Disclaimer: I don't own anything

A/N: wow guys its been a long time, I hope that I still have some readers out there and that you will bear with me on the delay, life has been absolutely crazy!!!!

"Alright Mr. Howe, it's time for your exercise." A lazy prison guard said as he walked up to one the prison's high security cells which contained the convicted felon Ian Howe and was not shocked that he got no response, half of these guys in the place wouldn't even look at you let alone speak. When he got to the cell though, he found that, the reason he had not received a response from the prisoner was that there was no prisoner in the cell to answer his question. The officer quickly got his radio off his belt and call the main offices,

"This is officer Yeager I was inquiring about the whereabouts of prisoner 02794 as he is not in his cell at this time."

"We have him listed as being in his cell officer awaiting your transport to exercise." Officer Yeager noticed that the door was simply open as if someone with a key had let this whack job out.

"Could you please check the status of Mr. Howe at 12:30 bed checks last night?"

"One moment please, how did this happen…'s 12:30 check in never came in." Said the lady who was communicating with him.

"Who was the officer on duty?"

"Officer Langley sir." Officer Yeager quickly realized what was going on when he walked back into the hallway and noticed a closet door slightly ajar and opened it to reveal a half naked Officer Langley. Yeager immediately contacted the main offices again.

"Offices this is Officer David Yeager and I would like to report a break out of a high security inmate."

Almost two hundred miles away, Ian Howe was sitting in the passenger seat of a car while his henchman Carter was driving to DC.

"That was really too easy, you would think that they could at least make a breakout a little challenging for a high security inmate like me." Ian joked with Carter as they made their way to DC where he could finally get his revenge on Ben Gates.

Ben Gates was arriving home late one night after giving a lecture at GW late that evening. He pulled his car into his driveway and was almost glad to see that Riley's red Ferrari wasn't sitting there. He loved his best friend but after a day like he had had, he just wanted to go home and enjoy sometime with his family. When he walked in, he found Abigail and Kathryn playing on the floor in the family room.

"Guh!" Kathryn said reaching for the toy giraffe in her mother's hand. Abigail and Ben knew that it would be any day now that their one year old daughter would start talking. Ben walked in and gave Kathryn a big kiss on the head and got one in return and then proceeded to give one to Abigail who kissed him back.
"Long day?" Abigail asked.

"Oh yea, Ben said lifting Kathryn up off the floor and placing her in his lap. "I swear these kids, it's all about the money with them. They are what like 18, 19 years old and they have already let them suck all the thrill of the adventure out of them. It makes me wonder if I am in this business for the right reasons." Ben said bouncing Kathryn around on his knee which madder her laugh.

"Oh Honey don't let them get to you, if they are only in it for the money, then odds are they would never actually stick it out and find anything. I mean, if you hadn't had more motive than money to go after the Templar Treasure and Cibola do you seriously think that you would have found it?." Abigail said getting up off the floor and sitting down next to her husband on the couch. "You listen to me Benjamin Gates, never once doubt why it is you do what you do, you do it for the glory and being able to say that you changed history, not to get some fancy car or a plasma tv. Kathryn will grow up knowing that her daddy is famous for finding two of the greatest American treasures of all time, not for being able to buy her a fancy new iPod." Abigail said kissing her husband on the cheek. Ben smiled at her knowing that she was right. Abigail got up and went to go and get some food for Kathryn after she was satisfied that she had knocked some sense into Ben. As she went to walk away she heard a sound behind her that she had never heard before and thought that it was the sweetest thing she had ever heard.

"Mu…Mu…ee…Mumee….Mommy." Kathryn said reaching her arms out to her mother who was heading for the kitchen. Ben looked down at his daughter in disbelief at what he had just heard and Abigail turned around so fast you would have thought a tornado was coming.

"Did she just….?" Abigail asked.
"I think she did." Ben said still in shock.

"Mommy!" Kathryn said giggling to herself holding her arms out again. This time Abigail went over to her and picked her daughter up giving her a big kiss on the cheek.

"Oh my goodness! My baby just said her first word! I can't believe it! You are growing up way to fast missy!" Abigail said.

"Mommy!" Kathryn said laughing again. Ben got up and walked over to his daughter and gave her big kiss on the cheek.

"Good job baby girl." Ben said. He was happy that his baby was talking and but was a little sad that she was growing up. The happy moment wasn't long lived however because moments later there was a knock on the door.

"Who could that be?" Abigail asked. Ben shrugged his shoulders and went to see who was at the door. He was shocked when he opened it to see Agent Sadusky standing there and even more surprised to see him looking somewhat worried.

"Sadusky, nice surprise, don't worry, I haven't stolen anything or kidnapped anyone I promise." Ben said trying to lighten the tense mood but it wasn't working.

"Can I come in Ben?" Ben opened the door and let Sadusky into the foyer as Abigail came into the room holding Kathryn in one arm and her nighttime bottle in the other.

"Hello Peter, what a wonderful surprise." She said looking to Ben to see what was going on.

"It's nice to see you too Abigail, the little Gates is looking good too I only wish that I was here under better circumstances. There is no easy way to tell you this so I am just going to say it. Ian Howe has escaped from prison."

"WHAT!" Ben and Abigail said together.

"How did this happen? I thought that he was in a maximum security prison?" Abigail asked.

"He was, which is what makes this all the more disturbing. We have not been able to locate his whereabouts but it is believed that he has headed north towards Canada. We don't know where he is going or if he is planning anything but I came over here myself because I wanted to warn you to watch yourself and your family Ben. It's no secret the man has it out for you." Sadusky said to Ben.

"What should we do?" Ben asked putting his arm protectively around his wife and daughter.

"Mommy." Kathryn said in a worried sort of voice obviously detecting that something was wrong.
"It's ok Sweetie. Don't worry." Abigail said to her daughter giving her a reassuring kiss."

"For the meantime, I am placing a patrol man to makes rounds around your house twenty four seven so don't be alarmed. Don't do anything to brash, this may sound horrible but the best thing you can do is act as if nothing has changed. The fact of the matter is Ian Howe is a smart man and we may or may not recapture him and we feel that the best way to make him come to you is to let him think he had caught you off guard." Abigail looked at Ben trying to make him understand that she did not like the plan at all but he knew that Sadusky was right.

"Alright, thank you for stopping by and letting us know." Ben said as he showed Sadusky to his car outside.

"How bad is it?" Ben asked knowing for sure that there was some things Sadusky wouldn't have said in front of Abigail or the baby.

"We know that he is coming for you, we don't know his game plan or where exactly it is that he is hiding out but we know that he must have still had some cronies working for him that helped him bust out and that they may have been watching you over the past year or so, have you noticed anything like that?" Ben thought to himself for a minute and then remembered that man he had seen several times lurking around that gave him a bad feeling.

"You know, there was someone. A man, he looked about my age with dark hair, I never really got a good look at his face because he was always wearing sunglasses but I knew that there was something not right about him." Ben said almost ready to kick himself for not thinking more of it at the time but with a baby on the way and a wedding to plan it was easy to see how it could have slipped his mind.

"Don't worry yourself about it too much Ben, we'll handle it but I want you to call me if you see this man again or if Ian tries to contact you in anyway. We think we have a little time before he tries anything, he has no where near the resources that he had before. Go inside and hug your wife and put your daughter to sleep." Ben nodded and said goodnight to Sadusky and headed inside to be with his family. How could this happen? He knew that he had to be strong for Abigail and their daughter, he couldn't let them see his discomfort and worry over Ian Howe. He knew that it was more than just wishful thinking to think that Ian would just get a new identity and vanish off the face of the Earth and leave them alone. Ben went upstairs and found Abigail laying in their bed with Kathryn wrapped tightly in her arms.

"I want her to sleep in here tonight." Abigail said softly, her face buried in her daughter's hair.
"Ok." Ben said getting into bed next to them. He too, felt safer with his daughter in sight.

"She is probably the safest of any of us, odds are he doesn't even know she exists and what would he want with a little baby?" Abigail said trying to reassure herself. Ben thought for a minute about agreeing with her but decided that it was best not to sugarcoat the situation.

"He knows she exists. I think he has been having us followed ever since he went to prison." Ben said rubbing his hand down Abigail's arm feeling her shudder at the thought. "I can't let anything happen to either of you, any of you. I'm sure he has been keeping tabs on Riley and Mom and Dad too. I better go and call them and let them know what is going on." Ben said feeling like the world was crashing down all around him. Everyone he loved was no in danger because of him. It was him that Ian had the grudge against, not them. But, knowing the type of person that Ian was, Ben knew that Ian would use anyone of them to get to him and not think twice about it. Ben went downstairs to call his parents and Riley. The phone rang 4 times before Riley picked up.

"Yo yo yiggity yo." Riley said.

"Riley it's Ben."

"Hey what's up?" Riley said is his very innocent voice.

"Look, there is no nice way to put this….Ian broke out of prison."

"WHAT?!?!?!" Riley said.

"Yea, I don't know much but just be careful Riley. We do know that he wants revenge and I don't want any of you to get hurt because of me."

"You know I'll be careful Ben. How are things over there? Are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm alright. Abigail's freaking the fuck out which is understandable. Riley I'm such an idiot. I should have seen this coming! I'm supposed to protect them!"

"They're ok Ben, nothings gonna happen." Riley said trying to sound reassuring to his friend.

"Thanks buddy, I'll see you tomorrow, watch yourself." Ben said. He called his parents next and they took the news just about the same as Riley had. Ben went upstairs to go to bed and found Abigail still awake.

"Abigail, go to sleep. I won't anything happen to either one of you." Ben said rubbing her hair.

"I don't care what happens to me but if that foul maggot even so much as looks at her I will personally end him." Abigail said in such an angry tone of voice that he had never heard come out of her before. He supposed it was her maternal instincts kicking in, mothers are supposed to be capable of anything when it came to protecting their offspring after all.

"I care about what happens to you and I agree with you but you need to get some sleep." Ben said and it took a while but he felt Abigail fall into a very restless sleep. A few hours later Ben noticed Kathryn was started to stir. He picked her up off of Abigail's chest and carried her over to the window and looked out. Could Ian be out there right now? The thought itself was sickening but he knew that it was more than likely Ian was still far away from here. Plotting something, but no doubt far away from here, from his wife, from his daughter, from everything that he held dear. He kissed Kathryn lightly on the head and whispered softly into her soft hair.

"Don't worry baby girl, Daddy won't let anything happen to you or Mommy." Ben didn't know exactly what was going to happen in the near future but he knew one this was for sure, Ian Howe would not even lay so much as a finger on his family and get away with it. When Ben was sure that Kathryn had fallen back asleep, he turned to go back to bed with them. The wind outside blew wildly and for a second Ben thought he heard a familiar wicked laugh in it but shook his head and fell into a very uneasy sleep.

A/N: wow, been a while guys but hope you are still out there. Please Please Please review and tell me what you think.