Disclaimer: Nothing from National Treasure is mine. However, the plot and my characters are.

A/N: Omg, this chapter took me forever to write since I've had so much homework and everything has been so hectic! I'm so sorry, everyone! But the good news is, here I am and here's the next chapter. Lol! Thank you so much to daisyduke80, Save the Elmo, Zxully anti-nostalgic, momiji'sunusedhalo, Sakoko-chan, Small-Fri, Halo, Miss Fenway, fantomfairy, Jedi'Pirate Jaeh, Majestik Moose, and Harm Marie for your wonderful reviews! I appreciate them all! Oh, and you will also love this chapter because Riley is back! Yay! Okay, anyway, on with the chapter!

Chapter 13

Ben was horrified at the doctor's statement, even though he had said that the amount wasn't fatal. Arsenic, the same substance that had killed Jeremy Poole, was now in Riley's body and was causing him agonizing pain. But then his horror melted to anger when he realized that the person who had taken the older man's life was now causing him that pain. What made the situation even worse was that if what Charlie said was true, Riley didn't even know why this harm had come to him.

"The most we can do is allow the arsenic to leave his system, which will take a couple of days," Charlie said when he saw the mood change on Ben's face. "We can keep giving him pain killers and fever reducers to help him through, but the main thing we have to do is wait."

"I just don't understand why someone would go so far as to kill someone and then do this," Ben muttered angrily, shaking his head. "No treasure is worth so much."

"Someone obviously believes that it is," Patrick told him, not making his son feel much better especially since he wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about.

Ben shook his head again with a sigh. "Riley could give us some insight if only he was conscious. Then we would find out exactly what happened between him and Dustin-!"

"Dustin?" Charlie asked, his voice taking on a sharp tone that had never been in it before as he interrupted the treasure hunter. "Riley was with Dustin?"

"Yes," Ben answered with a nod, "today as we left the morgue downtown. Dustin forced him into a taxi, but he wasn't with him for too long of a time before I was able to get him back. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that before…"

"Were they alone?" Charlie continued his interrogation.

"All except for the taxi driver," Ben confirmed, "who is a friend of Dustin."

"We need to find out what transpired between them," Charlie whispered with worry, mainly to himself. "If anything, he can tell us for sure if Jeremy's suspicions were correct."

Xxxxxxxxxx

Riley blinked, hoping that if his vision cleared the space around him wouldn't be so dark. Or cramped. But the more he blinked, the darker and smaller the world around him got. What was going on? Where was he?

Suddenly, he cried out loudly when a terrible pain erupted inside of his stomach. Riley dropped to his knees, his arms clamped around his abdomen as his breathing became more labored. Where had this pain come from so suddenly?

"Riley…"

The techie quickly looked up and gasped, knowing that voice anywhere. He saw that an older man was sitting on a wooden chair in front of him, a small smile on his face. "Dad…" Riley muttered in a whisper, almost longingly.

Jeremy Poole didn't respond to his son, nor did his expression change as he gazed at him. Wondering why he was being so impassive, Riley reached out a shaking hand toward him, but cried out in surprise when the older man suddenly fell limply from the chair. The techie stared in horror at his father's lifeless form, only averting his gaze when he heard an almost cruel laughter from behind the chair that the man had previously occupied. Though it was almost impossible, his eyes got even wider than they had previously been.

"Dustin?"

"Hello, Riley," his older brother said with a smirk. "I hope you don't mind about this." He gestured to their father's motionless form. "I also hope you enjoy that treat I gave you earlier."

"What do you mean?" Riley asked weakly. But then, he knew exactly what Dustin meant when his stomach burned furiously. He cried out again and bent over, tears falling from behind his eyes as his brother's laughter and his own pained scream echoed loudly in his ears.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Abigail's eyes suddenly shot open when she heard a loud scream. She quickly sat up when she realized that she had falling asleep leaning against the bed, and she saw that Riley was violently tossing and turning in his sleep.

"Riley," she said anxiously, placing her hands on his arms and gently shaking him. "Riley!"

The techie muttered incoherently in his sleep, and after a few more minutes of anxiously struggling, his eyes slowly opened. Riley smiled a little when a smiling Abigail was the first thing he saw, but then he grimaced in pain and curled up on the bed. "Ow…"

Abigail quickly got to her feet and ran into the hallway, stopping at the top of the stairs. "Ben!" she shouted down to the kitchen. "Ben, Riley's awake!"

She heard quick footsteps come from the kitchen, and she rushed back into Riley's room to check on him. A moment later, Ben, Patrick, and Charlie appeared in the room. "Riley?" Ben asked, moving over to the bed and sitting down with Abigail beside him. He was relieved when he was met with a pair of tired, deep blue eyes. "It's good to see you awake."

"Well, maybe it's not as great as it's cracked up to be," Riley muttered, trying to be as sarcastic as he could as his arms tightened around his stomach. "At least I couldn't feel this strange and terrible pain as badly before. I don't even know how this came about…"

Charlie then approached the bed and sat down on Riley's other side, placing his hand on the younger man's forehead to check his temperature. "Patrick, can I have that fever reducer and some pain medication that your wife packed?" he asked.

Patrick nodded, giving an encouraging nod to Riley before he left the room. Riley blankly looked up at the three people sitting above him, and then he sighed heavily. "You're all looking at me as though I'm going to die," he commented. Then, in a quick afterthought, added, "I'm not going to die, am I?"

"No, Riley. No," Abigail told him reassuringly, reaching forward and taking his hand in hers. "You're going to be just fine."

"Riley, we need you to tell us what happened between you and your brother in the taxi this afternoon," Charlie suddenly said, a serious look in the doctor's eyes.

"How do you know about that since I don't even know who you are?" Riley wondered, looking up at him suspiciously.

Ben placed his hand on Riley's shoulder, watching as his best friend looked back at him with confusion. "It's all right, Riley. Please tell us," he muttered. "This man is a friend of your father."

Riley sighed, closing his eyes for a minute. He was exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep. Not to mention that what had happened earlier that day was painful for him to think about. He took a deep breath, almost in annoyance. "It's just what I told you before, Ben," he finally muttered. "Dustin pulled me into the taxi, we talked for a while, he pulled out a gun at one point, and then he told me to give him what we found in the museum. That's it."

"Did he give you something to eat?" Charlie wondered. Ben glanced at him, knowing where he was taking the conversation.

"No. Well, just a cookie," Riley said. "Dustin made them for the funeral dinner yesterday, but since I wasn't there, he saved some for me…"

Charlie sighed. "I don't think he meant that, Riley," he muttered. "While you were unconscious, I took a sample of your blood and sent it to the hospital to be analyzed."

"Were you the one who was pressing on my stomach too?" Riley asked suspiciously.

"Yes, and I'm sorry that I had to do that to you, Riley. It was the only way I could see what was wrong with you."

"You'd better be sorry. That hurt."

"Anyway," Charlie stressed impatiently while Ben secretly smirked, "the hospital just called recently and told me that you had traces of arsenic in your bloodstream. I believe that it was in the cookie that Dustin gave you."

Riley's face darkened. "Dustin's my brother," he told him defensively. "There's no way that he would purposely hurt me-!"

"Did he eat one of the cookies?" Charlie interrupted abruptly.

"Well, no, but-!"

"How about the taxi driver? He's a friend of Dustin."

"No…"

Charlie raised an eyebrow, and Ben watched sadly as pain appeared on his best friend's face that he knew wasn't coming from the arsenic. "So… you're saying that Dustin poisoned me?" he asked in disbelief. When he didn't get a response from the doctor, he decided to continue on. "Why would he do that? I mean… he's my brother! He wouldn't… What's going on? I'm so confused…"

Ben thought over the information from the events that had occurred ever since Riley's father died. Jeremy Poole had truly been murdered with small dosages of arsenic over a long period of time, Andy Carson had given Riley a clue which had cost him and his secretary their lives, they had broken into the downtown museum and found another clue, Dustin had kidnapped Riley and demanded that he give him the second clue, and then Dustin had poisoned Riley with arsenic.

The more he thought about it, the more two of the events in the sequence stood out to him. Jeremy Poole had been murdered with arsenic, and Dustin had given Riley an amount of the same substance that wasn't fatal. Was it possible that the older Poole had done both? He didn't want to mention his thought aloud because of the impact that it would have on Riley, but it was a possibility that he couldn't ignore.

And either way, Dustin was going to pay for what he did to his best friend.

"I know that look," Riley suddenly muttered, looking at the treasure hunter warily. "What are you thinking about, Ben?"

"Oh. Nothing, Riley," Ben told him quietly, forcing a smile to prove his point. "Nothing…"

Charlie sighed, slowly getting to his feet. "Well, I think I've done all I can do for now," he said, his words mainly directed at Riley. "You'll be in some pain for a few days until the arsenic completely leaves your system, but I know that Patrick has you covered with medication. With that and a lot of rest, you should be fine. Ben, feel free to call me if his condition changes, and remember everything that I told you."

Ben nodded, seeing Riley's confused expression out of the corner of his eye. "I will. Thank you, Charlie," he said, watching as the old doctor left the room and nearly ran into his dad in the hall.

"Sorry that it took me so long to get you these, Riley," Patrick hurriedly apologized as he sat down on the bed and offered him a glass of water and two pills. "Emily packed so much that it took a while to decide what to give you."

"That's all right. Thanks for bringing them." Riley took the water and downed both pills, finishing most of the water before handing the glass back to the older man. Then, he lay back against the pillow and groaned softly, clutching his stomach. "It hurts…"

Ben placed his hand on Riley's tense shoulder with worry, looking up at his wife and meeting her gaze. "We should probably call Sadusky to at least do an investigation on Dustin Poole," he muttered. "That would probably be best."

Abigail nodded, failing at stifling a yawn. "I'll get right on that, Ben."

But Patrick shook his head. "You look exhausted, Abigail," he commented softly. "Go and get some sleep. I'll call the FBI. Then, I think I'll crash on the couch."

"Are you sure?" Abigail asked. She wanted sleep more than anything, but Riley's safety came first.

Patrick nodded, and Abigail tightly hugged her father-in-law. Then, she wandered over to the bed and ran her hand through Riley's hair before kissing Ben. "See you soon?" she said, her tone making it more of a statement than a question.

Ben slowly nodded. "Yeah, see you soon."

Abigail gazed at her husband skeptically before finally muttering, "Please come to bed soon, Ben." Then, she looked at Riley one last time and kissed him on the cheek before leaving the room with Patrick. Ben sighed and ran his hand through his hair stressfully. He was exhausted, but he was also reluctant to leave Riley. His attention was suddenly switched to his best friend when his movement caught his eyes.

"Ben, do you really believe that Dustin is the one who…" Riley began to ask, but was cut off when he grimace form the immense pain in his stomach.

"I don't know, Riley," Ben answered him quietly, though he had his own thoughts about the older Poole. "I don't know."

Riley's eyes had closed and his breathing had become steady as he didn't answer, so Ben assumed that the younger man had fallen asleep. But he was wrong.

"Ben, I don't feel so good."

Ben smiled sadly as he squeezed the techie's shoulder reassuringly. "I know, Riley. Just hang in there, all right?" he muttered. "You'll be just fine."

"You know what? Just go get some sleep," Riley told him without opening his eyes. "I don't want you staying up all night because of me."

"Are you sure? What if you need something?"

"Trust me. You'll know."

Ben laughed a little. "All right then, if that's what you want," he said, getting to his feet. In truth, he was anxious to join Abigail, though his first priority was the health of his best friend. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Yep," Riley sleepily agreed as the older man headed toward the door. "Oh, one more thing, Ben."

The treasure hunter stopped in the doorway, prepared to get him whatever he wanted. "Yeah?"

"Remind me to never get kidnapped again."

A/N: This was more of a recap, realization chapter. The plot will move farther along in the next one. I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway! Thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!