Work Text:
"How are things at the museum?"
Well, as if that wasn't a loaded question. His dad knew better than anyone that it wasn't easy to get everyone in order, and though Nicky had experience with dealing with museum exhibits, he also knew every day brought new challenges.
First of all, there had been the whole issue of him, uh, changing his plans. Again.
It wasn't his fault that he'd only had this realisation after spending a week in Ibiza. He loved music, he loved getting lost in the movement of a party, but it was just a hobby that he'd decided to base his career on. Well, he'd not really known where it would lead, but soon he'd realised that it wasn't where his passion lived.
It'd been great getting to meet new people and help out with a couple of sets, but it just felt like a holiday. It was cool learning new skills and making crowds happy, but it wasn't enough. He was good at it, and that was the problem. Laid back as he was, he enjoyed a challenge.
He couldn't stop thinking about the museum, of both museums and all the excitement that had lived within them. It was hard to think of the New York museum with the figures staying dormant at night. It felt like something he had to fix, something that could be changed, but inside he knew that things had moved on.
His dad had been unsettled for a while, it had been his life and his job and it must've been weird for him to end it. But now he was working in a library (thanks to Rebecca's girlfriend getting him a job there in the archives) and doing a night course on ancient history. Still keeping himself busy at night, guess some things never changed.
Nicky couldn't force himself to move on like that. Even though he'd always seen himself travelling and trying different careers, he'd just figured he'd end up back at the museum, taking over from his dad. His dad might've concluded that he himself needed to find a more stable job for the long haul, but Nicky was still young, still able to take risks and make mistakes.
He ended up deciding that he'd have to go back to the British Museum and see if he had a place there, even if it turned out to be a mistake.
His dad had surprised him by wanting him to keep pursuing a musical career instead. He knew that in a living museum there would be danger, things could be hard to manage, and the tablet was mainly still a mystery, even if they knew its origin. The magic could be unstable, it could just end abruptly, and he didn't want Nicky trying to save a museum by himself.
But Nicky knew he would be going to that museum one way or another, and his dad knew he was capable of sneaking in, especially now that he had connections and had, well, already snuck in once before.
His mom saw the passion he had for this, and she asked him why it was so important for him to go. Nicky had been going on instinct, on the feeling that he couldn't just leave something in the past that was still active at that moment. He surprised himself by telling her that he missed learning. It was true, though: every day he had learnt new things, whether it be how battles were won, or how to train a monkey to high five you, or a caveman's favourite flavour of candy.
His mom, of course, had known about the museum since that first night when Nicky had been mesmerised by the magic of the tablet. You didn't come home from a midnight battle and get away with it. He'd explained the truth, and she'd just thought he was covering for something his dad had done.
After a while he and his dad brought her to the museum at night and she'd disappointed them by not being as awed as they'd hoped. She was more bothered about things like the logistics of a giant dinosaur walking around a museum and the accidents that could lead to. She was a great lawyer, and she sussed out all the problems and found solutions to them. Rexy loved her more than him or his dad, something that his younger self had been grumpy about, and they had journeyed around the museum together with his mom calling over to them about imminent disasters they needed to prevent. In the meantime, she introduced the nuns to pinterest and set the soldiers at work covering breakable objects with bubble wrap. Like Nicky, she enjoyed a challenge, and she'd enjoyed teaching the exhibits new things about the modern world.
She hadn't spent many nights at the museum, deciding to leave it to his dad who had surprised her in a good way with how well he was managing. However she'd made snacks for Nicky to give to people such as Wea who she'd gotten on with, and had often asked how things were going.
His mom had supported his idea to spend his gap year in London instead, and then his dad had given in, and before he knew it he was jetting off to another country, hopefully for longer this time.
It was very lucky that his mom's girlfriend's daughter, Bella, lived in London, a bus ride away from the British Museum, and that she was as sweet as her mom and invited him to stay with her as long as he needed. Bella had been so enthusiastic about him working at the museum; her mom was involved in law too but she pursued a less serious career in theatre and helped with the lighting for theatre productions. She was very keen about historic venues such as the globe theatre, and had visited the museum quite a few times.
Though they had only met a handful of times before, Bella had been happy to let Nicky stay in her spare room, only asking that he pay towards the shopping sometimes and help with the cleaning up. She walked him to the museum when he felt ready to go there, jokingly asking him to say hello to Shakespeare if he was there. (He later did mention his step sister to him, when there was a British authors exhibition. Will had been a cool guy, a bit too flirty for Nick’s liking, but he was a good laugh and he’d been ridiculously good at Scrabble.)
It had felt weird to be going back to the museum again, as though it was only a tourist destination to him. His dad didn't really have much contact with Dr McPhee anymore, and neither of them were brave enough to venture into the NY museum again to find him.
It wasn't a crime to go into a museum during daylight hours, however, and if it came to it, it couldn't be too much of a crime to stay overnight to meet friends. Well, Ahkmenrah. He hadn't had the chance to meet many of the other exhibits there. There was Lancelot, who he'd long since forgiven for the whole hostage situation: the guy had been having an identity crisis and they'd actually been pretty good friends for the short amount of time they'd been able to hang out. Nicky hadn't been expecting anyone to greet him excitedly, though; he just wanted to see how Ahk was doing with his parents and hopefully spend time getting to learn things in a new museum.
He'd looked around the museum, finding himself missing Attila and Octavius and Jedediah and Wea and his other friends back home. He reminded himself to be glad for the times they'd had, and that he was setting out on a new adventure in a new museum now. He'd smiled at the familiar sights of the garuda, the works of art that had caught his eye the last time he'd been there, and thankfully the tomb with the Pharaoh and his family, and the suit of armour in the medieval display still remained.
He'd patted Trixie on the leg and gotten told off for it as he left at closing time, and he was greeted with a yell in his face almost as soon as he'd turned the corner, aiming to sneak into the back entrance somehow.
"Hey, you! Even though you trapped me in my own office, well, I call it my office, it’s more of a shed or something, but I'm, like, so glad to see you!"
"Oh, Tilly, right?"
"Yeah, I've been told it's hard to forget my face, I guess it's just my natural charm and everything... so, did your dad send you?"
"Uh, not exactly. I mean, he payed for my tickets, but I'm the one who wanted to come back,"
"But you've got experience with museums coming to life, right?"
"I'm not an expert, dad never let me look after the museum on my own, even though I could probably have handled it, but even when he was ill he got me to help him get a cab there... anyway, I guess I could give it my best shot? That’s why I’m here, actually,"
"Well, either way, you need to help me out, your dad didn't tell me anything about everything coming to life and everything, they keep trying to steal my phone to take selfies, it's so annoying,"
"You should put a passcode on that,"
"Yeah, but I never remember it, anyway, the Pharaoh guy will be over the moon to see you, he talks about you and your dad, you know,"
"I don't really think Ahk does 'over the moon', but it'll be good to see him, and everyone else."
"Hey, you should've seen his face when I showed him what a Galaxy bar was, like, I bring in things for the people who don't try and escape and break priceless pottery, I hope it'll get everyone else to, like, stop doing that too, though I don't know if I can afford all those chocolate bars, but that dinosaur keeps breaking things and the guys above me, the ones who decide if I keep my job or not, well, they're getting suspicious of me saying it's because things are old, but like, they are really old, they were probably going to break anyway..."
Nicky had forgotten just how much Tilly could talk, but he didn't mind. It was good to get so much information on what had been happening, to be included in the life of a living museum again. It wasn't that Tilly wasn't capable - her threats were scary and she'd not had anyone escape - but he had to admit his dad hadn't left her with much help. Even though the majority of people in the museum did their own thing just fine, it was still a lot of exhibits to be responsible for. Handling the day to day issues of quarrels and confusion and things getting lost and trying to understand people speaking foreign languages was the real challenge.
His dad had probably thought it'd be a good learning experience for Tilly like it had been for him, but she was just kind of annoyed and felt like she really should be paid more. Nicky couldn't help but agree when he'd seen the amount of fragile and priceless art that could so easily be destroyed.
Tilly updated him on the current exhibits in the museum and events that had happened since they'd all come to life, and luckily she was keen to have Nicky joining her. Even with the sudden arrival of a museum full of living beings and the challenges that came with that, she still saw it as a fun experience and was excited to have him there with her.
However, they weren't so keen on breaking the law every night, so they had devised a plan to tell the staff that he had worked at the Natural History Museum in New York (basically the truth) and that he was her cousin who wanted to do work experience with her (not so much the truth). Tilly was sure Dr McPhee would support their plan, though Nicky wasn't sure as the McPhee he knew would be glad to get away from all the drama that happened when a Daley was involved. But it turned out that Tilly talked to him quite often, he had been no help with managing the exhibits after dark but he did know museum things and had helped her with research.
(As it turned out, their plan had somehow worked. Tilly did sneak him in for a week before he got the job, but after that he had a solid reason to be at the museum. They had recently expanded an area of the museum, which Tilly had used as an excuse for wanting an extra person to work with her, and after Nicky had gone for an interview, shown his historical knowledge and convinced them he wasn't going to steal everything, he got the job of volunteer night guard. It was a pretty relaxed position, he just had to show up every night and be under Tilly's watch.
He hadn't been too concerned about not getting paid (his sister said he could stay for free, but he was going to look for a paid job eventually), it was just good to have a proper reason to be able to go to the museum at two in the morning. He thought he'd done great at charming them, but Tilly later confessed that they'd said he could help her out if she stopped asking for freebies with the job and for a more stylish uniform and for more pay, which she'd reluctantly agreed to.)
As it got closer to sundown, Tilly showed Nicky her routine of locking all the doors and windows, keeping some exhibits in their cases and putting out snacks to distract the animals. In Nicky's opinion, she had been doing better than his dad had, and he'd even had a checklist to go off.
He and Tilly had gone to the Egyptian exhibit in time to see the tablet glow; the lids of the sarcophagus' were pulled off, bandages had been unwound and Ahkmenrah had just stared at him in disbelief as his parents greeted him and Tilly before leaving the tomb to go and ask some mummies to fetch them food.
"You're not gonna say hi?"
"Nick, why have you returned, is Larry in trouble?"
"Oh, no, dad's fine, and he told me to ask you if you're doing okay being here and with your parents and everything,"
"I suppose the museum really is behind him. I've been fine, it's been good to catch up, and to meet all these new people and things, although my parents keep acting as though they rule the entire museum and it's a bit embarrassing,"
Nicky remembered being so grateful to see a familiar face while in an unknown museum and country, and he was pretty sure the Pharaoh had felt the same. He’d mostly had a neutral expression on his face, as he’d been taught to do, but Nicky had seen him smiling at him too. Ahk had introduced him to some other exhibits (Nefertiti was very cool) and they'd taken a walk through the Great Court and Nicky had explained his change of plans.
After a while Ahkmenrah had gone with one of Henry VIII's wives to watch one of the TV shows about the Kardashians and Tilly had run past him to stop a group of witch hunters from charging into the Rosetta Stone and then Nicky found himself face to face with the giant triceratops. The calamity had been reassuringly familiar, but so was the very real fear of being trampled by a dinosaur skeleton.
But then a figure had hopped off the dinosaur and sent it away to do who knows what and then Lancelot was on one knee before him, looking kind of unhappy to see him, which wasn't an ideal reaction.
"I do not know why you've returned, but I am grateful for the opportunity to apologise properly for my misdeeds the last time we met, I regret taking you hostage, I regret stealing that tablet, you can be sure the Pharaoh doesn't let me anywhere near it, and with good reason, for I--"
"Dude, it’s fine, I understand,"
"I was so caught up in what I thought I must do, trying to maintain normality; it was as though I was one of those computers, programmed to find the Holy Grail and nothing else, to put it before friends and emotions, but I so wanted to make friends and to travel with you all and to go on an adventure and I ended up making things worse, I--"
"Lance,"
"--was such a fool for ignoring your father, I was such a fool, Nicky, and I betrayed your trust, we had developed such kinship and I understand if you have come to make me pay for what I have done wrong, it only seems fair--"
"Lancelot."
"After all, I almost endangered all of our lives, although I am not sure if we are alive, and that thought plagues me most days, but I am thankful to apologise to you and to see you again, even if I fear the others here and you yourself will never trust me again, but perhaps--"
"Alright you fool, I came here to hang out with you, so either give me a hug or don't but in both cases, not to be rude, but please shut up man, because I forgave you ages ago and so did everyone else, I'm pretty sure."
"Oh. Thank you, Nick, for your forgiveness,"
"...Or go ahead and kiss my hand, that's good too I guess,"
"I will never betray your trust again, you have my word, sire."
Nicky had pulled a face at that. "Hey, don't call me sire, I'm nobody's sire, just a friend, okay?"
"Oh, you see me as a friend?"
"Yeah, I do. Of course we're friends. Is that cool?"
"That's... very cool. Thank you, Nick. I'm very grateful."
"Okay, okay, getting back to the important stuff, do you know where the nearest vending machine is?"
"Oh, yes! There is one near the staff kitchen and it contains these delicious little crispy chocolate balls, ah, if only your father was here, he would have made that sound hilarious..."
Since then, Nicky's nights had mainly consisted of hanging out with Lance and introducing him to movies and helping him through his identity crisis, as well as aiding Tilly with saving ancient art and keeping people entertained. Once Lance had stopped treating Nicky as though he was some king he had to serve and just started hanging out with him, they’d easily settled back into their comfortable friendship.
Nicky had also managed to get a part time job, working on the weekends in a supermarket which helped him give Bella money towards the rent for the flat as well as pay for treats for the guys at the museum. Sure, he didn't go out much and his sleeping pattern was screwed, but he felt like he was living again.
"Hey, Nicky, you there? How are things going?"
Nicky looked around him at his surroundings in the Great Court. Ahkmenrah was painting his nails while looking at something Tilly was showing him on her phone. A metal frog was hopping up and down the stairs chasing after a fly. Charles Dickens appeared, handing Tilly a cup of tea and asking her if she had seen what Beyoncé posted on Instagram (she had taken no time in introducing the exhibits to her favourite celebrities and she’d done a good job catching them up with current trends). Lancelot was sitting on the sloping handrail of the stairs, wearing a onesie patterned in bananas and swinging his feet as he polished his helmet.
Nicky smiled to himself.
"They're going great dad, really."