Ancient Love

Part 2 Chapter 5: The Missing Piece

The next night, everyone in the museum was happy and having fun. While everyone was playing soccer, Tilly was telling the neanderthals some stories from her past, Teddy and Lancelot were talking with Larry about 'manly things', Merenkahere and Shepseheret were talking with Sacajawea and Atila about the Egyptian gods, Trixie and Rex were happily playing together and Craig was in the break room pigging out on the box of donuts.. Elaine wandered the museum and after a while, she came upon Ahkmenrah and Irissa who were in their exhibit together talking while holding hands and occasionally laughing and kissing.

Elaine sighed as she watched the way Ahkmenrah and Irissa embraced each other. "I'm sure Ahkmenrah would never cheat on her" she mumbled. She then walked away. She then saw Nick and Larry talking with Teddy. She absentmindedly put a hand on her stomach. "Oh Galahad, how I wish you were here" she said sadly. She then thought about all the good times that she and Lancelot had. She then shook her head. "He cheated remember?! He only wanted Guinevere, not you! He wanted a woman that was married to someone else rather than the woman that was not only married to him and gave him a son, but was in love with him and would do anything for him!" she exclaimed. "And I'm talking to myself. Great!" she groaned. "Elaine? Is that you?" Iris asked her from across the room. Elaine gasped in surprise. "Oh Iris, it's just you" Elaine responded as she calmed down. "Elaine, is everything alright?" Iris asked worriedly. She then left Ahkmenrah's side and walked over to Elaine. "Oh, it's... nothing" Elaine said as she absentmindedly put her hand on her stomach again. "Are you sure? Does your stomach hurt?" Iris asked her as she put her hand on her shoulder. "No. I was just remembering my time with my son Galahad. That's all" Elaine said. "Did you and Ahkmenrah ever have a child?" She asked Iris carefully. Iris took her hand and they walked out of the exhibit together. "You must swear that you will not tell anyone. Especially Ahkmenrah and his parents. Alright?" Iris said as she tried to gather the courage to tell Elaine the truth. "I swear on my life or may my body be set on fire and melt until I am nothing but a puddle of wax on the floor!" Elaine responded. Iris then took a deep breath. "To be perfectly honest with you, we were going to have a child. The night I was killed, I was going to tell him but obviously I never got the chance to tell him. And when my internal organs, they also removed our unborn child" Iris told her as she tried to hold back her tears. Elaine gasped in horror and held her friend close. "I know Ahkmenrah would have been a wonderful father" Iris smiled a little. "I know his parents would have been ecstatic about the news. Especially his mother. She would ask us every single time we saw her about when he and I were going to 'make an heir to the throne' and I know Ahkmenrah would have loved to have been a father" Iris said as she hugged Elaine back. As they hugged, Elaine tried to console Iris by gently rubbing her back. "At least the man who was the object of your affections never desired another man's wife even though you and him had a wondrous child together!" Elaine said gently. "At least you got to spend time with your child and watch him be raised" Iris said as she pulled out of Elaine's hug and started to walk away. Wait!" Elaine called out to Iris. "I'm sorry. I never meant to upset you in anyway" Elaine called as she caught up to Iris. "It's alright. I am the one that is overreacting to this situation. As long as Ahkmenrah and his parents don't find out then I suppose everything will be perfectly fine." Iris said as she hugged Elaine.

"You know, there is a way that we may be able to find your son." Iris said as she remembered something. "Come with me." Iris said as she walked off. She and Elaine then walked to Dr. McPhee's office. Iris then knocked on the door. "Doctor McPhee, do you have a moment?" Iris asked as she knocked gently on the door. "Yes. Of course. Come in." Dr. Mcphee said. As she opened the door, she and Elaine walked in to see Larry and Dr. Mcphee sitting and talking. "I am terribly sorry to interrupt you gentlemen." Iris said as Elaine shut the door. "Hey Elaine, Iris. Is everything ok? Is something wrong with Ahk or the tablet?" Larry said concerned. "Everything is fine Mr. Daily. Ahkmenrah and his tablet are both fine." Iris said as she and Elaine sat down. Elaine sat down in an empty chair next to Larry and Iris sat on Dr. Mcphee's desk. "We need to ask you something." Iris said as she looked over at Elaine. "Yah sure, what's up?" Larry asked as he leaned in to listen. "This morning before you left, I remember you say something about a medieval exhibit in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in New Jersey shutting down. Is there any way you could find out if a person named Galahad is there?" Iris asked Dr. Mcphee. "Who is Galahad?" Larry asked. "My son." Elaine said as she replied to Larry. "Please Doctor McPhee?" Iris pleaded with him. "Oh alright. Since I quite enjoy a happy reunion, I shall see what I can do. But in return, I want you to teach me your ancient language and then how to speak hun. I am tired of always not knowing what the huns are saying to me and always getting frustrated with me and on top of that, I need a translator by my side when I talk to them. Not to mention how every single night, your guards always try to attack me when I go to check up on the exhibit." Dr. McPhee said as he looked at Iris and then on his computer. "We have a deal." Iris said as she and Dr. McPhee shook hands. "Thank you so much!" Elaine said estaticaly as she jumped out of her seat. "Shukraan jazilaan" Iris said as she and Elaine walked out. "Shakrun what?" Dr. McPhee said confused as he tried to repeat what she had just said. "Shukraan jazilaan. It means thank you very much." Iris said as she smiled before exiting the room. "Just wait until you hear her and Ahk talking to each other! They sound so elegant and only they know what each other is saying!" Tilly said as she tried to sit down on the desk, only to be pushed off by Dr. McPhee. "By the way, do any of you know why the doughnuts keep going missing. One moment there is a full box and the next, the entire box is empty!" Tilly said as she opted on sitting down in the open chair .

The next night, Dr. McPhee called Larry, Tilly, Irissa, and Elaine into his office. "Okay so, I have good news and I have bad news. Good news is, I found Galahat. Bad news is, he's in a wax museum two hours away that is closing in a few days for remodeling" he explained. "It's Galahad" Elaine said slightly angered. "Anyways, if you are going to do something then I suggest that you do it quickly" Dr. McPhee said. Elaine wrung her hands together and Irissa put a hand on her shoulder. Elaine looked to her friend with a worried look and Irissa squeezed her shoulder. "No need to worry Elaine" Irissa said reassuringly. "Elaine, I know what it's like to not be with your child for a huge part of his life. Believe me, I wish I could have given Nick a normal childhood with both of his parents in a house together, instead of me getting him on Wednesdays and every other weekend. As a father and your friend, I promise that we will do whatever it takes to get Galahad here safely" Larry said determinedly. Elaine started to tear up and she wiped away a tear. "Thank you so much Larry. You have no idea how much this means to me. I really appreciate your help. I just wish I could be alive during the day so I could help" Elaine said as she wiped away her tears. Larry awkwardly put an arm around her shoulders in a half hug. They then heard the sound of armor 'clanking' from the other side of the door. The door then swung open and everyone turned to look at who was entering the room. Lancelot stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. "I do hope that I'm not interrupting anything Dangly Bells" he said angrily as he glared at Larry. Larry looked to see that his arm was still around Elaine's shoulders. Larry quickly removed his arm and he heard Tilly sigh heavily. "Here we go again" she mumbled. "How dare you lay a hand on a woman that isn't yours!" Lancelot yelled. "It wasn't what it looked like" Larry said defensively as he took his arm off of Elaine's shoulder. Elaine got in front of Larry and she shoved Lancelot. "How dare you! I am not yours! You always wanted Guinevere! Even when I gave birth to your son you still wanted her!" Elaine yelled. Tilly sighed heavily again as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay... You and you" Tilly yelled as she pointed to Lancelot then to Elaine. "Corners. Now!" she yelled and Lancelot and Elaine went to separate corners in the room. Larry and Dr. McPhee stared at her in both shock and awe.

"What is going on in here?" Ahkmenrah said as he entered the room holding his tablet under one arm and Dexter on his other arm. "Is everything alright?" He asked as Able swung herself in and onto Elaine's shoulder. "Everything is fine darling just discussing the plans for tomorrow night" Iris said as Ahkmenrah took her hand and kissed it gently. "What is tomorrow night?" Lancelot asked snippingly. "I would tell you if you weren't such-" Elaine responded back to Lancelot angrily. "Okay you two. Knock it off! We all know what to do. So for now, let's just leave it here and go our separate ways for now." Larry interrupted as he checked his watch and she showed Tilly the time. "It's going to be sunrise soon. You guys go back to your exhibits and Tilly and I will fill you in tomorrow, okay?" Larry asked. "You two can move from the corners now. I want you two to walk back to your exhibit together peacefully and I don't want to hear a single word from either of you. Got it?" Tilly asked rhetorically. Lancelot and Elaine turned around to face her and they nodded. Tilly then took their hands and put them together. "Now go" she said as she pointed to the open fighting couple the left the room with everyone else. After everyone left to go back to their own exhibits, the sun rose and the museum was silent once again.

Elaine is drawn by me