Title: I Dreamed of Avalon
Author: La Lune
E-mail: la_lune86@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Alternate Reality

June 2001

::Standard Disclaimers Apply:: If anything in this story resembles anything from any previous work by someone other than myself it is merely coincidental.

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'What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.'
-Aristotle
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Prologue

A cloud of dust filled the air as the breeze blew gently across the dry land which was the Morrison Foundation, located in Colorado. Dr. Serena Allan quickly jumped out of a hole in the ground, stood up and dusted off her faded jeans. She looked up in the direction of her companion, held her hand over her eyes to deflect the bright sunlight and smiled.

"Okay I'm done, you were right there was nothing down there," she sighed in defeat, "unless you count dirt."

"See this is what happens when you don't listen to me, you end up getting distracted and wasting time, in this case three hours."

"Hey, how was I supposed to know there wasn't anything there, I mean it did look like something important."

"And it ended up being nothing, the only thing you found was one of your dog's toys."

"That's Ernie's fault, not mine. If you have a problem with it take it up with him." Serena gestured towards the ground where a little dog played with the item in question. Ernie was Serena's dog, and despite the fact that he was full grown, was extremely tiny, or as she liked to say, he was the pygmy of the dog world. When he was a puppy he had kidney problems, the medications he took to save his life stunted his growth and now he closely resembled a stuffed animal and could easily be held in someone's arms.

Serena walked past Ernie and retrieved a brush off of a table under the tent that they had set up. She walked over to a tarp that had been spread across the ground, crouched down, and pulled it aside. Softly she brushed the dirt away from part of the semi visible skull that protruded out of the earth. Whenever she was working around something, like the Haplocanthosaurus that laid before her, she felt the unmistakable feeling of self fulfillment, and it felt good. Sighing she dropped the brush back onto the ground and stared off into the horizon, slightly turned away from the sun that still hung in the sky casting off heat. She felt a hand being placed on her shoulder and looked to her left where her best friend - Dr. Darien Stratton now sat. Their father's were good friends, and although their families got together quite often, they never had the chance to really meet each other until they were both in college.

"I love this so much." Serena smiled towards him, despite her distaste for being dirty, sweaty, and smelling bad, she could never imagine herself doing anything but paleontology, or archeology for that matter.

"You're probably the only girl I've ever met that likes to play around in the dirt." Darien laughed with his classically husky voice. "I don't know how much longer this can last though, woman, Dr. Wilson is most likely going to drop us when the funds start running low." Darien's tone was serious but he couldn't help but smirk when he saw the inflamed appearance her eyes took and had to dodge out of the way of her hand, which was flying through the air with malicious intent, he knew she hated when he called her 'woman', that's why he called her it. It was strange, the nickname had appeared during a conversation when the infamous line 'Hey woman, get me a sandwich!!' had somehow managed to weasel it's way in. Personally Darien thought it was hilarious and at the same time Serena didn't, in the end it stuck.

"Okay first of all, I don't recall my name ever being 'woman' you male chauvinist pig, and second of all I am fully aware of that, we get stuck here dusting off a big dead thing in the ground while Dr. Wilson gets to oversee some of the best paleontological finds of the century, and yet in the end she still gets all the credit. Whoever said life was fair?"

"No one, I think if anyone had they would have been struck down by a lightning bolt shortly thereafter. Why did we ever want to become paleontologists to begin with?" He cocked one of his dark eyebrows and made a quizzical expression that never failed to make her laugh.

"I don't know about you but I wanted to get the hell out of Avalon." Avalon was a minuscule town in North Carolina, everybody knew everybody, and descent dental care was hard to come by. She liked to compare it to Lancaster, Pennsylvania minus the Amish, or Maycomb County from To Kill A Mockingbird minus Boo Radley, wait a minute scratch that, there was a man that supposedly lived down the street from her who she had never seen in all the years her family had lived there. It was a coastal town so if you didn't like seafood , it was not the place for you. Despite the fact that Serena's father was a wealthy businessman he insisted that his family live as far away from what he had to deal with everyday as possible, which meant anywhere that wasn't New York. Well he certainly got what he wished for. She had to admit it though, if it wasn't for dull, bland Avalon she wouldn't be in the position she was currently in. Despite Avalon's lack of many of the city-like qualities Serena enjoyed, she had to admit, she liked it there. The library there was ancient, and held the most books in one place she had probably ever seen in her life. That's where she found her first book on dinosaurs, later on she realized how truly important that book really was.

Darien on the other hand was from New York, and by god did Serena envy him. His father was similar to hers, a wealthy businessman. Only he was the 'big city' type, while her father was the 'open country' type, why his offices were in New York was beyond her and she often reminded him of it. Come to think of it, she had always thought Darien would follow in his father's footsteps, why the hell was here in Colorado helping her dig up something that has been dead for millions upon millions of years?

"What made you want to do it?" Confusion was clearly noted in the tone of her voice, she didn't want to admit she got confused a lot, as a matter of fact it was far from the truth, Serena had a very sharp mind, which was easily noted by her sharp sense of humor.

"I don't know. When I first started college I went to business school and planned on taking my father's position when he stepped down, and I probably still will. I noticed that I already knew everything I was being 'taught'. One day I heard your father bragging about you and your career choice, and the fact that not only did you want to be just a paleontologist but eventually an archeologist as well, well it peaked my interest." There wasn't a hint of his usual sarcasm in his voice, as a matter of fact he sounded like he was telling the truth, for once. "And I remember when I asked you why you wanted to go through so many years of college for a career that doesn't pay too extravagantly, especially when you could have been able to do so much more, and you said -"

"You only live once...." Serena let the sentence softly trail off, she remembered the first time she had said it, it had been her argument when people had tried to persuade her to choose another career. They had all thought she was joking at first, she couldn't blame them. She was known throughout the town, if not the whole state of North Carolina, for some of the stupid stunts she had pulled.

April Fool's Day was always the best, one year she arrived at home (she had insisted that he father didn't pick her up) dressed up like a full blown prostitute, including patent leather black boots that went up to her mid thigh, flame red tube top that was two sizes too small, and black leather skirt (also two sizes too small) that was literally millimeters away from exposing her bottom. The look on her father's face...priceless. Then there was the year in which she hadn't seen her family in nearly three years, in order to get her degrees faster she worked nonstop for maybe but probably more than eight years. Anyway, she asked her friend, who for reasons unbeknownst to her just so happened to have a 'prosthetic stomach' which when worn made you look very pregnant, if she could borrow it. Her friend knew fully well what Serena planned to do and complied before the question left Serena's mouth. So with her friend stationed in the bushes on the side of her house in full view of the front door and armed with a camera, Serena waddled up the front porch steps and rang the door bell. What happened next could only be described as 'classic', her father apparently believed he was safe (she had missed April Fool's by over a month) and had invited a good chunk of her close family and friend's over for a little 'Welcome Home' party. The second the door opened Serena was met with a barrage of people, she watched as if everything was in slow motion as their smiles faded into looks of pure mortification. Her father's eyes bugged out of his head (giving her a reason to call him 'Popeye' from that moment on, which she did), her mother's face became as green as Astroturf , and her seventy-five year old grandmother passed out, her grandfather on the other hand burst out into hysterics, well at least she had one positive response. Once she had convinced everyone that she really wasn't pregnant and it was just a joke, her family finally learned to expect the unexpected with Serena, it was about time.

Darien had been present at that fiasco, of course the second she walked in he had just taken a drink of...something, and nearly choked to death. Her father became furious and refused to talk to her for the forty-eight hours she was there, as a matter of fact everyone refused to talk to her, they just didn't know how to take a joke. The only one that actually talked to her was Darien, he personally didn't care about her little 'joke', despite the fact that they knew who each other was they hadn't really seen each other since Serena was eight. Darien had attempted to show off the fact that he was going to some expensive business school until he asked Serena what she was doing and went off about dinosaurs, archeology, and a lot of other things he didn't understand, all he could do was smile and nod. It interested him though, she was so devoted to these things he knew nothing of. So there he was going to school and pretty much learning things he already knew like the back of his hand, and there she was doubling up on her amount of college, literally living there all year long, just to do something that meant so much to her. After their conversation he literally felt like a light bulb had gone off in his head. Soon after he left school and began to follow a path very similar to Serena's.

And now here they sat under the blistering sun in Colorado by themselves killing time. A comfortable silence settled over them until Darien cautiously spoke up.

"My dad called me the other day, about the business...he wanted to know if I was ready to -"

"No Darien, you can't do that! You can't just leave me here and move back to New York and take over your father's job, you have spent years in college in order to do this, how can you just give it up after one phone call. I thought you loved this as much as I do..." Serena felt like someone had just slapped her, hard, she was devastated, Darien couldn't leave, he just couldn't. He had worked so far to get up to this point and he was going to throw it all away because his dad called him? Serena found her devastation unnerving but was even more disturbed by a sudden moisture in her eyes. Oh no, she was starting to cry.

"I do!" Darien quickly interjected, "Believe me Serena, this is the job of my dreams, I'm just saying that one day my father's going to die, or retire and I'm the only one who he wants to follow in his footsteps." Darien felt terrible for making Serena cry, she defined herself as a 'non-crier'. He remembered a time in which she had told him when she saw Titanic she had felt absurd sitting in an audience made up primarily of women, all of which who were bawling their eyes out, and her with dry eyes laughing when the one man jumps off the back of the ship when it is sinking, hits one of propellers and does a flip before plunging to his death. She was so upset that she didn't cry that she went back and saw the movie eleven more times, yet despite her best efforts, not a tear was shed.

"What did you say?" Her voice trembled fearing the answer, they were probably the four hardest words she had ever said in her life. She felt Darien snake an arm around her shaking shoulders and draw her near his body. He moved his head down and whispered into her ear.

"I said no." Serena stopped breathing for a second as she processed what he had said, 'He said no!?'. Serena's eyes widened dramatically and she about to smile when she realized something, despite the fact that he had said no, that was only for now, somewhere down the line his dad was going to call him and he would accept his offer. "What's wrong woman? You aren't your usual cheery self, aren't you happy I'm staying?"

Serena overlooked Darien's over confident statement and the fact that he called her 'woman' and got straight to the point. "Of course I'm not happy! Even though you said 'no' that's just this time. Darien, you know your dad isn't too thrilled about you ditching business school and on a whim becoming a paleontologist, he's going to try as hard as he can to get you back in an office in New York. And I know one day, when you're married and have a family you're going to get sick of being away from them so often and you'll wait either for your father to call again, or you'll call him yourself, and your answer won't be 'no'. Once you leave...I'll never see you again."

"What do you mean we'll never see each other again?"

"You'll be in New York and I'll be all over the world doing this." She threw her hands in the air and gestured towards the things around them. "Darien, the last time I saw my family was when I graduated, that was way over a year ago. Once you'll leave...I'll never see you again."

Darien was about to deny it but after thinking about her last thought for a moment changed his mind. Damn, she's right. A smile spread across his face as he quickly got an idea that would hopefully turn Serena's mood around. "Hey, how about this, I promise that I will never get married or take my father's job until I'm old."

Serena took a brief moment to absorb Darien's 'promise'. When he's old! She thought to herself, when I was younger I thought twenty-five was old, at least that was until I turned twenty-five. All the same though, Darien had caught Serena off guard, causing her eyes to grow large and her eyebrows to raise. She smacked him in the arm in mock anger. "You retard, you cannot promise me something like that, it's just crazy."

"Hey I promise on my mother's grave that I will never get married or leave this job until I become much more advanced in years, and I mean much more."

Serena smacked him again, last time she'd checked, his mother was very much alive. "You're going to regret you have ever said that Darien, I swear I'm going to hold you to this."

"As you notice," He pointed to himself dramatically, "I don't care because...I meant every word I said."

Serena rolled her eyes as she stood up and dusted any dirt off of her clothing. As she began to walk away she turned back to him. "I want this 'promise' of yours written down with both of our signatures to validate it. I swear, no I promise you will come to regret this, just wait."

The only thing Darien could do was smirk as he watched Serena walk into the trailer that been deposited a little ways away of the large tent that covered a good portion of their tools, Ernie trailed behind her. Oh boy, he thought amusedly, this should be interesting.

To be continued....

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Author's Notes: Well there you have it, my brand new story. This won't be angsty like In The Depths of Silence but it's still going to be a romance, of course. I hope everyone enjoys reading it, I'm trying to research stuff for this one (unlike In The Depths of Silence), hopefully it shows. I don't know if it's possible for her dog to have been stunted by kidney problems, I just thought that if it could happen to Gary Coleman it could happen for a dog. All comments/questions/suggestions are welcome as always. Please review, I really want to know what you guys think of this!!!!!

Until next time...
-La Lune