To Know
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Anything Stephen Sommers came up with isn't mine. :)
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Number 8 in the Normal Life Series
The Museum had been relatively quiet...the pouring rain outside was more than likely to blame. I know it was certainly to blame for my mood. I generally loved the rain, but today, I felt as though I had my own little rain cloud following me about. I was sluggish, as was rather apparent in my work. The shipment was finally in, but I just couldn't bring myself to focus. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, the doctor's visit two days prior loomed. There was certainly something wrong with me. But what...well, that was the question at hand. I hadn't told Rick about the visit. Needn't worry him. But he knows something is wrong. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at me; a small, unspoken fear hiding inside of him. He really isn't helping.
A knocking at my office door jarred me from my seat and I had to hang on to the edge of my desk as the chair rolled out from underneath me. "Come in," I called, pulling the chair back under the desk as the face of my brother peered in at me from across the room.
"I'm not interrupting, I hope," he said, closing the door softly behind him.
"No, no," I said, waving my hand toward him. "Come in. I wasn't getting any work done anyway."
"Doctor's visit on your mind?" My eyes shot up to meet his as he raised an eyebrow smugly at me.
"How did you know about that?"
"You really ought to tell your secrets not to ring the house." I sighed, pushing back the chair.
"And?" I asked, leaning back.
"And? And why don't you tell me?" He grinned, sitting down across from me.
"Jonathan, don't play with me," I stated plainly. "If I knew, do you really think I would be at the doctor? Now tell me what they said!" Jonathan drew back as I realized I had been raising my voice to nearly a yell. "Sorry," I said softly, leaning back it my chair.
"Well, they *didn't* say," Jonathan said finally. "They wanted you to either come down or ring them." I glanced at the clock, the two hands nearly meeting straight up.
"All right." I pushed the chair back, taking my coat, bag, and umbrella off the back of the chair. "I'm on lunch now anyhow." I walked past my brother, still seated at the desk. "Jonathan," I said, reaching the door. "Would you..." He raised his eyebrows at me, forcing me to attempt to finish. "...Come with me?"
"Of course, ol' mum," he said, standing. "But...wouldn't you rather Rick be there?"
"No...no, I'll tell him if it's something he needs to know." Something in me thought it would be awfully foolish to get my husband wound up over something silly like influenza.
"Mrs. O'Connell," Dr. Talbert said as he stepped into the office. "Ah, you must be Mister O'Connell," he said to Jonathan.
"Uh, no, her brother actually," he said with a slight grimace at the thought of being mistaken for Rick. Terrible thing, to be mistaken for an American, I suppose.
"Ah, well, at any rate," the doctor said, seating himself behind the desk. "I have wonderful news, Mrs. O'Connell. All but one of the tests came back negative." He paused for what seemed an eternity, forcing me to prompt him on. "Congratulations, Mrs. O'Connell. You're going to have a baby." To know whose jaw hit the floor first would have required a photo finish.
I sat at my desk, any attempts at working had long since flown out the window. Jonathan had departed, swearing life and limb that he would not slip a word to Rick, leaving me alone to stare at the rivers running vertically down my office window. How was I going to tell him? Part of me was overwhelmed with joy; the other part was simply overwhelmed. After all, we had only been married such a short while. And we had never even spoken of having children. What if that was simply because Rick didn't want any? What would he do if he found out...Would he leave?
I would have continued with my thoughts of torment had it not been for a light rapping on my office door, followed by the door swinging open. I spun around slowly in my chair, facing the blonde serpent standing in the doorway. "Can I help you?" I finally said, growing tired of her smirking.
"I had a lovely conversation with your brother this morning," Annie said, inviting herself to sit down. "We had quite the conversation about you and your darling husband." I already didn't like where this was leading.
"And? Is that all?"
"Why of course not!" Annie said, as though her lengthy pause had been mandatory. "Why, I was absolutely appalled to discover that you two had only known each other three weeks before you were engaged."
"Yes, and?" I said with an irritated sigh.
"Well, I don't know about you, but three weeks isn't a very long time at all."
"And how long was your last relationship?"
"I'll have you know that I was with Anton for five years, thank you."
"Forgive me for not specifying. You're last *faithful* relationship?"
"All right, so three weeks is a long time. But that's beside the point," she said hurriedly, emphasizing 'point' as she slapped her hand on the desk. "The point is, how do you know he is trustworthy? He is American after all..."
"And?"
"Well, everyone knows never to make friends with an American. They *are* the enemy."
"Yes, dear, and with friends like you, who needs Americans?" Annie huffed at me as I picked up some papers on my desk, in an attempt to make her think I had been busy. "Now, if you don't mind," I added, waving some of the papers. "There is a rather large shipment that needs to be started on."
"And finished," Annie said with a grin. "Didn't you hear? Because of the delay, that shipment needs to be catalogued and on the floor by tonight." She stood elegantly, staring down at me.
"Tonight? That would be impossible! Even with half the staff working on it, there's no conceivable way for it to be done before midnight!"
"Tough break, darling," Annie cooed as she strode to the door. "Have a pleasant evening," she smirked, before slamming my office door. Resisting the urge to scream, I let my head drop to my desk.
It had long since gotten dark and I was perhaps a quarter of the way through the shipment...if I was lucky. I tried to concentrate, but my thoughts kept wandering back to the doctor's office, and then to Rick. Hours of work and thought, and I still was no closer to knowing how to tell my husband than I was to finishing the cataloguing. Besides that, I could tell somewhere deep down that Annie was up to something, as usual. Then, the worst thought possible filtered its way into my head: thoughts of the robberies from last week. What if they came back? And I was here by myself? Well, I could take care of myself, but what about the artifacts?
A thousand thoughts swam through my head, and the continued interruptions were not helping, as more knocking came at my office door. "Yes?" I called, rather annoyed.
"Honey?" my husband called from the doorway. "What's going on? I was starting to get worried when you didn't come home. And this place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox!"
"Oh, darling, I'm sorry," I said, exasperated, slumping down into my chair. "I completely lost track of time. And I can't leave until I get this cataloguing done."
"How far are you?"
"Not far enough." He grimaced, but said nothing. "As for 'Fort Knox,' it's because of the robberies last week."
"You didn't tell me about that."
"There wasn't much to know. The papers had a field day with it, but they only made off with a couple of Grecian urns. You would have thought the priceless Egyptian jewelry would have been more appealing."
"Well, you never know. They may come back." As though on queue, a crash echoed through the silent halls of the British Museum. "The hell was that?"
"I don't know," I said, glancing to the clock that read 9:30. "No one else should be here."
"Well, someone obviously is," he said, glancing around. "Haven't you got anything useful in this office? Something *not* priceless that I can use..."
"Dare I ask...?" He latched onto the pry bar sitting atop an unopened crate, glancing out into the hall.
"Stay here," he ordered as I stepped around my desk.
"Like hell I will," I replied angrily. "This is my museum, dammit, and I will not see if burglarized again." Rick could see there was no arguing with me.
"Your museum, huh? Fine, just grab something heavy." I glanced around quickly, looking to the open toolbox behind my desk. The best I could manage was a rather large pair of pliers that perhaps would pinch them into submission. "Stay behind me," he whispered as we made our way into the hall.
"Rick, you don't know the first thing about this museum," I stated plainly, another crash echoing as though to emphasize my point.
"I don't need to," he said was we turned a corner to find several cases shattered and emptied. "They're leaving a trail like a Tuscan leaper."
"We should split up," I said, as we reached the next hall.
"No way."
"Well, Rick, they have."
"I don't care."
"Then how do you propose we catch them? Walk up to one and say, 'Pardon me, but would you mind terribly staying put for a moment while we go catch your other friend?'" My husband glanced back at me, irritated, but said nothing as he continued on through the next doorway. Crashing not too far behind me prompted me to turn, catching the light of a torch shining in the next hall. Rick continued forward, and I backpedaled, sneaking into the hall as Rick continued on after the others.
I could hear two voices coming from the dark hall, and suddenly I wished I had thought to go for the main power switch instead. But it was too late for that, as they came into view, their light landing right on me. "Hold it right there," I said, standing poised with the pliers held high. The two men chuckled, one taking a step toward me.
"And what if we refuse, sweetheart," he said with a low chuckle. "Are you going to pinch us into submission?" All right, so the hammer probably would have been a better choice, but it was too late for that.
"Stay back, I'm warning you," I said, taking a step backward as he continued to approach. "The police are already on their way," I lied. "And my husband has surely already taken care of your other friends."
"Well good for him," he said, launching at me, grabbing me by the wrist. "But he's not here right now, is he?" His breath was hideous, as he leaned in toward me; I pulled the weight of the pliers hard with my free hand, knocking him upside the head. He staggered back, dazed, but shook it off faster than I would have liked. By this time, the other man had caught up with us, and he leapt at me, catching me around the waist before pinning my arms back. The first man chuckled reaching for me, grabbing at my blouse, not anticipating my knee coming up swiftly, and landing squarely between his legs. He fell to his knees, crying in pain, just as I planted my heel into my captor's unsuspecting foot. It worked well enough, loosening his grip long enough for me to slip out of his grasp and take off running. I didn't get far, however, as he recovered rather quickly, diving for my leg and slamming me to the tile. I tried scrambling forward, but couldn't get any farther as he was climbing up over me, pinning me to the tile. His hands groped over me, clawing at my skirt, sending disgusted shivers down my spine. Then suddenly, without warning, he fell away, followed by the sound of a heavy pry bar hitting the tile.
"Evy? Honey? Are you all right?" I managed to roll over and sit up to face my husband who took to check me for injuries.
"Rick, I'm fine," I said, taking his hands in mine. He pulled me in to his chest, and I could feel his heart racing.
"Now maybe next time, you'll actually listen to me, huh?"
"Don't bet on it."
The museum was swarming with police. The five burglars were being carted away, while the police took a report from Dr. Royce.
"I suppose I have the two of you to thank," Dr. Royce said, once the police had finished with him. "But Evelyn, what were you doing here? You could have been seriously hurt."
"I was already here, trying to finish cataloguing the shipment."
"Annie was supposed to head up the team to take care of that tomorrow." I growled under my breath, but Dr. Royce hadn't noticed. "Besides, didn't you get the memo?"
"What memo?"
"All employees were supposed to be gone by six so that the museum could be locked up securely. Because you were still here, it wasn't."
"Actually," Rick chimed in. "It was. But anyone who knows how to break into a building would know to come in through the skylight." I glanced up at my husband, not even questioning if that was how he came in. I knew it was.
"Oh. Well. In that case, I'll have a word with Miss Bentley in the morning. In the meantime, go home and get some rest." I smiled at Dr. Royce, setting aside the cup of tea I had been sipping on. Rick placed his arms about my shoulders as we started to head for the front doors of the museum. "Oh, and Mrs. O'Connell?" he called. I turned to face my employer, ready for another tongue-lashing. "Let's not have a repeat of this, shall we? My staff is much more important than my artifacts. I can always recover an artifact. The same cannot be said for my employees." I grinned, nodding as my husband continued to lead me from the museum into the light rain.
"You know what this means, don't you?" he said, opening the car door for me.
"What?"
"No more late nights at the office." I merely shook my head with a sigh as my husband closed the door.