Chicago, 1926
Abner Ravenwood knew he hadn't liked Nick Balinger. Not in the 1890s and most certainly not now. Abner had just discovered that Henry Jones Junior had gotten Abner's daughter, Marion, pregnant. Luckily, the bum had been down in South America. Abner had been going to move her to London and get rid of the child. It would have worked too, if not for the fact that Nick showed up with an entourage. Two women, one man and a 12-year-old girl. The man held a genuine and well-kept cruciform sword at Abner's neck. He seemed tireless, never faltering, while Balinger sat on the front porch, awaiting Jones's return. The two women and the girl were taking care of Marion, who they'd insisted should stay in bed at least until Jones returned. Abner didn't know just how they expected to keep him pinned down until Jones got back. Then he got the answer. The sound of tyres squealing outside the front gate reached Abner's ears. They'd found a way to contact him and they'd told him what was going on here. When Jones stormed in, Balinger trailing behind him, he looked pissed off to say the least.
'You son of a bitch!' Jones grabbed him by the collar and slammed him painfully against the wall; Balinger's friend moved the sword so he could. 'You tried to take them away from me!'
'As if you could handle the responsibility,' Abner hissed. 'To the point, Marion's only a child herself. Neither of you could handle it.'
'Actually,' Jones murmured. 'I think it's you who couldn't handle it.'
At that moment, the little girl materialised next to Jones. She put her hand on his arm. Jones looked down at her.
'Marion wants to see you,' she said.
Jones dropped him and left the room. Abner went to move but had the sword at his neck again. He looked up at the two men and the child that were looking down at him in distaste. He realised that he was grossly outnumbered.
Marion looked out the window as she lay in bed, waiting for Indy. It was one thing, to her, to daydream about carrying and giving birth to Indy's babies. It was something else entirely for it to actually be happening. She rubbed her belly, absent-mindedly soothing the restless child within her that Indy and her had made together.
She smiled slightly when she felt the bed shift and Indy's hand push her hair out of the way. He immediately started kissing her neck. He was smiling against her skin so either he didn't know yet or he knew and he was ecstatic about it.
'Did they tell you?' she asked breathlessly.
'Yeah,' he murmured. 'Could have killed Abner. Could have lost you both. Doesn't bare thinking.'
'Then don't think about it,' she told him, turning her head.
He caught her lips in a kiss and she smiled against his mouth. His arms wound around her and over their baby. When they finally broke the kiss, she rested her head on his shoulder.
'So what are we going to do now?' Marion asked.
'Maybe we could talk about china patterns?' Indy suggested.
'China patterns?' she asked, looking up at him in confusion.
'Well…' he drawled, rubbing her belly. 'I got this little kid in here, it'd look a little sloppy if I didn't marry you.'
'Since when have you ever cared about looking "sloppy" Mr. Battered…everything?' Marion laughed. 'You don't care what anyone thinks. What's the real reason you wanna marry me?'
He was silent for a moment, probably collecting his thoughts.
'I almost lost the both of you today,' he told her, 'because your father, who still owns you by law, didn't want our kid to be born. He was willing to risk killing both of you just to stop it happening. I don't want to risk that again. I love you, honey. The only way I can ensure Abner stops is to, if you'll excuse the "dominant male" phrase, take possession of you from Abner. And the only way I can do that is to marry you, so I'll do it.'
'You don't want to lose us?' Marion murmured. 'That's it?'
'That's it,' Indy promised. 'So…Marion Ravenwood, will you marry me?'
She leaned up and kissed him,
'Yes.'