Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Smart

Abby's eyes fluttered open. A man was bending over her with concerning eyes. He had on a black snow jacket with fur around the rim of the hood and snow glasses which were covering most of the top half of his face. Still, she would have recognised that face anywhere. She shut her eyes tight in disbelief. OMG! She thought. It's……… Oh My God!

She almost felt like fainting again it was so unbelievable. 'Are you alright? The man asked. Abby finally built up the courage to speak. 'Nick?' She had read so many of Nicolas Cage's profiles and biographies that in her head she had started to call him by his nickname even though she had never met him before. The man frowned behind his goggles 'My name's not Nick. It's Ben. Ben Gates. Are you all right?' Ben Gates? Was this even possible? She started to question her own sanity. This couldn't be real. How could she end up in National Treasure?? He helped her sit up. 'Better now.' She answered, still star struck and extremely confused with the situation. 'Uh, where am I?'

'You're in the artic circle, love.' Answered an all too familiar English accent. She looked past "Ben" to see a blonde hair main with the same goggles as Ben but he had a white coat on. She recognised him instantly, as Sean Bean, of course, but since Nick was Ben, then this must be… 'Ian Howe.' she muttered darkly. The man looked extremely surprised. 'Yeah, how'd you know?' He asked suspiciously. Abby started to panic. Oh crap. She thought. What do I say? 'I'm, uh, good with names.' Personally she thought it was the lamest excuse ever, and she could see the Englishman did as well, but to her extreme relief he let the subject drop. Instead he turned to Ben 'Now that we know she's okay could we please try and find The Charlotte?' Both men heard a sharp intake of breath and turned to look at the girl piled under many of their coats, still sitting on the ice.

She coughed. 'Sorry… Still trying to catch my breath.' She said, and coughed again loudly.

'Yeah let's go.' Ben agreed, and turned back to the girl, who was now attempting to stand up and had to throw several coats off herself just to move. He smiled when she overbalanced and made a scene of falling down again. 'What's your name?' He asked her, helping her to her feet. 'Abby Patterson.' Abby answered quickly. Then she reconsidered. 'Well, my name is actually Abigail, but my friends call me Abby.' She added, hoping it wasn't too much to say. She held out a numb hand and met a gloved one, shaking it. Then doing the same with Ian, trying to make it last as shorter time as possible. Ben was about to ask another question, but before he could, they all turned when a voice piped up behind them.

'Is she awake yet?' Riley Poole wined. 'You know it's going to take forever to find this ship if you two don't help….' He saw Abby standing with the other two men and came over. 'Took you long enough.' He said, earning an elbow in the ribs from Ben. 'I mean, Hi… I'm Riley.' He held out a hand. God, he's even cuter in person. She awed. Say something, stupid!, for there had been an awkward silence. She took his hand. 'I'm Abby. How long was I out for?' Riley released her hand and looked at his watch. 'About an hour. But don't go by me, I think my watch froze.' He flicked it to confirm. 'Yup, definitely frozen.'

There was a long silence, everyone thinking of what to say. Seconds that seemed like minutes ticked by, when Abby piped up. 'Did you say you were going to find something?' She asked. The three men nodded simultaneously. 'Can I help?' They all looked at one another and Ben smiled. 'Okay' he said. Turning and walking over to the vehicles and extracting a spare metal detector. 'Here you go,' he said and gave it to her. 'If you find anything, just shout.'

The group separated as they started searching. Abby was in earshot of Riley when Shaw walked up to him, slinging his metal detector over his shoulder. 'Look… This is a waste of time.How could a ship wind up way out here?'

'Well,' Riley sighed, and turned towards Shaw. 'I'm no expert, but...It could be that the hydrothermic properties of this region produce hurricane-force ice storms that cause the ocean to freeze and then melt and then re-freeze, resulting in a semi-solid, migrating land mass that would land a ship…Right around here.' Abby couldn't suppress a giggle. She loved that part of the movie. Riley turned away from Shaw, leaving his mouth hanging open as if to say 'Huh?' and walked towards Abby.

'What are you giggling about?' Riley asked good naturedly. Abby giggled more. 'It's just…. You made him look so stupid.' She indicated to Shaw, who still looked confused. Riley smirked. 'Well, to tell the truth, I only said that to sound smart, it's not as if it's true. But I don't think he's ever going to know the difference.' Abby giggled again and Riley smiled, before they heard Ben shout. 'Over here! I've found something!'

While they were thawing out The Charlotte, Abby remembered what was going to happen in the movie: Ian's betrayal. She had to warn Ben sometime. So when they were about half way through, Abby asked if she could speak to Ben privately. Ben agreed and they started walking away from everyone else. They didn't talk while they walked, but about 50 meters out, Abby stopped suddenly. 'Ian's going to betray you.' Abby said quietly. Ben thought he hadn't heard properly 'Pardon?' He said, confused. 'Ian is going to betray you.' She said louder, clearly so that he couldn't have misheard.

'That's what I thought you said. Why would you say that? You barely know any of us.' Suspicion was clear in his voice. Abby hadn't thought of that and said the first thing that came to her head besides the almost unbelievable story of telling him that his life was a movie and he was just a character in a film.

'I can see the future?' She said hopefully, remembering another Nicolas Cage movie Next that she had just seen, although knowing that he wouldn't buy it. God, Abby, you have GOT to get some better answers to these questions. She thought to herself.

It was obvious that Ben didn't believe her, and he said so. 'Look, I'm sure you mean well and all, but Ian has been a faithful college for two years, I don't think he's going to turn on me now.' He said bluntly 'Sorry.' He turned to walk back to the rest of the team, but she grabbed his arm to stop him. 'If it turns out i'm right, will you believe me?' She said pleadingly. He looked at me. 'You're the one that can see the future,' he said, raising an eyebrow. 'You should know.' And with that he started walking back. She sighed. Smart. She thought, and then began trailing along behind him.

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