This takes place roughly a week before "Silent Night".

Kaisumi was hard at work in the Wahweap Formation exhibit zone, her green eyes narrowed in concentration and her notebook in hand as she observed the utedactylus as they fed on a goat carcass in their aviary. She had to admit, it was still quite exciting just how much there was still to learn about them – from DNA comparison, they were related to the najavodactylus in some way. But even so, there was still so much to learn… and she'd be the one to find it out. She giggled. Such was the joy of being a scientist.

At this point she started thinking to herself some more. She had to admit that she was still quite excited at the fact that the park had a set opening day at last. Whilst people seeing what they'd brought back was one big factor, a partial factor was that they could finally publish their insights – not just on dinosaur behaviour and intelligence, but on species that had never even been confirmed to exist. In addition, this place was meant for the public and had been since the very beginning; people came here, from all over the world, and saw the animals. That was how they earned money. She then found herself chuckling, as Jack's joking remarks about training the dromaeosaurs to balance balls on their noses came back.

The thought of Jack caused her to start thinking about something else. She could remember now the very first time she'd met Jack and Alice – but he'd made a good impression. She recalled laughing uproariously at a joke he'd made – a joke that had had Alice, Will and Matt rolling their eyes. But in the months since, she'd begun to notice hwo often she and Jack had ended up spending time in each other's companies - not just the two of them, but also alongside Alice, Matt, Will, and even Adrian. Hell, she could even remember a couple occasions in which they'd hung out together while in the presence of...Colette.

She took a deep breath, and then exhaled, shaking her head side to side. She had to admit, she felt a bit confused every now and then as to just why she'd felt strange whenever Collete was with her and Jack. For that matter, she was also a little confused about how strongly she was starting to feel about Jack. Sure they'd become very good friends, but that was all they were...right?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Now was not the time to get distracted by personal shit. The park was set to open soon and they'd all been very busy. She realised that she had best get back to observing the utedactylus and making research notes on them while she still could, just in case.

. . . . .

Matt was currently on a break at the Red Beds exhibit zone, relaxing contentedly upon a bench nearby the sphenacodon paddock. And as he sat there on the bench, he couldn't help but feel relieved; particularly after just how busy things had gotten. Whilst the researchers were comparatively lucky, even they had to assist the workmen – now rather less hostile to them – with construction at times.

He looked up towards the sky. To be completely honest, even with two weeks having passed since the fateful announcement, he still didn't quite fully know what to think. On the one hand, he didn't enjoy all the extra work added to his schedule by virtue of his having to occasionally assist in the preparations or the fact that privacy would soon be a thing of the past. But at the same time, he also knew that that had been the point of the park's existence – that was how they were going to make money. And besides, he had to admit it would probably be nice to start sharing their findings to the world. But yet again, the leadup to the park's grand opening day was hardly proving all that enjoyable.

At the sound of hissing and snarling from within the sphenacodon paddock, Matt glanced back in said paddock's direction in time to see Fafnir and another male hissing at each other – it seemed the two had gotten into a stand-off over who got to back on a certain boulder.

Matt sighed and allowed himself a small smile at the sight of the sphenacodons' antics. "Nice of you to give us something else to focus on," he whispered under his breath. And indeed, when he really thought about it, he couldn't help but feel appreciative that caring for and observing the animals provided them with a sense of familiarity as things went on. This even applied to after the opening – even after the opening, the animals would at least be there to provide a constant.

He sighed, shaking his head side to side. He wasn't entirely proud of himself for harbouring negative thoughts about the opening – it was a big accomplishment and a lot of his colleagues were excited about the opening. And in all fairness, he was sure that he'd come to get used to it - eventually. But nevertheless, the build-up was a bitch to get through.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Just grin and bear it, dude," he thought to himself. "It's still only been two weeks since the announcement. Things could yet pick up." The sound of continued snarling and hissing from Fafnir and the younger male reminded him of how there were more immediate issues to deal with. "And on that note, I should drop something to Kyle, It'll probably be just noise… but never hurt to be careful," he thought to himself as he got up from his bench.

. . . . .

Will had a lot on his mind as he sat within the staff antechamber to one of the indoor viewing area dens for the cave bear paddock. He shook his head side to side. Even now, he still hadn't fully managed to wrap his head around the fact that the park was opening to the public. To be completely honest, the whole thing felt rather surreal to him – the lengths Novum had gone to keep it hidden had been insane (including the bribery of a lot of important people). But nevertheless, it was happening – and people had handled the news differently. Some had been excited, some had been ambivalent, some had been concerned. And it was this last category that he'd admit to being amongst.

He hung his head, sighing heavily. In all honesty, he was not at all proud to admit that fact – the opening was an inevitability. But nonetheless, the idea of the park opening to the public felt very daunting, and he'd never really been the best at handling being amongst large crowds. Grumbling in exhaustion, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is insane," he groaned.

An almost inquisitive sounding bear-like growl from the opposite side of the chain-link wall behind him caused Will to turn his head in that direction in time to see Baloo now present inside the den attached to the antechamber Will was currently sitting in, an almost curious look on his furry face. Will sighed. "You wouldn't understand." Baloo growled again, his eyes narrowing. Will sighed once more. "It's the opening," he admitted. He shook his head. "I know I should be happy. I mean, this is what we've been building up to all this time. But at the same time..."

He shook his head once more, turning his head back towards the exit back to the general guest viewing area for the cave bear's indoor living quarters. "Gah it's all so daunting to think about."

Baloo growled again, walking closer and closer to the dividing wall between him and Will before at last his head was up against the wall, with his nose brushing right up against Will's shoulders. He grumbled again, almost reassuringly. Will turned his head to look behind him once more in time to see Baloo rubbing his head against him, a calm look on his furry face, as if reassuring Will. Will smiled – the scarred cave bear was surprisingly good company at times. Given bears were, according to Alice, among the most intelligent of carnivorans, a part of Wil wondered whether Baloo was reassuring him about his plight.

"I guess you're right," Will eventually managed to say. He nodded his head. "And I suppose that, at the end of the day, I'll always have my friends around to provide support when I need it." At this, he smiled. Yes, he definitely had good friends whose support he could rely on – Alice, Matt, Kaisumi, Yolanda, Leon – about what was to come. And that was what mattered.

And as he had these thoughts, he looked at Baloo once more. Now that he thought about it, considering how many of the others had formed close bonds with individual animals, he had to admit that the same was happening with him and Baloo. Smile still on his face, he nodded his head. "You're a really good listener you know," he said. He flashed the mighty cave bear a thumbs up. "I get the feeling we should have more sessions like this in the future. Thank you." Baloo growled, and almost nodded.

Chuckling, Will nodded his head one more time and got up from the bench to depart back to what lay outside the cave bear viewing area while Baloo turned around and shambled over to a corner of his den and went to sleep. And as Will departed, he was already thinking about the various things that he could do to keep himself occupied – make some observations, check on some research notes that he'd already made….

Then he found himself thinking: it had been a while since he'd last properly hung out with any of his friends. Jack had invited him to a little get together in the park bar the week after – the day before Christmas Eve. Collete and Yolanda were apparently going – he wondered if he could invite Alice. His smile widened at the thought – the more he thought about it, the more the idea really seemed to appeal to him. At the moment, he wasn't entirely certain as to why – after all, it was perfectly normal to want to hang out with a good friend… wasn't it?

. . . . .

Khatin was as busy as ever as he engaged in research at one of the main laboratory chambers in the Prehistoric Park Research Facility. He had to admit, life had gotten pretty busy for him over the past two weeks since the announcement. Unlike some, however, he found the change of pace quite welcoming. It certainly helped that the majority of his time these days was spent hip deep in his research. For the last two weeks he'd kept himself thoroughly engaged in making observations, taking notes, doing experiments, writing reports, proof reading publications in the work his fellow researchers had been writing and putting the finishing touches on his own observations.

He nodded his head, a smile on his face as he continued reading over the treatise on the Morrison wukongopterids he was currently proofreading. To put it simply, he was feeling quite excited for the opening day…. However, not for the reasons that most of the other staff did. What he really cared about, regarding the park being revealed to the world was that he could finally publish all the insights that he had made. After all, the kind of work and research he'd been able to make at the park was the kind of thing that most palaeontologists – now or in the past – would have sold their souls to do. Marsh, Cope, Brown… even Darwin himself would have envied the opportunity he had been given.

Of course, that wasn't to say that he didn't understand why people might have been looking at it with a sense of worry. He wasn't heartless after all. In fact, while he'd largely kept himself uninvolved with the preparations, he'd pitched in when some extra hands were necessary – this was a team effort after all.

The sound of ornithomimid chirping and squawking caused him to turn his head to look behind him, a warm smile already on his face even before he caught sight of two juvenile ornithomimus, roughly the size of a medium-sized dog. He had to admit, he'd gotten quite attached to them – he didn't want to be anthropomorphic… but it was true. However, he couldn't deny the reality that they were big enough now integrated with the larger ornithomimus flock – and that this needed to happen. They needed to grow up amongst their own kind.

And at that, he nodded his head and returned to his work. After all, the current times were very busy times for everyone. And the last thing he or any of the other staff wanted was to get too distracted – especially with the opening looming. And with these thoughts in mind, he continued carefully reading through his treatise on the previously undiscovered wukongopterids of the Morrison and Lourinha Formations, very proud on how it had been shaping up. The study of bones and other prehistoric animal remains would very much still be valuable – perhaps in a manner similar to the archaeology of extant species. But now, with the park ready to be revealed to the world, Khatin didn't need to wait long to reveal his insights and take his field into the future.