"I'm making pancakes," Ellie announced when she first saw Ethan wander into the kitchen. He was still in his pajamas—or what passed for pajamas for a twenty-year-old boy which was just sweatpants and an old tshirt—and his hair was sticking out in all directions. He looked just like Mark, which left Ellie feeling a little odd nowadays. She didn't even know where Mark was living now.

"Do you have any La Croix?" Ethan asked. His voice was gravelly from sleep, like he'd just woken up and stumbled out into the kitchen without really knowing where he was.

"We've got Pellegrino," Ellie responded, frowning. "Alan isn't really a flavored sparkling water kind of guy, and I don't really care one way or the other. Do you have a flavor you like? I can pick some up."

Ethan nodded. "Hailey likes the pomplemousse. It's like a uh…craving thing. She was drinking like three a day during finals and stuff."

Ellie smiled. "I'll make sure we pick some up today for her. For now, you can grab a Pellegrino from the bottom drawer in the fridge and see if that'll tide her over. Is she having any morning sickness?"

"I dunno," Ethan answered.

It was very clear that Ellie's son was only twenty. He was a good kid, and he was trying, but he was so young. This was a big burden for him. But having him here with her made Ellie feel better. She'd loved being pregnant. With her boys, she probably threw up three times over both pregnancies. She would get tired and sore during the third trimester, but she was otherwise completely fine. No cravings, no difficult symptoms, nothing. She wasn't the best person to be able to help Hailey through pregnancy, but she'd do her best.

Ethan went over to the fridge as his mother instructed. Ellie turned back to the stove where she flipped the first batch of pancakes. She heard the fridge close and assumed Ethan went back to the room with Hailey until she heard his voice behind her. "Where's Alan?"

Ellie smirked to herself. "I think he's probably hiding. He's usually a morning person, but he was still asleep when I got up today. Or he was pretending to sleep."

"Is it because you guys were hooking up in the kitchen when we walked in?" Ethan asked bluntly.

In spite of herself, Ellie blushed. "Probably," she mumbled.

"I mean, I didn't want to see that. Shit, no guy wants to see his mom topless, ew."

"Hey," she protested.

"I'm not gonna apologize. It's weird, Mom," he insisted. "But like…I dunno, you guys are engaged. And I guess it's good you're happy."

Ellie turned to him, her brow raised curiously. "You guess it's good I'm happy?"

"You and Dad were never like all over each other. It's weird," he shrugged.

In the back of her mind, Ellie knew this was coming. The comparisons between Mark and Alan. It made sense to come from Ethan especially. He hardly ever knew Alan and only knew vague references to her past with him. And he was still in high school when she and Mark broke up. Actually, if she was really honest with herself, their marriage started falling apart when Ethan was about fourteen. It took a few years for them to admit defeat. Ethan wouldn't have many memories of the happier parts of their marriage. They'd been physically affectionate in the earlier days. Ellie was like that with all the men she was involved with. But that, along with so many things, faded over time with Mark. Obviously Ethan had noticed, since Ellie behaved very differently with Alan now.

When Ellie didn't answer right away, Ethan continued, "It's my fault for coming into your house, but god damn, Mom, the kitchen?"

She snorted in laughter. "Well, we thought your flight was delayed until the next day. We were going to make good use of our last night alone. But we won't be doing anything in any common areas of the house while you're here, I promise. At least we won't be doing anything like that. I will not agree to refrain from kissing my fiancé whenever and wherever I want in my own home," she amended.

Ethan had the bottle of sparkling water in one hand and ran his other over his dark messy hair, smiling at his mother with amusement. "You really love him, huh?"

Ellie moved the pancakes out of the pan and onto the plate next to the stove before turning back to Ethan. "More than I can really say," she answered earnestly.

"You weren't like that with Dad." Ethan's words were not a question or even a realization. Just a statement of fact.

The guilt washed over her in a crashing wave. "It was different. Me and your dad…we did love each other. We still do, I think. But sometimes people aren't meant to be together forever. Sometimes people get to a point when they realize that they're just not as happy as they could be. And when you do love someone, you want them to be happy, even if its not you that makes them happy."

Ellie did not divulge, just now, that those words applied to Mark and Alan both. Ellie Sattler had broken up with men long before she wound up with Dr. Alan Grant, but she never loved any of them like she loved Alan. And she never felt like she absolutely had to get out of a relationship like she had with Alan. And then with Mark. She loved him differently. She married him and had children with him, and they were happy. God, they were so happy. For a long time. Until they just weren't. Until they came to the slow, painful realization that they had rings on their fingers and two sons and nothing else in common. Until Ellie realized that Mark could say he loved her but couldn't show it anymore. The opposite problem she'd often had with Alan, especially after Jurassic Park.

Rather than get sucked into those thoughts yet again, Ellie changed the subject with Ethan. "I want you and Hailey to get settled and rest and figure things out, but I also want you, in particular, to make an effort with Alan. He's worried that he's traumatized you or something with the way you walked in on us, and he's afraid for you to see him. If you can corner him today, I hope you'll talk to him."

Ethan grimaced. "That's like really immature of him. He doesn't get to be the one to hide from me."

"He's never had kids," Ellie explained. "He thinks you're all some different species with sticky hands or whatever. But he's good when you get to know him. And I just want you to try, sweetie, to get to know him."

"Okay, yeah," Ethan shrugged.

Ellie sighed, knowing that was the best she was going to get. "Go give that water to Hailey, and then come get some breakfast," she advised.

Ethan went back to the room and Ellie was left on her own. She grabbed her phone and went into her news app to put on a video to fill the quiet.

"United States Department of Fish and Wildlife has made a proposal to Congress to set aside land in Yellowstone National Park as a dinosaur preserve, to be used like the Biosyn Valley in the Dolomites where dinosaurs can be left to live undisturbed by humans. Numerous groups are calling for immediate relocation of all dinosaur species across the nation to be sent to preserves in Canada, Africa, and Russia. Senator Willis of Montana has been outspoken against dedicating U.S. federal lands to this purpose."

After hearing just that introduction to the news story, Ellie closed out of the app. She had enough to be concerned about today. The DFW could handle their own problems for now. Though at least Ellie knew to expect a call from Claire Dearing on the issue sometime soon.

But for now, pancakes.