DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately enough, I don't own Indiana Jones—or anything else that you recognise. All original characters and the plot are mine, though some of the facts are really stone fact.

xXxXx

The professor's office was almost identical to Franklin's, back in the city. Full of artefacts that most people would see as worthless. Dirty and dusty pottery lined the shelves. Some of, what looked like, the more important things sat on his desk. Others sat in glass cases behind where he sat. Franklin's office at NYU when he worked there was exactly like this. So was his bedroom, before those suits tore through it.

"So… what can I do for you?"

Now that I was finally facing the professor, I struggled with finding the exact words. I had practised in the cab, with the taxi driver—after introduction, of course— but we had drawn a blank. I had tried, "Do you know Franklin Roberts?" and "Sup? I'm Kitty Roberts? Do you know who I am?" Joe the cab driver had suggested, "Roberts, Kitty Roberts."

Needless to say we hadn't really come up with a successful conversation opener.

"Uh…"

Dr. Jones stared at me expectantly, smiling through his glasses. He seemed to realise that I was having a problem in starting this conversation, and decided to help out.

"Please? Have a seat?"

The professor motioned to the chair on the other side of his desk. I quickly sat down, suddenly more nervous that I had thought I would be. To distract myself, I looked at the things on his desk. A small paper weight—probably not it's supposed use— made of wood. Engravings surrounded the entire thing, and when I looked at it closely, I realised that it resembled a face. The face was angry, scowling at me now.

It looked old, but I wouldn't be able to place it. Franklin would have figured out when and where it came from in milliseconds. Professor Jones probably could as well. He walked around his own desk and seated himself.

"I found that in the Amazon, in the thirties." Professor Jones told me. "Almost lost my arm finding that."

I raised a delicate eyebrow. Lost an arm?

"Yeah. Found it and then spent the next twenty hours running for my life from the ancient people who guarded it."

I nodded, trying not to look as amused as I really was. "You sound like my Granddad." I said with a smile. "He did that sort of thing."

Dr. Jones nodded, obviously interested. "Really? Do I know him?"

I nodded quickly. "I think you do. That's sort of why I'm here."

The professor frowned slightly. He leaned forward in the chair he had seated himself in and frowned. "How can I help you?"

I laughed nervously. "I've been asking myself that since yesterday." I said frankly. The professor frowned deeper, more confused, so I settled on the direct approach. "Dr. Jones, I've been given direct instructions, to find you, and ask for your help."

Up til that point, Dr. Jones had been frowning confused. The frown seemed more pronounced now, and he was suddenly very serious. He nodded and leaned further forward in his chair. He scanned her faced calculatingly, before nodding.

"By who?"

I took a deep breath. "My Grandfather. He sent me this." I pulled out the envelope from Nancy's Jacket pocket. I was still wearing the clothes she had given me yesterday evening. I laid the envelope on the desk. "It's got two letters in it, one for me and one for you. And it's also got a map of Italy in there."

Dr. Jones stared at the envelope. He reached out to take it, looking for my permission to read it. "May I?" I nodded. He opened the envelope, but didn't unfold the letter. Instead he looked back at me.

"Who is your grandfather?" He asked. He was still frowning.

I took a deep breath. "Franklin Roberts."

The professor's face wiped. Blatant shock covered his face and he stared at me. "Franklin…?" he trailed off. Then he stared at me. "Franklin Roberts?"

I nodded. "I take it you do know him then?"

The professor's frantically looked into the letter, pulling out the three slips of parchment. He ripped open the one that had his name on it and read through it. I watched his eyes go over it so quickly it looked as though he may just faint from over-exhaustion.

"Rome…" He breathed silently, after folding the letter slightly. His eyes darted up to me. "You're Kat?"

I flinched at Franklin's nickname for me. "Kitty." I corrected him quickly. "I'm Kitty Roberts."

He nodded and then looked back at the letter. "What could he have started years ago?" He asked, more to himself than me. I shrugged anyway. I was so nervous about this that I found myself playing with the rings on my fingers. I felt connected to Franklin again, just holding the cold metal rings.

"Do you mind if I read you're letter?" He asked me.

I shook my head. "Go ahead." I invited him to do just that.

He opened my letter and went through it. I had read it so many times that I could practically remember it. The parts that jumped out from my mind at that moment? Give them to Dr. Jones; He'll know what to do.

I stared at him, waiting for his answer. He finished reading my letter for the fifth time before letting it drop on the desk. He stared at the letters on his desk for a minute before an idea seemed to strike him and he looked up at me.

"Kitty." He said quickly. "Has anything happened? Any suspicious people come near you? Do they know that you're here?"

I didn't even waste any time thinking about an answer.

"Yeah. Yeah it has. It was my birthday yesterday, and some friends of mine threw me a party. Half way through, three guys crashed it, and they asked for me. They hit one of my friends with their car, and broke her leg, and they shot my boyfriend in the arm. I spent the night at my best friend's house. We went back to my apartment to find your address, and they had turned my apartment upside down."

Dr. Jones looked extremely troubled now. He leaned forward urgently. "Do they know what you're here?" he repeated.

I thought back to everything that I had been through recently. Did they know I was here? I didn't know. They could have followed me all the way from the city. I wasn't really looking out for them. I was too worried about finding Dr. Jones.

"…I don't know…" I finally answered him.

Dr. Jones stood to his feet instantly, the chair scooting back quickly. He gathered up the letters and stowed them away in the envelope. He frowned, walking to his window as he pocketed the letters in his jacket pocket. He swore. "There's a black car outside. I've never seen it before. It's probably your friends."

The bruise on my back from where I had fallen from the tree throbbed, almost like a warning. "We have to get out of here." I said my voice raspy.

Dr. Jones nodded. "My wife and Mutt are still in the building. We'll get them and then we'll get out of here."

He picked up a Fedora from the coat hanger at the door and then opened said door for me. I hurried through it, nervously looking around me. "Does this mean you'll help me, Dr. Jones?" I asked quickly.

He put the hat on his head and smirked at me. "Kid, call me Indiana."

He made his way down the hallway and just like I had with his son, I hurried after him. "So… what are we doing now?"

Dr. Jones—ahem, Indiana— nodded down the hall. "My son, you met him earlier, he's in Chemistry class. And my wife is in the other end of the school. She's the Public Relations Officer in the Museum." He stopped walking and I had to stumble past him to prevent a collision.

"We should split up. The Museum isn't far. Go down the hallway, take the first left, and then it's the large doors at the end of that hallway. Ask for Marion Jones. Tell her that her we've got a problem and we have to meet up in Room 301 on the second floor. Can you do that?"

I nodded, mentally remembering all that information. "Check." I said nodding, determinedly. "She knows where Room 301 is, right?" He just raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "Right." I said, getting the picture. "Of course she does."

I turned on my heel, my face beginning to heat up. I walked down the hallway, very aware of my heels clicking on the floor. As I walked down the echoing hall I tried to imagine what the next few days would be like. I mean, it had been a day and a half, almost, since receiving that letter, and already my life was spinning out of control.

Franklin—my rock, my only family, my granddad— was probably being held captive in Rome somewhere, by the Boss-man top dog who was sending those suited goons after me.

Scott and Megan were both in the hospital—Scott, probably out by now— and I knew for a fact that they thought it was my fault. It probably was. Scott definitely blamed me; only all he could think about now was how he was out for the season. Megan, who I had seen briefly before leaving the hospital, said that she didn't blame me, but it's easy to tell when she's lying.

Nancy and Karen were both petrified of being near me. I could tell when I arrived at their place last night and when I left that morning. When I had arrived, Karen had been so worried. Jumping and fidgeting. Even Nancy didn't exchange many words with me, despite sticking by me when I went to my apartment. And when I left there was no denying the relief in both of their eyes.

And now there were these two new people in my life.

Dr. Indiana Jones had obviously been through this kind of thing before. And his story about almost losing an arm and running away from angry natives? It suggested that this thing wasn't new to him. He looked worried when I came to him with stories of kidnapping and gun fights, but he dealt with it in a collected and calm way.

And his greaser son?

If being protected and looked after by Dr. Jones meant that I had to spend more time in that stupid oaf's presence than I'm not entirely sure if I want their help. I mean, doll? If Scott were around to hear him call me that, he would have got a good punch in the face.

As I reached the first door on the left I checked to make sure it was the right one. I couldn't see any large brown doors. I looked around trying to see if I had the right door. 'Down the hall and to the left' that's what he had said. Those were the directions. I had walked down the hall and the first door on the left was this one.

What was going on?

I heard footsteps coming the other way, and I frowned. This person could probably give me directions. I waited patiently until I saw someone's foot step around the corner.

"Hey—I'm kind of lost. Could you—"

Oh, my god.

The person walking around the corner was one of the men in suits. "Katerina Roberts." He said gruffly, his voice echoing down the hall. "You come with me now. No questions."

Oh, my god.

Oh, my god.

Oh, my god.

I backed away from him, shaking my head slightly. I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth. My legs were only just working. The same petrifying fear from before was flooding through me. Soon, it would be in my legs and I wouldn't be able to run.

I needed to run.

He began walking towards me and I suddenly found the will to talk. I began backing away, faster now. "Hey…" I said slowly. "Can't you just ask the questions? I'll answer them. We really don't need to get into physical violence of any kind."

He just kept walking slowly towards me.

"Okay, Kitty…" I said to me, "What do you do? There's no class rooms here, but there have to be some around here somewhere. If you can get to one of those, these guys won't attack you." I thought back to by Birthday Bonfire. "Alright… maybe they will." Think! Think, Think, Think, Think, THINK! "Where did Dr. Jones go? Chemistry? Was it Chemistry?"

Oh god, Kitty! THINK!

"You will come with us. You have no choice in the matter."

I stared at him with wide eyes. "It's a free country?" I blurted out.

He ran at me.

I let out a small yelp as I saw the man once again running full pelt at me. I cursed my stupid mouth as I began to run. "Free country?" I muttered to myself. "Real genius, Kitty."

I got about ten metres down the hallway when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I stopped running suddenly and he collided with my back, and spun away from me, the momentum from his run too strong for him to stop so unexpectedly. I let out a little squeal of glee as he collided with the wall. I turned and kept on running, making it to the doors that Mutt had brought me through on the way to Dr. Jones's office.

I sprinted past the administration office, and out of the entire college. I noticed some of the other student's bikes sitting in the bike racks. I raced over to them and pulled at it. It was chained.

"Aw…" I considered the multiple swear words that I could utter and then decided that none of them were good enough. I looked at all the bikes, and pulled on them all. They were all chained there. I pulled violently on one of them. "Come. ON!"

It didn't budge. The front doors burst open and I saw the man in the suit.

I let out a scream and turned, running around to one side of the bike rack. He came to the other side, so the only thing separating us was the large wall of chained up bikes. He ran at me from one direction, going around to his left. I ran the other way, staying completely opposite to him the whole time. He came at me the other way now and I ran backward, ending up in the same place I had started.

He rolled his eyes and then stepped forward. He lifted one of his legs and pushed himself up on top of the bike rack, until I was looking up at him.

I let out a scream and ran around, right back through the college doors. I didn't bother to turn around and see how close he was to me. I just kept running. A bell went off, signalling the end of a class. Instantly all the doors opened, and I looked behind me just in time to watch the man collide with one of the doors.

This time I didn't stop to laugh. I just kept running, back down the hall. I skipped past the first door to the left— those instruction were obviously dud— and through the glass doors at the end of the corridor. I looked at the two ways I could go and rolled my eyes. There, to the left, were two large wooden doors and a large sign that said "LIBRARY."

"Kitty!" I heard a shout.

I spun around to see both Mutt and Indiana running at me. "Where's Marion?" Indiana demanded.

I stared at him. "I didn't find her!" I shouted.

He stared at me. "You had to go down the hall and to the left!" He shouted exasperatedly.

The greaser son scoffed. "Come, on, Doll. There are no simpler instructions!"

I scowled at him. "I got a bit distracted." I told him angrily.

"By what?" Greaser asked incredulously. "The detailed tapestry?"

"As if I'm going to look at a tapestry…" I muttered, "While some beefy guy wearing a suit, is ready to gag, bound me and send me to ROME!"

Indiana stopped suddenly. "What?"

I turned to him. "They're here. That's why I didn't get your wife. Because I ran into one of them and I figured it would be more beneficial for my survival if I got out of there." I saw the suit's head appear over the top of all the college students. There was a sea of them separating us, so it

Indiana nodded. "Right. This is bad." He grabbed my arm and the Greasers and pulled us both into the Library. It was suddenly extremely quiet. I only then noticed how heavily I was breathing. I wasn't exactly what people would call physically active, and all that running and stress had gotten to me.

"Crap." Dr. Jones said, looking at me. "She looks like she's about to pass out. Make sure she doesn't fall flat on her face, will ya, Son?"

"Whatever…" I heard Mutt say.

Dr. Jones looked around. "I'll go find your mother."

"Indiana Jones, what the hell is going on?"

Greaser and I fell silent as we turned to see a woman standing, hands on hips, staring incredulously at the three of us.

"Found her." Mutt said with a grin.

xXxXx

We stumbled into their house half an hour later.

It had only taken that long because we had spent a majority of the time ducking down past students to hide us form the suits who were stalking around the place. It would seem that so many students went to this college, that when free period rolled around, it meant that there were a lot of them off class.

We also had to walk. We decided that taking Dr. Jones's car was too risky—how can you hide an automobile behind students on a free period— and walking we would be able to get away from them easy enough.

I was quizzed the entire walk home. What did you say to them? Why do they want you? What did your Granddad do? When did you first see them? Who do you think they are? Why did you come to us? (Indiana answered that question for Marion and the Greaser.)

I seriously felt like passing out.

Still when we arrived at the house, all three of them seemed to trust me. The greaser wasn't very happy about it, but it wasn't as though he thought I was some sort of scam artist or whatever. "Mutt, get the girl some ice, will you?"

My headache screamed triumphantly.

Dr. Jones directed me into their living room. "Lie down for a second." He ordered. Then he raised an eyebrow. "You don't do much exercise, do you kid?"

I was about to protest loudly about the yoga and Pilates that ruled my life. Then my head throbbed particularly painfully and I just let it drop back on the couch I had sat on. "Nah…" I sighed. "Not running, at least."

The greaser came out with some Ice and handed it to me. For the sake of being polite I said thankyou. He brushed me off again and pulled out a comb, once again brushing his hair. Marion walked into the room and smiled down at me. "You alright?"

I smiled, "Thank you. I'll be fine."

Dr Jones nodded. "You don't mind if I talk to my family in private do you?"

I shook my head. "Your house, your rules…" I muttered.

Dr. Jones nodded and then he, Marion and the greaser walked out of the room. The greaser pushed the door close, and it thumped loudly. My head throbbed again.

I pressed the icepack to my head, and closed my eyes. Slowly, very slowly, I noticed it slowly getting better. The throbbing began to get smaller and the pain slowly left my system. I got head aches like these a lot. After long periods of no exercise, and then vigorous activity, I would usually get a head ache like this one.

But they faded pretty fast, and if I kept the vigorous exercise up, they wouldn't come back. After lying there for about five minutes, trying to not listen to the whispering and muttering coming from the other side of the thin door, I pushed myself to a sitting position.

I looked around the room. I was in the living room—that much was obvious. The TV they owned was small, sitting to the right of the large fire place. Above the fire place was a large picture of the family, with another man. This room had another shelf in it, this one also full of what most people would call rusty of crap.

Franklin would have loved to be here.

"What?" I heard a shout. It was undoubtedly the greaser.

"Mutt." I heard his mother reprimand him. "Be mature. The poor girl is probably worried sick about her grandfather. We should be doing everything we can to find him for her."

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered. "But do we have to bring her along? Can't we just go and find the guy and bring him back?"

"Do you have a problem with her, young man?" Marion demanded angrily.

"Of course I do. I don't want to leave the country and go to Rome with some stupid superficial shallow paper shaker."

That was a bit harsh. I hadn't been a 'paper shaker' since high school. Cheerleading was too much work in college, plus who the hell would I cheer for?

Once again I tried to refrain from laughing at the long words coming from the greaser's mouth. Then I realised that I was practically proving his point and I was no longer so entertained. I made a mental note to be better than this stupid greaser. I wouldn't insult him.

"When you came to me telling me to help your mother, you were extremely worried," I heard Dr. Jones reason with him. "She's in the same place right now."

I could practically hear Mutt—ha, that's his name. Did he know what my name was? I think not— roll his eyes. Then the door was opened and the three for them came in. They saw me sitting up and Marion smiled. "Feeling better?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, thanks for the ice."

"Come through here." Dr. Jones motioned. He nodded and followed him from the room. He pointed at a table seated for four. I sat in one of the chairs, and they seated themselves in the other chairs.

"It only just occurred to me, Kitty that you don't really have any idea who we are…" Marion said with a smile. "So, even though the time for introductions has pretty much passed, I'm Marion." I smiled at her. "This is my son, Mutt. And my Husband, Indy."

I smiled at all of them. "Thanks so much for this—"

Marion cut me off. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart." She said, "I was a good friend of your mothers. And you're always welcome."

The look on Mutt's face suggested the opposite.

"Alright Kitty…" Indy started. "What do you want to do?"

I shrugged. "I want to find my granddad. And I want things to go back to normal."

Mutt scoffed. "Right and do you have any suggestions where we should start?"

I took a deep breath, trying not to frown. I turned to Indy. "The map? In the envelope? It said something on it. I thought it might help."

Indy frowned, and then dug his hand into the pocket where he had stowed the envelope. He pulled it out and then pulled out the map. "Three strikes from God shall mark his bed…" he read out loud. He looked at me, puzzled.

"You know what that means, doll?" Mutt asked.

I frowned at him. "No. But I was hoping that we could figure it out."

Indy looked down at the map. "I can't see anything different about the map. I'm sure that Franklin wrote that verse on the map before sending it. It's just a map of Italy, and a little bit of Sicily. It doesn't look like anything special."

I frowned. "Why would he send it to me if it wasn't anything special—?"

Indy shushed me. I frowned slightly. His face got closer to the map and he pushed his glasses further up his nose. Then he looked excitedly at Marion. "See?" he said. "Here." He pointed at a place on the map. "The R in Rome has been underlined."

I frowned. I hadn't noticed that.

"And the O in Napoli." He continued excitedly. He stood up and laid the map out on the table. "Come here." He ordered. "Look for letters that are underlined in the names of places." I stood up and joined the Jones in looking at the map.

Gradually we found all the underlined letters on the map.

R. O. A. A. T. N. T.

We all stared at the seven letters that Indy had written on the side of the map. "Great." I said. "What does that mean?"

"Wait." Mutt said. "It's an anagram. I bet you they'll make a word."

"What do you bet… your hair gel?" I muttered. Greasers were so beneath me. Why was I even talking to him?

Indy and Marion exchanged a smirk, and I expected Mutt to scowl at me. He just smirked a devilishly sexy smirk and said, "Why? You want some, Doll?"

I stopped smirking.

"I got it!" Indy said excitedly. "Taranto." He said, pointing at another place on the map. "They make the word, Taranto. It's a small city to the south of Italy, and it's on the map."

I frowned. "If he wanted us to go to Taranto, why wouldn't he just put that in the letter?"

Marion smiled grimly. "Kitty. Your grandfather was being chased by the same men who chased you. Maybe he thought they might get their hands on the map before we did, or maybe even after us. He didn't want it to be easy—where he wanted to go."

Indy nodded. "My guess is, Franklin found something but he doesn't want these other guys knowing about it. He took a risk sending it to you. He must have known they'd go after you. So he told you to come to me so we could figure it out before those guys who were chasing us."

There was a thoughtful silence as everybody thought about the truth in Indy's words.

"So… what now?

"Well," Indy said frankly, "We're going to Italy."

xXxXx

A/N: Fourth Chapter. Excellent. Please tell me what you thought. Once again, I'm really worried about the characteristics of the main characters. I hope I haven't made them go OOC or anything, but if I had, please tell me how you think I can fix it.

Thanks. Please review.

Grace.