Evelyn stared through the dimness of her room at her ceiling, although she didn't really see it. Her eyes had spilled tears over the past few days, especially moments like this when she was alone with her thoughts, drowning in misery. She and her brother would be heading to London tomorrow, and without Rick. She blinked a few more tears out of her eyes as sanity-ridding thoughts flooded her mind. London had never seemed farther away from where she wanted to be. She had begged the medic and Jonathan to let her stay in Cairo, but the medic still stood by what he said. Cairo was too dangerous, Evelyn had to go back to London... and Jonathan could never do anything that could hurt, let alone kill, his baby sister. But what was the point of living if she would be miserable? It was the worst kind of emotional torture... being exposed to love and feeling it with everything you have... just to have it ripped away from you by circumstance. Over the last few days, Rick had spent a few hours with her everyday. Neither of them mentioned London. Evelyn just enjoyed the time with Rick while he was there, but when he left, she always felt empty again. She had reasoned with herself that he could go to London as well. But he wouldn't want to... she had told herself. The only thing that was keeping her from asking him was the fear that he would refuse... and that would only prove that maybe he didn't love her after all. Although this thought drove her mad with fear and heartache... she couldn't help but wonder... What if he really didn't love her the way she had loved him... the way she did love him... the way she always would? But he came back for me... she thought, suddenly remembering Hamunaptra, Imhotep, and how Rick had come back for her. She remembered what Jonathan had told her in the bar the other day... "Evy, don't be so naive! What man would be stupid or crazy enough to do a thing like that for a woman unless he loved her?" A faint smile appeared on Evelyn's beautiful, tear-soaked face. Jonathan had been right, who in their right mind would save a girl from the clutches of a 3000-year-old, cursed, resurrected, evil, immortal mummy unless he loved her. She looked at her bedside table where Jonathan had left the boarding permits for the boat that would take them up the Nile and towards Europe. Her eyes widened... she didn't see two tickets laying there... she saw three. Jonathan had the foresight to buy three boarding permits instead of just two. Bless him! She thought as she reached for the third extra ticket and ran her fingers over it. She then wondered if Jonathan had already told Rick about the extra ticket. It was strange that neither of them mentioned it to her. She looked at Jonathan sleeping on a couch positioned next to her bed, snoring. She then looked at the door of her room. She was hurt... but her legs were working properly, weren't they? She could just... walk to Rick's room and give him the ticket. Her faint smile turned into a smirk, her stubborn nature washing away any notes of common sense as she tried to get up. She swung her legs gently off the side of the bed and sat up.
"Ouch!" She yelped, the pain flaring in her side as she got up. No problem... she thought as she held her injured side. She was determined to get up and walk to Rick's room to give him the ticket. They were leaving tomorrow morning and it was getting dark. He had already come today, he probably wasn't coming back in here. The chance might not come again. She listened for a moment, she could hear Rick moving around on the other side of the wall... he was still in his room. She got up very carefully, holding her side and grimacing as the gash gave a smarting pain every time she moved. Her feet hit the ground and she pushed her weight forward off the bed carefully. Right... now she was standing. She suddenly felt a draft and shivered slightly. She looked down and remembered that she was only wearing her brother's trousers and bandages around her entire middle and upper body. She reached for her black sweater, which was draped across a nearby chair, and slid it on very cautiously. She slid the extra ticket into her trousers' pocket as she made her way to the door of her room, making small groans of pain with each step. The pain in her side was becoming steadily worse as she walked, but she was adamant... stubborn even against her own health. She reached the door, placed a hand on the nob, turned it and pushed it open. Rick was only one room down the hall.
In Rick's room, his ammunition holder lay packed away in a corner and there was an open bag with clothes randomly and carelessly thrown in. Anyone could see he was packing to go somewhere... only Rick didn't know where. He just knew he wouldn't be staying at Fort Brydon after tomorrow. Evelyn was leaving and it was taking all he had not to break down when he was near her. He sat on his bed next to the open bag, his face buried in his hands. He was in such a vulnerable state that when he heard a light knocking on the door, he was startled. He jerked his head up and looked at the door.
"It's unlocked..." He called to the door, watching it apprehensively. He saw it open, then he heard a small yelp of pain before Evelyn appeared, holding her side and looking thoroughly harassed. "Evelyn?" Rick said without hesitating to get up and help her. He reached her, holding her arm gently with one hand while the other rested on her hip for support. He ushered her into a nearby chair, letting her weight gently slide out of his arms as she sat down. His expression was full of genuine concern as he surveyed her. He knelt down in front of her and looked up at her, his eyes locking on hers. Evelyn's face was still slightly twisted in physical anguish, but when Rick looked at her like that, she returned his gaze.
"Evelyn, what are you doing?" Rick said, eyes burning. Evelyn looked at him. There was something about the way he looked at her... "You could have hurt yourself or reopened your wound..."
"I just wanted to come down here..." she said a bit reluctantly, still clutching her side.
"Evy..." Rick said in a slightly disapproving voice. Without really thinking, he opened her sweater to look at her injury. He smoothed his thumb over the bandages where her incision would have appeared. Evelyn quivered slightly, but not out of pain...
"Rick, I'll be fine..." she said in a voice that tried to sound firm, but all the breath seemed to be gone out of her lungs. "Really..." Rick looked up at her with an unfathomable expression on his face. But there was still something burning in his liquid blue eyes.
"I guess I can't protect you forever..." he said, trying to sound casual. But there was a lump in his throat that ached, having all the telltale signs of heartbreak. Evelyn looked at him strangely, his hands still resting near her hips. They seemed to be frozen in an intense moment of misunderstanding.
"Why not?" Evelyn said, her voice sounding inquisitive and indignant at the same time. Rick's expression turned into a painfully perplexed look.
"Because I can't be with you forever..." Rick said in an unusually small voice.
"You can't? Or you don't want to...?" Evelyn said quietly, her most recent fear of Rick not loving her the way she loved him weighed heavily on her heart. Rick's stomach lurched uncomfortably as he looked at her with an incredulously offended look, his eyes suddenly piercing through her.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked, trying not to sound hurt.
"You told me you loved me..." Evelyn said even more quietly, though her voice seemed to be shaking with fearful anger.
"I meant it..." Rick said, wondering what had brought this on...
"Maybe I'm being unreasonable..." Evelyn said, in a voice very unlike her own. She returned his glare full force, staring him down, wanting desperately to know his thoughts. "But I need to know... if you love me the way I love you..." she said, this time a bit more cautiously. Rick's expression hadn't changed much... except now he looked less offended and more curious, wondering where all this had come from.
"I..." he hesitated. He wanted to tell her that he had never felt this way about any one human being before in his life. He wanted to tell her that he did go back to Hamunaptra to save her because he felt for her so strongly. He wanted to tell her that he didn't save her life more than once just because he felt like it... but because he loved her, and ever since the boat trip he had this unexplainable need to protect her. He wanted to tell her all this... because he did, indeed, feel this with all he had. But he didn't know how to tell her... And then again he was afraid that it would hurt worse for her if he did remind her that he did love her. Maybe it was better if she thought that he didn't love her... so when she left she wouldn't feel like she was leaving anything behind.
"Evelyn... I don't... I can't... say it..." The words tumbled out of his mouth awkwardly, coming out completely wrong. Evelyn stood up suddenly, meaning to hurl obscenities at him. To tell him how much she had hurt by thinking about this very thing, how she had cried herself to sleep for the past few nights because she was so afraid it was true. But as soon as she stood, she clutched her side and let out an agonizing wail. This pain was unbearable. It burned white-hot, as if a newly heated knife had carved open her new scar again. She couldn't speak... Rick instinctively stood up and gathered her, wrapping her in his arms, wishing desperately that he could stop her pain. Evelyn grabbed at the shirt fabric near his shoulders, clutching his shirt in fist-formed fingers. After a few moments silence, Evelyn's pain seemed to slowly melt away as Rick held her. Pain-induced tears ran down her cheeks and splashed on Rick's shirt, her face was half buried into his shoulder. She lifted her head and tilted it upwards to his ear...
"Rick... I need to know. Don't tell me what you think I want or need to hear... just tell me the truth..." Her voice faltered, new tears threatening to stain Rick's shoulder. Rick tightened his hold around her, gently pulling her a bit closer. He tilted his head towards her to whisper something to her, as she had done to him.
"Evelyn... I love you. I've said it before and I mean it... I'm not sure what else you want me to say." He ran a comforting hand up and down her back as she buried her face back into his shoulder, a faint smile appearing on her face. Rick pulled away slightly so he could look at her, still holding her. He took a hand from around her waist and placed it on her cheek, wiping under her eyes. Evelyn smiled gratefully as his thumb smoothed her tears away. He replaced his hand around her waist and their eyes locked again. .
"Have you ever been to London?" she asked, still sounding as if she might burst into tears at any given moment.
"What?" Rick asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Have you ever been to London?" She said a bit more slowly and slightly more cheerful.
"No..." Rick said, shaking his head, still returning her inquisitive stare, "Why?"
Still in his arms, she pulled the extra ticket out of her trousers' pocket and held it up so he could see it. Rick took it and surveyed it closely before looking back at her.
"Does this mean...?" He broke off as Evelyn nodded her head vigorously, her smile widening.
"Yes! You can go with us... No... You have to go with us." She said, her expression becoming a bit more serious. Rick looked at her, then at the ticket, then back at Evelyn again before smiling once more.
"So what is London like?" he said, his heart leaping when he saw Evelyn actually look happy.
"Rainy..." she said, laughing once appreciatively. Rick helped her over to the bed where she sat down. Rick followed suit and sat next to her. The talked for nearly an hour about their journey tomorrow, about London, about how Rick would stay with them (Evelyn insisted) in their deceased parents old four-bedroom flat. Evelyn described the view of the city from the windows. After talking for what seemed like too short a time, Evelyn eventually fell asleep while Rick held her. He gathered her up in his arms and carried her across the room, out the door, and into the hallway. He carried her down the hallway and pushed open the door to her room. Jonathan still lay there, snoring rather loudly on the couch next to Evelyn's bed. Rick pulled back the covers and laid Evelyn down gently before pulling the bed dressings back over her, smoothing the blankets by her side. He smiled as Evelyn slept. Before returning to his own room, he kissed her once and whispered in her ear... "I'll see you in the morning..."