Disclaimer: I own nothing – not even a copy of Riley's book. *sighs*

A/N: Sorry for taking so long! Here goes another chapter with an evil cliffie! Bwahahahaha!

RILEYRILEYRILEYRILEYRILEYRILEYRILEYRILEYRILEYRILEY

It was a Christmas miracle – even if it was a few days after Christmas. This one definitely counts, Riley thought, as he checked every item off his checklist. The lights: check. The sound system (just in case something goes wrong with that band Aly hired): check. The wires and other bits-and-pieces necessary to run this freak – romantic – show: check.

Now it was time to set everything up. Only eighteen hours before the most important moment in Ben's life and everything was miraculously all set. If Riley did not ask for anybody's help, he was certain that everything would have fallen all around him like an old building being taken down for renovation. He sighed gratefully, and called his "team" to report on their current status.

Emily and Patrick seemed to agree with each other for once, and set up a nice-looking gazebo straight from George Washington's estate at Mt. Vernon. It was decorated with roses, lots and lots of roses, and adorned with red, white and blue streamers and ribbons without looking like someone's campaigning for presidency.

In other words: it was perfect.

Riley smiled; he looked at the list, and checkedoff the décor.

Aly called to tell him the quartet was taken care of. It turned out that someone moved a certain booking to another date, and the quartet agreed on the last minute performance.

Riley thought he heard something suspicious in Aly's voice. For a fleeting moment he wanted to ask how she managed all this, but thought otherwise – he knew some things were better left unknown.

What was done was done anyway – the important thing was that they have a quartet.

He crossed it off his list with a huge victorious grin – and then noticed something. The caterer: he forgot the caterer!

And Ben was expecting a nice romantic dinner.

Riley shut his eyes, muttered a nasty curse under his breath, and tried to calm himself down.

It was too late to call someone – even if he bribed every caterer in town, no one would accept a rush order like this.

Maybe they would not object to Chinese take outs...

Riley's eyes brightened. A very expensive take-out. He remembered a good little gourmet restaurant he and Aly frequented… Yeah, yeah! That would work…

He would just wear a maitre d' outfit to serve the two and not mess it up – no, that would be horrible. Riley knew he would just mess up – and no matter how funny and how interesting that would look, he'd rather not mess this up for his best friend. Maybe he could get someone from the same restaurant to serve them… That sounded like a better idea.

He called the restaurant, and explained his small situation. The owner just laughed, and said they would be happy to held one of their most frequent customers.

And so the Christmas miracle went…

Speaking of miracles, and his best friend – where was Ben? It had been a few hours since he last saw him. It had been a miracle too, that he wasn't down here in the study, where most of the action was happening…

Riley knocked on the door. Ben was sound asleep, face down in his pillow, a hand over a piece of paper. There were scribbles on it – and Riley pulled it from under Ben's palm. He tried to decipher what the guy wrote, but failed utterly when the only thing he read was the word 'please'. He figured it was the proposal speech – but please, Ben's saying 'please'? In his proposal to Abigail? What was he going to do? Beg for her hand in marriage?

Not that it sounded like a bad idea.

Before Riley could even let his mind come up with a dozen sarcastic comments – he shook Ben awake.

Ben shot up. "Is it time? Am I late?!" He started blabbering, and darted to the bathroom.

"Wait! Ben!" Riley yelled.

Ben stopped. "What?"

"It's not yet time – calm down." Riley said, gesturing for Ben to sit beside him. Ben sat, and breathed in and out slowly. "Okay, you said we're going to practice, remember?" Ben nodded. Riley continued. "Okay, so after the dance, you kneel in front of her, right?"

Ben nodded, and kneeled before Riley. Riley shrugged, and said in his best 'girl' voice: "Oh, Ben, whatever are you doing?"

Ben rolled his eyes – for the moment, he was back to his old self – "Abigail does not sound like that, Riley."

Riley just laughed. "Give me a break – I'm heading your planning committee and will be listening to how you propose to Abigail."

Ben blinked, and the old, confident Ben started to fade away again – the nervous, sparkling new Ben appeared. "So… um. Ah… here goes."

"Abby… I…. ever since I first laid my eyes on you, I knew you were the one. I fell in love with you just like that – I knew at once that you would forever be mine. Even though we went through tough times – even breaking it off at some point, almost giving up on the feelings we knew would never go away – and even though I know I'm a very difficult man to be with… I still adore you with all of my heart. You know that I would do anything for you! I would catch a falling star – I would follow you to the ends of the earth, I would swim to the bottom of the ocean, just to be with you forever!

So please, Abigail Chase – will you marry me?"

Riley blinked at Ben. "That… wow." He was speechless. He honestly did not know what to say. "Ben, I think we might have to change some of your words…"

Ben stared at Riley. "Is it that bad?"

"I won't say it's bad – it just needs a little editing." Riley grinned. "Yeah, a little editing. Here, why don't you try saying this…" Riley wrote some words down on a piece of paper, and Ben looked at it.

Ben grinned embarrassingly. "Yes… yes, alright – this is much, much better."

Riley nodded. "I know it is. Better get ready and practice that, Mr. Gates, your hour is close." He grinned, and stepped out of the room.

He sighed once he got out, and ran a hand through his hair.

Seriously, Ben, do I have to do everything myself?

He thought it once, and he thought it again.

Heck, Ben is so nervous…

And so here was Riley again, saving the day.

At one point, Jemma considered just tying up Abigail in her office chair.

"Isn't the meeting very important? Why wasn't I personally told that it was cancelled?"

Jemma sighed. "I already told you. They didn't have time to call each person involved because of technical difficulties…"

But Abigail could not be fazed. "I'm calling them… There must be a better explanation for this.

Jemma sighed again. Riley, if you don't arrive and fetch her, I won't be able to stop her from going…

She mentally reconsidered tying Abby up again. Jemma thought about the rope and the duct tape she threw in her car this morning just to be sure, and was about to make the move to grab the car keys when Riley burst in the room, carrying a blindfold.

"Finally!" Jemma uttered under her breath. "What took you so long?"

"Uh, technical difficulties. I'm here now…" Riley said, and rushed into the office where Abby was in the midst of dialing the number to the Jefferson Memorial. Riley caught her by surprise, slipping the blindfold on top of her eyes and taking her by the arm.

"Riley – Riley what are you doing?!" Abby protested, pulling on her arm.

Riley maintained a firm hold on Abby's arm. "Look, Abby, trust me. When we get to the car, keep your head low and don't look out – we don't want to raise suspicion. Here's a phone call for you, by the way." Riley pulled out his phone, and placed it beside Abby's ear.

"Hello, Abigail?" Ben answered on the other side of the conversation.

"Ben! Ben – what's going on – what's Riley doing…?" Abby screamed into the phone.

"Look, Abby – I know you're really confused right now, but trust me, okay? You're going to like this surprise… At least, I hope you do…" Pause. "Oh… darn. Can you please give the phone to Riley for a second?"

"Riley…" Abby said. "It's for you…"

Riley took back the phone. "Yeah?"

"Uh – bring Abby to the site, will you? I think I forgot the ring back home…"

"You forgot the – BEN! It's the most important thing in this scheme of yours!" Riley almost screamed.

"That's why I'm going to get it! See you in a few minutes."

Riley sighed. "Alright – be quick." He didn't need to remind his best friend that he could not be late for the most important day of his life.

"I will."

Ben had drove straight to the house, muttering curses in different languages under his breath. Of all the things I have to forget… He found it in the pocket of one of his coats – the bright yellow one that Abby hated so much (he knew she would never touch the thing) – and headed straight back.

At least, he tried to.

He saw a man begging at the side of the road, shivering. He glanced at the yellow coat beside him – he just took the whole thing in a hurry – and decided he could part with it today. Ben grabbed the small, black box and slipped it into his coat pocket. Ben parked, and ran to the man. He smiled at him, and handed the coat.

"Merry Christmas!" He greeted warmly. "I hope you have a good one – even in this weather."

"Thank you kind sir – I'm sure I would." The man appeared to grin evilly at him.

Ben raised an eyebrow. He just shrugged it off, and was about to leave when he felt something hit the back of his head.

The last thing he remembered was seeing the pavement rush towards him, and thinking: "I'm late – Abigail is going to kill me."

And then everything blacked out.

BENBENBENBENBENBENBENBENBENBENBENBENBENBEN

YAY CLIFFIE!

Please review! ^^

-Jaeh xD