Keeping Up With The Joneses
An Indiana Jones Fanfic
By Missmissa85
Mutt grunted in pain as he landed face first in the dirt, again. He spit the blood in his mouth out and pushed himself to his knees. A swift kick in the ribs was his reward. He coughed and sputtered as he landed on his back.
"You learned your lesson yet, Mutt?" the letter-jacketted jock sneered at him.
Mutt hooked his boot around the jock's leg and sent him sprawling onto his back. Mutt started to get up, but two of the jock's friends held him down on his knees. The jock pounded his face mercilessly, while the other two held Mutt down.
"Hey, Frank! Lay off him!"
Mutt directed his swollen eye toward the new voice. It was a girl he had seen in some of his classes. They'd never spoken, though, and Mutt had absolutely no idea why she would be defending him.
"Why, Katy, because you said so?" the jock asked mockingly.
"Yeah, Frank, because I said so," she answered.
"Sorry, Katy, that's not good enough."
The jock laid his fist into Mutt's face again. The blood and pain kept him from seeing what happened next. He heard a fist connecting with a face-not his-and someone shouting, "Jesus, Katy," before the two other jocks let go of him and they all moved away. Mutt collapsed in a heap on the ground.
A small hand gently shook his shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" the girl asked him.
"No," he answered, pushing himself up.
She held onto his elbow and helped him to his feet. He pushed away from her only to lose his balance and nearly fall over again. She took a firm grasp of his arm and kept him standing.
"Come on, Tiger. Let's get you cleaned up."
"Ow! What the hell is that?"
The girl, whose name Mutt learned was Katy Marshall, swatted his hand away, and continued dabbing his forehead. "It's rubbing alcohol, and if you keep fighting me, you'll just prolong the agony," she told him.
Mutt rolled his eyes. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because Frank's an ass," she answered.
Mutt laughed. "Can't say I disagree with you. Ow!"
"All done," Katy announced.
Mutt watched as Katy replaced the bottle in the cabinet and threw the used cotton balls away. They were in the basement kitchen of her parents' house, although mansion was probably a better terminology. Katy didn't look like a spoiled rich girl, though. She was an average co-ed who bordered on forgettable.
"So your last name's Marshall, huh?" Mutt asked, attempting to make conversation as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. "Did your family found the college or something?"
"Yeah. My father is still on the Board of Regents," she explained as she headed toward the refrigerator. "You want something to drink?"
"No thanks," Mutt answered. "Who went to West Point?"
"I beg your pardon?" she said, peering over the refrigerator door.
"That ring on your right hand," he replied, "the one you used to bust little Frankie in the mouth, it's from West Point. Last time I checked, they didn't let girls in."
Katy closed the refrigerator door and looked down at the large ring on the middle finger of her right hand. She rubbed it fondly and said, "It was my boyfriend's."
"Where's your boyfriend?" Mutt asked before he could stop the words from escaping.
Katy forced a smile and choked back tears. "Arlington," she answered simply.
Mutt felt like kicking himself in the head. "I'm sorry," he said.
"It's okay," she assured him. "It was almost four years ago. He, uh, he froze to death. His unit was on a training exercise in Korea, and they got cut off for a couple of days. He gave up his coat and his extra socks so his men could stay warm. I was eighteen, he was only twenty-one. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you that."
"Oh, no, that's fine," he answered, moving toward the door. "I, uh, I guess I'll just go. Thanks for your...help, Katy."
"Oh, anytime, Henry."
Mutt grimaced at the sound of his actual name. "I go by Mutt."
She gave him a dazzlingly bright smile. "Like father, like son, I guess."
He shifted uncomfortably. "How do you know about that? I still go by Williams."
"I told you my family founded the college," she answered. "I know everything about everyone there, especially anyone named Jones."
Mutt laughed. "Right. Thanks again for everything, Katy."
"You're welcome, Mutt."
"Hey, Mom!" Mutt called as he came into what used to be Indiana Jones' house alone.
No answer.
"Mom?" he called again. "Indy? Are you home?"
He made a quick survey of the living area and the kitchen. No one. He peeked into Indy's office. Nothing. He trudged upstairs. He heard nothing. No one was home. It was almost dark. Someone should have been home.
"Mom? Indy?" he called out again hopefully. "Dad?" he added hesitantly.
He went back to Indy's office and picked up the phone. "Marshall College, Department of Archeology," the female voice on the other end said.
"Yeah, is Doctor Jones in his office?"
"I'm afraid Doctor Jones hasn't been in all day."
"What? What are you talking about? I saw him leave this morning."
"Then he apparently never made it because he didn't show up for any of his lectures or his office hours today," the phone operator told him.
As rash as Indy was, he wouldn't bail on his classes without giving notice. Something was definitely wrong.
"Did-did any packages or anything arrive for Dr. Jones today?" he asked.
"Oh, only one, later this afternoon, but I think it was mislabeled," the operator told him. "It's addressed to someone called Henry Jones III."
"That's me," he told her. "I'll be right there."
"Wow, Kid, what happened to you?" the receptionist asked as Mutt walked into the room.
He rolled his eyes in response. "None of your business. Where's the package?"
"Jeez, Kid, don't get snippy with me," she warned him as she reached under her desk and acquired a messily wrapped box.
Mutt pulled his switchblade from his pocket and quickly cut the box' bonds. When he saw what was inside, the knife clattered on the desk.
"Watch it! You nearly cut my hand off."
He didn't really hear the receptionist's complaint. All he was capable of perceiving was the old, worn, brown fedora he clutched in his hand. He grabbed the note from the bottom of the box and ran out of the office despite the receptionist's yelled complaints. As soon as he was under a streetlight, he looked at the note. It said:
We are looking for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. You will produce the Ark in 72 hours or both of your parents will be killed. Your father's famous hat is your proof of life. You will be contacted again in 24 hours.
Help was the only word that came to his mind. He needed some serious help. Oxley was back in England. The Dean was in Massachusetts. Indy was his best chance and he'd gone and gotten himself kidnapped. He jumped on his bike and went the only direction he could think of.
He banged on the kitchen door until an older, black woman opened it. She looked him up and down and said, "You need something, young sir?"
"I need to see Katy," he said, out of breath.
"Why?" she asked, incredulous.
"I just-I need to see her, okay?"
"Maggie? What's going on?" a new voice asked. "Who's this?"
The voice belonged to a tall blonde woman in her mid-thirties who was dressed for a formal dinner. Mutt could only assume this was Katy's mother, or step-mother.
"I'm Mutt Williams, ma'am, or Mutt Jones, or whatever, but I just need to talk to Katy for a couple of minutes."
The blonde woman crossed her arms and narrowed her gaze at him. "Why?" she asked suspiciously.
"Because he's a friend," another voice answered.
This one belonged to Katy. She was dressed for a formal affair as well. Mutt blinked a couple of times before he realized it was her.
"What would you two possibly have to discuss?" the blonde woman asked.
"That's none of your business, Lynn," Katy told her. "Why don't you go back to your little party? You too, Maggie."
The black woman left first. The blonde woman left in a huff. Katy turned to Mutt and said, "Well, surely you didn't come here just to get your bandages changed."
"Do you recognize this?" he asked her holding up Indy's hat.
"It's Dr. Jones' favorite hat," she answered. "What about it?"
"It came in a box addressed to me with this note," he said handing her the slip of paper. He watched her closely as she read it. "You said you knew everything about everyone at the college. What do you know about this?"
"Well, I certainly didn't know your parents had been kidnapped," she told him, "but I do remember something about the Ark. Come with me."
She led him up the kitchen stairs to the second story of the opulent house. After leading him through halls of mahogany walls and red rugs, she came to a set of double doors. She pushed them open and revealed an office full of shelves of books large and small.
"I guess this is your father's office," Mutt said as he slowly followed her inside.
"Well, doesn't your father have one?" she asked going straight for the desk.
"Yeah, it's just not this...big," he answered.
She smiled. "Few would be. Have you got a knife or something?"
"Sure."
She examined it as he handed it to her. "A switchblade. How West Side Story of you."
"What?"
"Oh, you're probably not into musicals, are you?" she said, pressing the button and flipping open the knife.
As she stuck the blade into the desk, he said, "What are you doing?"
"Dad keeps some of his more personal books locked in his desk," she explained. "I'm using the knife to pry open the drawer."
"Couldn't you just ask your dad?"
The drawer came open, Katy smiled, and handed the knife back to Mutt. As she dug through the drawer, she said, "He's in California, which is why my step-mother is downstairs catting around with the east-coast elite. Aha!"
"What is it?" Mutt asked, joining her on the other side of the desk.
She opened the small, leather-bound book. Every page was written on by hand. "It's Marcus Brody's journal," she explained.
"Marcus Brody was the old dean, right?" Mutt asked.
"Yeah, he was also a great friend of your father's," she said as she flipped through the pages. "When he died, Dr. Jones was supposed to get all of his personal effects, but Dad wanted this journal. He took it before Dr. Jones could even get to Brody's house and then told him he knew nothing about it."
"That wasn't very nice," Mutt commented.
"Well, you know, Dad's a lying bastard," Katy muttered. "Here it is. The government sort of sent your dad after the Ark because they had intell that said Hitler was after it, and no one wants Nazis to have the power of God, so, better Indiana Jones than Adolf Hitler."
"That's true," Mutt agreed. "Did Indy get it?"
"Yeah, both your mom and dad brought it to the states, but the government promptly confiscated it," she continued. "Neither your mom, your dad, or Brody ever saw it again."
"What's the big deal?" Mutt asked her. "It's just a box."
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "It's not the box, it's what's inside it."
"And what's that?"
"The power of the Almighty," she answered smiling.
"And why is that worth kidnapping Indy and my mom?"
She withdrew a folded piece of paper from the pages of the journal and handed it to him. "Read your dad's letter to Marcus," she told him. "Follow me."
He followed her through the halls and into another room. He was so enthralled with Indy's descriptions of heads exploding and faces melting, that he didn't realize where he was until Katy asked him to finish unzipping her dress.
"What?" he asked, startled.
"I can't reach this, will you get it for me?" she asked motioning toward the half-undone zipper.
"Oh." He put the paper between his teeth and hesitantly reached for the dress. He unzipped it, his fingers lightly brushing her rear when he reached the bottom. He quickly withdrew his hand. He was sure he saw a sly smile spread across her face as she disappeared behind a screen.
"What, exactly, are you doing?" he asked her finally.
"Well, I'm not going to go tramping through the desert in a dress," she answered.
"Desert?"
She poked her head out from behind the screen. "Well, if you were the United States government, where would you hide all of your biggest secrets?"
"Good point, but why do you think your coming along?"
She emerged from behind the screen dressed in a pair of jeans and a button-up shirt. "Well, you didn't actually come all the way over here not to take me along."
"No, I came over here because you said you knew things, which apparently you do."
"You know, you would have known at least half of what I told you if you just paid attention to your father occasionally."
"You're one to talk. I just heard you call your father a lying bastard."
"He is a lying bastard," she returned. "Your father, on the other hand, is a good man."
"If he's so saintly, where was he the first twenty years of my life?" Mutt asked her loudly. "You know what, I don't even know why we're talking about this. I'm going to the police."
"The police won't help you find the Ark, Mutt," she told him.
"I'm not looking for the Ark," he insisted. "I'm looking for Indy and my mom."
Katy sighed, exasperated. "Look, all I know is that Indiana Jones has a talent for attracting unsavory characters, and if you don't find that Ark soon, Indy and your mom, who, I believe, was around for the first twenty years of your life, are going to die. I can help you, Mutt. Let me help you."
Mutt looked down at the hat in his hand. The hat that hardly ever left Indy's head. Whatever had happened, they weren't getting out of it that easily. They needed help. And so did he.
"My bike's outside."