Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure, just Elizabeth.

Chapter Eight

They were finally back in the US and were outside of Patrick's house. The door opened to reveal him and he quickly walked down the path towards them.

"Abigail!" he exclaimed.
"Hey Patrick," Abigail said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs with her luggage. They embraced and Patrick took her suitcase.
"Nice to see you two together again," he commented, turning back to his house.
"Yeah, well, we're not," Abigail murmured.
"Yeah..." Ben muttered.
"Oh, I was hoping to get some of these boxes out of the house," Patrick said, thinking aloud.

Elizabeth and Riley were the last two to enter the house, Riley struggling with a couple huge suitcases that would not go up the couple stairs. Elizabeth giggled and helped push them up.

"What on earth do you have in here?" she asked as they entered the foyer.
"My computer, back up hard drive, extra-"
Elizabeth chuckled, "Of course, how could I forget about your computer equipment. I swear it's like we already have a child with the amount of stuff you lug around."
"Are you trying to tell me something?!" he practically shrieked, whirling around.
"Elizabeth! Riley! What are you doing?" Abigail called out sharply, hearing Riley shriek.
"No, I'm not trying to tell you anything," Elizabeth said, giving him a strange look.
He breathed a sigh of relief and continued to the living room mumbling, "Don't scare me like that."
She grinned and walked after him, "I could have some fun with this later on..."
"Shut up."

Soon, Riley had his laptop set up and they were viewing the picture from the London database. Patrick was looking intently at the photo with Abigail, Ben, and Elizabeth behind him and Riley sitting next to him.

"I can't read the whole thing, but I can tell you that these are definitely pre-colonial Native American markings," Patrick said.
"Easily five hundred years old," Ben murmured.
"Easily... I can identify one symbol," Patrick zoomed in on one glyph, "Look at this, do you know what that is?"
"Sacred calendrical? I don't know..." Ben said.
"That symbol is Cibola," Patrick said.
"That's Cibola, the city of gold... the city of gold," Ben whispered.

They moved to the living room: it was filled with boxes, artifacts, and random furniture from Abigail and Ben's house. Patrick was looking at a book, sitting in a chair by the fireplace. Ben was standing and pacing with a book, murmuring to himself. Abigail sat on the floor looking through a book while Elizabeth and Riley sat on the couch watching Ben pace.

Ben began to read from his book, "'In 1527, a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast. There were only four survivors. One was a salve named Esteban who saved a local tribe's dying chief. As a reward, he was taken to their sacred city, a city built from solid gold. Later, when Esteban tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the New World in search of it. When General Custer's search for gold ended with his last stand, at Little Bighorn, it became clear no one would ever find it.'"

Silence permeated the room.

"Ben, can you imagine if the Confederates got their hands on the City of Gold..." Patrick stood, "My god..." he began to walk out of the room.
"I'm going to talk to her," Ben said. Patrick stopped and slowly turned around to stare blankly at his son, "You're coming with me."
"No!" Patrick moaned and tried to escape the room.
Elizabeth burst into laughter, earning an elbow in her knee from her sister.
"Hey, no one else can translate it!" Ben said, cutting his father off.
"There are others... there are several others!"
"For ancient Native American? There's no one better!"

Abigail moved onto the couch, sandwiching Elizabeth between her sister and Riley.

"Who?" Riley whispered.
Elizabeth shook her head in amusement. She had a pretty good idea who they were talking about...
"Look, Ben, I can't go with you, it's been what? Twenty-five years," Patrick reasoned.
"Thirty-two."
"That long?" Patrick moved back to the fireplace, not facing Ben, "There's a reason why we haven't spoken in thirty-two years. We have nothing in common!"
"Me?"
"Oh, yes of course, and I'm sure she's just as proud of you as I am," Patrick amended.
"Who?" Riley asked again.
"His mom," Abigail and Elizabeth whispered.

___

After a couple hours in the car, they had arrived at the University of Maryland, where Ben's mother worked. They were currently walking through a crowded hallway of students.

"Will you relax? It's gonna be fine," Ben said, trying to soothe his agitated father.
"Sure, should look at the bright side, it's been a long time, maybe she lost her memory, and she won't recognize me. After all, didn't hear a word from her after that Ian business..." Patrick snapped.

They approached her office and a girl ran out and shouted, "I hate her!"

"We're in the right place," Patrick said.

Ben went in first followed by Abigail and Patrick.

"I'm gonna go ahead and take myself out of the line of fire for this one guys," Riley said and sat down on a chair.
"Same," Elizabeth said and sat on Riley.

Riley wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his head in her back. Elizabeth leaned back into him, looking up at the ceiling happily.

"I wonder where we'll get dragged to next," Riley said, his voice muffled.
Elizabeth frowned, thinking for a moment, "Most likely to some government building where we'll incur the wrath of the Federal government. The we'll have to run from FBI agents all while trying to find the treasure and not go to jail."
Riley just groaned in response.

They continued to sit outside the office, not able to hear anything: the halls were still busy with students. After a couple minutes, a triumphant Abigail emerged from the door, followed by a thoughtful Ben, and Patrick who looked like he had a headache.

They followed Ben outside, aware of the tension between father and son.

"So what happened Abigail?" Elizabeth asked.
"There's a second part to the wooden plank that we have to find," she replied.
"Of course," Riley muttered, his hands in his pockets.
"At least we know where the rest of the map is," Ben said suddenly.
"Correction, you know where it is," Elizabeth said.
"What?" Riley asked.
"You know where it is? Why didn't you tell me?" Patrick asked in an injured tone.
"Because obviously you have a tendency to OVERREACT!" Ben shouted the last word, whirling around to glare at his father.

Everyone stopped walking. Patrick flushed and replied sheepishly, "I'm sorry."
"So am I," Ben mumbled.
"So where is it?" he asked.
"The inscription on the statue in Paris said, 'These twins stand resolute.'"
"We think the map's divided between the two resolute desks," Abigail said with a resigned sigh.
"Oh no," Elizabeth moaned.
"The resolute desk? THE resolute desk? The Presidents desk?!" Patrick said, panic lacing every word.
Abigail simply nodded her head.
"The president...? What president? OUR President?!" Riley shrieked.

"Yes," Elizabeth said, shaking her head as if to deny what they were going to do.
"But that means... Wait so we have to..." he sighed, "The White House?"
"The Oval Office to be exact," Ben clarified.
"Why would I overreact to that?" Patrick asked rhetorically.

"I should have placed money on my earlier observation," Elizabeth said to Riley.
"If you did that every time, we'd be pretty rich," he replied.

I'm so sorry this is out nearly two months late. I'm a horrible person. I hope to have this series over by the end of summer, but there's no guarantees because I suck at updating. I'd love to hear from you guys, even if you yell at me for not updating.

Aly