. He barely swallowed it and chased it down with his drink. "Say that again."

"You heard me correctly."

"She was fuckin a guy?"

"Indeed, but there was more than one. By the time I left the site, two had already shared some one-on-one time with her, and then two others took the last man's place. I left after forty-five minutes or so and she arrived here an hour after I did, with wet hair. I'm assuming she showered before she came back."