Summary: Indy and Mutt get into an argument and Mutt runs off. Several hours later Indy finds him and discovers something he would have never imagined.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters unfortunately. I just own the plot /

Warning: references to child abuse.

"You are going back to school and that's the end of it!" Henry 'Indiana' Jones Jr. yelled for at least the hundredth time that same hour.

"No. I. Am. Not!" seethed the 17 year old Henry 'Mutt' Jones III. They'd been back and forth with this for the past few hours. The older Jones demanding that his son go back to High School and the teenaged Jones refusing indignantly.

"I'm your father and what I say goes and I say you're going back to school!" Indiana had had enough of this. They'd had the same argument since they got back from their last adventure when Indy found out that he had a child. He'd been furious when he realized it had been HIS child, HIS son that had dropped out of high school. He was NOT going to let that happen.

"Ya know what daddy-o? I don't really care what you say. I'm not goin' back to school," Mutt answered back with finality, grabbing his jacket and heading towards the door.

Indy was just about to reprimand his son for talking back to him like that when he realized he was intending to leave.

"Where do you think you're going, Junior? This conversation isn't over!" Indy all but shouted as he walked towards his son who just ignored his father and kept on walking out the door.

"Don't worry your little college professor head about it," Mutt called over his shoulder as he straddled his motorcycle and kicked it into gear.

"It's below zero degrees out here! Get back inside so we can discuss this rationally," Indy tried in vain to persuade the 17 year old to come back inside.

Mutt just revved his bike and threw the motorcycle helmet that his parents always insisted on him wearing to the side in rebellion.

Indiana, realizing his son was about to leave and he didn't have much more time to stop him, started running towards his son's motorcycle and shouting at him to stop and come back inside, but his words were lost in the sound of the bike taking off as Mutt drove down the road and out of site.

"That kid's gonna get it when he gets home," Indiana seethed. Then after a few moments he sighed. "Aw man, Marion's gonna kill me…" he thought out load. Indy shook his head and walked back inside to finish grading all the papers he'd put off before the Christmas break was over.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Several hours later Dr. Jones looked up from the pile of school papers to look at the clock. It was nearing midnight and the kid still wasn't home. Truth be told he was starting to get a little worried. Under normal circumstances he'd just be royally pissed off, but it was the middle of January and below freezing outside. Not only that but the kid only had a leather jacket on and as far as Indiana knew, no cash. If he stayed out too long, Indy was afraid Mutt'd freeze to death.



He shuddered at the thought of him finding a frozen Mutt on the side of the road, still sitting on his beloved motorcycle.

Indy sighed again for what seemed like the millionth time.

That kid is surely going to be the death of me.

"Indy?" came the soft voice of Marion. The older Jones stiffened at the sound. If she found out their son was out in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold with nothing to protect him from the winter's weather but a leather jacket and no cash, not even his motorcycle helmet, he was sure to be a dead man.

Marion walked around the couch Indiana was sitting on and stopped in front of him.

"Indy, do you know where Mutt is?" Indy stiffened at that. Oh no. Here it comes.

Her husband's body language didn't go unnoticed by Marion. Her voice got a little sterner.

"I just went in his room to check on him and he wasn't there," she put her hands on her hips. "Where is he Jones?" She asked, glaring at her husband.

Indy winced. She only called him Jones when she was either angry at him or suspected he was at fault for something. In this case, it was both.

"Um…about that…" Indiana started slowly.

"Where is my son?!" Marion was getting angrier by the minute.

Indy looked at her sheepishly. "Well…you see…" he started, trying to figure out the right words to tell her how her son was basically MIA. He glanced up at his wife and immediately regretted seeing the murderous look on her face.

"We got into another fight about school and he got angry and ran off on his motorcycle nearly five hours ago and I haven't heard from him since," Indy said in a rush hoping that she'd take the news lightly.

No such luck.

"WHAT?!" Marion screeched. Indy winced.

"So you mean to tell me that my baby is out there somewhere in the cold probably freezing to death and you haven't even bothered to go look for him?!" Marion was beyond angry now and Indiana was only too happy to oblige to go look for their son, even if all he really wanted to do was go to sleep. Grading papers wasn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world and the boredom of it always seemed to put him to sleep. But he also knew that if he didn't go out and find their son he wasn't going to have a goodnight's sleep anyways. Marion would see to that.

So would his conscience.



OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Indiana had been searching for hours for Mutt but to no avail. He had driven to all of his hang outs, his friends' houses, even some of his old girlfriends' places, but he found no sign of the teenage runaway. He was really starting to get worried now.

I'm really getting too old for this…

"Now…if I was a teenager nowadays…where would I go…" Indy muttered. Then a thought struck him and he remembered a conversation he and the 17 year old had had not too long ago. They had been having an argument much like the one that they were having earlier that day.

FLASHBACK

"You are going back to school and there's nothing you can do about it!" Indiana had yelled.

"Oh yea?!" Mutt had tried to argue.

"Yea!" Indy had retorted back.

"Well then..I…I'll…" Mutt stuttered, trying to think of something to say to change his father's mind.

"You'll what?" The older of the two challenged with a smirk.

"I'll…I'll run away! I'll take a bus to somewhere where you'll never find me and never come back!"

END FLASHBACK

Indy really hoped he was just bluffing. But living with the kid and learning more about his son every day made him believe it was just a bluff less and less. Boy, his kid was really going to get it when he found him.

Alrighty. First time i've written in a while so bare with me. Next chapter should be up soon! Enjoy! )