Well after several years I'm back with this. My apologies to anyone who still cares about this story and has been waiting for more. I recently graduated college and Indy and company started speaking to me again. Enjoy.

I still own none of this.

A/N: Since this is AU I made Indy and Marion live in Chicago at the time of their engagement.

After Mutt scampers out of the kitchen and upstairs, I turn back to Indy. He's looking at me with a slightly bemused expression on his face. When he doesn't say anything and just keeps smirking at me I narrow my gaze at him.

"What's so funny, Jones?"

He chuckles and takes a sip of his coffee, leaning back in his chair.

"Nothing's funny, Ravenwood. I just didn't expect to find you with a kid when I finally tracked you down is all. Motherhood suits you."

Then he's back to sipping his coffee and casually sitting at my kitchen table. Something of what he's just said to me catches my attention.

"What do you mean 'track me down'?"

He freezes, his coffee mug slightly tilted and halfway to his lips.

My question has clearly caught him off guard and I think that I've begun to crack open the mystery of his unexpected appearance.

He slowly leans forward, placing his coffee mug deliberately on the table.

The tension in the room is suddenly palpable as I see his eyes darken with a storm of raging emotions. I've never seen him like this before and it almost frightens me.

When he breaks the thick silence his voice is low and harsh.

"You left, Marion. A week before our wedding. Of course I tried to 'track you down.'"

"I wrote you –"

"A letter. I know. I read it. More than once."

His dark, blazing eyes don't leave mine as he reaches into his jacket and flings a dog-eared piece of creased paper across the table.

I remain still, not reaching for the folded note; I know what it says. I know very well the words that I quickly scrawled on the sheet I tore from one of his journals. I had needed to be quick because I knew that I wouldn't have left if I had slowed down and taken a moment to actually think about what I was doing.

"'Indiana, I can't do this. I'm sorry. Don't come after me. Marion.' That's what you wrote."

Hearing him say it out loud makes it hurt that much more; it makes me sound like the foolish, cruel person I was and still am.

"Well you didn't do a very good job of listening to me."

"Damnit, Marion!" he harshly whispers, slamming his fist down on the kitchen table rattling his coffee mug.

I guess he hasn't entirely forgotten that a three year old child is upstairs. And hopefully hearing none of this.

"Of course I was going to come after you. I ran all around Chicago and the surrounding area that first night. I checked train passenger lists and flights out of Illinois. I called every person that I could think of that knew either of us. Two weeks later Oxley found me passed out drunk in the alley by McSorley's."

I cringe at the mention of the bar. I, and everyone in Chicago, knew how rough that place was. A man only ended up at McSorley's if he was looking to kill or be killed. Or if his fiancé had run off a week before their wedding leaving behind only a note.

"By the time Oxley was able to sober me up and help me get back on my feet you had pretty much disappeared. I was able to pick up parts of your trail every now and then, but I always was arriving too late."

His voice was softer now, sadder and more defeated. I wasn't used to seeing him like this. He had always been the strong, confident, cocky type. I'd never seen him cry, never really seen him sad about anything. Knowing that my actions were the direct cause of his pain cut me to the core. What was there that I could possibly say that would make any of this better? And what about Mutt? I hadn't even told him about his own son. I owed him at least that, but I feared bringing it up right now when he was already so upset.

"Indy…" I began. "I'm sorry," I finished lamely.

I don't know why it was so damn difficult for me to say what I really meant, what I really felt.

"You keep saying that, sweetheart. But it doesn't really make it any better, does it?" he replied softy, smiling wryly at me.

"No, I guess it doesn't," I sigh, propping my arms up on the table and resting my head in my hands.

I take a deep breath before looking back up at him.

"I know that there's nothing I could say that would ever make what I did ok, but you have to understand –"

"What's there to understand, Marion? We were going to get married! Things were great between us! I was ready! We had the apartment, I had a good job at the university, you were going to start work at the museum, everything was falling into place."

"No, Jones, you weren't ready. You weren't ready for a –"

My sentence is cutoff by the sound of the front door opening and the shout of a man calling a greeting.

"Hullo, darling! I'm home!"

My heart drops. Colin! How could I have forgotten that he was coming over tonight? How could I have forgotten to consider what he would think of all this?

My lack of a response has clearly concerned Colin as I hear his footsteps quickly approach the kitchen. What am I to say? What am I to do?

"Marion, dear? Are you here? Is everything…all right?" Colin's voice drops off as he rounds the corner and enters the kitchen.

If the current situation weren't so serious I'd laugh at the three of us right now. I'm sitting at the table opening and closing my mouth like a fish on dry land, Jones is frozen in his seat, and Colin, God bless the man, is clearly trying to hide his shock at finding Indiana Jones sitting at the kitchen table.

Colin steps forward and Indy rises from his seat at the same time.

"Colin – "

"Indiana –"

They both chuckle awkwardly. Indy closes the gap between them, extending his hand. Colin accepts it and they shake quickly.

"Sorry for dropping in unexpectedly like this," Indy says, offering Colin an apologetic smile.

"You never had a penchant for doing things the expected way, old sport," Colin retorts teasingly.

A bit of the tension has been lifted from the room with this exchange, but I know that the reprieve is only temporary...

Well, there you have it! I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things but I do have an almost-finished chapter 7 written.

Please review if you feel so inclined!