Author's note: This is based on the movie National Treasure, and is to a great deal dedicated to the more than worthy performance of Sean Bean. I enjoyed the movie very much, but I thought that since Ben and Ian often used similar methods to reach the same goal, I did not see one of them as more evil than the other. I also thought that the hints of the friendship we saw between them should be explored more. I began doing that in 'Who Did You Say Stole the Declaration,' this story takes up a short time after that one ended, and is my version of what happened next. I hope you all shall like it.
Big thanks to LadyDeb1970 who have been going over this for me, and helped me with plot and story ideas. Also to Celebrion for being my beta.
Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure. I just borrowed it because I like Sean Bean as an actor. I will return all characters in good and whole order, completely undamaged, if covered with a slight glue residue from having been put together again. I also swear I will not make any serious attempt at stealing Ian. More than I already have that is…
The name of Thomas McDowell have been stolen from LadyDeb1970, with her kind permission, as well as one or two other details.
/Elenhin
Chapter 11 You're Lucky That I Don't Hit Friends
Ian watched as Ben and Riley walked out of the door. He was experiencing mixed feelings, and without realising it he had slumped against a pillar. He felt relieved that it had gone so well. Meaning that there had been no blood flowing in the encounter between Ben and Charlotte. He felt grateful that Riley had not run away from him screaming in terror. He felt disappointed that it was still so tense between them.
Suppressing a sigh he rubbed a hand over his face. Had he done damage that could not be repaired, if it could not, then he would have doomed his child to bearing his burden. The people would not allow the child to forget the sins of the father.
What would he not do now to erase some of the mistakes of the past, but there was no mean for that. All he could do was try and mend as many breaches as he could before the child was born.
Still, if not Ben, Abigail and Riley could see past his crimes when they looked upon his child, then how would the rest of the world ever do it?
He closed his eyes and sank down to the floor. He wanted his child to have so much more than he himself had had. He wanted his child to feel she could still play with him even after her fifth birthday. He wanted for his son to know he could come and talk with him. He did not know anything about small children, but he was certain that he would learn.
It was the later years that worried him the most. An infant you could keep close and protect, but what with an older child. The infant would not know what was said about his father, and would not care, but what of later, what of when you had to send the little girl to school, and she was harassed by other children.
Young children could be so cruel. Ian had noticed that when he was in school the first day. His mother had gone with him then, because the school said a parent should be with them the first day. However his mother had only been allowed a half day off from her work, and so young Ian would be left on his own after lunch. A lot of parents left at lunch time. They had already been introduced to their class then. There were adults sitting on chairs in the class room, watching over their children. Many adults, for some had both their father and their mother with them.
Ian had not bothered much over the fact that his mother was there, and he could manage well enough without her.
They were only making drawings and such anyway, an easy start for the children. Then they were asked to go up to the teacher and show their drawings to her. She collected them because afterwards they would pin them to the wall in the corridor. So when the children went up to her she wrote their name in the corner of he drawing.
Ian had made a drawing of a castle, he had been drawing castles ever since he had been told that he had a great aunt who lived in a castle. He had seen a few photos of the castle, and he could not wait to see how it looked.
Now it was almost his turn to go there with his drawing, so he took one of the crayons and wrote his name in the corner. That way she would not have to do it. It seemed logical to him, he already knew how to write his name.
He walked up between the rows of desks and reached up to hand the paper to the teacher.
"Very good." She said with a big smile. "I think that we have a little artist here."
Ian did not care, she had said something like that to everyone, and so it was nothing to bother about. She just said it to be nice.
It was when she took up her pen to write his name that Ian objected.
"I already wrote my name." He pointed to the green letters in the corner.
"No, darling. That is not your name." She checked her list while she shook her head. "You wrote Ian, your name is Thomas." Saying so she took her pencil and wrote Thomas in the corner.
"I don't like Thomas." He had told her. "I want to be called Ian." He was a little angry that she had written something else on his drawing.
"Why would you want to be called something else?" She asked in that teacher voice that she used so often, as if he was too young to understand a normal voice.
Ian pulled himself up straighter. "My name is Ian Thomas McDowell, and I like using Ian more." He had decided that maybe she did not understand such simple things. So he added a few more words for her benefit. "See, it's shorter and much more simple to use."
She laughed and patted him on the cheek. "I'm afraid that we can not chose our names like that darling, now go back to your seat."
He had gone back, and he had thought how he did not like her. Thomas was a silly name, and his parents did not mind if he wanted to use Ian more. They said that it was his name all of it.
Then on the break some of the other children had tried to tease him about the occurrence.
"Thomas doesn't know his own name!" A boy shouted at him. "He doesn't know his own name!"
"Shut up!" Ian called back. He knew his name well.
Yet some other children took up the call, they had just found something exciting at the first day of school. It had ended with a fight, one that Ian got blamed for, he was the only child involved who did not still have his parents there.
The other children all told their mothers and fathers how it had been his fault, and he had stood there with a swollen lip, scraped elbows and knees and had been made to take all the blame.
The teacher had said that it was not a strange thing that there was a fight the first day when all the children wanted to see who would be the top dog in the pack. She gave them all a warning to behave better in the future, and Ian was forced into being called Thomas.
Children could be so cruel, Ian thought, and adults were not always nicer to a child than other children was. He had felt protective over the child Riley had paid to get the letters from the Silence Dogood letters. He had not only paid the child so much because Riley had run off before giving him what he had promised, but also in the hopes that the lad would grow to be stronger. Not allow himself to be used so easily.
Shaw had laughed over how much he gave the lad, claiming that he had a soft spot for children, and he did. He liked children a lot.
Charlotte had to smile as she watched Ian. He was sitting with his back against the pillar, and he appeared lost in thought, and it was the way he held his arms that made her smile. He had pulled up his knees slightly, and she just knew he was thinking about the child she carried. He was holding his arms in front of him, his hands clasping at his elbows, just as if he was cradling an infant in his arms.
He was definitely wishing he was, if only subconsciously. In some way it was such a sweet sight that she did not want to rouse him, but if someone from the board came they would wonder what was happening. Also she had a feeling that it was not one of his more happier memories he was experiencing.
She knelt beside him and shook his shoulder. "Come Ian, we need to start working again." She placed a soft kiss on his cheek, and he smiled at her before pulling himself up from the floor.
As he followed her back to the room where they worked Ian could not help but glance at her stomach. The thought of a child was still overwhelming, but he could hardly wait until he would get to hold his own child.
It would have to be the most amazing thing he could ever imagine.
It felt strange to be alone in the room after so much time with Charlotte's company close by. He had gotten used to having her beside him, to the point where he almost turned to her to comment on something.
She had gone to her father again, for just a day or two this time. It had something to do with the fact that she was pregnant. She had said that she wanted to spare him the details, and so he guessed that it was something he would not want to know to much about. He found much of the things concerning pregnancy frightening, and so when she told him not to ask, he did not.
Now he was whishing that he could comment to her, because he had discovered something strange. He had found a goblet with a rather strange shape. The stem was thicker then normal, and hollow, spreading out to a broad bottom. It was also decorated. The cup in itself was even stranger. The bottom of it, going into the stem was conical, then instead of curved the sides was more straight. It was also heavily decorated, and it was the decoration as well as the shape that had gotten him thinking.
He took a thin paper and a charcoal stick that he was using all the time when he found an interesting pattern. Holding the paper against the goblet he began rubbing the charcoal over it. Then he spread it out to try and find what it was that was so interesting about it. It was not until he turned it upside down that he saw it, writing, there were writing there.
'The number forth shall stand,
penned by one great man's hand.
Trinity in greatest serenity,
Rests now for eternity.'
It reminded him of what had been inscribed on the pipe, in fact, the whole thing reminded him of that pipe. Of the clue that had started the treasure hunt. It was scary much like it, and Ian felt suddenly drained of all strength. He was not sure of what to do. He could not ignore it, because he could not stop thinking about it. He wanted to, desperately, but he could not. His mind refused to let go of it.
No matter how hard he tried he could not stop those two lines from ringing in his head. He was up and pacing before he knew what he was doing. Trying to work out the meaning of the words. He muttered a silent but very colourful curse. It was no use, he could not stop thinking about it.
He might as well give up and try to figure it out for real. So he sat down and took the paper.
Then he shot up like if the chair had been venomous and bitten him. Logically that should not be possible, but he had shot up so fast that there had to be an explanation for it, and it was an explanation, although a strange one.
He could not figure it out, he could not. He would not do that to Charlotte. He tried to find something else to do, distracting himself from it. It was close enough to lunch time that he could go out and eat.
Charlotte had actually forbidden him to do any cooking when she was away, or rather she had not forbidden him to do any cooking, but she had forbidden him to eat anything he had cooked. So that would make cooking rather pointless.
He did not need to do it either, he was becoming a quite frequent guest at both the Chinese shop a few blocks away, and the steak house close to it. Both the places were used to seeing him at lunch time.
Never before though had it been so hard for him to go there and eat. He had walked past it with several yards before he realised it, and so he had to turn around and go back. Was it really allowed to be that distracted? He would have preferred that if it was not. He was not really fond over the fact that he walked right past the Chinese Restaurant without realising it.
Not to mention that he was so distracted he hardly knew what he had taken when he looked at his plate. He had no idea whether it was shrimp, chicken or pork. Which could have been a good idea as he was not too fond of the pork. Not to mention that he had taken sweet and sour sauce on his rice, instead of the peanut one.
It was an interesting meal, at least when he discovered that it was octopus he had on his plate. He would have to snap out of it before he got back to work.
If Charlotte got back and saw him so distracted she would lecture him most certainly. Only he did not know if he could snap out of it.
He had never been able to snap out of these things before. When something like this got his attention he could not stop thinking about them.
It was as if it cast a spell on him, he could not ignore them, not until he had solved it. So what was he to do now?
He was terrified of solving it, terrified of thinking what could come from it, and yet he could not refrain from trying to figure it out.
He was still trying to battle the need to know what it meant when he headed home.
"Something's gonna happen soon." Gregor muttered to himself. "When he has that look on his face, something's gonna happen soon."
It had never yet failed. That was how Ian was when he was determined, and curious. It was Ian when he was engaging all of his brain to figure something out. It was when Ian was dead set on something special.
Just before he knew about it himself.
They had learnt to recognize that, Ian would not always be aware of the fact that he was about to come up with something big, but the rest of them had learnt to recognize the look of it. They would prepare for when Ian came to them and told them what they were going to do.
He never understood how they could be prepared before him, Gregor was not sure if he had ever understood, but they knew about it. So now he would tell the others that things would be put into motion soon.
They would most definitely like those news.
"Did you miss me? Charlotte sneaked her arms around Ian's neck and was thrown of balance when he jumped to his feet. He spun around so fast that he nearly lost his balance completely.
"Ian?" She asked questioningly. That look on his face had been pure fright, but what had he been doing that he had not heard her approach, and to be so frightened.
"Sorry, are you okay?" He asked while still trying to get his heart beat and breathing under control.
"Yes, but I did not mean to scare you like that." She frowned scrutinizing as she took in his appearance. She was not sure about it, but for some reason she thought that he had not been taking as good care of himself as she would have wanted.
"How did everything go?" Ian asked to distract her.
"Well." She smiled and nodded. "There are a few things that I need to check every now and again since I am pregnant, but there is nothing to worry about."
"Are you certain?" Ian asked. He knew nothing about these things
"Yes." She smiled. "There is no danger in pregnancy Ian, just a few small discomforts." She did however not intend to tell him about them in detail. Ian would probably not take them to well. "I am four months pregnant Ian, so there is five more months before the child comes."
Ian nodded, he knew that it took nine months before there was a child. He did however not know much more. He supposed that she would tell him what he needed to know, since she seemed to follow the do not ask policy about it. She said that everything was fine and that there was not anything he really needed to know about.
Charlotte embraced him again. "Ian, are you done with distracting me now, so that you can tell me what has made you so edgy."
Knowing that he would not be able to get away from it Ian put the goblet down in front of her.
Charlotte picked it up and turned it over in her hands.
"Ian, I need you to tell me more about it." She said softly.
"Look at the decoration." Ian said tiredly. "What does it look like?"
"Nothing in particularly." She really could not see anything special with it.
"I made an imprint of it." He said and gave her a wrinkled and slightly torn sheet of paper. He had obviously been using it a lot. She studied it, it was a verse on four lines written there. A rhyme that seemed like something you should guess the answer to.
"What is it about?" She asked.
"I do not know." Ian dipped his face in his hands. "But I can not stop thinking about it. It is so much like that first clue on the treasure hunt. And what if it is something else like it. And I am too afraid to figure it out, but I can not stop thinking about it."
Charlotte draped her arms around him. "Ian, do you want to figure it out." She had heard a lot about the treasure hunt. She had heard even more about how Ian became obsessed with solving the riddles. How he could not let go.
"I do not dare to." He mumbled. "It all became such a mess the last time." He shook his head with despair. "Everything became so wrong, and I lost Shaw, and I do not dare to do anything now. What if I make a mess out of it again?"
"Ian, you should do it if you want to." She kissed his neck, but he was so distraught that he barely noticed.
"I can not." He made a mewing noise of despair. "And I can not stop thinking about it either. But even if I tried to figure it out, even if I did figure it out, what would I do with it. There is no one left now."
"What do you mean Ian?" Charlotte asked worriedly. She did not like the way his breathing had become agitated.
"I messed up everything." He moaned. "I got Shaw killed, I lost them Shaw, and I lost them, there is no one left for me now. Even if it is a clue, even if I can figure it out, what would I do without them."
Charlotte stroked his cheek gently. "Ian, my love, you have not lost them. You have not." She spoke softly to him, a low voice in his ear. "If it is a clue, you can figure it out, and they would want to be here when you do it. They would Ian, you have to keep that faith in them."
Ian shook his head, so upset he did not even notice that she should not know about his men. "I lost them everything." He claimed. "They can not ever wish to see me again." He shrieked with pain, whatever was it that she did that was so painful. This was the second time and he still had no idea.
He stared at her, and she thought that he looked like the last one in a large litter of puppies. When all his litter mates have been picked out by loving new owners, and one was left, the one no one wanted, and is now wondering if he will ever be loved.
She made sure to keep her tone soft. "Ian, they do not think that way about you. No one blames you for anything. But they have missed you, they have missed you all this time."
He hung his head again. "How could they. It was my fault that Shaw got killed, how could they not hate me for it?"
"If they did." This was the moment then Charlotte decided. This was when she had to tell him that they had kept watch over him. "They would not still be looking out for you."
He nodded. "They will not want to ever see me again, ever."
"No, you are wrong." She took his chin in one hand and lifted it. "They want you back, they want to be with you, but they thought that you needed time first. Victor is outside. Ask him. Ask him if he does not want you to figure it out."
Ian could not have looked more surprised if she had told him that no one blamed him for the theft of the declaration anymore.
"What?" He sounded like the little puppy he had looked like moments before.
"Victor is outside Ian, go and talk to him." She pulled him to his feet and lead him towards the door. When they were in sight of the front door Ian refused to move any further.
"I can't do this." He pleaded. "I can't. What if he is there?"
"He is there, and you are going to go and talk to him." She told him. "I mean it Ian, do it." She more or less pushed him out of the door, and there was Victor, Ian had not seen him yet, but she did and motioned to Ian. Then she disappeared inside again. Ian had to do this on his own.
He stood there on the sidewalk, looking up and down, a touch of panic over his features.
Victor came up to him and he looked frightened. Victor found it hard to comprehend, that Ian, the strong Ian, could look so frightened over seeing him.
"You okay, Ian?" He asked concerned, reaching out his hand and taking Ian's arm gently. It looked as if he needed to sit down, and so he lead him to a bench.
Ian made an effort to gather his thoughts, his best ability had always been to adept to new situations. He had done too much of panicking because he failed to adept lately. It was time to stop that. If Victor was there, he was there, now he had to show that he could take in the change of event.
"I thought that you would prefer not to see me again after I lost Shaw." He said it calmly, but he could not look at Victor when he said it.
"You didn't lose Shaw." Victor said gently. "Was no way you could have known, we all knew the risk, we all thought it worth it." He placed his arm around Ian's back. "I miss him, we all do, but it was not your fault. And we've missed you as much as we miss him. You ready to come back to us now?"
Ian looked at him carefully, Victor did not hate him, there was none of the hate he had feared in his eyes. It was the same loyal expression that had always been there. If they wanted him, if they still felt loyal to him, then how could he not?
How had he been able to imagine that he could manage without them. He could not, he needed them.
He nodded, and if he had still doubted it, then he did not after he saw Victor's grin.
"That's the best thing in ages, you and Charlotte just come with me and I'll take you to the others."
Now when he had Victor again Ian's brain kicked in. "You know Charlotte?" He asked. Only now did he realise that she had known Victor was outside, and would therefore have to know Victor.
Victor looked guilty of all charges. "We ran into her." He admitted. "We wanted to keep an eye on you, and since she was with you…" He broke of and shrugged.
It was overwhelming and Ian shook his head. "You have, do not tell me that you…" It was to crazy for him to voice it, they could not have been crazy enough to actually keep watch over him, and yet, that guilty grin could only mean one thing.
"Why?" He asked.
"We stick together Ian, always." Victor gave him a warm smile. "Remember how you taught us that. We don't run out on one of our own."
It made sense in a way, he had taught them that. He and Shaw had.
Victor leaned back for a moment. "We all knew that there would one time sooner or later when not even you could keep us from getting busted." He said slowly. "It was now, and losing Shaw's the worst ever happened to us, but it was not your fault. And you were the one who made sure we did not wind up in prison. Do you really think that we would leave you?"
Slowly Ian shook his head.
"So you just told yourself that we wouldn't want you around, just because you wanted to blame yourself, and you knew we'd never let you." Victor stated.
This time it was Ian who offered a guilty smile. He had not thought about it in those terms before, but it was true. It really was.
"Selfish bastard." Victor chuckled. "You had better stop now, for we won't let you." He grinned confidently. "Now tell me what is going on, what is it you are trying to figure out."
Ian gave him a baffled look.
"You've been looking like you always do when working on something big." Victor informed him. "We can tell, so what is it, what is it you are trying to decide if you should go for or not."
Ian stood up. "Come, I had better show it to you." It was a strange feeling to have Victor walking beside him again. Victor did not seem to notice, but he did. Then again it appeared as if Victor and the others had stayed together the whole time.
To Ian it felt as if Charlotte was not his only protection against the world anymore, there were his friends as well.
Inside he showed Victor the goblet and text imprint, explaining as much as he had been able to figure out about it.
"You'll figure it out." Victor nodded eagerly.
"You don't understand Victor." Ian sighed tiredly. "Regardless if it was my fault or not, how can I allow myself to try and figure this out, after what happened."
Victor stepped closer and laid his hands on Ian's shoulders. "How can you not?" He asked thoughtfully. "How can you not try to solve it after what happened? What would Shaw say if you gave up after all of it."
If not for the hold on his shoulders Ian would have taken a step back.
"That would be the worst thing you could ever do to Shaw." Victor continued. "Giving up, so don't you dare to. Do not give up Ian, that would be letting Gates win."
"Maybe I should leave this to him." Ian mumbled. Coping with these swift changes was all that he could do. "Ben figured it out the last time."
"You're lucky I don't hit friends." Victor said with a frown. "Well, I do. But you're lucky that I only hit my friends for fun, else I would have punched you for that one."
"Victor, I can not just forget about all in five minutes, act like if this last time never happened." Ian pulled away from him. "You told me I am still wanted, fine, I can believe that. But to think that I would be able to do everything right this time, when I did everything wrong before. This is your bloody lives we are talking about."
"Yeah, it is." Victor countered. "And we want to goon. We'd rather take the risk then giving up. We go on Ian."
Ian looked at him, bewildered. It was odd, how Victor still seemed to have such trust in him.
"Come on now." Victor grinned. "It is about time we tell the others about it."
"I need to finish here first." It was clear to Ian that the choice was not his. He might as well give in and do as Victor said. "I'll meet you later. For some reason I think that you know the address." He gave Victor a calculating look, ah, he did know where Ian lived. He could read his expression easily, and he most definitely knew where Ian lived. He had not really expected anything else either. Not after Victor admitted that they had been keeping an eye on him.
"I'll bring them." Victor promised. "I'll see you there." He left with a gentle pat to Ian's shoulder, and a wave to Charlotte. Then grinning like a fool he left.
Well, Ian thought, Victor had always been a happy fool.
He sank down on the chair trying to take in the news. There was a lot to take in, even if he was beginning to feel more like before. Even if he was beginning to feel more like his old self.
"How did you know?" He did not look at Charlotte as he asked the question.
"I ran into them." She admitted. "They had seen me with you and were curious." She knelt to hug him, he looked really drained.
"They still want to go on." Ian shook his head as if he still did not dare to believe it. "I thought that I could go on and not really miss them, but I can not. I have missed them so much. I have to be the biggest fool to think that I could get along without them."
"No, Ian. Not a fool." She kissed his neck, enjoying the feeling of his soft hair. "Rest for a moment now, I think you need it."
He looked at her, trying to see if she was crazy, rest, how could he possibly rest after she did that. There was shivers of electricity running up and down his spine, he felt as if he had been the top target in a lightning storm, and then she told him to rest.
He had heard that pregnancy made strange things to some women, and now he believed it.
Important note for this chapter is that Ian at times refers to the unborn child as girl, and sometimes as boy, it is something he does because he does not want to guess about what it will be, and so he takes both options into account.
This is the end of this chapter, I shall update again in two weeks, and keep the updates up every second week.
I want to thank everyone who read my earlier National Treasure story, thank you, all of you.
I have now switched to the direct review response for all signed reviews.