You know, in hindsight, I should have realized it sooner. From how close we were, and just how often Lara's ass ended up in my shots. Like right now, for instance, she's crawling ahead of me. I have to get this shot, it's the only shot available. Really! It's a great shot. I'm sure I can edit in a few seconds of it to help draw people in, but I lift the camera a bit, if only because I can imagine Lara's reaction.

I'm not really paying much attention to anything else. Lara's talking about the age of the ruins, and I don't catch it, but I can look at the video later. There's this gorgeous shot of her standing atop a crumbling, moss covered wall, the sun shining behind her. That would make the perfect cover shot. Fortunately, she's standing still long enough. I make sure to get as steady a shot as possible. We can take a still for the cover, and I already have plans for the full shot. It would be a great way to end the whole documentary. With Lara's silky voice narrating.

I'm so preoccupied that I don't notice the ground shifting until I'm suddenly falling. My mind fills with nasty images of being impaled by spikes, or devoured by piranha, but I land on something hard. Dazed, I look around, flicking the light on my camera on to get a better look at where I landed.I see carved faces looking back at me. They're creepy. There's a sense of being watched, but with so many eyes looking at me, I don't know from where.

My light doesn't quite reach the top of the pit that I fell into, but it seems to open out into tunnels. They're damp from last night's rain and my clothing is now muddy. I look up again and call out, "Lara? Lara I'm down here!"

"Oh god," Her voice is distant, but I can hear panic in it. I can imagine her drawing her gun and looking around frantically, and try to scramble up the face of the pit, only to slid back down. She's really hot when she gets focused, but I don't want her panicking just because of me.

"Lara!"

"Sam!" I see her head peek over the edge and peer down into the pit. "Are you okay? What happened? Don't scare me like that!"

"I'm fine, it's not like a bunch of stone statues are going to come to life!" Even as I say it, I feel the hair at the back of my neck stand straight up, and I shine the camera back at the carvings. They're not moving, but they're judging me. I point two fingers at them, watching you style. "You know what, forget I said that."

"That's what we said in Peru, Sam!" The tenseness in her voice makes me cringe, and I edged back away from the carvings. Statues beat the hell out of Oni and cultists, but I don't want to upset her more. She gets this crack in her voice when she's really worried. It's sweet but heartbreaking, so I can't stand hearing it.

"You might want to come down here, sweetie. There's a tunnel! We should see where it leads! I'll be there's something really cool." There's more sugar and calmness in my voice than I'm feeling. I head down the tunnel, careful of my step. Lara curses somewhere above me, and I grin to myself as I hear her climbing down.

She catches up to me a few moments later and I feel her hands on my shoulder. I put up with her inspecting me for damage, with a roll of my eyes. "I'm okay, but I'm not going to stop you if you want to frisk me."

"Yes, you're so dangerous," she says. Her sarcasm is so dry it makes me thirsty. And a little irritated. I can be dangerous. I'm not helpless. Maybe I can't shoot an arrow through someone's wedding ring at a hundred yards, but I like to think I can help Lara out if she needs me to. No. I will help her out, whether she wants me to or not. We're partners. I can't accept anything else.

I poke her in the ribs. "I can be."

"Sam, you know I don't want you-"

I cut her off. "You've taught me to shoot, you've ran me through hours of edible plants and how to make a fire and all kinds of shit like that. I can handle this."

She looks at me, and I catch the smallest of twitches at the corner of her lips. I'm not sure what it means, but I like it when I can make her smile.