A/N: This chapter turned out longer then I expected…angst alert.
Ben pushed his way though the crowd, trying to see what the source of the commotion was. He heard shouting and saw the security guards dragging a man in ragged clothes away. What in the world is going on? Ben thought in confusion. He squeezed closer to the front of the crowd. Many of the people around him were talking excitedly amongst themselves.
"Can you tell me what happened here?" he asked a lady who was standing next to him. The woman who had been talking with her friends looked over at him and seemed to do a double take. "You're Benjamin Gates, aren't you?" she asked breathlessly. Ben groaned inwardly. Out loud he said "Yes, that's me."
She and her friends giggled and flocked around him. "See Mabel? I told you he was even more handsome close up."
"We're big fans Mr. Gates," another gushed. Ben gave a forced smile. What do you know, my very own groupies, Abigail won't be too happy about this.
"Um, thank you ladies. But can you answer my question?"
The women shared knowing glances with each other. The lady named Mabel beckoned him closer to listen. "You should be interested in this, Mr. Gates. Your friend Riley Poole was involved." Ben looked at her sharply. Riley?
"Did you see anything?" he asked tensely. Mabel seemed more then happy to answer his question. Her friends leaned in to listen excitedly.
"I didn't see all of it but from what I hear, that bum who was just dragged away somehow got past security in the front. Then he came in here and started talking to your friend."
Another lady broke in to continue the story.
"It was very strange, you know? He grabbed him by the shoulders…and well, Mr. Poole just freaked out. He tried to throw the man off himself. I saw them scuffling over there," she indicated with a gloved hand. "They knocked over a table. The security guards came and put an end to it though." She sounded disappointed.
Ben was confused as ever. What was going on? Suddenly his insides clenched. Did that man do something to Riley? "Did you see where he went?" Ben asked apprehensively. The woman nodded and pointed toward the exit sign at the back of the room. "He seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere. But Mr. Gates, can't you stay and talk with us for a while?"
"I'm sorry but I need to check on my friend," he said irritably.
"But we've been wanting to talk with you all evening!"
"Ben?"
Aha! Yes, the Calvary has arrived. He could have kissed Abigail right then. She walked up to him. "Did you see what happened? I'm worried about Riley."
Ben
muttered to her quickly, "I know, I'm trying to go find him but I
can't get these ladies off my back. Can you talk to them to keep
them occupied?"
Abigail smiled a little evilly. "I'll see
what I can do." She turned to Mabel and her friends to begin a
conversation. "So are you fans of Mr. Gates?" Abigail asked
casually. The other ladies giggled. "We were just talking about
how handsome and rugged he is. Who wouldn't like a treasure-hunter
I mean, it's like having your own Indiana Jones," one said
dreamily. Then she looked around in confusion. "Hey, where'd he
go?" she whined. Unnoticed by his fans, Ben had slipped away into
the crowd. Abigail shrugged, "He probably has something more
important to attend to," she said lightly. Are these ladies
serious? This is absolutely ridiculous!
"Oh my goodness, I know. He must meet so many famous people," said Mabel totally ignorant of Abigail's insult. "He is totally my future husband. I'm Mabel by the way, are you one of his fans?"
"Oh? It's a pleasure. I'm Abigail Gates. His wife." Abigail said brightly. The other women looked momentarily mortified. Abigail smiled at them and walked in with an air of satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Ben was heading in the direction pointed out to him. Oh Riley, what happened back there? he thought anxiously. He opened the door in the furthest corner of the room with a neon orange exit sign over it. It lead to the back parking lot of the building. He shut the door behind him and the noise of the party was muffled. The summer night was quiet, broken by the sound of nearby traffic and the underlying song of crickets.
Glancing around, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his friend. Riley was leaning against the building staring into the night, seemingly unaware of Ben's presence. As Ben approached he became worried when he saw that Riley was shaking. It was a warm summer's night, so it couldn't be from the cold. Ben was standing almost next to him now, but Riley didn't seem to notice.
Ben placed his hand on Riley's shoulder. His friend whipped around stared at him with a frightened expression. Then he seemed to visibly relax when he saw who it was. "Ben…" he said with a slight tremor in his voice. He was breathing heavily and clutching the wall with one hand. Ben was momentarily startled by his friend's reaction.
"Riley, are you okay?" Ben asked, the worry in his chest growing.
"Yeah, Ben. I'm…fine," Riley said shakily.
"I don't think you are. Can you tell me what happened?" Ben pressed gently. His friend remained silent, staring blankly at him. He placed his hand on Riley's shoulder again, almost cautiously.
"Riley, come on. Tell me. I need to hear what happened from you, I only have information second hand."
"Ben, it's okay. I'm…I'm…" Riley trailed off, putting a hand over his face.
"Riley?" Ben asked in concern. His friend's breaths were becoming closer to sobs. "I'm…not… fine," he choked out. He turned his face to the wall, still covering it with a trembling hand. Ben immediately put his arm around Riley's back. He felt the kid shuddering, trying desperately to control his emotions. The anxiousness Ben had been feeling plummeted into downright fear. A surge of anger accompanied it. Whoever that man was, he scared his friend. Badly. Oh God, please don't let it be anything terrible. Please.
"Riley..." Ben had to work at keeping his own voice level. He rubbed Riley's back, trying to comfort him. "Shh, it's okay. Calm down, it's okay." Riley fought to regain his composure, concentrating on Ben's voice. Finally his panic subsided a few notches. For a moment he kept his head bowed. Then he straightened up, drawing on all his self-control to not loose it entirely in front of Ben. "Okay," he said quietly. "Sorry about that."
Ben squeezed his friend's shoulders and looked into his face carefully. "Can you tell me what happened back there?" He made his voice as gentle as he could. Riley was already so distraught. He looked like some kind of cornered animal. Ben had no idea what was wrong and it made his stomach twist.
Riley swallowed and bit his lip. "Nothing I particularly want to talk about at the moment."
"Riley, something about that guy really upset you." Riley lowered his eyes, unable to make eye contact with his friend.
"Hey," Ben said softly. "Kid, look at me." Reluctantly, Riley raised his eyes to look into Ben's face again. His expression was laced with concern, which is what Riley expected. But beneath that he was shocked to see two other emotions he wasn't expecting. Anger and fear shown in his eyes. With a sinking feeling of guilt he began to realize how anxious Ben must be. After all, if they reversed positions Riley would be worried sick for his friend.
"Riley…did he hurt you? Did he threaten you?" Ben's voice began to hold an edge panic. It seemed snap Riley out of some sort of trance. He looked into Ben's deep brown eyes and came to a resolution to tell him the truth.
"No, Ben, nothing really like that." Riley said. Something that felt like relief came over Ben. He really thought that creep did something to Riley, but he was thankfully wrong. But then what was going on?
"There's uh, something I should tell you," Riley continued. His next sentence came out with difficulty. "That man was my father," Ben jerked back in surprise, not expecting that answer. How in the world did his father end up at an exclusive party? Unless…he knew Riley would be there. But why did Riley's father want to see him?
"Your father?" Riley had never spoken about his family and Ben had never made it a point to ask. "Riley, what-"
Riley cut him off with a stained voice. "I don't know Ben. I don't know why my father was at the party tonight."
"Then what's going on Riley? This isn't…you! There's something you're not telling me!" Ben said, his voice rising. He wasn't angry with Riley; on the contrary he was worried sick. There was something about worrying for his friend that made him want to get to the bottom of the problem. He wanted to fix it.
Riley flinched at Ben's tone. The man rarely snapped at him. The last time he could remember that happening was in the tunnels under Trinity Church. Ben closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he spoke again his voice was low. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to raise my voice at you. I-if you're not ready to tell me, it's okay."
Riley looked at him. His face was so helpless and apologetic. If anyone deserved to know it was Ben.
"No, it's okay Ben. You're right. I'll tell you… I'll tell you everything. But right now...I really don't want to be here…" It was true. Riley didn't know what he was going to do if he had to weather out the rest of the party. Ben pressed his lips together and nodded. His friend looked so freaked out. And the way he reacted… It scared Ben half to death. He offered what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Okay. Let's call it a night, huh?"
They both made their way back to the exit door. "You ready?" Ben asked looking over at his friend. Riley took a steadying breath and his expression was once again composed. "Yeah, let's go in."
As soon as they entered nearly the entire hall looked in their direction. Riley faltered, seeing the stares of so many people directed at him. Ben placed his hand on Riley's back and guided him through the crowd. People glanced at Riley and muttered to each other, but otherwise kept their distance mostly because of the glares Ben kept shooting at them.
Ben spotted Abigail hurrying toward them. Her expression held
concern as she walked up to them. "Are you okay sweetie?" she
asked Riley.
He almost laughed. "Sweetie? You never call me
sweetie."
Ben sighed. "She's worried about you Riley. We
both are." Riley bit his lip and looked at the floor. "Oh."
Guilt began to settle acutely in his stomach.
Abigail looked sharply between them. Her husband had on a resolute grim expression. He looked more like a bodyguard at the moment then anything else. It was probably why people were keeping their distance. Something must have happened with Riley to make him this uptight. She looked over Riley carefully. He looked almost feverish. "What happened?" she asked tensely.
"We'll talk about it later, but not here. I'm taking Riley back." Ben said in a low voice, aware of the stares of the people around them. Riley gave him a quick but grateful smile. "Thanks Ben," he said softly. Ben patted his arm and took out his cell phone to call the limo driver. Abigail steered him away from the oppressive crowd.
"We'll prepare a
guest room for you tonight. It would take a while for you to get home
anyway. You might as well stay at our place for the night." Riley
glanced at her, feeling embarrassed. "Thanks for the offer Abi
but…"
"It wasn't an offer."
"Um, okay then." The guilt he had been feeling intensified. His friends were making such a fuss over him. He should be dealing with this issue himself. It was his problem.
"Look, Abi? I really don't want to be a burden or anything. I don't want to ruin your evening."
Abigail snorted. "I usually don't like agreeing with you Riley, but most of these parties are the same exact thing every time. I'm not missing anything." Riley still felt intensely embarrassed and wrapped his arms around himself staring into space. Abigail touched his shoulder. He looked at her.
"Hey. You're not ruining anything. Me and Ben want to help you with whatever it is."
Riley's mouth twitched into a smile. He was grateful beyond words for their concern but he doubted anyone could help him.
The ride back was
awkwardly quiet. Riley had withdrawn into himself and was staring out
the window. Ben and Abigail kept glancing at him and exchanging looks
with each other. He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. He
just needed to go to bed. He didn't want to think about this
anymore.
After about an hour they finally reached the Gates'
household. Abigail showed Riley to the guestroom and asked him he
needed anything. What am I, five years old? But he that's
what he felt like. It felt like he was a child all over again. He
said no and thanked her before closing the door.
Abigail went back to her own bedroom and found Ben sitting on the edge of the bed looking troubled. She sat next to him and linked her arm into his. "Are you going to tell me what happened when you talked to him?" she asked. Ben sighed before filling her in with the little information he gathered from Riley. "He said that man was his father."
"His father?" asked Abigail, feeling a little perturbed. "Why was his father at that party of all places?"
"I don't know, Abi. You should have seen the kid. He was a complete mess. There's a huge chunk of the story he's not telling us, I'm sure of it."
Abigail was silent for a moment. "He'll tell us when he's ready."
"That's what I'm hoping. He can't deal with it on his own…whatever 'it' is." Ben sighed and gazed blankly at the wall. "I've never seen Riley like this. Ever. He was fine a few hours ago."
Abigail squeezed her husband tighter.
"It scares you," she said quietly.
"Yeah."
"Me too."
A/N: In this chapter I wanted to show the anxiousness a person feels when someone close to them is going through an ordeal. It's the worse for the actual person obviously, but their friends and family sort of suffer whatever it is with them. On a lighter note…wait…just kidding, no lighter note. The next chapter will also be quite angst-ridden.
