Early Homecoming

I had decided to come home early to surprise my family. It'd been almost a decade and I'd been all over the map helping train troops and get them ready for battle. Rick had accompanied me for a short time but went back and forth between the decision. I visited as much as I could when I wasn't needed for training. Tori had started college and was ready to get away from her parents as we spoiled her to no end, I'd flown her out to see me multiple times as I wanted her to get her fix of adventure in. However, I was ready for another adventure; Rick had finally come to terms with the fact that I was doing this with or without him. I twisted my wedding ring around my finger as the car neared where Evy was doing her book reading, this was her second book I believe. She had mailed me copies but I didn't want to read about our lives, I had lived it. She published it as fiction but the world knew of our travels, the twist was she had changed our names. I got out of the car thanking the driver for the ride I straightened my uniform and waltzed into the packed book store.

"Mrs. Bay we're all dying to know is the Scarlett O'Keef character really based on you?" A woman asked her she looked like she was the leader of a fangroup of some sort.

"Actually I'd say it's based off me." I answered from the back, eyes turning towards me as I stayed planted taking off my hat.

"Josephine!! What're you doing here!? You weren't due back til another week or so!" Evy said as she ran up to me, taking her posh hat off her head as she did so. I smiled at her, she'd changed a bit, making me wonder what happened to Rick. If he'd changed his aesthetic too. Yes, of course I'd seen him, just not a ton or as frequently as I'd liked to. I had been whisked off to fight a bit but I just didn't relay those details to the family, they would have a cow.

"I came in to surprise you! It looked like it worked." I smiled at her as she gave me a hug. "You might wanna address your fans and then we can go back to the house." I mumbled into her ear.

"Oh yes of course, any other questions?" She asked the group, and the room flooded with 'Mrs. O'Connell's and Mrs. Bay's'. Evy picked some random girl from the crowd and she asked,

"Is your life today as exciting as it was before the war?" I looked to Evy expecting her to answer, her smile faded a bit and she looked at me.

"I wish my life were that exciting now. I should've taken my sisters lead and tried to get busier but here I am writing about our story." She said to them. I nudged her: what the hell?? Was life really that bad? I mean we'd sent Alex and Tori off to college which made the house less crowded, but was it really that boring without them? We'd done it before the kids came into the picture. I looked at her questioningly. She closed her book reading with a simple 'thank you so much and see you next time' before she ushered me outside and to the car.

"Oh my goodness Josephine, Rick is going to be so happy to see you, he's been trying to fish, he's bloody horrible at it." Evy informed me, it'd been a month or so since I'd seen Rick. He visited frequently with Tori so it made life easier but now I was home for a while until the next job came around. I had decided I'd been away far too long and I missed them with all my heart, as much as adventure beckoned to me, I wanted my family back. It had felt like time stood still as Evy unlocked the door to our house.

"Rick I've got a surprise for you!" She sang out, not knowing where he was off to.

"If it's not my wife I don't really care Evelyn." Rick said as he rounded the corner, his eyes met mine, blue meeting hazel. He froze giving me that look he had when he had seen me dressed in the egyptian garb that made me absolutely melt. "Oh my god, you're here!!!" Rick smiled as he ran up and lifted me, spinning me around happily. He set me down and immediately my lips were covered with his. His hands tangled in my hair as he deepened the kiss.

"Alright I'll check on dinner." Evy smiled and walked away. Rick broke away moments later.

"What're you doing here?? I thought you had another week or so?" He questioned me.

"Well I wanted to see you darling. I missed you a lot." I told him pulling him back to me for a quick peck.

"I missed you too." I leaned back before he could kiss me again and saw what appeared to be a fish hook imbedded in his neck.

"Rick. Is that a fish hook in your neck?" I asked him skeptical. I laughed when he rolled his eyes and nodded clearly having heard this before.

"What's with the uniform? I thought you weren't fighting?" He asked me as he started to unbutton my over shirt.

"I ended up getting roped into a couple months of combat." I told him slowly as his hands started to travel up my white undershirt. I smiled missing his intimate touches as his right hand slid over my bra feeling me up.

"Rick." I breathed out needing him to stop so I could go change.

"Hmm..?" he questioned as he was peppering my neck with kisses.

"Let me get this fish hook out of your neck. Also I still need to go change these clothes are rather uncomfortable." I whispered into his ear as he was still kissing my neck. I felt him chuckle against my skin.

"Fine but we'll finish this later." He pulled away from me his hand grabbing mine, he rubbed his thumb against my wedding ring. "You know, I actually have a surprise for you as well." He smiled, I squinted at him.

"For me? What for?" I asked him completely taken back.

"Just because I've been missing you." He smiled and started to lead me up the stairs to our room.

"I see you've hired butlers?" I asked him as we made our way to our bedroom, as I saw some of the classy men pass us.

"I did. We had the money so I figured why not since it's just Evy, Ardeth and I... And now you once again." He told me as he opened the door to our room. It was just as I had left it but man was it good to be home, and not sleeping on the ground or a cot of some sort. I went straight to the bathroom to get the medical kit to take the hook out of Rick's neck. I sat him down on the bed as I quickly pulled it out and cleaned the area. I threw the hook in the kit.

"Ouch, Joe." He complained as I flopped down on the bed. I took my dress uniform shirt off finally being able to breath. He rolled on top of me looking into my eyes. He started to kiss my neck sucking and nipping at the skin. I closed my eyes enjoying the feeling. Suddenly, he stopped and rolled off me. Sensing the movement around me I rapidly popped my eyes back open to see Rick at the side of the bed with a tiny box in hand. He got down on one knee just like he had when he'd originally proposed to me. I propped myself up on my elbows and gave him a weird look as if to ask what he was doing.

"Joe I wanted to do something special for you, so I decided why not upgrade the ring I originally bought you." My mouth dropped open. No he didn't.

"Josephine Rose O'Connell... I have dreamed about this since I met you. I've told you multiple times I knew from the moment I met you, I love you. And that was only day one. I know we've gone through rough patches but those are the makings of a great relationship. The fact we got through the tough arguments makes us one of a kind. I wanted to do something special so I built a ring with the help of a local jeweler that's more you I'd say. I really hope you love it angel." He opened the box. And inside was a beautiful wedding ring. Shaped like an oval with dazzling diamonds surrounding the centered stone.

"Richard O'Connell you have outdone yourself." I whispered out, reached for his hand, and pulled him in towards me, hugging him and kissing him fully.

"Try it on." He mumbled against my lips. I pulled away from him and he slipped my current band off my finger and replaced it with the new ring.

"Oh my god, Rick it's beautiful." I smiled at him loving the vintage style ring. He kissed me happily leaning into me.

"Alright, get dressed, dinner should be ready, we're having fish... That I caught." He smiled at me proudly getting on the bed and laying down beside me. I groaned walking into my closet grabbing some pants and a button up shirt and quickly changed into them. Honestly, all I wanted was to have some quality time with my husband without the rest of my family around to bother us.

"Tori has sent a couple letters for you but I didn't want to open them until you were here. Pretty sure she knew that. We haven't gotten anymore since then I don't think." He got them out of his drawer by the bed and handed them to me.

"Dinner's ready!!" Evy shouted up to us knowing where we were.

"Coming!!" I shouted back to her. I put the letters in my waistband as I grabbed Rick's hand and led him back downstairs. Evy was filling up some glasses with champagne as we sat around our huge dining room table. Ardeth was no where to be found and she hadn't mentioned him since I'd been home but she seemed alright. Curiousity made me wonder if he'd left her. My thoughts were interrupted when Evy raised her glass starting to make a toast.

"Here's to retirement." I scoffed laughing at Evy and Rick's clear unsatifaction, they were clearly not happy here at all. I had told Rick that I could get him a job training but he turned it down sprouting some type of bullshit. Instead he opted for a month or so to train the army alongside me. Paid of course. I justified it with some sort of PTSD with Beni. But generally what I've noticed is that you have to throw yourself back into things that scare you, not that he's scared or anything. He thought he was going to be happy here living a smaller life with less adventure. But the tension between those two about the talk of retirement steered my thoughts that they were not happy at all.

"May we stay this happy forever." Evy continued. I laughed out loud at that moment. Both Rick and Evelyn were quiet, they didn't know what to do, before they both ended up cracking a smile and joining in with me at how silly this was.

"Still no letters from Alex. I wrote him three, in the last month." Evy explained to us.

"Well, what'd you expect? The only time you hear from the kid is when he's getting kicked out of college, or he needs more money." Rick said with a hint of disdain in his voice. I frowned, is that what Tori would write him as well? They'd gone to the same college, I wouldn't find it surprising if they were out looking for their next adventure.

"I'm sure, he's just buried in his studies." Evy replied to him sounding doubtful but determined that was the case. Rick gave her his signature, 'really?' look, his eyebrow raised as he questioned her.

"So, how did your book-reading go?" Rick asked her taking my hand in his once again.

"Oh fine, thank you." Evy replied sounding distant. "Until they asked me, 'will there be another Mummy adventure?'" She questioned with annoyance. I looked at her.

"But you did promise the publisher a third book." I told her unhappy that she did, because we had no idea when or if that day would ever come.

"I know... But I spend my nights, staring at a blank page, completely blocked." She replied looking down at her napkin. "I'm just going to sit at that typewriter, until something exciting comes out." Just in time for the awkward conversation to stop, the waiters brought in our plates. "Thank you." Evy told them as they placed the dishes in front of us and lifted the lid. "Oh... trout! How lovely!" She smiled happily, I saw the waiter give Rick a weird look.

"I'm so happy you found something, that doesn't involve guns." Evy told him. I laughed there was no damn way. Just as Evy took a bite she bit down on something hard. She pulled a bullet out of her mouth. I looked at Rick knowingly.

"Rick... The least you could do was fish those out of the fish beforehand." I told him laughing as Evy gave him a glare. After eating around the bullet that was imbedded in my fish I was feeling tired as all hell. I headed up to bed with Rick right behind me as Evelyn went to go write her novel using pure fiction that hadn't happened yet. Once we got into the room I was pushed up against the door, Rick's eyes searching mine for a reason to stop. I didn't give him one, I just kissed him with as much force and passion as he had. His hands were all over me within seconds, he decided he didn't want to deal with my shirt anymore so he quite forcefully ripped it off, buttons going everywhere. His lips attached to my collarbone.

"Rickkk I liked that shirt." I complained as he pulled back a little and gave me a smirk.

"We'll buy you another one honey." He said before he went to work getting my bra off. He took his time happily kissing me all over. Before I knew it we were naked in bed and falling asleep after a good couple rounds of sex. Rick was tracing patterns on my arm as he spooned me.

"It's been so long since I've been able to hold you like this." He smiled kissing my shoulder.

"I know, I've missed you so much." I smiled closing my eyes and sighing as he traced.

"I love you Josephine O'Connell. God, I love the way your name sounds just everything about you. Thank you for coming home early." I heard him say as he settled in beside me to fall asleep.

"I love you too Rick." I said back to him and soon sleep took over and I was asleep dreaming about the good old days back in Egypt when I had first met the love of my life.