"Goodnight." Lex murmurs and each of us repeat the platitude, maybe five minutes pass and both Tim and Lex are passed out cold, "I'm proud of you Alec, and I love you son." My new father says to me and my eyes water, "I love you too dad." I mutter back but he's already asleep and snoring softly, bringing my left hand up. I self-consciously wipe away the moisture at the corners of my eyes from all the dust and pollen in the air.
'I'll have to remember to grab that in the morning.' I think as the raptor claw slips from Dad's sleeping hand and falls to the ground.
~~ — — — — — — — — — — ~~
The sun comes up over the horizon of Jurassic Park, 'It's beautiful…I kinda wish I could stay here forever…' I think as I'm overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the place, it really is quite a bit like the Serengeti Plain, over at the edge of a great open field, a huge tree marks the border between the open area and the thick of the jungle.
Dad, Tim, and Lex are all still asleep,
a heavy shadow falls over the four of us blocking out the early morning
sun entirely, this causes dad to wake up.
A brachiosaur's head pushes into our tree branches, right up beside me and Lex, it hesitates there for a second, closing its mouth seemingly staring at Lex and I, breaths in through it's nose I watch as the car sized headed animal open it's mouth wide, exposing it's chasmous pinkish red mouth and chomps down on a branch over just in front of us, waking the kids with a start.
'Lex isn't really a kid…kinda clingy and childish when she's scared…but she's definitely not a kid.' I think, and watch as Tim points at the brontosaurus, Lex opens her mouth
to scream, but nothing comes out.
As I reach up and run my hand over her head giving her head pats, Lex turns to look at me, a pout on her face, but turns back to the Long Neck, feeling her trembling against me.
"It's okay Lex, it's just a Long Neck, she won't hurt us on purpose." I say gently but that doesn't really seem to calm her down.
"Veggiesaurus, Lex, she's a Veggiesaurus!" Tim also tries to reassure Lex…but Lex isn't taking any chances, as she scrambles over top of me and away from its mouth.
'Granted, I guess I wouldn't want to lay where this big girl is eating either.'
Tim and Dad just stare at the massive long necked dinosaur in wonder as it eats its breakfast.
Dad grabs a leafy branch and hands it to Tim who scampers over to me and the long neck trying to get the brachiosaur's attention, he extends the branch to her, but she doesn't seem to notice so he starts talking to the massive animal, "Come here, boy…I mean girl." When that fails he tries whistling, and when that inevitably fails Tim slumps sadly.
Dad grabs another branch for himself and taps my shoulder. I roll my eyes at him but switch with him so that he can try to feed the brachiosaur.
"Maybe if we put them together we can get her attention." Dad says to Tim and cheers him right up, so now with the two branches they get the long neck's attention, the animal grabs the leafy end of the branch and Dad starts a tug-of-war with the massive animal that can easily pull him out of the tree.
"You are such a kid sometimes." I mutter while rolling my eyes and smiling, a smile that grows even more sincere as Tim tries to help Dad.
The two look like they're having a good time playing with the brachiosaur.
The brachiosaur on the other hand makes a loud honking noise, startling
all of us, Dad and Tim laugh while Lex whimpers.
"Come on girl, take a bite, take a bite. I'm not letting go." Dad murmurs like he's talking to a baby…well like a normal person talks to a baby.
Tim reaches out, and begins to pet the dinosaur's head while it chews, on the branch that Dad is still holding onto.
"That's a good girl, hey Lex, you can touch it. It's a girl, just like you. Come on Lex, it's okay. Lex, come on and touch it. It likes you I can tell. It's gotta like you. Come on Lex, why don't you touch it. It has to
like you, It's a girl." Tim goes on and on talking to his sister like a dog.
'If…I know it's dumb…but if anything does happen between us she's going to have to be around at least my precious Little One, best work to get her over her completely justified fear of Dinosaurs.'
"Lex." I say to her and get her attention she looks at me with wide terror filled eyes, "Just think of her as a big cow."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"I like cows." Lex murmurs, making me smile at her, a smile which she returns.
"She's really a beautiful big animal." Dad murmurs.
Lex crawls over managing to hold my hand as she does so,
"Huh, hi-her nose is running…it looks like she might have a cold." Tim murmurs as the long neck dinosaur keeps chewing, not objecting to the touching in the slightest.
Lex tentatively reaches the edge of the nook, leans forward extending her left hand, "Come on girl, come here." Lex calls out softly and surprisingly the long neck responds and moves it's head closer to her, letting go of Dad's branch.
Lex's hand barely touches the thing on the tip of its snout…and it sneezes, coating Lex in a vast explosion of snot, Lex falls back, on her butt dripping wet from head to toe.
I start cracking up, as Tim, God bless Tim, "God bless you!" Time shouts cheerfully.
"Eww." Lex says before she starts crying, 'Oh god, I have to stop laughing, this is horrible laughing at her like this.' I think as I grab my messenger bag that I still have.
"Lex, come here." I say gently as I take off my shirt grab my canteen out, luckily the little black cap is in place even if the cover/cup got left behind, I soak a bit of my shirt and start wiping away the snot from her face and hair.
Just getting the snot off of her face and hair turns my shirt into a mess, shrugging I toss it to the ground and grab out another, 'Only one other shirt.' I think and continue to clean up Lex as best as I can, and let her wipe her hands off on the shirt before tossing it away like the last.
"Come on, take that shirt off." I tell Lex which makes her blush furiously, but she does as I say exposing her cream colored bra and her blemish free cleavage.
"Lift your arms up." I tell Lex and she does, so I slide my shirt onto her.
Losing my last clean and dry shirt I let out a sigh, "We should probably climb down and start heading towards the visitor's center." I say to all three of my companions, Dad and Tim have been keeping their backs to Lex and I this entire time.
"Now, she'll never try anything new!" Tim mutters in complaint, and Lex's right eyebrow twitches slightly, I can tell that she is both embarrassed and ticked off.
Tim continues to talk, digging his hole deeper, "She'll just sit in her room and never come out and play with her computer."
Lex rounds on him, "I'm a hacker!" She shouts at Tim.
"That's what I said! You're a nerd! They don't call you people hackers anymore, they call you people nerds!" Tim and Lex start going after each other.
"Can a nerd hack the department of defense?! Can a nerd hack the school and give you a C or D in every class?! Huh, tell me can a nerd do those things?!" Lex is full on yelling now but I can tell this isn't about being called a nerd she's getting out the anger she feels at herself for being scared, for not being able to protect herself and Tim.
Tim gapes at his sister in surprise, something that I am sure that I am also doing, then he smirks, "Hey Lex, ahhhchooo!" The kid giggles as he stuns Lex to silence.
"What?" Lex asks with a low fake sweet voice.
"Hey Lex, you forgot to say gazundheit." Tim jokes and Dad start climbing down the tree being fed up with all of this.
"You, you, I'm going to kill you Dweeb!" Lex shouts and starts to dive for Tim but Tim laughs and starts climbing down the tree.
Lex turns to face me, she's no longer blushing but is definitely feeling shy, "So…you changed your brother's grades?" I ask Lex and she nods a slight rosy tint paints her cheeks.
"Yeah."
"Cool."
"Really, you don't think it makes me less girly? My father used to say that only dumb girls could…" I raise an eyebrow at what Lex is starting to elude to, "Lex, I think it's awesome you can do stuff like that, and you're beautiful too. Don't listen to anyone who says you can't be beautiful and smart, because you are." A moment of silence passes between us before Lex moves closer to me and kisses my cheek, "So…would you like to be my boyfriend?" Lex asks me shyly while blushing up a storm.
"Mmm, I guess I could be persuaded." I tease Lex as I lean in and kiss her lips.
"Yeah, I'll be your boyfriend." I say and nod while Lex looks like she's in between fainting and smacking me but settles for an exasperated eye rolling.
"I change my mind." Lex teases and kisses me again, "Huh, well guess I should take my shirt back, only my girlfriend gets to wear my shirt." I joke back before becoming serious, "We better climb down now, we don't want to waste time that we can use to get back to the Visitor's Center and then get home." "Yeah…Alec, thank you for…for everything…"
"You're welcome Alexis." I murmur back to her as we begin climbing down the tree, a deep sense of guilt sinking into my gut.
'I could have stopped all of this from happening…but I didn't for some cheap thrills, I put people's lives in danger through inaction…got people killed through inaction now I'm taking Lex's gratitude?! I'm a fucking scumbag.'
Reaching the ground I see that Dad is still crouching near a downed tree near the one we took shelter in.
'He found the nest…or a nest at least.' I think as Tim, Lex and I walk over to where Dad is still crouching on the ground the two look over his shoulder, curious.
I walk around them and sit on the log, not feeling the same sense of amazement that they are staring at a whole clutch of dinosaur eggs, that are all empty having hatched already.
Dad picks up one of the fragments, a large one nearly half the size of a complete egg, he looks at me, "You know what this means? You were right…the dinosaurs are breeding." Dad says to me his voice trembling with wonder and trepidation at this discovery.
Tim takes the shell from him, "B-but…my grandpa said all the dinosaurs were girls."
"It's the Amphibian DNA, your grandfather's geneticist used to fill in gaps." I say to Tim who scrunches up his face.
"What…frog DNA?" Lex asks and I and Dad nod.
"Well, on the tour…Henry Wu said that he used frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps, they mutated the
dinosaur's genetic code and blended it with that of frogs…most species of frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female, in a single sex environment…You and Malcolm were right Alec…life found a way!"