Here's chap 2, slighty longer (as requested!) I hope y'all enjoy. Reviews actually make my day, so puuurty pweease?

I also had a request for simpler language, and although I originally had a glossary it looked a bit weird so I took it out. I guess I just have to write the way it comes out my head!

Enjoy!

In the next second a shotgun pellet violently chipped the corner off the desk, missing Kurtis' face by millimetres. The spray of splinters caught Lara's cheek, but her gaze did not flinch.

"I thought you were dead!" She managed, accusingly, barely making herself heard above the drone of semi automatics.

"Now is really not the time, Croft. I think – " He craned around the corner of the desk, "That's our cue to leave." In a flurry of movement he turned, still crouched, and aimed his mismatched gun carefully over the edge. His shot caught the aquarium at the back of the room, sending a wash of water and several tropical fish gushing over the assailants.

Without wasting another heartbeat, he leapt to his feet, hauling Lara up by the arm. He managed to drag her halfway towards the floor to ceiling windows before she regained her senses.

"Just you wait a minute." Drawing one pistol, Lara levelled it at Trent's head. "Ho – "

"No time." Kurtis managed impatiently, pivoting and picking off a guard that had avoided the water onslaught. Glancing up at her face almost apologetically, he steeled himself for her wrath. Without explanation, he flung one large hand around her wrist, while flicking the fingers of the other at the windows.

The result was jaw dropping.

The windows shattered, in one sychronised movement, raining glass through the many floors of air back down to the street. Before the guards could think twice, he sprinted towards the gap, dragging Lara in tow. Just as he was reaching the edge he released Lara's wrist and flung the arm around her waist instead, and without a backward glance, leapt out in the clear summer air.

Oh, typical, thought Lara, as she felt the wind hit her in the face. It was just her luck to be manhandled out the window of a 50 floor building.

"This wasn't your cleverest move!" She bellowed over the whistle of the wind as they began to drop. She desperately tried to focus her mind on the falling, rather than on the more pressing matter of their proximity. Clutched closely to him as she was, she could feel his solidness and smell the mingled Kurtis scent of gun smoke and musk. She was reminded briefly of their meeting in the Louvre – the closeness, the danger and the sensuality of it.

"Bugger!" She cursed as she caught herself in deer-in-headlights mode. The last thing she needed was to revisit the horror of Karel and the Strahov. Flicking her eyes upward, she spotted what she needed. Fumbling with her grapple, she flung it up at the wall brackets of the block opposite. Thankfully it found purchase, and their fall was pulled to an abrupt halt, jerking them both, and almost making Kurtis lose his now vital hold on Lara.

"You didn't have that last time I saw you." He drawled through gritted teeth as he struggled to retain his grip. However, the grapple had fixed onto the building opposite, and although their momentum caused them to stop, it also made their combined weight swing, like a pendulum, towards said building at an alarming speed.

"Santa gave it to me for being such a good girl." Lara quipped. "Brace yourself."

They hit the windows of the building with impressive force. The glass splintered minutely as the pair sailed through the frame and landed in a heap on the floor, just as the grapple snapped from the weight of two people. Lara rolled as she hit the floor to absorb impact, finishing in a wobbly standing position amongst the shattered glass. Kurtis took slightly longer to recover, rolling onto all fours and shakily straightening. By the time he faced her, he was looking down the barrel of her pistol again. It took all Lara's willpower not to succumb to the aches and pains but to stand tall.

"Explain. Now." She stated, flicking off the safety to show she meant it.

"Lara – " He started.

"I've as good as saved you from an untimely death, just there. But I will quite happily backtrack unless you tell me exactly what is going on." She was pleased to note how even her voice sounded despite the twisting of her stomach and suppressed shaking from the fall in all her muscles.

"I just…heard you were around, thought I'd come scope out good old British soil." Kurtis shrugged, avoiding her gaze and feeling the threads of guilt cast needles into his heart.

"So you just waltzed out of the Strahov, hung around for a year or two and then followed me." She said flippantly, her eyes narrowing. "My patience is wearing thin, Trent." Unconvinced, Lara kept her ground.

"I'm not sure this is exactly the right time." Trent hissed, looking around him for the first time. Sure enough, a quick glance told Lara that they appeared to have landed right in the middle of someone's business meeting.

Peering fearfully at them were six middle aged men in suits, seated opposite each other at a long mahogany table. The room itself was small, and crammed with bookcases and filing cabinets, with papers pinned all over the wall and spread over the table. A younger woman in the corner had her finger poised over what Lara deemed to be a panic button.

Her decisions were made in that split second.

Trent can wait. This must not cause Systamtel to notice me any further. Oh, fuck it…

She dropped her stance and pocketed her pistol in one smooth movement, turning to face the occupants of the room.

"Do pardon me." She managed vaguely. Before any more questions could be asked, Lara strode purposely out of the nearest available door, gladly finding herself in a corridor with a lift. Hopefully she had just enough time to escape before security arrived. And if they did...she was in just the right mood to let them feel her wrath.

Trent was bothering her. She had no idea how to react to his sudden appearance, and his distinct lack of explanation as to how he had escaped Boaz and the Strahov. She had lost her headset in all the commotion, amongst other things, and it was all his damned fault. And then there was the rather pressing matter of his little toy…

"You forgot something in Prague." She said, matter of factly as they stood in the lift. It felt a bizarre relief to actually take the safe way down for once.

"Something tells me you've been keeping it safe for me." Trent returned, sensing the underlying hurt beneath her coldness towards him. The lift stopped and Lara stepped out, making her way purposefully across the 1930s marble floor and reception. Pausing at the swing doors, she turned to face him with a hardness to her face that allowed nothing in or out. He faltered in his resolve. What if she disappeared again and he was unable to fulfil his promise? His blood ran cold at the very thought, yet the guilt bit deeper.

"Where shall I post it to?" She asked, her voice clipped. He couldn't help but notice how their time apart had defined her figure even further. Raising his eyes to hers, he felt the kick in his gut that reminded him headily of her fingers lifting his chin to meet her gaze in one of the airlocks in the Strahov.

"I think I'll have to fetch it in person," he replied arrogantly, in an attempt to hide his worry, "English mail sucks." He offered her that one sided grin of his, the wry, confident, endearing grin that lifted one side of his mouth and gave his eyes a naughty tint.

And Lara faltered. She felt her guard slipping and she allowed herself a miniscule smile.

What the fuck am I thinking?

"Well, if you ask very nicely, Mr Trent, I may be tempted to invite you home. That is, if you think you can face English transport." Kurtis felt the relief manifest itself in his even wider grin.

Well that put your foot right in it, Croft. Next thing, he's going to smile again, and you'll go all weak-kneed and invite him to bloody live with you, dammit!

I originally had Lara telling them it was a crisis evaluation test, but reading back it looked too silly so I changed it. Hehe...

So...what do you guys think is going on? Some things are meant to be quite ambiguous, to keep you guessing at the unexpected...