I have NO idea where this came from, honestly. I just love Indiana Jones and I really needed to take a day off my dissertation! So yeah, here we have Daryl Dixon with some of Indy's sass and Beth as his companion and leading lady. I know, I know. Let me know if you like it and if you guys would be interested in me going on with this, but I have to warn you I have no clue when I'll be able to update next (same thing for those of you who are asking about Fire and Ice)! Hope you enjoy this!
Beth walked into the museum holding an iced coffee from Starbucks in one hand and her phone in the other. As every morning, she was ten minutes early before she had to start working, and she took that time to listen to some of her newfound music, usually unknown and upcoming indie band, and just relax and enjoy her coffee before the long day started. Blonde hair tied in a ponytail and some black trousers worn with a flannel shirt, she strode inside the building.
She had been working as an archivist at the Mayan Art museum in Atlanta for almost six months now, and she could safely say that she loved her job. She got to see closely all of the amazing historic pieces of the museum, learn about them and then organize the new arrivals the way she thought would be the most appropriate. To her, it was like creating a painting for the people who came to the Museum to learn about the Mayan culture, and Beth had always loved everything that had to do with art and storytelling. Another perk of her job was that Dale, the head of the museum, let her be a tour guide for school children, as she was by far the best at dealing with them, together with Carol. The museum wasn't very big at all, so it didn't require a huge staff. There were only two other guides, Jacqui and Milton, and then there was Lori, who worked as a secretary and financial administrator, and the guardians, T-Dog, Noah and Shane. Beth was the newbie at the museum, and she had immediately been accepted by the others as one of them, and had become a part of their family.
She loved hanging out with other 'nerds' like her, which is why that morning she immediately joined Lori, who was also having some coffee behind her desk, for a chat.
"Hey Lori!"
"Goodmorning, Beth. How are you doing today?"
"Well, thanks. How's Judy? You should bring her around more, I swear she is the cutest baby I've ever seen." Beth loved the Grimes kids: she knew Carl had a childish crush for her since she had been his tour guide two months ago, and she absolutely adored Judith, and the feeling seemed to be mutual for the one-year-old baby.
"Trust me, I wish I could. I'm sure she would love seeing you, you're definitely one of her favourite people!"
"If you ever need babysitting…"
Lori smiled, her dark eyes warm as she put a hand on Beth's arm.
"You know you're our favourite babysitter, Beth".
Beth smiled too, but before she could say anything else, they were interrupted by the arrival of Shane. He looked grumpier than usual, and slightly worried too.
"Everything okay?" Lori asked, staring at him.
"I don't wanna alarm you girls, but…"
"What happened?" Beth asked when he didn't finish the sentence.
"Someone tried breaking in tonight. They were going for room 23, but the alarm and T-Dog and Noah apparently caught them off guard."
"Was the guy caught?" Lori questioned, apprehensively.
"Who told you it was a guy?" Shane bickered back, before answering "No. He jumped out of a window, and he was wearing a ski mask so we couldn't identify him. He had a car ready to pick him up and they just vanished before the police could even get here." Shane looked really pissed off, and he turned towards Lori: "I called Rick. They are investigating, but there ain't much we can do."
"What could they possibly want to take though?" Beth wondered out loud, "Are you sure they were going for room 23?"
"Positive, they attempted to break the door."
"But… but there's no gold in there. It's just an old Mayan calendar and some poor vases," she explained to her colleagues.
Shane shrugged "Who knows? Maybe some war lord is a nerd just like you," he said. Beth knew he meant no offence, that he genuinely couldn't comprehend her fascination with Mayan art, but she still stuck her tongue out at him.
"Is there anything we should be doing?" Lori asked then.
Shane shook his head. "Just be careful. You see anything unusual, you call me or one of the guys, clear?"
Lori and Beth just nodded, and Shane went to take his place at the entry of the museum.
"…I just don't get why they would go for room 23."
Lori smiled at her, pinching her cheek and saying: "You are a little nerd, Beth Greene. But that's why we love you."
Beth just didn't get it. She has spent all day buried in her books in her office, trying to figure out whether she had missed out on some detail that would make any of the objects in room 23 of any particular value, but she couldn't find anything.
Lori and the guides had already left, and she had just gotten a text from Tara, one of her best friends, telling her to "stop being a nerd and go home", but she was just too intrigued to give up on this yet.
She decided to go find Dale: her boss was not only the nicest human being in the world, but he was also one of the most knowledgeable people when it came to Mayan culture.
She could still remember the day of her interview for the job: she had been so nervous, but Dale had been so kind to her and had starting chatting with her. She hadn't even realized that he had managed to make her loosen up and in that process he also had asked her many things about Mayans. It had just felt like a nice chat between friends with a common passion, but at the end of it she had come out with a job.
Dale had trusted her immediately and recognized in her a fellow spirit, and she was just so grateful for it.
She picked up her stuff and a huge book she thought might be useful, locked her office door and made her way towards Dale's. She was halfway through when she decided to go check room 23 once again, just to find some inspiration and to take a better look at the objects.
She felt a shiver down her back: the museum was dark, silent and just the night before someone had managed to break in. Although she knew that there was quite a number of police officers patrolling the area and that the museum had cameras and alarms, she still clutched her heavy book to the heart as if it was a shield.
'Come on Beth, don't act like such a chicken', she told herself, climbing the stairs and walking towards the dim hallway that lead to room 23.
Suddenly, she heard a noise.
Her heart started to race inside her chest, and she became instantly paranoid that whoever it was behind the corner of the hall was going to be able to hear it.
She took a silent, calming breath and clutched the book in her hands: history was a heavy weapon, figuratively and, well, literally too. With one last breath, she peeked from the corner.
There was a man trying to open the door of room 23. He was tall, wearing a dark brown leather jacket and beige trousers. He didn't correspond with the identikit that Shane had handed out to all of them (a man all in black with a ski mask), but if he was smart enough he probably had decided to change his outfit. He probably had entered the museum as a visitor, and then hid somewhere until closing time. He seemed really tall, large shoulders and dark, shaggy hair.
Beth didn't know what to do. If she ran downstairs and alerted the police he could have managed to open the door and leave in time, and she didn't want him to run away with one of her precious Mayan treasures. But was she strong enough and quick enough to distract him and call for help without ending up dead or injured? She definitely wasn't strong enough, and what if he was armed? But what if he took the Mayan objects and managed to escape?
In a quick second of craziness, Beth decided that she was going to be brave: after all, she was Hershel Greene's daughter. She was tougher than she looked, and she definitely wasn't a coward.
The stranger wasn't but a few meters away, and he seemed so busy with the door, his back turned towards her, that maybe she had a chance of surprising him. She took one last, shaky breath, and then she started moving forwards, quietly. She had always been a quiet person, and she couldn't be more grateful for that, now.
Her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest, and she hoped that the criminal couldn't smell fear because hell, she was terrified. In a few steps she got close enough and it was now or never. Before he could realize it, she smashed the giant book over his head with all the strength she possessed.
She had hit the man on the head, but he hadn't fallen as she expected him too.
He turned around, and in a second he had her pinned to the wall, an arm chocking her and the other restraining her arms.
A confused "What the hell?" came out of his lips in a grunt, and immediately he had her released.
It was her chance. "SECURITY! SECURITY! HELP!" she started shouting, and immediately the stranger's big hand fell over her mouth and silenced her.
"Would you STOP shouting, girl?!"
In a second, Shane and two police officers were running towards her, and so was Dale, looking concerned.
"What is going on here?" he asked, looking absolutely confused.
The man immediately released her, picking up the heavy book in his hands.
"Is this how you greet your guests, Dale? Girl here hit me in the head with this," the man replied, sounding unimpressed.
Beth had no clue what was going on: this man knew Dale?
"Everybody calm down, I know him, I've invited him to come," the older man said, and he gestures for the policemen to leave, which they did looking slightly puzzled. "Beth, darling, this man is not a thief. He is an archaeologist, and my god-son, too. Let me introduce you two: Daryl, this is my archivist, Beth Greene. Beth, meet Professor Daryl Dixon."
Daryl Dixon? That Daryl Dixon, one of the most famous archaeologists alive? Daryl Dixon whose books she had studied and loved in college? She had just hit that Daryl Dixon on the head mistaking him for a criminal?
Beth turned crimson. She didn't know why, but she had always imagined him to be, well, an old man. Instead, he looked like he was in his late thirties, and he could have just come back from a safari, or something like that. And he was handsome, too, with piercing blue eyes, high cheekbones and an intense look on his face.
"Professor Dixon I'm.. I'm so sorry!" she said, turning bright red and feeling her face and neck going hot.
He smirked at her, and looked at the book she had hit him with.
"Huh. I never understood people who claimed that my research was dangerous. Had I known someone was gonna hit me in the head with it, maybe I would have agreed with them," he drawled.
Dale laughed out loud, clapping a hand on his back.
"Our Beth here is a great fan of your research, Daryl. She's one of the brightest people I've met, so I hope you don't mind if I invite her to come along with us while we discuss this," Dale said.
Beth opened her mouth in shock, and Daryl smirked again.
"The more the merrier," he just said.
"Good. Now, Beth, can I open the room without you coming at me with pepper spray or similar?" Dale asked, smiling.
Beth nodded, still deeply embarrassed. She couldn't believe Dale was gonna let her listen to… well, to whatever it was that was about to happen in room 23. The older man opened the door, and Daryl held her open for her.
"Ladies first," he said in his gravelly voice.
There was something in that sentence that made Beth come back to her senses, and she felt a wave of pride swelling her chest: she was not going to have him think that she was some delicate flower or some silly teenager. She was a woman, and a capable one. She held her head high and didn't look at him and she thanked him politely, trying to channel the Scarlett O'Hara that he had hidden inside her.
Dale smiled at her knowingly, before explaining: "The reason why I asked Daryl to come here is because I think there's something suspect with people trying to break into room 23. I'm sure you thought the same thing, Beth."
Beth nodded, feeling more at ease. "I did. It's just… there isn't any gold in here, or anything of particular value. If anything, this is the least precious room in the whole museum. I just don't get why anyone would want to steal a Mayan calendar, or a vase, or…"
"It's part of a code."
Daryl was right behind her, and it made her jump, which he seemed satisfied about. She frowned at him, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"What code?" she asked, boldly.
"The calendar in here has a symbol on the back, doesn't it?" he replied, a challenging tone to his voice.
"Yes, but…"
"It's part of a series of symbols. Supposedly, they lead to a treasure in the Mexican Jungle. They lead to gold."
"How do you know it's true?" Beth asked, sceptical.
"I know because I have two of the other six symbols, missy," he replied smugly.
"Daryl had asked me to come here and see the thing for himself next week. When I told him that someone tried to break into this room, we decided to anticipate his visit."
Beth took a step back, her eyes going from Dale to Daryl.
"Wait. Dale, you were gonna let him see it?"
"Of course I was. He is a friend and a scholar, and…"
Beth felt anger surge inside of her, as she whipped her hair and turned towards Daryl.
"Why are you so interested in the treasure, huh? How do we know that you're different from whoever it is that wants to get the gold?"
Daryl looked shocked: "Are you kidding me?" he took a step towards her, and Beth fought hard not to take a step back. "I would never, never steal something that isn't mine. If that treasure is true, I will make sure it ends up where it should be."
"And where is that, Professor Dixon?" she asked, not budging.
"This museum," he replied, as if it was obvious.
"And what do you get out of this?"
Daryl opened his mouth to reply, looking outraged, but Dale stepped in between them.
"Easy, easy now, Beth. Daryl has always taken his findings to museums, since he first started exploring when he was just a boy. That's who he is, that's the man I know. I know this is all very sudden, but believe me, Daryl has the best intentions when it comes to antiquities."
Beth trusted Dale, and she trusted his judgement. She couldn't help but feel a little suspicious at this Professor Dixon, who looked more like the member of a gang than an archaeologist, but she would have to trust him for the moment.
"Alright," she mumble, frowning at Daryl as if to guard him.
He was looking at her intensely, and she could have sworn she saw a glimpse of pride, a spark of satisfaction in his blue eyes.
"So, if you know why they want the calendar I assume you also know who it is that we are talking about," Dale said, a serious look on his usually happy face.
Daryl nodded "It's the Governor. His men have been following me for weeks now, trying to attack me. They know I have the other two symbols and they know I'm not gonna let them take them."
"Who is the Governor?" Beth asked, curiously.
"He's a trafficker. Been around for years. It's not the first time he tries to steal treasures to make money off them, and many times he has succeeded, too. I wanna make sure this will be the last time he ever tries. That scum belongs to jail just as much as that treasure…"
"…belongs in a museum," Beth completed his sentence and found herself strangely full of adrenaline again, listening to this man talking about stopping this evil man and putting things in museums. "I want to help," she heard herself saying.
Dale and Daryl both turned towards her, and Dale looked like he had seen a ghost. Daryl just smirked.
So here it is! Let me know what you guys think :)
