Kurtis accepted the hand and was pulled onto his feet. He took a slow walk to where Lara was laid; he noticed that she was indeed shivering under three blankets. 'That's not good' Kurtis thought to himself. He crouched next to Lara and placed two fingers on either side of her head. After placing his cool fingers on her temples, Kurtis closed his eyes and began going through Lara's mind. Although this was not his objective, Kurtis saw some of Lara's memories. The ones from Paris and Prague being the most vivid but there were others.

One that he did see was Lara trapped in a tomb in Egypt, fearing for her life. He felt all of her feelings; fear, anger, sadness. He then saw the aftermath of Lara being trapped. He saw the memory of Lara, walking into the manor after weeks of being trapped and having to find her way out. She had a broken arm, she was battered, bruised and bleeding; in need of medical help. Kurtis couldn't do anything but watch as Lara's memories came flooding into his mind. When he couldn't take the strain anymore he mentally jerked her awake.

Lara startled awake, her eyes snapped open. Her memories, that she had long since pushed aside, came back to her. She took in a deep breath. Before she could move, Lara felt a set of arms come around her waist. She looked up to see Alex's blue eyes looking at her.

"Lara" Alex whispered, barely audible to Lara.
"Alex, what's going on?" Lara asked patiently. That's when she saw Kurtis, slumped in the chair next to her, asleep.
"Is he okay?" Lara said frantically, trying to get up but ending up on the floor. She turned over and felt a strong arm wrap around her waist.
"Lara," Alex began. "The question is are you?"
"I'm fine" Lara said, trying to keep herself calm. "But is Kurtis. He looks exhausted, what happened to him?"
"Well to start with I told him what would happen if he hurts you again and then his mind is probably exhausted from mentally waking you up" Alex clarified.
"Right..." Lara began. "He needs to sleep so I suggest we leave him awhile. I however need to go to that excavation site and get a heads up on what they're looking for"
"I'm coming with you" Alex said confidently. When it looked like she was going to argue he said "Two tomb raiders are better than one"
"Quite true, but it isn't going to be easy, you can't just skip out on me" Lara said mournfully.
"Hey," Alex said placing a hand on her cheek. "I'm not going to leave you, trust me". With that he placed a kiss on her forehead. He went out the door and took a walk to the site.
"That's what I'm afraid of" Lara said to herself out loud. Could she trust him not to skip out on her? She then went out of the door and firmly locked it.

Lara made a slow journey to the excavation site. She noticed it looked horribly like the one in which she had been trapped in. Her body tensed at the memory..

Alex had been talking to one of the men that were helping during the dig when Lara had shown up. He saw the look of horror on her face, the tenseness of her body. He said his goodbyes to the man and made his way over to Lara.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alex asked quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"It's still fresh, but when I'm ready I'll explain." Lara said, equally as quiet.
"I'm not going to rush you" Alex said comfortingly. Lara took comfort in those words. She knew Alex would never pressure her to talk if she didn't want to. He also wouldn't force her to talk until she was ready. She gazed at him, soaking in the loving smile he always gave her. She practically melted, his amazing smile making her go weak at the knees.

Alex took in Lara's amazing figure, her gleeful smile, the way she gazed at him with her crystal blue eyes. He gave her the wonderful half-smile and couldn't take his gaze away from her. He had to though when someone called his name, he looked up.

"Alexander West" Byron spat. "You snivelling coward"
"Coyle," Alex said calmly. "Didn't expect to be seeing you again"
"I didn't expect to see you with the infamous Lady Croft" Byron said, emphasizing 'Lady Croft'
"Leave her out of this, this is between you and me" Alex said defiantly.
"I'm sorry Mr West but she made it her business when she stole something that was of value to me" Byron spat, glaring at Lara. "Mr Trent was of such value"
"This is your final warning. If you go near any of my friends, ever, then you'll be leaving Egypt in a wooden box" Lara threatened, raising her voice slightly. All she could think about was grabbing her pistols from her holsters and shooting Byron.
"You could be of such use to me too, Ms Croft" Byron said, retreating back to his hut. Neither Lara nor Alex heard what Byron had said.

"Lara, we need to leave" Alex said frantically.
"Why? We need to find the artefact" Lara asked.
"Because if Coyle's here then that can only mean trouble for all involved" Alex said, looking into Lara's eyes.
"Look Alex, I'm not leaving here until I find and destroy that artefact. I'm doing this with or without you." Lara said defiantly. "Without you will only take longer."
"Lara, I told you then and I'm telling you now. I'm not going to leave you while you still need me" Alex said confidently. "We're in this together". To confirm that he refused to leave, Alex placed a firm kiss on Lara's lips.

When he pulled away, Alex noticed that Lara looked upset. But deciding no to push her to talk about it, he went to go and get his gun. Lara was reliving the horrific Egypt memory. Now that she had remembered, it would not leave her mind. 'Even Alex can't keep them away' Lara thought sadly to herself. To keep herself busy she went to check on Kurtis, who was still in a light sleep in the armchair. She went to place a hand on his forehead but stopped when she saw that Kurtis' hands were shaking. She took one of his hands into her own and placed her other hand on his forehead.

'Something's not right' Lara thought to herself. When Kurtis started to stir she looked up at his eyes.

Lara?
Yeah, it's me
why haven't you left yet?
I told you why.
It's dangerous here. Even Alex says so.
Eavesdropper
Well I wouldn't have to if you would learn to trust people more.

With that, Lara stood up; releasing his hand and went to go and see Alex. She didn't see that a black shadow of a person was standing beside the door, waiting for the right moment to attack...