DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1 for Proper Disclaimer.

Author's Note: I like to thank those that have been reviewing thusfar, and I hope that you enjoy these last couple of chapters. This next two chapters are from the same scene, but split up for dramatic purpose (To quote Linus from Ocean's 12: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOO"). Here, a loose end is tied together and a small question is answered.

And now, without further ado...Part A of chapter nine of 'Boy Next Door'!

Alex overlooked the lake as Ben and the others looked for a way inside Mount Rushmore. Alex then looked down at her feet and thought she saw something. She bent down to get a closer look at it, but her foot then slipped. She would have fallen into the icy fingers of the lake when someone grabbed for her hand. Alex looked to find Riley holding onto her hand.

"You ok?" he asked as he pulled Alex back to her feet.

"I'm ok...thanks," Alex said as she let out a sigh of relief.

Alex slipped again, only to fall into Riley's arms. Riley steadied the two of them so that they didn't fall again. Alex looked up at Riley and felt her heart skip a beat...or a couple as she looked into Riley's eyes. Riley felt the same as the two were rendered speechless. The two haven't noticed how close they were till Alex looked away, pulling back a little bit. She shook herself from the daze as she sidestepped Riley and made her way to the others. Before she was out of reach from Riley, he pulled on her hand and grasped her waist as he gave her a chaste kiss.

He wanted to deepen the kiss, but Alex thought ahead and teased him with her tongue licking his bottom lip. Intrigued by Alex's forwardness, Riley deepened it a little before pulling back from the kiss. Alex's hazel eyes were a bit clouded over from the lust buried deep by Alex's resisting logics.

"After this is done...I'm taking you on a proper date," Riley said softly as he rested his forehead on Alex's.

"I'll hold ya to that promise, Mr. Poole...and I expect it to be very good," Alex replied with a soft smile.

Riley smiled back as he released Alex to go off to join the others. Riley kept the smile plastered on his face as he remembered a memory from the last day of classes in the Senior fall semester...

(FLASHBACK!)

Riley woke up to find himself in bed with a slight hangover. He yawned as he stretched out his arms...to find that the room was a bit too quiet for Riley's comfort zone. He looked down and realized that he was back in his dorm room. Getting a bit on the edge of alertness, he lifted the covers to his bed a little...to find that he had some clothes on him. Sighing in relief, he sat up a little to find Alex sleeping on the airbed that she had inflated the other night.

Riley got up and walked to the bathroom in his room. As he closed the door, he sighed as he took off his shirt. Once said article of clothing was on the floor of the bathroom, he noticed marks on his neck and his shoulders. He was about to go and question Alex about it when he shook it off.

'Nah...she wouldn't have known about it...man, what a crazy night I had...' he mused as he took a shower to start off his day.

(ALEX'S POV OF FLASHBACK!)

Alex had woken up to see that the time was around 5:38 am. She held back a groan as she yawned a little...and found herself in a bed...

She turned her head a little and almost let out a GASP. In the bed with her was Riley...shirtless and possibly pants-less. She lifted the covers of the bed slowly and saw that he had his jeans still on him. Letting out a breath she had held, she slipped out of the bed and took a random shirt off from the floor; the same shirt that Riley had worn at the party, and put it on Riley. She then grabbed at whatever of her clothes that had randomly been pulled off from the night before and hastily put them on before slipping into the covers of the airbed she had blown up five days ago.

'I just hope that Riley never finds out that he actually was the one that had sex...with me, nonetheless...' Alex thought to herself as she allowed her thoughts to consume her into a fitful sleep.

(END FLASHBACK!)

Alex was with Abigail when the blond-haired woman found the eagle tattooed into the rock. Ben and the others rushed over carefully to where Abigail and Alex were located.

"What was the last part of the clue, Wilkinson?" Alex heard Ben ask Mitch.

"'Surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior'," Mitch said as Alex looked at her hand.

"Well...the moment of the truth," Alex said under her breath as she reachedout with her right hand into the small gap.

"Alexandra Betsy Gates, that is dangerous. Patrick, tell her that it's dangerous," Emily said, clearly worried.

"Alex, it's dangerous," Patrick said, repeating what his ex-wife said.

Alex, not really taking heed of the warning, stuck her hand in the gap...and let out a bone-chilling scream. This led to the others screaming as well...until Alex started to laugh her head off. She pulled her hand out to emphasize that she was completely all right.

"Wow...I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself," Alex said as she continued to laugh. "But, seriously, I'm a bit smarter than what you guys think I am."

"We all know that," Riley and Ben said sarcastically as they rolled their eyes.

"Now...if I just pull this lever..." Alex said as she felt a lever in the gap and pulled on it.

All of a sudden, some rocks in the distance fell down to reveal a pathway behind where the group was standing. The group then venture into the hidden pathway.

Once inside the cave from the outside world, Alex pulled out her camera and began to film the room. She was surprised as much as her mother to see Olmec culture inside the room.

"Ben, what is that?" Abigail asked from somewhere behind Alex.

"A counterweight to hold the door open, probably..." Ben said before the structure began to collapse.

Riley and Alex both had to duck out of the way as wooden beams began to drop to the ground after years of being put up. After the collapse, Patrick and Ben were trying to get the door opened as Wilkinson helped Riley and Alex to their feet.

"Only one way out of here now...forward," Wilkinson said as the group then went to move out of the room.

"Guys, take a look at this," Riley said once the group got into a different room. "It's a tiny little man..."

Then, in a blur, Ben, Abilgail, Riley, Wikinson and Alex tumbled into what seemed like a hieroglyphic stone slab while the door closed behind then; Emily was calling out for her two children.

By the time Alex had time to even think, everyone minus her were at a corner; Alex just remained in the dead center of the slab. Alex did a quick check of her things to find her flashlight and the water bottle gone...probably down in the depths below the group. She was surprised to find her camera in tact and still in her pack. She then noticed how her cheek felt a bit bruised up.

"Everyone all right?" Ben asked everyone.

"Peachy...but I'll live to fight another day," Alex said as she gingerly touched her cheek and winced at the searing pain. "Owww..."

Alex tuned out what was happening next as she tried to balance herself on the slab of stone. A couple of times, Wilkinson nearly put her right back on the slab face first as she managed to recover in time. Within minutes, Wilkinson was up on a secure landing above the stone slab.

"I can do the math here...and someone will have to stay behind," Abigail said as Ben agreed with his ex-girlfriend.

"Just promise me that you'll come back for me. I can do the math here too," Riley said.

"That makes you next," Ben said to Abigail.

"I'll go last...'No, we'll figure something out here, Riley.' 'Yeah we need you up there, Riley.'," Riley said, imitating both Ben and Abigail, having both of them smile at Riley.

"You're not staying behind, Riley Jonathan Poole. Go; I'll stay," Alex said as she sighed.

Riley was about to argue with Alex when Abigail went forward to reach the ladder. The three remaining then went forward to allow Abigail to climb the ladder, but that was before the support beam keeping the stone slab in place snapped, causing an imbalance to occur. The next few seconds was an adrenaline rush for Alex as Ben, herself, and Riley rushed to get to the ladder before the slab went from underneath their feet. Alex's fingers were slipping from her grip on the ladder when Riley, who was nearby, helped her out by holding onto her hand in a tight grip.

Both Ben and Alex were pulled up from the ladder onto the secure landing. Once brother and sister were up and safe from danger, Riley let out a sigh.

"Why can't a girl see me do that?" Riley said a bit early. "Oh wait...there's one right here," he added as he felt Alex hugging herself onto Riley.

"You arse..." Alex muttered out with a shaky exhale.

"You all right?"

Alex just nodded her head in reply.

Shortly after the stone slab room, the five came across a flight of stairs hidden by water and ventured down the stairs. It was after they came into an open room did they realize that they had found the lost city of Cibola. Alex was happy to find the room...along with being reunited with her parents. Within moments of being reunited, Alex began to film the city of gold. It was when she took a step forward that she realized that water was hitting her Timberlands. She looked up to find water slowly breaking through the barrier.

Alex then went towards her mom and Ben by the center of the room on an altar. She filmed the symbols on the altar just as water began to rush back into the room. Then, the youngest Gates saw her father drop a dollar bill into the current...which led to a passage underneath the altar. Scrambling to get her camera back into her pack, she and the others rushed down to a smaller room with a wheel in the center of the room.

Alex spotted the wheel and went over to it before pushing. Wilkinson caught onto what Alex was doing and joined her in pushing the wheel, which opened a door on one of the walls in the room. The water that was rushing into the room began to drain into another room. Wilkinson backed off from the room, leaving Alex to helplessly get stuck as the wheel closed the door. Within seconds, Alex was about to get in Mitch's face about leaving her to the wheel when Wilkinson punched both Ben and Riley before grabbing at Abigail. He stuck a knife underneath Abigail's chin, emitting a small scream from the blond.

"I'll stay! I'll stay, I'll stay!"

Everyone turned to find Alex back at the wheel. Patrick and Emily were both surprised and worried, but Ben was even more surprised at Alex's jump-of-the-gun notion. Usually, she would jump if the situation is in favor to Alex and Ben...but, this wasn't one of those situations.

"Do I have your-?"

"Yes, you have MY word, Wilkinson. Just-just let her go..." Alex said, her voice cracking a tiny bit.

"Alex...no, we're not leaving without you," Emily said while Patrick held her back.

"There's no time, Mom...please-I rather have it that you ALL live instead of burying all of you. I've done it for one friend of mine...I'm not about to do it for my family," Alex said, not faltering one bit. "Riley..." she called out to Riley.

Riley didn't want to allow Alex to go with her plan, but he went up to where his college friend was standing. Alex took off her pack and held it out for Riley to take.

"Please watch over my parents and the lovebirds for me, ok?" Alex asked Riley.

Riley nodded his head. He was looking at his shoes, not wanting to let Alex see the tears forming in his eyes before he felt Alex's hand under his chin. Alex forced Riley to look at her, his brown eyes to her hazel-green eyes. One look and Riley knew that this was the eyes of the one he fell in love with all these years.

"Can you promise me that, Riles?"

"I will," Riley said as he lowered his glance again.

"Hey...I want to see those eyes of yours, Riley. The ones that I fell in love with for all these years that we've known each other; the ones that I shared that moment back before the accident that ended Cass's life. Please...Riley," Alex said, her voice was only heard by Riley.

Riley looked back up at Alex and gave her a confused look.

"You honestly thought that Ian and I were dating after Cassie died, huh? What if I told you that Ian was to marry Cassie? And, I never slept with Ian, since I was already committed to one person already: you were the one that gave me my first kiss...and the one that I've lost my virginity to," Alex said, tying all the loose ends on her part up in a short, brief answer.

In Riley's mind, it seemed to click right away: the reason as to why Ian and Alex were always talking to one another before Christmas that year; the reason as to why Alex seemed to befriend Riley more than just being his friend-she was already his to begin with.

"Can I tell you something? I'm already scared..." Alex said with a small chuckle as she shook her head. "Go...get them out of here, Riley..." Alex added as she sobered up, pushing Riley gently to the others.

"How can I know that you'll be ok?" Riley asked as he stopped to face Alex again.

"I wish I can say that I'll be watching you for a while...but the water's rising very quickly and I really want you to get the others out of here," Alex said, realizing the rising water at that point.

Riley, against his better judgment, nodded his head as he got the others to get going. Ben turned his head to see his younger sister smile at him one last time before he faced the door. Abigail, Patrick and Emily also saw the smile as well and followed Ben's example. Riley, on the other hand, looked back just as Wilkinson and Alex were turning the wheel, opening the door once again. That was the last thing he saw before he was sucked under the doorway.

Author's Note: Ok, you know the drill. Click on the Review button, please. Thanks for reviewing, guys: without you, this story would have never been a success.

-Jade Opal-