I'm back! This is a but shorter than normal, but it's up and I like it.
Emily stopped at her coffee pot and poured herself another mug of coffee. She'd been up since 4:30, double checking that she'd packed everything, that she'd locked all the windows, brought all of her outdoor furniture inside and a billion and a half other things.
She'd dropped her truck off at her dad's house the night before. He lived in the same home he'd lived in since before she'd been born. A little, blue, two-bedroom house, not even ten minutes' drive from the museum. He'd long since converted her bedroom into an office. Or as he liked to say, 'back into an office'.
He and Billy would be arriving in ten minutes to take her to the airport. They'd be looking after her house while she was gone, dusting, mowing the lawn, making sure nobody had broken in. Hell, Emily didn't even know how long she would be gone. She didn't plan to work at Jurassic World forever, she loved paleontology too much for that.
She sipped her coffee, and toed on her tennis shoes. They were the only shoes she had out, as she'd be wearing them on the plane. She stepped into the garage and checked that the service door was locked, along with the window that she never opened.
She stepped back inside and locked that door, depositing her shoes at the front door, next two her two suitcases, carry-on backpack and one large cardboard box, that her father would be dropping off at the post office to be shipped. It contained a few sentimental things, like photographs, books, and a couple trinkets, along with things like extra bed sheets, a couple kitchen things, and a hair dryer.
Emily turned the lights off in her bedroom, and drained the rest of her coffee. She was washing the mug and coffee pot when the doorbell rang. She dried the mug off and stuck it in the cupboard, "Come in!"
"You ready to go?" Her father asked, opening the door.
Emily stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room, "All I have to do is shut off the water and electricity and then yeah, I'm all ready to go."
Billy hefted the box up, "I'll put this in the truck."
Her father slipped off his shoes, "I meant emotionally ready."
"About as ready as I've been since I took the job Dad." Emily went back to drying the coffee pot, "I'm nervous, terrified as hell to go back, and excited too."
"What's there to be excited for?"
Emily put the coffee pot away, "Live dinosaurs Dad. I haven't seen one in about twenty years. I mean, when we saw that Brachiosaur in '93, for the first time, I think that's the best moment of my life Dad."
"Just don't forget about the dangerous ones."
"It's pretty hard to forget."
He sighs, looking anywhere but the pile of suitcases by the front door. After a second, he deadpans, "It feels like what people told me sending you off to college would feel like."
"Okay, first of all, you work at the college I went to, I lived like ten minutes from you during college and I'm 30, not 18."
"Hence the 'would feel like' Em."
Emily sighed, "Really Dad, I'll be fine. We've been over this a thousand times."
"I know," he steps forward, pulling her into a hug, "But I've only got one kid, and I'd really prefer if she didn't run off and die."
Emily hugged him tightly, "I won't Dad." Pulling back, she smirked, "If I survived once, I can survive again."
The sun is rising as they pull up to the airport. Emily dons her fedora and grabs one of her suitcases. Billy takes the other, and her father grabs her carry-on, locking his truck. She checks in for her flight, drops off her luggage, and heads for the terminal.
They chat as they wait for the plane, mostly about work, Billy's new apartment, how Eric has just turned twenty-four. But eventually, the attendants start the boarding process, and Emily's group is called.
She stands, donning her hat. Billy and her father stand as well, and the former pulls her into a hug, "Stay safe."
"I will." She hugs him back, and smirks, "Keep an eye on Dad for me. Don't let him go stir crazy with worry."
Billy chuckles as he pulls back, "You got it Doc."
Emily rolls her eyes and turns to her father. He looks worried, and tired, and old. Not that he doesn't usually look like he's aging, with the gray hair and all, but something about the fact that he's worrying about her, and one of his biggest, well their biggest, fears makes him look years older than he is.
So Emily forgoes any ideas she had of remain composed and throws her arms around him, "I'll be okay Dad."
"I know," he murmurs, holding her as tight as she's holding him. They stand like that for as long as they dare.
Till Billy clears his throat, "You better hurry Emily, your group's almost through."
Her father pulls back, "Call me when you have a moment. And you better give Ellie a call too."
Emily shoulders her carry on, "I will, don't worry."
"I'm pretty sure that's impossible."
She smiles, throwing out once last, "I love you Dad."
"Love you too Em," he hugs her quickly, then turns her around by the shoulders, pushing her gently toward the terminal, "Remember what I said, 'believe you can and you're halfway there.'"
Emily smiles a little, gets in line, and boards the plane. She murmurs the words to herself as the plane takes off, "Believe you can, and you're halfway there."
She'll be on Isla Nublar tomorrow morning. Or, this morning, since the alarm clock on the hotel room nightstand has just changed to 12 am.
Emily can't stop thinking about it. How so much will have changed, and yet so little. Part of her is excited, part of her wants to take the first flight back to Montana. But she can't turn back now. She's already committed, and Emily Grant has never been one to shy away from seeing something through.
Besides, that excited part of her is slowly winning. Mostly with its visions of live dinosaurs and eggs hatching, all pulled straight from her memory. Maybe they'll let her hold one of the hatchlings. She can still remember how that felt, to cradle that little velociraptor in her hands. She's never been able to let go of all of the good memories, however few there are, surrounding Jurassic Park.
Maybe that's a good thing.
She lays there a while longer in the dark. Emily can always avoid the scary parts for a while. Settle in and etch out a routine before she tackles the T-Rex, which she knows they have. What she doesn't know, is if they have raptors. God, she hopes they aren't that stupid.
Even if the do, Masrani and his operations manager, Ms. Dearing, have been very open to considering Emily's past, so hopefully she can avoid them for a while. Eventually she'll have to face the raptors, if they have them.
So she can get over her fears, since that's the whole purpose of her going.
The paleontologist rolled over, so she was facing the window in her hotel room. Moonlight streamed through the open curtains. She'd forgotten to close them, and didn't feel like getting up to do it.
With a sigh, she rolled onto her back. It was going to be a long night…
Emily gets a few weird looks from tourists as she mounts the steps into the VIP area on the boat. It's glass enclosed, with plush carpet and seating. Clearly for important people. And not somewhere Emily is comfortable. But Masrani insisted that she use the VIP area if she wouldn't fly out to the island.
Emily hasn't been in a helicopter since 1993 and she intends to keep it that way.
There's a security guard at the top of the stairs who stepped forward, "Name?"
Emily pushed her duffel bag farther up her shoulder, quietly saying, "Dr. Emily Grant." She'd rather not broadcast the fact that she's here to everyone.
"Pardon me?"
"Dr. Emily Grant."
He nodded, clicked something on his tablet, and gestured to a cart, "Please place your luggage here. Have a nice journey to the island."
It's clearly a rehearsed spiel, not that Emily expected anything else. She puts her duffel bag and two suitcases on the cart, keeping her satchel, and thanks the guard. There are five other people in the VIP area, and a set of stairs leading outdoors, up to the top of the boat.
A woman in a crème suit looked Emily up and down, asking in her honeyed voice, "Are you sure you're supposed to be up here?"
Emily donned her hat, "Quite sure," and mounted the second set of stairs. It's a small area, with a bench all the way around under the railing. There are two kids sitting at the front, chatting back and forth.
Emily sat down at the back to give them space and tipped her hat forward to better shade her eyes. She checks her phone, finding about fourteen different notifications from different people wishing her good luck. Tim's message reads: "Watch out for tourists."
As if tourists are her biggest worry.
It takes about two hours to reach the island, and the kids come and go twice during that time. But the adults dressed in fancy clothes come hurrying up when the intercom system announces, "We are now approaching Isla Nublar."
Emily slips her phone into her satchel and slings it over her shoulder as she stands. It's not hard to get a position at near the front, where she can see over the kids' and an old man's heads. She drums her fingers on her thigh, shoving down the impulse to rock back and forth on the balls of her feet.
Slowly but surely, Isla Nublar comes into view. A tropical island in the middle of the ocean. And Emily feels like an island in the middle of the tourists.
She swallows nervously as the boat docks at the pier but lets the crowd of VIP tourists push her down the two sets of stairs, and then through the boat and to the gangplank. There's no moment of hesitation as she sets foot on the island, only because the crowd is pushing her along.
But Emily can walk slower once on the pier, and the crowd flows past her as a woman over a loudspeaker announces:
"Welcome to Jurassic World."
Well, what do you think? I like it. I also just started a new school year, so I'll be updating a lot less frequently. But I'll still be updating.
Feel free to leave a review!