So, I wasn't planning on adding to this series. Only my pet dog was put to sleep after suffering both heart and kidney failure. Of everyone in the family, I was her favourite human, so I was, of course, there with her. I couldn't let her die alone.
I have a lot of feelings about this and the pet death charity suggested putting pen to paper and writing the feelings out. I don't quite think they meant for me to do it by writing about a man and his pet iguanodon, but there we go.
Death is a natural part of life - you're born, then you live. And then it's time to go. It's what you do with the middle bit that's important - you want people to be happy for the life you've lived, not to be happy that you're finally gone, after all.
And I am happy for the life my dog lived. To me, it was meaningful as I learned a lot from her.
So, I dedicate this fic to my dog, Lizzie. A little Cavalier King Charles. A bully. A fighter. The smartest, most think outside the box dog I'll ever know - the only dog I've ever heard of who loved feng shui.
1/1/2008 - 21/11/2022
May her memory be a blessing.

Grant Seeker was afraid of this day. He'd long been dreading it.

Dr Marsh was out there, talking to Disney's brand new CEO Bob Iger - who was also the old one and pushed out the previous one, Bob Chapek, seemingly overnight - about the Dino Institute, which meant that Grant, having been around for almost forty years, was second highest in the chain of seniority. That put him in charge. So any chance he had of going home that evening and spending a peaceful night in watching CSI with his wife, were scuppered already, and that was without what was happening.

It was 2022. He'd changed a lot since 1998. He was not only older. Greyer. More wrinkled. He was so far from the rebellious young man he was - endangering the lives of tourists and colleagues, neglecting his child nephew, stealing his boss's identity, hacking into computers - it was a miracle he hadn't lost his job. And with each day that passed, the more he realised that. The luckier he felt. He had his wife. His brother. His sister-in-law. His nephew, Will. And Lucky. The iguanodon he'd oh so recklessly saved from the K-T extinction event twenty-four years ago.

The course of his life had greatly changed that day. He remembered it well. It was Earth Day. The day Lucky had been brought back. But it had been St Patrick's Day the day he first met Lucky and tagged him on his little… "unauthorised field trip", as he'd later go on and put it. He hadn't believed that iguanodons had lived into the late Cretaceous period until then. It took him the better part of a year to track down the iguanodon to Disney Springs after it escaped from the Dino Institute and bring it back.

Since then, he'd trained up a student at the Dino Institute, Chandler, to help him deal with, on a professional level, the dino he'd named Lucky. Though he'd exclusively deal with the dino on a personal level.

Grant felt real emotions for that dinosaur. The same emotions he felt for his brother. His nephew. His wife.

Love.

For twenty-four and a half years, his life had revolved around his iguanodon.

Which made it all the more worse that he was standing outside among the plants in the Dino Institute, in the pouring rain with Chandler, and Will.

'It's… it's not looking good, Seeker,' said Chandler, tipping their hat. 'Lucky… well, he's old.'

Grant looked at the iguanodon in front of him, laying down on the ground. His breathing wasn't right, like he couldn't catch his breath. And his eyes were half closed, like he wanted to sleep forever. 'He's a fighter.'

'He's got scars all over him from fighting back in his day. Maybe he's just got no fight left in him now,' said Chandler.

'I'm sorry, Uncle Grant,' said Will. He put his hand on Grant's shoulder. 'I know how much you cared about that dino.'

'He's not "just" a dinosaur,' said Grant. 'He's my best friend. I'm not going to give up on him.'

'Nobody's saying you should give up on him,' said Chandler. 'But you should prepare for the worst.'

Grant kneeled down to Lucky's face. 'I'm not giving up on you,' he said, stroking the iguanodon's snout. 'You never gave up on me, remember?'

Using all his energy, Lucky moved his eye to look at Grant.

'Remember when we first met?' asked Grant. 'I nearly got eaten by a carnotaurus. You saved me. I went looking for a different dinosaur, but I saw you. An iguanodon. And then you saved me from being carnotaurus food.'

Lucky blinked slowly.

'It's okay. It's alright,' said Grant. 'It's probably just the stress of dealing with two hurricanes in one year, right.'

Chandler shook their head. 'It… Seeker, it's not.'

'Yes, it is!' Grant snapped. He'd never lost his temper before, but now he was looking at Chandler as if he wanted to murder them for-for daring to suggest his dinosaur might not be immortal.

'Uncle Grant. You're fifty-seven years old now,' said Will. 'Grandma and Grandpa are both gone. So… I know you're not naive to what is happening here.'

Grant said nothing. He only nodded.

A quiet fell over the three palaeontologists as the rain continued to fall on and around them, soaking them through to the skin.

Grant stayed in place, kneeling by his oldest friend. His specimen. His pet. His entire world. He loved this dinosaur with his entire heart. And he did know what was happening. He just wasn't ready to accept it.

Chandler took their hat off and ran a hand over their hair. 'Seeker?' they asked.

Grant put his hand on the side of Lucky's face.

'Uncle Grant?' asked Will.

Grant's shoulders started heaving and he put his free hand to his face. His breath became erratic. He was crying.

'Seeker?'

'I don't want Lucky to die.'

The D word had finally been spoken.

'None of us do,' said Chandler. 'But death is part of life. Average lifespan of an iguanodon is twenty-five years. You've had him for twenty-four. And who knows how long this guy lived before you picked him up.'

Grant nodded and brushed his fingers against Lucky's beak, wondering just what this guy had seen before Grant had tagged him and brought him to the 90s.

There was evidence of fights with other dinosaurs. The scars proved that. And so did Grant's video evidence of Lucky fighting with a carnotaurus. He brought back a lot of video evidence from his "unauthorised field trip". But what he'd personally witnessed of Lucky's life some sixty-five million years ago was all he knew of Lucky's past. What if Lucky had a family? Kids?

They'd been wiped out.

Grant and his team, and others, looked around Diggs County for iguanodon skeletons, finding nothing. They did find a carnotaurus skeleton - likely the same one that attacked Grant, and the tourists, that Lucky fended off. It was in the museum now. Sometimes, Grant would look at it and be reminded about how it almost ate him. But didn't. And now it was dead.

Lucky was alive. But that was only because Grant had made it so. And now, Lucky was dying. And when he did… iguanodons would be extinct once again. Just like all the other dinosaurs. Except the theropods - which evolved into birds. Weirdly though, not pterodactyls and ornithocheirus. But he wasn't going to bring back a theropod. Or a pterodactyl. Which weren't actually even dinosaurs.

The rain wasn't letting up.

Grant's chest rose, and fell as he watched Lucky's chest rising and falling. The difference being that Grant's breathing was strong. Lucky's was getting weaker all the time.

Grant stood up and walked to Lucky's side. Carefully, he put his hand on Lucky's chest. Just to feel it for himself. Lucky breathing. One last time.

It was shallow.

Lucky was barely clinging on.

Grant dropped to Lucky's side and grabbed his hand.

Will put his hand on his uncle's shoulder, while Chandler simply held their hat in both hands.

'Lucky,' Grant's voice broke. 'For twenty-four years you were my best friend. Something I could only dream of as a little kid - having a pet dinosaur. I had an imaginary dinosaur friend, but you… not imaginary. You're real. You-you had a life. Back in the… Cretaceous. You - here.' His words became more unintelligible the more upset he got. 'Everyone… all wants to feel like we matter. And you mattered. Lucky. To science. But-but more important. You mattered to me. Not as-as a specimen. But a pet. A friend. More.'

Grant reached over to Lucky's chest, still rising and falling. 'It's okay. You… can let go.' He said. 'Just know. I'll always love you. Remember you… I'm sorry… sorry I couldn't do more.'

'Seeker…'

Grant felt it before he felt it.

Lucky was gone.

'Uncle Grant?' asked Will.

Grant squeezed Lucky's hand and began sobbing once again.

Lucky may just have been a dinosaur, but Grant had just lost his closest friend. The best friend he'd ever have. Ever will have.

'Seeker, I'm so sorry. I know what that dinosaur meant to you,' said Chandler. 'If there's anything I can do -'

'Give me a minute,' said Grant.

Chandler nodded. 'Sure. Will?'

Chandler and Will both stepped back, allowing Grant to be with his dinosaur pal.

Grant's first thought wasn't disposing of the thirty foot long, four ton animal. He and his boss, Helen Marsh, had plans drawn up years ago to cremate Lucky after a thorough autopsy so they could study his organs. No questions could be afford to be asked about this dinosaur - including and especially; 'so, how did a non-fossilised iguanodon skeleton get here?'

No.

His first thought was that he couldn't go on living without Lucky.

Lucky had given Grant so much love and companionship over twenty-four years. Lucky had saved Grant's life. Literally. From a carnotaurus.

His second thought was whether or not he should tell his wife. Or anyone else.

His third thought was that he just didn't want to be away from Lucky. Lucky was right there and Lucky needed him.

'Uncle Grant,' said Will. 'You've been crying over Lucky for half an hour now. I think it's time to come inside.'

'No.' Grant shook his head and sniffled. 'It's not.'

'We're not saying you have to stop mourning Lucky. But you should come in from the cold and the rain now.'

'But Lucky's out here. And he's cold -'

'Lucky died, Uncle Grant.'

'He - he -'

'Come on, Seeker.' Chandler helped Grant up from the floor. 'Your iguanodon's at peace now.'

'Iguanodons are extinct again,' said Grant.

Will nodded. 'Just as the world knows them to be.'

Chandler hurried into the Dino Institute ahead of Grant and Will.

'I'm really sorry about your pet. About Lucky,' said Will.

Grant let out a shaky breath. 'It-it's not your fault, Will. You. Didn't do… you liked Lucky.'

'Yeah. He-he was family,' said Will. 'Part of the Seeker family.'

'What do I say now? That Lucky crossed the Rainbow Bridge?' asked Grant. 'He - Lucky wasn't… wasn't exactly a…'

'He wasn't a cat or a dog or a fish or a budgie. But you still loved him,' said Will. 'And I'm sure he loved you too.'

Grant simply nodded. The emotion overwhelmed him too much for him to speak.

Will opened the door to the Dino Institute to let himself and his uncle in.

'Seeker. I just heard,' a woman said, coming up to him. 'I'm so sorry about Lucky.'

Grant opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He hung his head instead.

The next day, Grant dragged himself out of bed and into his lab. People passed along messaged of condolence as he walked through the corridors. He could only bring himself to nod.

On his desk, he found cards. Notes. Flowers. All condolences.

Grant looked around his office. The dinosaur posters. Models. Figurines. Toys. Fossils. Everything.

A knock on the door. 'Uncle Grant.'

'Will.'

'How are you doing?'

Grant shrugged. 'Thinking of moving back to Texas,' he said.

'Seriously?' asked Will.

'I want to retire.'

'I know how passionate you are about dinosaurs. You always have been. I mean, you and I may have a great relationship now, but we didn't always.'

Grant nodded. 'I know.'

'What… what's changed?' asked Will.

Grant sighed. 'I just… I don't care about dinosaurs anymore.'

'Lucky?'

'I don't… know.' Grant ran his hand through his grey hair. 'I just know I want to go back to Texas. But I don't remember much of it. I've been here in Florida for thirty-nine years now.'

'It's your call, Uncle Grant.'

Grant looked around again at his dinosaur figures and models. Every time he looked at them, they made him sick. Maybe it would be best if he went home to Texas. At least for a little while. Get away from Diggs County and DinoLand.

'Yeah,' he nodded. He'd discuss it with his wife later.

Will looked over at the radio in the corner of Grant's desk. 'Can I… ?'

Grant sighed. 'Yeah, go ahead.'

Will gave a single nod and turned the radio on. 'You uh… like Bruce Springsteen?'

'I don't care,' said Grant.

'No, I know your ringtone is Was (Not Was), right? Walk the Dinosaur?' said a voice from the doorway.

'Yeah,' said Grant. 'Hello there, Chandler.'

'How are you holding up, Seeker?'

'He wants to move back to Texas,' said Will.

Chandler raised an eyebrow. 'Texas?'

'It's where I was born and raised,' said Grant.

'Really. Hm. Wouldn't have guessed since you don't have the accent.'

'There's a lot of Texan accents.'

Chandler nodded. 'That's true,' they said.

A silence fell over the room as the radio kept blaring. After a few seconds, Grant let out a low growl.

'Seeker. You okay?' asked Chandler.

'I'm… not,' said Grant. 'I am. I don't know.'

'Springsteen's getting to you, isn't he?' said Chandler.

'Everything's getting to me,' said Grant.

'Take the day off,' said a new voice from the doorway. 'That's an order.'

Grant never thought he'd ever be so relieved to lay eyes on his boss. 'Dr Marsh.'

'I'm sorry to hear about Lucky,' said Dr Marsh. 'Really. I am. You've suffered a huge loss. Take the day off. Come back tomorrow.'

Grant nodded. 'What if… I went back home? To-to Texas?'

'You mean retire.'

Grant shrugged. 'Just a thought.'

'Do what you want, Dr Seeker. You're three years off sixty as I recall,' said Dr Marsh. 'Dr Chandler. Dr Seeker - Dr Will Seeker. Back to work, please.'

Everyone piled out of Grant's lab.

'By the way, how did the talk go between the Dino Institute and Disney?' asked Chandler as they and Helen walked down the corridor.

Grant ignored them and turned the radio off. He didn't want to listen any more to The Digger and The Bonehead.

He was numb. All he cared about, besides his wife, was gone.

How do you go on after more than twenty-four years taking care of an iguanodon?

Grant picked up the parasaurolophus figure on his desk and dropped it in the wastepaper bin. Then he did the same with the stegosaurus. And the t-rex. And the spinosaurus.

One by one, he tore open the cards and notes on his desk, letting the papers and cards flutter down gently into the wastepaper bin.

Until he came across one from an old colleague, Sam Gonzales, formerly the Dino Institute's resident expert in taphonomy. The world's leading expert in taphonomy. The study of the process of fossilisation - a bit of a different job than Grant and many of his colleagues performed. Grant's job was more identifying the bone, what animal it came from, what was the function of said bone, and, if possible with enough of the skeleton, figuring out how the animal died. Not so much the process of the animal's bones getting fossilised and how it happened.

It was a surprise for Grant to hear from Sam, especially as Sam had moved away to study fossils elsewhere. Like Grant, Sam was the child of palaeontologists, brought up around dinosaurs - only unlike Grant, Sam was actually born at the Dino Institute. Specifically their dig site, The Boneyard. When Dr Marsh announced Disney's hostile takeover in September, that's when Sam decided to leave to study elsewhere. So it was an even bigger surprise to hear from him so quickly.

From what Grant could decipher of the note (Sam's handwriting was worse than his!), it read;

Seeker,

I heard … Lucky through the grape…. Very sorry to hear … it. Know … dino. … so dedicated to its care. I'm sure … loved you. Or at least … Lucky cared.

… carry out … autopsy? An opportunity to … majestic creatures. It's what you called them. Remember?

Call me … 555-4177. I'm here to listen.

Sam Gonzales

Grant turned the note over.

"Everything dies, that's a fact

Maybe everything that dies someday comes back".

Will knocked on Grant's lab door. 'Uncle Grant,' he said. 'Dr Woo found a chicken in her lab. She uh… she figured you might want it.'

Grant looked up at his nephew holding a young hen, and he frowned. 'How did a chicken get in her lab?'

Will shrugged as best he could while holding the chicken. 'I don't know. Do you want it though?'

'Um…' Grant considered it and then nodded. 'Yeah. Someone has to look after her until she's old enough to become McNuggets. Put her down.'

Will nodded and set the chicken down inside a crate in Grant's lab - the crate that had been used to store a plate found from a stegosaurus that Grant had been studying. 'You uh… I'll see you later.'

Grant said nothing. He just watched his nephew leave and then walked over to the wildly clucking little bird in his lab.

Shirley had to have brought this chicken from home - Grant knew she kept chickens as part of her dinosaur studies. And to try and reduce her dependency on store bought items - she was a bit of a hippie, not that he had any problem with that. But why would she bring a chicken in and claim she found it in her lab?

Grant think he knew he answer.

Birds are living dinosaurs.

Grant wasn't ready to let a new pet dinosaur into his life. Not just yet. So soon after losing Lucky.

It was hard to believe he'd never hear Lucky honking ever again. See Lucky eating. Picking leaves with his beak, grinding them up with his back teeth. Standing bipedal, walking quadrupedal.

In his study of Lucky, Grant committed all of Lucky's behaviours to memory. And he was grateful he had. Because they were some of the fondest memories he'd ever made.

He looked down at the clucking bird, wondering just what a t-rex would have sounded like. It was a theropod, just as this chicken was. So would a t-rex have sounded more like a chicken? A crocodilian? Both? A growl and then a b'caw?

He knelt down to the chicken. 'Hello there,' he said to it. 'I'm Dr Seeker. A heck of a palaeontologist, if I do say so myself. You are a… a chicken. I'm talking to a chicken. What do I call you?' He paused to consider it. 'How about Therry? Terry? Yeah. Terry. Terry the Theropod. Because that's what you are. You're a dinosaur. A theropod. A living, breathing, extant dinosaur. It's pretty cool, actually. Dinosaurs didn't go extinct during the K-T extinction event - the meteor strike in the Yucatan. And you're living proof of that. Which is awesome,' he rambled.

The chicken stopped her frantic clucking and looked at Grant.

'I… I had a dinosaur friend too. He wasn't a theropod like you,' said Grant. 'He was an ornithopod. He did have a beak like you. But he was actually an iguanodon. But he uh… he died last night. He was like a pet - he was a pet. He was supposed to be a specimen. His name was Lucky. Let me tell you about him …'

The whole thing with Disney's CEO? That's a thing. Bob Iger, who took over for Michael Eisner, retired in 2020 naming Bob Chapek his successor. Then the pandemic happened and Bob Iger came back after a few months in another executive role - think of a Disney as the Vatican now. Finally, in December 2021, Iger retired for good. Then… Disney utterly imploded with stocks in free fall, the company haemorrhaging money, Parks fans aren't happy, talent isn't happy, Cast Members aren't happy, and Chapek went picking fights with Ron DeSantis, which lost him Reedy Creek - the "city" Disney owns that Disney World is built on. It all came to a head this weekend where Chapek was quickly removed as CEO and found out about it as the news was announced to the world. Gotta sting.
Seeker watching CSI with his wife is just a reference to the fact that he is played by Wallace Langham, who played Hodges on CSI.
Seeker doesn't have a wife in canon, but this fic is set 24 years after canon. It's more than enough time to settle down.
I'm going on canon not scientific accuracy, but iguanodons are not from the late Cretaceous period - they're from the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous. That is scientific accuracy.
As always, Lucky is Aladar from the Dinosaur movie. He is named Lucky after Lucky the Dinosaur, an animatronic that roamed DinoLand with Chandler the Dinosaur Handler. Also because he was lucky to survive the K-T Extinction event.
Chandler is non binary because the character was and could be played by a man or a woman or anyone, really.
Yes, iguanodons had hands. Not paws or feet. They had hands.
Iguanodons also had beaks. Because of course they did. Dinosaurs were, and are, weird.
Sorry for killing off Aladar.
Seeker is a Texan because his actor is a Texan. I know. Surprising that such a science lover would be from Texas, but it's just a stereotype that Texans are all stupid, mad, gun toting, demolition derby loving, Christian creationists. There are Texan scientists too.
Sam Gonzales is a mentioned employee of the Dino Institute and his discipline is indeed taphonomy - something I hadn't heard of until I saw Sam Gonzales. It is a sub specialty of palaeontology (and archaeology, actually) and the study of the decay of fossils.
Lyrics are from Bruce Springsteen's Atlantic City.
Dr Shirley Woo is another mentioned employee of the Dino Institute - a paleoecologist, someone who studies prehistoric plants, animals and their ecosystems. And she's a bit of a hippie.
So what happens to Grant Seeker? Does he retire and go back to Texas? Does he stay and study dinosaurs with his new chicken pal? I'm leaving that open to interpretation.