Ryan had no idea what he was doing this late, dressed in what was blurring the line between comfortable sweats and pajamas, paying for the entry fee to a nameless history museum he had all but run to from his apartment. One minute he was settling down for a night of sports center and a beer after a long deployment, maybe calling up that Allie girl his dad had been pushing him at for years, the next he was grabbing his wallet and hurtling out the door, running faster than he had thought possible towards a road he had never been down in his life.


Amy had been at a "party" celebrating her father's new position as governor,but just like everything concerning her father it had been interesting for maybe ten minutes before it turned flat and boring. It was not really his fault, he tried to keep things interesting but the only thing she was able to keep her attention was the glass of champagne in front of her.

Suddenly but she couldn't stand to stay around a moment longer.

So she got in her car and started driving, not really to anywhere, just driving around when suddenly she found herself in front of a museum. A man who looked incredibly confused and exhausted ran up the steps and with a surge of fondness and amusement noticed that he was barefoot, in the middle of winter no less.

"Typical." She thought to herself with a chuckle before shaking her head to clear it; she had never seen the man in her life, how would she know if this was typical or not?

But something inside of her felt like laughing and crying all at once as she watched him run away from her, now she was really beginning to wonder if she had had too much to drink at that party.


Ryan somehow managed to count out the $5.30 admission fee as the attendant looked at his ragged appearance disapprovingly. He muttered something about this being a really weird day to her and shuffled into the better lit and carpeted section of the museum, his feet complaining all the while, mentally he kicked himself. Why couldn't he at least put shoes on? He walked towards the ancient Egypt section…alright so he had run out of his warm apartment at 10:30 at night without shoes to look at statues of some old pharaoh. He was really going crazy.


Amy walked into the museum, inexplicably finding exactly the right change inside her pocket when she was sure that she had had no money there before. Feeling curious, she followed the strange man as he hobbled into the Egypt section, she hesitated here, she had always had a sort of reluctance concerning ancient Egypt; she had disliked learning it in school, had quit her book club when they tried to make them read "The Egypt Game" and had recurring nightmares about being trapped in an Egyptian tomb.

But inexplicably she followed the man into the room, looking around at the small tour group that was wandering the area and speaking in excited murmurs about mummies and artifacts. She resisted the urge to laugh aloud at their ridiculous over excitement and began to scan the room for the man again, feeling more like a stalker with every minute. Amy shook her head as if trying to clear a thought, the man was just so familiar and for no reason that she could remember she felt like she had been looking for him for a long time.


Ryan stopped and examined a case full of rusted, crumbling looking swords and felt a vague annoyance that someone had let them get into such a sorry state but the thought drifted away almost as quickly as it had come as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. He instantly went on guard, even off duty and state-side he was on high alert and right now all his instincts were telling him he was being watched.

He slowly and casually made his way over to a different case, scanning the room for his watcher. His eyes drifted over an exhibit featuring a stone box covered in hieroglyphics and involuntarily flinched.

"Traitors...Buried alive-"

"So dark-"

"Give me your hand I'm here with you-"

Ryan stumbled backwards a few steps and stared at the box in disgust and horror, that thing should not be in a museum with parts of the Egyptian culture, it was an abomination, it was wrong.


Amy saw the man react to an exhibit out of her sight and took a few steps towards it, assuming it was a mummy or some other disgusting- she reeled back.

"Such elaborate lives...I don't want to live like that-"

"Cold-"

"I'll keep you warm... I love you...love you...love you-"

She suddenly felt like sobbing, somehow she found herself standing next to the man, gripping his hand tightly. They both looked down at their hands in shock before slowly lifting their heads up and meeting each others eyes.

"Will you find me in that world?"

"If I have to search a hundred life times, I will find you."

Ryan looked at her and everything else was gone, it was her, only her, just as it had always been, "Aida." Was it possible a name could sound so beautiful? Sound like home?

Amy couldn't look away, couldn't breath, "Radames." Her Radames who she had longed for all her life without even knowing, Radames, there again as if he had never been gone.

Ryan leaned in close towards her, pulling her into his chest and touching her forehead to his, "I swore I would find you again Aida, and I always keep my promises."

She smiled weakly at him, "Oh? And the one about a house on the border of our countries and sailing the Nile?"

He laughed and she had to resist the urge to melt into his arms, damning her foolish pride to hell, "We have time for that, months and years and centuries, no fathers or pharaohs or gods are going to keep us apart again, I swear to you."

Then he was kissing her, desperately, hungrily, longingly and she threw pride to the wind and leaned into him, not wanting to leave any space between them.

They broke apart breathless, still holding each other and showing no signs of ever letting go.

"I'm Ryan here." He said, running a hand through her hair, "Ryan Halvard."

"Amy Maynard. It doesn't feel right though...doesn't feel real."

He tested it out on his tongue and shook his head, "You still feel like Aida, the proud Nubian princess."

She smiled, "And you're still Radames, the arrogant Egyptian captain. Who went out into New York City in the middle of winter barefoot I might add."

Ryan looked at her sheepishly, "This felt more important, felt like home, I figured shoes could wait."

She laughed and he had to fiercely resist the urge to kiss her again, to hold her closer, tighter, longer, and never let her go, heaven, hell fire, and museum closing times be damned.

Amy looked into his eyes and saw that fire and passion she had fallen in love with and felt really and truly safe for the first time she could remember, "Radames." She whispered, not knowing what to say or how to say it.

He nodded, leaning in so close that every breath felt like electricity, "I'm here and I'm not going anywhere Aida. I love you and I will until the gods end my existence."

They stayed there for hours, not paying any mind to the curious looks or the slowly thinning amount of visitors, they were simply home in each others arms.