Before we begin a few responses to reviews.
Thanks to those of you that tell me Isis is an excellent/believable character. I work very hard to make my characters their own person. It is one of the highest compliments I can receive!Thank you!
The Silvernote suggested I should go into her background some more. Don't worry we will get there. This chapter goes a little into her background as well as containing some Ahk and Isis goodness.
Dinosaur Imperial Soldier asked how soon we will see the Secret of the Tomb beginning. Chapter 15 will be the start of that movie.
Dinosaur Imperial Soldier also asked how soon we will see thier relationship develop. I meantioned in the description that this was a friendship leading into romance. You will be rewarded for your patience with a teaser next chapter. But for their relationship to really begin I have to ask you to be patient. It is well worth the wait!
The next night after closing, Isis found herself bent over the floor scrubbing at ash stains on the floor with a wire brush and sniffling to herself as she wiped at a stray tear.
Apparently the primordial men had gotten into the lost and found and discovered a lighter. What their obsession was with fire, she would never know. She could only guess that it was hardwired into their waxy DNA, so to speak. She sniffled again and scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her sleeve. A pair of boots appeared in her vision just before she heard the voice they belonged to.
"Something troubling you, my dear?" Teddy asked.
She cleared her throat, not looking up so he wouldn't see her red face. "I'm fine, Teddy. Just a bit of a headache before I came to work. I'll be alright."
"My dear, Isis. If there is anything I have learned it is that suppressing things can only hurt you. You must let them out to truly heal." He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Take a walk with me. Tell me what has happened."
"It's just stupid," she said roughly, scrubbing at her stinging eyes with her sleeve. "My boyfriend broke up with me."
Teddy's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I didn't know you were seeing anyone."
Izzy shrugged. "Yeah, we started dating before I took this job, but when I left for the Smithsonian he had a lot of questions that I couldn't answer. He never liked that I spent so much time working and when I'm not here I'm working on my book. So, he ended it. Don't tell anyone else. I don't want them to think it's their fault. They will think I am so childish for crying about it anyways."
"Tears are not just for children. Some people come into our lives and we believe they are the journal upon which we will write the story of our lives. When, in fact, they are nothing more than a piece of scrap paper to write a brief thought on. And only once we have reached the end of what they can give us do we realize what they were all along."
"That's actually really helpful, Teddy, thank you."
"Of course," he said as he patted her shoulders. "Perhaps you should replace that smile back on your face and get back to enjoying the job you love." She couldn't help but smile at the sage old man.
She went back to work, finished cleaning up the ashes and resolved a disagreement between the whale and the dolphins. There was a lot of squeaking, clicking and wild gestures but she somehow managed.
"Isis?" Ahkmenrah called from down the hall just as she left the oceanic exhibit.
"Hey, do you need something?"
"I was just wondering if you were alright. Teddy told me you were upset about something but he neglected to mention why."
"I'm better now that I've talked to Teddy. He is remarkably good with advice. I was just upset because my boyfriend broke up with me."
Ahk felt a strange stirring within himself. He felt upset at her misfortune and a strange uneasiness knowing she had past lovers.
"I wasn't aware you were being courted," he said uncomfortably. "What happened?"
She took a deep breath and let her eyes wander around the hall and the floor, suddenly nervous to discuss her personal life with Ahk. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him or that she didn't trust him. She did. She was just afraid that of what he would think of her explanation. "He was asking a lot of questions about why I took a trip to D.C. so suddenly and, honestly, what was I supposed to tell him? The truth is more farfetched than a lie. But I couldn't give a reasonable explanation and he assumed I must have run away to be with another man." She wrinkled her
nose in distaste at the thought, discretely looking at Ahk to gauge his reaction. "But I couldn't give him any proof that it wasn't true. So, he ended things."
"I'm sorry your relationship suffered because of all of us."
"It's alright. I guess if he couldn't trust me then I really didn't need him in my life anyway."
"Isis?" he asked, calling for her attention, and she stopped looking all around them in her nervous state to look directly into his eyes. "You deserve more than a man that cannot trust your word. You deserve so much more."
"Thanks, Ahk. That's really nice to hear."
"Someone needed to say it. We really appreciate you here. I hope you know that. And I greatly enjoy your company. You remind me of the home I lost."
She reached out and took his hand firmly. "I'm not going anywhere. This place feels like home to me, especially when I'm with you. It reminds me off all the good times I had with my father."
"Will you tell me more about him?"
"Let's take a walk." They started down the hall before she began speaking. "I wasn't exaggerating when I mentioned everything was about history to him. When I would get dressed up he would call me his little goddess and make a big show of trying to gain my favor." She spoke through a smile. "Most of the time his offerings were candy and cookies. He put a little sign on my door labeling it as 'The Temple of Isis' and he would leave plates of sweets out with silly notes. It was really just his way of showing he loved me but he had to tie in history somehow."
Ahk chuckled quietly. His mind had conjured up an image of a much younger Isis dressed in Egyptian clothing, sitting in a chair with her legs dangling as she happily ate a plate of cookies.
"Heaven help us if we found a frog," she continued. "He'd shout 'A plague!'." They both stopped to laugh at her dramatic rendition of her father. "It didn't matter if it was the first time or the hundredth time, it always made me laugh. I started to draw pictures of them and left them around the house just to see him do it again. I miss him a lot."
"What about your mother?"
"She remarried a few years after my dad died. When Roger, my stepdad, first came around I hated him because it felt like he was trying to replace my dad. I acted out quite a lot in that time. That's what led me here, actually. My school trip was to this museum and I hid in the bathroom to stay after hours."
"And that was the day you released me."
"Yeah, it scared me so much that I stopped acting out."
Ahk winced.
"I'm sorry I frightened you."
"It couldn't be helped. Over the years, I grew up a bit and I realized that Roger wasn't so bad. He knows he can never replace my dad but I know he is there for me. He is really nice. I was just too childish to realize it for a while."
"You are lucky to have so many people to care for you."
"I know. I'm just happy I realize it now. Will you tell me about your family?"
"Well, you have already met my brother."
"Was he always like that?"
"Not to that extent. We were never very close. He loathed that my parents' favor always fell on me."
"Were you a good king?"
"I tried to be. I did my best to bring prosperity to my people. Though, looking back on it today, owning so many slaves doesn't count in my favor."
"Unfortunately, that was the time. But people have wisened up over the years."
"Yes. My reign didn't last long. My brother wasn't happy with my parents' decision to pass the throne to me rather than to him, the firstborn. He decided to take fate into his own hands."
"You mean he—" she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Did he kill you?"
He nodded. "He was never one to give up so easily," Ahk said with a sigh.
"I'm so sorry."
"No need. I have long since accepted it. 3,000 years is a long time to hold on to so much hate. I don't love my brother but I don't hate him."
"What about your parents?"
"My father loved us dearly. My mother was the most beautiful woman in all the land. They were so in love with each other." He paused, glancing sideways at Isis. "I miss them terribly."
"Maybe you will get to see them someday. Forever is a long time. Maybe someday some museum curator will be adamant about reuniting your family."
"I can only hope."
Romance to come soon! Tell me your thoughts.