Desmond's POV:

By my third day in the Bureau, Malik and I had fallen into an easy routine of waking up, having breakfast, exploring the city of Jerusalem until lunch time, heading back to the Bureau, eating, and having Malik interrogate me on what the future was like and what scientific breakthroughs they have made, or will make in the future.

Ever since I saved that Informant, the ex-assassin had been much more lenient with me leaving the Bureau. As a result, I spent my mornings looking for any signs of anything out of the ordinary. Anyone with clothing not from this time period, anyone with nucleotides floating around their head, any signs that I was still in some form of contact with the present (or future), but each morning I would find nothing. Dejected, I would head back to the Bureau with the intent of searching more the next day.

"So there are two more continents on Earth?" Malik asked over dinner my third day in the dinner. He was leaning over a map of Jerusalem's Poor District, occasionally turning away to take a bite of his food. I sat near by, wolfing down my food, pausing only when Malik asked me a direct question.

I held a finger up, swallowed my mouthful of rice, and said, "Yes, and it revolves around the sun."

"Fascinating." Malik said slowly, scratching his goatee, "And the wanderers-"

"Planets." I corrected tiredly. We had already talked about this, and to be honest, I found it a bit tiresome. I wasn't particularly interested in the topic.

"Right. They rotate around the sun too?"

"Yes. And we're on a planet too." I replied, taking another bite of my food.

I looked up to see Malik writing down what we were saying, I assumed, on a piece of parchment in Arabic. My eyes widened and I leaped to my feet, a feeling of panic settling over me. I snatched the piece of paper away from him, making Malik's ink pot rattle and his paperweight clatter to the floor. He released a fluent curse in Arabic, giving me a glare that could have burned a hole in my head. I knew that if I were within reach, he would have punched me.

"What in the name of Allah do you think you're doing!?" he hissed.

"I- Well-" I spluttered, "This stuff won't be discovered for several hundred years yet, and I don't want to mess anything up if I really did travel back in time, and the Animus isn't just malfunctioning big time."

Malik peered at me, apparently not completely understanding what I was saying, but he seemed to grasp enough of the context of what I was saying because he nodded.

"I... suppose that sort of makes sense." he admitted, almost reluctantly.

"Good." I said with a huff, "'cause I'm not even sure that made sense to me."

Malik looked at me quizzically for a moment before there was a quiet thud to indicate that someone was entering the Bureau. Malik and I exchanged a glance, and I nodded. I ran behind the counter, and headed into one of the rooms, as we had planned. I pressed myself against the wall, leaning forward slightly to hear Malik speaking smoothly in Arabic to someone. I caught the standard greeting of the brotherhood, "Safety and peace," but I could not understand too much else. I figured that I had picked it up through the Animus somehow.

My head jerked up when I heard Altaïr's name. I leaned forward a little more. Are they talking about me? Or, um, him? I froze when I recognized the words "see him."

"Shit!" I cursed silently.

I still didn't know what they were saying, but I could guess. The assassin was from Masyaf looking for confirmation that Altaïr really iwas/i injured in the back as Malik had said he was. It made me wonder if the Master Assassin had tried pulling something like this when he was younger, feigning injury or illness to avoid going back to Masyaf immediately, but I don't see why. I also knew that Malik couldn't deny the assassin's request without raising a suspicion. I doubted the rest of the assassins would believe my story as easily as Malik. Hell, I was surprised the Rafiq accepted my story as easily as he did.

I did some quick thinking. I dove into one of the three beds in the room that Malik told me was for any injured assassins in the Bureau. I faced away from the door an pulled the blanket over my shoulders.

From behind me I could hear Malik and the assassin enter the room. I released a quiet groan and curled into "my" covers a little more. Malik released a tiny sigh of relief that the other assassin seemed to miss. The two exited and continued to talk with one another in Arabic.

"Desmond." Malik called once the other had left.

I threw the blankets off of me and walked out of the back of the Bureau, feeling pretty pleased with myself for managing to think a way out of that situation. Malik scowled at me.

"Don't look too pleased with yourself." he snapped, "You're lucky Rajab is an idiot. If he looked any closer, he would have seen that you weren't Altaïr."

"Rajab?" I repeated.

That name sounded somewhat familiar. I frowned, trying to remember where I heard that name before, before remembering from Altaïr's thoughts that Rajab was the name of one of the Novices in Kadar's training group. Oops. Of course Malik would know who he is. I decided to change the subject, as I could recall that if Malik was reminded of his younger, he would get violent. I learned this from time in the Animus as Altaïr, having to dodge several ink pots and the occasional throwing knife.

"Um, so did I tell you that the Earth is round?" I said quickly.

So I'll admit it, this is mostly just a filler story. I honestly wasn't too happy with this chapter, but I wanted to show that Desmond and Malik were getting more comfortable with each other, and I wanted to show that Desmond has picked up some stuff from Altaïr in the Animus, such as a couple of phrases in Arabic, and knowledge of the other residents of Masyaf. Don't worry, though, the next chapter will be more exciting.