Frank opened his eyes, realizing he was lying down, on soft blankets. Turning over, he opened his eyes, not remembering going to sleep. He was alone in the tent, and he closed his eyes again, thinking.
His memory had been gone for over a month. He could remember what had gone on while he had the amnesia, and was amazed at his uncharacteristic behavior.
Suddenly the tent flap opened, and Walid walked in. "Sabah il-kheyr."
Frank smiled, sitting up. "Kezalik. How long was I asleep?"
Walid smiled back, as he sat. "A few hours."
Frank looked at his cousin for a minute, before sighing.
"What is it?" Walid asked.
"Everything," Frank told him, practically at a loss for words.
Walid nodded. "You've been through a lot this past month."
Frank snorted. "Lately, this kind of thing has been normal for me."
Walid laughed. It was good to see Frank back to 'normal'—or normal to him, anyway. He imagined that Frank's team didn't usually see their boss so easygoing.
"Where is everyone?" Frank asked.
"Your mother is with our grandfather," Walid told him. "Jake and Alex are learning some Med-jai fighting—"
"They are?"
Walid smiled, nodding.
Frank raised his eyebrows at that. It wasn't a bad idea at all, to learn some new fighting techniques. Now that he had his memory back, Frank felt touched that his team had all cared so much, for all four of them to have gone to Egypt with him.
Suddenly the tent flap opened, and Alanur peeked in. "You're awake! How do you feel?"
"Better now that I have my memory back," Frank told her.
"Do you want me to bring you lunch, or are you coming out?" she asked.
"I'll come out," Frank said, standing.
Walid automatically reached out to help him, and they left the tent.
Ardeth and Safti looked up when they saw him approaching. They were both very happy to see the smile on his face.
"Enjoying the return of your memory?" said Safti.
Frank stopped walking, and just looked at them, as if having just realized they were there. Having not seen Ardeth for quite some time before this visit—and not really 'seeing' him these past few days, thanks to his lacking memory—Frank was overcome with feeling.
"Grandfather," he said, moving closer.
Ardeth stood, faster then Safti thought he could, and held out his arms as Frank reached him.
Frank hugged his grandfather tightly, relieved beyond words that his memory had returned while Ardeth was still alive. He fleetingly had a thought that if his team could see him now, they'd be surprised to see the 'real' Frank Donovan expressing such emotion.
They pulled away and smiled at each other, their smiles nearly identical. "It's good to be home," Frank said.
Ardeth nodded. "It's good to have you home."
Frank smiled again and they sat. Looking around the camp, he remembered everything he'd forgotten, and experienced a feeling that made him sad.
He wished he could stay.
Ardeth saw the wistful look on Frank's face, and placed a hand on his arm. Before he had a chance to say anything, a voice yelled out.
"We're being attacked!"
Women started screaming for their children, as the men grabbed their scimitars.
Before Frank had a chance to register the chaos—with the noise hurting his head—a gun was pushed into his hand.
Looking up, he saw it belonged to Walid.
"Hide! Protect them!" Walid told them, gesturing towards Ardeth, Safti, and Alanur.
Suddenly Alanur grabbed his arm, and the four of them were hurrying away from the battle.
Or at least, they hoped they were.
Finding a tent away from the chaos, Frank pushed them all in.
"Frank!" his mother yelled, after seeing he hadn't come in behind her.
"Stay inside!" he yelled from outside the tent, forcing back a wince at the resulting throb in his head.
The battle grew, and soon the attackers made their way in Frank's general direction.
Pointing the gun, Frank realized that his arm hadn't gone numb in a while, and he hoped it wouldn't choose this moment to do so. He shot one bandit after the other; never missing, the first shot dropping each man.
Counting the shots, Frank knew he was quickly running out of bullets. Some of the attackers, seeing they couldn't get close without being killed, rode away from the area.
All except for one.
Frank had a feeling this would happen, that one of them would attack despite the danger.
The bandit rode towards him, knowing that if the man still had bullets in his gun, then he would've been killed by now.
He was out of ammo.
Frank knew the gun was empty, but he stood his ground, pointing the weapon. He hoped it would make the attacker turn around; scaring him into thinking he was about to get shot. However, it didn't happen.
Frank suddenly bolted away, hoping to lure the bandit away from the tent. He heard a strange *whoosh* fill the air, and threw himself to the sand as the flying sword flew over his head.
The bandit didn't expect that, and pulled on his horse's reins to get it to turn around as it ran past Frank, who managed to crawl over to the sword, gasping at the increased pain in his head.
The bandit looked at Frank with a laugh, seeing that he seemed to be in pain, as he picked up the weapon.
Frank struggled to his feet, gripping the sword. He'd sincerely hoped the bandit wouldn't get off the horse and engage him in a fistfight, as he knew that he'd likely be down after the first punch, in his current state.
To Frank's relief, the bandit didn't get down. Instead, he unexpectedly pulled a gun from within his robes, pointing it at Frank with another laugh.
The sound of a gunshot filled the air, and Frank dropped to his knees.
After a second, Frank realized that there was no blood on his body, and the only thing that hurt besides his head was a few aches from throwing himself to the hard ground. Looking up, he saw the bandit dead on the sand, and Walid running towards him. Looking beyond him, Frank saw that the battle appeared to be over.
"Frank!" Walid said, throwing himself to his knees beside his cousin. "Are you all right?"
Frank saw that Walid was holding a gun, and realized that he'd been the one to shoot the bandit.
"I'm fine," he answered.
"Where are the others?" Walid asked.
Those words sent a stab of fear into Frank's stomach. He'd left his mother, grandfather, and a man he considered an uncle inside the tent. Had they been killed?
Walid saw Frank start to get up, and helped him, keeping a steadying hand on him when Frank stumbled, the now-doubled headache making his vision gray around the edges as he tried to quickly get to the tent he'd left his family in.
As they neared the tent, they saw that it was still standing, and seemed undisturbed. The flap suddenly opened, and Alanur peeked her head through.
When Frank saw his family come out, unharmed, he nearly fell and took Walid down with him.
"Frank!" Walid said, gripping his arm tighter when Frank's legs buckled, his still-weak body unable to handle the huge surge of adrenaline caused by the life-threatening situation and fear over his family's near-death.
Walid saw that he wasn't having much luck keeping Frank upright, and gently lowered him to his knees, rather then risk him falling flat on his face.
Alanur reached them by then, and dropped to her knees as well, grabbing her son by the arms.
"He's all right," Walid told her, seeing her alarm.
Frank nodded, despite his headache. "I'm fine." He looked his mother over to see that she was unhurt. Looking up at his grandfather and Safti, he saw that they also were thankfully unscathed.
Frank suddenly realized who was missing.
"Jake and Alex are all right," said Walid, seeing the look on his face. "They used their guns on the bandits." He paused. "I did not see Monica or Cody…" He suddenly heard Jake's voice. "There they are."
Looking up, Frank saw his four team members rushing over, in concern to see him kneeling in the sand.
Frank stood up before they reached him, remembering something he wished he could forget: Alex and Monica's dreaded mother-henning.
"I'm fine," he said, before they could ask.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, looking each other over, as if wanting to see for themselves that everyone had indeed escaped unharmed.
Walid was the only one with an injury, as Frank finally noticed a cut in the sleeve of his left upper arm, with blood staining the cloth.
Walid saw his look, and said, "It is nothing, just a scratch."
"Do I even want to know who those nuts were?" Cody exclaimed, more then slightly shaken.
Walid shook his head, with a laugh. "No, you don't." He looked up when someone suddenly called his name, and he hurried away.
"Who were they?" Jake asked Ardeth.
Ardeth shook his head. "Desert bandits. Attacks do not happen as often as they used to, but when they do…"
No one said anything, watching as Walid conversed with his warriors.
"Let's go back to the tent," Frank said, his head killing him. He hoped no one saw the pain he was trying to hide, but they became suspicious at his request.
"You okay?" Monica asked.
He sighed, hating the question. "Fine," he said, as they walked. "Where were you and Cody during the battle?"
"We grabbed kids and hid them," said Cody.
Everyone smiled at him.
Cody gave a shy shrug. "Speaking of which, we hid some in your tent, Walid. I hope they didn't mess it up too much…"
Walid gave a mock-panicked look, making everyone laugh.
'sabah il-kheyr' Egyptian Arabic for 'good morning'
'kezalik' : 'likewise'