Alex stared at her sleeping husband's face. She often forgot how young he really was until she saw his slumbering face. The stress of being a good pharaoh so often showed on his countenance. She'd been stuck in ancient Egypt for over two and a half years, and had long since given up wanting to go back. Sure, there were some things... a lot of things, that she missed. Technology being the main thing. Too many times she'd found herself willing to sell her own skin for cell phone service, just so she wouldn't have to traverse the entirety of the palace just to find someone. Surprisingly they did have indoor plumbing, but no one had thought to invent the water heater just yet. But being with Ahk was totally worth it. He'd hit a growth spurt last year and she was now eye level to his pectorals. Not that she minded. From all the martial arts training she'd been putting him through in their spare time, they were very attractive pectorals.

Ahk had been crowned king on his sixteenth birthday. And almost over night he became the man she'd left behind in the future. The only time his old self showed through was when they found out she was pregnant four months after their marriage. She'd never seen him so happy. And she had shared in his joy.

The assassins that had been captured for his father's death, had been found in their cells dead the next day. No one knew who had done it, or how. And no one had ever had a chance to question them. So whoever had hired them, had never been caught.

New assassins were hired by the mystery traitor and this time their mark was her. She'd fought them off as best as she could, but being seven months pregnant at the time slowed her down and limited her movements. They'd pinned her, knocking her down and repeatedly kicking her, before finally stabbing her in the belly. Being pregnant had saved her life at the cost of her child.

It was after this incident that the spy that the previous pharaoh had placed in the wives' chambers had discovered that it was Mert, Kahmunrah's mother who had been hiring the assassins. According to the spy, she'd been working alone. Ahk had been left with no choice but to put her death for treason against the crown.

One hand absently stroking the scar on her stomach, she frowned as she watched him sleep. He was seventeen now. And according to history, he was going to die soon. He'd never told her how he had died. For that she was grateful. If she knew, she would definitely try to stop it. She still might try to stop it if she recognized the moment when it came. And in doing so ruin everything they had...everything they would have in the future. "Wibbly wobbly timey wimey," she mumured.

"You say that often. What does it mean?" he asked.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Awhile. You were so enthralled with my beauty, I didn't wish to disturb you." He chuckled at her look of dismay. She gave him a playful shove, which he answered by pulling her closer and kissing her. Before things could go any farther there was a knock at the door signalling the start of his day. They both groaned their annoyance, as they begrudgingly left the warmth of the bed. She helped him dress, before dressing herself, and with one last kiss saw him off. Knowing she most likely wouldn't see him again until tonight, she sighed at the irony. A three thousand year gap and nothing really changed.

Ahk had given her a mission today. She was to sneak out and deliver some goods to Savta, who would divide them amongst the slaves who needed them most. The guards were not to know. They would tell Ahk's older siblings, who would then bust his chops. Turned out that before Merenkahre had met Shepseheret, he'd been a real player. He'd had thirteen concubines, four wives, and among them all had fathered almost two dozen children.

To them the slaves were only slaves, but to Ahk and now Alex they were dear friends. If he could have he would probably free them, but first he had to find a way around all the political ramifications. With the the way that most of the royals treated them, Ahk had told her one day, he would not be surprised if, one day, they revolted and fled for freedom as an entire group. Alex had to try very hard not to laugh at his very accurate prediction. She'd made a mental note, if she was ever forced back to the future, ask Ahk to pick out some lottery numbers.

After she'd snuck back into the palace, she did what she normally did during the mid-afternoon. She would sit with the court children, mainly Ahk's neices and nephews, and tell them stories about a time traveling healer. Sometimes, like right now, Ahk would find her and listen in as well. She would always warn the kids not to repeat the stories she told, because no one could ever know about the mysterious healer. Sometimes she caught them fighting over who got to be the healer in a game of pretend. She hoped it was one of those things that got lost to time, and that she didn't ruin an entire franchise by sharing the stories three thousand years too soon. She could just picture archeologists uncovering a heiroglyph of an ancient Egyptian holding an acoustic screwdriver.

She finished her story and the kids ran off to find their now free parents. "You got out early today," she commented as she took a seat on his lap. His arms wrapped around her thin waist.

"Yes. The other kingdoms seem as eager for peace as I am." He paused. "The stories you tell. Do they come from your homeland?"

"Yes. Well, sort of." He waited for her to go into detail. She didn't.

"Where do you come from?"

How much could she tell him? She looked around the crowded room. "Not here." She stood up grabbing his hand and guiding him into the now empty throne room.

"Why is it such a secret?"

She hesitated. "I'm from a place called America. New York, to be more specific."

"I have never heard of these places. Are they far?"

"They are...very far. It's not about the distance though." She paused, weighing her options. Despite its very deceptive start, she wanted their marriage to be based on truth. "I'm..." She took a deep breath, to study her nerves. "I'm from New York City, three thousand years from now. I'm from the future."

He looked at her incredulously. "The future?" She nodded. She had shown him the items she always carried in the satchel at her waist, but it wasn't the first time he had seen new and incredible things from other kingdoms. The stress of the peace talks, the pressure from his siblings to be as good a king as their father, and now this. He snapped. "Do you still see me as a child? You must spin me stories to keep me entertained." His voice rose as he spoke.

"It's not a story." She was desperate for him to believe her.

"It is. Just like the stories you told those children. Why do you not trust me with the truth?"

"It is the truth," she shouted.

"Then tell me something that only a person from the future could know."

Slumping in defeat, she mentally prepared herself for the consequences of what she was about to say. "I can't tell you any specifics. You might try to change the future and if you change any part of the future, then we might not meet at all. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey."

Angrily, he turned on his heel. He couldn't even stand the sight of her right now. "For lying to your pharaoh, you shall be spending your nights in the wives' quarters until further notice." He stormed out.

She collapsed to the floor. It was basically the equivalent of dumping her. Only since he was royal, divorce wasn't an option. She was being sent to the wives' quarters, where she would remain until he called for her. It was like being sent to prison, she wouldn't be allowed to entertain the court children or even step outside for a breath of fresh air. Pulling her knees to her chest, she wept. Apparently her feelings for him weren't returned as much as she thought they were.

Over the next two days, she'd gotten extremely homesick. She'd thought about sneaking out and finding the tablet. She'd been able to sense it ever since it brought her here. But she didn't know how the tablet had brought her here, let alone how to make it send her back. So she did the next best thing, she fell into an extreme depression. Refusing every meal, and every drink, she lay on her matress, waiting to die. She wouldn't kill herself, that would bring shame to Ahk. And for some reason, incomprehensible to her, she still loved him. But she could die. At least then she would have her freedom back and Ahk would be rid of her. She felt sorry for her overly worried mother-in-law. The poor woman had rarely left her side the entire time.

Shepseheret had been very angry with her son when she had found out what he'd done. She had attempted to confront him, only for him to accuse her of falling for the childrens' stories. She had thought she'd raised him to have a more open mind. Or perhaps Merenkahre's older children were getting to him. They had never approved of Alex with her questionable origins, and her strong independence and free spirit. Alex had always approached Ahkmenrah with respect, but as a friend and equal, never as a pharaoh. She had assumed it was the free spirit that caught her sons eye in the first place, he was much like his father after all. Perhaps she'd been wrong.

She was confronting him for a second time. As the mother of the king, she had at least that much freedom. "My son, why do you punish her so?" She asked him for the second time in as many days.

"She lied to me, Mother. She treats me as a child, telling me the same stories she tells to the children of the court."

"How do you know she lied?"

"She said she was from another time. Everyone knows that's impossible. She lied to her pharaoh. My advisors would see her killed for such but I have saved her life by sending her away."

Shepseheret expertly held her temper. "According to my title, none of your advisors are the pharaoh." She was revealing a secret to him that no royal male had ever understood. "The wives' quarters are a prison. None of us can leave without your permission, and there is very little to do when you are trapped in a space that consists of three rooms. There are those of us who were bred for such an existence since birth. Alex is not one of those." She made him look her in the eye. "Such an existence is killing her. You're killing her."

His anger was quickly fading into guilt. "But she-"

His mother interupted him. "She did not lie."

"But-" She put a finger to his lips.

"Why is it impossible for her to be from another time?" She let her hand drop back to his shoulder.

"B-because it is..." he said, understanding slowly dawning.

"I was present with your father when the tablet brought her to us. He believed that she was sent through the tablet by your ancestors, the gods, to guide you in your reign."

"The tablet?"

"It has been yours since its creation. Your father just didn't know how to present such a thing to you until you were old enough." A thought occured to her. "Isn't it also impossible for statues to come to life?" He gaped at her, clearly remembering the day of his official naming as heir as well as the day of his marriage to Alex.

Regaining his composure, he stepped back from his mother. "Bring her to me."

She smiled and bowed her head. "As you wish, my pharaoh."

Alex had a fever and could barely stand on her own. But Shepseheret managed to dress her and walk her to the throne room, where Ahk waited. "What's wrong with her?" He asked worriedly at the sight of her flushed and sweating face. He ordered a guard to summon the healer.

"Since being sent to the wives' quarters she hasn't eaten any food nor drunken any liquids. Her body has become weak and illness must have taken hold. I only left her side for a few hours, she showed no signs before." Shepseheret nearly lost her grip on the girl, when she fell unconscious and no longer supported any of her own weight. Ahk quickly ran over to and effortlessly picked her up.

"Bring the healer to my chambers," he commanded.

No sooner had he situated his wife on their bed, and the healer came in with her novice in tow. The young assisstant, barely older than ten, looked at Alex with wide curious eyes. "Isn't she the one who was banished for lying to the pharaoh?"

Ahk's temper flared before he could catch it. "She is the great royal wife and you will treat her with due respect." The child whimpered and hid behind her teacher. Immediately guilt rushed over him. He turned to the healer as she kneeled beside the bed and set work examining her patient. "Who has been spreading such lies?"

The healer paused in her work to look at him, then continued her examination. "It was your older siblings, my king. They have been telling everyone in the royal court how the great royal wife blatantly lied to your majesty, refusing to give up her origins. And how in a fit of righteous anger you banished her to the desert sands."

His siblings? He thought they were better than that. The healer sensing his unease, continued. "With all due respect, sire. I believe they are trying to make your people see you as a strong and powerful leader."

"There is a difference between being strong and being a good king." He kneeled beside the healer and held Alex's hand. "Without her I am as weak a newborn babe. My aim is to be just and fair, not savage and ruthless."

The healer looked at him again and said something that could get her killed. "Then you have the potential to be a better pharaoh than your father, who strived for both justice and ruthlessness."

He knew the risks she took in saying that. But Alex had taught him that everone had an opinion and that sometimes knowing those opinions could help you become a better person. He wished he'd remembered that when his sibling advisors had been brainwashing him. He met the healer's gaze and decided to change the subject. "What's wrong with my wife?"

"I don't recognize this illness. There have been many foreigners within the palace as of late. It is possible one of them passed it on to her. It is progressing quickly. I will treat it as best I can, but I can make no promises on her survival through the night. I recommend she stays in the wives' quarters so as to avoid tainting your highness."

"No." He nearly shouted. "She will remain here, and I will remain by her side."

"As my pharaoh demands." The healer roughly grabbed the child's arm to escort her out. "You will tell no one what you have seen and heard here," she told the girl then bowed to the king. "I will return shortly with a tincture to ease the great queen's fever."

As the healer left his mother entered asking for news. He relayed to her the diagnosis. Survival of such an illness was extremely rare in this land. Some sicknesses only took hours to kill its victims, and Alex looked as though she were already knocking on death's door. "Perhaps if we could return her to her own time, the healers there can help her," the older woman suggested.

He still couldn't believe that she truly was from another time. Nor did he like the idea of being apart from her. What he did know for certain was that he would much rather have her alive and unreachable, then here and dead. "How do we do such a thing?"

"When she came to this land she appeared from nowhere in a flash of light. She was holding the tablet. The tablet must be key to her travels."

He slid a ring off his finger and handed it to his mother. "Show this to the tablet's guardians. Tell them to bring it to me themselves."

"Yes, my king." She maintained her graceful composure as far as getting out the door. Then she ran like the wind, desperate to save the daughter-in-law she'd come to love like her own flesh and blood. Within mere minutes the royal mother returned with the guardians behind her.

Ahk accepted the tablet from them, placed it Alex's arms, and stepped back. They'd even dressed her, shoes, satchels and all, as though she'd be taking a stroll around the palace. Nothing happened. He reached out to rotate the center tile. A cat statue in the corner of the room leapt from its pedestal, walked straight to Alex and purring loudly, curled up against her side. Still Alex remained the same. "How does the tablet work?" He demanded of the twin guardians.

"Your father was the only one who knew the secrets of the tablet," one replied.

The other added, "He was going to share them with you when you came of age."

Ahk let out an uncharacteristic curse. "You may go," he told the guardians.

"We will continue to guard the tablet," said the first.

"But we will do so from outside the room," the second added, pulling the other unwillingly toward the door.

He nodded his approval. "Mother, keep watch over her until the healer returns. I have matters to attend to regarding my older brothers. I will no longer take their advisements," he said darkly.

Minutes after he left, the healer returned, tincture in hand. When the healing medicine had been administered she warned the great mother. "She will either wake up soon, or not at all."

Shepseheret responded, "When she wakes she will be very hungry as she hasn't eaten in days. Please come with me and advise me in designing a meal for the servants to prepare." The healer nodded and left with her towards kitchens.

Kahmunrah had been waiting in the shadows for this very moment. After three years he finally had his chance. But for his plan to be work he would need that tablet. "Little brother thent me to check on hith wife," he told the guardians. They shared suspicious looks. "I could alwayth tell him how you made hith poor thick beloved die alone." They looked at each other, communicating without words, then, reluctantly, let him pass. After locking the door securely, he walked to the side of the bed. "I have been waiting for thith moment for a long time, dear thithter. I'm sure the illneth will do the job." He unsheathed a dagger from his waist. "But why take the rithk." The illness, of course, had not been part of his plan, but it did, never the less, work towards his favor. He swung the dagger downward toward her heart only to hit the mattress below.

The tablet, as though sensing the danger it was in, had shared a small amount of its energy with her. While still gravely ill, she could move, if only just, and had rolled out of the way. Thunder sounded outside, signifying the rare Egyptian rain. Any inhabitants still awake would be out dancing in it to celebrate. Alex heard a loud pounding on the door and Ahk's muffled voice on the other side as he ordered his guards to break it down. She wanted to call out to him, but her voice seemed stuck in her throat. Kahmunrah began leisurely walking around the bed, stalking her. Clutching the tablet close to her heart, she stumbled her way towards the balcony. He chuckled. "You can't ethcape now. After thtealing my rightful throne, and killing my mother you'll finally get whath coming to you." She slung open the balcony door and pinned herself tight against the railing, as far away as she could get, the rain immediately soaking her thin dress. The cheers of the people below filled her ears. Slipping on the rain slicked floor and losing her balance, she managed to catch herself on the railing and slide down into a sitting position. Kahmunrah stalked closer. The door to the room burst open with a bang and a shower of splinters. She used the railing to pull herself back up. Ahkmenrah and Shepseheret shouted her name, she could not answer. Kahmunrah raised his dagger high, and on instinct she raised the tablet to shield herself. As the tablet raised high, ightning struck it, and the dagger hit nothing but air. The tablet laying on the balcony floor was the only sign that anyone had ever been there. Shouting her name for a second time, Ahk flew to the tablet, all else forgotten. As he bent to pick it up, a dagger entered his back and imbedded in his heart. "One way or another, dear brother, the throne will be mine." Ahkmenrah no longer cared. If it meant being reunited with his beloved then he welcomed death.

Shepseheret screamed and ran to her son, pulling him into her arms even as he breathed his last. Laughing, Kahmunrah took the tablet and began strolling back through the room, passed the guards who were at a loss of what to do. Kahmunrah was next in line since Ahkmenrah had no children. Didn't that mean he was now the pharaoh? Carefully Shepseheret pulled the dagger from Ahk's back, unwilling to damage the heart any more than it had already been. Tears streaming down her face she gently and lovingly laid her son's body on balcony. With another scream she charged at Kahmunrah, dagger held high. The would be king turned just in time to catch it in his own heart. "You will never have this kingdom. You never had what it takes to be king, that's why your father chose Ahkmenrah. You could never hope to be even half the man my son was." Eyes wide with shock and disbelief, he fell down dead.

Upon seeing and understanding all that was taking place, the twin guardians of the tablet stepped around the stunned guards. One kneeled by the now queen pharaoh's side and gently guided her up and out of the room. The other retrieved the tablet and left to summon the priests to deal with the bodies. In the streets below the people ignorantly celebrated, as heaven continued to weep.