A/N: Okay, here's Chapter Ten. Here is also where I need to catch up again, because this is the last chapter I actually have finished. I still need to write Eleven and onward. Also, we've now started up with marching band competitions at school, so there go my weekends. Updates will probably be few and far between but I'll do my best. I just wanted to tell you all this so you don't think I've given up on the story, because I haven't. Anyway, at least you get a good long chapter before I have to take a break, right? This one's pretty much a monster, even longer than Chapter Seven, and that one was pretty huge. I know, it's not as long as some people make them, but hey, I'm still kind of learning this as I go, so you'll forgive me, right? Okay, enough from me. Here it is!

Chapter 10: The Awakening (And the Resulting Chaos)

When Larry arrived at the museum just before sunset that night, he found his employer waiting for him.

"Excellent job getting all of this set up, Mr. Daley. Only regret that they aren't yet animated. That would be the best way to test it, see if the people like it."

"Uh, sir, about that…" Larry began, his mind racing to think up an explanation. "They…already have been animated! Yeah, the Smithsonian…heard about our night hours and…figured the exhibit would be worth more to us already redone to come alive," he improvised quickly.

"Oh, really? Wonderful!" replied Dr. MacPhee, swallowing the hastily concocted story hook, line, and sinker. Larry let out a sigh of relief. "I believe I shall remain here then, to meet some of these wonderful women."

"Sir, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, wouldn't you rather be at the museum door to tell all the visitors about he new exhibit?" Larry was desperately trying to get the director away from the area so he could explain everything to the poor women, as they were likely to be a bit confused and disoriented when they first woke up. It wouldn't do for Dr. MacPhee to see that; he might become suspicious. "After all, you certainly deserve to be recognized for this stroke of absolute genius," he continued, hoping his appeal to the other man's ego would pay off.

"Ah, you make an excellent point, Mr. Daley. Thank you very much. In that case, I will talk to them, and you, later, at the conclusion of the night hours," the museum director said, hurrying off to wait for the doors to open and admit his not-so-adoring public.

A few minutes later the sun had completed its descent and had passed the horizon. Larry, stationed in front of the new arrivals, watched intently as they came to life before his very eyes. It was a phenomenon that he had witnessed many times, but it never ceased to amaze him, how colors suddenly seemed brighter, skin lost the sallow, waxy appearance, eyes and faces lit with emotion, and the statues began to move. He didn't have time to notice much else, though, before he was nearly knocked off his feet.

"Oof. Thanks. Hi, Amelia, good to see you, too," he told the woman clinging to him. That's when he noticed that it wasn't Amelia. It couldn't be, because she was standing a few feet away, her arms crossed over her chest and an amused look on her face. "What the…who are you?" he muttered, trying to disengage the woman's arms. This only made her cling more tightly, however, and she began speaking rapidly in a language that appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be gibberish. At least, he couldn't make head or tails of it, though she seemed to be saying a lot about some people named Mark and Anthony or something like that. "Um…a little help here?" he asked Amelia pleadingly.

She shook her head. "That would be cruel. You're obviously a great source of comfort to the poor thing. Plus, this is entirely too funny to miss." At his stern expression, she sighed. "Fine. I'll go find Ahkmunrah. I'll be back in a minute." As she hurried through the doorway, however, she ran right into the Pharaoh himself. He quickly grabbed her arms to keep her from falling. "Thanks. Sorry."

"And just where are YOU going in such a hurry?" the young king asked her with a chuckle.

"To find you, oddly enough. Cleopatra won't let go of Larry."

Ahkmunrah looked confused. "What? Cleopatra? Why not? And why is she…oh. She's one of the new exhibits."

"Yeah. I think she believes that he's Mark Antony or something, because that's about all I can understand of what she's saying, but seeing as neither Larry nor I understand Egyptian, I'm not exactly positive. I was hoping you might be able to help us."

Ahkmunrah laughed again when he saw Larry's predicament and the pleading look in his eyes. "I'll see what I can do." He began talking to Cleopatra in his native tongue, and she looked at him in bewilderment for a few moments, and then replied in the same language. After a few minutes, she released Larry and the two Egyptians moved over to a corner of the room, the young king leading the way, and both of them speaking in hushed voices.

Well, that was awkward," Larry commented, looking at Amelia. He held out his arms to her. "How about a real hug that's actually from you now?" She laughed and went over to him, but before they could embrace, a commanding voice rang out.

"Wherefore art thou so immodestly clothed?" The voice belonged, of course, to Queen Elizabeth I, and she was looking at Amelia as she spoke, obviously addressing her. She turned to Larry to continue. "Art thou her husband, to allow her to go about clothed as a man? Thou shouldst keep a firmer hand on her. It simply isn't proper." Amelia flushed with temper, and the monarch peered more closely at Larry. "Thou art also attired oddly. From which tailor didst thou purchase thy unseemly garments?"

"Now see here, lady, I'll dress how I want and when I want, and no one's gonna tell me otherwise," Amelia informed the Queen heatedly.

"Silence!" Elizabeth shouted. "Thou darest much, to speak so to thy sovereign. We should have thee executed for taking such liberties. They method of speech is odd, though, and we suppose thou art merely a poor, ignorant peasant who knowest not how to properly address thy monarch. We shall overlook thy lack of respect and dreadful behavior this once. See that it never happens again. Thou, sir," she said, turning to Larry, "hast no excuse. If thou canst not manage to beat some manners into such a disagreeable wench, thou must be a poor husband, indeed. Thou art not suitable to tame such a saucy woman."

Amelia, white with rage, stalked toward the door. "I'm sorry to leave you alone to explain things to them," she threw back over her shoulder on the way out, "but if I stay here much longer, I'm gonna end up strangling her, and that would be bad. I'd rather NOT find out if we can die, thank you all the same."

Larry smiled understandingly. "It's okay, I get it. I'll manage. I'll just take care of this and meet you in the lobby, okay?"

She nodded her agreement. "See you soon." With that, she hurriedly left the room.

Larry turned back to the angry ruler. "Now, I need you to just listen to me for one minute. In fact, I need all of you to listen," he said, talking to all of the confused women who had been nervously watching the exchange between the Queen and the aviatrix. "I know you're all probably wondering what the heck's going on right now, but I'm going to explain everything."

"Better hurry, Larry, the museum opens in ten minutes," Ahkmunrah chimed in from his corner.

"Thanks, Ahk." Just then, there was a loud crash from the direction of the lobby. "Oh no…better yet, can you take over here? I mean, it's your tablet; surely you can manage to explain things? I think I need to go sort that out, whatever it was; it sounded like trouble."

"Of course, Larry. Go see to your duties. I'll take care of these ladies."

Larry rushed out of the room to find Amelia scolding the Neanderthals, who had apparently thrown a metal trash can at her. The prehistoric men were looking fairly ashamed of themselves, and when she had finished lecturing them, they slunk back to their display like whipped puppies.

"How on Earth did you do that?" Larry asked, incredulous. "First Jed, now the Neanderthals…before long you'll have the entire museum either cowering in fear or eager to leap to do your bidding."

Amelia blushed. "I probably shouldn't have been so harsh with them, but…well, I suppose I was still angry, and they kind of scared me with that stunt. Besides, it made me feel better…"

"No, you did fine. They'd have just gone on causing trouble and making more of a mess for me to clean up. They're always into something they shouldn't be. They didn't manage to actually hit you with that did they?"

"No, of course not. They aim about as well as they speak English," Amelia retorted. "How did her high-and-mightiness take it when you told her that she isn't all powerful anymore?"

I'm not sure. Ahk's taking care of that part. I had to come to investigate that crash." Larry went over to right the trash can and return it to its former location. "Luckily, they just emptied these." Then he saw the mark the container had left on the floor. With a groan, he surveyed the damage. "Oh, man, MacPhee's not going to be happy about this at all…"

"I'm not going to be happy about what?" The museum director asked, making Larry jump. He, too, had heard the crash and come to investigate. When he saw what had been done to the floor, he turned an apoplectic shade of fuchsia. "Really, now, Mr. Daley, this is too much. I cannot tolerate—"

"It wasn't his fault, sir!" Amelia cried, stopping him mid-tirade. The museum director stopped with his mouth open and blinked in surprise. No one had ever dared to interrupt one of his rants before. No one.The look on his face was somewhat comical, and it became even more so as Amelia continued to talk. "The Neanderthals chucked that trash bin at me, and you can't honestly say THEY knew any better. I mean, they're not exactly the most intelligent beings, are they?" It was at this point that Larry began to worry for Amelia's safety and what Dr. MacPhee would do to her for speaking to him like that. He looked positively LIVID with rage. Then again, Amelia had never been one to worry about stepping on the toes of people such as Dr. MacPhee, which is to say, those that she considered to have too big an ego for their own good. "Larry had nothing to do with it," the pilot went on, seemingly oblivious to the man's mounting temper. "He was in the other room at the time, helping the new arrivals get acclimated. What on Earth…are you all right, sir?" she asked, concerned, for the director was by now positively sputtering in his outrage. "Is he having some kind of fit?" she asked Larry.

"Who are you?" MacPhee finally managed, controlling himself with a visible effort. He had NEVER been spoken to like that before, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

"Amelia Earhart, at your service," the aviatrix responded briskly, grabbing his hand and pumping it up and down with great enthusiasm. "You might've heard of me, first woman to fly the Atlantic, receive the Flying Cross, et cetera. I know who YOU are, of course. You're Dr. MacPhee, the director of this museum. Nice place you run here, by the way. Say, it looks like you've got some visitors coming in. Why don't you toddle off to greet them? I'm sure they'd love to say hello, and I bet they can't wait to hear all about your brilliant plans for this new exhibit. Go on now, off you go! It was a pleasure meeting you! Goodbye!" With that, she turned the poor man around and gave him a gentle push in the direction of the guests entering the museum. As he wandered off with a dazed look on his face, Amelia couldn't help but giggle. "Aww, he's so adorably funny," she commented to Larry, who by now was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face. "He kind of reminds me of a cuddly teddy bear or something. I'm not quite sure why."

"Oh, Amelia…that was great," Larry choked out in between renewed fits of laughter. "He's never had anyone stand up to him or talk to him like that before, and NO ONE would EVER dare to interrupt him, so when you did both…it really threw him for a loop. About time, too," he added with satisfaction. Just remembering the look on his employer's face as Amelia was speaking made the night guard erupt with further gales of laughter, and he finally had to sit down before he fell over.

Amelia just shook her head. "I'll leave you to it, then." Seeing Teddy and Texas waiting by the front desk for a tour group, she headed over to talk to the former president. "Teddy, do you know where I can find the supply closet?"

"Through that door, take the stairs to the left, downward, go through the door at the bottom of the stairs, third door on the right," he answered. "Why?"

"I want to put up some kind of barrier around that chunk of floor the Neanderthals tore up, and I was going to see if they had caution tape or something like that down there. I don't suppose we'd want guests walking through there, and poor Dr. MacPhee's in no state to do anything about it at the moment, nor, apparently, is Larry. Then someone should be called in to fix it."

"I'll take care of it, my dear. It would appear that you have fans to greet," the president told her, directing her attention to the door with a smile.

Amelia looked around, startled, to find a man and a woman with three children in tow, two of them girls, being directed toward her by Dr. MacPhee at the entrance to the museum. "And so it begins," she said, sighing. "This should be interesting…"

"Courage, my dear girl, courage! After all, courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from the little things."

Amelia grinned. "Very funny, sir." Then she squared her shoulders and walked over to meet the family. "Hello. Welcome to the Museum of Natural History. Is there anything I can do for you?" Amelia winced internally at her rather stiff, formal greeting. It sounded so…dry and stuffy. She wished she knew what to say to them to reassure them, because judging by the confused looks on their faces, it was the group's first experience with the night hours at the museum.

"Oh, are you a tour guide? I'm so sorry. That man over there told us you were one of the new exhibits. Could you please direct us to the new exhibit with all of the famous women? Jessica here has been dying to meet some of the people she's been learning about in school," the mother said, seeming a bit flustered. The older of the two girls, who looked to be about ten, looked up and smile shyly at Amelia when her mother said her name. The other girl, maybe seven years old, was hiding behind her father's leg, and the boy was looking around like he was bored out of his mind with the whole museum. He appeared to be about fifteen.

Amelia gave them all a welcoming smile. "Most of the new exhibits are over there, through that door, but you were right the first time. I AM one of them. My name is Amelia Earhart."

The older girl, Jessica, gasped in shock and delight. "Oh m gosh, you're like, my favorite!" she squealed, before throwing herself at Amelia and hugging her. Her brother rolled his eyes at her condescendingly, but he eyed Amelia with renewed interest.

"Jessica! How many times must I tell you, you don't touch?" The harassed mother snapped. After peeling her daughter off, she apologized again, and then asked "If you're one of the exhibits, why are you walking around talking to us? I thought they were stationary, interactive displays that just spoke about themselves. Are you an actress?"

"No, I'm not an actress, and I'm talking to you because during the night hours, the displays actually move around and mingle freely with the guests. It's a new, experimental kind of museum, I suppose. And, honestly, I don't mind your daughter hugging me, ma'am. It's quite all right, she's just enthusiastic. That's not necessarily a bad thing. If I wasn't been so enthusiastic about flying, I never would have been able to do half of the things I did," Amelia answered.

"See, mommy? She said it was okay," the little girl told her mother indignantly. She turned to Amelia. "Did you really fly across a whole ocean by yourself?"

"Yes, I did, sweetheart. All the way from Canada to Ireland," Amelia replied. The child's eyes widened.

Wow…" she breathed, awed. "That's so cool!"

"So…if you're not an actress, what are you?" the girl's brother asked bluntly. "I mean, you sure look like an actress to me. You're too real for a robot, and obviously solid, so you're not a hologram or anything."

Amelia wasn't quite sure how to answer that question. Thankfully, Larry had noticed her plight and came to the rescue. "Extremely advanced technology. Animatronics. Artificial Intelligence. That sort of thing," he said, coming up behind Amelia and making her jump. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"And what are you supposed to be, Abraham Lincoln?" the boy asked sarcastically.

"So, as a matter of fact, kid, I'm not. I'm the night guard here," Larry informed him tersely, irritated. The boy flushed a dull red when Larry called him "kid," and muttered something under his breath, upon which his mother's hand immediately descended upon his ear.

"One more word from you, mister, and you'll go out to wait in the car. Understand?" When he didn't respond, she gripped tighter, eliciting a yelp of pain. "Dylan, do you understand me? I want an answer!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…"

Amelia looked at him with distaste. "You'd do better to show a little more respect, young man. She's your mother. If it weren't for her, you wouldn't even exist. Think about that before you mouth off next time."

The Dylan's mother looked at her gratefully, but the teenager himself just rolled his eyes. "You're probably, like, programmed to say stuff like that or something. Soooo not cool…" He eyed her thoughtfully. "Though they didn't do such a bad job on you. You almost look real, and you are one hot robot chick." His poor parents just gaped at him, too shell-shocked to respond.

Amelia stared. "Excuse me? Did you REALLY just say what I think you just said?"

"Leave her alone, buddy," Larry told the boy, stepping in front of Amelia a little bit. She didn't much care for that, either, though.

"I'm a big girl, okay, Ace?" she told him, laying one hand on his chest to restrain him and push him back behind her. "I can handle this by myself." She flashed him a reassuring smile before rounding on Dylan. "That comment is seriously wrong on several levels. First: I think I'm a bit old for you. Second: I'm taken, sorry. Third: I'm a museum exhibit. Fourth: you just embarrassed yourself and your family, and fifth: I am WAY out of your league." She grinned at the teenager's dumbfounded expression, and his sisters giggled. His parents, however, were still looking mortified.

"Sue, I'm going to take Dylan out to the car. Can you handle Jessica and Alyson?" The father asked.

"Of course, David, thank you." Once the pair had left, Sue turned to Amelia and Larry. "I really must apologize for my son's dreadful behavior," she began. "I just don't know what's gotten into him lately! Thank you so much for setting him straight. I just couldn't believe he actually said that to you. I think you may have made an impression, though. Once again, I'm so sorry. You can dress them up, but you can't take them out…"

"Dywan'th in twouble," intoned the younger girl, Alyson, solemnly. "He made mommy and daddy angwy and now he'th gonna get gwounded."

Amelia smiled at her and crouched down so they could talk face to face. "I bet you never get into any kind of trouble, do you, sweetie?" When the child shook her head, her mother just laughed.

"Don't you believe it for a second. She's a perfect little angel right now, but wait until it's bedtime. THEN it gets ugly."

Jessica, who had wandered away a bit, now ran back to the small group. "Mama, mama! Guess who's over there? Guess! You'll never figure it out! It's QUEEN ELIZABETH! We just GOTTA go talk to her! Please? Come one mommy!"

"Sorry, looks like I have to go. I was wonderful meeting you both!" Sue called as she was dragged away by her over-enthusiastic daughter.

Larry chuckled. "Well, that was fun. What an…interesting family. I really didn't like that boy though…"

"Oh, you're just jealous," Amelia told him teasingly. More seriously, she added "May I finally have my 'welcome back' hug and kiss? At this rate I'm not sure we'll EVER get around to it without interruptions."

"I'd be happy to oblige," he responded, wrapping his arms around her. "Mm—hm, I definitely missed this." All too soon, though, he had to pull away. Another young girl had come running over to talk to Amelia and she was now tugging on her jacket to get her attention. With a sigh, Larry released his hold and stood by to listen as Amelia charmed yet another museum visitor.

Once the girl had left to find her mother, Amelia looked around to see that a small crowd had formed around her. "What on Earth…what's going on? What are all of these people here for? Who are they?"

"They're your fans, Amelia," Larry replied with a grin.

"This is SWEET!" one child cried. "She really DOES talk!"

Amelia was taken aback at the interest everyone was showing in her, and a little nervous about having to talk to so many people, but Larry squeezed her hand reassuringly. "I'm here. Don't worry about it. They'll love you, I promise. Just be yourself and answer their questions." She smiled at him in thanks and then turned to face the crowd. This was going to be a long night…

A/N: Whew, glad THAT'S over...it took me forever to type it! There are probably some typos, too, because I was hurrying to get this up for you guys. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you thought, etc., same as always. Lots of love to all of my readers! Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Two things. First, yes, for those of you that didn't know, aviatrix is indeed a word, used to describe Amelia Earhart on several of the websites I've seen during my research for this story. It's the feminine form of aviator, or male pilot. Secondly, when Teddy is talking to Amelia, and he says something about courage, and she responds and says "Very funny, sir," the reason for her response is that what he says is actually a famous quote by Amelia Earhart herself. I just thought it would be cool to include that here, I don't know. Call me a nerd or something. I know it's true. Anyway, I just figured I'd explain that in case someone didn't know. Okay, now I'm done. Hope you enjoyed it!

Sorry, one more thing. The chapter titles for Chapters Eight and Ten have been taken from my iPod song list becasue my muse deserted me when it came time to think up chapter titles. If anyone can guess the artist, you get bonus points. I'm not sure what the bonus points are for yet, but you can have them. Maybe I'll let you thinku p a reward or something. lol. The titles of the songs are "To Where You Are" and "The Awakening." Good luck!