I'm back from vacation and my brief couple of days of writer's block. And, with a brand new chapter!


Emily pulled the keys out of the ignition of her Ford Ranger, slung her bag over her shoulder and opened the door. She climbed out and shut it behind her, heading for her door. She'd spent her whole day at work avoiding Billy and dating fossils. Her father had stopped in on his lunch break, fussing and making sure she was doing fine, which she mostly was. If you ignored not speaking to one of her best friends, going back to that damn island and still not having told her boyfriend she was going back.

She unlocked her door and stepped inside, toeing off her boots and dumping her bag on the chair in her entryway. The paleontologist moved into her kitchen, turning on the coffee pot, still full of water from that morning. A few minutes later, she had a pot of water on the stove and a box of pasta on the counter. A quick glance at the coffee pot told her it wasn't ready yet, so Emily ducked into her bedroom to grab her laptop and sat down at the dining room table.

She opened her email, and immediately spotted InGen's response.

Dr. Grant-

We are very pleased to hear that you will be joining our team of staff here at Jurassic World. I understand that you have an unpleasant history with this island and as such, we will be happy to make accommodations should you ask for them.

You will be working as a consulting paleontologist, as our previous emails mentioned. This is a brand new position at Jurassic World, and you will be the first and likely only person to hold the job. As I understand, it will entail using your paleontological knowledge to ensure the dinosaurs here are living in accurate environments and eating the right food. You will also use your knowledge of their behavior to ensure they are happy, and should you feel it necessary, spend time gathering information on the habits of the dinosaurs.

Our busiest season begins in late May, so we would ideally like you to have arrived and settled in before then. Please be sure to inform me when you can begin working here.

I'm sure you have many questions and concerns, so please feel free to bring those to my attention now, or when you arrive on the island.

Sincerely,

Claire Dearing

Park Operations Manager

Emily read through the email twice, then sighed. If they wanted her in before May, that gave her just enough time to finish the winter season at the museum before they wanted her down on Isla Nublar. And, it gave her enough time to figure out what she was going to do with her house and truck.

The paleontologist hit the reply button and began typing.

Ms. Dearing-

Thank you for your consideration. I'll be sure to let you know should any accommodations become necessary, though I hope they won't be.

I am not sure of when exactly I will be able to leave my current job, but I'll be sure to let you know when I find out.

Majority of my concerns are regarding the security of the park and the safety of the guests. Back when the park opened, I was informed that there are extensive emergency protocols. I presume that as an employee, I will have access to these.

I also would like to know what sort of living accommodations I would be given at the park. I presume most of these things will be covered when I arrive.

Thank you,

Dr. Emily Grant

Head of the Paleontological Field Team, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Mt.

Emily went through, double checked her spelling and grammar, and hit send. So far, besides emailing her way too many times, InGen seemed to be very courteous and professional. Which Emily was more than happy to work with.


Her office door slammed shut behind her, and Emily scrambled out of view behind her desk, breath coming in short bursts. She looked to her left and found Billy crouched next to her.

Click.

Emily froze, every nerve in her body going taut.

Click. Click.

Something huffed outside the door. Billy was motionless beside her. The same something scuffed a bit at the bottom of the door, and Emily knew its claws were leaving deep gouges in the wooden floor.

She was looking at the room from near the window now, but her body was still behind the desk.

The door handle began to turn, slowly, then snapping back into place, then all the way down, the door easing open.

The velociraptor pushed the door open with that same blood curdling screech. It zeroed in on her, leaping at her body. Billy wasn't there anymore, Emily was trying to scream, her own blood was splattered all over the papers on her desk, she was trying to screa-

Emily's eyes snapped open, and she was greeted with the comforting sight of her plain, white bedroom ceiling. She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to shove back the residual panic, fear and horror that always lingered.

It didn't work, as per usual.

So she untangled her sweat drenched body from her sheets, shoving the images of the blood splattered papers, or God forbid, the hazy images of a silvery metal kitchen, into the dark box in the back of her mind. The park survivor's shaking legs carried her over to her bedroom window, which she opened as wide as she could, letting the cool, autumn nighttime air flood into the room.

It smelled faintly of pine trees and dew and helped that dark box stay shut.

Her comforter, which she had yet to change to her winter one, was half on the floor now, but Emily left it there as she laid back down on her bed, curling up on her side. Her alarm clock read, 2:00 AM, so calling her father was out of the question, and she really didn't feel like calling Casey. There was one person though, a person who had made it abundantly clear that whatever her father had against him should not stop Emily from calling him for nightmare related help.

The paleontologist sat up and grabbed her phone off her nightstand, unplugging it and unlocking it. She squinted at the bright light, which she also swiftly dimmed. It took her only about another two seconds to open her contacts and find the person she was looking for.

Emily hit the call button and listened to the phone ring for about 25 seconds, which was when it switched to voicemail.

This is Dr. Ian Malcolm. Please feel free to leave a message, I'll, uh, get back to you as soon as I can. Oh, and if it's about Jurassic Park, go away.

Emily grinned just a little as the automated message thing played. Even just hearing someone else's voice usually did wonders for calming her. Tonight though, it was mostly making her smile a little. Because it was just so, Ian.

But it was pretty clear that he wasn't going to answer, and Emily couldn't think straight enough to leave him a message. So she hung up and set her phone back on the nightstand.

The park survivor closed her eyes and was immediately greeted with the image of the silvery metal kitchen. Emily snapped her eyes back open with a sigh. Clearly, she was in for a long night.


Emily flipped open a file, which contained the rest records of the fossils her team had found this summer. The files had yet to be dated, which meant she'd have to use her personal notes to date them and go date the fossils themselves down in the archives. The paleontologist leaned over and grabbed her leather-bound journal, flipping through till she found where she'd left off the previous day.

If she was being honest, she was exhausted. Emily had gotten very little sleep after trying to call Ian the night before, and she was regretting not taking the day off.

She grabbed her pen, which she'd snatched, well, stolen, from Jurassic Park as a kid. But she'd only dated three of the fossils before a knock sounded. Emily sighed, but called "Come in."

Emily wrote the date of a fossil on one of the forms as the door opened. She then pushed aside the forms and set down her pen, looking up. Dr. Jack Horner, the Curator of Paleontology, was shutting the door behind him.

Emily stood, moving around her desk, "Professor Horner, nice to see you again."

"And you, Dr. Grant. I noticed you sent me an email about taking another job."

Emily nodded, "I did. I accepted a job offer from InGen. I wanted to be sure I gave you plenty of time to find someone to fill my position."

"I appreciate the heads up, but we'll certainly be sad to see you go."

"They'd like me to start working for them before May," Emily leaned back on her desk.

"That should line up about perfectly with the end of the winter season, if that works for you."

Emily nodded, "That'll work just fine. Thanks Professor."

"Not a problem at all," Professor Horner headed for the door, hands in his pockets.

Emily watched him leave before sighing and going back to her desk. She spent roughly an hour dating fossils before setting her pen down. The paleontologist was too restless to sit at her desk all day. So, she gathered up the fossil files she'd dated and head out of her office and down the hallway to the basement stairs.

The lights were already on when she reached the bottom, and it occurred to her that Billy might be doing the same thing she was. They hadn't spoken since their fight in her office, and Emily didn't particularly want to run into him.

But she continued past several rows of shelves filled with fossils, checking the labels till she found hers. To her surprise, it wasn't Billy that she found in the archives, it was Casey. Her boyfriend had a drawer open and appeared to be checking the fossil contained in it.

Emily tucked her files under one arm, "Hey Casey."

He turned around, face lighting up, "Hey! What are you doing down here?"

"Dating some fossils, you?"

"Just checking to make sure I recorded something right."

Emily took a deep breath and then said, "Listen, Casey, I, I accepted InGen's offer…"

Her boyfriend paused halfway through closing the drawer, shoulders going tense before he turned around, "You what?!"

"Casey, calm down. I talked it over with my dad, and I'm tired of being so afraid. Going back will fix that."

"You didn't even think to talk it over with me?"

Emily opened her mouth, then shut it again. Casey was right. She hadn't even stopped to talk it over with him before taking the job.

"Emily, you've been letting InGen walk all over you this whole time, and then you just up and accept their offer?!"

"I wasn't letting them walk all over me, I was ignoring them. And you certainly didn't seem very concerned about it until now," Emily snapped.

"I told you a billion times to email them back and get them to stop." Casey shut the drawer with a snap. "Or to let me call them and get them to stop."

"Yeah," Emily's temper was beginning to rise, "after I told you it was fine and to quit bothering me about it! But no, you decided for yourself that I needed rescuing from InGen without even asking me about it."

"You did need rescuing!"

"No, I didn't. I had it completely under control."

"Oh yeah, well, since you had it under control all by yourself, then you should be able to manage to keep it under control without me!" Casey crossed his arms.

Emily squared her shoulders, her voice sharp as she said, "I'll manage just fine," and turned around, leaving Casey standing in the middle of isle.


Well, hopefully you guys like it. Feel free to review, they help a lot with motivation.