A/N Because Shorty would definitely go Bruce Lee on some middle school bully in a heartbeat just like he did to the Thuggee in the movie.

When the phone rang just after recess Sophia knew who was calling. She'd only learned Shorty's school schedule so well because of the frequent phone calls after all. So she put on her shoes, buttoned up her coat, and tried to properly pin her new hat to her head to look put together. She walked the four blocks to the middle school with leaves crunching under her heels.

She went straight up to the Principal's office, another familiarity of her life now, and found Shorty standing angrily beside the secretary's desk. "Same one or different?" She asked him tiredly.

"Different." He mumbled.

"Mrs. Jones-" The secretary started, then quickly corrected herself. "I'm sorry, Miss Hetland, Principal Edwards is very busy and cannot see you. But he would like you to take Wan Li-"

"Short Round." He corrected.

The secretary ignored him and went on. "Home, and have Dr. Jones call him as soon as he's able."

"I can wait." Sophia said, folding her hands in front of her. The school was tight lipped to her about things ever since they'd enrolled him and her name didn't match the two Jones boys on the paperwork. "Dr. Jones is very busy."

"I'm very sorry Miss Hetland but-"

"We can resolve this right now and Principal Edwards can go home on time, or he can get another angry phone call from Dr. Jones wondering why he has to deal with this when I'm right here."

She was seated at the Principal's desk two minutes later and ten minutes after that she was walking Short Round out onto the sidewalk. Sophia was fuming, and not from what Shorty did, but from what the Principal had.

"I'm sorry." Shorty said sheepishly. "But Alexander is smaller than the other boys and they-"

"I'm not mad at you for standing up for him, Shorty. I mean, I could use a few less calls from the school…And I'm gonna keep telling you to stop using martial arts on your classmates and just get a teacher. But that's not why I'm so mad."

God, less than six months into living with Indy and Short Round and she was sounding just like her mother.

"Why you mad then?" He asked, looking a little smug that she half approved his actions that morning.

"Your principal is a bastard, and don't repeat that to anyone, you hear me?" She'd make sure Indy heard all about it when they got home.

He drew his finger over his chest and giggled. "Cross my heart."

Sophie wrapped her arm around his shoulders and squashed him into a side hug that he fought to extricate himself from. By the time they got home Indy was pulling into the driveway for lunchtime and sighed when he saw them coming up the walk.

"Again?" He asked, staring sternly at Shorty.

Sophia ushered Shorty inside and nudged him towards the hall. "I need to talk to Indy, go to your room for a bit, I'll come get you for lunch."

"Fighting?" Indy asked her as he helped her out of her coat, watching the angry purse of her lips cautiously as Shorty shuffled away and shut his door.

"He was defending a student from bullies. I think the roundhouse kick was probably a bit overkill but his heart was in the right place." He had started to get better about it, the kid had a bit too much of Indy in him when it came to protecting other kids. "But I had to fight Principal Edwards to even get the full story and then…" She put her hands on her hips and began pacing the living room. "You wanna know what he did? What he said about Shorty?"

Sophia didn't give him a chance to add anything and kept going. "He said to make sure you knew he'd already gone at Shorty with the paddle so you didn't go too hard on him when you got home!"

"Sophia…" Indy sighed.

"Hitting a child isn't any kind of response to bad behavior, I don't care what he's done. Oh I swear to god, if you ever raised a hand to him I'd-"

"Honey I'm not going to-"

"You better not-"

Sophia!" He put his hands on her arms gently and bent down to catch her eye. "You remember back in India, when I was under the black sleep? I was brainwashed and hit him?"

She'd already known but since she'd been unconscious in a murder cage at the time, she'd waited until he'd told her himself later. "Yeah?"

"When I woke up and realized what I'd done…Sophia, I'm never going to do that to him, no matter what he does. You believe me, don't you?"

She sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I do." Giving him a peck on the lips she straightened up again and crossed her arms. "But we're enrolling him in a different school."

Indy laughed sarcastically and shook his head. "That's not going to do any good, every school in the country uses corporal punishment. It's also the best middle school in Boston."

"What a low bar they've set." She grumbled.

"Look, I'll call Principal Edwards and see what I can do. Maybe I can convince him to let me handle things like this at home instead."

"Can you remind him I'm allowed to meet with him without your prior knowledge while you're at it? He seems to be forgetting that."

Behind her Indy sat at his desk grading papers while students meandered around outside the window to and from their classes. She stuck her pencil behind her ear and climbed up the stepladder to put yet another artifact back on the shelves. He had such a backlog waiting for proper cataloging he needed somebody qualified to handle it and she'd been so bored, the prospect of doing anything relating to her degree was a godsend.

His tagging system was…underwhelming and his handwriting…a whole different story. But his lack of organization had given her something to work on so for as much as she picked on him about it, she really was enjoying herself. Besides, it was nice to spend some time with him during the day, even if it was just ignoring each other and doing their own work while she occasionally interrupted him to ask what his chicken scratch meant.

Irene gave her two, court raps to the door, waiting for Indy to answer before she came in and set a stack of mail on his desk.

"Thanks, Irene." He said, looking up briefly before going back to his papers.

"There's a letter there for Miss Hetland as well." She said with a smirk. "From Harvard I believe…" She slipped back out, shutting the door behind her with a quick click.

Sophia and Indy froze, staring at the stack of mail. Then Indy snapped into action and rifled through it, sending his own mail flying onto the floor and staring at the envelope with her name on it as soon as it was in his hand.

She slowly got down from the ladder and took the letter from his outstretched hand, shaking already. Why she was as nervous as she was she didn't know, she was almost positive she was getting a rejection letter. After all she was a woman in 1935 with forged school documents trying to get into Harvard. But Indy had more faith in it than she did and she found herself starting to believe him.

"Well, are you going to open it?" He asked when she stood there, still staring at the emblem on the envelope.

He handed her a letter opener and she nervously tore it through the flap, setting it back on his desk when she was done. The letter was thick, three pages at least which seemed a lot to say she wasn't accepted.

"Dear Miss Hetland," She read. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to-"

She didn't have a chance to finish as Indy laughed and grabbed her around the waist, spinning her around .

"I knew it!" He yelled.

Sophia kept staring at the words, making sure she hadn't misread them. "I just got into Harvard?"

"Sweetheart, you just got into Harvard!" He pressed his hands to her face and kissed her, still not managing to pull her out of her shock.

"I just got into Harvard in 1935?!" She dropped the letter and threw her arms around his neck, jumping up and down several times while he laughed again and pulled her up off the ground.

"I'm taking you out tonight." He said, wagging his finger at her while he grinned. "We're celebrating." Then his face fell when he remembered something. "You don't have a nice enough dress for that…"

He let go of her and popped his head out the door. "Irene! Cancel my office hours this afternoon, Sophia just got into Harvard!" He spun back around and grabbed her shoulders. "We'll leave early and get you a dress, then I'm taking you to dinner!"

His enthusiasm was catching and she couldn't stop the bubble of laughter that came from her chest. His eyes were as bright and excited as a kid on Christmas and he was almost breathless while he talked.

She grinned so wide it felt like her cheeks would split in two and the words came out before she realized what she was doing. "I love you."

They both froze and a tense second passed where he looked at her in shock and she waited awkwardly, hoping she hadn't just scared the shit out of him.

"Well it's about time!" He chuckled.

"What?!" That was all he had to say? "What do you mean it's about time!"

"I've been waiting for you to say that for months." He teased. "So I'd know I could do this without scaring you off…"

He leaned in and kissed her slow, brushing his palms over her cheeks and taking his time before he pulled back and looked her in the eye. "Sophia," He sighed and paused mid sentence to give her another kiss. "I love you."

She thought she'd combust right then and there with everything that had happened in the last five minutes. Her head was spinning and it wasn't all from the kiss he'd given her either. "Really?" What had started as a consolation prize was turning into a whole lot more than that. Part of her hadn't even believed it would get that far.

"That so hard to believe?"

"Wait, how long have you-"

"Months." He smirked.

She smacked him lightly on the arm and failed at looking angry even though she tried to. "You should've said something!"

"I just did."

"You're gonna be the death of me, you know that?" She chuckled, shaking her head.