March 1927

House of Prof. Abner Ravenwood

Chicago, USA

To Henry Jones, Jr.

You will find it quite surprising hearing from me. I am, as you can imagine, quite surprised myself that I am forced to take this step. I shall not write about your unspeakable actions that insulted me and dishonoured my family. If these times were not calling for drastic measures I should not exchange another word with you in my life.

However, Henry Jones, I found myself in a situation, that is unbearable for me and is, although it is painful for me to admit, calling for your assistance. My beloved daughter Marion was kidnapped from her school only days ago. I had no knowledge of this until yesterday, when I was contacted by a man, requesting a certain papyrus in exchange for Marion's life. This man was referring to my latest dig in Egypt, but was rather unspecific about what the nature of the papyrus.

As you see now, I am in dire need for your assistance. I do not know which papyrus my daughter's kidnapper is referring to since I focused my interest on the headpiece of the Stuff of Ra. I do, however, recall you talking about some papyrus that you discovered in a different part of the excavation. After your hasty retreat from the dig I did not follow up on these papyrus since my emotions were blinding me. I shall now overcome my own pride and ask you to help me: Please write me where you found the papyrus so that I can obtain them and thus save Marion's life. I know I should now appeal to your affection for my daughter to make your decision to help me. However, I can not.

Regards,

Dr. Abner Ravenwood sighed heavily. Only his signature was missing on this letter. How he detested writing it, writing him. After making his former protégé leave Egypt he had promised himself to never speak a word to Henry Jones Jr. In a way, he was still true to this promise, since he did not exchange a word with orally. Abner knew however, that that were merely semantics.

He put down the pen and stood up. He walked to the hidden file cabinet where he kept his whiskey. He looked at the bottle and almost fondly remembered the time he had found Marion secretly nipping at the liquor.

Still caught up in his inner turmoil he heard a knock on his door and jumped. Setting down the bottle he made his way from his study to the front door.

'This is not possible' Abner thought as he opened the door to a familiar face.

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"Abner, Dr. Ravenwood, I …" Henry Jones Jr. stuttered. Despite having rehearsed what he wanted to say, he was so nervous staring at the face of the man that hated him so much. He swallowed a large lump down his throat and started again: "Abner, we need to talk." He contuined to stare at the older man, quite afraid of his reaction. Whatever he had imagined Abner would, could and should have said, his actual reply had not been anticipated.

"Yes, Henry Jones, we do." With this, Abner Ravenwood opened his door to the home that the younger man knew as well as his own.

After silently walking to the study, Ravenwood quickly hid his letter under some books. He was torn due to the presence of the young archaeologist. On the one hand he was glad that Jones was here, so the whole process of obtaining the papyrus would be sped up, but on the other hand, he simply despised seeing his face again - the cocky grin that must have been so attractive to his daughter. 'Enough', Abner thought and squeezed his eyes to shut out the images of his daughter and…

Henry Jones saw the struggle in his mentor's face. 'Damn, he's still thinking about skinning me alive' Jones thought. He had to act quickly before his courage would go down the drain or his sanity would reappear. "Abner, I … I don't know where to start, but I'd guess I will have to apologize first."

This caught Ravenwood's interest, since he had no idea as to why his former student had come to his house. He nodded at Jones, indicating for him to continue.

"I am really sorry for how you found out about us. I know it was not appropriate and that she was off-limits. I know that, but… but I just couldn't. Abner, I'm not a boy any more, and I've met other women, but never, I swear, never have a fallen for a women so fast and so hard as I have for your daughter." Jones rushed on, looking pleadingly into the older man's face.

"A girl, Henry, a girl!" Abner accousingly said. "Marion's a girl, not a woman. And you knew that!!!"

April 1926

Campus of the University of Chicago

Chicago, USA

Henry Jones Jr. was walking around on the grounds of his new campus. He liked what he had seen so far, and he especially liked the opportunity that his mentor would give him here. Dr. Abner Ravenwood had agreed to take him, the young archaeologist in, so that he could study and profit from his immense knowledge of history. Although he had studied history and archaeology at different universities around the world, he was still giddy as a schoolboy that he had received Abner's invitation to Chicago. Which, of course, he had answered in an instant and had arranged his travel to the Windy City immediately.

So here he was now, looking for his meeting with Abner, which would be in a couple of hours. Until then, he had set his mind to enjoying the last few 'free' hours without studying. He sat down on a bench at the university and looked at the greening trees. The weather was perfect and the warm breeze invited him to close his eyes.

"I know that older men have different sleeping patterns, but why do you have to choose our bench?" a voice intruded his perfect free-time-moment suddenly.

He opened one eye and decided that the figure in front of him was female, thus deserving to be looked at with both eyes. And he liked what he saw. Taking in her dark, wavy hair, deep green eyes, freckled face and perfect figure, a cocky grin started to appear in his face.

"It's not the age, honey, it's the mileage. But you know what they say about old men and experience, don't you?" he replied.

Marion's grin slowly faded and a deep crimson flush developed. Lord, how was she supposed to take this comment? "Well, most of the experience of men is overrated since it's exaggerated anyways, Mr…"

"Ah, a feisty one, huh? Call me Indy." Indy smirked. He had a soft spot for those girls that were smart enough for a witty comeback.

"I wouldn't go as far as calling myself feisty, Mr. Indy, but why should I leave all the witty comments to men?" Marion shot back and her friend snickered.

Marion Ravenwood had seen the man sitting on her and her best friend Marge's bench, being so much at ease as she has rarely had seen on the campus at the University. The students were usually so caught up in their studying of worrying about their studies that they hardly ever noticed or even enjoyed the pleasant surroundings. She walked over to the bench, not giving it up without a fight and took a moment to look at the man. He was wearing a tan suit with his jacket and had sitting beside him on the bench. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up and revealed strong, muscular arms. His hair was of a sandy brownish color and a very light shadow covered his cheeks and chin, where a thin scar could her attention. As she made her presence known, he opened his eyes and Marion was caught up in his incredible eyes. What were they? Blue, grey, hazel? They seemed to change their color within an instant. 'Interesting', Marion thought, 'and a nice way to spend an otherwise boring afternoon.'

As their eyes locked, Indy took away his hat and jacket and Marion sat down promptly, forgetting all about Marge and the boys they wanted to chat about. "You are right, you can certainly not leave all the witty comments to a man. But those comments only disguise the unfortunate situation in which the man is in, since he doesn't know even the simplest thing about you, such as your name, Miss…"

"Marion. And somehow it seems to me that you are able to charm yourself out of every tight situation."

"So, Miss Marion, does this already qualify as a tight situation for you? Then your tight situations are a less tight than mine usually are." His cocky grin was wide now.

"I see we're back at the experience argument, Mr. Indy? I have already disqualified this point two minutes ago, haven't I?" Marion said coyly. Indy stared at the beautiful girl and couldn't help but laugh out loud. Things were really to his liking in Chicago.