I'm not real pleased with this chapter, but I hope for some reviews! This will be the last chapter I write for awhile, L.A are my initials btw. Enjoy!

Dinner Arrangements

L.A Sway

Lara stopped for a moment to take a breath, she had covered her assault course in just over a minute. Not good enough, she decided. She wiped away the sweat that had begun to bead at the top of her forehead and started to walk towards to beginning of the course. The heat was getting worse as the afternoon went on. "Lady Croft," Winston called, shuffling outside into the garden area, "This just arrived, I thought you might want to take a look at it." He held out a large fed ex box towards her. Lara looked up from one of the boxes and gestured that she had heard him, "Just leave it inside, I'll get to it in a little while." Winston turned to walk back inside and stopped halfway, "Lady Croft, what time are your dinner arrangements with Mr. Donavay?"

***

Jack ran his hand over the glass in the hotel bathroom, clearing away the steam on the mirror. He had to meet Lara in an hour. He'd had two other dreams since he had met her at the ball. They had been so different from the last ones. This time he saw specific dates, places, and a book. He saw Lara reading it over and over again, it was a thick black leather bound book. He had heard the words hour glass in Spanish over and over again, but understood them as if they were English. He didn't even know what he was doing here, his co worker Carl Hendens had been calling his cell phone non stop, complaining that he could only cover for him for so long at work. He made the excuse of having a big story that he was working on, and that he would be back soon. He was a reporter for the New York Times. A job he'd dreamed of since he was kid, one he was hardly going to give up because of some dreams and a beautiful lady. Yet he was still here, and with dinner plans non the less. He shook his head in frustration, "You're losing your mind Jack!" He mumbled out loud, and went to get a change of clothes.

***

Lara looked over the opened fed ex box, a thick black leather bound book inside. She re read the note,

Dear Lara,

How are you my dearest? I found this on a dig out in Havana, but could no read the inscriptions. I know you haven't had much to do lately, so I thought you might find this interesting. Enjoy!

Jeremy Gabe

Lara smiled, Jeremy had been a dear friend of her father's, and had always managed to send her little trinkets of some kind. But this was no trinket, she thought, as she lifted it out of the box. There were several symbols deeply imprinted on the front cover, she recognized a few of the symbols, mentioning an hourglass.

A few years back she had read about an hour glass hidden out in South America, and when found it would begin the countdown to the end of the world. And naturally, when it got out to the public, everyone rushed out to search for it. They all had come up empty handed. Another myth, she had decided. But this, perhaps the book spoke of it's whereabouts. The first several pages were sketches, majority had been done in charcoal, of men, woman, children, with numbers printed at the bottom. As the pages went on they were filled with an ancient text. Lara ran her fingers along the pages, immediately intrigued. She ventured over to her desk, ready to set to work on decoding the inscriptions when Winston shuffled into the room. "Lady Croft, Mr. Donavay has arrived." Lara looked up from her desk in surprise, "Oh I had completely forgotten!" She said, looking down at her dirty work out clothes. Jack wandered into the room behind Winston and smiled, "Don't worry it's a casual restaurant," he joked. Lara looked up at him and half laughed, "I lost track of time, we should just re schedule-" "It's no problem," he said, pulling a wine bottle into view, " I think we can eat dinner here."

Lara looked across that table, half hearing everything he was saying. All she could think about is when he would leave and she could get to work. Jack was a nice man , but certainly not her type. But for some odd reason she found herself drawn to him, actually enjoying his company. He wasn't so bad for a sleazy reporter, let alone an American. "Lara?" Lara shook herself out of her daze and looked up at him, "Sorry," she smiled, "what were you saying?" He gave his roughish smile, and shook his head, "Thinking about that book aren't you? Speaking of, what was it? The Reloj de arena," he smiled sheepishly, "my Spanish is a little rusty. The hour glass." Lara looked up at him, "How did you know about that-" she asked with suspicion. "Us reporters have our ways," he said pausing for a moment, again looking nervous, "Can I see it?" Lara eyed him, " You're definitely a mystery in yourself Mr. Donavay. It's this way," she said, standing from the table.

They both walked into Lara's office, Jack gazing around in curiosity. "A friend of my father's sent it to me, found it on a dig in Cuba." Jack reached out to brush his fingers along the cover and felt his body stumble backwards.

He was suddenly in a dark room, no not a room, some kind of tomb. He saw flashes of light, several woman and children cowering in the corner. They were naked, but had symbols and paint all over their bodies. He suddenly felt very cold, and then again saw Lara looking down into a snowy cavern. Countries began flashing through his mind, maps, places he had never seen. He saw a large hour glass, a small amount of sand left at the top of it. A dark unfamiliar face appeared in front of him. It moved to his side and whispered slowly into his ear, "Time's up Jack." And then suddenly he was back in Lara's home, lying on her floor in the office, those words echoing in his mind. Lara was sitting over him, holding his hand in hers. He slowly opened his eyes, and looked up at Lara. "Jack? What happened?" She asked helping pull him to his feet. "I-I," He began to stumble over his words. "I saw it." "Saw what?" He ran his hand through his hair, "I have a lot to tell you."