Chapter three

Chapter three

"Old man? It´s you?", asked Mutt, very disoriented. He felt very dizzy and confused; everything around him was blurred and he wasn´t even able to distinguish clearly the features of the one who was holding him, but he knew was him. He felt his strong arms around him, those that he couldn´t believe that beloged to a boring professor of archaeology the first time he saw him, holding him safely against his hard chest; he heard his voice, although he didn´t undestand his words, they sounded reasurring and kind, and he felt his caresses in his hair and in his cheeks conforting him. He felt safe in his arms, with a confidence that he haven´t felt since he was a child. But, as his dizziness was disappearing and his senses slowly won the game to his instincts, he had the need to verify that what his soul already knew was real and that were the arms of his father who kept him afloat wherever they were. His eyes still couldn´t see his face, so he raised his hand to his saviour´s head, seeking a confirmation for his suspicions and he smiled when he recognized Indiana´s rough beard rubbing his hand against his father´s cheek.

"Yes, puppy, it´s me", said Indiana, enjoying for a moment the caresses that his son was giving him, feeling his hand wandering doubtful for his beard and his hair, but he was unable to suppress an instinct of concern, looking that his son could barely recognize him.

"Where...where is your hat?", asked Mutt, running his fingers through his father´s grey hair. Indiana chuckled about his pup´s statement while he caught his son´s hand that was wondering through his hair and linked his fingers with his own.

"I left it behind. You need me", answered Indiana.

"It...it is a true honour, old man", laughed Mutt.

"You can bet...", said Indiana, smiling. Mutt couldn´t return him that smile when the cold and the pain welcomed him to the full consciousness. Mutt let escape a cry of pain and hugged Indiana, searching a way to relieve the unbearable pain that threatened to return him again to the mists of darkness. Indiana hugged him back, trying with all his might to protect his son from the suffering that, unfortunately for the great archaeologist, he couldn´t pass in his child´s place.

"Easy, easy, little one, breathe slowly...", told him Indiana, trying to soothe him. "The pain, although it is difficult to overcome, is good, it means you are alive and with me, undestand? You have to be strong, you have to hold on".

"That´s easy for you to say...", whispered Mutt, surpressing another moan when a new wave of pain assaulted his body. He instinctively took refuge in his father´s neck and he felt Indiana´s muscles tensed under his skin, while he was rubbing circles in his son´s back trying to reassure him.

"Mutt, I assure you that I would take your place willingly in this very moment if I could. I hate see you in pain, believe me", told him Indiana, hugging him. Mutt looked at him while he was fighting against his pain and the totally honest eyes of his father caused him a strange but wonderful feeling of affection. "How do yo feel?"

"Wet", said Mutt. Indiana laughed.

"You never loose the irony, don´t you, boy? Looks and brains..."

"No. So...in what problem are we involved right now to be here?".

"In no one more than those we already have. You have a lot of fever and I had to lower it. Now, you are better or, at last, conscious, that´s an improvement".

"If you say so...and, as you had to lower it, you decided do it rudely and get us both in a river, right?", asked Mutt. Indiana rolled his eyes and resisted the urgency of teach some manners to his conceited son reminding himself that he was injuried and in pain. He could wait until later.

"Look, brat, I don´t know what do you think I should have done, because I must remind you that we are in the middle of the damn Amazon and here there aren´t any antibiotics or painkillers that I can give you so, if you have a better idea, I would love to hear it", said Indiana, nervous. Mutt turned slighty in his arms to replicate him, but, when he tried to move, the wound in his chest protested by sending a new wave of pain that clouded his senses for a moment , moaning loudly. Indiana sent him a distressed look. "Mutt, what do you feel?"

"This hurts like hell! How a hole so small can hurt so much?", asked Mutt, breathing heavily. Indiana, trying to move the boy as less as possible, supported his son´s head upon his chest.

"Easy, puppy, breathe with me, as one, slowly, very good little one. You have to try to control your breathing, because if you don´t, the pain and the fear will take possesion of you and you will get worse, okay? Try to keep my rhythm, stay calm, hold on, don´t think about anything else but breath", whispered Indiana in his ear. Mutt nodded weakly, trying to follow his father´s orders, with unequal success. "You aren´t the only one who has gone through this, child. I remember one time, when I was in southern Spain looking for the remnants of the lost civilization of Tartessos, that appeared from nowhere a troop of treasure hunters shooting us to steal our discoveries. Unfortunately, they got them, but no before leaving me a beautilful present in the form of a shoot...in a very unorthodox place".

"Where?", asked Mutt. Indiana smiled, happy to have achieved his purpose of distract his son from his pain.

"In my butt", said Indiana.

"They shot you in the ass? I can´t believe it", asked Mutt, barely capable to contain his laughter.

"Yeah, in my ass. I passed a whole month complaning in a hospital lying on my stomach besieging to the nurses to give me some painkillers until they discharged me from it with a wonderful scar and a float to sit down on for the next two months".

"You are kidding me, right?", laughed Mutt.

"Unfortunately, I assure you, it´s true. Ask your mother if you don´t believe me, I´m sure that she still remembers how that scar looks like", smiled Indiana, knowing very well what would be his son´s reaction to his words and the face that the boy´s put of absolute disgust confirmed his suspicions.

"Oh, my God! Too much information!", growled Mutt. Indiana laughed.

"That happens to you for make fun of your father. Tell me how are you feeling now. Any better?", said Indiana, seeing him lightly calmer than before.

"I am in pain...and weak...and dizzy...and confused...I can barely see anything else beyond your face", said Mutt.

"And you don´t need to see anything else. I will take care of everything, you don´t need to worry about anything, understand? Now, you only have to concentrate on resisting, tomorrow we will begin our return and very soon we will reach some place where we will find some especialists who will take a proper care of your wound. Don´t worry, everything is going to be all right".

"I am almost more scared of the quacks than of the russians", said Mutt.

"I undestand you better than you can imagine, puppy, but if those damn doctors make you suffer in any way I will kill them, do you agree? Do you trust me?"

"I trust you. After everything I saw you do in the past two days, I think you deserve it", said Mutt. Indiana sighed, relieved. He still feared his son´s rejection, hear him said the same words of hate that he listened earlier as the worst of the curses possible, but the confidence that he showed him while he was clinging to his neck as his last resort touched his heart. But the memories that Marion related him only a few minutes before were still crossed in his soul.

"Puppy, about what happened before...you know...our little argument before that son of a bitch shot you...", Indiana began to say, feeling Mutt tense in his arms almost immediately at his words, "I don´t think that you are a failure, I never thought such a thing, I told you that because I was mad at you, but I assure you that this isn´t true. You aren´t, in any sense possible, a failure".

"Yes, I am and that is what you think because it´s the truth".

"NO! It isn´t! You have proved these days that you aren´t a failure, that you are a very smart, corageous and good boy and I am very proud to be your father and the only thing I regret is not hadn´t been there to see you grown up, but I will be with you from now on! You aren´t a failure!", shouted Indiana.

"You are lying and you wouldn´t be retracting right now if mom hadn´t told you off or said to you what happened with the Nazis when I was little", said Mutt. Indiana´s silence was more than revealing. "I knew. Mom told you what happened that night and now you are trying to persuade me that I am not a failure because you feel pity on me, that´s all, but you still believe I am a failure and you are right, I am".

"Yes, she told me, but that doesn´t change anything! I should never tell you something like that, much more when it´s obviously a lie. Believe me, please, you are far, far away from being a failure", said Indiana, but he saw that Mutt´s look was lost among the mists of the past and realized that his son put his left hand inadvertently in his right forearm. Fearing that his child could have another injuries that would have gone unnoticed by him, Indiana inspected Mutt´s right forearm to discover a large, old scar that crossed his skin from the wrist to the elbow, which had gone unseen by Indiana to have been hidden under his leather jacket until that moment. "Damn Nazis sons of a...".

« It wasn´t you fault. By then, you didn´t even know I existed", said Mutt.

"I´ll kill them. Tell me who were the ones who dared to attack you, I will chase them and give them a death so painful that the inquisitorial tortures will seem them a party!"

"Don´t waste your breath, old man. They lost the war more than ten years ago, they must be dead right now or at least prisioners...but, even if they were alive and free, what they did to me won´t change, whatever you could do to them in revenge. You won´t obtain anything chasing old ghosts", said Mutt. Indiana looked at him, surprised that a statement so wise could come from someone as young as his son and hugged him with all his strenght.

"As long as I remain alive, I will never allow that something like this could happen to you again, I swear, I will always protect you, my little boy", told him Indiana, rocking him in his arms.

"Even you aren´t infallible, old man",

"For you, I will be. In addition, you have to admit that I do it well. Come on, recognize it", teased him Indiana. Mutt growled.

"It´s true...to be almost one hundred years old, you fight very well...", said Mutt. Indiana chuckled.

"Surely, I am not as young as I used to be, but there is still Indiana Jones for a long time, kid, I assure you", said Indiana, while he saw his son holding back his tears again before a new wave of pain overcame him. "Puppy, you don´t have to be strong anymore; cry if you want to, shout if you need to, it doesn´t matter; feel is not a weakness. One can´t always be strong, baby".

"When you show your weakness, the others will take advantage of them to hurt you so... do it isn´t an option for me".

"Mutt, listen to me. There are a lot of people in the world who wants hurt you, I can´t deny that, but no man are made of stone and a human being always needs to show his feelings, in one way or another. You can´t hide them forever; what do you have to learn is to know in who you can trust; but, even taking precautions, sometimes you will be betrayed, as Mac did to me, but if you always pretend that nothing matters and supress your feelings, they will destroy you at the end. Did you undestand me?", Indiana told him. Mutt nodded, weakly. "You can trust me, because nothing of what you could do or say will make me love you or worry about you less than I do now and I can assure you it´s much more than you can ever imagine, so you don´t have to pretend when you are with me. I want to know everything about you, what do you think, what do you feel, even what do you dream about and I will never think that you are weak or silly for that. Be scared it´s human, as well as make mistakes, and I can´t help you if you don´t let me, ok? Will you tell me?".

"Old man...", whispered Mutt, after a few seconds of silence.

"Tell me, puppy".

"Right now, I am very scared", murmured Mutt, with a lump in his throat.

"You don´t have any reason to be scared, little one. Everything will be ok, I am with you. Why are you scared?"

"Because I am going to die", said Mutt. Indiana couldn´t help shivering of fear hearing his claim and hugged him tightly against his chest, trying to shield him from his own fears.

"You aren´t going to die, did you hear me? I am going to save you, I promise you".

"I can´t believe you. As much as you want it, you are not almighty, doctor Jones...even you can´t beat the Death if it comes here looking for me".

"For you, I will defeat death itself", assured Indiana. Mutt let escape a skeptical laughter.

"What are you going to do? Are you going to try to steal her scythe with your whimp while you kick her skull?", said Mutt, ironic. Indiana growled, but he didn´t answer. "You can´t save me this time, doctor Jones".

"Listen to me, Mutt. I can only ask you to have faith. I know that you feel bad, that you are hurt and scared, but I am not going to let my son die. A shot, as long as doesn´t affect vital organs like the heart or the brain, isn´t have to be mortal, and, if I remember correctly, your bullet isn´t in any of these places. It is very unpleasant, but with time and proper care, you will heal, I´ll make sure of that. And, when all this would only be a bad memory, you will have a beautiful scar to fancy in front of all the girls".

"If I survive, I will have to invent a good story to explain it".

"You will survive, because if for some reason that isn´t going to happen you don´t make it, I will follow you without any doubt. And you don´t have to invent any story to justify your new scar, the way in which you really acquired it was heroic enough".

"Yes, but what happened was too personal...this isn´t something that everybody who asks about it deserves to know", said Mutt. Indiana nodded.

"Ok, but, please, puppy...don´t do something like this never again. If we see ouselves in a situation like we was up there before in the future...and knowing my luck something like that will happen again...don´t save me, did you undestand me? In the dichotomy of choosing between my life and yours, I rather to die a milion of times before see you dying in my arms. Promise me that you won´t try to save me never again", said Indiana. Mutt shook his head.

"What I did today...I will do it again if it is necessary...I lost my father twice in the past, doctor Jones: once when I was born and he didn´t know I already existed; the other when the man I thought was my father died in the war when I was too young to keep even a memory of him. As far as I can avoid it, I won´t loose my father a third time, even if he is a stranger to me. I won´t be a coward".

"Oh, Mutt...", whispered Indiana, touched, hugging him tighly, "please, don´t risk yourself like that again; your life won´t worth anything if you loose it for someone who will follow you to the grave in the very moment you die. Please, promise me you will never do something like this again".

"I won´t promise you anything...that under no circumstances I will keep. I may be a failure, but at least I have pride. I won´t commit perjury; I am sinner enough by myself, thanks", resolved Mutt.

With a proud smile, Indiana caressed the almost blond curls that the water had stuck in his son´s forehead, making him seem even younger in his eyes, almost a little kid. Indiana thought that maybe that was why he worried so much about his damn hair, wanting desperately not seem the child he still was. "For the love of God", thought Indiana, "he is seventeen, he IS only a baby, I didn´t know anything at his age...although I thought I knew everything at that point. He shouldn´t be thinking about that things...his only worries in this damn world should be his stupid bike and girls, not death, not thinking that one day he will have to let himself being killed instead his father!".

"Even if you aren´t one, like I already told you, for many more reasons than I can describe, what you just said make you a person completely different of what can be considered as a failure. But I won´t insist; it will be as you wish, my puppy, but I will always make sure that you are safe and I will show you, every day of the rest of my life, that I am extremely proud of being you father", said Indiana, kissing his temples. Mutt looked at him with emotion in his blue eyes and Indiana couldn´t help returning him a little smile.

"You are getting soft, old man", said Mutt.

"Yes, I thinks I am getting too old for this things. But at least now I have an heir".

"In your dreams, old man, I never said I will follow your steps in the future, so forget it".

"Come on, pup, I saw you in action, I know you like it. Return to a quiet life it´s very difficult after having tested the flavour of the adrenaline of the action in your lips. Fixing bikes or fighting occasionally in some street brawl, it doesn´t have comparision at all, you know it".

"I can´t deny that...despite the consequences, it was interesting...very interesting, in fact. You shold have seen the face that Ukrainian mummy put when I stole her the skull! She couldn´t believe that she was being beaten by a brat like me!", laughed Mutt.

"I saw her, I saw her", smiled Indiana when Marion´s voice interrupted their conversation.

"Indy! Is Mutt all right? You are spending too much time with him in that river, what´s happening? Is he worse?", asked Marion in the distance.

"Everything´s fine, Marion! We will go out in a moment!", shouted Indiana. "Well, puppy, we will continue this conversation in a less humid place, ok?"

"Just one last question", murmured Mutt.

"All you want".

"Did you call me puppy?", asked Mutt. Indiana laughed.

"Of course. From now on, you will always be my little puppy and I will call you that, every day and in front of everyone", Indiana laughed, annoying him. Mutt looked at him absolutely horrified.

"What!? You never...Don´t call me like that again, it´s horrible!", protested Mutt. Indiana laughed at his embarrassment and caressed his hair.

"I think you have no choice, pup. I am your father and, at least, I can call you whatever I want. And I think that you will be stick with that nickname for the rest of my life", said Indiana. Mutt growled in annoyance, but he didn´t say anything. "Now, I have a last question for you. Why on Earth don´t you stop me now when I touch your hair? Don´t you mind about your quiff anymore?"

"For the love of God, old man, I am in the middle of the damn Amazon, only in underwear, in a river, in your arms and with a bullet in my chest, I assure you I would be very stupid if I worry about my hair right now. Besides...I lost my comb", whispered Mutt. Indiana let go a sincere laugh while he was assuring his son in his arms before starting to walk away from the river with him.

"When we reach the civilization again, I will buy you a new one with your name engraved in gold letters if you wish".

"Which one, Mutt or Henry?"

"Neither of them. It will have engraved "Pup", I assure you", laughed Indiana. Mut growled in disgust one more time, but he didn´t replied. "What? None ingenious answer? Now I am beginning to worry about you".

"Stop bothering you child, Jones, he can´t even hear you so...", began to say Marion, before realizing that his son was awake in her lover´s arms. "Mutt! You are awake! I was so worried about you...!"

"Before witnessing an uncontrolled attack of maternal love here", sitting in the floor next to the fire with Mutt still in his arms", "bring his clothes, he is freezing".

"Oh my God, this is the most embarrasing moment of my whole life", whispered Mutt. "I am in the middle of the jungle, in my underwear, wet from head to foot, dishevelled and in the arms of a father who barely know on which I rely completely at this time. Wow, I am a real man right now!".

"Don´t be so hard on yourself, Mutt, you are badly injuried", told him Indiana. Marion bought his clothes and she began to dress him carefully.

"My mother didn´t have to dress me since I was three years old!", snorted Mutt.

"Three years old? Don´t you mean six? I don´t know a lot about children but I can assure you that at six I still tried to put my trousers above my pyjamas", said Indiana, wrapping him up with his own jacket.

"He is right, Indy. He always was a very independent child. My sweet little boy...", said Marion. She ended dressing him and hugged him, but Mutt didn´t returned it. His mother looked at him without understand. "Mutt, what´s wrong?"

"Why you didn´t tell me, mom? Why did you hide the truth from me?", asked Mutt, moving away from his mother and taking refuge in Indiana´s lap.

"I already told you, Mutt, the best for you was to think that Colin was you real father, you were so young, you couldn´t undestand...", began to say Marion, but Mutt stopped her.

"Cut the crap, mom! Stop lying to me! You told him everything that happened with the Nazis, you know perfectly well that since then I always knew Colin wasn´t my real father! Hell, mom, I asked you in your face about that archaeologist the Nazis told me about and you denied me the existence of my real father staring straight into my eyes! How could you lie to me like that? You know that every damn day I asked myself about my father, looking for the answer that you had, but you didn´t want give them to me! Why you let me blame myself for his absence when I was a child, mom? Give only one reason", begged Mutt. Marion, feeling his baby blue eyes in her own, coudn´t avoid look away.

"I didn´t want to see you suffer...", said Marion.

"I already suffered by then, you knew it. Tell me the truth. Why did you hide it so long? What was the reason?", asked Mutt.

"Only my cowardice, baby...", whispered Marion. Mutt let escape a tired sigh.

"Enough", sighed Mutt. To Marion, the tone of resignation disguising the deep dissapointment he felt didn´t go unnoticed. She couldn´t bear the rejection of his son and the pain she knew he was feeling at that time, so she tried to hug him, but Mutt moved away one more time.

"Please, my baby..."

"Don´t, mom. I don´t want...I can´t argue with you right now... much less about this. Just...let it drop, ok?", whispered Mutt, tired and Indiana looked at Marion meaningfully, suddenly afraid of the weakness of his voice. Marion nodded with an average smile that perished when his son looked away from her and embraced Indiana drowning in pain.

"As you like, son. In this moment, all of us will do what my little baby boy wants", joked Marion, but when Mutt rejected her again she couldn´t avoid exchanging a pained look with Indiana. "All right...I think that I will go to see if Ox is okay...He is alone in the jungle right now and that crazy old professor always find some new ways to get into trouble, so...Indy, will you take care of Mutt? Shout if something happens; I will be back in a moment with Ox", said Marion, getting up. Indiana nodded.

"Of course. Go to get Ox, we will be fine. Don´t worry", said Indiana, hugging Mutt. Marion nodded and, after sent a last guilty look to Mutt, she dissapeared in the depths ofthe jungle.

"She will kill me when I get well for this, I know it. But right now, I can´t barely see and much less think straight, so...", whispered Mutt. Indiana inconsciously cooed him, resting his chin in his head and hugging him tightly.

"Do you know something, pup?", Indiana said after a moment of silence. "You shouldn´t have treated your mother that way. She only wanted to protect you from me, I hurt her so much in the past that the reaction she had was a normal one. Her desire to protect you is something that you should take into account. Don´t judge her, pup".

"Her problems with you...were and are something in which I shouldn´t interfere. You left her without any explanation at all one week before your wedding and I can understand that she would have like hide me from you...but she should have told me the truth, especially after that night. My own relationship with you shouldn´t be her problem, that´s between you and me", murmured Mutt.

"I hurt your mother so much in the past and you can´t ask a mother to tell his own son something that she thinks it would break his heart, Marion would never do something like that. Mothers are always so protective with her children and Marion isn´t different...for the love of God, even I feel so overprotective with you since I know you are my son that I think if someone try something as innocent as approach to you in this instant I will kill him with my bare hands...and you are almost an adult now, I don´t even imagine how I would feel if I have been with you when you were little...I think that I would have done the same thing if I that would mean shield you from pain. She thought I was going to reject you because... the night before I left I told her that I didn´t want to have any children in my whole life and we had a huge fight about the matter, that´s why she was trying so desperately to keep you away from me, because she didn´t want you to suffer for my rejection", said Indiana. Mutt looked at him, hurt evident in his eyes.

"So...you didn´t want me, that´s why you left. What did you do to make mom so angry? Did you want to abandon me as a baby or something like that? Did you want to get rid of me? All this time I was right...they were right...you left mom because I was a burden to you!", shouted Mutt, trying to get away from Indiana´s embrace, but his father avoid it.

"NO! OF COURSE I DIDN´T WANT TO GET RID OF YOU, YOU ARE MY SON, I LOVE YOU! Please, Mutt, stop, you are hurting yourself even more! I didn´t know about your existence by then...hell, even your mother didn´t know she was pregnant when we argued about this, I was conjecturing by then! Please, believe me, I would never have left your mother if I had known about your existence, you would never have been out of my sight, like you will never be from now on! I won´t left you again, I swear it!", shouted Indiana, panicking at the thought that his son would hate him after that confesion. Mutt stopped struggling and began to relax again in his father´s arms. Indiana kissed his forehead and felt that his fever was so high that it almost make the great archaeologist cry. "Never EVER again think that it was your fault or that those bastards were right because it is a complete and utter lie! Your mother didn´t know why I didn´t want to have any children...I just told her when you were inconscious...I was afraid that someone could harm them or kill them only to make me suffer...I knew that I would love my son more than life itself, that´s why I didn´t want have them, I was too afraid of losing them...I was coward. If I would have known you already existed, that I have a son...nobody would have been powerful enough to tear us apart...I would have spoiled and overprotected you until death, pup...And I will do it in the future, I assure you, so get used to the idea because I will never let you go again...I told you what happened because I want you to undestand your mother..I am the only one to blame for your mother´s behaviour. Don´t be so hard with her, she only did that because she loves you very much. I would have done the same".

"I trusted her...maybe if I didn´t her lies wouldn´t hurt so much now...", sighed Mutt. Indiana caressed his hair lovingly.

"I already told you why she did it, she was trying to protect you and...", began to say Indiana, trying to be patient with him, but Mutt cut him off.

"The lies...hurt much more than the most terrifying of the truths..." whispered Mutt. "Since that night I knew Colin wasn´t my father and she denied everything. The words she didn´t say, the lies promulgated and not believed and the broken trust were slab a lot heavier to bear for me than the worst of the realities. Above all, my most powerful enemy was myself...every day of my life since the attack of the Nazis I wonder who my father was and why he wasn´t with me. I was a child, I thought all was my fault! For God´s sake, I didn´t even know if you were dead or alive! When I was little, I liked to think that my father was a kind of secret agent of the government who couldn´t stay with us because his rivals might do us some harm, but he took care of us from afar because he loved us dearly...but the most of the time since the attack that Ox and I suffered I thought that my father didn´t want me, that it was my fault he left us, that he abandoned us to our fate because I was a failure and a bad child and that I ruined my mother´s life! Can you imagine how hard was for a five year´s child to think that he is the resposible of his mother´s suffering, that my father abandoned me? No, you can´t know how I felt then, but she saw me every day, she knew what I thought about the matter and she never said anything! One single sentence about it would have been enough to calm all my suffering...a sentence she never told me. My relationship with you, no matter how bad it could be, would have been wonderful compared with the things I could imagine during the times of discouragement and, in any case, it would haven been my responsability to deal with it, not hers for hide the truth from me! She had in her hands the power to erase my pain...she didn´t want to do it and, in this very moment, I can´t forgive her", sighed Mutt, weakly. Indiana hugged him tightly.

"Puppy..."

"Don´t call me that".

"Puppy", said Indiana again, ignoring his protests like his own father did with his when he called him Junior, "you have every right to be angry with your mother for this...but you have to undestand that she did it for your own safety, because she loves you, but she took a bad decision, everyone commits mistakes. As I already told you, I would have done the same things in her place if that meant shield you from any pain. In any case, she is the only mother you have and you must forgive her...you never know what do you really have until you loose it, my child", told him Indiana, playing with his blonde curls.

"I know but...I was so little and I was confused and scared and I felt so unloved and alone at that time while she lied to me one time and another and another in my face knowing perfectly well that I felt guilty and hurt about my father´s dissapearence...I think now that I thought that way about you until the very moment I knew the truth, although I tried to deny it. I feel weak enough right now to admit that I still was mouning my father´s absence at seventeen...it hurt me so much for so long time that now I can´t help but feel so...so..."

"Hurt?", tried to help Indiana.

"Betrayed", sighed Mutt, closing his eyes and trying to get his hand to his head, but Indiana prevented it. Guessing that he should have a very painful headache courtesy of his high fever, Indiana began to massage his temples tenderly. "But she doesn´t have to worry about anything...I have never been able to spend a lot of time angry with her. It didn´t matter how hard our fights were, she always has that irritating ability to make me forgive her everything. It will happen again now, it´s only...I can´t do it right now".

"Yeah, I know about what you are talking about...I can´t be mad at her for a long time either. That why she always wins all our arguments", laughed Indiana. Mutt rolled his eyes, but he didn´t make any comment. "Change the subject. Everything will be all right once we leave this damn jungle".

"If I live to see it, of course", said Mutt. Indiana opened his mouth to replicate him, but his son cut him off. "Do I have more unknown family?"

"More family?", asked Indiana, puzzled.

"Yeah...I don´t know anything about you. Do I have grandparents? Uncles or aunts? Cousins? Brothers or sisters, perhaps?", asked Mutt, hope evident in his voice. Indiana chuckled.

"No, puppy...I am only child, just like you. My mother died when I was very young and my father did it only a few years ago...I am afraid that you must resign yourself with me, kiddo".

"And brothers?", asked Mutt again.

"Well...you have an adopted brother...Shorty...a kid I found trying to steal my wallet in the streets of Shangai nearly twenty years ago...I lost the count...now he is a grown up man and he has his own family...It´s been long since the last time I saw him...He will be very glad to meet you, I am sure, but, when it comes to biological brothers...unless your mother has hidden something else from us I believe that you don´t have any, pup".

"Are you sure? After all, you didn´t know I existed", asked Mutt.

"Pretty sure, yeah. Certainly, your mother wasn´t the only woman in my life in the past years, but if any of them had gotten pregnant coinciding with the dates of our relationship, I would have found out and asked her if her baby could be mine, so I think you are my only secret son, pup", smiled Indiana. "But I will call ALL my ex girlfriend as soon as we will reach the civilization to make sure that Mutt is my only secret son. And the first will be Willie, that´s sure", thought Indiana.

"If you say so...", sighed Mutt. Every second, his eyelides became more and more heavier and the sound of his father´s heart in his ear lulled him to sleep like a lullaby. He felt so weak...so bad...everything was spinning around him and breath without feel any pain seemed like an impossible task for him at that moment. He was trying to stay awake, to talk to his father...his father...how strange that word seemed to the teenager by then, but that didn´t minimize the importance it had to him.He has a father at last...one he didn´t know, but who loved him dearly...the fact that he was there, holding and hugging him like there was no tomorrow, too afraid to let him go for only a second for the fear he could die in any moment demostrated that. But Mutt didn´t know if they would have the chance to know him...he could feel his life slipping through the wound of his chest and the throbbing pain in his head hardly let him think straigh. He only wanted the pain to stop, to sleep...to welcome the unpainful darkness which everything forgive. But he was scared...afraid of the death he knew close, although sleep a little and forget his anguish for a moment could be bad, right? Only a little...he was tired of fighting for stay conscious against the pain, he wanted to escape from the weakness, the confusion, the cold, the frightening darkness that threatened to surround him forever...

"Ey, ey, ey, it´s not the bedtime, puppy", told him Indiana, shaking his son´s head slightly, watching his increasingly vain attempts to stay conscious.

"I am sleepy and it´s cold...If isn´t bedtime, it is definitely the moment to take a nap...", said Mutt, trying to make himself more comfortable in his father´s chest, but Indiana didn´t let him. He didn´t want him to sleep, to loose conciousness. Inside his heart, he was scared that his son would never awake again; he could slip into a coma and die before he could see his beautilful baby blue eyes again. Indiana had to avoid that from happening, he needed to make him stay awake, but he didn´t know how. Indiana panicked looking how Mutt closed his eyes and didn´t opened them. His father shook him one more time with renovated strenght until he opened them again.

"No, you need to eat something", said Indiana, trying to sound calm and collected in order to didn´t scare his kid more than he already was, even if the archaeologist was in the verge of the nervious breakdown. "When Marion and Ox return with some food, you have to eat; if you don´t, you will never regain your strenght".

"Old man, all the damn jungle is spinning around me, I don´t think that any food I could eat will remain in my stomach more than two seconds, I won´t eat anything! I just want to sleep...".

"You shouldn´t sleep!", shouted Indiana, desperate. "Please, pup, you have to stay awake as long as you can!"

"But I can´t hold on any longer...the darkness is surrounding me and I am so tired...I can´t stay awake", whispered Mutt, closing his eyes again. Indiana cupped his face in his hand and let escape a loud curse. His fever had rised again and he was becoming more and more weak each second. Mutt made the effort to open his eyes one more time, even if he couldn´t longer moven any other part of his body, and looked straight in his father´s blue eyes, blue as the sky, blue as his own. The child´s eyes, lost in the distance, was fixed in his father´s, although everything around him was collapsing and the darkness, closer and closer, were going to wrap him one more time. Indiana knew he tought he was going to die; Indiana had failed to reasure his baby and now his blue eyes, those which he would never thought he could deny anything were looking at him begging for help. One help his father couldn´t give him. And then Indiana felt his heart brokening in two when he heard the last words that left his son´s lips before falling back into the opening arms of the unconsciousness in his father´s lap:

"I am scared...please, Dad, don´t let me go...".

I hope you like it! I want to thank specially to pdantzler2 for everything! Thanks a lot, my friend!

Thanks for all your wonderful reviews and for the patience your have with my story and my bad english. Thanks to albagaro (Thanks for your support!), thunderincrimson, kashu, anonymous (maybe one day, when I finish this one, but I love to get Indy worried. In the films he seems so tough and uncaring in general, much more with Mutt in the latest one, that the character make us doubt that he could love his newfound son and I personally think that´s impossible. A love between a son and a parent...it´s impossible to describe and there´s nothing more important in all sense for a father than his own child, but the circumstances surrounding Indy´s acknowledge of his newfound child make it difficult for them to built a real relationship unless something drastic happens that could show Indy the love that he undoubtely have for Mutt like all the fathers have for his kids for the very moment they knew about their very existence...I thinl that it´s a shame that the film don´t pay any atention at all in their relationship. That´s what I think. I hope you like it!), Writing Destiny (it´s the best? I assure you I´m blushing at this very moment. Thank you!), Mary B. (Jaja, Mutt hate it, as well as Indy hate the nickname Junior, but he can´t do anything about it...I don´t think Indy change his mind about it), susan q., kat1021, missyme89, Ravenwood85 (gracias por la review, siento haber tardado tanto), pokerfacejones, De-gnome (I know, I trying to improve, I hope you like it!), ecstaticmanic, GunslingerExtraordinaire (Oh, thank you very much for your comment, but I know I still have a lot of mistakes in my writing. Yep, Indy was horrible to Mutt in the first chappie, but he is paying for it! Hope you like it!), Templa Otmena (thanks to you for your comment) and A Person.

Review, please. I really want to know what you think about this chappie! Until the next time!