Desiree - February 2, 2003
"Senbi!"
"What!?" The startled man yelped out as he was jolted awake by the screaming Gabrielle.
"Senbi! You promised me you would help me protect the entrance! You lying son of a..."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Senbi was groggily apologizing to the fuming Gabrielle.
"Allah-dammit-all, Senbi! You have to stay awake! What if he came through here while you were dozing off, you bugger!? What if."
"It's all right! I only dozed for a second; he didn't come through. Don't worry!" The still hazy Senbi was trying to calm his now hysterical sister.
"Senbi," Gabrielle tried to come up with the words to chastise her brother, but the emotion took over her, and she slumped her shoulders in weary resign.
"Hey, hey- it's ok. This'll all be over soon. Jonathan and Ardeth will be back soon, and then we can destroy the tunnel." When this didn't comfort Gabrielle, Senbi tried to change the conversation, "Um, why are you here, anyway? Shouldn't you be back with Nefret?"
Gabrielle smacked Senbi on the chest for his stupidity, "I'm here to take over the watch, you idiot!"
"Oh, thank Allah! I'm exhausted."
"Senbi, you, you…!"
"Oh, sorry." Senbi turned to go back to his hut and collapse on his bed. "See you later."
"Take care of Nefret, you, you, bugger!" Gabrielle, once again, depended on her British terminology to annoy and put down her brother.
When Senbi shrugged and didn't answer, Gabs turned around to the entrance of the tunnel and started pacing back and forth in front of it. "Oh, Jon, where are you?"
"ALEX! What the bloody hell did you think you were doing? You could've been hurt! You are SO grounded!" Evie was beside herself with anger. "Rick? Where's Kit? Alex- go to your room. Jonathan, watch him!"
"C'mon, Alex." Jon took Alex's arm and led him away from the fuming couple. "We'd better go." Alex nodded and followed his uncle off of the deck and down into the ship to his quarters.
"Rick?" Evie looked at her husband, searching for some answers.
"Kit kicked me in the balls and ran away." Rick's annoyed and pained voice failed to catch Evie's attention.
"Dammit! We were so nice to him! I wanted to have him be a part of our family." Finally the pain in his voice registered, "Oh, dear. Rick? Are you all right?"
Rick was walking with his legs spread slightly apart, and then he sat down slowly and painfully into a chair and looked up at Evie, "Oh, yeah- I'm goddamn perfection."
"Oh, dear. What are we going to do, now?" Evie sat down next to Rick and rubbed her forehead with her hand.
Rick sighed, "I don't know, but we'd better get going anyway. Where's Ardeth?" Rick had just noticed that their Med-jai friend had disappeared.
"I'm right here." Ardeth walked in just at that moment.
"Where've you been?" Rick slowly turned to see Ardeth walking towards them.
"I went to see some friends of mine, but they have left." Ardeth paused, "I do not know why they left with such haste. I thought they were supposed to be here another week, but I might have be mistaken." Ardeth's brow furrowed.
Rick didn't like the idea of Ardeth being wrong, "Where were they going?"
Ardeth hesitated, "Hamunaptra."
"Ah, fuck." Rick's frustration showed clearly on his face.
Ardeth hated having to say this, "We have to find them- we are going to need them to find Skarzinski."
"Shit." Rick swung up his hands and stood up, but too quickly. He leaned over to his groin and groaned in pain. "You know what this means, don't you? I'm gonna have to ride a fuckin' camel."
Penny - February 8, 2003
Rick straightened up, a grimace marred his face for the umpteenth time since he had been back. He was beginning to think, it would be permanently etched there thanks to his nephew. "There has to be another way," he groaned, thinking a camel ride may just finish what Kit had started. If he ever got his hands on that kid...no best not to entertain that thought too long, he just might start enjoying it too much. He pushed Kit from his mind and thought for a second. What had he told Evie and Jon about getting around with all the traveling, they'd have to do? They'd practically need a ..."YES! No camels boys and girls! Ut-huh! Nope! Got a better idea. Let's go! Everybody out the door!" he grimaced again, waving his arms. "Grab your bags and let's go. Got a magic carpet to catch!"
"Rick what are you rambling about?"
"No time babe, he got a boat to catch," he said mysteriously and wiggled his eyebrows at her. Her eyes widened and she smiled as his meaning took root in her mind, and she kissed him. "You're brilliant darling!"
"Yeah?" he answered flatly. "Tell me that when they slip the noose back around my neck."
Evie frowned at her husband. "What are you going to do, Rick?"
When he began to rummage through the first aid pack, he looked up with a frustrated grimace on his face. "I'm gonna kill that damned kid!" He went back to rummaging in the bag. "EVIE! WHERE THE HELL IS THE DAMN ASPRIN?"
An hour later they arrived in front of The Magic Carpet Airlines sign. It hadn't looked much better than the last time they'd been there. In fact, it looked exactly the same, to the passengers in the cab. Although there were mixed emotions from the back seat. Alex was ecstatic, Jonathan groaned and if Rick didn't know better, he'd swear Ardeth turned a pale shade of green. "Cheer up guys! It could be worse! It's not like it's the Titanic!"
It was. IT WAS THE GODDAMN TITANIC! Rick scrubbed his hand down his face in disbelief as if the mere action would erase the view in front of his eyes. He brushed his hand through his hair and wondered if he'd still get the same rotten toothed little executioner he had the last time they had tried to hang him, when he shot Izzy Buttons, deader than a door nail. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" He felt the laughter bubble up in his throat only this time, he wondered if it was the kick he had taken to the family jewels. Hadn't Evie told him a couple times, he should quit thinking with what was in the front of his pants? Kit probably gave the poor thing a concussion, he laughed out loud. That would explain the silly laughter that seemed to be coming out of him.
He wiped away a tear that threatened to trickled out of his eye, as he waved them off. He stared at what once, no doubt, been a sea going wreck waiting to happen. It was at least twenty feet bigger, looked like it had never seen a damned coat of paint, half of the boards looked rotten. In fact, the only thing Rick could tell that was the same thing, was the nets that hung over the sides. He looked all around then.
"What the hell are you lookin' for O'Connell?" the wiry little man wanted to know.
"The animals. Shouldn't they be showing up, in pairs?"
"Still a smart ass, are we O'Connell?"
"It keeps me alive."
"Yeah and walkin' bowlegged, I see," he snickered.
"I suggest if you don't wanna get shot in the other side of your ass, you get in the Titanic and fire that puppy up."
"OH! You saw that did you?"
"Saw what?"
"The name on the bow, of course!"
Rick squeezed his eyes shut, and rubbed his forehead hard, then turned to Evie and squinted one eye open at her. "Tell me I'm wrong," he groaned.
She grinned up at him. "Sorry Sweetheart. The SS Titanic."
The song lilted over the desert, filling the loneliness as Kit sat high atop a camel he had bought in the market place and promptly named it O'Connell. He based it on the fact that the animal, was tall, ugly and loped along like a gorilla and it liked its rider as much as the man, that said he was his uncle. Well that was okay. Kit didn't want another relative. They had a habit of turning up dead too many times. More bodies on the ground he didn't need. He was just fine alone. And when he was done, he'd see Mom , Pop, and Papere again.
Some glad morning when this life is over,
I'll fly away;
To a home on God's celestial shore,
I'll fly away, I'll fly away.
"Gotcha!" Rick grinned as he looked through the telescope at the camel and rider. "Give your soul to God boy, cause your ass is mine!"
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; in the morning
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by.
I'll fly away, I'll fly away.
"Izzy get lower! No! Lower dammit! Get lower!"
"What do you want me to do goddamn skim the ground?"
"Close, but not that close," he snapped tying a rope around his waist and securing it to a sturdy piece of planking. "Now get just a little lower."
When the shadows of this life have gone,
I'll fly away;
Like a bird from prison bars has flown,
I'll fly away, I'll fly away.
He climbed up over the side while the passengers of the small craft watched in shock and disbelief. "Rick have you lost your mind?" Evie cried out.
He grinned at her and rolled up his sleeves. "Nope. Give us a kiss for luck, Babe. I'm goin' fishin'."
"More like going mad," Jonathan said looking at Ardeth, who nodded in agreement.
"Quit jaw jackin' and get over here and help you two! Izzy, goddammit, get lower! You can't expect me to catch a big fish if I can't reach it!"
Just a few more weary days and then,
I'll fly away;
To a land where joy shall never end,
I'll fly away, I'll fly away.
Rick began to climb down the netting till he hung, by one hand on the netting and one above him on the rope. His legs dangled and the balloon glided closer, to it's quarry. Just a few more feet. He could hear the song Kit was singing. Carrie Anne sung it to him when he was little, he remembered. He reached out, as the balloon drew closer. Just a little...bit...more...Common...Common...
I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; in the morning
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away...WHAT...THE...FUCK?
Kit was lifted by two hands while a pair of muscular legs locked around him. He jerked his head up in stunned disbelief as he looked into the face of a man he was beginning to dislike with each passing breath. "You sorry sonuvabitch! Put me the fuck down!" He jerked but Rick held tight, grinning at the kid's anger. "Bastard! Let me go, you sorry old sonuvabitch...Let me go and I'll see if I can scrape your nuts off my knee!"
"Keep talkin' tough guy! Izzy, Go right! Right!" Rick grinned like a lunatic as the balloon veered right yet again, as Kit threw out every filthy word Rick had ever heard and then some. As soon as Rick was satisfied, he looked down at Kit and said. "You know what Junior? If you cooled off you'd live longer!"
Kit glared up at him. His eyes crystal blue daggers. "GO TO HELL MOTHER ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Rick smiled when he saw Kit hit the oasis pool and heard the audible SPLASH! "Izzy turn this tub around and set her down."
Marion (pen name GiantPygmyGirl) February 11, 2003
If there was anything Rick was not going to do it was to let the screaming, kicking, dirty, selfish, immature scraggly little snot in his arms down, much less let go. Even if it was the last thing he did Richard O'Connell was not going to let Kit get away from him again. They were going to sit down and have a nice long talk when they made camp and this time Rick was going to get some answers. Maybe he would ask Evelyn to come with him. He could tell that the kid was sweet on her.
Now Rick had had some tough times when he was a kid, and had probably seen more that Kit had, but the kid had it where it counted, that much he could tell. If he wasn't always kicking him in the balls, kneeing him in the groin, or plain and simple annoying the hell out of him then maybe he could grow to like him, maybe even love him. He viewed Kit sort of like the challenge of coming to know Jonathan, only a sharp mouth and about two hundred right hooks harder.
In light of recent events Rick knew that the two of them had been acting extremely immature, but he had to hand it to the kid, he certainly could handle himself in a fight… For right at that very moment he was clawing and scratching Rick's arms so hard he thought Kit might be breaking the skin through the light shirt he was wearing.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity Izzy landed the god-forsaken craft in the sand and Kit and Rick bounced jarringly to a stop, both trying to get up to escape the scalding hotness of the desert's floor after being in the cool pool of the oasis. Kit who was still entwined in Rick's limbs could not get up and finally gave up and collapsed into the heat and Rick's arms. Then, something extremely odd happened. Kit became extremely quiet. Not a peep, which was unusual for him with his instantaneous comebacks. Then, Rick noticed that he was shaking. Was he actually crying? Kit…Mr. Tough-Stuff? A quick look down at him confirmed Rick's worst fears. Indeed he was crying. Had he hurt him that badly? He didn't think so… He had seen what Kit could withstand, and he had not been squeezing him that hard. Holy SHIT! Did I make him cry? Rick's thoughts were coming fast.
"Hey Kit… are you ok?" Rick nudged him gently.
"Leave me alone… I am fine." With that he started to struggle again.
"Kit…did I hurt you?" Rick asked emphatically.
"You…? Hurt me? You couldn't even hurt a fly if you wanted to!" His fist had come very close to hitting Rick square in the jaw.
"Oh… I see, and that is the reason why you can't get away from me!" Rick yelled as he ducked again.
He was beaten, and he could no longer hide his sobs. "Just for once, leave me alone." Sweat was running down his face, mingling with his tears.
"Oh not so fast Kit! I am not leaving you alone unless you are dead and in a grave. Not after what you just pulled! I will talk to you, but I am not going to leave you alone. We need to talk. If we are all going to accomplish what we came out here to do we need your cooperation. You can not really think that you can do this all by yourself?" Rick stared at him incredulously. "You may have managed thus far alone, but this is something you can't do alone, and you know it. For once, be reasonable. I know this is hard to hear, especially coming from someone you seem to despise as much as me but let me be the voice of reason for once, your father, your mentor. Together, and only together we can accomplish this task; and I don't want you going and barging head-first guns blazing before we question this Alan Skarzinski. We need to have him answer a lot of questions… Your Aunt and Jonathan need their explanations just as badly as you do, if not more so. They are in your shoes too, don't forget that when your anger overtakes you."
For once Kit did not flinch when Rick made a reference to him being his nephew. Maybe this was going to work. Maybe Kit could forgive them, maybe, just maybe he could learn to love again. The two of them got up, and Rick, extended his hand out towards Kit. Kit hesitated at first but then eagerly took it up, and Rick embraced him in a hug, slapping him on the back. Meanwhile Evelyn, Jonathan, Izzy, Ardeth, and Alex had gotten off the Titanic ship and were standing watching the unbelievable phenomenon before their eyes—Rick and Kit were actually touching, without hurting each other!
Evelyn stepped up to her husband's side, kissing him on the lips and then whispering in his ear—"I am so proud of you Rick!" Then she lowered herself and kissed Kit on the forehead. "Welcome to the family Kit. We are truly glad to have you here!"
Emilee - February 25, 2003
Boy, Jonathan could definitely tell that he'd been in the desert too long. After all his years of experience he'd learned to tell the key signs of loosing his mind from what Jonathan liked to call 'desert-phobia'.
Thought of that all by himself, he did.
One of the signs was when he started getting Alex's name wrong, which the kid really didn't appreciate. After Jon had called him Lance seven times straight without even noticing, Alex just started walking away when his uncle walked up to talk to him.
The other really big sign, among others, was when he started talking to himself.
"Bloody hell...it's hot...
damn straight it is...
I wonder where the hell Lance, Charlie...no Alex! I wonder where Alex is?
He went that way I think.
Oh that way? Over there?
No, other way.
Oh right.." Jonathan told himself as he walked up to his nephew and sister and beamed proudly at him.
Alex looked over at his mother, "Muuuuuuummmm...Uncle Jon is really freaking me out..." he whined.
"Oh well just give him a cookie and maybe he'll go away." Evelyn replied offhandedly as she read from the book on her lap.
Jonathan stuck his tongue out at his sister, then cursed because that was another sign that he was going loony.
Looking up Jonathan saw that Alex was still staring at him, "What?"
"Have you been taking your medication Uncle Jon?"
"Left it at home..." Jon mumbled.
Alex groaned and stalked over to see what Kit was up to.
A/N: Please review! :)