Another one. I've spent too long in this part of the story. I'm thinking either this chapter or next chapter I'm going g to do a major time skip. I've already been working on this chapter for far too long. Hope you guys have a good day, stay home, stay safe.

The next evening, Darius sat at his coach's table with his teammates and friends. They all were still high on their success. The older man stood up from his seat, and said, "I have gifts for each and everyone of you. State Championship rings. For you defending Champs, you can add this to your collection."

The rings were nothing too extravagant. It was simple, with the team name, and the year, with a big #1 in the middle. Blake put it right next to his other ring on his right hand. Darius's coach pulled him aside and talked to him in private. He handed him two small boxes and said to the teen, "You've got two rings, just like everyone else who played with you last year." Darius was confused until he opened them up. The one with last year's date had slightly more decorations on it than this year's. "We all pitched in and helped pay for last year's ring for you. Ya know, since we thought you were dead. This year's is pretty much the same as everyone else's, but I guess it's the thought that counts."

Darius put on both rings, with last year's going on his middle finger above this year's. He pulled his coach into a side hug, and said, "Thank you for everything coach." The older man nodded, and directed Darius back to the group.

Late November

Sammy had finally found the time to copy the hard drive full of Wu's research. Darius and she agreed that it would be a good idea just in case Jones or someone else lost the information.

After a little bit of communication and then no communication, Darius was back on the phone with Jones. "Alright kid, what is it that I'm supposed to be looking for?" he asked. Darius had managed to mail the flash drive to the address that Jones sent him.

"Anything that mentions anything about hybrid works. E750 is something you may hear a lot about. I'm not sure if that's because it was the first hybrid he created, or if that's just the first hybrid he 'successfully' made." Darius warned him.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye out. But Darius, you do understand that there is ALOT of stuff on here. It's not going to be a quick investigation?" Jones again reminded Darius.

"I know." Darius confidently answered.

Jones nodded. "Alright. I'll let you know when all of this is sorted. In the mean time, just lay low. We don't need you attracting any unwanted attention just in case someone comes looking for the information." The older man remembered, "Oh, and congratulations on the State Championship."

Darius smirked. "Thanks. Starting now, I'll be lying low."

For the next few months, the teens stay out of the media. That was a challenge for Darius since people wanted to know which Collage he would be going to. Everyone speculated that he would follow his brother down to California, but things could change.

Darius and Brooklynn got closer. Their families were regular guests at each other's houses now. The only down side is that as he and Brooklynn got closer, his nightmares grew stronger. He could only stay like this for so long. It came crashing down on him while he was spending his birthday with Brooklynn.

He was watching a movie at her parent's house. At some point, he fell asleep next to her on the couch. Brooklynn looked over midway through their viewing of The Proposal. She smiled as she heard him snore softly. His arm was wrapped around her shoulders, so she scooted closer to his chest, and laid her head down, still watching Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock argue about a shower situation of some sorts.

Darius started to stir for some reason. "Mm. Gun. Gotta get the..."

Brooklynn lifted her head up, seeing if he was just groggy. "Darius?"

He shook his head, and panted hard. "It's coming. It's coming. Gun."

Brooklynn started pleading. "Darius. Darius! Wake up!" Darius whimpered, and started flailing his arms around. He started letting out half moans and screams. That's when Brooklynn yelled, "Pops! Help me!"

Darius was back at Camp Cretaceous. The Scorpius was on another rampage. Brooklynn and he were all that were left. There was something different this time. Darius ran over to Brooklynn, who was holding a small box. He opened a small hole that was big enough to fit the box. Brooklynn panted, and Darius looked around. "Put her in! It's coming!" Darius shouted.

Brooklynn hugged the box tight one more time, and quickly put the box in the hole. She quickly covered the hole back up, and let out a small whimper. Lightning struck and thunder followed. In front of Darius and Brooklynn, the Scorpius stood. It looked at them, and roared.

Darius took out his shotgun and fired several shots at the hybrid. That only made it more angry. It charged, and Darius and Brooklynn jumped put of the way. The man fired more shots until he was out of bullets. He dodged as the Scorpius swung its tail at him. Brooklynn saw that he was about to get clawed. She took a rock, and threw it. The small rock hit the hybrid from Hell right in the eye.

The Scorpius charged at her. Darius fired a few shots, but only two hit in the leg. The Scorpius bit down on Brooklynn's neck, and chomped, separating head from body. Darius continued to fire, but the Scorpius charged again, but instead of biting him, it wacked him across the forest into a tree.

Darius groaned as he thought his back broke. He couldn't move. He saw the black figure looking at him. It growled, and turned its back to him. It sniffed around the Camp. Looking for what Brooklynn had put in the hole. All Darius could do was watch.

The rain fell. The thunder and lightning helped with drowning out noise. But once the Scorpius flung the cardboard lid out of the way, it saw the box. Muffled cries were heard by both Darius and the hybrid monster. Darius tried to move, but his body didn't respond.

The hybrid snarled, and opened the box. Inside was a small child with cream colored skin. It trembled in fear as it looked at the Scorpius. The greenish brown eyes filled with tears, screaming for its mother or father to make it go away. But Darius couldn't move. He couldn't do anything to distract it. He raised his gun to fire, but it clicked empty.

The Scorpius looked his way with a devilish smile. Darius gasped for air as he tried to get back up. But he couldn't do it. The Scoepius gave out a growl, almost resembling a human chuckle. Then it turned its attention back to the crying baby. Darius yelled as the demon hybrid scratched and clawed at the baby like a cat scratching it's post. The baby screamed an unearthly scream, the pain too great for the young human. Lightning flashed as the three figures screamed.

Tim came down, and asked, "Are you hurt?"

Brooklynn ignored him, and said, "He won't wake up!"

Tim looked over, and heard Darius moan and scream about a gun, and yelling no. He looks around, and saw a glass of water. He grabbed it and flung the contents at the teen's face. Darius opened his eyes and fell to the ground, gasping for air. He looked around, frantic. "Where is it?!"

Brooklynn rushed to him, and tried to get him to calm down. "Darius! Look at me! You're back in Montana!"

He kept looking around, trying to crawl away. "It's coming!"

Brooklynn was now in tears, and griping his shirt, trying to shake him awake. "Darius! You killed the Scorpius! Please wake up!"

Darius stopped screaming and flailing. His breathing went shallow, and he just broke down. He pulled Brooklynn into a tight hug as they both let the tears fall. "It got her. It got her!"

Between tears, Brooklynn asked, "Who?"

Darius didn't answer, instead repeating, "It got her! We lost her! I- I- I lost her!"

He eventually fell back asleep on Brooklynn's bed. She sat by his side the entire time he slept. Jake eventually came home, and Tim told him what happened. The man came into Brooklynn's room, and knocked on the door gently. Brooklynn looked, and saw her father. "Can I come in?" he asked. She nodded. He sat down on another chair that he brought up and set up next to her. "Pops told me what happened. Do you want to talk about it?"

Brooklynn's eyes started getting watery again. "I've never seen him so scared. Back on the Island, it seemed like nothing scared him. He was so calm, cool, collected. So much, that it actually made me mad at times. I never lashed out at him though. At least, never intentionally. He walked around with a pistol in his back pocket to protect us. He had a shotgun ready to take on the bigger dinosaurs. Because of his fearlessness, we followed him. He was able to push his emotions down far enough to make the hard calls. Only once did we see him be truly afraid. Even after he fought the Scorpius, he wasn't afraid."

The tears had started to fall again. "But, suddenly, we're back to civilization, and it's like he's a completely different person. We all knew that we were going to be messed up." she continued. "We all knew it was going to be a challenge. But like everything else, it seems like he's taking the brunt of it. Everyone else, I know were already afraid on the island. That probably helped them. But Darius couldn't afford to be afraid. He didn't have that luxury. And it's messed him up the worst of all."

Jake listened to her, and felt sorry for the poor boy on her bed. He was forced to grow up quickly on the island. Not to mention, from what Brooklynn has told him and Tim, he was already dealing with heavy stuff before all of this happened. Finally, Jake said, "Did I ever tell you about one of my first boyfriends?"

Brooklynn shook her head. "You never talk about anyone but Pops."

Jake smiled. "Well, when I first started in the world of dating, I met this boy who dealt with severe depression and anxiety. We were head over heels for each other. But after a while, his depression and anxiety started putting a strain on our relationship. And I felt like I had to stay in the relationship, or it would be my fault if he did something that hurt himself. That wasn't fair of me to do to myself. What's worse, I let resentment and bitterness grow. I started to blame him for me staying, even though I saw what was going to be a tough situation. That wasn't fair to him. It caused me to become verbally abusive. Eventually, I saw how toxic I had become, how toxic we had became to each other. I broke things off between us, and I don't quite remember what happened to him."

Looking at his daughter, he continued, "I know that you care about Darius. How could you not? He practically got you and the others out alive. He brought you back to us. Your Pops and I are forever in his debt. But Brooklynn, you need to make sure that you can handle this sort of thing. Nightmares, after a traumatic experience, only get worse. And I don't want you to take on a burden that you're not ready for."

Brooklynn understood what her father was telling her. She shook her head. "I love him. He would NEVER give up and abandon me. I'm not going to do that to him. EVER."

Jake sighed, and said, "If you feel like you can handle it. Me and Pops will be right here to help you. I'll talk to his Uncle, see if they will let me hold after hours therapy sessions with him."

Brooklynn looked up, in small shock. "You would do that for him?"

"Like I said, I'm forever in his debt." Jake reassured her. A little while later, he managed to convince his daughter to go to sleep on the couch.

Darius was in the middle of another dream. He was walking through what looked like the jungle. He looked around, and expected to find Brooklynn or the Scorpius. To his surprise, nothing. He kept walking, and eventually came to a river. Something told him to follow the flow of the river and he did. A little while later, he saw a figure in the distance. Darius picked up his pace, and almost sprinted. He got closer, and saw what looked like the figure of a woman. She was wearing a red flannel shirt with some faded jeans. Not the fake ones. The type of fade you get after years of use. For a second, he could have sworn that it looked like...

"Hey kiddo." the woman said.

Darius instantly recognized that voice. "Mom?"

She turned around, and smiled. "I'm right here baby."

Tears swelled in his eyes as he crushed her in a hug. A few moments later, he said sadly, "You're just a dream. A figment of my imagination."

"Well, be that as it may, you gave Brooklynn quite a scare." the older woman told him.

He nodded. "I know."

Sarah asked her son, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

The two had broken away from their hug and were now sitting on a conveniently placed log. Darius said, "I keep dreaming about her. But not in the way you would think. I keep having nightmares. I keep losing her to the Scorpius." He took a shaky breath before continuing. "This time, I dreamt we had a kid I think. The Scorpius killed her too." Darius started wiping the tears from his eyes. "I can still hear her screaming."

Sarah rubbed her son's back like she always did. "You must really love this girl if you're dreaming about having kids with her."

Darius chuckled as he regained his composure. "Yeah. She's something special. She's amazing, smart, beautiful, funny. I can't imagine life without her."

Sarah smiled as her son spoke. "And yet, you still hold on to the past."

Darius looked at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"

Sarah explains, "You and Brooklynn are dating, correct?" The teen nodded. "You're scared of losing her, yeah?" Darius nodded again. "Kind of like how you lost me?" Darius thought for a second before he leaned closer to his mother's shoulder, nodding. Sarah rubbed her son's head. "You never allowed yourself to fully heal, did you?"

"No matter how many times I'm told otherwise, I always feel like it's my fault." Darius admits. "If I had gone to the race that night, I would have been able to get to the hospital and say, 'I have the money, start the next treatment.' But I didn't."

Sarah shook her head. "It's not your fault. Had you gone to the race, you probably would have not made it in time to see me. You did exactly as I told you."

After another minute, he asked, "Did you know that I was still racing? Even after you asked me to promise you?"

Sarah gives a small chuckle. "Well, I'M just a figment of your imagination and memory, but what do you think?"

Darius smirked. "I don't think there was ever a moment I COULD hide something from you. But the only reason I got caught in the first place was because Brand snitched on me."

Sarah gave a laugh. "Like that time with the garbage disposal?"

Darius defended himself. "I still maintain the defense that he tricked me." Sarah gave him an unbelieving look, then shakes her head.

Another minute passes, before Sarah says, "You know that you need to let me go."

Darius, who was starting to feel at peace, started forming tears in his eyes. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I'M not. YOU are." Sarah said. "Deep down, you know you need to let me go."

Darius shook his head. "No. I can't. I won't."

Sarah sighs at her son. "Then you'll always be in pain. You'll always put Brooklynn through this. She deserves better than this. We both know that you love her. But you have to stop blaming yourself if you're ever gonna heal."

The teen scoffed. "Everyone keeps telling me to move on, and to let you go. Well... Fuck letting you go. If I let you go, then I'm going to forget you. I don't want to forget."

Sarah gave her son a tight side hug. "Baby, you're never going to forget me. I don't want you to forget me. I don't WANT you to let go of the memories. But you can't keep holding onto this pain. You can't keep carrying this burden. This isn't healthy. I know that you're going through a lot of things, and you need me more than ever. I'm sorry I can't be there for you. But you need to let the pain go."

Darius wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm scared."

"I know. But do you remember what you said to Ben?" his mother reminded him.

The teen nodded. "I promised I would be there for him. And they promised to do the same for me." Darius sighed.

"I need you to promise me that you'll try, okay?" Sarah asked. "Promise me you will try to stop carrying this pain that you never needed to carry with you. Okay?"

Darius nodded again as they both stood up. "I promise." He pulled his mother into another tight hug. "Mom, I..." I'm sorry? I love you?

"I know." Sarah assured him. "I know." Darius sighed and let a small smile appear. He had missed this. He knew that it was his mind recreating of him being hugged by his mother, but sometimes, that's all you need to keep going.

The teen woke up, and looked around the room. He wasn't in the living room. He was on someone else's bed. He sat up, and rubbed his face. He knew that it was too dark to be evening. He was going to need to check a clock. "How you feeling kid?"

Darius turned towards the voice, and saw Jake. He groaned, and answered, "Like I was hit by a Mack truck with extreme prejudice."

Jake gave a small chuckle. "You know that you gave everyone a scare. I had to fight Brooklynn to get her to go to sleep downstairs on the couch. She wouldn't even eat."

Darius sighed. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare her. I don't know what happened."

"You had a nightmare from what Tim told me." the older man explained. "A bad one. Tell me, have you had these before?"

"When my mother died, I used to dream of her dying. Over and over again. It didn't matter what I did. I always seemed to fail her." Darius took another deep breath. "I didn't start having these nightmares again until me and Brooklynn officially started dating. It was small, you know? Maybe us running from Blue, or the Rex, killer robots. But they quickly progressed to me seeing Brooklynn getting killed every night. And it just kept getting worse. I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I would have to do something physically exhausting just to be able to get tired again and go to sleep. It hasn't been working very well lately."

"Why have these nightmares grown?" Jake asked. "What do you think?"

The teen thought for a minute. "I love her. More so than I did five months ago. I don't understand how that happens. Or maybe, instead of loving her, I've fallen IN love with her. I guess I'm afraid to lose her now."

Jake thought for a minute before he asked, "What did you dream tonight that was different, or should I say, worse than all the other nights?"

Darius once again took his time to think. If he told Jake what he saw, Brooklynn's father might not let him see her again. But if he closed up, he probably would lose all the trust he had gained with her parents. "I dreamt we were still on the island. Nothing new, we were still running from the Scorpius. But we had a kid. A girl I think. She was so small. The spawn from Hell killed Brooklynn, and as if to taunt me, TOURTURED our kid right in front of me. I don't think the Scorpius killed her, but put her through pain for me to hear."

Jake then asked a question that sort of blind sided Darius. "Darius, I want you to be completely honest with me. Did you and my daughter ever have sex on the island? And have you been having sex whenever you hang out, or go on a date?"

Darius looked up with confusion. He shook his head. "No sir. I didn't tell Brooklynn how I felt until we met again in New York, when we were visiting Kenji. The nightmares started shortly after you guys moved here." The teen looked Jake in the eyes. "Your daughter and I have never had sex."

Jake sighed, and gave a low chuckle. "Had it been anyone else, I would have called them a liar. But I know who you are Darius. I see it too many times. You play like you're the hardest and the toughest, when it takes so much effort to push the pain down enough so you can focus. I know that everyone around you BELIEVES the façade you've put up. But there's one person you've allowed into your life that knows you're more than what you put up. They've broken through your tough exterior. They give you a reason to keep going."

Jake took another deep breath, and continued, "Darius, I know you love Brooklynn, and I'm forever in your debt. You brought her back to us. But, I don't want my daughter to feel like she needs to stay with someone and put herself through hardship just to be with you."

Darius nodded his head, thinking he was going to have to break things off with Brooklynn. "I understand." The teen sighed as he waited for what came next.

"Which is why I'm going to talk to your aunt and uncle about me giving you free therapy sessions." Jake responded, throwing Darius off.

"Wait, what?" the teen asked.

Jake explains, "I can't ask my daughter to break up with you. She loves you too much. You both are attached to each other. The only thing I can offer you is one therapy visit every weekend. I'll talk to your uncle about it. Hopefully he says yes. You understand Darius that I trust you? Tim adores you, and we both know how Brooklynn feels."

Darius gave a small laugh, and smiled. "Thank you Jake. Thank you." The adult pulled the teen into a hug. After a minute, Darius said, "Wait? Brooklynn's on the couch?"

Jake nodded. "She barely ate anything while she was watching you."

Darius thought for a moment, and asked, "Can I go check on her? I promise not to wake her up." Jake nodded, and Darius got off the bed. He looked around the room, and realized he was in Brooklynn's room. He'll have to thank her. He made it down to the living room, and saw a bundle of red and brown hair. He walked up, and knelt next to Brooklynn. "I'm sorry. I'm trying to get better. I'm so sorry."

He cleared her face of some hairs that were blocking her eyes. Darius kissed her on her forehead, and got up to leave. His long sleeve shirt suddenly held him back. "You have nothing to be sorry for." he heard Brooklynn say. He looked back at her and smiled.

He knelt next to her again, and said, "Yeah, I do. Had I asked for help sooner, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Brooklynn sighed. "When are you going to stop blaming yourself for things you know you can't change?"

Darius chuckled softly. "Probably never. Sorry for waking you."

Brooklynn shook her head. "I couldn't sleep. Just worried about you."

Darius sighed and nodded. "I know. I'm trying to get better. I won't always scare you like that." After wiping a few tears off Brooklynn's face and giving each other a tight hug, Darius got up to leave again. "I love you. Good night."

"Good night." Brooklynn said as he walked back up the stairs.

TIME JUMP! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS PART ANYMORE! I'M SKIPPING TO FEBRUARY!

For the last few months, Darius has been working with Jake in therapy, doing pretty well. Made some pretty quick leaps and bounds. Everything was looking up for him. Brooklynn turned fifteen sometime in January, and his Uncle and Aunt adored her. What Darius found confusing is that he hasn't heard anything from Jones yet. He shrugged it off.

It was two weeks from the Valentines Day Dance. Darius debated asking Brooklynn to go, but he decided to ask her. She said yes, and he started preparing what they would do. He finally settled on dinner with her family, and dessert with the Bowmans. It gave everyone time with each other.

That same day, he received a call from Jones. "Hey kid, how've you been?"

"Good. I've got a Valentines Day dance to go to next week with Brooklynn. Gotta plan what I need to do." the teen informed the government agent.

"Nice." Jones complimented. "Listen, me and my team managed to sort through a lot of the laptop stuff. We've organized it, we think we have a case to pitch to the FBI. It'll take a few days for them to decide, but it should work. I'll keep you updated. Sound good?"

Darius nodded. "Sounds great. Thanks for doing this for me Jones."

"Yeah, no problem kid. Good luck with the girl." The agent hung up soon after.

Elsewhere...

"I thought you said you could use the Indominus sample to make the new dinosaur." A man in a suit was talking to Wu. "I hired you because of your knowledge of cloning Henry. NOT your skills as a negotiator."

"I don't know what else to say." the doctor said, exasperated. "Everything I needed to make this new project was on my laptop."

"And you managed to let six kids get away with your research." the man countered. "Hawkes said they DESTROYED your laptop! A posse of kids! The leader SHOT the damn thing." The man sighed, and paced around the room. The door opened as another man walked in. "All of that research, GONE! DESTROYED! NEVER to be seen again."

"The research is not gone." the third man said. "The kid was smart, not stupid."

"And how do you figure that, Mr. Hawkes?" the first man asked.

"Because before that bastard shot the laptop, I overheard two of the kids saying something about wiping the laptop." Hawkes explained. "Not to mention, they STOLE the laptop from us. They would have been idiots for taking the laptop, have hours to come up with a plan, and do nothing except wipe the laptop. They copied the laptop before giving it to us. It almost worked too if the other kid hadn't jumped the gun on them."

"That's an interesting theory Mr. Hawkes." Wu said.

The other man said, "Unfortunately, we don't have any proof. And those kids are already off the island. We can't just ask them without drawing attention to ourselves."

"Wait, those kids got off?" Hawkes asked, surprised.

"What? Do you live under a rock?" the man in the suit asked.

"You're not my only boss. I have other clients to attend to." Hawkes defended himself.

The man in the suit pointed to the screen, and came six photos of the campers. "Do you recognize them?"

Hawkes looked at them. He recognized the pink one, who was an annoying bitch. He took good long looks at everyone, but stopped immediately when he saw Darius. "He's the one. He's a fighter. I can see it in his eyes. I even have the scratch mark on my arm to remember."

"If he's such a fighter, what makes you think you can get him to talk?" the first man asked.

Hawkes explained, "Because he's the one that's most likely to have the copied files. He cares about his friends, especially the pink one. If I can get her, he'll give me what I want."

Wu jumped in, "And if he doesn't talk? I'm assuming you'll kill them both. But if he does, are you going to leave them alive?"

Hawkes thought for a minute. "That's up to the boss. I have a score to settle with the kid, but if the boss says otherwise..."

The man sighed. "Do what you have to do. But do it subtly. I don't want you to end up in a news article or make the six o'clock news."

"Yes sir." Hawkes took a picture of Darius and his name. He would do his best to find him and hopefully get him to talk. I'm coming for you Bowman.

Aaaaaaaaaaand we're one chapter closer to FK. I've been waiting forever to write this final filler story line. Hope y'all have a good day, stay home, stay safe.