Bullshit.

Not that he'd say that to her, because she is, after all, his mom, and she's a pretty cool lady even if she wasn't. But it's obvious that maybe she's a little bit tired of living in one place for so long, and so she makes up these stories to get her by, just like Jeff Colson's mom reads those crazy romance novels that just make them all crack up when they read the back of them. Mom's stories aren't all that different from girls being swept away by rogues or pirates. Her rogue is just one of the good guys. And he doesn't so much as sweep her away as sigh and roll his eyes when she tags along.

Yeah? I'll tell you what. Until I get back my five thousand dollars, you're gonna get more than you bargained for. I'm your goddamn partner.

When he was a kid though…well, then he believed. Of course, he also believed in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and flying reindeers and a giant bunny, so he's not sure that it counts. Kids believe stuff, and then they grow up. That's part of what growing up is, is realizing that your parents, however well-intentioned, have been lying to you all along. All those cool things don't really happen.

Close your eyes, Marion! Whatever you do, don't look at it!

He wishes that they did though. When he's dressed up in that stupid white suit, fencing with Kyle (And really, what sort of name is that to give a kid? Not that Henry's any better, if he's honest.), he wishes that there was something to the pirate ships and Nazis, the evil overlords of countries no one's ever heard of and pagan leaders holding still-beating hearts in their hands. He wishes there were real bad guys instead of just upper-class snobs and people with more money than they know what to do with, and teachers who all think they know better than him, and parents who think he's theirs to boss around.

As it is, he's good with a blade and good with a bike, and he figures that's enough to get him through. The way his mom's always told it, there's adventure out there, waiting for him to find it, or maybe he just has to go out there and let it find him. His dad's dead and school doesn't have anything more that he needs or wants. He wants to live a life like his mom always told him about, and he's told her it's her own fault for making it all sound so much better than a bunch of dry books on history and English and whatever other stupid subjects she wants him to study.

The most gifted bum he ever trained. You know, he loved you like a son. Took a hell of a lot for you to alienate him.

They fight the night before she leaves, and it's the last conversation before she disappears. He's out of school and on the road and she wants him to stay at home and study. She's lost one man to adventure and she's sure as hell not going to lose another, she tells him, and something maybe makes him think that she's not talking about the war and his dad. Still, he's out the door before she can stop him, and maybe they both know he'll come back, but right now it feels permanent.

You're not the man I knew ten years ago.

When Ox goes missing and she goes missing and then it all falls apart, he starts wondering if all the stories weren't just stories, if maybe sometimes the things that seem the most unreal are true. He sits on his bed after her phone call, knowing he needs to get on his bike and find this guy - And how can there really be a guy named Indiana Jones? - but it takes him a minute. Takes him a minute to sit there and think about all those stories she told him, all the ones he never quite forgot, never quite managed to believe or disbelieve.

Indiana Jones. I always knew some day you'd come walking back through my door. I never doubted that. Something made it inevitable.

He's careful about what he throws in his rucksack, makes sure to bring all the essentials down to his comb and his blade. He has Ox's letter and the instructions his mom made him write down. He doesn't know who this guy is, or if he's even real - Professor Henry Jones of Marshall College, Connecticut - but maybe this guy is his last hope. And if he's just another fairy tale his mother needs to believe in, then Mutt will find her himself.