Indiana Jones and the Necklace of Hecate
Longer Summary
The necklace of Hecate, goddess of the crossroads who can see the past present and future, was discovered by Jones years earlier. Now someone is after it, but the powerful artifact is no longer with Marion, its safe keeper. Mutts ex has it throwing her into danger and back into Mutts life much to her chagrin. MUTT/OC
Chapter 3: Airborne
Chris only filled a knapsack full of a few changes of clothes and some money. After trading the heels Tracy had bought her for her old beat up chucks with the crooked heart Mutt had drawn in permanent marker on the toe she locked up and hopped back on Mutt's bike. An hour later and they were boarding a small plane on a private runway that they apparently didn't have permission to use because the owners came out yelling at them just as the engines started up.
Mutt took the seat beside Chris, who continued to stare out the small window and ignored his presence. Indy watched the two from his own seat. Anyone could see by the girl's body language that she didn't want to talk. Everyone but Mutt apparently.
"Does he know he's playing with fire?" Indy whispered to Marion, nodding his head in the direction of their son.
"After all this time, he knows what he's dealing with Indiana." She answered softly as she turned her attention to the young on-again-off-again couple.
Indy wasn't so sure about that, but he wasn't about to say anything more. He just sat back and got comfortable waiting for the in flight entertainment to begin. Putting his son and that girl together seemed to almost be explosive and it would surely be amusing.
"So how long have you been seeing the letterman?" Mutt finally spoke to the back of Chris' head once he realized she wasn't going to be looking at him anytime soon.
"That was the first." She still didn't look at him, watching as the ground grew smaller beneath them instead.
"Are you going to see him again?" He questioned further, trying to get her to elaborate, to talk more.
"I'm sure we'll have some of the same classes." That is if she still had her scholarship when she got back from wherever it was they were heading.
"That's not what I meant. I meant is he, like, someone you could see yourself going steady with?" He mumbled the question, half not wanting to even hear the answer. There was nothing he could do about it if she did. He wasn't the letterman type and if that was what she was looking for now there was nothing he could do to change it.
"He didn't even ask me what I wanted before he ordered. All he could talk about is sports and I'm pretty sure the only reason he asked me out is because of Tracy." Turning to look at the leather clad boy beside her for the first time since they had boarded the plane Chris noticed his confusion at her rant. "So that would be a no."
Chris could sense the conversation would soon turn towards a discussion about them and not feeling up to discussing something so heavy in such a small space she turned the subject on him.
"Now, tell me how exactly you discovered that your biological father is our Archeology professor and why he seems way too used to guys with guns chasing after him." That story took a good deal of the flight. It was an impressive one. Chris would have thought he was lying or exaggerating at some points, but he never bit his lip, not even once, which was the usual tell-tale sign that he wasn't being a hundred percent honest.
Chris had to admit it felt good to be sitting there just talking with Mutt again. It felt like old times. And that's exactly what she was afraid of. She had already told herself that she would never fall back into the unstable relationship that Mutt and her had shared. Avoiding him had been a crucial part of that plan because in just a few minutes he could remind her of the boy she knew when they first met, first kissed: the boy she first loved. Which was exactly how they had fallen into that insane routine of theirs over the years.
Eventually she ended up falling asleep but not before she heard Mutt mutter an apology for dragging her into this crazy mess. Her head fell against his shoulder when she nodded off and Mutt smiled to himself as he tried not to move too much. If he woke her she would move away towards the window and the moment would be lost. For now he wanted to pretend that things had never changed.
Indy was just waking from his own nap as Chris was falling into hers and he was surprised to find Mutt still sitting in his seat beside her. The last time they were on a plane together the kid spent most of his time busying himself with making sure his bike was properly stored and unharmed. This time he seemed more content with watching the sleeping brunette beside him. Maybe the kid's priorities weren't as skewed as Indy had once thought.
The bumpy landing jolted Marion and Chris awake and as Chris started tumbling forward in her seat Mutt's arm reached out across her body to protect her from crashing into the wall. When Indy didn't do as such with Marion she harrumphed.
"I know from experience that you can take care of yourself." Indy smirked before kissing her on the cheek. And with that all was forgiven. Indy had a way of getting Marion to forget her anger.
Chris quickly grabbed her knapsack and followed after Dr. Jones and Mrs. Williams so as not to be left alone with Mutt. Her plan didn't work out so well once Mutt rejoined them from getting his bike from the cargo area. Dr. Jones instructed that Mutt and her follow Marion and himself on Mutt's bike as they headed out to the old dig site. She couldn't really object seeing as it made sense that Mutt took his bike and she couldn't really see Mrs. Williams or Dr. Jones riding on it with him.
But honestly forcing her to come into close contact with Mutt was doing nothing to help her resistance of thinking about them being together. Especially when in most of the scenarios she was holding onto him. Riding that bike brought back too many damn memories and without the diversion of bullets flying at them Chris would have nothing to protect her from those memories. Therefore when she finally climbed on behind him she first attempted to hold onto her seat. That action seemed fruitless in actually allowing her to keep her balance and she had to resort to placing her hands loosely on Mutt's sides instead.
The mysterious dig site ended up being located in Greece, which seemed logical once Chris thought about how the artifact had belonged to a Greek Goddess. The scenery they rode past was breathtakingly beautiful and made Chris momentarily forget what had brought them to the island. The further from the city they traveled the bumpier the ride became and Chris' grip on Mutt involuntarily tightened. Eventually the taxi Dr. Jones and Marion had gotten could go no further and they were forced to continue on foot after Mutt took particular care in hiding his prized motorcycle.
"So, what exactly are we looking for?" Mutt asked once they had arrived upon the trench in the ground that signified the archeological dig site where Indy had first dug up the trinket that now hung around his girl…ex girlfriend's neck.
"I don't know." Indy replied, hopping down into one of the holes. "Any hieroglyphics or writings on the stones down here would be a start."
After a moment the other three jumped down to join Indy in searching the site. Marion and Chris migrated to one side while Indy and Mutt remained on the other. Once alone Marion attempted to bring about the subject of Chris and her son nonchalantly. She was curious as to what exactly was going on between the two.
"So, did you have a good summer Christine?" The question seemed frivolous to Chris at the time but she supposed Marion was only trying her hand at small talk to ease the tension of the situation.
"It was alright. I wasn't traipsing all over South America, but it was still fun." Marion smiled at the reference to Henry's summer. She should have known he would have told Christine all about it. He always tried to impress her.
"He missed you. While he was out traipsing all over South America." It was true. No one else might have noticed, but every so often when they weren't being chased by or fighting the Soviets, Mutt would pull out the Kodak snapshot he had of Christine that he always kept in the inside pocket of his leather jacket. Marion certainly noticed. But she was his mother; she was supposed to notice those things.
"I highly doubt he had the time." Chris refused to believe that Mutt took the time to even think about her let alone miss her while he was off having grand adventures and was worried about saving his mother and the Ox.
Turning her attention to the ground around her Chris continued looking for any sign of an ancient artifact or anything other than dirt in general but there seemed to be nothing but the brown stuff surrounding them. It didn't help that the sun had already started to set and so there was little light to see by. Indy and Mutt weren't having much better luck on their side of the pit. Nothing was turning up until Mutt half tripped over what seemed to be just a simple piece of wood sticking up from the ground. Cursing to himself he reached down and was just about to chuck the thing into the wilderness around them when Indy stopped him.
"Never throw away potentially useful objects." He stated dryly as he took the wood from Mutt and wiped it off with his free hand.
The piece of wood Mutt was going to throw away turned out to be a sign posted by the city of Athens. Apparently whatever artifacts that had been left behind had been claimed by the city and taken to The National Archaeological Museum of Athens. At least that explained why the dig site was barren, and thankfully it hadn't been grave robbers. It was unfortunate however that the Museum had everything now because touching the artifacts would be a big no-no. Not to mention they would have to wait until the Museum was actually open to continue their search.
"We need to find a place to stay." Indy declared unquestioningly as he lifted himself out of the ditch.
Taking Indy's lead when he saw him help his mother out Mutt turned to offer Chris a hand, but she was already pulling herself up. With no taxi and a bike that only seated two the four ended up walking the way back to the town. Mutt followed a little behind as he had insisted he bring his bike, so he was stuck pushing it the miles back. Every once in a while Chris would glance back swiftly over her shoulder. She knew the bike was heavy, and felt a little bad that he had to push it the whole way back himself.
It startled Mutt out of his thoughts when Chris' hands rested beside his own on the bike. She had come back to help him, walking alongside the opposite side of the bike. Making an effort not to look at him Chris kept her eyes on the ground before them all the while feeling Mutt's gaze on her. The only reason she had come back there was to offer a helping hand. If they were going to be stuck together she decided she might as well play nice, but that didn't mean she would let him back in. Whether she was capable of keeping him out was something she didn't know yet.
"Ants said you haven't been around the shop much." Mutt finally broke the silent streak.
"I've been busy." Chris answered with a shrug. She didn't want to get into how she had avoided the shop as well as all of Mutt's usual hangouts like the plague.
"Too busy for your friends?" Those words cut deep. She could hear how Mutt felt as if she thought she was better than Ants, better than him. This was what had triggered a lot of their past fights.
"I wasn't avoiding Ants. If he wanted to see me he could have visited as well. It goes both ways." She gritted her teeth as she spoke, practically admitting that she had been evading Mutt. It was better to have him know she had been avoiding him specifically than to have him think she simply thought herself better than him and Ants.
"So you were avoiding me?" When Chris' eyes flashed to meet his Mutt could see the answer clearly. "Why?"
"Because you would just make things all the more confusing. Can we please just not get into this now?" Mutt wanted to argue, to pursue the topic. They needed to talk it out if they were ever going to get past it. Chris must have known that as well, which was most likely why she didn't want to pursue the conversation. But she couldn't avoid it forever.
Before he could formulate a response Chris had stopped walking, taking her hand off the bike and restraining him with it, making him halt as well. Taken by surprise in mid step his right foot hit the forest floor before him lightly, only to have it crumble away. Looking down into the hole to see spikes poking up from the bottom sent Mutt back-tracking another step. It was a trap. And he had almost walked right into it. Glancing up at Chris he found her with her eyes shut tight and her hands shaking on the bike.
"Chris?" He asked softly, placing his hand on her shoulder lightly. She looked as if she was having an anxiety attack.
"What's the hold up back there?" Indy called back once he noticed the two kids had stopped moving.
"Something's wrong with Chris." Mutt answered, not taking his eyes off of the still shaking brunette.
"It was so realistic. It was horrible." Chris muttered when she finally opened her eyes to find Mutt still in one piece looking worried for her. Her, as if she had ever been in any danger. Unsure of which vision was actually real she wanted to reach out and touch him to make sure he was really standing before her but she couldn't seem to make her hands move. "You fell, and your scream," she shivered at the memory. "And you looked so broken and bloody."
"Chris what are you talking about? I never fell. You stopped me." Mutt reassured her as he pushed some loose hair behind her ear. Indy, who had finally made his way back to the kids, was silent as he took in Chris' state before glancing at the stone around her neck.
"Amazing." All eyes fell on Indy as he muttered to himself. "Well we know one effect that necklace has." Indy continued once he drew himself out of his own thoughts. "You just experienced Hecate's Sight: a vision of the future."
A/N as always i'd love to hear what everyone thinks :)