A/N: You all know the drill. I own no part of these guys or their wonderful story. A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed! The fact that people seem to like it is a huge motivation to keep going, as is the fact that I actually have it pretty much all planned out. I'm having a lot of fun, especially with the dialogue and I hope you are too!

Marion woke, still curled up on her seat, to find that Lake Eerie was no longer visible through the window beside her. They were in New York State she realized, only a few hours away from the city. She shifted to look at the man in the aisle seat next to her.

Indiana Jones was an attractive man; she had to give him that much. Marion had always known he was good looking. They had met when she was twelve for God's sake, not three. But she had rated him handsome and left it at that. Marion Ravenwood was not one for pining after impossible boys. It was a waste of time and infallibly made one look like an idiot. And he had seemed impossible then. Somehow the age gap between fourteen and twenty-four felt much bigger that the one between seventeen and twenty-seven. Remembering his birthday, she smiled to herself. Indy was still twenty-six.

Studying him, Marion came to the conclusion that there was a very real difference between being good looking and being attractive. Someone could be objectively judged good looking. Attractive was much more personal.

Indy had changed, Marion concluded, just as she knew she had changed herself. His hair was a little longer, his stride a littler looser and more confident. His shoulders had broadened. Not by much; he was still slim enough to be called lanky, but there was a power in his stance that had not been there before. Or perhaps she had simply been too young to notice it.

She shifted again, stretching carefully so as not to wake him. Indy had dozed off less than two hours into the trip, confirming Marion's suspicion that he was seriously overtired. He had, after all, only just finished teaching a course at Marshall College, and Marion had a feeling he'd left New Britain, Connecticut for Chicago, Illinois the moment the last exam was marked . Luckily for him, the worst of their journey was almost over. The train ride was long and uncomfortable. The ocean voyage would be luxurious.

Marion had traveled on the RMS Aquitania twice before, both to and from the excavation last summer. It was her favourite, and as she had been traveling on ocean liners since infancy Marion felt that had to count for something. On top of that, instead of the two person cabin she had shared with her Aunt Alice the year before, Marion and Indy were berthed in a suite. Abner had never spared any expense when it came to her accommodations, but a suite offered more room, a bigger bed and a position of status on an incredibly classist vessel. For the next six days she and Jones would be living the high life.

Indy finally woke as the train was pulling into Grand Central Station and was annoyed to find Marion looking as though she hadn't spent the last fifteen hours in a cramped train compartment. She was serenely reading a book, her hair arranged and her dress almost entirely free of wrinkles. Indy, despite sleeping for most of the trip, despite being just as experienced a traveller, felt tired, stiff and 

grimy. His unshaven face itched and the constriction of his suit reminded him exactly how much he missed his kakis.

Sensing his movement, Marion turned to him and grinned. "Looks like you slept well."

"Shut it, sister," Indy said, removing the ever present fedora to run a hand through his hair. "I'd like to see you after travelling as much as I have in the past month.

Marion rolled her eyes, but had to admit he had a point.

Gathering up the luggage was something of an undertaking, given the length of the journey for which they had packed, but Indy and Marion were from the station to the docks, onto the liner and into their suite in record time. Marion looked at the clock on the wall of their sitting room and laughed aloud. "You've managed to spoil me, Indy. It always took at least twice as long with Alice."

Indy wasn't surprised. Abner's widowed sister had never been the most organised of people. Her presence at the digs the last few summers had been for Marion's benefit only. With no governess after she started school, it was decided Marion needed a female companion and Alice Wharton had been summoned to the task. "Which reminds me," Indy said, "why am I here instead of Mrs Wharton?"

"Because Mrs Wharton is now Mrs Hinchey," Marion replied as she tossed her hat in the direction of a side table and dropped onto the elegant chaise. "She married this newspaper man in April. It was about time. Her first husband died in the war and believe me, the widow aunt part is no fun at all."

Indy gave no reply, just grunted in agreement. Marion watched as he made his way around the spacious suite, peeking into the two staterooms and giving a low whistle of approval at the sight of the lavatory. He turned back to her. "This is one damn nice boat."

Her eyes widened in mock surprise. "Don't tell me the revered protégé didn't get first class treatment?"

"Oh, I did," Indy replied, face straight. "I just had to share a cabin with Harold Oxley and he snores like hell"

Marion laughed, unsurprised by that fact. "You're in luck then. I don't sore at all."

"How can you know for sure when you're asleep?"

"How can you?"

Indy's smile was infuriatingly smug and totally irresistible. "There are plenty of young ladies who can testify in the negative."

"I bet that's not all they've testified in the negative about," she snorted inelegantly.

"Then it's lucky for you we have separate staterooms." He raised an eyebrow. "Especially as it renders any illicit snoring inaudible."

The sexual tone of their banter was not lost on either, and Indy was perversely pleased that Marion had not frozen up and ended the conversation. Not that it was surprising, really. Marion Ravenwood had never failed to give as good as she got and then some.

She smirked at him. It seemed the suggestive comments were simply a part of Jones' nature and Marion couldn't say that disappointed her. She had spent the last ten months surrounded by people who tried, rather unsuccessfully, to make her a proper young lady. Indy, at the very least, would be a good time.

"Well speaking of snoring, we'll be launching soon so we should get up to the promenade deck and do the requisite waving to the crowd."



Indy groaned. "Come on, Marion. You know that's only so everyone can show themselves off and scope out the social competition."

"Oh, I know. The society on these liners is bloody murder. Last year the rich old dames spent the entire voyage trying to marry me off to their grandsons. I hope you won't insist on going off to the smoking room after dinner, it'll leave them free to pounce. And I understand you'll want some male company, but if I get stuck having the ears bored off of me while you're off being masculine, so help me Indy-"

"Relax, Marion. Those grandsons aren't getting anywhere near you on my watch."

"It the grandmothers I'm more worried about."

Indy shook his head. "Then the grandsons are idiots."

"What teenage boy isn't an idiot?" There was a pause as Marion got up from the chaise to search for her discarded hat and Indy conceded the point. Even considering himself at that age was enough to prove her right. "Anyway," she continued, now looking for the hat pin, "The grandmothers are the ones who won't take no for an answer."

Adjusting the tilt of her hat, Marion got back to the point and addressed Indy's reflection in the mirror. "It's a bitch, I know, but like it or not we're part of polite society on this boat, and unless you want to speak to no one but me for the next six days I suggest we go show ourselves off and scope out the social competition."

Indy huffed dramatically and made a show out of fixing his tie and straightening his jacket. Marion laughed. "You know Jones, you better watch out. Ten bucks says the old broads will be after you for their granddaughters."

"Twenty says they'll be after me for themselves." Ready to go, Indy offered her his arm.

Instead of taking it Marion thrust her hand towards him. "I'll make you a deal then. I delicately imply to the ladies that you're spoken for and you promise not to leave me marooned in elegant young lady hell. And take me to the shooting gallery first thing in the morning."

"Deal," Indy said, and shook on it. Again he offered his arm and this time she took it. Leaning down, he spoke quietly in her ear. "But you owe me big time, sister."

Marion's smile was a challenge. "Okay."