A/N: This is a repost of the story I wrote a while back called 'Plus One'. I really should have titled it the same, but I like my new title better, so (shrugs). Only one significant change, bit of a shocker if I do say so myself, but mostly it's the same. If you read Plus One and want to continue on to the other stories that should (no promises) be posted soon, you'll be able to follow along just fine. I'm also going to break it up into chapters this time, just or easier reading (and suspense!). It's still a little choppy in places - sorry about that, but right now, I'm kind of moving ahead with NT2 and the in-between stuff I'm writing. Really long author's note. Sorry about that, and thanks for reading. Enjoy!
"Security! Over here! Security!"
"What do you want? Go away!" Abigail shouted at Ian and Shaw.
"Are you okay?" A passer-by, in her mid twenties, dressed in jeans, sneakers and a dark green sweater, brown hair in a ponytail, increased her pace to reach the blonde woman in evening wear clutching what in the dark almost looked like a rolled-up newspaper.
"This is none of your business." Ian informed her from the van.
"Trust us, you don't want to interfere." Shaw stepped forward menacingly.
"Back off." She said tightly, putting herself between the blonde and the men and shrugging off her backpack. It looked a little ridiculous, the girl, a decent height but built like a distance runner, facing off with a couple of rather large, very broad-shouldered men. Then the driver of the catering truck started shooting at a red van across the street. The two thugs jumped forward, and the stranger lashed out, driving one to his knees.
"Just bring her!" As Ben ducked bullets, Ian swore and pulled back from the fight, clutching his left wrist.
"Not her, idiots." Ian said to the men who held the struggling brunette. One doubled over, elbowed in the stomach, and she jammed the heel of her newly freed hand into the other guy's nose. Shaw grabbed a pot to clobber her on the head. Abigail screamed as her self-appointed protector fell and lay lifeless. Abigail was pulled into the van and Ian snapped at Shaw, who was kicking the fallen girl in the ribs, to get in the truck. Riley got out of the van as Ben climbed back in.
"Riley, what? Riley, Abigail, the Declaration!" he sighed and went to help Riley with the semi-conscious girl (Ben grabbed her bag, as well). They put her in the van and Ben yelled, "Go, go, follow them!" to Riley, who obeyed.
"And just who might you be?" Ian snarled, cradling his wrist. When she didn't answer, he modified his approach. "Why don't you just pass me that document? Then we can all go home." He said as smoothly as possible as Shaw poked at his wrist. Abigail shook her head wordlessly, clutching the Declaration. The van took a couple of sharp turns that sent them flying from one side of the van to the other, then hit something like speed bumps that made everyone grab for something to keep them steady. As the van stabilized, Abigail checked the handle of the back door. The handle popped open as they went around a turn and she flew out the back, grabbing desperately onto the door. The red van that had been the target of the bullets was speeding alongside, but before Abigail could get in, a bus honked and they had to veer away. Ben reached for her and, though the Declaration was snatched by Ian, she made it inside the car and Riley turned the van away from the bullets down a side street.
"Are you all right?" Ben asked the women.
"No! Those lunatics…." Abigail screamed.
"You're not hurt, are you?" The other girl, on her knees and elbows with her head down, grunted.
"You're all lunatics!" Abigail yelled.
"Are you hungry?" The stranger crawled into the passenger seat after another turn sent her sliding into the van wall.
"What?!" Abigail was outraged.
"Are you all right?" Ben asked slowly, as though to someone not quite in possession of a full hand.
"Still a little on edge from being shot at, but I'll be okay. Thanks for asking." Riley shared a look with the passenger, who managed a snort of laughter and a wan smile. "I think she's okay too." He told the other two.
"Yeah, well, I'm not all right. Those men have the Declaration of Independence!" Abigail railed.
"She lost it?" Riley demanded.
"Declaration of what?" The stranger turned abruptly, then winced.
"They don't have it." Ben assured everyone, then showed it to Abigail. "See? Okay? Now could you please stop shouting?"
"Is he saying that the Declaration of Independence is in this van?" the stranger asked.
"It's a long story." Riley smiled now that Ben had allayed his fears.
"Give me that!" Abigail grabbed for it, oblivious to the other two passengers.
"You're still shouting. It's really starting to annoy." Ben said.
"I'll second that." Said the stranger, still with one hand uselessly clutching at her head. "Of course, the lunatic part sounded pretty accurate too." She muttered. Riley chuckled.
"You'd do well, Dr. Chase, to be a bit more civilized in this instance." Ben continued, oblivious, though Abigail spared a glance to the front.
"If this is the real one, what did they get?" she asked, lowering the volume and pitch of her voice.
"A souvenir. I thought it'd be a good idea to have a duplicate. It turned out I was right."
"Is anyone ever going to explain to me what's going on?" asked the brunette.
"I actually had to pay for the souvenir and the real one, so you owe me 35, plus tax." Ben continued.
"Mean Declaration Lady seems a lot like Ben, but at least I'll have company when we're being ignored." Riley said.
"Happy to oblige. I'm Kara, by the way."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Riley." He took his right hand off the wheel to shake her hand and swerved.
"Watch the road!" Ben and Abigail shouted together.
"Ben's a good guy, just a little obsessed. Of course, he prefers 'passionate'." Riley continued, nonplussed.
"Who wouldn't?"
"Who were those men?" Abigail asked Ben with no appearance of having heard Riley.
"Just the guys we warned you were gonna steal the Declaration." Ben said.
"And you didn't believe us." Riley said in a well practiced I-told-you-so tone.
"Seriously, I'll catch up." Kara said sarcastically. Riley started to bring her up-to date as Ben and Abigail continued talking; stopping to interject into their conversation,
"I'm pretty sure she was swearing, too."
"Pretty impressively." Kara confirmed.
"Well, we probably deserve that." Ben said. Abigail made a visible effort to calm herself, then said,
"There is not a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence."
"A treasure map?" Kara looked askance at Riley as Ben shook the Declaration at Abigail.
"Yeah," he nodded, and finished bringing her up-to-date as Ben and Abigail continued to argue.
"You know what? I take it back. You're not liars. You're insane." Abigail said.
"That's the thanks I get?" Kara addressed the sarcasm to Riley, well accustomed to being ignored.
"You took on a gang of gun-wielding thugs for some random stranger on the street. Uh, yeah, I'd put that well into white-coat territory." Riley said.
"I'm sorry." Abigail said. "You were very kind to do that. Thank you. I'm Abby, Dr. Abigail Chase."
"And I'm Ben Gates." The guy in the tux introduced himself.
"You know, we stole this for a good cause, too, Abby." Riley said. Seeing her expression in the rearview mirror, he said. " Okay, Dr. Chase, but until we find the treasure and make it public, the Declaration won't be safe because Ian'll still be after it and after he's found it, he'll destroy it."
"You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of amoving van." Abby said.
"Okay, the jury's still out on the treasure map thing, but I vote with her on this one."
"What makes you think you get a vote?" Riley asked. "I've been searching for the treasure for, like, a year and I still don't have a vote."
"I tried to defend a complete stranger in evening wear from half a dozen gun-toting ruffians with my bare hands. I currently have at least a mild concussion and severe bruising spreading over my ribcage,"
"I got blown up and abandoned in the middle of the Arctic."
"Shut up." Abby ordered. He pouted.
"We have a clean-room environment all set up. EDS suits, a particulate air filtration system, the whole shebang." He told her resentfully.
"Really?" She sounded impressed.
"We can't go back there."
"What? Why not?" Riley asked. Ben told them.
"A credit card slip? Dude, we're on the grid. They're gonna have your records from forever. They're gonna have my records from forever!" He wailed.
"How do they know you're involved in the theft?" Kara asked. Riley brightened slightly.
"I know. I know. It's only a matter of minutes before the FBI shows up at my front door." Ben ignored Kara.
"What do we do?"
"We need those letters."
"What letters?" asked both women.
"Get off the road, take a right." Ben ordered.
"What letters?"
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