The four boxes by Emmylou

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

Archive; if you want it, take it, but just send an email so I can go look.

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.

Thank you:

********************

Sydney's struggles had stopped when she'd had a hefty gun pointed at her forehead, and so she was putting all her effort into being as heavy and awkward to carry as possible. They were being carried back into the garage, one of the thugs got to covering up the window, while the others shoved them into the back seat of the car of Nigel's choice.

Within two minute it became horrifically apparent what was about to happen, a thug moved to each of the cars and started the engine, while another made sure that the gas wouldn't escape through the hastily fixed window.

Within minutes they were tied in place, the car windows wide open and no way of escape.

"Syd, I hope to god you've got a plan, because I sure as hell haven't"

Sydney was tugging at her restraints with little or no success. Unfortunately for them the thugs had been professional; no loose knot was going to help them today.

"If I could just get...A...bit...free...ugh, it's no good."

"How long have we got?"

"With one car...maybe two hours...with three...thirty, maybe forty minutes."

"Thirty minutes! Syd! What are we going to do?!" He started yanking at his own bonds now.

He was panicking, which although understandable, was no use to them. At the rate he was carrying on he would become unconscious even faster than she had predicted. She couldn't make his panic go away, and even worse, she couldn't get them out of there, but she could stop him wriggling about and yelling. Syd leaned over and kissed him. It wasn't a great kiss. His panic mixed with their awkward positions made it more than a little uncomfortable, but it had the desired effect. Nigel sat still, the look of terror was still on his face, but he wasn't acting on blind panic any more.

"Firstly Nigel, we don't panic. The more we panic, the more carbon monoxide we breathe in. If we panic, we'll fall unconscious quicker, if we stay calm, we might find a way out of here."

Nigel nodded.

"Okay." She continued. "I can't reach either of our ropes, can you get to mine?"

Nigel started to wriggle, this time much more purposely, he twisted and turned but still he couldn't reach the ropes.

Ten minutes later, they were both sitting still. Nigel had been unable to loosen any set of ropes. The gas was affecting them more now, giving them headaches and making their chest pound whenever they breathed in. Both were slumped back, the monoxide making them too sleepy to do much now that it had started to take effect.

Then Sydney started to cough.

It was only a small weak cough, but every ten or so seconds it would start up again. Nigel was shocked beyond belief. It wasn't that she was coughing that shocked him, it was the fact that she was doing it first. He knew logically that she was female and therefore had smaller lungs, but he would have always assumed that he would be the first one affected, she was the strong one, who always had the answers...but she was becoming weaker faster. And that scared him.

Every time they'd been in a bad situation he'd always known deep down that they would be okay, but now Syd, the strongest person he knew, was becoming more and more affected by the poison.

"Oh god Syd." He choked. A sob hurtling through his body. "No, this isn't fair. I finally thought I had everything, and now it's being taken away from me. God, I so wanted what you were talking about. The house together, the perfect life, maybe children and pets...and now we're not going to get that. I thought these stupid boxes were made by a prankster, well, ha ha, big joke on us. It certainly hasn't turned out very funny for me."

Sydney turned to him. Her head was leaning against the head rest and her eyes were starting to droop.

"Nigel...no! You can't do this, we don't need the...meaningful talk. I *love* you. Do you know how hard that is for me to...say to any man? It's really, really hard. But I have finally found someone who I love, someone who loves me too. That's really special, and I'm not going to taint that by going out on...bittersweet...apologies and 'if onlys'...we're as strong as...we ever...were." After that speech that seemed to have been as hard on her heart as it had been on her lungs she broke into a deeper fit of coughing.

Nigel gave what would have been a gentle smile if he hadn't been interrupted by a bout of gravel dry coughs. "How much more time have we got?" He managed to splutter out, how Sydney was going to answer was a mystery as she could barely stop coughing and gagging enough breathe in the infected air which was by now about ninety percent carbon monoxide.

"T...en..." She could barely get the word out, but she seemed determined to struggle on with the 'minutes' part. Nigel nodded hastily to prevent her straining her self by carrying on.

She slumped back, determined to carry on.

"Strong......we're strong...se..ven ...minutes Nigel..." The last word just faded out, there was no big sigh, no soft smile, she just went from sleepy to unconscious without ceremony.

All concern for his own immediate welfare slipped away as Nigel went straight into panic again.

"Syd?!"

"Syd! Come on, wakey wakey!"

"Sydney!" Unable to shake her with his hands tied he started jumping up and down, yelling through the spluttering coughs that were straining his body. The car rocked, but it made no difference."

"SYD!"

***

Haha... I'm evil aren't I?

More will be posted soon.