I did it. I have finished a story that I started, which I have never done before. So thank you to everyone who has read this, followed this, favorited this, reviewed this. It means the world to me and I honestly think that one of the reasons I've gotten this far is because of all that support.
This story is definitely not the end though. I have Emily's life planned out until the end of Fallen Kingdom, so there will be more of her. I also plan to finish my two prequels and add some more short stories in there as well.
I would also like to add that this is not the final version of this story. I have retconned some of what will happen to Emily in Jurassic Park since I've started writing this story, and realized that I've forgotten some details. For instance, Lizzy was supposed to have a bird. Woops. So, I will be coming back and editing this story to fix those smaller issues. I won't be changing anything big, so it won't be like reading a completely different story.
But now, I'll leave to to read the epilogue of this story. Thank you.
Emily's long since given up caring that she's leaning on Sam's shoulder. They're in a helicopter now, on their way to Costa Rica. Briana and Lowery are across from them, Emily's injured leg propped up on the seat between them. Emily's satchel is tossed on the floor, and her hat in her lap. Lizzy is on Emily's other side, quietly staring out the window. Owen, Claire, Zach and Gray are in another helicopter, a little ways ahead of them.
The only thing keeping Emily awake are the bright lights, her throbbing leg and fear of what will haunt her dreams if she does fall asleep. She knows that fear all too well, and knows she'll have to face it eventually. But Emily would much rather do that alone than in a helicopter full of people.
It takes only another ten minutes to reach Costa Rica, where both helicopters touch down at an airport. Sam helps Emily out of the helicopter, taking most of her weight by putting an arm around her waist. And Emily would be lying if she said that it didn't make her feel ten times safer when he did that.
There's a frazzled looking woman with a tablet at the entrance to one of the hangars, who asked, "Names please?" in a monotone voice.
Emily's voice is hoarse from lack of water and use, "Dr. Emily Grant."
"Did you work at Jurassic World?"
"Yes, I was the consulting paleontologist." How Emily sounds so calm is beyond her.
The woman scrolled through what Emily presumes is a list of names, and hits a few buttons before turning to Sam.
"Dr. Sam Ruiz, paleovet."
The woman scrolled some more and hits the same series of buttons, "Please take Dr. Grant to the medical station on the left side of the hangar."
Sam helped Emily limp into the hangar as the woman checks in the rest of her friends. But they don't get far before they hear Lizzy shout, "Briana!"
Both Sam and Emily turned around to see Briana collapsed on the ground, and Lizzy hurrying to help her.
"She must have been hiding an injury." Sam sounded concerned, and rightfully so, because Briana's not moving. Several paramedics rushed past them, crowding around Briana.
One stops in front of Emily and Sam, "Dr. Grant, correct?"
Emily tears her eyes away from the paramedics carefully loading Briana onto a stretcher and nods.
"Come with me please."
The next few hours pass in a blur. The paramedics cleaned and stitched Emily's leg, and whisk Briana off to an actual hospital via helicopter. Owen tells Emily and Sam, who hasn't left Emily's side, that Briana was injured when trying to capture the Indominus and then hid it the whole time. Or, that's what they think, because Briana isn't awake to tell them.
Owen then vanishes into the crowd, and Emily can occasionally catch glimpses of him talking to the thousands of survivors crowded into the hangar. Barry finds them as well, and Emily is very happy to see that he's alive. Lowery's sister arrives too, and the control room technician leaves with her.
Emily is eventually moved out of the medical area to make room for the more critically injured patients, and Sam helps her find a cot near Claire, Zach, and Gray. The former park operations manager has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and Gray's head in her lap. Zach is seat near his brother's feet, staring off into space.
Sam pulls her attention away from them, "Hey, Emily, try to get some rest, okay?"
Emily nods, though she knows she probably won't.
And she's sure Sam knows this too, but he doesn't push it. He just smiles at her, and takes her hand. "I'm going to go see if I can be of any help." He leaned closer, and Emily's heart skips a beat. Sam kisses her cheek and stands, still smiling at her.
And honestly, Emily is too tired to properly process anything, so she smiles back, certain she's blushing. God, here she is, hours after willing releasing a T-Rex and being happy to see a raptor, and she's blushing like an idiot. And grinning like one too.
The survivor watched Sam melt into the crowd and decided that laying down might be a good thing, with how light-headed she can feel herself getting. It might be from dehydration, or blood loss, or, other things…
But she lays back and sets her fedora over her face. Her eyes slowly droop shut, but someone sitting down on the cot near her feet has them snapping open. Emily tilts her fedora up. It's Lizzy, looking tired and sad.
Emily sits up, setting her hat on her head, mostly out of habit. Lizzy's silent for a moment before she whispers, "Is it wrong that I'm sad that the raptors are dead?"
"No," Emily murmurs back, "You worked with them for years. I mean, you and Echo had a bond. It makes sense that you're sad, even if they did try to kill us."
"Yeah, that makes sense…" Lizzy's gaze is unfocused, and Emily's gaze drops to the floor as she props her elbow up on her knee, and her chin on her hand.
They both fall silent, the sun beginning to rise outside. Emily's eyelids grew heavy, and she nearly dozed off. But she doesn't get the chance to, because there's some man outside the entrance to the hangar, yelling at the tired check in woman. There's a gaggle of reporters too, also trying to get in.
Emily tries to tune out the yelling, it's giving her a headache. But she does catch one piece of it.
"For the love of God! My daughter was on that island. She worked there! Dr. Emily Cate Grant, look her up on that tablet of yours or let me in!"
Emily's head shoots up, and she realized for the first time that the man at the entrance is dressed in faded, worn jeans, a rumpled flannel and an equal weather-beaten fedora. She breathes out, "Dad…"
Emily is on her feet a split second later, moving for the entrance to the hangar. Lizzy calls after her, "Emily? Where are you going?"
Emily hardly hears her, because her vision is tunneling. She all but runs toward her father, who is still trying to convince the woman and several security guards to let him in. "Dad!" her voice breaks.
His gazes snapped to her, and she almost hates the look of utter relief that passes over his face. Hates that she caused him that worry. He pushes past the guards, and Emily crashes into him.
His arms lock around her, and Emily can't stop the sob that tears itself out of her. Her hat is on the floor, his hat is on the floor and she's practically sobbing into his flannel, which smells like home. Her father places a hand on the back of her head, holding her close, and it's the safest Emily has felt in days.
She can hear the clicking of the reporter's cameras, and she knows that both she and her father are tuning them out.
Her hands scrabble for purchase on the back of his flannel, and he kisses the top of her head. Emily feels like she's nine again, cradled in her dad's arms, bleeding all over his denim shirt. Only this time, she's 32, and too big to be cradled in his arms. And not bleeding all over him, she supposes.
Emily's father pulls back, hands on her shoulders. He's looking her over, checking for injuries. And he frowns at the gashes on her neck, long since bandaged. A crease forms between his brows when he sees how she's practically standing only on her uninjured leg.
He looks like he hasn't slept in days, and now that his hat is on the ground, Emily can see that his gray hair hasn't been combed in the past few days either. She knows that she looks a hell of a lot worse though, with her numerous bandages, mud splattered legs, shirt and shorts and random splatters of blood. And now the tear tracks on her face.
Her father hoarsely says, "Let's get you home Em."
Emily just nods, not trusting her voice to convene how good that sounds. She wants to be gone from this crowded, noisy hangar, where every injured tourist is just another reminder. She wants to be done with Jurassic World and the horror and terror that will now taint her image of it.
Her father bends and retrieves both their hats, setting his back on his head. And he plops her hat on top of her head, like he used to do when she was little.
Someone clears their throat behind Emily, "Didn't think you could leave without saying goodbye, did you Grant?"
It's Owen, Claire and the boys crowded behind him. And Lizzy's there too, Barry next to her. Sam is there as well, holding her satchel with a smile.
Emily smiles just a little, and musters a deadpan, "Wouldn't dream of it."
She hugs Owen and makes him promise to call if he needs to. Lizzy hugs her first, promising to call, which earns some chuckles. She also tells her that Briana will make a full recovery, and that the ACU woman's parents are on their way to pick her up. Claire shakes Emily's hand, and Emily has to admit that even if they aren't friends, she doesn't hate the woman. In fact, she might actually respect her. Barry claps her on the shoulder and promises to stay in touch.
Zach and Gray are next, with the younger of the two engulfing Emily in a hug. She laughs, the first genuine one in a while, and hugs him back. He reminds her of Tim. Zach shakes her hand, reminding Emily of his aunt. And she makes them both promise to get her number from Claire, and call her if they need to.
And it's finally down to just her and Sam. He passes Emily her satchel, and she slings it over her shoulder. There's a moment of silence between them, before Emily says, "So now what?"
"I guess we try to go back to normal…"
"Yeah, I guess we do. But normal now won't be the same as normal before."
Sam sighs, eyes on the ground and murmurs, "No, it won't."
Something snaps into place in Emily's mind. Normal won't be the same because of the whole dinosaur trauma, but also because of one other thing.
Emily steps forward, so she's right in front of Sam, and takes his hands in hers. "I'm not sure I want it to be." And she kisses him, hard, like she's been wanting to do since they were face to face in the closet.
To her delight, he kisses her back. They pull apart after a moment, both smiling. Sam laughs, and Emily falls in love even more.
"Well," he's grinning widely, "neither do I."
"Then it's a good thing you have my number."
He's laughing again, "I suppose it is. And you have mine."
"I expect to hear from you then."
"You will, I promise." And something in his eyes tells Emily that he means it. That he does return her feelings.
So she murmurs, "Good," and kisses him again, before hugging him tightly. He hugs her back, and all she can think is that this is someone she could spend her life with. Could wake up in the middle of the night when her nightmares grip her. Someone she can see fitting right in at Christmas, when Ellie takes over the kitchen and her dad spends far to long up on a ladder, hanging up the lights.
They pull back, and Emily says, "See you soon," because saying goodbye feels too hard.
Sam grins, "See you soon."
She smiles back one last time, and limps toward her father. He's smiling, "Isn't that that kid from your college English class?"
Emily's still smiling, "Yeah, and?"
"Nothing." Her father raises his hands a little in mock defense.
"Good." Emily swallows, "I'm ready to get the hell out of here."
They walk out of the hangar, and the security guards have to keep the reporters from swarming them. Emily's father just wraps and arm around her, "Let's get you home Em."
The End.