AN: Enjoy!
Cairo didn't seem the same after they returned. Fallon hardly remembered the trip back, devoid from sleep and eating, much at Kelly's protest.
"You need to eat something," Kelly had said on the boat ride back to Giza port.
Fallon sat at the table outside the dining hall, forking her chicken that she had only taken a bite of. "I can't," she had whispered. She buried her face in her hands.
"You haven't eaten since Hamunaptra. You need your strength."
"Strength for what? Trying to figure out what do about the cursed mummy we brought back to life? Or telling my brother that our parents were killed in Hamunaptra by the...the...Medjai."
She had already told Kelly what she learned, having her read the diary entries. Even Kelly agreed, though she said there was no physical evidence that Medjai specifically attacked and killed them, the diary entries suggested that it was mostly likely them. Neither she nor Fallon had told Adam yet. They both knew how he had been feeling about the Medjai, especially in relation to Fallon. Nothing would stop him from turning the boat around and heading straight back to Hamunaptra to kill every last one of them.
"Listen, I can't imagine what you must be going through right now. And I'm not going to pretend to. But you need to focus. Shit's happening right now, and you know as well as I do that it's not going to be left behind at Hamunaptra. Things aren't over. And now is not the time to be neglecting what's important right now. I know you don't what to think about him right now, but if that one Medjai was right, then we need to do something."
Fallon begrudgingly nodded. She knew Kelly was right. She just wished that everything had all just been one long nightmare, that none of it had ever happened. Kelly put a hand on Fallon's shoulder.
"How much sleep have you gotten?" Kelly had asked. Fallon sighed.
"None, not since our first night in Hamunaptra, after the Medjai attack," Fallon replied. In truth, Fallon had wondered how anyone could sleep after everything, if they did at all. She hadn't been keeping track.
"I thought you took that nap when we got on the ship today," Kelly said.
"I slept for five minutes until I had a nightmare. It was of the...the creature we awakened. He kept coming after me, and I would run and run through the labyrinth of Hamunaptra, but when I finally got out...there he was, the Medjai. I ran right into him without looking and he wouldn't let me go even though I tried to fight him off as best I could. I woke up screaming, blood rushing to my face in anger, flailing my arms and legs. I actually hit my elbow on the wall because I woke up so enraged," Fallon said.
"He won't ever get close to you again, if he does, I'll set Adam on him," Kelly told her. Fallon couldn't help but smile. Kelly stood up. "Try to eat something. We'll back at Giza in the morning. And try to sleep too. You look like the undead with those dark circles under your eyes."
Now that they had all returned to Cairo, Fallon still hadn't gotten much sleep. It was always the same dream like when she had dozed off in her cabin suite on the boat ride back to Giza.
She had tried settling back into her old routine, but things were different now. She had other things to think about. Since they had been back in Cairo, Fallon had taken to visiting Burns in his apartment twice a day, taking turns with Henderson and Daniels. Her guilt about what had happened to him sat in her body like a plague. He had been kind to her, and she wanted to return the favor.
She brought some library books she had checked out before the trip to Hamunaptra that she didn't bring with her to her visit with Burns, along with some journals where she had been taking notes from her readings lately. Her mother's diary never left her side. When she ascended the stairs to Burns's apartment, she ran into Daniels making his way down. He looked as though he had about as much sleep as Fallon had.
"Daniels, how are you?" Fallon stopped him.
"Oh, Fallon," Daniels jumped. "Uh, well, you know, about the same. Just going down to see if I can get a drink."
"Mr. Daniels...thank you for everything you are doing for your friend. I know it's a difficult time. But please, take care of yourself."
He nodded, eyed her up and down, and said, "You too."
Fallon wondered as she continued up the stairs if he had somehow noticed that she had lost some weight by the way he looked at her. She realized that her skirt was a little looser when she put it on this morning, obviously a result of her lack of eating. She knocked on Burns's apartment door and then turned the knob to see that it was unlocked. She found Burns in his chair in the large salon, wrapped in his lounging robe, and a gauze strip wrapped around his head, covering his eyes. Henderson sat across from him in another chair, talking to him. He turned his head when he saw Fallon quietly come through the door.
"Good morning, Henderson," she said with a nod. She walked closer to Burns. "Hello, Bernard. Are you doing well this morning?"
"Fallon," he blubbered. She saw a smile form on his lips. "I'm fine, th-thank you." She couldn't imagine how hard it must be to speak without a tongue.
She turned to Henderson. "If you want, you can take some time for yourself. We'll be alright here."
He nodded, pat his friend on the shoulder, and left the apartment.
Fallon put her books down. "I'll make some tea, would you like some. You don't have to speak, you can just nod or shake your head." He nodded his head.
In the small kitchenette, Fallon put the kettle on the stove and lit it with the match, and then sat down in the chair next to Burns, taking one of her journals and the diary onto her lap.
"Did you sleep at all last night?" She asked.
"Yeah," he managed to say.
She smiled. "I'm happy to hear that."
"Thank you for coming to see me," he said, patting his mouth with his handkerchief.
"It's not a problem at all," Fallon smiled. She looked around and chuckled. 'You know, Evy and Rick have been fighting endlessly since we got back. Fighting like an old married couple. I've known Rick for year and I never thought that he would be carrying a torch for a studious librarian. It's the same as Kelly and Adam, they've been fighting some too. Adam isn't...taking things very well. Haha, here I am babbling on about things that don't matter. I'm sorry."
Burns smiled. "No. It-it..." he was struggling to pronounce his S's. "I like...to hear you talk."
"Well thank you, Bernard," she replied. She peered inside her journal during the small moments of their silence. Over the past several days she had been writing down things from their journey that stuck out to her, most of the pages being filled with her dreams. Lately, she had been rewriting the same phrase over and over.
Metu Neter Wedjet.
The words that the mummy had said to her in Hamunaptra. Metu meant 'word', Neter meant god, and Wedjet was an Ancient Egyptian deity, a Goddess. She ran over the words again and again in her mind. Trying to find out what they meant, Fallon was turning up dry. She couldn't keep focused on anything she was reading lately. She had the right mind to turn to Dr. Bay at the museum, but she had the feeling that he would not be pleased after she turned and expressly did what he bid her not do; go to Hamunaptra to try to find out what happened to her parents. The kettle started to whistle and she stood up to take it off the stove. While she poured the tea into a teacup for Burns, she eyed the piano by a window behind Burns. When she placed the teacup on the small side table next to him, she took his hand and led it to the cup's delicate handle so he could begin drinking it.
She sighed when she sat back down. "I, um, I wish I could play the piano. Kelly usually does, and I do the singing." She was trying to find something to say. Something other than what they both really wanted to talk about. "Um, would you like for me to bring her in sometime and we can perform for you?"
He was quiet, but nodded. "He-he...took my tongue."
Her heart wrenched in her chest, and she reached over and grabbed his hand. "I know, Bernard."
"And...my eyes," he blubbered. She hadn't realized that she started crying until the first tear rolled down her cheek.
"Yes, I know," she sniffed. She wiped the tear away. "And he will pay for it, I swear."
"The curse," he coughed.
"What?"
"The curse! He-he'll come for me..." he sputtered. Fallon's heart raced and she jumped when the door opened and Henderson and Daniels walked in. She quickly wiped away her tears.
"Everything alright in here?" Henderson asked. Fallon stood up and grabbed her books.
"Yes, of course, I, um, I need to get going. I made him some tea, so you can just, um..." Fallon stuttered. Once she had everything gathered, she touched Burns on the shoulder. "I'll be back later today. You rest."
She rushed past Henderson and Daniels through the doorway and out of the apartment.
In the Cairo Museum Library
Fallon slammed her books on a desk in the center of the library, trying to hold back her sobs. She wiped the cascading tears down her face. She gasped for air. Luckily there was no one there to see or hear her. She didn't know how much longer she could keep up visiting him, seeing him in pain, and knowing the trauma he had faced and was still facing, and knowing that what had done it to him was still out there, and he truly believed that it would be coming back for him. She'd heard the story from Henderson and Daniels on the way back from Hamunaptra, about the chest and how it said that anyone who opened it would be killed if anyone was brought back from the dead. That included Dr. Chamberlain and Burns.
She finally managed to keep her sobs from bursting out of her mouth. Removing her silk scarf from the collar of her neck she headed for the bookshelves. Books. She had to find a book. On something. Anything. Curses. She wanted to see if she could find a book on Ancient Egyptian curses, she could start there. At least it was a start.
She pulled a couple of books off the shelves and started to head back to her table. When she reached the end of the bookcase a black figure came out from the other side blocking her path. When she looked up she immediately recognized the tattoos under the dark eyes and black curls resting on broad shoulders, and she jumped back with a scream.
AN: I decided to leave it on a cliffhanger! Another chapter is coming soon! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. You now have the direct meaning of the Egyptian phrase, but what it really means and it's relation to the story is coming up soon ;D Please Follow, Favorite, and Comment! I would really love to hear what you all think!