Disclaimer, except Rose whatever. So again a little more confusion but I'm fixing this! So it'll go to my POV then Ben's POV and then back to Rose's POV! It's kind of a longer chapter just so you know…

Chapter 10: Less than three 3

I gasped. Riley? Why would he call Ian? "Riley!" I screamed. Ian nodded to Shaw, who then grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth and kept one holding both my wrists. I screamed, and screamed, but they were so muffled Riley probably couldn't even hear me. I bit Shaw's hand and he shouted. "Riley-" I tried again, he punched me in the face, I cried out in pain and fell to the ground with a loud thud! I could hear Riley shouting through the phone. "Stop it! Let me talk to her! Stop!" He shouted. Ian smugly smiled. "No, she can't talk at the moment. Actually she's a little busy." He said, looking over at me smiling. Jerk. He paused for a short time and repeated, "No, she can't talk." Yes I could! "Let me talk to him." I murmured. It sounded like "Lemme togtoim." But it was barely audible. He paused and laughed. "That's her choice, and her problem, not yours. So why don't you tell me your real reason for calling before I loose my patience and hang up." He paused again (A/N: Riley said don't hurt her, and Ian was like if she stops shouting out for you then we will stop, so technically it'd be her choice-ish.) I bit my lip resisting the urge to whimper, I had to try again. I waited for Riley to finish. "And why should I trust-"

"Ri-" I cried out again, another kicked me in the stomach and dragged me into another room. Someone shielded my eyes, also keeping his hand over my mouth, after he tied my wrists behind me the rope digging into my skin painfully. I tried to shake him off, but I only got hurt more. By now there were tears rolling down my cheeks. The rope holding my wrists together was burning, and probably would leave a mark. "Quiet, bitch! You're only hurting yourself!" I recognized the voice as Phil's. I moaned. I decided I wouldn't be able to reach Riley now. One put a blindfold on me, and then threw me onto the floor, with force. I whimpered, I couldn't help it, I could just see the smirks the guys standing above me were wearing. The one that was the driver of the car leaned down and whispered something terrifying into my ear. "You're lucky you're 15." After that he choked me, for a minute. I tried to scream but I couldn't breathe. He let go at last, and I gasped for air. After that, I was silent, and just before I passed out and was to be put in the room again, I heard Ian saying, "Riley, I told you I can't do that. I think she's good enough insurance don't you? Goodbye."

BEN'S POV:

I sat at the desk of Agent Peter Sedusky. "That's quite some story you got there Mr. Gates." He said. "It's the same story I tried to tell you before, the Declaration was stolen." I shot back calmly. "By you." He said. "No. By Ian. I stole it to stop him- Dr. Chase wasn't involved. Yet, Ian still ended up with the Declaration." I explained. Well, and he ended up with Rose too…A voice in my head told me. Not helping! I shot back. "Because of you." He said. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Not all of this was on me! The FBI could be so frustrating sometimes. Boy, I'm starting to sound like Rose… "And someone else was involved in this?" He guessed. I weighed my options. I could tell him about Rose, but if I did that meant I had to tell him about her disappearance. I sighed. "Yes. My niece ended up in the scheme." I admitted. "And where is she now?" He inquired hopefully. "My best guess would be with Ian." I muttered. "Really? She went to Mr. Howe?" He asked. "Not voluntarily. She was…taken. Kidnapped." I said. The words stung. He wasn't afraid to hurt her. And unfortunately Rose wasn't scared by him. If she said one wrong thing he'd hurt her. I winced at the thought. I realized what the clue meant at that moment. Heere at the wall, was the intersection of Heere street renamed Broadway, and Wall street. "There's more to it." I whispered to myself. "And what are these?" Sedusky questioned motioning to the glasses. "A way to read the map." I said. "Well, Mr. Gates you have two options. Door number 1: You go to prison for a very long time. Door number two; you help us get back the declaration, and you still go to prison for a very long time." He said. "But, you feel better inside." He quickly added. "Is there a door that doesn't lead to prison?" I asked with a twinge of hysteria in my voice. "Someone's got to go to prison Ben." He laughed humorlessly. "What about Rose?" I asked. "Well I thought that, that part was clear. We're going to rescue your niece, either way." He informed me. Relief washed through me. "Here." He said handing a photograph to me. It was Rose at the college football game on her ex-boyfriend's back. That was a few months ago. She had been in her tan shorts (that were fairly short I must point out), and her blue tank top with a white one under that, her hair in a pony tail she had straightened it that night for some reason, and she wore her VA football hat backwards, and was sticking out her arms as in 'Go cavaliers!' she and her boyfriend grinning at the camera. I never liked that guy though, too…dumb. Will wasn't smart, just an athletic idiot who didn't know a thing. She dumped him when he stood her up to much. God I hated him after that. "You raided my apartment." I figured. "Technically, the term searched is better for us." He said. "I thought you might like this." He said. I frowned as my phone rang. They listened in and motioned for me to answer, though I really didn't want to. "Yes?" I asked cautiously. "Hello, Ben. How are you?" Ian's voice flooded through the phone. "I'm chained to a desk." I pointed out. "If you've even touched Rose, I swear to God Ian-"

"The girl's unconscious at the moment. She'll be alright." He paused. "If you do what I say that is." He added. I winced. "Meet me at 10 am on the flight deck of U.S.S Intrepid, you know where that is?" Ian didn't let me finish.

"New York." I responded annoyed. "Good. And bring those glasses you found at Independence Hall- Yeah, I know about the glasses. We'll take a look at the Declaration, and you can be on your way. You can keep the glasses when you're done, and I'll even throw in the pipe from the Charlotte." Ian laughed. "And tell those FBI agents listening in on this call that you come alone, if you want back the Declaration, and not just a clip of hair and a box of confetti." Ian finished, and hung up. I frowned, and hung up. Oh, great.

ROSE POV:

I woke up in the room I had been in before. My wrists were now tied and my mouth gagged. I had no strength to fight anyways, but I wasn't going to let them know that. I squirmed, and wiggled, to try to get a good look at my watch that now had a crack on the screen. Great, that belonged to my great-grandmother! It…was morning. 8:46 to be exact. I'd been a hostage for one day, and already I had been beaten senselessly, threatened sexually, had been at gunpoint, and had been stabbed. I heard muffled voices at the door, "Get the girl, we're going somewhere," Shaw's voice flooded getting clearer as he came closer. Suddenly the door burst open. In came, Shaw, Ian, and some other guy. Ian had too many "workers". The one I didn't know, and Shaw propped me up. "Now, since yesterday's episode I think you ought to be kept quiet. Unless, you know not to speak." Ian explained. Someone took out my gag. Shaw pulled my hair, so my head whipped back, and I whimpered slightly but that wasn't good enough for him. He tugged harder until I snapped. "Stop it!" I screamed. Ian smugly, smiled, and Shaw smirked. "I think she's learned her lesson, boys." He said. My wrists were kept tied, the burning sensation subsided from having been there so long now. Which was truly sad to say. "Now, we're going on a little…ah, trip." Ian said. I glared at him, (though once again I was blindfolded for unknown reasons.) I felt him drag me by my hair out to the car. I didn't say anything though because it already hurt enough to breathe. I was thrown into the back of an SUV with the same driver as the day before and someone else. I lay down in the backseat and felt someone put the middle seat-belt over my waist, because of the issue of my hands being tied behind my back. Someone ripped off my blindfold and I pretended to be asleep and eavesdropped on their conversation. "Do you think Ian's really going to help?" The driver muttered. "Well, we get treasure, anyways…but it does suck that we have to chauffer this brat around." The other one said. I bit my tongue from screeching at him. "Yeah, but she is pretty damn, hot." The driver said turning to look at me at a red light. "She is down right sexy, that's for sure." The other one said replied. My eyes wanted to burst open and I wanted to so badly curse them out. "How does she keep that well of a body at only 15, and not have a boyfriend?" The driver wondered. Okay, firstly I did dance which really works a lot of the body. Secondly, I have no time for a boyfriend! Besides…I…sort of liked someone…they just…didn't notice me…ugh! Never mind. Eventually I did fall asleep. "Get up, we're here." The shotgun passenger snapped. I could tell that we were in a city, parked in a street. I glared at him, but I kept laying down. "Fine, have it your way." He said. Getting out. He stood right outside my door, and the driver stood at the other. I didn't get up because my head hurt too much. Eventually the door opened, and I squinted across the street. There stood Ben and Ian (from my angle they were upside-down though). Ben gave me a look that said I'm sorry, I'll get you out, I swear! on his face. Ian smirked, seeing my position, and I mouthed a nasty insult. The door closed, and I waited to be released. That'd really be a dream. "Get out, you're going inside the church." The man who woke me up snapped. "Alright, alright. Ow! Easy, I'm just a little…sore." I said when he untied my hands and took an iron grip on my arm, and pointed a gun at my rib "Do anything stupid, and you're gone." He said. "Thanks." I said venomously, he reached for my hair. "Stop!" I whimpered, he smirked seeing my discomfort. "Better idea." He muttered, and took out a pocket knife and oh-so casually cut my wrist, causing blood to slip off of my wrist. I whimpered once more, and I tried to grab my wrist but he jerked my arm, so I couldn't. I fought back tears and he put the knife away. When I entered Trinity Church I saw Riley and Abigail being herded over by Phil and Powell. I also saw Grandpa. I slid in right next to Riley. I didn't care what he had to say about it, I slid his hand into mine. "Are you okay?" He whispered. "Y-…no." I replied. He squeezed my hand. Mentally, I smiled. "Why are you covered in blood?" Abigail hissed. "Um…some incidents with a knife." I murmured, fear replacing relief in my eyes. Riley looked pained, when I said knife. "I'm going to kill that guy." He muttered. "What happened?" Abigail asked ignoring Riley. "I…A lot. I'll explain later. And what exactly happened here?" I asked frowning. "It turns out helping someone escape from FBI custody is a criminal act. Ian's the only criminal we knew." She said. I frowned. "Ben was arrested." Riley murmured. I nodded. "Oh," I said. I figured at one point or another Ben would get caught, and this would all have been for nothing. Ben was caught, but we did still have a thread of hope to hang onto. "But, if we find the treasure, we made Ian believe he could have it, it was the only way." Riley muttered. "It's okay. I just want to know it's real." I responded. "It better be." Abigail noted. I nodded, she'd been sort of dragged into this. But she was smart so it was good to have her, plus I liked her. "We're going under the church," Ian announced. I frowned. "Alrightie then," I muttered. Me and Riley's hands didn't break apart for even a moment. But it didn't feel great to know that we were being herded. Once we were under the church and looking at tombstones, I pointed out one to Riley. "Funny name, Parkington Lane. Oh. That's what we're looking for! Over here!" I said. "Nice." Riley said. I smiled. We stepped aside so Ben could examine it. "Whoa!" He shouted when leather came in and attacked the stone with a huge metal tool. "Violent, much?" I murmured to Riley. He grinned, down at me. But he didn't have to by much, because I wasn't a whole lot shorter than him to be honest. By about five inches, four at least. Abigail came gave me a funny look, she just realized that Riley and I were holding hands. I just smiled and made sure Riley didn't see me wink over to her. We had to let go of hands so he could help lower the coffin out of the tomb. As it came out Parkington fell out of his coffin. "Aww, poor Parkington Lane." I said. Ian glared over at me like how dare you care about something that doesn't actually have feelings! But I believed everything had feelings, like when I was nine my mom tried to throw out a tennis ball that had lost it's bounce, and I whined for weeks, trying to tell her that we should find it because it was all a lone in the trash now. It was sort of funny actually. Riley slid his hand into mine again and pulled me closer to him. "Alright, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?" Riley asked. I smiled. "I vote Ian," I said. He kept his glare, "This is no democracy, love. I don't think, so. Viktor, and Shippen stay here, and if anyone should come out without me…well, use your imaginations." Ian instructed, I glared at him when he said 'love', I hated it when he called me that. Shaw, Ian, Powell, Ben, Grandpa, Abigail, Riley, and I went into the tomb. Riley stopped us though just before we entered what seemed to be a large room. Riley pulled me closer to him closing the space between us and kissed me passionately on the lips for a full 12 seconds at least, his face smelled like mint. When we…uh…detached? I hugged him. "If we don't make it through this one, know that I always…wanted that." I whispered. "Same here." He murmured pulling me closer to him. God, I think I'm in love. Ben gaped at the scene, he just saw between Riley and me. He had kissed Abigail! So you know what Ben? We are, even! Well, I guess not really…but he should've seen this coming. "Keep moving." Ian commanded. Oh, my gosh. Did he just see us…? Riley and me…kiss? Dang it! Oh, well. He never knew what true love is so he doesn't know what he's missing. Riley and I shuffled along to a stop gaping at what was in front of us. (Doesn't that sound great? Not me. US!) "How could someone build such a place in the BC's?" I wondered aloud. "Same way they built the pyramids," Ben replied. I nodded. "Yeah, the aliens helped them." Riley said. I laughed. Thank God It was a sexy laugh. Not some little girl laugh, or annoying one, or creepy one. Just plain sexy. Ian shoved grandpa on the platform, "I'm not going out on that thing. Two-hundred years of rotting wood and…termite damage." He said. "Dad, do what he says." Ben said. We carefully stepped onto each piece of wood. Single file now. I heard a loud rumbling from above us. Booby traps? No. "Subway." I said. Eat fresh! I wanted to say but didn't. It eventually passed, one more careful step. WOOSH! BOOM! "AHHHHHHH!" Shaw yelled as he fell to his death. My hand flew to my mouth, and I gasped. Suddenly all the platforms were sinking. I jumped onto another but it tilted, and was swinging. "Oh. My. God." I choked out. I was barley hanging onto the thing. Eventually I dropped my grasp, I closed my eyes as I fell to my death. "Rose!" I heard Riley yell. A hand caught mine before I could fall any further. Riley's hand. "Oh my God. Are you okay?" He asked. I panted for a minute. "Yeah…just…wow!" I said. He smiled slightly. "Yeah, wow." He repeated. I grinned. We walked down to where Ben was apologizing for dropping Abigail. "Don't worry, I would've done the same for you." Abigail replied. Ben paused. "Really?" He asked, slightly shocked. "I would've dropped you both. Freaks." Riley said. I hit him lightly. "Like you're the one to talk." I said. He stuck his cute tongue out at me. I smiled. Funny how I smiled the most right before and after certain death scenes. "This is getting out of hand, Ian. We have to go back." Ben said. I nodded. I almost died. "You think, I actually value your lives any more than Shaw's?" Ian quizzed. "We go on." He finished. We reluctantly got on the rickety elevator. When we reached a small alcove we got off, I sighed. Yup, just what I had in my doubts. The treasure had been moved. "Looks like somebody got here first…" Riley said. I was on the verge of tears here. "There's got to be another clue…something…" I said. "No, there are no more clues. Nothing. It's a dead end, no more. It' over." Ben told me. I was really fighting the tears now. "You're bluffing Ben." Ian pointed out. "Ian, there is nothing. No more," Ben replied. Ian, and Powell ran to the elevator and raised it enough so we couldn't get on. "Hey! You can't just leave us here!" I shouted. Ian pulled a gun. "Yes I can, unless Ben tells me the next clue." He replied. Ian pointed the gun at Ben. "Tell me, what I need to know." Ian repeated. "Ian, just come down here and we can talk." Riley shouted. "Don't speak again." Ian pointed the gun straight at me. "Okay," Riley agreed. "Come on, Ben. She doesn't have all day." Ian said. I swallowed, the gun was locked, and loaded, I could see straight down it's barrel. It made a clicking sound and right before I died, or even got a chance to scream grandpa spoke up. "The lantern." He said. "Dad, don't." Ben said. "The status quoe has changed, son." He replied. "He will continue, or Rose. Dies." Ian threatened, emphasizing My name, and 'Dies'. I swallowed. Ben said nothing, thankfully yet also I wanted him to say no. We shouldn't give away any clues, just because of me. "The lantern, that Paul Revere hung in the steeple at the old north church. One if by land two if by sea." Grandpa told Ian. Ian started to go up. "You have to take us with you." Grandpa said. "And what? Let you escape in Boston? With you out of the picture, there's less baggage to carry." Ian explained. My eyes grew about twice as big. "What if we lied?" Grandpa asked. The gun once more came out and went. Yes, you guessed it. Over to me. Now, this whole 'Point guns at Rose' thing was just getting old, and annoying. "Did you?" He asked. "What if there's another clue?" I shouted. "Then I'll know right where to find you." Ian replied. After that they left. I stood there shocked. What just happened? "We're all gonna die." Riley said. "No, we're not. There's another way out." Ben said. "Through the treasure room." Ben finished. I gasped, as he moved the wall with grandpa. "It was a fake. The clue was a fake." Riley said. Ben nodded. "By the way granddad...I'm not..." I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Pregnant." I smiled, "Relief Rose. Relief." He said while hugging me tightly; we entered a room about the same size, but completely empty. Again? Really? "It's gone." Ben whispered. "There has to be something…A way out. Clue…I don't know…" I said. "There is nothing. No more, dead end, end of the road, it's over…treasure was moved. Taken somewhere else." Ben said struggling to keep his voice even. "Maybe it wasn't even real." He said. "No. Ben, it was real. This room, it's real. The treasure must be real. We'll keep searching," grandpa said. I nodded. "Not to be Johnny Rain Cloud here, but as far as I can see, we're still stuck down here." Riley pointed out. "It doesn't make sense, as soon as the builders got down here, they would've wanted to create another shaft for air." Ben noted. "Hey, Ben. What's this?" I asked. It was a circular round thing, one thing in the shape of the pipe, and another one for the stem to go in. "Here." Ben said. He placed the items in. "Could it really be that simple?" He whispered. He pushed in and I heard a loud noise. I gasped, when a door opened. "The…treasure room." I whispered. We peered inside, and Ben lit a torch to see all of the treasure. It was all…so…beautiful. I raced over to a section of scrolls. I gasped. "The scrolls of Alexandria. Could this be possible?" I whispered. I glanced over at Riley who was hugging a giant, teal mannequin. I smiled. "Is that my competion?" I asked. He let go. "I…uh…no! Well…I…" He stuttered trying to explain. I laughed. "Trust me, this doesn't have a chance against you. Not even a fraction of a percent." He said. I blushed, and smiled. I took his hand and we walked over to Ben, where he lit the entire room up. We watched the flames, run along the room. I broke into a grin when I saw the miles of treasure room, filled. "Riley, are you crying?" Abigail asked. "Look. Stairs."