A/N Did I not promise you hurt/comfort?
Wait, I didn't tag that?
Oops.
Well consider this your hurt/comfort warning.
Because we're all FINE.
Hot air burned her lungs and her bare skin seared in the redness of the pit. The glow surrounded her, blocking out the cool darkness of the room above. She struggled, wrenching her wrists and ankles from the cage, but then she fell as the bars opened, flailing into the lava below.
Pain slid through her foot and when her vision cleared she was back in Indy's living room, standing against his desk, surrounded by scattered school books, papers, and the clear glitter of broken glass. Her heart thudded in her chest and throat and she felt like me might pass out as Indy flew down the stairs and around the corner into the room. She must have fallen asleep while she'd been working late on her assignment.
"Sophia?" He looked around, stepping carefully through the mess. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Dream." She managed to choke out as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Sounded like some dream." Indy said, putting his hands on her arms gently. "You were yelling and I heard glass breaking. I thought someone was trying to break in."
It had been her water glass on the coffee table that had shattered against the wood floor. Somehow she'd gotten from the couch to his desk without fully waking up.
Indy looked her over and did a double take at her feet. "Shit, honey you're bleeding." He took a quick look and picked her up.
"Shorty," He said as the boy peeked into the living room. "Clean up that glass, but be careful."
Sophia curled into him, taking in the smell of soap and his aftershave to try and get the sharp scent of sulfur out of her nose.
Indy set her on the kitchen counter with her foot in the sink, bleeding from a gash where she must have caught the glass as she'd fled the couch. He took a clean towel out of one of the drawers and wrapped it loosely around her foot while he turned the lights on and ran upstairs.
She waited there, shaking and crying quietly while Shorty swept the glass into a dustpan and threw it away. He paused in the kitchen doorway for a moment and Sophia gave him a false, watery smile.
"I'm fine, kiddo. Go ahead and go back to bed, okay?"
"You need me, wake me up, okay?"
Sophia nodded to him and he did what she said, but he did it reluctantly and a little begrudgingly.
Her stiff upper lip had been managed for Shorty, but it wouldn't last for Indy. She'd never had dreams like that before, nothing that dark and vivid. Nightmares just didn't happen to her much. Though after Temple of Doom, it probably should've been more expected. It just surprised her that it hadn't happened until months had passed.
Indy came back with bandages and tweezers. Sinking his glasses low on his nose he held her foot under the faucet for a moment before turning it to catch the light and meticulously picking shards of glass out into the trash. She sniffed and tucked her knee under her chin while he worked.
"You wanna tell me what happened?" He asked, glancing up at her over the rim of his glasses with a worried frown.
"Pankot." She said shakily. "The cage."
He paused, leaning over to kiss her head. "I didn't know it was still on your mind like this."
"I didn't either." She sighed, taking his offered handkerchief that he pulled out of the same drawer as the towels. "Maybe I'm finally settling in enough to process it."
"I'm…I'm sorry I got you caught up in that." He said "You kept trying to tell me how much danger we were in and I don't think I completely believed you until it happened."
Sophia scoffed. "What else were we gonna do? Let them keep enslaving kids and take over the world?"
"Still, you went through that because of me. I'm sorry."
"I'll be okay." She assured him, almost mostly believing it herself too.
He smiled at her, only part of it reaching his eyes. "I know you will."
Satisfied with his work, he rinsed her foot again and dried it with their now ruined dishcloth. He carefully bandaged it and gave her a kiss when he was done.
"Ready for bed?"
She groaned. "I have to finish my assignment, it's due tomorrow."
"I hate you professors." He groaned in kind, not really meaning it but at the very least hating them in that moment. Without deliberation he went back to the living room and picked up her books and papers, stacking them neatly on the coffee table. Then he set the throw pillows up against the arm of the couch and came back to the kitchen. "The sooner you get started the sooner you'll be done." He picked her up and took her back to the couch, sitting back against the arm of it himself and putting her right in front of him. Her back was against his chest and he stretched his legs out on either side of her.
"Is this academically moral?" She asked with a chuckle.
"I'm not helping you." He smirked. "But I'm not going to bed without you either."
She leaned her head back, feeling the shakes finally going away while he rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "Will you at least check my spelling?"
"Honey, I thought you were the one who always had to fix my spelling. That nightmare must've shaken you up pretty bad if you're getting things backwards." He took a deep, tired breath and tucked her hair back behind her ear.
She leaned over and grabbed the books she needed off the table and let herself sink back against him warmly. "It shouldn't take much longer."
Sophia wasn't ready to go back to sleep anyway, her assignment just gave her a good excuse to stay up. The pit was still too close, too ready to pull her back into the red and the heat and the burning. She was glad Indy had stayed, even if laying against him like she was made her body sag and her eyes droop.
"Take as long as you need, I'm not going anywhere." He said softly, tucking his head down next to hers to read over her paper while she found her place in her books again.
The clock on his desk ticked quietly while she read and scribbled and rewrote it all so it was legible. By the time she was done, Indy's head had fallen back against the pillows and he was breathing evenly. Sophia could barely keep her eyes open herself and only went so far as to cap her pen and toss it onto the table before tipping her head back into the crook of his neck.
He shifted a little as the rest of her weight pressed against him and sighed in his sleep. Lights still on and books still on her lap, she drifted off.
When she woke up again it happened much slower, with gray morning light filtering in through the blinds. Indy was stirring under her and a blanket was draped over them both. Somebody had also moved her books to the table. Probably the same somebody who was trying to stifle the clattering of pans in the kitchen.
She could hear Shorty muttering to himself now and then as pans clinked onto the stove and the fridge door was opened and closed. Nudging Indy she looked up at him as he opened his eyes. "Somebody's being responsible this morning." She whispered, at the same time noticing that the blanket had come from Shorty's room. "I think he checked up on us last night after I fell asleep."
He tried to discreetly look over his shoulder at the kitchen. "Should probably get up and make sure he doesn't burn the house down trying to make pancakes."
She sat up and went to stand but he waved his hand and stumbled to his feet first. "You're not going anywhere until I take another look at that cut on your foot."
"It's fine." She jabbed playfully, ignoring the slight ache in it for the sake of her point.
He gave her a cocky smirk and cupped her chin in his palm, which he'd figured out was a great way to get her to agree with him unless he'd made her really mad already. "Humor me."
"Consider yourself humored." She hummed, leaning back into the couch and propping her arm up on the back to watch him shuffled into the kitchen and inspect Shorty's progress.
She didn't know where Shorty ended up in the movies after Temple of Doom, and she was sure Indy would've made sure it was someplace good. But while Sophia watched Indy start coffee and hover over Shorty as he laid bacon in a pan, she was glad it hadn't happened that way this time. She was so glad he was still there with them.