“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.
What felt like moments later when really was several hours after falling asleep, Jock was nudging Indiana awake to let them know they were landing soon. That meant he had to go wake Thera and prepare everything for the landing, so he got up from his chair with some slight stretching and went out towards the cargo to wake her up. “Thera? He said in a soft shout. “We’re landing soon.” He added, finding her and gently nudging her awake.