: : Summary : : Set just after TM, Rick�s past complicates his future.
It had been a long night. Evelyn awoke from her swoon after only a few minutes and had immediately locked herself in her bedroom. Jonathan made her promise through the door to stay home and let him sort things out. He operated on the shady side of things and had quite a few contacts. He was sure he could get some answers by morning.
That proved to be a more difficult task than he had hoped. O�Connell/Reese had been good at covering his tracks. Jonathan found several people who knew the man as O�Connell. As Jonathan had expected, O�Connell had led a life of some intrigue, traveling all over Europe and North Africa and managing to stir up no little trouble along the way. Nothing that he could be convicted of, or not pay off with his new fortune, and nothing more violent than a couple of bar fights. The snag was that there was no record of the man prior to 1918. None of Jonathan�s contacts remembered anyone named Benjamin Reese. The arrest warrant stated that in 1918, as an infantry man in the United States Army, Benjamin Reese had been suspected of stealing from prisoners of war and from the dead of both sides. When confronted by his commanding officer, a scuffle broke out and Reese had shot the officer and fellow infantry man. The officer had died. Reese disappeared. It all looked very suspicious and Jonathan was frustrated. As a poker player, he was confident in his ability to assess people and he just didn�t feel that the man he knew as O�Connell could have committed those crimes. He went back to Evelyn�s quarters just as the sun was rising. She was already gone.
Rick lay on his back on the cold metal shelf that served as his bed and watched the stars fade into day through the tiny barred window of his cell. The detention cells of the British Fort were much nicer accommodations than Cairo prison had been. Still, did he really deserve anything nice? What had he been thinking to get involved with a nice girl like Evelyn? He knew who he was and what he was and now he had the crime of hurting Evelyn to add to his list. Did he really think that anything good would happen? That he could really just walk away and not have his past catch up with him? He had been told he was worthless by any number of people. Why didn�t he just accept that fact instead of always trying to pull himself up and being continually knocked back down? He would surely hang for this, and this time there would be no beautiful Evelyn to have him cut free.
�Reese� Reese.� The guard rattled his keys.
He wasn�t used to answering to that name. �What,� Rick replied, still gazing out the window.
�You have a visitor.�
�I don�t want a visitor.� Especially not a particular visitor�
�Well, you�ve got one,� said Evelyn�s voice. �Like it or not.�
Rick closed his eyes. She was the last person he wanted to see right now. He had hoped she would be too angry to come.
Evelyn walked up to the bars of the cell. �Who are you?� she demanded.
�It�s complicated,� he said, not looking at her.
�I�ve got plenty of time,� she said.
�Look, Evelyn�� he began.
�You don�t call me Evelyn, Evelyn snapped. �Not until I know what your name is: Rick or Benjamin?�
�That depends on who�s asking,� was his answer.
�Me,� she said. Her voice was beginning to break and she struggled to control it. �Me. I�m asking. Look at me. Tell me who you are.�
She was so close to the bars of his cell that he could smell her hair. He couldn�t bear to look at her and stared more pointedly out the window. �It doesn�t matter,� he said.
Evelyn suddenly thought that the reason for his reluctance to talk might be the guard. She turned to him and commanded, �Leave us.�
Rick didn�t want the chance of a more intimate conversation. �No,� he told the guard. �Please take her out.�
The guard reached to take Evelyn by the elbow. She shrugged him off. �Don�t you touch me! I have some things to say to this man and I will say them. Leave us at once.�
�I�ll be right outside if you need me,� the guard said and he left, the metal door clanging shut behind him.
Evelyn no longer tried to hold back her emotions. Tears began to spill down her face as she gripped the bars and said, �Tell me what is going on, Rick. Please tell me you haven�t been lying to me all of this time, please!�
�All of this time?� he echoed. �We�ve barely known each other a month.�
�I�ve know you longer than that,� she said. �I can feel it��
He could feel it too; he had known her a long time but there was no hope, no point in admitting it. �I�ve done a lot of things that I�m not proud of�� he began. �I�m not a good person��
�Yes, you are�� Evelyn insisted.
�No, I�m not.�
�You are! You are a good person. You saved my life, you fought the creature and all of those� those things. You saved the world, Rick. And you saved me.� She stretched her hand out toward him. �Please, anything you may have done we can straighten out. We can get lawyers, we can...�
�No,� he told her. �There is no �we�, Evelyn.�
�Yes, there is and I want to help, Rick. They are going to hang you for something I don�t believe you did!� she protested.
�You can�t help me,� he said. �Please, Evelyn. All you can do is just leave and forget about me.�
�I can�t do that,� Evelyn said. �I love you.�
God, she had to go and say it. The very words he longed to hear from her last night tore a hole in heart this morning. �Don�t,� he said. �It will only make it worse for both of us.�
�How can things get any worse than this?� She sank to the floor, crying and hugging the bars of his cell. �Tell me that you don�t love me and I�ll go away. Tell me you don�t love me.�
Rick went to her and pulled her chin up to look at him. �I love you, Evelyn. That�s why you have to leave. It will be worse if you stay around to watch and find out all of the things I�ve done,� he told her as he knelt on the floor beside her. �You think I�m some kind of hero or something and I don�t want you to know what I really am. Please, Evelyn, let�s say good bye now and leave it with you being the only one who thinks good of me.� He leaned forward and kissed her. She reached through the bars to grip him closer but he took her hands in his and bowed his head over them so she wouldn�t see the tears that threatened to spill from his own eyes. �Please, Evelyn. Go now,� he said. He kissed her hands then pushed her away and stood, turned his back and walked to the tiny window.
Evelyn also stood. �I will leave for now, but I am going to do whatever I can to get you out of this. I don�t care what the truth is. What ever you did in the past can�t change what you did since I�ve known you. You are a good man, and I�m not going to stand by and watch them hang you.�
Rick pressed his forehead against the bars of the window. Why can�t she just go away? How many more people have to get involved and be ruined because of him?
Evelyn banged on the door and called out, �Guard, I wish to leave now.� The guard opened the door for her and she stepped out. There was Jonathan, just coming in. She faced him defiantly, and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.
Jonathan didn�t bother confronting his sister. �Why did you let her in to see him?� He asked the officer at the desk.
�She�s your sister, Carnahan. Has anyone ever successfully said �no� to her?� asked the officer.
�In recent memory, only one,� reflected Jonathan. �And he�s in that cell,� he added silently to himself.
�Did you find anything out?� Evelyn asked.
�Only more questions than answers,� Jonathan told her. �I came here to speak to Colonel Matthews. Is he in?� he asked the officer at the desk.
�He is,� replied the officer. �I�ll see if he will speak to you.� The officer picked up the telephone and dialed.
�I�m going with you,� Evelyn told Jonathan.
�Evy, please. This is kind of a man to man thing�� he half heartedly argued.
�You may go in now,� said the officer.
Jonathan entered the Colonel�s office, followed by Evelyn.