Rick walked slowly toward the steps because he was still extremely sensitive to the affects of the Black Vodka. His head was pounding and his jaw and nose were beginning to hurt. The Black Vodka and Jonathan had landed a few really good ones.
"Rick" Evelyn said as she watched him drag his feet as he walked up to the steps. "I'm so..."
"Ev... lyn" he interrupted her as he stumbled toward the first step. "A dee vorce..." he said in a drunken voice as he shook his head 'no' and put one foot up on the first step. "Is ab... so... loot.. lee out da quest.. ion" he slurred. "I..."
"I don't want a divorce" she interrupted him as a tear slid down her cheek.
"I'm drunk E.. v.. e.. l.. y.. n" Rick continued, saying her name slowly, her statement not registering in his inebriated mind. "I'm drunk. Vvveee...rreee drunk" he proclaimed. "Damn drunk!" he said as he held onto the stair rail and tried to lift his other foot up on the step. "BUT!..." he held up one finger after his other foot landed on the step. "I'm NOT lettin' you go. No way! No way in hell... I'm lettin you go. Damn!" he said when he attempted to advance up to the next step. "It's hard climbin' these steps when you're drunk."
"Rick..." Evelyn said as she watched him struggled up the steps.
"Answer's no Evy!" he interrupted her again. "You can NOT" he shook his head again. "Have a dee... vorce. Don't care what you say." Rick had made it to the second to the last step and grabbed hold of the porch banister to steady himself. "I love you Evy" he said as he leaned on the banister for support and looked at her with bloodshot eyes that were glassy with emotion. "'Fore you... 'fore you came along... my life was pretty damn empty. Nothin'. It was nothin'."
Evelyn looked on with tears in her eyes as Rick began to pour out his heart to her.
"Then you..." he pointed at her from the second to the last step. "You came along. And you know what you did Evy?!" he asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
"I'll tell ya! You made me fall in love" he said. "See... I told myself I said 'Self! We don't need nobody. Let's juss live life. Have fun. Live life on da edge. Get whatcha can. But nev...va! Nev...va! Get ya self 'tached to nobody. It a bad thing... gettin' 'tached to somebody and they turn round and leave ya'" Rick said and Evelyn saw the tears well up in his eyes. "But anyhow..." Rick said, feeling the tears coming. "I thought I was havin plenty fun livin' this life with no cares, no strings, no body else... nobody but me. Then you..." he pointed at her again. "You saved my neck. Sister Abby...gail prob...blee would say you were my savin' angel. You saved my neck" he declared once more. "Then you made me fall in love with you and made me realize I wasn't havin' much fun living life alone. You made me see that I did need somebody and that it wasn't so bad bein' 'tached. 'Tached to you. You..." Rick waggled his finger at Evelyn. "You did a number on me."
"I think it hap...pened when I first saw you" Rick smiled. "I thought I was crazy, thinkin I had fall...en in love juss like that" he tried, unsuccessfully, to snap his fingers. "Juss one look at you and I was a goner but I didn't fess up to it, 'specially after I heard you say you didn't like me 'one bit'" he tried to imitate Evelyn's accent. "And what was that you called me?" Rick grinned again.
"Filthy..." Evelyn whispered as she cried. "Rude. A complete scoundrel."
"Yeah!" he said pointing at her. "That's it! That's what you called me!" Rick tried to sound offended. "Didn't think I heard that part huh?" he teased her. "Then you insulted my kiss. I thought it was a damn good kiss myself! Didn't think I did too bad considerin' I was behind bars and gettin' the hell beat outta me."
"It was lovely" Evelyn said as she wiped tears away.
"You were lovely" he said and he sounded ½ sober.
A big teardrop fell over Evelyn's lashes.
"See what you've done to me" Rick said as he held his arms out wide. "You got me talking like a pansy. Geez Evelyn! If some of the fellas from the Legion saw me now... all turned inside out for a woman. I wouldn't live it down. You made me soft Evy" Rick said as he looked at her with soft eyes. "Turned me into a lovesick hounddog."
Evelyn could do nothing but stand there and smile at him as the tears continued to slide down her face.
"And after all that... you think I'm gonna let you get away from me? I... don't think so" he said as he took a step up on the porch. "I fell hard for ya Evy... and I can't let you go, let you walk away... walk away like my Pa did."
Evelyn was surprised to hear Rick mention his father. She knew he had grown up in a Cairo orphanage. She knew about a Sister Abigail who looked out for him. She knew his mother had died giving birth to him. But his father. When Evelyn had asked Rick about him, Rick simply shrugged his shoulders and said 'Nothing to tell'. Evelyn instinctively knew that Rick did not want to discuss his father so she did not press the matter. But now, it seemed as if he was ready to tell her all about his father.
"I was only 4..." Rick choked as he remembered that day. "He left me Evy, and never came back" Rick said, the sadness in his voice overwhelmingly obvious.
Evelyn was now crying for the man she loved. His grief was most evident in his eyes, in his words, in his voice. His father had abandoned him. It was unthinkable to Evelyn because she had a father who treasured her dearly. She knew parents who cherished and protected her and Jonathan. She knew a home that was warm and full of love.
But Rick, her husband, the man she loved with all her heart did not know those things. He had never known his mother. He had never known a home that was filled with a mother and father's love. He had been alone for most of his life, not knowing the love and security of a family. All he knew was a father who had abandoned him. And now he thought that she would abandon him too. Then suddenly he looked like that abandoned, lonely 4-year-old and Evelyn's heart broke yet again.
"Rick" Evelyn said softly. "I'm so sorry."
"You don't hafta be sorry. If I hadn't grown up in Cairo, I might not of joined the Legion. Then I wouldn't of gone to Hamunaptra. No Hamunaptra, no 'puzzle box', no puzzle box... no you" he gazed lovingly at her.
Evelyn was the reason he did not feel alone anymore. She was the reason he was not alone anymore. She was the reason he knew what living a happy life really meant. She was the reason he felt a sense of joy. She was the reason he felt loved. She was the reason he was loved.
Evelyn's weeping increased as she took a step toward her husband. On unsteady feet, Rick met her ½ way and wrapped his arms around her waist while she laid her hands and forehead on his chest.
"Rick" she sobbed into his chest. "I'm so sorry about tonight and what I said. I don't want a divorce."
Rick held Evelyn tighter, happy, extremely happy that she did not want to leave him. But why, he wondered in his fuddled mind, did she even say she wanted to divorce him?
"Why'd ya say it Evy?" he asked in a voice that was full of sorrow.
"god! Rick!" Evelyn cried even more hearing the dejection in his voice. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I thought I was doing the right thing..."
"The right thing?" Rick said. How could divorcing him be the right thing?
"Well..." Evelyn said as she pulled back just enough to look up at him. "When I told you about the baby... I didn't think you wanted... you didn't seem happy..." It was Evelyn's turn to ramble. "I thought I had made a mess of everything. Marrying you so soon... I didn't know what else to do... I thought I had to choose between you and the baby... I didn't think you really loved me..."
"Why did you think that?" Rick asked, hating the fact that she could ever think he did not love her.
"You don't want the baby..." Evelyn said, still crying. "How could you love me and not want our baby?"
"It's not that Evy. I swear it's not" he said, trying to assure her. "I... I..." he said, finding it hard to tell Evelyn that he was afraid of being a father. "I'm scared Evy" Rick finally said.
"Scared?" she said as she tried wiping her tears again. "Of what?"
"I'm scared... I don't wanna mess things up. I don't wanna mess up with this kid."
"What do you mean?"
"I need to sit down" Rick said as he turned back towards the steps. "I'm feeling dizzy" he said as he stepped down one step and sat down on the porch. The Black Vodka's potency seemed to be on the upswing.
Evelyn followed and sat down next to Rick and hooked her arm around his and laid her head on his shoulder. Rick turned and kissed her on the forehead.
"When I was 4" Rick started. "Me and my Pa came over here from America. He took me to the convent but I didn't wanna stay. I wanted to go with him. He told me I couldn't. Said it was too dange... rous. Too dange... rous for a kid. He said" Rick said as emotion began to choke him. "He said he was comin' back for me... but he never did" Rick said as grief over his father took over and Rick lowered his head and put his index finger and thumb up to his eyes to keep from crying.
"Oh Rick" Evelyn said in a sympathetic voice as she unhook her arm from his and laid her hand on his back and began to rub up and down his spine. "I'm so sorry honey."
"I don't understand why he never came back" he said, his fingers still holding back his tears.
Evelyn could hear the anguish in his voice. She did not know what to say because she could not understand either why a father would leave his child. So instead of trying to find something to say, she simply continued to rub his back. They sat there for many moments, not saying anything, but finding peace and contentment just being together.
"I don't wanna do to my kid what my Pa did to me" Rick finally spoke.
"Why would you even think you would?" Evelyn asked, having more confidence in him than he had in himself.
"I dunno. Guess it was somethin' I heard Sister Abby... gail say when I was at the convent. Somethin' 'bout what the father did, the kid will do."
"Rick, I know you would never do that" she said with full assurance.
"Well..." he said. "Why did my Pa do it to me?" he wanted desperately to know.
"I don't know" Evelyn said. "But what I do know" she said as she took his chin and turned his face toward her. "Is that you are a wonderful man. And I love you very much. And I need you more than ever now. I'm afraid too" she said as she looked into his eyes. "I can't change the past. You can't change the past. But we can do something about now. And I know without a doubt that you will make a wonderful father."
Rick looked at Evelyn and wondered why she loved him the way she did. Why she had so much confidence in him. Maybe she was right. Hell, maybe even Jonathan was right. He might do a pretty decent job at this father thing.
"You think so?" Rick smiled as he looked at the woman who loved him for reasons he did not know.
Evelyn shook her head. "I know so."
"I'm drunk Evy" he said suddenly because he was beginning to see two of her.
"So I've heard" Evelyn laughed lightly.
"I think I need to lay down" he informed her.
"You think so?"
"Yeah. My head's 'bout to spin right off my neck."
"We'd better get you to bed then. Think you can stand up?" she asked, having quite a bit of experience helping a drunk man to bed.
"Think so" Rick said as he made an effort to stand.
Evelyn was on her feet before Rick and helped him with the task. She held his arm until he had steadied himself on his feet. Evelyn then stepped up on the porch, still holding his arm, and lead him up to the porch then began walking toward the door.
"Damn" Rick said as he tripped over his own feet. "Haven't been this drunk in awhile" he said as Evelyn took his arm and put it around her shoulders as put her arm around his waist. "Sorry Evy."
"For what?" she asked as she opened the screen door.
"For drinkin' and gettin' drunk as Jon... than."
Evelyn laughed as she guided Rick inside the house and closed the door.
"Don't think I'ma make it up the stairs" Rick said.
"Alright. You can lie on the couch" Evelyn said as she turned toward the sitting room.
Once there, Evelyn led him to the couch and helped him lie down. She then went over and turned the lantern on low so that she could see a little better. When she walked back over to the couch and sat on the edge of the couch next to Rick, she noticed his battered face.
"What happened to you?" she asked as she touched the bruise on his jaw.
Rick, who had his eyes closed in an attempt to keep the room from spinning, winced at her touch. "Jon... than punched me."
"What? Why?"
"In my nose too" Rick said.
"Why did he do that?" Evelyn said, looking worriedly at her drunk, beaten husband.
"Cause I made you cry."
Evelyn was instantly touched. Jonathan, her shiftless, wayward, unreformed drunk of a brother had punched Rick because he had made her cry. She smiled. She loved her brother. Always had. Always would. And she would not trade him for all of Egypt.
"Oh Rick" Evelyn said, feeling extremely loved at that particular moment. "I'm sorry."
"I deserved it" he said, thinking he deserved it for causing the argument between them and for the redhead. If he were not so drunk he would punch himself.
Yes, she agreed silently, thinking he deserved it for breaking his promise to her that he would not drink again.
"Let me get some ice. It looks like your lip might be swelling" she said then got up and left the room.
Rick lay on the couch feeling relief that things had been worked out between him and Evelyn. And he realized that, though he was still grieved about his father, just talking to Evelyn helped him feel just a little bit better. Maybe she would be the salve that could heal the deep wounds his father had left him with. He smiled as he heard the click of her shoes against the hardwood floor.
Rick remembered how she pampered him and tended his scraps and scratches that he received from their little adventure with Imhotep and his minions. Her hands were so soft on him and he quickly got use to being taken care of. And now, he was about to get more of her tender, loving care.
Evelyn sat back down next to Rick and he enjoyed the feel of her body next to his. Then the warm rag touched his aching face and soothed it. Rick began to drift off when...
"Who's lipstick is this?"
"Rick" Evelyn said as she watched him drag his feet as he walked up to the steps. "I'm so..."
"Ev... lyn" he interrupted her as he stumbled toward the first step. "A dee vorce..." he said in a drunken voice as he shook his head 'no' and put one foot up on the first step. "Is ab... so... loot.. lee out da quest.. ion" he slurred. "I..."
"I don't want a divorce" she interrupted him as a tear slid down her cheek.
"I'm drunk E.. v.. e.. l.. y.. n" Rick continued, saying her name slowly, her statement not registering in his inebriated mind. "I'm drunk. Vvveee...rreee drunk" he proclaimed. "Damn drunk!" he said as he held onto the stair rail and tried to lift his other foot up on the step. "BUT!..." he held up one finger after his other foot landed on the step. "I'm NOT lettin' you go. No way! No way in hell... I'm lettin you go. Damn!" he said when he attempted to advance up to the next step. "It's hard climbin' these steps when you're drunk."
"Rick..." Evelyn said as she watched him struggled up the steps.
"Answer's no Evy!" he interrupted her again. "You can NOT" he shook his head again. "Have a dee... vorce. Don't care what you say." Rick had made it to the second to the last step and grabbed hold of the porch banister to steady himself. "I love you Evy" he said as he leaned on the banister for support and looked at her with bloodshot eyes that were glassy with emotion. "'Fore you... 'fore you came along... my life was pretty damn empty. Nothin'. It was nothin'."
Evelyn looked on with tears in her eyes as Rick began to pour out his heart to her.
"Then you..." he pointed at her from the second to the last step. "You came along. And you know what you did Evy?!" he asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
"I'll tell ya! You made me fall in love" he said. "See... I told myself I said 'Self! We don't need nobody. Let's juss live life. Have fun. Live life on da edge. Get whatcha can. But nev...va! Nev...va! Get ya self 'tached to nobody. It a bad thing... gettin' 'tached to somebody and they turn round and leave ya'" Rick said and Evelyn saw the tears well up in his eyes. "But anyhow..." Rick said, feeling the tears coming. "I thought I was havin plenty fun livin' this life with no cares, no strings, no body else... nobody but me. Then you..." he pointed at her again. "You saved my neck. Sister Abby...gail prob...blee would say you were my savin' angel. You saved my neck" he declared once more. "Then you made me fall in love with you and made me realize I wasn't havin' much fun living life alone. You made me see that I did need somebody and that it wasn't so bad bein' 'tached. 'Tached to you. You..." Rick waggled his finger at Evelyn. "You did a number on me."
"I think it hap...pened when I first saw you" Rick smiled. "I thought I was crazy, thinkin I had fall...en in love juss like that" he tried, unsuccessfully, to snap his fingers. "Juss one look at you and I was a goner but I didn't fess up to it, 'specially after I heard you say you didn't like me 'one bit'" he tried to imitate Evelyn's accent. "And what was that you called me?" Rick grinned again.
"Filthy..." Evelyn whispered as she cried. "Rude. A complete scoundrel."
"Yeah!" he said pointing at her. "That's it! That's what you called me!" Rick tried to sound offended. "Didn't think I heard that part huh?" he teased her. "Then you insulted my kiss. I thought it was a damn good kiss myself! Didn't think I did too bad considerin' I was behind bars and gettin' the hell beat outta me."
"It was lovely" Evelyn said as she wiped tears away.
"You were lovely" he said and he sounded ½ sober.
A big teardrop fell over Evelyn's lashes.
"See what you've done to me" Rick said as he held his arms out wide. "You got me talking like a pansy. Geez Evelyn! If some of the fellas from the Legion saw me now... all turned inside out for a woman. I wouldn't live it down. You made me soft Evy" Rick said as he looked at her with soft eyes. "Turned me into a lovesick hounddog."
Evelyn could do nothing but stand there and smile at him as the tears continued to slide down her face.
"And after all that... you think I'm gonna let you get away from me? I... don't think so" he said as he took a step up on the porch. "I fell hard for ya Evy... and I can't let you go, let you walk away... walk away like my Pa did."
Evelyn was surprised to hear Rick mention his father. She knew he had grown up in a Cairo orphanage. She knew about a Sister Abigail who looked out for him. She knew his mother had died giving birth to him. But his father. When Evelyn had asked Rick about him, Rick simply shrugged his shoulders and said 'Nothing to tell'. Evelyn instinctively knew that Rick did not want to discuss his father so she did not press the matter. But now, it seemed as if he was ready to tell her all about his father.
"I was only 4..." Rick choked as he remembered that day. "He left me Evy, and never came back" Rick said, the sadness in his voice overwhelmingly obvious.
Evelyn was now crying for the man she loved. His grief was most evident in his eyes, in his words, in his voice. His father had abandoned him. It was unthinkable to Evelyn because she had a father who treasured her dearly. She knew parents who cherished and protected her and Jonathan. She knew a home that was warm and full of love.
But Rick, her husband, the man she loved with all her heart did not know those things. He had never known his mother. He had never known a home that was filled with a mother and father's love. He had been alone for most of his life, not knowing the love and security of a family. All he knew was a father who had abandoned him. And now he thought that she would abandon him too. Then suddenly he looked like that abandoned, lonely 4-year-old and Evelyn's heart broke yet again.
"Rick" Evelyn said softly. "I'm so sorry."
"You don't hafta be sorry. If I hadn't grown up in Cairo, I might not of joined the Legion. Then I wouldn't of gone to Hamunaptra. No Hamunaptra, no 'puzzle box', no puzzle box... no you" he gazed lovingly at her.
Evelyn was the reason he did not feel alone anymore. She was the reason he was not alone anymore. She was the reason he knew what living a happy life really meant. She was the reason he felt a sense of joy. She was the reason he felt loved. She was the reason he was loved.
Evelyn's weeping increased as she took a step toward her husband. On unsteady feet, Rick met her ½ way and wrapped his arms around her waist while she laid her hands and forehead on his chest.
"Rick" she sobbed into his chest. "I'm so sorry about tonight and what I said. I don't want a divorce."
Rick held Evelyn tighter, happy, extremely happy that she did not want to leave him. But why, he wondered in his fuddled mind, did she even say she wanted to divorce him?
"Why'd ya say it Evy?" he asked in a voice that was full of sorrow.
"god! Rick!" Evelyn cried even more hearing the dejection in his voice. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I thought I was doing the right thing..."
"The right thing?" Rick said. How could divorcing him be the right thing?
"Well..." Evelyn said as she pulled back just enough to look up at him. "When I told you about the baby... I didn't think you wanted... you didn't seem happy..." It was Evelyn's turn to ramble. "I thought I had made a mess of everything. Marrying you so soon... I didn't know what else to do... I thought I had to choose between you and the baby... I didn't think you really loved me..."
"Why did you think that?" Rick asked, hating the fact that she could ever think he did not love her.
"You don't want the baby..." Evelyn said, still crying. "How could you love me and not want our baby?"
"It's not that Evy. I swear it's not" he said, trying to assure her. "I... I..." he said, finding it hard to tell Evelyn that he was afraid of being a father. "I'm scared Evy" Rick finally said.
"Scared?" she said as she tried wiping her tears again. "Of what?"
"I'm scared... I don't wanna mess things up. I don't wanna mess up with this kid."
"What do you mean?"
"I need to sit down" Rick said as he turned back towards the steps. "I'm feeling dizzy" he said as he stepped down one step and sat down on the porch. The Black Vodka's potency seemed to be on the upswing.
Evelyn followed and sat down next to Rick and hooked her arm around his and laid her head on his shoulder. Rick turned and kissed her on the forehead.
"When I was 4" Rick started. "Me and my Pa came over here from America. He took me to the convent but I didn't wanna stay. I wanted to go with him. He told me I couldn't. Said it was too dange... rous. Too dange... rous for a kid. He said" Rick said as emotion began to choke him. "He said he was comin' back for me... but he never did" Rick said as grief over his father took over and Rick lowered his head and put his index finger and thumb up to his eyes to keep from crying.
"Oh Rick" Evelyn said in a sympathetic voice as she unhook her arm from his and laid her hand on his back and began to rub up and down his spine. "I'm so sorry honey."
"I don't understand why he never came back" he said, his fingers still holding back his tears.
Evelyn could hear the anguish in his voice. She did not know what to say because she could not understand either why a father would leave his child. So instead of trying to find something to say, she simply continued to rub his back. They sat there for many moments, not saying anything, but finding peace and contentment just being together.
"I don't wanna do to my kid what my Pa did to me" Rick finally spoke.
"Why would you even think you would?" Evelyn asked, having more confidence in him than he had in himself.
"I dunno. Guess it was somethin' I heard Sister Abby... gail say when I was at the convent. Somethin' 'bout what the father did, the kid will do."
"Rick, I know you would never do that" she said with full assurance.
"Well..." he said. "Why did my Pa do it to me?" he wanted desperately to know.
"I don't know" Evelyn said. "But what I do know" she said as she took his chin and turned his face toward her. "Is that you are a wonderful man. And I love you very much. And I need you more than ever now. I'm afraid too" she said as she looked into his eyes. "I can't change the past. You can't change the past. But we can do something about now. And I know without a doubt that you will make a wonderful father."
Rick looked at Evelyn and wondered why she loved him the way she did. Why she had so much confidence in him. Maybe she was right. Hell, maybe even Jonathan was right. He might do a pretty decent job at this father thing.
"You think so?" Rick smiled as he looked at the woman who loved him for reasons he did not know.
Evelyn shook her head. "I know so."
"I'm drunk Evy" he said suddenly because he was beginning to see two of her.
"So I've heard" Evelyn laughed lightly.
"I think I need to lay down" he informed her.
"You think so?"
"Yeah. My head's 'bout to spin right off my neck."
"We'd better get you to bed then. Think you can stand up?" she asked, having quite a bit of experience helping a drunk man to bed.
"Think so" Rick said as he made an effort to stand.
Evelyn was on her feet before Rick and helped him with the task. She held his arm until he had steadied himself on his feet. Evelyn then stepped up on the porch, still holding his arm, and lead him up to the porch then began walking toward the door.
"Damn" Rick said as he tripped over his own feet. "Haven't been this drunk in awhile" he said as Evelyn took his arm and put it around her shoulders as put her arm around his waist. "Sorry Evy."
"For what?" she asked as she opened the screen door.
"For drinkin' and gettin' drunk as Jon... than."
Evelyn laughed as she guided Rick inside the house and closed the door.
"Don't think I'ma make it up the stairs" Rick said.
"Alright. You can lie on the couch" Evelyn said as she turned toward the sitting room.
Once there, Evelyn led him to the couch and helped him lie down. She then went over and turned the lantern on low so that she could see a little better. When she walked back over to the couch and sat on the edge of the couch next to Rick, she noticed his battered face.
"What happened to you?" she asked as she touched the bruise on his jaw.
Rick, who had his eyes closed in an attempt to keep the room from spinning, winced at her touch. "Jon... than punched me."
"What? Why?"
"In my nose too" Rick said.
"Why did he do that?" Evelyn said, looking worriedly at her drunk, beaten husband.
"Cause I made you cry."
Evelyn was instantly touched. Jonathan, her shiftless, wayward, unreformed drunk of a brother had punched Rick because he had made her cry. She smiled. She loved her brother. Always had. Always would. And she would not trade him for all of Egypt.
"Oh Rick" Evelyn said, feeling extremely loved at that particular moment. "I'm sorry."
"I deserved it" he said, thinking he deserved it for causing the argument between them and for the redhead. If he were not so drunk he would punch himself.
Yes, she agreed silently, thinking he deserved it for breaking his promise to her that he would not drink again.
"Let me get some ice. It looks like your lip might be swelling" she said then got up and left the room.
Rick lay on the couch feeling relief that things had been worked out between him and Evelyn. And he realized that, though he was still grieved about his father, just talking to Evelyn helped him feel just a little bit better. Maybe she would be the salve that could heal the deep wounds his father had left him with. He smiled as he heard the click of her shoes against the hardwood floor.
Rick remembered how she pampered him and tended his scraps and scratches that he received from their little adventure with Imhotep and his minions. Her hands were so soft on him and he quickly got use to being taken care of. And now, he was about to get more of her tender, loving care.
Evelyn sat back down next to Rick and he enjoyed the feel of her body next to his. Then the warm rag touched his aching face and soothed it. Rick began to drift off when...
"Who's lipstick is this?"