Wow. I love you guys!!! I so much appreciate your comments. And now, just in time for Valentine's Day, a little romance...

CHAPTER 5

Dancing

Screaming. Someone was screaming. It was Evelyn.

Rick flew into the room, followed closely by Jonathan and a couple of people who'd been standing in the hallway. They found her, alone, sitting on the floor, and looking very puzzled.

After shooing the spectators out, Rick knelt at Evelyn's side and touched her shoulder gently. "Evelyn? Are you okay?"

She didn't answer for a few moments. Then, in a halting voice, she said, "Rick-he was here-why am I on the floor?...we have to leave, we have to get you..." Evelyn suddenly seemed to realize that Rick and Jonathan were in the room. "You...what am I doing on the floor?"

"Were you having a nightmare, Evy?" Jonathan asked.

Evelyn's mouth opened and closed a few times before she answered. "I guess so." She was thinking hard. "I remember...I remember Imhotep, and he...you fought him, he...I don't remember," she finished lamely. "I just must have fallen asleep. Are you ready to go to dinner?"

Rick wasn't convinced. "Are you sure you're okay? I heard you all the way from the ground floor."

"I'm fine! It was just a silly dream, honestly!" Evelyn got to her feet with a little unnecessary help from Rick, but she didn't mind the assistance.

"You're getting to be as bad as your brother," Rick muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Jonathan exclaimed, too quickly. "Well, seeing as I have a life of my own, I think I'll leave you two now." He spun around and almost ran from the room, but not before he caught Rick's warning glance. They'd agreed to keep his little hallucinations from Evy, lest she think her brother was crazy as well as a drunk. She didn't need to worry about him more than she already did.

"Don't go drinking!" Rick and Evy called after him in unison. They looked at each other and fell into a fit of giggles. It felt good to laugh. Neither had had much to laugh about in a very long time. Evy dried her eyes and suddenly had another panic attack--what if she'd smeared her makeup?!?

"Are you really okay?" Rick asked. "You didn't look so good."

Evy raised her eyebrows. "You don't like the dress?"

Rick chuckled again. "You know what I meant."

"I'm fine, really. Trust me, Rick, I'd tell you if something was wrong."

Rick sighed. This conversation obviously wasn't going to go any further. "Okay," he said skeptically. Ready?"

"Yes."

With a furtive glance in the mirror to check her eyes, Evy grabbed her purse and shawl. "By the way," Rick whispered in her ear as they left the room, "You look absolutely gorgeous."

Evy had a feeling Rick wouldn't tell her if she asked how he knew the owner of the restaurant, so she didn't ask. That was another thing that worried her about Rick--what was in his past? He seemed to have a lot of connections in Cairo. As soon as the waiter seated them at a table in the corner, slightly set apart from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the restaurant, she steeled up her resolve and asked him, "Where did you grow up?" Okay, so she'd lost her nerve at the last moment.

Rick looked slightly surprised at the question but answered readily. "Cairo, mostly, but I was born in Boston. Haven't been back since I was ten years old."

"Are your parents...I mean, are they-"

"It's okay, Evy. We were here visiting my sister, she was studying over here..." Rick eyes flickered down to the tablecloth, but then met hers again. "That was, what, seventeen years ago? I'm over it."

Evy smiled. "You're twenty-seven."

"Last November. Good math."

"Mathematics was never my strong suit," Evy said. "I didn't get very good marks in it."

Rick put on a mock look of shock. "You?! Evelyn Carnahan didn't get good marks in everything?!"

"Stop that!" she swatted him with her napkin. "I'll have you know I wasn't always so...studious."

"Oh, really?" Rick raised his eyebrows.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Depends."

"I failed handwriting when I was in the second grade."

Rick burst out laughing. God, he had a wonderful laugh. "You're kidding."

"No, of course not."

"That's your big secret? Your second grade self failed handwriting?"

"Why is that so funny?"

"I don't know, I was expecting something more...juicy."

"Bad choice of words."

"Sorry." He smiled, but it was pained. They both knew what she was referencing, but still Evy couldn't also help but think that Rick knew what question was coming. Evy was determined to ask it.

"So what's your big secret?"

"Yours wasn't even a real one!" he protested.

"Okay, fine. I'm afraid of bunnies."

"You are not!"

"Honest!"

Rick paused, then began, "Evy, you know I would never intentionally keep anything from you-"

The waiter chose that moment to ask if they'd decided yet. What a coincidental choice of words, Evy reflected. She and Rick were still testing the waters with each other--they knew they were in love but they still didn't know with whom quite yet.

They'd spent dinner mostly talking about nothing. But with each word Evy spoke Rick felt like he knew her that much better, like he was building tiny little bricks up into a pile, making his love grow with every glance, every inference, every touch. And in the next moment he would be plunged into a well of worry, panic, guilt...maybe she was bored with him, maybe she was discovering she didn't like him, or who he used to be, maybe she was falling out of love. Maybe she was never in love in the first place. But then she would look at him again with those huge green eyes, and Rick knew that nothing mattered but what they felt in their hearts. Nothing could change it, nothing could move it.

"Do you want to dance?"

Evelyn had been going on for some time about the finer points of the Dewey decimal system, and looked a little miffed at the interruption, but readily took Rick's outstretched hand. They walked out onto the crowded dance floor, but every few seconds Evy would catch an elbow in the back or someone would step on Rick's heel. Dancing seemed to be a particularly popular activity that evening. "Come on," Rick said, and pulled Evy out of the crowd and into a shadowy corner. In that corner stood a steep flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs they emerged out on to the roof. It was deserted, but Evy could still hear, quite clearly, the music from the dance floor coming through the kitchen vents. The stars were twinkling brightly in the Cairo night and the moonlight illuminated the cityscape like a mystical fog.

And so they danced. Time seemed to slow down, but it went by all too quickly. Evy rested her head on Rick's shoulder and let all her worries about the future fade away. Rick rested his chin on Evy's head, breathing her in, registering every movement, every step she took.

"You're a very good dancer," Evelyn said.

"Well, I did take a class."

"Really?" Evy could not hide her shock. "You took a dance class?!"

"I did," Rick replied, pretending to be offended. "Although, I was only eight years old," he added, dipping Evelyn so low her hair almost touched the dusty ground.

Evelyn giggled. Not something she normally did, but she found herself doing it a lot these days. Was that what love was? Giggling like a schoolgirl (not that she'd done much of it back then, either), flitting her eyelashes and looking adoringly up into Rick's face like he'd hung the moon? Evy had never thought she'd buy into such a stereotype, but at moments like this it didn't seem so bad.

This was partly because he was looking at her the same way. It was almost like a staring contest, Evy thought, and giggled some more. "What?" Rick asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about...about how much I enjoy being with you."

"How much you enjoy laughing at me?"

"No, I wasn't laughing at you! I was-" Evy realized that Rick was just teasing her. "You big goofball," she said. "Can't you take anything seriously?"

"I take you very seriously."

Evelyn paused. "How seriously?" she asked, almost dreading the answer. But it had to come up sooner or later.

Rick stopped dancing. He tipped her chin up and met her eyes. "This is crazy, but...Evelyn, believe me when I say I love you more than I ever thought it possible to love anyone, and I've only known you for two weeks-"

"I know," she said, interrupting, but she needed him to know what she felt, too. "I feel the same way."

Rick smiled. "I don't want to rush you or anything, Evy...but I can't help it. Just seeing your face, just wondering when I'll get to kiss you again-" he brushed her lips gently- "wondering where we'll be in twenty years-"

"Twenty years?" Evy asked eagerly. "So then you-you think-"

"Like I said, Evy, I'm content with the present. If you want to get to know each other better first, I understand-"

"Rick, I don't know how, but I do know you. This sounds cheesy, but I feel like I've known you before...I know I have. It's like it's-it's like it's..." she struggled for the right words.

"Fate?" he supplied, and she nodded slightly. They stood like that in the desert moonlight for a long time. Rick felt his love for Evy grow with each moment, just being in her presence and knowing that she loved him as much as he loved her. He wasn't even nervous. Well, maybe a little bit. He pulled away from Evy's embrace and she looked slightly alarmed that he was leaving, but her eyes lit up as she realized what he was about to do.

Rick knelt down on one knee and grasped Evy's hands, tightly. "Evy, I don't have...anything, to be honest. I don't even have a ring for you, I'm sorry-"

"It's okay," she whispered.

"Evelyn," he said, his voice shaking slightly, "will you marry me?"

Rick didn't even finish the sentence before Evelyn broke into a broad grin. She shook her head up and down enthusiastically and cried, "Yes! Yes, of course!" Rick grinned too, and immediately stood and enveloped her in a hug, lifting her slightly off the ground and spinning her around in a whirl. He set her down lightly but still squeezed her tight. "I need a drink," he said, laughing.

"I love you, Rick. I'm so happy."

"Likewise," he said, stroking her hair, brushing strands out of her dazzling eyes, memorizing every detail of her radiant face. "I love you, Ev-"

This time it was he who was interrupted mid-thought, as she pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his. The kiss started slowly, gently, then gradually built, becoming more and more passionate with each passing second as they relaxed, clinging to each other as if they were drowning. Evy could feel Rick's hands caress her face softly and then run his fingers through her hair. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, hanging on for dear life, wishing this moment would never end; that they could stay here, locked in each other's arms, forever.

Of course, experience had taught them both that forever is a very long time.

And when one has forever to think about one thing, there's a chance they may become somewhat monomaniacal about it.

Particularly 3,000 year old lovesick priests who aren't about to let a silly little thing like death get in the way of what they want.

Forever is a very long time, indeed.

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Did anyone catch the Buffy reference? I couldn't resist:)

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