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Chapter 5: The Ramons
Abner looked up as he heard talking. He heard Marion's voice and distinct Spanish accents. Obviously, Marion's friends had arrived. Abner heard "in there" and then there was a quiet knock before a Spanish man ducked in, looking nothing short of relieved.
Henry was sitting on the other side of the desk. He turned his head and grinned. 'Girl talk?'
'Si.' The Spanish man nodded. Then he addressed Abner. 'By the way, they're going shopping.'
Abner scowled. 'Well, no one said anything to me!' He jumped to his feet. Marion would learn to ask his permission and comply if it was the last thing he did. He couldn't very well force her to be Queen of France otherwise. She was too much like her mother. 'Excuse me.' Abner ran out of the study.
~NQM~
Indy looked over at this Ramon guy, as the door closed behind Abner, and said, 'I'm sorry. I didn't get your first name when Marion told me…?'
Ramon grinned. 'Leonardo. Call me Leo. Everyone else does.' He sat down and looked at the documents on the desk. 'Libya? The Headpiece to the Staff of Ra?'
'Abner thinks it's there,' Indy said.
Leo tapped his chin. 'Oh, it is. Old friend of mine knows where it is.' He looked back over at Indy. 'But fat chance getting him to turn it over.'
Indy raised his eyebrows. 'Private collector?'
Leo shook his head. 'Looks like it, but no. Kamau's sort of taken responsibility for the people of El Jawf. He's got so much sway there that his wife and daughter frequently walk around the streets with their burgas down.'
'In Africa?' Indy leaned forward and leaned on the desk. 'Aren't burgas the sign of submission for those women? You know, they have to wear them?'
'Si.' Leo looked at him. 'Speaking of submission, who kissed whom?'
'What?' Indy's gaze snapped to Leo's face. There was no way he could know.
Leo chuckled. 'Please! I've been in a similar situation myself. You and Marion ended up in a lip-lock and now neither of you can stop thinking about it. And you certainly have no clue what to do about it.'
Indy wasn't giving up. 'What makes you think that?'
Leo leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. 'For one, when Marion greeted us, she looked just like my wife after our first actual kiss, when she thought I wasn't looking.'
'You wife?' Indy dropped the pretence in favour of beginning to lose his nerve. 'Now, how scared should I be?'
'Truthfully, not at all.' Leo pulled his hands down pushed against the edge of the desk. 'But I remember being in your position. My reaction was to cross the ocean and kill a bunch of native people that never did anything to me. And that just made things worse.' He gave Indy a moment to absorb that before he continued. 'The second thing is that you keep glancing downstairs and we both know that's were Marion is.'
'How do you know I'm not glancing at the floor?' Indy asked.
Leo straightened up, leaned his forearms on his knees and looked at the spot Indy had been glancing at. 'There's nothing there, no reason for you to be looking. But that is in a direct line between here and, I'll bet…' He looked back up at Indy. '…exactly where Marion will be.'
Indy leaned back against his chair. 'Okay, so you know.' He'd never been one to deny it when he was caught. 'How do I make it stop?'
'You can't,' Leo said. 'I tried. Five other hombres I know tried. And, on top of that, when it's all over you'll realise that sort of thing would be the worst thing that could happen.'
'I can't go lusting after a kid!'
Leo patiently scratched his ear. 'Is she really a kid, though?'
'What?' Indy tried to make sense of what he was saying but he came up empty.
Leo folded his hands behind his head. 'Physically, yeah, she's a kid, but that doesn't matter if she isn't one in the head.' He leaned forward again. 'Age gaps and relationships are very flexible. An archaeologist ought to know that. And Marion's been forced to practically raise herself. As long as both people understand and appreciate the situation they're in, it's not a problem. This means that anyone who objects can go and take a powder.'
Indy scratched his neck. 'Is this your way of pointing out that Marion's as mature as any adult?'
'Well, what was her first impression of you?' Leo asked.
'That I was a randy asshole.'
'Was it accurate?'
'…Yes.'
'Don't worry.' Leo chuckled. 'She'll soon knock that out of you.'
Indy looked up at him. 'She'll what?'
'Let me explain something to you that no one else is going to tell you,' Leo said. 'We hombres fancy ourselves the dominant sex, but we're not. There are only two things we have over women: we're physically stronger and we live in a patriarchal society. Separated from that, we have nothing. Women do a hell of a lot more than we give them credit for.'
'Such as?' Indy asked.
Leo frowned. 'Do you know how difficult it is to actually raise kids? I spent a day looking after mine and I would've preferred taking on a pack of ravenous wolves, bare-handed and in my birthday suit.'
'That bad?' Indy asked.
Leo groaned. 'I still don't know how they do it and keep house. You know, I never asked much of Catalina since then.' He grinned. 'On top of that, they're smarter than us.'
Now Indy was sceptical. 'They're smarter than us?'
'Don't laugh. It's true.' Leo paused. 'Have you ever been looking for something for ages and then she walked in, took one look at you, knew what you were looking for and went right to it.'
The rune. 'Once!' Indy insisted.
'And how long have you been here?' Leo asked.
Indy exhaled heavily. 'Two, three months.' He hated to admit it, but Leo might've been right.
'Not much time, then,' Leo said. 'You'll see a lot more of it soon. Plus something even scarier.'
'Right. Like what?'
Leo grinned. 'If I told you, I'd scare you even more.'
~NQM~
'Virtual telepathy?' Marion asked. 'What's that?'
Marion was sitting through the mall with Catalina and Elena. They were in the food court, eating lunch. Catalina and Elena had talked circles around Abner and then took Marion out, no doubt leaving him wondering what just happened.
'It looks like telepathy, but it's not,' Catalina said.
'Hm.' Elena crushed her food wrappers with her hands. 'Mama and papa do it. He looks at her and knows what she's thinking. She looks at him and knows what he's thinking.'
'And that's going to happen between Indy and me?' Marion asked.
'At some point,' Catalina responded. 'It progresses slowly, starting with words. You begin to predict what he's going to say before he even says it and he does the same with you. Then it's actions. After that, unspoken thoughts. But…' she shrugged, '…you barely notice it. Most people call it being on the same page.'
The three of them stood up and started walking. Marion said, 'When that happens, I'm afraid Indy might go into a meltdown. He's already nearly losing his head over the kiss.'
'He sounds like Leo,' Catalina said. 'Calm yourself, Marion. The most that will happen here is that he'll give into his attraction.'
'How do I know he won't run before that?' Marion asked.
'Because he'll think that's weakness,' Elena said. 'If there's one thing heroes can't stand, that is looking weak. No, what will send him running will be the revelation that he's in love with you.'
'So I'll know he's realised it when he disappears?' Marion checked with them.
'Oh, he'll give you no warning,' Catalina said, nodding her head. 'You'll just wake up one day, he'll be gone. If you're lucky, he'll leave you a note. At least, that was Leo's approach.'
'So he gets scared and runs?' Marion asked. 'Isn't there some way I could make him stay?'
'Do you feel ready for that baby?' Elena asked.
'No.'
'Then no.'
Marion shook her head. 'Even then, I'd just be worried he only stayed because he got me pregnant. Or, even worse, he might think that he only stayed because of it.'
'Then this is the way we have to do it.' Catalina folded her arms across her chest as she walked. 'You're still worried about that kiss, aren't you?'
'Yeah,' Marion said. 'What do I do? I mean, I've kissed him. And he's always watching me when I come into the room. I don't know what to do next.'
Elena smiled. 'If he's watching you, it means he would like a repeat. But, at the same time, he tells himself you're just a kid as a deterrent to himself. He won't be able to deny it for much longer. When are you going to Libya?'
'A couple of days.' Marion grinned. 'Dad usually makes the guy staying with us take care of me while we're out there.'
Catalina and Elena looked at each other.
'You are going to be at each other by the end of it,' Elena said.
~NQM~
Leo's words kept echoing around in Indy's head. The plane was passing over the Atlantic, heading right for Libya. Indy had only been told the day before that, on top of looking at where the headpiece was – they were going to check with Leo's friend –and how to get it, Indy had to make sure no African bastards tried to take a piece out of Marion.
That meant he'd be forced into close quarters with her. Speaking of which, she was next to him on the plane, fast asleep. Her head had fallen onto his shoulder and he didn't have the heart to move it. That and she was curled up to him.
But he'd keep telling himself that he didn't enjoy the way she sought him out, even in slumber.
