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November, 1916, German East Africa.
Indiana stared at the clothes emerging from the basket. Farm clothes-
He eyed the bundle pushed at him. ”This is a dress!”
Frederick Selous, the commanding officer of this group of commandos, looked at him. ”We're pretending to be a settler family, us all being men would be suspicious.”
”But why me?” Indiana asked.
Remy, Indiana’s friend, gestured at the company. ”Who then? I don't think too highly about the intellect of the Germans but I think even they might think it unusual if we'd be a family of men and one bearded grandma.”
Indy glared at Remy. ”Why not you?”
Nevertheless Indiana lifted the dress and examined it. It looked wide and stripey and not as nice as the ones his mother had worn...
Remy gestured at himself. ”Indiana, do you think I would make a convincing woman?”
Slightly nervous rest of the company might come to the conclusion he didn't have to wear it, Indiana started to pull it on. After all Selous had been right, it would be pretty suspicious for a group of all men to be travelling near a war-zone...
Remy and Selous gave him a look.
”Pretty convincing, I would say,” Selous said. ”Apart from one thing.”
”What one thing?” Indy looked at him, suspicious.
Selous pulled off Indiana's fedora and set the white bonnet on him. ”Fedoras are not in fashion among Boer women.”
Indy pulled the bonnet down. ”Good idea, might cover my hair too.”
He stood straight.
Indiana felt uncomfortable under the examining eyes of the men.
Eventually Remy laughed, breaking the silence. He offered his arm to him. ”Shall we go then, Frau Baudouin?”
Indiana slapped his offered arm away. ”What makes you think I'm going to be married to you ? No, I am a gentle young maiden travelling with my father, starry-eyed, hoping to find the love of my life across the veldt...”
He clasped his hands, dramatically staring into the horizon.
The group laughed.
”Or maybe I will run away from home to look for adventure,” Indy snapped.
Maybe I'll pretend to be a man like Jeanne D'Arc did and join the army.
But somehow saying that aloud felt like a bad idea.
”What are you doing?” Remy asked.
Indiana jumped. He hadn't noticed Remy sneaking up on him. ”I'm trying to do something to the dress. It's baggy.”
”You're not in it to win any fashion contests.”
”No, but it's uncomfortable . Give me my belt.”
”What are you doing?”
Indiana tied the belt around his waist. It did give his silhouette a more feminine shape, he thought. Having some waist, as opposed to looking like a sack of potatoes.
”It's more comfortable to move in like this,” he said.
Remy turned to leave. ”We'll be leaving soon.”
”I'm joining you in a minute...”
Indiana hoped he had a mirror... The belt helped a lot, he thought.
He looked down. Of course, the dress was still baggy...
Thoughtfully, he rolled up his socks into two balls and held them to his chest.
He glanced around. His heart was racing.
Quickly, he pulled the dress off.
He held the two balled up socks to his chest. He knew women had underclothes for this but the basket hadn't included any women's underwear...
He went through his satchel and pulled out a strip of linen he had made some time ago from old clothes in case they need ed bandages.
With that, he managed to attach the socks to his chest, wrapping the linen around hi mself a few times.
They'd come to see where he was soon-
Quickly, he pulled the dress back on. With how baggy it was anyway, you couldn't even tell the socks were there...
Good.
Indiana gave an awkward smile to their prisoner. ”I thought you might be hungry.”
Margaret Trappe responded with a suspicious look. ”Hungry?”
She eyed the bowl of stew Indiana was holding before her gaze returned to him. ”I thought you were a woman at first.”
Indy felt like his heart had leaped to his throat. ”Oh?”
He blushed. ”I'm not.”
He shifted awkwardly. ”I mean, good that you'd think I was, that was the point. It would be suspicious if there were just men in a group of settlers. So.”
He felt ridiculous, explaining this to their prisoner. What was he doing? Thinking that she'd go 'oh you are a handsome young man I see it now' resulting in her joining them or... Something.
”But I wanted to ask you if you wanted to eat?”
He was sure he was ridiculous, she'd think he was trying to flirt...
She took one bite of the stew and spat it out.
”That's a 'no' then?”
Indiana sat alone, taking the first night watch shift. He stared into the dark. Lot of time to think.
He glanced at where Margaret was laying.
I thought you were a woman at first.
She had sounded disappointed. If Indiana's disguise had been a bit better, and she hadn't-
If they would now be sitting in the dark together, and she would take his hand, saying something like 'It's so nice to meet other women middle of nowhere' and-
She would notice, eventually, and be hurt and feel betrayed... Maybe when she would reach to put her hand on his shoulder and her hand would accidentally brush against his chest-
Indiana was sure now he was on some shaky ground here.
Guiltily, he glanced at the rest of the group. All asleep.
There was a train of thought he wasn't sure he wanted to follow but he had to figure out where it might go...
If that did happen, and Margaret did move her hand downwards from his shoulder, and to his chest, and instead of the bundled up sock her hand would cup a soft round breast-
Indiana shook his head.
NO.
He looked at the others. Asleep. He couldn't believe they hadn't woken up to the terrible shameful feelings that had gone through his mind there for a fraction of a second!
He had the ridiculous feeling that the stray thought had marked him forever and that it was so obvious he radiated it and everyone who looked at his face from now on could tell-
With shaking hands he reached to pull the bandage with the socks away from under his dress and stuffed it in his pocket.
This had been a terrible idea.
After some thought he pulled his bonnet off too and set his trusty fedora back on his head.
He took a deep breath.
It was fine.
Nothing had changed.