Unexpected Suprises

Disclaimer: Same as before.

A/N: I'm still debating how I want all of this to come together, but by the end of this chapter, I should have a pretty good idea. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update this story. I was extremely busy with school. I had two papers to write for two of my classes. Thank you for bearing with me!

Chapter 5: Translations and Riddles

Nigel called Jen as soon as he walked into the room. Jen had been terribly upset, and wanted to come and see about her cousin, but Nigel and Lindsey both insisted that she stay with Jake until further notice. It wasn't safe for her to come home.

"Well, then you're gonna stay here, too, Lindsey." Jake's voice was very stern, almost as if he were a parent talking to a child. "If it's too dangerous for Jen, then, it has to be extremely dangerous for you, especially with no one in the apartment with you." Nigel's heart dropped at this remark. He began to speak, but Lindsey interrupted him.

"Jake, I appreciate the offer, really, I do, but I am not about to get you and Jen involved...If I were to stay with you, then, I would put you guys at risk, too, and I could never forgive myself if anything happened to either one of you because of me." Lindsey matched Jake's sterness. "Nigel and I will probably stay in a hotel until we figure all of this out."

"Okay, Lindsey...If you think that's best. Just keep us updated, okay?" Jen's voice was extremely shakey. She was worried about her cousin, but trusted Lindsey's judgement. Lindsey had always been the voice of reason in any group of people she hung out with, almost like a parent, so, if Lindsey thought it was safe, then it probably was. Jen felt alot better knowing that Nigel would be with her. She didn't want Lindsey to be alone through this.

"I promise I will Jen. I've got to go now. Don't worry about me I'll be fine. Love y'all...bye." Lindsey hung up the speaker phone. Nigel loved her accent. It was truly relaxing, and very intoxicating. He wondered if his English accent had the same effect on people. Lindsey interupted his thoughts. "I'm gonna go take that shower now...You call Professor Fox and make sure she's okay. The intruder may have gone to her too."

With that, Lindsey had disappeared into the bathroom, and Nigel could hear the running of tap water. Nigel was sure that if the intruder did go to Sydney's, the intruder wouldn't have faired too well. Sydney was not a force to be reckoned with.

"Hello?..." A very groggy voice answered the phone. Sydney looked over at the clock. 7:00. Who would be calling at 7:00 in the morning on a Saturday?!

"Sydney? I'm sorry to bother you, but we've had a spot of trouble." Nigel didn't need to tell her it was him calling...his English accent made him distinctly recognizable on the telephone.

"We?" Sydney asked. She knew that he wasn't refering to her with him. Nigel explained what happened. "Is she okay?" Sydney asked worriedly.

"She's fine, Syd. And, the intruder didn't get the manuscripts. She seems very adamant about continuing to help us." Nigel added. He was glad she wanted to keep helping. He couldn't believe how incredible Lindsey was, and it was even more unbelievable to him that she would be interested in him.

"Well, okay. I'll get ahold of some of my friends over in Europe to see if they can help us out with any of this. You and Lindsey keep working on those translations, and get yourselves into a hotel room. Whoever that was might be coming back."

"Okay, Syd. Bye bye." Nigel hung up the phone. He picked up the phone book, and started flipping through the yellow pages to find a hotel. "Hotel room," Sydney had said. Singular. As in one room, not two. It was safer than two rooms, but he didn't want Lindsey thinking he expected "anything." He could get a single room with two beds, but Lindsey had wanted him to be near her last night, and he had willingly obliged. He wanted to be near her tonight too, but he couldn't be sure she would want that, and, after all, Nigel was a gentleman and had deep respect for a lady. He would wait until Lindsey got out of the shower and let her book the room...or rooms. Lindsey came out of the bathroom wearing jeans and a hunter green turtle neck. He wondered if she had chosen the turtleneck to hide her bruising. Nigel cringed as he thought about the bruising on her body. Her newly dried hair was cascading over her shoulders. She was very simply dressed, but she was beautiful. Nigel couldn't help but stare.

"Lindsey, we still need to make arrangements at a hotel. Would you mind doing that while I take a shower?" Nigel asked.

"Not at all, dear. Do you have a preference as to what hotel we use?" she asked. Nigel knew that "dear" didn't mean anything significant. She had heard her call Jake and Jen "dear" several times over the phone, as she had Claudia in the office the previous day. She was just a friendly person.

"Not really. Just one that you would like." Nigel started to head toward the bathroom.

"Okay. What do you want for breakfast, or would you just rather pick it up from somewhere? I'm not from here, so I don't know any good places for breakfast." Lindsey smiled. Nigel grinned back.

"I'll cook breakfast when I get out of the shower. You just make those reservations." With that, Nigel had gone into the bathroom.

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"Okay, thank you." Lindsey said, hanging up the phone, as Nigel came out of the bathrrom. He had on a deep blue Oxford University sweatshirt and a pair of kahkis. Lindsey could tell that this was Nigel's "weekend attire," but he still looked very neat. Compared to him, she felt as if she were underdressed. His hair was still a bit damp, but Nigel had obviously made an effort to "fix" his hair. He had the same "messed up" look he had the previous day. It suited his features very well. He was not very tall, extremely thin, and very white. Basically, he looked like he spent all of his time in the library, but Lindsey thought that was very attractive. She had always been attracted to guys who appeared to be smart and sophositicated, but it was very rare that she had actually found one who really was. Nigel was truly unique.

"Did you book the room?" Nigel asked, his British voice interrupting her thoughts. He noticed she was staring at him, and blushed.

"Yeah, we have a room at the Hilton. It was the first one I called that had actually had a vacancy, but the only room they had was a single, with a queen size bed. Is that okay with you?" Lindsey asked, a bit of red appearing on her cheeks.

"Yeah, that's perfect." Nigel was shocked at how eager his voice had sounded. He tried to compensate. "I mean, it's fine for what we need it for. Uh...not that I mean...that...I don't want to do that with you...I mean...not yet...Um...I mean...we don't know each other well, and..." Nigel was put out of his misery by a pair of warm, wet lips covering his own. Lindsey broke the kiss almost abruptly as she began it.

"I know what you mean, Nigel." She laughed at him. He was so cute when he did that. "I made some coffee, but I also have chamomile and earl grey teas in my cubbord, if you like. I perfer coffee in the morning, but I didn't know what you prefered." Lindsey said taking a sip of her coffee, and moving toward the table where the manuscripts were sitting and put on her glasses. Nigel noticed her grimmace as her glasses grazed her bruises and cuts. He immediately became worried.

"Lindsey, are you sure you want to do that today? You took a pretty nasty beating last night. Maybe you should just rest. Sydney and I can deal with this." Nigel had only wanted to help her, but the look of anger that flashed across her face quickly told him he had made a mistake.

"I'm FINE. Yeah, their bruises, they hurt, but it's not something that I can't deal with. Plus, you'll be worring all day about me, and I'll feel completely useless, so, I'm gonna help. You dont' have a choice." By the end of her tirade, Lindsey had a grin on her face. She just couldn't stay mad at him. "Besides, you promised me breakfast." They both laughed at that, and Nigel went into the kitchen.

It was several minutes before anyone said anything. "Oh, no. This isn't good." Lindsey looked over the rim of her glasses at Nigel, who had turned away from his omlet to look at her. "You don't know how to read "Langric" do you?" Nigel came over to where she was and took the manuscript from her.

"Langric? I've never encountered anything written in it before. I've heard of it a few times when I was at Oxford, but I've never actually studied it." Nigel was completely baffeled. Langirc is a cross between Greek and Latin that was used very obscurely, and only when one wanted no one but the reader to understand it. It was kind of like an ancient pig latin, almost. "This may take a while. How did you recognize it?"

"Well, I knew a little greek from simply having studied so much text in theatre, but I noticed that, at a glance, this manuscript looked the same as the longer one, but the words didn't look the same. There are certain words in each language that are going to appear in a text, at some point in time. Kinda like prepositions, if you will. The two don't match. There are different words with different meanings with this shorter one." Lindsey was flustered at this point, Nigel could tell. Her face had gotten red, and she was doing this thing with her nose that he'd never seen her do before. He thought it was rather adorable. She quickly brought him back to reality. "What's gonna suck is the fact that since the language can be changed, not only do we have to find out what this specific Langric code is, we have still have to figure out what it means."

"What do you mean?" Nigel was really confused now.

"Sophocles liked riddles. He wrote nearly everything but his plays in riddles. It's why Aristotle liked him so much. Aristotle was taught by Plato, to whom riddles were a godsent, because he believed that writing in riddles kept unworthy people from reading your work. If you couldn't understand it, you weren't ment to read it. Aristotle loved that, and so he loved Sophocles." Lindsey was truly in her element here. Nigel was very impressed.

"But, this was written by Thespis." Nigel was really not understanding where she was going with this.

"But, Thespis was close to Sophocles...a student of Sophocles's, if you will. I have hunch, but you're gonna think I'm crazy." Lindsey looked up at Nigel, and took off her glasses.

"Try me. I've heard my share of "crazy" hunches, and seen my share of them turn out true." Nigel was shuddering at some of the memories of him and Sydney on various relic hunts.

"Okay. Why is this manuscript so short?" Lindsey looked at Nigel expectantly.

"I don't follow where you're going." For once, Nigel felt a bit, ignorant, but it kinda felt nice to have someone else puting the clues together.

"You don't write a short manuscript in a difficult language just to shoot the breeze with someone. You don't even write anything that short in such a difficult language, unless..." Lindsey's voice trailed off, as she came to a realization.

"Unless what? Extenuating circumstances?" Nigel looked at her questioningly.

"Unless, you're in a hurry to tell something important to someone, and only that someone needs to read it." Lindsey was almost jumping down now. "Now, why would Thespis be in a hurry?" She asked Nigel.

"Uh...I don't know." Nigel thought the question sounded a bit like a bad joke, but he didn't say anything and let her continue.

"If you knew you could be in danger, and needed to tell someone something, you'd be in a hurry too, wouldn't you? Where were these manuscripts found?" If Lindsey's hunch was correct, then she already knew the answer.

"Well, the shorter one was found inside the ruins of the Theatre of Dionysis, the longer one near there, but not inside the ruins." Nigel was starting to understand what she was thinking, but surely she wasn't thinking what he was thinking.

"Just what I thought." Lindsey said happily. "I bet that the manuscript written in Langric will tell us where the book is." Nigel was right. He did understand what she was thinking.

"So, you don't think that the book was stolen at all, do you?" Nigel asked, already knowing the answer to the question.

"No, I don't. I'd be willing to bet that when Sophocles and Thespis were attacked, Thespis knew what the attackers were after, and hid the book somewhere in the theatre. The attackers came back after Thespis, but before they found him and killed him, he wrote Sophocles a letter telling him where he had hidden the book. Do you remember how Thespis died?" Lindsey looked at Nigel with an incredible look on her face. She was absolutely glowing.

"If I remember correctly, he had a knife through his heart." Nigel recalled. He didn't know much about theatre history, but he did know some. "But, wasn't Thespis found dead in his home?" Nigel asked, a look of questioning on his face.

"Yes, he was. As a matter of fact, Sophocles was the one who found him. The only question I can't answer is if Thespis was killed at home, and this manuscript was trying to tell Sophocles where he hid the book, why was this manuscript found at the theatre instead of Thespis's home?" Lindsey hoped Nigel could help her figure this one out. Her theory fit perfectly except for this particular piece.

"Maybe the attackers found it and tried to use it to locate the book, and they just left it in the theatre when they failed."

"If they failed," Lindsey reminded him. "We can't be certain that the attackers didn't find the book themselves, and hid it elsewhere." Lindsey hoped that this wasn't correct.

"What if Sophocles found it?" Nigel's eyes had grown wide. The idea had just dawned on him. "If Sophocles had found Thespis dead, wouldn't it stand to reason that he found the manuscript, read it, and tried to find the book?" Nigel had a feeling that they were on to something.

"But according to ancient records, Sophocles always thought the book was stolen. He never said otherwise." Lindsey was confused. Nigel soon cleared up her misunderstandings.

"If you knew that your friend was killed because he knew where the location of something was, and his murderers thought that you knew nothing about it, would you let on like you really knew?" Nigel had a point. A really good point.

"You're right. We've got to got to translate that manuscript." Lindsey said. They had just made a major breakthrough, and it was overwhelming to her. She was extremely excited, and it showed. She was grinning from ear to ear. "I can't believe it. We may have just figured out what happened to a historically significant book that no one has seen for thousands of years."

"You'd better be careful, smiling so much. You're face might get stuck like that." Nigel teased her. Don't get me wrong, I love your smile, but it would be a shame if I couldn't do this..." And with that he pulled her into a kiss. She put her arms around his neck and happily kissed him back. She soon broke the kiss, and hugged him. He was extremely mindful of her bruises, and was careful not to graze them too harshly.

"I know I'm acting juvenile, but this is a big deal to me. I know that you do this sort of thing everyday, but it's all so new to me. I can't help but smile." Lindsey looked up at him and met his eyes. For a moment, she felt as if she could see straight into his soul.

"Hey, I still get excited about a new find. I'm excited now, as a matter of fact. You're not acting juvenile at all. But, we need to eat breakfast and get going to the hotel. We can continue our efforts with the manuscripts there." Nigel didn't say that the find wasn't all he was excited about, but he didn't have to.

After breakfast, they left the apartment and went to the hotel. They spent the rest of the day there, working on the translation. That night, they put the manuscripts aside, and went to dinner and a movie, then for a nice long walk in the park. The next day went the same way. Late Sunday evening, Sydney called them.

"Nigel, I'm glad I caught you. Listen, you and Lindsey need to get to the hospital right away." Her voice sounded very frantic.

"Why, is something wrong?" Nigel asked. He tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but Lindsey caught it anyway.

"Jen's been in an accident. It seems that she and Jake had gone back to the apartment to get some things, and they walked in on an intruder. He hit Jake in the head and knocked him out, and he shot at Jen. She's not stable, and the doctors are uncertain about her chances...she's lost alot of blood...it was a while before Jake came-to...so you guys might want to get down here." Sydney was relieved that it wasn't Lindsey who had answered the phone. Something like this was difficult to tell someone, especially someone you didn't know all that well. She did know that Lindsey would blame herself. She could see that much of herself in Lindsey.

"Was it the same intruder as Friday night?" Nigel asked. Nigel knew that Lindsey would blame herself, too. He was feeling the pangs of guilt himself. He knew that it was neither of their faults, but he was heartbroken. He might be losing a close friend, and Lindsey might be losing a close relative. He hated knowing that he would be the one to break the news to Lindsey, but he would be there to comfort her.

"Yeah, I think so. Jake said that he kept yelling something about the manuscripts, and when he realized that Jake and Jen weren't you and Lindsey, he tried to kill them." Sydney looked up, and saw the doctor coming up. "Well, I have to go, the doctor is coming now. You just get here as quickly as you can."

"Okay, Syd. Bye bye." Nigel couldn't believe this. Lindsey would be devastated. He looked up at her. She already had concern on her face.

"Nigel, what's wrong? Who's hurt?" Lindsey asked, not wanting to believe what she knew was coming.

"Um..Jen and Jake have been in an accident." He just had to say it. "Jen's been shot, Lindsey. Jake is fine, but Jen's condition is uncertain at moment. We need to get down there right away." He could see the tears well up in her eyes. She made no hesitation throwing on her jacket and shoes as Nigel got ready himself. When they were in the car, Nigel took her hand in his, and held it as she cried silent tears, looking out of the window. They drove to the hospital in complete silence, the only noise coming from the engine of passing cars. Jen just had to be okay.
A/N: Okay, sorry again that this took so long. School keeps me so busy!! Anywho, I promise this story will pick up speed. Thank you all for being so patient...more soon, I promise. Please R&R.