A/N: I am so sorry about not posting! I'm not going to really explain what happened (I already did in the latest chapter of my Thor story), but just know that my laptop sucks and shuts of all the time (especially when it's not plugged in) which deletes all of my work...

Oh well, the chapter is up now, so... *shrugs*

I'm thinking of writing another Bart fic where Natty turns into a dijinni after he dies (I know, so very original. It's never been done before). I'm not sure if he should have his memories or not. So please review and tell me which one I should write (or I could just write two similar fics, one with memories and one without).

Disclaimer: I own nothing... Except a computer that stinks.

Chapter 2

Kitty slumped in defeat. The search team had been going through the rubble for days and absolutely nothing had been found. Not even a body. The party had asked for a break after the first week, but Kitty had refused, clutching to her lingering, but faint, hope that Nathaniel could be found (hopefully alive). The second week they had been firmer, but still she wouldn't let them stop. Now, the end of the third week was closing in quickly, and Kitty was forced to let go the last wisps of hope and give up the search as a lost cause. The group had combed every inch of the area without finding so much as a bit of cloth. The leader of the team assumed that the body had incinerated or been destroyed some other way by the demons in the staff.

Kitty grabbed a scrap of chalk and set about drawing two pentacles (not that she really needed them). Bartimaeus, she thought. I need Bartimaeus.

I was floating lazily in the swirl of colors that was the Other World when I felt a gentle tug on my essence. Yes! I thought. That must be Kitty! She's found something!

I appeared inside the pentacle in my usual Ptolemy guise. No time for theatrics now. I eagerly looked over at Kitty. She was looking healthier than when I had seen her last. She also looked puzzled and… sort of sad, but I ignored it.

"Well?" I prompted. "What have you found?"

Kitty was confused. Bartimaeus had appeared extraordinarily fast as if he had been waiting for a summons and actually wanted to come to Earth. Kitty looked at him closer. He was in his normal form, but something was different. She winced when she took in the happy, expectant look on his face and realized what he thought she had summoned him for.

"Bartimaeus," she hesitated, not wanting to be the one to break the news to him and crush his hopes, "the team-"

"Yes?" he interrupted, tired of waiting.

She bit her lip and studied the ground, unsure of how to break the news, "They've given up."

After a second, she glanced up, flinching at his crestfallen expression.

"Bart-" she started.

"I want to be dismissed," he told her, voice clipped his expression closed off and icy.

Kitty sighed, "Alright." She muttered the dismissal, "Bye."

Bartimaeus nodded curtly before he disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.

Black. The color that his heart probably is now that you crushed it, she thought to herself.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! I thought angrily. Of course they wouldn't have found him, it's been three weeks! They had found absolutely nothing the first two, so why would they find him now? Plus, how could he have survived after all this time? Why was I so stupid? Did I really believe that we could find him and he would be ok? I'm such an idiot!

I had been so excited and so sure that they had found Nathaniel. That he was somehow alive. I'd foolishly let my emotions get to me, and had been hurt because of it.

But I could have sworn that he was alive, I thought. It's almost as though I could… sense it…