Title: Secondary

Rating: M for violence and language

Summary: Blue Aldrich has grown up and is now an intelligent paleontology student, eager to work under the great Dr. Grant and his former protégé, Dr. Billy Brennan, now his field partner. But then Blue gets a visit from one Lex Kirby, head of InGen, asking for her help, forcing Blue to return to Isla Sorna. She's not alone, however…

Disclaimer: As my enemies have not died of vicious raptor attacks, you should take that as a sign that I don't own anything.

Author's Note: This is a sequel to Primary, and you should definitely read that first. The title of this story refers to both secondary colors (the title Primary coming from the name of the main character and her raptor) and the fact that it is second of the two stories. I'm sure you all figured that out on your own, but just in case…

Chapter One: War Stories

"Blue!"

The young woman looked up from her work. Over at the tents, her boss was gesturing for her to come over. Blue Aldrich wiped the dirt from her face before taking a swig from her water bottle. The Argentinean sun was harsh and unforgiving, especially in this landscape of rock and bone. Blue gestured over to some volunteers.

"Help me get this bone clean and plastered!" She called. Three volunteers hurried over, bringing the proper supplies with them, and got to work at once. Blue observed them for a moment, then made her way towards the covered area. It wasn't much – just some tents that provided a bit of shade – but being out of the sun for a few minutes was always a blessing.

"What's up Billy?" She asked.

"We have a visitor." The professor said. Once the protégé of Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Billy Brennan was now a respected paleontologist in his own right. While in his late thirties, he had no wish to cease to venture out into the field to dig up more fossils. Blue had been a student of Dr. Grant's at Berkeley, and it was his idea that she join Billy on his latest dig.

"What kind of visitor warrants pulling me out of a dig in the middle of the day? We've still got half of a skeleton to expose." Blue said grumpily. "It'd better not be Nathan. I told him to relax and enjoy his honeymoon but he's convinced the skeleton's going to come to life and eat me."

While Blue and Nathan's parents had, indeed, split up and Nathan's father, Mr. Aldrich, had continued to pursue women like he pursued business opportunities, Blue had kept his name. They'd gone to all this trouble of changing her name, and nobody wanted to deal with the legal mess.

Of course, Blue couldn't tell Billy that Nathan's fears weren't exactly invalid.

"It's not your brother." Billy assured her. "It's the kind of visitor that… well…"

"So this is the dig site, huh?" A female voice said. A woman only a few years older than Blue strode over. She was wearing jeans, boots and a t-shirt, with a baseball cap on her head to shade her eyes. She had rather light blonde hair and large, warm brown eyes. She smiled and stuck her hand out. "Hi; you must be Miss Aldrich. I'm Alexis Kirby – call me Lex, everyone does."

"Kirby?" Blue blurted out. "As in, head of InGen Kirby?"

"That's the one." Lex nodded, smiling. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"So what brings a CEO like you out here to the edge of nowhere?" Blue asked. She liked Lex; she was different from any other sponsor she'd ever met.

"Well, I wanted to check out the dig and see how it was going; make sure that my money won't be wasted." Lex explained. "But I was also hoping to talk to you. Is there somewhere private that we can…?"

"Um, Billy? Mind if I use the trailer?" Blue asked, gesturing up the hill.

"Go right ahead." He said. "I'll be down here. Holler if you need me."

Blue led Lex up the hill and into the trailer; it didn't have air conditioning, but there was a fan going and it was indoors. Blue walked over to the sink. "Water? Juice? Soda?" She asked.

Lex Kirby shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks." She sat down at the small table and gestured for Blue to do the same. Blue sat, eyeing the woman curiously. Lex Kirby, CEO of InGen and granddaughter to the original CEO and founder, John Hammond, was one of the youngest company heads in history. Following her uncle Peter Ludlow's feeble attempts to take over InGen before his tragic death (ruled as an accident, but Blue had reason to suspect there was more to the story), Lex had singlehandedly pulled InGen from the edge of bankruptcy and restored its place as a powerhouse of technological innovation. Along the way, she had also established the company as a major philanthropist in the field of science, including paleontology.

"Can I ask what this is about?" Blue asked. She was growing confused.

"When you were sixteen, you and your then-stepbrother Nathan Aldrich went on vacation to the Hamptons for the week during spring break, correct?" Lex asked.

That was the last thing Blue had expected her to say. "Um, well, yes, yes we did. But why–?"

"But you didn't go to the Hamptons, did you?" Lex asked.

"What are you suggesting?" Blue replied as calmly as she could.

Lex leaned forward. "You went to an illegal nightclub that had been built on the premises of a former InGen site, on an island off of Costa Rica."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Blue said indignantly.

"The island – that whole group of islands, in fact – is still owned by InGen. We have ways of finding this stuff out, Miss Aldrich."

"Are you accusing me of something?" Blue asked.

Lex sighed. "Look, I know that you won't want to talk about what happened. You broke at least a dozen international laws, but besides that what you went through was hell."

Blue's eyes flashed. Lex nodded. "I know what happened on that island."

"You have no idea what happened." Blue ground out.

"Maybe not exactly, but I can make a pretty good guess." Lex leaned back. "Let's see… everyone's partying and having a good time, when suddenly dinosaurs appear. I'd say raptors. People start dying, everyone's screaming and running around, and all you want to do is get out. So you do. You spend the next couple of days in fear, making your way back to freedom, thinking every shadow is a predator. You finally know what it's like to be an animal, and you hate it. Maybe you were with your brother the entire time – maybe you weren't, and you had to spend every minute fearing for his safety or thinking he's dead. You can't eat, you can't sleep, and you are so, so frightened."

Lex's voice had lowered a timbre and was shaking slightly. She was staring ahead, but Blue got the distinct feeling that Lex couldn't see Blue or anything in the trailer. She was seeing something else… from a long time ago…

"Everything, everything fades away, until it's just about surviving. Your nerves are frayed beyond the breaking point, and you can't stop your heart from constantly racing no matter how hard that you try. You manage to outwit what's stalking you, because you're just frantic enough and desperate enough that your brain manages to make some connections and get you out. But it's only by luck – sheer fucking luck – that you make it out, alive. And as the island fades away from you and you finally get the chance to sleep, to relax, to breathe… you promise yourself that you are never, ever going to go through something like that ever again."

Blue stared at her. "You… you've been there, too."

Lex broke her trance and started a little, staring at the girl across the table. "Yes." She said quietly. "Yes, I was. My brother Timmy and I… our parents were going through a divorce. Our mother… she was taking it very hard. She had no time for us. So Grandfather said that we could spend the weekend with him. We took the helicopter to the island, where there were some other scientists… a Dr. Ian Malcolm, who specializes in cosmic theory with a side of evolution; a Dr. Ellie Sattler – oh, wait, she's married Dr. Grant now… yes, Alan was there, too. He was so cranky at first but he kept us alive… still sends me a present every Christmas." Lex smiled sadly. "There were others… but they didn't make it. Grandfather was so disappointed. It was his big idea, a wonderful idea… and it wasn't just about the money for him! It was the vision that counted! But he did have a tendency to bite off more than he could chew, and in this case it cost lives. Jurassic Park had to be shut down.

"You can't contain nature, Miss Aldrich. You can try, but she will always find a way."

Blue shook herself. "Why are you coming to me, then? You want to swap war stories?"

Lex shook her head. "I wish. Miss Aldrich–"

"Call me Blue."

"Blue." Lex smiled. "Blue, I'm going to ask you to do something that I'm too much of a coward to attempt. I could say that responsibilities keep me here, but the fact is I'm too damn scared. I haven't even seen King Kong because of the panic attack I'd have."

"What do you want?" Blue asked. But that heavy feeling of foreboding, one she'd only felt once before, had returned. The last time she'd felt it had been the night before she'd gone to Isla Nublar.

Lex sighed. "Blue… I need you to go back."

And so it begins! Will Blue say yes? Of course she will, why else would I be writing a sequel? More coming soon, so stay tuned!