National Treasure

Into the West

Chapter 37: Requiem

"Abigail?" Riley said softly as he shook her shoulder. "Abigail!"

"Hmm-wha?" Abigail responded in a dazed state as she woke from her sleep. It was 2:36 AM and the hospital was almost empty of nurses and patients; everybody had either gone home for the night or had retired to bed. The last thing she remembered was that they had come so close to calling his time of death before they finally got the stint into the blood vessel and regulated his heartbeat, not before he'd lost one fifth of his total blood supply. She heard that he had nearly drowned in his own blood, which nearly sent her over the edge. She'd fallen asleep in Riley's arms in the waiting room after he tried to both calm her down and calm herself down. Armando and the girls had been sent to bed, they hadn't heard of the incident, nor had Patrick or Emily. They had already been tormented throughout this ordeal enough, telling them at that point would have been too much.

"Riley?" Abigail responded softly as she blinked to clear her vision. She awoke to him holding her, her head resting on his shoulder. They were in the waiting room, and a familiar looking doctor was standing before them.

"Oh, God, Ben!" Abigail hissed as she pushed the blanket off of herself. "What happened?"

"He had a close call." Dr. Adamson said with a deep sigh. "Hearing the news about Mr. Howe caused his blood pressure to sky rocket so high that the tear in his aorta burst. We double patched it and stitched it up so the aorta wall should heal quite nicely once he's had some rest. The operation was a close call, but a success nevertheless."

"Y-You mean he survived?" Abigail stammered.

Dr. Adamson nodded. "He's quite the fighter, Dr. Chase."

Without saying a word, She turned to Riley, who was just as taken back and misty-eyed as she was. Without saying a word, she fell into his arms and held him tightly, as did he.

"He's coming home, Riley!" Abigail said as tears rolled down her cheeks. "He's coming home!" She repeated it as Riley hugged her tightly. They were both in shock, as if they were dreaming or something. Ben had pulled through in the end, and the fight was over. For now, anyway.

As the day wore on, the sun rose over the clear Arizona sky on one of the most beautiful days that any of them had seen in a long time. Not a single cloud could be seen in the sky for miles around Flagstaff, nor could any cloud bring down the spirits of the treasure hunters. Patrick and Emily arrived to hear the good news with rejoicing, as did Armando and the girls. Pete Sadusky and his agents were also glad to hear that Ben Gates had once again beaten the odds by the skin of his teeth. Although he was still listed as being in critical condition roughly twelve hours after the surgery, the doctors reported signs that the gunshot wounds would heal up quite nicely, as would the rest of his injuries. It wasn't until later that afternoon that he was moved into a private room in the patient wing, and his condition was upgrated from critical to fair rather rapidly. At the same time, Abigail, Riley, Patrick and Emily all agreed that as soon as he was rested up enough for it, they would call in the reporters who they had been fending off for two days now.

After she was informed of the conditions of the site at Kokato in the Grand Canyon, Abigail retreated into Ben's hospital room. As soon as she stepped in the door, she felt a warm feeling of relief wash over, as even through all the gauze patches and bandages, she was able to recognize her best friend, the man she loved. She sat quietly for a few hours, flipping through magazines and listening to the rhythym of the heart monitor. Every now and then she would feel for the ring box in her pocket and make sure it was still there. Every time she did that, she checked herself on how to confront him when he woke up, as not to overwhelm him. She stared at his face a couple of times, for a few moments at a time, and thought of how tired he must be. Normally he would snore like a woodchipper, even at the brink of total exhaustion. However, now he slept silently, barely moving. When he had first come out of surgery he was breathing on a ventilator, but now he was breathing on his own. It was a sign to her that he was on his way back. Finally, at 4:34 PM, her heart leapt into her throat when she saw his eyelids twitch. She took a deep breath and moved to his side, watching his eyes closely as they slowly cracked open.

"Abigail.." He breathed in an exhausted tone.

"Ben." Abigail said softly. "Hey, baby."

Ben blinked a few times to clear his vision, and within a few moments he could clearly see her face. He smiled at the sight of how her brown hair dye was starting to wash out, and strands of her natural blonde hair color were starting to show.

"You were amazing in there, Ben." Abigail said softly, stroking the side of his face with her hand. "You passed with flying colors."

Gently lifting up his arm, he pulled his hand up on top of him and could feel the staples in his chest. Taking a deep breath, the reality of the situation sank in for him as well. Cracking a smile, he reached out for her hand, which she took gladly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"How's Riley?" Ben asked, blinking again. "Did he cause any trouble."

"The exact opposite, Ben." Abigail answered. "He was a godsend. I probably would have gone insane if he hadn't been there with me."

"What about my parents, and the kids?" Ben asked, trying to sit up.

"They're all fine, Ben." Abigail responded in a sterner tone, gently pushing him back. "And the only way for things to stay that way is for you to rest."

Staring at her for a few moments, Ben released a deep sigh and shook his head. "You're a warrior, Abigail Chase."

Abigail smiled at the remark, recognizing his wise-ass sense of humor.

Taking her hand tight in his, he looked up at her. "Where's Riley?"

"He's downstairs."

"Could you get him for me?" Ben asked. "He's got something I need."

Fidgeting, Abigail reached into her pocket and pulled out the small velvet box. "Are you referring to this?"

Ben paused for a moment, trying to search through his head for the right words to say. After a while, he just stopped and looked up at her, waiting for her to respond.

"I haven't looked at it, Ben." Abigail said, recognizing his 'deer caught in the headlights' expression. "I waited for you."

Not saying anything else, she simply rested the box in his open hand.

"This really wasn't the way I wanted to do this, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore." Ben said in a clear voice, never looking away from her. "You were always there, Abigail."

Abigail said nothing, and just listened.

"You always were the one who helped me keep pushing on, kept me going." Ben said, still not taking his eyes off of her. In his eyes, she could still see the smallest trace of that blank expression of horror that he probably still felt responsible for. "You kept me alive out there."

Taking a deep breath, Abigail fought back her tears as hard as she could.

"You're the girl of my dreams, Abigail, and I'm asking you now," Ben said with a brief pause as he gently and slowly opened the box with one hand, revealing its contents to her.

"Will you marry me?"

TREASURE HUNTER FOUND ALIVE, TWO MASSIVE TREASURES DISCOVERED IN ARIZONA DESERT

FLAGSTAFF, AZ – A number of miraculous discoveries in the American West has led the attention of the nation to someone who has astonishingly returned from the grave and triumphed in the discovery of not one, but two grand treasures. Benjamin Gates, the renowned treasure hunter reported to have been killed in a motor vehicle crash in Colorado several weeks ago was found on the edge of death hundreds of miles away in the Grand Canyon. The truth to the story of what had really happened to him in the weeks since his apparent death has lead to the discovery of the century. Gates and several of his friends and family have made two miraculous discoveries; The Lost City of Kokato, an ancient Navajo Cultural Center and a vast wealth of gold, silver, jewels and artifacts of historical values beyong their actual values which has come to be known as 'Sophie's Treasure' were discovered in a mammoth cavern beneath the rock formation known as Twin Buttes in the Grand Canyon National Park.

The truth to what had really happened to Gates and how he came to be discovering these two treasures was uncovered by four individuals whom have relations to Ben Gates and assisted him at his two former discoveries. Dr. Abigail Chase, Gates' long-time girlfriend and director of the conservation department at the Virginia Museum of History in Leesburg was with Gates when he received through the mail the diary of a young Welsh immigrant named Sophie Hughes, who was believed to have immigrated to the United States sometime prior to the civil war. An old legend surrounds the story of her and her family, who have long been said were to have come to the new world in search of a wealth of treasure thought lost since the Spanish Conquest. Gates and Chase, along with Gates' close friend and historical author Riley Poole, were able to decipher the clues to the treasure which they found in the diary they had been sent from an unknown location in rural eastern Colorado. However, when Gates traveled to Colorado to find the origin of the diary, he was abducted by an escaped convict named Ian Howe, whom along with a massive group of hired hands, sought his assistance in finding the treasure so as to clear his name of the crimes he had committed during an earlier acquaintance with Gates.

According to Peter Sadusky, lead agent for the FBI, Howe had been a financial supporter of Gates' quest to discover the Templar Treasure in 2006, following which Howe betrayed Gates and sought out the treasure for himself. During the expedition to find the treasure, Gates and Poole resorted to the theft of one of our nations most valued documents, the Declaration of Independence, during which Dr. Chase met the two men and became acquainted with them. Gates' father, Patrick Gates also became involved in the hunt when the three of them showed up at his doorstep in Washington DC with the Declaration, where they discovered that the map and clues to the treasure's location was on the back of the parchment that the Declaration had been written on. The hunt first led them to Philadelphia, where they began to track down the clues to finding the treasure. Using the famed Silence Dugood Letters as a ket, Gates, Chase and Poole deciphered an ottendorf cipher on the back of the Declaration, which led them to Independence Hall, where they recovered a pair of spectacles said to have been invented by Benjamin Franklin himself. Using tinted panes of glass as lenses, the spectacles revealed that the treasure was hidden around the Trinity Church in New York City. Shortly afterwards Ian Howe stole the declaration from the treasure hunters. Before they could retrieve it back, The FBI caught up with them in their investigation towards finding the declaration. Gates was arrested, but Dr. Gates and Mr. Poole managed to escape. From there, they made a banter with Howe through which they were able to get back the declaration and help Gates escape FBI custody. Ian Howe went to extreme measures to ensure Gates' cooperation, even going so far as to abducting Gates' father. The group managed to discover a series of shafts and caverns dug underneath the Trinity Graveyard, during which Gates and his accomplices tricked Howe into believing that the treasure was really in Boston. Taking this into account, Howe and his hired hands stranded Gates, Chase, Poole and Gates senior in the cavern, where they were able to discover the treasure. Afterwards, Gates returned the declaration to the FBI and informed them of Howe's whereabouts, following which Howe was arrested. He was later charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and kidnapping.

After Gates was abducted, Howe and his group of hired mercenaries, a majority of whom were illegal immigrants, staged the car accident near Sterling, Colorado to lead the authorities to believe he was dead, after which they contacted Dr. Chase and Riley Poole, demanding the diary from them. When they refused, he sent mercenaries after them. Fortunately, they were able to escape from the Carroll Estate where Gates and Dr. Chase reside together. The men came after them in the middle of the night on June 16, and the two of them escaped using an underground passage, from where they fled from the mercenaries in a small boat on the Potomac River. Gunshots were fired at them as they fled on the river towards Leesburg, during which Riley Poole received an almost fatal gunshot wound to the arm. After their escape, Poole received medical attention at the hospital in Leesburg. While they were there, Dr. Chase contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as Gates' parents, and informed them of the case they were facing. After they were all informed of the situation, Dr. Chase received a phone call from Gates, requesting the Diary. After viewing what looked like Gates had sided with Howe willingly, Dr. Chase was taken back, astonished by his sudden change in behavior. However, shortly afterwards she received a text message from him that he had written several months before. It was a piece of poetry which described the differences between right and wrong placed in a historical context. It was used in a context which only Dr. Chase and Riley Poole would understand. What Gates had actually planned to do was create a diversion and lead Howe and his men away from the treasure. It was shocking to Dr. Chase and the others because they knew what Howe was capable of, and that for Gates, it was literally a death sentence. Using historical data, Dr. Chase and Emily Gates were able to prove that the legend of Sophie Hughes was indeed true, and that there most likely was a treasure out there somewhere.

With the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dr. Chase and Riley Poole along with Gates' parents, Patrick and Emily Gates went undercover using the Witness Protection Program in an attempt to locate the treasure and find Gates. Placed under the supervision of Special Agent Tyler Androsky, the four treasure hunters managed to follow the trail of clues in the diary. The trail led them westward along the Colorado River until they came to the Navajo Indian Reservation. They were able to uncover more to the story of Sophie Hughes through the help of an old acquaintance of Emily Gates. From there, they were led to the address of Joseph Salinas, a retired mail courier who lived outside of Kayenta, Arizona with his three grandchildren. Salinas had long held onto an old family story speaking of how a young girl was discovered in the wilderness by his grandfather. He also stated that this wild girl was also his grandmother, as she stayed with him for a long enough period of time to give birth to a daughter before disappearing back into the wilderness. It has since been confirmed that the wild girl discovered by Salinas' grandfather was indeed Sophie Hughes. At the same time, Ben Gates' plan to dilude Howe and his men quickly unraveled and his plan was discovered. When Dr. Chase met with one of his mercenaries to exchange the diary to them, she was given Gates' rolex watch, which unknown to her contained a tracking device, which would unfortunately lead Howe's mercenaries to Arizona, where they killed both Emily Gates' acquaintance and Joseph Salinas. However, his three grandchildren; sixteen-year-old Armando, twelve-year-old Anita, and seven-year-old Josephine witnessed the brutal murder of their grandfather and soon after escaped to find Dr. Chase and the rest of the treasure hunters. The final batch of clues led the team into the Grand Canyon National Park, with the trail ending at the discovery of a large cavern beneath the Twin Buttes rock formation, inside which was the Lost City of Kokato, a Navajo Religuous and Cultural Center thought lost for over four hundred years. They were also met by Howe and his forces. Miraculously, they were able to subdue the enemy forces, but only temporarily. They came to discover Gates trapped in an underground cavern beneath the city, bound in chains and suspended in the cavern, after the mercenaries had used explosives to dam up the river beneath the cavern, causing it to flood rapidly, which was part of their plan to drown Gates before help could arrive.

The Climax of the situation came later on after Howe had reassembled his forces. He caught the group of treasure hunters in a tunnel beneath the city, where he re-captured Gates and sent explosives going off on the rock bridge that Dr. Chase and the other treasure hunters had been standing on, sending them all crashing into the river beneath them. Once they got out of the water, Dr. Chase found that the members of the group suffered only minor injuries. From there, she was able to call the numerous FBI agents who were waiting on call for her signal for them to move into the area. They arrived within fifteen minutes of the call and quickly began rounding up Howe's hired mercenaries. Unfortunately, by the time that they caught Howe and found Gates, he'd been severely beaten and shot in the back three times. He was clinically dead when he arrived at Flagstaff Medical Center, but doctors and surgeons were able to stabilize him. After several surgeries, including an open-heart procedure, he was expected to make a full recovery. At the same time, the FBI was shocked and angered to discover that Ian Howe had escaped prison security personell on the way to the maximum security prison in Phoenix pending trial of the dozens of chargesbrought up against him, including kidnapping, attempted murder, stalking, fraud, child endangerment and trespassing.

Regardless, Gates was determined to make a full recovery in order to be present at the complete excavation of the chamber where the treasure was located. On August 6, Gates, Chase, Poole and Gates' parents, along with the Salinas children as well as Special Agent Anrosky were all present at the beginning of the excavation of the massive treasure cavern, along with a number of smaller caves and tunnels in which even more treasures were discovered. As of August 12, all of the treasure has been catalogued and treated properly, at a count of 127,311 artifacts, with a combined estimated value exceeding 25 Billion Dollars. The treasures have since been distributed to 313 museums, galleries and archives in 37 different countries. While Gates is expected to make a full recovery from the ordeal with his family and friends, Ian Howe and several of his accomplices are still wanted at large. When asked about his thoughts on the situation with Howe, Gates responded by saying that it didn't matter to him very much. All he cared about was that the people he cared for were safe, the treasures were safe, and the memory of a young girl thought lost forever was finally restored.

Gently pushing his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose, Ben glanced through the final pages of a hard cover-bound book with a soft-white cover, the front bearing the title in bold black letters, 'Sophie's Treasure'. In the three months since they had returned home to Washington DC, the story of Sophie's Treasure had finally become a reality. A combination of the legend of her story as it was generally known as well as massive amounts of research had finally resulted in Ben's true goal being achieved. Glancing away from the book in his hands, he took a deep breath and looked out over the Virginia countryside on a clear September afternoon. His eyes fell upon a late-70's era Oldsmobile slowly rolling up the driveway, an Arizona license plate dangling from rusty fastenings on the front. As he looked down, he saw the hand of a young man celebrating his seventeenth birthday in style.

"Abigail!" Ben hollered across the balcony and into the bedroom behind him. "He's back!"

A few moments later, Abigail rushed to the rail and waved both her hands in delight. "How'd she hold up?" Abigail hollered.

"Better than I had expected!" Armando hollered back. "Seven states later and she's still going!"

Abigail laughed as she watched Armando nose his way into a brick garage along the side of the driveway. As he began hauling his bags towards the house, Ben and Abigail saw a ruffled blue blur flash across the yard.

"M-aa-aaa-aa-ndo!" Josephine screamed as she bolted towards her big brother, leaping into his arms. He picked her up and spun her around, her blue dress whipping around. After he put her down, the young girl turned towards the old car parked in the garage. She stood back for a moment and marveled at the fresh coat of red paint and all the new trimmings. "It's so pretty!"

"I thought you might like it." Armando said as he picked up his bags and the two of them began walking into the house. "Where's Anita?"

"Riley took her into Washington to see the Library of Congress again."

"Again?"

"You should see it, Armando!" Josephine squealed. "It's sooooo BIG!"

"I'll bet it is, squirt." Armando said.

Ben and Abigail watched as the two of them entered the house and disappeared from view, thinking of how their lives had changed since adding three new members to the family. The thought of them being separated in the foster care system was too much for anyone to bear, so Abigail and Ben stepped in immediately to apply for guardianship of the three Salinas children. At first, they were worried that leaving Arizona and the Navajo Reservation behind them would be too difficult, but the change seemed to help them move towards healing in the wake of their grandfather's death. When asked if the three of them wanted to come back and live in Washington with Ben and Abigail, they were all too quick to say yes. It was hard at some times, especially dealing with three children and Ben still recovering from his injuries at the same time. With a lot of patience, which lucky for Ben and Abigail they had excelled at by being treasure hunters, and a lot of help from Riley, Patrick and Emily, they were on their way towards becoming a family. Just two weeks before, Ben and Abigail had begun the paperwork to commence adoption of Armando, Anita and Josephine.

Ben and Abigail had a small courtroom wedding within days of returning to Washington DC. Although he had to use a cane to help him walk while his injuries healed, he still stood firm on his own two feet and took Abigail as his wife. They spent their honeymoon at Virginia beach, and had since began the rest of their lives together. Aside from the doctor's visits and physical therapy, the one thing which helped Ben to recover faster was having three children with the thirst for knowledge to match his own. When Armando turned seventeen in August, he and Ben took a guy's week off and made a road trip back to Arizona so Armando could get his car. Ben had to fly back to Washington DC to get caught up with his therapy, so Armando had another week to himself to enjoy his car. He'd e-mailed them pictures of Route 66, the oilfields of Oklahoma, the archway at St. Louis, the Mississippi River, the hills of Tennessee and the Cumberland Gap. Ben thought the time alone would do Armando some good. The boy had been through a lot in the passing months.

Anita and Riley had bonded greatly since she'd come to live with Ben and Abigail. Her never-ending thirst for history made her the little sister Riley had always dreamed of having. They'd gone to the branches of the Smithsonian together and spent entire days at the Library of Congress. She loved riding with him in his Ferrari, and during the trips between Leesburg and Washington DC she would marvel at the green landscape. Josephine had also found her own way of coping with the change in her life. As far as she was concerned, the Carroll Estate was a seven-year-old's paradise. She roamed the corridors, explored the rooms and courtyards, and played in the woods and the calm waters of the Potomac river. For the Salinas children, the change from the deserts of Arizona to the backwoods of Virginia was a large change, but just as Ben and Abigail had hoped, perhaps the change would be good for them. While the children were still recoiling from their grandfather's death, they seemed to have taken to their new lives better than expected. In a few days they would be starting at a private school in Leesburg, and considering they had made national headlines in the previous months, there would be a lot of attention aimed at the children. Either way, it would be times of great change for the Salinas children; change they hoped would be for the better.

Shortly after their return from the desert, Riley gave up his old place and moved in with Ben and Abigail and the kids at the Carroll estate. He decided he didn't want to leave his new sister-in-law alone with to care for his injured best friend and three kids all by herself. At first Abigail thought he'd just be a fourth kid to care for, but he really had surprised her by helping out as much as he did. He could relate to the children's grief over the loss of their grandfather, as he had experienced the same loss with his own family. There were many nights when Abigail would wake from her sleep and hear one of the girls crying in their bathroom. She would also hear Riley's calm voice speaking to them to help them calm down. She'd hear him tell them that it was okay to cry and feel sad, tell them stories of his adventures with Ben to calm them down, or he'd read to them from a book or magazine. Occasionally he'd take them down to the kitchen for some milk and cookies late at night. Riley also helped Armando deal with his anger and grief, but in different ways. They would occasionally spend entire afternoons in the garage tinkering around with Riley's Ferrari, preparing Armando for his own role as automobile owner. They would talk as they worked, and Riley would give insight to Armando on his struggles through the stages of grief.

Abigail softly leaned over Ben from behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Do you think they'll be alright here?"

Ben turned his head and looked at her with a cracked smile, and nodded his head gently. "In do time, I believe."

Abigail smiled, gave him a quick kiss and headed back inside to finish up some of her work. After she left, Ben looked back over the open yard of their home and began sinking into a period of thought which always happened when he had a moment to himself. He knew that somewhere out there, Ian was hiding out, waiting for another chance to make his move towards restoring his honor and name. He hated thinking about it, but when he looked at his new family, he couldn't avoid the thought without jeopardizing their safety. He knew what Ian was capable of, and the question was not if Ian would ever return, but when. Either way, to pull himself out of that depressive rut in his mind, Ben looked back at the fruits of their labor which rested in his hands, the book containing the story of Sophie Hughes. To him, that book meant that after all those years, she could finally rest in peace. Before he closed the book, he grabbed a pen and scribbled a note on the last page of the book.

"Thank you, Sophie"

THE END

Author's Note

Well, there you have it. I apologize for it taking me so long to finish this chapter, but I figured that I wanted to put as much into this as possible. I hope everybody liked it.

For those of you who did like it, thanks for all the great reviews, and I've got some good news. There's going to be a sequel, so expect another adventure.

RedFalcon2419