Rachel - December 22, 2002
"...How stupid could you possibly be?" were the last words Alex heard before all of the emotions inside him fumed to the point where he was trembling with frustration and anger.

He dare not say anything, however, Alex was always like his father with his emotions, he never voiced them. He thought of every possible phrase and contradiction he could use to his mother. Some of them were half good, if he did say so himself. However, he didn't say anything. He just sat on the bed (that was evidentially his, now).

"You DO NOT leave this room, you do not cause any more problems on this boat, do you hear me?" Came Evelyn's low growl.

Alex didn't answer.

Evelyn slammed and locked the door behind her.

Christopher, was put into a room across the hall from Alex for the night, Rick and Evelyn had gone to bed, Jonathan was in his room reading a book while Ardeth sat at the wheel.

It really wasn't that hard, all Alex had to do was lift himself onto the window sill, slide open the glass pane and drop neatly onto the floor on the other side. 'Thank God for mom's taste in bright large windows.' He thought to himself. Shuttering to think what squeezing through one of those portal windows would be like.

The boat where (as Alex believed) all of his stuff was still stashed, was right down the length of the boat, at the stern. Alex was very quiet about his feelings like his father, but he was also very stubborn like his mother, and still believed in the welfare of his family. Being 13, he felt he needed that air rifle, just in case there was any trouble.

Alex found the small life boat, and pried the tarp off the side, the tarp was held down by bungee cord, so Alex decided to just get into the boat, and throw the articles out from inside. Just as he was halfway in (head first) the little boat started to sway outward from the ship, therefore Alex quickly projected himself all the way inside.

Once in the boat, Alex lay low, for he thought he heard some voices.

The huge rolling wave didn't look like much at first. Ardeth was practically asleep, the sea was a dark abyss for miles and miles. However, the moonlight hit this particular wave, just right, just at the wrong time. It was now horrifyingly clear, that this wave was a little bigger then the boat could handle.

Ardeth immediately sounded the alarm.

Evie was awakened by Rick's rapid movement, as he jumped out of bed and scrambled to find a pair of pants. When all was explained to her, Evelyn's first thoughts were her son. The door to his room was locked, she had to get Alex out of his room and somewhere safe.

As Rick ran up the stairway to Ardeth, and Evie was running down the hallway to the boys' bedrooms, the boat took on the first huge wave. It wasn't so bad, this wave didn't have a cap and the harshest movement was when the boat sat (what seemed upright) at a 45 degree angle going up and coming down the wave. Evie had to grab Christopher's doorknob and hang on for a moment, before she could unlock it and let the hysterical boy out.

She then stumbled to Alex's door, but when she opened it, no one was there. She quickly checked under the bed, and the closet…still no one. Evelyn panicked, and ran out of the room, down the hallway, into the open air of the night, the winds were picking up and an awful whipping noise was coming from somewhere at the stern. Curious Evelyn looked toward the life boats. Where on one, a small portion of tarp was pulled up, and cracking in the wind.

It dawned on him too slow. Alex was blissfully unaware of what was going on, kind of snickering at all the screaming and howling (which he though was coming from the kid on the boat, either the kid himself, of the grown ups about something the kid did). However, Alex didn't get the last laugh, he felt a chill race up his spine, slight weightlessness, then a hard cracking jerk, as the support cord gave way and dropped his little boat onto the surface of the ocean.

He was slightly aware of the ear piercing high pitched scream of his mother, but the fact that everything around him was very dark, and very wet, was what flung Alex into a panic attack as he tried desperately to free himself from the tarp which was increasingly closing in as it was being drenched by both waves and spray.

Penny - December 23, 2002
Kit tied off the tow rope quickly, then coiled the remaining rope loosely around his arm. The yacht pitched, causing him to almost slide halfway across the deck. Instead, he collided with the old guy with the broken wing. "Get out of the way, you old fart!"

The woman was screaming for her husband, about the kid, who was in the lifeboat, bobbing around like a cork in water. Then the old fart had to add his screamin' two cents worth into the pot. "Buncha screamin' me-mes," he thought, as he climbed the rail, with rope in hand. That was when the woman suddenly turned her attentions to him and screamed louder, if that was possible. "RICK!" What do you think you're doing Christopher? COME DOWN THIS INSTANT!"

The last thing he heard through the wind, as he went over the side was the woman screeching, "RICK!" He had taken a quick look, gauged the distance between the yacht and the lifeboat, then he had jumped. He hadn't counted on hitting the water like a baseball hitting a concrete wall, but at the last second, the yacht pitched and he wound up zigging when he should have been zagging and POW! Salt water filled his nose and mouth. It stung his eyes so bad for a second he thought he was blind.

He fought the rising panic, that threatened to claim him. He had to calm down quick and find that dumb kid. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid, he thought, feeling the anger rise. What the hell was that damn kid thinkin' anyway? Didn't he know his folks were going nuts? Didn't he care? Kit would never have pulled a stunt like this! Never even thought about it. Mom and Pop had been too special to pull crap like this.

Kit searched through the pouring rain for the lifeboat, still trying to get his bearings, when he saw it. That dumb, damn kid! He was hanging onto the inside of the boat and screamin' his fool head off! Dumb youngin' had the wisdom of King Solomon's horse, Bubba! Kit took a deep breath and started making his way through the waves toward the boat and the half drowned towheaded nutria inside.

When he popped up on the side of the boat like the Honey Island Swap Monster, it almost made him laugh. The kids expression was priceless. "Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it!" he shouted.

"Cripes! You nearly scared me to death!"

"Good! Serves your ass right! You already scared the hell outta your folks. Where I come from, turn-about is fair play, fool!"

"The little boat pitched, causing Kit to almost loose his hold. "Help me up, Squirt!" It took another five minutes of Alex pulling, and Kit pushing to get Kit over the side. Once in the boat, Kit fought to tie off the rope. He glanced at the kid across from him, who hung on for dear life. "Your old man ever hit you?"

"NO! NEVER!"

Kit shook his head. "Pity," he mumbled. "If you was my kid, I'd carry a two by four around!"

Once the rope was tied off, Kit stood, fighting to hang on. With one hand, he waved at the yacht and shouted, "PULL US IN!" The lifeboat rolled and pitched, jerking Kit off his feet and sending his head into one of the wooden benches. The last thing he remembered was the kid shouting, "Jesus!" and thinking his Mom, Pop, and Papere would be glad to see him.

He was swimming. The salt burned his nose and eyes so bad he wanted to cry, but if he opened his mouth, he'd drown, but Pop had told him, you did what you had to do, when people depended on you. You jumped in feet first and gave it all you had. Where the hell was that kid?

Evie touched the shoulder of her dozing husband, who came instantly awake. "He's coming around, Sweetheart."

Outside the storm had stopped except for the soft pats of rain that fell from the sky. Close to four hours had passed, after both boys were safe back on board and Christopher O'Malley had yet to wake up and take the medicine, Rick O'Connell was gonna pour down his throat!

"GOOD! Cause I've got a bone to pick with this one too!"

Evie's voice was soft, remembering the 'Bone' Rick had picked with their son earlier. "Don't be too hard on him. He saved Alex."

"I know that Evie, but he could have waited for me to go with him," Rick fumed.

Evie brushed a lock of hair from the side of Kit's head, revealing a reddish purple lump, the size of a goose egg. "Would you have let him go if he had?"

"HELL NO!"

"See?" she nodded. "I think you're angry not so much because he beat you to the punch, but because he scared you as much as Alex, being out there in the lifeboat."

"Bull! Why the hell would that scare me? I don't know him from Adam!"

"I think you know him better than you think you do, Sweetheart," she offered as she touched her husband's hand. "I believe you and Christopher are like two peas from the same pod. That's what scares you."

Rick grunted and the boy moaned. "Not...Christopher...They call me...Kit..."

Rick looked down into the worst blood shot eyes he'd ever seen. "Your eyes look like hell, kid."

"Yeah?...You should see 'em...from my side."

"Yeah, well," Rick heard Evie clucking quietly and glanced up to see her shake her head. "Okay," he said turning his attentions back to the boy bundled up on the cot. "But you and me are still gonna talk, got that?" Rick was answered by the congested snore of the boy.

Marion (pen name GiantPygmyGirl) December 24, 2002
Alex lay shivering under a considerable layer of blankets trying to go to sleep so he could get rid of the fear and anger, which had threatened to consume him in the last hour. His skin was still all wrinkled from the ocean and his hair still damp, whether with the salt water or with a cold sweat he did not know. All of the emotions that were running through his body were threatening to consume him, but he had not the energy to will them away.

He could not stand Kit. The kid was treating him like complete trash- "Your old man ever hit you? Pity, if you was my kid, I'd carry a two by four around!" He rolled his eyes and mocked Kit's voice, letting out a sharp sound of disgust as he did so. Suddenly an enormous shudder overtook his body and he began to shiver uncontrollably. He hugged the blankets more tightly around him and squeezed his eyes shut. Just then Evelyn came tiptoeing in through the door in case Alex was asleep.

"Alex, are you ok sweet heart?" she whispered.

He couldn't answer without his teeth chattering and his voice shaking. He tried but nothing came out. Evelyn rushed over to him when all that was emitted was a hoarse squeak. She placed a motherly hand on his shoulder and felt him shivering, then hurriedly that hand moved in a flash up to his forehead where she found it burning up. "Oh no..." she murmured before she ran out of his room to get Rick.

Rick was sitting sound asleep in a chair in Kit's makeshift room next to the cot where the young man lay asleep, the lump on his head swollen and purple. Rick was in the middle of an extremely intriguing dream when he was shaken awake by an extremely frazzled looking Evelyn. "What is it?" He mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"It's Alex, he's sick. He won't stop shaking." That got Rick's attention because he sat bolt upright in the chair.

Alex? Rick immediately thought back to how much he had yelled at his son earlier for his escapades and guilt washed over him. He hoped that nothing was seriously wrong with Alex because they were out at sea. How on earth are we supposed to get medical help? Rick decided that he would not worry until a serious problem presented itself so instead he stood up stretched and followed his wife to where Alex was lying huddled under his blankets.

Rick felt his forehead and sighed. He seemed to have stopped shaking but his fever was pretty high. Rick sat down next to his form on the bed and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Alex, why did you have to come with us? We wanted to prevent something like this from happening."

Alex managed a whisper "I still would have gotten sick Dad, and if Aunt Prune had, you know...popped off while I was there, there would be no one to take care of me."

"Alex, your Aunt is not going to 'pop off' any time soon. She may smell funny, but she's got it where it counts kid."

"Oh, and where's that?" Alex said, his voice rose and was cut off by coughing which racked through his entire chest and left him breathless.

"She's got it in her heart."

"Right...and I suppose that's a prune too."

Rick chuckled softly. "Go to sleep son, you need your rest." Then he shuffled Evelyn out of the room, and closed the door softly, wrapping his arms around his wife.

The next morning dawned bright, without any trace of the malice the ocean had shown the previous night. Evelyn groaned, stretched and plopped her feet onto the cold floor of the yacht. "Brr.. " she said her feet recoiling from the icy surface." She looked over at the bed and noticed that Rick was not still in bed so she wrapped her bathrobe around her and moseyed into Alex's room where she found him sleeping peacefully. She refilled his glass of water on the bedside table and pulled the discarded blankets up around his shoulders so that he was covered from the early morning chill. Next she ventured out onto the deck where the two lifeboats had been moored; their tarps successfully strapped back upon them. Ardeth and her brother were both asleep. Both were snoring lightly and both were covered by their blankets. Then, resuming her search for her husband she traveled to where Kit had hopefully spent out the remainder of the night. Upon reaching the door she could hear angry voices emanating from within-

"Why should I have to answer to you? You are not my father."

"Oh, well a good question might be, who is your father? Does your father know where you are, why you are here, or even who you are?"

"Listen 'Oh smart one' my father wouldn't give a rats ass where I am if he was still alive, and if he was I probably wouldn't care either."

"I am sorry to hear that Christopher, but that doesn't explain to me why you are here. I want to know exactly why you broke in last night. I want to know why, if you were intent on causing my family bodily harm you saved my son, and I want to know what happened to your father, and why you treat him with so much disrespect? Then, and only then can you go back to sleep."

"For your information I loved my father. I adored him. But it wasn't good enough for him. He went out one night, got himself shot, and didn't come back. That was seven years ago. Let's see, my mum died when I was four, tuberculosis; my sister when I was eight, the whooping cough, and Mr. Sonderburg-my grandfather, just two days ago, murdered. For why I am here, I have come to help you, but am thinking of leaving because I hate you people. There is too much emotion here, too much love, too much fear, it's all welling up from a core of adventure. I like the adventure but hate the emotion, and if you want my cooperation I suggest you tone it down a bit."

"I am not going to ask my family to change because of some half-witted kid waltzing in and saying so. I don't give a DAMN if I am related to you, and I don't plan to anytime soon. And if you tell me ONE more time that I am your uncle your nose will end up on the other side of your skull."

"And you Misseur, if you deny one more time your affiliation with me, I will blow a whole in your head so big you will be able to see that you have never had any brains worth giving half a fuck for."

Hearing this Evie gasped. Rick heard her sudden intake of breath and rushed to the door. Her face was white as she looked in on the scene. Kit was sitting in his bed, his eyes flaming, his head swollen while Rick had only concern written on his face.

Marion (pen name GiantPygmyGirl) January 6, 2003
Ancient Egypt

Nefret surveyed the horizon before her, noting the pleasing way that the sand dunes rolled radially outward from her. She sighed. It was a heavy sigh, full of depression. The golden sunrays glinted off of her jet-black hair, turning it almost crimson in the fading light. She reached a hand slowly down to her swollen belly and tears formed in her eyes at the despairing thought that her husband would not be here to witness the birth of their first child.

Ardeth had no more than touched her cheek to signal his departure to his time, and she missed him more than she had missed anyone before, even her dead sister. She looked up to the purple sky with her tear-streaked face and prayed silently to Asyria to forgive her. She knew that her pregnancy was throwing her otherwise subdued emotions out of whack, but she also knew just how much she loved Ardeth, so she allowed herself to realize that half of the tears were reasonable, but not all of them.

She wanted his arms to fold around her in the protective way that she cherished. He was the only one that could ever make him feel safe. She missed his kisses, the tender way their mouths mated, and worst of all she missed his sensual touch. Her body ached for him, in a way that no other man had ever been blessed with her yearning.

She did not even hear the footsteps behind her until she was graced with Gabrielle's warm presence beside her.

"You been thinking of Ardeth again?"

No, I am not going to cry. Nefret told herself. But, no sooner had she thought that then tears welled up in her eyes and she was sobbing in no time. Gabrielle gathered Nefret into her arms and rocked her back and forth, talking to her gently, speaking words of encouragement. Slowly she felt herself being led out of the chill night air and into the confines of their thatched house, then slowly over to a table that had warm water on it, carried fresh from the Nile.

Nefret looked up into Gabrielle's warm eyes, eyes she could entrust with any secret. "Thank you for being here with me. I would be a shipwreck with you not here."

"You are a shipwreck even with me here, so it looks like I am not doing too great of a job!" Gabs grinned as she saw Nefret's lips hover slightly in a smile. Then she tucked the light cotton weave blanket around her placid form. "Sleep well my dear." She then left after giving the young Egyptian a kiss on the forehead.

Calla Lancaster - January 8, 2003
Back on the ship…

Rick started to fall asleep at the wheel. He and Evie had kept a night-long vigil over Alex, while Jonathan watched the boy, and Ardeth manned the wheel. All of a sudden, Jonathan tore into the cockpit.

"Jonathan, where's the kid?"

"He...he...he jumped...over the side..." Jonathan sputtered , out of breath from running across the deck.

A/N: Please review! I'll post the next batch in a week but if we get reviews, I'll post it up sooner! :)