ADAPTATIONS
37 - Getting to Work
Pet clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't watch the needle drawing closer to the surfaced vein at the inside of her elbow. A moment later, a sharp pinch of the needle stabbing into her arm brought forth a yelped bark from the hybrid.
Derek shook his head, Terrence commenting. "After all these years, you're still a pansy over needles. You've been trampled by animals, bitten by feral cats, fought who knows how many dinosaurs that you have several scars to show for, yet…you still can't take a needle."
"Shut up," the hybrid snapped. Pet started to relax after the hard part of getting pricked passed. The woman studied the scientist watching the vial fill with blood. "What's he like?"
The question threw the scientist off. He broke his monitoring the vial to meet the woman's normal blue-green eyes. "What? Who's what like?"
"Masrani." Pet's sad voice matched her troubled expression. ''Is he out to kill me like the others were?"
Jacobs huffed a laugh. "What makes you think he's out to kill you?"
Muldoon, leaning against a wall behind where Pet sat, spoke up. "He's been calling around to people who have had past interactions with her, asking about her. He called up my nephew's boss asking questions. Called up a good friend of mine asking what he knew about her and when he last saw her." The ex-game warden trained his gaze down on the scientist, changing out the full blood vial for an empty one. "You can't tell me he's not trying to find her."
Terrence spoke up, next. "Our best guess is that he's trying to locate her to terminate her. People in charge of InGen have a track record for wanting her dead. I personally know this."
Derek snorted. "Same can be said for that piece of shit Stevens, too. He put some serious money into making sure she was deleted from existence."
Pet looked so vulnerable where she sat, her eyes glossing over. "What's to say this new guy isn't the same?" Jacobs bit out a frown and exhaled a heavy breath. "Do you know what it's like waking up every day and hoping that day isn't the day you're found and killed?"
Jacobs tried to smile the most comfortingly he could. "I don't think you have to worry about that with Mr. Masrani. He's too consumed in trying to find a cure for your illness versus finding you to kill you." The second full vial was swapped out for the empty third and last one.
Hearing the news seized the breath in Pet's chest. "What? But...why?" None of what Jacobs said made sense to her. "I'm the biggest threat walking for InGen. What if I'm ever discovered and the news of what I am released to the public? InGen would be shut down completely and that man brought down with it. Doesn't he realize what all is at stake?"
Derek interrupted. "Which is why I'm not convinced he's actually trying to find you to cure you."
Jacobs grumbled out, "All the money and hours of work put into finding a cure suggest otherwise. Only reason one hasn't been made specifically for Pet, yet, is because we need a sample of her blood with the illness currently active." Derek looked to his uncle and Terrence in question. Both of the other men were just as hesitant to take the geneticist's word.
After the three vials of blood were collected, Jacobs carefully extracted the needle. He placed a cotton ball on the bleeding puncture mark, Pet already knowing to hold it in place until the bleeding stopped. The scientist appropriately labeled the vials with the date and time of collection.
He lightly laughed. "I figured by now you would be over your dislike for needles. But then again, you've always been this way since a kid. Vaccination days were always the worst. Even with cartoons on in the vet analysis area you still freaked out."
After the vials were labeled, Muldoon sat a thermos down on the table top half full of ice. "You said you needed something to transport the samples in. Well, there you go. The ice should keep for a majority of the way, if not all." Jacobs positioned the vials in the ice accordingly.
Pet was still watching the scientist with those same deep in debate eyes. "You're saying I should trust Masrani, then..."
Derek spoke up before anyone else could. "No, hell no, absolutely not, Pet! No! We know nothing about this guy other than what the news media tries to promote about him. Sure, they're going to make him look like this great and incredible person, like he's some second coming but he's not! No man with that amount of money and power has the bleeding heart on their shoulder like the media pops and blows about. He didn't get to where is because he's such a great guy, Pet. People of his magnitude get there by stepping on lesser peasants like us without a second thought or concern."
Pet rolled her eyes. "He inherited everything he has from his father, shit head. If you're going to blame anyone for walking on people, blame the father. He was a bit of a prude, anyway, from what I remember of him." Pet lowered her arm and removed the cotton ball to look at the reddened needle puncture site. "Besides, rich people can care, too. Look at Bruce Wayne. To the public he showed one side, but on the inside he was someone completely different. He cared about the people and even faced life or death situations for them."
Terrence stared at the woman in disbelief. "You just had to go there, didn't you?"
Derek face palmed and ranted between his fingers. "That was a comic book, Pet! A make believe world! Shit like that doesn't happen in real life!"
"You'd think human-dinosaur hybrids wouldn't either." She shrugged. "But here I am. Alive and kicking."
"More like alive and bitching," Derek groaned.
"I'm just saying. Sometimes, things happen for a reason."
All eyes watched the red Jeep disappear down the dirt road until it was obscured by mountainside forest growth. In the front passenger seat, Jacobs sighed beneath his having to wear the black head cover again. Derek cracked a mischievous, but amused smile and turned on the stereo. The scientist whined loudly. Not this song again! The driver started drumming on the steering wheel in tempo to the rhythm. This was going to be a long, long ride back to Palo Alto.
Nine-o-clock at night and finally back at InGen's headquarters. Derek shook the sleeping, and snoring, scientist awake. "Hey Doc, we're back." The head cover was slipped off the man's head. "Get your ass to work with that viraling out cure."
Jacobs readjusted his glasses on his face from their crooked position and groggily focused on the surroundings. They were definitely back, alright...at the lab. The passenger looked angrily at the driver. "You couldn't take me home, first?"
"Unless you have a lab somewhere in your apartment, which last I looked you didn't, then you need to be here." Derek reached over and opened the passenger side door.
"It's night time! I need rest!"
The younger man scoffed. "You rested for the past hour and a half. Besides, I still have a hell of a drive back to the others."
Frowning in disapproval, the geneticist collected his briefcase from the floorboard of the front seat and the thermos from the cup holder. Grumbling, he got out of the Jeep. "I expect you'll be waiting for me to finish doing a quick blood analysis?"
"As if."
"How am I supposed to get back home, then?"
Derek shrugged. "Call a taxi? Walk? A city bus? There's ways." He smiled, waved, and put the Jeep into reverse. "I'll call you in a couple days to check on your progress. Until then, tah tah!" With that, he threw the Jeep into first gear and left.
Jacobs kicked at the asphalt of the parking lot, cursing under his breath. Having no other choice, he went inside the building via an employee's side door located more towards the back of the complex. He fumbled about in his shirt pocket. No ID. Then he went through his pants pockets. No ID. He knelt down and rested his briefcase on his knee and opened it to check inside. The man ran along the inside of the lid's pocket. Bingo. He extracted the ID and stood up, sliding it through the card access reader.
His coming into the building got the attention of the facility's night shift security guard. The security officer, a tall black man, came into view from around a corner. In one hand was a flashlight and his other hand resting on his pistol holster at his side. "Oh, it's just you Dr. Jacobs." The man relaxed a bit and smiled. "How's your aunt doing?"
Jacobs froze. "Pardon?"
"Rumor has it you had to take an emergency leave of absence because your aunt was in bad health." He raised a brow in question to the man when watching his confused expression become further so.
"Oh, oh right!" Jacobs nervously laughed. "She's well, now. Doing fine."
"Good to hear." The security guard pointed at the thermos with the beam of his flashlight. "Deciding to work late?"
"Yeah, I've...uh... been gone and wanting to catch up on whatever work I've possibly fell behind on." The lightly sweating scientist waved the thermos in the air. "Brought some coffee to help me."
"I hear ya." The security guard stood aside. "Good luck, then."
Jacobs nodded in appreciation and quietly went to his office and corresponding lab to get what work done that he could.
The four people couldn't wait to be back at the dig site. As Derek and Terrence fought over Quarantine's shower, Pet escaped to Grant's trailer for a shower, there. He didn't mind her company and even decided on joining her since they were alone.
Afterwards, and as Pet was drying off, Grant hastily got dressed and was back in the bathroom. He ran his black comb under the bathroom water to dampen it and then through his hair to style it. He turned his head from side to side in the bathroom mirror to analyze how he looked from all angles. Seemed like no matter what he did, he couldn't hide the stubborn part of his hair refusing to lay down. That's what he got for sleeping on it wet the night before.
Pet got dressed as well in a cranberry colored t-shirt and blue jeans, an amused smile pulling at her lips. She shook her head. "I don't see why you're so concerned about how your hair looks, anyway. You're going to wear your hat and when it's not on, it's going to be a mess because you're constantly going to be messing with it."
The man tossed the comb to the side of the sink and sighed in frustration. "I at least want to try and look decent for the new college students coming to the site, today."
"I don't think they're going to care. It's going to be one of three things if not all the above. One, the fan girls are going to be swooning regardless of how you're dressed and or look. Two, the guys that come to the site are going to be all about the fossil and no offense, not so much about you. And three," Pet neared the man and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck to gaze lovingly into his eyes. "You're Dr. Alan Grant, world renowned paleontologist. Any fan girl not falling over themselves or anyone with itchy fingers trying to work on the fossil will no doubt be all eyes and ears to what you have to say."
"Or there's option four." His smiling in scheming brought a curious brow from the woman. "Let Billy deal with the new kids and I hide in the office." Pet laughed and met the man in a kiss. "Then there's always saying to hell with it and hiding in here..."
There was a glint in his eye that drew a mutual smile from the hybrid. "I like where this is going," and gave him another kiss.
Billy called behind them from inside the kitchen area. "No way are you guys are pulling the 'need to review the reports' excuse while I babysit the visiting kids." Grant lightly laughed at his protégé and went into the kitchen to make him a breakfast plate.
Two hours later, a blue bus with the Museum of the Rockies logo displayed across both sides and back, pulled up to the dig site. Billy stood off to the side and waited for all the students to unload. He had been duped, again for another one of Grant's excuses. The radar imaging computer was goofing up and he needed to be there to make sure its repairing wouldn't affect its relaying data. As if. Everyone knew how much Grant hated computers and did his best to avoid them. Now as far as where Pet went, that was a different story. He knew she wasn't off hiding, too, but was actually working somewhere. Or so he thought. In his visually searching the excavation, he was able to see Terrence and Derek sitting by Quarantine and smiling, waving at him. Figures.
Derek laughed to the man seated next to him. "Bets...Boy Scout makes an idiot of himself, again, just like he did a couple semesters ago."
"Nah," Terrence stated. "I think he's going to do just fine. He's getting better at this sort of thing. The whole dig site touring and all." Both men looked to each other for a minute. "You're on." They shook hands.
Billy couldn't hear what was being said but knew it couldn't be in his favor. Chances are, the little shit was up to his betting and most likely, against him in some way. The junior scientist looked back over to the bus as the last of the students got off. He expected the nerdy student of the class to get off last, just as it usually had been in the past, which he couldn't say anything bad about. He used to be that kid. Stayed made fun of for being the brainiac of the class until he got the last laugh when asked to work at the site full time by Dr. Grant himself. Now, he was the envy of past class mates as some struggled to find work.
Much to his expectations of the last bus student, he found himself wordlessly surprised. Her hazel eyes, curtained by long, curly brunette hair cascading past her shoulders, locked onto his. He subconsciously smiled at the beautiful young woman appearing in her early twenties.
Even Derek's eyes widened at seeing the student. "Dude, she's hot." He sat down his sports bottle to stand up, but Terrence grabbed his arm and stopped him. "What-"
"Give Boy Scout a chance."
"But she's-"
A heavy hand rested on his other shoulder causing Derek to look up and see it was his uncle. Muldoon calmly stated, "You're keeping your ass right here." Derek grumbled in reluctance and did as told.
Billy smiled at the collection of twenty-three students. "Good morning, everyone," Nervous waves and quiet greetings replied to the man. "Welcome to the Fort Peck Lake excavation site." Now would be a good time for the head man himself to come to his aid and take over. Unfortunately, he knew that wasn't going to happen. At least Veronica could make an appearance.
Her giving explanations and tours of the site was always a fun event. Anytime questions were asked regarding Grant and Jurassic Park, she'd shoot them down in the most polite but earnest way possible. It was always in a way that made the student or students as awkward as possible. She had a knack for making hot headed students feel small. Billy would love for that to happen sooner rather than later as in, at that particular moment for he could tell this was going to be one of those collection of students.
A male student at the front of the group, looking more like a boy genius who should be studying rocket science rather than paleontology, questioned. "Will we be getting a chance to speak with Dr. Grant, himself? I have a few questions I've been collecting on asking him." Him pulling out a small spiral notebook from a shoulder bag and flipping it open to a page didn't look much like a few questions written down. More like a novel.
"Oh boy," Billy sighed under his breath.
Grant was still nowhere to be found and thankfully, Terrence came to Billy's aid in reverting questions about the island. After a tour and thorough explanation of the many tents and excavation work stations, the students were allowed to go their own ways to take a look around. But they could not touch anything or try to involve themselves in any of the work. The trip was purely for observation and educational purposes only. Hands on work would come later on in the year, should students choose to participate at the dig site.
Billy stood, watching the attractive, brunette woman weave through equipment scattered about the site and took it upon himself to accompany her. She saw him and lit up with a smile. "Hey. Nice place you guys have here. I was expecting something a bit different, but this..." she gestured around her. "Is truly amazing. Hopefully I can get approved to help out around here once the semester is over."
"That'd be cool," Billy boyishly said. He could feel the palms of his hands start to sweat in nervousness and he drove them into his pants pockets. "I think you'll like it here. We like to keep a professional work environment. Dr. Grant makes sure to that." The woman giggled. "What was your name again? I'm sorry, I completely forgot a lot of the other students' names when boy genius started going on about his questions."
The woman shrugged. "No worries and I completely understand. He's like that in class, too. Sometimes I feel sorry for the professor." She smiled warmly to the man. "I'm Cheryl Logan."
"Nice to meet you." Billy had already introduced himself to the visitors shortly after their arriving, so no need to do it again. "My apologies for Dr. Grant not being able to meet you all in person. He's been extremely busy as of late, so I've been taking over for him."
"Ah."
"When he isn't around, things fall on me. When I'm not here, her over there," he pointed at Pet finally making an appearance as she and Terrence carried a heavy appearing box to the office trailer, "is in charge. That's Veronica."
Derek could be seen approaching the hybrid. "Hey Pet..." Seeing how she was busy and unable to immediately act, he smacked her sharply on her backside. "Good work."
Pet snorted. "Just wait till I put this box down." The man took off running.
As soon as the box was sat down, the hybrid took off after him now half way across the dig site. Into Quarantine he went. He tried to lock the door behind him, but wasn't fast enough.
Billy grimaced and tried to remain composed for professionalism's sake and continued. "Should neither of us three be immediately available then that tall, intimidating guy standing by that trailer," he pointed to Muldoon who was going into Quarantine, "has been known to step up and take control of things." Crashing around and something glass breaking sounded from within the trailer. "Anyone hanging around Ol' Quarantine has a pretty good handle on things around here and are really good about helping out."
Cheryl looked to the junior scientist curiously. "Ol' Quarantine?"
"It's a name we gave the trailer back when it stored a various assortment of chemicals, extra gas cans and some other stuff. It always smelled horrible."
Derek charged out of the trailer, almost knocking the front door off its hinges in the process. Behind him was the hybrid, her jumping and tackling him to the ground. "I'm going to kick your ass," she could be heard growling.
Cheryl stiffened back a giggle as Billy timidly scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah..." Good thing Grant wasn't around to see the floor show.
Cool temperatures surrendered to warmer ones now that mid-June was upon them. Six of the twenty-three students that had visited the dig site earlier in the year had been approved to work at the excavation outside of class. It took some convincing on Billy's part before Grant said yes to the pretty brunette named Cheryl.
In exchange for agreeing, Billy would have to accept the responsibilities of showing visiting students around the dig site from now on. Wincing at the proposal, the protégé accepted. The day Cheryl arrived back to the site had Billy in a knot of excitement and nerves. Derek teased him whenever possible whereas Pet would try to offer assistance.
"Don't start trying to show off your knowledge of things just yet," Pet would explain. "Sort of comes off all 'hey look how smart I am' and it can sort of come off the wrong way." Billy stared at her blankly, her shrugging.
Days turned to weeks, Pet ever so slightly coming to familiarize herself with the rather friendly young woman. The hybrid had the student with her as she explained the plastering process, but Cheryl's attention was distracted elsewhere. Pet's eyes darted between the woman and Billy busy at the fossil site.
Pet sighed. Both people were obviously interested in the other, yet neither of them had made the first move. They exchanged words here and there, but never anything noteworthy. The hybrid cleared her throat, snapping Cheryl back into reality. "If you're wanting an ice breaker with that guy, ask him to help you or have him explain something work stuffy like. He likes to show off his knowledge."
Derek, who's forearms and hands were caked in plaster, leaned in closer to Pet. "Can I show off my knowledge to you, Pet?"
The hybrid flicked a small amount of plaster at the man's face. "How about you get back to work?"
Grant stepped into the tent to check on the progress of things and took a stand next to the hybrid. "Got a call. Looks like I have a seminar scheduled for next week."
Pet looked to the man. "How long will you be gone?"
"Two, maybe three days, at most."
Derek scooped another handful of plaster from a nearby bowl and began smearing it on a fist sized, rock looking fossil. "Great. That means Boy Scout will be in charge."
Cheryl looked to the working young man and then to Pet. "Boy Scout?"
The hybrid gripped Derek on the shoulder and dug her dulled claws into the muscle. "Derek, here, has a tendency of giving nicknames to people." The man flinched beneath her grip, laughing and squirming at the same time.
Grant sighed at the never-ending pain in the ass Derek was. He looked back at the hybrid. "Can we talk about this somewhere not around distractions?"
Derek giggled. "I know what that means." It was Grant's turn to hit the smart mouth bounty hunter in the back of the head this time. Derek laughed while watching both people leave the tent.
