A/N: Thanks for the reviews, folks and thanks to MicroGirl1225 for the chapter pre-read.

As always, PM me if you spot anything you feel needs correcting, as this hasn't been beta'd.

More ancient Egyptian temples and relics to see. In Edfu and Kom Umbo, this time…

Chuck vs Egypt

Chapter 16

The horse-drawn carriage was almost as bad as Carina had described. There was room for two to sit side-by-side, but only just.

Set let Zondra climb in first. He had already apologized for his behavior when they ate dinner, so this morning all that was behind them.

As he climbed into the rickety carriage, he almost fell onto the brunette, but managed to catch himself.

As he sat, she leaned into him and whispered, "Nearly sat on my lap! Carina would've been so pleased."

He chuckled.

The driver offered to take a photo of the happy couple. Set was going to point out that they weren't a couple, but Zondra elbowed him in the ribs. As he turned to her, she was grinning. He realized the act for Carina's benefit would be used on the whole ride. He found it amusing, as she did.

Set declined. He hadn't got a phone anyway, and Zondra did the same, not trusting the man. So, the driver shrugged and climbed into the carriage in front of them and waited for his turn to set off.

Set read the driver's mind. He didn't get much pay from the job itself, but relied on money from the passengers. He conned them out of their cash.

This whole concept of money was rather alien to the Ennead. He knew the humans in his time had adopted it, but he had not been involved in the introduction. Here, it seemed to have become a very important part of life, which saddened him. The shortage of funds drove people like this man to trick people out of their money.

He decided he should stop focusing on this and do what Zondra was doing, and just enjoy the ride.

'Enjoy' may be too strong a word, though. The ride was rather crazy and the driver was spending a lot of the time trying to talk to them, rather than facing forward. However, the horse seemed to know where it was going. Whether that was because so many others, ahead, or beside them were following the same route or not was unclear.

Looking to the right, at least initially, they were following the river, but then they dived into the town.

So many carriages and also cars and even pedestrians, all traversing the same streets. For Set, it was bewildering, noisy and almost too much to cope with.

He looked at his travel companion. Zondra seemed to be enjoying it. Her eyes flickering around, taking everything in. He suspected observational skills were used a lot in her role and the ability to notice and catalog everything she saw was very important indeed.

He was more focused on individuals or the specific details of single items. His wife had found that amusing about him, especially as he was an excellent strategist, something that considered the bigger picture.

"You enjoy experiencing the different cultures, don't you?" he asked his companion.

Zondra looked at him. Her eyes showed it before she responded. "I do. So different from my own."

He remembered back to arriving on the planet. He'd had that enthusiasm then. Now, it just felt like something he had to endure. He suspected that was because he no longer had the love of his life with him to experience things.

Maybe Zondra's enthusiasm could rub off on him.

He leaned into her. Her mind was flitting about as much as her eyes. Capturing the images, sound and even smells of the city.

Then, suddenly, they were away from the streets and on a path toward their destination which lay ahead. Nothing else was on the road but horse carriages.

Soon, they halted and the horses and carriages were stacked one behind the other.

The driver helped them off, paying too much attention to Zondra. She obviously thought so too and glared at the man. He sheepishly pointed to the number on the side of the carriage, "57" was what they should look for when they were to return to the boat.

Their guide was calling them to join him. They didn't rush. It would take a while as some of the group still hadn't arrived.

"That was romantic," Chuck said as he and Sarah joined Set and Zondra. Sarah winked at them. These two were in on the joke they were playing on Carina. It was only on the ride though, so no hand holding. In fact, Set now knew they'd been advised that hand holding was frowned on, so the real happy couple weren't either.

Carina and her man for the day walked up to them.

"My head would've gone through the top of the carriage if I'd sat in Seth's lap, so we had to just snuggle close," Zondra said. Carina huffed. She obviously wasn't convinced but didn't really know.

Once the group were together, the Egyptologist gave them a talk about what they were to see.

Set tuned out. He wasn't really interested. He took the opportunity to observe the rest of the group.

There were a couple of older women traveling together. Probably sisters. Both wore what Chuck told him were wedding rings. In this time, people wore them to signify they were married. Permanently with each other, until they separated as many did. If one died, then the other would continue to wear their ring to show that they had been married, unless they found someone else and wore the ring they offered. If separated, or divorced as they called it, the ring was removed, signifying that they were available. Of course, before being married that was also true, unless the woman wore what they called engagement rings. These signified taken but not yet married. Set wasn't sure if that signified that there was still a chance for someone else to stake a claim or not.

It was all very confusing, especially as Chuck and Sarah were so clearly 'taken' by each other, yet they wore no rings to signify that. Actually, that wasn't true. Sarah wore rings, but not on the third finger of her left hand, the 'ring' finger used for these bindings.

Anyway, these two older sisters wore wedding rings. Either their husbands were dead or just unable to join them on this tour. He could've dipped into their minds to find out but refrained.

There were the three men buzzing around Carina. She seemed to select one a night from what he'd been told. Fidelity was obviously not important in this time.

Other than that, there were several couples, all wearing wedding rings, of various ages. He couldn't assess that, but Zondra had told him they mostly ranged from early thirties to mid-sixties, plus one couple who were in their late seventies, and the slowest.

Other than another, younger couple, the only ones in their twenties were Chuck and the three girls, but all of those were in their late twenties.

So, quite an age range, in all.

The group started moving, so Seth walked alongside Zondra. "You ok?" she asked.

He lent down and quietly said, "Just not interested in these histories or myths."

She whispered back, "Well, you're supposed to be, so act like it."

She was right, that was his story. He would have to pretend.

Chuck was having difficulty. The whole 'not holding hands' was quite restrictive when that was exactly what he wanted to do.

He knew it was stupid, but holding Sarah's hand seemed important, somehow.

"Focus, Chuck. We both wanted to come here."

"Sorry, Sarah."

"Are you thinking about Set?"

He wasn't and felt guilty. "No, just being my usual selfish self." She raised a brow. "I want to hold your hand," he confessed.

She laughed. "Well, I'd like that too, but remember how people will feel about it."

He sighed. "Let's just enjoy being here. Together."

"Enjoy this, Chuck," she said. "No pressure. No risk of being stuck here." He had to agree with that.

He briefly thought about the pressure of what they'd do on return to Los Angeles, but pushed that to the back of his mind and just took in what the temple had to offer.

Set was confused almost straight away.

The myths portrayed on the temple were a puzzling mix. It showed Horus and Hathor together as a married couple. That was exactly what he remembered - the Ennead couple that Chuck and Sarah had met. In their mythology it equated to Horus the Elder, again the one married to Hathor.

However, there were also scenes of Horus in conflict with Set. That was from the myths about the younger Horus, the son of Osiris.

"They can't even get their myths straight,' Set muttered to Zondra. She agreed. It was a mess.

He had to admit that the temple was impressive, though, and the inscriptions telling how it was built would be fascinating to decipher, if he had the time.

When they left the temple, they walked to their respective carriages.

As Set and Zondra approached their carriage, Carina caught up with them. "You weren't close in the temple."

Zondra looked at her. "We can't when walking about, any more than Chuck and Sarah can." She looked at Set and fluttered her eyelashes. "But oh, the ride he gave me!"

Carina snorted. "I know it's just an act."

"Life is but an act," Set said. Both women stared at him. He shrugged. "Well, it is."

Carina didn't know what to say. She just shook her head. Taking that as a sign of disagreement, he said, "You act interested in each of the men you are with, but you aren't really. They just take your mind off what you're missing."

Carina spluttered. Zondra knew she should intervene but was fascinated in his insights. "And what's she missing?" she asked.

He pointed at Chuck and Sarah. "That. Real intimacy, not just copulation." He looked at the redhead. "But you are frightened of intimacy."

The speechless Carina turned on her heels and walked to her carriage which already had Jake in it.

"Is that what you see in her head?" Zondra asked.

He knew she was still trying to get used to the idea that he could. "It is," Set replied.

"Wow!" Zondra shook her head. "She's jealous of them."

"She is."

They quickly got into the carriage, and it set off.

Zondra had her arm linked with Set's. She felt more comfortable like that.

When they were back in the streets, she spotted a man at the side of the road ahead, selling food. She pointed it out to Set.

The driver spotted her doing that and got the horse to stop. He leaped out. "I'll get you one," he said and rushed over to the stall.

Set was surprised that the man had left them in an unattended carriage.

Other carriages passed them and what he feared happened. Their horse decided to follow the others.

"Woah," Zondra called out but the horse ignored her and started to pick up speed.

This wasn't going to end well, so Set focused his mind on the horse which was, in effect, out of control.

* Slow and stop *

The horse responded to the mental command and slowed to a trot before stopping completely.

The driver ran up bearing two sweet potatoes wrapped in foil. He jumped up into his seat, acting as if nothing had happened. He turned to them, opening and offering them the contents of one of his packages.

"No thanks," both said. He looked disappointed but stored both potatoes, now completely wrapped in the foil, in a compartment between them and turned back. He grabbed the reins and set off again.

Zondra just sat back, stunned, and thought about what had happened.

As they climbed aboard their boat, they were supposed to go straight to lunch, but most people headed to their cabins first.

Sarah went with Zondra because the latter pulled her that way, although she now thought of Chuck's cabin as hers.

Once in the cabin, Zondra told her what had happened.

"The horse was a runaway. Anything could've happened. I was getting ready to climb over into the front seat and grab the reins, but I noticed Set holding his temple, concentrating. The horse slowed and then stopped completely." She gripped Sarah's hands. "He used some sort of mind control on the beast, Sarah. I'm sure of it."

Sarah didn't know what to say. This wasn't something she and Chuck had come across when back in time, but they hadn't been around any animals.

"We should talk to Set and Chuck about this after lunch," she said.

"We should," Zondra agreed.

They both used the bathroom and then headed down to lunch.

After lunch the four of them agreed to go up to the sun deck. Afternoon tea was going to be laid on later. The boat had already set off down the Nile heading for the next stop, Kom Ombo.

They all changed and soon they were sitting at a table well away from the other passengers, drinking beers. The girls were in bikinis, ready to sunbathe, but wore light cover-ups for now.

Chuck was extremely attentive of his girlfriend, which made Zondra smile. Sarah noticed and grinned at her friend. "I've never had so much attention… that I wanted."

Zondra laughed. "Yeah. That you wanted."

"Sunbathing with my protector nearby will be so much more enjoyable," the blonde commented.

"Is it because you all cover up so much that the men of this time react as they do when they see more of you?" Set asked.

Zondra looked at him in his t-shirt and shorts. "Women are just as bad," she commented. Then, she realized his meaning. She looked at her friend. "Were you topless back then?"

Sarah put her bottle down and looked at her friend. She knew she was blushing, but tried to ignore it. "Initially."

Zondra looked at Chuck, grinning. "What did you think?"

His cheeks were red. He didn't seem to know what to say, so Sarah said, "He tried to be respectful, but his eyes were definitely drawn in a certain direction."

"Well, she is gorgeous," Chuck finally managed to say.

Zondra grinned. "But there must've been so many breasts to look at."

"Only when we walked amongst the ancient Egyptians," Sarah said. "The Ennead women were always covered."

"Unlike the female gods in the paintings, carvings and statues," Set muttered.

"I think that made the Egyptians feel the gods were more like them, less frightening," Chuck commented.

"We never tried to frighten them," Set said quietly.

"You, the Ennead, didn't," Sarah said. "But the gods they imagined did."

"The god that Christians and Jews believe in, is sometimes presented as a vengeful being," Chuck commented.

"It's the priests that want to wield power that do that," muttered Zondra. "Not the gods themselves. Religion has caused more problems in the world than anything else, but that's not really the religion itself, but those that use it to sway the population to do what they want."

The other three just stared at her. Eventually, Sarah said, "It's not all bad, Zee."

"Maybe not," she conceded.

"Can we talk about the event this afternoon," Sarah said.

Chuck looked at her. "What happened?"

She looked at Zondra and Set. Zondra explained what had happened with the driver getting off. "What!?" Chuck cried and Sarah had to quiet him down. "You could've been hurt!" he said, but much quieter. "The carriage could've toppled over or gone out into the traffic and been hit!"

"I know," Zondra said. "Things like that flashed in front of me. I was going to try to climb into the front seat to grab the reins."

"You could've fallen," Set said.

She looked at him. "Tell us what you did," she said.

He sighed. "We Ennead can control the minds of some creatures. They need to be intelligent enough to receive instructions and not so much that they are capable of reasoning themselves. So, not humans or monkeys, but horses are possible. I instructed the horse. For the creature, it would be like it decided to do what I commanded."

Sarah had some warning of this, but Chuck was completely dumb struck. She had to push his jaw up with a finger to close his mouth.

She turned back to Set. "We didn't know about this."

Set nodded. "Most of us didn't do it often. Some, like my friend Sobek, did to make the Nile safer. He controlled crocodiles. Others, like Bastet, did the same with wild cats."

"Hence the mythology surrounding them," Sarah said. She wished that she'd know this before. The conversation with Bastet would have been fascinating.

"The next stop, Kom Ombo, includes a visit to Sobek's temple," Chuck mentioned.

Sarah watched Set. The wave of emotions displayed on his face showed how he felt about his friend, probably all of his friends. She placed a hand on his. "You don't have to come to see it," she softly said.

He looked at her. "No. I want to go. I know it won't be him there, but their mythological version, but maybe I can still say goodbye to him."

She could see the anguish in his black eyes, but also a determination to say farewell. She nodded her understanding.

The catering staff appeared bearing the afternoon tea and cakes. Then, other passengers started to appear as well. This conversation was over now, but Sarah was glad that they understood the Ennead better, although she wondered what else was unknown.

Kom Umbo was a larger city than Edfu. The temple dedicated to Set was not on the tour itinerary, which had pleased him. He would not go to one that celebrated his namesake's warlike nature.

He felt tearful as they toured around the ruined temple dedicated to the god that was based on his friend, Sobek. It was a reminder that he'd never see that friend again. Never go out into the desert shooting with him or wrestle with him. A reminder of how much he missed his friend.

However, he'd chosen this new life and needed to embrace it fully.

The carvings of the god Sobek with the crocodile head made him chuckle. He remembered Sobek grumbling about that while also being pleased that he had made the Nile safer for all by controlling those creatures.

Before they went back to the boat, they were taken into the fairly recently built crocodile museum. The creatures were seen as sacred by the Egyptians. There were a number of the creatures in there mummified.

That was another reminder of the practice adopted by these people.

As the personification of his friend, Set said goodbye to the crocodiles in there.

Zondra had stayed with him and she guided the tearful Ennead out of the museum.

"Are you ok, Seth?" Jean, one of the two sisters, asked.

"A reminder of someone I've lost," he replied without thought.

"Ahh, to a crocodile?" she asked.

He couldn't reply, so Zondra did for him. "The crocodiles of the Nile are mental associations with his friend."

Jean patted his arm, looking sorry for him. "Look after him," she said to Zondra. Then she walked off to join her sister.

Zondra turned back to him. "A drink in the bar when we get back?"

He nodded. "Yes, please. I don't want to be on my own for a while."

"A few whiskeys will work wonders," she said.

He thought they would numb the pain enough for him to sleep, but he wondered when he would fully get over his loss.

"Coming here is proving hard on Set," Sarah said to Chuck as they lay in bed holding each other.

Chuck nodded. "For me, it was awful losing my parents, but I still had my sister and gran, plus Morgan. I wasn't completely on my own like he is. I can't imagine how that must hurt."

"We'll do our best for him," she said.

That made him consider how they'd do that, but there was something more pressing in his mind. "Sarah, can we talk about what's going to happen when we return to LA?"

She had her head in the crook of his neck, but knew this talk had been coming. She pulled back and lay her head on her own pillow, facing him. "We've already talked about it."

He sighed. "I know, but it's getting close now. In less than two days we'll be heading back. Then, we'll be apart." She saw tears forming in his eyes.

She leaned forward to kiss him. "We knew this was coming, Chuck."

"Being apart during the day is going to be horrible, but not seeing you as soon as I finish work will be a killer. I wish you'd move in with me."

"I don't even know what I'll be doing when I go back. I could be anywhere," she said, trying to get him to understand reality.

"But if you are still in LA?"

She sighed this time. "Let's see how we get on apart for a few days." He looked horrified at the thought. "I might feel the same and the second day, you'll find me at your door with stuff to move in."

"Sarah, do you really love me?"

She was taken by surprise with that question. "Of course I do."

"So, why don't you want to live with me?"

She just looked at him for a moment or two. She had to tell him about her parents. She should've already done this.

Holding his gaze, she said, "Chuck, to help you understand why I'm struggling with this in spite of loving you, I'm going to tell you about my past. I'm sorry not to have done this before."

A/N: My wife and I experienced the runaway horse when we were in Edfu. As here, the driver decided to stop and buy sweet potatoes. It was pretty scary. Neither of us could get to the front and the reins, as the carriage was shaking so much. Thankfully, after probably less than a minute, one of the other drivers got his carriage in the way, and slowed the horse enough for our driver to run up and bring us to a halt. Then, he calmly offered us one of the sweet potatoes! Nothing like a bit of excitement to liven up your vacation!

Next chapter Chuck gets to hear Sarah's history.