I watched him as he slept. My best friend he had been in the past two or three weeks. I couldn't help but notice that he still held his boyish charm while he was asleep. I rode beside him on a camel in the rich, golden sand by day, and lay beside him in the cold, blue sand by night.

His sister and my friend from college, Evelyn, was resting her head on Rick O'Connell's shoulder. She was near sleep from the tiring experience we had left behind us, buried in the ruins of Hamunaptra. Raising Imhotep, fighting him off, and then finally destroying him, was tiring in itself, considering that Imhotep was in fact a mummy.

I got up from my place beside Jonathan Carnahan and sat in front of the fire, breaking up some small twigs and throwing them into the fiery blaze just to watch them crackle. A cold breeze came through to toy with the fire's dying embers and chill my slightly sunburned skin. I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder and looked up.

"Hey," Jon said softly, so as not to wake up Rick and Evy. "Watcha doin'?" he said in his best American accent, which was kind of bad to say the least. I usually took humor in his futile attempts to make fun of mine and Rick's accents, but tonight was different.

"Thinking, playing with fire, the usual," I replied dryly, without looking back at him, breaking another twig to throw into the fire.

"Mind if I join you? It is a bit cold over there since you got up," he said with a snort of a laugh.

Still staring into the flames, I said, "Sure. Have a seat."

"What's wrong, girl? You haven't said much since dinner."

"I was just playing over a song in my head, and I guess I just got caught up in it is all. Music stirs my soul, gives me life, and I suppose that when the lyrics hit home pretty hard, you just have to shut up and think for a bit."

"Well, would you want go for a walk and talk about it? The stars are awfully beautiful tonight. I'm all ears," he said, turning me to face him.

"Well, I'd rather just stay here, if we were gonna talk. If you get lost, your sister will kill me," I said with a low chuckle.

"Ah, I see. Well, we are here. What do you want to talk about?" he asked, grabbing a stick from the pile of twigs between us and proceeded to break it apart to throw into the fire.

That was a good question, and I proceeded to tell him so. "I really don't know. I have a lot on my mind, and the whole mummy thing was just crazy. I wouldn't want to go around destroying mummies for the rest of my life, but I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. Much more so than whatever they call that in college."

He laughed at this, and encouraged me to go on and tell him whatever was on my mind. I smiled to the fire as I thought of what I should start with. "You know, I never thought I would meet anybody like you," I started whilst staring into the flames. Since we first came out here, you were so nice to me. I guess that I couldn't really bring myself to trust it, because, well, let's just say that when men are nice to me, I start to run away. But I knew that I couldn't just leave Evy like that. She invited me and I was going to stick it out, just keep my distance. As we got to know each other a bit better at Hamunaptra, you and me ended up together more and more often. I don't know if you even noticed, but I did. I made sure that we were only thought of as friends.

You know, I made it my duty in life to make sure nobody found that there was a 'softy' side to me. I carry a gun, I fight, I drink, I swear from time to time. It just fit I guess, and back there when you had that scarab in your arm, I don't know why but I just couldn't watch Rick take it out. I don't mind blood; it doesn't bother me at all. What bothered me was that YOU were being eaten from the inside; that YOU were in pain. That YOU could possibly die.

You see, Evy doesn't even know this. You have become my best friend. The fact that the rest of the world doesn't know this doesn't help either. The world sees me as a person incapable of love, but really, I'm just quite out of practice," I said as I finally looked up from the fire into his blue eyes. He was sitting there beside me, very thoughtful as his eyes studied mine. "The world thinks that I can feel no pain, no emotion; that I am not alive," I finished as I took my knife out of my pocket, and handed it to Jonathan.

He looked at the large, open buck knife in his hand, and then looked back at me. "What's all this about?" he asked carefully.

"Jon, I want you to cut a slit in my arm. I want to know that I am alive!"

"WHAT! What is this song that you were talking about earlier?"

"It's called "Iris". I don't know who sings it, all I know is the words."

"What are the words?" he asked gently.

I took a deep breath and recited the words of the song that had been ever present in my head since we left Hamunaptra.

"And I'd give up forever to touch you,

Cause I know that you feel me somehow.

You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be,

And I don't want to go home right now.

And all I can taste is this moment,

And all I can breathe is your life,

And sooner or later it's over,

I just don't want to miss you tonight.

And I don't want the world to see me,

Cause I don't think that they'd understand.

When everything's made to be broken,

I just want you to know who I am.

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming,

Or the moment of the truth in your lies.

When everything feels like the movies,

Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive.

And I don't want the world to see me,

Cause I don't think that they'd understand.

When everything's made to be broken,

I just want you to know who I am."

"Oh, Rebecca. You don't have to do that. You don't have to prove anything to the world, or me or Evy or even Rick!"

"I know that, Jon. I have to prove it to myself. After so long of hearing something, you start to believe that it's true. It's just one of those things that I just have to do. And, its not like its gonna be a big cut or anything. I just want to know. Know that I'm alive," I replied, choosing my words carefully as I stared back into the fire.

"Question. Why didn't you do this already? Why wait till now? Why ask me to do it? Why not do it yourself?"

"You said 'question,' meaning only one, not four. And I don't know why I waited till now to do this. Maybe I just wanted a witness, I don't know. All I know is that this song has too much meaning for me to let it go, and I kind of like you. As a best friend, yes, and maybe just a little more than that. I don't know."

"Well, as your best friend I would advise you to find an alternative means of figuring out if you are alive or not," he said as he turned my face and gave me a wink.

I laughed a little at this, but I couldn't help but notice that there was a pang of guilt behind his eyes. "Jon, I just want you to know who I am," I said as I took the knife from him. I felt the edge of it, and just barely nicked the skin of my arm. Red liquid came forth from the small wound. I sighed in relief and Jonathan put an arm around my shoulders.

"I'm sorry you had to do that, girl. I'm here if you need me," I more felt him say than heard, as my ear was firmly pressed against his chest. "Were you worried that you were the undead?" he asked.

I looked at my arm where I had cut it, and used my knife to rake away the blood. I didn't answer him. I held my knife over the fire to clean the blood off. One lone drop of blood fell to the fiery depths of the burning embers and I knew that I was alive for once. I opened my mouth wide in a yawn and snuggled closer to Jonathan. "You tired?" he asked me a moment later as we stared into the fire. I nodded into his chest and we still sat there a moment longer, neither one wanting this moment to end.

"You tired?" I asked, not looking at his face, but at his left hand where the scarab had eaten into his flesh. I took his hand gently and held it.

"Yes, a little, but sleep can wait. This is nice," he said, looking into the fire. He squeezed my hand a bit and I squeezed back. "I was wondering if maybe, you know, we could… you could…" his voice drifted off into the desert air.

"Listen a bit?" I finished for him. He kicked a scorpion into the fire. We heard the crackling of the deadly arachnid instantly, and we both kind of laughed at this.

"Yea. I mean, I don't have a lot of a soul to bare, but I do need to tell you something."

"Sure thing. Go ahead," I said as we settled beside the fire for a bit.

"I love you."

"Well that was totally unexpected," I said.

That was something that I had heard, but it had never meant anything to me or to the person who said it until now. I looked up at him.

He laughed a bit and continued, "I really don't know how it happened, but something about Hamunaptra made Rick and Evy fall in love, and it made me fall in love with you. I don't know what else to say," he trailed off at that.

I put a hand above his heart, giving him a little confidence boost, and said, "I know what happened there. Those two have found the good stuff, and they are drinking themselves full of it. And I certainly hope that we have found the same stuff. Like I said before, I'm quite out of practice in love. But I do love you, so, so much," I finished, looking deep into his eyes. He smiled a tired smile, and touched his forehead to mine.

We sat there a moment just like that, smiling into each other's eyes. We stood up and hugged, his face resting on my hair and my face into his chest. We parted a moment to go lay down in the sand for the rest of the night. He laid down first; making himself comfortable and then I lay down beside him, nestled in the crook of his arm.

I was nearly asleep in his arms, until I heard Jonathan say something.

"What?" I asked sleepily, turning to face him.

He looked at me with those big, blue eyes and asked, "Will you marry me? I mean I know we've only known each other like two weeks, but it just really feels right."

I stared at him speechless for a moment, and then threw myself at him, kissing him senseless. He was shocked for a moment, but he took it in stride very well, since he soon started kissing me senseless.

"I take it that's a yes, then, eh?" he whispered, smiling sweetly.

"You betcha!" I whispered. I moved closer to him and whispered something only for him, and he blushed a bright red in the dying firelight. I smiled and forced his lips on mine again and he tentatively explored my mouth with his tongue. We parted and braced against each other in the cold night until morning in each other's arms.