Title: No Force in Heaven
Word Count: 1,200 even
Characters: Alan Grant, mentions of others
Warnings: Spoilers for JP3
Summary: Twelve drabbles based on Alan Grant's thoughts/feelings during the events that take place before and immediately following their arrival/crash landing on Isla Sorna. Contains dialog from the movie as well as original.

"No force in Heaven or Earth could get me on that island." - Dr. Alan Grant


"So how'd it go?"

Alan tried to force a grin, but all he could manage was a grimace. They'd received donations from only a handful of people; it wasn't anywhere near enough.

Four weeks. Fours weeks and they would be out of funds. Alan knew this had been his last chance; there wouldn't be another dig after this one. Thanks to Hammond and his islands people just didn't care about dusty old bones anymore.

"Three weeks," Billy was saying. "I had to rent some equipment. C'mere, I gotta show you something. You like computers, right?"

"I like the abacus, Billy."

o0oOo0o

"I give you the resonating chamber of a velociraptor."

The sound that echoed from the small plastic replica flooded the tent and sent Alan's heart pounding. Outwardly he smiled, but inwardly he found himself struggling to breathe. You're fine. You're fine.

What he said to Billy he couldn't recall. He was too busy repressing the flashbacks, the fear, reminding himself that he was safe and that Isla Nublar was far, far away.

After that Mr. Kirby showed up and Alan was able to force the memories away in the face of business.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Kirby?"

o0oOo0o

That night when they returned from the bar Alan went to bed with a cold pit of fear in his stomach. What was he thinking? No amount of money was worth going back there.

Yet going meant being able to keep the dig running for at least another year. It meant having that much more time to convince people that paleontology was the only way to ever really learn about the amazing creatures that were the basis of Alan's whole life.

Besides, he argued with himself, it was just a fly over. What was the worst that could possibly happen?

o0oOo0o

Alan hardly slept over the three days that stretched between his first meeting with the Kirby's and the day that he and Billy boarded the privately chartered plane in the small Costa Rican airport. Nightmares had haunted him the first night, and after that he'd known it was pointless to even try.

He was glad that he'd brought Billy along; the younger man helped keep his mind off of things. And as each mile brought them closer to the islands Alan needed all the distraction he could find.

"Even with what I pay you couldn't you afford a better bag?"

o0oOo0o

Alan finally dozed off on the plane after jokingly informing Billy that it was his turn to be nice. He slept heavily, at his age three nights of hardly closing his eyes tended to leave him fairly exhausted.

It wasn't the most terrifying nightmare he'd ever had, but the sight of the raptor sitting beside him with its pale yellow eyes staring intently was enough to send his pulse spiking.

When he awoke to find Billy shaking his shoulder and calling his name Alan did his best to stifle his shallow gasps. He sat up and forced himself to smile.

o0oOo0o

The first sight of the island left him breathless, awe filling him again as it had done all those years ago. For a brief moment fear was replaced by wonder; it was so easy to forget all the bad when you saw them like this.

"My God, I'd forgotten..."

He began to point out the different species, laughing a little in confusion as the other passengers kept calling out to each other. Then his heart froze as Nash called back from the cockpit,

"Mr. Kirby! We have a landing strip up ahead, you want me to put her down?"

What?

o0oOo0o

The Kirby's tried to calm him down, babbling on about how they could explain. Alan didn't hear any of it past the panicked pounding of his heart.

"You cannot land on this island!"

They kept babbling, telling him that it would be fine. But they were wrong. Nothing "fine" could possibly come of landing here!

He rose from his seat, to do what he didn't know. Both of the Kirby's blocked his path.

"Dr. Grant, will you please sit-!"

Alan didn't know what hit him, but his vision exploded with stars and he felt himself falling before everything went dark.

o0oOo0o

When he came to however many minutes later, the stillness was the first thing Alan noticed. He sat up, ignoring the concerned look Billy gave him. He already knew what had happened, but it was too horrible - he had to hear it himself.

"Billy, tell me we didn't land."

Mrs. Kirby's voice echoed in from outside and Billy looked up before meeting Alan's eyes again. "I think they're looking for someone."

Alan didn't care what they were looking for. Anyone they could possibly have been hoping to find was long dead anyway. They had to get off the ground now!

o0oOo0o

"Would you tell your wife to stop making that noise? That is a very bad idea."

The roar that split the air not long after proved his words to be true, and Alan looked into the trees with thoughtful fascination and a dawning hint of renewed fear.

"What was that?" Mr. Kirby asked.

"That's a tyrannosaurus," Billy responded quietly, shifting to stand in front of Alan.

"I don't think so." Alan knew what a tyrannosaurus sounded like. He'd had too many close encounters with one not to recognize its call. And this, this was no T-rex. "It sounds bigger."

o0oOo0o

As they all piled into the plane Alan forced his heart to stop its frantic dancing. For a few brief seconds he allowed himself to believe that they were actually going to make it off the island. Then the Spinosaurus appeared, snatching up Cooper and sending the plane spiraling out of control.

Alan felt almost unnervingly calm by the time the plane had come to a stop. While the two men in the cockpit tried radioing for help he forced open the hatch, jerking himself back as he realized that they weren't on the ground.

Great.

"We haven't landed yet."

o0oOo0o

Alan had almost forgotten what it felt like to run for your life. He had come close to forgetting how alive you felt when a living, breathing mountain of death was chasing at your heels.

He had felt a hint of horrified fascination as he'd watched the Spinosaurus kill the Tyrannosaur. The sheer, raw power of such a creature took his breath away, and with a pang he realized that this was something that digging up dusty old bones would never allow him to experience.

But then again, he thought as he ran, dusty old bones couldn't kill you, either.

o0oOo0o

They were looking for their son. After eight weeks, Alan had no doubt that the kid was long dead. No one survived these islands for eight weeks. No one. He also had no doubt that everything he and Billy had been told up to this point was a lie. As he'd say later, they were trapped in the worst place imaginable and weren't even getting paid for it. The dig was still just as doomed and now he had to spend the next days once again running for his life from monsters that shouldn't even exist.

"Here we go again."


A/N: Thanks for reading!