A/N: Okay here is the first chapter to one of the short stories I am going to start. (If you haven't checked out my site or blog you wouldn't know what I'm talking about so go to my profile and do that now and then come back!) Any who I still can't make a choice between this story and the other one Do You Take Cream In Your Coffee? So I'm posting them both on here and asking all to give honest critiques. Which ever one I get enough feedback on I'll start working on that and I'll post it on here instead of the site.

Just a little background this is a slight fan fiction on the movies The Mummy, in that it takes the physical characteristics of Oded Fher's character and the tribe of Medjai, but other than that it's a purely original fiction.

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Juni Lyn 7 3/10/2008

Passing Time

Chapter One

“Marlene, are you in here?” Shikara called into the barely lit cave of a room.

“Yes, over here behind the mounds of dusty book.” A sultry voice called out from some unseen hiding place.

“Oh there you are” Shikara said as she gingerly made her way around mounds of papers, books, and boxes. “I was coming to see if you were ready to meet with our special guest tomorrow.” She stopped at the talking books and peeked over to see her new coworker busily pouring over several books. “How are you able to see in here?”

“Oh quite ready, I still can’t believe we were able to get him to come.” The tall dark haired woman said without looking up from her books and ignoring the last question.

“What do you mean ‘we’? It was all you. Everyone’s so impressed, you’ve been here for less than a year and you’ve been able to do what no other curator has done before you. An interview with Ambrose Bay, the world’s leading authority on the elusive Medjai people. “

“Do you think he and collection is as good as they say he and it is?” This time the brunette looked up at her coworker. From her perch on the floor of her office she had to hold her head way back to reach the eyes of the curly amber haired woman who was starring at her with droopy eyes the color of valuable emeralds. Marlene was still astonished that they shared a common heritage. “No one’s really seen his whole collection.”

“That’s true, but we will see some of it tomorrow and you get to see the rest of it. Lucky.” Shikara added with a sigh.

Marlene laughed at that. “Yes we will, but I have to finish up here before that happens.”

“What are you doing anyways?”

“Just re-reading some research stuff, you would be surprise of the amount of information that is known and yet not known about these people.”

“What made you want to do a showcase exhibit on them?”

“Don’t really know. I’ve always had an interest in the tribal people of Egypt. When I came across the Medjai last year something clicked. I’ve been doing research since then on them. And then when the powers to be express their interest in updating our Egyptian collection I thought it would be the perfect fit. There’s not another collection in the world that would compare to ours, once we have Ambrose’s collection. Not even Cairo’s. His collection is reported to be one of a kind, but I still have to convince him we are the best place for it. Once we announced we were getting his collection, my contact said he started getting request from all the major museums, museums that all have a bigger budget than ours.

“Alright I get the message, don’t work too late. I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early.” Shikara left her coworker to finish up. “Really Marlene you should think about asking for some more light in here.” She said as she tripped over a stack of books. “You’re probably killing your eyes.”

“You sound like my mom, I happen to have excellent eyes.” Marlene called out.

Marlene sat starring as her co-worker Shikara left out of the small room that constituted as her office at the International American Library and Museum. It was her dream job, and she had been at it for only six months. It had been a shot in the dark when she had applied for the job being grossly unqualified. But she had been able to convince her new boss to take a chance on her. She had gotten the job but had taken a minor pay cut for it, to cover the fact that she wasn’t the candidate they were originally looking for. All her coworkers, except Shikara, made no secret that she didn’t belong there. Getting the elusive Ambrose Bay to not only do an interview, but also a speech at the Beneficiaries Luncheon tomorrow and allow some of his supposedly grand collection to be showcase on an open-ended exhibit, was going to cement her position here. Not to mention that fact that she could in her own mind, stick out her tongue in a childish manner to all those co-workers who had been snobbish towards her, she was going to really enjoy that.

In truth she was more surprised than anyone else that Ambrose had agreed to do these favors for her. She had been playing around with the idea of trying to contact him for four months before she had worked up the nerve to send an email. A week later he had responded and offered to call her to discuss the details over the phone. She had been excited and yet nervous when she had finally gotten him on the phone. They had nailed down general ideas of what she wanted to do and he had seemed more than willing to accommodate her. Once she had gotten off the phone, she was confused to why no one else had managed to snag his collection. The more she had thought about it the more she had seemed suspicious; she had collected all the information she could on the guy. But that hadn’t made her feel any better. She was beside herself on what she should do, everything she had read on him convince her that something was odd about him agreeing to do the interview and speech. She was starting to think that she was a victim of a prank of some sort. But one morning she had fired up her email client to see an email from him, confirming all the details they had set up over the phone. Over the following months they had sent back numerous emails, sometimes it was several in one day. And slowly but surely they had drifted away from strictly business emails.

She hadn’t told anyone yet, but she was almost certain that she had fallen for this guy that she had never met and had spoken on the phone with once. Judging by his last email he was just as interested in meeting her as she was in meeting him. She quickly pulled it up in her mind’s eye.

Greetings Marlene,

Just one more day and we will be looking into one another eyes. I must confess that I am excited at the events to come. I wanted to send you a quick email before I boarded the plane; I know that you are nervous about the collection, and even though it is an affront to my ego I understand. You Americans are so skeptical of everything. So I am bringing some of my personal favorites to show you before the rest of the collection arrive at the museum later tomorrow. From the agenda you sent me you won’t be able to see the collection before they set it up. This way the butterflies in your stomach as you called them will be from the stage fright and not the collection. Stop worrying. I promise you everything will be fine.

Until tomorrow,

Ambrose

Even though it had been a short email she had felt the importance of it. She was nervous about the collection, but not because she no longer believed him, she did, but because this could make or break her fledging career. No one had seen the whole collection, but pieces here and there. And although those pieces were incredible, what if that was all there was. Ambrose had ensured her that the pieces seen were only the tip of the iceberg. She wasn’t surprise that he had caught onto her nervousness; he seemed to be very observant when it came to her. Even through the emails, he was able to guess correctly when she was having a particular hard day. She didn’t even mind his crack on Americans; it was one of their things. She made jokes on his British customs, and he on her American ones.

Sitting back from her books she rolled her neck and knew it was time to go. She was starting to stiff up in her back. Stretching her long legs she looked over at her wall clock, it was only seven. But it would take her another hour to ride the ferry back. Packing the books away as best she could, she moved to collect her things. After shutting down her computer she grabbed her bag and purse. Locking up she made her way down the darken and quieted hallways, nodding to the night guard as she headed out the back entrance. Once outside she ran into another coworker, Christian Watkins. The one person she wasn’t in the mood to see. The guy had been constantly trying to ask her out since she had started. She had given in the first time, wanting to meet new people on the job, but that first date had been horrible. She had vowed never to give in again.

“Marlene, I’ve been waiting for you. Shikara said you might still be here.” She said trying to sidestep him.

“Yeah, just getting ready for tomorrow.” He responded moving with her.

“I know you must be excited, hey you know we never did go and celebrate the fact that you got that Ambrose dude to come over here. I’ve an in on a new place that just opened up, my treat.”

“Thanks Christian but I’m kind of tired and I’ve got a full day tomorrow.”

“No I understand, well rain check right. We can do it after he leaves.” He said hopefully.

She really hated leading the guy on but she didn’t have the strength or the heart to hurt his feelings right now. He wasn’t a bad guy, just not the one for her. “Yeah maybe, see you tomorrow Christian.” She waved him goodbye and hurried along the sidewalk through the night time crowd towards the ferry. Once on the ferry she settled into her seat and pulled out some of the computer print outs she had been carrying around for the last couple of month. Amongst them was a current article from some social magazine that had did a cover on Ambrose Bay. It wasn’t an art related interview but a business one; he was more opened on his business doings then his personal life it would seem. She had read the article several times, but tonight she wasn’t busying herself reading but instead she was studying the picture that had accompanied the article.

It was a picture of a very tall man with dark tanned skin and an angular build. He had shoulder length chocolate colored hair that curled at the end, in the picture it was pulled away from his face and held with a simple band at the base of his head. His almond shaped brown eyes stared out at her as her own slitted plumed colored eyes roamed over his high cheekbones, squared chin, and full bottom lip. He was dressed in simple dark colored business suit that showed of his wide chest and broad shoulders, and his long legs were extended in front him as he leaned against his desk. The dark fabric that in-case them were stretched over his powerful looking thighs. His hands were hidden inside his pants pocket but she bet they were big and powerful looking just like the rest of him. She had long since imprinted his image in her head but she still glanced at it ever day or so. She looked up from the pages and took in a deep breath in. It was going to be a long night.