The storm died down into a small shower by the next day. Indiana had awoken with a part of Richard's shirt wrapped around the split in his scalp and a killer headache. The wind direction was gauged, and a sail was rigged to help passively carry them in the correct direction - which was east, for all intents and purposes. They were much closer to the American continents than to Asia, and shipping traffic was only bound to get more and more common the further east they went. By Indiana's estimates, with good weather and wind, they had about a month's journey ahead of them.

At least, that was what he had told his fellow castaways. In reality, their position was 50/50. They could be in the North Equatorial Current, being pushed towards a long, deadly journey to Asia as the sail battled against the sea. Or, they could be in the Countercurrent, being pushed towards the Americas in a short time.

In the end, though, he gave them the optimistic estimate of a month to landfall. He was hoping they wouldn't have to actually survive that long, as no matter what they would be dragged across a major shipping lane leading to and coming from the Panama Canal. With any luck, they would happen across a ship within weeks.

That didn't mean he wasn't rationing water very, very closely. Richard had gladly agreed with that, saying they needed to drink their fill while the rain was still coming down and refill their bottles before the storm broke. In return, the adults took their turns rowing, aiming to put extra distance between themselves and the Eleanour, just in case they were able to scramble some sort of search party for them, or track their position.

So, they did, drinking an adult man's share each, and a child's share for Anna, before funneling rain into the single jug of water that came with their meagre supplies and into Indiana's small tin canteen. The rain had died into a patter by the night, when they shared a dinner of stale, tasteless crackers from the emergency supplies Richard had pilfered while waiting for Anna's rescue.

"I'm hungry," Anna complained, reaching for the cracker box as Indiana took it away.

"No more," Indiana muttered, "We don't have a lot. We have to only take a little bit at a time."

"But I'm hungry, daddy!" Anna insisted, drooping her shoulders.

"We're going to have to be very hungry for a long while, Anna," Indiana explained, placing the box back in its cabinet at the head of the boat, "And thirsty. We have a long time until we get to land, we have to ration."

"What does ration mean?"

"It means if you don't have a lot of food or water, you take a very small amount of it at a time to make it last long," he responded carefully, turning around and taking the oars again. They would quit rowing the next day to conserve their energy.

"What happens if we run out?" Anna asked.

Indiana shared a look with Richard, who gave him an empathetic grimace. Indiana reached out and tousled Anna's hair, "Don't think about it, sweetie. A ship will come by and save us."

"I don't wanna go back on a ship..." Anna muttered, looking away as her wings shifted.

"It'll be a good ship. The bad men won't be on the other ships. Only good men like Richard," Indiana assured her, "The people on the ship were just the... naughty men."

"Naughty men?"

"Yeah... naughty men. Very bad people. They wanted to hurt you, Richard, and daddy. Those kinds of guys are bad news," Indiana grunted, hauling on the oars again.

By midnight, the storm broke completely, letting in the stars and the moon. Richard took the last shift on the oars that they would take for the foreseeable future, relying on the sail and, hopefully, the currents to take them to land. The next day brought the sun, which threatened to boil the skin and conjure the sweat. Sweat the men did, of course, as it was humid and tropical. Though, using the canvas the boat had been covered with initially, they constructed a shelter to huddle under to protect them from the sunburn.

"What's sunburn?" Anna asked.

"It's when you stay in the sun too long and your skin gets all red and blistery, then starts peeling," Indiana explained, "It's no good, especially when we have so little water."

"...Huh," Anna mused, looking back out towards to sea.

Richard nudged Indiana, observing, "You know, Indy, I'm not sure Anna can get sunburn, what with all the fur n' all."

"I'd rather not risk it," Indiana had simply concluded. Being in the sun would just make her hotter, and make her sweat more anyway.

Days passed with the same old routine. Check they were still heading in the same direction, take their drinks of water from their quickly dwindling supply, then huddle together in the shelter. The biggest problem then arose: Boredom. Anna was the first to fall into near insanity. Exerting themselves was a terrible idea, so Anna couldn't exactly go for a fly, or a swim. She grew stir-crazy, sitting in their small shade next to the two sweaty adults. Indiana went through his entire list of stories, even making up a few (such as how he fought mobsters in 1920, worked as a stuntman in hollywood in the same year, then went on some wild goose chase with Ravenwood). Nothing helped, she simply got more and more painfully bored and restless.

One time, Anna defied her father's wishes and began to fly, only to get snatched around the hind leg by a bullwhip and dragged back down to the boat. She cried for a very, very long time after that, making Indiana wonder if it was worth the mental anguish.

Surely, surely the exertion wouldn't matter. A ship was right around the corner, right?

Of course not. The sun continued to beat down, not a single cloud in sight, as their boat made the slow trek in what they hoped was an easterly direction. The contents of Indiana's canteen joined the contents of the main jug, before it was completely extinguished. The crackers were cleaned out as well, Anna being fed the crumbs in the bottom.

While Indy had come pretty close with dehydration in the Panamanian rainforest, he hadn't been as close with hunger. As they reached week 3, he learned just how painful hunger could really be. Even in the Army, when supplies were low, he got treated to some meagre slices of mouldy bread. Even when he was being taken to be sold into slavery as a child he'd been given scraps to keep him healthy-looking for the auction.

Hunger eclipsed almost everything as their journey ticked over into the fourth week, without so much as a smoke trail or a seagull's cry. Dehydration took hold soon after as their water rations came completely dry. They tried fishing a few times, even ruining Indy's bullwhip to make a line. They just didn't have enough length to get deep enough, said Richard. The surface water was too hot from the sun, and ocean fish liked colder water.

Just before supplies had run out, they had agreed to give their final shares to Anna, just in case she was somehow able to make it through. It was a grim concept, but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make. Better she have that extra, single remote chance.

Every night, Indiana went to sleep so weak that he wondered if he would wake up in the morning. One day, he woke up to find Anna gone from the boat. The sun blazed down from a mid-morning position, later than when they usually woke up, bearing down on his and Richard's skin as they lay in the hull of the boat. It was no more unusual than every other morning they had awoken to recently, except...

Anna's hoof was stuck down his throat.

Anna woke up, a crick in her back and a the sun rising in the distance. With bleary eyes, she looked to her left. There, the cabinet lay open, the empty jug and cracker-tin inside. Daddy lay on the ground, skin pinkish and blisters on his lips as his beaten up, squashed fedora shielded his face from the sun. To her right, she could see the tent where they would huddle every day to hide from the sun, Uncle Richard lying in a very similar state to Daddy, and a tally mark etched into a wall counting the days they had been at sea.

One time, Anna had heard about what 'death' was. It had been vague and mysterious, as the grownup who had said it soon realized there was a child in the room with him. Usually she'd discount words like that, but then Uncle Rich and Daddy had been saying it to each other in whispers, especially as the days dragged on and they ran out of water. Maybe, she was beginning to understand what the word meant.

Every day, the grownups moved less and less. What happened if they stopped moving at all? Was that what the naughty man back on the ship was going to do with the... gun(?) if Daddy hadn't shot him first?

Anna reached up and wiped the sweat from her brow. The droplets glistened on the end of her hoof as she stared at them... then suckled on them. It was disgusting, dirty, and salty, but she didn't care. She was very thirsty. Everyone was very thirsty. She really wished for a nice, cool glass of water.

She also wished she could be back in Paris. She wanted to go back to the park and chase birds, have a nice big dinner, then go to sleep with a nice bedtime story. Even Daddy's cooking would suffice in this situation, she reasoned.

Anna looked up, to a long, wide sky with a few clouds dotted here and there. Then, a realization crossed over her. She could fulfill at least one of those wishes herself!

After checking extra well that Daddy was actually still asleep, and not just faking, she stood, flexed her wings a few times, and climbed into the sky. Without any of the shade from the sides of the boat, she quickly heated up, but this temperature imbalance was quickly rectified as she took a few dives and swirls through the air, the wind cooling down her body in record time and blow-drying the sweat out of her fur.

This initial feeling of joy cooled into a burning shame as she looked back down to the boat, now a tiny brown dot on the ocean's surface. She was never supposed to fly without a grownup watching and making sure she didn't get hurt. She'd fallen and broken something more times than she could count, and Daddy hated it when she tried to fly without a rope.

That shame slowly turned into a feeling of mischievousness as she looked back up the sky. After so long being cooped up inside, under that damn canvas tent, she could not resist the allure of flying free until she felt like her wings would fall off. So, she continued ascend, higher and higher. Eventually, she became so high that the ocean became a tapestry below, the boat an invisible ant on the surface below.

She was so high that she could see the clouds! She thought maybe she'd be afraid of the heights, the koala in one of her books always seemed afraid of falling out of the trees, but she just felt more free than ever! She felt her breathing change... somehow. It was like she was taking much, much longer breaths as the beating of her heart became silent in her ears. The wind up here was icy, and for the first time in months she felt cold.

A small fear about losing track of the boat came up in her mind, but it was quashed by childish curiosity as she spotted a nearby cloud. Gliding on the wind, she darted straight for it.

The cloud, at first, really didn't look like something that she was going to be able to stand on. It looked like a bank of puffy, oddly-shaped snow at first - something she would plough straight through at her speed. So, it was to her shock when she crashed into the cloud headfirst.

It wasn't too painful, more like a pillow than a hard, concrete surface. She raised her face from the surface of the cloud, cloud... particles(?) clinging to her face and encasing her muzzle. Something liquid ran down her nose, and water soaked through her tongue and gums. The former caused her to sneeze, shooting cloudy vapor out of her muzzle as she shook her head in a daze.

Cautiously, she got back up on all fours, looking around the cloud's surface, "...Huh..." she said to herself. She smacked her lips. They were wet...

Her hooves had sank into the surface of the cloud slightly on impact. Withdrawing one of them, she found it sopping wet, much like it had been when she wiped her brow. However, when she suckled on it this time, the water was cold, pure, and not salty. Like normal water.

Like... normal water!

Anna gasped, jumping into the air for long enough for the wind to blow her forward a few steps. After gracefully landing back on all fours further on the cloud, she looked around, wide-eyed. She'd found the solution! Of course! Rain came from clouds, so it just made sense that clouds were also water! She just needed to get the water back to the boat.

The boat... erm...

Anna spread her wings and flew down from the side of the cloud, tracing a hoof along its side to keep from being blown away from her prize. Below her was only a long, long ocean. Yet, somehow, she felt she knew where she'd come from. Something about the wind, the pressure between her feathers, and the direction of the sun just made her feel confident.

She gave the cloud a tug, ripping out a chunk like it was a hoof-full of cotton candy. She stuffed the chunk in her mouth, the cloud rapidly decomposing into water. It was almost like it was raining in her mouth as she chewed! A nice, big gulp slid down her throat, making the big thirsty go away a bit.

If pulling didn't work, she'd just push instead! Flying back over the top, she began to shove the cloud downwards, following her senses back towards the boat. Eventually, it appeared, a slow-moving dot, an ant on the surface of the ocean. The cloud had stayed more or less intact, leaving a trail of vapor behind itself as she had shoved it through the air. It had about the same weight as a large pillow, or perhaps a few loaves of bread, and was about twice the size of the boat when she finally came to a stop.

Daddy and Uncle Rich were still lying there, eyes closed. Fear blossomed in Anna's heart, followed quickly by a steely determination.

She ripped a chunk out of the cloud and flew over, shouting, "Daddy! Daddy wake up!"

His chest slowly rose and fell. His mouth hung open. Well, if he wasn't going to try and taste the cloud, she'd just feed it to him! Positioning the cloud in her hoof, she began to shove it into his mouth, until her hoof clinked against his teeth.

That shock slowly opened his bloodshot, weary eyes. He snorted, blinking a few times before looking down at her hoof, eyes widening in surprise.

"Anna? What?" Indiana said, water sliding down his throat and quenching a great, painful fire that had lined the sides of his esophagus ever since they had started their journey.

Anna was hovering in the air a few inches from him, a giant smile on her face. A cloud floated overhead, somehow content to hang around mere feet away from the ocean's surface. His daughter refused to explain herself, simply grabbing another chunk of cloud and flying over to Richard, shoving the white, fluffy substance down his throat.

His hand shot to his forehead. A CHUNK of CLOUD!?

Richard, stimulated by the insertion of liquid into his mouth, began to wake up as well, groaning as he sat up and looked around, confused. Anna was doing some sort of frenzied dance in midair as Indiana shakily stood and reached out for the cloud. Surely enough, his hand swept through vapor, coming down wet from the condensation.

"What in tarnation..." Richard gaped, looking up at the cloud as well.

Indiana pinched himself. His sunburnt skin gave him a pang of pain.

"I flew up and found a cloud!" Anna proudly announced, jabbing a forehoof up at the cloud, "It's nice water!'

Indiana took his sopping wet hand and raised it to his mouth, sucking on it. Aside from the slight hint of salt from the sweat that had been on his hand, the water was most definitely pure - like rainwater. Richard reached up as well and took a swipe, looking down in bewilderment to his wet hand.

"That's not how you do it, silly," Anna rolled her eyes, reaching up and just... taking a chunk of the cloud and shoving it in her mouth like it was cotton candy, "That's how!" she said, chewing on the cloud.. somehow.

Indiana's butt hit the bottom of the boat as he nearly passed out on the spot.

"More... please more," Richard said, reaching out towards the cloud, "Feed us, Anna. Please."

"Okay!" Anna said, before grabbing another chunk and holding it out towards Richard in offering.

His hand went straight through the cloud, which began to drift into wisps as soon as Anna let go of it. This time, they both looked in confusion.

"How... are you doing that, Anna?" Indiana asked, looking up with wild eyes towards Anna.

"I dunno... why can't you hold it?" Anna asked, ripping out another chunk and holding it towards Indiana. The same thing happened to him, deepening the equine's confusion.

"Just put it in our mouths," Indiana asked, the still-present thirst bubbling back up in his mouth as the residue from his initial portion dried up.

Anna obliged, feeding the two grownups in a manner that may have been demeaning if it weren't for their desperation. The vapor, trapped in their mouths, quickly condensated, turning into cold drops against their cheeks and teeth and running down their throat as they swallowed. Each chunk was perhaps a sip from a canteen, and each mouthful was cool and soothing.

Eventually, though, there was no more cloud to have. Stray bits of vapor were blown away by the wind, though by then the two men and Anna had received more water than they had ever since they started rationing.

"I'll just go get another one," Anna shrugged casually, before ascending again before Indiana could protest.

Surely enough, though, she came back with another, fresh cloud, plucked straight from the sky as if it was a particularly desirable fruit growing on a tree. This time, Indiana held out the water jug and the makeshift funnel they had created for it. Anna stuffed the bits of cloud inside, where they condensated and slowly filled the jug. Two clouds later, and they were looking at a tired child, but a completely filled water jug.

Anna laid down for a mid-afternoon nap in the shade, having more than earned it. Indiana sat next to her, staring at the jug still in his hands. Sparing a glance over to Richard, he said, "This must be some sort of complicated, dehydration-induced fever dream."

"If it is, we're having the same one and it's very odd," Richard said, placing a hand on the surface of the jug to get some of the cool temperature out of it.

"Dr Richter will shit himself when he sees her doing this," Indiana surmised, uncorking the jug and taking a sip in celebration. As long as there were clouds in the sky, they could replace the fluids inside.

Richard took the jug and took a sip as well, before commenting, "I don't think there's any possible scientific explanation to this. I think you've got an angel in disguise for a child, Indy."

"Anna's crashed one too many chandeliers into her uncle's floorboards to be an angel," Indiana contradicted, taking off his hat and fanning himself with it, "If only she could magic food out of nowhere as well..."

Richard looked over to their makeshift hook-and-line sitting inside the cabinet on the far side of the boat and mused, "...Maybe there is..."

Another cloud was assembled over the boat, casting shade on it. This time, though, its purpose wasn't to refill their water supply, though that was the backup plan if their plan A didn't work.

Instead, Anna was slowly collecting more and more clouds and bringing them into the same cluster. Rather frustratingly, and counter to all the laws of physics and meteorology that Indy knew of, the clouds gathered had just conglomerated together and stayed fluffy and white. Not heavy enough to cause precipitation.

Maybe it would be enough to just crash the clouds into the seawater? No... it'd probably be better if it was a slow, long release. She needed more clouds than what she had there to achieve such a thing, so she kept going out to collect nearby clouds.

She was enjoying it, too. Unlimited flying without adult supervision. Heck, with the cloud floating in front of their boat, it was pretty hard for them to even see where Anna was, so she was more or less free to enjoy herself between lugging more and more clouds into place. Eventually, what they got was the beginning of what Indiana thought was more or less a stormfront.

"Okay, Anna, can you try... combining them or something now?" Indiana shouted up to Anna, who peeked from behind a nearby cloud.

Richard was working on fastening Indiana's knife onto the end of one of the spare oars in a makeshift spear as Anna worked. He looked up as Anna fluttered around the edges of the cloud bank, confused. She eventually just tried pushing on one side, only to push the entire cloud bank a few meters over. She eventually descended and shrugged.

"Okay, well, just push at it from the top and push it into the water, okay?" Indiana instructed, pointing upwards.

Anna shrugged again, going up over the top of the cloud. Landing on all fours on the top, her wings tired from a long day of flying and pushing clouds, she instead found it more productive to begin bouncing up and down on top of the cloud. It's how she packed her toy-trunk after a long day, after all, so it'd probably work on a cloud.

The cloud didn't move. It only got a little grayer and smaller. With a sigh, she spread her wings to push with just her forehooves, the way she'd been doing the entire time.

"Waitwaitiwaitwait!" Indiana called from the bottom, "Do whatever you were doing just there! Keep doing that!"

Anna paused, confused, before beginning to bounce up and down on the cloud. Spongey as it was, it almost acted like a nice, springy mattress. This was fun! Daddy had always told her to stop jumping on her bed, maybe this could be a guilt-free alternative!

The cloud became dark, as if it was a raincloud, before suddenly the sound of rain began to emanate from it. Anna realized her father's plan just as cries of joy came from him underneath.

"Get more clouds! Anna! Keep going!" Indiana shouted over the rain.

Rain poured from the new stormcloud, causing the ocean to boil with rain around it. The water, nearly at sub-zero temperatures as it exited the cloud, impacted with the ocean water, cooling it rapidly. As the artificial rainstorm continued, the water temperature slowly normalized, and fish cruising beneath the warm surface layer of the ocean noticed.

Indiana hurriedly cast his line while Richard readied his makeshift spear. Soon, the water was not just boiling with fish. While Indiana's rod was unappealing without bait, patience and a school of fish swarming the boat eventually allowed Richard to spear their dinner just as it flopped out of the water near the liferaft. Indiana cheered as Richard scraped the fish off into the hull of the boat, allowing his friend to finish the poor creature off.

Anna, that night, tried her first taste of sushi meat. She decided she didn't like it, as it tasted bad and made her tummy upset. Indiana eventually elected to follow Johan's advice to not feed her meats, as it would be a terrible turn of events if their only source of water and rain grew ill from an unsuitable diet.

Fortunately for them, though, the next day that very fact became irrelevant. Anna spotted land in the distance while she was collecting clouds, causing the adults to take to the oars and paddle furiously, strengthened by a full jug of water and a meal of fish. By the end of the next day, their boat approached shore, Anna meeting them on the beach as the boat crunched against sand.

They shared an embrace there on the beach, before they turned and headed inland, arms wrapped around each other and Anna piggybacking on her father.

They would find a road, then began to follow it north. Flagging down a car and talking to its confused driver, they asked where they were. The answer was: Mexico. They had been just a bit further north than they had expected clearly. Overjoyed, they explained their plight to the driver, who agreed to drive them to his family farm.

Sleeping on mats in the barn, real food in their bellies and lukewarm well-water to coat their mouths, they slept until noon the next day.

Marcus Brody had been endlessly worried the past two months.

Indiana had left him with his possessions to be stored as he left France, promising he'd be back 'in a few months' and that he'd write if circumstances required an extension of the time. No letter had ever arrived, no phone calls came, nobody had seen him, it was like he'd just dropped from the face of the earth!

Henry Jones Sr, Ravenwood, the Belloq family, nobody! In his desperation, Brody called every American embassy he could, asking about this missing Mr Jones. Though, of course, there was little they could do to help. It was either he showed up or some police department somewhere found his body.

The wait had gotten so long that even Henry Jones Sr expressed some concern in his and Brody's correspondence. Marcus should've just insisted Indiana leave Anna with him. He felt like a fool. The worst possibilities ran through his mind as he thought of the fates of not only Indiana, but his daughter as well; Marcus's adoptive niece. Had they met their fate in some foreign place? Waylaid by bandits? Bitten by snakes? Consumed by alligators? Stoned to death by monkeys?

Though, fortunately, Marcus got a telegram that nearly stopped his heart with a flood of relief.

AM-IN-NYC-JONES

Taking leave from his work and catching the next available ship, Marcus Brody waited only for Johan to fly into London from Germany to board the same ship as him. Soon, they arrived in New York, where they learned the Joneses had recently been expulsed from hospital after being healed for multiple injuries, dehydration, and starvation.

They'd met late at night, fresh off the boat. Indiana told Marcus all about his travel, about how Belloq had betrayed him, about their rescue attempt, and their stranding at sea. He also told rather fantastical stories about Anna 'catching clouds'. Johan expressed great interest in seeing this in action, and was told he'd get to see it the next day, as Anna was far too tuckered out.

Johan had been the first to leave the hotel he and Marcus were staying at. After showering and getting dressed, Marcus Brody was soon after him, meeting the Joneses and Indiana's friend Richard in Central Park.

Johan sat on a park bench near a fountain, face drawn and hands clutching the handle of his briefcase shakily. Marcus frowned, "You look like you've seen a ghost, Doctor."

"By all things scientific, Brody, I have," Richter said, running his hands across his face and rubbing his eyes, "Was zum Teufel."

Marcus nodded slowly, before proceeding past the distressed zoologist and towards another park bench further in. Indiana and a large-framed African man sat side by side, both looking skywards. Anna flew above them, cruising through the air. To Marcus's mystification, there was no rope connecting her and Indiana together.

"Marcus!" Indiana said, standing and dusting himself off, "Good to see you."

"You seem chipper," Marcus said, reaching out a hand for a shake. Looking the other man up and down, he noticed a definite loss in weight. In general, Indiana seemed a bit gaunt and pale, and sported a heavy tan across most of his visible body.

"Surviving something like that does that to you," Indiana shrugged, taking the handshake. Looking over towards Anna, he raised his voice and shouted, "Hey Anna! Get something for Uncle Marcus and come down here!"

Anna paused in the air, before shouting "Okay!" and zipping off further upwards.

Indiana then turned towards Richard, "Richard, this is Marcus Brody. Brody, this is Richard."

"Good to meet you," Marcus nodded, offering his hand to Richard, who took it.

"Indiana talks about you a lot. Only good things," Richard assured, breaking the handshake and placing his hands in his pockets, "I think Indy wants some time with you alone. I'll go take a walk around."

The historian nodded slowly as Richard walked away. Indiana patted the bench next to him, where Richard was previously sitting. Marcus obliged, sitting down with a sigh, relaxing his weary bones. For seemingly no reason, Indiana suddenly shoved a glass cup into Marcus's hands as Anna approached from the skies.

Marcus's eyebrows knitted together as he gazed at the fluffy, white substance trapped between the girl's forehooves. With a grin, she stuffed the substance into the provided glass cup before spreading her hooves and hugging Marcus heartily.

"Oho, good to see you too, Anna!" Marcus chuckled, the air being squeezed out of his lungs by her grip.

"I love you Uncle Marcus!" Anna said, backing away from the hug, "Enjoy your water!" she said, before rocketing back off into the sky.

"Erh, water?" Marcus looked down at his cup, which was now filled with water, "...Water?"

"Water," Indiana nodded, "She can touch clouds. I think she gave Dr Richter a stroke, though."

"How curious," Marcus mused, tasting the water. He winced as the freezing-cold water chilled his teeth, before lowering the glass and commenting, "I suppose if she can propel herself with such small wings and heavy body mass, anything is possible."

"If it weren't for her, we'd all be dead in the Pacific," Indiana said, leaning back into the bench with a sigh, "If only Belloq hadn't been such a fucking dirty dealer," Indiana spat, demeanour changing as he folded his arms, "I just don't feel safe now, Marcus. What if more people like him are around? What if he tracks us down? What then?"

"It's a shameful indictment on humanity that such slime exists," Marcus agreed, rather enjoying his cool cup of water on the summer's day, "To sell a small child like this into what amounts as slavery. Barbaric."

"I just... I dunno what to do," Indiana admitted, "I was supposed to get paid real, big bucks for that work. Now I nearly got killed, and not even civilization is safe anymore."

Marcus mulled it over for a while, raising his glass and looking through it at Anna as she danced around through the air on the other side. Eventually, though, an idea crept into his head, and he lowered the glass and looked over to Indiana, "Indy, I think I know what you must do."

"What?"

"I think it's time you let the government know she exists," Marcus took a deep breath, "I think it's time you fought for her right as a... sapient form of life to a citizenship and civil protections."

Indiana frowned, "What about Johan's paper?"

"He'll understand," Marcus intoned, before pausing and adding, "As soon as he gets over his shock, of course. You have friends in the military, I understand. I have some contacts I can pull on as well. We'll get every resource we can on task and petition every court we can find. Other scientists may need to verify Dr Richter's claims on her sapience in front of the court, but they will succeed in finding it, I'm sure. If she can be recognized by the government, at least then you shall have someone to call on should trouble arise."

"Right now, I couldn't even call the police if she was being threatened," Indiana agreed, tapping a finger on the armrest.

"And about your doctorate..." Marcus reached out to lay a hand atop Indy's, "If it was between trusting Belloq and asking me to cover your fees, you should have just asked..."

Author's Note

I want a nice, cold cup of cloud now...

Back to more slice of lifey stuff for a while!