Chapter 5: The Explosion
"Sam?"
"Lara!"
The two stared at each other, not sure what to do. After all, what do you say to your best friend you haven't seen in 10 years. Zip was the one to break the silence. "You are you three?" he yelled addressing Sam, Reyes and Jonah, "Winston get them outta here right now."
"They're old friends of mine," Lara told Zip, "they can stay if they wish." Sam looked at the computer in surprise. Lara still considered them friends? She was sure the English archeologist hated her. This revelation infuriated Sam, if Lara still considered them her friends why has she refused to speak with her. All of a sudden 10 years of anger and frustration that Sam was holding back came out.
"What do you mean, old friends?" Sam growled and everyone turned towards her in surprise. "Don't you mean ex-friends? The people you went through literal Hell with and then decided you never wanted to speak to again?" Sam felt the rage building up, she was going to explode and there was nothing she could do about it, Lara just infuriated her. So she let herself explode, "How DARE you call me your friend after 10 years of silence. I thought you HATED me for what happened on Yamatai, but now I realize you had no reason to just cut contact with us."
"I have my reasons, Sam." That was Lara's response? That was the answer she gave Sam for the 10 years they spent apart.
"NO!" Sam screamed at the top of her lungs, "We were roommates in college, Lara, we were BEST FRIENDS. This is how you treat your best friend, the person who helped you study for finals and made sure you took care of yourself for 4 years. The person you risked your life for on multiple occasions on Yamatai?" Sam saw the saddened and ashamed look on Lara's face, but it didn't deter her from continuing her rant. "Give us a reason Lara, a real one. We'll leave if you want, we'll never bother you again. You almost died on Yamatai. Those few weeks you were in the hospital after we got back were the scariest few weeks of my life."
"Of all our lives." Reyes interjected. I nodded and continued, "We care about you Lara. It's why we're here, we heard what happened to the manor and came rushing to England to make sure you're OK."
"Little bird, I know Yamatai changed you, it changed all of us. We need you, we'll always need you to be our friend. I can sense that you need us as well. One of your friends just died and you're out in Mexico. You're running from your problems. That's what these past 10 years have been, haven't they. You're running from what happened on Yamatai, you're running from us." Jonah interrupted Sam's rant, trying a gentler approach.
In that moment, on a plane to somewhere in Mexico, the great archeologist, Lady Lara Croft burst into tears. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry" she cried, "I never wanted to hurt any of you. I knew I needed to continue my father's work, he was right about everything. I was one of the people who always ridiculed him for his theories, I needed to make things right. What I do is dangerous, I didn't want any of you getting involved. I mean, look what happened to Dr. Whitman, Alex, Grim and ….and …Roth."
"Lara we're your friends. We want you to be happy. I know that archeology and adventure are what make you happy and I want to be a part of that. You can't just expect me to abandon you because I may get hurt." Sam replied softly.
Reyes chose this time to make her statement, "Lara, I really appreciate you getting us off that island and back to my daughter, but you really are stupid." Lara looked up confused and Reyes continued, "I was angry about Roth's death, we all were, but he knew the dangers he chose to protect you. Why? He knew how you can inspire people. You're bravery, intelligence make people want to do something with their lives. In the states, I'm always seeing little kids at the playground running around pretending to be like you. Even my own daughter, she's studying to become an archeologist now. She's seen what you do on TV and heard stories from me and she was inspired. You're a freaking superhero to these kids. You don't need to protect anyone from danger, we can take care of ourselves, but you also can't shut people out. I know this is dangerous work, Lara, don't go it alone, you don't need to."
"You guys aren't going to give up are you?" Lara asked and the three shook their heads, "Well I guess I should start with how my mother died…" Lara caught up her friends on what was going on. No one had noticed that Winston had taken Zip out to "get something for lunch" or the proud smile on his face as he closed the door behind him.
The End
A/N Thank you everyone who read, reviewed, favorited and followed this. After playing the 2013 game I couldn't help but wonder what their reactions would be to Croft Manor blowing up in Underworld would be. I hope to write more going forward. 3