One Night - Night at the Museum

Twenty: London!

"You know, I really would have been okay back home on my own," Nick said as they stood at the riverside of the River Thames, overlooking Tower Bridge.

"Yeah-" Larry shook his head. "Nope. Not after that whole party incident. No way."

"I'm still finding pieces of popcorn in the couch cushions," added Nat. "And I keep stepping in something sticky in front of the kitchen sink." She wrinkled her nose.

"But isn't this cool man, us in London?" said Larry, nudging Nick's shoulder. "Listen, I've been thinking about that year off, and I think it could be cool."

Nick's whole face lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, wow..." Nick was still pleasantly surprised.

"What're you thinking?"

"Well I'm thinking I want to DJ, in Ibiza."

"Ibiza?" repeated Larry. This was clearly not what he had been expecting. 

"Yeah, it's a small island off the coast of Spain."

"Oh. Do you speak Spanish?"

"Well no... But that's the beautiful thing, it's about the music, it's not inhibited by the language barrier."

"No, but you are."

"Yeah, maybe but – come on Dad, why are you freaking out, you just said it was a cool idea?"

"No, I'm not freaking out, I just want to understand what the plan is here."

"Again with the plans," sighed Nick. "Listen Dad, you didn't go to college."

"Whoa, wait-" Larry stopped walking. "Now we're talking about not going to college at all?"

Nick shrugged. "Maybe, I don't know..."

"Nicky-"

"Dad you didn't go to college and you turned out fine!"

"I turned out okay after about twenty years of a lot of dead ends."

"Whatever man," Nicky sighed, brushing it off. "Don't worry about it."

"Hey, I'm always going to worry about you, I'm your Dad."

"Yeah." Nicky gave another shrug. "We should get going, the sun's starting to set."

"Yeah." Larry looked to see Nat standing looking out over the river. She had drifted away from the conversation. He went over. "Hey, we'd better get going."

"Yeah, almost sundown." She took one last look out at the water. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"Yeah, the River Thames. Hey, you okay?"

"Oh yeah, you know I just feel a little awkward during those father-son conversations."

"You can have your say too. Nicky values your opinion."

"Yeah, but I'm not his mom, so..." She gave a little shrug and turned away from the river. "I think those conversations are better left between you guys."

--------------------------------

"I'm not an expert," Nick hissed as they waited for Ahk to awaken and open the door from inside the museum. "But this is feeling, just, really against the law."

"Same way I felt with us sneaking into the Archives at the Smithsonian," Nat empathized.

Larry knocked on the door. Finally, Ahk opened it and let them in.

"How are we?" Larry asked.

"All clear," announced the Pharaoh. "But Larry, you should know, the others felt, perhaps, that we could use some help," he added.

"The others?" said Larry.  He was answered moments later by Teddy springing up and stepping out of the crate.

"Lawrence!" cried the former president. "I couldn't sit idly by, our very survival is at stake!"

"Alright, hey Teddy. Good man to have in a crisis-" Larry was cut off then by Attila popping out of the crate next.

"Attila, some muscle."

Next came Sac. "Hi, Larry," she said with a shy smile.

Larry shook his head. "That is a deceptively large box."

"Obviously we came to!" came Octavius's voice. He and Jed were perched atop Attila's helmet.

"You know you'd be lost without us Gigantor!"

"Are you serious?" cried Larry, just as Dexter climbed out too. "And the monkey. Okay, basically everyone."

Finally, one last figure popped out. It was Laaa.

"Dada!" he cried, beaming.

"Oh no, no help whatsoever," sighed Larry.

"He really wanted to come," said Ahk.

Laaa chirped again before his eyes fell on Nicky.

"Uhh, what the?" Nick started to ask.

"It's a joke, McPhee must have had him made to look like me," Larry explained. "Yes, this is my actual  son, Nicky," Larry said, putting an arm around Nick. Laaa's eyes narrowed. Then they fell upon Nat who gave him a little wave. Larry put his other arm around her. "And this is my girlfriend, Nat."

Now Laaa was grinning again. "Mama!"

"No, no – hey, you know what, come here, I have a job for you." Larry led Laaa over to the doors and instructed him to stay put. After a few minutes of explaining, and Laaa continuously following him away, he finally managed to get him to stay.

"Okay," he sighed.

"So Lawrence, what's the plan of attack?" asked Teddy.

"Well, we need to get to the Egyptian wing, find Ahk's father, and hopefully get the tablet fixed."

"Onward then!"

"Yeah, yeah, onward."

With that the group proceeded further into the museum. Museums were always a little spooky at night, especially unfamiliar ones.

They entered a hall where Ancient Greek statues were just coming to life. Some were missing limbs.

"What kind of haunted hootenanny is this?" muttered Jed.

"We're all finding this super creepy right?" said Nick.

"They're just a little freaked out," said Larry. "It's their first night coming alive."

"The first night we came alive it took some getting used to," empathized Teddy.

"Poor guys," said Nat.

"Hello, hey," Larry said, giving the very confused statues a little wave as they passed by. "We're just cutting through, heading to Egypt."

As soon as they stepped outside the door, something landed in front of them: a bone.

A triceratops skeleton up ahead had tossed a bone at them, much like Rexy did back home.

"I got this." Larry picked up the bone and tossed it back towards the dinosaur. 

The triceratops caught the bone in its mouth, promptly crushing it with its jaw and giving a loud bellow. 

"Lawrence," piped up Teddy. "Might I suggest an alternative? RUN!"

(Ah, I love London so much! :D I've never been to the British Museum, but it's definitely on my list!

I'm on a roll here with updating and trying to finish up some stories, so here's another chapter for this one! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! :))