continued...

Thank you for reading!


PROLOGUE PART II


When all hope had seemed lost,

His wife suddenly jerked in his arms and attempted to take a breath. His heart swelled. Her eyes opened but were completely black and looked right through him.

He held her face in his hand and continued to beg her to wake up. She suddenly started to lurch violently and flung her arms against him.

"Evy? What's going on sweetheart?" Rick held her, unsure of what was happening to her body as she twisted and writhed in his arms.

He cringed as he could no longer keep hold of her as she curled tightly into a fetal position. There was a keening wail from deep inside her that tore into his soul. It was breaking his heart to watch what was happening to her but at least she was alive again. Her cries were better than the silence admittedly but he wasn't sure if he preferred it in any way to her cold, lifeless body that he had held in his arms for the past half hour. Had it already been half an hour? Had it only been half an hour?

Her body suddenly went rigid as she seemed to be fighting unconsciousness again. She started to convulse while she struggled for breath so he rushed in to hold her again. He shook her shoulders gently and held her head up behind her neck tenderly as she went limp again.

Her hands had been clutched to her lower abdomen before they fell listlessly to her side. He placed his hand where hers had been, trying to help with whatever was plaguing her there but he felt so useless.

She stirred again after a few minutes and in her foggy stupor she could feel the warmth of his hand on her and managed to lift her own hand slightly to press it weakly to his. The physical connection to him helped stabilize her erratic mind. He could feel the tension in her body lessen as she was fighting to stay with him now. Her eyes suddenly flashed open again and this time they looked right into his soul instead of through him. She suddenly knew he was real and stopped fighting him.

"Evy?" His expression was beyond concerned. "Evy? What's happening to you sweetheart? Stay with me now okay?"

"Rick! I've just spoken with the Goddess...this is what she wanted..."

Her eyes opened wide and they were completely dark for a moment and then the amber flecks in her irises appeared slowly. Wherever she had been it had been very far away and she was struggling to stay in the here-and-now.

"Evelyn... focus on my voice! Who chose us? You're not making much sense here..." His hand was still on her abdomen and he could feel a sudden warm rush of energy against his palm. It was starting to really scare him, his fingers were tingling so he wasn't imagining it. "Sweetheart? Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you... even from heaven I could hear you calling for me..." She was speaking a little more lucidly now but only between gentle, gasping breaths. Her voice was so raspy he had to lean close to hear her. "You called us back... honey...we came back for you and Alex..."

She suddenly flung herself into his arms with more energy than he had thought her capable of and clung so desperately to him he could barely breath for a few seconds. He held her to his chest once he had worked his arms free and it seemed like she was calming down slowly. Her breathing slowed and sounded less laboured. The sound was glorious to him.

She was still trembling quite violently though.

He carefully lifted them both to sit on the leather couch. It was more comfortable than the wooden floor where he had knelt beside her, begging for her to come back to life.

"What's happening? Are you okay?" Her arms were still locked around his chest so he smoothed her hair as it was all he could think of to do to comfort her.

It seemed she wasn't quite ready to lessen her hold on him yet so he shifted her to sit on his lap and he was perfectly alright with that. He could feel the warmth coming back into her body slowly and it soothed his own blood pressure significantly to hold her so securely.

Alex and Jonathan suddenly screeched to halt at the door and Rick looked over to them and smiled gently. The look of relief on their faces probably mirrored his own as the woman they all loved with their entire hearts was certainly looking better than the desperate state Alex had told his Uncle.

The boy approached his mother and father cautiously and Rick quickly pulled him in to join the embrace. When Evelyn realized that Alex was there beside her she finally let go of Rick and turned to hold their son.

Alex sensed something about his mother and pulled back from their embrace to look at her quizzically while keeping his small hands on her knees as he stared deep into her eyes. She leaned back against the couch and looked suddenly very tired but she smiled at him so warmly. She brushed a piece of hair off his forehead and he felt her love for him radiate clearly and he smiled finally.

The boy watched his mother take his father's hand and place it on her stomach then Alex looked back up to his mother's face.

She beamed so lovingly at her son and he picked up on the subtle change within her. How he had figured out so quickly what she was trying to find the words to tell him she would never figure out in her life. She had the notion that perhaps he had been waiting for his sister's inevitable arrival for years and also he was an incredibly astute little boy.

"Whoa! Mum! Are you and Dad finally having a baby now?" His blue eyes, so much like Rick's, looked at her hopefully. He looked eagerly at both of his parents but his father was hopelessly lost in a state of sudden shock as true realization of the placement of his hand dawned on him. Alex joined his hand over his parents' and grinned. "It's about time! Don't think just because I'm a kid I don't know what's going on in here sometimes. Are you sure? This is great!"

"It's been proven to me by a very high authority. I'm positive." She did wish she had a chance to tell her husband before anyone else but they were a family and they were all in this together. They might as well all know at the same time that another O'Connell was going to be added to their brood.

Evelyn took her brilliant and innocent son in her arms and just held him again, happy for the ability to do so. His head rested on her shoulder and she smiled as she ran her trembling fingers through his hair. She kissed his forehead and smelled the soap he had used to wash his face that morning, which had started off so normally for all of them.

All the little things for the rest of her life she would appreciate every day. Her voice was still fairly weak as she spoke to her son,

"I'll explain it better when you're a little older, but yes. We're definitely having a baby." She looked at her husband quickly and watched his face flush green and then fade to very pale white as he sunk back into the couch. She slid off his lap but kept a hold of his leg. "Why don't you go for awhile now with your uncle. He can start to teach you how to be an amazing older brother. It's a big responsibility but he does it very well. I love you very much Alex. I want you to know that. I always will."

"I love you too mum. I'm glad you're back." His little face, the expression so much like his father's, made tears come to Evy's eyes. "Please don't leave us again.

Evelyn smiled weakly then at Jonathan, who had been watching the entire emotional moment from just beside them, and she nodded suggestively towards the door. He could see she appeared pale but not as deathly white as her husband. She looked exhausted and traumatized by something but it seemed like she was going to be okay now. Jonathan was glad it didn't seem as desperate as Alex had made it sound when he had arrived at their house a few minutes ago. His heart had nearly stopped.

Rick actually looked the worse of the two of them now as he just stared at her with his mouth open slightly. His skin nearly translucent he had gone so white.

"You know, when it comes to the two of you nothing actually surprises me anymore so I suppose congratulations are in order?" Her older brother had a tender smile for them as he shook his head in comical disbelief. "C'mon Alex, I feel as though your parents might have something important to discuss about what just happened here..."

Jonathan lead his nephew hastily from the room. He was glad his sister was seemingly alright. He would leave newly expectant parents alone for awhile, he had no doubt they would need some time. He needed a drink personally.

Evelyn sat on the couch beside her husband and just stared at him staring at her. The twitching muscle in his jaw was working overtime and she reached out to touch his face gently. His mouth had finally closed but the confusion on his face was deep.

He took her hands and squeezed them lovingly. Her fingers were still chilly, but warmer than they had been in weeks now.

She had forgotten how good just a simple touch from him could feel. She would never take it for granted again.

"Are you going to tell me what the hell just happened here?" He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked over at her waistline cautiously and then sat back up to look in his wife's eyes. "What happened to you just now?"

Her eyes turned dark again for a second and then radiated complete joy as she remembered,

"I was in heaven again Rick. The Goddess Isis spoke to me. They needed me to bring our daughter back to earth... I guess she was causing some trouble up there. Something about a temper-tantrum that nearly turned the Gods against each other. They need us to raise her... to show her everything we know. To protect her. She chose us Rick." She was having a hard time putting into words what she had just been through.

Her words were cryptic to him. His confusion only grew. "I'm sorry? You spoke to a Goddess about our daughter?"

She took a deep breath and nodded. She decided to slow down and started at the beginning. From before the moment less than an hour ago when she had opened the ancient box, touched the stone within and collapsed completely lifeless in front of him.

"It all started when we arrived at Ahm Shere. Apparently we were very newly expecting by the time we got there. We made a baby on the journey... Isis and the others were watching us, tracking us. Protecting us. She personally blessed us with the child as the timing was just right. When Alex put on the bracelet the Gods had gone into chaos mode. They were all hoping we would be the ones to stop Imhotep and the Scorpion King so they were watching us quite closely. I guess they get nervous when there's about to be an apocalypse. They all thought you would die so Isis gave us another child for me to have a piece of you if something went wrong... something about a destiny to be fulfilled. Isis was a bit hazy about that part. I didn't even know about her darling. I didn't even suspect. I couldn't have known Rick, I swear to you." She took his hand and held it tightly desperately needing him to believe her.

He was looking in her eyes and he knew that she was absolutely telling the truth. He urged her to go on.

He knew she wouldn't have risked her life so completely if she had known. He would have brought Alex back on his own somehow if they had known she was with child. They would have argued, but he would have won.

She continued. "After I was killed my soul went to heaven but the soul of our baby was stuck in limbo. She was so brand new. It's not very often that a completely new soul is created, that's how special she is. She had yet to live or die. She didn't know what to do or where to go, she was so confused and scared. She didn't know to go towards the light." Evelyn took Rick's other hand as well and he gripped her fingers tightly. "If I had known I would have taken her with me somehow. Our love inspired Isis so much that she brought her into existence as such an incredible gift and I lost her almost instantly."

"You didn't know Evy. It wasn't your fault." He stroked her hand with his thumb reassuringly. It would very much explain why his wife had been feeling so off since they left Egypt. She had unknowingly left something very important behind in the desert. His heart ached for how she must have been feeling and not even knowing why.

Rick smiled inwardly as he thought quickly back to the night that their love-making might have been extraordinary enough to create such a special life. As they had travelled by fast-ship from England to Egypt they both had a night where they desperately needed each other, missing their lost son so badly that they had equalled each other in their need to be comforted. It seemed strange to think the Gods had been watching them.

She went on again when he looked back at her with an expression she couldn't read exactly. She couldn't help but reach up and gently touch his jaw again as though just to prove to herself again that he was real.

"When Alex brought me back the spell he used was a singular spell. There was another incantation in the book for bringing back multiple souls if he had known. The soul of our child stayed lost in the Oasis and when you defeated the Scorpion King and sent his army back to hell she was sucked away with them to the underworld."

Rick just stared. Speechless.

He wondered for a moment if she had perhaps lost too much oxygen and had a fantastic hallucination while she had been out of it but he had just watched her struggle when she regained her breath. He had felt her pain and discomfort as she came back to life. He had also felt the warm glow from within his wife once she was alive again. She had been completely lifeless for over half an hour. She shouldn't be okay. Something miraculous had definitely happened in front of his eyes.

"One of Anubis' slaves found her in the chaos and took her to him. He recognized the child's soul as belonging to us and he wanted no part in fighting you when you inevitably came looking for her." She smiled at him now, picturing him smashing down the gates of hell to get their daughter back. He would have done it too. "You defeated him quite handily darling. He is in no mood to face you again any time soon."

He smiled back at her and for the first time smiled warmly as he glanced at her stomach. He was starting to really believe it might be real. The child was at least his by blood, not the product of some absolute divine intervention. It was an idea that had been concerning him while he tried to make sense of everything that she was explaining to him.

"Anubis called for his mother to come and claim her."

Rick stopped her, "Wait a second Evelyn... are you telling me the Gods have Mothers?"

"Well, she didn't birth him as we think of it but she raised him and she feels responsible for him. She is his mother for all intents and purposes." Evelyn looked down at her stomach and placed her hand over it gently. She was starting to feel whole again finally for the first time since they had left the desert after their adventures in Ahm Shere. She knew the intense, all-forgiving love of being a mother. "Isis took the soul of our daughter back to heaven with her but the child refused to calm until she could come back to us. She blatantly refused to go back to earth with anyone else. They tried. She caused some sort of havoc and so the Goddess Isis made the arrangement to find me."

Rick had so many questions but he was starting to comprehend the magnitude of the obvious miracle he had just witnessed. His wife had literally spoken to a Goddess. "You spoke directly to her? That's a big deal right? Refresh me what she does again?"

"She's the goddess of fertility, and life and creation. The representative of mothers and all women, she's very ancient. She's the one who took me back to heaven just now. She's a mother and understood the loss I was unknowingly feeling. She understood my love for Alex as well and she saw the love our daughter and I had for one another when we were reunited."

"So she brought you back to heaven by killing you with an old rock? Neat trick." Rick leaned forward and looked past his wife to where the small wooden box with the stone inside sat on the table where she had opened it. "Why didn't she just appear before you and ask you?"

Evy looked back to the box as well and shivered.

"She can't come back to earth. Some agreement from long ago... That stone is the oldest carved idol of the Goddess Isis. It's eroded down to almost nothing now but it stood upon the alter when humans first started to worship her tens of thousands of years ago. It's incredibly powerful and it's connected to her spirit directly. She arranged for one of her few remaining priests to get it to me and when I opened it all I had to do was touch the stone to connect to her. My mother gave the necklace to me when I was quite young. Isis used the connection of it to my own mother to lure me in. A mother's love is very powerful."

Tears flowed from her eyes again and he comforted her by just holding her.

"I almost stayed there Rick, it was so beautiful and I had our daughter in my arms. The only thing wrong was you weren't there." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"I think I can understand why it would be tempting." He spoke quietly. Everything she had told him about her first short stay in heaven had made him shiver. It sounded so wonderful. He was starting to understand why some people dedicated their entire lives to getting there.

"We could hear you calling me back. You brought us back Rick. She let us come back because of your love and your devotion. The child wanted to meet her father as well." Evelyn felt tears again with the emotions she still felt at her desire to return to her husband and her son. "The Goddess gave her back to us because she was created for you and I. She has a powerful destiny. We are meant to be her protectors, her first teachers. It set everything back on the right path on the journey to our new destinations for us to come back now... Isis saw it too."

He held her in his arms for a long time. She was shaking again as emotions overcame her while he whispered his undying love for her into her ear to calm her. To the end of his days he would remember the truth in her emotions and in her eyes as she told him about her connection with the Goddess.

"Thank you for coming back Evy. Alex and I would have been so lost without you." His hand rubbed her arm tenderly. His lips touched her forehead.

Eventually she placed both of her hands on his chest and pushed herself up to look into his eyes.

"Everything is as it's supposed to be now. The heavens should be settling down again and we're back here with you. She's where she's supposed to be and so happy now. I can sense it." Evelyn held his hand on her stomach again where their unborn daughter was back safely nestled to be protected completely for a few more months. "So... long story short, you're going to be a father again."

The look on his face reminded her so much of when she had told him about Alex for the first time. Absolute terror mixed with pure joy at the same time but now at least he had some years and experience under his belt. He leaned across to kiss her tenderly on the temple and then rested his head against hers.

"So you're telling me that our daughter, who is a brand-new soul never even having been born yet, has already been kicked out of hell and evicted from heaven? And we're supposed to be her protectors? Sounds to me like she's going to be able to take care of herself..."

She smiled at him and chewed the tip of her thumb nervously. "Yes. She's going to be a force to be reckoned with. We can handle it though right? After everything we've been through?"

He leaned back on the couch and sighed deeply but the look on his face was dreamy. He turned to her.

"For fear of sounding like an echo but you're telling me that our daughter was kicked out of hell already? And we're supposed to be able to handle her?" He covered his face with his hands but he was smiling beneath. "We're in trouble Evy."

"She's going to be an incredible healer though. And experience great loves. And she's descended from the Gods and the Pharaohs. She has already been blessed by the hand of her creator." Evy continued to hold his hand against her bare stomach under her shirt and they both smiled nervously at each other as they felt the discernible radiance of warmth and the sensation of great love permeating from under her skin. Their daughter had a powerful life force already.

"Is that all?" He smiled so tenderly at her that her heart skipped a beat.

"And in five thousand years when Anubis' army is raised again she will be reborn to be the one to put him back in the underworld. Hopefully she'll save the world. You know how the story goes."

"So she'll be a Medjai too?" He asked teasingly,

"She's half your daughter as well... so yes. She is now wrapped up securely in your destiny. She and Alex both have great things in store for them." Evy leaned close to kiss him gently on the lips. His eyes were glazed over and he had a bizarre half-smile on his mouth. "And they've both chosen us to be their parents."

"I'm going to need a bigger shotgun for when she starts dating..." He bit his lip while deep in thought. "And we need to teach her how to properly cut the head off an Anubis warrior, it's about the follow-through...not the straight poke like Ardeth says... She's going to need to know how..."

"Let's wait until she's at least toilet trained before that sweetheart."

He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"God, I love you..." He leaned to her to slowly kiss her warm lips.

"They know." Evy kissed him back for quite a while.

They both leaned back on the couch and sat there, she crossed her legs over his and leaned close to him holding his hand against her stomach as though her life depended on it. They both quietly absorbed everything that had just happened. And was about to happen.

A few years ago this would have seemed really strange to them both, but strange fates had always followed them. They accepted it together.

This life together of theirs together would never be uninteresting. Now that they had accomplished their destiny together at Ahm Shere they were ready for their next adventure.


to be continued...

(and awayyyy we go!)