Disclaimer: Riley and everyone else from the actual movies aren't mine. Everyone else is.

A/N: All right. Now I can update faster because of those two days I was sick at home. The good news is, the chapters from here on out are gonna' be pretty long I think, so that's good. At least they're long in my notebook. But, thank you very much to Miss Hermione Jane Granger, Rose of Hope, momiji'sunusedhalo, Miss Fenway, unorthodox yo-yo, Majestik Moose, Sakoko-chan, fantomfairy, Mysterious Reviewer, and AliuIce0814 for your wonderful reviews. They really brighten up my day! All right. So, onto the next chapter, shall we?

Chapter 16

The next couple of days went by uneventfully. There was no sign that the infamous Ian Howe had escaped from prison except for all of the alerts on the television and radio, telling everyone to be cautious if they went out after nine at night. Abigail had started going back to work at the National Archives Building, and Riley's health was improving as the days went by. He was finally able to walk around the house on his own, and he even began to eat small amounts of food without it coming back up. His sarcastic humor was also beginning to return, which was a relief and an annoyance to both Ben and Abigail, and he was growing more cheerful as his stomach grew less painful by the day.

The third day after news of Ian's escape, a gentle rain was granting a generous reprieve from the harsh summer heat. Ben was sitting in the kitchen as evening drew nearer, waiting for Abigail to return home for dinner. He was deep in thought, but was then drawn back to reality when he heard the front door suddenly open and close. He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only five. Abigail wouldn't be home for another half hour yet. The front door was also locked, so what had happened? Then, it hit him.

Riley.

Ben quickly got to his feet and ran out the door, seeing that Riley was standing outside in the rain. He was merely looking up at the sky, not paying attention to anything else around him as he allowed the drops of water to run down his face. "What are you doing out here, Riley?" the older man asked, alarmed. "We juts got your fever down. You're going to get yourself sick again!"

Startled, Riley quickly turned around to see who had joined him. Seeing that it was only Ben, he turned back around with a smile. "Don't worry. I'm all right, Ben," he answered. "Just trying to get some things off my mind."

"If this is about Dustin…" Ben began hesitantly, but stopped when Riley shook his head.

"No. That whole thing actually hasn't sunk in yet," the younger man muttered, still not able to believe that his own brother would kill their father. "My dad always said that rain washes away unwanted thoughts- a kind of cleansing of your mind, I guess you could say."

Ben smiled slightly, walking forward and standing next to his best friend in the gentle rain. "Cleansing of your mind, huh?"

Riley nodded. "Yeah," he told him. "Rain is also a way of washing away bad things you have done. If Dustin and I ever got into a fight when it was raining, I would always stand outside in it because I felt so bad. Dustin would join me after a while, and we would become brothers again. Then, Dad came out and brought us in, making us change into dry clothes as he made us something warm to drink, and it was almost as though nothing bad had ever happened between us."

"Who knew that rain had that power?" Ben said, mainly to himself. Though he knew that rain didn't actually do what the younger man had said, it was the symbol of those things. Rain was a very refreshing thing. Then, he noticed that Riley was wearing the jade cross visibly around his neck, and Ben instantly knew that he was trying to wash away the memory of what had happened to his father.

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Dustin stood outside as he looked up at the gray sky, allowing the gentle rain to fall on to his face. He remembered what his father had used to say about the rain, how it would cleanse your mind of bad things you had done. In his mind's eye, he could see himself as a young kid standing outside with an even younger Riley, the fight they had just had washing away with the dripping rain as they became brothers again.

But this time, things were different. Riley wasn't standing outside with him, and even if he had been, it would take more than this gentle drizzle to cleanse him of what he had done.

"You'll never forgive me for what I've done, Riley."

Then, Dustin looked over his shoulder when he heard a slight footstep on the damp grass behind him. He didn't smile when he saw that it was Nick.

"Come on in before you catch a cold," Nick said, placing his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "He wants to talk to you about how we go about getting the next clue anyway."

"All right," Dustin muttered, not really hearing the younger man's words. "I'll be right in."

Nick nodded, looking at his friend for another moment before going back into the house. Dustin sighed as he turned back to look up at the sky, the rain once again hitting his face.

"Riley…"

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Riley stared at the two lines of Hieroglyphics that was the clue they had gotten from the museum, wondering how they were going to figure out what it said. "All righty. This is the clue, but I doubt that I could even find something on the web that could help us translate it," he said. "It's not like this is a language that people still use or anything…"

"I don't know much about Hieroglyphics myself," Ben admitted, getting a nod of agreement from Abigail.

"Well, I know what direction to read them in," Riley told them proudly. "See this symbol in the beginning of the first line? It's facing left, so the line is read from left to right. And the symbol at the end of the second line is facing right, so that line is read from right to left. See? I know things."

Abigail looked up at him with a smirk. "You just think you're so smart, don't you?"

Riley returned the smirk. "Abi, I don't just think that. I know that."

"So, we know which direction to read in, but that still gives us the problem of how to read it," Ben interrupted before Abigail could continue the friendly argument. "We're not going to get anywhere unless we know what it is we're reading."

Abigail frowned thoughtfully. "Didn't Charlie give you the number of a man who knows something about Hieroglyphics when he was here checking on Riley?" she asked.

Ben nodded slowly, getting to his feet and walking over to the box beneath the phone where he kept numbers that weren't yet on his cell phone, going through them until he found the one he needed. "It's a man named Daniel Richards…"

Riley seemed to perk up at the sound of the name. "I know him," he said. "He's a friend of my dad's who was in charge of building the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the museum where we found the clue."

"Charlie told me that Daniel was a friend of your father's, but I didn't know that he was involved with the museum," Ben muttered. "Riley, could I use your cell phone to call him?"

"Why?" Riley asked, clearly confused though he fished his cell phone out of his pocket anyway.

"Our phone may be tapped, and I don't want to take that chance," Ben answered, taking the cell phone that his best friend offered him. "Thank you."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that…"

Ben quickly dialed the number and brought the small phone up to his ear. After the second ring, someone picked up.

"Hello?" an older man asked.

"Yes, my name is Benjamin Gates," Ben said. "Is this Daniel?"

The man laughed a little. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that you were Riley since his number came up on my caller ID," he replied. "But yes, this is Daniel. How can I help you, Mr. Gates?"

"I'm a good friend of Riley's, and he's letting me use his cell phone," Ben explained. "But I just wanted to tell you that we found your clue at the museum. I've been named the second."

There was a silence on the other end of the line for a long minute. "Have you now?" Daniel finally asked. "I must say this is interesting. I suppose you don't know how to read Hieroglyphics, Mr. Gates."

Ben smiled a little. "No, Sir. I was wondering if you could help me out with that," he answered.

"I could," Daniel told him, "but first I need some proof that you truly are a friend of Riley. Let me speak with him."

That was an understandable request. Ben handed the phone to Riley, who brought it to his ear. "Yo," he said, knowing that the man on the other end would laugh. A minute later, he smiled brightly. "Yeah, Dan. It sure has been a while. How are you?" Another pause. "I'm feeling somewhat better, yeah. I guess Charlie told you about that whole ordeal, huh? But, what do you say? Can you help my friends and I with that clue?"

Ben looked at him curiously, anxious to hear the answer. "Uh huh," Riley muttered. "Uh huh. Okay. Will do, Dan. See you then. Bye." Then, he flipped the phone shut and put it back in his pocket.

"What did he say?" Abigail asked. "Will he help?"

"He said he wants us to meet him in front of the museum tomorrow at noon," Riley answered. "He'll help us with the decoding of the clue then."

"Well, I'll be at work, so I can't go," Abigail said. "You boys tell me what happens, all right? Call me when you have it decoded."

"Wait," Ben muttered. "You're not going with me to the museum tomorrow, Riley. You're still weak from the arsenic and not eating much."

"I'm strong enough, Ben," Riley replied defensively. Then, he smirked. "Besides, has there ever been a time when you've been able to stop me?"

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"I still can't believe that you're coming along," Ben said irritably, his eyes glued to the road as he drove from a just turned green light.

Riley smirked. "Come on, Ben," he replied cheerfully. "This is going to be fun. At least we'll get the clue."

Ben rolled his eyes. "Just don't pass out on me," he muttered.

"I won't. You worry too much, you know that?"

"I'm being serious, Riley."

"I know. So am I."

Ben ignored the comment as he turned the corner on to the street the museum was on. There was still yellow police tape blocking off the entrance because the damage hadn't been completely repaired yet, and many people were walking on the sidewalk in front of the building. Ben realized that Daniel had probably picked this spot since it was lunch hour for most people and it would e this crowded. For a startled minute, he wondered if they were going to find him at all.

The two friends hurried up to the museum after Ben parked the car across the street, and they began their search. "What does he look like?" Ben asked, scanning the large crowd with his eyes.

"I haven't seen him for a while, Ben," Riley answered. "I'm not exactly sure what he looks like now…"

"Ah, Riley. Good to see you again, kiddo."

Riley turned around and saw that a man wearing a suit with long graying hair that was tied back in a ponytail was standing behind him, a kind smile lighting up his eyes from behind his glasses. A young girl was standing behind him shyly. "Hey, Dan," the techie replied, hugging the older man tightly. "It's so good to see you."

Daniel placed a hand on the side of Riley's head affectionately but with a hint of sympathy, and then turned to the other man who was with him. "And you must be Ben," he said, shaking hands with the treasure hunter. "I'm Dan, and this is my granddaughter Chelsea. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Gates."

"Nice to meet you too," Ben told him with a smile. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the slip of paper they had found in the museum. "We brought this…"

"Ah, yes. Of course," Dan laughed. "Come and sit down, and we can look it over."

Ben followed Daniel and Chelsea with Riley behind him, who was relieved to get the chance to stop standing, and sat down on the stone steps that led up to the museum. Daniel reached into a plastic bag that he had brought with him and pulled out a pencil and an aged brown book that had no title. He handed the pencil to Ben and opened the book, revealing lists of Hieroglyphics with translations beside them inside.

"Hieroglyphics are just like any written language, but they are more complicated because they represent ideas rather than sounds. But for the sake of this clue, I just used the symbols for letters. Take this one for example," Daniel explained, pointing to the first symbol in line one and then showing him the same symbol in the book. "This one represents a sound, which is the letter T." Ben quickly wrote down a T above the symbol. "And the next one is the letter H. And the next one is… good, you've got it."

Chelsea, bored of just sitting on the steps, began to look around at the busy atmosphere around her, but then leaned forward to look at Riley on the other side of Ben and her grandfather. The techie, equally bored, saw her out of the corner of his eyes, and he glanced at her and made a funny face. Chelsea smiled and hid behind Daniel. But she leaned forward again and got another funny face from Riley. This time, she laughed when she hid behind her grandfather again.

Daniel looked down at her. "Chelsea, behave," he told her sternly.

"She's fine, Dan," Riley said with a wave of his hand. "But you know, there is an ice cream stand on the corner across the street. Do you want some, Chelsea? If it's all right with your grandfather, of course."

The young girl nodded and looked up at Daniel expectantly. "Can I, Grandpa?" she asked. "Please?"

"Ah, all right," Daniel finally answered, smiling as Chelsea grinned brightly with excitement and rushed over to Riley to pull him to his feet. "Just be careful crossing the street."

"We will," Riley assured him, allowing the young girl to lead him down the stairs and to the edge of the sidewalk. Then, tightly holding her hand and looking up and down the street for cars, they quickly crossed. The techie walked down the sidewalk with Chelsea skipping cheerfully next to him, beginning to feel a little lightheaded.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to suggest the long walk to the ice cream stand," Riley thought as they approached the cart. "Ben better have that clue decoded by the time we get back."

He looked out at the street absentmindedly as Chelsea considered all of the options she could get, hoping that it wasn't too expensive, anxious to sit back down again. The turmoil that his stomach had had to endure for the past few days along with his lack of eating much as an added bonus were starting to really take a toll on him. Maybe Ben had been right when he said he shouldn't have come after all…

Suddenly, Riley's eyes widened with surprise when a black SUV stopped at the red light beside him. The tainted passenger side window slowly rolled down, and his breath caught in his chest with fear when he saw that it was Dustin smirking at him. On the driver's side next to the older Poole was Ian Howe.

A/N: So, Riley's the first to actually see Ian after he escaped. I mean out of the good people, of course! But some things to look forward to in the next chapter are the fact that the Hieroglyphics clue is solved and the story of the treasure is told. So, be looking out for that. Thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!