A/N Just a little one shot that's been floating around in my brain.

Disclaimer: I don't own National Treasure (duh) If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it, I'd be making the third movie! (And there would be lots of cute little Riley scenes, because they never put in enough of those!)

Riley sat in front of his computer, a place where he spent the majority of his time. Whether it be hacking into something for Ben, or stealing some information for Ben, or just doing something illegal for Ben, Riley put a lot of miles on his beloved laptop. But now, for the first time in a long time, he was working on something for himself. A personal project that had been years in the making, and now he was almost finished. Riley couldn't help but take pride in it, the work was flawless, and he couldn't wait to show his friends from MIT. As he added the final touches, Riley struggled with the decision to show Ben or not. Although they were years apart the young computer savant still felt that the historian was his best friend. Ben had always shown a cool interest in Riley's computer skills, but just like Abigail, Ben had come to take him for granted. Riley shook his head, things had changed after they had found Cibola the city of gold. Ben and Abi were giving it a second chance and things were getting better for all of them. But it still stung to know that his best friend hadn't even read his book until they needed it to find the city of gold. No, he decided, he wouldn't hold onto these things. This was and important landmark in his life, something that could change everything, and he would share it with his best friend. He was just about to hit the last keystrokes when the phone rang. Scrambling through the old chip bags and Red Bull cans that had been keeping alive these last few all nighters of trying to finish this project Riley found his cell phone buried under the mess. "Hello?" He answered without even checking the caller id.

"Hey its Ben, look I need your help with something can you come over?" He felt himself sagging, physically and emotionally, as he sunk deeper in the couch. A few keystrokes from completion, only a few, couldn't Ben have waited for a few more seconds. He seriously considered saying no and telling Ben to stick it where the sun don't shine, but what if Ben was in serious trouble. Riley berated himself for being such an awful friend, its not as if Ben knew he was interrupting anything this was a secret project after all. "Hello, Riley? Are you still there?" Riley shook himself out of his thoughts and answered.

"Yeah, um yeah sorry. What kind of help? The, 'Oh crap I fried my hard drive.' kind or the, 'Hey, I need help finding treasure.' kind?" Ben chuckled into the phone and said.

"The second one. What do you say, are you in?" Riley glanced longingly at his laptop that begged him to say no. He was going to branch out, do something without Ben. "Like your book?" An evil inner voice questioned. "How many copies sold, one?" This wasn't going to be like that he told himself. This wasn't about treasure or conspiracies, or legends, this was about the thing he was good at, the thing he loved. But didn't he love helping his friend too? Riley couldn't deny it, he always enjoyed searching for treasure, despite how he complained, because it was when he got to spend time with his best friend. After the treasure had been found and the publicity had died down, Riley might as well have disappeared from the face of the Earth by the way Ben ignored him. Maybe this time would be different, he tried to convince himself. Besides there would be other days to finish his project. He sighed and closed the laptop.

"Yes Ben, I'm always in."

E/N So there it is, a bittersweet moment for Riley. There's so much you can do with his character that I'll probably write more about him later. Anyways hope you liked it!