God, I guess I should update seeing as I have had 9 reviews for the first chapter. OMG that more than ever, I can't even begin to say how happy that made me. Now, though, I'm being careful with what I write in case it's not up to the same standard. Woah. So thank you to my wonderful reviewers!

Mir: I'm glad you liked it :D Here's your update.

Sarahofearth: Great to hear you liked Riley's moment, I'm working a lot of them into this.

SamuriKnight: Another chapter! I didn't even think that it would be popular like it is.

Meredith A. Jones: A major apology to you. I've changed the summary, but not to worry, because the storyline is not stolen or copied from yours at all. I would explain how but I don't want to give away the plot, so I am very very sorry for that.

Jedi Mase: Decently written? Thank you for that compliment, I can't say that anyone has actually said I've written something decently before, thank you.

Hollysgirl: Thanks, I'm glad you like it. :D

Toxic-Beetle: What can I say? I had to update, I don't want any more poisoned spag bol, and I don't want to feel your wrath lol, so here you go! Of course he's stating the obvious hehe, thats what he's there for.

Lee Tea: Im glad that I've kept everyone in character. The main person I'm worried about keeping in character is Abigail, as she's not really a character I'm used to writing. The glass of water was inspired by something that happened not too long ago with me and my brother.

Kirarocks92677: Im glad you like the first chapter, I've finally got around to reviewing, its been a bit heptic with all my revision, but its finally getting done :D

The next few weeks might have slow updates, considering I have my exams now, and should be revising, even though there is no hope for anything except English and Media Studies, maybe German if I push it, but I hate it anyway. So until the middle of June, my updates are going to be limited, maybe to one over the whole lot. So please bear in mind that if I am not updating enough, it is because of that, and I will make up for it after they are finished.

So without further ado, here's the second chapter :D

Sam

xx

The Forever Moments

Chapter 2: Worse News

Abigail closed the car door with more of a slam than usual. Riley got into the back, and Ben into the driver seat. Riley sat in silent awe, wondering how she could slam a door over and over again, but not open an unopened jar. Apparently that required a different set of muscles. They were silent for about ten minutes, before Abigail broke the silence that clung to them so tightly, it was choking them. "I suppose they couldn't keep someone like Ian in there forever." She said as if it were something obvious, but she didn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. She wanted to be able to think that Ian would never come near them again.

Riley stayed quiet, as did Ben. But after a few minutes, Abigail ran her hands over her face and through her hair; an action that they both knew as one of distress, and Ben took his hand off the gears to put it on her knee. "Don't worry, Abigail." He said, the car was so quiet, and there was no other traffic around them, so they didn't need to raise their voices above a whisper. "He won't do anything."

"How do you know that?" She asked quietly. Her voice was louder than his, but still quiet. "You sent him to prison, Ben. Do you think he's broken out and going to leave you alone?"

Of course not, Ben realised. "He won't go anywhere near you." He promised. "You're completely safe from him. I won't let anything happen to you." She looked at him, and Riley could see the gentle fear in her face fade as their eyes locked momentarily. He sometimes wondered if he would ever fall in love like they had, but at the moment, he was quiet content with his car, his computer, and his food. He definately admired the effect they had on each other though, considering that whenever they weren't with each other, they were talking about each other, and when they were together, they wouldn't leave each other alone. They had been married for two years, but they were still acting as though it were the first two weeks. Riley had never guessed that public displays of affection (or 'infection' as Riley called it) would have gone down so well with Ben.

Ben turned back to the road with a heavy heart. He wasn't as worried as the others were about Ian, but he didn't like the idea of either his wife or his best friend being hurt. Just thinking about it made him shudder. To make matters worse, he couldn't deny that Ian was capable of hurting them, considering he had held a gun to them and planned to shoot them if they didn't tell him where the treasure was, and he was going to leave them to rot if they hadn't escaped the catacombs, something he remembered all to well that didn't go down smoothly with Riley. All he could do now, was to hope that he would stay away, and if he didn't make sure that he was kept away from them all by whatever proved necessary.

They were silent for the rest of the journey, until they got to the National Archives, where Abigail leaned over the car and kissed Ben quickly before getting out of the car.

"Do you want a lift back?" Ben asked her, before she closed the door. "Or are you picking up the Aston?"

As tempting as it sounded to pick up the Aston Martin at lunch, she shook her head, "No, I probably won't get a chance to get it today." She said regretfully.

"I'll come down then." Ben told her.

She closed the door, and Riley climbed through the car and put himself into the passanger seat rather awkwardly. Ben gave him a strange look for doing this, but he didn't care. He was getting those looks from Ben a lot recently, but it made no difference to what he did, after all, being slightly strange was almost a trademark to him. "She'll be OK." Riley told him, seeing the look that was still plastered on his friends face as he watched Abigail disappear into the building.

"I know." Ben agreed, starting up the engine and driving away.

Abigail sat down at her desk with a heavy sigh. For a while, she just sat there, ignoring the paperwork on her desk and let the answerphone pick up several phone messages she was in no mood to take. Just when everything was going brilliantly, Ian had to spoil it. Again. She had just got herself into every one's good books at work, when Ian (well, maybe that was partly Ben's fault also) had resulted in her nearly loosing her job because of the Decleration being stolen (ok, maybe that was mostly Ben's fault). Just when they had almost found the treasure location, Ian had to show up with his men and spoil it, stealing the Decleration from where it was safe, with them. And worst of all, just when she and Ben had kissed and things were beginning to look up, Ian's daring to get to the treasure immediately had nearly resulted in the Decleration, as well as her and Ben, falling God knows how far down to their obvious death. It was only after they had been threatened and left for head, that he had done something useful to them: leaving them alone. And now they had a wonderful house, a wonderful life, and Ian had broken out with the possibility of spoiling it for them all.

The door to her office opened, and her assistant, Christine, came in with a tray. Upon it was a cup of coffee, and a small pile of papers. She smiled at the coffee, but didn't give a second glance to the work beside it. Christine was one of Abigail's closest friends, which was useful as they worked together as well. She had dark chestnut hair and stunning blue eyes. "Ok." She said like a mother would to a child, which, being older than Abigail, she sometimes seemed to like doing too much. "I saw the news, and from the look of it, so did you." She gave Abigail the mug of coffee, watching as the blonde woman accepted the cup and took a deep sip from it. "Looks like you need this."

Abigail set the cup down, and seeing as she didn't have any work she intended on doing at that moment, Christine sat down opposite her. "Thank you." She said with a soft smile; the presence of her friend making her feel better already.

"No need to thank me Abigail, it's just a cup of coffee." Christine smiled.

"It's just made my day bearable." Abigail told her.

Christine was about to answer when the phone rang. This time, Abigail answered it. "Abigail Chase." She answered. She still used her maiden name for work, as it was too much hassle to let everyone know she had changed it, but it felt strange, having answered to that name for so many years, and now she hated using it.

"Abs?"

The voice was shaken, but there was no mistaking it. Only one person called her Abs, and that was one of her older brothers, Michael. She hadn't heard from him for months, as he was travelling in Africa, and the sound of his voice brought an instant smile to her.

"Michael? It's so great to hear from you!"

He didn't return her happiness though. "Are you busy?"

She looked over the pile of paperwork before her. "No, I'm not busy."

"Good." He replied. "I need to see you."

"Sure, come down." She told him, worrying a little. "What is it?"

"I can't tell you over the phone." He told her. "I'll be there in a while."

With that he hung up. That definately wasn't like him. Michael was always the brother who protected her, who looked after her, as there was only a year between them. He had always been happy and optimistic, and yet on the phone she could have easily mistaken him for her other brother, Marcus, who more serious. Something had him worried, that he couldn't talk about on the phone. God knows what trouble he's in now, Abigail thought, if he thinks I'm giving him a place to hide he can think again. He might be my brother, but I'm not hiding him from another gang. Remembering what happened last time he had turned to her for help when he was being 'hunted' by some rather nasty characters, she had her flat trashed, so there was no way she was letting herself in for that again.

"Bad news?" Christine asked her. Abigail frowned and shook her head.

"No idea. Michael said he needs to talk to me about something. He sounded, worried, upset even."

It was an hour later that Michael arrived. Christine made herself scarce, leaving the brother and sister to talk. As soon as he walked in the door, Abigail left her desk to hug him. However, when she put her arms around him, he held her tighter than usual, "Michael?" She asked pulling away, looking up at him. "What's wrong?"

His had darker hair than her, like her father's, but their mother's blue eyes that were the same ocean colour as hers. Unlike Marcus, who was brown haired and brown eyes like their uncles. His eyes today were filled with sadness, and it scared her a little, as she had never seen anything make him act so strangely.

"Sit down, Abs." He told her gently. She went over to the couch on the side of her office and he followed her. She sat on the edge of it, facing towards him, and he knelt down infront of her.

"Michael, what's going on?" She asked him again.

Looking at her, he started speaking, but the first four words already told her what had happened. "Abigail, there's been an accident..." Michael began. He looked away, but she could see the tears welling up in his eyes. "We need to go to California." She shook her head.

"This can't be happening."

"Mom and Dad-"

"They're going to be OK aren't they?"Perhaps the silence that hung in the air after her question was worse than an answer. Still, Michael looked into the corner of her office, unable to meet her eyes. "Aren't they Michael?"

He shook his head, and tears sprang to her eyes. She brought her hand over her mouth and shook her head again. Please, no. This can't be happening. Michael's voice threatened to break into sobs as he told her, but he forced himself to hold out as he told Abigail what had happened. "They were driving down the freeway on Friday night." He began, finally meet her eyes, where he could see the tears down her face. "A truck swerved off course, went into their lane...hit them head on..." Abigail leaned forward, resting her elbows on her forearms and letting herself cry properly. "They said they didn't stand a chance."

"So, they're-" She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"They're dead, Abigail." Michael confirmed. "Mom and Dad are dead."

Ok, people might hate me for this. I hate to kill people off, but its the only way I can bring in another character. I hope I've managed to keep them in character though.

Sam

xxx