Disclaimer: I don't own the Jones family or the Indiana series

Disclaimer: I don't own the Jones family or the Indiana series. I own my ideas and my OCs, and that's about it. (smiles) Please excuse any historical or geographical inaccuracies; I'm trying to do research yet keep myself amused at the same time.

A/N: It's 1963, six years since the events of KOTCS, and Mutt's finished college by now; he's twenty-five. Also, there's been a small addition to the Jones family.

Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Bast

Chapter 1

When Indiana Jones had called saying that he had found a new adventure, Mutt had thrown on his worn leather jacket, hopped on his Harley, and broke the speed limit all the way to his parents' house across town. It was an understatement to say that he was ready to out of New Britain and back in the field. Kelly Van Fuller, a senior at Marshall College and his most recent ex, had been giving him hell for the past few weeks by showing up whenever he had a date, no matter where or when it was. Hell, Mutt would have gone looking for the petrified shit of King Arthur if it meant getting away from her.

When Mutt pulled up in front of the good-sized townhouse, he carefully parked his motorcycle in the garage and hurried inside, throwing his keys on the counter as he ran through the kitchen.

"I'm here!" he shouted, thundering toward the library study where he expected to find his old man. He rushed through the cluttered hallways to the library, his normally slicked back hair sticking up every which-a-way thanks to riding without a helmet. Mutt looked around rapidly, his hazel gaze darting from desk to bookshelf to bust to ancient sword and finally back to desk. Where the hell was Pops?

"That was slower than I expected," a familiar voice drawled from behind him. He turned around to see his dad standing in the doorway, a smug smirk on that wrinkled face of his. The old guy was clean-shaven and all dressed up like some overgrown penguin, complete with a tailcoat. That was a new one. "Did you have to take your training wheels off your bike or something?"

Mutt's mouth twisted wryly at the good-natured ribbing. "No, I had to stop and pick up your new walker for you, remember?" He picked up a large geode paperweight from Indiana's desk and tossed it from hand to hand. "So, what'd you find? Where is it? Just tell me that it's really far away. And what's with the penguin suit?"

Indiana rolled his eyes at the questioning and walked to his desk, snatching the paperweight from Mutt's hands as he passed by. Setting the geode back in place, he swept his hand across the desk, eyes searching for something.

Mutt stared at him expectantly. "Hey, are you going senile or something, old man? I'm asking you questions; answers would be great. Sort of expected."

Indiana did not look up from the desk. "What are you griping about, kid?" Addressing people by anything other than their birth name was a genetic flaw in the Jones' DNA.

The oldest Jones was busy going through his desk drawers as if it was his newest dig. "Aha! There you are, you stupid, little, useless…" He swiped something small out of a drawer and put it on the table. Mutt narrowed his eyes when he realized they were cufflinks. Something suspicious was going on here…

Mutt turned his head at the sound of someone running through the house, bare feet slapping against the wooden floors. He grinned and quickly moved behind the door as a petite five-year-old girl ran through the open doorway. Indiana noticed the movement but did not say anything.

"Daddy!" Christine Anna Jones exclaimed, out of breath from her romp through the house. Her dark brown eyes were wide and excited, and her cherubic face was smudged with dirt from the garden. "I been in China, excamavating!"

"I think you mean excavating," Indiana said, but he gave his daughter a warm smile. "Did you find anything?"

She nodded, sending her waves of amber hair into her face. "Yep, I founds an am'let." She held up Marion's favorite gold pendant, letting it glimmer in the electric light. Like Christine, the piece of jewelry was covered in dirt and blades of grass. The kid had a bad habit of taking things from the house, burying them in the backyard and then digging them up a few days later as 'akmelodgecal arfacts.'

Indiana nodded gravely. "Well, hurry up and bring it here so I can get a good look at it. For some reason, I bet your mother will really like this one."

Obliging toward her father, Christine darted toward the desk. Before she could take four steps, Mutt leaped out from behind the door and snatched her up in his arms.

"Mutt!" The girl shrieked with laughter he threw her into the air and then caught her on the descent.

"Chrissy!" he replied in a falsetto voice to tease her.

"Don't copy me," she warned, her sunshine smile changing swiftly into a dangerously cute pout. "'s not nice." Mutt grinned at her as he spun her around so she was straddling his hip.

"Mean? Me?" he said, a practiced hurt look leaping to his face.

"Yep, you," she said, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed a sloppy kiss to his cheek. "But I like you even when you mean." Mutt made a face, mostly to show his dad that he was not becoming emotional. Inwardly, he was warmed by his baby sister's sweetness. Chrissy was not always so kind, and he had the bruised shins to prove it.

Indiana picked up the cufflinks and walked out from behind his desk, deftly attaching the cufflinks to his shirt. He nodded to Mutt, that stupid smug smirk back on his face. "Great, you found your adventure. Good boy."

"Huh?" Mutt said, still confused. Chrissy giggled and grinned at him, and Mutt's face fell as he caught on. "Oh, what, no, Dad! No way!" Mutt put Chrissy on the ground and scowled at Indiana. "I'm not babysitting tonight, I've got a date. And you're a lousy, stinking liar."

"I'm certain your motorcycle can reschedule, Junior," Indiana replied, not missing a beat as he took the pendant from Chrissy's hand. "Thanks, princess." She beamed at him with complete adoration. She was daddy's girl, and everyone knew it. Chrissy was more comfortable in a crypt in England with her dad than shopping for dresses with her mother any day.

"Doggy, you gots to stay with me," Chrissy said, using the nickname she come up for Mutt when she was a toddler. "Mommy and Daddy gonna go to dinner. You gonna play with me." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a toad. He croaked sullenly and lay still in her small, outstretched hands. "Here, you play with Goggles. He's a good froggy."

Mutt looked from his smiling, amphibian-holding little sister to his smirking, self-satisfied father and did the only thing he could think of. "MOOOOOM!"

He stormed out of the room, down the hall, and grabbed the end of the stairs' banister. He heard Chrissy and Indiana follow him, but he really did not care what they did right now. "MOOOOM!" he yelled up the stairs, annoyance and anger clear in his voice, "Mom! Come down here!"

"I'm coming, Mutt, give me a second," Marion called from her and Indy's room. "I can't find my shoes…"

"Goggles wants to play with you, Mutt!"

"I don't have a second, Mom! Come down here!"

"Don't bother your mother," Indiana said, shaking his head at Mutt. "She's trying to get ready."

"Well, someone better get unready so they can watch Chrissy," Mutt said. He stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest. "It'd be irresponsible of you guys to leave her in the house all alone."

"Yes, that's why you're here," Indiana said. He laughed at the put-out expression on Mutt's face and ruffled Chrissy's hair. "I don't think Mutt wants to play with Goggles right now, sweetheart. Maybe you should go put him back outside."

"But then the kitty might eat him," she said, clutching the toad to herself. It gave a distressed meep and puffed up to pretend dead.

"What kit…cat?" Mutt asked. He glared at his father accusingly. "You guys got a cat?"

"No," Indiana started, but the grandfather clock at the end of the hall chimed, and the sentence ended in a low curse. "Marion!" he shouted, "Marion, we're going to be late for the banquet!"

"I told you, I'm coming!" There was the noise of Marion flinging things around the bedroom and slamming closet doors. "Didn't you hear me say that two seconds ago?!"

"That was when Junior asked you, now I'm asking you."

"The name's Mutt! And you wouldn't even let me have a dog while I was here. Why does Chrissy get a cat?"

"Marion! Get down here!"

"You Jones men, you're all the same. Pig-headed, demanding, and complete whiny brats!" Marion shouted before slamming the bedroom door.

Indiana made a face. "Come on, Marion! Don't make me have to add tardy to that list."

"Don't lump me in with him, Mom. I've got an actual complaint, and I'm not whining. Unlike Pops here…"

"Junior, don't start with me right now."

"I'm not starting anything, I'm just not doing it."

Christine tugged at her father's shirtsleeve with one hand while keeping a death-grip on the toad with the other. "Don't let the kitty kill Goggles, Daddy! It don't like Goggles."

"I'm certain the cat doesn't, honey. Now just go put him outside, please."

"Oh," Mutt said, leaning against the banister, his arms still crossed over his chest. "And just because Chrissy is five and I was nineteen when I lived here doesn't mean you can treat her differently than me. We're both your kids, or did you forget that, Jones Sr.?"

Upstairs, Marion threw open the door so she could shout at her husband. "Hey! I want you to know that I'll add whatever I like to that list, Indiana Jones! I might even add divorced if you keep yelling at me."

Indiana pulled his hands over his face in exasperation. "I'm only yelling because I can't be heard over the damn kids!"

"They're your damn kids! Handle it!"

"He'll eat him, Daddy! You don't care…" Chrissy started a whimpering sob. She let go of her father's sleeve and ran up the stairs before he could do anything to stop her.

"Nice going, Pops," Mutt said, shaking his head, "Now Chrissy's crying."

"This isn't my fault, kid."

"What did you two do to Chrissy?!" Marion shrieked as her daughter ran into the bedroom, tears starting to streak her dirt-stained face.

"Nothing!" Indiana and Mutt yelled in unison. They looked at each other and glared, annoyed at their similarities.

"You know what?" Mutt said, pushing away from the banister, "You shouldn't have tricked me into babysitting. So I'm going on my date to teach you a lesson about how you should treat your kids."

A strong arm across his chest stopped him from going anywhere. "No, you're not." Before Mutt could protest, Indiana gave a heavy sigh, "Hey, kid, I would've asked you, but I knew you would come up with a reason to say 'no.' Babysitting on a Friday night wasn't exactly a fun thing to when I was your age either."

"You were my age?" Mutt snorted. "When was that, the Paleolithic era?"

"Ha-ha," the elder Jones said, rolling his eyes. "But look, if you'll just watch Chrissy tonight, I'll make it up to you soon, all right?"

"How?" Mutt asked, narrowing his eyes at Indiana. Indiana shrugged and straightened his tie.

"I'll come up with something. Just trust me."

"Huh, that's asking a lot," Mutt grumbled, leaning back against the wall, the back of his head resting between an African tribal mask and an Italian masquerade half-mask. A smirk settled on his face before he leveled his hazel eyes at his father. "Toss in the bucks for a new set of tires, Daddio, and we might call it a deal."

Indiana growled and ground his teeth for a few long moments then gave a tight nod. "Fine, but you're getting a helmet too."

"I don't do helmets. Hat hair's hell, remember?" Mutt said, quoting one of her personal mottos. Indiana laughed and ruffled Mutt's hair.

"Can't be much worse than it is already," he said, then tilted back his head in a shout before Mutt could retort, "Marion, let's go, woman!"

While Mutt hurriedly tamed his hair with his ever-present comb, Marion stomped down the stairs, making a point to hit each stair as if she had a personal vendetta against it. Her high heels clacked in tune with her annoyance. Chrissy was balanced on her hip, and she buried her face in her mother's shoulder when she saw Indiana. In her hand, Goggles croaked in desperation before going silent again.

"I said I was coming, Jones!" Marion said, come to a peeved halt on the bottom step. She resituated her hold on Chrissy and glared at him with her stormy blue eyes. "I know you heard me when I was screaming at you."

Indiana gave Mutt a long-suffering look before grabbing Marion and pulling her off the bottom step. Before she could protest, he pressed his lips against hers in a silencing kiss. Three things happened at once: Marion's anger lessened, Mutt gagged, and Chrissy screeched her protest. Chrissy broke her parents' kiss by shoving her father away from her mother and wriggling down to the ground.

"Ew! Gross," she said, scrunching her nose and dashing toward Mutt, who she knew would share her opinion.

"Completely," Mutt added, mirroring her facial expression. He looked down at his sister. "Be glad I'm saving you from that for a few hours. I know you're probably mentally scarred from being around it all the time."

"You're staying?" Christine asked. She put Goggles in her pocket again and narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Yep, kiddo," he said, grinning at her. "You're stuck with me for the night."

"Yay!" Christine exclaimed, and she wrapped her arms around his legs, "We gets to have lots of fun, right, Mutt?"

"Of course," Mutt said, smirking past her at his parents before returning her excited smile, "We're going to take a ride on my motorcycle, and then go down to the Foxy Kitten Den before picking up some beer down at Dockside."

"Nifty," Chrissy said, eyes glistening at the thought of doing what her older brother considered fun.

"Mutt!" Marion exclaimed, tapping her foot on the ground.

"Just kidding, Mom. Except about the beer part; I'm thirsty."

"Very funny, kid," Indiana said. He shook his head and gave a sweeping motion to the house. "Usual rules. Dinner at seven, bath at eight, in bed by nine. We're reading Grimm's Fairytales in French; it's on her bed stand."

"I think I could've found it," Mutt said. He jerked his thumb at the clock. "Aren't you guys going to be late?"

Indiana let out a hiss and grabbed Marion's wrist. "Car, now," he snapped, dragging her toward the door. He bent down as they passed Chrissy and gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead. "See you when we get back, princess."

Marion tugged her wrist out of Indiana's grip so she could hug her daughter. "Oooo, love you, Chrissy," she said, snuggling the girl until Indiana tugged her hand again. "We'll be back soon. Be good for your brother." She stood up and kissed Mutt on the cheek. He made a face but did not wipe the kiss away. "You be good to your sister, too."

"Oh, and here I was planning on feeding her Jalapeño peppers," he said. He grinned at Marion when her expression said she wanted to smack him, and Marion sighed.

"We'll be back by ten. See you then," Marion said, brushing her hand against her oldest's arm.

Mutt and Chrissy followed their parents to the kitchen door. Indiana practically shoved Marion out the door before turning around to pin both of his children with a steely-eyed, no-nonsense look.

"Behave," he said, "Or else."

Both of them stared at him, neither promising to obey nor outwardly rebelling. Indiana seemed to take that as a good sign and closed to door behind him with a final jerk. Mutt glanced at Chrissy, who was sitting at the kitchen table, and the five-year-old beamed an innocent smile at him.

"Wanna play dress-up?"

A/N: I'll get into the real plot in the next chapter, and I should update at least once a week. Thanks for reading the first chapter; pictures of the OCs in this story can be found in my profile.