So this fic will have elements of Return of the Mummy in it but with my own ideas too and no Alex O'Connell.

It was cold and dark, she could barely see two inches in front of her and yet she was unafraid. The water that caressed her legs and filled her lap chilled her to the bone but she had no urge to pull herself from it, finding it soothing. She pulled her knees close, shut her eyes and let out a deep breath. She imagined herself absent from her body, a spirit floating at the edge of the abyss, just drifting in the primordial, obsidian waters that had first given birth to existence.

A loud splashing noise ruined her moment of peace and snapped her back to the reality of icy dampness and darkness.

"Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing now?"

Jessica 'Jess' Thornwood flinched at the candlelight that smudged her pale cheeks pulling her back from the peaceful shade. How odd it was that people feared the dark for its shadows when it was the light that brought the shadows into existence.

David Daniels looked down at the young woman aghast waiting for an explanation he knew wouldn't come. He let out another curse before turning back to the shore where he had abandoned the lantern to burn out on the damp silt.

David cursed again as he waded back through the cool shallows of the lake to the young woman. His tough, brown, leather boots were no match for the water and his frown deepened as the water washed into them as it just surpassed them.

"Why are you in the lake?" he demanded with a look of frustration that created fresh wrinkles in his brow.

Jess said nothing; she just hugged her knees closer and stared out at the smooth, inky black surface before them. With no moon in the sky and no breeze the lake looked like a tear in existence itself- a neat, glassy black hole ready to swallow people into another realm, the realm of the dead. She was grey in the darkness and her hair was dark with the water, the droplets running down her back betraying how she had evidently submerged herself in it at some point.

Daniels, knowing he could well be here until sunrise before he got an answer, knelt down and picked the woman up roughly, raising her sideways in both his muscular arms with little grace and several swears. He turned back to the shore and trudged up from the water and through the muck.

David sighed as he realised he would have to make the journey in almost complete darkness as he couldn't carry the lantern as well.

He abandoned the lantern where it lay and moved as briskly as he could with the extra weight, relying on memory to guide him back to home.

The air was heavy tonight with the odour of firewheel, evening primrose, and blackfoot daisy, some of the native flowers of the land. Ordinarily Daniels barely noticed them but tonight he found his nose wrinkling every couple of paces as he was almost overwhelmed with their perfumes. Daniels didn't know one from the other save for the evening primrose, a small, pink flower with a bright, yellow centre that bloomed at dusk and withered in the day. The Texan had only become acquainted with the properties of that flower thanks to Jess showing a morbid obsession with it. Just a week ago she had filled the house with the flowers and Daniels had almost lost his temper with her as he had demanded their removal.

It took a good twenty minutes and involved colliding with rocks and stumbling over brambles and tree roots before the Texan made it to his modest two storey house.

The house sat sat still and quiet in the night with just one light flickering out of the lower front windows. The ranch beside it offered the low call of cattle half in slumber and the stalls only a few feet away showed little sign of activity save for some snorts and brief whinnying. The ever growing Daniels' property was at peace save for the man who owned it and the odd company he carried awkwardly up the wooden steps to the porch.

Daniels frowned again as he glanced at the porch- it was only a couple of months old, replacing one over thirty years old that had rotted and chipped beyond repair. It had been necessary but he still felt nostalgic for the old porch, the one with the wooden swing his father had made for him that his mother had often sat upon, sewing and humming calmly on long summer evenings. A porch he had sat many a carved pumpkin upon in fall with a post by the door he had been measured against as he had grown and grown, sulking when he had finally stopped and both his male cousins had surpassed him.

At the sound of Daniels' boots hitting off the steps the main door was opened slowly and the tentative, freckled face of his maid Becky Anderson peered out.

Seeing Daniels, Becky pulled the door fully open and stepped back hastily so he could enter with his silent companion.

Becky eyed Jess with unease for a few seconds before she finally noticed that both Jess and Daniels were soaking wet.

"Oh dear! Do you need a towel sir?" the maid exclaimed as she looked up at Daniels in alarm.

Daniels bristled slightly at the 'sir' before reminding himself that this maid had only been around for a handful of weeks. He couldn't even remember her name thinking it was Rachel before recalling that Rachel was her recent predecessor.

Daniels frowned at the thought of the pretty redhead maid who had departed in the dead of the night, pale faced and babbling about Jess being 'possessed' and insisting that she wouldn't spend another minute on the ranch even if it meant walking to the town in darkness. Daniels had been ready to let her, shouting several profanities at her whilst he had fumbled to cease the blood gushing out of Jess' nose as she had sat howling in a corner like the world was ending but then a stable hand had come at the noise and offered to take Becky on horseback to the town.

"Get Jess a change of clothes and a blanket while I get the fire going," he grumbled before turning to the right and heading into the living room.

In the living room, Daniels sat Jess down unceremoniously on a brown bearskin rug. His frown deepened when she didn't so much as twitch.

It took Daniels ten minutes to get the fire started, luckily there were already logs in it and it was a simple matter of lighting and stoking it before he had a satisfactory cluster of amber flames. He abandoned the poker to the black mantelpiece, kicked off his damp boots and then tugged off his soggy, grey socks before his stony, indigo stare fell on Jess.

She was almost twenty-seven, an odd, young woman who was too thin in the face, wan when she had once been swarthy, the sun freckles on her cheeks more prominent now that her skin had taken on an unpleasant sallow tone. Her feral, golden-brown eyes finally met his stare and lost their blankness.

"David?"

He nodded tiredly in a vague response to her.

She opened her mouth to form another question but was interrupted by the intrusion of Becky.

The maid entered with a nervous step, pausing a good three feet from Jess as she held out the bundle of clothes and blankets in her arms with a desperate look to Daniels.

The Texan sighed, too tired to berate the woman for her fears and knowing it was unfair anyway.

Since Jess had appeared at his estate Daniels had lost three maids, two stable hands, a cook, and a ranch hand.

"Just set 'em over there," he muttered as he nodded at the two seater with another frown.

Becky hastened to the wooden chair at the back wall, depositing her bundle on its couches before hastening from the room.

Jess glanced down at her damp, bedraggled form curiously as Daniels stood and walked towards the door.

He shut the door firmly before lifting the bundle from the couch and carrying it back to Jess. He kneeled down before her and sat the bundle down in front of her.

"You need to get out of those clothes," Daniels advised.

"Was it the lake?" she queried quietly.

Daniels nodded. "Yep, who did you see this time?"

"Anubis," she confessed darkly, "beckoning me with one hand, he had a gold ankh in the other and he kept waving it at something." She shook her head with a weary expression. "I don't know anymore, it's always nightmares about Egypt, I feel like something must be out there calling to me."

"Trying to trick you probably," Daniels muttered with a look of disapproval.

He stood up again and turned away from her.

"Get changed now before you catch a cold," he mumbled with a bowed head.

Jess obeyed hastily, swapping her soaked trousers and top for the soft, powder blue nightdress procured for her. She ignored the heavy, wool gown to go with it, standing with little modesty in the figure hugging nightwear.

The Texan flinched slightly when he felt a hand upon his right shoulder, pulling very lightly at him compelling him to turn. He turned as expected and for a moment was still.

The blue suited Jess, it went well with her golden hair and even seemed to warm her pale complexion. Daniels thought that even with her aura of unsettlement she still looked attractive, spying a glimmer of the wild girl he had met in Egypt as he glanced at her still damp, unbound locks and the way she stood barefoot and without much reserve in her attire.

Jess slipped her hands between his arms and sides, wrapping her arms about his broad torso as she leaned into it, placing the right side of her head against his chest.

Daniels remained stoic as he stared down at her, uncertain what to do about this sudden show of affection. His feelings for Jess had been muddled in Egypt and she had died too soon for him to really figure them out and now... Well now he was too busy trying to understand how the hell she was alive again to think about his feelings for her, and not just her either, Jess had not come from the afterlife alone.

"Can you stay with me a while?" she queried softly.

"Of course," he answered calmly.

Daniels embraced her loosely with his right arm but could not decide if it felt right or wrong to him to treat her in an intimate fashion.

After a couple of minutes Jess finally released the Texan.

Daniels shrugged off his damp, brown duster abandoning it to an armchair before he crossed to the decanter of whiskey resting on a table against the wall. He took out the crystal stopper and poured himself a glass before glancing over at Jess.

The young woman shook her head before settling herself on the bearskin again.

Daniels gulped down the glass quickly, too used to the burn now to even flinch at it. He poured another glass for himself before sitting down cross legged beside Jess and before the fire.

It didn't take long for Jess to rest her head in his lap and he welcomed it, stroking at her hair lightly with one hand whilst cradling his whiskey in the other as he kept his stare on the fire.

Daniels' bloodshot eyes opened quickly at the sharp breathing beside him before a scream of horror banished the remaining fatigue from him. He sat up hastily and looked down at the woman he had been lying beside. She was kicking out frantically with both feet, sweat shone on her skin and both hands were grasping at her throat.

"I can't breathe! I can't breathe! God no!" She screamed again.

Daniels reached out a hand to her and shook her shoulder, at first gentle, his grasp became tighter when she failed to respond and he shook her harder.

"Jess wake up!"

Her eyes opened, wide with terror as the screams turned into choking sounds. Her hands dropped from her throat and she extended both her arms out in front of her and looked at them in confusion.

Daniels knew exactly what she was reliving; he had been through this with her a couple of times now, worse he had been there when the incident had actually occurred.

Jess was reliving her own death at the hands of a resurrected mummy who had been seeking the life force of those who had robbed from its tomb. Daniels had been one of those thieves; in fact the mummy had cornered him when Jess had suddenly called its attention to herself, dying in place of Daniels.

Daniels embraced the quivering woman close against him in an effort to calm her.

"It's alright Jess," he murmured, "it was just a nightmare."

For Daniels it was just going through the motions- she screamed, he woke her, she babbled about her death and he, driven as much by guilt as by sympathy, attempted to console her, lamely dismissing the horrific memory as a simple nightmare.

"No, no I died, oh God..." Her words became incoherent as her pupils dilated. Her voice gave way to a horrid combination of whimpers, sobs and wails of horror and pain.

"Take it easy now jackal," Daniels compelled her, a hint of begging slipping into his voice as she struggled against his embrace.

He rubbed her back with one hand as his other moved up to weave through her tangle of hair. It was all just part of the ritual. Sometimes Daniels didn't even think about what he was doing, it was all just a habit he had forced himself to get used to. It was difficult showing her affection, even if it was in comfort, Daniels had never been one to console people and when he held Jess it just created a conflict of emotions inside him.

"I promise it's alright now, we're in Texas not Egypt, ain't no mummy gonna hurt you out here."

"It hurts so much," she choked out, "everything just got torn away."

Her breathing was becoming erratic now and Daniels could feel her pulse racing as two of his fingers pressed against it on her neck. It was so odd feeling a pulse there, it wasn't right and the Texan couldn't fathom it but he went along with it because a pulse meant Jess was living. If she was living maybe he could stop hating himself for her death.

"I know but you got it back," Daniels answered, his voice tight as he struggled to keep calm.

Her words made him uneasy bringing back many unpleasant memories and a hundred unanswered questions. Daniels had never been able to shake Jess' horrific death from his mind, no more than he could forget his best friends Henderson's and Burns' deaths either by the same mummy. All of them had died slowly and painfully as the mummy had drained them of their life force, consuming it to restore itself to its former human state.

Despite the gold he had gained from the ill-gotten venture in Egypt and the whores and drink he had consumed after, David Daniels had never been able to rid himself of those nightmarish memories or the endless guilt that came with them.

The Texan knew he should have been relieved when the mummy's curse, or at least part of it, had seemed to undo itself. He had discovered this when word had reached him almost two years after the doomed adventure of two familiar forms that had showed up in Cairo without explanation. As confused and naked as two newborn babes, they had waited under guard in the fort that had failed to offer one of them sanctuary before, waiting without knowing what they waited for.

Daniels had deliberated about going back to that hellhole city, convinced it was lies or a trick anyway, how had they even managed to get word to him? Curiosity and that ever present guilt had persuaded him to abandon safety and sanity and go on a long and lonely journey back to the dusty shores of Egypt seeking truth and closure this time instead of fame and fortune.

"I don't know how, I don't know how," Jess whimpered against him, almost hysterically as she continued to shake as tears stained her cheeks.

"No, me either," Daniels grumbled, "but it happened and I'm grateful it did," he added. He glanced about the room, the fire had gone out and it was unpleasantly dark and cold now. "It's early yet, let's get you into a proper bed and you'll sleep better."

He stood up, tugging the trembling woman up with him before pulling her to the living room door. She moved though she was stiff and awkward as she did. "David where are we?" she croaked, her voice quiet and taut with puzzlement.

Daniels glanced back at her with worry as he tugged the door open. "My house jackal, in the living room but we're going upstairs."

"We were in Egypt," she mumbled as her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly. "We met in Egypt."

"We did."

"I've never been to America; I told you that, I wanted to see the Wild West."

"You did and now you're here Jess."

"No, no this is part of it, drifting through the lives that could have been," she protested, her voice raising a notch as she suddenly became resistant in his grasp. "It all fades away though and then there's just the nothing."

Daniels frowned, the woman was getting worse in his care and he did not know what to do about it anymore. How exactly was someone meant to deal with a person resurrected from the dead? It wasn't as if he could fault her either, he couldn't even imagine how traumatic it must be to not only remember one's own death but to have to accept that you had died but were now living again against all the laws of nature.

"Jackal this isn't a dream or vision or anything like that, this is real," he attempted to reassure her.

"No," she shook her head, "no this is what I wanted, what I thought would happen at the end but then I died, I died! I died! I died!"

He pulled her against him once more if only to hush her before she frightened the sleeping servants yet again.

"Yes jackal you died, in Egypt, because of a curse," he said bluntly, "but then you came back, you and Henderson. I have no idea how or why but you did, you are alive as sure as I am, you shouldn't be but you are. I don't know what kind of afterlife you were in but you are definitely out of it now, I swear."

She turned a frightened stare up to him but he saw a spark of hope in her amber-brown eyes at last prompting a small, faint smile from him.

"Why did you bring me here?" she queried quietly.

"You wanted to see here and you deserved to," he answered truthfully.

"Why here though, why your house?"

"Damn Jess, where else would I have you?"

He leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss, as much to reassure her as himself. Her lips were damp and warm, perhaps a little too warm.

"Let's go upstairs now," he said quietly.

She let him lead her up the stairs and to her chambers without complaint. Jess couldn't know it but these chambers had once been Daniels' late fiancée Bethany's for when she had stayed too late to travel home safely. Daniels loathed dwelling in the room and even now he was reluctant to go into it.

When they reached the room they sat on the edge of the bed together and exchanged a look.

Daniels offered Jess another half smile as he tried to hide his discomfort before pushing some of her frizzy, golden-brown hair out of her face.

Jess in turn reached up to his ebony hair, one finger reaching out to brush lightly against a silver strand. Egypt had seen Daniels aged noticeably; he had come home from the desert country with fresh wrinkles at his brow, permanently bloodshot eyes and new grey hairs.

Jess moved into him, curling up against him sideways and he once more held her close with one arm whilst moving his free hand up and down her back.

"There now jackal, I know it's a memory but it's a nightmare too and you've gotta let it go, we've both gotta let it go," he murmured.

Daniels thought of embracing Bethany on these sheets and how she had pushed him back mockingly, protesting that they were yet unwed and he should act like it. It felt so wrong holding another woman here but sanctuary was the least he owed Jess and as for everything else, well he couldn't help that, there was definitely some spark between him and Jess, even now.

"I see Mr. Burns' eyes," she choked out, "only they are so full of hate, like my father's went. It wasn't them but God it seemed like it was."

Daniels sighed, that was a memory he could relate to. The mummy had taken his friend Bernard Burns' tongue and eyes before eventually killing him and each time they had encountered the mummy he had looked at them with Burns' eyes.

Daniels tugged off his fedora, slipped it onto Jess' head and tugged the brim down over her eyes. "There, now you can't see anything," he said softly.

Jess pressed her head closer against him. "You did this before," she murmured quietly, "in Egypt, at the campfire."

"Yeah, you had a thing for my hat in Egypt," he teased, "remember that too?"

She elbowed him lightly causing him to give a small grunt.

"I remember you kept losing it," she countered, "usually in bets."

"O'Connell cheated," Daniels grumbled.

Jess gave a small smile at this. "They left Egypt too, didn't they?"

Daniels nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, off to merry old England."

"Good, I hope they're happy there," Jess said sincerely.

"With all the treasure they took with them I'd say they are better than happy," Daniels retorted dryly. "Now, you need to get some sleep missy, proper sleep." He pulled away from her and stood up from the bed. "I'll be in my room."

Jess nodded up at him as she manoeuvred herself into the bed beneath the soft, cotton blanket. "It's hard getting used to this," she murmured as she leaned back against the two duck feathered pillows.

"It certainly is," Daniels answered wearily before he trekked out of the room, leaving the door partially ajar behind him. If Jess was going to be having anymore nightmares or bouts of sleep walking he wanted a chance to hear her.

When Daniels reached his own room he left his door ajar too before climbing into the bed with a tired grunt.

Outside the morning sky was a milky blue promising a day of sun, and there was a faint breeze in the air keeping the temperature at a manageable level and slowly carrying the odours of the ranch through the open kitchen window. It was busy as ranch hands, stable boys, and maids hastened to attend to the animals on the property.

The master of the property was inside at the sturdy pine table in the kitchen, smoking heavily as the cook and maid bustled about him and his laidback guest, putting out a breakfast the master wasn't even sure he wanted.

The guest, one Henry Henderson, was slouched in his seat, hands resting together in his lap, and his feet slightly crossed over one another. He looked every inch the cowboy, more so than ranch owner David Daniels could ever hope to, with spurs at the heels of his tan brown boots, duster covers over his trouser legs, and the cliché but so well suited cowboy hat upon his dirty fair locks, tilted back so his swarthy, handsome face was exposed.

Henderson's jewel like eyes were fixed upon Daniels, alert and serious.

Daniels was unnerved by the stare though he tried his best to conceal this. With Jess Daniels expected the almost feral stare, she had had that even in life but with Henderson it was strange to see the dangerous and wild sparkle that occasionally crept into his eyes, especially since he had always been such an easygoing man. It wasn't that the blond was less easygoing now, by all means he still had his charm and his humour as far as Daniels knew but there was something else to him now, a shadow that sometimes seeped into his bright persona and turned it hostile.

"I can't believe you're still in this place," Henderson murmured, "all that gold and you keep your ghosts. Come on Daniels, isn't this just a graveyard for your memories now?"

Daniels frowned across at his friend, unimpressed with his analogy.

"You've said that before," Daniels muttered.

"I know but you've got Miss Jess now David, why won't you start again? Does she even know Bethany lived here?"

Daniels' frown deepened and he took a deep draw from his cigarette as he contemplated his answer. "Lived Henderson, past tense, and it's hardly relevant. This was my father's ranch; you know that, it's a family place."

Henderson shook his head even as he offered his friend an empty smile.

"Daniels, Jess and I are caught up in death it's no good if you are too. I mean are you really moving on here or trying to move back? Is Miss Jess going to come down here in trousers or a dress?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daniels asked sullenly as he flicked ash into a copper ashtray.

"Bethany wore dresses," Henderson mused, "Jess wouldn't be the type."

"In Egypt," Daniels argued as he waved off the coffee pot a dark haired maid offered to him. "Jess wasn't the type in Egypt because a dress was hardly practical for tomb raiding," he scoffed, "as Miss Carnahan frequently demonstrated but this is Texas Henderson, she can wear a dress here, you don't gotta read into it."

"Don't I?" Henderson retorted mockingly as he nodded to the maid and held his half-drained cup up to her. Once she had poured it he blew on it just once before taking a deep gulp.

"You used to take sugar with that," Daniels muttered as he finally stubbed out his cigarette.

Henderson shrugged. "Don't care much about it now, can't taste it anymore."

The maid, Elsa, gave the blonde an odd look before she scurried over to the cook and exchanged a glance of unease with her. They were becoming used to Henry Henderson now though his visits were irregular and mostly unannounced. Sometimes he called for a few minutes on his way to town, sometimes he lingered for hours and a few rare times he had stayed for as long as a couple of days. Though he spent much of his time drinking and smoking with Daniels it was obvious his visits were as much based around Jess as they were around Daniels.

Whilst the staff liked to see Henderson with their employer as he seemed to pull Daniels out of his darker moods and even made him smile on occasion, they didn't like him with Jess. Henderson made Jess' oddities seem all the worse and equally she brought out a strangeness in him. All the staff on the ranch knew there was something wrong with Jess and now they were starting to suspect Henderson had the same wrongness in him but what they weren't sure of was if Jess was the catalyst or if it was something they both simply shared.

"Right," Daniels muttered dismissively.

Daniels paused to glance up past Henderson at the figure that had appeared in the doorway.

Henderson turned to follow his friend's gaze and gave the arrival a warm smile.

"Morning Miss Jess," Henderson greeted jovially. "You're looking lovely."

Daniels withheld a grimace at Henderson's words; sincere as they might be Daniels knew there was an implication in them too.

Jess was wearing a white, cotton shirt and a black, linen pinafore with black, tasselled boots. It wasn't quite a dress but it wasn't something Jess would have ever found herself wearing in Egypt either. Daniels thought moodily that it was hardly something Bethany would have worn either.

Jess blinked at Henderson curiously before she gave him a faint smile.

"Morning Henry," she retorted calmly.

Jess stepped into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table on the left near Daniels.

Elsa hastened to the young woman, trying to subdue her unease. "Eggs?" she quipped calmly as she held the pan of fried eggs above the plate before Jess.

Jess glanced up at the maid and nodded.

Daniels, feeling that they needed to talk frankly with one another, waved away the maid and cook once Elsa had served Jess some toast and orange juice. Jess despised the coffee and Daniels grumbled that finding her proper English tea in Texas was an impossible task, so she made do with what alternatives could be procured.

Once the workers were gone Jess was quick to look over to Henderson and quip, "did you have a dream last night?"

"I'm sure I had several," Henderson muttered, "but I suppose you mean one about Egypt."

Jess nodded. "I saw Anubis," she confessed, "beckoning me to something, I'm afraid it was back to that place." She swallowed hard and murmured, "we never completed the gates."

"We didn't have to," Henderson retorted with a look of unease. "I didn't see anything like that; I just saw the black desert."

"Black desert?" Daniels repeated with a puzzled look.

Henderson glanced across the table at him and nodded. "I don't know if it's in the land of the living or the dead but I see it, I think we were even there, Jess and I."

"So it's a memory or a nightmare," Daniels dismissed.

"It's more than that," Jess protested with a shake of her head, "it keeps happening and I don't think it's going to stop until..."

"Until what?" Henderson asked hoarsely with an angry scowl.

"I ended up in the lake last night," Jess informed him softly as she placed down her cutlery and abandoned her half-eaten breakfast. "It was like the primordial waters, a nothingness at the beginning of time, I wanted to drown in it."

"Shit Jess don't say that," Daniels protested as concern flashed in his indigo gaze.

"One foot in the land of the living and one in the land of the dead," Henderson grumbled. "We didn't come back right, did we?"

"I don't...I don't know," Jess replied quietly as she bowed her head.

"I keep wondering about it too," Henderson admitted as he tugged off his hat and ran his hand through his unruly hair. "I don't feel quite complete, I drink and I smoke and I eat but everything seems faded, there's not the same pleasure in any of it that there was. And every night there's always a flicker of Egypt or it's a full blown nightmare, but...it ain't always a memory, sometimes it's something new. Something in the black desert."