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: Anonymous for the review

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

"Shouldn't we switch of the engines?" Nigel looked towards the three others in the smoggy gas.

"They didn't leave the keys, and right now that's the least of our problems." Mallory began pinning up the rough covering on the window.

"You're covering that back up? Why?" said Sydney. She didn't like the idea of being trapped in the room again without an opening.

"Because the longer we go unnoticed the better." Mallory's reply was filled with a panicked kind of antziness. Sydney could understand, after all, a lot was at risk for him. The thought of loosing a child terrified Sydney and she could not begin to imagine what the frightened pair must have been feeling for the past few weeks.

Still, Nige and her were used to confrontations and so the more strategic area of her mind kicked in.

Carefully, and trying to breathe as shallowly as possible in the furnace like atmosphere she moved to the less condensed are near the window, opened her mouth, and begun to yell with everything she had.

"HELP!! STOP, PLEASE LET US GO!"

The faces of those around her were a sight to be taken in. Nigel jumped and then looked frozen, with an almost calculating expression on his face, but Mallory and Delores acted on impulse. Mallory, being the nearest, lunged for her and clamped his hand down hard over her nose and mouth, Dolores being less near came in second as she attempted to shut the other female up.

"You idiot!!" Mallory snarled as she struggled underneath his hand. "Do you *want* us to die?" Sydney got a rather unpleasant close up glimpse of his nostrils flaring.

With a yelp from him, Sydney yanked the hand away from her face.

"First of all, if you ever lay a hand on me like that again, I will make sure you'll regret it for every day of your life. I don't care how worried you are about your son, you do *not* manhandle me around."

"Even when you're about to have us slaughtered?" Dolores hissed.

"She was stopping us being caught actually." Nigel explained reasonably, wheezing slightly. "They left us in here to die; they won't come in until they can't hear us any more."

"Yeah, well, it's still risky." Dolores snapped. "It draws unwanted attention."

"Yes. What if they'd got fed up and decided to stop waiting for you to die and to hurry things along with a bullet?" Mallory glared thunderously at Sydney.

Sydney's temper was flaring. She was used to situations like this, and so having to be told of like a naughty child was winding her up and not helping them in anyway.

"It was necessary." She ground out. "I'm sorry if it unnerved you, but I only had you're son's interests in mind."

"Yes well, when it comes to Connell, I think we know best, clear?" Dolores muttered furiously.

Inside Sydney's head, something clicked its fingers for attention.

"Perfectly." Even with the large amount of coughing, Nigel knew Sydney was up to something.

"Well, er, I-I think we'd better get going." Nigel tried to integrate some positive feeling into the group. It had no effect other than to kick Sydney into action. She spun and began ripping down the covering for the window.

"Yes Nige, that's a..." *cough* "...excellent idea. As fun as this has been, it's time both of us got home. Speaking personally, I have a big lecture tomorrow and spending large amounts of time in Carbon Monoxide filled rooms does nothing for my vocal projection."

"W-We're going?" Nigel followed her to the window, but didn't move to climb over it as she had done. "But what about the boy?"

"You heard the lady Nigel; she knows what's best for her son. I'm sure we'll only be a hindrance to them. After all, they know Lazlo, we don't. I'd hardly call those few minutes in the foyer a meeting."

Dolores and Mallory stayed stubbornly silent through the curtains of hazy air.

"Oh well, uh, I-I'm extremely sorry...really wish we could have been more help..."

"Nigel!"

"Coming Syd." He scrambled after her.

They were a good way out into the darkness before either spoke.

"I must say Syd; that was the most extraordinarily bad timing for a hissy fit ever."

"Well, they didn't want us around; I was never one to ignore a hint."

"Even when the box was at stake?"

"Nigel, when have you known me to back down about anything? Besides which, we would never have got that box if we'd stayed."

"Even so...wait! How did you figure that out? Okay, so that odds were a little stacked...well, a *lot* stacked..."

"Just trust me Nigel." She grinned and removed a radio from her shirt. "Now, how well do you think you can imitate a butch guard?"

********

"Come in, come in." The voice crackled over the radio. "I see signs of movement by the...uh...east sector. Back up required."

"How many needed?"

"Just one should do it. Over and out."

The guard nearest the east sector grumbled and headed in the direction of the disturbance.

********

"Why Sydney, are we informing our attackers where we are?" Nigel's frustrated whisper seemed loud and Sydney looked around carefully to detect any movement.

"We're not informing them where we are, we're informing them where *they* are." Nigel paused as Sydney started back towards the garage.

"They're guards Syd, they may not be the brightest creatures in the universe, but their geographical awareness can't be that bad."

"Don't speak Nigel; we don't want to be found."

They were back in the bushes outside the garage window, Sydney seemed happy to sit and wait for the moment, using her time to survey for any action.

"I hope Dolores and Mallory are okay." The voice was gentler than before, heeding her request to remain quiet. Sydney opened her mouth to reply but slammed it shut as she heard movement from the window.

"...You think they've gone?"

"Yeah, did you see her, she was furious? Believe me; you wouldn't get them back here with guns to their heads." That was Mallory, answering Delores' worried question. He continued trying to sooth his wife. "Besides which, after the escapade in the car, neither were in any condition to fight."

"Oh yeah Nige." Sydney breathed "I think good old Delores and Mallory are just *fine*."

"Hello?!"

The guard's voice was terrifying. Not because of its tone, this emitted a kind of half-hearted duty, but more because of the steady finality of it. It was a voice whose occupant had been told to crush skulls, and that body was going to crush skulls as though his life depended on it.

Sydney and Nigel sunk lower into the bushes, not having been seen. But it was too late for Mallory and Delores, who were caught in the blinking flashlight.

"Aren't we going to...mmhhm" Sydney's hand clapped over her new husbands mouth. The movement was almost exactly the same as Mallory's earlier attack, although hers was gentler and wasn't stopping Nigel breathing. Still, she recognised the similarity and removed the hand, replacing it quickly with her own lips.

"Shh." She murmured.

*smack*

The punch to the face sent Delores staggering, and the only thing preventing Nigel from diving out to help was Sydney's quick reflexes.

Mallory dived for the lumbering guard with a kick to the gut, bringing his elbow up as the guard came down automatically, knocking him to the ground.

Mallory placed his foot squarely on the guard's back, but wasn't quick enough to pull back as the guard, who turned out to be a stronger fighter than thought, yanked his foot forwards so that the British man joined him on the ground.

The pair grappled *punch*, *kick*, *knee to groin*, and Dolores was awake, but not ready to move yet.

"Nigel, go pin Dolores where she is, we don't want her moving."

"Wh-?"

"You'll see."

Nigel obediently went over to the down woman, placing his knee in her upper back and effectively stopping her from moving. She yelped and struggled, but Nigel's weight was at an advantage.

Meanwhile Mallory had brought the guard to the floor and was holding him in a similar way to Nigel.

Sneaking a hand down into his pocket, Mallory removed a small syringe and held it to the guard's neck.

"You see this?" He spoke soothingly, in a purr that made Nigel's voice seem infinitely nicer. "This is going to send you to sleep, for considerably longer than any of Ms. Fox's punches ever could." He squirted just a quarter of the liquid into the mouth of his attacker, and by the time that he had removed the syringe the man was unconscious.

He smirked and stood, leaving the fallen guard where he was.

"Dolores, are you okay? That punch looked nasty." He squinted in the darkness. "Nigel? What the hell do you thin- OW!"

"Hello Mallory. Going somewhere?"

"Sydney! We thought you'd left." His voice came out with a kind of strangled joy.

"I bet you did." She smiled sweetly at the crumpled man. "So, where is he then?"

"W-who?" Mallory was wheezing through a bloody nose.

"Callum! Or was it Connell? Colin perhaps? Because that's funny, you seemed to have given me two different names, and with him not being here right now after your heroic 'rescue', well, I'm starting to think he doesn't actually exist." She flashed another smile which was supposed to be unnerving and doing its job well.

"Certainly with hips like that Dolores I'd be very surprised if you'd ever given birth." she sighed. "And with this poor imaginary kidnapped boy's name changing, it's easy to think you just made him up. Am I right?"

"Wrong!" Delores called.

"Yes, it was very wrong of you, wasn't it? Face it, the only reason you made him up was so you could get our help and then steal the box from us."

"Yeah, well, I'd remember just who has the box before you go accusing people." Mallory spat.

With a complicated flip, Mallory was up on his feet again and tackling Sydney to the ground.

She rolled and punching him again, making the river of blood pouring from his nose worse and caking the stuff in her nails. After seeing this she grabbed his head and started smashing it against the grass rather childishly.

"Do. You. Know. How. Long. It's going to take. To. Clean. Those? Each word was accompanied by a thump. Mallory wriggled free and shoved her backwards with a kick to the gut. She smashed her nearest heel into his ankle causing him to stumble and fall.

"You Bi-!" Mallory was silenced with another punch to the face.

The fight continued evenly for a few minutes, kick followed kick, punch followed punch, quip followed quip.

Finally, Mallory was pinned in pretty much the same way as Delores.

"You know what? You're right; I'm not really in a state to fight." Sydney spoke airily as though the last few minutes had been a dream. "So knocking you out my way is going to be tiresome. Still, I found this." She brandished the half used Syringe. "Apparently this knocks you out for even longer that a punch, well, never let it be said I'm not open to new methods." She smiled sweetly to the back of his head as shoved the needle in.

When the liquid was half gone she removed it and passed the needle over to Nigel, who preformed the same act on the female below him.

"Well, that was fun Syd." He sighed tiredly. "How about we just find the box and go home?"

"Pizza this time?"

"Sounds good to me."

**********

Sorry I was so late in posting this, I had the most enormous difficulty with this chapter.

Thank you for reading, please review.