Having been married three times, Ian Malcolm now considered himself to know a good thing or two about proposals. They weren't his strongest suit, but he figured he must do pretty well on them, because so far each one had worked on the woman it was intended for. The first time, back in his twenties and fresh out of college, he had gone all out in proposing to his college sweetheart Lydia Pike. There had been balloons and confetti dropping from the ceiling, a crowd of onlookers applauding, a full orchestra bursting into the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet- well, that last one had been in his mind, but it was still a rather lavish proposal. When he had become involved with Tracy Westerberg in his early thirties, Ian scaled it back a bit by proposing in private, on the balcony of the beach house they had rented together for the summer with a full moon up above. Then when that relationship fell apart, Ian decided to pull an old trick out of the book for his next proposal, to Natalia Curtis in his mid-thirties. He proposed to her at a restaurant by slipping the ring into her drink, which she noticed right away but was too flattered to tell him how silly the idea was.
Sometimes Ian wondered if, beyond the fact that he did at the time love the women he dated, he only kept proposing to them because he wanted to see how many variations on the same theme he could play before getting tired of it all. There had to be some kind of Guinness World Record for it. Most Times Married, Most Times Divorced… no, Most Times Creatively Proposed. An award for the commitment-phobic.
After having had three wives, three kids (one with each), half a dozen paramours and a hell of a lot of responsibility and mistakes to own up to, Ian thought he had reserved the right to claim to be an expert on the subject of marriage and proposals. And my first rule is, Don't go through with them!, he sometimes joked. Other times he liked to play up the fact that he was still on the market- I'm always on the lookout for the future ex-Mrs. Malcolm. But while women were one of his favorite pastimes, for a while Ian wasn't interested in anything too serious. Marriage was great fun, yes, but it was also messy and had the possibility to produce nasty side effects. One could say the same thing about my field of study. But the pleasure of chaos outweighed the pleasure of marriage, and so Ian concentrated on putting more effort into his theories than his relationships.
Now, however, that had all changed. Ian Malcolm was nearing his mid-forties and found he still had a proposal left in him. And though he called himself an expert, he was now at a loss for ideas. Never before had the circumstances leading up to the proposal been quite like this. Never before had he run from bloodthirsty velociraptors, chased after a T-Rex in his car, or toured the media circuit with his girlfriend. In fact, during the time of the first three proposals he hadn't even done those things alone.
Once the media coverage of the San Diego incident had died down and Kelly had been sent back home with her mother, Ian had almost expected Sarah Harding to fall right into his arms the moment the door closed on Natalia and Kelly. They'd both had a long, rough few weeks, having to calm down from the dinosaur chases, deal with the harassing press, and supervise Kelly at the same time. It gave them hardly any time to really communicate with each other, in between giving interviews and catching up on much-needed sleep. Now that it was all over and settled, Ian had half-hoped that he and Sarah could sit down and discuss where they stood with each other after Isla Sorna. He usually dreaded these heart-to-heart talks, but then again, they were rarely his idea.
However, no sooner had Kelly and Natalia left than Sarah, turning to the expectant Ian, announced, "Well… I guess it's time for me to head out too." She smiled and sauntered past Ian, and he spun around to stare at her retreating back, blinking a few times just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Wait wait wait, just hold on… one minute, Sarah," he stammered, following her to the bedroom where she had thrown her pack full of supplies on the day they returned from Isla Sorna, never to be picked up until now. "I- I wanna talk to ya. Are we… uh, are we good?"
Sarah grabbed her pack in both hands and straightened up, throwing it onto her back before turning around to look fully at Ian. "You tell me, Ian. Do you think we're good?'
A little surprised, but also intrigued by her emboldened response, Ian shrugged lightly. "Well, I'd, uh, assume we're good because you haven't left until now. Am I right?" Hesitantly he edged closer to Sarah, taking in every detail of her face and just barely holding himself back from reaching up to brush a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Whenever she wasn't working, she always wore her hair down, and it was always getting in her face and irritating Ian by proxy… Many times she had accused him of taking more interest in her hair than she did herself.
Ian snapped out of his memories of Sarah to focus on the real thing before him. There was no trace of a smile playing on her full lips, but the warm, sparkling depths of her eyes betrayed her emotion. "I have to go back to work, Ian," she commented, shouldering her pack further and evenly meeting his gaze. "They've missed me out at the zoo. It's time to head back home now that all this hoopla has died down."
The corner of Ian's mouth twitched at the word "hoopla." He muttered, "As long as there aren't any dinosaurs out in those cages," which elicited a small, short laugh from Sarah. She looked away from Ian, but he still noticed her lips curve into a smile. Immediately relief gushed through him- they were good. Sarah's annoyance with him for showing up on Isla Sorna to rescue her hadn't held over after their disastrous adventure together.
"No, no dinosaurs," Sarah said, pushing past Ian and moving back into the main room; as she passed him, Ian caught sight of the mirth on her face that she tried valiantly to suppress. He smiled inwardly at that, pleased to see that she was failing to keep her cool, and followed after her.
"Are you- are you going to come back?" he asked Sarah upon exiting the bedroom, and at last she turned and let him take in her full, beaming face. Swiftly she closed the distance between them and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I dunno, Ian, it depends on if any of those new lion cubs sweep me off my feet."
Now he too presented a smile as he reached up and brushed her cheek with the palm of his hand. "Well, y'know what they say- you can win over any woman with kittens." Sarah fondly rolled her eyes, even as she moved in closer to the embrace Ian longed for.
Eventually Sarah did come back to Ian's place, and life resumed its normal pace for them as if nothing remotely related to dinosaurs had ever happened. And their constant interactions had built up and led them to this point, where Ian waited on popcorn in the kitchen while fondling the small jewelry box in his pocket, nervous beyond belief.
He knew in his heart that it was ridiculous for him to feel this way. After three successful proposals, what could possibly go wrong? But as had already been established, his relationship with Sarah was quite different than those other relationships had been (which might be fortunate, in a way, because his past three marriages had failed). His experiences on Isla Nublar and especially Isla Sorna had left him a changed man, one with perhaps a better understanding of what meant the most in life. Besides, he and Sarah hadn't even really discussed marriage before. Sure, their relationship had recently changed for the better- Ian certainly didn't take Sarah's presence for granted, and Sarah was a lot more thoughtful and less likely to make rash decisions behind Ian's back now- but though they couldn't call it "casual," just being together was pretty fulfilling.
But Ian felt almost instinctively that it was time to take their relationship on to newer and better heights, and it was he, the marriage veteran, who had to be the one to do it. For all her long-term dating history, Sarah had never even been engaged before. Hopefully this afternoon would change all that.
The microwave beeped, and Ian swallowed to quell his growing nerves. Ridiculous. Gingerly he reached out and pulled the microwave door open before it could beep again, reaching inside to handle the overflowing popcorn bag with care. All the while as he poured popcorn into the waiting bowl on the counter, he felt anchored by the box in his pocket as if it weighed a hundred pounds. And he distinctly felt Sarah's presence behind him, waiting on the popcorn. Just as he thought of her, she called out to him- "Come on, Ian, the movie's about to start."
"Gotcha," Ian replied, keeping his back turned. This was one of their small pleasures in life- finding some movie on TV that looked interesting and then watching it together on the weekends, whenever one of Ian's children wasn't visiting. Both of them found it helpful in unwinding after a week of work, and also as a good bonding opportunity. Well… talk about growing closer, Ian thought, letting his hand slip into his pocket and open the small box. He discreetly pulled the ring out and turned it over and over in his hand, hoping he'd at least gotten the size right, before hiding it in his palm and turning to bring to popcorn over to the couch, where Sarah was waiting.
The movie started only a minute or two after Ian sat down, but try as hard as he might, he couldn't keep his mind on the plot for more than a few seconds. A shame too, as Sarah seemed to be engrossed, which meant it must actually be a good movie. All Ian could think about, though, was when the first commercial break might be. Every time he reached for the popcorn, he played the move he had planned to make over in his mind. It couldn't be long now… he just had to hold on for a bit…
He'd meant to wait for the commercials. But the next time Sarah went for the popcorn, Ian found he couldn't control himself anymore. His hand seemed to move in slow motion as he reached out alongside Sarah, timing it exactly right so that as soon as she dug into the popcorn, Ian captured her hand in his.
"Ian!" Sarah laughed right away, sounding more amused than exasperated. "Still pulling that old trick, huh?"
Without saying a word, Ian only threaded his fingers through hers, pressing their palms together so that she felt the hard, circular object in his hand. Fervently he hoped she didn't notice his palms were sweating.
Her brow furrowed in confusion, Sarah glanced down at their conjoined hands, clearly wondering what was up. She tugged her hand away from Ian's, and he let her take the ring along with her. She held it aloft before her eyes, the crease in her forehead deepening further, the action onscreen completely forgotten. "Ian, what's this?"
Ian took in a deep, long breath. He had wanted to say the words exactly right, but there was no time for any sweeping declarations of love. So he blurted the proposal out in a rush, half-stumbling over his words. "Sarah, will you, uh… will you marry me?"
Right before him, Ian watched Sarah veer straight through a "you have got to be kidding me" reaction and right into "oh my God you're serious." Her wide, expressive eyes grew huge, filling up half her face. The hand that held the ring froze in place, fingers trembling, while the other flew up to cover her O-shaped mouth. She stared at Ian for what felt like an ice age before turning away and looking down, letting a canopy of long hair fall over her face. It was only then that Ian realized how loudly his heart was beating- at least it sounded loud to him- and he wished for it to stop.
The commercials that Ian had so longed for came on, and still Sarah sat frozen in place, hiding from Ian behind her hair. A few agonizingly long seconds passed, and all of Ian's nerves came back in full force. I screwed up. Shit, shit, shit. Now that it had been said, it couldn't be revoked. Ian cleared his throat, wondering if he should say something more to Sarah, but he couldn't get any words to form on his lips and struggle past his throat. He reached out dumbly, feeling the strange urge to brush her hair back, but withdrew when he noticed Sarah's shoulders were shaking. God,he really had screwed up. What a big mistake, how had he talked himself into this…
"You- you don't have to say yes or anything, y'know," he tried insisting to Sarah, hating the TV's chatter that filled up the quiet space between them. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry, Sarah, I really, uh… I don't know. I, uh, I don't know what I was thinking… I shouldn't have-"
Ian's words shriveled up as Sarah turned back to look at him, a bright, trembling smile painted across her face. She reached out and enveloped Ian in a hug, one hand folding around his hand and the other snaking behind his neck. "Ian," she whispered, and her voice was choked with… laughter. Now it was Ian's turn to be surprised as Sarah pulled away, her face aglow, only to move in closer and give him a long, passionate kiss on the lips.
"So, I'll take that as a yes?" Ian said when they broke apart, unable to keep the joy from showing on his face too.
In response, Sarah slipped the ring on- it fit perfectly- and then hugged him again, squeezing his body close to hers. "You silly fool," she said in his ear. "Of course I will."