NIGHTIE'S POV
Dad and I didn't fight on Sunday, we went out to eat, and we ate in complete silence. We didn't talk much at all when we played catch either. I only spoke to Dad when he spoke to me, and I kept it as brief as possible. Eventually, we just went home and Dad went to sleep in his room, and I went to my room. I felt a little bad, being so silent towards him, but he was being unfair. I snuck down the stairs and went to our phone. I dialed Edward's number and waited. "Edward Braxton, speaking." I heard Edward's voice on the other line. "Edward, it's Nightie. What time is that party?" I asked. "An hour after school ends." Edward replied. "Great. Is it at all possible that someone could pick me up when school is over and take me there?" I asked. "Yes, my mother will come pick you up." Edward assured me. "Thank you so much, Edward." I said with relief. We hung up, and I went to my room. Monday morning, Dad dropped me off at school, and he drove to his collage.
INDY'S POV
I was teaching my archeology lesson when Marcus came into the classroom. I had about a minute left of class before the bell rang. My class left, and Marcus looked at me anxiously. I grinned at him, and he began to beam at me. "You've got it!" he exclaimed. "Was there any doubt? Do you know how long I have been looking for this?" I asked, pulling the Cross out of my desk drawer. "All of your life?" Marcus asked. "All of my life." I reply. "Well done Indy, very well done indeed." Marcus said, holding up the Cross of Coranado. "This should fit in nicely in our Spanish collection." he said. "We should celebrate, your treat." I told him. "Yes, my treat." Marcus replied, taking the Cross over to the Spanish collection. I headed towards my office, every one of my students in front of it! They all began talking to me at once. "Shush, shush!" I shouted, silencing all of them. "Dr. Jones, I am so glad you've returned! Here is the mail, and what would you like me to do about all of these students?" my secretary, Irine asked me. "Thank you, Irene. Please arrange everyone here on a list in the order they arrived, and I will see every one of them in turn." I reply as I head into my office. The students began to protest loudly as I stepped into my office. I looked at one of the parcels Irine has given me. One had come from Venice, Italy. Who did I know in Italy? An hour later, I left my office by the window to avoid the thirty or so students blocking the door. I started walking towards my car, when a black vehicle approached me, and four men came out of it. "Dr. Jones?" one of them asked. "Yeah?" I responded. "Come with us, please. Our employer wishes to see you." he told me. So I got in the back of the car, and rode with them. Soon I found myself in the sitting room of a very wealthy man, a wealthy man with some very impressive artifacts in his collection. "Ah, Dr. Jones. I do hope my men didn't alarm you." I heard a voice behind me say. I turned around to see the museum's number one donar standing behind me. "My name is Donovan, Walter Donovan." he introduced himself, shaking my hand. "I know who you are, Mr. Donovan. You donations to the museum over the years have been very generous. In fact, some of the pieces in your personal collection are very impressive." I tell him. Donovan beamed at me. "Well Dr. Jones, much like yourself, I have a passion for antiquities." he said simply. He began walking towards a marble table in the center of the room. "Have a look over here!" Donovan invited me over. I followed him to observe what it was he was about to show me. "This might interest you." Donovan said as he pulled a white cloth off of a stone tablet. "Sandstone, Christian symbol, and early Latin text. Mid twelfth century, I should think." I said, looking up at Donovan. "That was our assessment as well." he confirmed. "Where did this come from?" I asked, looking at the tablet again. "My engineers unearthed in in the north mountain region of Ankara." Donovan replied. "Can you translate the inscription?" he asked me. I nodded as I began to read. " 'Drinks the water, I shall give him says the Lord. Will have a spring welling up inside him for eternal life. Let them bring me to their holy mountain in the place where you dwell, across the desert, through the mountain, into the canyon of the crescent moon. To the temple that the cup of-.' " I paused, looking up at Donovan, who had just poured us drinks. " 'Where the cup that holds the blood of Jesus Christ resides forever.' " I finish. "The Holy Grail, Dr. Jones." Donovan told me, smiling. "The chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper. The cup that caught his blood at the Crucifixion, and was entrusted to Joseph of Aramathia." he continued, handing me a drink.
I couldn't help but lightly chuckle. "The Arthur legend, I've heard this bedtime story before." I tell Donovan. "Eternal life, Dr. Jones! The gift of youth to who ever drinks from the Grail!" Donovan began to laugh as he finished saying "Now that's a bedtime story I would love to wake up to!" I shook my head "An old man's dream." I said. "Every man's dream, including your father's, I believe." he replied. I froze at the mention of my father. "Grail lore is his hobby. He's a teacher of Medieval Literature, the one that students hope they don't get." I said, slowly nodding. At that moment, a woman came in and frownes lightly at Donovan. "Walter, you're neglecting your guests." she told him. "I'll only be a moment, dear." Donovan replied, kissing her forehead. She closed the door behind her as she left, and I turned my attention back to the stone tablet. "Hard to resist isn't it?" Donovan asked. "The Holy Grail's final resting place, described in detail." he continued. "What good is it? This Grail Tablet speaks of deserts, mountains and canyons. It's pretty vauge. Where do you want to start looking? Maybe if the tablet were complete you'd have something to go off of, but it's incomplete. " I said, pointing at the stone artifact. "Just the same, an attempt to recover the Grail is underway." Donovan assured me. He then turned away from me and began walking. "Let me tell you another bedtime story, Dr. Jones. After the Grail was entrusted to Joseph of Aramathia, it was lost for a thousand years, before it was found again by three knights of the First Crusade. Three brothers, to be exact." Donovan began. "I've heard this one as well. Two of these brothers walked out into the desert a hundred and fifty years after having found the Grail, and began the long journey back to France. Only one of them made it before dying of extreme old age, he had supposedly imparted his tale to, a Franciscan frier, I think." I said. "Not supposedly, Dr. Jones." Donovan replied. He pointed at a book. "This is the manuscript in which the frier chronicled the knight's story. It doesn't reveal the location of the Grail I'm afraid, but the knight promised that two markers he left behind would." Donovan said as he walked over to the tablet. "This tablet is one of those markers, it proves that the knight's story is true! But as you pointed out, it's incomplete. Now the second marker is entombed with the dead knight's brother. Our project leader believes the tomb to be hidden in the city of Venice, Italy." he continued. I paused as I remembered the package I recieved from someone in Venice. This can't be a huge coincidence. "As you can now see Dr. Jones, you are about to finish an epic quest, which began nearly two thousand years ago. We're only one step away." He finished. "That's usually when the ground falls away from under your feet." I said with knowledge. I thought about the times I had gotten close to leaving India with all three Sankara Stones, and the time I nearly got the Ark and saved Nightie and Marion before Belloq found me. "You could be more right than you know, we've hit a snag." Donovan replied to my earlier comment. "Snag?" I asked. "Our project leader has disappeared, along with all of his research. We recieved a cable from his collauge, Dr Schneider, who has no idea of his whereabouts or what's become of him. I want you to pick up the trail where he left off. If you find the man, then you will find the Grail." Donovan told me. I began to chuckle. "You've got the wrong Jones, Mr. Donovan. Why don't you try my father?" I asked. "We already have. Your father is the man who disappeared." Donovan said. "What?" I asked.
A few hours later, I drove over to Dad's house with Marcus. There's no way that Dad actually took this job, right? "Honestly Indy, I have known your father all my life, and I watched the pair of you grow farther and farther apart. I have never seen you this concerned about him before." Marcus told me. "Dad's a bookworm, not a field man. Why would he take this job?" I asked as I knocked on the front door. There was no answer. I walked into the house. "Dad?" I called out. There was no reply. I opened the curtain to the front room, it was completely ransacked! "Goodness!" Marcus exclaimed. "Someone was looking for something, Marcus." I said, looking around at the contents of the room. "Today's mail, and it's been opened." Marcus said. I remembered the package from Venice. Whatever it was, that's what these people were looking for! I reached into my pocket, pulled it out, and opened it. "It's Dad's Grail Diary!" I exclaimed. "Every clue he found, every discovery he made, this is a complete record of his search for the Grail. This is his whole life. Why would he send it to me?" I asked Marcus, who shrugged. "I don't know, but someone must want it pretty badly." Marcus replied, pointing at the room. I looked at the painting of the Crucifixion above Dad's desk, and then turned to Marcus. "Do you believe, Marcus? Do you believe the Grail actually exists?" I asked as I walked to a painting of a man holding the Grail while walking on air. "The search for the cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts Indy, then I have none to give you." he told me. I nodded slowly. "Call Donovan, Marcus. Tell him I'll take a ticket to Venice." I said. "I'll tell him we'll take two." Marcus said. "We'll?" I asked. "Yes, of course! I have known your father for ages, I'm not just going to sit here while he's missing!" Marcus exclaimed. "What about Nightingale?" I asked. "Hmmm, good point. I'll tell Mr. Donovan we'll take three." Marcus said. "That's not what I meant. Who is going to watch her if you're coming with me?" I asked him. "Why doesn't she just come along?" he asked me. I sighed deeply. "Nightingale and I aren't exactly getting along right now, and I don't want fuel to the fire by forcing her on an adventure she may not want to go on, and by telling her the truth." I said weakly. "The truth?" Marcus asked, tilting his head a little. "Three years ago, I told her that Dad died when I was nineteen." I admitted. "Why on earth would you do that?" Marcus asked. "Well, he and I hadn't spoken since, and he might as well have been. Plus, I was worried that she would want to go visit him, and then he would get mad at me for not telling him about her, and put our relationship further under the docks." I said lamely. "She's going to find out the truth someday, Indy. It'd be best if it came from you, rather than a cruel twist of fate. I nodded, I was going to tell Nightingale the truth when I got home.
NIGHTIE'S POV
I sat in the back of the car that belonged to Edward's mother. "Thank you so much for singing with Edward, Miss Jones." she thanked me. "It was no problem, I had a lot of fun!" I exclaimed. "I'm sure my husband's guests felt the same way about your singing." she complimented me as she dropped me off at home. Right at that moment, Dad pulled in, and he looked furious. "Who was that?" he asked. "Oh, her?" I asked, watching Edward's mother drive away. "It's that boy, isn't it?" he asked. "His mother." I weakly said. "Unbelievable." he said as shook his head. "You went to go sing, didn't you?" he asked me. I nodded. He breathed very deeply as he paced. "Get in the house, now." he said. I obeyed, and sat in the chair infront of his recliner. After a few moments he sat down in front of me. "I'm going to have to figure put what to do later about you disobeying me. But first, there is something really important I need to tell you." he told me. Dad sighed, looking unsure on how to tell me. "You remember that elephant ride in India, the one where I nicknamed you?" he asked. I nodded, playing the scene in my head. "We briefly talked your father." I said. "Exactly. My father is, still alive." Dad said with difficulty. I looked at Dad with confusion. "Did you know?" I asked. He nodded, looking ashamed of himself. "My father and I have hardly spoken since I was nineteen, which is why I never told him about you, and why I tried to keep him a secret from you." he admitted. "I get it, he was dead to you when you were nineteen, so technically you didn't lie." I said, huffing with anger. "I'm sorry, Nightie. I should have told you the truth." he said. "Why are you telling me now?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Your grandfather was hired by Mr. Walter Donovan to locate the Holy Grail. My dad disappeared, along with all his research. Donovan wants me to help find the Grail, and I'm planning on finding you grandfather as well." Dad told me. "And you want me to come along?" I asked. "Only if you want to." he replied. I thought about it, then finally made up my mind. "I want to go." I told Dad. He nodded. "Marcus is working on getting tickets." he said. "Sounds good." I reply. After sitting in silence, we bade each other good night.