ADAPTATIONS

20 - Payback

Terrence woke up the next morning, groggy and groaning in response to a head splitting headache ringing in his ears. The top of his left buttock was sore from where he had been hit with the tranquilizer dart. "That bastard," he mumbled and forced himself to sit up.

His vision was blurry and he rubbed at his eyes to find he was on a comfortable bed in a room to himself. He focused on his surroundings and smelled lavender in the air and saw a collection of pony tails and scrunchies on the night stand. This had to be Pet's room and he groaned in discomfort when slowly getting to his feet. Oh yeah, he was definitely going to get that little shit back for this.

He opened the door to find the trailer empty and scratched at his chin growing over in stubble. Where was everyone? "Hello?" No answer. Great. Now what?


Derek laughed to himself over a bite of egg and sausage in his mouth. "Seriously, though, did you see the look on his face before he hit the floor?"

Pet shook her head at the bounty hunter seated directly across the dining table. They were at Grant's trailer for breakfast. Billy handed her a fresh cup of coffee and joined her, resting an arm on the seat back behind her. "What were you doing with a tranq gun, anyway?"

"You're dating it," Derek answered, shoving another bite of food into his already full mouth.

Muldoon sighed. "Never know with her. One day she's perfectly fine and the next, frothing at the mouth in a tangent."

Derek washed down his bite of breakfast with a swig of coffee. "Also known as PMS." Billy almost choked on a sip of his own coffee.

Pet snorted and stirred creamer into her steaming cup of coffee. "You can go fuck yourself."

Derek cut up another bite of sausage. "I am curious, though...You mentioned having worked with him in Kenya. That wouldn't be the same guy you and Uncle Rob named Mr. Personality, would it?"

"The same," Muldoon stated from where he sat on the couch, eyes cruising through the many newspaper articles. "He's like a poster child for Ritalin."

Just then, a knock came at Grant's trailer door. Derek moved so the senior scientist could get out and answer the door. Grant opened the door to see his dig site's latest arrival. Terrence smiled. "Good morning Dr. Grant."

Derek could hear the overly chipper voice of the unwanted company and reached behind him to withdraw his pistol from his pants holster. Pet gave him a sour look. "You have got to be the most irresponsible and negligent man to ever own a gun of any kind."

Derek stared at the woman with a deadpan expression as he shoved a half of piece of toast into his mouth. "Sho," he slurred out.

The hybrid shook her head.

Terrence entered the trailer, smiling and waving at the group. His gaze lingered on Derek, however, as a scheming smile up stretched his pronounced features. "No harm, no foul?" The bounty hunter didn't verbally respond, but only glared bitterly. Terrence warmly smiled to the hybrid. "Thanks, by the way, for letting me crash on your bed. It's quite comfortable, by the way."

Pet smiled and nodded. "I think so."

Derek snickered. "I'm sure Pet's chew toy can agree." He dodged an attempted swing at his head, but missed the unexpected harsh booted kick to his shins. "Bitch," he wheezed. His stared at her in disbelief. "You don't play fair."

"At least my shoes were on," she snarled.

Grant sighed at the two people, Terrence confused. He tilted his head to the side, figuring it best to not ask. He shook off the growing collection of mental questions regarding the two and refocused on the paleontologist. "So, uh, what's there to do around here?"


Terrence stared at the bucket of plaster at his feet and watched as volunteer workers dug their hands into the substance to smear on different sized fossils. "Right," he stated and pulled up an unused, fold out chair.

Billy began explaining what to do while Grant and Derek hauled a prepared fossil to the museum's truck. Pet already had plaster, both fresh and dried, up to her elbows and covering the front of her apron. Derek set the fossil down and returned to the tent to get a drink from his sport's bottle full of Gatorade.

Terrence evilly grinned at the younger man and began a mental countdown in his head. It shouldn't be too much longer from now. All he had to do was sit and patiently wait. Twenty minutes later, Derek began squirming where he sat and grimacing in discomfort. He grabbed at his stomach and frowned. Had he eaten something bad? His lower gut churned and suddenly had the urge to go to the restroom. Not wanting to waste any more time, the young man bolted out of the tent and made a mad dash to Quarantine.

Ten minutes later, Derek returned and wearing an extremely angry scowl. He stopped shy of Terrence and pointed at him. "You son of a bitch! You put a laxative in my drink, didn't you?"

The man in question smirked at the arrogant younger man, him not saying a word. Pet looked at Derek and huffed a laugh. "Serves you right, if you ask me."

Terrence smiled evilly. "Payback is a bitch, isn't it? Next time, don't piss me off. Consider us even." He held out a hand chunked over with plaster. "Truce?" Derek reluctantly accepted it and returned to work, but not before pouring out the rest of his drink.


The last plastered fossil was loaded up into the truck and its tail bed blanketed with a thick tarp. The driver parked it under a trailer's porch awning and just in time too. Cool drops of rain began to pelt the Fort Peck Lake region, sending many excavation residents to seek cover. Pet didn't mind the rain, cool or not, as she had come to miss it. She always enjoyed sitting beneath the jungle canopy and watching the drops fall from the overhead leaves and onto the ground. Not to mention enjoying the smell of it, too. Here, though, the rain had a different smell to it and nothing like the islands'.

Thunder rolled in the dark clouds overhead and she glanced upwards to watch the turbulent clouds dance along the wind currents. It was a peaceful sight and a nice change of things compared to the usually sunny skies. Too bad for the excavation workers the cloud cover brought rain or else the shade would be welcomed to work under. Pet joined Billy at his trailer and went inside, laughing at the cold rain trickling down her back.

Once inside, the hybrid started wringing out her ponytail and bottom edges of her shirt so as to minimize a potential mess throughout the trailer. Billy didn't bother as he went to the washer and dryer's little utility area and unbuttoned his shirt. A glint flickered in the hybrid's eye when admiring the flexing of the man's muscles of his back. She approached the junior scientist, tossing his wet shirt into the washer, and closed the distance between them by wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

She kissed along his shoulder and up his neck, to his ear. She whispered, "Looks like we need to get you out of these wet clothes before you catch a cold..."

A devilish smile curled the corner of the man's lips and he turned to face the woman, instantly taken by her in a kiss. He felt himself be guided backwards and to his room.


Pet shivered against a chill that had managed to set in overnight and not just in the bedroom, but everywhere it seemed. She reached around her in for the blankets and frowned when finding herself alone in the bed once occupied by one other person. Where was Billy? Judging by the faint traces of his scent and the cool resting on the wrinkles of bed sheets, the man had been absent for quite some time. Her sleepy gaze went over to the alarm clock next to the bed to find it was nine-twenty AM. She had completely slept through breakfast.

Outside, it was still drizzling with rain, but not too bad that it couldn't be worked in. Grant hated it when it was like this. He preferred the loose dirt over the mud as things were now. Despite his best efforts to keep the primary dig site dry, high winds had blown aside a part of the tarp that rainwater had invaded through. Fossils were so much easier to clean and the dust to brush away unlike now. He sighed, wiping away an area he had just cleaned with a damp wash rag he had sitting in a bowl of water next to him.

Laying across the dig from him was Derek getting a tutorial in wet weather excavating from a veteran dig site volunteer. It seemed the bounty hunter wasn't cut out for this type of work after all. He grumbled in discouragement, but kept working regardless. It was either this or sit in the trailer with nothing to do. In times like now, he was missing the large cities of California's coast. So much to do and so many people to chase down! Since getting involved with the hybrid known as Pet, his bank account was starting to dwindle. First was the job with Isla Sorna that he hoped would pay big, but after the events leading to Virgil's team becoming dinosaur food and he being the sole survivor, he knew explaining that to InGen wouldn't work out so well. He knew better. Nope, best to just skip that pay check, never mind how big it would've been.

Then there was the month in the bunker. He had passed on several job offers that, though wouldn't have paid much individually, would have still ended up being a nice filler for the bank account once they were all completed. Then came this, the excavation site. This had to be the biggest money and time sink for the young man.

A ringing from his pants pocket made him stop in his scraping away dirt from the femur of the fossil to fetch the chiming object. He read the name to see who it was before answering. The name read Mike, a bail bondsman he usually worked with a lot in San Francisco. "Yeah, Mike, what's up?"

Derek politely excused himself from the fossil site to talk in private. As he walked out Pet walked in. A sharp smack on the backside and wink from the man to the hybrid sent a streak of annoyance down her spine. She turned to go after him, but stopped when seeing the man was already half way to Quarantine. She snorted in annoyance and pushed past a flap of tarp to go into the covered dig site area lit by utility lights and a light stand.

She didn't bother offering a good morning to Grant, nose deep in work and most likely oblivious to her presence, as she settled in next to Billy. The young woman collected a metal pick and overly worn out tooth brush to pick up where Derek had left off.

Pet hadn't been working long when Derek returning scared her. Her yelping a bark sent Grant's bowl of water spilling over his fresh work and Billy almost jumping out of his skin. She reached behind her and slapped the slightly older man on the leg. "Damn it you little shit! You scared me!"

As much as Derek wanted to giggle at the scene, he had other things to discuss. "Hey uh, I just got a job offer back in So Cal so I'm going to be gone for a few days."

Billy mocked a laugh. "Oh, whatever shall we do without you?"

Derek ignored the sarcastic and rhetorical question. "I'm going to have Uncle Rob drive me to a nearby airport so I can fly out."

"Okay," Pet stated, resuming her work.

"What, no good-bye hug or kiss? And here I thought we had something," Derek teasingly moped.

"Only thing you're going to get from me is a swift kick in the ass..."

"At least it's some kind of acknowledgment." Derek drove his hands into his pockets. "See you in a few days," he mumbled and left the tent.

Grant sighed and shook his head. "Maybe now we can get some peace and quiet around here."

"Probably." Pet quietly stated, scraping away a chunk of damp earth from the fossil.