Hypoglycemia: A Jurassic World Story

by LetItRain25

Zach was hot. Not in that pleasant 'I'm too sexy for my shirt' kind of hot; more the 'my face may actually melt off of my body' kind of hot.

"Gray! Didn't you want to go check out the aviary?" Surely something inside would have air conditioning. He could feel sweat dripping off of him and even though they had only been going for a few hours, he was beyond tired. Zach chalked it all up to teenage hormones, jet lag, and just the thought of having to spend the rest of the week with his little brother. Zach had been planning on ducking out of the hotel room later once Gray passed out for the day, but at this rate that was sounding less and less appealing.

"Yeah, but the show doesn't start until later. Let's go to the gyrosphere!"

Of course his brother would pick a small glass ball with no possibility of escape. Wonderful.

"Well, let's go then," he said. Surely the balls would have air conditioning, right?

"Cool!" Gray yelled, already tearing off in that direction.

Zach shook his head in self-pity and followed the hyperactive boy.

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"Zach? Are you ok?"

"Hm?" Zach turned to face Gray who was looking at him with concern.

"Of course: We both are," Zach responded, assuming Gray was referring to the super t-rex that was currently chasing them as they tried to bring the old Jeep back to life so they could finally get out of this park.

"No, I mean you look like….Have you eaten anything lately?" Gray asked, frustration coloring his words as he tried to express his concern.

"I haven't exactly had time what with the dinosaur escape and everything," Zach responded incredulously. "Now focus, and had me that wrench."

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Zach threw the dinosaur Taser down (hopefully) before Gray noticed how much his hands were shaking. The vibrations from the armored vehicle made Zach feel as if the world was a tilt-a-whirl. Zach closed his eyes against the impending nausea, only to force them open upon realizing how comfortable it would be to sleep right here. Gray need him, and Claire needed him, and sleeping was just not acceptable.

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When the dinosaurs were finally gone, Zach held his brother close to him, both as a reminder that Gray was safe, and as support. He was sure that Gray could feel him trembling, but there was nothing that could be done about it now. Really as long as they were safe, who cares if he's tired? He's earned it.

Zach was pulled out of his musings as Owen turned to Claire, pulling her in a hug, presumably telling her that everything was going to be ok. Zach could tell that she was still processing everything that had happened, but he figured there would be plenty of time for that later.

"Zach?"

"Hm?" Zach turned as his brother tugged insistently on his shirt.

"Are you ok?"

"Yea m'fine."

"It's just, you haven't eaten all day, and with your meds and everything…." Gray trailed off, noting the way Zach seemed to be having trouble keeping up.

"Just, maybe, uh, sit right here, ok?" Gray asked, tugging on his brother's shirt until Zach was on the sitting on the ground.

Zach wanted to resist, but the thought of not having to stand was just too appealing. He all but fell to the ground, placing an elbow on each knee, supporting his head with his hands. He covered his eyes as much as possible, even the minimal light from the docks proving to be too much.

"I'll be right back ok?" Gray asked, receiving a slight nod in response.

Gray ran to Owen and Claire, not wanting to disrupt, but concern overriding any worries regarding social protocol.

Owen had been holding Claire, giving her a moment to process before they had to head back to the more populated parts of the island. He was startled when he felt hands rifling through his side pocket-not even his back pocket!-before he realized that Claire's hands were ensconced firmly around his neck.

He broke away quickly, looking down to see Gray pulling things out of his pockets and throwing them down with a frown.

"Hey whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on?" Owen said, pulling away slightly to prevent the little hands from rummaging further.

"You don't have anything!" Gray called in frustration.

"What are you looking for?" Claire asked, crouching down to face him.

"He hasn't eaten all day!" Gray shouted, arms flailing as if this explained everything.

Claire glanced to Owen, sharing a confused look with the man before turning back to the boy. Owen looked towards where Zach had been, hoping for some form of translation, but instantly frowned when he noticed the boy practically collapsed on the sidewalk.

Owen immediately stepped around Claire and Gray, heading towards Zach as Claire pulled the distraught Gray closer to her.

"Zach? You alright man?" he asked, crouching in front of the kid.

Gray couldn't handle being contained anymore while his brother was in distress. He wiggled his way free, running to be near his brother.

"He's hypoglycemic but we didn't get to eat anything and I forgot to pack granola bars 'cuz I was too excited, and we lost his meds when we were running and he needs—" Gray tried to explain, crescendoing as the story progressed before being interrupted.

"Ok, hold on, ok? Claire! Take Gray and see if you can find anything to eat around here," Owen called waiving Claire and Gray off into the general direction of the pavilion.

"Zach?" Owen asked, gently cupping his hand around the boy's neck, encouraging him to look up.

Zach leaned into the cool touch, opening bleary eyes as his head was guided upwards.

"Hm?" Zach asked, unable to articulate anything further. Everything hurt, but the cool hand felt so nice against his over-heated skin.

"Zach, we're going to get you some food, but we need to stand up ok?" Owen asked. The boy could barely hold his eyes open but there was nothing Owen could do to help from their spot on the sidewalk. It's like hypothermia, Owen told himself, you want to stay still and not move, but if you do that there's no way to improve the situation.

"Don' feel s'good," was all Zach could manage, nausea overwhelming him as he thunked his head back down to rest on his arms.

"I know, and your brother and aunt are trying to find you some food, but we need to start walking towards the infirmary."

Owen positioned himself behind Zach, hooking his arms underneath the boy's and hauled him up, allowing the boy to lean against him while he regained his balance.

"Whoa," Zach mumbled as vertigo slammed into him like a freight train.

"I gotcha," Owen said gently, hooking one arm around Zach's waist while pulling one of the boy's arms over his shoulder to support him.

"Th'nks," Zach said, allowing Owen to take more of his weight. Zach realized that later he would be mortified by this whole thing, but at the moment his concentration was limited to putting one foot in front of the other.

They managed to walk about a quarter of a mile before Gray and Claire caught up with them.

"I got a soda and some M&M's!" Gray explained, holding the bag up for them to see.

Zach opened his eyes, blearily wondering when he had closed them in the first place, and looked at the food his brother was holding. Zach couldn't decide if he wanted to eat all of it immediately or if he just wanted to puke.

Owen gently helped Zach sit, opening the soda while Claire ripped the M&M's open.

Zach started slow with the soda at first, nausea telling him that chugging it in one go would not be in his best interest. He did start to feel better with each swallow, though. He by no means felt great, but he figured he could at least walk to the infirmary on his own at this point. He shook the M&M bag, emptying some directly into his mouth.

Zach looked up to see Gray watching him, tears welling up in the younger boy's eyes.

"Hey, hey, man I'm ok. You did great, I'm ok," Zach assured, pulling his little brother into a tight hug. "Thank you Gray, you did so good." Gray clung to his brother, unable to express everything he was feeling between their parents' divorce, the indominous rex, and Zach being sick; Zach was his constant, so Zach wasn't allowed to be sick. Gray hugged tighter listening to Zach's assurances, and Zach hugged right back, thankful that the two of them had made it through that nightmare.

Owen smiled at the scene and looked to Claire but found her hanging back slightly, concern and guilt etched across her face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Owen asked, standing to go to her.

Claire looked at him, guilt shining through clearly now. She shook her head and pulled away slightly saying, "I didn't know."

"Neither of us knew, it's ok. He's going to be fine-" Owen started, holding onto her hand to ground her.

Claire was just shaking her head, shame evident, "No, I didn't even know that he could be….I didn't know that this was an issue."

"Their mom told me, but I didn't," she broke off shaking her head. "She said it shouldn't be an issue 'cause the kids knew how to handle it, but I didn't bother asking anything else about it."

"Well, now you know, hey," Owen said, gently using his thumb on her chin to make sure she faced him, "Claire, this probably wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been a crazy dinosaur on the loose. We dealt with that because if the dinosaur ate everyone then this wouldn't have been an issue. It's a shitty situation that's for damn sure, but there was nothing else that we could've done. The boys are ok, and we are ok, and look at them," Owen finished, gesturing to the brothers who by now were smiling and joking with one another.

"They don't blame you for any of this. Zach doesn't blame you. Gray doesn't blame you. We are all ok and at this point that's all that matters. So, let's take the win, take Zach to the infirmary for a check, and then we can deal with the rest of this later," Owen said, hand waiving to indicate the island and the dinosaurs on it.

Claire looked at Owen before burying her face in his shoulder and taking a deep breath. "Ok, you're right. We triaged the situation, and now we are going to the infirmary. Ok, we got this," Claire said, pulling away and looking over to her nephews.

"Of course we got this. We just took on dinosaurs. We win BAMF of the year awards," Owen said, smiling.

Claire looked to Owen, unimpressed, "You're ridiculous."

"You're just jealous you have to share the award," Owen beamed.

Claire was shaking her head fondly at this point, "Ok boys, let's go."

They headed off to the infirmary, Gray on Zach's right and Owen on his left in case he stumbled. Claire slipped her hand into Owen's, relief beginning to settle into her bones as they walked. They were ok.