Imhotep's

"First of all, I just want to say, The Foreign Office appreciates what all you did during the war. But, I've been sent to offer you one last assignment." The man sitting before Evy, Rick and I said while drinking the tea we had offered him upon entering our home.

"I'm afraid we've retired from the espionage game." Evy tried to continue with her façade she was putting on. I stifled a laugh, sitting on the arm of the loveseat where my sister and Rick sat.

"You two may have, but I'm more than willing to hear the man out. So what is the mission? I'm sure they'd love to hear the objective, maybe it will spark some old love for the adventure." I told the man hoping to sway both my husband and sister back into the game.

"We need you to courier this to Shanghai." He told us as he opened a decretive box to reveal a beautiful diamond egg.

"It's a nice piece of ice." Rick said his jaw dropping a tad as he viewed the egg.

"It's the 'Eye of Shangri-la'" Evy said smiling happily, I hadn't seen her this happy since Egypt. Fucking finally . "If you believe the legend, it points the way to the pool of eternal life." Evy continued, I could sense the yearn for adventure in her voice.

"Yes, it was smuggled out of China in 1940 and now the government would like to return it to the Shanghai Museum as a sign of good faith to the Chinese people. And with your expertise in the field, we naturally thought of you." The suit continued. Made sense, with all the good press and whatnot.

"Oh, we would be so flattered!" Evy burst out of her shell for the first time in a while. "But I had promised my husband I would calm down after the war." Evy kept talking and making excuses that she couldn't possibly take on the mission.

"Except your husband hasn't been seen in a while, and I believe still has his own job where he has left you." I mumbled under my breath, she gave me a look of disappointment and quickly shook her head as if to sway my concerns.

"I see. Well, I must admit, I'm a little disappointed. First of all, China is very dangerous, there are a lot of factions that would love to get their hands on the eye. In lesser hands the eye could be lost forever." I rolled my eyes at his badgering that wasn't needed. He already sold me, so I was going regardless on Rick or Evy's decision.

"Well we can't let that happen, it would be terrible for the world..." Rick said. "You know, she has a brother that lives in Shang..." Rick continued for the both of us, I didn't need a reason to go, I wanted to go purely for the reason of going.

"Jonathan!" Evy exclaimed excited Rick had made that statement.

"Yes, he owns a Nightclub, if I'm not mistaken." The man picked up, how does he know so much about us? Well, the press... I answered my own question.

"We have been meaning to visit, we could drop in and surprise him." Rick continued for us.

"Does this mean, we can count on you, one last time?" he asked as he handed me the eye.

"Of course it does, you didn't even need to convince them. They would've cracked easily once you left." I laughed gazing at the eye. I was excited to get packed and head out for something so random.

Shanghai, CHINA

CHINIESE NEW YEAR, 1947

VICTORIA'S POV

The fireworks lit up the sky as we pulled up to Imhotep's. Walking inside, the place was beautifully decorated in luxury. My mother's brother always had a desire for the more expensive. The girls danced in adorned Egyptian costumes as the jazz band played music to accommodate the guests.

"Hi, can you buy a drink for me?" A French women came up to Alex, running her hand down his chest in a seductive manner. I rolled my eyes and continued walking up to Jonathan.

"Alex, Alex!! You're back again! Come here, Alex! Let me get you a drink. Jon's special, for the top Pharaoh explorer." My Uncle Jon said completely ignoring me as per usual. Alex was always his favorite. I walked past Jon and up to the bar to order myself a drink to block out both the idiots I had to deal with.

"Make that two. Sorry Uncle Jon, but... I got a better offer." He said looking the girl up and down as she waltzed away from him.

"No, no Alex, no, look, listen, huh... Okay, come here, to put it in archeological terms... that's the Tomb, in which many pharaohs' have laid." Jon tried to convince Alex otherwise. He looked at me raising an eyebrow as I downed the rest of my drink cringing at the stiffness. "Now listen, listen just think about me for a moment, alright? Your discovery is going public in a few days, your parents are sure to find out. They're not gonna be happy you dropped out of school." Jon tried to reason with the boy.

"Will you relax, uncle John, okay? I'm here, and they're a long way away. Excuse me, okay? I have some excavation to do." He took a glance at me and headed after the girl once more. Fucking dumb shit.

"Jonathan!" I knew that voice behind me. Aunt Evy. Shit. We were dead. I quickly made my way to Alex to warn him that his mom was here.

JOSEPHINE'S POV

"You're in China! Evy!... Rick! Joe! What're you? It's so... Nice, for you to drop in! I had no idea he was here." Jon scrambled for words. Oh no, I immediately knew something was not right.

"Who's here?" Rick asked, sounding just as confused as I was feeling.

"Who?" Jon tried to divert. I grabbed him by the jacket he was wearing.

"Who's here Jonathan and try not to lie to me." I told him as I shoved him against the bar. Before I could get a word out I heard some shouting and quickly let him go as someone burst out of the kitchen doors.

"You stay away from her." I heard the yelling continue and Alex stumbled backwards away from whatever danger he was facing, falling over a table shattering the glasses in his wake.

"Uncle Rick??" the words stumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"Alex?" Rick spoke jumping over the table to help his nephew.

"I'm gonna kill you kid." I heard the words and immediately knew the person we would be dealing with. Mad Dog McGuire. He took a swing at Alex, and Rick immediately stopped it grabbing his hand before it could catch Alex's face, I reached for my knife.

"Not so fast. That's my-- nephew... Mad-Dog McGuire??!" Rick let go of his hand.

"'Ricochet' O'Connell! And Joe! My god I never thought I'd be seeing either of you guys again." He quickly pulled us both in for a hug.

"Alex, sweetheart, are you alright?" Evy asked running up to Alex.

"Friends, it's just a little family reunion so, let's get back and have a good time. Music!!" Jonathan exclaimed making the club reignite with music and lights.

"How long has it been?!" Rick asked the man standing in front of us.

"Egypt, 23, French Foreign Legion." He laughed looking us both up and down.

"This guy can land a plane on anything." Rick said looking back to Evy and Alex.

"Ricochet, let me tell you, he had his hands on my little girl. Now, nephew or no nephew, I gotta give him a beating." Mad Dog continued to say.

"Oh yeah, what you gonna do?" Alex said trying to get past me, I shoved him back into his place as Rick pushed him back again to Evy.

"Back off!" Rick told him staring into his eyes to tell him to let go of the situation. That's when I saw my kid walk up behind Mad Dog.

"Victoria!! What in the hell are you doing here??" I asked my daughter. She just stood there her head held high not saying a word as I held my own ground.

"As much as I really would like to teach him a valuable lesson." Rick started as his eyes drifted to see Tori behind him.

"His mother would be upset, very upset." Evy continued the conversation for us. "You have a lot to explain young man." Evy was too enthralled with Alex she didn't notice Tori.

"Things are a little bit different, I'm sure you understand." Rick started. He glanced at me to go to Tori. I walked over to her behind Mad Dog.

"Tori, we have tons to discuss but I'll let Evy yell at you for this." I started. She looked into my eyes a bit terrified.

"Sorry, mom." Alex tried to reason with Evy.

"I'm just surprised to see you, that's all. Alright?" Evy tried to calm herself down.

"I'm not here 5 minutes, and I'm already pulling your fanny out of the fire. You're going back to college." Rick walked up to Alex as I brought Victoria over with us.

"I think it's not gonna be worth it. You two show up, and tell me what to do?" Alex said trying to make us back off. Tori went by his side and grabbed his arm to stop him from doing something or saying something rash that he might end up regretting.

"Honey! We should sit down and discuss this like a family." Evy tried to reason.

"No offense mom, but we haven't been a family in a long time." Alex continued to be a complete jerk, I couldn't handle it. Without thinking I slapped him across the face.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that, do you know how hard it was for her to raise you without the help of your father." I yelled at him.

"Mom..." Victoria started. I ignored her. Generally, in this situation I would be done and walk away but unfortunately I couldn't do that here. Alex ended up doing it for me.

"Hey, don't you turn your back on her, Alex!" Rick tried.

"Alex, don't... Alex, come here." Jon now tried again to reconvene our family into somewhat of a structure before throwing up his hands and disengaging from the conversation. Evy sighed.

"Aunt Evy, mom, dad... I'm sorry, he's just pissed." Tori tried to help us out to comprehend the situation.

"Let's go up to the roof, maybe make some sense out of this situation." I said to my family. They followed me up to the roof.

"What happened Tori?" I asked my daughter.

"We dropped out to get some sort of comfort in adventure, it was you guys that were always rubbing it in our faces... We needed something else, something new, something incredible to live up to you. I think Alex just got lost in that... Also the fact Uncle Ardeth isn't around probably doesn't help the situation." Evy looked down at the ground ashamed.

"Alright. So we fix it. Together." She told us looking to each one of us. I smiled at Rick as the thought ran through my head, how did we get so lucky with our family. Sure it was a little dysfunctional but here we were, ready to take on the adventure and struggles together.