Okay, okay, I thought I better do this because I've had the idea floating around in my head and I knew it wasn't going to go away until I actually wrote this down. Sigh. I'll just ignore the fact that I have no free time between work and school and should, in fact, be doing homework at this very moment. This is just so much more fun.

Summery: Evy's engagement ring has something unique and valuable to it; something the O'Connell's know nothing about until its "to late."  Wa hahahahaha.

FYI: couple of fluff chapters before we get to the actual action/plotline, so stay with me through all the mushy-ness and what not.

For the sake of argument: Evy's name is spelled like that and I figure there was suppose to be about nine or ten years between the first Mummy and the second. Who knows, maybe Stephan just wasn't in a math mood with he did TMR…

Speaking of which, all characters and related things are his except for the ones that come from my twisted mind. Hehe.

The myth that appears later is total BS (as far as I know) and was something I just randomly came up with while bored in Physics the other day.

Oh, one more thing. I've found I write better in first person, and since I can't decide who I would rather be for the entire story, I thought I might try the switchy thing on this one. Ya know, Rick one chapter, Evy the next… so on and so on.

All right. I think that's it.

On with the bloody show already!

Okay okay.

Review :)

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Never Ending Circle

Chapter One

Late July, 1926

You would think the whole walking mummy thing would have turned my dear wife off of Egypt for the rest of her life. But before we were even married, before we were back to Cairo even, she started blabbing about how much more she wanted to explore the field (as if she hadn't explored every inch already…but I didn't mention this) and how "extremely fascinated" she was with Egyptian curses now. I had to stop her at that one; we were not, under any circumstances, going to go head on into something that was rumored to be cursed. Evy had just smiled, kissed me, and then I forgot what I told her.

Typical.

Once back in Cairo, we settled down for a bit, sold off some of the antiques that my good friend Beni had so generously stolen, and kept the rest. Evy had become attached to some and wanted to wait until later to sell others, claiming that if we brought them to the museum's attention all at once, they would start to ask some rather intrusive questions. Jonathan had been allowed to take part in 33% of the profit (the other 64 going to Evy and myself…) but was only allowed to keep one of the artifacts. He chose this really awful gaudy scepter thing that made the silly gold bracelet's Evy had kept look like nothing. Evy had then horded everything else away and had it shipped to England in tightly guarded boxes.

After about a week I proposed to the girl, using a ring we had found in the Hamunaptra cache- which made her cry- and a couple of days later we were married in a small (just us and John) service at the church. We'd had to pay the minister a hefty sum to let us do it on such short notice, but he was more then welcome once we flashed those bills in his face. I was still amazed at how much power I suddenly had, being suddenly rich. With all that profit combined with the small fortune Evy still had from her parents passing, we were extremely well off.

Some might say that the wedding had happened rather quickly, but I'll tell them this: it was Evy's idea. I swear to God. The moment I proposed she was talking a mile a minute about the wedding and finally, when she started talking about having a bunch of people, I suggested the sort of elopement. She liked this, something to do with it being "wildly romantic" and bada boom there we were. It was strange; I never thought I would get married. But after the first morning of waking up with my wife asleep on my chest, I knew I was going to love it. She and I were bound to each other for the rest of our lives; it was nice to have that. I'd never had security in my entire life.

And God I loved her. Everything she did made me stop and stare, or stop and just listen. It didn't matter what she was talking about or showing me, I was damn interested. And what's worse was that I liked that feeling; I wanted to feel like it for the rest of my life. God I hoped I did.

No one had ever told me, though, just how much "nice girls" can change after they are married. Seriously, you wouldn't have thought it by looking at her, but Evy had the dirtiest, most sinful mind I'd ever known. It was damn sexy. And the girl knew how to kiss; she knew how to push my buttons like no one else! One little peck on the cheek and I was helpless.

Being married for two nights had taught me two new things however. One, don't let your new brother-in-law sleep in the next room when he has absolutely no shame what so ever. And two, it's a good thing not to start things up when you're suppose to meet said brother- in-law in twenty minutes for breakfast. In my defense, Evy was the one who'd planned the damn breakfast at eight in the morning. Sometimes I wondered about her.

In fact, it was her fault we were late that morning. We were supposed to meet Jonathan at nine and then go down at the department of Antiquates. Only a few of the employees down there were aware of what happened at Hamunaptra (they were part of Ardeth's little group) and wanted to talk to us about it around ten. However me being me and Evy being Evy, we had forgotten to set an alarm (we were ah, preoccupied by other more interesting things the night before) and when we were awoken by a loud banging on the door, Evy had managed to distract me once again. Geez.

When Evy finally got there, Jonathan had come barging in complain about how we were going to be late and so on and so forth. We realized our mistake, shooed John out and then in record time managed to get dressed and ready to go. By a quarter to ten we were out the door, running toward the Museum.

We got there in the nick of time. I expected that we were be ushered in, congratulated, possibly given some sort of reward. But, some receptionist lady just shoved us into this conference room thing where we now were. It was dark and musty smelling; I wanted to get out of there. Sighing, I checked the big clock on the wall for what must have been the millionth time. It was already ten thirty.

"Where the blazes are they?" Jonathan demanded, asking what we were all thinking. He raised his eyebrows at Evy who brushed him off at with a swift dismissing wave.

"Jonathan, they told me ten," she assured him. "They probably got held up with something."

"Let's hope its not the walking dead again," I muttered under my breath, or at least what I thought was under my breath. Evelyn turned in her seat and gave me a weak smile, acknowledging that she heard me. I grinned back and then reached over, playfully pulling the brim of her white hat over her eyes.

"Rick!" she exclaimed, reaching up and pulling the thing off her head. "Honestly." She sighed, smoothed out her hair, and then daintily put the hat back on. The way she was sitting, all proper and straight backed, with her respectable matching skirt and blouse, combined with the hat, reminded me of when we met. Had that only been a few weeks ago?

I gave her a sheepish smile and then took her hand. We gazed at each other for a minute, until we were interrupted by a loud crash. One hand immediately reached for a gun that I soon realized I didn't have, and the other dropped Evy's. I looked around expectantly, finding only Jonathan sprawled out on the floor. His chair had toppled over, hitting a small end table as it did so, brining both of them down on top of him. Papers were flying everywhere and John was ranting, his arms flailing around.

"What in the hell are you doing?" I demanded roughly, jumping up and pulling the table and chair off of him. Evy, as well, had gotten out of her chair and came over to where we were. She started running around, picking up the stray papers and then set them on the conference table.

When he was free, Jonathan stood up and brushed off his suit. "Mr. What's-his-arse keeps cigarettes in that table and I was leaning back to get some when I just toppled over."

I loud sigh came from Evy and I turned around to see her standing there with her hands on her hips looking angry. "Jonathan, you're going to get yourself hurt. Or worse, what would have happened if they had walked in just this minute?" Her eyes narrowed as she waited for his reply and I almost laughed as I turned to John again.

"Well, it would be about bloody time," Jonathan grumbled, fixing his chair up to the table again and then huffing down in it.

Evelyn made that all-purpose "Ohh" comment she had and then sat down where she had been, folding her arms over her chest and scowling. I patted her gently on the back, fixed the table, set the papers on it, and then sat down again. I made a mental note to myself: don't make Evy mad when she's anxious about something.

We waited another few minutes before they finally came in. There were two of them, a short Arab man who introduced himself as Abdullah something-a-rather (I couldn't remember) and then a British guy named Robert Logan. I wondered what the second was doing there, because he didn't look like he belonged to a clan of secret Med-jai.

Evy snorted when they called her Mrs. O'Connell and I kicked her softly under the table. She immediately got a hold of herself and then shook each of the men's outstretched hands. Jonathan came next and, to my surprise, he didn't knock anything over as he got stood up to greet them.

Once everyone was seated and situated, that Abdullah guy cleared his throat a few times and then started talking in halted English.

"My friends," he began and across my mind I wondered if all Med-jai talked like that. "I don't think I need to tell you again how thankful we are for your help. You did cause the problem, this is true, but to got it under control in a relativity harmless period of time and were able to stop it."

"Don't mention it," Jonathan broke in. I scowled at the back of his head and I noticed Evy discreetly kick him, her face remaining prim the whole time.

Abdullah pretty much ignored him and continued his little speech. "The man sitting next to me, Mr. Logan, knew about the possibility and was involved with finding out things about Hamunaptra before you were even there. He too wishes to thank you."

Ahh, so that's why he wasn't running around in pansy looking dresses and didn't have tattoos. But how did he know about it? And why? I didn't have much time to think about it because suddenly they were talking to us again.

"In appreciation, Mr. and Mrs. O'Connell, we are going to give you a trust fund here in Cairo," Mr. Logan said in his thick accent. "This can be used to fund whatever future digs you may go on."

Evy's face lit up and her eyes got really, really big. I could see the smile she was wearing from my position at her side. "You- you're serious?" she asked, sounding very much like when she asked me if I'd actually been to Hamunaptra.

Abdullah nodded. "Yes, Mrs. O'Connell, so long as you promise not to raise the dead again." He started laughing, followed by Evy, Mr. Logan and then eventually Jonathan. I think he was wondering where his share of all this was.

I would have laughed too expect for I couldn't promise Evy wouldn't accidentally do this again. So, I just smiled polity and broke the little party up by thanking the two men. They told me not to mention it and then turned their attention to Jonathan. They, wisely, provided him with a limited (might I add, very limited) amount to fund digs. I could tell his was disappointed, but I knew it was a smart choice. Jonathan would probably blow it all on booze and woman anyway; I think they knew that.

Then they turned and both looked at my wife again, who was still grinning like an idiot. "Mrs. O'Connell, we've gotten word from the Bembridge scholars…"

Uh oh.

"…and they've agreed to let you have a position in the British Museum starting at the beginning of next year. You will be presiding over the Egyptian department with another man, Mr. Galen. You'll be in charge of rotating exhibits, making sure everything is restored properly, that sort of thing. Until then, we're going to make you curator of the department here until we hire someone else who will take over when you leave."

Evelyn then did something she hardly ever does: burst into tears. Jonathan whipped around and gave her a big hug and I moved closer, kissing her on her cheek. She had wanted this for so long, I knew. Ever since the moment I met her it was Bembridge Scholars this, and Bembridge scholars that.  She'd told me about how they'd rejected her over and over. But now, she was part of their crowd.  Pretty exciting, if you ask me.

When she finally calmed down, she jumped up and gave each of the men a hug, thanking them over and over. Then she ran over to me, squealed uncharacteristically and threw her arms around my next. I stood up and kissed her briefly before directing her to her seat again. I flopped back down on my own and listened to Evy for another ten minutes as she went on and on about how grateful she was.

I could only think of one thing however: we were going to have to live in Cairo for another six months or so. Which meant finding an apartment, more hot weather, and a lot more Egyptian stuff. And Jonathan around. All the time. The entire god damn time.

I sighed inwardly. It was going to be a very long six months.