Blind Hope

I quickly found Nick some clothes that he needed and rushed back to the morgue. There wasn't anything I could explain to him being alive, all I knew was that I was incredibly happy he hadn't died on that plane. I threw the clothes at him and he put them on almost falling down when he put his pants on. The bodies that were there, were those of soldiers, Greenway, and the pilots. I quickly signed the forms outside the morgue so we could get out of there as quickly as possible. I texted Josephine letting her know we would be going to a bar and to come as soon as she could, we may need some help from Rick and her after all.

"Got it, we'll be there soon as we can." She texted back almost immediately. I quickly got a cab for Jenny, Nick and I and we left. The only reason we were going to this shoddy bar was because Nick had requested it, it wasn't my scene but surely I did need a drink. We arrived outside meeting up with Josephine and Rick.

"Nick!" Rick exclaimed as he saw us get out of the cab. Nick and Rick had a weird bond, I didn't like to dwell on it.

"Rick. How great to see you! God you haven't aged a day!" Nick replied happily shaking my Great Grandfather's hand. He eyed my Great Grandmother up and down. I shuddered watching as his interest peaked. "Josephine! You're looking stunning as ever." Nick continued talking going to hug her, she dodged him skillfully and curled into the arm of her husband. I could tell she wanted to get the knife out of her boot and teach him a lesson, but she had decided against the potential police encounter that would occur.

"Well now that we've got settled, how about we go inside?" I asked them. Everyone nodded I could tell they wanted to get out of this weather as soon as possible, it looked atrocious just waiting to rain down on us.

"A US military plane crash landed in Surrey this evening just missing Waverley Abbey." The TV rang out as we took our seat at a table. I ordered some shots to get the conversation flowing smoothly. Nick downed about five before we started to talk to him.

"How did you get out of that plane? There's not a single scratch on your body." Jenny started the conversation.

"Yeah." Nick replied downing another. Rick looked at him with eyes that could kill.

"Thank you." I said.

"For what?" He asked me.

"You saved my life." I replied to him wondering if he'd forgotten those three words he said to me before he pulled my chute.

"You would have done the same for me." He said as he downed another shot. I nodded slowly, remembering I would have sacrificed Jenny to save him.

"Listen, Nick. I think you should know something. You know I work with a group of archaeologists." Jenny started talking again, annoyed I rolled my eyes and downed one of Nick's shots he looked at me like I had just shot his puppy. I shrugged at him.

"Keep going..." Josephine urged the woman opposite her to continue talking as she sipped on her beer.

"Well we developed this theory that an Egyptian princess had been erased from the history books deliberately. We've been searching for something called, 'The Dagger of Set'." Jenny continued.

"A ceremonial knife with a large jewel at the hilt. Set is the Egyptian God of death. And legend has it that the dagger and the stone together had the power to give Set physical form. I'm convinced it was hidden here, in Europe. Stolen by crusaders centuries ago. It would make sense with the recent find underneath the new crossrail right before we found the tomb in Iraq." I told the group.

"You know I actually found a reference to it in a manuscript written by a crusader knight that suggested the dagger was broken apart. That the stone was buried with this knight somewhere here in England." Josephine continued for me. I rose my eyebrows at that information. Of course. It all made so much sense now.

"A massive crusader tomb, was recently discovered under London. We believe that the stone is in there somewhere." Rick said to us picking up on the conversation.

"That's what we were looking for before you showed up with the princess in the legend." Josephine told me.

"The hieroglyphics said that she murdered her father." I told Nick getting him up to speed on the recent stuff we had figured out.

"Murdered?" He asked.

"Along with his child and wife. She made some sort of pact with the God of death. And then, when I saw those birds and that sandstorm. Whatever, I mean something is happening. You are alive I do not know how." I told him baffled at the discovery Josephine was near.

"I'm sorry, Nick. I think we angered the Gods." I heard Jenny say next to me I rolled my eyes and looked at her.

"Can you excuse me? I'll be right back." I nodded, as Nick said as he got up from the table.

"Really?? That's what you go with? We've angered the Gods?" I asked her annoyed watching as Nick left for the bathroom.

"Yes, that's what I'm going with. Excuse me." Jenny got up and left the table as well.

"You know, Nick reminds me a bit of Jonathan." Josephine said a glint in her eye as she sipped her beer. I laughed out loud.

"Oh my god, there's no way, not you too." I told her she laughed.

"He's like a hybrid of Jon and Rick." She replied to me.

"Not a bad combination." Rick said to me smirking.

"You're like my parents." I rolled my eyes running my hands through my hair. As they laughed.

"How did you do it?" I asked them.

"You have my journal. Use it." Josephine told me, not giving me much to go off of here.

"I know, I know." I said to her.

"That boy still likes you Liz, I see the way he stares at you, he wants you to be happy." Rick jumped in.

"Not what he wanted when he was going to raid my find." I said to him.

"Well..." Rick cocked his head to the right looking at Josephine.

"You do crazy things when you're in love." She finished and kissed her husband. They smiled at each other.

"How about this, we'll look for the dagger of Set and you three find that mummy. You need your own name on the discovery and we don't need any more publicity. We've had enough of that for our lifetime." Josephine proposed. I smiled slowly as they put $100 down on the table to pay for everything. They both got up from their seats and I got up with them hugging them as I walked them outside. I noticed Nick in the middle of the street.

"Nick! What the hell are you doing?" I yelled at him to get him to look at me. He grabbed me as I ran up to him.

"I think Jenn was right. We angered the Gods." He said slowly.

"Wait.. what?" I asked him wrapping my head around the conversation he was trying to have with me.

"I saw her, the chick in the box." He started wrapping his arms around me in a hug.

"Ahmanet?" I asked making sure to confirm this was who he was talking about.

"That one." He whispered out as he steered me away from the bar.

"Nick..." I trailed off. Attempting to ask him what was going on between us.

"He said I'm cursed." He started to talk again.

"Who said?" I asked him raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Vail." He answered me his eyes wild.

"Vail?" I asked him, oh good he was seeing dead people. "NICK!! I'm trying to tell you something here!" I yelled at him. He stopped and grabbed both my shoulders pulling me in front of him.

"What?!" He asked me getting annoyed I wasn't letting him finish.

"I love you too." I blurted out, he stared at me. I spun around getting out of his grasp.

"What?" He asked me as he grabbed my hand.

"I knew it wasn't a good time to say anything." I turned back towards him. He quickly closed the space between us.

"Elizabeth..." he brushed my hair behind my ear. I looked down at the ground.

"I- I'm" I was about to apologize before his lips connected with mine. His tongue danced across my bottom lip asking to enter my mouth. I opened and we connected like we had before many years ago. We stood there exploring each other's mouths before we heard a polite chuckle behind us. He pulled away from me slowly resting his forehead against mine.

"I knew it." He smiled at me.

"Is this real? Or are you just making a point?" I asked him. He leaned forwards and kissed me again.

"It's real." He said pulling away again. "The coffin we found." He started back on his rant.

"Sarcophagus." I told him.

"Whatever." He replied getting annoyed again. "There was writing on it." He continued.

"Hieroglyphics." I corrected him once more.

"Elizabeth, respectfully, I'm not interested in archeological jargon right now. The writing on the box that we took out of the hole." He said to me.

"Yes, sorry." I said my face flushing with color.

"There was something about a curse in there, was it there? Was it there?" He asked me grabbing my shoulders.

"Nick, you've been drinking. There had to be a perfectly logical explanation." I said brushing him off of me.

"Yes. Toxic exposure. Or something?" He started to agree.

"That's the only reason you'd be acting this way." I said knowing full well it could be a curse but I didn't want to upset him.

"How does that explain that I know that 'Setapai' means: 'My Chosen'." He asked me.

"It's Ancient Egyptian." Jennifer pipped off from behind us.

"Ancient Egyptian. How do I know that?" He asked her spinning to face her.

"You've been in the middle east for years." She started to explain it to him.

"What? No!" He exclaimed.

"You heard it.. You must've forgot it.." I tried to ease his worry.

"Why are you backing off from this? I'm telling you. She is real." He spun back to me.

"Nick. Nick.. What is it?" Jennifer asked him.

"I think you're right. This is all in my head. Can't you find the box, look inside and when I see a 3,000 year old prune in there..." he trailed off letting us know his concerns.

"Nick." I tried again.

"..no more curse." He was still on his tangent.

"You don't need a sarcophagus, you need a doctor. I know someone. A specialist in London." Jennifer tried to tell him.

"Don't tell me that you don't want to see it too. Your life's work, come on Elizabeth. I think I know where it is." He told me, I sighed. He wasn't wrong I did want to see it too. He started to walk off in a direction that I wasn't sure about but I followed anyway.

"Elizabeth!!!" Jennifer yelled after me I turned around continuing to walk backwards.

"C'mon Jenn, you know you wanna see it!" I shrugged and turned back around following Nick to wherever, blindly hoping he knew where he was going.