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Of Astronomers and Astronauts
Chapter Eight: The Fall of InGen (Or: In Which Eric is Vindictive, Alan is Amused, and it is a Good, Scandalous Day for Reporters Everywhere)
As the chopper set down on the landing pad, Eric couldn't help but be nervous. They were at a hospital. According to the pilots, they had received orders to immediately take them to the nearest medical center for treatment. Eric wasn't worried by this fact. After all, they certainly needed medical attention. No, he was worried by the news that the pilots had received halfway to the mainland. Apparently the news that the famous Dr. Alan Grant had somehow found himself on one of the "damned dinosaur islands" that he had sworn never to set foot on had leaked to the public. Members of the press had already swarmed the landing pad and refused to leave. Normally, the police would have just forced them out of the building, but InGen was interfering. Apparently they wanted to "set the record straight" (meaning: lie), and had allowed the reporters to stay. Some security specialist for InGen was there along with one of their many lawyers to give the report the moment the chopper touched down.
So yes, Eric was very nervous about leaving the helicopter. After all, he hadn't had any human interaction for eight weeks until he met Dr. Grant three days ago. How was he supposed to handle an entire crowd?
When the copter safely say down on the pad, Eric remained in his seat. He watched as they wheeled Billy out of the aircraft, nervously turning his raptor claw over in his hands. He could see the flashes of the cameras and hear the chattering of reporters. Instead of leaving, he somewhat shakily asked if he could speak to Dr. Grant alone for a moment. If there was anyone that could help him, it would be Alan. He had already dealt with something like this before, when the Jurassic Park Incident leaked. The rest of the crew filed out, his parents lingering the longest, until only Eric and Alan remained in their seats.
"Eric… It's going to be okay."
Eric snorted. In his experience, things did not just end up "okay." "How… How did you do it? Deal with all those people when you got off of Nublar?"
"Well… I had help. I had Ellie and Malcolm to talk to. And you'll have help too. Your parents will be there for you, and so will Billy and I."
Eric nodded, tightening his hands on the claw. The flashes were getting more frequent, he realized. They should probably get out there before the crowd overwhelmed his parents.
"Eric… You know we're at a hospital."
Eric stared at the paleontologist. What had caused this sudden transformation into Captain Obvious? "So?"
"Well, I think it's safe to say that they have better treatment options here as opposed to leaves you plucked off a bush."
"My side is fine," he replied immediately.
No, his side was most certainly not fine.
It would be accurate to say that his side was fine. Three days ago, it had barely been bothering him. Then, he started getting kamikazed by pteranodons and restrained by paleontologists, and his previously fine side was suddenly most definitely not fine. There was a sharp pain that shot up the right half of his body every time he breathed, and Eric was fairly certain some of the more agitated cuts had started to bleed sluggishly. Still, he couldn't bring himself to admit that fact, to Dr. Grant or anyone else. Right now, he had much bigger problems to worry about. (And, if he was being totally honest, he still didn't want his parents to find out about this.)
"I'm just saying, it couldn't hurt to have it checked out."
Actually, it could hurt. It could hurt his parents when they realize just what happened on that island; it could hurt Eric, who had never, ever wanted anyone to find out about that desperate struggle in the dark he had all those weeks ago.
(Please God, let me live.)
Eric shook his head clear of the memories. He needed to focus for this next part. Despite his nervousness, Eric had realized when he first heard about the reporters that he may never have a better chance for something he had been planning since Dr. Grant landed. That night, after the paleontologist fell asleep, he had realized something: While he may not hate dinosaurs, he most certainly hated the idiots that created and lost control of said dinosaurs, and then failed to send a rescue when someone was inevitably stranded there.
So, of course, he made a plan.
And right now, with likely the entire world watching (it was always amazing how much coverage stories about dinosaurs got), Eric could do it. InGen would never be able to cover it up, not with so many people seeing it. Determinately, he stood up. "We should get this over with," he told Dr. Grant, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
"Uh, Eric? You might want to get rid of the raptor claw first."
Eric glanced down at his hand in surprise. He had had it for so long, he rarely noticed when it was in his hand anymore. He did, however, notice when it was out of his hand. The reporters could deal; he wasn't about to let go of one of the only things that gave him a modicum of a feeling of security. "Nah, I'm good."
Shaking his head, Alan stood up next to him. They made quite a pair. Two people, one a grown man, the other just a kid, both covered in sweat, grime, and blood, their clothes in tatters, the boy clutching a razor sharp sickle claw while the man settled his cowboy hat on his head, about to walk out together into the fray.
InGen wouldn't know what hit them.
As calmly as possible, Eric slid open the door and they both exited the aircraft. Thankfully, no one seemed to have noticed their presence yet. Instead, the entire press corps was focused on the man in the three piece suit talking at the other end of the roof, and the short, beady-eyed man standing behind him with a rifle. There were several agitated policemen scattered across the roof, but they were in the minority. The suited man seemed to be holding up the procession of the troops along with his enraged-looking parents, while the other man smirked behind him.
Eric hated them instantly.
Then, his mind registered what the man was saying, and he realized he was completely justified in his hate.
"...son's unfortunate demise in a boating accident many miles away from Isla Sorna, completely unrelated to the island's inhabitants. Despite informing them that there was no possible way their son was on Sorna, they refused to listen to the facts and obviously departed on an ill-planned escapade that resulted in several injuries and deaths. While they undoubtedly felt great sorrow for their son's fate, that does not excuse their reckless actions, and we will be dealing with them appropriately."
How freaking dare he?
Obviously, InGen had managed to cover up the fact that it was a dinosaur that caused the boat crash, but that wasn't what he was really angry about. No, he was angry that his parents, the people that loved him and who he loved, the people that had come for him while InGen had sat on their asses, were being painted as delusional and desperate criminals.
Eric wanted to punch those stupid smirks right off their faces.
Oh, well. He'd just have to settle for causing as much damage to their reputation as humanly possible.
Incensed, Eric snapped, "Don't talk about my parents like that! They're ten times the people you'll ever be!"
While he was on Sorna, Eric had always been surprised at how uniform the reaction to his smoke grenades was. Whether it was raptors or dilophosaurus, they all acted the exact same way. First, they all snapped their attention to the foreign object. For a moment, they would all stare at it dumbly, until the smoke began to pour out in earnest. Then, the dinosaurs be whipped up into a frenzy, trying to figure out what on earth was going on.
It was fascinating how similar the reaction to Eric's continued existence was.
Every single person on that rooftop spun around to face them. For a long moment, they just stared at Eric. Eric stared back. He felt Alan tensing beside him and saw the tiny red dots on their cameras informing him that this was in fact being broadcasted live, and all he could think was, Well… This is awkward.
Dr. Grant chose this moment to cut in. Glaring at the lawyer, he coldly stated, "This is Eric Kirby. He spent the last eight weeks on Isla Sorna, completely alone, after his boat was attacked off the coast of the island. It wasn't until his parentscame to rescue him that he had any hope of getting off."
Chaos ensued. Cameras started flashing and the journalists started screaming questions that Eric could in no way understand, let alone answer. He could see his parents in the melee, torn between proud and worried, trying to get to him. Dr. Grant stepped in front of him protectively, when suddenly someone broke through the crowd. A tall, pretty blonde woman pushed through the reporters and launched herself at Alan, throwing her arms around his neck. "Alan, thank God."
The professor visibly softened at her arrival. "Hey, Ellie," he breathed. "Thanks for the save back there."
As if a spell had been cast, the press quieted down again. They all faded into the background, not wanting to miss a single newsworthy moment. Eric ignored them. After meeting the mass of people, he felt more annoyed than nervous. The swarming, frantic group almost reminded him of compys fighting over a kill.
Absently, he wondered if he should be worried about the fact that he felt comforted by that comparison.
The lady pulled back, and Eric could finally see her face. Wow. It was embarrassing that he hadn't put together her identity before now. Honestly, how many Ellie's were closely associated with Dr. Alan Grant? In his defence, he had had bigger problems at the time (See: the Spinosaurus trying to eat him).
"Ellie, this is Eric. Eric, this is Dr. Ellie Degler."
"It's nice to meet you, ma'am. I can't thank you enough for sending in the rescue."
"I'm just glad you're all okay. What was happening when you called? I could barely understand a word."
Alan groaned. "That would be the Spinosaurus attack."
"Spinosaurus?" cut in a dark-haired, female reporter from the front of the crowd. "I don't recall that from InGen's list."
"That's because it wasn't on InGen's List," Alan replied, renewing his glare on the lawyer. "They didn't disclose it to the public."
That sent the press into a frenzy once more, much to InGen's representative's dismay. When Eric saw his face, he had to restrain himself from laughing. The man looked like he had just been sucker punched; his mouth was opening and closing uselessly, as if he were a fish out of water. "This is nothing but the tales of a disgruntled man," he finally spluttered. "InGen has supplied the public with a complete list of their creations."
Dr. Grant looked like he really would punch the man. He took several steps forward, anger written on his face, until Eric put a hand on his arm. The professor shot him a puzzled look, only for him to send a reassuring one back. Trust me. Calming himself, he faced the lawyer. He would likely never get a better opening to spring his plan. "I'm certain InGen just forgot to include them," he deadpanned. "After all, it's so easy to misplace classified files. In a filing cabinet that had eight consecutive locks." Then, he slipped his hand into his bag and pulled out a large Ziplock, filled with three thick manilla folders. "So I took the liberty of bringing the files on the three undisclosed dinosaurs with me."
The night that he realized that he despised InGen was the night that he realized he didn't have to destroy them; they had already dug their own grave. Say what you will about the United States of America, but they get uniformly pissed when someone brings a giant, prehistoric killing machine onto US soil and promptly loses control of it, allowing said killing machine to run rampant through a major metropolitan area. If it had been a foreign nation that brought had the Rex over, they would have declared war. Instead, it was a private company, and the List had been only one of many of the mandates it set forward in reparation. And by violating the court ordered requirements, InGen had provided him with the perfect way to express his displeasure.
It was even legal.
Dr. Grant looked like he wanted to burst out laughing. "You brought the files with you."
Eric stared at him, and said with an absolutely straight face, "It was the neighborly thing to do."
Ellie grabbed the Ziplock and slipped out the files, flipping through them. "I think the State Department would be very interested in these, Mr. Regis," she told the lawyer. "Especially seeing as they have both Dr. Henry Wu and John Hammond's signature on them."
Regis looked like he wanted to explode. The beady-eyed, armed man behind him… didn't. He just stared at Eric, like the boy was a puzzle he wanted to solve.
Somehow, that made Eric more nervous than the reporters had.
Deciding that they had had enough, Dr. Grant slung his arm protectively over Eric's shoulder before beginning to push through the crowd. Several of the police officers and troops came to help, forcing a path in the persistent journalists. They crowded in despite the human barrier, flashing their ridiculous cameras and screaming questions. Eric tightened his hand around his raptor claw, trying to clamp down on the panic racing up his throat. This was all too much. It was an attack, a pack that was bearing down on him, hunting for his blood. He needed to run. He needed to find a tree that he could hide in. He needed to do something, because if he stayed like this much longer he risked stabbing someone.
The group tumbled into the hospital, the double doors sliding shut behind them, and suddenly, Eric could breathe. Alan, however, kept going. He walked around the corner, tugging Eric along beside him, until they could no longer hear the roar of the crowd. Dr. Grant, Eric, and Ellie leaned against the wall in relief. Suddenly, Alan started laughing.
"What?" Eric asked.
"I thought after throwing smoke grenades at raptors, beaning dilophosaurus in the head with rocks, and apparently having a 'complicated relationship' with a velociraptor pack, there wasn't anything else you could do to surprise me." He laughed harder. "I was wrong."
Eric shifted uncomfortably. "Well, they deserved it," he defended. "Two out of the three classified dinosaurs tried to eat me, and the third may be the reason I landed there in the first place. Being vindictive is totally justified."
"Where's Billy?" Alan asked, suddenly serious.
"In surgery," Ellie explained, speaking up. "They managed to get him through the crowd before Regis hijacked the whole thing." She glanced at the doctor, humor in her eyes. "He wanted to get a statement out before you showed up, Alan. You've never been exactly shy about your opinions on InGen; he wanted to get their propaganda out before you started to share your side of the story. Apparently Regis was one of the people who spoke with your parents, Eric; he recognized them the moment he saw them and started telling tales. He probably got the surprise of his life when he saw you with them."
"Where are my parents?" Eric questioned, urgent. The only times he had been separated from them since they found each other was during the pteranodon and Spinosaurus attacks. And now, they had been divided by the crowds. Quickly, Eric spun on his heel and walked around the corner…. only to crash into his parents. They grabbed him into a hug, worried, questioning him rapidly if he had been harmed in the crowd.
After he reassured them, his dad asked, "Where did you get those files?"
Eric shrugged. "They were easily accessible to anyone with a fire axe."
"A fire axe?" his mom questioned, alarmed.
"Er…" Eric glanced at Alan in desperation. Help.
"I'm sorry, could someone fill me in on what's happened these past few days?" Ellie cut in. "I'm operating on limited information here."
Dr. Grant had only just begun regaling her with a tale filled with peril, dinosaurs, and T-Rex urine when they were interrupted. A frazzled, dark haired women burst around the corner before stumbling to a stop right in front of them. She took in the group's filthy clothes and bloody exterior and said, "I'm Dr. Carter. I imagine you are the group that just got off Sorna? I'll need you to come with me; we have a room set up to deal with your injuries." Surprisingly enough, the woman had an American accent. Which was probably why she had been sent to deal with them, Eric surmised. While she probably wasn't the only English speaker on the staff, it was most likely her first language. Less chance of communication errors.
When they began to follow the woman, Eric trailed back until he was aligned with Dr. Degler. "Who was that man?" he asked. "The one behind Regis."
"That was an InGen security specialist, Vic Hoskins. His team took care of the pteranodons before they hit the mainland. Why?"
"No reason," he murmured. Still, he couldn't shake the strange feeling of those gray, beady eyes watching his every move.
Eric had the feeling that no one really knew what to do with them. In the corner of the hastily prepped room there stood two uncertain-looking police officers, neither of which had made any attempt to arrest anyone, thankfully. They were conversing lowly in Spanish, very little of which Eric could hear, and even less that he could understand. His school had mandatory Spanish classes, but Eric hadn't been very good at the vocal part. He could read and write decently, but when it came to comprehending it when it was spoken he flopped. All he had been able to get was something like instrucciones nuevo. Whatever these instructions were, he hoped that it wasn't to arrest his parents.
The doctors weren't faring much better. After all, it wasn't everyday you got patients from a dinosaur inhabited island.
"Was anyone bitten?" the American woman from earlier called out. "We need to take care of the wound and make sure that the animal wasn't carrying any diseases when it bit you."
Dr. Grant wasn't being at all subtle with his expectant stare. Awkwardly, Eric raised his hand. "I, uh, may have gotten a few."
The woman rushed over. "Where?"
"The pteranodons got in a few slashes on my arms," he explained, twisting it so that she could see.
Alan's expectant stare had turned into a glare. And worse, his parents were starting to notice. They were glancing between the two of them, a puzzled and worried look on their face.
"A compy bit me here a while ago, but it already healed," he continued, pointing at the side of his wrist.
"We'll still want to take some blood samples, make sure there aren't any after effects. Anywhere else?"
It was amazing the guilt trip your childhood idol could give you. Honestly, the force of his gaze alone was almost enough to break Eric. Then, his mom let loose a worried, "Eric?" and he broke down.
"Here," he sighed in defeat, resting his hand on his side.
Slowly, he rolled up the bottom of his tattered red shirt to reveal a filthy bandage. He glanced up at his parents in trepidation before beginning to unroll it. His mother and father had been staring at him, worried, before he unwound the gauze. The moment he uncovered the wound, they let loose horrified gasps. Eric refused to look up; he didn't want to see anyone's face, the pity there that he had never wanted.
That looked a whole lot worse than it had the last time he had uncovered it.
For one thing, a thin layer of grime had managed to penetrate the protective bandage and covered his side. While most of the freshly healed skin had managed to stay together, some of the worst gashes had torn open. Dark purple bruises had spread across his skin, discoloring the flesh.
Well, that explained why his side was hurting again.
"Okay," Dr. Carter said, taking control. "We're going to need to clean that right away." She guided him over to an exam table before snapping on a pair of plastic gloves and gathering supplies. Quickly, she barked out orders in Spanish to the other medical staff in the room. "They're going to start working on your injuries while I focus on Eric," she explained to the rest of the group.
His parents didn't move. They just stood there, ghostly pale, staring at his side. "Eric… What happened?" his mom whispered.
"Look, it's… It's not that bad," he stammered. "It just looks bad because of everything that happened these past couple days. I mean, really… It's… It's fine."
"It doesn't look fine," Dr. Grant said. "It looks a lot worse. Why didn't you say something?"
"Worse?" his dad broke in. "You knew about this? Why didn't you tell us? We're his parents!"
"He wanted to tell you," Eric said quickly. "I asked him not to."
His parents stared at him. "Why?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't want to worry you, and then everything was happening and there was never a good moment to bring it up."
"Mr and Mrs Kirby, you really do need to get checked," Dr. Carter broke in. "I promise you we will get your son the best treatment possible. Now," she said, turning back towards the uncomfortable boy. "Do you know what bit you?"
Eric shifted nervously again. "Dr. Degler, do you still have those files? It should be the bottom folder."
Her eyebrows shot up as she read the file. "Troodon pectinodon?"
"That's the one."
"It's poisonous."
"I kinda figured that out, yeah."
"I want to see the file," his mom stated determinedly.
"Mom-"
"I want to see it." Her tone brokered no argument. Ellie handed over the folder while Eric reluctantly watched. She took it with shaking hands, his father reading over her shoulder. Slowly, she sat down, a devastated look on her face.
"Mom…" Eric whispered. He didn't know what to do. This was exactly why he had never wanted his parents to find out. Why he had never wanted them to know. "It… It wasn't that bad." God, he felt useless. He was stuck sitting there while his mom looked as if she wanted to cry, and he couldn't think of a single thing he could say to make this better.
Which is one of the reasons he was surprised when Dr. Carter spoke up. "Mrs. Kirby," she evenly stated. "I can't begin to imagine what you and your family have been through. What your son has been through. And I can't change what happened either; no one can. But what we can do is try and deal with the aftermath in the best way possible, and I need that file to do it."
Slowly, his mother nodded. She passed over the ragged folder to the woman, who read it with the detached eye of a career medical doctor. Crisply, Carter nodded and moved back towards Eric. "All right Eric, I'm going to start cleaning your wound now," she stated, snapping on a pair of blue plastic gloves. "I assume you used the antivenom stated in the file to counteract the toxin. Do you have any samples of it left? I'd like to send it for tests along with your blood samples; we can make sure the chemicals won't have any negative after effects that way."
Eric nodded. "In my bag."
The group spent a few awkward minutes in silence as the medical staff took care of their minor (and not so minor) injuries. Blood samples were taken from them and sent off by Dr. Carter before she spoke again. "We'll need to get x-rays taken of your side, Eric; the bruising is too extensive. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get you all access to some showers."
She spun around, about to exit the room, when she was stopped by the officers. After a quick, heated exchange that Eric could in no way follow, she turned back towards them. "Officers Díaz and Ordóñez need to speak with you all for a moment." She shot a don't-distress-my-patients warning look towards the men before continuing out.
The two men stepped forward, and Díaz stated, in heavily accented English, "We need to check your bags to make sure you did not take any biological materials off of the Isla."
Eric idly supposed it was a good thing that Billy had never gotten the eggs off; even if he had made it past the raptors, he would have been arrested on shore. The boy watched as they questioned each adult about the contents of their bag before moving onto Eric.
"What is this?"
Eric glanced at the small, cloudy vial the man held in his hand. Really, people should stop asking that question. Still Eric could understand the confusion; Alan had accidently dropped his vial while trying to frighten away compys on Sorna, so the officer hadn't exactly seen the fluid before. "T-Rex pee," he stated flatly.
"¿Qué?"
The discussion had gone downhill from there.
"And this?" The officer was looking at the plastic baggie holding his journal as if it would bite his hand off. In Eric's defense, everything he had had in his bag had seemed completely practical to him. But apparently to contemporary society a stapler did not count as weaponry and duct tape was not a medical supply.
"That's private," Eric ground out. The only thing that had been confiscated so far was the urine, but Eric didn't want to take any chances with this. That journal had made it through Sorna with him; the only things he had had for longer was the raptor claw and the clothes on his back. He was not about to loose it to a jumped up customs agent.
Eventually, the man surrendered the notebook to Eric without further trouble. They were about to leave when Eric stopped them. "Sir? What happens now?"
At their puzzled looks, Eric found he had to elucidate. "To my parents and I."
The men stayed confused. "We… are not certain. The press is making things difficult to tell."
Eric wasn't entirely sure how they were making things "difficult," and if these difficulties were even working in their favor. However, he did know that if it was keeping his parents out of prison, he hoped that they continued. No matter the price.
Amanda Kirby still remembered the day that her son had been born.
The day had been heralded by pouring rain and crashing thunder. One Wednesday morning, Amanda had been at the supermarket when her water had burst in the dairy aisle. Her precious son had come into the world red-faced and screaming exactly one month early. The doctors had called him premature; Paul had dubbed him ready to take on the world.
Honestly, Amanda had found herself agreeing with Paul more than the doctors.
Because no matter which medical degrees they had or how much experience they had under their belts, they would never be Eric's mother. She had held that too small, warm little body in her arms and she had known that her little piece of Heaven was a fighter. And she was okay with that; Eric could take the world by storm, and she would help him every step of the way. And as she held that tiny, perfect little boy in her arms on that stormy day, Amanda Kirby had made herself a promise.
No matter what it took, she would do anything to protect her son.
Amanda hadn't been so arrogant to think she would be the perfect mother. On the contrary, she had foreseen many mistakes and made even more. That hadn't made her any less resolute in her vow, however. She knew she couldn't protect him from the world. She knew that one day, there would be something she just couldn't shield him from.
That didn't stop her from trying, though.
Eric had grown up stubborn and resourceful and absolutely perfect. It wasn't that he was flawless. On the contrary, his flaws were some of the things that made him so. Eric had a certain fire about him, a light, something that was a combination of Paul's stubbornness, her temper, and something that was uniquely Eric. Whenever she went out, Amanda couldn't help but pity the other moms. They had no idea what they were missing out on by not having Eric as their child.
(On a level, Amanda was well aware that most mothers felt such a way about their children, but she knew that she was right. Because Eric really was so much more special and perfect than all those other children, and nothing could convince her otherwise.)
(And actually, she didn't pity those other moms. That would imply that she felt regret that they didn't have Eric as their son, and Amanda was much too happy about winning that particular lot in life to ever be upset about that.)
Amanda knew that in some ways, she had miserably failed in her vow. She hadn't been able to protect her son from his parents arguments, or their divorce. Her temper would get the best of her and she would just snap at Paul, and once the flurry of anger and screaming had ended she would be left with nothing but the memory of a stormy day, a too small body nestled in her arms, and a promise she had broken once more.
But as she stared at the x-ray in front of her, she realized that she had never failed in her oath quite so badly.
"...rib healed incorrectly while he recovered..."
Right, Dr. Carter was still talking. Still explaining the x-ray that had not only revealed the truth of her son's injury, but her complete failure at motherhood.
should have never let him go parasailing should have gone with him parasailing should have left him with Paul he would have been safe with Paul should have should have should have didn't
Apparently more damage had been done than Eric had originally suspected. The sheer force of the troodon's bite had broken one of his ribs, which had incorrectly healed during Eric's stay on Sorna. It wouldn't have been as big of a problem if the recent attacks hadn't caused the already weak bone to fracture. If it broke again, its current position risked puncturing a lung.
"When was the last time you ate, Eric?"
Eric looked up at the doctor curiously. He was sitting between her and Paul, holding each of their hands for comfort. Amanda suspected he was comforting them rather than vice versa, and just didn't want to hurt their feelings. "What?"
"We'd like to rebreak the bone so that we can set it properly this time, but we'd have to operate to do it. You'd have to wait at least twenty-four hours after eating before we can put you under anesthesia."
"Well, I ate the night I found Dr. Grant… So, two days ago." Before Amanda could chastise him for neglecting himself, or chastise herself for not noticing that her own son hadn't eaten in days, he continued. "This operation… Is it absolutely necessary?"
The doctor looked at him, bewildered. "Yes, Eric, it is. This could lead to major problems if it's not healed correctly."
"Can we have a minute with our son, please?" Amanda broke in. She could always tell when Eric was hiding something, and right now, he was. He had been acting differently since Dr. Carter had mentioned surgery, but Amanda wasn't entirely certain as to why. This wouldn't have been the first time he had been operated on; he had had appendicitis when he was nine. Throughout this entire ordeal Eric had been undaunted, with not even the reporters causing him this much trouble. Why would he be acting strange now?
As soon as the woman left, Amanda turned to her son. "Eric, is something wrong?"
"I'm fine," he answered automatically.
She gave him the look. "Is this like how your side was 'fine?'"
"Eric, you know you can tell us anything," Paul continued. "There is nothing to worry about with this operation."
"It's not the operation, it's-" Eric broke off with a frustrated sigh. "It's nothing, everything's fine."
"Eric," Amanda stated firmly. "No, it's not. Nothing about what has happened is fine. And- and we're your parents. We're supposed to look out for you, not the other way around. So, if there's something wrong, you- you need to tell us."
For a long moment, Eric was silent. Then, he let out a small sigh and said, "I haven't slept since I found you guys."
"If you're tired, we can find a place for you to-"
"No, I don't want to sleep!" Eric snapped. "That's the point. I don't want to sleep, because if I do I could wake up and find out this was all a dream! I could wake up in my water truck completely… completely alone," he finished quietly. "That's why I don't want to do the operation. If they put me under anesthesia, I'll have to go to sleep."
For a moment, everyone was silent. Amanda looked at her son, sitting there trying to hold the pieces of his composure together, and suddenly she was in a different hospital room, holding a small, vulnerable baby boy in her arms while she listened to the claps of thunder.
She had promised.
"Eric," she stated quietly. "Look at me. We are together now. All of us. And we will never, ever loose each other again. And when you wake up, we will be here, because nobody's going anywhere."
Eric finally looked up at her, looking hesitant and hopeful and trying so, so hard to hold himself together. "Promise?"
Anything.
"I promise."
Okay, there wasn't that much about the legal implications of it all in this chapter. This chapter was more of a set up for next chapter, where we get to find out who gets in trouble for what. When I was trying to figure all the ramifications in my mind, I realized that in my universe, InGen would get royally screwed by keeping the Spinosaurus secret. They didn't have much explanation for the List in the movies, but I couldn't see the super secretive shadowy company just handing out lists of their creations like they're Halloween candy; I saw it more as a ticked off US government court ordering them after their Rex ate several of their citizens. Which means that if anyone had definitive proof of InGen violating those orders, InGen would be in massive trouble. So Eric finding the files was so that he could survive the troodon's bite and destroy a multibillion dollar conglomerate. Very important for every twelve year old's life.
Yes, Chaotician, I had found out about Hoskins leading the team against the escaped pteranodons. Thanks for the reminder, though. As you can see, he is not in Canada while he does it. Here are several valid reasons for why:
1) Those pteranodons are probably hungry. They did not actually manage to eat Billy, Eric, or the rest of the motley crew, and in actuality probably became even more hungry thanks to the energy they expended in the process. They have shown absolutely no qualms against the eating of humans, so in all likelihood would have tried to eat people the second they hit mainland, and would probably hang out near the food source instead of road tripping it to Canada.
2) InGen probably would have found out that Ellie was sending in the troops to Isla Sorna. I imagine she would have blocked them from tagging along to the island itself, bet they probably would have still gone to Costa Rica at least. So they would have been there when the pteranodons showed, and it would be a lot less expensive to shoot them there as opposed to moving the operation to Canada.
3) The US of A is probably still ticked about the Rex attack. They are not about to let dinosaurs go trapezing across US soil again. The pteranodons would have to fly 5,724 miles to get from Isla Sorna to Canada, crossing the US in the process. We know the government knows about them, because the Navy saw them leave the island. So, we can assume that they would have been gunned down by some government agency before they ever reached Canada.
4)Even if the government hadn't gotten them, some farmer probably would have taken a double barrel shotgun to them the first time they tried to carry off cattle.
5) Even if the farmers didn't get them, there are tons of big game hunters who would kill for a chance to take down a dinosaur. So, they still wouldn't have made it to Canada.
6) InGen has probably had its reputation dragged through the mud thanks to its utter inability to keep dinosaurs from escaping. They are not about to let sleeping dogs lie until said dogs get to Canada. Which is 5,724 miles away.
7) Once again, Eric does become Owen. How could I not orchestrate a meeting between him and Hoskins during JPIII? I find the idea of Hoskins not realizing that Owen is the twelve year old he met during the Isla Sorna Incident hilarious.
There are more reasons, but those are the main ones. Okay, hopefully I'll get the next chapter out soon. Thanks for reading!
