Chapter Five:

Deformations

a/n: I honestly apologize for the last chapter and its suffocating lack of unoriginality (although I'm glad you guys liked the larger dose of Misty characterization). Shit's gotta get more interesting eventually and I think we're gonna approach it now. Beware of filler. (Also, can someone please direct me to where I, cerulean pen, might discover some method of watching the probably terrible 1992 TV movie "Desperate Choices: To Save my Child", which, as explicated, is probably terrible and exceedingly difficult to find, but it has baby Joseph Mazzello in it and you guys are well aware that I subsist on him and him alone. There will be a reward if found. Not money or anything. I'm fucking broke.)

"It's… Doctor Sattler, it's a Trike."

The Triceratops had always been a favorite of Misty's. Admittedly, the species was a favorite of everyone's: something about the beast's unique horns and bony frill distinguished it from the customary scales and snarls, instilled it with an aura of majesty. Even the specimen at their feet, beached and panting heavily, maintained her augustness, her calm mystery. She was absolutely gorgeous.

Doctor Grant had unfurled himself across the Trike's heaving side. With every labored breath she took, Alan rose up with her; his smile was one of unprecedented ecstasy. Misty had never seen the man so happy. Perhaps he had never been this happy before…

"Oh, sweetie…" Ellie mustered between tearful gasps. She knelt down to the Triceratops and tentatively laid a hand on her most prominent horn. The calcium was smooth, almost entirely free of nicks and blemishes. Ellie gazed deep into the creature's watery doe eyes and elicited a shaky sob at the glimmer of intelligence she found beyond the dilated pupils and heavy lids. Tears spiraled down the woman's cheeks.

"She was my favorite when I was a kid," Alan sighed nostalgically, tracing his hand down her rigid haunches. "Seeing her now… she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

Misty wanted to agree, but she was beyond words for perhaps the first time in her life. The Trike's profile blurred as her eyes began to prickle fiercely. Damn doctors have everyone tearing up. Moving slowly, almost cautiously, Misty circled the beast; her finger went to the mountain chain of vertebrate, protruding against the pebbled back flesh. One, two, three, four…

Tim was crouched down at the base of the spine, hand pressed gently against the Triceratops's haunch. He liked her the best out of all the dinosaurs. Triceratops weren't vicious and vapid like their carnivorous companions; instead, they were more placid, more calm. Almost like pets. His grandpa had told him that his company might make pet-sized dinosaurs in the future. That'd be great: having a tiny Trike to pet and take on walks. Maybe he could even get Lex to adopt one. A little Brachiosaurus that she could share vegetables with.

Misty stopped counting vertebrate and placed an unconscious hand on his shoulder. "She's big. Isn't she?"

"Yeah." Tim looked up at her, then down again at the scales, slightly embarrassed. Misty was perhaps the most intimidating person he had ever met and he knew that she didn't really like him or Lex. In all honesty, he thought she bore a remarkable resemblance to the Terminator, which was really cool. But according to Lex, girls didn't like it when you compared them to action heroes.

He watched her circle back around the Triceratops, passing a still enraptured Doctor Grant, and return to Doctor Sattler. The blonde woman, along with the veterinarian, were examining the creature's eyes and tongue. As he climbed back to his feet to join the adults, Lex wandered over and halted several feet from the Triceratops. She turned skittish in its presence. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Don't be such a wimp."

The girl scowled and, after catching up with Tim, gave him a halfhearted shove. "Don't call me a wimp. The CD-ROM said a lot of the dinosaurs are dangerous."

"Not Triceratops," he said, petting her calcified frill as if she were nothing more than a domesticated housecat. "She's nice, Lex. She's a vegetarian like you. And she's sick. Come on, just pet her. She won't hurt you."

Lex eyed the sedated creature with considerable unease. Being christened a wimp was not exactly the highest of honors. She knelt down hesitantly and extended one trembling hand. Slowly, her palm came into contact with the beast's dry, reptilian flesh. The Triceratops uttered a deep, guttural rumble of pleasure as Lex traced her fingers across her side in a wide circle. "She likes me!"

"Told ya."

With his sister occupied, Tim rejoined the medical examination. Doctor Sattler had one latex-clad hand in the Triceratops's beaked mouth, her nails gingerly scratching away at the blisters dotting her scaly tongue. A silvery pus bubbled out of the fresh wound. "It's pharmacological. From local plant life."

"Her pupils are dilated," Misty added.

"They are?" The veterinarian- - a pleasant, bespectacled man- - handed his miniature flashlight to the teenager, who promptly switched it on and directed the yellow beam into the aforementioned pupils. They constricted only slightly before swelling again. "Well, I'll be damned."

Ellie snapped the gloves off and tucked them into her front pocket. "You said every six weeks?"

"Yes. Same thing, every six weeks."

Simultaneously intrigued and baffled, the woman rose to her full height and started investigating the nearby vegetation. It astonished Misty that someone could be so fascinated by something as dull as plants. Of course, before the park, the objects of her affection had been little more than some decrepit bones and fossilized insects. Maybe she was in no position to judge…

Ellie spotted the incriminating growth: West Indian Lilac. The innocuous flowers were torn and scattered, as if something had been nibbling at it- - something like the Triceratops. "Is this West Indian Lilac?"

The veterinarian joined her, examined the flora, and felt his heart lurch sickly. He had a sudden premonition of a pink slip on his desk, delivered by Hammond himself, under the pretense he had bared the park's vulnerabilities to the guests. "Uhh… yes. But we know it's toxic, the-the animals don't eat it."

She eyed him with vague suspicion. "Are you sure?"

He uttered a pitchy, nervous laugh. "Pretty sure!"

Above the party, marbled thunderheads- - almost violet with sogginess- - inched across the sky and wove a sinister shroud over the once dazzling summer sun. Thin forks of lightning lashed down on the far horizon. The only person who seemed to notice the ominous shift in weather was Gennaro. He wasn't particularly popular with his fellows at the moment though, considering his only contributions to the Triceratops investigation thus far were remarks concerning their potentially illegal trespassing and the late time.

Ellie peered into the dinosaur's scaly, scabrous oral cavity once more before making up her mind. "I'm going to have to check the dinosaur's droppings."

Ian, who had been admiring Doctor Sattler from slightly less than afar, wanted to insure he had heard her correctly. "Dino… droppings? Droppings?"

"Dad, don't be such a six-year-old." The girl was about to skirt past her considerably revolted father when he took her by the wrist. After checking her watch for the time (Roger had taken his own apart with remarkable tact), he wrenched an arm around her and held her close. "Dad…"

"I can't hug my own daughter? These shared genetic codes mean nothing?" Ian asked in mock distress. "And I also don't want you roaming around… that."

They both watched- - her intrigued, him disgusted- - as Doctor Sattler yanked another rubber glove up the length of her arm and plunged said arm into a steaming pile of Triceratops waste. She withdrew a sample clump and examined it for the pretty lavender petals. Misty smirked and glanced up expectantly at Ian. "And what is that, Dad?"

He shook his head in disbelief. "That is one big pile of shit."

.

.

"Damn thing…"

Ray Arnold tapped his pen against the monitor's screen, hoping to smooth out the static. Across the Control Room, Muldoon telephoned the English manager of the Costa Rican Weather Service, Nedry worked sullenly on his own assignments, and Hammond paced the space impatiently. Thus far, Showcase Day had been nothing short of a disaster. And, if Muldoon's creased brow was any indication, it was about to get a hell of a lot worse.

The hunter hung up and faced his audience with a tempered frown. "The storm's not going to pass us or change course. It's coming right over us."

Arnold dropped the pen and pushed himself away from the desk, shaking his head. "That's it. We gotta shut things down, John. Send these people home."

"Now, wait just a minute, let's not- -"

"It's a hurricane, John," Muldoon repeated, irritation replacing the customary placidity in his tone.

"I'm perfectly aware of what a hurricane is Robert, but in this special case…"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Arnold interrupted. The faceless cast of technicians and supervisors twisted to him as a unit, simultaneously awed and hopeful. "The last shuttle leaves in approximately… five minutes! Drop what you're doing and leave now."

The workers eyed one another uneasily, but didn't disobey Arnold's command. Monitors were darkened one by one; wires and plugs were straightened and stored in their rightful places. They scampered out like a class of pupils scared to celebrate their summertime liberation in the presence of their strict schoolteacher.

The schoolteacher himself shook his head and slammed his cane down angrily. "Damn!"

.

.

"Doctor Sattler? I insist that we get moving!"

Ellie, who had not found even a fragmental trace of lilac berries in the Trike's droppings, barely acknowledged Gennaro. Her curtness was out of excitement, not dislike. "Oh… well, if it's alright with Doctor Harding, I'd like to stay and finish up with the Trike. Ya know, if it's…"

"Sure! I'm in a gas-powered Jeep, I can take you back to the Visitor's Center."

"Great." She stroked the beast's horn again, wishing she could alleviate her suffering. Despite the lack of evidence, Ellie was certain the surplus of toxic plants were a variable in this medical mystery.

Alan squatted down on his hams and placed an affectionate hand on his fiancé's shoulder. She smiled at his concern. "Are you sure?"

"Positive, honey. I'll see you at the resort. It'll be just you and me." Ellie lightly kissed his perpetually-furrowed brow, feeling the heat of his skin beneath her gentle lips. His eyes went bright with something not unlike passion and great embarrassment. "Are you glad you came?"

"So far."

"How disgusting," Ian commented cheerfully. Misty wasn't quite sure whether he was referencing the droppings incident or the gushy sentiment being shared between the doctors. She would bet money on the latter, which was quite a shame considering Misty loved the idea of her male hero marrying an intelligent and (according to her father) tenacious woman like Ellie. Then again, her father had more or less become embittered by his past relationships.

Thunder boomed deafeningly overhead; the Triceratops stirred and elicited a throaty moan not unlike a noise a terrified dog would elicit during a storm. The wind picked up, forcing Alan to remove his hat and hold it to his chest. He slowly, almost reluctantly, stood and walked towards the group. At the last moment, he turned to wave at Ellie. Her back was arched against him.

Feeling foolish, Alan lowered his hand and returned to the now-weathered path. Just as he vanished into the jade abyss of the grasslands, Ellie glanced up and lifted her hand to her fiancée. He was already gone.

.

.

The exhausted and slightly petulant band of travelers broke out into several minor altercations before they could even reach the Land Cruisers.

"Dad, with Jewish Jesus as our witness, why can't I cut my hair shorter?"

"Mom told me I'm in charge of you and that you're not supposed to make fun of me!"

"Doctor Grant, I just don't see what this little incident has to do with your… ah, theory concerning the park."

What little light had been present beforehand was entirely consumed by the ever-thickening maelstrom of charcoal-colored clouds. The atmosphere was bitter and dusty with electricity, a charge that extended beyond the realm of the enclosure fences extending the length of the roadway. It seemed the very air itself was quivering with anticipation.

"You're not getting a short haircut because you'll probably hate it and it'll look unprofessional, Jewish Jesus or not."

"She didn't say you were in charge! And you are scared of the thunder, that's not making fun of you."

"Look, that wasn't natural. If this park was really as perfect as you think it is, something that like wouldn't happen."

Doctor Grant and Gennaro parted ways before their increasingly snide comments could escalate into a full-scale debate. The Murphy siblings went chasing after one another in the halfheartedly tired way children do after a long day. Ian took his daughter's unmanageably curly ponytail in one hand, presented it to her, and then shook his head.

"Unfair," she said as she climbed into the backseat of the second Jeep. It was nice to have a little leg room.

"Life's unfair. Now go to sleep."

Misty snorted and removed her eyeglasses to polish the lenses. "I'm not five, Dad. I don't need to sleep after the slightest bit of excitement."

Ian rotated in his seat, expression a calculated balance of firm paternity and his own breed of smarminess. "Well, five or fifteen, you're not exactly the healthiest person to ever walk the Earth and I think it'd be a good idea to take care of yourself instead of worrying about the length of your hair."

"Wow. You got me." Nevertheless, Misty stretched her bulky frame across the tragically uncomfortable seats and rested her head against the door paneling. Once the vehicle began moving again, she became aware of the engine's consistent rumble beneath her. It was an incredibly pleasant sensation. Even though she was about to fall asleep in the presence of the Alan Grant, she was happy. The day had been wonderful. Chaos theories and sick dinosaurs aside, her wishes had been granted.

Misty folded her hands over her chest, feeling for the swell of her fairly pathetic lungs. As she began to drift off, she realized that the rhythm of her heartbeat bore a striking resemblance to distant, heavy footsteps.

.

.

"Henry! Delightful to see that you're still here!"

The geneticist in question slid the last of his research into the silver filing cabinet and flashed his employer a benign smile. From what he had heard from the technicians, Hammond was not to be crossed today. "Good evening, sir. I just saw the last of my assistants out and I decided perhaps I'd just stay in the resort tonight. If it's not an inconvenience to our guests."

"Not at all, my dear boy, not at all!" In spite of the circulating rumors, Hammond appeared to be as exuberant and boyish as ever. "In fact, I was wondering if you'd like to join me in my bungalow for a spot of coffee and ice cream. Maria makes the most wonderful ginger ice cream and since the visitors have yet to return, I don't have anyone to share the meal with."

Sharing anything with John Hammond was beyond what Wu could tolerate. However, it had been an extremely stressful day, which meant not even his interns could spare a moment to brew him a pot of joe. He knew Hammond would have excellent coffee, probably imported from Brazil. Every cell of him craved caffeine. "I'd be glad to, sir. Just let me gather my things."

Wu shrugged off his lab coat, hung it on its labeled hook, and replaced it with his black jacket. He considered picking up his wallet and keys, then decided against it. If he needed one, a room key could be acquired from Marcia in the resort. After all, he'd be back in the laboratory around six a.m. to consult the spreadsheets again.

Hammond waited, unnaturally patient, for his dinner guest to prepare himself and beamed when Wu shoved his laminated card into the door's security slot. "Shall we, Henry?"

"Of course, sir."

a/n: THIS CHAPTER IS REALLY SHORT I APOLOGIZE OH MY GOD! I just wanted to post something before school starts on Monday and also to kind of build tension for the next chapter (T-REX ATTACK NEXT). I hope you guys enjoyed the extra interactions because I HATE when stories just have an OC occasionally interjecting dialogue between word-for-word conversations. Okay sorry for the length but it'll get better I promise!