The Mummy world does not belong to this insignificant speck of the universe.

O'Malley got up from his seat to shake Alex and Clarkes hands, gestured toward tow chairs in front of his desk and offered coffee.

"No thank you, I think we'd each prefer to get this over with Detective." Alex took Clarke's hand in his, O'Malley found it telling that she snatched it away quickly. For some reason the young blond was pissed at the boy.

"If you could begin with your questions, I'll do my best to answer them." Clarke folded her hands in her lap and sat straight. Her eyes where direct, the green unclouded by the previous days shock.

"It looks like you've pulled yourself together," O'Malley acknowledged as he fished the folder from the others piled neatly to one side of his desk. He plucked out a pencil from the tin can holder his seven year old son had made out of spaghetti and edible paste, and opened the file to the first page. "Just take this easy, and stop when you need to. Now, was there any indication the Professor made? Did he seem uneasy or nervous?"

"He was exited about the current shipment from Egypt." Clarke smiled, "nothing was quite important enough to pierce his love of new artifacts. In fact, I believe that was why his wife left him five years ago."

"Has anyone been spending more time with him lately, or expressed interest in him that was apart from the norm?"

"No one approached me, but that's normal. Even when students are supposed to ask me things they usually don't bother. The Proffesor had an open door policy and invited students to question him directly. In fact, many times I had arrived in the morning to find several students had taken residency on my office couch, exhausted from his advice. I'd then find him pouring over some dusty tome, trying to find answers…" Clarke looked down at her entangled fingers, "I really don't know of anyone who would want to hurt him. He had to be the most patient and loving man I've ever known."

"He raised you, correct?"

"Yes. When my parents died Louis took me in. I was ten at the time."

"Would he tell you if anything threatened him?"

"I would hope so, but…" Clarke shook her head and looked up tears danced in her eyes, "He wouldn't want to worry me."

The day was clear, the sky brightly blue as they left the station. Alex had his hand on her elbow, worried that she might just collapse in a puddle of tears, but she had held herself together, though her shoulders where shaking.

"Look, I know you don't like me much right now…" Alex started, looked up at the cloudless sky and sighed, "Just don't hit me for this." He firmed his grip and spun her around, tucked her head under his chin and banded his arms around her torso. After a few seconds her shoulders dropped and the tears began to flow.

"Why would anyone do that to him?" she cried, "he was a funny, caring, stupidly optimistic man! He didn't deserve that!"

"No one deserves that." Alex agreed.

"Why Alex?"

"I don't know." He smoothed his hand up her back, and down, stroking like he would a kitten, she was so small in his arms. Immediately, stupidly he thought, his instinct was to wrap a blanket around her and hide her away from the world. "If I asked you to take a break, to go away for a little while, would you?" She pushed out of his arms defiantly, glared at him.

"Of course not!" she spat out, "I have work to do! I have artifacts to catalogue and a class to tutor. He would not condone my lazing about!"

"Gods above and below, you are stubborn." He leaned down to give her a reassuring kiss on the cheek, and blinked when his own muscles tightened. She bit her lower lip and scoffed.

"You're such a guy."

"What is that supposed to mean?" frozen on the sidewalk outside of a police station they just stared at each other before she could respond. She almost melted into his pale blue eyes.

"I've, well…" she took a breath and smiled, "I've noticed that the desire to protect the female is deep-seated and common in the male of the species."

"You think you're funny."

"I think you're funny… looking."

"You know what else is common in the male of the species?" Alex ignored the taunt, and told himself to let go, but only found himself drawing her closer. She gasped as he lifted her to her toes and his leaned down closer to her own.

"No, tell me." Clarke dared.

O'Malley watched from his window at the tall Brit swooped down and planted a kiss on the diminutive blond that had frustrated passion written all over it. He had begun to watch just to make sure she got to the car safely, and found himself unable to turn away as Alex supported her. The boy knew something, of that he was sure, O'Malley played hunches like he bluffed with cards, often and to the best advantage. Alex wasn't going to tell him anything unless O'Malley directly confronted him, and the time for that had not been with the girl in his office, shaking like a leaf.

She was drowning, sure of it, and not caring. His lips were warm against hers, his tongue darted out to taste hers and his teeth nipped along her lower lip as she moaned softly. His arms held her close, her fingers tangled in his hair, and they stared at each other through wide open eyes. A car door slammed, a hot dog vender was yelling on the corner, the wind swept down the street throwing trash and leaves every which way. Alex stood as if her were cemented down, the sounds where mere echoes in his ears. He was lost in her.

"Sir?"

His arms loosed their grip, his hands traveled down her rib cage to rest on her hips.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

Her fingers caught in the leather of his jacket and pulled him more firmly toward her.

"Sir!"

"WHAT?" Alex tore himself away as the skinny man to his left tugged on his sleeve. His hair was black and wavy to his shoulders, his khaki pants and jacket hung loosely on his slight frame. The tattoos adorning his cheeks where Egyptian and familiar.

"I was instructed to find you Master Alex." His English was tainted faintly with the deep tonal language of the Meiji, and Alex took a deep breath as he snagged Clarke's hand and began walking toward her car.

"And you would be…?"

"Son of Ardeth, I am Mali." He bowed his head, "My father instructed me to find you and to stay by your side until the book could be placed back into protection."

"What?" Clarke managed to ask as Alex shoved her in the backseat of her own car.

"I am…"

"She got that part." Alex interrupted. "Look, Clarke, the book of Amun-Ra, the book of the dead, is not supposed to leave Egypt. Its dangerous."

"You keep saying that."

"Well, it bears repeating."

"Alex, you can't leave me in the dark forever!"

"I can try." He muttered as he started the car. Mali got in the passenger seat and smiled back at Clarke.

"Don't worry my lady, we will take very good care of it."

"Its part of MY exhibit!" Clarke yelled.

"But ma'am it was not in your invoices, was it not?" Mali countered.

"How would you know?"

"Because I know much."

"How did Professor Gintley react when he pulled it out?" Alex wondered.

"He was nervous. He started muttering about getting someone to teach an Egypt class right away. He muttered a lot about your mother and a curse. But that was just silly superstition. He calmed down after he called your mother and she assured him you'd be more than happy to help out."

"Ok, so he knew that my family has been the only one to subdue the mummys curse before, so he called the only ones who could contain it." Alex muttered, "Makes perfect sense… I just wish mum had warned me about this."

"Warned you about what?" Clarke demanded as he parked in front of the Museum.

Alex grabbed her hand and pulled her from the car. "I will tell you this, and you will believe me, The last time I saw that book it was because I was reading from it, desperately hoping that I would be good enough, fast enough, smart enough, to bring my mother back to life." He shushed her as her mouth opened to ask, "That book brings nothing but pain and death and trouble, it is going back to the people who are supposed to look after it, and if they're smart, they'll find a way to destroy it this time."