DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1 for Proper Disclaimer.

Author's Note: I apologize for the lack of the updates. I've been busy, plus I won't be able to update for this weekend, since I've going to AnimeNEXT from Friday to Sunday, so I'll get the last chapter done by the time I get back. I like to thank those that have been reviewing, especially summersgirl2526 and xxroxy-dogxx.

And now, without further ado...chapter seven of 'Boy Next Door'!

Alex, Riley, and Abigail were all sitting in Abigail's SUV a couple of nights later. The three of them were awaiting word from Ben in terms of where to go. Abigail was drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, Riley was leaning his head on the window and sighing every so often, and Alex was trying to keep herself from getting too nervous about something.

"Five bucks that he does kidnap the President," Riley said with a bored sigh.

"Twenty that he doesn't," Alex replied back with the same bored sigh.

"What? That much??" Abigail asked, catching on to the small betting in the backseat.

"No…I said thirty…" Riley said, ignoring Abigail for the moment.

"Thirty-five that Ben's 'borrowing' the President, making the Secret Service convinced that it IS a kidnapping…" Alex replied as she cracked her back.

Riley winced at the cracking. Abigail ignored it with a masked neutral face.

"Twenty-five dollars that it turns out bad and loser has to pay on a dinner date," Riley said.

"Fine by me," Alex said as she got out of the car.

"Wait, what? Did you just—" Abigail said in confusion of what just happened.

"Relax, Abigail. This is what we did in college…and she usually won the bet. She's used to this, really," Riley said as he looked out to see what Alex was doing. Once he saw what she was doing did he let out a groan.

"What?" Abigail asked.

"I thought she kicked the habit…guess she didn't since her death…" Riley said with a sigh. "Alex never smoked cigarettes…not while she was in college. I guess she must have started I up again after what happened in New York."

"'Her' death?" Abigail asked.

"My cousin. Alex and Cass were pretty close to one another while in college. They met while they were in High School, just before senior year. They were inseparable, as you might put it. Once the accident happened, resulting in Cass dying, Alex fell apart. She went back to the depressed person she was: smoking cigarettes, drinking till she was drunk…but, this was after the funeral."

(FLASHBACK!)

After entering Alex's apartment in Philadelphia, Riley was about to knock on Alex's bedroom door when he noticed the door unlocked. He opened it to a crack to hear someone rushing to the bathroom and the sink being used.. He pushed the door opened a bit wider to find light streaming from the bathroom and the medicine cabinet opening and closing along with a slight 'RIP' and someone hissing from pain. He walked over to the bathroom to find a sight he wasn't prepared for: Alex was wrapping her right wrist with gauze and medical tape. There was a blood-stained pocket-knife on the bathroom counter. He also found an ashtray that was not really filled with cigarette butts near the pocket-knife.

Alex must have sensed someone by the door, because she looked up at the bathroom mirror to find Riley there. Her face looked really pale and sunken in a bit from lack of eating.

(END FLASHBACK!)

"After that, Alex left for New York. It looked like she had gotten some help from her friends there…along with her then-boyfriend, Ian…" Riley said.

"The same Ian…?" Abigail asked.

"Yup. But, I think she was glad that she ended that relationship. Look how it turned out in the end for Ian: prison for kidnapping, trespassing on government property, and whatnot. Alex seems like she's holding it back," Riley said just as Alex opened the door to the SUV.

Alex slipped back into the car, no trace of cigarette smoke on her hair, clothes, or breath. It turned out that she was chewing on gum just as she was done with her cigarette.

"You know that you didn't have to add in the part where I was cutting my wrist. I had cut myself from opening a package…then again, you couldn't have noticed the box as you were walking to the bathroom," Alex said as she adjusted herself to the seat comfortably.

"Really? What was in the box?" Riley asked.

"It was Cass's engagement present to her. But, since she wasn't going to have it, I thought that I could use it," Alex said as she pulled out a small bracelet-like watch. "This was hers…I had it repaired…but, it turned out that she was going to give to me along with the apartment in her will. So, that's how I ended up cutting my wrist that day. I had to get the watch from the tight packaging it was in and my pocket-knife gave me a nice cut…" Alex explained.

"And the sunken-in appearance?" Abigail asked.

"Oh, that?" Alex asked. "I had a gig that day, and I didn't have time to remove the make-up," Alex said.

"A gig? You were in a band?"

"No…she was performing as back-up for a friend's show," Riley said, knowing what Alex was doing back then as a pastime.

"Yup…" Alex replied just as Abigail's cell phone rang.

Abigail answered the call as Alex rubbed her hand with her other one. Riley noticed this and took her hand in his, massaging out all the nooks for her.

"Thanks," Alex said when Riley was done.

"You're welcome," he replied as Abigail started the car.

Minutes later, the three along with Ben were walking inside the Library of Congress. Alex wasn't really focusing on what was going on as she walked, but her mind was set on back when they met with Emily a couple days ago…

(FLASHBACK)

Ben, Abigail, Patrick, Alex, and Riley were walking through the halls of the University of Maryland's History Department building. Alex was silently protesting on going to see her mom, cringing at the last memory of her encounter with Emily, which resulting in a yelling contest and Alex walking out on her mom screaming at her. She was about to turn around and go back to the car when Riley's hand tugged her hand gently back.

Alex turned to see Riley give her a 'Just give it a try' look, which Alex sighed in defeat as she continued with the group. The five stopped outside of Emily Appleton's office before a student stormed out of there, saying 'I Hate Her!'.

"This is the right place," Patrick said.

"I think I'll just wait this out," Riley said, knowing that this might turn ugly.

"I think I'll join ya—" Alex said before Ben grabbed her sleeve.

"No, you're not. C'mon, Alex," Ben said as he managed to drag his sister into the office.

Alex was the last one to enter the office as Emily was greeting everyone else but Patrick and her. When Emily turned her attention to the two, Alex managed a weak smile at her mom.

"Hi," she said simply with the weak smile.

Alex was starting to regret tagging along. Emily managed a small smile at her daughter and surprised Alex by pulling her into a hug. Alex let out a small sigh of relief as she hugged her mom back.

"I see that you're doing well, Alex. You seemed to be back to what you were before your friend's death…" Emily said as she noticed the regret in her daughter's eyes.

"Thanks…" Alex said under her breath.

"Mom, we need you to translate something for us," Ben said.

"Why didn't Alex translate it for you, Benjamin? She's got her minor in global history and u.s. history, after all, so I'm sure she could have translate—" Emily said as she came to realize something. "This isn't about the treasure, is it?"

Alex let out a small nervous laugh as she rubbed the back of her neck. Emily took her daughter's laugh as a 'yes'.

"It is, isn't it?" Emily said as she watched Alex nod her head. "This is one of the silly adventures your father has you doing, isn't it, Ben?"

Alex then took the opportunity to glance around the office. She was surprised to see some of the things she remembered the last time she was there: the books, the papers, the artifacts from her mom's early days of exploration. What she was surprised to see were the pictures Alex had sent to her mom: the graduation from George Washington University, graduation from High School, Alex's Senior Prom…and the one where Alex was standing next to her dad, Ben, Abigail, and Riley from when they had discovered the Templar treasure. She also saw that Emily had gotten the DVD of which Alex had recorded the findings of Charlotte and the underground tunnels of Trinity Church. Alex smiled a little before a small cough caught her attention.

Alex turned to see that it was just her and Emily in the office.

"I see that you found those," Emily said.

"Yeah…I thought that you might have sent them back, thinking that you didn't want them," Alex replied.

"Alex…when have I ever returned anything that you've sent me? Sure, we have our differences here and there…but that doesn't mean that I don't accept anything that you send to me. I had a couple of my students admire the pictures that you sent and I even showed your DVD to a couple of my classes…" Emily said as she sat on the couch.

Alex joined her mom on the couch. She had a feeling that this might lead to another argument, knowing from experience.

"You're mad at me, aren't you Mom?" Alex said.

Emily looked at her daughter before she replied.

"Well, I'm a little upset that you didn't get to translate the wood for your older brother—"

"I was going to, but he insisted on taking it to you, Mom. I didn't like the idea, since we had that argument the last time I was here," Alex said, remembering the last time very well.

"Sweetie…we had a petty argument about your admission to George Washington University, when you could have come here for your bachelor's. I'm surprised that you're working on your Master's here while teaching over there. But, that is your choice, Alexandra, and I should have respected that," Emily said to Alex. "Well, you better go catch up with your father and Ben then, Alex."

Alex nodded her head as she got up and walked to the door. She turned back to Emily.

"I'm sorry…for back then…I know that we can't change the past…but learn from it," Alex said before she walked out the office.

(END FLASHBACK!)

Sighing, Alex just sat on the edge of the table while Ben, Abigail, and Riley were looking for the book number.

"You know…I worked in here for a summer while in college," Alex started to say as she pushed Ben to the side. "And, usually…some books are behind the ones up in the front of the bookshelves," Alex added as she took out the book nearest to what Ben was reciting for a while now to find some hidden compartment above the books. "What'd you know? There's a hidden compartment up here…Ben, what was the book number again?" Alex asked as she removed some more books before there was a nice-sized void on the shelf.

"XY 234.786," Ben said as Alex put in the six-digit combination onto the lock.

The compartment opened to reveal a leather-bound book.

"Ben…this is the—" Alex said as she gave the book to Ben.

"Yup," he replied as he took the book to the table.

As Ben looked through the book, Alex was hoping to film this…but decided not to, since this WAS a very important document and didn't feel that it would have been right to film it.

"Area 51!" Riley said excitedly. "The JFK shooting!"

"Yes, Riley. But, we're not here for that," Alex said as she took the book from Ben's hand and found the entry in regards to what they were there for. "'April, 1865. Queen Victoria sends to Pike two coded missives. The first is received, containing information regarding of New World Treasure; 'City of Gold'," Alex read aloud.

"Victoria was willing to help the Confedrates?" Riley asked.

"Divided America would equal disorder and weakness," Abigail summed it up.

"Plus the cotton from the South was needed," Ben added.

"'The second was thought to contain a Playfair cipher suggesting contact with Laboulaye, who'll hide the clues before his death.' The cipher that was written in the Booth diary that Thomas was trying to burn," Alex said with a sigh of excitement. "'1880, Resolute desk arrives in Washington, D.C., send by Queen to President Hayes.' Interesting…anyway, here's the final entry by Coolidge. '1924: I found a wooden plank in a secret desk compartment. The plank was photographed and then destroyed. Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills mountain.'," Alex read. "Why do I have a feeling that this is leading to Mt. Rushmore?" she asked, wondering if she wanted to brag or not yet again.

"Borglum was the guy that was behind the foundations of Mt. Rushmore…nicely done, once again, Alex," Ben said.

"I know…my global and U.S. history minors are helping me BIG time…" Alex said with a grin as she closed the book.

"So…now what?" Riley asked.

"Take a picture. I mean, I can translate it right now, but…then again, Mitch needs to be informed of these things," Alex said as she shrugged her shoulders at the last part.

This time, Ben, Abigail, and Riley looked at her. Alex looked at all of them with a steady glance.

"What? I guess I forgot to mention that Dad didn't know as to WHOM broke into the house while we were in London AND that it was Mitch and his goons that were able to copy Dad's SIM card, so that he knows what is going on between us and Dad. Thank God for installing and turning the security cameras on when I needed to…otherwise, I wouldn't have known that they were in London in the first place," Alex said as she pulled out her PDA. "Seriously…what was I doing while we were hunting for the Templar treasure? Filming, of course…besides uploading the video back to Sadsuky.

"Besides, Ben. He DID tell you that I was undercover for them just because of my knowing Ian at the time," Alex said.

The next few moments were a blur to Alex as Ben photographed the picture of the plank; Abigail and Riley were already on their way to the car. Alex had stayed behind for a moment while Ben opened to a different page and photographed it.

"Page 47? Personal request?" Alex asked.

Ben nodded his head as he put the book back. Then, both brother and sister went to exit the building.

Author's Note: Ok, you know the drill. Click on the Review button, please. Once again, I'm doing this without referring to my sources (Ok, that was a lie. I had to go back to the movie for the book call number and for the entries in the President's Book.) so bear with it for the moment. Also, like I said before, this is the last update till I get back from AnimeNEXT. Also, here's a question that I need to ask you guys: should I do a prequel to this, which takes place in National Treasure? Or, do a sequel for Boy Next Door? Thanks for reviewing, guys, and I hope to update soon.

-Jade Opal-