Don't own it.
Ben wondered whether or not to answer his cell phone. The ringing had brought him out of his semi-trance and was as annoying as Hell. Finally, he picked up the phone, just to stop the ringing. "Hello?" his voice was tight and anxious. More proof to how this was affecting him, as if he needed it.
"Ben?" The voice on the other end was weak, but Ben still clutched the phone desperately as soon as he heard it. He knew that voice.
"Riley?" he nearly screamed the name. God, it was Riley! "How're you doing, Kid? Where are you?"
"Ben, I don't think you should ---" his last words were cut off suddenly by a scream.
Ben's hand was holding the phone so tight his knuckles were turning white. The scream went right through him, touching every nerve along the way. He was going to kill Ian as soon as he saw him. Nobody should be able to hurt Riley like that. Nobody.
Sounds of movement could be heard across the bad connection. Ben immediately sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Hello, Ben."
The words made Ben explode. Hot anger poured through him, and he shouted into the phone. "Ian, I swear that if you hurt Riley I will --- " he was cut off by the other man.
"Kill me, Ben? I would like to see you try." Ben didn't miss the amusement in Ian's voice, and that made him want to scream. "But don't worry. We need the little geek alive. He may not know anything about King Arthur's treasure, but he could be the key to finding it out." Here Ben heard another scream from Riley, as if he'd just been kicked.
"Riley!" The word escaped in desperation. Then it turned hard. "Ian, I'm going to kill you."
It was Ben who hung up.
Five Years Ago
"Can you turn that down?"
Riley merely smiled at him and turned the music up louder. Ben groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore the music. "That is the most annoying song ever made." He stated carefully.
Riley looked genuinely hurt. "For your information, American Pie is a brilliant song." For good measure, the young man stuck his tongue out at the older one, who swatted him away. At one in the morning, after a particularly frustrating day trying to decipher a code, Ben was not in the best mood, and he had actually been asleep before someone had decided to turn up their music. Sometimes, Ben swore that Riley was a robot. He never seemed to need sleep.
"I'm up, you happy?" Ben swung his feet off the couch he had fallen asleep on, upsetting several stacks of papers that had previously laid on the other end. Now that he was awake, he wasn't going back to sleep for a while. He went over to the small kitchen, making himself a sandwich. When he came back, Riley had restarted the song. "Fine, I give up. Why is this song so great?"
Riley looked at him, like he had forgotten that he had put the song on again. Then he smiled, saying simply, "It was always my mom's favorite." He frowned slightly, deleting a couple of lines of code he had written and typing furiously again. Ben merely bit into his sandwich, thoughtful.
"I never heard you talk about your parents." This was true. Ben had picked Riley when the kid was a freshman in college and was constantly taking him to various countries. Never once had he heard about any family at all. Now that he thought about it, it disturbed Ben slightly that he knew so little about Riley's past.
Riley shrugged, not looking up from the computer. "There's not much to say." Again, he frowned, deleting the same lines and starting again.
"I need a story." Ben said, smiling a little as the chorus to the song came up…Drove me Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry…Riley raised an eyebrow at Ben's comment but otherwise did nothing. "Please?" Ben said, his smile getting wider.
Riley sighed, closing his laptop. The music continued to play softly. "Fine." He bit his lip, then dove in. "My mother was…amazing. She was the one who got me interested in computers. She had gone to school for computer technology but dropped out when she found out she was pregnant with me." He shook his head at Ben's unasked question. "There wasn't a father. You know Anakin in Star Wars? It was like that. Well, it could have been. My father wasn't even spoken of."
Riley finally met Ben's eye. The music kept going…but I knew I was out of luck the day the music died…"You sure you want to hear this?" Riley asked quietly. Ben once again had to remind himself that he was still a kid. Barely twenty-one, and he looked so much younger. Sometimes he forgot. Riley had a way of seeming bigger and more secure than he actually was. So Ben could only nod.
"My mom died when I was eight." Riley's face didn't change when he said this, but something in his voice made something shrivel up and die in Ben. Even after all these years, that was still hurting Riley. "I had, like, no relatives, so I was put in the system. I got a few nice foster families, and a couple of not-so-nice ones, and a bunch that didn't really give a damn. Anyway, I managed to do pretty well in school, and I must have attracted someone's attention, because I got a partial scholarship."
He looked up at Ben, just realizing his friend's expression. "Umm…The end." Riley tried to smile but didn't quite manage it. The song was still playing, 'Cause the players tried to take the field but the marching band refused to yield. Ben was still staring at Riley, which probably prompted his, "Ben…Ben? You still with me?" he waved his hand in front of Ben's face.
"Yeah." Ben tried to pull himself together. "Wow…I never knew that, Riley." Riley shrugged, opening his laptop again.
"You tired yet?" Riley asked, peering owlishly at him over his glasses.
Ben yawned, looking down at his half-eaten sandwich. He wasn't hungry anymore. "Getting there, Ri. What'cha doing over there?" Suppressing another yawn, Ben made to look at what Riley was doing, but the younger man swatted him away.
"Go to bed, Ben. You look exhausted."
Ben muttered something to the fact that Riley should be exhausted too, but he relented. He really was tired. He rolled back onto the bed, hearing the last verse of the song, thinking about the small bit of Riley he'd been told that day.
And the three men I admire most: the father, son, and holy ghost, they caught the last train for the coast the day the music died.
Present Day
Riley looked blankly from the laptop to Ian. "What do you expect me to do again?"
Ian looked completely relaxed, which just made Riley all that more anxious. It was four in the morning, by his watch (which he could now see). In the past twelve hours, he'd been beaten within an inch of his life, kidnapped, tied up, beaten again, and then this.
Before Ian could answer, Riley decided to try to keep some measure of control. If that control meant snide comments, well, all the better. "If you expect me to betray Ben, you could at least get me drunk first."
A fist collided with his face, like he thought it would, and Ian smiled broader. Man, he was really starting to hate that guy. "Anything else you want to say, Riley?" Ian's voice was low and dangerous. Riley pretended not to take the hint, his heart beating faster. He was still working not to fall asleep.
"Yeah, you should seriously think about remodeling this place. I mean, even for the basement of a church, this is kind of pathetic." This time he was ready for the fist and put up his hand. He already had a headache. So the goon (that's what Riley called them in his head. They had changed since the last time Riley had met up with Ian) grabbed his hand and held a finger between his meaty hands, breaking the finger.
Riley screamed, another measure of pain to add to his already battered body. He tried to rip his hand away from the goon, but he was no match for the bigger, more muscular man. Luckily, he wasn't the only one yelling.
"What the Hell did you do that for?" Ian yelled. "He works with computers he needs to type."
The goon looked as if this had just dawned on him. After muttering something about Riley having other fingers, he retreated to a corner of the room.
Ian turned to Riley once more. "Now Riley, we'll begin."
Riley shook his head, physically trying to make himself accept what was happening. Despite the fact that he knew Ben would get hurt it he came, Riley was pathetically happy he was coming for him. Almost as if he cared.
Who'd have thought?
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