The Seven Swords of Diya: An Indiana Jones Fan Fiction - Part 2

Chapter 230: Cave, Kamchatka Wilderness, Soviet Union, 1960

Cave

Kamchatka Wilderness

Soviet Union

1960

"Lizavet!" Shorty bolted awake, trying to steady Lizavet and keep her shaking from throwing her or rolling into the fire.

Lizavet hit him, convulsed and sat up, her eyes wide and bright like the full moon. Her mouth was slightly open and she was gasping for air.

Shorty knelt beside her, his hands up, offering and yet uncertain of what to do. He looked at Indy for help.

"Shorty," Indy warned. "Give her room to breathe and some time to come back." He was seeing Lizavet as a small girl standing by the firelight. "Come back to us, hon. Lizavet?"

"You're not with them?" The small girl child asked.

Indy heard the words from two different directions. The woman had spoke in the physical and the child had spoken in the unseen and unnatural realm.

"No," Indy adjusted his voice to comfort the child who was the same age as his granddaughter. "I'm not with them."

"They want you for something," both Lizavet's spoke to Indy.

"Yes. They did.... Do?"

"Dad, why are you looking over there?" Emily asked.

Lizavet swallowed gasping and her child form disappeared. "I'm sorry, Dr. Jones. The child me always appears after seeing that moment. It's the night my parents were killed... in case you saw something."

"Don't apologize," Indy replied. "She's a scared little girl. And I didn't see anything."

Lizavet swallowed. "You spoke to her."

"Yeah. Ok." Indy threw his hat on his knee in frustration. "I should quit trying to lie my way out of the fact that I can see into something I don't believe in! Its just -" His eyes and voice softened. "I can't leave a scared kid. Shorty knows that... so does Em." He smiled, the anger disappearing from his weary features. "Is everyone all right?"

Em pressed herself closer to Indy. "I am, Dad."

Lizavet blinked, fighting tears, her hands trembling.

Indy motioned to her. "Lizavet? Do you want to come here? I sense it's been awhile since your little girl had a hug."

Lizavet bolted into Indy's arms, crying.

Shorty stared after her. "Why... why couldn't I?"

"Shhh, Shorty," Indy chided. "You've been gone from her life since 1944. That's sixteen years. Its gonna take awhile for her to trust you."

"I need a papa," Lizavet whispered against Indy's chest, her body language and posture seemingly belonging to the child Indy had just witnessed in the supernatural. "I need a papa who won't beat me when I see things and threaten me when I'm scared of the apkallu monsters."

"You don't need to be scared," Indy smiled. Then he saw the apkallu figures still standing at the edge of their fire's light. Their menacing grins of gleeful torture had disappeared. For the first time Edo's supernatural goon squad looked terrified.

"Shorty, when girls don't have a dad, or they have a dad who won't protect them... they..." he glanced around all all the adult children, Emily, Lizavet and Shorty, wondering how to say what was needed without kicking up anyone's horrific memories. "These orphans are often left to people who hurt them. And they mistake that hurting type of love for the real thing. And when sons don't have a dad - they don't know how to treat the women they want to love and care about. Makes trust harder for all the little kids who show up in all us grown ups whenever there's a crisis."

Shorty waited a moment. "I'm an orphan too, Lizavet. Hope I can do better than what I've done."

Lizavet looked up from Indy's hug, her hand reaching for Shorty. "We can work on it, Korotkiy."

Shorty looked at Indy, remembering 1935 and Indy's adoption of him. It had given him a dad for a few weeks, and he remembered the safety of Indy's presence. "... I didn't realize how much you meant to me, Indy."

Indy cracked a grin. "Shorty - you're really bad at this emotion stuff. C'mere and give me a hug."

Shorty lunged grabbing onto Indy's shoulders.

Indy grinned... watching the supernatural goon squad shrink. It had done the same thing when Shorty had hugged him breaking him out of the trance in the Temple of Doom.

He looked at Shorty, Lizavet and then Emily. "How do you feel about me just adopting you both? Em?"

Emily shrugged. "I'm fine with more siblings. I barely know my own older sister. I'm not sure how Mom or Annie will feel..."

"Your mother wanted a son." Indy grinned at Shorty. "Now she has one." He looked tenderly at Lizavet. "I'm sure she'd welcome another daughter too. The ranch we bought has a house with five bedrooms. Marion and I weren't married long enough to fill it. After the tomb cave in, I got arrested for tomb robbing, she thought Em was dead and I would be executed by the Egyptian Antiquities Commission for tomb robbing, so she left taking Em's older sister Annie. It took me far too long to gather my courage, go after my wife and figure out how to be a dad."

Emily grinned. "By the time you figured all that out Annie had kids - GAH-WHAND-PA."

Indy grinned and gently tweaked his daughter's nose. "I remember you messing up words too, hon. Give four year old Laurel some space for language skills. She speaks German and English. I'll let her call me grandpa with a w instead of an r. It's Tyler I'm worried about. His dad's death wasn't easy for him. Death isn't easy on anyone, much less kids."

They waited for Indy to reveal more, but he went silent, staring aimlessly lost in his memories.

Lizavet blinked shyly at Indy. "May I call you Papa?"

Indy's jaw dropped slightly and a tender light reached his eyes. "Of course, Lizavet. I'd be honored."