Summary: Title says it all. Co-authored by Torilei and HaloFin17. Not a typical fanfic from us by any means, but this is such a common idea, we decided to try it out and have some fun with it, too. So do join us and laugh with us as we laugh at ourselves. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: It's always depressing to say it, but we don't own anyone or anything related to "National Treasure".

Halo's A/N: Wow, and here's yet another one! Can you guys believe this? Tori and I are blaming it on ffnet for being most uncooperative the past couple days and on the fact that there's a long weekend coming up, and you guys will need something to hold you over until we get back, lol. Thanks, as always, to those of you who reviewed the last chapter, and we do hope you enjoy Chapter Ten!

Chapter 10

"Ben!" Ian strode over toward them, a seeming genuine smile gracing his handsome face. "Glad to see you're both all right. No broken bones? A jump like that could kill a man."

Ben shook his head. "No, it was great! You ought to try it sometime."

"I'm okay, too, thanks for asking," Tori piped up, and Ian deigned to offer a nod in her direction.

"Yes, I'm sure your friend was very glad to see you."

He then proceeded to blatantly ignore her throughout the remainder of his conversation with Ben, and Tori "hmph-ed".

I guess I was right to make him so focused and single-minded in all my stories, she thought. He barely acknowledges that I'm even here! But oh well. He just doesn't know that I know where the treasure really is and how the movie's going to end. That'll teach him to be discourteous!

She smiled smugly at the thought, but the smile soon turned to one of sheer joy when she caught a glimpse of Riley and Abigail out of the corner of her eye. They were standing by the window inside an internet café across the street, watching the events unfold, and Tori found it so hard not to wave so she wouldn't give them away. She hadn't realized how badly she missed them – especially Riley.

When she turned her attention back to the men standing near her, she was just in time to see Viktor open the back door of a black SUV across the street, revealing a bound Patrick Gates within.

"Dad…" Seeing his father as a hostage was all Ben needed to have a sudden change of heart, and he at once told Ian that they needed to go inside Trinity Church.

"Excellent," the Englishman remarked pleasantly. "And, Ben, why don't you ask Dr. Chase and Riley to join us? I'm sure they're around here somewhere."

Haley and the others in the car got out to join their companions when they began making their way toward the nearby building. Powell and Viktor headed across the street, and the rest of them went into the sanctuary of Trinity Church. It was a truly beautiful place. Tori had been inside of the building before, but it looked nothing like she remembered it. It was much more… beautiful and calming now without all of the other people inside it and the roped-off areas. Sunlight flowed in through the stained-glass windows, bathing them all in gentle rainbow colors, and everything was strangely calm and quiet in comparison to the circumstances that had brought them there.

As they strode down the middle aisle, Ben leaned over to ask his father if he was all right, and Tori suddenly looked behind her to catch Haley's eye.

"It's that part," she mouthed wordlessly, to which her friend responded with an emphatic nod. It was an epic struggle for both of them not to laugh, for it was indeed the part of "Shaw's Funny Walk," as they had affectionately named it. But in the end, they were successful, and Ben settled into a pew farthest forward with Ian to examine the map, while Shaw forced Patrick and Tori down into a pew a few rows back.

Haley sat down in a pew a couple of rows behind them, knowing they wouldn't be there long and wanting to keep an eye on her friend while she was still in Shaw's clutches. Phil came over then and stopped for a moment in the middle of the aisle. His eyes darted back and forth uncertainly a few times between Shaw and Haley before he finally opted to sit farther back beside the young lady who offered him a small smile as he joined her. He smiled back, and Haley could scarcely believe it when she felt her stomach do an involuntary flip-flop. Her eyes widened at the sensation, and she suddenly looked away from him, knowing full well that it did little to mask the rising color in her cheeks.

Meanwhile, the back door of the sanctuary had opened again, and this time Powell and Viktor entered, pushing Riley and Abigail on ahead of them. Tori looked back at them from where she sat and grinned madly. Finally, they were all reunited! Yet their arrival also meant that poor Ben now truly had no choice but to cooperate, and when he and Ian had finished looking over the map, they determined that their quest was now leading them to Parkington Lane – beneath Trinity Church.

On their way out of the sanctuary, Riley rushed past Haley, throwing her another dark glare along the way. He hurried up to Tori and gave her a quick hug, which she heartily returned.

"I'm glad you're all right, T! And here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate chip cookie wrapped up in a napkin from the internet café. "Ben told me you were hungry."

"Thank you, Riley!" Even though it was such a simple act of kindness, Tori truly didn't know what else to say; but she did have time to give him one last hug before they were pushed along toward the basement.

She finished her cookie in a matter of seconds, watching Shaw clap Ian on the back as the two old friends made their descent; but when she saw Viktor shove Riley in the back for no reason in front of her, something snapped.

"Hey, leave him alone!" she protested sharply, and everyone stopped to stare at her for a minute. Even Viktor himself was too taken aback by her uncharacteristic vehemence to utter a retort.

But at length, they all recovered and moved on, and Ben stayed to hold the door open. Abigail tried to stop when she passed by him and apologize for how badly everything had gone, but Phil came up behind her and grabbed a hold of her shoulders to steer her along after the others.

Only a few steps behind them, Haley witnessed the interaction and at once felt an inexplicable twinge of…was that jealousy? Oh no. Surely it wasn't! But then what else could it possibly have been? She simply had no answer for herself there and could only wonder: What on earth is happening to me?

She fervently shook her head in an attempt to make the thought go away, but to no avail. She knew she'd always had a 'soft spot' for the 'bad guys,' but never, even after all the times she had seen National Treasure, would she have ever expected this.

Meanwhile, down in the sub-basement of the church, everyone was busy searching for some sign of the mysterious "Parkington Lane." Everyone, of course, except Haley and Tori who both knew the dilemma would be solved soon enough.

"Hey, I found him!" Riley suddenly exclaimed, pointing at one of the graves in the wall.

"It's a name," Ian mused, running his hand along the worn stone. Ben joined him and was about to launch into some lengthy explanation of who Parkington Lane had been, when he was abruptly cut off by the sledgehammer in Viktor's hands. Once the Russian man had broken through the wall, all of the guys except Riley and Patrick helped lift the rotten coffin from out of the tomb.

But as soon as they had freed the casket from the grave, the coffin lid fell open with a sudden crash, littering the dusty bones of Parkington Lane at their feet. Without exception, each of them jumped with a start or uttered an exclamation of surprise when the bones came spilling out, even Tori and Haley who knew in advance that it was coming.

Tori was actually so startled that she staggered backwards right into Riley, nearly knocking him over like he had done to her back on board The Charlotte. That day seemed so very long ago now. But as it was, Riley managed to stop her before she could inflict too much damage, and Tori was able to take a moment to calm her racing heart. How did she keep forgetting about stuff like this? She only hoped it wouldn't happen again before the end.

The men finally lowered the coffin back over the scattered bones, and Powell dryly remarked, "Careful no one steps in him."

Haley looked over at Tori, and this time, they did burst into a sudden fit of laughter as they thought of Haley's younger sister, Hannah, who could imitate that line to perfection!

A pleasantly surprised Powell just stared at them, as did everyone else, and he mused, "I didn't know it was that funny."

"It wasn't," Ian spoke up impatiently. "Now, girls, will you please stop that racket?"

The two friends simultaneously nodded and grew quiet almost at once. They both knew there would be no sense in making Ian mad at this point in the movie.

"All right," the Englishman went on, "Viktor, you stay here and keep watch. Phil, you'll come in with us for a ways until I tell you to stop and wait, and if anyone should come back without me…well, use your imagination."

Tori looked rather pointedly at Viktor and scoffed. "What imagination?"

The others glared at her, and Riley tried to shush her as he grabbed her arm and hissed, "T, stop it! Are you trying to get us all killed?"

She shrugged innocently and looked back down the dark, gaping maw that awaited them. Riley nervously followed her gaze.

"So, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?"

"I'll be there's a lot of spiders in there." Haley shivered and took a subconscious step back towards Phil, remembering his promise the night before to protect her from such monstrosities.

Tori glanced over at her friend and nodded worriedly as she subconsciously reached to grab a hold of the person closest to her. She didn't care too much for spiders herself, or any kind of bug for that matter. But in her mind, bugs were at least better than snakes. She still clung anxiously to Riley's arm, though, since he was closest, and was relieved when he really didn't seem to mind.

"Shall we?" Ian nodded casually toward the tunnel, and it came as no surprise to the rest of them when Ben was the first one inside. The others followed him, everyone receiving a helping hand up from those still waiting their turn. Riley offered his hand to Tori, and Phil helped Haley step inside; and while the former girl thought the arrangement perfectly normal and expected, the latter found it to be a bit strange, though still far from unpleasant or unwelcome.

Being farther near the back, they were able to evade most of the cobwebs that had been pushed aside by those ahead of them, a fact for which Haley was extremely grateful. Ben and Ian lit a torch when it grew too dark to see before leading them further on in their descent. They came to a sudden step down, and Ben stayed behind to warn everybody to watch their step and to offer some sort of encouragement. For his father, it was a guiding hand on his arm; for Riley, it was a firm hand on the shoulder; for Tori, it was a reassuring nod and a smile; and for Abigail, it was an impulsive kiss on the lips. The single most "romantic" part of the entire movie.

Having anticipated Ben's impetuous move, Tori glanced back at the new couple and went, "Aww!"

From back behind them, Powell looked on in blatant envy and disbelief. "Why does that never happen to me?"

Haley gently patted him on the shoulder in sympathy as she passed by, but she still couldn't keep from smiling at the line that had never failed to make her laugh. Unfortunately, Hannah never had beenquite able to master that one.

Finally, they arrived at the high platform overlooking the tremendous shaft filled with wooden platforms and elevators. Ben lit the chandelier, and Haley cringed, still fearing the eager treasure-hunter would burn the place down with his free-spirited use of that torch. But everything went fine, as it always had in the movie the countless times they'd seen it, and so they were free to gaze in awe at the immensity of the underground structure before them.

"Wow," Tori breathed, "this is so cool!"

"How do a bunch of guys with hand tools build all this?" Powell wondered, to which Ben replied, "The same way they built the pyramids and the Great Wall of China."

"Yeah," Riley concurred. "The aliens helped them."

Tori and Haley both chuckled at that, as indeed they usually did, especially since the younger girl had that line in her answering machine on her cell phone, and Haley leaned over to peer down over the wooden railing.

"Careful, Hobbitses," she commented, putting on her best Gollum voice. "Very far to fall." The remark earned her more than one strange glance from her companions, and she soon found herself wondering in a panic if they even had The Lord of the Rings in this world.

But thankfully, the beloved trilogy wasn't completely foreign, for Ian rolled his eyes and "Smeagol dryly thanked" for stating the obvious before commanding that they head out onto the structure and continue downward. Patrick resisted for a moment, only to comply soon enough at his son's urging. There was no shortage of creaking as the wooden boards bent and groaned under their weight, but everything seemed to be holding up well enough. So far.

After they'd gone down a considerable distance, Riley went over to the far side of the railing and gazed down in a vain attempt to see the bottom. Sensing her companion was no longer near her, Tori likewise halted and looked back.

"Riley, why are you stopping?"

"Huh? Oh, I was just looking. Gah!" All of a sudden, the techie began stamping his feet and shaking his hands madly when he realized he'd been standing in a veritable nest of cockroaches. Tori gasped and staggered back away from him as quickly as she could without falling over something. Blast it all, she had forgotten another scene! At least this one was technically a "Deleted Scene," so she had some small excuse for having overlooked it.

Meanwhile, Riley was still struggling to free his hands of the clinging cockroaches, and when he desperately flung his hand upward and outward, one of the disgusting creatures flew off and landed right in Haley's hair. She saw it come flying through the air toward her but had no time to duck out of the way before she felt it land on her head with a sickening crunch.

Her scream of terror then was easily twice the magnitude of when she'd discovered that spider in the bathroom the night before, and she clawed frantically at her hair to be rid of the loathsome insect. But she couldn't see the thing, and it all seemed a hopeless business until Phil finally came to her rescue. He pulled her hands down away from her head and forced her to hold still long enough for him to extract the slippery cockroach from her hair.

Once he had extricated the little devil and squashed it under his shoe, he turned back to Haley, who still looked like she was expecting the world to end at any moment. He kept one hand on her shoulder, to steady her just in case something else unexpected happened.

"You okay?"

She drew a deep breath to calm herself, nodded, and gazed up at her savior with heartfelt gratitude. "Phil, you saved my life – thank you!"

He only chuckled and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze of reassurance before withdrawing his hand completely. "Somehow I doubt that. But if I ever do really save your life, I'll be sure to let you know. Now come on, we're falling behind."

Haley hadn't even noticed it, but he was right. The others were already a considerable distance ahead of them, but for some reason, she didn't feel any sort of great desire to catch up with them. Strangely enough, this was the safest and the most secure she had felt all movie, and she was reluctant to move on. Not to mention the fact that Tori and Abigail were most likely still laughing at her and Riley's recent misfortune.

But as she walked on forward in front of Phil, Haley began to grow increasingly nervous. That horrible part would be coming up any minute now – could she really just stand back and let it happen? Oh, how she wished she'd talked to Tori about this back when they were in the car together! Why couldn't she have thought of it then?

And then, it happened. An ominous rumbling began to shake the very wooden platforms on which they stood, and clouds of dust rained down on all of them. Tori blinked furiously when she felt some of it get in her eyes, but in a few moments, the phenomenon had passed completely. They all stood in silence for a minute, looking nervously at each other until Ian finally provided an answer.

"Subway."

Ben nodded in agreement, looking somewhat relieved, but before anyone could take another step, Haley intervened.

"Stop!" she shouted in a frenzy. "Hold on a minute – nobody move!"

Ian was now looking at her now as though she had grown horns out of the top of her head. "What the devil is wrong with you?"

Up ahead, Tori caught her friend's eye and sent her a warning look that said, Don't you dare! Remember our pact!

Haley gulped. She never had been that great at thinking on her feet, but she needed to come up with something now, and fast! "Um, it's just that I don't trust all this rotting wood here, especially with the subway shaking it up like this."

Ian wasn't fazed. "Haley, the subway has been passing over this place for decades, and everything is still here in one piece."

"Right, but no one's been walking on them for centuries." The brunette had to struggle not to let her relief show, for he had given her the golden opening for that rebuttal. And indeed no one, not even the brilliant Englishman himself, could offer any valid retort.

She went on, "Please, you guys, just be careful! This situation's already tense enough, and the last thing we need now is for someone to plummet to their death. I've just got a really bad feeling about all this, so please double-check the planks you're about to step on before giving it your full weight."

Tori shook her head at the older girl and rolled her eyes. They would most definitely be talking about that later. If they survived, that was. She had to hand it to Haley for not giving too much away, but she still wasn't sure if that little speech would really help to change what was supposed to happen next. Like her, the others still seemed rather skeptical about Haley's precautions, but she sounded so earnest that they did, in fact, proceed with more caution.

Shaw tested the wooden planks in front of him before cautiously stepping out with one foot. The planks immediately gave way, snapping sharply in half, and Shaw would surely have fallen with them in an instant if he hadn't had one foot still on solid ground. It wasn't quite enough leverage for him to save himself, but it did give Ben the few seconds it took to step forward and pull his former colleague back from the gaping hole in the walkway.

Ian stared wide-eyed first at Haley, then at the empty space where the planks had been only seconds before, and finally at Shaw.

"My God, Shaw, are you all right?"

His fellow Brit nodded. For a brief while, Shaw had appeared to be as shaken up by the affair as any of them had ever seen him, but not surprisingly, it hadn't taken him long to resume his composure. He opened his mouth to answer his old friend, when suddenly, they heard a loud 'crack!' – and all hell broke loose.

Halo's A/N: Hey, does this count as a cliffhanger? I don't think we've really done one of those yet. Clearly, Tori hasn't been able to get her hands on the end of many chapters yet, since her cliffies, as you all know, are legendary. See ya next time!

Tori's A/N: Aww, thanks for the compliment about my "legendary cliffhangers," Halo! I really am proud of them, and for those of you who are reading "The Forgotten Heir," you can expect a couple of bad ones coming up. And, just like this story, that story is finished on my end. All I have to do is find time to update it! And my revenge is coming along quite nicely, and I didn't even need Shaw in this one, lol! Shame, shame, Haley, for changing the course of the movie though… Well, I think she's got a couple of more things up her sleeve too, so I can't really do too much to her. So, thanks for reading, and hopefully we'll update soon!