Chapter One:

Evie screamed as she bolted upright in bed. As she sat trembling, she felt Rick rise up next to her and yawn.

"Honey?" he said sleepily. "You alright?"

Evie looked over and saw Rick staring at her with concern.

"I had the dream again," she said softly.

Rick sighed and put his arms around Evie, holding her in a tight embrace. They held each other silently. It had been a year since they had stopped the Scorpion King's army from taking over the world and Evie was still plagued with dreams of her past life and of her battle with Ankh-sen-amen and her death. Rick shuddered when he remembered holding Evie in his arms as she took her final breaths. The moment her body went still, he thought his world had ended. He had no longer cared that the forces of darkness would destroy the world. Without Evie beside him, his world was already destroyed. After they had all escaped from Ahm Shere, Rick vowed that Evie would never again go into any ruin of any kind. He had almost lost her twice; he would not lose her again.

Rick turned around as he heard the bedroom door open. His tense body relaxed when he saw it was only their nine-year-old son, Alex.

"Mum, Dad?" he said with a soft British accent, "Are you ok?"

Rick nodded as Evie looked up at him and smiled.

"I'm fine, sweetheart," she said lovingly. "I just had a bad dream."

Alex walked over to the bed and climbed onto it. He put his arms around Evie

"Don't worry mum!" he said. "Dad and I will protect you!"

Evie smiled at her son and kissed him on the cheek.

"My two brave men, what would I do without you?" she said with a giggle.

Rick smiled at Evie's laughter and winked at his son. Alex winked back and yawned.

"Well, if you don't need me anymore, mum, I'm heading back to bed."

Evie gave Alex another kiss on the cheek

"I'll be alright, honey. Don't worry about me!"

Rick tousled Alex's hair.

"Scram!" he said playfully.

Alex got off the bed and walked to the door. Turning around, he smiled at his parents.

"Night!" he said and closed the door.

Rick turned and looked at Evie.

"Do you think he gets tired of checking up on us?" he said with a grin.

"Oh you!" Evie said as she lightly slapped his arm.

Locked in an embrace, they lie back down and quickly fell back to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"EVIE?" Jonathan screamed as he ran up the stairs. "EVIE? ARE YOU UP HERE?"

He flung open the door to the bedroom.

"EVIE…WHOA!!!"

Jonathan stopped short when he saw that Rick was standing in the middle of the bedroom, butt naked and wet from taking a shower. Rick spun around.

"DO YOU MIND?" he screamed at Jonathan.

"Sorry, old chap." Jonathan muttered as he closed the door.

As he turned away, he heard the faint voice of Rick coming through the door.

"Jesus! Don't people ever knock anymore?"

Jonathan hurried down the stairs trying desperately to erase the image of Rick in all his naked glory. Turning to his right, he went through the hall and into the kitchen where he saw Alex eating his breakfast. Alex looked up and noticed Jonathan's beet red face.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

"Oh...nothing, nothing," he gasped as he tried to regain his breath. "Where's your mum?"

Alex pointed to the back door.

"She's outside hanging up clothes."

Jonathan nodded, muttered thanks, and hurried past his nephew before he asked him any more questions.

Evie stood in the courtyard hanging the laundry up on a clothesline. She had wanted to get them hung up before the heat became too intense, but she also wanted to get out of the house for awhile after last night's events. She wished that they were far away from Egypt, but ever since Rick discovered he was a medjai, their friend, Ardeth Bey, had offered to teach Rick all of the ancient secrets and rituals so that one day Rick could fulfill his destiny and become a protector of man. Rick had been hesitant at first, but Evie realized that this was what fate had ordained for him and after swearing to Rick that she would never go off alone, he reluctantly began his training. That had been almost a year ago and it would probably be another year or two before Rick would be deemed ready to take his initiation. After his induction into the medjai, he would receive the face and arm tattoos that would mark him forever as one of a chosen few destined to guard the world from evil. Evie wasn't so sure she wanted tattoos all over Rick's handsome face and body, but there was nothing she could do. Rick would become a medjai and eventually so would Alex. Since the first pharaoh was crowned, the secrets of the order were passed down from father to son and on and on for over three thousand years. If Alex ever had a son, he too would become a medjai and his sons and his son's sons, a select few sworn to protect the rest. Evie chased the thoughts away. She had come outside to enjoy the morning and that's what she'd do.

"EVIE!!!"

Evie sighed. There goes the morning...

She turned around to see Jonathan running out the back door.

"Oh there you are!" he gasped as he bent over to catch his breath. "You won't believe what I found!"

Evie groaned. Jonathan had a bad habit of taking things that didn't belong to him. In fact, It was Jonathan's sticky fingers that had led them to Rick in the first place. Evie smiled.

I guess that time, crime really did pay she thought.

"All right, Jonathan, what did you find? "

Jonathan's face lit up as he pulled a small statue out of a leather bag

"Take a look at this, old mum!" he said proudly.

Evie's face became a mixture of wonderment and surprise as she looked at the statue. It was old and chipped, but the image of a woman with a lions head was still easy to make out.

"Oh my God, Jonathan!" Evie uttered breathlessly. "This is Sehkmet."

"Sehk who?" Jonathan said.

Evie beamed at her brother.

"Sehkmet, Goddess of War. She is said to follow the pharaoh when he goes into battle!" Evie looked up "Where did you get this?"

Jonathan shifted uneasily. After all they had been through, he wasn't sure he wanted something to do with war anywhere near them. He scoffed at himself. It was just a statue; it wasn't like it was the book of the dead.

"At the ruins of an old temple near here." He said.

Evie grinned at him

"Take me to it! I've got to see it!"

Jonathan gulped. He hadn't counted on this kind of reaction.

"I'm not sure I wanna do that Evie, If Rick finds out I've led you to some ruin, he'll have my head!"

Evie stopped. She had forgotten her promise to Rick. If he did find out, they would both be in hot water.

Who says he has to find out though. Evie thought. What's the worst that came happen? No harm ever came from looking at ruins.

She looked over at Jonathan, who now looked extremely uneasy.

"Rick doesn't have to know," she said.

"Doesn't have to know what?"

Evie spun around to see Rick standing in the doorway. Evie caught her breath and shoved the statue back into Jonathan's hands. How long had he been there listening? She hoped he had just come outside.

"Doesn't have to know...all the boring details of Jonathan's morning!" Evie said as she embraced her husband.

Rick returned the embrace.

"Well, I'll say this for him," he said. "He needs to learn how to knock!"

He looked pointedly at Jonathan, who coughed and looked away. Evie giggled. She knew Jonathan had a tendency to forget simple manners when he got excited. She doubted he would forget to knock now. Judging from the redness of his face, she was almost sure of that. She looked back at Rick who was biting his lower lip and trying desperately to keep from laughing. Evie wasn't quite so successful. She burst out laughing, which caused Rick to lose it too. She couldn't stop laughing even when she could sense Jonathan glaring behind them.

"Oh, ha ha!" he said angrily which brought only a burst of fresh laughter from the two of them.

Sighing, Jonathan stalked back to the house

"I'll be inside if you need me," he muttered to himself as Rick and Evie snickered.

"Ah! What a great way to start the day!" he said kissing Evie on the cheek.

Evie sighed and buried her head in Rick's chest.

"I wish you didn't have to go." She said softly.

Rick laid his head on hers and began to rub her back gently.

"I have to go, darling. You know that!"

"I know," Evie said as she closed her eyes.

They stood silently in the courtyard, holding one another for what seemed like an eternity. Rick finally looked up as the sound of hoof beats echoed through the air.

"He's here," he said.

Evie nodded and looked up into Rick's soft blue eyes.

"I love you," she said simply.

Rick smiled and kissed Evie on the lips. He leaned around and whispered in her ear.

"The day will go by fast, don't worry. You'll have your brother here to entertain you while I'm gone."

At the mention of Jonathan, Evie began to giggle helplessly which made Rick smile at her. With a squeeze of the shoulder, Rick walked to the stables in the corner of the courtyard and saddled his horse. He led the horse out of the stable and through the back gate with Evie following beside him. As they rounded the corner to the front, they could see Ardeth Bey waiting on his black stallion. Seeing him, Rick waved and smiled.

"Are you ready, my friend?" Ardeth said as he smiled at them.

"Yup!" Rick said swinging up onto his horse.

He leaned down and kissed Evie

"Don't get into trouble while I'm gone."

Evie laughed. A little too forcefully, she thought. Rick didn't see to notice though as he waved to Jonathan and Alex who were standing at the front door.

"See ya later!" he called to them.

With that, they rode off down the pathway to the main road. Evie watched them until they turned the corner, and then walked back to the house. Jonathan was grinning from ear to ear. As they walked back into the house, Alex ran back upstairs to lose himself in his Egyptian history books. Jonathan watched as he went up the stairs. He nudged Evie in the ribs and with his head motioned towards the door. Evie sighed and called up the stairs.

"Alex, uncle Jonathan and I are going to go to the bazaar to get some things, we're gonna be gone for awhile, so if you need anything, go next door to Abdul's! Ok?"

A faint voice echoed back to her.

"Alright, mum! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine!"

With a pang of guilt, Evie turned and followed Jonathan out the door