Momochan77: Hello again friend! First off, I wanted to thank you for the wording in your last comment. Saying when I publish as opposed to if I publish seems like such a little thing but I tend to be very, very hard on myself so just that little swap of words really perked me up. I'm glad you're enjoying the story as always - I actually finished it this week! So excited! There's still editing to be done of course, but finishing typing up all the movie bits was a huge milestone for me, although I will be sad to say goodbye to this story. Thankfully, spacing out these updates means I don't have to say goodbye just yet. I hope you enjoy and have a fantastic weekend!

Chapter 14

"Larry?"

"Hey Cecil." Daley smiled at the older man.

"My God it's been years." Cecil replied still sounding stunned as he and Larry shook hands. Anna lingered back, she'd never met Cecil or the other former night guards who had once tried to rob the museum. But she was glad that Larry and Cecil had ended up on good terms.

"Looks like you're doing pretty well."

Cecil grinned, "I've still got it pal." He chuckled before asking, "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you about the tablet. –"

"What the heck is short stack doing here?" a gruff voice called from behind them interrupting Larry. Anna turned and saw two men nearing them. One was in a wheelchair while the other man pushed him by the handles. Larry didn't seem deterred by the shout so Anna assumed it was the gentleman's usual way.

"Hey Gus you're looking well. Reginald."

But the man in the wheelchair – Gus, didn't seem to have the same high spirits Larry did, "What are you here to frame us again? Send us back to the slammer?"

"I didn't frame you, you were actually stealing. And I was the one who got you out of jail so. . . "

"Larry, we've got a nice life here. the past is the past. We've moved on." Cecil defended his friends.

"I don't think this guys moved on." Larry gestured to Gus.

"Listen to him monkey face."

"We've put all that tablet stuff behind us, Larry." Reginald said. "It's old news. "

Cecil nodded, "Besides, we really never knew anything about that old tablet. We just worked there."

"Somethings up with it." Larry said not patient enough to beat around the bush on this.

Cecil's face became serious, "I told you I can't help you."

Larry stared him down, not meanly but like he didn't believe him.

"Well maybe this kid can." Larry pulled out the copy of the photo and handed it to Cecil. The man's eyes lit up with something close to shock and nostalgia.

"Maybe we better talk alone."

Cecil waved Larry over to a glass wall that looked like the retirement home's attempt at a little greenhouse. Before Anna could follow the other man, Reginald, called to her.

"So." He began, "You're that new docent the museum hired?"

"New. . er." Anna admitted. She'd been doing her job for a while now but she was the newest employee at the museum.

Reginald sighed and tapped his temple like he was blaming it on old age. Anna gave a small giggle at the action.

"Post Civil War America." Reginald went on, "Or so I've heard, is your specialty?"

"Yes sir." She replied proudly, "It was my concentration in college."

He nodded with a smile, "Working at the museum I gravitated toward the same period."

"Really?"

"Absolutely." He said, "The war that brought an end to slavery, nearly ripped the country apart, and completely changed our society forever. It's something everyone should be well versed in."

"And the difficulty of coming back together as a nation afterward." She tacked on. After giving tours for so long she'd come to realize just how much people assumed the country healed after the war. That the south lost and the next day things moved on. It wasn't so. There was violence and rogue soldiers causing havoc for at least the following decade if not longer. President Grant had a hell of a time keeping the nation from caving in on itself.

"I never sympathized much with the south fighters who lost." Reginald said scratching his chin, "But I've come to understand that licking your wounds after losing a fight ain't easy."

He pointed down to Gus who couldn't see the gesture and Anna understood the message. When Larry foiled their plan to steal the tablet Reginald and his buddies had a good taste of what it was to be on the losing side.

"For some more than others." He chuckled.

"Speak for yourself butterscotch." Gus rebuked making Reginald roll his eyes.

Then his attention returned to Anna, "Do the mannequins at the museum still fight it out every now and again?"

"Yes." She told him honestly, "But now it's more choreographed for the night program tours."

"Choreographed fight." Gus scoffed, "Phah!"

Reginald shook his head, "Oh leave it alone Gus." He turned back to Anna, "So you must know all about Ulysses Grant?"

"Commanding General of the Union Army. Republican. Eighteenth president of the United States. Created the Peace Policy to help remove corrupt reservation supervisors. Called the Indians the original occupants of the land and sought to make them citizens."

"A fair man for his time, given the types who surrounded him in the capitol." He clicked his tongue, "Not that those in the capital these days are much better."

Anna shrugged, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

She nodded in agreement. In recent years Anna had learned that 'fake news' wasn't some new thing. It had been around since Billy's time. Now, every time she saw a headline she knew the truth was most likely the opposite. Billy saw it as a game, decoding the big black letters to figure out what was really happening in the world, and not what the press wanted you to believe. Billy wasn't a fan of the press.

Anna's heart panged. A part of her longed for the Wild West. To jump in a time machine and go back there with Billy. To know what it felt like to really be free. To have their own little farm or cottage, raise some horses and chickens, be self sustaining. If she ever voiced that wish she knew she'd be called crazy. People would remind her about how violent and unfair the world was. But to her, there was gun violence then, there was gun violence now. There were corrupt businessmen and politicians then, there were the same now. Life was hard then, life was hard now. Sure, she would be giving up the right to vote but with the people who ran in elections these days was she really missing out on that much? If it meant she could look out her window and see rolling hills, wide open land, without telephone wires and planes flying overhead. Without fear of global warming or nuclear war. It felt like a fair trade to her. The part that sucked was she could never have that life. But, she considered, there were always worse things. Like when Larry regrouped with her after his talk with Cecil and led her outside, his face white as a sheet like he'd just seen a ghost.

"The end will come?" she asked.

"That's what he said."

"Well that doesn't sound ominous and doom ridden." She rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"Ahkmenrah said his father knew about the tablet, Cecil said Ahk's dad is in England."

"So how are you going to talk McPhee into letting us take artifacts to England?"

Larry sighed, "I'm still working on it."

.

.

"I need you to listen to me." Larry urged Dr. McPhee.

"Ah ah." He interrupted as they followed him into his office, "Our esteemed chairwoman asked for my resignation. She said, since the Night Program was my brainchild that the buck starts and stops with me."

"We can fix it." Larry insisted.

"How?"

Larry turned to Anna who gave him a look that said 'good luck'. He turned back to Dr. McPhee who was only half listening as he packed boxes with his things.

"I need you to let me take the tablet and Ahkmenrah to London."

McPhee looked up but his face didn't change, "Sorry. I'm just processing that." He started making electronic beeping sounds imitating a computer, "Input data analysis. I've just told you I'm being fired and the first thing you ask is if I'd allow you to take some priceless artifacts away with you on holiday?"

Larry nodded, "Yes."

McPhee looked over Larry's shoulder to Anna who scratched her hand and nodded confirming that Larry was being serious.

"No. Way. José."

"Please. I'm asking you to please go with me on this."

"Nah, can't do it dude." McPhee denied. Exasperated, Larry stormed to the door, McPhee assumed he was leaving, "Bye."

But Larry only closed the door then stormed back over to the former director. The Brit stepped back and raised his hands like he was about to defend himself with some karate, though Anna doubted he knew any. "Are you gonna mug me?"

"What?" Larry asked.

"I don't know. Just be prepared." McPhee explained lowering his hands.

"I need you to listen to me. Okay? You want to know the truth? Truth is, the tablet. . ." he tapered off losing the nerve.

Anna whispered, "It's like coming out of the closet Larry just say it."

He took a deep breath, "The tablet is actually magic. . . Things really do come to life at night."

McPhee looked unconvinced, "It's special effects."

"It's not special effects."

"Of course it's special effects."

"How could it be special effects?"

"How could it not be special effects?" McPhee asked lifting his chin like he was daring Larry to question reason again.

"Because it isn't!"

"Because it is."

"I'm telling you, this is what happens. Sun goes down, tablet starts to glow, everything comes to life."

"Sure."

"It's real."

"Tablet starts to glow. Now I know your mental." McPhee muttered returning to packing his things.

"Listen, Leslie –" Larry tried again only for McPhee to jump and yelp when he approached. "Listen to me. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"I know." McPhee tried to play it off leaning back on his desk and trying to look nonchalant.

"Listen, nobody cares about this place as much as we do, right?"

McPhee looked from Larry to Anna, "Yeah."

"If you don't help us, everything that's special about it might stop and it may never come back. I'm not asking you to understand, I'm just asking you to trust me."

McPhee paused. He looked around and took a deep breath. His eyes landed on Anna. She had a desperate pleading in her irises, like tears might actually spring up if he said no. Whatever Larry Daley was on about, logical or mental, it meant a great deal to her. for a moment he wondered if he'd had the same expression on his face when the chairwoman had fired him. He knew the loss on Anna's face looked identical to how he felt about losing his job, his museum, his life.

He sighed. "I'd like to help you. . . but I don't even work here anymore."

Larry shrugged, "British Museum doesn't know that."

McPhee paused. For a long minute or two no one spoke and no one moved. Then. McPhee brought a hand to his chin.

"They already fired you." Anna spoke up, "Not like they can fire you again if you're caught."

His finger tapped his chin and he rounded his desk. He sat down and looked up at Larry.

Then he picked up the phone and dialed. Larry turned to Anna and they shared a hopeful but worried look, not sure if McPhee was calling the British Museum or the police.

They turned back to him while the phone rang. Then someone answered.

"Ah hello, British Museum, this is the Museum of Natural History in New York. I'd like to speak to your director."

Anna held her hands over her mouth to hide the ecstatic grin, Larry smiled and nodded at McPhee. He rotated in his chair a bit, looking surprised that he was actually cooperating with their crazy plan. He exchanged pleasantries with the director and introduced his reason for calling. "The mummy and the tablet both. Classic conservation job, under authority of me, of course, the director of this museum, which I still am."

He turned and glanced at Anna and Larry again before returning his attention to the phone. "Yep, okay. Chao."

McPhee hung up, "You're in."