Warnings: none

Disclaimer: Just borrowing.

Chapter 16 – Moving Day

Bill looked around his nearly empty flat and sighed. The remaining boxes contained his books and most of the dishes, the kinds of things he would be taking with him when he went back to England. The rest had been either sold or Shrunken and shipped already. Most of the artifacts he’d collected over the years he’d given to Wolf, but he kept some of his favorites for himself. Ava had told him her apartment could use a little “flair.”

Sunlight streamed through the window, highlighting the patterns made by the swirling dust motes. It was beautiful in an eerie sort of way. Bill only had a few more minutes before he had to leave for the Portkey.

He thought back on everything that he’d done here. His work had been what he lived for, the promise of new discoveries and potential danger a surefire wake-up call every morning. He thought that he had made a large number or friends, but it was very telling that the only one who showed up to wish him well was Wolf. Pam had also stopped by, but Bill had refused to answer the door. It was childish, he knew, but much better than anything that would have come from seeing her in.

His mind’s eye wandered, leaving his apartment and crossing the sands to the ancient Valley, and then up the Nile to the pyramids. It would be months, probably years, before he would ever get to see them again. The impressive sights he had grown accustomed to seeing every day would fade in his memory, and he would be stuck with more mundane things: paved roads, uniform row houses, and hundreds of ordinary, unremarkable people. The danger and thrill he had lived for would be gone, and would instead be replaced by the decision of what boring tie he should wear to his boring work, or the unbelievably non-strenuous task of unscrewing a particularly stubborn lid.

Could he live like that? After everything he had done, all the wondrous things he had seen, could he settle down and live like an ordinary citizen? Work at a bank, come home at the same time every evening, do the same sort of thing that his own father had done? Would his only reward be the monthly paycheck, and would he settle into a mind numbing routine of silent desperation?

“Daddy?”

Bill turned. James was standing in the doorway, his little auburn head peeking around the frame with a smile. Ava was behind him, luggage over her shoulder and engagement ring sparkling on her finger she reached down to ruffle her son’s hair.

“What is it?” Bill asked, gesturing for them to come in. James bounded into the room, sending the dust motes into a furious frenzy. He jumped into his father’s arms as the man knelt, and replied,

“We has to go now.”

Bill stood up, still holding James, and turned to Ava. She smiled at him.

“Are you ready?” she asked, and he suspected she meant more than just in terms of packing. Taking a deep breath, he said,

“Yes.”

With James in his arms, he strode confidently from the apartment. Yes, he was giving up a huge part of his life by leaving Egypt, but it would be in exchange for something much better: a family of his own. There was nothing in the world that would stop him from taking care of his son.

As he turned to close the door, he risked a final glance at the apartment. It was lonely and bare, as though it had been wiped clean. It wouldn’t always be that way, though. Someone new would come along and fix it up, make it their own as Bill had done for the past four years. Its story wasn’t really over.

Neither was Bill’s. He had many more pages left to fill, and there was no reason to dread what would come next. This was just a small pause, a page break. As he closed one door, another opened, and it was one that he could not wait to walk through.

A/N: Well, it’s done. I want to thank everyone who read and enjoyed and reviewed; all the comments I received were truly and greatly appreciated. There will be a sequel, but it’s still in the planning stages (I can’t think of a plot, which is kind of important). Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Reviews are love.