Chapter 24
The elevator had placed them at the base of the volcano. Max's car was not on the complete other side of the mountain from their location, but it was going to be a fairly long hike to get back there.
Lara set out, with Max on her shoulders. Even with the vast majority of his gear back in the statue room, Max was still not a light man. The air was chilly, and the wind cut through the both of them. Max and Lara ad worn jackets when they had first arrived, but soon abandoned them in the car due to the great heat in there.
Now, Lara would have paid ten thousands pounds to have her bomber with her. Max could well develop hypothermia or frost bite if she did not get him under shelter - and soon. She would have left him in the warm chamber, or covered him in a crevasse, out of the wind - she was only risking moving him for one all-important reason.
After Lara had gotten the piece and translated the coordinates, she found that Max's GPS system had been damaged beyond her ability to repair. She had just gotten a good idea of Elder's position on her map when the symbols on both sides had changed again - as Elder approached.
Lara wondered why Elder would bring all of the other pieces with her, but would be glad to take them off of her hands when the time came...
However, there were more pressing matters. Lara had to get Max back to his car and out of there, because Elder surely knew exactly where they were and was going to intercept. Lara just hoped that the little wagon was fast enough...
About half way through their journey to the car, Lara realized that she was fighting a losing battle. The sun was setting, and night would soon be upon them. Normally, the prospect of a chilly night on the mountain would have posed little more than discomfort for the Tomb Raider.
But the Tomb Raider was not alone.
Max had been unconscious for hours, and there was a very real chance that he could freeze to death in the harsh night. They were not going to be able to make it to the car, her map indicated no lave tubes in the vicinity and Lara could not leave Max to brave the elements alone.
They would have to spend the night outside.
Lara lowered Max form to the ground as easily as she could. Her arms instinctively rose into the air now that they were free of Max's encumbrance. She spent several minutes scouting out the surrounding area. Hoping to find a lava tube the map did not contain, she found only a small fissure that would provide some protection from the harsh winds.
Once again, she hefted Max's limp form and carried him to their makeshift quarters for the evening. She placed him on a small outcropping that served as a primitive seat for her friend. From her rucksack, Lara removed her recently-aquired piece of artifact and placed the warm object near the small of Max's back.
The unnatural heat of the relic insulated Max's back against the cold rock. Lara double-checked his feet, making sure that his boots - which had hit her in the face repeatedly as she carried him - were still there. Secure that Max's feel would be warm enough, she sat down to secure his other extremities.
Straddling him, Lara placed Max's hands under her own armpits, then wrapped her arms around his head, puling it in under her chin. A blanket would have made her job much easier, but there was not time to fetch one from the car.
Lara shivered slightly as the first truly cold gust of wind blew in from behind. She drew Max in tighter, sharing their warmth.
It was going to be a long night.
* * *
Despite the exhaustion that Max suffered from and the injuries that he had sustained, there were still higher callings, something so primal that it shattered his peaceful rest.
Max's eyelids wearily raised themselves. There was only darkness before him. Upon raising his head, Max saw lights shimmering and pulsating above him. It was as if the ghosts of a million people were visible and marching in formation.
"The Northern Lights," Lara informed him.
Max had been so taken with the atmospheric phenomenon that he had not even realized that he was locked in an embrace with Lara Croft.
"Amazing," Max felt utterly inadequate to describe the event. "For a second, I thought I was dead."
"You're very much alive," Lara confirmed.
She shifted her weight slightly and Max became very aware that his hands were in her armpits, and as a result, his wrists were pressing against the sides of her breasts. He also felt that her hands were linked together behind his neck
The two were close, very close.
Max looked up from Lara's chest and into her eyes. The lights in the sky had left him unable to read the expression on her face, but he could tell that her eyes were meeting his.
He could feel it.
The sat there motionless for a few moments, their bodies intertwined but the six inches that separated their noses was a very, very long distance. The length of a pen could change their lives forever.
And then it happened.
Max let out some type snort. It the moment that it was happening, Lara's mind raced with the possibilities of horrible things that could be happening to her friend.
Then she saw the smile across his face, and the two broke out laughing on the side of the lonely volcano. With their first laugh behind them, a chain reaction began as the tension of the previous days bled away. Soon, both of their bodies were shaking as deep chuckles overcame them.
After over a minute, their giggling subsided and a strange, relaxed silence fell between them. It was Max who broke it.
"I should want this...I mean, I know it's wrong and all that, but..."
"I know what you mean."
"Is this what it's like to have a sibling?"
"I don't know - I'm an only child."
"Me too."
"Strange..."
"Think I'll call you 'Big Sis' from here on out."
"Do it and I'll but a bullet through your big toe."
"Christ, listen to us, you'd think we were separated at birth."
"Speak for yourself."
"Oh, yeah - I remember just why I woke up - would you mind getting off of me?"
In a moment Lara knew Max's thoughts and she rose so that he could get to shaky feet and walked a short distance away. Lara turned away to give him some privacy and awaited his return. In what seemed a great while, he managed to return form a small plume of steam to their spot. They quickly huddled together again for warmth.
"Man, I had to go so bad I could taste it..."
"Why do you have to make such an event of your goings to the rest room?"
"That's what a brother's for..."
"Stop saying that."
"Whatever you say..."
Lara began to relax for a moment, then Max added...
"...Big Sister."
Lara's hands tightened around Max's throat.
"Max, I'm surprised at you. Being married, you should know that you never, never refer to a woman as 'Big' anything. Theresults can be rather hazardous to your health - and you're several years my senior!"
The best Max could manage was a little grunt/whimper. Lara released his throat and he took in a deep breath of air.
"Jesus Lara, even knowing you is 'rather hazardous to my health.' Let's see, we started off with gunshots, then a couple of slow songs danced on my boys, then off to your Jungle Gym of Death - let is not forget the broken nose, the grenade, or the big hunka' something that diced my leg, then I stabbed myself good with the little squid incident. Then, all seems well and safe when some ancient blaster staff turns my camera into slag and my chest into medium rare. What the hell else can you do to me?"
"You haven't been poisoned yet."
"Remember what those beans did while they were inside of me?"
"I stand corrected. How does your wife put up with you?"
"She's got this two-by-four with rusty nails driven through it. If I get out of line - WHACK!"
"Sounds pleasant. Shame she hasn't knocked any common sense into you yet..."
"Good one."
"Indeed."
"What about you?"
"What?"
"What do you mean, 'what,' - you have any plans to settle down with someone?"
"You mean a man?"
"Hey, man...woman, I'm cool with anything - which ever way your door swings..."
"My, you're sensibilities are positively European."
"Yeah, yeah...I just mean that you might be a little better having something to come home to. Hell, even a dog, or a plant - whatever does it for you. Ever think about getting hitched?"
"I was engaged once."
"You didn't make beans for him, did you?"
Lara's eyes pivoted down and away from Max's.
"No, that was before..."
"Oh."
"I don't honestly think I could get that close, not anymore...not with what I do..."
"Yeah, most of the guys in my line of work are going on their third and fourth marriages."
"I never really understood why..."
"Well, you always come back to that big 'ol empty mansion. It's a whole other thing when you can get home and see just why you spend the last three weeks flogging through a swamp being shot at."
"I've got Winston."
"Very true, but I think that I am safe here in saying that you need Winston - but he really doesn't need you..."
"Pardon?"
"Don't get me wrong, I can tell that old guy loves you to death, but if you were not there, he would have a life of his own."
"I assume that there is a point your little speech?"
"Who knows? You've got almost everything that any person could want - but no one to miss you if you don't come back."
Lara was silent.
"I mean, sure, there might not be any more original Lara Croft books - but they made plenty of Bond movies after Fleming was dead - you do know about James Bond, don't you?"
"Yes," he voice was annoyed, but very subdued, "I know about him."
"Okay then, you cash in the big one in the middle of some God-forsaken jungle, no one to miss the real you, only the cardboard cutout - that still peddles the game and the books even though you're worm food in the Congo..."
"What makes you think that I care?"
"Hell, I might be wrong here, you are a human being. Being needed is kind of an innate thing - I can check my old psych text when we get back for all of the technical terminology."
"Don't trouble yourself."
"Hey Lara?"
"Yes?"
"I'd miss ya..."
Despite the cold; both inside and out, Lara smiled.
Max removed his hands from her pits and tapped about his remaining pockets.
"What?" Lara asked.
"Wondering if my smokes made it...."
"No, they were incinerated along with your tapes."
"Damn, I gotta start putting those things in a different pocket. Don't suppose you have one on you, you do owe me two cartons?"
"You forgave that debt."
"Yeah, I know..."
Lara opened her pack and removed a pack of cigarettes and some waterproof matches.
"You know you smoke too much," she lectured as she turned the items over.
"We all need a vice."
Max went through his packing ritual and lit up, Lara turning away while he smoked to preserve her night vision.
