Disclaimer: The concepts and characters from the Night at the Museum that are used in this fanfiction do not belong to me and remain the respective properties of the original films' production company. I am making no profit from this piece of work.

2014 update: After an extended hiatus for personal reasons I have come back to this fic but my writing style has changed for various reasons and as such I've gone back and altered my wording (and a few plot points in the later chapters) in all chapters to date. After asking for advice I have made the decision to delete the previous chapters and replace the first one so that those on alert will still get the information about it. Some things have changed for characterisation sake and also to better suit my current writing style. If you are coming to this, I recommend you re-read the first three chapters as I'm not sure if I made any drastic alterations to them or not.

Author's Notes: Hey guys. Thank you for bearing with me. I am kind of snowed under right now with work and family things to deal with but I promise you I am not done with this. I managed to see Night at the Museum 3 today and oh my goodness it made me cry. If anyone else has seen it and wants to talk please message me because no one at work is familiar with the series. Still the film inspired me and helped with a few things I was struggling with later in this fic. Please note the next update may not be until after Christmas, maybe New Year but hopefully not that long.

This is where I really started shifting and rejiggering things around so I hope that you will enjoy it as much as the last one was enjoyed.

Chapter Four: Finding the Cause

Word spread quickly and within ten minutes of the museum closing. the corridors leading into the hall of miniatures were crammed with all the other exhibits; with statues pushing wax models, and vice versa in an attempt to see in.

Octavius refused to give up his vigil watching over Jedediah but even with his attention focused on the Old West, he could see the worry that Larry was trying, and failing, to hide. Within a few minutes, the crowds to one side parted, leaving room enough for Teddy and Ahk to enter, both of them walking swiftly over to Larry by the Old West display, though the night-guard made sure he had his back deliberately towards it. No one blamed him.

It made sense that they would be sent for; Ahkmunrah's tablet was what brought them to life at night and Teddy had been at the museum longer than any other exhibit which meant they would hopefully know what was going on here and hether there was anything that could be done about it.

The trio began to speak in hushed voices and Octavius saw no reason to try and listen in; they would let him know anything important. After a while though it was clear that whatever they were saying was not what Larry wanted to hear, the guard getting agitated, emphasising certain words with dramatic gestures before realising everybody was watching him closely and toning them down a little, with some encouragement from Teddy.

"Lawrence!" Teddy's sharp bark pierced the silence of the room and Octavius' attention immediately snapped to the trio seeing that the three of them were staring harshly at each other and the crammed corridors were filled with hushed voices speculating on what might be happening in their conversation. Octavius had never known the former president to lose his temper before. Technically, he wasn't losing it now but this was the closest the Roman had ever seen him to it. Whatever it was that had angered Teddy couldn't be good.

"Well what else could it be, Teddy?" He heard Larry hiss, all three looking between each other. Teddy looked to Ahk as he struggled for an answer. The pharaoh appeared as he had no answer either. "All it's ever done is cause us trouble." Larry continued. None of them had noticed Octavius watching them intently or, it seemed, realised he could hear them quite clearly. "In fact, if you take a moment and look at it the way I am right now, it is the sole reason for all the troubles we've had since I got here."

"Larry," Ahk placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him, "I don't-"

"It's nothing but trouble and now it's killed Jed!"

...

Silence, strong and harrowing, descended on the exhibits as the last part was shouted by their night-guard. All of them looked at him in horror and even though the look of instant regret on Larry's face said that he hadn't meant to say that, what they'd all been thinking had now been put out into the air between them. Teddy was watching Larry intently while Ahk looked between them, both of them eager to see how Larry would act next.

"I didn't me…" he started but no reason came out as Larry's gaze passed over the exhibits. No one moved or made a sound as he took in all their worried faces. "I didn't…" he gave up trying to say it, pausing before swiftly heading towards one of the exits where the gathered exhibits parted to allow him through. Teddy looked after him, shaking his head slightly.

"He's just worried." Teddy looked across everyone, over to Octavius and finally settling his gaze on Jed's still form. "We all are. He just needs a minute." They stood there in silence as they watched various members of the other exhibits began to drift away as though wanting to disassociate themselves from the hall and those horrible words. One by one, they dispersed until there was only Teddy and Ahk near to the Old West exhibit, Octavius still maintaining his vigil and Dexter stood in the middle of the entrance Larry had left through.

"Do you think we should go after him?" Ahk asked uncertainly as Dexter scurried into the room, his paws 'click-clacking' on the marble floor, and he squeaked insistently. Octavius still hadn't learnt to understand the various noises the capuchin made but Teddy nodded knowingly.

"Yes I believe we should." And once the monkey had scampered out of the way, the former president calmly began to follow Larry, with Ahkmenrah following close behind him.

"I'm going to stay here." Octavius called after their retreating backs pointing to the bench he was still sat on, though no one made any indication of having heard him. And when he realized he was going to get no reply he simply turned back to the Old West. He was sure they knew he wouldn't go anywhere else.

As he watched the still form of his best friend, those words did nothing but hang in the air around him. He hadn't dared to think that Jedediah was dead, the thought never even having occurred to him but...it was possible right?

The Roman shook his head in frustration. What was he thinking? Jedediah wasn't dead, of course he wasn't. He was simply…well, he was…Jed was…sleeping? It didn't sound right but he knew enough to know the cowboy wasn't dead. Any minute now he would start moving and everyone would celebrate and they'd go back to having wild adventures in the car or on the aeroplane or with the parachute that Jed had persuaded the Western ladies to make, and Octavius would initially refuse to do it but eventually be persuaded by the cowboy's over-enthusiasm and over-confidence and he'd end up regretting agreeing to it but of course would secretly enjoy every single minute of it.

While lost in his yearning for normality, he heard a cry of pain and he pushed himself to slide down the bench and run to the exhibit as he realized; Jedediah wasn't standing any more.

The night guard was sat on the couch in his office with his head between his knees and taking deep breaths. The second hand on the clock ticked, filling the silent room with a soothing beat. If it was completely silent in Larry's office, he would probably have broken down. Not into tears, just a basic meltdown like he'd had in his first few days here. Where things kept going wrong until he just couldn't take it.

He had to have been an idiot, saying THAT when all those other exhibits were there! He had to have been an idiot even thinking that Jedediah might be dead. I mean it wasn't possible was it? Everything was given new life by the tablet, why would it suddenly stop working for just one of the miniatures.

Looking at the small cowboy had been hard enough for all of them but for him to even suggest that... It was all right for him, he saw all of them, the miniatures, the wax models, the statues, like that during the day but they all 'woke up' at the same time and had never seen anyone like that before. For them it was the closest they'd ever come to seeing death.

If one of the other miniatures or exhibits had been in this position Jed would have led the rest of them through it, determined to succeed, to find a cure and set things to right. But he wasn't there to lead them though; he was the closest to...the d-word that anyone had ever seen him. The confident, brash son of a gun, never willing to run from a fight, defeated by something he couldn't fight. That was what made it so infuriating; that was what made Larry want to scream.

If they knew what it was that was happening to Jedediah then they could do something to stop it, not knowing meant they were kind of useless.

"Lawrence." There was only one person who called him by that name, so Larry didn't even bother to look up at the call. Hearing Teddy walk over, he felt the cushions shift as the waxwork sat down next to him. "Sit up man. You won't find a solution on the side of your shoes."

After a moment of hesitation he raised his head and ran a worried hand through his own hair before looking over to the door as he heard Ahkmenrah approach.

"Larry." He said, stopping just inside the doorway. "I understand that you want to find a cause for Jedediah's condition but I assure you the tablet has nothing to do with it."

"Think Lawrence." Teddy added. "Over 50 years of bringing the entire museum to life each and every night and out of nowhere it just stops working on a single miniature?"

Of course Teddy was right. Although the tablet had caused a bit of trouble and strife in the last few years, it had a very strict all or nothing standpoint when it came to the bringing things to life. Statues, mummies, faceless mannequins, paintings, cupids, bobble-heads, Abraham Lincoln, animals-

Larry looked up suddenly as it struck him. "The hourglass."

Teddy's brow furrowed. "The what?"

"In Washington. Your brother," he pointed to Ahkmenrah whose face soured, "trapped Jed in an hourglass and forced me to give him the code to unleash his army of the dead." Standing up, Larry couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before. "It was at the Smithsonian so it was clearly an exhibit and could hold any kind of secret power. It's the only thing Jed had contact with that no one else did. It has to be that!"

A glimmer of hope had sparked in the night guard and he paced a little as he started making plans, feeling better knowing he had a potential lead on this.

"I can go to Washington tomorrow. Do some research find out what I can about it and see if there's any connection. I have a…friend of sorts on the night guard staff. He can-" He was cut off as Dexter pushed past Ahk and raced into the room before jumping up and down excitedly.

Teddy nodded, standing up and looking between the other two men.

"Jedediah's awake."