Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

and the

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

1952 Version

Summary: The events of the movie take place five years sooner: 1952.

Author's Note: Mutt is just fifteen when he tracks Indy down. Will follow story line of movie pretty well, if you haven't seen it DON'T READ THIS.

Warning: spanking later on.

Disclaimer: I don't own Indiana Jones or any of these characters. They belong solely to George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Paramount Pictures.

Chapter 4: The Kid

Indy had managed to hitch a ride to the nearest town, getting in contact with a couple buddies of his high up in the military chain…they vouched for him and he was allowed to explain what happened at the top secret area 51.

The brass was far from please, however, and warned him that he was in no way to go after Spalko, Mac, or any of her goons. He was to go home to Connecticut and teach his archeology classes. Pissed off, but not wanting to get into a fight he wasn't sure he could win anyway, he decided to take their advice.

Taking a plane from Las Vegas to Chicago, he then boarded a train that took him from there to New York. He then took a smaller train from there to the town in which he taught at Marshall College. Once more dressed in his everyday clothes of suit, bowtie, and wire-rim spectacles he looked more like the professor he was rather than the brash adventurer he had once been.

Which is the real me? He wondered, curious. When he'd been younger, the fedora, the leather jacket, and the bull whip suited him just fine, they still did really, but as he'd gotten older it seemed more and more the man in the bowtie and glasses was who he was becoming…just like his father.

Thinking about his dad made Indy sad, as Henry Sr. had passed away two years ago. What made things worse was that his old friend Marcus Brody, who had been Indy's friend and financer of many of his adventures over the years, had passed away earlier this year as well.

I'm all alone, he thought to himself. Would he spend the rest of his life alone? Like his father had, after his mother had passed on and he'd gone off to have adventures. Was he destined for follow so closely in his dad's foot prints?

There had been many women in his life, but even he had to admit he hadn't really loved any of them…except one.

Marion, he thought remembering the feisty dark haired daughter of his mentor, Adner Ravenwood.

He'd fallen in love with her when he was just twenty-five and she was eighteen. Unfortunately, he wasn't ready to settle down and so he'd left…leaving her with a broken heart and ending his friendship with Abner. They met up again tens years later when a group of Nazi had wanted to find the Ark of the Convenient. Find it they did, and were destroyed by its Holy Power. Only he and Marion had survived, and they had remained together for almost a year after that.

Then you up and call it quits a week before the wedding, he berated himself. You idiot!

It's funny, he had thought he was doing the right thing at the time but as the years passed and he could never find another to fill the hole in his heart the way Marion could, he began to realize what a boob he'd been. He'd had his perfect woman and he'd let her slip through his fingers…twice!

He had vowed a long time ago that if their paths crossed a third time, he wouldn't let her go this time.

Who are you kidding, he told himself, she's probably married with a bunch of kids by now.

The train pulled up to the station and the call to exit the train was given. Grabbing his worn suitcase, he headed off the train. He was headed for the depot to call a taxi to take him to his house when he heard a young voice call out.

"Hey, buddy! Hey, mister! Hey, professor! Hold up!"

Turning at the sound of the voice and wondering if it was really him it was calling out to, he found himself staring at a teenage boy of about fifteen. Indy grinned, because the kid looked like something out of one of the latest Marlon Brando or James Dean movie. Hair greased back into a pompadour, black leather motorcycle jacket, scuffed black leather motorcycle boots, and rolled up blue jean Dungarees…the only thing he was missing was the motorcycle itself.

"You talking to me, kid?" Indy asked him.

"If you're Professor Jones, I am," the kid told him.

"That'd be me," Indy said, grinning, "what can I do for you?"

"You're a friend of Harold Oxley, ain'tcha?" the kid asked next.

Indy's eyes widened. He hadn't spoken to the Ox in nearly fifteen years! "Yeah, I am," he said, "or at least I used to be. What about 'im?"

"Their gonna kill him!" the boy all but shouted at him. "And my mom, too!"

Indy's eyes widened, and he automatically scanned the crowd for any suspicious looking people. "Shh," he ordered the kid, "keep it down, will ya? You don't want to attract that kind of attention. Now what do you mean by their going to kill him? Who are they?"

The kid shrugged. "Hell if I know," he told him, "but my mom sent me this letter and told me to give it to you."

Indy looked confused. "How does your mother know me?" he asked, curious. "What's her name?"

"She told me to ask if you're jaw still hurt?' the kid told him.

"My jaw?" Indy asked, rubbing it. "What did she mean by that?"

Again, the kid shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "She mentioned something about a bar in Nepal or somewhere like that. Said you'd know what it meant."

Indy felt his heart leap into his throat. There was only one woman he knew who had owned a bar in Nepal and who would ask if his jaw still hurt from the punch she delivered him nearly sixteen years ago after he'd walked through her door for the second time. "Marion," he exclaimed. "Marion Ravenwood's your mother!?"

The kid nodded. "Yeah," he said, "so are you gonna help me or not, old man?"

Indy bristled a bit at the 'old man' but decided to let it go. "Come on," he said, gesturing towards the terminal. "Let's go find somewhere and talk, okay?"

The kid nodded. "Sure," he said, "can we get something to eat?"

Indy grinned. "Sure," he said, "my treat. What's your name, by the way?"

The kid seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then said, "Mutt."

Indy looked at him in confusion. "What?" he asked, as they made their way towards the exit.

The kid glared at him. "My name's Mutt," he told him.

"What kind of name is that?" Indy asked, indignantly. Even Marion wouldn't name her kid something like that.

"The one I picked," Mutt replied, sticking his jaw out stubbornly as if daring him to say something about it.

Indy sighed. Kids!

"I was just wondering," he told him, "now simmer down. Ya don't have to get ruffled so easily just to prove you're tough. Now, let's go this way. I know a diner we can talk at."

He started walking down the street, the kid following right beside him.

Marion's kid. I can't believe it.

It seemed their paths were going to cross again.

He just didn't know whether to be happy about it or not.

TBC…