Chapter 28- Time with friends

She called Stephen later that night, and he arrived a little under an hour later. When he arrived he saw her sitting on the couch, a glass of wine on the coffee table in front of her and a bowl of choc chip ice cream in her lap. He took his shoes off at the door and sat down next to her, pulling her into a comforting hug.

She told him about her problems with Michael, and how it was hard for her to keep this secret. It was just too big, and if she didn't tell him soon their relationship would be over for good. The unpredictability of the anomaly meant it could open at any time, making it harder to hide her sudden need to disappear.

"That's why we should tell everyone about what is happening." Stephen said.

Avery sat up a little and looked him in the eyes. "No, it will cause problems. There could be mass hysteria."

"I thought you didn't like having to keep this secret?" Stephen said.

"I may not like it, but that doesn't mean I don't agree with the decision. I trust my dad to make the choice. If he wants to do it then I will tell, but for now let's keep it a secret."

"We shouldn't if I was out in the public I would want to know the truth. It's not up to us to choose if it should be kept a secret or not."

"But for now, it is. Maybe we can tell people when we understand the anomalies better, but it would cause even more panic if we told people now, and they knew we have no idea how to predict or control the anomalies."

"I guess your right for now. Come on." Stephen stood up pulling Avery with him.

"What?" Avery asked confused.

"Let's go out for a drink. We haven't done that in a while."

"But I have Uni tomorrow. My end of year exams are coming up and if I pass them I'll finish my bachelor degree."

"Come on just one drink. I swear."

"Okay." Avery agreed, grabbing a coat from behind the door. The night could still be salvaged.

With a pounding headache Avery wished she had not gone out last night. Class had been hell for her, as the headache made it hard to concentrate, but she still got the necessary notes down. She shared the same course with Michael, but he refused to talk to her. She tried catching up with him afterwards, but he had left by the time she got outside.

She huffed with annoyance as she walked to her father's office. When she arrived, she saw her dad sitting at his desk aborting through a pile of papers. "Hey dad. What are you up to." She sat on the desk in front of him, facing away.

"Not much. How are things with Michael? Stephen told me what happened." Nick said placing his papers down. He came around the desk and sat next to her, offering her support.

"Don't really know at this point." She leaned her head on his shoulder. She saw a broken fossil in front of her, stuck together by hardened molding clay, colored to match the rest of the fossil, but a shade lighter. She had broken it when she was younger. It was the first fossil Nick had given her, it was a brachiopod, a small mollusk like creature. She was eight and so exited she had to bring it to school.

It broke at the start of lunch, a boy in her class had accidentally dropped it. She picked it up as fast as she could and ran to the art room. She knew they had some clay because they were making sculptures in their next period. She squeezed both sides of the broken fossil onto the clay, sculptured it and placed it in the furnace.

She laughed at the memory, catching her dad's attention. "What are you laughing at?"

Avery lifted her head up and pointed to the brachiopod lying on the table in front of her. "Remember when I did that?"

Nick chuckled as well. He hopped off the table and picked up the small fossil. "Yeah, you were in so much trouble when Helen and I were called into the principal's office."

"I had only just finished painting it when the art teacher came in. She was so wild. I was hoping you would never notice, she just had to ruin that plan."

"Yeah she did. You were quite the troublemaker when you were younger."

"Still am if I recall. I still followed you to the first anomaly site." Avery hopped of the table and gave her father a quick hug. "Well I better get going. I have another lecture in about three minutes. Compared to the creatures coming out of the anomalies, class is a piece of cake.

"See you then."

Avery waved a quick hand then ran outside.

On her way, she ran into Connor. His head was down, and he wasn't paying attention to much around him. "Hey Con. Where are you headed?"

"I'm headed to a geology lecture. We have the same one." Connor said putting his head up and walking straighter. His mouth turned into a small smile as they walked.

"Yeah. I guess I never realized. We weren't really friends back then huh."

Connor came to a stop and Avery stopped as well in confusion. "Where friends?"

"Of course, you bloody idiot. You don't survive several impossible time crises' without becoming friends."

"Does you voice always turn a bit Scottish when you raise your voice." Connor gave her a big toothy grin.

Avery hooked her am through his. Walking forward with him. "Now come on we're going to be late if you keep stopping like this."

Abby had called her after Uni had finished. She wanted to know if Avery had any experience to handle animals. Avery wondered if she just wanted someone to hang out with. Tom's death was hard on all of them, and it was why Avery found it hard to tell Michael. What if he ended up like Tom?

She could never live with herself if she caused that death.

"So what do you want help with?" Avery asked when she arrived at wellington zoo. She went there occasionally for research, but she couldn't remember if she had seen Abby there.

"Just housekeeping I suppose. Feeding the animals, checking how they are." Abby leaned forward and whispered "clean up after them."

"Okay. Where do we start." Avery said back.

"Now I guess. You don't mind, do you?"

"No. Not at all. I love animals. I'm hoping to join dad as one of his research assistants. Study wild animals and how they show features of their ancestors."

"That's cool. Well the zoo could use some volunteers, just got to ask my boss." Abby said as they walked through the zoo. She saw a pair of lions lying together near a pond. Like the creatures that came through the anomaly, they were alien to this environment.

"That would be great."

They chatted as moved through the zoo. Sharing what they knew about each animal, and Abby giving Avery some pointers on how to look after some of the creatures.

They ended up in the seal enclosure as their last stop. They sat near the edge of the pool as the seals swam under the water in front of them. They each had a can of cola, of which Avery's was half empty from when a seal had accidentally bumped it with its tail. Avery sat there half soaked.

"I warned you Flipper is a cheeky one." Abby said laughing next to her.

"Yeah, well, whatever." Avery sputtered, wringing her hair out on the ground next to her. "And who names a seal Flipper?"

Abby shrugged. "Our boss did. He is terrible with names. We have a bear he's name Ted as well."

Avery looked at her with a brow raised. "Ted you've got to be joking me."

"No." Both laughed at that.

"Thanks for inviting me. With everything that's happening lately it's nice to have a nice day." Avery turned to Abby and smiled.

Abby mirrored her smile. "A nice normal day."

Avery groaned. "Now you've jinxed it."

"What?"

"You've jinxed it. Now I'm going to get a call soon."

Abby looked at her skeptically. "Don't tell me your suspicious."

"Yes I am. Connor would agree with me."

"Yeah, but he's Connor." Abby sighed. "He is very annoying. He keeps leaving his boxer shorts all over the floor and he never makes me breakfast when he's made his own."

Avery chuckled. "Well you'll miss him if he moved out."

"Would not." Abby scoffed suddenly looking away.

Avery was about to retort when her phone called. "Hello? Avery speaking." Avery quickly got up, straightening out her wet clothes.

"Okay, I'm with Abby we'll be there in twenty." Avery hung up and sent a look down to Abby who was looking up at her. "Told you, you'd jinx it."

"What?" Abby asked.

"There's been another incursion near John's lake. A woman had her leg crushed. She was carried away in an ambulance, rambling about a giant spiky reptile."

"Couldn't it just be shock."

"Probably, but we should check it out just in case." Avery stretched a hand down and helped Abby up.

"The area around John's lake is huge. It'll take all night to search for the anomaly."

"Yeah. And it also means I won't be changing out of these clothes any time soon. Do you have a car?"