Chapter 10 is a go!

Thanks a bunch for your patience!

-Ravyne

(Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the 'MUMMY' movies or any of their characters. Just my characters Katherine and Bastet belong to me.)

Life Forsakes Her

Chapter 10:

The journey continues. Except now the passengers on board have had their high spirits shaken to the core. Everyone has chosen to remain silent after Evie had explained what had happened in the vision she shared with Kat. She had waited for the young woman to seclude herself even more than what she's been doing for the last couple of days before she opened her mouth to fill in everyone on what she had seen.

Now everyone sits silently around the fire blazing in the center of the deck. Rick has settled on fiddling nervously with a knife in his hands. Evie shifts back and forth across the deck, unable to sit still because of her nerves. Jonathan watches his sister and brother-in-law's growing anxiety with worry. Ardeth has found a place at the forefront of the deck near the bowsprit to practically turn to stone as he gazes off at the darkening horizon.

No one wants to put into words yet what has happened.

Everyone fears of what it will break if they do.

Even Izzy is afraid to speak anything to the group. He was only told to head towards the Blue Nile so he busies himself with his chart, every so often glancing up uneasily at the passengers fidgeting across his deck. He throws a quick look over the back of his shoulder towards the back of the ship.

Kat had moved to place herself there away from everyone else. Now she's hunkered against the back wall with her arms folded over the railing as she gazes out at the world they leave behind.

Izzy watches her for a moment longer before turning back to the front where his charts await him. As he stares down at the map, the only thing in his life he loves doing besides flying, the lines start to tangle up before his eyes and blur. At first he starts thinking that maybe he's getting a headache from all the insanity he's decided to fly around…

But inside, he knows it's his conscience trying to tell him to do the right thing because the lines on the map start forming words like 'say something', 'comfort them', 'be smart'. Izzy heaves a sigh, his shoulders slumping as he rolls his eyes.

He lowers his voice towards his oldest friend, Rick, who is much more approachable than his sister, "O'Connell, I know it's not my place, but something needs to be said. You can't all shut down like this."

Rick looks up at him with eyes that are glazed over and dark with emotions.

"You got to say something, boy," Izzy forces his words to be stern but not emotionless as he leans as far over the helm as he can without looking too obvious. "You're the one with the kid who's missing. You need to help your wife, her brother, and your sister because they're going through more now because of all this. I'm not sure how you can help the assassin man but the others need your help. Your sister needs your help."

This seems to snap Rick out of his haze. His eyes find his wife pacing frantically across the short space of the deck worriedly and he climbs to his feet. She's just turning towards him again when he stops in front of her. Evie looks up at him as if she's completely lost and alone.

The sight breaks his heart. He grabs her shoulders and pulls her close to his chest so he can cradle her against him. For a long moment she's just silent but then a sob breaks out of her and Rick begins to softly rock her back and forth smoothly while he rubs her back and kisses her hair.

"What now?" Jonathan calls over softly.

Rick turns to look at his brother-in-law over his shoulder and tries for a smile though it feels stiff and half-hearted, "We keep going. This won't break us. We'll find my son and we'll figure this out all along the way."

"We will," Evie's broken voice agrees as she lifts her head. Eyes red with tears, they're filled with new found determination as she tilts her head back to look up at her husband with a weak smile, "We will because we're family."

Rick smiles back at her before glancing towards Ardeth's stiff form. He reaches out and grabs the man's shoulder and gives it a stern shake. The madjai breaks from his trance and his statue like stance melts back to being human. He hesitantly turns to look back over his shoulder as Rick throws him an understanding look.

"We all are," he tells the madjai. Ardeth's dark gaze loosens at his words and he returns the man's nod reservedly. Evie too reaches out to grab his arm below her husband's hand and smiles at the man.

"Though I don't know if Kat's going to be as easy to convince."

Ardeth and Evie turn to Rick sharply.

Rick's face has fallen again and he drops his hand from the madjai's shoulder as he leans back against the railing. His face darkens and he ages before their eyes. "This has shaken her more than anything really has… Then again, I guess she's been through worse."

"Worse?" Evie wonders softly.

Rick rubs his hands down his face in exhaustion as he relives one of the scariest times in his life, "When we were younger, we were, uh…helping a friend of ours steal a plane to pay back some guys he was in debt too. Things went wrong that night…really wrong." He pauses in the middle of the story as his face pales. Evie takes his hand in hers worriedly and he smiles up at her, bringing her hands close so he can kiss them gingerly.

Rick swallows heavily before continuing, "Kat got hurt…real bad…simply because I trusted someone I shouldn't have. I tried to get her to the doctors as fast as I could… Sadly the damage had already been done. The doctors did all they could, said I should be happy she was alive. I was…until I thought about what my choices had done to her."

Again he pauses.

Evie swallows back the tears forming behind her eyes and touches his face lovingly, "What happened?"

"She…took a lot of damage to her stomach…doctors said she'd never…never be able to have kids," Rick explains. He takes a quick swipe at his eyes before spinning away and gripping the railing angrily.

"Oh God," Evie chokes, placing a trembling hand over her mouth with tears streaming down her face, "That's why she loves Alex so much!"

Ardeth suddenly understands everything. Rick's recount of his sister's injury…it opens his eyes to so much he didn't realize before. It explains why Kat is so hesitant towards him, why she avoids him…why she ran.

Rick O'Connell turns to look back over his shoulder, the edges of his eyes rimmed in red from unshed tears and Ardeth meets the man's crushed gaze. "I'm sure it's also why she's the way she is around you," Rick explains. Evie glances between the two men.

Ardeth drops his head.

"I didn't trust you, heck, I'm not even sure I trust you completely now. I know you'll have our backs in a fight but with my sister… I don't think I'll ever trust you enough. But I saw how she was changed nine years ago. I saw how she looked at you. I don't know what's changed between you two now but…"

The madjai swallows hard. His eyes slip towards the back of the deck.

"I think you should be the one to talk to her."

He turns back when Evie is the one to speak instead of her husband.

"I think she would respond better to you than if Rick or I tried to reassure her. I'm too close to the situation as well as Rick being her brother, but you can speak from a different angle."

Ardeth thinks over her words. Could he possibly pull Kat out of this silence? Evie had told them what she saw in the vision and he knows it will be a tough truth to take. But she'll have to if she wants to have a chance at beating this curse. Last time she rid herself of the curse with her brother's help but this time he fears she will be faced against an opponent that she will have to take on alone. If it came to that, Ardeth fears that she won't win if she's at odds with the self that she refuses to acknowledge.

Evie has started to say something but he doesn't remain to hear her out. His feet are already carrying him away across the deck, passing Jonathan who looks up at him, and then up to the back deck of the ship.

His heart wouldn't let him let her do this alone. She has to know that she has an entire family behind her to aid her…even though she doesn't see it now, blinded by the pain in front of her eyes.

He wouldn't let her fall. He wouldn't let her go alone this time.

Horus had found his way to her somehow instead of back to Ardeth like he was supposed to. He chirps at her excitedly, pecking gently at her hand folded across the railing until she finally gives in to the need to move.

Her body is still shaking from the cold spell that has finally left her. Though worse, she had hardly felt it because she was already frozen to begin with. She hardly remembers getting back on the dirigible with everyone else. She had known the need to find some corner to crawl into.

Now the stretching silence spooks her even more now than when she first sat down here. Horus had filled it with his flapping when he landed and Kat's eyes turned to look at him slowly as he stared down at her.

At first she wanted nothing more than to ignore him but now he demands her attention. He pokes and pokes at her hand until she finally lifts it to stroke his chest gently. The soft feathers feel like nothing against her cold skin.

The bird chirps happily in response despite her own mood.

"You spoil him too much. Horus will truly foster a fondness towards you as your brother says if you continue."

Kat doesn't respond to his voice as she normally would. She doesn't turn towards him, she doesn't flinch. Instead, she narrows her eyes at the bird.

I guess he did return to him instead of coming to see me as I first thought. I wonder how long he's been standing there, she thinks.

Behind her, she can hear his boots take a step towards her, "Evelyn…spoke of what transpired in the vision and-."

"I don't want to talk about it," Kat cuts him off flatly, lifting her head off her arms and turning her eyes away.

Ardeth's advance towards her pauses and silence pursues. When he finally speaks, his voice is still calm and smooth, deep and sure, "Continue to deny who you all you wish but it will not change the truth."

"There is no truth about it. I don't want to talk about it," Kat repeats. Her voice shifts ever so slightly as her frustration starts to stir.

"Back in ancient times, it was not unheard of for siblings to-."

"Enough! I don't care!" Kat rips to her feet the second she realizes what he's about to say and her anger breaks loose. She digs her fingernails into her palms in an attempt to use the pain to regain control but it doesn't help this time.

Ardeth takes a step towards her, keeping his voice level despite her rage, "If you did not care so much, you would not be responding this way."

Kat all but explodes, "You don't understand! You didn't have to witness that! You didn't have to experience-!"

"Katherine…"

His voice saying her name…that's all it takes. She snaps back to her sense and blinks back into realization. Cursing under her breath, Kat leans back against the railing in exhaustion. She had sworn not to let this anger take over her again. Lifting her hands, she forces open her stiff finger and studies the blood pooling there.

Guess I'll have to find something else that will help 'cause this is obviously losing its effectiveness, she thinks to herself in defeat. Horus chirps, impatiently earning him a soft rebuke from Ardeth in his native tongue as he moves to brush the bird across his feathers.

Ardeth suddenly goes very still and then in a flash rips the edge of his robes off into a long strip. Kat blinks as his swiftness and tries to pull away quickly from his touch but his strength is both gentle and stern as he holds fast to her wrist. Her eyes swing to his as he takes hold of her wrist and their gazes lock for the first time in what feels like days. His expression surprises her.

He's no longer guarded. The look in his eyes clearly says that he's just trying to help, that he means her no harm. Before her heart can turn to mush, she drops her eyes and he goes back to his work. Deftly, he wraps the black strips of cloth around her palms and then secures them tight at the backs of her hands. While he works tenderly on her hands, Kat can't help but notice things that occur…

Like the way her cold skin warms against his touch, how his fingertips brush against her almost purposefully, the way his breathing has become rather quiet… She lets her eyes linger over the way his fingers move, the twist of his wrists as he works, the three-pronged tattoos on the backs of his hands.

He's a madjai… It's his job to help people… Her heart twinges painfully at the thoughts that invade her moment.

"I'm sorry," she spills out before she can lose her courage. His hands pause. "For getting angry at you just now…and…for what I said to you the other night. I-."

"My forgiveness has already been given."

His words drag her back through her memories to her own past, back when he had said those very same words to her at the museum in Cairo the last time this curse was alive and kicking inside of her. Her heart hammers so loudly in her ears that she fears he'll be able to hear it.

Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, Kat turns her head away and swallows heavily against the onslaught of emotions beating at her. She quickly makes her voice flat and as emotionless as she can, "It won't happen again. I'm sorry you got mixed up in our family mess but thank you for helping us all the same."

Ardeth remains silent for another long, agonizing moment until his hands begin to move again and take up her other hand to wrap it up. He rips another length of fabric from the hem of his robes so he can clean up the blood off of her palms.

"Your family is my own. I would help them in any way that I can. And I hope that I can continue to help them in the future," he says matter-of-factly without looking up at her. "That aid extends to you as well should you ever need it."

Kat's eyes shoot up and they connect with his again. Words build up at the back of her throat but she quickly bits her lip and looks back down at their hands.

"What?" he inquires as his hands still again.

"Nothing. Forget it."

"You never cared about speaking your mind to me before. What is preventing you now?" he pushes.

"I said it was nothing," she shoots back defensively, "That is speaking my mind. Why can't you accept that?"

"You spoke more freely to me before the library. Was what transpired between us so terrible to you?" Ardeth looks up from his hands completely and his dark eyes bore into her. She can feel his piercing gaze melting through her, looking into her very soul.

"Drop it," Kat snaps. Feeling the anger clawing its way to life again, she squeezes her fists closed on reflex and the fabric there tightens across her flesh, stinging her wounds. Ardeth quickly moves to grabs her fingers and opening them before she can do any more damage to herself.

They sit in silence as Kat focuses on her breathing and regains control over the boiling rage coiling within her.

"I am sorry for baiting you," Ardeth finally whispers so low that Kat fears she's going to lean forward in an attempt to hear him better. "I do admit that we should not being arguing like this, not when your nephew is being held captive."

Kat thinks over his words. That's exactly what they should be doing: focusing on the problem at hand and not each other. That way there's no distractions for her. She nods her head, "Yeah, you're right. We need to focus on getting Alex back and we can't do that when we're arguing all the time."

"Allies then," Ardeth finishes tying the fabric on her left hand before holding out his own to her.

Kat stares at it, glancing up at him carefully, but then takes his hand into hers and marvels at the feel of it as his palm all but swallows hers, "Deal."

Author's Note:

Just FYI:

Italicized words: personal thoughts or sounds or words said in Egyptian language.

Italicized/Bolded words: power infused words of otherworldly beings said in Egyptian language (AKA: Imhotep or Bastet)