I'm back with more post Jurassic World! I had so much fun writing this, and there's at least one more chapter to come from this, so stay tuned. The title for this took me ages though...
Emily is cooking dinner in her house in Bozeman. She's skyping Sam as well, using her laptop, which is set up near her sink. He's also cooking dinner, in his new apartment in Chicago. It's become a ritual of sorts between them. Once a week, they skype and one of them picks a recipe to try out.
And it's become a comfort too. For some reason, she always sleeps through the night after they skype and cook, and it's become a lifesaver for that reason. Especially because she'll be entering her first dig season back from Jurassic World soon.
But that means they'll have to stop their skyping once a week and switch to phone calls, if Emily even has cell signal at the site. They're talking about digs now.
"So you camp out in tents at the dig site?" Sam is stirring a pot.
"Yeah," Emily walks out of view of the camera to grab the milk jug out of her fridge, "or in trailers, if there's enough funding to haul them out. And if it's accessible enough to get them out there."
Sam nods, "I've never been camping."
"You've never been camping?!" Emily sets down the milk jug and puts her hands on her hips, "That's ridiculous."
Sam laughs, "I've lived in Chicago my whole life, it's not like there's a campground twenty minutes from my house or something."
"I'm taking you camping then."
"Is that a date?"
Emily snorts a laugh, nearly spilling the milk she's measuring, "If you want it to be."
"It's a date then."
"Well," Emily sets down the jug and points at Sam through the camera, "figure out what weeks you're free this summer and I'll take a week off work to take you camping."
Sam starts draining his pasta, "They'll let you take a whole week off work? Aren't you like, head of the field team?"
Emily adds the milk to her alfredo sauce, "Yes, and yes. Besides, I've got an assistant head that can take over for a week if I'm busy. Like if I have to go give speeches at a university, or if I take some time off." Thankfully, the museum had been more than happy to give Emily her old job like the moment she'd gotten back from Jurassic World.
"Didn't you date that guy once? What was his name, Chase?"
"Yeah, I dated him. And it's Casey. Besides, he's got a boyfriend now, from what I've heard." Emily drained her pasta.
Sam used a fork to lift some pasta onto a plate, "Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning that last time we skyped."
Emily set her pasta aside and gave her sauce a stir, "How did your parents take you moving out?"
"Mamá was sad, but it's not like I haven't left before. And at least this time," Sam bent down behind the counter, "I got to bring this lovely lady with me." He straightened, now holding his bulldog, Zuzu. He ruffled her ears and kissed the top of her head with relish before setting her down, "You should come down here sometime and meet her. And my family. Everyone wants to meet the famous Dr. Grant and find out if she's special enough to date me."
Emily snorted a laugh as she opened one of her drawers and got out a pair of tongs, using them to get herself a plate of pasta, "And you need to come up here and pass the Alan Grant test."
"Oh no. Think I'll pass?" Sam sounded only slightly sarcastic.
"I'm sure you will. And if you don't, Ellie and I can forge the results." Emily smirked at Sam as she scooped sauce on top of her noodles.
"Good to know."
It fell silent for a moment as they both migrated to their dining room tables. They both dug into their plates of alfredo.
"Mmm," Sam set down his fork, "this is a really good recipe."
Emily raised her hand to cover her mouth as she spoke around a bite of alfredo, "Lex sent it to me, so you can thank her for that."
"I should meet her so I can thank her in person."
Emily swallowed and laughed, "Maybe you'll have to come down for camping and for Christmas then. We're all gathering here for Christmas this year."
"Christmas won't work, sorry. My whole family gets together, and I'm obligated to be there." Sam sounds disappointed.
"Oh," Emily sets down her fork, "Well, I'm sort of obligated to be here too."
"Maybe another Christmas then? You could come down here and meet my family."
"Sounds like a plan," Emily smiles at him, and he grins right back.
"When you texted me not to bring lunch, I figured you were bringing Chinese takeout," Emily's father said as he held a Tupperware container full of her alfredo from the night before.
Emily chuckled, setting her own container on her desk, "Not alfredo?"
"Definitely not."
"Well," Emily hung her bag over her chair, "Lex sent me the recipe and I made it last night with Sam."
"How's he doing?"
"He's doing good. He moved into a new apartment last week."
"And how's the long-distance relationship going?" Emily's father was studying her closely.
"If I'm being honest Dad," Emily sighed, "It's probably the only reason I'm doing as well as I'm doing."
"And why is that?"
"It's almost like it's acting like a distraction. But a good one." Emily sat down behind her desk, "I've been having less nightmares, it's easier to remember that I'm not stuck on that damned island. And I'm, well, happier."
Her father smiles, "Good. Do you feel like you can talk about it with him."
"I can't tell you the number of times we have talked about it, or how many times he's asked me how I'm handling it." Emily smirked, deadpanning, "Sam almost puts you to shame in that department."
"I'm going to take that as a good thing Em."
Emily rolls her eyes, "We're trying to arrange a week this summer where he can come down here and I'll take him camping. Since he's never been."
Her father smiles, "Let me know when you decide to do that." He glances at his watch, "Now we'd better get back to work."
"See you at lunch Dad."
He father nods and heads out the door.
Emily works in peace till the nearly the end of the day, and has just finished when someone knocks on the door. With a sigh, she calls, "Come in."
The door opens revealing Casey Reid. Emily's ex-boyfriend, and assistant head of her field team. Exactly what she needed to finish her work day.
"Hey, I, uh, figured I'd stop by and see how you were holding up." He approaches her desk."
"I'm holding up okay." Emily sets down her pen.
"That's good. Billy mentioned that you were dating some guy from Chicago."
"Yeah, he was a paleo-vet at the park."
"Oh, that's, uh, cool." There are a few moments of awkward silence before Casey clears his throat, "Look, I wanted to say I'm sorry for being so pushy before we broke up. And for not checking in sooner."
"Casey, it's fine. I probably could've been a little less harsh about it too. And I've got a whole host of people checking in on me all the time, don't worry."
"Right."
Emily blows a strand of hair out of her face, "How've you been in the two years since we last spoke."
"I had some good finds near Ekalaka with Dr. Brennan, and I started dating this great guy a couple months ago. He's a lawyer here in town."
"How the hell did you manage to meet a lawyer?"
"His sister forced him to come to a fundraising gala here at the museum, and he caught my eye, so I went and talked to him. He was pretty thrilled to learn that I worked with you once, apparently he's a fan."
"Oh great," Emily deadpanned.
"He makes fun of me for getting dumped by you."
Emily laughed, "He sounds like a great guy. I'll have to meet him."
"I'm sure you will at some point. And just to be clear, I date my guy, you date yours, and we won't make it awkward."
Emily chuckled, "That sounds like a great plan."
"Then we'll stick to it. I'll leave you to work, I've got some of my own to do."
It's the middle of June, and instead of being at a dig site, like she normally is, Emily is standing outside Sam's terminal at the airport. She's got a shitty airport coffee in one hand and her hat in the other.
She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Which is stupid, she has absolutely no reason to be nervous, and yet here she is, tapping her hat against her leg and scanning the crowd for her boyfriend, whom she hasn't seen since the airport hangar in Costa Rica. And they weren't even officially dating then.
The paleontologist takes a sip of her coffee as the passengers start to file out of the terminal. It takes her all of five seconds to spot Sam, even though he looks completely different than the last time she saw him in person. His hair is longer, and he's even grown a bit of a stubbly beard since the last time they skyped. She sets her coffee in one of the built in cupholders, next to her bag, and adds her hat to the pile on the chair.
Sam spots her as, and his face splits into a grin. He hurries toward her, and Emily all but jogs to meet him halfway. He hugs her immediately and Emily practically buries her face in his blue t-shirt. Their arms are around each other in seconds, and Emily smiles.
Sam pulls back after a second, grinning, and looks her over. He frowns a little, "You look tired."
"I had to leave the dig site at 5:00 so I could get here on time," Emily rolls her eyes.
"Oh, right." He looks a little sheepish.
Emily smiles, "Besides, I can make up the sleep while we're camping."
They head toward the baggage claim, stopping for Emily's stuff. Sam slings his carry-on, a blue backpack, over one shoulder, "So where exactly are we camping anyways?"
"Hood Creek Campground. It's in some national forest, right next to the Hyalite Reservoir. Dad took me there once, it's a beautiful area."
"I'm sure it's much better than Chicago. I've kinda missed being out in the jungle all the time. Is that weird?"
"No," Emily sips her coffee, "I felt a little cooped up when I was still just in my office."
"Yeah, you mentioned that when we were skyping. I bet you're glad to be out in the field."
"It's been great, I've really missed it. And it's been great to be back around all my friends, and Dad too."
They stop at the luggage claim and Sam responds, "I know what you mean. Even the two or so weeks I worked at Jurassic World made me miss my family."
"Speaking of which, the last night you're here, Dad wants us to head up to Havre and have you meet him."
"Oh God, think he'll like me?" Sam shifted back and forth on the balls of his feet.
"Sam, he likes you already."
"I-, what?"
Emily sighed, "The biggest reason why I'm doing as well as I'm doing with the whole PTSD thing is you, Sam."
"Oh."
"Yeah, being able to talk to you makes it far easier not to think about it. And you're a positive to balance out all the shit. As far as my dad is concerned, if you can help me with that crap, then you're in his good books."
Sam stared at her for a second, "I had, no idea…"
"It's been, what, six months? I'd be a much bigger mess if not for you."
"Well, then I'm glad to help."
Emily smiled to herself as they found an open spot to stand. He really had no idea how much of a help he was. She checked the time again as Sam watched for his luggage. They would definitely have some time to kill before they could check in at two o'clock. She glanced over at Sam, who was definitely staring at her instead of watching for his luggage.
"Are you even watching for you suitcase?" Emily planted a hand on her hip.
Sam blushed, quickly looking away and toward the baggage claim, "Yeah, I'm looking."
Emily hid her smile by taking a drink of her coffee.
It didn't take them much longer to secure Sam's duffel bag and head out to the parking lot. As they approached Emily's truck, Sam stopped walking. Emily tossed his duffel bag in the backseat, along with her satchel and turned to face him, hat in hand.
He was looking her truck over, one eyebrow raised.
"What's wrong with my truck?" Emily sipped her coffee.
Sam chuckled, "Nothing, nothing's wrong with your truck. It's exactly what you were driving in college."
"My first, and only truck Sam," Emily deadpanned.
"Figures," he muttered.
I'm going to dump a whole thought train here. First of all, I have been waiting soooo long to write Emily and Sam, and I'm so excited to finally be able to do it! Second, I'm very glad to sorta, wrap things up with Casey (he's my character, and from my prequel to Don't Take Peace for Granted, so check that out if you're confused). I also made a gifset to go with this chapter, go check that out on my Tumblr, Here's the Fanfiction. Oh, and that mention of Christmas that Emily talks about has been written and posted, in case anyone's curious.
Thanks for reading, please review!
