[ WP ] : You , a historian , find something odd in your records . The same face , accompanied with variations of the same name , keeps emerging in paintings , drawings , woodcarvings and documents , from a span of several centuries . It looks suspiciously like your assistant .

`` I _knew_ she was too hot to be a goddamn history major.'' 
 
 Ed hated when John was right, not because he sort of always hated John, but because John would be so terribly insufferable about _being_ right. It was true that Edward's assistant from Vancouver was the talk among all the thesis researchers and writers throughout the library and it was true she had a smile, or devilish smirk, that would make even the most seasoned practitioner of the Dewy Decimal System fumble and rearrange shelves into meaningless jumbles. Ed, himself, had n't been immune to her, he'd just manage to keep his reactions so minimal that it looked as though he were oblivious to how her presence shifted a room. Upon seeing her for the first time, John remarked how almost perfectly she resembled a Roman statue from Hadrian's Garden. For as distracting as she could sometimes be, her intuitive knowledge of the past was so damned insightful she was a complete treat to have around. 
 
 Edward shifted his glass up to his lips again and let the beer flow more readily. His eyes scanning pile of cheaply copied works of art and various scanned photographs through the ages. There _was_ a statue in Rome that had looked just like her. There _was_ a picture from the industrial era in London that looked like her leaning on the arm of an industry baron. There was _even_ a painting of somebody who had the exact neck and jawline of her striking expression, nude save for a low hanging sheet showing more of her buttocks than Edward felt comfortable eyeing. He set the glass back down on the table and shook his head. 
 
 `` This is insane. There's just no way this is possible. And even if it was, what the hell's she doing among _us_?'' Edward tried to barter for reason. John was having none of it. Both men had grown up on the west coast of the United States, living in the cold and misty mountains of Washington, learning to love the balance between wilderness smarts and scholastic knowledge. They both knew that no matter how smart man claimed to be, they were only ever a few missed meals and an inoperable light switch away from their ancient cousins who conquored the forests. It generated stubborn thinking, and John excelled at being stubborn. 
 
 `` Maybe she's taking a break, sort of collecting her thoughts before another big task?'' John shifted some of the pictures around on the table. The din of the pub masking the insanity of their conversation. Edward typically hated such a hipster establishment so close to campus, but it was brilliant for the topic being discussed. 
 At a glance it would look like two masters students who worked at the library were going over source material for blah blah blah `` buy me another locally sourced microbrewed free trade pint please'', 
 
 `` Oh yes,'' Edward tried to mock his old friend's suggestion, `` _Let me just take a sebatical from life to work on some glossary terms._ That sounds reasonable to me.'' 
 
 John did n't look up from his pictures and scribbles as he replied, `` Not enough books carry glossary sections anymore. She'd be smart to put that in...'' 
 
 Edward thought that if his eyes rolled any harder they might tumble from his skull. As he made the effort to try his slashing glance caught a glimpse of a familair face. It was striking how readily her expression could be sorted from a crowd, her angular, almost completely nonspecific features totally absorbing any nationality that could be guessed. Edward locked eyes with her, struggled out an innocent smile and quickly muttered through his teeth to John. 
 
 `` _She's here, you tit, put it away, put is all away... _'' his words were half hissed as he continued to smile and wave her over. 
 
 John looked down at his pictures and writings and in two huge heaps shoved them all into his backpack. Hands quickly scrambling to shove each shred of paper deeply into the bottom of his pack before reaching out to his untouched beer and hauling it to his lips. As Liz came to a stop at the edge of the table, a number of turned heads slowly scanned the pair of men she clearly walked up to meet. 
 
 Edward looked across to John who dutifully hid his expression into his pint, heavy gulp after gulp and then to Liz. He gave his very best smile and scooted over, `` John here was thinking of changing his thesis.'' 
 
 Liz shifted her graceful figure around the edge of the table and came to an almost weightless seat beside Edward and boggled towards John, `` In your _last_ semester? Are you mental?'' She sounded like a harassing older sister and for the briefest of moments her expression matched an old bust of Cleopatra that Edward recalled. He blinked hard and glared for a moment at John who dutifully chugged his beer. 
 
 `` Yea, he's thinking of researching the evolution of the female figure in art over the ages.'' Edward attempted, eyebrows raised in hopes his effort would land. 
 
 Liz gave an incredulous slant of her brow and that Cheshire smirk curled at the edge of her full lips, `` Is this because Barbra dumped you? Just because she had a 1890's figure _does not_ mean she's beautiful now.'' 
 
 John's beer sputtered back into the glass and his expression soured a moment before his Adam's apple continued to jump rope as he finished off his drink. 
 
 Liz turned her near spotlight powerful expression to Edward who, for the first time ever, finally realized that Liz reminded him of Catherine the Great, and spoke softly, `` Actually I'm glad I found you two. Remember the research I was trying to do on the old tribes in this region?'' 
 
 If he had said `` yes'' it would have been a lie. Since she'd joined the team she had worked on more projects than he had doctoral candidates wandering the rows of books. He never asked if she completed any of them, he just assumed she probably interned for nearly every professor on campus. At second thought, he had next to no idea what she worked on full time or what classes she attended. He'd never thought to research a fellow student employee. She had always come to work a little early and stayed a reasonable stretch of time late. It was as though she followed a text book on how to be a perfectly fitting, under the radar employee. 
 
 `` Uh, _yes_, the ones about the uhh. The um..'' 
 
 `` The Umpqua.'' She finished for him. 
 
 `` Ya I sorta recall that. What'd you find?'' He was ignoring how John seemed to be half drowning in his pint. 
 
 Liz leaned in and half whispered, `` It's sorta important that only you know about it right now. Can you meet me at the microfilm section in about an hour?'' Her expression had slipped from catty to deadly serious. He nodded and quickly took control from his baser instincts and reached for his empty mug, oblivious that there was no distracting sip to be had. She smiled and looked to 
 John as she rose up, `` Do n't finish that whole thing at once. It'll melt your brain.'' 
 
 As she strode out a wall of heads followed her every step of the way until she vanished out the door. If she was aware of the trailing, wolffish eyes, she never let on. John slammed the empty mug down and belched for a stunning amount of time under his breath. As the air continued to groan out of his old friend, Edward looked at John with stunned eyes. 
 
 `` You know, an hour ago if she had asked me to meet at the microfilm section Id have gone and bought condoms!'' He was whispering but he was n't sure why. 
 
 John finished his burp with a half cough and blinked hard before responding. `` Maybe she feeds on the blood of men? Maybe she's a demon? Maybe this is how she lives for so long.'' 
 
 Edward shook his head slightly and placed a few dollars on the table for his beer and his beer alone. `` Or maybe you've been reading too many of those Japanese comic books in your off time.'' 
 
 John recoiled and lowered his head and voice, `` For the billionth time, _they're called manga_ and they're legitimate ways of telling stories.'' 
 
 Edward's brow rose as he stood up from his seat, `` Yes, stories to young men about gorgeous women in endless universities of nondescript ages. This is insanity. Liz is just another student here working on a project like everybody else.'' 
 
 As Edward headed out of the pub John scrambled out of the booth to catch up, pack jostling on his back as he snaked around crowded tables. The pair would have an hour to kill before Edward would meet with Liz, their minds raced in different directions over all the things that a awaited at the end of that time. For the first time ever, Edward finally remembered what she had come to research two years back: 
 
 The legend of the lost pacific expeditions.
