Cecil, Gus, and Reginald entered through the doors and Raya went over to greet them. "Morning, gentlemen."

"Good morning, Raya," Cecil said with a smile. "Where's Larry?"

"Oh, he's around here somewhere."

"Larry?" he called out. "Larry?"

Larry jumped out from behind the corner with a shout and surprised the three older men.

"There he is," Raya said.

"Oh, don't do that!" Cecil said as he put his hand to his chest. "We're too old for surprises!"

"Really?" Larry said sarcastically. "I thought you liked surprises. Like how you surprised us with the fact that everything in the museum comes to life at night! That little…sweetheart."

"Larry, we wanted to tell you guys. Neither of you ever would have believed us."

"He's not wrong," Raya put in.

Larry pointed his finger at the older men. "Do you have any idea what we've been through tonight?"

"What?" Gus asked.

"I said, 'Do you have any idea what we've been through tonight', Gus!" he yelled to the point where all his words strung together.

"Keep a lid on it, butterscotch!"

Raya quietly giggled to herself. It was kind of funny to see what names Gus called Larry.

"I don't know if what happened last night was real, but I didn't sign up for this. I just need a regular job that is not life-threatening and pays my bills. So thank you very much and, uh, I left my uniform in the office, and I will be seeing you."

Larry took off down the hall.

"Larry!" Gus called after him.

Larry held up his hand as he continued to march down the hallway.

Raya looked at the older gentlemen. "Look, last night was the most stressful night of my life, and that's saying something because I once had to write a 14-page paper before 8:00 AM. But…I want to stay."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Raya," Cecil said to her. "But as an intern, you need to be with one of the museum staff members at all times, and if Larry isn't working here anymore, then I'm afraid we'll have to cancel your internship."

Raya sighed heavily in defeat. She could just hear her mother's complaints now about how her internship failed after only one night and how it was probably all her fault.

Cecil went a bit closer to her with a knowing look on his face. "Why don't you go talk to him?"

Raya followed Larry's path out of the museum and walked down the steps. "Larry!" she called. She stopped when she saw he was talking to two other people. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were in the middle of a conversation."

"It's okay," Larry said. "Nicky, this is Raya. She's an intern at the museum. Raya, this is my son, Nicky, and this is Don."

"It's nice to meet you both," she said as she shook their hands.

"Hey, Niko, you wanna take a little look-a-doo inside?" Don asked Nicky. "Maybe your dad will give you a VIP tour."

"You know what? We're pretty slammed this morning," Larry told him. "Yeah, but Nicky, I promise, I'll show you around soon, okay? Deal?"

"Deal," Nicky smiled as he hugged his father.

"All right."

"Bye, Dad."

"Bye."

"Love you."

"Love you too, buddy."

Raya looked over at Larry. "Look, Larry, I could give you a whole lecture about how this job is good for you, and you wanted it to work out, and it pays well, and all that crap, but really…I really need this internship, and…I can't do it unless you work here as well."

"Okay, I'll give it one more night."

"Wait, what? Just like that?"

Larry shrugged. "I gave the lecture to myself."

Raya smiled, and they both headed back into the building. The three older gentlemen were still standing by the entrance. Reginald turned when he saw them approaching.

"Hey, Larry," he said as the others turned around.

"So I was thinking maybe I'll give it one more night," Larry confessed.

"I'm glad you came around," Cecil smiled. "Welcome back."

"You. New night guards, here, now."

Larry and Raya looked over to find Dr. McPhee standing a few feet away from them in a professional position, looking a bit ticked off. They slowly went over to the man after giving an awkward look to the other night guards.

"What's up?" Larry asked.

"'What's up?' Oh, well, take a walk with me and I'll show you, Mr. 'What's Up?' Come on."

Larry and Raya shared a confused look for a moment before following Dr. McPhee to the diorama room.

"So would either of you kindly do me the favor of explaining this?" Dr. McPhee asked.

Raya smiled as she looked down and saw Jedediah smiling at Octavius stuck in the stockades.

"Okay," Larry said calmly. "Uh, I'm guessing—and I'm just spitballing here—but, uh, looks like that Roman dude got a little cocky and climbed over into the Wild West. And the cowboy knows the Roman dude wants to take over his territory, so he rounded up a posse and put him in the stockade."

Dr. McPhee laughed sarcastically. "Let's all laugh at me, the comedy night guard. 'No' is the answer. Sarcasm back at you, with your humor box. I wasn't laughing. I was pretending to laugh if that's what you want, some sort of battle of humor. Do you?"

Larry paused for a second, wondering how exactly he was supposed to respond. "No," he finally said. "I don't want—No, I don't want a battle of humor."

"No, you don't, because it would be a bloodbath. Nothing funny about Little Bighorn. No. I find it about as funny as a 'fancist'. It's not funny. Okay? And I will not stand for this type of blatant…If I'm not clear, tell me."

You're not clear, Raya thought. She kept it to herself.

"Am I clear?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah?" He angrily walked off to go sort out other portions of the museum.

Raya looked over at Larry. "Does he not know?"

"I guess not."

"Well, you'd think that the director of the museum would know that everything in the freaking place comes to life at night."

"Guess it's a night guard secret."

The two of them ran to go catch Cecil before he left.

"Hey, Cecil?" Larry called just as he was headed out the door. "You got an extra copy of that, uh, instruction manual?"

"Oh, no, I'm afraid not, Larry," Cecil replied. "Listen, I'll tell you both what you do. Read some books. Brush up on your history. Helped me a lot when I first started out."

"This museum was originally dedicated to that man on the horse up there—President Theodore Roosevelt."

Larry and Raya looked over to find Rebecca giving a tour to a group of school children on a field trip.

"He absolutely loved history and believed that the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future."

One look between the night guards confirmed what they were both thinking. It would be beneficial to listen to what Rebecca had to say. If they knew more about the history of the things in the museum, then they would both be better equipped to handle them all when they came to life.

They followed Rebecca into the African Mammals room.

"Okay, kids. Who can tell me what this room's called?"

The kids all shouted out their guesses.

"Very good. The Hall of African Mammals. Right here we have the king of the jungle, the lion. Up ahead is one of my favorite creatures in the whole museum, the capuchin monkey. A highly intelligent primate known for its loving and generous nature."

Larry let out a small laugh at Rebecca's statement, having previously been the recipient of Dexter's troublemaking last night.

"Excuse me?" Rebecca said as she and all of the kids looked at Larry.

Raya looked over at Larry with a small smirk.

"I-I-I just thought that was…I-I just was laughing in agreement. Happy monkey."

Rebecca looked at him for a second before smiling back to the children. "All right, kids. This way."

Larry waited for Rebecca and the children to be out of sight before quickly going up to Dexter.

"Let me tell you something," he whispered. "I'm not buying it. You might have them fooled, you might have the kids fooled. Not me. Can't get past me. There's a storm coming, buddy. There's a storm coming."

Raya went up to him and tugged on his arm. "You don't even know if he can hear you," she said with a laugh.

The two of them hurried past some more exhibits and caught back up with Rebecca.

"One of the most famous trackers in history, Sakagawea, was the woman who led Lewis and Clark on their expedition to find the Pacific Ocean," Rebecca explained. "Now you guys have probably heard the saying, 'Actions speak louder than words'. And yet they wrote—" She stopped speaking when she saw Larry raise his hand. "Yes, Mr. Daley?"

"Yes. Was she deaf?" Larry asked.

Raya looked down as she smiled a little. She may not have been a history fan, but even she knew that Sakagawea hadn't been deaf.

"Was she deaf?" Rebecca reiterated. "Uh, no. She was not. But she—"

"Yeah, because, just, she does seem a little bit, sort of…unresponsive."

"That's because she's a statue." She looked at all the kids in front of her. "Kids, could you give me one sec? Go check her out. She's really cool." She briskly walked over to the two night guards. "What are you doing?"

"Well, we're gonna be here every night," Larry answered. "And we just wanted to learn a little bit more about what we're guarding. Actually, I've got a bunch of questions. Maybe, I don't know, when you have a break, could I buy you a cup of coffee or something?"

"A cup of coffee?"

"Yeah, I mean, just purely a, you know, colleague-to-colleague, information-download sort of coffee."

Rebecca looked at her watch. "I finish in 20 minutes. I'll meet you outside."

"Thank you…so much."

"You're welcome."

"And have a good rest of your…"

"All right. Okay, kids!"

Raya looked over at Larry again. "Okay, so while you continue to flirt with that woman, I'm gonna go home and get some rest, try to do some research. I'll see you back here tonight."

"Later, Raya."

Raya returned back to her dorm room where she was staying over break. It was rather quiet in the building since a good majority of the students had gone home. It was just the way she liked it.

She crawled into bed and crashed for several hours, exhausted from the several times she had nearly died last night.