What, me, updating this fic after like six months or something? Enjoy the motivation while it lasts guys.

Emily swore, quickly pulling her foot out of the pile of nasutoceratops dung. She shook as much off as she could, and kept walking.

She was tired, and she'd already been irritated before she'd stepped in the dung. Mainly from lack of sleep, and an unpleasant encounter with the employee who'd given her her new house keys early that morning.

She'd signed the documents this morning. She was officially employed by Jurassic World. She kept telling herself that was a good thing; that she was living out her nine-year-old self's dreams. That she got to work with the live counterparts of the animals she'd spent her whole life studying.

But that raptor paddock was like a deer fly that wouldn't stop biting.

Her current task was to assess habitats of the dinosaurs, making sure they were correct, accurate, the whole shebang. And that meant she had to assess the raptor paddock.

Emily had decided she was doing that one last.

She stepped out of the paddock, locking the door behind her. She tried to knock as much of the dung as possible off her boot, banging it on the side of her park issued jeep. Emily hopped in, setting her notebook on the passenger seat and starting the jeep. She cranked the air conditioning up and drove off.

It took her a bit to find the low trailer home, or as the park had called it, a bungalow, assigned to her. It was at the end of a winding dirt road that snaked through the jungle. A sparkling lake lay beyond it.

There was another small trailer across from it. Emily didn't know her new neighbor, or whether it was even occupied.

She parked her jeep, pulling the keys out of the ignition and fumbling for the house key. Her suitcases and boxes of stuff were piled next to the front door. Emily swung the screen door open and unlocked the storm door. She left her boots outside the door, making a mental note to clean them later.

She found the lightswitch next to the door and flicked it on. There was a set of hooks nailed into the wall next to the door, and she hung her hat up, surveying the room. There was a tiny kitchen at the back, a dinky little TV, and a couch covered with a sheet.

There was a fine layer of dust on everything, but that was nothing a good cleaning couldn't fix. She opened the door to the bedroom, noting the bedside table, bed frame and mattress leaned against the wall.

She found a mop in the closet, and gave the entire trailer a mop, then swept, and then dusted, scrubbing every surface.

By the time dinner rolled around, she'd hauled all her boxes inside, put sheets on the bed and hung up a shower curtain. It took her about another hour to put her clothes in the closet and the few kitchen items she'd brought in the cabinets.

Emily stopped in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips. She sighed. She'd need to request a bookshelf probably, maybe a dining table and a couple chairs for the little deck outside. Plus groceries.

Her stomach growled and she sighed, muttering, "Dinner first then."

It took her about half an hour to run to Main Street and grab a quick something to eat,

Emily arrived back at her bungalow around dusk, and put her dinner leftovers in her fridge. She opened the front window to let some cool air in, watching someone back into the driveway across from her.

Clearly, she did have a neighbor. They got out of their jeep, and it took Emily a moment to realize who they were.

It was Lizzy, hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Emily swore under her breath, quickly shutting the blinds. Of all the people that could be her neighbor…

She took a deep breath. It was fine. It wasn't like she had to go out and interact with Lizzy.

Her phone pinged, and she grabbed it off the coffee table. It was her father, checking in on her for probably the hundredth time since she'd called him at three in the morning.

He'd wanted her to leave. He'd practically begged her.

But Emily refused to leave without accomplishing what she'd set out to do. Even if she was still avoiding the raptor paddock, that didn't mean she couldn't conquer other fears.

It took Emily two weeks to feel comfortable sleeping in her bungalow. She still woke up at ungodly hours of the morning anyway. Whether that was because of how early she got up at dig sites or because she was still jumpy, Emily didn't know.

She was sitting on her deck now, watching the sun go down and working on typing up her notes for the triceratops paddock. The deck chairs she'd ordered had finally arrived, and she was going to enjoy them.

She nearly knocked the beer she was drinking off the arm of the chair when she heard footsteps on her stairs. Emily turned around, her stomach dropping as she spotted Lizzy standing on her deck, what appeared to be a casserole dish in her hands.

"Uh, hi…" Lizzy said.

Emily swallowed. "Hello."

"I, brought a housewarming and apology casserole."

Emily raised an eyebrow.

"Because my reaction at the raptor paddock and what I said was totally wrong and rude and naive. And I'm sorry." Lizzy set the casserole down on the porch railing, and kept talking, like she was afraid she couldn't get another word out if she stopped. "I know that a simple ''I'm sorry'' probably isn't enough, but I wanted to say it anyway. I–"

"Lizzy," Emily cut her off.

Lizzy paused, nervously watching her.

"I appreciate the apology."

"Oh. Thanks."

Emily sighed. She'd probably regret this. "And thanks for the casserole. But I probably won't be able to eat that casserole all by myself."

"I mean, I won't be wounded if you throw part of it away…"

"Or you can help me eat it yourself. Pull up a chair, I'll get some plates." She wasn't sure exactly why she felt like it was so easy to forgive Lizzy. Maybe it was because she was so young, she could've barely been out of college. Maybe she was just tired of all the damn emotional conflict.

Lizzy stared at her, dumbstruck.

Emily stood up. "I'll get plates. What's in the casserole?"

"It's, uh, green bean casserole."

Emily made a face, but didn't show it to Lizzy as she grabbed plates and a couple spoons. She passed one of each to Lizzy, and quietly said, "Look, it was, wrong of me to snap at you and get so angry. Even over what you said, I should've controlled my temper."

"I thought your response was completely warranted," Lizzy said, accepting the plate and spoon. She seemed to have recovered some from her shock. "I have an idea."

Emily looked back at her.

"Let's just, start over. Turn over a new leaf."

Emily let out a breath, and nodded. "I can do that."

Lizzy grinned, and handed Emily a steaming plate of casserole.

Yeah, I know this one was short. But it's progress! I actually worked on this fic!

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