She was alone.

In the jungle.

Full of dinosaurs, half of them carnivorous.

Without her walkie talkie.

And her dad was going to kill her. If Sam didn't get to her first. She almost smiled at the thought as she picked her way over a log.

Emily had no idea where she was. But she hadn't given up. She'd grown up in Montana, where every kid took hunter's safety course in middle school. And there was a whole section on survival if you found yourself lost.

She was going to follow that section. Sort of. First, she was going to find that meadow. From there, she figured she could estimate where she had first emerged into it. And from there, make her way to the trucks.

If she was lucky, she'd run into Sam and the others on the way.

Emily took a swig of water and set off. It didn't take her long to find where the Apatosaurs had stampeded, since they'd left a large area of trampled foliage. She followed it back to the meadow with ease.

And frowned. Someone was shouting in the distance. She stopped walking, so she could listen to the shouting without the crunching of leaf litter.

They might have been shouting her name. She rolled her eyes and struck out in the direction of the shouting. She spotted one of Wheatley's men first, who's eyes widened when he spotted her.

He fumbled for his walkie talkie, saying into it, "Dr. Ruiz, I've found her."

Emily stopped next to him as Sam's voice echoed through the walkie talkie, "Is she okay?"

The guy looked at Emily, who nodded, and he said, "Yes sir. She's fine."

"We'll meet you back at the trucks then."

"Copy that." The guy clipped his walkie talkie back to his belt. And then sheepishly looked at Emily, "I'm not sure I can find the trucks again."

Emily adjusted her hat, "It's a good thing I can then."

They were the last people to reach the trucks, and the moment Emily picked her way out of the jungle, Sam was there, pulling off her hat and fussing over her.

"Sam, I'm fine. I was never really lost."

"You lost your walkie talkie Em. You were out in the jungle by yourself."

"And I was fine Sam."

He sighed, handing Emily her hat back, "I just, got worried when we couldn't reach you."

She set her hat back on her head, and smiled a little, "Well, I'm fine. So, you don't have to worry."

"That's pretty much—"

Wheatley's voice echoed through Sam's comm, "We're sending helicopters to pick up your apatosauruses. Report back to base."

Emily sat down on some crate, and carefully cleaned off the scratch on her thigh, which was covered in mud. Her phone sat propped nearby, a news feed from the United States playing. Sam was cleaning his rifle on the crate next to her.

They listened to the news caster, who was talking about Mt. Sibo, and how the US Senate had just convened, and they were waiting on what the verdict was.

Briana plopped down next to Emily, "It'd be nice if we could get some government help. These guys have no idea what they're doing."

Emily flicked a fleck of mud off her leg, "And the government does?"

"Touché."

"At least not where dinosaurs are concerned," Sam added, not looking up from his rifle.

Emily set her foot on the ground, "That's for sure. Anybody want anything to drink, I'm parched."

"I'll take a water."

Emily nodded, right as a voice issued from her phone, saying,

"After through deliberations, the committee has resolved not to recommend any legislative action regarding the de-extinct creatures on Isla Nublar."

She leaned down and turned up the volume, sitting next to Sam.

"…we cannot condone government involvement on what amounts to a privately owned venture."

"Serves InGen right."

Two days later, Emily stepped out of the little trailer she and Sam were staying in, her phone tucked between her ear and her shoulder. She sat down on the rickety metal steps and started tying her hiking boots.

"Everything's been smooth so far Dad."

"I wouldn't call an on the verge of erupting volcano smooth."

"We should have gotten every dinosaur by about noon tomorrow. So I'm guessing we'll leave after dinnertime tomorrow." Emily tugged on her shoelaces.

"You better come straight home."

"As long as they don't need help moving the dinosaurs, we will."

"Good. Then that volcano can blow, and we can be done with that damned island."

"Is it strange that I'll be sad to see it go?"

Her father scoffed on the other end of the line, "Yes, Em, it is."

"I worked here Dad—" Emily shifted her phone to her other shoulder, "—I lived here for two years, and it wasn't all bad until—"

Her father cut her off, "Until it was. Just get done what you need to and get out of there. Okay?"

Emily sighed. She could almost picture her father pacing back and forth in his office.

"Okay. I love you Dad."

"Love you too kiddo. Let me know when you're on your way back."

"I will. Bye Dad."

"Bye."

She hung up and set her phone on the step. Behind her, the door swung open and Sam stepped out.

"Do you know when Claire gets here?"

"She and Lizzy get here a bit before noon. And hopefully, they'll have managed to wrangle Owen into coming too."

Sam sat down next to her as she finished tying her boots.

"If they can get you out here, they can get Owen."

"Fair. What's on the schedule until then?"

Sam smirked, "Want to help me clean cages?"

Emily spent the rest of the morning with her fiancé, cleaning out cages, helping move dinosaurs and feeding the dinosaurs. Sam spent much of his time finding new medical issues, usually caused by inadequate accommodations by Wheatley and his men.

Sam gave her the task of bothering Wheatley about it.

Emily washed her hands of dinosaur dung – she'd only ever touched the fossilized kind before – and went to track down Wheatley. Which proved to be pretty hard.

Eventually, she found him kicked back in his air-conditioned trailer. She slapped a sheet of paper she'd torn out of her notebook in front of him.

"At this rate Wheatley, you're practically mistreating these dinosaurs."

"What makes you say that?"

Emily pushed the paper toward him, "Lack of feeding and watering, cramped conditions, unclean cages, little to no shelter from the sun. I could keep going."

"Look, Dr. Grant –" he scanned the paper, "—I brought you and your boyfriend in to handle this sort of thing. My men and I are the security."

Emily refrained from reminding him that Briana had overhauled his whole security system. "Sam and I can only do so much to make sure the dinosaurs are treated properly—" she crossed her arms, "—You're in charge here, so make sure your men treat these animals correctly."

He opened his mouth to fire back and she finished with, "Or you're going to get to Lockwood's sanctuary island and discover you have no dinosaurs to release there. Or worse, they'll break out and eat you."

Wheatley paused, and then pushed the paper back to her.

"You really are obstinate."

"I'm doing the job you gave to me."

"I'll address the lack of coordination and make sure those things—" he nodded to the list, "—are fixed. So, don't come complaining to me again sweetheart."

Emily's nostrils flared, and she was so tempted to snap back at him with something equally degrading. Instead, she shoved the list back toward him and snapped, "Keep that. So maybe you'll remember."

She stormed out of the trailer, jamming her sunglasses back on. She'd made it halfway back to her own trailer when Briana said, "Wheatley rub your feathers the wrong way?"

"Try pulled them out." Emily turned around to see Briana sitting at one of the lunch tables.

"Well grab some food and come sit."

Emily hesitated, then complied, grabbing herself some food and a water before joining Briana at the table. She stabbed forcefully at a bite of chicken. After a few minutes, Briana spoke up.

"What'd he say? Nothing bad I hope."

"He's going to address the issues with the dinosaurs. But he got on me for being obstinate for doing the job he brough me here to do. Oh, and that was after he reminded me that I was here to do that job."

Briana snorted. "So typical stuff then."

Emily nodded, "I used to get all sorts of that crap in college. Because people assumed, usually professors I'd work with in the field, that because I was young, I was inexperienced."

"I'm assuming it was the opposite."

"I was practically raised on a dig site. I probably knew more than most students in any of my classes."

Briana took a sip of her water, "I got that in the military too. Usually because I was a woman though."

Emily sighed, "Sounds about right."

They ate in silence for a bit, until Sam approached their table. Right about as he opened his mouth to say something, the three of them heard the sound of a plane.

Emily stood, "That'll be Claire and Lizzy."

"And hopefully Grady," Briana put in. "Wheatley's hell bent on catching that raptor and we'll never do it without Grady."

"Lizzy could probably do it."

Sam stuck his hands in his pockets, "It'll be easier with Owen though."

Emily fixed her hat as the three of them walked for the dirt landing strip. "I'm just saying Lizzy has the skills."

They stopped near the landing strip, watching the plane land. As some of Wheatley's men started unloading luggage and wheeling the stairs over to the door of the plane, Sam leaned over and murmured, "Where's your engagement ring?"

"In my pocket. I didn't want it to get full of dinosaur dung."

"I, hadn't thought of that."

Emily smiled at him, "Clearly."

"Maybe our wedding rings should be simple, so we don't have to worry too much about cleaning them."

"Let's file that away for later discussion, when we're not on Isla Nublar."

He slipped an arm around her. "Works for me. Just figured I'd point it out."

"Well it's a good point Sam."

He hugged her as the door of the plane finally opened. Claire stepped out first, glancing around for a second before climbing down the steps. She shook hands with Wheatley, who asked, "Where are the uh, raptor wranglers?"

Lizzy popped out of the plane, hurrying down the steps, "Assistant raptor wrangler." She vigorously shook Wheatley's hand. "Call me Lizzy."

Owen stepped out behind her, and removed his sunglasses as he followed her down, "Owen Grady, animal behaviorist."

Wheatley shook his hand and introduced himself again.

Briana strolled past Emily and Sam, shaking Owen's hand, "Good to see you, Grady. We weren't sure you'd come."

Lizzy elbowed Owen playfully, "Trust me, it took some convincing."

Sam spoke up, "It's like I said; if they could convince Emily, they could convince him."

Lizzy turned immediately, a smile splitting her face, "When'd you guys get here?!"

"Two days ago," Emily answered.

Lizzy just shook her head and crossed over to them. Emily held out her hand to shake Lizzy's, only for the younger woman to pull her into a hug. Emily smiled and returned. When Lizzy pulled back, she promptly hugged Sam too.

And then brightly said, "Congrats on your engagement!"

"Thanks Lizzy."

Owen just leaned around Lizzy and shook Sam's hand, "When's the wedding?"

Emily swore, "That's what we forgot to do."

"What?" Sam shot her a confused look.

"Send out invitations."

"Crap."

Owen chuckled, "You still have time to send them out?"

"Yeah, a couple of months. The wedding's in August."

Lizzy nodded, "Yeah, that's plenty of time."

Claire came up, a young woman and a young man behind her. Emily leaned forward and shook Claire's hand, "Nice to see you again."

"You too." Claire's handshake was firm.

"Who do we have here?"

The young woman stepped forward, "Zia Rodriquez. Paleoveterinarian."

Sam grinned, shaking her hand, "Finally, some decent help around here. I'm Dr. Ruiz, also a paleoveterinarian."

"That's a relief. I wasn't sure I'd have help. And I've never actually worked with dinosaurs before."

"I have, though not much. You'll love it."

Emily smiled, reaching past Sam to shake Zia's hand, "Dr. Emily Grant, paleontologist."

Zia's eyes widened, "You're Dr. Emily Grant?"

"In the flesh."

"That's amazing. I can't believe you agreed to come back. I wouldn't thought Franklin would've come here before you would." Zia pointed to the young man.

Claire introduced him, "This is Franklin Webb, our systems analyst for the DPG."

Franklin nodded to them, tugging off his jacket, "God, it's hot."

Owen glanced up at the volcano, "It's about to get a whole lot hotter kid."

I might actually regularly get into updating. Yay! Leave a review if you enjoyed it!