Anne Lasky was dragging Kathryn Lasky very painfully by the wrist.
"Honestly," grumbled Anne, her long fingernails digging into Kathryn's wrist. "What does your English teacher teach you? What kind of person hasn't heard of National Treasure?"
"Me," replied Kathryn in her thick British accent that she had gotten from five years of living in London, annoyed.
Anne grinned before pushing Kathryn down on the couch and saying, "Well, you won't be able to say that again." She found the National Treasure DVD and quickly inserted it into the DVD player. Meanwhile while she was doing that, Kathryn was looking around Anne's flat worriedly. The house was a total and utter mess!
"Anne," said Kathryn timidly, even though she was the big sister but Anne could be a little bit of a fright sometimes. "Are you sure you chose the right, eh, environment? It seems kind of messy…"
Said girl rolled her eyes and muttered, "There you go again; always drilling it into me that I need to clean my flat."
The older girl grinned and said, "Sorry, I can't help it. It's a habit of mine."
Anne laughed, "Yeah, well, whatever. Just focus on the movie."
And then there was a loud BANG! (A/N: I'm sure you readers know how it goes.)
Kathryn pushed her jet-black hair out of her face as she fell to the floor with a grunt. She hurriedly scrambled up, not sure what had happened but she being the 'smart' one she always was, she quickly concluded that she was in the mid of a car chase. The door to the van she was currently in was open and there was a thirty something year-old lady hanging on to it for dear life.
Kathryn jogged towards the lady and reached out a hand, hoping to pull her in but she was shoved to the side by rough, coarse hands. She looked up, readying herself to yell at the person who pushed her but apparently, she wasn't the one that was going to do the talking.
"You," hissed the man, his blue eyes glaring at her. "I don't know who you are and where you came from but whatever you do, you better not bloody interfere with my plan."
Whatever respect that Kathryn had for this man, it disappeared before anybody could say 'Ah well'. She returned the glare the man was shooting her way and said viciously, baring her teeth, "Bite me."
The man ignored her and quickly grabbed the document from the lady's grip. He grinned and said laughingly, "Thank you, got it. Go on."
Anne arrived at this odd place later than Kathryn and when she landed on the messy floor of Riley's van, Ben Gates and Riley Poole had already managed to get Dr. Chase. When she brushed away her blonde locks from her eyes, she finally demanded, "Okay, where am I?"
"You're in America," replied Riley lamely.
Anne glared at him, "I know that, you dolt but can you please tell me what state I'm in or ooh, better yet, why I am in this stupid bloody van when I'm supposed to be back home in my flat and watching a movie?" The words spilled out of her mouth before she could register who he was.
Then it kicked in.
Oh crap. Oh bloody crap. She was in National Treasure! Usually, Anne would have jumped with joy after realizing that because her lifetime ambition was to become rich and famous but this didn't seem like acting at all. It was like a parallel world where things that happened in National Treasure the movie actually did happen.
Gods, she didn't know how right she was.
"I'm in Washington, aren't I?" she asked, her heart pounding.
"If you mean the state, no but if you mean the capital of United States and where the Library of Congress and the National Archives are, then yes," replied Ben Gates very calmly, as if the car chase that had happened before never happened at all. "If you meant the second one, try using D.C. after it. It tends to clear up any confusion, understand? Did you know that-"
He was cut off by Anne who said very sweetly, "Thanks but as I remember, I didn't ask for the whole history of Washington, D. C."
Ben scowled, obviously used to people listening intently to him.
Riley chuckled and muttered, "I like her."
Anne gave him a small smile before going back to thinking.
I don't want people thinking I'm a loony, thought Anne. But if I tell them how I got here, they will think I'm a loony. Oh gosh, what to do, what to do… I can either play the part of somebody who doesn't know them at all and doesn't know how she got here (which is partly true) or tell them my story. Let's stick to the first one. I wonder what happened to Kathryn…
"Is this really necessary?" asked Kathryn weakly, as Ian tied Kathryn to a chair that he had miraculously found in his van.
"It'll have to do until you tell me your name, where you're from, how the hell you got her and whether the bloody hell you're with Gates," replied Ian.
"Fine," snapped Kathryn before taking a deep breath and answering his question. "I'm Kathryn Lasky, I was on a vacation in America after getting a Bachelor's Degree in Oxford and I'm not really sure how I got here. I was watching some movie with my sister when BOOM! I got here."
"You still haven't answered my question about Gates," said Ian, somewhat nastily but he felt some respect for the woman tied up in a chair after she mentioned she went to the University of Oxford.
"Gates…?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.
Ian sighed exasperatedly, "Oh, come on, woman! You can't say that you've never heard of the Gates family."
"Yes, I can, because it's true."
"You've never heard of the crazy family with the bloody crazy conspiracy theories?"
"No…" said Kathryn slowly, and a smile crept onto her lips. "But I can't say I don't believe them."
Hmm… Ian looked at the woman and gently rubbed his chin, deep in thought. This person could prove useful. He looked up suddenly and demanded, "What were you studying in the University of Oxford?" He knew he could have just used the acronyms but for some reason, he detested them.
Kathryn looked at Ian with surprise and replied anyway, "I studied American History."
Ian half smirked half smiled and quickly threw her a riddle for her to figure out.
"The legend writ, the stain affected. The key in Silence undetected. Fifty-five in iron pen, Mr. Matlack can't offend. Figure that one out," said Ian. "If you get it wrong, you stay here but if you get it right, you go." He nodded his head at Kathryn, motioning for her to start, even though what was going to happen if she got it right was the opposite.
Kathryn couldn't help but throw a steely glare at Ian but she racked her mind for the answer anyway. "It's a map!" she cried suddenly. "On the Declaration of Independence… The key in Silence undetected… Silence Dogood?" she asked questioningly, looking at Ian.
"Who's Silence Dogood?"
"Oh, Silence Dogood, well, at age fifteen, Benjamin Franklin secretly wrote letters to his brother's newspaper, which was the New England Courant, posing as a middle-aged widow."
"Well, where are the Silence Dogood letters now?"
Kathryn shrugged as Ian's probing gaze stared at her. "I'm not quite sure," she said. "Seeing as I still don't know where the hell I am." She gave Ian a steely smile.
Ian returned the smile mockingly and turned his head, "Shaw! The girl-" –he pointed to Kathryn- "stays, alright? She's got useful information."
"Hey!" cried Kathryn. "I thought you said that I would be able to go if I answered the riddle correctly and I'm pretty sure I did!"
Ian waved a hand absentmindedly and said, "I lied."
"I really and sincerely hate you, Mr. Whateveryournameis."
"It's actually Ian, Ms. Whateveryournameis."
"It's actually Kathryn, Mr. Ianisastupidname."
"It's actually Shut-up-or-I'll-kill-you-soon, Ms. Kathryn."
Her name rolled off Ian's tongue and came out with a casual drawl. He brushed away his soft blond hair and sighed. "Right, you guys, you did well today. Don't worry; we'll get Gates." He smiled warmly at each of his thugs; Ian was always there for his thugs. Always encouraging them, assuring them that nothing would go wrong.
A/N: How did you like that? This is my first National Treasure fic so go easy on me. There was never any good Ian/OC fics and I pretty much finished reading all of them so I decided to write my own and see what happened in the end. In my own way, it's kinda like I'm reading the fic myself. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this.