"Velociraptor"

Connor was bored out of his mind. He had been bed ridden for the past two days. And even though he loved her to death, Abby Maitland was driving him crazy. At first, he loved her taking care of him, cooking, moving his video games up stairs, and has even stop everything she was doing to come up to his room and scratch his back. But now, it was just annoying. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't leave the bed except to go to the bathroom, he couldn't do any of his work from the ARC, and he couldn't play with Rex, Sid or Nancy. The only thing he was glad about was that Abby was giving him all the loving he needed, as in they had kissed on more then several occasions. Just thinking about it made him happy. He did his Connor smile and looked at Abby who was sitting next to him on the bed. Ever since that fateful day at the hospital, she has been more lovable. She tells him she loves him all the time, which makes Connor even happier.

But still, what was he going to do about his boredom? Maybe when she went to the market I could sneak out and goes to the ARC, Connor thought. Abby was looking at him, and like always, knew what he was thinking.

"No," Abby said firmly.

"What?" Conner replied, trying to look innocent. He even tried to do the whistling routine, but he could tell by Abby's face that she wasn't buying it.

"You are not leaving until you are healed enough that you don't hurt when you breathe."

"That could take ages!" Connor whined. Abby smiled and kissed him of the cheek. "Hey," Connor said accusatory, "No fair!"

"Who said I was going to be fair?" Abby said smiling. "Now, I'm going to the market, and to make sure you stay in bed, I have called you a babysitter." As she said this, the doorbell rang and Abby went down stairs to answer it.

"Oi! I don't need no stinking babysitter. I'm a grown man!" Connor yelled to Abby.

"Well, you certainly are grown," The voice of Captain Becker said. "But I wouldn't call you a man." Becker came up the stairs wearing fully loaded SWAT team clothes. He even a gun, which Connor eyed suspiciously.

"Don't worry Connor, its only if you don't stay in bed. And it's just a tranquilizer."

"Don't you have anything else to wear, Becker? Or is it always tight black shirts and black cargo pants?"

"Well Connor, why did you notice his shirt? Have you not told me something?" Abby asked laughing. "Now you two behave yourselves. I'll be back in a hour." She kissed Connor and left.

"So, Becker," Connor asked, "Have you ever played Left 4 Dead 2? I'm pretty boss at it myself." Becker just scoffed and went back down stairs.

"Becker! Get me some apple juice!" Connor yelled.

"For the last time, Connor. I will not get you apple juice, I will not scratch your back, and I will certainly not kiss you and say I love you just because Abby does it!" Becker said angrily from downstairs.

"I was just asking." Connor mumbled. "Bored, bored, bored." Connor said. He didn't know what to do. He looked around his room, and he spotted a picture of Nick Cutter and himself. Connor smiled a sad smile. He missed his professor, and he hasn't forgotten what Nick had said to him before he died. "Its up to you now." And look at how good I'm fulfilling my promise, Connor thought sarcastically. Connor used to idolize his professor, really he still did. He used to look online at every article Nick had publish and read them all. That gave Connor an idea.

"Why not?" Connor said to himself. He got his laptop and started looking for articles written by Cutter. He looked through many of what he already read. After about fifteen minutes of searching, he found several articles written by a one Dr. Vela Firth. She was a paleontologist. It spiked Connors interest, so he continued reading her articles. Connor wondered why this Vela character was showing up on "Nick Cutter" searches, so he decided to Wikipedia her. Immediately, her name came up in his searches and he clicked on the link. He saw a picture of her, and she kind of looked like Helen.

"But if Helen wasn't an old disgusting hag and she had Nicks beautiful and flowing blond locks." Connor said to himself. He scrolled down and read about her life. She was a genius, it said, a childhood prodigy. She had gotten her doctorate at the age of 22, a year ago according to the website. She specializes in carnivores and "she like long walks on the beaches where you can find bones."

"Oh, here's a fun fact, she was named after the Velociraptor. Cool beans." Connor continued to read when his mouth dropped open. He had to re-read it several times. He couldn't believe what he was reading. He went other websites and read about Vela, but all of them said the same jaw-dropping sentence. "Vela is the daughter of well known paleontologists Helen and Nick Cutter. Vela was born before the two were married, so on her birth certificate her last name was Helen's maiden name. It was never officially changed, so she just goes by Firth personally and professionally." Connor couldn't speak.

"I'm speechless." Connor said.

"Love," Abby said, standing in the doorway, "isn't the whole thing about being speechless, is that you don't speak? I kind of wish you were, because Connor, you talk a lot."

"Um, Abby?" Connor's voice squeaked. He was still trying to adjust to this news.

"Yes Connor?"

"Well, I just discovered something very significant. Like really, really big."

"Spit it out Connor."

"Well I kind of just accidentally discovered that, umm, well, Nick Cutter has a daughter."

"Wh-what?" Abby asked confused. "That's impossible! He never told us about any child."

"I know this Abby, but its true! It says it all over the Internet. I even hacked into a government file on her. Its true, she is his daughter." Abby and Connor was quiet. They both heard Becker leave the house. Neither knew what to say. How could their leader, their friend, not tell them about his daughter? They thought he was someone they could always trust, but I guess they were wrong.

"Do you think Stephan knew?" Abby asked Connor, who just shook his head.

"I have no idea, but I think we should call a meeting with everyone."

"And say what? That Nick had a long lost daughter that he never told us about? I mean it's not exactly relevant to anyone but me, you and maybe Lester. "

"Sarah knew him, and so did Becker. I don't think its good to keep it a secret either. We might as well go to the ARC and tell them about the daughter, Vela."

"What?!?" Lester bellowed. "He had a what?"

"A daughter, Lestey. Keep up!" Connor said.

"First off, call me Lestey again and you're fired. Second, why didn't he tell us about her?" The whole team was at the ARC, listening to the surprising news. Most of them knew Nick, besides Danny, but no one but Lester seemed phased by the news. They were more surprised that Cutter didn't tell them.

"We don't know, Lester. We are as shocked and confused as you." Abby stated hugging Connor.

"I wonder if she even knows her father is dead." Sarah mused. "I mean she probably didn't know her mother wasn't dead from her disappearance before hand, but she wasn't at Nick's funeral."

"You're right," Abby said. " If she doesn't know, we have got to tell her."

"Slow down there Abby." Danny said. "What are we going to do? Go up to her door and say 'Hey, how are you? Well I have something to change that smile! You know your father? Yeah, well he's dead. Oh, by the way, you mother was alive this whole time until two months ago—when a dinosaur killed her.'"

"Well I wouldn't put it like that."

"Abby is right," Sarah said. " We should talk to her, see if she knows her father is dead. I think it would be best that we didn't mention Helen. Where does she live?" She asked, turning to Connor.

"Why look at me? How would I know?" Connor said defensively.

"Because you are the master creep and know everything about everyone." Becker said.

"Yeah, well." Connor said, searching "Vela Firth" in the ARC's computers. "You don't have to put it like that, SWAT Barbie."

"Just do the sear—"

"Done!" Connor yelled. He had a proud smile on his face because he finished the search before Becker could finish his retort.

"Where does she live?" Becker asked, eyeing Connor evilly.

"117 Belsize Lane, Belsize Park, England."

"Let's go," Abby said grabbing her coat.

Vela Firth lived in a quiet neighbor, a suburb of London, in a beautiful townhouse flat. She loved it, because she had decorated it all on her own, with her own tastes and her own money.

"And it looks much better than the old crap-house that she decorated. " Vela said as she and her pregnant self flopped down onto her newly purchased couch. She propped her feet on top of her coffee table. "Babe! I love you and all, but I can't wait for you to get out of my belly. Five months to go!" Vela turned on the telly, but before she could turn the channel, her doorbell rang. "Damn it all to hell. Now I have to drag my pregnant body…" she mumbled as she opened her door.

"Hi!" A man said. Six unknown faces stared at her from her stoop.

"Uh, hi…" Vela said confused. "Sorry, but do I know any of you?"

"Um, not really Vela." A girl with bleached blonde hair said. "We were, are, friends of your father's. We worked with him. I'm Abby." Abby stuck out her hand and Vela shook it.

"Oh, come in then." Vela responded walking back into her flat, kind of waddling.

"I'm Connor"

"Becker."

"Lester"

"Danny,"

"Hi, I'm Sarah."

"Well, now that we all know each other, can you tell me why you are all here?" Vela snapped, but then immediately felt bad. "Sorry, the pregnant hormones are taking over my body."

"Is your husband here?" Abby asked.

"Ha! Husband," Vela snorted. "No, no husband here. Just me by my lonesome."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sarah, said looking around the room. It was very nicely decorated. "I love your flat, by the way. Very beautiful."

"Why thank you," Vela said proudly. "It took me a few weeks, but I got everything unpacked and ready to go."

"Um, Vela, there is something I have to tell you." Connor said.

"Finally, the reason." Vela said sarcastically. "Oh, sorry. Bad Hormones," Vela poked her stomach, 'bad!"

"Um, maybe you want to sit down for this, Vela," Abby said touching her shoulder. Everyone look sympathetic and sad.

"Uh oh," Vela said, sitting down.

"Um, I don't know how to put this, so I'm just going to say it," Abby said sitting down next to her. There was an awkward pause.

"Well, are you going to say it now?" Vela asked.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Your father, Nick, has passed away." Abby said, rubbing Vela's back.

"Wh-what?" Vela yelled. She stood up quickly and started to pace. "This is impossible." Vela stopped, and looked at Abby. "When, how?"

"About five months ago," Connor said.

"What?" Vela asked confused.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner. But no one knew that you even existed." Lester said, half hugging Vela. Everyone looked at him weirdly, but got back to the issue at hand.

"Yeah, well, my father didn't really like talking about his personal life." Vela paused. "How did it happen?"

"He was shot." Sarah said.

"Do you know who?" Vela yelled.

"Yes—"

"No—" Both Connor and Lester said at the same time. They eyed each other, daring them to continue.

"Well, which is it?" Vela asked, looking back and forth between the two.

"We do know who is was, but we can't tell you." Sarah said. Vela looked at her incredulously.

"And why not?"

"It's classified." Lester said with a tone that made it final. Vela looked at him, but shook her head.

"Does Stephan Hart know?" She asked slowly.

"Stephan?" Connor and Abby said together. Lester looked so sympathetic.

"Yeah, Stephan." Vela said impatiently.

"Oh God." Connor said sadly.

"Vela, Stephan died almost a year ago." Abby said.

"Wha—?" Vela said stumbling over to the couch. She sat down hard and put her head into her lap. "No, no, no, no, no! I haven't talked him in months, the same with Dad. Last time was about a year ago. We haven't been in much contact because of me getting my doctorate and them starting a new job." Vela looked up with tears streaming down her face. "I didn't think anything of it. Stephan was like a brother to me."

"I am so sorry." Abby said.

"Yeah, I heard you. Sorry, hormones." Vela said absently. She was still crying. How could this have happened? Her father and Stephan couldn't be dead. "They didn't even know that they were going to be a grandfather and an uncle."

"I'm—" Danny started, but was interrupted by a beeping sound coming from his back pocket. "Oh, great. An anomaly." He pulled a handheld anomaly detector from his back pocket. He looked up quickly. "Its 100 ft away from here." Vela didn't even hear what he was saying. She was still trying to wrap around her head that her Dad and a man practically her brother had died, and she didn't even know about it. She heard footsteps, and she looked up to see everyone moving around.

"What's going on?" Vela asked confused.

"Vela, something is happening that we can't explain to you now." Sarah said pulling Vela to her feet. "But I'm taking you somewhere safe." Vela numbly nodded her head and followed Sarah outside to the car. Vela heard a crash behind her. "Oh my God." Sarah said looking over her shoulder.

"What now?" Vela asked, turning around. Vela had to blink twice. "It must be the grief because I see a huge dinosaur in front of me. An Eoceratops, to be precise. Beautiful creature. Herbivore." Vela said dully. "I wonder why I'm hallucinating that one. My favorite is the Velociraptor. I was name after it you know."

"Um, Vela, its not a hallucination." Sarah said quickly. "I know you're going through a difficult time right now, but I think you should really push all that aside a run!" Sarah pushed Vela, which made Vela wake up from the dream-like state she was in. She shook her head and looked at the dinosaur.

"Nope, that is definitely real." Vela said. "Okay then. Well, this is new." It's beautiful, She thought. The horned animal was the earliest of the horned dinosaurs. In fact, its name translates to "early horned face". " People usually confuse this species with the character 'Sarah' from the Land Before Time. But that species came after." The Eoceratops was walking down the street. Luckily, everyone was at work, so the team didn't have to worry so much about containment. Vela started walking towards it, against the protests of Sarah coming from behind her.

"Vela, come back!" Sarah yelled. However, Vela went straight up to the animal and looked into its eyes.

"Its amazing!" Vela said. Sarah came running up behind her.

"Come on, Vela, we have to go! You don't know what you are dealing with!"

"Um, Sarah, if you didn't know this before, I'm a paleontologist." Vela said. "A genius, though I don't like to brag. My parents were famous paleontologists, and they taught me about dinosaurs since I was born. If anyone know what they are getting into, its me."

"Yes but—"

"Don't worry, as long as we stay in its line of view, we won't be viewed as a threat." Vela said looking back to the beauty standing in front of her. She reached out her hand and touched the animal.

"Hey!" Danny said running up to her and Sarah. "Get away from it!"

"It's a girl actually. And completely harmless, unless you spook it with loud noises." Vela said, looking at Danny. Abby ran to them, holding a gun, with Connor limping behind her. "You're not going to shoot her!" Vela said in a loud whisper.

"Of course not! This is a tranquilizer." Abby said, looking worried and offended.

"Oh, okay." Vela said giving into Abby. She probably knew more about the situation, Vela thought. Just then, there was a roar, sounding very close by. And it didn't come from the animal in front of her.

"What was that?" Becker asked, running towards them.

"I don't know, but it didn't sound good." Lester said from behind a phone booth. He was hiding from the herbivore.

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, that was the sound of a carnivore." Vela said, looking at Becker. "So no, it's not good."

"How do you know it is a carnivore?" Connor asked interested. Vela shrugged.

"My co-worker at the university I work at is doing a new study on the voices of dinosaurs. He let me listen to them." Vela explained. "But I think we have a bigger problem." Vela pointed ahead of her, to a big t-rex looking animal.

"It's a t-rex!" Lester screamed and hid more behind the phone booth.

"No it isn't." Vela said. "Actually its, worse. It's a Daspletosaurus. Its teeth are sharper and its jaw is more powerful." Vela turned to Abby. "You can kill that one."

"Sarah!" Danny yelled. "Get Vela out of here!" For once, Vela didn't protest. She was thinking of her kid at the moment, and she thought that her child was more important than any dinosaur, even if this was a once in a lifetime experience.

"I know what you're thinking," Sarah said, grabbing Vela's hand and pulling her to the car. "But you're wrong." Sarah and Vela jumped into the car and Sarah started it up. "This is not a once in a lifetime experience." Sarah drove fast, dodging the few people on the street that didn't have work. "Stick with us, this will happen more often then you want too." Sarah looked at Vela and smiled. However she had to swerve out of the way to avoid a running pedestrian. "Why is it that every time something like this happens, people run into the streets?"

"I know right! It's a evolution flaw." Vela said, and in spite of herself, she smiled. They drove fast. Vela looked out the window as Sarah concentrated on the road. "Um, Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"What is that really bright thing with shaped coming out from it?"

"Oh that?" Sarah said, still looking at the road. "That's an anomaly. I'll explain later."

"Where are we going?"

"To the ARC, of course."

"Of course," Vela said sardonically. "The ARC."

Vela and Sarah finally made it to the ARC. It was big and beautiful and "Probably a waste of our taxpayer's money," as Vela put it.

"Its not. We save lives with this place." Sarah said, going through security. Vela almost wasn't allowed in, but Vela gave the security officer a pregnant lady look, he let her in.

"If you say so." Vela said looking around. The ARC was very white, very bright, and very cool.

"Come on, I'm sure you want something to drink or a rest or something."

"Yeah, or how about and explanation?" Vela said turning to Sarah. "That would be a god one." Sarah at first hesitated, but then she decided that Vela could be trusted. One, because Vela was Nick Cutter's kid and two because she was going to be a mom. Faulty reasoning, she knew, but still her gut said to trust the young paleontologist. So she told Vela everything, from her Mother actually being alive, to the anomalies to, to her mother killing her father and to her mother actually dying. This brought on silence, not tears as Sarah expected.

"Fucking bitch," Said Vela.

"Helen?" Sarah asked confused.

"Of course her! First she walks out on me and my father, and we thought she was dead. Now I come to hear that she was alive all that time, killed my father and almost killed the whole of the human race?"

"Um, yeah,"

"Fucking. Bitch." Vela said firmly.

"You're right." Sarah said. "I'm sorry that you had to have learned this all on the same day. Isn't there some one I could call?" Sarah asked, unconsciously looking at Vela's pregnant body.

"Like the father?" Vela asked, laughing.

"Yeah, where is he?"

"My baby doesn't have a father."

"I know it feels like that now, but whatever he is feeling will pass and he will help you."

"For the last time, there is no father! I mean, technically there is, but he was just a sperm donor." Vela explained. "I'm a lesbian. I like the vag."

"Oh…" Sarah said, realizing.

"You see, I was with my girlfriend for four years. She's 30 now, and four months ago, she decided she wanted to start a family with me. I agreed to get inseminated and become pregnant." Vela said sadly. "However, a month ago, she decided she didn't want the child anymore and that she want me to have an abortion. I told her no, and we had a big fight. I broke up with her."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sarah said holding Vela's hand. "That's terrible."

"Yeah, and I still love her so much, but I hate her for what se made me do."

"Who wouldn't? she made you choose between her and your child. What kind of person would do that?"

"I know right?"

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Sarah said.

"And all I want is to down a set of apple martinis but I can't." Vela yawned. "But it will all be worth it, in… the… end…" Vela said sleepily. Sarah smiled, and led Vela to a cot that they keep in the locker room. She put Vela down on the bed and sat next to her.

"You have had the worse day possible. You should be sleeping."

"Yeah sleeping," Vela said as she closed her eyes. Sarah smiled, kissed Vela and turned of the light.

"Goodnight."