DOCTOR / ARCHAEOLOGIST

[Valentine’s Thread for @indyiisms​.]

Send 👀 for a SFW romantic/FWB thread. ————

She’d promised him Mykonos … gods, ages ago. Not long after they met, a wry half-joke on the plane taking them to their first adventure. But only half a joke, and one she always intended to make good on.

The island sun greeted her as she stepped out onto the porch, the crispness of the sea in the air; not quite as much her second home as the mainland, but there was still the sense of familiarity, of being earthed. Ironic as that phrase might be. Steps led to the path that would take them to the beach, and she waited for Indy to join her before before giving him a grin and starting down.

“Hopefully we’ll have it to ourselves for a little while.”

He knew that at some point they would get here, he just didn’t know when. It wasn’t like his schedule worked well with vacations. But she had talked to Marcus and the school year had a break which meant his responsibilities had dwindled enough to grant him a small vacation of his own with Thera. Not that he would complain about it at all, the island was beautiful along with his company. Sometimes he had to remember his life was real. 

Gwendoline’s face fell, but maybe she should have seen it coming. After all, Indy did tell her that the “X marks the spot” story was fictional and it involved work, so maybe she should have remembered that.

“Let me guess- there’s not much adventure or archaeology involved, I suppose?” she asked. “Still, the idea of going on a dig sounds fun.”

Thera needed their impression of her to be that she was harmless. They might be suspicious of having anybody show up in what they’d probably been assured would be an empty building, with all the frivolity going on in the other hall - but for those first few seconds they wouldn’t immediately be on guard enough to go for their guns. A woman, frightened, could earn at least a little bit more lee-way than a man.

She let both hands rest over her mouth in shock, pretended to back into the edge of the doorway before moving to the side. Their gaze followed her, one of them speaking; French, she realised now, but not Parisian French. Stop, stay quiet, hold still … Thera pretended not to understand, or be too scared to listen, leading them until their backs were toward the door. There she stopped, and the man doing the talking got close enough to reach for her arm. A move she quickly reversed, twisting his arm out and away, while her other hand punched him square in the throat.

Indiana didn’t need to think too much about what Thera was going to do, he’d seen it first hand that she could handle herself. It was the opening she gave him when she got them to walk further away from the alcove, giving him the chance to appear behind them and get the upper hand. When she attacked the closest one to her, he reached for the firearm in the waist band of the man closest to him and hit him over the head with it. HIs body went limp and he crumpled to the floor within seconds. 

Phasma had to think about it again. Yes, fame would be nice, but she didn’t want to be seen as a terrible person. Who didn’t? And so, she swallowed her pride and confessed her true intentions.

“Really, I’m just in it for the adventure.” It was probably a dumb answer, but she really wanted to travel.

“Thanks, guys.” Thera leaned over, the weight of sneaking and fighting and running draining away and leaving her relaxed enough to smooch Indy on the cheek.

They’d been heading north already, thankfully, and the destination wasn’t much of a change. The challenge had been coming up with a logical ‘real world’ reason for taking the cargo there; she knew Jones far too well to expect him to swallow ‘I think that jade statue may actually belong to the god’. Or, to put it more bluntly, that it would be cursed in a way they didn’t want to annoy.

But hey … even if she was mistaken, “I also don’t figure it’ll hurt to set up some goodwill between Marshall and Mexico City.” She nudged down the vague thought that that was the way Belloq probably operated as well - but at least she and Jones would be genuine about it. Add to that the Mexican archaeologists could probably name and catalogue a lot of their haul just on sight, but she didn’t mention that right away; the plan was agreed on, no need to labour the point.

“And we may,” She told Jock, with a slightly cheeky grin, “have had a small windfall of local cash, so fueling this baby up shouldn’t be a problem.” Not that she figured the pilot would need the incentive, having dropped everything to come help out at Indiana’s call, but it might be nice to put icing on the cake.

She leaned on the back of the co-pilot seat, inhaling deeply and trying to ignore how tired she was suddenly starting to feel. “Whew … it’s kinda like our strings have been cut, isn’t it?”

A smile was given in reply as he gladly accepted the kiss on the check, after getting himself situated in the copilot’s chair. Everything read fine and that meant little for Indiana to worry about unless Jock wanted to give him more pointers on flying. That, however, could wait. No doubt he was just as exhausted as she was and at this point he felt himself growing sleepier in the chair by the minute. 

Only when she was speaking to him did Indiana manage to stay awake. And as usual she had valid points as to why it was a good idea to bring the artifacts to Mexico City. “You got a point, I’m sure Marcus would love to have them work alongside some of the artifacts we already have and vice versa.” He pointed out, keeping the idea that it also meant he might be able to work on more casual digs for their city instead of out scrummaging around the jungles. “Plus they might accept some students for digs, which only helps them get experience.” He added, tossing a glance her way.

And of course her next input got the pilot’s attention. A grin grew on his face as he looked over at the woman he had only just met several minutes prior. “I like her already, Jones.” He said turning now to look at his friend which caused Indy to shake his head in retaliation. It’s a great feeling, a tiring one too now that the excitement has warn off. I could practically fall asleep.” He said mumbled as eyes slowly began to close before eventually drifting off to sleep. 

It was a little less important now, but there was also the niggling little thought that they were on the clock. Marcus would much rather they protected the museum than presented her lecture on time - but it would be nice if they could manage both. Especially if Belloq was still standing there thinking he had it in the bag. But that was getting a bit ahead of herself, and she focused back to the here and now. She might look odd, shoeless and with her skirt hiked up, but her being there at all would be distraction enough. There were voices ahead - three, maybe four - and she tried to pick out the language they were using as she padded forward, suddenly presenting herself in the doorway. “Oh!” And for once her ‘false-innocent’ voice was actually convincing, “Oh my!”

A wave of conflicting emotions hit Gwendoline, but it was good that Indiana told her about it. “Did someone ever get sucked in by the idea of fame and fortune before?” she wondered. It wasn’t that she wanted to be in that position, but she wanted to know what to avoid.

She sighed, knowing that he was right. “I should suppose that the X isn’t an actual thing. But anyway, I think I’d still want to follow through on it. I don’t know about becoming rich or keeping the treasures, if that’s even allowed.”

“You’re always a good time, Jones,” Thera shouted back with a grin, “I thought you knew?” She locked the cargo door and began moving around the plane - the weight lifting from their shoulders as the engines built up had them joking together, but there were still crates to secure so they didn’t slide around with the climb. And the manifest to get hold of. She realised she was probably seeming a bit obsessed with the thing, but there were reasons.

Much the same reasons that her head turned a bit sharply when she heard Indy say ‘back to the States’. She was going to put forward a difference of opinion on that one, and on the thought her eyes flicked to the crate holding the jade statue.

Jock yelled out for them to hang on as the DC-3 rumbled around onto the runway, bumping a little, and started to pick up speed. Thera made her way to the nearest seats, very briefly spotting a truck approaching through one of the windows before it was gone. Strapping in, she leaned back on the thin padding and held her peace until the plane had lifted and was on its way.

And then, after everything, came the awkward part. She made her way toward the cockpit - first with a proper hello and handshake for Jock, but then to have both men with her while she spoke. “OK, so rather than the States, I think we should put down in Mexico City.” That was still to their north, but closer than anywhere on the US side of the border. “The National Museum will know how to look after what we have. And besides that,” She threw a smirk at Jones, “Belloq was stirring up the locals by saying we were stealing their stuff. I’d really love to prove him wrong.”

Well, that he couldn’t argue but he knew others would. She was one of the few who actually enjoyed the wild antics his expeditions could turn into. It wasn’t that he wanted them to usually involve him defending himself but that’s how it ended up being a majority of the time. “Oh I had some idea but doesn’t hurt to hear it every now and then” He grinned for a moment before clipping safety harnesses on several the larger crates that would need them. He left her to do what she wanted to situate and gather while they were taking off. 

To say he was relieved when he felt the plane leave the ground was an understatement. It was one of the rare times he was able to one up Belloq and it brought a smirk to his face knowing they were getting away with it. Only then when he felt everything was secure did he join Jock and Thera in the cockpit. Siding into the co-pilot’s seat, he looked over the instruments as he was beginning to learn how to fly more and more with each time he spent with Jock. However, they’d never really gotten to the landing part. 

“Right, then …” She reached to hitch up the hem of her skirt, the better to give her legs room to move, gave an absent sigh. “This is really going to mess up my stockings.” Tongue poked into her lower lip as they crept forward, her voice low. “What if I go first? If they do see me I don’t look as threatening as you.” That was the ‘up’ side of being dismissed as ‘just a woman’, and made her all the more of a surprise package. Plus if they didn’t see her, she could easily take out one or maybe two while Jones came in from the other side. “What’s kept down in that room, anyway?”

Gwendoline nodded at the professor, and then she came to a realization. “Truthfully, I’m still in college and singing is just something I do to try and pay the bills. So it isn’t too late for me to change, I guess?” She also thought back to her childhood- she enjoyed being outdoors and doing things that weren’t considered to be “unladylike.” When she was given a bicycle by her parents, she decided to go for an adventure which lead to an encounter with the police and a lady scandalized at seeing a young lady in pants. 

“Heck, the library was practically my second home as a girl! They tried to give me sewing books, but I liked Treasure Island and things like that.”

“I’m Poe Dameron, student and aspiring pilot,” he said, holding out his hand. “I was told you might need an intern for this dig.”

@chromium-siren​ asked: “Look, Indiana, after what just happened to us, I think I’m gonna quit my singing gig and become an archaeologist myself. I’ve never had so much fun in my life, even more than the Girl Scout camping trip I took as a kid!”

“He was a pilot with my dad. Not that great at poker, but he did teach me how to play guitar,” Poe mused. “I don’t know, he just came to mind.”

@spaceboy-dameron​ asked: “You know, you look like Han Solo. He was friends with my dad.”