A/N: Thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing and favoriting this story. As I was writing the epilogue for Its Called Enjoying Yourself I couldn't help but wonder what Ian was thinking after the cave collapse and once they got to Kyrgyzstan. This is based mostly on Mission 4, especially inspired by that little heart doodle on the pad in the Kabras' hotel room, with a little of The Sword Thief and Beyond the Grave. I had fun writing this. I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think.

Detour

"Ian, you need to see this." Natalie's shrill voice pierced Ian's distracted thoughts. He ignored her as he had already done at least a hundred times today. For the last two days Ian had done nothing but sit and stare out the window at the disgusting, brown, barren land surrounding their "hotel" here in Bishkek, Kyrgzystan. From the moment he and his sister had learned they'd been tricked by their cousins into looking for the non-existent "Lake Tash", Ian had been unable to do anything but think about Amy Cahill. He thought about Amy twirling on the grass outside Alestair Oh's home in South Korea, Amy enjoying Alistair's dusty little secret library, Amy's shocked stare just after their brief, almost-kiss outside the cave, Amy smiling at him in the dark of the cave, Amy crying when he closed the cave, Amy being crushed by tons of cave rock collapsing on her.

"Ian, this is important. You have to see this. IAN! Stop moping and get your lazy bum over here." There was no response from the lifeless sod at the other end of the suite. Natalie sighed and shook her head. Her pathetic, love-sick brother was being impossible. It wasn't bad enough that they were trapped here in room 203 of the Amur Viper Hotel, of all places, waiting for transportation, or that their vile relatives had tricked them into coming here instead of following a real lead. How dare they think they could fool Kabras! Its a good thing they're dead, or they'd never get away with it! No, on top of all that, Ian was completely useless because he was mooning over the Cahill girl, Amy, their destitute, wardrobe-deficient enemy.

Natalie rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose in disgust. How could her suave, normally intelligent, devastatingly handsome and rich brother possibly be attracted to someone so horrifyingly beneath him? It was a disgrace to the Kabra name. Ian thought he was keeping it a secret, but Natalie could read past his carefully controlled blank expression to the weak, romantic emotion hidden beneath. Besides that, Ian talked in his sleep, and he'd been having nightmares since South Korea. She'd even found a doodle he'd drawn on the note pad by the phone. It was a heart that said, "Ian loves Amy". Embarrassed for her brother and angry at his betrayal, she had viciously crossed the heart out and destroyed the paper. Her only consolation was that Amy and Daniel Cahill were out of the picture for good now, and soon enough Ian would get over this pathetic, ridiculous, distracting infatuation and get back to clue hunting with her. At least, she had thought they were out of the picture. Until now…

"Ian, it's about Amy Cahill," she singsonged. This time he responded immediately. His head shot up and he drilled her with the famous Kabra interrogation glare they'd both been instilled with as children.

"What? What about Amy?" he barked. It figured. The first coherent speech from him in days and it was about that annoying, fashion-challenged peasant.

"Oh, I just thought you'd like to know that those filthy orphans may not be quite as dead as we thought."

"That's not possible. They were crushed in that cave-in," he replied flatly. He tried to sound casual and disinterested, even though he really just wanted to shove Natalie out of her chair and see what was on her screen. Instead he dignified himself by pretending to be indifferent.

"While you've been moping about, I got tired of dealing with the worst room service I have ever experienced. Did you even notice they served grape jelly with our breakfast instead of homemade preserves. Outrageous! I insisted on a completely new breakfast. You didn't even touch your food, I noticed. Anyway, instead of just sitting here and doing nothing, like some people, I've been monitoring the movements of the other clue hunters. Jonah is in Egypt, of all places, and I don't know why. Who would want to go to Egypt? That hot sun withers people into prunes, and all that sand getting everywhere, into clothes, shoes, purses…" She shuddered delicately.

"Natalie, do you have a point?"

"Well, if you're going to be rude about it, I won't tell you what I found." Ian forced himself not to react and just stared out the window like he didn't care.

"Fine, I'll tell you," Natalie huffed. "I noticed some strange activity at the Ekat stronghold in Cairo, the Hotel Excelsior. Look at this surveillance footage. Here, going into the Executive Suite. See, three people carrying backpacks and duffel bags, not designer luggage. Anyone who stays in an executive suite would never been seen carrying such horrid bags. And…there, that looks like a cat carrier."

"Where? Let me see." Ian jumped up from the saggy couch and rushed towards the table, where Natalie had set up their laptop. Midway across the room he noticed his sister's suspicious smirk and slowed his pace to a careless saunter. He wouldn't get too excited. The Cahills couldn't really be alive, could they? How would they have managed to escape the cave collapse?

"So? Everyone has cats in Egypt. What would make you think that's them?"

"Normally, nothing, really, but Irina is also there in Egypt. I hacked her e-mail account, and she reported following Amy and Daniel into a tomb of some kind."

"She actually saw them? They're alive?" Ian almost succeeded in keeping the excitement out of his voice, but not quite. He tried harder, "That's…surprising. Why didn't you mention Irina's report to begin with?" He shoved Natalie out of the chair and sat down, squinting intently at the picture on the screen. There was a flash of long, auburn hair, someone who looked like a skunk, and a boy eating something. Yes, it could be them…

"It was more fun this way," Natalie commented casually, inspecting her fingernails as she spoke. Really, Ian? Do you really think I can't tell what's on your mind? What had happened to the cool, driven intellectual Ian had been his whole life? It was like all his undercover agent training had never happened. Honestly, couldn't he even manage to pretend not to care for the girl?

"Where are they now?" Ian snapped, "We've got to hurry and get there. What's taking our transportation so long? Inexcusable, low-class hotel without an air strip. I should report them to the International Business Agency…Where is my phone? Not that it matters, there isn't good reception here anyway…" Ian was suddenly a flurry of activity, running about the room and throwing things in bags. It was a striking contrast to his recent sloth-like inactivity.

"Ian. IAN! What are you doing?"

"I'm making arrangements. We've got to get to Egypt. I have to see – I mean, we have to figure out their lead before they find the next clue."

"Already done. Here's our flight info. You're welcome." She smugly held out the pad, covered with the travel information. Ian noticed Natalie's unicorn doodle decorating the page and smirked at her childishness. The he remembered the little heart he'd drawn on the same pad in a moment of longing and the smirk disappeared. Where had that paper gone? Had Natalie seen it? If she had, that could complicate things. Natalie would have blackmail material on him. He hardly cared, though. Amy was alive and he was going to see her again in…how many hours? Too long.

As Ian turned restlessly to pace back across the room, there was a knock at the door. The footman announced that there was an urgent phone call at the front desk for "Master and Madame Kabra." They grabbed their bags and hurried down to the lobby. It was one of their parents' agents on the line, instructing them on a new lead. They were to go to Budapest, Hungary to look at some old crown. Why Budapest? Ian thought in frustration. He needed to get to Egypt. But orders were orders, and a lead was a lead. They must go to Hungary now, and hopefully catch up with the Cahills later. Resigned, he hurriedly checked them out of the hotel and they went to meet the limo that had just pulled up outside. Frowning with frustration, Ian grumbled under his breath, "This lead had better be worth it."

The Kabra siblings settled into the limo and Ian took out his phone to begin research on the crown of St. Steven.

"Well, it's about time," Natalie commented. She was right. Their detour to Kyrgystan had cost them time they couldn't afford and he'd wasted every minute of it uselessly daydreaming about nothing. He'd lost himself for a while, but now it was time to get his mind back on business, back to the Clue Hunt. He smirked evilly up at Natalie.

"You're right, sister. Let's get caught up." He turned to his phone to continue researching. Ian Kabra was back in the game.

The End