Chapter X: Moving On and Losing Touch
"You did tell him! You told him everything, like I've been telling you all along, and you didn't have the guts to at least admit it me?!"
"Abigail…"
"No, Ben," she shrieked. "Why couldn't you tell me the truth? Too stubborn to admit that I was right?!"
"Abigail I'm sorry I didn't listen to you before, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I did," Ben said defensively. "But shouldn't it be enough that I did take your advice? You were right, okay! You were right the whole time…"
"And you, Peter," she said, spinning to look at where Sadusky was still sitting. The usually stoic FBI agent squirmed in his chair looking very guilty under Abigail's scrutiny. "I've been trying to tell you this whole time, but the second he—" she spat in Ben's direction "—breaks you bend over backwards for him! He should have been arrested just for lying to you in the first place!"
"This wasn't Sadusky's fault," Ben insisted while he rubbed at the still sore spot on his cheek. "I called him that night I stayed with Riley in the hospital..."
She looked horrified. "Ben that was two weeks ago. Two weeks! And you said nothing to me or Riley!"
"What was I supposed to do, Abigail?" he said back, his voice rising dangerously with each word. "Riley was hurt, he was crying—"
"No I wasn't," Riley interjected from the sofa.
"—so I called Sadusky and told him everything. Everything about Steve, about what happened and we…we worked out a plan."
"But you couldn't tell him when I said it would be a good idea, could you?" she said while fresh tears started to form in his eyes.
"I was scared, okay?!"
"We were all scared," she snapped. "That's no excuse for your lying to us."
"Abigail, I really wish we could get over this," Ben retorted. "It's not even that big of a deal…"
He realized he'd said the wrong thing just after the words slipped from his mouth. Abigail was fuming now while tears streaked her reddened cheeks.
"Of course you don't think it's a big deal, Ben," she said in a shaky voice. "It's always about you. We're supposed to be a couple—we're supposed to make decisions together…"
"This wasn't your decision to make," Ben said, now feeling like a broken record as they'd had this argument many times before. "It didn't matter anyway. I called Sadusky two weeks ago and they still couldn't find Steve. He had to come after Riley again for us to catch him!"
"So you admit that you willingly put Riley's life in danger?! He's your best friend, Ben…how could you…"
"I knew damn well what I was doing!" Ben roared. "So don't go judging me for things that you're not even a part of!"
"Stop yelling at her!" All eyes turned in surprise to Riley and his suddenly uncharacteristically raised voice. "And stop talking about me like I'm not even here!"
Riley was still pale and obviously shaken up by what they'd all just gone through with Stephen, but his expression was tense with frustration.
"Riley…" Ben started. He wondered if Riley knew there was still blood splattered on his face.
"No don't…don't you 'Riley' me, Ben," the young man said exhaustedly. "Can't you just…admit you were wrong for once?"
Ben blinked in astonishment at his friend. He thought for sure Riley would be on his side at least. Sure he knew he was wrong for hiding details from his close friend and fiancé, but at the time he hadn't thought of any other alternative. Things hadn't happened exactly how Ben planned they would, but as long as Stephen was finally gone for good and no one was hurt, everything should be fine…right?
After a long silence, Sadusky stood up with a shake of his head. "This is all my fault," he said, willingly taking the blame when Ben could not. "I should have made sure you were all aware of what was going on before we moved forward."
But Abigail and Riley weren't listening. They both were staring at Ben with similar expressions, ones that looked like they were angry, frightened, and hurt at the same time. No one said anything for a long time, before Riley made a slight choking sound.
"I…I let him in the house, Ben," Riley said in a shaky voice that was barely louder than a whisper. "You…you didn't tell me he was…that he…and I… …I gave him a soda…" Riley's face turned ghostly white as thought saying what happened reminded him of just how alarmingly conversational he'd been with the man who'd hurt him. He finally reached up to his face and pressed a bandaged finger against one of the warm spots on his cheek. When he pulled away and saw blood, Stephen's blood, his face turned a light shade of green.
"Oh my God," Riley suddenly muttered. "I think I'm gonna barf…" He dashed out of the room and out of sight towards the nearest lavatory.
Ben looked just as sick as he watched his friend go, only he was sick with guilt. He followed Riley after a second's hesitation, leaving Abigail and Sadusky staring sympathetically after him.
He found Riley down the hall in one of the mansion's spacious bathrooms. Ben couldn't tell if he'd thrown up or not. The young man was standing over the sink scrubbing at his face with a towel and wincing at the pressure he was putting on his injured hands and wrists. He was frantically trying to wipe the blood from his face.
"Riley?" Ben said hesitantly, not wanting to scare his already tense friend.
Riley slowly lowered the cloth and glared at Ben through the mirror over the sink. He had looked frightened at first, but that fear quickly turned to an angry, accusing expression when he saw Ben. Even that faded away into sadness when he saw that Ben looked just as miserable as he felt.
Sure Riley was mad, frustrated, upset…but he could never really hate Ben for what he did. He would forgive him, in time, and forget this whole thing had happened. For now, and for the coming days, he figured it would be best to just keep giving Ben the cold shoulder.
"Riley," Ben started when Riley suddenly looked away from him to stare absently at something on the spotless white sink. "Riley, I am so sorry…"
"I really am sorry, Dr. Chase," Sadusky said earnestly as he looked the German woman in the eye. "We should have handled the situation better."
She shook her head. "No, Peter," she sighed. "I'm sorry. Sorry you had to see…this. Ben's been on the edge ever since…that day. We've been having trouble getting along."
The FBI agent nodded in understanding. He stood and put a gentle, reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure things will turn out for the best. You just take care of yourself, and keep an eye on Ben. He's going to need you now more than ever."
"He certainly doesn't act like he needs me," she muttered.
"Ben will come around eventually, I'm sure. You just need to help him see what really matters in his life."
While Abigail absorbed the man's words of wisdom, Sadusky turned and left the mansion. As quickly as he and the authorities had come they were gone again, leaving the house in a quiet, broken state from the day's events. She debated waiting for Ben to come back, to see how Riley was at least, but ended up heading upstairs alone, wanting nothing more than a shower and a clean change of clothes to wash away everything that had happened.
Ben heard the whir of a running computer as he walked past the second floor sitting room where Riley had pretty much taken over since returning from the hospital two and a half weeks ago. He sighed and walked past the doorway without a second glance. He'd barely even spoken to Riley since…the incident, and he doubted Riley would want to speak to him now. He was about to walk down the main staircase to get a fresh beer from the kitchen when he heard noises coming from inside the room.
There was a mouse click, followed by a low "darn it."
Then another click, and a "dang."
Click, Click. An even louder "darn."
Click. "Damn it!"
Ben hesitated on the top stair and looked back down the hall.
"Finally," he heard Riley mutter. "Stupid piece of crap computer…"
Ben was shaking his head with the slightest ghost of a smile when the sound of slow typing suddenly filled his ears. Each key stroke was followed closely by a hiss, or an "ow." Ben walked into the room but wasn't surprised by what he saw.
Riley was sitting at his desk while the floor was scattered with books and papers. Ben couldn't help but be reminded of himself in his apartment while he was doing research for his treasure hunt. What this kid was doing, though, Ben had no idea. He was still typing, and still muttering little pained sounds every time he moved his fingers.
"Riley," Ben said, frowning deeply when his friend nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Ben's voice. "What are you doing? You're going to hurt yourself."
"No I'm" click "ow not. I" click "owie gotta catch up on" click "oww my book."
Ben came up to Riley and gently grasped each of his elbows in his hands, still frowning when Riley flinched at the slight touch. Ben eased his friends injured limbs away from the lap top keyboard. Riley let out a defeated sigh and left his bandaged hands in his lap, all the while staring at anything but his friend.
"God…I can do everything but type, and typing's all I wanna do."
"Not today," Ben said, feeling like he was talking down to a stubborn child that still refused to look at him. "Come downstairs with me. We'll watch a movie or something to get your mind off your book."
"Don't you want to know what it's about?" Riley asked softly.
"Riley…" Ben swallowed hard and tried to ignore the fact that Riley still had a haunted, distant look in his eyes even while the rest of his face had physically healed and gone back to normal. "Riley I know you, very well, which means that I know that you know that if you start explaining what you're writing you will somehow convince me that you need to be writing right now, and, frankly, I don't think you should do that."
"You can't stop me."
"Yes I can," Ben said seriously, leaning down to look Riley in the eye. "I just don't want you to end up hurting yourself. It's okay for you to take a break from everything, you know."
"Yeah," Riley sighed. "A break sounds good."
Ben straightened up with a smile. "Good. I'll get some popcorn..."
But Riley didn't move. "No, Ben. I meant a break from…from this. From…you," he added quietly.
"What?"
"I just bought plane tickets. I'm leaving tomorrow morning."
"What?! How?"
"Oh, it was easy. Just a few clicks and I'm in first class and everything."
Ben was in shock. "Riley…you…you can't just leave like that…"
"I'll be back, I promise. After my book is done. The publishing house is in D.C. anyway, so I kind of have to come back."
"No I mean because you…you're…"
"I said I can do everything but type," Riley said defensively. "And I've even got a solution for that—I bought one of those microphone thingies so that I can talk to the computer and it'll type for me. Neat, huh?"
Ben just shook his head, looking sad and hurt.
"It…this is…it's gonna be okay, Ben, really. I've got an accountant guy who's helping me out now. Being rich is awesome—I can just hire someone to keep track of my money and to get stuff for me."
"But, Riley…"
"And I really, really appreciate everything you and Abigail have done for me. It's just…" He sighed heavily. "I need to get away from this."
"Fine, Riley," Ben growled after a moment. "You want to go, fine. Go. Just disappear. You're good at that."
"Ben…"
"You know, there are only so many times I can help you and apologize to you for what happened, and then for lying to you all this time…" Ben sighed heavily as he fought to quell the anger that was rising in him again. "But if you really need to go, just go. I won't stop you."
Riley swallowed hard. "So, we…we're still cool, right?"
Ben forced a smile in Riley's direction. "Yeah, Riley. We're still cool."
And with that he was gone, leaving his dejected looking young friend to stare after him.
They drove in silence to the airport. Abigail kept sending Riley sympathetic glances but he was oblivious as he stared out the window and watched the traffic go by, sniffling occasionally. When they finally arrived at the terminal, Abigail pulled over and parked. Riley still didn't move or say anything.
Abigail swallowed hard. "Ben…he wanted to be here with you to see you off…he really did…but he…" she paused, unsure what she should say. "He's going to call you as soon as he can. I think he just…wasn't feeling well today."
"Yeah right," Riley whimpered. He took a shuddering breath and wiped at his cheek with the back of his bandaged hand. Abigail hadn't even realized he'd been silently crying the whole ride over. "He didn't even try to-to say g-goodbye…"
His lips quivered and his sad blue eyes watered. Abigail's heart broke to see him so upset. She reached over and gently gathered his quietly shaking form into a warm hug.
"I'm sorry, Riley," she whispered on Ben's behalf.
"Yeah…" A few more tears slipped down Riley's cheeks and he sniffled. "I'm sorry, too."
She rubbed his back in a comforting motion. "You don't have to go, you know. Things will look up…you'll see…"
"No they won't," he muttered.
"With Ben you just…we'll need to be patient."
Riley laughed sardonically at that. "Patient, yeah right. It takes Ben months just to get over the stupid little things. Imagine how long he's going to be in this funk. I for one don't want to hang around and get dragged down into depression with him."
She didn't say anything—she didn't need to say anything to confirm that he was absolutely right. And suddenly she wondered why she thought that she of all people would be patient. Abigail Chase was not one to sit around and wait for someone to get their act together.
Riley pulled out of her embrace and wiped the few remaining tears from his cheeks. "We should probably go," he was saying. "Before my flight leaves without me."
She simply nodded, her thoughts still on Ben and what little bit of their relationship they had somehow been able to keep going.
Abigail got up out of the car and opened Riley's door for him. She got his bags out of the trunk while he managed to shoulder his one carry-on bag without any trouble. They walked together into the terminal and waited on line in silence. At the desk Riley got his boarding passes while Abigail ensured his luggage's safety to the baggage thrower, passing him a generous fifty dollar tip as she did so. The last thing Riley needed at this point was to have his possessions lost or damaged in any way.
They were at the security check when she had to leave him. They said their goodbyes almost awkwardly and he turned away, leaving Abigail to stare after him. The two had been closer in this one short trip than they had been since they'd met and she somehow knew she'd never see him again—not without Ben, at least. Once Ben was back to normal. But she still couldn't help but think of what Riley had said and wonder if she and Ben even had a chance anymore. She didn't know how much longer she could wait for him and she, like Riley, was beginning to believe that distance was the only way to save her relationship with Ben.
He heard the door open and close, followed by the steady clicks of high heeled shoes coming into the room.
"Ben," Abigail said called somewhat hesitantly. He didn't even turn to look at her. "Ben I dropped Riley off at the airport. Mr. Napier is going to meet him when he lands." She paused, as though she was waiting for him to respond. "Don't you want to know where he's going?"
Ben still said nothing.
"Fine," she snapped. "I told him you'd call him. You'd better call him, Ben."
He heard her leave suddenly as the clicking of her heels sounded further and further away as she disappeared into the depths of the mansion. Ben stayed where he was staring blankly into space as he popped open another bottle of boos, his fifth today. He always thought alcohol was supposed to make everything feel better, or at least make you numb to the painful emotions. It must not have been working, because he still felt awful.
Beep
Ben listened to the message twice before deleting it. Riley had been gone for almost a week already and Ben still couldn't bring himself to call back. He missed his friend dearly, but hearing Riley's voice as chipper as it was only reminded Ben of the horrible things that had happened to him. Ben couldn't help but feel guilty, especially when he could still picture in his head so vividly that night he'd found Riley in that basement. It haunted him.
He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't hear Abigail come up behind his chair.
"Ben," she said gently, knowing that any little thing could set him off. "How long are you going to be like this?"
"Like what?" he croaked. This was most he'd spoken to anyone in days.
She came in front of him and crouched down so the couple was eye to eye. "I'm worried about you," she said softly while she cupped his lightly bearded cheeks in her hands. "You…you're a wreck. You're not taking care of yourself, you're completely ignoring your best friend…and you don't even look at me anymore..."
She was right—even in their close proximity Ben managed to avoid eye contact.
"Please, Ben. I just…I don't want to wait for you anymore…I don't know what to do…tell me what to do…"
He cleared his throat. "I can't tell you what to do, Abigail. I think it's obvious that our relationship doesn't work that way."
She smirked despite his pessimistic words. "You know, I think that's the most you've said to me in weeks."
"I'm sorry, Abigail," he snapped suddenly. "Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm sorry, okay?"
She leaned back away from him, looking hurt. He buried his face in his hands.
"I can't do this with you anymore, Ben," she said, barely managing to keep her voice steady. "I really can't."
"So that's it…the pre-pre engagement, everything…we're done just like that?" He finally looked at her, and his tear filled blue eyes met hers.
Abigail stood and turned away. She'd so desperately wanted him to look at her before, but now that he was she could barely hold in her tears. "Just like that. I…I'll go…somewhere…I'll leave tonight…"
Ben groaned in protest and pushed his drunken form shakily off his chair. "No," he slurred. "No, you should stay. I'm going."
"But…but this is…technically your house…"
He shook his head. "I don't want it. Being here alone will just remind me…remind me of us…of you…of how stupid I am."
"Ben…"
"You know I still love you, right?" Ben whispered. He needed her to know before he left. She needed to know how much he still cared about her.
But she hesitated for a moment, her back still turned to him even when she finally said, "yes, Ben. I know. And even after everything that's happened…after all you've done…I…I guess I still love you, too."
That was all they needed to say, and that was all either of them wanted to hear. Ben picked up all the empty bottles he'd dropped and headed for the kitchen. "I'll just…go get my stuff and be out of your hair…"
"Your stuff?" she called back. "How will we know what's your stuff and what's my stuff?"
He actually chuckled at that, though it was the saddest attempt at laughter he'd ever made. He turned to respond to her query, only to find that she was already gone from the room. He was left alone to shake his head and wallow in his own self pity while he wondered where exactly his life had gone so horribly wrong.
Patrick Gates was just settling down for the night with a cup of tea and a Civil War documentary on the History Channel when he heard his doorbell ring. He groaned and considered ignoring it for a moment before pushing himself up off his chair. He tied his robe closed and ran a hand through his grey hair, hoping that he didn't look like a complete wreck. But as bad as he may have looked, the person standing on the other side of the door looked a million times worse.
"Ben? Son…what are you doing here?"
Ben stood in the doorway for a second with his head bowed and his shoulders slumped in defeat. His clothes and hair were a ruffled mess and he smelled like he'd been drinking heavily.
"Dad," he finally croaked. He looked sadly up at his father with tear filled, red rimmed eyes. "Dad I really screwed up…"
Patrick may have reprimanded his son for showing up at his doorstep at such an ungodly hour, and then for drinking to the point where a stench actually radiated from him. But the absolutely heartbroken and despairing look in his son's eyes made any anger he felt melt away to be replaced by loving care for his boy.
"It's alright, Ben," Patrick said as he put a gentle hand around his son's shoulders and ushered him inside. "Everything's going to be alright."
END…
…Then about a year and a half later "Book of Secrets" happens.
That's it. That's the end. Half assed, but, meh, you get the picture :) I don't think everyone was this bummed out in "Book of Secrets," but then again—and I hate to admit this here—I haven't seen the movie since…well it was in theaters. Oops. But I've seen the first one countless times, even when it's on TV with commercials even thought I could just watch the DVD. Go figure.
Most important part of my little note: big thank yous to everyone who read and reviewed this story! Special thanks to everyone for your insightful reviews, your regular reviews, your random reviews, all of your good reviews…hell, I could list all of you but you know who you are and how unbelievably awesome you all are :) One more thing—I know everyone always says like "update soon" or whatever, and I hope this was regular enough for you guys. I tried to make it pretty obvious I was on a schedule so everyone knew what day to check my story, as I tend to not divert from schedules :)
But now that it's over, I have to say that I'm honestly indifferent towards this very rushed story and its depressing ending…but only because I had something much more exciting on my mind! That's right, another "National Treasure" story! Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore…
Here's a quick preview, or more like a tiny taste. Look for my one shot in the coming days for the full length feature trailer.
Phone! It was coming from Riley's cell phone.
He scrambled out of bed and fell to the floor with a thump as he moved to frantically untwine himself from his sheets. It could have been Ben…maybe he had something for Riley to look up…maybe he was finally going to include him in this "Page 47" secret presidential crap.
"Hello?" he said eagerly as he flipped open the phone.
"Riley, sweetheart…how're you doing?"
Riley groaned. "What do you want, ma? It's like…" he glanced at his clock "…six in the morning. I keep telling you—there are such things as time zones…"
God, I love Riley's mom :) …almost as much as I love sideways smiley faces :)