A/N: When her marriage begins to go downhill, Abigail turns to a good friend for help. As their relationship turns into more than friendship, they most deal with guilt and other unplanned consequences. Riley/Abigal with some Abigail/Ben angst. Sorry Ben-lovers, it seems as though I make him out to be the bad guy in this story.

Genres included: Romance, angst, drama

Rating: T for now, possibly M later.

Disclaimer: If I owned National Treasure, Ben and Abigail would not be together. So, no. I do not own National Treasure.

Chapter 1

Abigail Gates stood leaning against the door frame, looking into the office at her husband.

“Honey, come on down to dinner.”

“In a minute, Abigail,” Ben said, hardly looking up from the papers on his desk.

“Just come down before your food gets cold.” He didn’t hear her mumble to herself as she turned to leave. “For the hundredth time.”

She walked down to the second floor of her and Ben’s large house. She knocked on the first door to the right of the stairs. “Dinner.”

It didn’t even take two seconds before the door was opened. Riley Poole’s head poked out from behind the door, quickly followed by the rest of his body. “Great, what are we having tonight?”

“Lasagna.”

“My favorite.”

“Riley, you say that about everything.”

“As long as it’s food and it’s not olives.” Riley had a weird thing with olives. It was one of the very few foods he would not eat. He did, however, tend to stick them on his fingers and occasionally poke people with them.

“Nope, no olives in this lasagna,” Abigail said, chuckling. The Gates’ had more than enough money to hire a personal chef, but she enjoyed doing the cooking. She liked impressing the guys. When Ben actually showed up, that is. Riley was not difficult to please.

They made their way down to the dining room on the first floor. Three places were set neatly on the table. Abigail knew that one of them would most likely remain empty. She had stopped putting food on Ben’s plate weeks ago. He had developed a routine: Come downstairs at around eleven. Microwave the leftovers. Apologize to her for missing dinner again. Return to his office.

Ben and Abigail had been married for almost a year now. Their anniversary was in a month. At first, the marriage was happy and exiting. They honeymooned in Europe for an entire month. It had been fun and romantic. They had plans to travel the world, experiencing new cultures and learning more about the history of different countries. They had plans for children. Two of them, a year apart.

Then things began to change. Ben became distant, engulfed in dreams of a new treasure, fueled by the discovery of an artifact he had found in a museum. He had urged her to help him. He had told her it would be another adventure. She didn’t want an adventure, though. She wanted to settle down. Even if she did want one, she saw no adventure in pouring over historical books and documents. Of course, she did find it fascinating, but soon she began to feel lonely. He put his new task before her. Far before her. Dinner became a rare event. Sex became something that was had once every week or two. Ben hardly every paid attention to her.

“Are you alright?” Abigail looked up from her plate to see Riley, looking concerned at the other end of the table.

“I’m fine, thank you.”

Riley knew that she wasn’t fine. He knew that there were problems between her and Ben. It would take an idiot not to see that. And Riley was no idiot. The marriage was going downhill. He felt resentment towards Ben. He didn’t understand how he could let it get this bad. How he could hurt Abigail like he was. He thought Ben loved her. He thought he was a better man than that.

“I’m just so tired of this.” She paused. “You know… this whole dinner thing.” This was her husband’s best friend she was talking to. She wouldn’t get into the deeper issues.

“Look,” Riley said, grabbing her hand from across the table. “I know things haven’t been so great between you and Ben. But things will get better. I’m sure he’s just going through some kind of phase. Or maybe it’s like mid-life crisis or something.” Abigail grinned, despite the tears welling up in her eyes. Why am I about to cry? I’m not a crier. And it’s nothing I didn’t know already. However, this was the first time any problem had been vocalized. Maybe that itself contributed the issue. She figured if the brought it up to Ben, a large argument would follow. Instead, she tried dropping hints to him, but he only got annoyed at the way she began her sentences with “So…”

“Do you want me to say something to him?”

“No, that’s ok.”

“Really, it wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

“I appreciate that Riley, I really do. But I don’t want him getting upset at either of us. Not that we’d even notice if he was giving either of us the cold shoulder—”

She regretted saying the last bit. She was sure Ben was under some stress up there, doing whatever it was that he was doing. His work was definitely important to him, and he seemed to have hit an obstacle over the past few weeks. He sometimes turned to a bottle of alcohol for help, but never so much that his problem-solving skills would be impaired. “A clear head is the most important tool in treasure discovery. Resources are the second most important,” Ben would say.

The remainder of the dinner was spent mostly in silence, until Riley dropped a forkful of lasagna on his lap and then, while quickly trying to grab a napkin, spilled his ice-water all over the table and himself. He looked down at the mess, then at Abigail, who had a shocked look on her face. As soon as their eyes met, they both burst out laughing. This continued for what seemed like five minutes. By the time it was all over, except for a few slipped giggles, Riley and Abigail had tears rolling down their cheeks.

“Thanks for that, Riley,” Abigail said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “I really needed a good laugh.”

“Yeah, at my expense!” He shivered as he suddenly became aware of how cold the ice water was on his legs. “I’m going to change. I’ll be right back.”

Shortly after he left the dining room Abigail heard his quick footsteps running up the stairs; he was trying to get to his warm clothes as quickly as possible. When he came back downstairs, more slowly this time, he was wearing a t-shirt with black and grey plaid pajama bottoms.

“Better?” Abigail asked.

“Much,” Riley said. He picked up his plate, then Abigail’s, and headed into the kitchen. As he was washing the dishes, Abigail walked in, yawning.

“I think I’m going to go to bed early tonight.”

“Too much laughing for you?” he asked, smiling.

“Probably,” she said, half-jokingly. “I don’t even know why that was so funny.”

“It happens to me, too. I get so stressed out and focused on the negative things, that the simplest humor becomes the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. You just need to loosen up a bit.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” She paused, thinking, and then looked up at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight.” She left as Riley shook his head. He wondered how Ben could ever take someone like that for granted.

A/N: How is it so far? Let me know!