Action/Adventure/Romance
Oceans
It's frightening to be swimming in this strange sea
but i'd rather be here than on land…
By Valentine M.
Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure. I do own th OC's.
This is my first shot at fanfiction, so I want to hear what people think, but dont hurt me. haha.
Late on a November afternoon, Haley Snowe climbed out of a Boston cab, paid the man, and with a withering smile turned to climb the 6 flights of stairs to her Flat… 'Flat' she thought, as the wintery wind blew around her, 'I can't call it that anymore. Back in the US we have apartments,' apartments; that sounded like a desk drawer or something, like she was being cubbied into some sort of little compartment… She nearly smiled at the thought, and her minds eye flashed a few memories of her days in Europe. She fumbled around in her coat for the card key and let herself in.
The rooms were quiet, and dark, with boxes strewn everywhere. They had returned to the states only two weeks ago, they were going to move back into the old house. They had rented it out while living overseas. Now, right in the middle of it all, coming home to the states, moving back in, and getting ready to start working, it had all come crashing down. Haley bit her quivering lip and wrapped her arms around herself, it was all so real now, she saw their shoes at the door, a coat on the sofa, and their clean laundry folded on the floor. She couldn't hold it in, for the third or forth time that day Haley began to cry. The salty sweet tears ran in little streams down her face; she shrugged off her coat and slipped out of her black kitten heels. She refused to wipe away the tears; she let them fall over her pail skin, running down her face and neck. She padded across the room and went to turn on the shower. She let her long black pea coat fall to the floor; her hands felt their way down the back of her black dress and she unzipped it, letting it fall lifelessly to the ground around her ankles, she stepped out of it and proceeded to the shower like a zombie, she pulled bobby pins out of her long chocolate hair, and let it fall around her, her bangs tickling her face.
"Hal" He smiled "You know how much I love it when you wear your hair back; your face is so beautiful…" He beamed down at her and brushed her bangs back away from her blue grey eyes.
Steam clouded the mirror, and Haley turned and slipped into the shower; she sat under the hot water, the eyeliner and mascara running she tried to rub it away, but it only smudged around, she buried her head in her knees and let the water wash her away.
XXX
Ian Howe sat at a little desk with a little phone and a thick glass window. He had spent nearly two long years now in federal prison. The food was bland, and the company left much to be desired. But that could all change… A tall wiry man with funny glasses took his seat on the other side of the glass and smiled at Ian. Ian grinned and placed the little black phone to his ear.
"And how are we this morning Mr. Howe?"
"Never better, Nigel, now what's this all about?" Ian's Hazel eyes were for the first time in nearly two years glittering, and he smiled wolfishly; as was his nature.
Nigel broke into a toothy grin, his long face looking awkward under the tug of the smile. "It looks like we may have found something sir." The man stooped and pulled what looked like an old glass soda bottle from his pack. Inside was a role of paper, Nigel popped the cork and fished out the paper with his long bones fingers.
"Hurry!" Ian hissed, eyeing a guard, "we don't have all day!"
Promptly Nigel unrolled the small scroll and pressed it against the glass for Ian to see.
"My god." Ian breathed, and gingerly pressed his hand up against the glass wishing he could grasp what was being put in front of him.
"Hmm you see my friend?" Nigel laughed, "I told you. We 'found' it off the cost of Africa; god only knows what it was doing out there."
"Has it been tested? What's in it? …Is there a map?"
"Easy, we were waiting for your signal."
"And? Yes! Test it; I want to know everything there it to know about the letter." Ian whispered frantically.
"One more thing" Nigel leaned forward, "We thought it best if we had you with us."
Ian smirked, he now noticed two large men positioned in the doorway. He couldn't help but chuckle. Ian looked over to see the familiar muscular builds of Horace and Joey. They stood like brick towers by the door way in the visiting room, both in dark shades. Ian's grin broadened as Nigel took a long look down at his Rolex.
"Time for me to leave im afraid." He said and glanced over his shoulder at the approaching guard. "Do take care Ian" Their eyes met, as Nigel rose from his chair to greet the guard and exited.
XXX
Back in his cell, in solitude… Ian began to wonder if Nigel and his men had been caught. There would have been no announcement, so how would he know? He grimaced and sat back down for the 12th time. Then a voice come from outside.
"Pst…hey, you in there" Ian looked up through the tiny bullet proof glass window, to see the unmistakable beady black eyes of another one of his men, Jasper Harris. Jasper was Ian's computer specialist, and had once been a profitable gambler, sabotaging the machines through casinos world wide, a valuable asset. "Let's get your stuff eh? You ready?" Jasper whispered loudly. "Oh, and mind that far wall" he added, a smile spreading on his yellow teeth.
Just in time Ian moved toward the door, the opposite wall imploded, and the entire cement wall was blown of into the cell. Ian was pressed securely against the door as the dust cleared, out of harms way.
"Bloody hell Jasper! Didn't want to make a scene did we?" Ian coughed and he pulled his shirt up to cover his mouth from the dust.
"Eh" Jasper shrugged, "You know how we feel about doing it the long way" He laughed wickedly, and straightened the color on his uniform. "Good to see you Ian. Now, I must go alert the 'other guards' that Ian Howe has just escaped into a helicopter that is waiting just outside his cell to take him to the old warehouse in Philly." Jasper winked at Ian who could hardly control his laughter. He donned a police hat, "See you there mate" and Jasper was gone.
Ian could hear shouts echoing down the hall as he climbed to the edge of the rubble heap to see a helicopter approaching fast, a ladder dropped and Ian slung a small bag over his shoulder. Nigel leaned out and offered his hand, clasping it, Ian was heaved aboard.
"Think we weren't coming? No little bit of doubt?" Nigel teased
Ian's eyes were set ablaze with freedom, "none"
XXX
Haley sipped on a cup of earl grey tea, and sat in her flannel p.j.'s watching Ratatouille, the mouse was trying to escape from the angry little head chief who was chasing him through the streets of Paris in a tiny red motor scooter. Haley giggled. Pixar rocks.
The phone rang. Once. Twice. "Hello" Haley picked up the cordless by the sofa.
"Hey!" A female voice came over the line.
"Abi?"
"Yea, Haley, How are you doing?"
How am I doing? … That's the question your get from everyone… 'Oh how are you?' or, 'How are you holding up?' That was the worst one.
"Im ok Abi, I can't say great" Haley waited, here it comes, she hated these conversations, even if it was going to be with Abigail. 'I heard and…'
"Haley, I heard what happened and, Im so sorry, I know that doesn't help, and I know your sick of it, but I really am sorry."
Haley smiled a little, what else was she supposed to say? The thing was she didn't want to talk about it, that's who she hated answering the phone now, because every time she did someone else would remind her of what she was trying to forget, alone, in this apartment full of their things. "I know" was all she could say, Abigail's voice was soft over the phone, and for the first time in seven years, Haley could hear her friend as if she weren't 5,000 miles away. "I can hear you so well" she stated bluntly, and laughed shortly at her own ridiculous conversation.
"I know, it sounds like your right here again."
Haley ignored the little chief falling into the river as Remy escaped. "So I guess you got my email than? About coming back to the states, back home."
"But you're in Boston right?"
"Yea, only temporarily, im moving out of this little place ASAP." Haley looked around her at the boxes on the floor. "Im going back to the old house, in Philadelphia"
"Really?" Abigail hesitated, before adding in a lower voice "… alone? In that big house?"
Haley frowned.
Abigail sensed the tension. "Im sorry Hal, I didn't mean to upset you, I know this is hard, and that you feel alone." Abigail had minored in psychology and loved it.
"Abi. Its ok, I need to go home, it'll be better. Trust me."
"Haley, I want you to be safe."
Safe? What did she mean 'safe?' "Abi. Please don't worry."
"Please come and see me" Abigail asked quickly, "You must see the house, and I've missed you so much. Before you move in, while you're moving in, you can come and stay with me. Pleaseee?"
"Well, I don't want to stay here any more."
"Good! When are you moving?"
"ASAP, seriously."
"Good! I'll call movers on mond-"
"Ill call the movers… umm, is that ok?" Haley cut in; she needed special people for this job. Her father's people.
"Ooh" Abigail forced a laugh. Haley could tell she was nervous; she had been since she picked up the phone. "Yea, I know what you're talking about; maybe it would be best if you set that up." Abigail sighed, she was so excited to hear from Haley, and she missed her so much over the years. Abigail didn't get along well with many other women, but Haley was different. The pair hadn't physically seen each other since they graduated high school; Haley had left for Europe with her father, studying at all the major European universities in England Sweden, and Finland while Abigail had stayed closer to home and Attended Penn State. So much had changed, for both of them…
"Anyhow, Monday sounds good, I want to see you." Haley said warmly.
"Me too" Abigail smile against the receiver. "I have so much I want to show you, people I need you to meet."
"I know, and I want to meet them all, and I want the grand tour of this crazy house of yours." Haley giggled.
"So you'll stay?"
"For you I will, of course, we need some catch up time."
"Ok, I'll come and get you at noon on Monday. You don't have a car do you?"
"Not yet, and it'll be my first, I didn't really need one of my own in Europe, everything is so close."
"Mmm exiting, I know you're looking forward to that shopping trip"
"You know it, and Im not going to hold back to much, I need something to pamper," Haley laughed picturing herself polishing some obscenely expensive red car.
"Most girls would get a puppy" Abigail offered.
"Hmm, a puppy, I want a puppy, maybe when I move in, maybe ill get a puppy." Haley smiled.
"Hey, honey, I've got dinner warmish down here" Ben yelled from the kitchen.
Abigail sighed. "Ill see you on Monday Hal, I should go." Warmish, I hope it's warmish, whatever he means by that. Abigail thought briefly.
"Ok so what your number, the room number?"
"601"
"Ok, 601, Ill see you soon"
"Bye" Haley hung up the phone and grinned, she had missed Abi so much, if anyone could take her mond off of this whole thing, it was Abi. So much had changed.
She snuggled deeper into the sofa smiling and refocused her attention on Ratatouille.
XXX
The smell of fresh coffie filled the room of the small coffie shop on Binson St. Riley Poole stared into the brown deapths and sighed. He swished the liquid around as snow was falling lightly outside the window.
"Hey, Riley?" Riley's head snapped up and he gave a short awkward laugh.
"Sorry..." He said with as much punch as he could mustrer, "I was off in my own little world. Haha, you know how it is."
Ben furrowed his eye brows as he continuedued to watch his friend swish his coffie around in the little white cup. "Mhmm." He nodded. "Are you ever going to drink that or are you just going to play with it?" He nodded towards the cup.
"Oh... me? Yea, yea, its just, kinda hot, coffees kinda hot." Riley tried to laugh again.
"Riley, i know your upset-"
"Oh, no, im not really upset upset. Like really my dog got runover upset, no. But im kinda like my fish died upset... that kinda thing."
"So, she was like a fish to you?" Ben gave his friend a quizical look.
"No! Well, I guess you could say that, it kinda works. She was pretty, didnt say much, not so bright, and lived in her own little world. So yea, I guess she's a fish." He grinned a bit at his accidental connection. That worked out well.
Ben sat back in his chair and sighed, "Thats not all true Riley, comparing Caitlyn to a dead fish wont do you any good."
"Well its true, she was useless, she onlt liked me because I feed her... and gave got her on tv." Rileys faces fell, at that thought of Caitlyn. They had first meet at the party after he Ben and Abagails last discovery at Mt. Rushmore. He remembered her pretty strawberry hair, and her freckles. Just like a fish. She was just a pretty face. They dated for a solid four months, (a record for Riley) until he went over to her apartment to surprise her, and had found her curled up on the sofa with some really built tan dude. She didnt even try to stop him when he left.
"Hey" Ben gave Riley a smile, "Look, you know how it is with girls."
"No not really Ben." Riley quipped.
"Women are-"
"weird... have cooties... smell like lotion?"
"Let me finish" Ben was using his most patient tone. "Women are fickle, and they can be...weird. But sometimes, well most of the time, its not going to work out. You know that right? I mean, look at Abiagail and I, do you know how long it took me to find the perfect woman? 32 years Riley. And believe me, I went through a few..." Ben got a silly smile on his face. Riley gave him a half hearted glare.
"Thank you Mr. Polular." Riley took a big gulp of coffee and spit it back out, it was pretty cold at this point. Bleck. "Anyhow, im really over it, im really fine. Honestly, forget about it."
Ben didnt believe him a bit, Riley never really had much luck with girls, and Caitlyn had been kinda pretty, and she had seemed sweet, Rileys first heart break, thats what fame will do to you. The thought of Caitlyns sweet smile nearly made Ben sick, she had lead Riley on with a string of lies and high heels. Tramp. He looked across the table at his friend. Poor kid. Well that what im here for, he thought to himself looking at Riley, to make sure he gets back on the horse.
XXX
Everything was nearly just the same, after two years of his absence the warehouse (it wasn't much of a warehouse really, or it was a very nice warehouse) hadn't changed much. The entire place was lavishly decorated, with sleek hardwood floors, long silk curtains, and dark mahogany furnishings. A pool table sat between two long red sofas both embroidered with gold thread along the arms. A navy and cream Persian rug covered the floor under the pool table were Ian Nigel, and Jasper were playing.
Ian put down his campaign. "Let's see this letter now boys" he said sitting back onto one of the sofas and kicking his feet up.
"Well then, back to business" Nigel rose and crossed the room to a large safe, he turned the knob and twisted the handle, when the heavy door swung open he took a letter from the little table inside. "As I said earlier, we found it floating off the coast in Africa"
"Bought it?" Ian raised an eyebrow at his old friend; he couldn't see Nigel 'finding' anything.
"Same thing" Nigel shrugged, as he brandished the old parchment.
"So?" Ian sat forward "Details."
"I was getting to that." Nigel places a pair of wiry glasses on his long nose and began. "The document appears to be a letter of sorts, written December 25, 1776 by General George Washington himself."
Ian's lips parted in a greed smile, this was rich, could it really be? In one day he was blown out of federal prison, and whisked home to start it all over again. Was their another treasure? "One last chance…" He whispered to himself.
"Pardon?" Nigel looked slightly taken aback, and a bit nervous.
"Nothing" Ian waved his hand nonchalantly "carry on, tell me everything."
Nigel nodded, still slightly wary of Ian, who as he knew, had a notorious tendency to be hot tempered and rash. "The letter was written simply, and with haste." He paused. "You see we did do some simple research and found that on December 25, 1776, the date out letter was written General Washington was crossing the icy Delaware River on Christmas Eve. He had begged his men to stay on longer, the British would not be expecting an attack, for the soldiers should have gone home for the winter, and the fighting would be over until spring. Washington saw this as his last chance."
"Get on with it, for gods sake you sound like Ben, all this historical nonsense." Ian groaned, "What's the clue, why did you bring it? I'm not here for a lecture."
"The point is," Nigel continued "that the water marks on the document lead us, mainly me, to believe that Washington wrote the letter while crossing the river." Nigel passed the paper to Ian. The edges were brittle, and there were watermarks, lots of watermarks. The handwriting was sloppy and smudged.
"Paine? Who's this 'Thomas Paine' Ian pointed to the name on the letters supposed recipient.
Nigel smiled and adjusted his glasses. "Ah yes Paine, he was a very important early American journalist and writer, the author of Common Sense-"
Ian interrupted. "I don't need his life's story; I just need to know about the letter."
"Yes, but through further research-"
"And twistn' the right arms" Horace added from his seat at the bar.
"We found that Paine, like Washington, was a Manson." Ian and Nigel shared wicked smiles.
"My god" Ian laughed, (this had been a very jolly day for him) "Were do we find this stuff?"
"Africa?" Nigel offered as the two laughed wildly. "You see the seal on the letter, here at the top? Nigel took the document and revealed a stamped seal, The Masons."
Ian had seen enough of that mark in his days with Ben to know what that meant, in his opinion, treasure.
"So what now, so he was a whatever, what else does it say?... What's the clue?" He couldn't believe he was saying that again.
"Lucky for us Washington was obviously in a hurry to share his secret. Not really his secret, but in case he did die in Battle at Trenton he wanted to make sure that the secret was kept safe… His particular secret." Nigel added dramatically. The historian's eyes glinted with mischief. "This is the part you'll like."
"Finally" Ian sighed.
Nigel cleared his throat. "The battle of Trenton was often over looked by many historians-"
"Is this really the part I'm going to like Nigel?" Ian groaned giving Nigel a hard look.
"I'm getting there!" Nigel exclaimed, exasperated by Ian's obvious lack of interest in the historical value of their discovery. "The point is, there is another treasure, and this letter proves it. It speaks first of the Templar Treasure. Here listen. 'If it is indeed my fate to die for my country and for our cause, so be it, I welcome such a death.' It gets better." Nigel said looking down as Ian. "Down here…this is were he talks about the Templar treasure. It's really quite fascinating. Now here's your clue. Ian sat up a little and gazed intently at Nigel. "'Only in the final chamber will any mortal man be once more tempted' that's the part about another treasure. 'Only a man of stone, the strongest of the chamber, can possess the key.'"
"A key?" Ian went silent for a moment.
"It would be a very important man, someone General Washington trusted." Nigel mused. "He must have been looking to pass on his key, to Paine?"
"No, the strongest man." Ian muttered "What does that mean?"
"Someone trusted."
"No, it said the strongest of the chamber, inside the chamber." Jasper cut in for the first time. "A man of stone."
"Yes, the strongest man, a man of stone… like a god." Ian rose from the sofa and began to pace the floor. "A god."
"Or a statue of one, a stone man." Nigel said.
"That's right" Jasper smirked, and ran his fingers over his little moustache. "Part of the treasure."
"There was a key to another treasure" Ian was talking to himself now, his eyes clouded with thought and mischief. "Inside the Templar Treasure" he paused. A part of the treasure, what had he read about Ben's treasure. Little snippets of interviews ran through his head.
"What if Ben has the Key?" Nigel interrupted. But Ian shushed him.
"No" Ian muttered. In the rapid fire slideshow running through his brain he saw a statue, that right! A tall green statue, of an Egyptian looking god. He remembered it from an interview not to long ago, something about a book and… Ian smirked.
"What?" Jasper looked up at him.
"Poole" Ian grinned, "Mr. Riley Poole."
XXX