Gunshots ring out in the quiet night, making AJ jerk upright in bed and look around, her hand automatically going to her husband. When the shots continue and she realizes she wasn't hearing things, she turns to Henderson, expecting to find him wide awake like she was and ready to take charge.

"Some savior you are," she grumbles as he lets out a loud snore and turns onto his side. With her tongue poking out from between her lips, she turns and presses her feet against his back before kicking with all her strength. He falls with a shout, landing on the floor hard and just lying there for a moment as his wife's head peers over the edge.

"Why," he groans, too tired to manage anything more substantial. He really wished he could say this was the first time she's done this, but that was how she'd woke him the entire first week after their marriage.

In the middle of the night.

Because he snored.

AJ purses her lips together and Henderson takes a moment to focus on his surroundings, hearing screams and gunfire somewhere outside. He scrambles to his feet, pulling on boots and his shirt before grabbing his pistols and yanking his wife off their bed. "Hold on," she cries, pulling away from him and running in the complete opposite direction of the door.

"Honey," he shouts back at her," we kind of need to leave!"

"Not without my damn clothes, Larry!" He growls at the hated nickname, but wisely keeps his mouth shut as she grabs her bag of clothes and her shoes. It was a damn good thing he loved this woman or he would have thrown her overboard the day after he'd met her. It was bad enough that she mocked his Arabic, but then she had to go and make fun of his hat; all he can say is that it was her smile that saved her from a hit with said hat.

He loved that damn hat.

She pauses at the door when he doesn't make to follow, giving him a look of exasperation as he just plants his feet. "Oh, I'm sorry, Your Highness, are you ready to abandon ship now or should we gather all of our stuff?"

"Lawrence Charles Henderson, ya Ibn el Sharmota, get over here this instant!"

"Yes, ma'am." He found that when she resorted to yelling at him in Arabic that it was time to do what she said or have an imprint of her shoe on his bicep again. He takes her free hand and starts outside with the other members of their group falling in behind them as they sprinted for the front of the barge. "Whoa!" He pulls AJ back sharply as a black-clothed intruder burst out of a room, the man wielding a blade that was no match for Daniels' revolver.

"Thank you," she breathes out as they start forward once more, Henderson having a good grip on her arm and a gun drawn as they made it to the front, flipping a card table over for them all to hide behind while Daniels and Burns stacked up abandoned suitcases to add to the shield. "Is this really smart? I mean, shouldn't we get off the barge like everyone else?"

"Your wife is right, Mister Henderson," the Egyptologist agrees quickly, nodding his head until Burns pushes him down.

"Lawrence!"

"Just relax," Henderson snaps, drawing his other gun and beginning to fire off round after round at the men that were attacking the ship. "I thought Egypt wasn't supposed to have pirates!" Henderson couldn't deny that this was the most exciting thing to happen to him since coming back to Egypt and the others seemed to agree as they let out excited whoops, but even he flinched backwards when an enemy on fire stumbled out of a nearby door, heading for their poker buddy a yard or so away.

"Jonathan!" The British man looked absolutely panicked when his eyes landed on the other man, but Henderson had it covered as they brought the attacker down in a second, shooting until the stranger fell over the railing.

"I say," Jonathan shouts in relief," bloody good show! And did I panic?" Jonathan holds up some weird circle with a proud smile and Henderson noticed the way his wife's hand shook as she held out more bullets for him. "I think not." Two fires joined right then, making one massive blaze that sent Henderson and the others toppling overboard as fast as they could, tripping over one another until all of them were floundering in the Nile.

"I hate this place!" Henderson breaks the surface with a gasp, holstering his guns and helping AJ to stand, his wife storming towards the shore while Henderson caught the reigns of a pair of horses. He's been raised around them all his life, been thrown more times than he could count, but even he had a limit to how much stress he could handle in one day without snapping at even the innocent animals.

"Come on, dammit," he growls, pulling impatiently and making the horses follow him to the shore. "Get a move on, would ya?" He collapses on the shore when he finally makes it there, trying to get used to land that didn't bob under his feet after spending several hours on the barge.

"Regretting this little trip now, darling?" His wife's smug voice makes him scowl, turning his gaze upward to take in the way she smiled down at him, soaking wet and as agitated as he was. "You know, if you'd only listened to me, we would be sleeping in our bed right now."

"Shut up, Alexandria."

"You first, Larry." She always had to have the last word, always had to point out things that he could've done differently to get better results; she could be the most annoying woman on the face of the earth and she wasn't even scared to hit him when she thought he needed it.

God, he loves this woman.

With a prim little sniff, she drops onto the sand next to him, grains of it sticking to her bare legs and the bottom of the lilac nightgown she had on, the fabric sticking to her curves and strands of her dark hair stuck to her flushed cheeks. Daniels had called her decent-looking the first time they'd met seven years ago, they'd seen her coming out of the local museum and she'd flashed a smile in their direction when she spotted them staring. Henderson had never even thought of hurting his friend before that, but Daniels went back to the hotel sporting a black eye and Henderson came back with a date set for that night.

"My hat was on that barge…." He loved that goofy hat, his dad had bought it for them on their first trip to Cairo when Henderson was only seven and he'd finally grown into it only to lose it in a damn fire started by pirates of all things. He hears the shuffling of clothing until a familiar hat is held in front of his face, his eyes going wide as he turns to look at AJ. "Is that…?"

"I shoved it in our bag before we left the room."

"I love you, woman."


They all made camp on the shore that night, taking shifts so that two men were on duty at all times in case their native buddies decided to make a second attempt on all their lives. Even when he was supposed to be asleep for his next shift, Henderson found himself sitting up in his tent with AJ's head resting in his lap. He didn't feel safe and couldn't shake off the previous alertness, so he just kept his pistols close by and an arm over his wife's upper stomach. Having her close made him less tense, his gaze captured by the gentle rise and fall of her chest and the way the moonlight filtering through the entrance of their tent made her tanned complexion look almost like caramel.

He knew most people would barely spare her a glance because she wasn't some magnificent beauty, but he thought she was the most gorgeous woman in the world. She had long brown hair that fell nearly halfway down her back, stretchmarks along her thighs and belly from carrying their son, she wasn't anywhere near fit, but she never balked at honest work when he needed help.

He didn't fall in love with her because of her looks, he fell in love because of the way her little glances made him feel lightheaded, her gentle smile made all his troubles fade into the background, the feel of her hand in his made him feel grounded and secure, and his heart never failed to melt when he saw their son cradled in her lap as she read to him at night. She was perfect in his eyes, the only woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and he wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. AJ and their son gave Henderson a reason to keep going in life, they made the world brighter and made him smile whenever his eyes landed on them.

AJ makes a small noise in the back of her throat before her eyes flutter open, brown meeting gray as a smile lights up her entire face. "Shouldn't you be sleeping," she murmurs, voice barely heard over the sound of waves hitting the sand outside.

"Nah, I'm not tired," he answers, brushing a strand of hair off her face. It had finally dried and curled near the ends in the cool night air, some of it framing her face. She reaches up to cover the hand he has on her stomach, running her thumb along his. They'd often sat like this when she was pregnant, Henderson marveling over the fact that the tiny life in her womb was one that he'd helped create. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm fine, but what about you?" Henderson offers up a shrug and returns her smile with one of his own before allowing his gaze to move to the entrance of their tent. He could make out a dying fire that Burns had made, could smell fresh coffee floating on the gentle breeze, and he could vaguely make out the top of the sun as it began to ascend into the sky. They'd be heading out soon, the moonlight giving way to pinks and scarlets.

"You should start getting dressed." She makes a face at the thought of leaving the cocoon of blankets that were tangles around her, but she rises all the same and Henderson is quick to leave the tent in order to zip the flaps closed and ensure no one tries to look in at her. He stands with his feet planted and his arms crossed over his chest, looking like a warrior ready to pounce at the first shout of danger.

He doesn't relax until he hears AJ exit the tent, one of her soft hands resting on his bared forearm and her smile still in place. "Easy, cowboy, don't need you having a heart attack before we even find the treasure." He snorts at that, pressing a kiss against her forehead before wrapping an arm around her shoulders, leading the way over to the food and coffee.

"Mornin', AJ," Burns greet around a mouthful of bacon. Bernard Burns was the smartest of the three men, Henderson would be the first to admit that, and it showed when the man's eyes stayed firmly on AJ's face. She'd chosen a simple dress to wear today, cream-colored with several beads of the same color decorating the upper half of it with sleeves the width of two of his fingers, and the bottom of it stopping just under her knees; the material loose and swaying when she moved. Silver and turquoise earrings dangled as she nodded her good mornings to the other men, and a pair of Kitten heels protected her small feet from the rough sand.

Yeah, she may not be some spectacular goddess in looks, but she was more than enough for Henderson.

Ya Ibn el Sharmota = son of a bitch. It's a rough translation I found on a website, so I'm sorry if it's wrong.