AN: I've decided I'm going to start keeping a regular schedule for my postings. From now on, I'll be posting once a month on the 20th. I'd post more often, but I've got a crazy college schedule and a 1 1/2 year old son who's extremely active. This will give me plenty of time to get each chapter finished in time for you lovely people.

The Fall of Ra: Part 2—The Theory

I sat awkwardly at a booth with a cup of coffee in my hands. I received strange looks from people as they passed me by. I didn't blame them. I probably looked like a mess. I hadn't slept in three days, hadn't showered in four. Not to mention, I was nervous as hell. What if he didn't show? My older brother had been more than surprised to get my call yesterday. Like he'd said on the phone, he hadn't seen me since Christmas, and it was almost August now. Would he be willing to take me in? Did he know that I'd been kicked out…twice? I really didn't want to go back to foster care. If he wouldn't help me, I'd sleep in a tree before I went back to foster care. Last time ended pretty badly…

"Selene!" a voice called, pulling me from my thumb twiddling and toe tapping. I smiled brightly at the sight of Daniel Jackson.

I set my coffee down and got up to hug my brother.

"It's so good to see you, Danny," I told him.

"You too," he replied as he took a seat across from my cup. "I'm really glad you called. I've been wanting to get in touch with you, but I didn't know how to contact you. Max and Denise said you moved out months ago and haven't heard from you since."

"Yeah, well you know me. Ever since you got your own place, I haven't been able to stay with one family. Max and Denise just…didn't work out…" I trailed off on my last statement, never quite meeting Danny's eye.

He reached for my hand. "Selene, did something happen?"

I snatched my hand back from him and set in my lap, clutching it with my other. My coffee suddenly became very interesting and the inside of my cheek became the perfect chew toy.

"Selene, did Max…did he...do something to you?"

"He's a stupid drunk," I muttered to my coffee.

"Did he touch you?!" Danny looked like he would go out and kill Max if I said yes. Not that my brother was a particularly aggressive man, he was just particularly protective of me.

"No, it's not like that," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "He came home drunk one night and I was spread out in the living room with my textbooks with a History Channel documentary on. He wanted to watch the game on TV. He told me to 'Get my worthless ass out of his sight'. I didn't take to kindly to that."

"You never did know how to control your temper, or your mouth."

I shrugged. "I got a little lippy and Max…well…" I pulled up the sleeve of my tee-shirt to reveal the bruise from Max's grip.

"Oh my God…" Danny whispered.

"The rest has either faded or is being covered with make-up. I had a pretty bad black eye for a couple of days though…So yeah, as soon as I could, I moved into one of the apartments on campus so I could study in peace. It's not much and I don't have a lot of furniture, but my job let me have it and I could be alone, so can't complain…"

"I should have been there for you, Selene! Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were busy…"

"That's no excuse! Man, I swore the day I found you that I'd do everything I could to protect you! What a lousy job I've done…"

"Danny! This isn't your fault! You couldn't have possibly have known. Besides, you can't protect me from the big, bad world forever. I'm fifteen now. I'm finishing up my PhD. If you try to shelter me from the world, you know I'll just end up pushing you away."

"Yeah, you've always been that way. I can't believe it's been nine years since that day I found you in that museum!"

I snickered. "I was a hell of a nineteenth birthday present, huh?"

For his nineteenth birthday, Danny's foster parents had brought him to a museum with a special section on ancient Egypt. There had been some new shipments that had come in and were in the process of being placed in the exhibit so it was closed the day he went, but his foster parents pulled some strings and he was allowed to go in. The requirement had been that he didn't touch any of the new stuff. He didn't plan on touching the sarcophagus I had been sleeping in; he just wanted to look at it. An archeologist named Simon Nikolas had found it buried in a cave not far from the pyramids at Giza, but had never been able to open it. Even so, somehow Danny had been able to. Inside, he had found me: a five-year-old little girl quietly napping. They said the sarcophagus had to have been at least ten thousand years old. Even if I had somehow locked myself in it before Simon Nikolas had found it, it wouldn't have survived the months it had been from the time it was discovered to the moment when Danny found me. Yet, there I was. The mystery had never been explained. I didn't speak English—or any language for that matter—so they couldn't ask me what my name was (I didn't remember it anyway) so they named me after the archeologist that had discovered my sarcophagus and let Danny choose my first name. Since I'd been found with a moon-shaped pendant around my neck, he named me Selene.

Danny's foster parents were happy to take me in, so I moved in with them. Before long, I picked up enough English to be enrolled in kindergarten. After I mastered reading and writing, it was clear to my teachers that what they had to teach me was far below my level. I quickly advanced through the educational system until I was a college student. Now, here I was, ten years and five sets of foster parents later, with a PhD in Linguistic Anthropology and Egyptology.

Danny smiled at the fond memories we had in our childhood. "Selene, now that you've got your PhD, I was wondering if you want to come do some research with me."

"What kind of research?"

"I have a theory on the origins of the Pyramids of Giza. I don't think what we know about them now is correct. I think they're older than we think they are. Will you look into it with me?"

I thought about his theory. It had long been believed that the Pharaohs of the fourth dynasty, but I was open to looking into it a little more. What if he was right? It would take the academic community by storm! Besides, he was my brother! I had to help him!

"Alright! I'm in!"

"Really? That's fantastic! I was thinking about getting a two-bedroom apartment so we didn't have to go back and forth between our places."

"That sounds great! My lease is almost up, so that works out perfectly!"

What I didn't tell Danny was that I had been kicked out of my student apartment since I was no longer a student and I hadn't been able to find a place that would rent to a teenager. I'd been sleeping on a friend's couch for the last week.