Disclaimer: I don not own Jurassic Park or any of the major plot points. I only own Charlotte Lucas and all original dialogue.

Charlotte's face claim is Anna Friel (because I adore her in Pushing Daisies and Timeline)

Driving back from the auditorium was almost completely filled with silence. There was an occasional groan when the radio buffered but other than that Charlotte and Alan remained silent and unmoving. Charlotte almost couldn't take it. She knew it must be weird having her back in his life and her uncle had never been good with change. Also, with her sister gone as a buffer they really didn't have much to talk about but she had imagined that her and her uncle would have a least a few good conversation topics. They had always been close, in fact, they had always been fairly similar. It was her uncle that introduced her to the world of dinosaurs and she had taught him all about greek mythology.

"I'm excited to dig again." She spoke, trying to start a conversation. " Working in a research museum is so much different. I would much rather be in the field" It had been almost a year since Charlotte had last worked with her uncle. Last summer her and her sister went to Montana to work with their uncle and his students. Her sister, being the social one, had gotten bored of the constant digging and frequented the bars, leaving Charlotte to immerse herself in the bones of the past.

"Odds are there will only be partial skeletons. And we have teams working on the designated areas so we may just need you to catalog our findings."

"That's still better than staring at a screen researching what others have discovered. "

They pulled up to the site and Charlotte finally let out a breath. This was exactly what she needed. Her research job was interesting and her coworkers were all similar to her, focused and curious, but she needed to get out of the enclosure. She wanted to experience something more.

She glanced out the window to see Billy, her uncle's assistant in a close embrace with another student. She smirked down at him, the last time she visited he spent the entire time teasing her about her work ethic, and trying to force her to let loose and drink. that had never happened and the only time Charlotte had left the dig site ended in her taking care of her a drunk sister and Billy as he kept tugging at her hair. As though sensing her uncle's glare he glanced up and ran over.

"Dr Grant!" Billy announced grabbing Alan's bags. "And Charlotte! What are you doing?"

"Hey Billy." Charlotte replied trying to avoid the hug her uncle's intern demanded to give her. "Just had to get out of the house."

He laughed at her response turning his attention to the older man. "How was your trip? Profitable?"

"We'll be broke in four weeks." Charlotte rolled her eyes knowing that her uncle was slightly exaggerating.

"Three weeks. I had to rent some equipment." A dry laugh escaped Charlotte's mouth as both men looked at her, one with a look of irritation and the other with fascination. She just shrugged, just her luck that her place of escape would close in a month.

They were led to a dusty looking tent and while Alan had his case held for him Charlotte was struggling to roll her suitcase on the sand.

"You should really pick that up Char." Billy responded to her grunts and wheezes.

"That would defeat the entire purpose of this thing." Charlotte narrowed her eyes due to the nickname. Billy scoffed only to pick up her suitcase for her, sending her a wink while she glared.

"You rented an automated litter box." Charlotte laughed at her uncle but stopped when she realized that he had a point.

"It's a rapid prototyper. I feed in the scan data from the raptor skull, than the computer
breaks it into thousands of slices which this thing prints, one layer on top of the other.
It's the future of paleontology." It didn't look impressive, in fact it looked old and complicated but Charlotte blamed that on her lack of knowledge on the piece of technology.

"Not if it can't dig."

The machine stopped moving and Billy carefully picked out an object from the middle.

"I give you a raptor's resonating chamber."

As the last call came from the raptors voice Charlotte spotted a man coming from the distance.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Some visitors wanted to come by and talk to you. I told them you'd be happy to see them. Maybe even have dinner with them."

"Absolutely not."

"They're here."

"What?"

The man Charlotte had seen waited by the tent flap, looking anxiously at all the equipment tossed around the room.

The man stepped forward, holding out his hand. "Dr. Grant?
"Yes?"

"Paul Kirby. Kirby Enterprises. My card." He holds out a card with the name and logo.
"What can I do for you, Mr. Kirby? " Charlotte and Billy stood behind Alan, carefully watching the inteaction between the two men.

"Well sir, I am a great admire of yours, and I have an extremely interesting proposition to discuss. Would you let my wife and I take you to have dinner tonight? Our treat."

"You know, I've been traveling with my neice all day and we're very tired. Maybe some other time."

"I guarantee it'll be worth your while." Alan glanced at Billy who rubbed his fingers together, which both Charlotte and Alan were able to recognize as the sign that the Kirby's had money.

"It's be my pleasure. Could my niece, Charlotte, join?" The man looked at the young woman who smiled at him, briefly introducing herself before the group finalized their plans to meet later that night.

When the couple left Alan was able to lightly scold his student for putting him in a position he couldn't refuse and then led his neice to the trailer she'd be sleeping in.