Chapter Seven - Beauty

Adelaide

Botswana, 1990

Her oscillation outside of the hospital room had caused many a doctor or nurse to cast strange looks her way. Adelaide had been debating the next move for over ten minutes, heart in her mouth as she remembered the horrendous accident that had occurred only four days ago.

Nick Van Owen was lucky to be alive. He'd just about managed to scrape his way out of death, unlike…well, the other guy.

She and Nick had always been good friends, despite their friendship being strained as of late. He had rather radical ideas about getting his point across to the rest of the world. Despite his nonchalant attitude, Nick really did care about animals and the environment. He wanted to make a difference and was desperate to stop poaching, with any means necessary. After the events that had unfolded, however, Adelaide wondered if he'd ever forgive himself.

Finally, with a deep breath, she pushed open the door. There sat Nick, his arm in a sling and a bandage wrapped around his wounded head. He had been propped up with around three pillows into a sitting position, currently in the process of yelling a few choice words at the TV set.

Trust Nick to be watching football whilst she agonised over the whole ordeal.

"Aida, what took you so long? I've been bored stiff," He announced, shifting his long legs slightly under the covers.

"Hey Nick, how are you feeling?" She asked, ignoring his question and sitting down on the blue plastic chair next to his bed.

"Bored! My Mom's been threatening to come over, the doc says I can't use this arm for at least three months and you should see me trying to dress myself,"

"You can't dress yourself anyway,"

"Ha ha, it'll be funny when you have to help me use the bathroom," He deadpanned, eyebrow twitching suggestively.

Adelaide rolled her eyes, playing with a loose thread coming away from his white sheet. "Sorry I haven't come sooner…I've been dealing with O'Leary and his lot. They are not happy with you, Nick, you're lucky they didn't chuck you in prison,"

"Please, I did them a favour. Those good for nothin' low lives will think twice before they go onto government owned land from now on,"

"You do remember that someone is dead, Nick?" Adelaide flared up. It was all well and good being a hero, but not at the cost of innocent lives.

"Collateral is part of the game, sister. There's always gonna be sacrifices made-"

"Luan was not collateral, Nick! He was our friend!"

"-for the greater good! Oh, come on Aida, Luan knew the risks of what we were doing, are doing."

"This extremist bullshit has to stop! You are crossing a line that I can't follow,"

Nick laughed haughtily, his green eyes merciless. "You need to stop caring so much about what that stuck up family of yours thinks. Out of all of us, you're the one with the most resources to do something about the poaching, but you just won't do it, will you?"

Adelaide bristled instantly. "Don't bring my family into this,"

"Have they taken you out of the will yet? Or do you still have enough money in your trust fund to get by with?"

"Nick! Stop being a wanker for two minutes and wake up, will you?" Adelaide scolded, well used to his defensive behaviour when he got angry. Nick was a great guy, but he couldn't half act like a stubborn teenager, using everything he knew about a person to hurt them as much as possible. "All of this has nothing to do with my family. I am just worried about you! You know, considering I am your friend and all,"

He heaved a long sigh, throwing his head back against the headboard with a clunk. "Yeah…you're right. I'm sorry. It's just…I can't get Luan's face outta my head, and the more I think about him, the worse it gets."

"I know. I don't think I've slept properly since he…well since it happened."

"He wouldn't have wanted us to give up, Aida. He was a fighter through and through." Nick took hold of her hand, clasping her fingers tightly.

"Nick…I…I'm leaving," She felt the grip on her hand loosen, his eyes widening.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm going to China. They offered me a placement out there and I have accepted, it starts next week," Adelaide could see the genuine hurt on his face, her heart hammering loudly in her chest.

"Right. Well er…yeah, congratulations," Nick's voice was hollow, his eyes now fixed on the TV. "Have fun out there then."

"Nick…you knew I wasn't going to stay here forever, and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,"

"Then you should go. What's stopping you?" Nick had withdrawn his hand from hers, letting out a groan of frustration as he changed the channel with the remote to find something else to watch.

"It's not until next week, I can still come visit you. And we can stay in touch,"

"I don't doubt that we will, Aida."

…

Isla Nublar, 1993

Adelaide

Adelaide watched fondly as the kids floored John to the ground in joyful excitement. "Careful with the old man now!" He laughed, the children gushing about presents as they helped him back to his feet.

Her Grandad was over the moon at seeing them both, there presence offering a nice buffer. He'd not shown it, but Adelaide knew he had been hurt by what she'd said over lunch. It was only natural, really, to have that reaction. They'd basically all disrespected his baby, his pride and joy. It wasn't something John Hammond would get over instantaneously.

"Aida!" Lex cried, despite the young adolescent only seeing her cousin but two hours ago. She fit herself snugly at Adelaide's side, ginning ear to ear. Adelaide wrapped her arm around Lexi's shoulders.

"Have you two been up to no good then?"

"Tim tried to sneak into the labs, but he got caught. I told him not to, but he doesn't listen. That waiter asked if you had a boyfriend, I told him you did because I think he's gross. He was asking all sorts of questions about you," Lexi jabbered, as Adelaide's eyes widened considerably. She heard laughter from behind and turned to Ian, who looked so amused she had to fight the urge to smack him in the jaw.

"Thanks for having my back, Lex," Adelaide said to the young blond girl, who beamed at her words.

"It's ok. My Mom says boys are no good anyway,"

"Yeah, your Mum is absolutely right," She agreed, her eyes finding Ian's, who smirked.

"Right then folks, here is your transportation for the park!" Her Grandad alerted, as two brightly coloured jeeps came to a halt before them. They had the words 'Jurassic Park' printed boldly in yellow on the sides and as Adelaide scanned over the vehicles, she realised they had no drivers.

"Aren't they spectacular? Aren't they glorious? They run on electricity, on this track in the road," Hammond told Gennaro, both men inspecting the machines in wonderment.

"Come on Aida!" Lex grabbed her hand and pulled her to the front car, jumping inside to immediately start messing with an 'interactive CD-ROM'.

Adelaide hovered, deciding to wait for Tim before she also got into the car. Said boy was currently following Dr Grant around like a lost puppy, talking at such speed she wondered how a kid so young even knew that many words. Ian had manifested onto the other side of the bonnet, apparently having a similar idea to her.

"So er, you gonna ride with the um, kids, then?"

"It would seem so, although to be honest, forcing Dr Grant to ride with them would probably be more fun," Adelaide grinned wickedly, noticing the helpless look on said Doctor's face.

"You're evil. I like it," Ian pushed himself from his leaning stance. "Guess I'll see you later, tree frog,"

He strode away effortlessly, and a pang of disappointment hit her in the gut. She ignored the feeling, finally deciding to put Dr Grant out of his misery. "Hey Tim! Get your butt over here into the car, you troublemaker!"

Timmy barely argued, shrugging up at Alan before he scrambled over to his older cousin. They bundled into the car, Adelaide sitting between the two siblings, whilst Gennaro sat in the front seat. As the cars began moving, Tim and Lex got so excited that she worried they may both spontaneously combust.

The large gates she had spotted on her arrival stood high above them, 'Jurassic Park' written in large red and yellow letters across the archway.

Despite her earlier presupposition, she had to admit her own excitement. It was like entering an amusement park – those first bubbles of anticipation, the lively buzz of enthusiastic people waiting to be thrilled, scared and awed.

"Are we going to hit that Aida?" Lex whispered as they continued forwards. Not long after, the gates swung open automatically and all four of them were officially in Jurassic Park.

After a couple of dino no shows (Adelaide let Timmy explain what the species were and how they fed, the boy was obsessed with blood, it would seem), the atmosphere in car was a little deflated. Adelaide wanted to catch a decent glimpse of the T-Rex, considering all the hype around it, but the animals clearly didn't want to play ball. They even attempted to coax the creature out with a goat, chained to a pole and bleating nervously. Lexi had been utterly mortified by the idea, and Tim looked like Christmas had come early.

Gennaro, who a couple of times had pulled a face at the kid's antics, seemed nonplussed with the no shows. Good enough, the man took the children's enthusiastic dispositions on the chin, merely choosing to ignore the three of them. Maybe he lumped Adelaide as one of the children? Well, it wasn't exactly like she wanted to talk to him, anyway.

"Look! Dr Grant has left the car!" Timmy, ever the observant one, shouted.

"Timmy, lower your voice just a little, we are all quite fond of our eardrums," Adelaide said to him as she winced, his decibel enough to probably reach the other side of the island.

"Sorry," He said sheepishly, his newly growing teeth giving him a slight lisp as he spoke. "Can we go?"

"Certainly not, stay in the car," Gennaro interjected bossily. Adelaide looked into the boys pleading puppy dog eyes and sighed.

"Come on then,"

"Wait a minute, I said no! Stay here!" Donald's words were muffled as Adelaide shut the car door behind her, running after the kids into the heavily planted paddock. She saw Lex fall face first into the dirt, going to aid her but beaten to it by Dr Grant. The girl gave him the most dazzling smile possible before clutching onto his hand and not letting go.

Adelaide grinned into her hand as she caught Ellie's mischievous smirk.

The group was probably breaking a million different rules; striding into the bush like they weren't in the middle of a dinosaur park. Adelaide looked up as she heard a distant rumble of thunder, noticing the sky hard darkened considerably since they'd departed in the jeeps.

She spied a large, mottled grey mound lying within the clearing – a triceratops, to be exact. The creature lay on it's side, breathing heavily and letting out low painful groans intermittently.

"Is there anyone else who thinks that we shouldn't be out here?!" Gennaro cried worriedly as he rushed to catch up, dutifully ignored by every single person in the group. Adelaide had already stridden forwards towards the dinosaur in utter fascination.

"Don't be scared, you can touch her. Muldoon tranquilised her for me. She's sick," A man reassured her. Adelaide glanced up at him momentarily, noting swiftly his Jurassic Park badge hanging around his neck. She sank down to her knees by the animal's head, her breath jagged in sheer wonderment.

Ellie audibly gasped behind her, as Adelaide's fingers grazed over the triceratops thick, wrinkled hide. Just like a rhinoceros, it was rough and slightly grainy beneath her palms, yet smooth and velvety - all at the same time.

The image of Ulma, a Rhino she'd worked with in Botswana, swam in her vision. Such beautiful, majestic animals – slaughtered every single day for the greed of human beings.

Tears pricked at Adelaide's eyes. The memories were painful and seemed to surface at all the wrong times. She didn't want to cry, but the sight of the beautiful animal had rendered her emotions completely unrestrained. Tim sat next to her, his little hand smoothing over the triceratops nose.

"I love her," He grinned, face lit up in awe. "Dr Grant said this is his favourite dinosaur, so now it's mine too,"

Adelaide used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes, her chuckle slightly throaty. "I agree,"

"Aida, are you upset?" The young boy asked her, eyes wide as he was practically in her lap now. They both continued to stroke the dinosaur, totally oblivious to the goings on around them.

She shook her head, wrapping her arm around him. "No, I'm fine sweet. Tell me about this type of dinosaur then,"

"She's a triceratops. They are herbivores from the late Cretaceous period, not the Jurassic one. Their name means 'three horned face', I read they could weigh up to 5 tonnes, also…" She swore Tim had swallowed every dinosaur book on the planet! Her eyes glanced around the paddock, heart giving an unexpected jolt as she realised Ian was watching them. He had his arms folded over his broad chest, an unfamiliar warmth pooling within his dark eyes.

They were just…looking at each other. Adelaide never knew a gaze could be so intense, so tangible, until that very second. The sensation, much like a chemical reaction, completely threw her off guard, rendering her practically a slave to its intentions.

"…the big frill on her neck is to protect her from predators like the T-Rex – they also lived in the Cretaceous period too," Timmy, it seemed, had finally finished. Adelaide promptly broke eye contact with Ian, the spell broken but the magic remaining.

"Could the T-Rex eat them then?"

"Yeah, definitely. They would probably fight until triceratops got tired and gave up, then the Rex would rip it apart!" Tim appeared far too pleased about this.

"Ssh! Not in front of her!" Adelaide said comically, before leaning into the triceratops. "Ignore him, he didn't mean it,"

Tim giggled, squirming in her grasp as he spotted Ellie marching away towards a patch of dense foliage. "Can I go look too?"

"Sure go go," Adelaide watched as he scrambled up and took off as fast as his small legs would take him. She got to her feet, just as a bright flash of lightening forked over the dark sky. "Uh oh."

"Yeah uh oh. I think there's an erm, pretty big storm brewin'," Dr Malcolm's last words were slightly drowned out by the very loud clap of thunder booming above their heads. Adelaide grinned, noticing Gennaro jump out of his skin.

"I love thunderstorms," She mused. "Me and my brother would sit out on the back porch and play the Mississippi game when we'd visit family out in Virginia, they always had wicked storms,"

"Well…I'll tell you a secret. When I was little, I was terrified of thunderstorms, my uh, older brother used to build me a fort outta boxes and sheets to hide in," Ian said with a gleam in his hazel eyes.

"Are you being serious or just mocking my nostalgic story?" Adelaide asked him, arms folded and hip sticking out slightly.

"Oh no, I'm deadly serious,"

The triceratops gave another rumble of pain, causing both she and Ian to looked at her. "So…what you said to my Grandad, about the dangers of this park. You really meant it huh?"

"Oh, I meant it. As beautiful as this whole 'oohing and aahing' at the gentle giant goes, it's still uh, what it is." He took of his glasses, using his shirt to clean them. "You were…well…impressive. I thought you'd be all for it,"

Adelaide sighed. "I know it upset my Grandad, but I had to speak my mind. I mean, this-" she gestured toward the ill animal. "-is a perfect example. This dinosaur is sick and how on earth are we meant to know what's wrong with her?"

Another clap of lightning illuminated the sky, followed immediately by bellowing thunder.

"Doctors! I erm, insist that we get moving now!" Donald's attempt at a commanding voice just came off like a shrill housewife, his face devoid of colour.

"Oh…If it's ok, I'd like to stay with Doctor Harding…?" Ellie asked as she came around the animal, pointing towards the man in question.

"Yeah, that's fine, I have a gas-powered jeep, I could drop her off at the visitor centre on my way to the boat," Doctor Harding agreed.

"Are you sure?" Alan asked Ellie, who looked as if her mind was made up regardless. She nodded, the pair giving each other a smile before they all started to make their way to the jeeps without her.

"Oh, Dr Grant said he would ride with us for the rest of the tour, so you can ride with Dr Malcolm," Timmy announced loudly to Adelaide as he came skipping over, his white shoes still amazingly clean. She felt her cheeks blazing, not only at the proposition, but at the young boy's innocent yet innuendo laced wording.

Ian, predictably, snickered.

"Shut up." She grumbled at him, which only served to make the man laugh even harder.

…