"Dr. Karnofsky?" the receptionist's voice sounded on the intercom. "Your two o'clock consult is here."

"Send her in," Dr. Melinda Karnofsky answered as she sat at the pristine desk in her ever pristine office.

A young woman stepped into the office. She had a timid smile that was almost obscured by several long, ragged scars across her mouth and cheeks. Dr. Karnofsky, despite her many years as a plastic surgeon, winced inwardly. She well recognized that kind of wound. Years ago, a man who had been hiking in Olympic National Park had been attacked by a bear, suffering several slashes on his face. She had worked for hours to repair the damage, and it was one of her most successful surgeries, if she did say so herself. Which she quite often did.

"Dr. Karnofsky?" the patient said hesitantly.

"Please, call me Mel," the surgeon replied.

"I'm Harper Vance," the woman said.

"Yes, I know. I saw your name on the schedule," Mel said sarcastically. "What can I do for you, Harper?"

Harper fiddled with her hair (which was dyed in ombre tones of dark blue and turquoise, much to Mel's amusement) and looked away as she spoke.

"The other surgeons I've been to have said that they can't do anything for me, because I waited until my wounds scarred over. But I heard you're one of the best surgeons in the Northwest, so I drove in from Oregon to see if you could help me."

"I'm glad to see my reputation precedes me," Mel said airily. "Those other surgeons don't know what they're saying, Harper. It will be difficult to do reconstruction on scarred tissue, but it's not impossible. I've had successes where other doctors have given up much too soon."

Relief flooded Harper's face and her crooked smile widened.

"Thank you so much, Mel," she said fervently.

"Of course, I'll have to ask a few basic questions," Mel informed her new patient.

She ran through the usual questions about Harper's medical history, before asking more specifics.

"How did your injuries happen, Harper?"

"I was attacked by a young baryonyx at my grandpa's lake house."

"A bear? I thought as much," Mel gave a smile of professional sympathy.

"No, a baryonyx. A dinosaur. I accidentally disturbed it when I walked onto my grandpa's boat dock one morning. I think it was about to jump into the water after a fish."

Harper curved her fingers in imitation of long claws.

Mel blinked several times as she managed to keep a professional expression.

"If we're going to have a successful patient-doctor relationship, you need to be serious."

"I am being serious. Surely you've heard that we're living with dinosaurs now. I mean, there have been literal Congressional hearings about it."

Of course Mel had heard about the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar, former home of both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, and the debate over saving the dinosaurs.

Despite a Congressional order that said the animals were to be left to fate when the island's volcano exploded, some American advocacy group had secretly saved almost all of the dinosaurs, only to be tricked by their supposed benefactor. She was hazy on the rest of the details-something about dinosaurs getting out on the mainland United States and even overseas. There was even talk about some creature called a mosasaurus being sighted in the waters of Puget Sound. She'd never paid much attention to what she was sure were rumors. After all, nobody could possibly be stupid enough to let dinosaurs run free over the country.

"I don't deny that dinosaurs exist. But I don't believe that you just happened to be attacked by this bary-whatever," Mel continued, barely holding on to her professionalism. "Those claw marks are very consistent with bear attacks. If you're embarrassed about getting attacked by a bear, don't be. It happens all the time."

Harper stood up so abruptly that her chair fell over with a crash.

"Forget it. I'm not going to get operated on by someone who thinks I'm a liar," she snapped.

"Very well," Mel said calmly, "but my door is always open should you change your mind...and tell me the real story."

"I did tell you the real story."

And the young woman flounced out, colorful hair streaming behind her as she slammed the door for emphasis.

..

Mel forgot about Harper a few hours later, when she met her new boyfriend for what he'd promised would be the best date she'd ever been on. To her confusion and annoyance, his mysterious directions led her to a park, where she found him attending to...a picnic?

"Henry, when you said you had a surprise for our date, I didn't think you meant sitting on the grass with bugs and who knows what crawling around," she said with a sniff.

Her new boyfriend, a successful neurologist from Seattle Children's Hospital, looked hurt.

"I know how you feel about the outdoors...or anything that isn't regularly sanitized, so I thought I'd show you how romantic it can be," Henry said with a smile as Mel flicked at a stray piece of grass off of the picnic blanket. He gestured to the array of food and bottle of champagne. "Just you, me, and this beautiful weather."

Mel sighed heavily and turned her attention to the food.

"A cheese souffle? Garlic bread? Fried tomatoes?" she said angrily. "Henry, you should know by now that things like these are just empty calories, to say nothing of the cholesterol."

Henry looked crushed by her words, but before he could reply, a shrill squeak distracted both him and Mel.

"Oh my God, there is a mouse nearby!" Mel said, recoiling in horror.

The squeaking sound came closer. Then, suddenly, a strange creature came hopping onto the picnic blanket, making those strange noises. It looked rather like a lizard, but it stood on two legs. At its fullest high, it was barely a foot tall.

"What the hell is that thing?" Mel yelped.

"That's a procompsognathus," Henry answered. "Some of my patients have told me they're their favorite dinosaur."

"Well, make it go away."

"Just wait for it to leave. I've heard they can be vicious when confronted."

The tiny dinosaur paid no attention to the humans as it skipped excitedly over to the plate of garlic bread at Mel's left hand. She stared at its cold, glossy skin and narrow, reptilian eyes and tried to wave it away.

"Mel, don't..."

"Go away, you pesky little thing! Who knows what germs you carry!"

The procompsognathus screeched indignantly and bit Mel's finger.

"Ow. What the..."

Suddenly, several more of the lizard-like animals appeared, all headed for Mel. With an unearthly scream, she got up and broke into a full on sprint.

"Mel, don't, you'll make it worse if you run!" Henry shouted, but she was already out of earshot.

By the time the famed plastic surgeon was halfway through the park, the dinosaurs were still chasing her, occasionally delivering a bit to her ankles with tiny, razor-like teeth.

And then she slammed into someone and came to an abrupt, ungraceful stop. She cursed inwardly as she looked up to see a familiar face.

"Hello, Mel. Now do you believe that there are dinosaurs running

around?" Harper smirked.

The procompsagnathus, meanwhile, had gotten quiet. Too quiet.

"Ow! Son of a..." Mel gasped as one jumped onto her leg and bit down. "Heeelp..."

"Apologize first," Harper commanded.

"All right, all right, I'm sorry. I believe you! I'll even do your surgery for free. Just get these damn things away!"

Harper snapped her fingers and pointed sternly at the little herd of dinosaurs.

"Hey. Eyes on me," she said commandingly. Six or seven sets of bright yellow eyes focused on her. "That's it. Good dinosaurs. Now go, home."

To Mel's amazement, the creatures scattered into the trees where they made their nests.

"How did you..."

"They used to be tame, until their owner got bored with them and set them free in the park," Harper said. "They've got some of their wild habits back, but they still follow commands."

"Well, thank you," Mel said, and it sounded like the apology was physically painful for her. "I'd better have my boyfriend drive me to the hospital."

She looked down in horror at the tiny, bleeding bite marks on her legs.

Harper grinned.

"I do hope they believe you when you explain what happened."

The End

A/N: I'm not sure how much overlap there is between Frasier and Jurassic Park/World fans, but I think this story can stand on its own, anyway. This idea came to me out of the blue and I thought it would be fun to write a silly little tale before I start a new Frasier story that's been in my mind for weeks. This one will be longer and more serious than my other stories (getting out of my comfort zone a little), so it'll be a while before I post here again.

The character of Harper Vance is taken directly from the interactive "visual novel", It Lives Beneath, from the Choices app by Pixelberry Studios.