The sunlight just started to rise over the horizon of New York City, a thin layer of fog and frost covered the air and ground like a blanket. It was a natural occurrence for the regular inhabitants of America's Big Apple, but not for the lone Australian, who had just come from temperatures soaring in the mid to high thirties. Stella Daley, a seemingly short Blonde with striking blue eyes and a fiery personality to match, hurried through the already bustling streets of Manhattan. It was true what they say, New York never slept even when it was half past five in the morning.

The sounds of taxis and cars flowing past the Aussie made her tense slightly, too many people that she didn't know, too many people that could just as easily hurt her … She just wanted to reach her brothers apartment and go to sleep. Stella had never been any good at sleeping on planes, something about her SMALL fear of flying.

Her left hand was gripping tightly onto the straps of her backpack that was rested over her shoulders, while the other held onto her blue suitcase that was trailing behind her. The blonde was muttering under her breath about how ridiculous the weather was being, though it WAS like Stella to pick so close to Christmas to return to the second place that she called home.

It took the young Aussie another ten minutes to locate the apartment that her brother cousin was now living in. Blue eyes looked up at the tall building, stuffing the piece of paper (that she had taken out that had the exact address) into her red coat and grinning slightly. Well she WAS grinning until she realised that the apartment didn't have a working elevator.

"Oh come on," Stella mumbled to herself as she shook some blonde curls out of her face. "I'm so tired, I can't walk up forty flights of stairs." However, she did and she made it. A puff of air escaped her lips as she all but KICKED open the stairwell door. Slowly Stella started to wander down the hallway, smiling at people that were coming and going from their apartments. She came to a pause as she stood in front of her brother's door, before throwing three hard knocks against the METALLIC door.

Lawrence Daley wasn't really her brother; he was her cousin. But she had no other siblings, and Larry was the only one out of her extended family that she ever really connected with. Stella couldn't really remember much about her parents, only that they died when she was young. They were American citizens but had been living in Australia for most of the time they had been married. The government looked at Stella's records, finding that she had family in America, before she was promptly moved overseas, and out of the Australian Adoption Agency's hands. When she was younger, Stella thought it was curse that she had to move so far away just to live with family, but as she grew older, she found it was a blessing. Her Uncle and Aunt were kind people and looked after her decently, her brother Lawrence would end up being her rock.

Stella's train of thought was interrupted by the FRONT door flying open, to reveal a half asleep Lawrence, wearing a scowl upon his brow. So he had apparently been home from his NIGHT shift for a while then.

"Look whatever it is that you're selling? I'm not buying…" Blonde brows furrowed and Stella shifted in her spot.

"Law?" She called to him, stepping forward slightly.

"Besides who comes selling things door to door nowadays, thought it was all over the phone, when half of you guys aren't even in the country…" It would have been funny to Stella, if she wasn't tired and starting to get irritated.

"Larry!" her voice rose slightly, accent shining through.

"I mean … why can't you give the selling of stupid and impractical insurances to others. I mean god forbid you have a decent job …" he would have kept ranting, had it not been for the hand that slapped him across the cheek.

"For God's sake, Lawrence it's me!" Accent very much there now, as Larry stood still, a hand pressed against his cheek as he finally noticed who was in front of him. Instead of forgetting about what she had just done and welcomed her with open arms, he looked down at the blonde.

"Ow!" he whined. Blue eyes rolled heavily, as Stella ended up pushing her way past Larry and into the small kitchenette of the apartment. "Stella!" he called after her.

A smirk crossed her features as Stella left her suitcase near the hallway and dumped her backpack onto the kitchen bench. She stripped off her red coat and threw that onto the chair that was beside her, running her hands through blonde hair that had finally fallen out of its ponytail. "Oh please you get worse than that from the monkey," she retorted fanning herself slightly, before rolling the sleeves of her light purple top up her arms. "My God, Lawrence what happened to this country? It's gotten freezing!"

"You can't go around slapping people out of the blue!" Of course he would ignore any type of conversation until AFTER he had gotten what he wanted to say out of his system. Larry rubbed his cheek again before he shut the front door and followed after her into the kitchen. His own blue eyes focused on her for what felt like hours. It had been almost three months since they had last seen each other. For most SIBLINGS it would have been due to something awkward, or to a falling out. But for the Daley's it was neither of those, they just got so busy with their own lives, and plane tickets weren't always cheap; time seemed to move faster than they had the chance to catch up.

It was Larry that moved first, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips as he stumbled towards her and wrapped his arms around her shorter frame. Stella laughed slightly as her arms wrapped up and around his shoulders, as her forehead buried itself against his chest. "I've missed you, Law." Her voice was muffled as Larry tightened his hold on her, cheek resting against the top of her head.

"I've missed you too, Elle." They stayed like that for a couple of minutes, before Stella pulled away. A grin spread across her lips, as she wiped away some stray tears that seemed to have appeared while in Lawrence's embrace. "How have you been? You keeping up with your rent? How long has it been since you were last in jail?" Questions fired off even before Stella got the chance to sit down.

"Okay, first of all it was only a bloody holding cell. And I was in there for TWO nights, secondly yes … I have obviously been keeping up with my bloody rent. Otherwise, how in the hell do you think I've managed to COME here?" Stella has always been attached to her brother, emotionally, physically (for one unexplained reasoning during senior year) AND money wise. He always wanted to keep an eye on her, although he had barely enough money for himself and Nicky after the divorce (which Stella was glad happened.) He always managed to spare some change for her. "I've just come by for the holidays and apartment hunting, before I actually move ALL of my crap across the ocean."

"Oh Elle, you know that's not what I meant. Just let me know when you're coming next time? So that I can actually prepare and not want to chase you out of the building." Stella couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips then.

"Oh was that what you were doing?" She teased, arms crossing over her chest.

"Yes, as a matter of fact it was." He defended himself by standing higher even more than he needed to. She was only five foot two, shorter than a grasshopper.

"What with? Ranting?" Stella couldn't help it as even more laughter spilled from her lips, before Larry gripped onto her SHOULDER and pulled her towards him again, pulling down and into a headlock. A squeal filled the air as Stella managed to pull away from her brother, hands coming to fix her shoulder length hair.

"Everyone at the museum has missed you too, you know?" a small groan escaped her lips. "Especially Ahk." Larry let his tone drop, as he teased her.

"No please for the love of god … don't bring up …"

"Remember the night you two met?" Stella shook her head as she picked up her backpack and made a run for it down the hall. "Because he certainly does!"

"Lawrence!" She called back over her shoulder, Stella shoved past the mess that was pilling up outside of Nick's bedroom to the study, which was also the GUEST bedroom. Shutting the door and throwing herself face first down on the single bed.

It wasn't the nicest of circumstances that she had met the young Pharaoh. Larry had told her to stay home, that she should have been in bed. But this was a ONCE in a lifetime chance, of course she would believe him when he said that everything in the museum came alive when the sun would go down. But obviously the young Australian had to see it for herself. The flu had caught her off guard, on the day she was coming in with him to work, but she GOT out of bed, got dressed andwent.

To say Stella Daley had been unwell was an understatement. She took one glance at the Pharaoh and promptly THREW up at his feet, she had most definitely FALLEN at a king's feet after that, blacking out. Stella woke up not that long later to him, watching her with concern. Grey eyes asking more than his voice was. ASKING if she was alright, but she all but started to cry. Larry had to take her home after that.

Though it wasn't long after that incident, that Ahkmenrah and Stella had gotten along quite well after all the embarrassment and awkwardness had passed. They had gotten close, so close that a kiss had almost been shared between the two of them. BUT Ahk had a rather shitty brother. After the incident at the Smithsonian, she had left the country and it had been three years since had seen the Pharaoh last.

A groan escaped Stella's lips as she rolled onto her back and took a deep breath, letting the air escape through her teeth. A hand came up and ran through her fringe. Tomorrow night would be interesting, that's for sure.

-xx-

A/N: *YELLS LOUDLY* Well hello again natm fandom, it is I, Keeley. I have crawled back from the dead to give you this new and improved (I hope) version of Sister Daley. This is also totally an impulse thing, NATM 3 was on tv tonight and I watched it with mum and I was like, oh yeah I had a story about this. So here is the first chapter again, better I THINK, and I hope you think as well. I pray that you all like this story just as much as you did the first one and stick around just as long xx

- Keeley