JURASSIC PARK III

10 - Reunions

Grant kept a close watch on Pet. She was weak and her hands shaking. Every time she tried to pick something up, her grip was questionable. At one point she almost dropped a pair of binoculars. He had to quickly take them from her before she did drop and possibly break them. Anytime he wanted to ask her if she was sure she was going to be alright, he'd receive a spiteful glare. That or she just didn't appreciate his assistance. He wasn't quite sure which part of her was acting so aggressive towards him; the raptor in her or her pride and disliking feeling helpless. Either way, there was no winning with her.

Slowly and cautiously, Eric opened the hatch to the fuel tanker and peered around. The area was clear. He opened it all the way and stepped out, followed by the other two people. Fresh, morning air filled their lungs, Pet gagging and coughing. Breathing too deeply was a chore.

Grant hated to bother the woman so he spoke to Eric instead. "How familiar are you with the island? Were you able to find a map when salvaging supplies?"

"I found something of one, but it was too faded and torn to read so I didn't bother with it."

Pet snorted in annoyance. She knew this island pretty well. Why didn't he ask her? Suddenly it was all about asking the kid? Anger and jealousy seethed in the hybrid.

"There's a river not far from here, though. I remember coming across it when walking around one day." Eric led the way, Grant following behind him and Pet trailing up the rear.

She adjusted her backpack on her shoulders, disliking how heavy it was feeling. She wasn't about to verbally complain, though, or show any hint of it being a bother to her. The less weakness she showed, the better things would be in her favor.


Pet checked her sports wrist watch for the time. It was currently ten AM. It's not like it mattered, any, seeing how the dinosaurs had no definite breakfast, lunch and dinner time.

Grant and his companions arrived at a cliff. They stopped shy of its ledge, the man studying the river. The current didn't appear very strong, but looks from this distance could be deceiving. He could see a collection of what looked like debris alongside the bank and squinted to focus on the site. Why was he doing this? He then dropped his backpack at his feet to retrieve the binoculars he had packed up from the fuel truck. He focused in on the underlying river bank to see a boat.

"There's a boat, right alongside the bank. Looks in good shape."

Eric took the binoculars from the scientist to see for himself. "Rescue boat?"

One could only hope. "No, no. Just something left behind. But it floats."

Pet had taken a knee to help relieve the weight on her feet and reached out for the binoculars in Eric's hand. "It floats, yeah, but will it run?" She peered down on the site in mention. "It's an animal transport. We used to use those a lot in transferring smaller dinosaurs around on the island and to the dock or landing strip. From there, they'd get taken to Isla Nublar for the park exhibits."

She groaned when getting back to her feet and handed the binoculars back to Eric. The boy was curious. "What about the big dinosaurs? Like the long necks? And the T-Rex? How did you move those?"

Pet and Eric followed behind Grant, her resuming her explaining. "They were either transported when juvenile and small enough to allow for moving or they were hatched on Isla Nublar and set loose into the wilds of their respective paddocks once a foster parent was found."

"Oh cool! I bet working on the park was fun."

The woman grimaced in remembrance. "Not so much." One memory came to her mind the most when recalling the unfortunate events surrounding her once good friend, Jophrey. "Accidents happened and lives were lost more times than I'd like to count when dealing with the more dangerous species."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Something about man thinking they can control a stronger force than them."

Eric was curious. "But I would think keeping dinosaurs in a zoo would be like elephants or rinos. Just...bigger and with more teeth."

Pet patted the boy on the shoulder. "It's the nature of things. Crap happens. Why do you think you ended up stranded on an island? Or Dr. Grant and I for that matter? There is no controlling that uncertainty in things."

Eric wrinkled his nose. "Sounds like you've been spending too much time around Dr. Malcolm."

"Nope," Pet quipped. "Just idiots."

Grant spoke up. "You'll have to forgive Veronica, Eric. She's a product of her upbringing. She was raised around an alarmist, hard ass of a man who was always armed for that just in case crap happens."

Eric was a bit thrown off by the woman's persona and decided to stay closer to Grant, instead. He buried his hands inside this tan, InGen logoed jacket and sighed. Inside one of the pockets was what looked like a claw he had found. Perhaps the older man would be interested in it.

The boy pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to the other person. "Know what this is?"

Grant took one look at it and faintly smiled to himself. "It's a raptor claw. I used to have one...a fossil."

"Mine is new." Eric sounded so proud of himself, like he had something over the experienced paleontologist. Heh, as if.

If wanting to get technical with it, he had two of them and they were still in working order, walking just a couple feet behind them. He gave the weary, flush faced hybrid a look over the shoulder. She was still patting along behind them, feet more of a shuffle than her usual light and careful steps.

"How much of the island did you explore?"

"I stayed pretty close to the compound. I figured if anyone came looking for me, that's where they'd start."

Yes, it was true human nature would go poking around ruins first for either cover or recovery for survivors. But sometimes, it wasn't always the best thing to do. "We need to get to the coast. That was the original plan."

"Are you sure? The closer you get to water, the bigger things get."

Pet rolled her throbbing, blood shot eyes and shook her dizzy head. She wanted to smack the kid so badly in the back of the head. What kind of logic was he thinking? Good thing Muldoon or Terrence wasn't there. Then the boy would get a real lesson in animal behavior. She smiled to herself at the thought of.

Her amusement with her thoughts was abruptly halted when something odd and out of place sounded from somewhere distant in the jungle. She perked her head up and gazed out into the shrubbery in the direction the sound was coming from. At first, she thought it might've been a bird, but no bird on the island had that exotic of a chirp...or as melodic as that.

Was that- "Listen," Eric stated.

Grant hesitated in his pace to observe the two people. "What?"

"That's my dad's satellite phone!"

In the blink of an eye, Eric was trampling away through the grass just as tall as he was and heading in the direction of the phone ring. Grant was trying to keep up, but was also trying to make sure the hybrid wasn't going to fall out. What the man couldn't see to follow, he could hear. Eric's frantically shouting at the top of his lungs for his parents couldn't be missed.

Pet's adrenaline kicked in and she managed to keep up with Grant, how she wasn't sure. She fell over herself and tumbled to the ground, screeching at the sudden impact of pain. Strong hands lifted her by her arm and hoisted her back to her feet. The sounds of other people shouting back became more distinct.

Grant panted out, "That sounds like the Kirbys!"

"That's because it is." Pet took hold of the man and urged him to keep going. "Go, go!" And they pursued the trailing voices to their source.

Forest growth gave way to a sunny field occupied by a large border fence and wire net. On the other side of it were the Kirbys and Billy running at full speed across the field. Eric and Amanda were the first ones to reach their side of the fence and they joyously collided against the other. The family was reunited, for the most part, separated only by the rope net.

The scientists were equally relieved to see the other alive, as well. Billy should've have doubted his mentor. After all, he'd been in a similar situation already and had the experienced hybrid at his side. "Boy, am I glad to see you." He looked to Pet standing shy of where Grant was. "You look rough. You okay?"

Pet bit her lips together and nodded. "Yep. Just...being me."

But Billy wasn't convinced. He knew that look in her bloodshot, glossed over eyes and that fluster in her face. A familiar strap overlaying his mentor's chest brought a hopeful twinkle to his eye. "Hey, you got my bag."

Grant nodded and smiled. "Yeah, lucky strap."

Did he know? Surely, he didn't. Billy grew nervous with that uncertainty. "Want me to carry it?"

Either Grant didn't care or chose not to answer when studying the fencing, hands on his hips. "We need to find a gap, here."

He recalled the perimeter fence around the park's visitor center and how he and the kids had climbed over it. That was, before Tim got electrocuted. Such would not be the case in this situation since the fence wasn't electrified. Only one problem, though. Those spikes at the top would pose a problem. His eyes rolled in their sockets to the machete still on Pet's belt.

Pet backed away from the fence to study it, as well, forgetting all about the machete. She started walking away and parallel down the obstructing object. Grant called after her, "Veronica..."

Meanwhile, the rejoined family continued to gush, Paul genuinely curious. "How did you know we were here?"

Eric forced himself away from his mother's smothering embrace long enough to answer his father. "The phone. That stupid jingle from the store. I heard it!"

"My phone?" That didn't make any sense to Paul. He didn't have his phone on him.

"Yeah, your satellite phone."

By now, Pet was long away from caring about what Paul had to say. Sure, she was happy the family was together, again, but did he still have to have the ability to talk? She really didn't like that guy.

Ringing. There was that phone ring again, but it wasn't coming from the group of people roughly fifteen feet away. No this was coming from behind them. The hybrid reluctantly looked over her shoulder to see the source of the phone ring. The Spinosaur.

She snorted a hiss. "Ah hell. Alan!" She looked to Grant standing a little bit away. "Get that ass moving!"

The dinosaur roaring startled the group of people and they took off running in the direction the hybrid had been walking away in. She ran, passing by what looked like an opening in the fence's beams and backtracked.

She pointed at it and motioned for the others. "Here, here! Through here!" She ran through it, Eric moments behind and Grant behind him. Pet took him by this shirt and yanked him through, the dinosaur's massive jaws inches shy of grabbing him.

They ran until they felt a safe distance from the fencing and turned to watch the frustrated Spinosaur pace around, roaring. Paul and Amanda refused to relax their tight clutch on their son, especially with a large fearsome dinosaur not too far away.

Billy took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. His heart was racing. Was this what Pet had to live with for four years? "That was close." He looked at the woman kneeling on the ground and heavily panting. "You okay?" She nodded.

CRASH! The Spinosaur had busted through the metal beams of the fence, leaving nothing between it and the group of people. Pet grabbed Grant by his arm. "In the building! Run! Go!"

The group did so without further hesitation. The men slammed the building's double, heavy metal doors shut and used their combined weight to keep them closed while securing them. Over and over the attacking Spinosaur tried to get in, its might against the doors rattling them on their hinges.

After watching the dinosaur charge through the border fencing, everyone was a bit skeptical in the doors' ability to hold it back as well. Grant questioned the hybrid, looking as though about to pass out. "How strong are those things?"

Pet answered between pants. "It just bust…through a fence...I think…it's pretty strong."

"No, I mean the doors. Will they keep that thing out?"

"Pretty sure they will." Paul's worry laced blue eyes met the woman's raptor ones. The way she looked at him still greatly unnerved him. "But I suggest we not wait around to find out just how determined that thing is to get us." She hissed a snort at the man and walked away, following Grant and Billy.

Just beyond a series of broken windows was a rather innocent view overlooking the river and surrounding mountains. Despite how peaceful the view looked from here, things could be and had been quite chaotic out there. Pet remembered coming here a handful of occasions and frowned. Surely nothing could still be alive, seeing how the specimens this building complex hosted were confined to a limited area and fed using a time release machine. Fish would be brought in on a regular basis and kept in large pools within the facility. Seeing how there was no one there to supply fish and the machines out of order, how would they have gotten food? Sure, there was the river, but there wouldn't be enough fish to feed what animals there were.

Pet leaned against a window seal and groaned in pain. If she could lay down and sleep, that would be great. Alas, though, it wasn't happening. Grant joined her, obviously looking troubled. What now? Where were they to go? What were they to do? The river lie just beneath the compound and knew that by following it downstream, it'd lead to the coast.

"Alan," Billy began, "you want to give me the bag back?"

"It's okay, I got it." Grant had completely forgotten he had it. He had been carrying it around so much that he had become used to it being there.

The younger man wasn't going to accept that. Billy had to have his bag back. Before now, when believing it to be gone, he accepted the loss and wrote it off. Now that it was back and appearing undamaged, there was hope; a hope that was consuming him to the point of dangerously obsessed.

"Please, give me the bag."

Billy's tone of voice drew interest from Pet and she stood up from her leaning to look inquisitively at him. She then looked over to a just as thrown off Grant, seeming more agitated and suspicious than anything.

Grant knew the bag and camera held a significance to his protégé, but why was he all of a sudden so obsessed in having it back? This was the third time since reuniting he had asked for it. Something wasn't right.

Billy's expression wore a level of passive aggressiveness Pet had never seen before. "It's not safe."

The woman was mind blown. "Not safe? What? If it wasn't for Alan, your bag would've been bye bye, jackass. What's gotten into you, anyway?"

Grant wanted to know the same thing. A mental war broke out in his head. He felt the urge to unzip it to see what was inside, other than a camera, but knew he really wasn't wanting to find out. What had Billy done this time? Slowly, Grant began to unzip it, Billy's face washing of all color. He looked sick and felt just as. A gut-wrenching knot rose to his throat.

Shit. He was screwed. No, fired. Whatever future he thought he had in paleontology was about to be erased. Maybe he could convince his mentor his reasoning for and make him see his side of things. If not Grant then maybe Pet. Pet was an understanding and sympathetic type. He could convince her and she could speak on his behalf to Grant should things go sour.

Once the flap was unzipped, Grant opened to find the perfect explanation for everything. "Raptor eggs."

Pet gasped. "What the fuck, Billy! You...Oh my God I don't believe it..." She brought a hand to her mouth in horror. "Why?"

Grant scowled at his protégé, him growling in question. "Did you steal raptor eggs?"

Billy was shaking all over in anxiety and absolute fear. Oh, he was done for. The look in his mentor's eyes let him know really quickly there would be no getting out of this even if the hybrid took his side. And well, judging by the hybrid's jaw dropped expression, she wasn't going to forgive him either. He was so screwed.

So many things Grant wanted to say, none of which would be appropriate to say with a child present nearby. He clenched his jaw and zipped closed the bag. "Now it all makes sense."

"I swear, if I'd known you were going to end up with them..." Billy swallowed the knot rising into his throat. The bitter taste of bile couldn't be swallowed back as he tried to keep from succumbing to wanting to be sick. "It was an impulse. I thought they'd be worth a fortune. Enough to fund the dig site another ten more years." He had to get the senior scientist to understand. "You have to believe me. This was a stupid decision-"

Pet cut in. "No shit, you think!?"

Paul could both hear and see things weren't doing so well for the three scientists and cautiously approached them. Billy continued. "I did it with the best intentions."

"With the best intentions," Grant mocked back. "Some of the worth things...imaginable...were done with the best intentions." He took a step closer to the younger man, Pet recoiling a bit when feeling the strong wave of anger radiate off him. "You know what, Billy? As far as I'm concerned, you're no better than the people that built this place!"

The words stung Billy in a way he never thought imaginable. Everything inside him shattered. He looked up to the renowned paleontologist with the highest respect possible and to be hit with such heavy, impacting words destroyed him on the inside.

As for Pet, she had no idea the older man could be so hateful in words. After growing up around Hammond and Muldoon a better part of her life, harsh criticism rolled off her back. But this. What Grant had to say made even her choke up.

Even Paul arched his brow at the man. Whoa. This guy was pissed.

Grant stormed past Billy and Pet to a broken window and held the bag outside. He should drop it, now, and get it over with. Get rid of the eggs, Alan. Do it. Drop it. He could feel his grip loosen on the bag and the strap fall from his fingers to blow in the wind.

Billy couldn't fight it anymore. He shoved Pet aside and lunged for a broken window, becoming ill.

Pet whimpered, "Alan..." and chanced in taking a step closer to him.

It was either the weight of the bag or the consequences of weakening Grant's outstretched arm. No. Don't. This could be bad. He looked around at the many pairs of eyes watching him intently. He couldn't drop the bag and he drew his arm back inside, tightly clutching the top handle.

Paul was flabbergasted. "What are you doing? Those things are after us because of those!"

Grant un-shouldered his backpack and began stuffing the camera bag within it. "Those things know we have the eggs. If I drop them in the river, they'll still be after us."

"What if they catch us with them?"

"What if they catch us without them?" Grant closed up his backpack, speaking in loud authority. "There's a boat at the bottom, just downriver." He turned and headed for a spiraling staircase not too far away. "We can try to make it to the coast, at least."

The Kirbys weren't about to try the senior scientist's patience any further than what Billy had as they made sure to stay close behind.

Pet looked to Billy in a mix of emotions. Horror. Disappointment. Uncertainty. He looked away in shame. "Veronica, I'm sorry, I-"

"Why? Was all this worth the possibility of money?"

Billy's glossed over eyes met the woman's now normal blue-green ones. "I-" A sharp slap from Pet silenced his next words and stung his left cheek.

"Fuck you," she growled and backed away, teary eyed, to follow the rest.