Rick's Kryptonite

A Stolen Kiss

        We had all walked back to our campsite and were huddled by the fire that Rick had made. Evy and I sat next to each other, Rick on my other side while Jon was the furthest away. I had a blanket I had bought from the market wrapped around my form.
"What do you suppose killed him?" Evy asked very concerned about the wardens death.
"Did you ever see him eat?" Jon countered throwing off Evy entirely. I giggled at her reaction.
"Seems that our American friends had a little misfortune of their own today. Three of their diggers were, uh... melted." Rick broke the news as he walked up to our gaggle.
"What??" Evy asked horrified.
"How?" Jon asked at the same time. I just sat there silent.
"Pressurized salt acid... Some sort of ancient booby trap." Rick explained to us. I nodded, seemed legitimate.
"Maybe this place really is cursed." Jon said in a slightly concerned voice. Jon threw something he had been holding into the fire and at that exact moment the wind picked up and the fire was startled.
"Oh, for goodness' sake, you two!" Evy cried.
"You don't believe in curses, huh??" Rick asked poking the fire.
"No, l don't." Evy explained looking at me urging me with her eyes to speak up. "l believe if l can see it and l can touch it, then it's real... That's what l believe." Evy said sounding very sure of herself looking at the fire with confidence.
"l believe in being prepared." Rick said as he wracked his shotgun scaring my sister once again. I rolled my eyes.
"What do you believe in Joe?" Evy asked trying to involve me in their conversation.
"I'm kind of a mix between you and Rick, Eves. I believe in being prepared but also I'm not really into the supernatural." I replied distantly thinking about Hidalgo and hoping he had enough food and water for the night. They all nodded.
"Let's see what our friend the warden believed in." Jon said changing the conversation slightly. Jon reached his hand in the bag and abruptly pulled it back out screaming. I quickly got my gun out ready to shoot whatever it was.
"My God, what is it!!??!!" Evy screamed.
"A broken bottle. Glenlivet. Twelve years old! He may have been a stinky fellow, but he had good taste." Jon answered laughing at her reaction.
I heard a noise off in the distance quickly shot up out of my sitting position on the sand as did Rick. We shared a look and I ran forwards to go check out the noise. Rick quickly threw his shotgun at Evy who barely caught it.
"Take this. Stay here." Rick said.
"Wait!! No! Joe!" Evy fought us a tad as she got up and attempted to follow us.
"Evy! Excuse me, but didn't the man just say 'stay here'? Evy!" Jon tried to reason with my deranged sister.

All of a sudden there were a ton of men in black robes barreling towards us on horses carrying torches and weapons. The Americans were very startled running around looking like chicken's with their heads cut off not knowing what to do. The men were very familiar looking to me, I could not shake the feeling this time. I knew I needed to confront whatever was happening to me. I would, this was it. The men threw their torches at the Americans tent and immediately opened fire on them. Rick and I ran up the stairs of a temple, viewing the action from a distance so we had the upper hand. We shot from a distance for a couple minutes helping the Americans as best we could. Suddenly, a man in all black was behind me I quickly whipped around and shot at him, swiftly moving out of the way of his galloping horse. I saw a man chasing after Jon as Rick kept fighting other men in black I decided this was a good time to save my brothers ass once again. I quickly got a running start from the stairs I was on and tackled the man who was chasing my brother. He fell off his horse with me. We moved in synch, he got his sword out and I my gun, I quickly shot the sword out of his hands he gave me a surprised look. I heard Rick yell out, I got distracted. When I turned back he knocked my gun out of my hand with another sword that he had. I quickly rolled out of the way in order not to be sliced in half, I jumped towards the fire. Rick threw me something hastily, I caught it. I looked down at it: Dynamite!! Perfect, I quickly lit the wick and turned back around to face my opponent. He looked at me once again with wonder in his eyes.

"Enough! We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place or die." Another one of his own brought him another horse. He mounted immediately. "You have one day.... Yallah! Nimshi!" He yelled out and the gang rode off into the night. I pulled the wick out of the dynamite and threw it into the fire. I walked off to go find Hidalgo and make sure he wasn't too spooked, maybe take him for a little walk. However, I was stopped by Rick before I could set my plan into motion. He walked up to me and pulled me into a hug. I looked into his bewildering eyes which was a mistake, I fell into their trance. He touched my chin and moved my head to the side to check for any scratches. I felt a little pain where he rubbed his thumb.
"Are you okay?" He asked me.
"Yeah...." I cleared my throat. "Yes, I'm fine." I corrected myself sounding better.
"Are you sure? Your face is cut, let me fix it." Rick said as he looked at it worried. I attempted to pull away, but he held me close.
"That proves it. Old Seti's fortune's got to be under this sand. For them to protect it like this, you know there's treasure down there." One of the Americans said.
"No, these men are desert people. They value water, not gold." Rick said. I leaned into him unknowingly as he put his arms around me in an embrace, twiddling the ends of my hair in his fingers.
"You know, maybe just at night, we could, uh, combine forces?" Mr. Burns said, he had shaving cream on his face still from when he was grooming before the attack. I stifled a laugh.
Rick eventually let me leave to go check on Hidalgo after we checked on my siblings to make sure they were okay too. It's not like I really needed his permission to leave the campsite and go check on my horse but he needed it. I walked up to my humble steed and pat his neck, Hidalgo looked quizzically at me with his dazzling blue eye. I untied him and we walked around for a bit looking out at the wonderful stars that were sitting in the sky. I sighed thinking back to what Evy had said on the barge...

"You like him." She had told me. I thought about it for a little while, was it possible that I had fallen in love with my best friend from 3 years ago? I was getting lost in my thoughts when all of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around to face none other than Rick O'Connell.
"God Rick don't sneak up on me like that." I berated him a tad.
"Sorry, how have you been Joe?" He asked me curious.
"Well.." I debated telling him the truth eventually I realized it was probably for the best I let someone in. "You're going to think I'm crazy.... But everything about this feels oddly familiar, like we've been here before, which I know we have but... This is a different kind of familiar." Rick eyed me confused but went with it.
"That's really strange because no one has been here in a very long time." Rick said gradually getting closer to me.
"The man who was fighting me today. He looked at me as if he knew me and in the village we went to on the way here they called me, 'Sekhmet'." I told him. He looked down at me.
"I don't think this is my area of expertise to comment." Rick said.
"Yeah. Sorry anyway that's about all that's new with me." I said. We were headed back to where I had tied Hidalgo up, I settled him in again still a relative distance from the campsite.
"You have anything for me?" I asked him begging him to change the subject.
"Well.. Not entirely, do you really think we'll be able to find these books?" He asked as we slowly walked back to the campsite.
"At the rate we are going with finding things. I'm pretty sure we will. The Americans might find them for us. All we have to do is borrow them." I said to him, he nodded. There was an awkward silence.
"Joe." He asked me stopping in his tracks.
"Hmm..?" I asked him.
"Do you feel it too?" He asked sounding confused about our relationship. I looked into those deep sea blue eyes and found myself nodding. "Joe." He whispered and took my hand in his intertwining our fingers. It was so uncharacteristic of him, it felt weird and new but I liked it. He pulled me close and put his hand on my waist. He looked into my eyes making me weak at the knees. He brushed back a strand of my hair and slowly leaned closer to my face. Our lips met. It was a soft and exquisite kiss, very different from what we had shared before at the prison. I smiled into it, leaning into him more. My feelings for him were now confirmed. We pulled away from each other, over the moon that fate had finally brought us together. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time, Joe." He informed me as he lead me back to the campsite where Evy and Jon were fast asleep, unaware of the events that had just unfolded.