Here is the last revised chapter. Now to start with the real new content. The next chapter is going to take me a little while to write up, seeing how it's being written from the ground up. Not to worry. The next series of events have only been stuck in my head for a long, long time. Hopefully once I get started writing, I can zone out and get stuff written fairly quickly.


A NEW HOPE

13 – Tis the Season To Be Waiting

Cold. So cold. And so much snow. After a couple of weeks of it, Pet was ready for it to go away and the warm summer months to return. She shivered beneath the layers of her thick coat and matching pants. In her dark blue wool gloved hand was a red and gold ornament she hung off a Christmas tree's limb. It was just one of many like it that had been placed on the dig site's new tree. Since there was ample money, now, Grant wanted to start decorating the dig site with festive, holiday decorations.

Christmas was just right around the corner, making it the perfect time to start enforcing his plan.

A large, elongated special event tent had been set up outside dig site's collection of trailers and travel homes where the six-foot Christmas tree was set up. A handful of the volunteers had worked on decorating the tree and its housing tent for most of the morning, Pet one of them. Cheryl and Billy worked on hanging up colorful lights wrapped around a strand of silver tensile on the tent's interior supports. Seated off to the side were two elder women, chatting away about their plans for the holidays while working on wrapping the lights around the tensile.

To Pet's left were two children, a red-headed boy, and a blonde-haired girl. They were taking the colorful ornaments out of a box and putting hooks on them. The little girl handed a sparkly green ball to Pet, smiling her biggest that lacked two front teeth. Pet took the ornament from the little girl, no older than seven, and soon got lost in thought.

Since plans for a wedding were becoming more concrete for the springtime, she wondered if the thought of a family later on down the road was a possibility. A part of her longed for a child of her own but knew it wouldn't happen naturally. She would have to adopt. Because she was a hybrid, it had long been an assumed presumption she was incapable of bearing children. Even if she could, she knew Grant wasn't too keen on the idea. He was passionate and committed to his job and preferred as few distractions as possible. Hence why he and Ellie went their separate ways. She wanted a family. He wanted his fossils.

Pet's eyes started to cloud up with tears in coming to terms with how much she wanted her own family. The little girl saw her. "Are you okay, Miss Nica?"

Pet forced a smile, blinked away the threatening tears and laughed it off. "This cold weather is getting to me, is all." Cheryl overheard the girl's question and glanced behind her to steal a quick glance at her friend. There was unmistakable sadness in her eyes as she smiled at the little girl. Pet looked admired the ornament. "Where should I hang this," she questioned, holding up the green decoration in her hand.

A pink gloved finger pointed to an empty spot on a limb near where she was sitting. "Right there!"

"That actually looks like a perfect spot!" Pet hung the green ball there, and the girl giggled.

Cheryl frowned at whatever it was bothering her friend and returned to what she was doing. Pet, however, stopped what she was doing in remembering a bit of a dilemma. She and Grant were getting married in just a few short months, meaning she needed to get her identification issue resolved and quickly. An identification was going to be required for the marriage license.

Pet smiled at one of the ladies wrapping the lights and tensile. "I just remembered I have something to do."

The hybrid tiptoed, wove around and sprung over the many obstacles of different Christmas decorations in her way. Outside looked to be an equally matching mess. A new office trailer, one much more spacey and appropriate to such needs, was being brought in soon. Grant had been informed it was to be delivered the next morning, which meant everything in the old trailer needed to come out. While some of the dig site residents decorated the tent and tree for Christmas, the same could be said for others boxing up and moving the office's contents.

Pet strode past the couch, seated off to the side and piled down with labeled boxes, and into the husk of the office trailer. Other than a small, plain holiday wreath hanging on its door, nothing was festive about the trailer. She found Grant carefully arranging empty glass vials and bottles of cleaning solvents into a box.

She joined him where he stood and kissed him on the cheek. "Hey, babe."

"How's the tree coming along?"

Pet shrugged. "Good, I suppose. It's not finished yet." The woman glanced around the mostly empty trailer and was quite surprised at how small the interior was. How had it managed to hold so much stuff? "Where's Robert?"

Grant didn't pay the woman any visual acknowledgment. "He and Derek went to town to buy some more boxes. What we had wasn't near enough." He folded a box's tabs in on themselves and hastily scribbled 'Chems and bottles' on the side. Beneath it, he wrote 'Fragile' in all capital letters. The black marker was capped and stuffed back in his shirt's outside pocket. "Why? Something you needed?"

Pet nodded. "Mhm. I need to use the satellite phone."

Terrence returned from his taking a box outside. His face was smudged in dirt as was the front of his light tan coat. He had overheard what the woman said and invited himself into the conversation. "If you're looking to phone in a pizza, I don't think they'll deliver this far."

"Ha, ha funny!" Pet playfully nudged him in the side. "No, I need it to call Masrani. I wanted to check in with him to see if he's gotten anywhere on my ID issue. I haven't heard anything back since I initially spoke with him about it when in Cali."

"He's probably busy," Grant replied. He went over to a cabinet above a countertop and opened it to find more stuff. Pet sensed a bit of irritation swell within the man. He shook his head. "What the hell is this? I thought I asked Billy to pack this stuff earlier this afternoon!"

Terrence shrugged. "Last I saw Boy Scout, he was helping Cheryl decorate the tent."

Grant exhaled a heavy sigh of exasperation. "Of course, he is," and opened all the cabinet doors.

At least a quarter of the cabinets had been emptied. Pet continued. "So... about that satellite phone...Anyone know off the top of their head where it is? Usually, someone has it on their person should it ring."

Terrence picked up another box and opened the flaps to see what was inside since it wasn't labeled. Dust covered glasses and plastic containers greeted his view. "Might want to ask Boy Scout."

Pet rubbed her face with her hands. "Great. And here I was hoping this would be easy. Knowing Billy, he'll probably tell me to ask one of you two."

Grant started emptying the cabinets of their contents consisting of forgotten books, stacks of folders filled with various reports and more plastic containers. "If he can't help you, then you can always wait for Robert to get back and use his."

"Yeah, I suppose." Pet gave another kiss to Grant's cheek and trudged back through the snow to the holiday tent. Once again, it was navigating the obstacle course of decorations to get back to the opposite end of the tent. "Hey Billy, where's the satellite phone?"

Billy taped a section of lights and tensile to a pole. "Maybe Alan knows."

Pet blinked. "I was just there. Alan doesn't know, and Terrence told me to check with you."

Cheryl spoke up. "I think I saw it on a table in the fossil tent this morning."

A third time making her way through the tent had Pet hoping this time landed her the object of her quest. The hybrid approached the closed off fossil canopy and peeled back the entry flap to go inside. Sure enough, laying on a table cluttered with brushes, chisels, files, and picks was the satellite phone's black case.

Pet picked it up and carried it back to Grant's trailer. She set it down on the cabinet and popped it open. "I guess someone forgot to put it back on charge, earlier?" The phone was taken off its charge port, the hybrid continuing. "Well, whoever put it on charge forgot to leave the case lid open. Luckily we didn't miss any calls."

Pet flipped the phone over to look at the back where an index card, cut to fit, listed some important numbers. Hammond's name was at the top of the list, which had, of course, been crossed out. Below it was Ellie's with her old number crossed out next to it and the new one written above it.

Next were the museum's two numbers followed by what was easily recognized as Derek's cell phone number, the name 'Hot Shit' labeled next to it. Pet almost gave herself a concussion facepalming so hard. Below it was a number Roland could best be reached at.

The woman arched a brow in bewilderment. "Why do we still have Roland's number?"

Terrence shrugged. "Never know when we might need that extra firepower."

The hybrid gave him a questionable stare down before skimming down the list to read off the following. "Mo Money, Cali. Money Bags, India..." She gawked at Terrence, unimpressed. "Really?"

Terrence held his hands up and shook his head. "Don't look at me! That's Derek's doing, not mine!"

Pet scoffed and rolled her eyes. "He's so childish."


Fifteen minutes later, Muldoon pulled up to Quarantine and shut off the Jeep's engine. "Hopefully we have enough boxes, this time."

Derek slid out of the passenger seat, agreeing. "If we don't, I'm not going back to town. Been there, done that. It sucked."

The Jeep's back hatch was opened to reveal the many various sized, collapsed boxes. Muldoon pulled four them off the stack and handed them to his nephew. "Start taking those to the office."

Derek adjusted his grip on the larger ones and made his way to the office trailer. Of all the days to do this on, Grant just had to pick the day after it snowed. Following behind him was his uncle carrying his own load. They arrived at the trailer to find organized piles of stuff along the far wall of the trailer. Responsible for the partial organization was Pet.

Muldoon placed his collapsed boxes on the floor beside the hybrid. Since she seemed to have a system to her madness, she could help pack it.

Pet didn't waste any time building a medium-sized box. "Welcome back. How was the town trip?"

"A bloody disaster," the man gruffly answered. "The traffic was a mess. There was a major wreck at the intersection in front of that burger joint you love so much. Then on the way back, we got stuck in another traffic jam. Someone lost control of their truck and ended up stuck in a ditch outside of town." Grey eyes found the satellite phone resting on a countertop. "Did you try calling?"

Pet shook her head. "Not you guys, but Masrani. I wanted to check in with him about that birth certificate issue." She snapped her clawed fingers at Terrence. "Hand me that roll of tape, will you, please?" As requested, the roll was tossed in her direction.

Muldoon nodded to the answer. "What did he have to say?"

Pet frowned. "He was in a conference call and unable to talk. His secretary told me she would relay my message for him to call me back." One end of the tape was secured in place while the roll was stretched out across the bottom of the box. "I hate this sit and wait bullshit. I was hoping to hear something back by now."

Grant answered over his reviewing the contents to a paper stuffed folder. It surprised him to find some of the paperwork dating back to nineteen ninety-five. "You just called him a few minutes ago, honey."

Pet doubled the tape over the bottom of the box for better reinforcement. "I'm meaning, it's been this damn long since I last spoke with him about it in San D. At least the most he could do was keep me posted on the progress of it." The box was flipped right side up for Pet to pack.


Dinner was great. Nothing like a bowl of homemade chili to warm the body after working outside in the cold. It helped to have that little bit of extra Terrence always added in. Pet sat her bowl down in the kitchen sink and eyeballed the leftover dirty dishes. Why was it, coincidence seemed to have it be her turn to wash dishes and clean the kitchen after someone else made a huge mess? She should be used to it by now, but it still irked her, and she started the hot water.

She was halfway done when Muldoon's satellite phone started ringing where it sat on the kitchenette table by the window. Pet washed the soap off her hands and dried them off on a sky-blue dish rag nearby. The number flashing on the caller ID was one Pet recognized; Simon's office number from California. The talk button had just been hit when she dropped it in her excited fumbling to bring it to her ear. A slew of profane words capable of making a grown man blush came from the woman.

After fighting with the phone, it was firmly held in both clawed hands. "Hello?" Silence. Did she scare him off? "Um, hello?"

"Is this a bad time?" questioned Simon. "I can call back another time, if so."

"What? Oh, no, no, no, no." Pet awkwardly laughed. "It's a great time." Her eyes darted to the remaining dishes, and she grimaced.

"My secretary mentioned you called earlier. I believe it was something to do with your request."

"Yes, it is." A ball of excitement rolled around in the pit of hybrid's stomach, hoping to hear some good news. "Have you heard anything or gotten anywhere with the ID issue?" She wasn't aware how girly she looked in that moment, fingers crossed and dancing in anticipation on the spot. Thank God Derek wasn't there, or she'd never hear the end of it.

Simon continued. "That's actually something I wanted to discuss with you in person. I'm supposed to fly back to India in the next few days to finalize some things with my oil company, there. Before then, however, I wanted to stop by the excavation site to discuss business and the status of your paperwork."

Pet wasn't sure if she should be excited or skeptical of the news and swallowed the knot of nerves in her throat. "Okay, sure, sounds good. When can we expect you? So, I can tell Alan…"

"Sometime in the next three days."

"Great. I'll let the others know." The call was ended as Pet released a labored exhalation.

Given the difficulty of her request, a part of her worried the worst. After all, why couldn't Masrani just tell her the status of the paperwork over the phone? To want to meet in person meant it couldn't be good. The hybrid frowned and shuffled back to the kitchen sink. Maybe things weren't the worst-case scenario. Maybe things would work out for the best. Either way, she'd know something in three days.