ADAPTATIONS
7 – Getting Situated
A week had passed and finally, the dig site's three new comers moved into their new home, though the odor of chemicals and gasoline still lingered in the air somewhat. After a series of skirmishes between Pet and Derek, the hybrid finally won at getting the master bedroom to herself. The room wasn't that big and space to walk around in was quite limited, what with the queen-sized bed taking up three quarters of the area. That and the dresser that was built into the wall towards the left corner end of the foot of the bed didn't help, any. Didn't medium sized travel trailers, like this, usually have dresser like drawers built in under the bed for space saving purposes? Even after cleaning the room and extensively washing the bedsheets, laying down on the bed still kicked up a strong smell of acetone and other strong odors. Pet wasn't surprised by this, seeing how the room was primarily used to store stronger grade cleaning solvents for dig site tools and equipment.
Meanwhile, Derek was made to stay in the back bedroom at the other end of trailer occupied by two sets of bunk beds. At least they weren't overly small and or barely big enough to allow a tall person, like him, to reside. Regardless, he'd complain about being forced to a bunk bed, but Muldoon would stand up for the hybrid. He would go on a rant saying how she deserved something to herself, for once, given the hell she'd been through over the years. Knowing it was no use to complain, Derek would give up and accept his fate. He was missing his little nook of an apartment, by now, and debated on going back to San Francisco to resume his daily life.
More than once he had thought this, but when thinking back on everything and in watching Pet and his uncle, would remember that besides each other, he was all they really had. This was his family, now, whether or not Pet was of blood relation or not. His uncle had raised her since the day she was born and on seldom occasion, even heard his uncle call her his daughter. A part of him didn't have the heart to walk away on that, seeing how all he really wanted was a family that wasn't broken and fucked up.
Derek sighed and got up from his lounging on his bottom bunk to stretch out. After giving it a night or two of adjusting to the sleeping arrangement, found it wasn't all that bad. He ventured out into the rest of the trailer to find his uncle nosing around in the kitchenette's pale-yellow fridge for something to eat. There wasn't much to offer, other than various sandwich meats, some left over pizza and someone's half eaten hamburger from the night before.
Muldoon sighed in admitting defeat to himself. "It looks like we need to get groceries."
Derek gave a, "Hmpf," of a response and leaned against the bar, arms crossed over his chest. "Define we."
Grey eyes squared down on chocolate brown ones. "Who in the bloody dazes do you think I'm talking about?"
"Do you actually trust her in public? I mean, aren't you worried she'll go chasing a cat or stray dog to skewer for a midafternoon snack?" Nephew just received a deadpan expression from uncle. "Fine. Whatever. I'll go put the tranq gun in the Jeep." Derek spun around to return to the bunk room, but stopped to question. "Think I should bring my Remington for that just in case?" Still the deadpan expression. "Just the tranq, got it."
Muldoon shook his head and closed the fridge door. He decided to take it upon himself to go find Pet to relay the news. He had zero intentions of leaving her at the dig site, regardless of how much he trusted Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler. He had a feeling where to find her and wandered outside towards the central white tent stretched over the earthed fossil. He really couldn't say he was surprised to find she had gravitated towards the dig site's lead scientist with his protégé nearby.
There, kneeling beside the fossil was Pet, learning how to properly clear away ground cover from a fossil through Grant's instructions. Muldoon couldn't help but smile. While he knew Grant was uncomfortable with her girlish fascination with him, all he could think back on were all the times the hybrid would fall over herself watching the scientist's TV documentaries when younger. Muldoon wondered if someone were to tell her, then, that she would later be working shoulder to shoulder with him at an excavation if she'd believe them. He sure as bloody hell wouldn't have!
Laying down next to her and working was Billy, trying to impress the present woman with his knowledge in fossils. Muldoon shook his head again, this time at the protégé. While he mentally complimented the much younger man on his persistent efforts to win Pet's attention, he found it mostly bothersome. Then came the thought that as long as Grant was around, the woman would see no one else but him no matter how hard Billy tried.
Muldoon approached the fossil sight and stared down at what remained of a once vicious and ruthless killer, a Velociraptor. Memory after memory played out in his head of the Big One and how intelligent and difficult she was to contain.
Pet speaking broke his thoughts off the past and back to present. "Hey, Rob. What brings you here?"
Muldoon didn't pry his grey eyes off the fossil's toothed jaws as he replied. He could almost feel his scars paining him, reminding him of his absolute hatred for raptors. "I was going to head to town in a few minutes to pick up some things from the store."
A guise of reluctance flooded over the hybrid. She looked down at the small tools in her hand. To Muldoon, she more resembled a small child not wanting to stop playing outside to come in. "Right. Okay," was grumbled in response.
Grant was partially relieved by this, but smiled anyway and tried to sound as reassuring as he could. "It's all right. We can pick this up again, later."
Pet's blue-green eyes reverted to Grant and she returned the smile. "Yeah, sure. That sounds good."
She met his gaze and felt her insides knot up and her chest tighten. Grant could almost read her thoughts pan through her oddly humanlike eyes and returned to chiseling hardened earth away from the fossil. He was beautiful to her and she couldn't help but admire that. He was even more alluring with the hat on as it gave him that adventurous look about him. The color of the grey head cover complimented and even brought out the color in his eyes. Maybe it was because he was wearing a very similar hat when she first saw him at Jurassic Park or maybe, it was because she had watched too much of his documentary and refused to see him any other way. Either way, she absolutely adored the paleontologist regardless if the hat was there or not. But she preferred the hat.
Muldoon saw the starry-eyed stare of the hybrid aimed at Grant, who was trying hard to ignore it. Oh, if only Pet could see how much of a girly girl she looked like at that moment. He could tell the scientist was becoming more and more bothered by the unwanted attention and spoke up. "Alright, get's a move on, then. The sooner the better."
Pet got up and dusted off her long sleeve blue shirt and jeans. She had voiced hating such constricting attire over her preferred tank top and shorts, but ended up losing the argument to Muldoon over her needing to keep her arms and legs covered.
That was, until they could come up with a believable cover story for the darker colored portions of her skin. Derek wanted to use the excuse of a skin disorder, but Muldoon felt it insufficient. Skin disorders didn't normally have a distinct pattern, like the darker skinned patches on Pet did.
Billy watched the young woman and company walk away towards Quarantine. He spoke to his mentor nearby. "Hey Dr. Grant, didn't you say last night how we needed some stuff from the store?"
Grant knew exactly what his protégé was getting at and it had nothing to do with going to the store for more milk, eggs, bacon and hamburger meat. "It can wait."
But before he could continue, Billy was chasing after the two in a cloud of limestone dust.
Pet went into the trailer just in time to see Derek shove a pistol into his holster at the back of his pants. She slimmed her eyes down on him. "Really?"
Derek shrugged. "What? There's no telling who is out there. I don't trust people." He adjusted his t-shirt over the back of his pants to better conceal the weapon. At the same time, he was eyeballing the limestone dust covered hybrid. "Gee whiz, Pet. You need a shower. I would say you could grab one before we leave but I know it would take you forever."
Pet poured a glass of water from a gallon jug beside the sink and chugged it. "Coming from you? You tend to take long showers, too."
Billy spoke from where he stood, leaning in the trailer's doorway. "It's fine. People go to town all the time covered in dust and plaster. Nobody cares."
Pet gestured to the junior scientist. "See? There you have it. So, get off my ass about my long showers. I don't know why it bothers you anyway. It's not like it's hurting anyone."
Derek snickered through a devious smile. "It's not that it's hurting me. I just don't get in there having fantasy dates with someone I've been ogling since before puberty." Muldoon smacked his nephew upside the head, as usual. It didn't deter the younger man from continuing in his teasing. "Tell me this...do you keep the hat on or off in your fantasies?"
"Oh, you little-" Pet shrilled and lunged at the man across the bar, never mind Billy standing nearby. He wore a confused expression and wasn't sure what to think as he watched the woman run after Derek into the bunk room. "I'm going to kick your ass!"
A loud thud and the sound of tussling echoed from the other end of the trailer. Derek laughed out, "Oh yes, please, you know I like it rough!"
Muldoon was about to go into the back room to break up the fighting when he saw the tranquilizer gun propped against the bottom of the bar. He picked it up and ignored the look of panic on the protégé's face as he carried it away. He bellowed, "Knock it off, you two! Get your asses in the Jeep before I decide to use this thing on one of you!"
Within ten minutes, the group of people was in the Jeep and heading off towards the nearest town.
The entire time grocery shopping, Billy stayed close to Pet. While Muldoon was worried about the hybrid's latest tag along, he was also happy about it. To an extent. Pet had never been on a date or even had a boyfriend before and he could see there was a level of excitement in her eyes. Muldoon just hoped for both of their sakes, though more for Billy's than hers, that things didn't turn out for the worst. Pet never had to worry about being self-conscious of what she was, until now. Now that she was around people who weren't brought to silence by a non-disclosure agreement, she was a bit more paranoid. It was only a matter of time before Billy either found out the hard way or was informed of what the young woman was. If or when that day ever came, what would become of it? How well could Dr. Grant's protégé be trusted?
Once their shopping was done, they returned to the dig site. Billy took his few bags of groceries to the trailer he shared with Grant while the others made back and forth trips between Quarantine and the Jeep for theirs. After their two-hundred and sixty-three dollars' worth of groceries were put away did Pet finally retreat to the bathroom for a shower. The whole time, she could hear Derek outside the door making lewd comments and suggestive sounds about her supposed fantasies.
The moment the shower turned off, however, Derek was quick to make a beeline out of the trailer to hide anywhere but in Quarantine. Pet stepped out of the bathroom in a comfortable black t-shirt and butterfly printed pajama pants. She looked straight at Muldoon chopping up an onion to cook with dinner and snorted. "Where did that little shit go?"
"Don't know, don't care."
Pet hissed a snort and went to her room for a small bottle of lotion. "If he doesn't knock it off, I'll finish what I started on Isla Sorna by tearing his ass apart." Muldoon chuckled and raked the chopped onions off the cutting board into a pan of uncooked hamburger meat. The hybrid squirted a line of lotion down her arm.
The trailer door opened and in stepped Derek. He and Pet locked gazes and his eyes cut down slyly. "So...how was he?"
The hybrid snapped the lid on the lotion bottle shut and snorted. In the blink of an eye, Pet forcefully threw the bottle at the man and hit him with it in the side in a loud crack. Derek yelped from the sting of the bottle and frantically rubbed his side. He lifted up his shirt to look where he had been hit, surprised to find a red welt in the shape of the bottle stare back at him.
"You bitch!" he laughed.
Pet scoffed. "Serves you right, you little shit!"
Muldoon simply ignored the two bickering and resumed preparing dinner. At least it wasn't like how they were in Kenya when his nephew came to visit that one summer. He was damn near to the point of locking Pet away in a fortified pen the zoo used for temperamental gorillas. If it came between the near violent outbursts between the two versus their rather inappropriate methods of antagonizing the other, he'd take the latter any day.
