After a long day spent burying the remains of three diggers, it was nice to relax on her cot and just enjoy the peaceful crackling of the fire and the feel of her husband lying alongside her. The flaps of their tent were closed and Lawrence was working blindly on the zipper of her dress, cursing against her neck when it refused to cooperate.

"You know," AJ laughs," I could unzip the dress to save you the embarrassment."

"Relax, I'm gettin' it," he grumbles back. It always made AJ grin like an idiot when she remembered how easily he managed a gun or tools, but could never figure out such a simple thing as a zipper. "Your zipper has it out for me, baby."

"I'm sure that's it." She lets out a gasp when he nips sharply at her neck as payback for her laughing, returning it by sucking on his lobe. That never failed to turn him into jelly, Lawrence almost collapsing on top of her in that split second. He lets out a long groan, cupping the back of her head and kissing her deeply.

"That's cheating," he breathes against her lips when he pulls back again. It was AJ's turn to groan, and she pulled him back down by the front of his shirt. She loved his kisses, all the passion that he put into them and the way he always tasted of peppermint. She tangles the fingers of one hand into his sandy blonde hair, tugging gently on it the way he liked. For that moment, they were in a bubble, able to block out all outside noise, each enjoying the way the other felt pressed tightly against them.

"Mister Henderson," Chamberlain cries out in panic, breaking the spell. Lawrence jerks upright, the couple now able to make out all the noise happening right outside their tent.

"Get your gun now!" He stands and pulls her to her feet, shoving her small pistol at her before taking up both of his and leading the way outside. Black-clad men had swarmed the encampment, galloping through on horseback and setting fire to the tents, torches waving in the air and scimitars flashing as they cut through innocent people. "What the hell is this?!"

"Medjai," AJ answers, chambering a round and raising her gun as she'd been taught. "But they shouldn't be murdering people like this." Lawrence doesn't hesitate, forcing AJ behind himself and Burns as they begin to fire at the attackers, never missing where they aimed. At this point, missing would be a hard thing to accomplish because the riders were everywhere; some still astride their stallions and other fighting on the ground.

"Friends of yours?"

"No, t-they are meant to be a kind people that only attack when provoked." With hands steadier than she felt, AJ fires at one of the men running at her, dropping him. The bullet had gone clean through his shoulder, severing arteries that had him bleeding out quickly into the sand. "Allah, forgive me." It was chaos, people screaming and swords ringing, gunshots making her ears ache.

Somehow she'd gotten swept up by a group of diggers that were running away from the riders, leaving her a good five yards from her husband and directly in front of one of the riders. She stares up at him in fear, the sharp tip of his blade under her chin keeping her from raising her weapon.

The rider's nose and mouth were covered by a black cloth, but she could still make out the dark tattoos across his cheeks and dark brown eyes that bore into her own. She saw cold determination in those eyes, but she also saw a flicker of mercy, and she gave a nod of respect to him as he lowered the sword and galloped away. Perhaps he wasn't the type to kill women or perhaps he'd just taken pity on her, but AJ wasn't about to see if that gift horse had cavities.

Shaken up, but no worse for wear, she turns in time to see Daniels take a wound to his arm, falling to his knees yet still firing. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he nods, allowing her to help him back to his feet," just help me over to the guys." Together they force their way past fleeing workers and homicidal maniacs until they're back with their group, Burns taking Daniels' weight off of AJ. The two men had been together for as long as AJ had known then, always sneaking glances when they thought nobody noticed.

"Enough," a man shouts a few minutes later. He seemed to be the leader of this tribe, his cloth mask fallen away to reveal a stern mouth as he faced down O'Connell, the American man holding a lit stick of Dynamite. "We will shed no more blood this night, but all of you must leave." His and AJ's gazes meet for just a brief moment, but she was still able to recognize them as belonging to the man that had spared her life. "Leave this place or die. You have one day!"

"So much for them being peaceful," AJ mutters under her breath, gun lowered and her free hand resting on her husband's back. One of the attackers trots over to the leader, the other man easily climbing onto the saddle of a free horse.

"Yalla, imshi!" And then they were galloping out of the city, horses' hooves kicking up sand that had AJ turning her face away to avoid getting it in her eyes. Once they were sure the attackers weren't coming back to finish the job, all of them begin to check on their group, AJ relaxing slightly as she settles into something familiar. Playing nurse to her stubborn family was something that she's done since childhood, so it only made since for Daniels to automatically hold out his arm when told to.

"It's not too bad, but you still need stitches."

"Aw man," he whines, letting out a hiss of pain when she prods at the wound.

"Sit down and stop acting like such a baby." Scowling, Daniels does just that, sitting at the base of an obelisk while she ran to get her medical kit. It was actually a beat-up metal box, but she made sure to keep it filled with fresh gauze, rubbing alcohol, thread, needles, and the cowboy Band-Aids her son favored.

"Are you sure you can't just slap a bandage on there and call it good?" She glares at him as she kneels in the sand, ripping the sleeve of his shirt further so she could get a better look. "Uh, right, stitch away, ma'am." It was always good to know that her looks worked on grown men that weren't her husband.

"That proves it," Burns says excitedly as she cleans the wound," old Seti's treasure's just gotta be under this sand."

"Why else would they protect the city like this," Lawrence agrees with a grin. AJ glances at him over her shoulder, taking in the fact that his shirt was only half tucked into his pants, his feet were completely bare, his shirt was closed by only two buttons, and his suspenders hanging loosely from his pants. Burns wasn't much better with shaving cream still covering the left half of his face and his glasses crooked.

"They're desert people," O'Connell informs them from somewhere on AJ's right," they value water more than anything and they have no use for gold."

"He's right," AJ confirms when Lawrence looks to her," they never attack like this unless they're being threatened. They must believe in the curse and just want to try and protect the world from what we could unleash." A horrible mummy that will burn the world down just to find his true love again. It might have been romantic if Shakespeare had written it, but the curse was something her uncle only spoke about over a roaring campfire to scare new workers.

"Could you not distract her," Daniels complains loudly," the woman's about to stick a needle through my arm!"

"You act as though I haven't done this before." She sterilizes and threads the needle, gently pushing it through the skin and slowly pulling the wound closed.

"Not my fault I'm clumsy."

"No, Daniels, my son is clumsy, you're just danger-prone." Lawrence snorts, sitting down beside his friend and clapping him on the shoulder. "Hey, you make me mess this up and I'll stitch your fingers together, Larry."

"Good to know I'm not the only one scared of her." Lawrence makes a face, but he makes sure not to touch Daniels again until AJ was finished.

"That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"If I say no, does that mean I get some of your homemade cookies when we get back to Texas?" AJ nods and smiles, standing up to brush the sand off her dress.

"I could get shot if it means cookies," Lawrence shrugs.

From what I've found online, "yalla, imshi" roughly translates into "come on, let's go" but if anyone out there knows differently, let me know!