A/N: I offer my sincerest apologies for the lateness of this update. I had no intention of leaving all of my WONDERFUL readers hanging for so long. Thanks so much to every single person who has reviewed. Your imput is so valuable to me =D

Disclaimer: I am the master of Disney . . . in an alternate universe only.

CHAPTER THREE

Ben

"Ben?" Riley asked again, obviously worried by my continued silence. "What's wrong?"

What was I supposed to say? Nothing, kid. You're on the verge of a panic attack, my leg is on fire, we're trapped in a cave, and, oh, we will probably drown before Abigail can get back. But don't worry, Riley. I've got everything under control.

Control.

That was probably what bothered me most about our situation. I was supposed to be the one who knew what to do, the one who got his friends out of trouble. Waiting for others to act was not something I particularly enjoyed. Or had ever done.

"B-ben?" Riley said, splashing over to me. "Are . . . are you okay?"

Riley would know if I lied to him, and I was no good at bluffing anyway. The kid was smart; he would notice the rising water. Soon.

But I still couldn't bring myself tell him the truth of our situation, because I knew what it would do to Riley. I had seen him fall completely apart once, and it was not a memory I enjoyed thinking about. Maybe it was selfish, but I couldn't see him like that again.

So I decided to tell the truth. About the question he just asked.

"My leg hurts."

Riley sounded intensely worried. "Is it w-worse than before?"

Until now, I hadn't thought about it much. "A little," I told him honestly. From the knee down, my left leg was throbbing; sometimes, it went a little numb and then started hurting again with a vengeance. The puddle I was sitting in wasn't helping any.

"How long d-do you think it's been? S-since Abby left, I mean."

"Maybe half an hour, forty-five minutes."

"Okay."

I could almost hear him calculating Abigail's distance in his head. He was silent for a very long time.

"Riley?"

The silence persisted. It was my turn to worry. "Riley?" I asked again.

"H-how long do we have?"

"What do you mean?"

"Until Christmas," he said caustically. "C-come on, Ben! How long until the cave fills up with water?"

Sometimes Riley was too smart for his own good. I sighed. "I don't know. Not too long."

"Then I'll k-keep looking for a way out." I heard him splash away again.

I blinked. That was not the response I had expected at all. "You okay?" I asked.

"Sure, Ben, if you are."

Ah. Riley probably believed I was being brave about my leg and that I was very badly hurt. If there was one thing I knew about him, it was that he would do anything for his friends. Anything. Even if it involved dark holes and creepy tombs and everything in between. And now he had decided that he was going to get us out of this. Everything else, like deep-seated phobias and the condition of his precious iPod, was secondary.

"Riley," I said quietly, listening to him slogging through the puddles.

"Hmm?"

"Thanks."

"F-for what?"

"For coming on this trip."

"Yeah. I'm r-really starting to enjoy it," he said, sarcasm practically dripping from the words. "You know, this is actually pretty low key for one of your trips. The last two involved high-speed c-car chases and being held at gunpoint."

"That's what I mean. You knew this was going to be a disaster, and you came anyway."

"It was a favor for y-your mom. I'm getting chocolate chip cookies out of it."

I laughed. "Is that what she said to you? You get cookies and I get 'to see fascinating pre-Columbian historical sites.' Face it, Riley, you're the favorite."

I could imagine Riley's embarrassed smile. I knew how much even those casual words meant to him. "It's not like I have much competition," he finally said.

I smiled, glad to hear that he was joking. "I don't know. Mom loves Abigail."

"That's because Abby has this, like, aura. It's like the Force. She can get anyone to do whatever she w-wants. I'm the only one immune to it."

"Only because you have your own brand of the Force," I told him. "How is it that I'm always picking up the check at lunch and paying for all our cab rides?"

"Um . . . you're generous?"

"Right," I said. "Generous doesn't even begin to cover—"

I broke off when there was a tremendous splash and a gasp from Riley.

"Riley?" I asked apprehensively.

"Ow," he answered, his voice full of pain.

"What happened?" I demanded.

I got no answer.

NTNTNTNTNTNTNT

Riley

I didn't really remember falling, but the moment of panic before falling—the feeling that you get when you're walking up the stairs in the dark and think there's one more step than there is. I barely had time to gasp before I found myself on the ground, my head throbbing. I fazed out for a second, sliding away from the pain, and then everything came back, sharp and painful. I groaned and automatically tried to sit up, but gentle hands pushed me back down. Ben.

"Can you hear me, Riley?"

"Unnh," I answered, trying to push his hands away. I was dizzy and nauseous, and didn't care very much about answering.

"You'll have to do better than that," Ben said, worried.

I swallowed. "Yes, I can hear you. L-let me up." I couldn't quite keep the tremble out of my voice, which I hated.

Ben sighed in relief. "Are you all right?" he asked, moving back and allowing me up. It hurt a lot.

"Stupid question," I told him. This was the second time I'd hit my head on the floor, and it hadn't done anything to help my headache. Warm, sticky stuff was sliding down the side of my face, and for the first time I was glad it was dark. Ben would never have let me alone. He had just dragged himself across the wet floor with a broken leg because he heard me gasp; I wondered what he would do if he found out I was bleeding.

"Why did you fall?" Ben asked.

I blinked. "Um, because I l-lost my balance." Could he hear the "duh" tacked on to the end of that sentence?

"I meant, 'What did you fall over?'," Ben corrected himself.

"There's another hole by the wall," I told him, dropping my aching head into my hands and trying very hard not to throw up. "Deeper, I think. N-no water."

"No water?" Ben asked, moving away from me. I heard him crawling through a puddle, and then silence as he inspected the ground. "Riley, you did it!"

"Did what?" I asked, completely nonplussed.

"I think this joins with an adjacent cave. The water's pouring into it, but it's not filling," Ben explained.

"But wouldn't that m-mean we're okay in here, if there's a drain?" I said, not bothering to raise my head.

"Not as fast as the water's rising, Riley."

"Oh. So it's like when your shower is s-sort of clogged."

"Yeah," Ben said. He was probably rolling his eyes.

"Hey, Ben?" I said. "The d-drain in my shower is clogged. You need to fix it."

He was definitely rolling his eyes now. "First thing when we get back," he said. "Now, I think this hole might be big enough for us to crawl through. It'll be tight, though."

"What else is new?" I said, but in fact, the thought made me nervous.

"I'll go first, just to make sure it's okay," he reassured me. "You'll have to bring our supplies over."

"Okay," I said slowly, thinking this might not be such a bad idea; it was definitely better than waiting around for the cave to fill up. But when I moved to get up, my hand brushed my shoe. I froze.

I had broken a shoelace.

A/N: Another day, another cliffhanger =D

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