Damon wraps his knuckles lightly on the open glass door of Ric's office. He's sitting at his desk, his head hung over a pile of documents, propped up by his fists.

"Hey," Damon calls in greeting.

Ric raises his head. Damon grimaces at the look on his face. "Rough day?" he asks light-heartedly.

Alaric's teeth grind together in irritation. "Rough day?" he echoes slowly, "You might say that."

"You wanna get a drink?" Damon asks, leaning against a mahogany bookcase.

"No, Damon," Ric snaps as he pushes himself to his feet and shuffles the papers in front of him into a neat pile. "I do not want to go to the bar. I want to go home."

He drags his briefcase from under his desk and shoves the papers inside it before viciously snapping the lid shut.

Perplexed by his sour mood, Damon retorts, "Maybe you should go home, you know, get some sleep and all that..."

"You are unbelievable," Ric spits out venomously.

"Okay, time out." Damon makes the 'T' sign. "Why are you so hostile?"

"You want to know why I'm so tired Damon! I had to spend all afternoon in court and when I got back here, I found this waiting for me." He hands Damon a certified letter.

"What's this?" Damon asks, looking cryptically at it.

"You're due to be married shortly...so you might want to have a look."

"Okay..." Damon pulls the document out and examines its contents. "This can't be. I got the papers..."

"Well, apparently they were never filed with the Court, ergo...you know the rest."

Damon's heart painfully constricts as he allows himself to remember Dr. Gilbert driving away with her.

"This kind of puts a rather large wrinkle in your plans," Ric's voice interrupts his musings.

Damon pauses at the threshold. "You're my attorney, do whatever you have to do," he remarks with a sigh and walks away.

"We found the bones of 200 fossilized rhinos, together with the prehistoric skeletons of camels and lizards, horses, and turtles. They all died abruptly about 12 million years ago," Elena remarks as she looks out at the audience.

"It suddenly dawned on me that this was a scene of a mass catastrophe of a type that I'd never encountered before. The cause of death, however, remained a mystery. It was not from old age. I could tell by looking at the teeth that these animals had died in their prime. What was astounding was that there were young mothers and their babies, big bull rhinos in the prime of life, and here they were dead for no apparent reason." Elena pauses to take a swallow of water.

"There was another strange feature to the skeletons, an oddity which offered a crucial clue about the cause of the catastrophe. All of the skeletons were covered with very peculiar growth, soft material that I first thought was a mineral deposit. Then we noticed that it was cellular. It's biological in origin so there was something actually growing on those bones. I had no idea what that stuff was, never seen anything like it."

"Were you able to identify it?" A question comes from the audience.

"I sent a specimen to a paleo-pathologist. You see this..." Elena points to the image on the screen behind her. "It's this whitish material that's deposited on the surface of the original bone. It was peculiar to me, but as I thought back on my experiences, I realized that this was similar to something that turns up in the veterinary world- Marie's disease."

"What is that?" asks a young man.

"Marie's is a symptom of deadly lung disease. Every animal at Orchard seemed to be infected. The ash had choked them to death. It may have been a bit like pneumonia with the lungs filling with fluid, except in this case, the fluid would have been blood for the ash is very sharp. There'd be microscopic shards of ash lacerating the lung tissue and, and causing the bleeding. I would imagine these animals as stumbling around the thick ash, spitting up blood through their mouths and gradually dying in a most miserable way."

"So what was the genesis of this?"

"I'm sure you can answer that," Elena chuckles. "Only a volcano could have produced so much ash, yet the wide flat plains of Nebraska have none. We had to have a volcano somewhere, that produced enough ash to completely drown the landscape."

"And where do you think that volcano was?" Asks yet another student.

"The Yellowstone hotspot is responsible for large-scale volcanism in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming, formed as the North American tectonic plate moved over it. It formed the eastern Snake River Plain through a succession of caldera-forming eruptions. We believe that the ash came from a massive eruption that occurred during the late Miocene, approximately twelve million years ago in present-day Idaho from the Bruneau-Jarbridge Caldera.

It turned an ancient waterhole in Nebraska—1,000 miles away—into a graveyard for hundreds of prehistoric animals. Many animals were preserved with their bones articulated; one rhino still bears her unborn fetus, while others retain the contents of their last meal."

"That's really a fascinating story," states the teacher as she approaches Elena at the podium. "Can we all give thank Dr. Gilbert and give her a big round of applause."

Elena smiles and leaves the stage. She grabs her bag to head to the airport. She needs to get back to Montana where her team is excavating another fossil find.

Elena's eyes drift open slowly, the gentle hum of the engine lulling her gently back into consciousness. She scooches up in her seat, her eyes falling on the familiar landscape.

"Thanks for picking me up," Elena's voice trails from a heavy yawn.

"How was your speech?"

"It was good. I had a good interaction...I can't wait to fall into the bed," she comments as Matt pulls into the driveway.

Her hand moves subconsciously to the door handle. She steps out of the car and raises her arms to stretch just as her mother steps outside.

"You're back." Miranda gives her a hug.

"Hi," Elena yawns again as her Mother releases her.

"Alright, I can see you're exhausted. You go to bed and I'll bring your bag in."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Elena calls over her shoulder as she enters the house.

"Thanks for bringing her home, Matt."

"No problem." He hands her Elena's bag. "Goodnight, Miranda." Matt waves as he backs out and drives away.

An artist's camel hair brush carefully sweeps away sand and rock to slowly reveal the dark curve of a fossil. A dentist's pick gently lifts it from the place it has laid for millions of years.

"Four complete skeletons in such a small area...the same time horizon," Elena comments as she looks at the fossilized remains.

"They died together?" Matt pauses with the dental pick and shields his eyes from the glaring sun to look at Elena.

"The taphonomy looks that way. It suggests some kind of social order. They lived and hunted as a team. The dismembered Stegasaurus bone over there - that's lunch. But what killed our raptors here?"

"A drought. The lake was shrinking?" Matt suggests in response.

"Could be..." Elena's voice trails off as she considers the theory.

"You did it again," Matt remarks when he notices her bare finger.

"What?"

He points to her left hand. "Your ring finger is suspiciously empty."

"I know. It just feels so weird wearing something so pretty when I'm up to my elbows in the rocks and dirt all day."

"Look, Elena, it matters to me."

"You spent a lot of money on that ring, Matt. I don't want to chip or scratch the diamond."

He shakes his head. "I'll make you a deal, okay? I won't worry about the ring if we set a date."

"We will, I promise! It's just, I have so much work to do if I'm gonna get that grant. How am I supposed to continue to pay for this..." Elena sweeps her arm over their encampment, "and look for a wedding dress all at the same time?"

"Wear overalls for all I care. We've been engaged for nearly two years."

"I know you're right, Matt, but we've had a lot going on these two years, too."

"There's always gonna be something, Elena."

Alright. You win," Elena concedes. "What about two months from today? That still gives me a little time to..."

"You have a deal," Matt wraps his arms around her middle to kiss her.

They're interrupted when a voice at the top of the hill shouts to Elena. "Dr. Gilbert, your mother is here."

She shares a glance with Matt and starts up the hill, looking around as she does. Exposed outcroppings of crumbling limestone stretch for miles in every direction, not a tree or a bush in sight.

In the dig itself, the ground is checkered with excavations everywhere. There's a base camp with five or six small tents, a flapping mess tent, a few cards, a flatbed truck with wrapped fossils loaded on it, and a mobile home.

"Mom, what are you doing out here?" Elena removes her hat and wipes the sweat from her forehead.

"This came for you. I thought it might be news about your funding request. I knew you'd want to see it," Miranda replies as she hands Elena an envelope.

Elena unfolds the papers and her eyes widen to the size of saucers.

"What is it?"

"Um...they just want more information."

"Your father would have been so proud."

"I know, Mom. I miss him every day. I just...I've gotta run to the trailer to get something."

She hurries inside and grabs her phone, grateful for a signal in their remote area. Rolling her eyes as she listens to the computerized voice, she pushes the number stated and waits for a person to pick up. "Hi, can I speak to an Alaric Saltzman?"

Elena's hand curls into a fist when she's told he's gone for the day. "I'll call back." She clicks off her phone and starts to pace inside the small confines of the trailer. "This can't be happening..."

"What can't be happening?" Miranda asks as she enters and closes the door behind her.

"Where's Matt?"

"He went back to the fossils."

"Dad filed those annulment papers, didn't he?" Elena asks as her stomach roils uncomfortably.

"Of course he did. Why?"

"I just got divorce papers. It doesn't make any sense."

"No; no it doesn't." Miranda takes them from Elena to peruse the document.

"It says that you need to be in a Manhattan courtroom the day after tomorrow with Damon or face contempt charges."

"Mom, what am I gonna tell Matt? I mean, I never even had the heart to tell him that Damon and I actually got married. He's gonna be so upset," Elena blurts out and starts pacing again.

"Maybe tell him you've been asked to meet with the foundation in person? I'm sure it's just a paperwork glitch..."

"I hope so but now I have to book a flight and explain to Matt why I'm going by myself."

"Well, at least you get to go to New York City."

"Not helping, Mom..."

"Thanks for taking me to the airport," Elena says as she steps out of Matt's vehicle.

He turns off the ignition and gets out to pull her suitcase from the trunk. "I still don't know why you have to go alone," he comments as he sets it on the ground and extends the handle for her.

"Matt, we've been over this. You need to stay so you can supervise the dig and help the others out."

"I suppose," he reluctantly concedes.

"I better go, people are waiting for your parking spot. I'll call you when I arrive."

Matt gives her a quick peck on the lips. "Bye," he says softly as he slams the trunk shut.

Elena stares at the terminal's entrance for a few moments knowing it's only hours before she'll see him again.

Thank you all so much. DE fans are just the best. And thank you, Eva.

Elena is a archeologist/paleontologist. I've loved dinosaurs since I was a little girl. I can't believe Jurassic Park is 30 years old this year. I was reading the book by Michael Crichton when I was in the hospital after having my gallbladder removed.

Taphonomy: the branch of paleontology that deals with the processes of fossilization.

If you're interested in learning more about Elena's topic, you can search for Nebraska's Ashfall Fossil Beds.

The effervescent CosmicAdventurer has taken the DE fandom by storm. Do check out her profile and read her scintillating stories.

Have a great day, everyone.