A/N: Nothing new...still watching hockey, and I got tired of listening to the commentators, so I have music on now; more distractions, so I might have more little mistakes.
Ian and Shaw can't
get the document away from Abigail, so they pick her up and put her
in their truck.
The driver keeps shooting and hits the driver's side mirror, then the window; Riley ducks just in time. The glass shattered all over Riley and Bianca.
Ian's group drives off and Ben gets back in the van. Riley sits back up in his seat.
"That's..." Riley starts to say.
"Go! Go!" says Ben.
Riley puts the van into drive and floors it. They start following Ian.
Sirens are heard, getting closer to them.
"Once we catch them what are we going to do?" asks Riley.
"I'm working on it," says Ben.
"Oh, that's comforting," Bianca says, rolling her eyes.
Ian's van turns a corner. As they do, Bianca, Ben, and Riley see a whole bunch of police cars coming towards them. One goes skidding by trying to stay with the vans.
"Right turn, right turn," mumbles Riley as he makes the turn and follows Ian.
Ian's van almost hits a garbage truck, so they had to make a sharp turn. Little did the driver know that he was turning into a construction zone.
Both vans blast through the construction zone. Riley's following their truck with every turn. Bianca is sitting behind him holding onto the back of the seat for dear life.
"Skidding, skidding, skidding," Riley mumbles as he does, in fact, skid.
They exit the construction zone and make a right turn. Abigail must have been trying to get out because the door to the truck opens and she goes flying with it.
"Oh, no," says Ben.
"Holy Lord!" says Riley.
"Damn," says Bianca.
They keep avoiding traffic. Shaw starts to shoot at Riley, Ben, and Bianca, but Ian grabs him.
"No, if she falls, the document falls," he says to Shaw.
Ben gets into the back of the van and opens the sliding door holding onto the seat belt.
"Get me next to her," he says to Riley.
Riley quickly moves the van into the on-coming traffic lane and pulls up closer to the truck. A bus is heading their way and blasts its horn. Riley swerves to the left to miss it, and then swerves back after it passes. Ben tries to grab a hold of Abigail, but the truck's door swings back and Ian grabs the document from Abigail. The door swings back and Ben goes for Abigail. He stretches out his arm and she grabs onto him.
"Come on. Jump!" says Ben.
Abigail jumps and Ben catches her. Shaw starts shooting at them again. Ben and Abigail fall down towards the other side of the van. Bianca shuts the door, but she must have had her shoulder out too far because a bullet grazes it. (She doesn't even realize that she has been shot.) She shuts the door and Riley takes the next left turn to get away from Ian.
Bianca lets out a sigh of relief. Ben stands up.
"Are you alright?" Ben asks Abigail.
"No, those lunatics...they stole," she starts to yell.
"You're not hurt are you?" asks Ben again.
'Apparently, she's fine,' thinks Bianca.
"You're all lunatics," says Abigail.
"Gee, thanks," says Bianca sarcastically.
"You hungry?" ask Ben.
"What!" questions Abigail, looking at Ben confused.
"Are you alright?" Ben asks her again, slower this time.
"Still a little on edge from being shot at, but I'll be okay. Thanks for asking," says Riley from the driver's seat.
"Well, I'm not alright. Those men have the Declaration of Independence!" says Abigail.
"She lost it!" asks Riley.
"They don't have it," says Bianca handing the plastic tube that holds the real Declaration to Ben.
"See? Okay? Now can you please stop shouting," Ben says showing the Declaration to Abigail.
"Gimme that!" says Abigail trying to grab the document from Ben, but Ben pulls it away and puts it back in the tube.
"You're still shouting and it's really starting to annoy. You'd do well, Dr. Chase, to be a bit more civilized in this instance," says Ben heading back up to the passenger's seat.
Riley and Bianca let out a laugh.
"If this is the real document, what did they get?" asks Abigail, sitting behind Riley's seat.
Bianca sits next to her behind Ben.
"A souvenir. I thought it might be a good idea to have a duplicate. Turned out I was right. Actually, I had to pay for both the souvenir and the real one, so you owe me 35 dollars plus tax," explains Ben.
"Genius," laughs Riley.
"Nice," says Bianca, grinning.
"Who were those men?" asks Abigail, still yelling.
"Just the guys we warned you were going to steal the Declaration," says Ben.
"And you didn't believe us," taunts Riley.
"We did the only thing we could do to keep it safe," says Ben.
"Verdammt! Gimme that!" Abigail shouts again and trying to grab the Declaration. (A/N: Does anyone know German well enough to translate that for me?)
"You know something, you're shouting again," says Ben pulling it away from her.
"I'm pretty sure she was swearing too," says Riley.
"Well, we probably deserve that," says Ben.
"I think we do deserve it, not probably," says Bianca.
"There is not a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence," says Abigail folding her hands in front of her face.
"And there was no chance anyone could steal this," says Ben shaking the container holding the Declaration, "either," he finishes his sentence shaking it again. "I leveled with you 100 percent. Everything I told you was the truth," says Ben quite calmly.
"I want that document Mr. Brown," demands Abigail.
"Okay, my name's not Brown. It's Gates. I leveled with you 98 percent," says Ben watching the road.
"Wait a minute, did you just say Gates?" she asks.
Riley cringes.
"Gates? You're that family with the conspiracy theory about the founding fathers," Abigail finishes.
Bianca sits with her back against Ben's seat, pulls her knees up to her chest, groans, and puts her head in her hands.
"It's NOT a conspiracy theory," says Ben.
"Per say," says Riley.
"Ooooh, Riley. I'm going to hurt you once we stop," Bianca threatens, looking up to him.
Riley gulps.
"I take it back. You're not liars...you're insane," says Abigail.
"Thanks, again," mumbles Bianca.
"You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van," states Abigail after Ben told her what they were planning on doing.
"Not in the van. We have a clean room environment all set up," says Bianca.
"ETS suits, a particulate air filtration system, the whole shebang," says Riley.
":Really?" says Abigail a little more interested.
"We can't go back there," says Ben.
"What?" asks Bianca kneeling behind Ben's seat again.
"What? Why not?" asks Riley at the same time.
"Ben? How did you pay for the souvenir?" asks Bianca slowly.
"Uh, credit card?" says Ben.
Bianca growls and punches the back of the seat.
"A credit card slip? Dude, we're on the grid. Do you...they'll have your records from forever. They'll have my records from forever. They'll probably have Bianca's, too," says Riley freaking out.
"I know. I know. It's only a matter of minutes before the FBI shows up at my front door," says Ben trying to calm Riley down.
"What do we do?" asks Riley.
"We need those letters," says Ben thoughtfully.
"What letters?" asks Abigail.
"You know what? Get off the road; take a right," says Ben to Riley totally ignoring Abigail.
"What letters?" asks Abigail again, but more forcefully.
They drive for a few blocks until they reach a place across the water from the Jefferson Memorial where they can park the van on the grass. They stop and Riley shuts off the engine. Ben gets out of the van. He starts pacing while Bianca opens the sliding door and sits on the edge closest to the front, cross-legged. Abigail moves next to her. Riley jumps over into the passenger's seat, rolling down the window.
"Since Ben's being all honest, I guess I might as well be. I'm Bianca Lewis, not Stephanie...whoever I said," says Bianca waving her hand at the last part and extending it to Abigail.
Abigail shakes Bianca's hand and Bianca continues.
"That one's Riley. Not Bill like he previously said," explains Bianca indicating to Riley in the passenger's seat with her thumb.
Abigail looks down at Bianca's shoulder.
"You're bleeding," she says casually.
"What?" Bianca asks following her gaze, "Huh, would you look at that?"
Bianca gets up and gets some tissues and duct tape from inside the van. She places the tissue over the gash, then tapes it down.
A few minutes later, after a long silence, Ben explains the letters to Abigail and taking his grand ol' time doing it, too.
"You have the original Silence Dogood letters? Did you steal those too?" asks Abigail after Ben explained the letters to her.
Bianca groans silently again and hits her head repeatedly on the back of the seat Riley's in.
"Do you mind?" he asks her.
"No, do you?" she ask stopping for a second.
"Yeah, I do actually," he says.
"Too bad," she replies and goes back to hitting her head. (A/N: I make her hit her head a lot, don't I? Oh well, lots of people do it...including me.)
"We have scans of the originals. Quiet please," says Ben answering Abigail.
"How'd you get scans?" asks Abigail, not listening to Ben.
"Oh, I know the person who has the originals. Now shush," says Ben dramatically.
Riley leans his head on the window frame and shakes his head.
"Why do you need them?" Abigail asks, rolling her eyes.
"She really can't shut her mouth, can she?" asks Ben to Riley and Bianca.
Riley raises his hand in an 'I-don't-know' sort of way. Bianca shakes her head no.
"I'll tell you what, look. I'll let you hold onto this if you'll promise to shut up, please. Thank you," says Ben handing Abigail the container holding the Declaration.
"Ben, you know what you have to do," says Riley looking at him.
"I know what to do, I'm just trying to think of anything else we could do," says Ben.
"Well, not to be a, uh, nudge, but you do realize how many people we have after us. We probably have our own satellite by now," says Riley.
"That might be exaggerating it a bit," says Bianca looking up at him.
"It took you all of 2 seconds to decide to steal the Declaration of Independence," Riley continues.
"Yeah, but I didn't think I was gonna personally have to tell my dad about it," says Ben flinging his head around.
Abigail takes off her shoes unnoticeably and tries to run off.
"Ben!" shouts Bianca.
"Hey! Not cool, not cool," says Ben running after her.
Riley gets out of the van; Bianca stands up next to him.
Ben catches her only a few yards away and picks her up so she won't go anywhere.
"Let me go!" Abigail screeches.
Ben puts her down and grabs the Declaration from her.
"Okay. You're let go. Go, shoo," says Ben making shooing gestures with his hand.
"I'm not going. Not without the Declaration," she says trying to get it back.
Ben rips it away from her.
"You're not going with the Declaration," grunts Ben slinging it over his shoulder.
"Yes, I am. I'm not letting it out of my sight, so I'm going," she says grabbing the strap and pulling it, making Ben come with it.
"Wait. You're not going with us with the Declaration," says Ben trying to pull away.
"Yes, I am," says Abigail in a hushed tone, pulling Ben back.
"No, you're not," Ben says only a few inches away from her face.
"Oh, no," says Bianca letting her forehead fall on Riley's shoulder.
"What?" he asks trying to look at her.
"She's coming with us AND I don't like the way they're looking at each other," she says muffled by his shoulder.
"Oh. Great," he says flatly.
"Look, if you wanted to leave me behind, you shouldn't have told me where you were going," says Abigail.
Ben tries to think of something to say, but only sighs in defeat. Riley puts his head back and hits the van. Bianca stays on his shoulder.
A/N: Well, there ya go! Now I'm going to warm up my hands. I can't feel my fingers, they're so cold.