Chapter 9 Stories from the past

A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took me so long. Here's the next chapter and it's a little more dramatic then I wanted it to be, but well… I hope you like it anyway. I want to thank everybody who reviewed. This is so nice of you, I love you guys! You have no idea ho much this helps me to write! I don't want to say something to everybody who reviewed. Just THANK YOU

More than 12 hours had passed since the O'Connell kids had been found missing. The Police of Cairo was still trying hard to find them but until now there was no trace of them. Thinking that the children couldn't be far away, they kept on searching the whole day. But slowly the light began to fade away, it went cold and the sun was beginning to make her way back to the other side of the world.

And the more darker it became the more fear Rick and Evelyn felt that maybe something had happened to them. Cairo was huge so Sarah and Alex still had to be in town, no matter how fast they walked it was impossible that they had left Cairo. So, nobody cared to asked for them in bordering villages.

The police had assured Rick and Evy that it was better to wait for them to find the kids than looking for them by themselves. But of course Rick cared a shit about this. Nobody could stop him form searching for his beloved children. Evy knew Cairo very good, because she used to be here a lot. But Rick knew even more about this town. He had spent his childhood here and because he'd used to hang around the streets a lot, he knew every little alley, every hiding place that existed.

They drove through the streets while the sun began to disappear behind the pyramids. Evy was sitting beside Rick and her eyes shone with tears, she tried to prepare for the worst case… that they would never find Alex and Sarah again. But no matter how much she tried, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose them. She just couldn't. She tried to remember the emotions she'd had when they had lost Alex to the Mummy but it seemed like she'd repressed these memories very well. Rick was the only one that gave her strength. That he was there, driving with her through the night, his face full of ambition and strength, was giving her hope. He would never give up, no matter what… he would find his children even if that meant that he had to follow them to the other side of the world.

He turned his head and looked at her. He saw the pain and the fear in her eyes and smiled slightly. "I'm bringing them back Evy. I promise. You don't have to worry, everything is going to be okay hon", he said and his voice sounded very confident and hopeful.

And he was. The power and the braveness had returned to him and this supported him a lot. He felt stronger as he'd ever been. He would find Alex and Sarah and nothing and no one could stop him.

Suddenly his cell phone rang (okay I know that they probably had no cell phones back there but I have no idea how it should work otherwise, so sorry)

Evy picked up and her heart made a jump. Maybe they had found them.

She listened closely and her heart sank. Rick watched her with impatience, waiting to hear the news. "Okay.. yeah.. thank you very much Officer", she answered and turned around to face Rick.

"It was the police", she said and she sighed slightly. "They haven't found Alex and Sarah yet. It's as if the earth swallowed them up".

"Damn", he swore and hit the steering wheel. "How is this possible? They can't disappear just like this".

"But there's something else. They said they have a man who claims that he have seen them. They suggest that we drive back to ask him face to face, but they also said that we shouldn't be too hopeful. Probably he's just some jerk who makes fun", she said.

Rick sighed and then he nodded. "Let's drive back. It's a small hope but it's hope after all. Better than nothing". And with that he turned around the car and they drove back to the police station in silence.

Back at the police station:

Rick and Evy were waiting impatiently for the man to enter the room. He took a look at his watch and realized that almost 24 hours had passed since Alex and Sarah had disappeared. He knew about things like this, when he was younger lots of boys had disappeared from the orphanage. After 24 hours there was almost no hope to find the kids again.. not alive. Not here in Cairo. For tourists this town seemed to be a paradise but in fact Cairo was no good place to raise your children. It had never been and it still wasn't. This memories bothered him very badly.

But when he looked at his wife he knew that he had to keep these thoughts for himself. She already was miserable and he had to be strong for her now. He had to keep his strength to give her hope and braveness. He took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. God, how much he longed for a cold fresh beer now. He knew it was bad to think about it, he knew that if he would lose control now his whole work would have been in vain. And Evy would lose the tiny little bit of trust she still had in him. But he couldn't help himself, deep inside he just wanted to drink the fear and the pain away.

Suddenly the door opened and ripped him away from these dark, self destructing thoughts. A small man with worn out clothes and a dirty bearded face walked in. Evy watched him closely and sighed disappointed. She expected no help from this strange looking guy. He probably was very poor and hoped that he would get some money for telling them what they wanted to hear.

But to her surprise the man began to smile widely when he spotted Rick. "I don't believe it! O'Connell! Rick O'Connell?"

Rick stood up, his face full of confusion. "Do I know you"?

"Ya don't remember your old buddy Joe? Oh come on, you wouldn't forget about your old friend from the street, would ya?"

Rick's face light up and a bright grin spread about his lips. He stepped forward and gave the stranger a hug. "Joe! Bloody hell, I thought I would never see you again. How're you doing?"

"Good, very good. I'm still living in the old shack behind the liberty. The streets are still my home and I love living like this", he answered and took a look at Evy and her nice clothes. "But I guess you're not".

Rick shook his head and the he grabbed Evy's hand, pulling her up to him. "This is Evelyn. She's my wife. We're living in London together with our two kids Alex and Sarah…", he stopped remembering why he was there.

"Did you see them? Did you see Alex and Sarah"? He asked and his eyes glittered with newfound hope.

But then he looked at Joe and his heart stopped. Joe looked with a blank expression, his eyes full of pity. Joe began to swear. "Oh fuck! These kids are yours? Shit, shit, shit", he hissed and groaned. Evy's head whirled around.

"What do you mean with that? Where are they? Are they okay, tell me", she yelled and began to panic. Rick saw her losing control and quickly wrapped his arm around her.

"Joe", he began and tried to sound calm. "What's going on? Did you see them or not"?

Joe nodded. "I saw them. A boy and a girl, both blond and green eyed. They're okay, they're fine. The girl even laughed, she seemed quite happy and the boy didn't seem bad either", he quickly replied, wanting to comfort Evy.

"Really? But.. but what's the problem"?

"They were not alone", Joe began. "God, when I saw them I felt pity for them, I thought they were kids from the orphanage who had gotten in trouble. But then I heard about two adults searching for their children and I felt even more pity for them. But now… this.. this is far worse. These are not any kids, these are yours. O'Connell kids."

"What the hell has that to do with my name? Stop babbling around and tell me", Rick yelled, slowly losing his temper too.

Joe sighed deeply and continued. "Do you remember Mike Luis? This 18teen years old boy? He had tried to kidnap a few kids from our old orphanage. We tried to stop him, do you remember? He and his gang were involved in a shooting with our boys. He.. he killed Danny".

Rick gasped when he remembered that faithful day. That day was still burned in his mind and he would probably never forget about these terrible things that happened back there. Evy watched Rick and saw the painful expression in his eyes. For a short moment she forgot about their children and she touched his cheek softly and made him look at her. "Who was Danny"?

"Danny was Rick's little brother. Well, not biological but these two spent their time together many years. They were in the same orphanage and when Rick, who was 17 years old at this point, fled from there, Danny did too. A few weeks later they joined our gang. Two years later we heard about Mike Luis who planned to kidnap young children form their old orphanage to sell them. Okay honestly, nobody in our gang was a saint. We stole, we robbed. But we didn't kill, we didn't hurt anyone. And we knew that we had to stop him because it's not the children's fault that the world is so fucked up. And because we remembered being so young and helpless too. There was a shooting and Luis.. he killed Danny because he was in his way", Joe answered while Rick stared at him motionless.

"Danny died because he wanted to protect me. The bullet was meant to hit me, not him… me. But he threw himself in the way and…he was still so young, he was barely 16..", Rick broke off. Evy's eyes filled with tears. Oh god, how much she wished she could take away his pain. She had always known that he had gone through a lot of shit but she hadn't imagined something like that.

She caressed his cheek very softly like she could take the hurt away from him with doing that. "It wasn't your fault".

"I know", Rick replied. "Doctor Booger told me so too", he said and had to smile slightly. God, he almost missed the old strange fellow now. He needed him to tell him that none of this was his fault, that he had to be strong, that he wasn't allowed to disappoint Evy.

Joe cleared his throat. "That's not all Rick", he said very quietly.

Rick nodded. He knew he had to tell Evy every detail now, it made no difference. "I know, I know. When I saw Danny, lying on the street, I totally freaked out. I lost control. And I killed Mike Luis for killing Danny", he said and looked down.

He hated the fact that Evy now knew about this part of his life. Mike Luis maybe had deserved the death but Rick hated that he'd been the one who had given him what he'd deserved. Especially because Mike had been so young, even younger than Rick at that moment. Maybe he hadn't known what he was doing when he planned to kidnap the children. Maybe someone had told him to do so. Mike was naïve and he needed money to survive as much as everyone else did. He sighed, he thought it was terrible that he'd become a murderer at the age of 19.

Evy sighed. "I would have done that too Honey. Everyone would have acted this way in such a moment". She didn't want Rick to feel guilty for what he had done. She couldn't help but thought that this Mike Luis didn't deserve any better.

"Well, yeah that's true. But Mike Luis was still young too. He was 18 years old and he had an older brother. His name was David. David Luis", Joe said trying to get their thoughts back to the main topic. It seemed to him that these two had completely forgotten about their children while traveling into the past.

Rick thought a moment then he remembered. "Yeah… yeah I do remember him. I met him some day and we had a gunfight. I won, I would have been able to kill him, to get him out of my way forever but I didn't. I spared his life and I was almost expecting him to spare mine too. But he was filled with so much hate that he ran away from me with these words: You'll regret this O'Connell. Some day I'll get my revenge and then you'll pray to God that I'll spare the life of those you love like I loved my brother".

Evy shook her head. "But his brother killed your brother. It was fair, well kind of. It's not fair that anyone had to die, it's not fair that you or even this David had to suffer so much pain", she replied.

"Nothing is fair Evy. The world is unfair", Rick answered.

He sighed. God, how much he hated to think about all these things that happened in his past. Most time of his life he had been able to deny and suppress these memories but now it all came back. He shook his head, he shouldn't think about old times now, he should think about his children.

"Okay, enough of the old times. What about Alex and Sarah"?

Joe stared at him, waiting for him to find the answer himself but he didn't. He just looked at him curious, wanting to know where his kids were. "Rick.. I said.. I said that Alex and Sarah weren't alone".

He was confused and began to get slightly angry with Joe because he was speaking such unclear stuff. "Yeah? So what.. who was with them…?" But then he broke off. His mind wandered back to what he had just told Evy and then he put two and two together. He gasped and pulled his hand to his heart which began to pound so fast that it dared to explode. His face lost all his color and went white as dead when he stumbled backwards trying to find something to take hold on. He felt sick and he wanted to vomit.

Evy watched him in fear, she didn't understand his reaction. She tried to stable him. "What? Rick what is it?"

Rick shook his head. He gasped for air, unable to breath. "No.. No", he whispered. "That can't be.. please Joe tell me that it isn't true. Please…".

His mind whirled around. David Luis's words resounded through his head. "You'll pray to God that I'll spare the life of those you love…".

This was not possible. He had always feared that his faithful past would get back to him at some point. But not now and not like this, this just wasn't fair.

Evy grabbed his arm and shook him, like wanting to shake the answer out of him. "Rick! Answer me. What's going on". She was confused, scared, numb. She had never seen Rick this shocked, this scared. and she knew that it had to do with their kids.

Joe looked down. "Alex and Sarah were with someone when I saw them. And this man was… David Luis", he said.

Evy's eyes went wide. "What"? She couldn't believe this. "The man.. the man that hates you so much.. that probably still wants you to pay….. has our children? He has our innocent and little children? Oh my God".

Rick took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He had to calm down now or he would lose control. Maybe they were still alive, maybe he hadn't killed them. Maybe he didn't know what had fallen in his hands, maybe he didn't know that his revenge was right in front of him.

He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. The tears of fear spilled over here cheeks and her body trembled. "Hey Hon, look at me. Joe said that they're okay. Maybe he doesn't know who Alex and Sarah are. I'm sure that he doesn't now and even if he does. He won't hurt them, I'm sure he's no bastard. And.. and even if he is he won't touch them… not until he finds me. Because he wants me to suffer, he wants me to see them die. Juts like he had to watch his brother die. So, there's still hope. But it's important now, that we calm down, we have to keep a clear mind. If we stay strong, we'll sort things out", he said and tried very desperately to sound confident.

She leapt forward and buried her face in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and stroke her back. It was the first time since a very long time that he was the strong one, the one that gave her strength. He knew that this was too much for her. Evy was the bravest and toughest person in the world he knew but now she was just a breakable, frightened mother who feared to lose her children. She had already suffered so much pain and he was sure that she even the strongest woman in the world wouldn't bear another lost like this. He kissed her forehead. "Shh.. it's going to be okay. Nothing is going to happen to them".

"Do you promise"? She looked up and he saw so much hope in her eyes that it broke his heart. So, he swallowed hard and nodded. "I promise, I promise".

A/N: Okay, I hope you liked it. And if you did please review! The next chapter is coming soon, it'll be about Rick and David's first meeting and about the first time that Alex and Sarah see their father again. If you want to read more review and I'll write even faster 