The 4 boxes.

Disclaimer-I'm not sure who relic hunter belongs to, but I'm damn sure it's not me!

Summary-4 boxes affect Sydney and Nigel's behaviour.

PG/PG-13

Feedback- Yes please!! I try to thank everyone who reviews in the author's notes, but if I forget you, tell me and I'll apologise.

Author's notes- This is my first Relic Hunter Fanfic, I love the show, but had difficulty finding much fanfiction, so I decided to add my own. This will be a Sydney/Nigel story.

Thank you: Amy, and SYLVY for your reviews!

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They actually enjoyed the morning, Venice was always a beautiful city, even when you are down on your luck. The architecture was amazing, and they relaxed, it was not often that they got to enjoy the places they visited.

They wandered around, taking in the sites, before stopping for breakfast. They had called a few more professors, but had come up with nothing new.

As they were wondering down the street, which was now filling up with tourists, they glanced into the shops. There was one they hadn't looked into at first; it was small, a shop that had been there as long as anyone remembered, the sort that gets passed down by families. They didn't notice it at first, mainly because the window was so tiny it looked like an ordinary house. The sign offered no help to what it sold either, so out of curiousity more than anything else, they went inside.

Inside it was as small and dingy as the outside, the little ornaments and trinkets at first screamed it was a lady's parlour, before they realised it was an antique shop. They both offered smiles to the woman sitting at the desk, who smiled back with a look of perpetual boredom, before returning to her book.

They glanced over the objects, not really paying attention. Sydney was looking at a strange teapot that had all the markings of a fake, when she walked right into Nigel's back. He stood frozen, looking at something in the corner of the room.

"What's the matter Nige? What is it?"

"Is that what I think it is?" He pointed to a small object that glinted happily in the sunlight from the window. She frowned and moved over to it. It was small, ornately decorated, and was decidedly box shaped. She couldn't believe it, it couldn't be. She picked up the box, finding the worn spot in the corner. With a little clink the silver slid back, revealing three more carvings.

"It is!" she whispered, more in shock than anything else.

"Um, miss where did you get this box?" Nigel walked over to the girl at the counter. She smiled thinly at him.

"Oh, my bosses got it, it was sold to them." She then went on to tell them the price, which wasn't too horrendous. They quickly paid up, leaving to head back to the hotel.

"That has to be the first ancient relic I've found in an antique shop." She laughed, looking down at the bag. "So does this mean we'll not be affected? Since we didn't find it?"

"I don't know, I don't feel any different, but I didn't feel any different before either." He glanced back at the shop "If only they were all that easy." Both paused realising just how easy. "This is gonna sound stupid, but do you think that was too easy?"

"Yeah, whatever this one does must be pretty awful if we found it so easily. Maybe it only works if you have the previous boxes, that's why nobody else has been effected."

"Well whatever's going to happen, I don't think we'll enjoy it." Looking suspiciously at the bag, they both made there way back to the hotel.

Dashing back up to their rooms, they slammed the door behind them, and took the box out of the bag. The room had been cleaned by the room service.

"Hey, our lucks changed." He smiled and held up four packets of sugar that had been left for them.

"Maybe not." The voice was harsh, it was British like Nigel's, but was more menacing, and where Nigel's was middle class, this was a lower class growl.

The man was holding a gun, and it was aimed directly at Syd, not close enough for her to knock it out of his hands. He stepped out of the bathroom, followed by a woman. Both were attractive, with blonde hair, although bleached in his case. He gestured for the woman to go over to the table.

As soon as she did, she snatched up the box.

"This is fine." she called. Her American accent a startling contrast to his own. "I don't know what this'll do to you, but I know that either you, or some museum will pay a bomb to get the missing one. Neither Sydney or Nigel had moved an inch, they were not used to this direct approach, they were more used to being trailed, or betrayed.

"On the bed." He waved his gun toward Sydney, the woman took her own gun out, before taking Sydney's wrists and attached handcuff to them effectively handcuffing her to the bed. She gestured for Nigel to climb on the bed, and then repeated the process with a second pair.

Pocketing the box, she turned to leave, the man following behind her.

"Bye!" He called mockingly, slamming the door behind him.

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Thank you for reading, please review.

Next chapter, we find out how they are affected!!