Chapter Text
“Dr. Williams!”
Ellie paused mid-motion, the brush hovering over the fossil. She pushed from her stomach into a crouch and glanced at the person bounding up the hill.
It was Sidney, her eyes bright beneath the brim of her ball cap. “Adam finally got it working again! We’re about to give it another shot.”
“No shit,” Ellie said, getting to her feet and stretching until her back popped. “Your brother is a fucking wiz with computers.”
“It’s because they speak the same language,” Sidney retorted with a grin as they made their way down the hill and toward the tent protecting the sensitive scanning equipment from the blazing sun. “You know—one tool to another.”
Ellie stifled a laugh. “Nice. I’ll make sure to let him know.”
Her grin turned rueful. “Please don’t.”
They ducked beneath the tent, where a group of students and TAs were already clustered around the computer. They parted when they spotted Ellie, who removed her hat and sunglasses before coming to a stop behind Adam.
She brushed back several strands of hair stuck to her face with sweat, watching the code run across the bottom of the staticky monitor. “Did anything come back yet?”
“It’s still processing, but it should display the results once it picks up on the sonar return,” he said, not sparing her so much as a single glance. His fingers danced over the keyboard, making minute adjustments in response to the code relay.
Ellie grunted and eyed the machine with heavy skepticism.
It was supposedly a state-of-the-art system that searched for buried fossils with sonar—thus reducing the amount of digging—but she hadn’t been impressed so far. The fucking thing was proving more trouble than it was worth, constantly malfunctioning in the heat and humidity that was a staple of the Thermopolis dig site.
“Here it is,” Adam said, a hint of excitement creeping into his normally monotone voice when an image solidified on the screen. “God, this program is incredible. In a few years, we won’t even need to dig anymore!”
She scoffed. “Dude, you just made an entire career field collectively shudder.”
A few of the onlookers laughed, but Adam ignored her and adjusted one of the dials. “It’s a little distorted, but you should be able to identify the key features.”
“Yeah, I see it,” Ellie said, leaning closer to examine the grainy image on the monitor and humming once she identified it. “It’s a Velociraptor.”
“Oh, yeah!” Sidney said from her side. She reached out and trailed a finger along the screen, ignoring the dirty look Adam shot her when the image flickered. “There’s the curved bones in its wrists.”
“Yep, and here—look—the retractable claw on its middle toe,” Ellie said, resisting the urge to also touch the monitor. “We’d have to excavate it to see, but it looks like it’s in pretty decent shape.”
“How’d they hunt?” One of the undergrads asked from the edge of the tent.
“Through coordinated attacks,” Ellie said, tearing her gaze from the image in time to catch the flicker of confusion cross her face. “They’d get your attention—and that’s when the attack would come from the other raptors you didn’t even know were there. They were the ultimate pack hunters—intelligent, organized, efficient. The perfect predators.”
A hush descended on the group as everyone turned in unison to look at the screen.
“Fucking dope,” Sidney half-whispered into the silence, prompting another wave of laughter.
“Very fucking dope,” Ellie agreed with a grin, stepping out from the shade of the tent. “And very fucking deadly.”
She’d only taken a few steps toward the dig site on the hill when a distant noise made her pause. She turned and shielded her eyes against the sun, watching a dark object approach in the cloudless sky. Her heart fell when she realized what it was. “Fuck. Sidney!”
Her TA ran out from beneath the tent. “What? What is it?”
“Cover up the site,” Ellie said urgently as the noise amplified and the sand began to stir. “Now.”
They had just pulled a tarp over the fossil when the helicopter reached the site, kicking up a wave of sand and dust.
“Fuck,” Ellie hissed, handing her end of the tarp to a TA and waving her arms to get the pilot’s attention. “Hey! Fucking land somewhere else!”
The pilot ignored her, doing a final loop before touching down in the scrubby brush near the trailer.
“Fucking dick,” Ellie muttered, blinking grit from her eyes as a lone figure emerged from the helicopter and entered the trailer.
She hurried over to where Sidney was struggling to tie down the tarp, her face screwed up against the wind. “Make sure this stays covered—I’m gonna go fucking deal with these assholes.”
Ellie waited until Sidney gave a thumbs up before jogging down the hill and past the helicopter, shouldering through the trailer door with such force that it nearly rebounded into her face. “What in the actual fuck are you doing?”
A man was bent over the work bench examining a series of fossil samples, but he faced her when she emphasized the question by slamming the door.
“Ah! You must be Dr. Miller-Williams,” he said pleasantly, tucking the manila folder he was carrying under his left arm and holding out a hand. “Dr. Jerry Anderson. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person."
“Ellie,” she corrected automatically, accepting the handshake. Dr. Anderson—surely not that Dr. Anderson.
“Call me Jerry, then. I’m sorry about the helicopter. We’re on a tight schedule, and it was the fastest—and easiest—way out here.” He rifled through a stack of research papers and made a noise of approval. “It looks like you’re already making a lot of progress out here—I’m glad to see my donations have gone to good use.”
So he was that Dr. Anderson. She bit her tongue, torn between cussing him out for almost ruining her site and not alienating the person who funded seventy-five percent of her digs.
“You know, I’ve always admired your work,” Jerry continued, leaning back against the work bench. “In fact, your expertise is why I’m here.”
“Oh yeah?” Ellie asked, mirroring his posture and leaning against the cluttered counter. “And what exactly do you need my expertise for?”
“For a project I’ve been working on the past five years,” he said, his face lighting up. “I’ve been building a kind of…biological preserve on an island off the coast of Costa Rica, and I’m planning on opening it to the general public next year—if I can get all the lawyers to agree.”
Ellie frowned. “That sounds like a nightmare.”
“It is,” Jerry agreed with a rueful smile. “There’s one lawyer in particular that’s been making the process extremely difficult. You see, he represents the interests for all my investors, and they’ve asked for outside opinions on the park.”
“What kind of opinions?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Your kind of opinion.”
Ellie huffed out a laugh and crossed her arms over her chest. “What kind of park needs a paleontologist’s opinion?”
“One that’s right up your alley,” Jerry said, his expression friendly but intent. “You’re one of the leading experts in your field, and I want to persuade you to sign-off on the park—to give it your endorsement. I’d like you to come down this weekend for a visit.”
She grimaced, rubbing absently at her fingers. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just drop everything. I’m overseeing the dig site here for the summer and we just dug up a new skeleton. There’s still so much left to do.”
“I thought you might say that,” he said, casually straightening a chisel. “What if I told you that I’d compensate you by fully funding your dig—”
“I really don’t think—"
“—s for the next three years?”
Her mouth snapped shut. “Uh, wow. Okay. Yeah.”
“Excellent!” Jerry said with an enthusiastic grin. He pushed off the counter and handed her the folder. “Everything you need is in here. Travel itinerary, packing list, contact information—all the details have already been arranged.”
“Uh, sure,” she said stupidly, staring down at the folder and feeling like she’d entered the twilight zone. They exited the trailer and walked over to the helicopter, the blades picking up speed when the pilot caught sight of them.
“I’ll see you this weekend, Ellie,” Jerry said, gripping the door handle and stepping onto the rung. He paused and looked at her over his shoulder. “I’m very excited to have you on board.”
Ellie gave an awkward wave and retreated to the trailer, clutching the folder to her chest while the helicopter disappeared into the distance. The sound of the phone ringing from inside the trailer broke her out of the daze.
She carefully placed the folder on the counter, staring at it like it might disappear before pulling the receiver off the wall. “Hello?”
“Ellie, hey,” Jesse said, his voice slightly distorted over the shitty connection. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all day.”
“Yeah, it’s always fucking potluck out here. What’s up? You okay?” The door opened a crack and Sidney poked her head inside, raising up a hand like what the fuck just happened? Ellie gestured at her to wait.
“I’m fine,” Jesse was saying, a laugh in his voice. “But you are not gonna believe the visit I got this morning…”
__________________
“A weekend get-away, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ellie said, accepting the plate Joel handed her and running the dish towel over it. “Kinda fucking crazy. I really had to scramble to find someone to cover me at the dig site the rest of the week, but—fuck, Joel. Three fucking years of funding.”
Joel huffed out a laugh. “Sounds like a dream come true.”
It was. With all the budget cutbacks the past few years, finding the funding for digs, equipment, and personnel had been an increasing headache. Now though...fuck, it was almost too good to be true.
“Jesse is goin’ too, right?”
“Yeah, they wanted a chaos theorist. Kind of weird, but…then again, they asked me,” she said with a shrug, stowing the plate in its cabinet.
“Well, good. I feel a little bit better knowin’ he’ll be there with you,” Joel said, ignoring her eye roll. “What’s this other fella’s deal?”
“Dr. Anderson? He’s one of the world’s leading geneticists,” she explained, propping a hip against the counter while he scrubbed at a pan. “He also happens to be one of the university’s wealthiest benefactors.”
He paused mid-scrub, his eyes unfocused. “Anderson…I reckon I remember readin’ his name a few times in the paper.”
“I think his work was considered pretty revolutionary back in the day, but no one has really heard anything from him in the past few years. I guess this is why,” Ellie said, swiping a towel over the pan while Joel dried his hands and took a seat at the table. “Thanks for taking me to the airport tomorrow, by the way.”
“Of course, kiddo,” he muttered gruffly, pulling the manila folder toward him and taking out the travel itinerary.
She suppressed a smile when he retrieved a pair of readers from his pocket and perched them on his nose, gently nudging his knee with hers under the table. “God, you’re such an old man.”
“Hey now, it’ll happen to you too one day,” he said, his lips twitching up as he bumped her knee back.
“Oh yeah? I’m gonna be an old man too?”
She grinned when he gave a long-suffering sigh. Fuck, it was good to see him. She usually spent her summers on digs across the country, so being back in Jackson this time of year was an unexpected treat.
“There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo in here,” Joel said after shuffling through a stack of waivers she’d signed.
“I’m guessing it’s because the park hasn’t been officially sanctioned,” Ellie said, rubbing her thumb along the edge of the table. “They seemed pretty standard though.”
He hummed and stacked all the papers into a neat pile before looking at her over the top of his readers. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, kiddo.”
She grinned. “Don’t worry, Joel. I’ll only be there as a consultant—nothing exciting is gonna happen.”
__________________
Ellie jerked awake when someone shook her shoulder.
She sat up in her seat, wincing when her neck twinged from sleeping at an odd angle. God, being in her thirties sucked dick.
She wiped a hand across her mouth and twisted to face Jesse, who was sitting across the aisle.
“We’re here,” he said in response to her questioning look, nodding toward her window. “Take a look.”
Ellie turned to peer outside, watching as the sparkling blue water yielded to a thick canopy of greenery. She felt a stir of anticipation that had more to do with who would be on this trip than the actual trip itself.
After Joel had dropped her off at the airport at the asscrack of dawn that morning, she’d found her gate and slumped into a chair. Jesse had joined her a few minutes later with breakfast and a massive smile, way too energetic for how early it was. She’d jolted fully awake a moment later when he’d excitedly told her that Jerry had also invited Dina and JJ.
Despite having been best friends with Jesse for years, she’d never actually met his ex or son in person. He talked about them all the time—especially Dina, since they co-parented and were still good friends—but their paths had never actually crossed.
It didn’t surprise her that Dina had also been asked to provide her opinion. Even if Jesse hadn’t constantly mentioned her, her work as a paleobotanist alone would’ve put her on Ellie’s radar. Her research was fucking groundbreaking—and interwoven with a passion that deeply resonated with her.
“I think Dina and JJ are scheduled to arrive a little after us,” Jesse said, pulling her from her thoughts. “I can’t wait to see them.”
“I bet, dude,” she said, returning his smile. “Bonus JJ time.”
When they finally disembarked, a friendly airport worker materialized to escort them to a VIP lounge in a nearby hanger. Ellie let Jesse make conversation, looking past the heat rising in waves from the tarmac to catch a glimpse of the distant mountains.
“I could get used to this shit,” she said once they were alone again, tossing down her bag and throwing herself into one of the leather chairs. Flying fucking sucked, but taking a private jet had been a fucking gamechanger.
“Me too,” Jesse said, taking the seat beside her and reclining the chair with a happy sigh.
They hadn’t been waiting long when the door opened again and a dark-haired boy she recognized from pictures in Jesse’s office and apartment darted into the room. “Dad!”
Jesse was only half out of the recliner when JJ barreled into him. He sat down hard on the armrest, only barely avoiding tipping backwards. “Whoa there, little man!”
“Please don’t give your dad a concussion,” an amused voice said from the doorway. Ellie turned—and her mouth went dry.
Because maybe she’d heard a lot about Dina—and maybe she’d caught glimpses of her personality throughout her research—but nothing had prepared her for how fucking beautiful she’d be.
“Sorry, mom,” JJ said with an abashed grin, taking a step backwards to give Jesse space to stand. He watched her awkwardly slide out of the recliner while his parents embraced, his eyes brightening with curiosity when she joined them.
“Ellie, this is Dina and JJ,” Jesse said happily, placing a hand on JJ’s shoulder. “Guys, this is—"
JJ cut him off with a gasp, recognition lighting up his face. His hand shot out to seize Jesse’s sleeve. “Dad. You didn’t tell me Doctor freaking Miller-Williams would be here.”
“Language,” Dina said, rolling her eyes. She turned a warm smile onto her and held out a hand. “I’ve heard so much about you, Ellie. It’s really nice to finally meet you.”
“Same,” Ellie managed, definitely not focusing the warmth of her hand. “It’s, uh, awesome to meet you both too.”
JJ was goggling at her, his hand still twisted in Jesse’s sleeve, and Dina immediately picked up on her embarrassment. She nudged him with her hip. “Why don’t you tell your dad about our trip?”
“Okay,” he said obligingly, craning his neck to look over his shoulder at her even as Jesse led him to one of the chairs on the other end of the room.
“Sorry about that,” Dina said when they were alone. Several strands of hair had escaped her bun and were curling around her neck. “He’s a bit of a fan—not that I blame him.”
“Oh, uh, it’s mutual. I really like you—" Her cheeks warmed. “I mean, your work—I really like your work. It’s—real good.”
Dina’s smile widened. “Real good, huh? Man, I should cite that praise the next time someone disputes my findings at a conference. That’ll shut them up.”
Ellie felt the warmth spread down her neck. “Pssh, good luck with that. I don’t think anything will shut those dudes up.”
Dina’s laugh was like music to her ears. When they took a seat and fell into conversation as naturally as though they’d known each other for years, she had the fleeting thought that she might be in some trouble here.
__________________
When they landed on Isla Nublar a few hours later, Jerry was waiting for them beside two open Jeeps on the edge of the helipad.
“It’s great to see you all again!” He said brightly once they’d joined him and a weedy looking man he’d introduced as Donald Gennaro. “Oh! Don’t worry about your bags. Someone will take them to your rooms later."
They piled into one of the Jeeps, Jesse taking the passenger seat while JJ and Dina slid into the backseat with her. JJ beamed at her. “Hey, Dr. Miller-Williams.”
“You can call me Ellie,” she said, suppressing a smile when his jaw dropped and he pivoted to look at his mother for confirmation.
“You heard the lady,” Dina said, ruffling his hair.
“Ellie,” he said, his eyes scanning her face before landing on her arm. “Your tattoo is super cool.”
“Thanks, dude,” she said, her grin faltering when he went red. Dina’s laughing eyes met hers over his head as the Jeep eased forward.
The driver led them through a set of metal gates and down a dirt-packed road surrounded with thick foliage. Ellie glanced back at the other Jeep, where Jerry and Gennaro were engaged in tense conversation. She frowned and faced forward as a huge leaf floated onto her lap from one of the trees above their heads.
“Can I see that?” Dina asked, leaning over JJ to accept the leaf when Ellie nodded.
She twisted the leaf between her hands while the dense foliage opened into a wide-open plain dotted with trees and shrubbery. “How is this here?”
Ellie was about to ask what she meant when the Jeep behind them honked and their vehicle rolled to a stop. She turned to see why they’d paused—and froze, the breath stuttering in her lungs when a fucking Brachiosaurus ambled past.
She fumbled with her sunglasses and stood, JJ following suit with a gasp.
Dina was still examining the leaf. “This species has been extinct since the Cretaceous Period. This shouldn’t be here—”
“Dina,” Jesse said weakly. “Forget the leaf for a second.”
“What?” She looked up and sucked in a breath. “Oh my god. Is that—”
“Yes,” Ellie breathed, leaping out of the vehicle while Dina told JJ to stay put. And then she was beside her, both of them craning their necks when the Brachiosaurus stood on its hindquarters and took a mouthful of leaves from the top of a scraggly tree.
She turned and met Dina’s wide eyes with a breathless, disbelieving laugh when it landed on all fours with a crash that made the earth tremble. “It’s a motherfucking dinosaur!”
Notes:
Day 1: Firsts
Written for EllieDina Week, with one chapter for each prompt. You can look at the full list of prompts here! I recommend checking it out anyways if you’re a fan of Ellie and Dina because I know people have created a lot of amazing content for the week! The people in this fandom are talented, y’all. Go check it out!
This takes place in the 90s mostly because I’m picturing Ellie and Dina rocking some rawrsome 90s fashion. Also, this will follow the movie (with one minor exception) because this is one of those rare instances where the movie is way better than the book.
Title is from "Far from Any Road" by The Handsome Family.
Super excited for this one—thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoy the ride!! :)
Chapter Text
“Aren’t they incredible?”
“That’s a fucking understatement,” Ellie said weakly as Jerry joined her and Dina, unable to tear her gaze from the Brachiosaurus. “What does it eat? How many are there? Its neck is—what—30 or 35 feet long? How fast can they run?”
Jerry laughed at her rapid-fire questioning. “Let’s see…we’ve observed them feeding on ginkos, tree ferns, and cycads. We have a herd of six, and the oldest has a neck that’s 50 feet long. We haven’t measured their speed, but we have clocked the T-Rex at about 30 miles per hour.”
“The T-Rex…?” Ellie asked, exchanging an incredulous look with Dina. “You guys have a fucking T-Rex?”
Jerry nodded, a grin slowly spreading across his face. “We have a T-Rex.”
“Oh my god,” she said, her knees going wobbly. Dina gripped her arm, steadying her even as the same awe shone on her face. They gazed at a nearby lake, where the Brachiosaurus had rejoined the rest of its herd along with a group of what Ellie thought might be Parasaurolophus. “This can’t be real.”
“Oh, it’s real,” Jerry assured them with a beaming smile. “Ladies—welcome to Jurassic Park.”
__________________
Ellie couldn’t stop her knee from bouncing while they continued toward their destination. JJ chattered nonstop beside her while they drove, grilling Dina on what it’d been like to stand next to a real-life dinosaur while simultaneously asking Jesse how all this was possible.
It was a good fucking question. How was this possible? Like JJ, she had a million questions—but the biggest one was how the fuck Jerry had pulled this off.
“I’ll show you,” he’d said simply before they’d climbed into the Jeeps again.
They finally rolled to a stop outside a sprawling gray building, and Ellie wasted no time in jumping out of the car. She started when someone tucked their arm into hers, turning to see Dina smiling at her.
“You’re fucking ready to go,” she said lightly, resting her hand against Ellie’s bicep and allowing everyone to pass them.
“Dude, don’t you want to know how they did all this?” Ellie asked as they climbed the steps arm-in-arm toward the entrance. “And not just the dinosaurs—you said that leaf came from a plant that doesn’t fucking exist anymore.”
“Veriforman,” Dina confirmed, shaking her head with a troubled expression. She squeezed her arm and released her as they reached the doors. “Yeah…yeah, I definitely want answers just as much as you.”
Ellie could feel the imprint of her touch long after they pushed into a high-ceilinged atrium. Light poured in from the windows crowning the dome, illuminating the suspended dinosaur skeletons locked in dramatic combat in the center of the room. Half the atrium was still covered in plastic tarps and scaffolding that stretched toward the ceiling, with several workers applying shiny coats of paint or laying plaster.
“This is the visitor center,” Jerry explained while they climbed the winding staircase. “We’ve spared no expense in incorporating the latest technologies, making this one of the most advanced amusement parks in existence. And I don’t just mean rides—I mean living, breathing organisms who possess the ability to capture the entire world’s imagination.”
They entered a well-lit auditorium and shuffled into a row of seating. Ellie sat beside Jesse while JJ dragged Dina into the front row. He leaned close to her. “What do you think about all this so far?”
“That Dina and I might be out of a job,” she muttered as the lights dimmed and an animated movie started playing on the screen at the front of the room.
Ellie leaned forward to grip the railing dividing each row as the voice-over explained how the park’s scientists had extracted intact dinosaur DNA from mosquitos preserved in fossilized tree sap.
“The implications of this are mind boggling,” Jesse murmured as the movie continued and the railing lowered to rest over their laps. They exchanged a bemused look before the entire room rotated, the screen giving way to a lab filled with scientists and expensive-looking equipment.
She caught a glimpse of several eggs being placed in incubators, but the room didn’t stop rotating. “Wait, what about the eggs?”
“We’ll see more of them a bit later,” Jerry assured her, frowning when she pushed impatiently at the bar over her lap. Jesse joined her in pushing when he figured out what she was trying to do.
Ignoring Jerry and Gennaro’s protestations, they shoved the railing into its original position and hurried down the aisle. When Ellie glanced behind her, she saw that Dina and JJ had followed their example and were hot on their heels. She exchanged a grin with Dina while Jerry strode to the front of the group.
“Or I guess we’ll see them now,” he said, his grin taking the heat from his exasperated expression as he led them into the lab.
Ellie beelined it toward the egg incubator while Jerry exchanged greetings with a Dr. Wu. She watched a robotic arm turn each of the eggs as JJ pressed next to her, looking as excited as she felt.
“Look! I think one of the eggs is hatching,” JJ said enthusiastically, pointing at a trembling egg as fine cracks appeared at the top of the shell.
“Ah, I was hoping they’d hatch today,” Jerry said from her other side. He was pulling on a pair of latex gloves, his eyes intent on the egg as the top began to buckle. “I like being here when they’re born—they tend to imprint on the first person they see.”
He kept up a steady stream of encouragement as the end of a tiny snout appeared through the broken eggshell. Ellie held her breath as the little dinosaur broke free and tumbled onto the clean straw.
Jerry laughed delightedly as Wu hurried over with a cloth and began cleaning it. “I’ve been lucky enough to be here for every birth. It’s always the best part of my day.”
“What about the ones born in the wild?” Jesse asked, leaning closer to examine the baby dinosaur.
“Oh, they actually can’t breed in the wild. Breeding control is one of our security precautions—we’ve engineered all the animals in Jurassic Park to be female,” Wu explained, moving away from the incubator and disposing the rag.
“But how do you know they’re all female?” Jesse pressed, a deep furrow appearing between his brows. “Do you perform routine checks?”
“No, nothing like that,” Wu said, retrieving his clipboard. “We know because we control their chromosomes and hormone levels.”
Ellie glanced up in time to catch the expression that flashed across Jesse’s face. She looked at him questioningly, but he just shook his head.
Wu noticed their exchange. “I promise you there’s nothing to be concerned about—we control every facet of the environment here.”
Jesse shrugged, sharing a brief, loaded look with Dina before placing a hand on JJ’s shoulder. She could practically hear the gears grinding in his head while he incorporated all this information into his calculations.
Ellie gently ran a finger along the top of the dinosaur’s head, smiling when it cooed in enjoyment. Her smile faded when she examined its feet and claws more closely, something distinctly uneasy prickling at the back of her neck. “What species is this?
Wu didn’t look up from his clipboard, but his words made the feeling turn into a chill that spread down her spine like ice water. “It’s a Velociraptor.”
Abruptly, she understood the undercurrent of concern hidden in Jesse’s questions.
__________________
“Are the raptors part of the tour?” Ellie asked while they filed into a luxurious cafeteria for an early dinner.
“We were initially going to include them, but we’ve since decided against it,” Jerry explained as they took seats at one of the tables.
She made a face. “Why?”
“Because they’re a fucking menace.”
Jerry lit up as the most muscular woman Ellie had ever seen approached the table.
“I’m so glad you could join us,” he said as she slid into the open seat next to him. “Everyone—this is my daughter Abby. She’s our game warden and monitors all the animal activity on the island.”
Abby nodded at them in greeting. She had a gun strapped to a thigh that was thicker than both of Ellie’s legs and looked like she could snap any of them in two like it was nothing. Dina caught her eye and mimed closing her jaw, amusement making her eyes sparkle. Her mouth snapped shut, a flush of warmth crawling up her neck while she redirected her attention to Jerry.
“—been working with our dinosaurs from the beginning. She’s not the biggest fan of our raptors, but she knows more about them than anyone.” Jerry paused and inclined his head toward Ellie. “Well, almost anyone.”
Ellie caught Abby’s eye as several employees materialized from the kitchen and placed bowls of soup in front of them. “How long does it take them to reach maturity? Are they intelligent?”
“It takes them about eight months to reach full size, and they’re lethal by then,” Abby said, taking a sip of water. “And they’re extremely intelligent. We actually have to take special precautions when we feed them because they attack the fences.”
“I thought the fences were electrified,” Dina said with a frown.
“They are, but they’re systematic about it—they don’t attack the same place twice.”
“So, they show cognitive abilities?” Ellie asked enthusiastically, her elbow knocking into her glass when she leaned forward and splashing the tablecloth with water. She saw Dina hide a smile and hastily ate a steaming spoonful of soup, burning the fuck out of her mouth.
Eyes watering, she looked up in time catch Abby’s weary nod. “They’re problem solvers—especially the alpha. We started with eight raptors, but she killed six of them when we introduced her into the enclosure.” Her face twisted. “You can tell she’s fucking thinking when she looks at you…it’s like she’s working out the best way to kill you.”
“Abby,” Jerry said quietly.
JJ was staring at them open-mouthed. Abby shot him and her father a guilty look before refocusing her attention on her soup.
Jesse cleared his throat after the silence stretched a beat too long. “So, what will general admission into the park look like?”
Gennaro, who’d primarily been speaking to Jerry in low tones the past few hours, eagerly seized on the subject. They spent the rest of the meal discussing details about the park’s timeline and attractions.
“Can I go look around?” JJ asked Dina once the table had been cleared. He’d looked bored all of dinner—not that Ellie blamed him. If she found conversations about ticket sales and merchandise mind-numbing, then she could only imagine how a twelve-year-old felt.
Dina looked to Jerry for confirmation before smiling at her son. “Of course, baby. Don’t leave the building and don’t go near the areas under construction.”
“So,” Jerry said after JJ had left the dining room. “I’d love to hear all your opinions so far.”
Jesse glanced at Ellie and Dina before leaning back in his chair. “I guess I’ll kick things off. So far, I’m pretty concerned about the type of…tampering that’s being done with nature here. I don’t think I can get on board with things.”
Gennaro started protesting before he'd even finished talking. “Now wait just a second. We haven’t even seen the actual park yet and you’ve already made your decision?”
“Let him talk,” Jerry said firmly, shooting Gennaro a dark look. “This kind of discussion is exactly why we invited them here. Please continue, Jesse.”
Jesse spoke slowly like he was weighing every word. “I don’t think either of you fully sees the inherent danger of what you’re doing here. That scientist, Wu, said that you control everything—but that logic is flawed because the type and level of control you’re attempting just isn’t possible in this situation.”
“He’s right,” Dina interjected before Gennaro could open his mouth to argue. “You’re working with an extinct ecosystem. How could you possibly understand anything about it, let alone how to control it? Look at the plants in this building, for example. You picked them because they look nice, but some of them are poisonous.”
Ellie held her breath as Dina spoke with the same passion—the same eloquent persuasiveness—that was always interwoven throughout her work. Now, in person, she found herself helplessly gravitating toward her—like the moth on her tattoo had sprung to life and was inexorably drawing her toward the light Dina naturally exuded.
Dina’s voice was calm, but there was steel in her eyes. “You told me that you wanted JJ to come here with me because he was your target audience. But what happens when a visiting child picks a flower because it looks pretty and it kills them? Everything in this park is an aggressive, living thing that won’t hesitate to defend itself—violently.”
Ellie glanced at Abby, who was slouched in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. She’d been quiet throughout most of dinner; she remained quiet now, a muscle jumping in her jaw at the mention of violence before her eyes dropped to the table.
Ah. So, they weren’t the only ones with reservations.
“I don’t think you’re giving us enough credit,” Jerry was saying while Gennaro bobbed his head in agreement like a bird. “My scientists and I have achieved things that no one has even dreamed of. We’ve developed this process from the ground up, and we made it work.”
“I understand that,” Dina said, chewing on her lip. “But it feels like you were so fixated on if you could that you didn’t stop to ask if you should.”
“But think of all the good that could come from this work,” Jerry urged, glancing between them beseechingly. “We accomplished all of this with a species that’s been extinct for millions of years. What about species currently on the cusp of extinction? We could use this research to save them. How can we stand here and not act on that?"
Jesse was already shaking his head. “Because the parameters of this situation are completely different. This isn’t some species that humans obliterated—it’s a species that nature selected for extinction. The lesson we can take away from that is that nature will take its natural path—and life will always find a way.”
Jerry’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. He ran a hand over his face before looking hopefully in her direction. “What about you, Ellie? What do you think?"
She fidgeted with the tablecloth, taking a few seconds to compose her thoughts before answering. “This place is fucking amazing, but…I agree with Jesse and Dina. Dinosaurs and humans are two species separated by 66 million years of evolution, and you’re just—fucking throwing them together. There’s so fucking much that could go wrong there.”
“Unbelievable,” Jerry said, sitting back in his chair and shaking his head in chagrin. “We’re altering the course of history, and the only one who’s on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer.”
Gennaro looked offended, but the joke dissipated some of the tension in the room.
“Let’s call it a night,” Jerry suggested, pushing back from the table and standing. “We still have your tour of the park tomorrow. Maybe you'll change your tunes once you’ve seen all the precautions we have in place.”
As they filtered out of the cafeteria, Abby caught her father’s arm and held him back. “A word, dad.”
Ellie glanced over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of her unhappy expression just before the door clicked shut.
The four of them were quiet as they re-entered the now-empty atrium. Gennaro excused himself to make a phone call, leaving them to stand around the dinosaur skeletons in a semi-circle.
The light in the atrium was more muted now that it was later in the afternoon. Ellie spotted JJ across the room examining a series of colorful murals depicting a variety of dinosaurs standing at the forefront of a prehistoric vista. Jesse was watching him with a look that was equal parts affectionate and worried. “Maybe he shouldn’t go on the tour tomorrow.”
“I’m with you there, but you know he’s not gonna stay behind. Dinosaurs are his thing,” Dina said, prompting Jesse to ruefully shake his head in agreement. “I just wish they’d elaborate on some of those precautions they keep mentioning.”
“Hopefully that’s on the agenda tomorrow,” Ellie said, her eyes on Gennaro as he exited a room on the other side of the atrium. “But I wouldn’t hold your breath unless you ask them directly.”
“Well, we’ll just have to keep an eye on him,” Jesse said, and they lapsed into silence when JJ and Gennaro rejoined them.
Abby and Jerry reappeared a few minutes later, and Abby nodded at them before climbing the staircase. Jerry watched her leave with concern, but his expression had smoothed over by the time he faced them again.
“Sorry about that,” he said, his usual friendly smile in place. “There’s a tropical storm forecasted to hit the island in the next day or two, so we’ll be operating with a skeleton crew by tomorrow evening.”
“Oh. Cool,” Ellie said, deadpan.
Dina turned a laugh into a cough, but Jerry’s smile didn’t waiver. “Everything will be fine. Now—onto lodging!”
As they trailed after him, Ellie turned to cast one last look at the fossils. The display lighting at the base of each skeleton flickered on while she watched, casting harsh, exaggerated shadows over each vertebra and ridge.
Jerry had assured her during dinner that they’d see the T-Rex on the tour. For a moment, she tried picturing what it would be like coming face to face with the real thing. The sheer size and the mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth.
A strange sliver of unease slid down her spine.
Not stopping to examine it too closely, she hurried after the others.
Notes:
Day 2: Control
Thank you all SO much for taking a few minutes out of your day to read. You're all dinomite!!
Feel free to find me on tumblr or to check out all the awesome content for EllieDina Week.
Chapter Text
After being escorted to lodging, Ellie gratefully took the opportunity to wash away the day’s sweat and grime.
She stood in the middle of the brand-new hotel room after swapping into a clean pair of clothes, shifting from foot to foot while she debated what to do.
She should probably call it an early night—fuck knew what else they’d encounter tomorrow—but she was too restless to sleep. Her mind was moving at a thousand miles per hour, too many theories bouncing around her head and all of them vying for attention.
Ellie grabbed her journal and went outside, walking along the winding pathway that looped around the series of interconnected lodging buildings. The path eventually ended at the edge of a covered terrace offering a clear view of the rolling green valleys. She settled in one of the patio chairs and, propping the journal on her lap, began scribbling down notes and sketches.
When she finally looked up, she was surprised to see that the sky had shifted from azure to gold as the sun slowly but surely inched its way toward the horizon. Dark clouds had materialized in the distance over the endless canopy of green. Maybe the beginnings of the storm Jerry had mentioned.
She dropped her gaze to the journal and reread the last few sentences, absently running a hand down the side of her face.
“That look important.”
“Fuck,” Ellie said, knocking the journal to the ground in her surprise. Dina stood at the edge of the terrace, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she tried not to laugh. “You scared the shit out of me!”
Dina smiled apologetically and retrieved the journal, brushing off the cover before holding it out. “Did you think I was a dinosaur?”
She accepted the journal with a smirk. “Totally. I mean, we’re pretty much in The Land Before Time at this point. The dinosaurs on this island may as well fucking talk, too.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Dina said, snorting. She moved toward the railing and leaned on it with her elbows before jutting her chin at the journal. “So, what were you writing in there so studiously?”
“Nothing too interesting,” Ellie said, rubbing the back of her neck and joining her at the railing. “Just jotting down my thoughts to help make sense of everything we learned today.”
“Well, there’s definitely a lot to think about,” Dina said wryly, tilting her head back to gaze at the sky. “Some dinner, huh?”
“Dude, you fucking said it. I wasn’t expecting the philosophical debate on morality, but it was all shit that needed to be said.” She swallowed heavily, her eyes fixed on the long line of Dina’s neck. “There’s a fine fucking line between discovery and playing god, and they’re definitely fucking walking it here.”
“Exactly. There’s too many unpredictable factors, and no one is taking the responsibility for them,” Dina said, biting at her bottom lip. Ellie hastily averted her gaze when she turned. “Well, almost no one. Abby seems to understand the danger.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You noticed that too, huh?”
“Oh yeah,” Dina said emphatically. “She did not look happy, especially when you were discussing the raptors. That, and all the sidebars between Gennaro and Jerry plus the mention of concerned investors…obviously we aren’t the only ones seriously questioning this place.”
She mulled that over for a minute, watching as the sun neared the top of the mountain. “I wonder if something happened to trigger the request for us to come out here. I mean, they’ve been building this place for years but they’re only now asking outside opinions? The timing is a bit fucking strange.” She paused, adding drily, “And here I was just worried about the fucking dinosaurs.”
“God, right?” Dina said with a laugh, twisting so that she was facing the same direction. Her eyes were sparkling when she spoke again. “Okay, enough serious talk today. We’ll have plenty of time for ethical debates this weekend.”
“Deal,” she said, giving her a lopsided grin. “JJ hanging out with Jesse?”
“Yeah. They’re having a guy’s night, which really just means catching up and watching movies.” Her smile took on a bittersweet edge. “Not that I blame them for wanting some father-son time. They really only get to spend a few months out of the year together.”
Ellie grimaced sympathetically. Jesse had long harbored the hope that Dina would transfer to a position at Jackson University so that JJ could be closer to him and his family. As things were, he flew out to New Mexico a few times a year, with JJ flying out to Jackson for summer break.
Now, watching the series of complex emotions flit across her face, Ellie wondered if she'd ever considered moving to Wyoming. She had a feeling Dina would be open about it if she asked, but—no more serious talk for the day.
“Sooo,” she said, mirroring Dina and angling her body so they were facing each other. “How’d you get into the whole paleobotany thing?”
“You mean why did I choose fossilized plants over dinosaurs?” Dina asked impishly, laughing when Ellie gave a sheepish shrug. “I grew up in New Mexico with my mom and sister. They’re huge into the outdoors, so I spent every weekend getting dragged across the country for camping or hiking.”
“That’s pretty fucking cool,” Ellie said, thinking of all her own time spent on hikes with her family.
“Oh, it was. They were also big on self-sustainment—you know, harvesting from nature and growing your own food,” Dina said, her bracelet sliding down her wrist when she reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It really made me appreciate how important plants are to all forms of life. It also makes me feel…connected to something bigger than myself.”
Ellie recalled her words from earlier. “Extinct ecosystems.”
Her face lit up. “Exactly. Painting a picture of our past to help us make sense of the present.”
“Wow,” Ellie said, raising her eyebrows. “That’s a way deeper reason than ‘plants are cool.’”
Dina laughed, the sound sending a flush of warmth straight to her stomach. Ellie liked her laugh—liked the way her nose crinkled and how she’d smile from ear to ear. She made a mental note to make her laugh as much as possible over the next two days.
“What about you?” Dina asked, mock punching her in the arm. “And you better not just say because dinosaurs are fucking cool.”
“I mean, that was totally part of it,” Ellie admitted, grinning abashedly. “I guess it all kind of started when Joel took me to the Wyoming Museum of Science and History for my sixteenth birthday.”
Her nose scrunched in confusion. “Joel?”
“My, uh, dad,” Ellie muttered, rubbing the side of her face. It was always weird referring to him like that—and even weirder trying to explain the situation to strangers.
But Dina wasn’t some random person she was exchanging awkward small talk with at a work function. She was smiling, little dimples on each cheek, and Ellie couldn’t believe this was the first time she’d noticed them. “You call your dad by his first name?”
“Yeah,” she said, clearing her throat. “I mean, I called him Joel when he was my foster dad and when he adopted me a year later, it just kind of…stuck.”
“He doesn’t mind?”
“Nah. He’s pretty chill about everything,” Ellie said, shrugging. She raised her eyebrows. “So. Paleontology?”
Dina made an imperious gesture. “Go on. You went to a museum and…”
“And they had this giant T-Rex statue out front, and I saw it and…” She paused, trying to find the words to describe the wonder she’d felt. “I don’t know, man. I saw it and something just clicked. And I felt that way with every single dinosaur fossil we saw in that museum. I spent the next few years dragging him to every major dinosaur attraction within driving distance.”
She grinned a bit sheepishly. “I, uh, used to tear up our backyard. You know, pretending to run a site and digging up animal bones. Joel even roped his brother into it—him and his wife own some land—so he convinced them to let me expand my digging operation.”
“Oh my god,” Dina said, her face lighting up with delight. She squeezed her eyes shut and held up a hand. “Wait, I need a minute. That is too fucking adorable.”
Joel hadn’t thought so. He’d come home from work and stared at the giant hole in the once pristine yard while she’d explained at lightspeed—covered in dirt and grass from head to toe—why this was so fucking important. He’d eventually just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed before asking what she wanted for dinner.
He’d always been like that. Patient and steady. Always willing to listen to whatever she talked about, even if he didn’t understand a single word.
“Wait,” Dina said, as though realizing something. “Joel—J. You dedicated your book to him.”
Ellie stared at her, taken aback. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
Joel had teared up when he’d seen the dedication (J—thank you for always making my dreams saur) which of course had made her tear up—and then they’d both been pretending they weren’t watery-eyed while Sarah, Tommy, and Maria exchanged fondly exasperated looks.
She cleared her throat. “You’ve, uh, read my book?”
“Of course I’ve read it—it’s only one of JJ’s favorites,” Dina said, her eyes taking on a wicked gleam. “I’d give it…a six out of ten.”
“A six?” Ellie made a face, not knowing whether to be offended or to start laughing. “Wow, okay. Tell me how you really feel.”
Dina grinned, and they launched into a discussion of the book and their research—and the book Dina was currently in the process of writing.
They continued talking long after the sun had set about—well, everything. From Dina’s desire to have the land to grow a large garden again to Ellie’s fascination with space.
While they talked and joked, Ellie felt something shift in her chest the same way something had shifted at the museum that perfect summer day all those years ago.
The air between them seemed to quiver with something she couldn’t quite place her finger on. It felt a lot like understanding and connection. Or maybe…maybe something more infinite and intangible.
She felt it again when they finally called it a night. She walked Dina to her room and hesitated, awkwardly scuffing the toe of her Converse against the concrete. “Well, uh, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” Dina agreed, giving her that smile that somehow exuded its own warmth and light. “Good night, Ellie.”
“Good night,” Ellie managed several seconds too late. She cleared her throat and gave a jerky wave before backing into the wall behind her. She was thankful for the darkness when her cheeks warmed.
When she got into bed and closed her eyes, she found Dina’s smile burned into the back of her eyelids. She took a deep breath, held it, and released it.
“Get ahold of yourself,” she whispered sternly, turning onto her side.
When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed of warm brown eyes and endless freckles dusted across even warmer skin.
__________________
“How many species do you think they have?”
“Hmm.”
“Ellie.”
“Eh?”
“Earth to Ellie—come in.”
She tore her gaze from the pamphlet Jerry had given her and glanced at Jesse, who was leaning against the vehicle. “Huh? What’d you say?”
“Glad to know I make an impression,” Jesse said, smiling and nodding at the pamphlet. “How many species are in the park?”
“Fuck, I don’t know,” she said, biting her lip. Her gaze slid unseeingly over the glossy, colorful page. “This mentions they were aiming to replicate a healthy ecosystem with a mixture of herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, but it really just depends on the DNA they found.”
“Another unanswered question,” Jesse sighed, tapping his fingers against the car roof. “More species means more uncontrollable variables, which means—"
“A greater chance that everything could fucking collapse?” Ellie offered, tucking the pamphlet in the back pocket of her jeans.
Jesse laughed. “I can always count on you to be eloquent.”
She hummed, only half-listening because Dina and JJ had finally reemerged from the front entrance with Abby, Jerry, and Gennaro.
During their brief tour of the visitor center after breakfast, Gennaro and JJ—who was, by Jesse’s account, big into computers—had expressed an interest in taking a closer look at the control room. Dina had stayed with JJ while Ellie and Jesse had opted to wait outside.
Now, Ellie traced the curve of Dina’s smile with her eyes and committed it to memory to hopefully sketch at a later point. Dina saw her looking and waved. She returned it, the flood of warmth in her face having nothing to do with the heat and humidity.
When she looked back, Jesse was gazing steadily at her with a raised eyebrow. “I heard you guys had an eventful night.”
“What—? No, we just—talked for a bit, that’s all,” she spluttered, knowing her face was bright red and cursing her pale complexion.
His eyebrow somehow climbed higher. “Ye-ah. She said you guys had a really good conversation.”
“Did she?” Ellie asked too casually, crossing and uncrossing her arms over her chest. “That’s…cool.”
“Uh huh.” His expression turned shrewd. “You like her, huh?”
Her jaw dropped. “What? No—I…I mean, yeah, she’s really fucking cool, but I don’t—she’s just—kinda awesome, but—" She sucked in a breath and looked skyward. “Fuck, this is awkward.”
A grin split his face. “Dude, I’m just fucking with you. I don’t care. She is awesome.”
“You’re the worst,” she said, scowling and kicking at his shin.
Jesse easily sidestepped the blow. “I’m serious. I’m happy for you, man. She’s one of the coolest people I know.”
Ellie nodded in mute agreement, her eyes gravitating toward Dina again as the rest of their group joined them beside the vehicle.
“I think we’re ready to start the tour!” Jerry said, his eyes shining with excitement. He patted the side of the car. “These will be your rides today. They’re electric vehicles, so they’ll run along a pre-set path through the park.”
“Cool!” JJ said, peering through the open window. “Oh, sweet! There’s a computer in here!”
Jerry beamed. “Yes! Those will serve as your tour guides, tracking your movement through the park and providing information about each of the animals you’ll see.”
Ellie suppressed a grin when JJ mouthed whoa and climbed inside the car to examine the monitor more closely.
“Now, just a few rules. Don’t leave the vehicle unless otherwise instructed and no tampering with the computer. Other than that, we’ll be observing everything from the control room.” Jerry paused, his gaze sliding between each of them in turn. “I really think you guys are going to love this.”
“Oh, I’m sure we will,” Gennaro said sycophantically, dollar signs practically dancing in his eyes as Jerry and Abby made their way back toward the entrance.
Dina climbed into the car with JJ, who stuck his head out the window a moment later. “You can ride with us, Ellie.”
“Yeah Ellie,” Dina said, resting her chin on her crossed arms in the open window of the passenger seat. Her lips were curved into a warm, teasing smile. “You can ride with us.”
Jesse glanced between her and Dina before looking at JJ, who watching her with an eager, hopeful expression. He rolled his eyes.
“You owe me one,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth so only she could hear before following Gennaro to the other vehicle.
When she climbed into the car and met Dina’s bright, mischievous eyes in the rearview mirror, she couldn’t help but think he was right.
She’d barely shut the door when JJ twisted in his seat to face her and said in a breathless rush, “Hi Ellie! I’ve read your book—it’s really good.”
“Hey, thanks” she said, smiling. “Yeah, your mom told me that you enjoyed it.”
He lit up. “Yeah! Do you really think that dinosaurs evolved into birds? What about the meteor crater they found down in Mexico? Oh! I also read this theory that said the weather shifted because of climate change and that’s why the dinosaurs died. But then my teacher told me about a book by another researcher who—”
Ellie stared at him while he rapidly cycled through several widely accepted theories, taken aback by his—surprising well-researched—knowledge on the subject. She glanced helplessly at Dina, who just grinned and shrugged as if to say hey, I warned you he was a fan.
“—and they don’t really look like birds, but you wrote that book a few years ago and I’m wondering if you still think that?”
“Uh,” she said, wondering where to start. “I definitely think a mixture of different factors led to the dinosaurs’ extinction, but you know there’s still a lot of evidence that suggests birds—and several other species—evolved from dinosaurs. Look at the Velociraptor alone—"
She warmed up to the subject while she spoke, barely noticing when the car started moving. JJ was a rapt audience, the intent expression on his face strangely reminiscent of Jesse’s sincere friendless and Dina’s calm focus.
“Man, you know a lot about this sh—uh, stuff. You’re smarter than half the people in the field,” Ellie said, making JJ blush and duck his head.
Something fluttered deep in her stomach when Dina caught her eye and mouthed thank you, her expression impossibly soft. “Hey guys, check it out.”
The computer monitor had lit up with the park logo while swelling instrumental music began drifting from the speakers. A voice-over narration started several seconds later. "Time: the ever-flowing river…”
The vehicles approached a vast entrance bracketed by lit torches, and Ellie felt a stir of anticipation when the wooden gates slowly swung open to admit them.
“Come with us now to a time before man, when the river flowed through a new-born world and giants walked the earth. Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
Notes:
Day 3: Magic
Uhh why yes, that is the narration from the amazing—and sadly repurposed—Universal Studios Jurassic Park river ride. May it RIP because it was fun asf.
Thank you to everyone reading—I hope you're all having a rawring good time!! :)
Feel free to find me on tumblr or to check out all the awesome content people are creating for EllieDina Week.
Chapter Text
When they were inside the park, Ellie swiveled to watch the gates shut behind them. “That’s not ominous at all.”
Dina shot her a smile over her shoulder. “Well, they did say they had a T-Rex in here.”
“If you look to your right, you’ll see the first dinosaurs on our tour: Dilophosaurus.”
“No way,” the three of them said simultaneously, twisting to look out the windows while the voice-over listed several facts about the Dilophosaurus.
“Huh,” Ellie said as the car slowly drove past the seemingly empty enclosure. “Guess it’s shy.”
Dina slumped in her seat. “Bummer.”
A more familiar voice sounded through the speakers as the vehicles continued down the path. “Kirk to Enterprise, come in.”
“Dad,” JJ laughed, leaning over the center console and pressing a button on the screen. “Hey!”
“Hey, little man,” Jesse said, his voice slightly tinny through the intercom. “Cool feature, huh?”
Before JJ could respond, the voice-over narration said, “The next dinosaur on our tour is the Tyrannosaurus Rex, more commonly known as the T-Rex: king of the tyrant lizards.”
“Speak of the devil,” Dina said as the vehicles stopped next to a series of tall electric fences.
They waited in tense anticipation, scanning the dense foliage for any sign of movement. Ellie sat back in her seat after several minutes had passed with no activity, swallowing her disappointment. “Another no-show.”
“Not too many dinosaurs on this dinosaur tour,” Jesse joked. “Guess someone forgot to tell the T-Rex the park schedule.”
They laughed as the vehicles started moving again, Dina leaning forward to press the intercom button. “You must be having a field day right now—all this chaos theory in motion.”
“Guilty. Who would’ve predicted dinosaurs wouldn’t follow set patterns?” He paused. “Oh wait, I did.”
Ellie and Dina exchanged knowing grins. Jesse lived for this shit, and it wasn’t often that he got to observe the outcome of his work firsthand.
She glanced out the window when they reached a wide-open field and did a double-take, squinting at the prone form lying next to one of the park trucks. Maybe she was fucking seeing things. But—
She pushed open the car door and jumped out while Dina called her name in alarm. She’d only gone a few feet when Dina and JJ caught up with her.
“What did you see?” Dina asked curiously, falling into step beside her. Ellie could hear Jesse and Gennaro farther behind them and—more faintly—what sounded like Jerry’s voice drifting from the still-open car door.
“I think—” Ellie said, cutting-off when a faint noise floated toward them.
She sucked in a breath, lengthening her stride through the knee-high grass as JJ gasped. “Wow.”
Ellie hesitantly approached the Triceratops, her eyes darting between features she’d only every seen with fossils and reconstructions. A park employee stood a few feet away from the truck jotting down notes on a clipboard, but he glanced up and smiled when she gestured at it. “Can I…?”
“Of course, go ahead. She’s sick, so I had her sedated to take a closer look.”
She took a shuddering breath and crossed the remaining distance to place a hand on the Triceratops’ frill. “Hey there, girl.”
Ellie trailed her fingers down its neck and head, relishing in the feel of its warm, leathery skin before circling toward its stomach. She pressed an ear against its side, her eyes fluttering shut at the deep rumble as its lungs filled with air and she was bodily lifted from the ground for a few seconds.
“Oh my god, she’s beautiful,” Dina murmured unsteadily, crouching to place a hand on its snout and glancing at her. “Wait, are you crying?”
“No, it’s—it’s just prehistoric dust or something,” she retorted, straightening. But when she locked gazes with Dina, she saw her eyes were just as damp. They both released choked laughs when a wave of mutual understanding passed between them. “This just doesn’t seem real.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Dina agreed as JJ joined them and stroked one of its horns with wide eyes. A frown turned down the corners of her lips as she examined the tongue half-lolling out of its open mouth. She picked something off its tongue and rolled it between her fingers. “Hmm…that’s strange.”
She glanced at the park employee when he crouched beside her. “You said she’s sick? What’re her symptoms?”
“Let’s see…she has labored breathing, foaming at the mouth, and dilated pupils about every six weeks.”
“Every six weeks…” Dina repeated absently, pushing to her feet and moving toward a nearby cluster of plants. She knelt and examined them before sifting through the dirt around the stalks. “West Indian Lilac berries…these are extremely toxic. Do the animals feed on them at all?”
The park employee shook his head, but she didn’t look convinced. Jesse, who’d been keeping an eye on JJ while he petted the Triceratops, eyed her expression with a grin. “I know that look. What’re you thinking?”
Dina stood and wiped her hands on her pants before turning a bright smile onto him.
“Well, you did ask,” Ellie observed wryly when they found themselves waiting on the edge of a nearby field not even ten minutes later while Dina sifted through a pile of dinosaur shit. She watched the concentration on Dina’s face, wondering how—even buried up to her elbows in literal shit—she could still look so fucking gorgeous.
“Yeah, that’s why it’s called instant regret,” Jesse said, grimacing when Dina pulled a clump from the pile and broke it apart. “I know she’s wearing gloves, but gross.”
Dina rejoined them a few minutes later wearing a triumphant grin. She showed them several of the same small, brown stones she’d picked up near the lilac plants. “I thought this might be the culprit. She eats these stones every six weeks to help her digest food, but she must be confusing them with the lilac berries.”
“Damn…lilac is all over the island too,” the park employee said with a frown, excusing himself when his radio crackled a moment later.
“This is exactly what I was talking about yesterday,” Dina said when he’d stepped away, peeling off the gloves. “Not a good combo here.”
“I’m sure Jerry will be overjoyed to hear that,” Jesse said, looping an arm reassuringly around JJ’s shoulders when lightening lit up the sky.
“Um, maybe it’s time we head back,” Gennaro suggested, glancing nervously between them and the swollen clouds. He’d taken one look at the Triceratops and spent the rest of their unplanned detour skulking by the tree line. Ellie got the feeling he was more comfortable with the park on paper than the actual thing itself.
“That was Abby on the radio,” the park employee said as he rejoined them. “The storm is about to make landfall and they want you back in the vehicles.”
They exchanged goodbyes and trudged back to the road. It was raining by the time they reached the cars, and Gennaro immediately ducked inside the closest one.
“My turn for a relaxing drive,” Jesse said, giving Dina his most charming smile. “Mind riding with the lawyer this time?”
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. She gave Ellie a look like can you believe this guy? before steering JJ into the lead vehicle.
“All he talked about was number forecasts,” Jesse said once they’d climbed into the car and had started moving again. It was raining in earnest, lightening flashing across the now-dark sky while sheets of rain poured down around them. “The only thing he cares about is making money.”
Ellie sprawled back in her seat. “Pssh. And that surprises you?”
“Nope. But that doesn’t mean I want to spend all day listening to it.”
She snickered right as the monitor flickered and went dark. Her and Jesse exchanged bemused looks when the car rolled to a stop several seconds later.
“Was that supposed to happen?” She asked uncertainly, glancing out the window to see they’d reached the T-Rex paddock. “I thought they were cutting things short today.”
“Maybe the power went out,” Jesse suggested, tapping the screen and frowning when it remained dark. “I should go check on Dina and JJ.”
“Wait,” Ellie said, putting a hand on his arm to stop him from leaving. “Did you feel that?”
Jesse frowned. “Feel what?”
She shook her head. Just when she started to think she’d been imagining things, the car gave a minute shudder—and then another one, until the car was noticeably trembling every few seconds.
It stopped as abruptly as it’d started. Gennaro sprinted past the car not even a minute later, disappearing into the park restroom sitting on the very edge of the open space in front of the paddock.
“Um,” Jesse said, squinting through the curtain of rain. “The fence is on, right?”
As if in response to his question, the fence gave an almighty groan and began to buckle as each cable segment snapped. And that’s when they finally spotted the T-Rex through the sheet of rain, its massive jaws biting clean through the remaining cables as it tore itself an opening.
“Jesus Christ,” Jesse breathed, pressing back into his seat as the T-Rex stepped between the two cars and roared. “I really hate being right sometimes.”
“Stay still,” Ellie warned in a low voice, her eyes following the T-Rex as it passed in front of their car. Jesus Fucking Christ it was big. “Their vision is based on movement.”
The T-Rex circled the cars, and Dina’s head briefly appeared as she leaned out the driver’s seat and closed the door Gennaro had left open during his escape. Its head immediately swiveled in that direction.
It walked over to investigate, nosing at the side of the car until it overturned. The car sunk into the mud when the T-Rex stepped on it, ripping at its tires and undercarriage.
“Fuck,” Ellie hissed, diving into the back and leaning over the trunk. She ripped open the pelican case labeled ‘For Emergencies Only’ and yanked out a flare right as the T-Rex bellowed.
Jesse twisted in his seat when she pushed open the door and stumbled into the rain. “Ellie—”
She lit the flare and waved it above her head until the T-Rex faced her, its head swiveling to follow the movement. She chucked the flare through the fence with all her strength, and the T-Rex charged after it—only to pause when Jesse stepped out of the car and lit another flare. “Hey, over here!”
Ellie felt all the air punch from her lungs. “Jesse, don’t move!”
But it was too late. Jesse swung the flare above his head and ran, the T-Rex roaring before taking chase. He’d just reached the restroom when the T-Rex caught up to him, barreling into the side of the structure and sending Jesse flying. The restroom collapsed in an explosion of straw and wood, leaving Gennaro cowering in the open.
Ellie turned and sprinted toward the other car, reaching it right as Gennaro’s bloodcurdling scream cut-off with a sickening crunch. She fell to her knees and peered through the shattered windows. “Dina! JJ!”
“We’re okay,” Dina said in a breathless voice. “Here, get JJ out first.”
Ellie grabbed ahold of JJ and carefully maneuvered him out of the vehicle while Dina murmured encouragement. She turned to help Dina out as soon as he was free, but JJ whimpered and frantically pulled at her sleeve. She spun—and the T-Rex was in front of them, the tip of its snout a foot away as it searched for them.
“Don’t. Move,” she hissed out of the side of her mouth as its rank breath washed over them. JJ froze, his hand still clutching her sleeve. “It can’t see us if we don’t move.”
The T-Rex bypassed them and headbutted the car, which knocked into them as it rotated. Ellie cursed when a jagged piece of glass caught her arm. Without stopping to inspect the cut, she hastily grabbed JJ's hand and followed the car’s movement until they were pressed against the fence’s concrete base. She climbed on top of it and tugged him up, her heart sinking when she saw the steep drop-off on the other side.
She spotted an access ladder situated on the wall several feet away from where they stood. Painfully cognizant of the fact the T-Rex was shoving at the car behind them—and that Dina was still trapped inside it—she dragged JJ along the ledge until they were standing over the ladder.
“Climb down,” Ellie urged, her eyes glued to the T-Rex as it pushed the car onto the ledge. The car balanced there precariously, rocking back and forth. “Now.”
He started climbing down the ladder, and she wasted no time in following him. They’d descended maybe ten feet when the car tipped over the edge and crashed into a tree with an earsplitting screech of metal.
The T-Rex’s head appeared over the edge a moment later, and she had just enough time to squeeze next to JJ on the ladder and enclose him in her arms before it looked down.
“Freeze,” she breathed, going still. The T-Rex stretched its neck down and swung its head from side to side before roaring. It retreated, the tip of its long tail whipping over the edge before disappearing.
Her ears ringing, Ellie waited until the sound of its footsteps faded before speaking. “Okay. I think it’s gone. Let’s keep moving.”
JJ remained frozen. Now that she wasn’t focused on the T-Rex, she could feel him trembling against her side.
“Hey,” she said, making her voice as gentle as possible. “It’s okay—it’s gone.”
“It—the car. Mom was still in the—” He abruptly cut-off and took a shaky breath.
“Hey, she’s fine. The car got stuck in the tree on the way down—look. You can see it from here.” She pointed at the tree, where the tail end of the car protruded from the leaves. “We’re gonna climb down, put you somewhere safe, and then I’m gonna go get her.”
But he didn’t seem to be listening.
“He left us,” JJ whispered, his voice shaking. “He l-left mom and I in the car alone to d-deal with the T-Rex.”
“JJ, look at me,” Ellie said, the words sharper than she intended. She waited until his eyes met hers. “I’m not gonna do that. I’m not gonna leave you guys, okay?”
She let him search her face until some of the panic retreated from his eyes and he asked in a small voice, “How’re you not afraid right now?”
Ellie huffed out a laugh. “Who says I’m not?”
She held out a trembling hand for him to see before closing her fingers around his small fist. “I’ll climb down first. Be careful when you follow—the rungs might be a little slick from the rain.”
They reached the ground without further incident, the ladder ending near a storm drain set into the base of the wall. Deciding it was as safe a place as any for the moment, Ellie picked JJ up and placed him just inside the rim.
“Stay here,” she ordered, waiting until he nodded before heading to the base of the tree. She glanced up into the dark branches to where the car sat, its head beams—which were still on despite everything—casting dappled shadows through the leaves.
“Okay,” she muttered, wiping a sleeve across her face while the branches creaked above her head. “Just have to climb up and get her. Nothing compared to a fucking T-Rex.”
Ellie began her ascent, carefully maneuvering up and over branches until she reached the car. She peered in through the shattered window on the driver’s side. “Dina? Dina, are you okay?”
Dina was huddled on the floor of the passenger seat with her head bowed. She looked up when Ellie opened the driver’s door and lowered it until it was resting on a branch. “Hey Ellie. Yeah, I’m—I’m okay.”
The note of hesitance in her voice put Ellie instantly on alert. “What is it?”
“I, uh, kinda threw up.” Her face was mostly obscured by shadow, but Ellie still saw part of her tremulous smile. “On a scale of one to ten, how hot do I look right now?”
“Pretty hot,” Ellie answered sincerely. Dina laughed shakily but made no move to leave. Ellie bit her lip, her fingers clenching around the doorframe. “Do you want to try moving this way?”
Dina nodded and slowly edged forward, freezing when the car shuddered. She took an audible breath, and it was that subtle sign of her fear that made Ellie say, “You know, I play guitar.”
Their eyes met across the car. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah...Joel taught me. We both love music, but I think singing was a way for him to share his feelings with something besides grunts and sighs.”
The corners of her lips curled up as she shifted toward her. "Do you sing too?"
“Sometimes,” Ellie said, thinking of long summer nights playing guitar on the porch while she coaxed Joel into singing covers of Fleetwood Mac and Rush with her. She leaned across the steering wheel to help Dina over the center console before admitting a bit more embarrassedly, “I, uh, write my own music sometimes.”
“Oh. Wow,” Dina said, her voice almost normal again. She climbed out of the car and pressed against Ellie’s side, her arms coming up to wrap around her waist for stability as they balanced together on the branch. “Can I hear that sometime?”
“My music?” She asked, inspecting the cuts scattered between her freckles. “Sure, maybe one day.”
“One day,” Dina echoed, her nose inches away. “Ellie…can we please get out of this fucking tree?”
They were halfway to the ground when the car creaked ominously above them. They locked gazes and began descending faster as the branch supporting the car snapped with a sharp crack, sending it plummeting toward them.
“Jump!” Ellie shouted, and they leapt the remaining distance to the ground. The car hit a thick branch right above their heads, and they managed to scramble a few feet before it started tipping. She threw herself over Dina and squeezed her eyes shut as the car crashed down around them.
“Ellie,” Dina gasped against her neck. Her hands were twisted in Ellie’s flannel. “We’re back in the fucking car.”
She released a shaky laugh. “At least we’re out of the fucking tree.”
“Touché,” Dina said, her lips brushing against the side of her neck while she spoke. Ellie suddenly became aware of how warm she was—and how maybe this really wasn’t the time to be noticing that.
Dina’s hands slid to grasp the flannel along her sides when Ellie pushed onto her elbows to examine her face. “Are you okay?”
“Surprisingly? Yeah,” Dina said, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. Her eyes were shining. “Did you just try to protect me from getting crushed by a car?”
“Uh. Maybe,” she said, surveying the wrecked interior around them. Thank fuck the sunroof was missing—it was the only thing that’d saved them. Even so…she gave a sheepish smile. “Not that it would’ve made much of a difference.”
“But you still did it. That was, like, really fucking cool."
They smiled at each other until they heard footsteps approaching. JJ’s frightened face appeared in the opening left by the now-missing driver’s side door. “Mom! Ellie! Are you guys alright?”
“We’re okay, sweetie,” Dina said, her eyes lingering on her face for another moment before she pulled herself out of the car and enfolded JJ in a hug.
Ellie crawled after her and stood, wiping a damp sleeve across her muddy face as JJ pulled back enough to ask in a small, worried voice, “Where’s dad? Is he alright? We heard—”
He cut-off, looking painfully young, and her stomach jolted as she remembered the blurry sequence of events between Jesse reaching the restroom and the T-Rex destroying it.
“I—I don’t—” she said haltingly, her eyes flickering toward Dina for a brief second. “It got Gennaro. It knocked into Jesse, but—”
They tensed when a roar echoed from above them, glancing up in unison at the destroyed fence. Ellie half-expected to see the T-Rex gazing at them.
“What should we do?” Dina asked, breaking the strained silence. “Should we go up and look for Jesse? Or go back to get help?”
JJ pressed into Dina’s side when another long roar—louder and closer—drifted toward them.
“It sounds like the T-Rex is still nearby, so it might not be safe to go up there,” Ellie said in a low voice, a leaden weight settling in her stomach at the thought of Jesse alone and injured. “It also might not be the only dinosaur that escaped when we lost power.”
“You’re right,” Dina admitted in a heavy voice, wrapping her arms around JJ’s shoulders when he buried his face in her side. “It’s not safe here. We should head to the visitor center.”
Ellie nodded, wondering how they’d find their way back before remembering the pamphlet she’d stuck in her pocket. She pulled it out and examined the park map until she had a general sense of where they were in relation to the visitor center, her eyes snapping up when another bellowing roar cut through the night air. “Uh…we should probably get moving.”
“Good idea,” Dina said, taking JJ’s hand. Her expression was determined when she met her gaze. “Ready when you are.”
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep, steadying breath before turning and leading them into the dark forest.
Notes:
Day 4: Fall
Anything is fossible when you're dealing with loose dinosaurs—let the chaos commence! :)
HUGE thank you to everyone reading this story!! I really appreciate your support, whether it's kudos, comments, or just taking a few minutes out of your day to read each new chapter.
Feel free to find me on tumblr or check out all the amazing, creative content people have made for EllieDina Week.
Chapter Text
They’d been walking for maybe twenty minutes when a familiar roar echoed in the distance.
“Maybe we should call it a night,” Ellie suggested nonchalantly, leading them toward the base of a tall tree with thick, twisting branches.
“Oh good,” Dina said cheerfully. “Another tree.”
She grimaced sympathetically, but Dina just gave a small smile and gamely boosted JJ up to the first branch. They climbed until they reached a spot where they could safely settle for the night without falling, a gap in the surrounding branches providing a stunning view of the forest.
They huddled together, Ellie and Dina leaning back against the trunk while JJ curled between them. They listened to the steady stream of night sounds drifting from the forest while JJ fidgeted restlessly.
“Why don’t you get some rest?” Dina suggested gently after several minutes, soothingly rubbing his arm. “It’ll be a long walk tomorrow.”
“What if the T-Rex comes back? Or another carnivore?” JJ asked, eyes wide in his mud splattered face.
“We’ll be safe up here,” Ellie said, smiling reassuringly. “Hey, what do you call twin dinosaurs?”
JJ blinked. “I—I don’t know.”
“Pair-odactyls,” she said, nudging his shoulder as he giggled. “What do you call a paleontologist who sleeps on the job?”
He scrunched his nose in thought. “What?”
“Lazy bones,” Ellie said, grinning when he laughed and Dina snorted.
“Oh, I have one! What does a Triceratops sit on?” JJ asked, smiling from ear to ear. When Ellie shook her head, flummoxed, he said, “Its tricera-bottom!”
“That’s awesome,” Ellie said, cracking up. They exchanged jokes until JJ finally nodded off, his head resting on Dina’s lap.
“Thank you,” Dina said, her eyes as soft as her voice. “You’re really good with him.”
“Well, he’s a good kid,” Ellie said gruffly. “He’s handling all of this really fucking well.”
“Yeah…Jesse and I lucked out with him,” she said tenderly, running a hand through his hair before letting it settle on his shoulder.
Ellie chewed on a question for a few seconds, recalling their conversation from last night—and fuck, had that really only been yesterday?—before asking, “Do you miss being with him?”
Dina was quiet for so long that she thought she might’ve overstepped. She’d just opened her mouth to apologize when Dina said quietly, “No, I don’t. Jesse is a really good guy—and his parents have always been wonderful to me and JJ. We’ll always be family, but…”
She sighed. “We were together for so long that we were just going through the motions. I found out I was pregnant after we broke up, but I realized it didn’t change things for me…or how I felt about the relationship.”
Ellie considered that, rubbing a thumb along the seam of her jeans. “Well, you guys have definitely made the co-parenting thing work.”
“Yeah, we have,” Dina said softly, her expression clouding over. “I just—god, I hope he’s okay.”
“Me too,” she murmured, her stomach lurching sickeningly as she considered the possibility that they’d made the wrong decision in choosing to go for help.
“Hey,” Dina said after a few minutes of heavy silence. “When we were in the other tree, I…I know you were just trying to distract me, but—thank you.”
Ellie gave her a lopsided grin. “Oh, so you don’t want to hear my music? Damn…and here I thought I might’ve had a potential groupie.”
“Oh, you’re not getting out of it that easily,” Dina said, touching her arm. Her fingers trailed across her tattoo, leaving a pleasant tingle in their wake. “I really like this, by the way.”
“Oh yeah?” Ellie asked, sounding more breathless than she wanted and watching a small furrow appear between Dina’s brows.
“Mmhmm. Dryopteris expansa—northern-buckler fern,” she said softly, touching the darker of the two ferns before moving her fingers to the other one. “And Polypodium hesperium—western polypody.” She rested her hand on the moth and looked at her through her lashes. “What about this?”
“Uh, it’s the decal on the guitar Joel gave me.” Ellie cleared her throat and touched the lighter fern. “I get tunnel-vision sometimes, so it reminds me to step back and look at the bigger picture.”
“It suits you,” Dina said, her nose crinkling as she smiled. A wicked gleam of humor appeared in her eyes. “And it gives you a natural advantage here—you fit right in with the foliage.”
Her smile widened when Ellie laughed. She shifted closer to rest her head against her shoulder, and Ellie hesitated for a moment before cautiously wrapping an arm around her. It was difficult to tell in the dim light cast by the moon, but she swore she saw Dina’s lips curving into a smile.
And okay—maybe spending the night here knowing what lurked out in the darkness should’ve been terrifying. But with Dina beside her and JJ nestled between them, it was almost comfortable. Her final, hazy thought before falling asleep was that she could get used to this.
She woke a few hours later just as the first glint of dawn pressed through the remaining storm clouds.
Her cheek was resting on the crown of Dina’s head, strands of her dark hair tickling her nose with every breath. She straightened with a wince, swallowing past the foul taste in her mouth while blearily wondering what’d woken her.
She slowly became aware of an eerie, beautiful sound that was oddly reminiscent of whale song. She scanned the horizon and sucked in a breath when she spotted its source.
“Dina,” Ellie said quietly, gently shaking her awake. “Hey, you gotta see this.”
She started and sat up, instantly on the alert. “What? What is it?”
"Everything’s okay,” Ellie assured her as JJ stirred and sat up, blinking groggily. She jutted her chin toward the horizon. “Take a look.”
“Oh,” Dina breathed when she spotted the herd of Brachiosaurus feeding nearby. JJ scooched forward on his knees, his mouth hanging open as he watched the closest one pivot to blink at them. “They’re singing.”
They collectively held their breath as the Brachiosaurus approached and took a mouthful of leaves from a branch above their heads. It watched them curiously as it chewed, and Ellie shifted forward beside JJ to reach out and touch its neck.
“Aww that’s a big girl,” she cooed, grinning as she met JJ’s uncertain gaze. “Go on—she won’t hurt you.”
JJ reached out and stroked the dinosaur’s neck, his face lighting up when it emitted a deep, rumbling hum.
Ellie glanced over her shoulder to smile at Dina, who edged forward to press into her side while she stroked its warm, leathery skin.
“Is it bad that I still think this is super cool?” She asked, laughing when the Brachiosaurus nosed at the branches above them and showered them with leaves.
“Nah,” Ellie said, grinning as the dinosaur moved toward its herd. They returned to their little nook and watched the Brachiosauruses while their hauntingly beautiful melody filled the air around them.
“Ready to get going?” Dina asked quietly when the sun had cleared the horizon, casting soft golden hues across the sky.
“Yeah,” Ellie said, watching the last Brachiosaurus vanish from sight before turning to start her descent. “Let’s get going.”
__________________
“What’s that smile?”
“Huh?” Ellie said, turning to see Dina watching her with bright eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you normally walk around with a scowl on your face,” she said teasingly. “But now you’re practically beaming.”
“What? I don’t scowl all the time,” Ellie said, feeling herself scowl and hastily rearranging her features into something more neutral. JJ, who was walking a few feet ahead of them, grinned at her over his shoulder.
Dina’s lips curled into a knowing smile. “So? Why were you smiling?”
“It’s just…you realize this is the closest we’re ever gonna get to a time machine, right?” Ellie asked, gesturing vaguely at the trees and foliage encircling them. “Like, the three of us have only ever imagined what the Cretaceous Period might look like, and now we’re practically there.”
It really was like they’d stepped back in time. Prehistoric fauna was interwoven with Isla Nublar’s natural plant life. Dina had been pointing out the extinct plants while they walked, her brow furrowing in concern whenever they came across seemingly new species of hybrid plants.
Ellie wondered if she'd been thinking the same thing—that, just as Jesse had predicted, nature was already paving its own course in this place.
She shrugged helplessly. “If this wasn’t such a nightmare situation, it would be a fucking dream come true. You know?”
“Yeah, I understand what you mean,” Dina admitted, her eyes distant. “I just wish the circumstances were different."
They exchanged uneasy looks as though suddenly remembering what else might be out there and lengthened their strides to catch up with JJ.
“Is this your favorite video game?” Ellie asked, tugging on his muddy t-shirt.
He grinned, holding out the fabric to examine the image of Mario riding Yoshi. “No, but it’s one of them! The Legend of Zelda is my favorite.”
Ellie lit up. “Oh dude, that one’s awesome!”
Tommy and Maria had gifted her a Super Nintendo for her birthday a few years ago, and she’d immediately broken it in by kicking Joel and Tommy’s asses at Mario Kart. She’d celebrated her victory with some grade A shit talk before Sarah had swooped in and absolutely destroyed her.
“Have you beaten it?” JJ asked eagerly. “It took me forever to find everything!”
Her and JJ launched into an enthusiastic discussion about Zelda before branching into their other favorite games. JJ was big into computers, so he’d played a bunch of different games she’d never even heard of—but he also hadn’t played most of the arcade games she mentioned.
From there, their conversation somehow shifted into their love of space—something else they had in common—and they covered a fair distance discussing the most recent shuttle launch.
Ellie caught Dina smiling at her during a brief lull in conversation. “What?”
“Your whole dinosaur-video game-astronaut thing. You’re kind of the full package nerd,” Dina said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She paused before adding, “Is it weird that it’s kinda working on me?”
Ellie choked on her own spit, prompting a coughing fit. Her face was burning when she finally met Dina’s dancing eyes, but she was saved a response when JJ clambered over a large, exposed tree root and disappeared for a few seconds. “Hey mom, Ellie. Come check this out!”
The hurried up and over the tree root, landing beside where JJ was crouched next to a shallow pit in the loamy earth. He wordlessly held up a broken eggshell.
“Oh man,” Ellie muttered, accepting it from him before dropping her gaze to the rest of the empty shells. “This is a dinosaur egg…they’re breeding.”
“I thought they said all the dinosaurs were girls,” JJ said, frowning.
“They did,” she confirmed, thinking fast. It hit her and Dina at the same time. “Frog DNA.”
JJ squinted at them. “Huh?”
Fascination warred with horror as she touched the edge of the shell. “Remember that film we watched during the tour? It said they used frog DNA to fill in the gaps in each sequence.”
“And some species of frogs have been known to change their sex in a single sex environment,” Dina continued from where she was examining a series of tiny claw marks leading away from the nesting spot. “Jesse was right.”
“Life found a way,” Ellie said quietly, carefully replacing the broken eggshell back in the pile. She stood and brushed her hands on her jeans. “Let’s keep moving.”
The forest thinned after another hour of walking, dense foliage giving way to tall grass and a rolling, open field.
Her and Dina were swapping stories about their dissertations while JJ walked ahead of them, and Dina had her in stitches with her description of the committee she’d presented to during the final year of her doctorate program.
“I swear, dude, it was like they polled the entire department and asked for the oldest faculty members to attend,” Dina said while Ellie wiped away an actual tear of laughter. “One guy was asleep before I started and woke himself up with a fart halfway through my presentation. I almost died and no one even blinked.”
“Old balls,” Ellie snorted, making Dina laugh. “God, mine was nothing like that. They fucking grilled me. I was nervous sweating so bad that I actually had to switch out shirts when I was done.”
Dina sighed sympathetically. “Oh no…”
“Oh yeah,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m pretty sure I would’ve gone crazy without my family during that entire process.”
It was true. Applying herself had been a foreign concept when she’d first come to live with Joel. She’d been more interested in picking fights and being a fucking smartass than in school, and it’d shown that first year in Jackson.
When she’d finally found a subject that interested her—that motivated her—every one of the Millers had supported her in their own way. That kind of love and acceptance had been an equally foreign concept, but she’d quickly learned to rely on it.
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Dina said, giving her a teasing smile.
“Shut up,” Ellie muttered without heat, unable to suppress an answering smile. They passed a herd of Gallimimus, who were grazing on insects in the tall grass. A few looked up to watch them curiously while they crossed the field toward another section of forest.
“Are we close?” JJ asked after they’d taken a water break next to a clear, burbling stream and Ellie had consulted the map.
“I think so,” she said, sticking the pamphlet in her back pocket and wiping a sleeve across her face. “It’s maybe another mile or—”
She went silent as a series of guttural, barking calls echoed from deeper in the woods. It was almost immediately followed by a horrific bellow that abruptly cut-off after a few seconds.
They all exchanged disturbed looks before hurrying in the opposite direction of where the sounds had originated.
“What do you think that was?” Dina asked when they’d put a good amount of distance between them and the stream.
“I don’t know,” Ellie said, glancing uneasily over her shoulder. “I kind of hope we don’t ever find out.”
JJ shuddered. “Me too.”
“Me three,” Dina echoed as the trees and foliage thinned again. “Oh! I think we’re coming up on another enclosure.”
They stepped into a wide-open clearing bracketed with trees, cautiously eyeing the high-walled enclosure that sat at its center. Electric cables ran the entire length along the top of its walls, and even from a distance Ellie could see something had torn a hole in a portion of the cables.
“Let’s go,” she muttered, not wanting to run into whatever had escaped. “The road should be nearby.”
Taking care to skirt the enclosure, they moved swiftly toward the rough, dirt packed path curving through the trees. The path eventually opened onto the main road, and Ellie had never been so happy to see asphalt in her life.
They’d only been walking along the paved road for a few minutes when Dina paused, her head tilted to the side. “Is that a car or am I hearing things?”
A gas-powered Jeep rounded the bend a moment later and headed toward them, Abby behind the wheel. She pulled over as soon as she spotted them.
“Holy shit, you’re all okay,” she said, her face alight with relief and wonder. “When I found Jesse and the cars yesterday, I thought—"
“Is dad alright?” JJ demanded at the same time Ellie asked, “Is he okay?”
They waited impatiently for Abby to answer, Dina and JJ tense on either side of her.
“He’s fine,” Abby said, her gaze softening as it slid toward JJ. “Uh, his leg is a little banged up, but he’ll recover.”
“Oh, thank god,” Dina murmured as an invisible weight slid from Ellie’s shoulders. Fuck. “Where is he?”
“He’s with my dad in the emergency bunker. Here, get in—I’ll take you guys there,” Abby said, shifting the rifle resting against the passenger seat. “We need to catch you up on everything that’s happened since last night.”
But Ellie wasn’t listening. She was squinting at a tire track on the side of the road that was filled with water from last night’s storm. It rippled, and the rings had barely dissipated when it rippled again.
“Get in the car,” Ellie ordered tersely, bodily lifting JJ into the passenger seat. “We need to go now. Like right now.”
Her and Dina scrambled into the Jeep right as the T-Rex burst through the tree line behind them with a deafening roar.
“Go! Fucking go!” Ellie shouted, but Abby was way ahead of her. She shifted into first and hit the gas right as it charged.
The T-Rex took chase, its razor-sharp teeth glistening in the sun as it bellowed in rage. Ellie and Dina pushed against the back of the front seats, their hands automatically finding each other as it gained on the car.
“Faster—we need to go fucking faster,” Ellie hissed as the T-Rex snapped its jaw inches from the bumper.
“I fucking know!” Abby snarled, shifting into a higher gear so that the Jeep shot away from the T-Rex.
“Remind me to thank Jerry for the wonderful weekend,” Dina said faintly when the T-Rex had faded from view. She didn’t relinquish her hold on Ellie’s hand, but her grip went from painful to relaxed.
“I think I like the T-Rex better as a fossil,” JJ said, making them release choked huffs of laughter.
“Me too, buddy,” Ellie said as she and Dina slid onto the backseat. She leaned toward the center console a moment later as a thought struck her. “Hey, what did you guys keep in that enclosure back there?”
Abby met her gaze in the rearview mirror, a deep furrow between her brows. “The big one with the high walls? That’s the raptor enclosure.” She scowled when they all immediately turned to look at each other. “What? What’s wrong?”
“We have another big fucking problem on our hands,” Ellie said grimly, a chill running down her spine as she recalled the guttural calls ringing from deep in the forest. “The fucking raptors escaped.”
Notes:
Day 5: Old World
Aw yeah, look at Dina flirting with Ellie through the scientific name of fauna. You grow, girl. And no, I’m not sauree for all these puns 😂
I really appreciate the support for this story!! Thank you for leaving kudos, comments, or even just taking a few minutes out of your day to read each update!
Feel free to find me on tumblr or check out all the amazingly creative content people are making for EllieDina Week.
Chapter Text
They’d barely crossed the threshold to the emergency bunker beneath the lab when JJ broke away from Dina and flung himself across the room. “Dad!”
“JJ! Thank god you’re safe,” Jesse said, catching JJ with a pained grimace when he threw his arms around his neck and tugging him into a tight hug. He looked up when Dina gripped his shoulder, covering her hand with his before meeting Ellie’s gaze across the room. “That you're all safe. Where have you been?”
“We had to take a little detour through the park when the T-Rex tossed our ride into a tree,” Ellie said, joining their group around the table he was laying on with his leg stretched out and wrapped in bandages. “It looks like it did a number on you too.”
“Yeah, but it definitely could’ve been worse.” Jesse paused, and she wondered if he was also thinking about Gennaro. “Abby found me in the wreckage and brought me here last night, but we couldn’t figure out where you guys were.”
“We hoped we’d be able to find you once we rebooted the systems,” Jerry said, his face pale.
“Rebooted the systems?” Ellie echoed, making a face as she looked between him and Abby. “What the fuck happened yesterday?”
“Our lead computer programmer—Nedry—went rogue,” Abby said when her father hesitated. “He ran some kind of program that crashed the security system. That’s why all the fences went down.”
A look of horror crossed Dina’s face. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s a fucking ass,” Abby said with a scowl, crossing her arms over her chest. “He was up to his eyeballs in debt and disgruntled we wouldn’t pay him more. He went MIA just before everything went to shit, and since all the other employees except for me and Arnold, our chief engineer, left on last night’s ferry…”
She rolled her broad shoulders helplessly. “We had to shut down the entire system when we couldn’t figure out how to undo the damage his fucking code caused. Arnold left an hour ago to turn the power back on.” She grimaced. “The shutdown must’ve deactivated the remaining fences, allowing the raptors to escape…which is probably why he hasn’t come back.”
“What a fucking shitshow,” Ellie said, scrubbing a hand across her face and releasing a long sigh.
“These kind of…setbacks are to be expected,” Jerry said quietly, his gaze flickering over Dina, JJ, and Jesse before landing on her. “Every major theme park has disruptions in their operations.”
Ellie gaped at him. “Yeah, but if the rides break down at an amusement park, nothing is gonna eat the tourists.”
Jerry winced like she’d struck him. “Next time, we can control—”
“Next time?” Jesse interrupted, struggling to sit up and gratefully accepting JJ’s help. “Control? You never had control—that’s the whole problem.”
Jerry’s face reddened. “If we can just change certain variables—better background checks, less automation, more fail safes—we can still make this work.”
“Dad,” Abby said sharply, stepping in front of him. “Don’t be an idiot. People have died. What if it’d been me out there with them last night?” Jerry flinched but she caught his arm before he could turn away, forcing him to look at her. “The only thing that matters now is making sure the rest of us get off this island alive.”
A tense silence filled the room as they stared each other down.
“The ferry,” Dina said quietly, drawing everyone’s gaze. “When does the ferry get back?”
“The first wave is scheduled to come back tomorrow morning,” Abby said, her words hanging in the air as the implications fully sunk in.
“Then we have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Ellie said decisively, looking at each of her companions in turn. “So, what’s the plan?”
“We need to flip the breakers to turn the power back on,” Abby said, pacing back and forth. “The maintenance shed is across the compound, just a few minutes’ walk from here. I’ll go and get it back online.”
“Abby—” Jerry said, his face alight with concern.
“We’re not putting anyone else at risk,” she said bluntly, meeting his gaze with a defiant tilt to her chin until he clenched his jaw and nodded.
“Don’t be fucking stupid," Ellie said, scowling. "You’re not going alone—I’ll go with you.”
Jesse and Dina immediately began protesting.
“Ellie, no—”
“It’s too dangerous—"
“There isn’t another option. Besides, we're all gonna have to do our parts if we want to make it out of here alive,” she said, her tone brooking no argument. She faced Abby. “I’ll get the power back online if you provide protection.”
“Deal,” Abby said, giving a ghost of a smile. “We’ll need to get the systems rebooted once the power is on.”
Ellie blew a strand of hair from her face. “Okay, cool.”
Dina looked furious. “Not cool.”
Ellie was shaking her head before she’d even stopped talking, but JJ came to her defense.
“She’s right, mom,” he said, looking Dina in the eyes. “We all have to do our parts. I can help too—I’m really good with computers, so I can reboot whatever parts of the system you need me to.”
“Baby…” Dina said, some of the fight draining from her as she looked between him and Ellie.
JJ grinned, sensing victory. “We got this, mom. Besides, Abby will keep her safe.”
His confidence startled a smile out of Abby. “For sure. I’ll distract whatever dinosaur shows up while Ellie restores the power.”
“Okay,” Jerry said decisively, pulling a stack of schematics from a drawer and depositing them on the table beside Jesse. “Here—help me locate the plans for the maintenance shed and the circuit breakers.”
Dina touched her hand while Jerry and Jesse pored over the schematics, saying in a low voice so only she could hear, “Hey, are you sure about this? I can go instead.”
Ellie thought of everything she knew—or thought she knew—about carnivores. Then, more uneasily, about the raptors and the way they hunted. The perfect predators. She kept her expression neutral even as a primal shiver ran down her spine.
“Yeah, I’m totally sure,” she said with more confidence than she felt. A wave of tenderness washed over her when Dina arched an eyebrow, unconvinced with her lame attempt at bravado. “I know you’re more than fucking capable, okay? But…”
Her eyes moved toward JJ, who was sitting cross-legged on the table huddled under Jesse’s arm. Understanding lit Dina’s face when she followed her gaze. “He needs you. They both do.”
Dina caught her bottom lip between her teeth and searched her face, her fingers sliding down to grip Ellie’s hand. She shook her head and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Okay. Just—promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I will—I promise,” Ellie said softly, squeezing her hand back and releasing it when Jerry waved them over.
“We got it,” Jerry said, tapping one of the schematics they’d laid flat across the table. “Ellie—I’ll give you step-by-step instructions on how to navigate through the shed and flip on the breakers once you and Abby get there.”
“Right,” Ellie said, grimly setting her jaw. “We’ll come straight back to grab Dina and JJ, and then head over to the control room to get the phones up and running.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jerry said, nodding curtly before facing his daughter. “Abby, help me grab all the gear we’ll need.”
Abby followed him toward a connecting room in the bunker, pausing in the doorway to look over her shoulder at Ellie. “We’ll head out as soon as we have everything. I suggest taking a fucking minute to catch your breath.”
__________________
“Ow, mom!”
“I know, I know. We’re almost done.”
“Jeez, don’t—ow!”
Ellie snorted, tentatively nibbling on the end of a ration bar they’d found next to a med kit on one of the shelves. Dina and JJ were sitting on pelican cases beneath the metal staircase that led in and out of the bunker, so she couldn’t see them—but she could hear JJ’s embarrassed muttering as Dina fussed over his cuts and bruises.
“Thank you for taking care of them.”
Ellie glanced over to where Jesse was propped up on the table, his gaze painfully sincere. “Dude, it’s nothing. I’m just—fucking glad you’re alright.”
“It’s not nothing,” he insisted, shaking his head. “JJ said you stared down a T-Rex for him. I don’t know many people who would do that.”
“Pssh. I don’t think anyone will ever have to do that,” Ellie said, rolling her eyes and tossing the empty wrapper into the trashcan under the table. “I think ‘pseudo-showdown with a T-Rex’ is, like, a really rare scenario when it comes to friendships.”
Jesse laughed, reaching out to clasp her shoulder. “Well, that makes me even luckier to have you as a friend then.”
“God, don’t be such a sap,” she groaned, infinitely grateful that he was still here to be a sap.
He adopted a wounded expression. “Here I am pouring my heart out to you, and you just mock me. You know how to hurt a man deep.”
“Duh,” she said, affectionately shoving his hand off her shoulder. She sat up straighter when Dina approached a moment later with a sulky JJ in tow. “All better?”
“That might be debatable,” Dina said with a poorly concealed grin when JJ scowled and slunk over to sit with his dad. She touched Ellie’s hand. “Your turn. Let’s take a quick look at that arm.”
Ellie followed her to the staircase and sat across from her on one of the pelican cases before shrugging off her flannel. She tugged self-consciously at her stained shirt while Dina unwrapped the makeshift bandage she’d tied around her arm last night.
“Knowing how to stitch a wound is looking pretty useful right about now,” Dina said wryly, discarding the bandage before rummaging through the med kit.
“Note to self,” Ellie said, smirking. “Potential paleobotanists should take a class in emergency wound care in the event of dinosaur attacks.”
“I’ll make sure that gets added to the national curriculum,” Dina said, her shoulders shaking with laughter while she poured disinfectant onto a cloth and dabbed the cut. “Also, this is a little ironic.”
“What is?” Ellie asked, her eyes watering between the sting and the sharp smell. Fuck that burned like a bitch.
“I was the one thrown into a tree by a T-Rex but I’m least injured out of the four of us,” she said, that wicked glint of humor appearing in her eyes as she pressed a piece of gauze against her arm.
Ellie grinned and held the gauze in place while Dina wrapped a bandage around her bicep. “You’re a fucking badass.”
“Oh yeah, that’s me. Just call me Sarah Connor,” Dina said, rolling her eyes. She flicked Ellie’s knee. “And don’t look so surprised.”
“Guess I’m not the only nerd around here,” she said in a low, teasing tone as Dina secured the bandage in place.
“No, but you’re definitely the biggest one,” Dina said, smiling sweetly while she sputtered. “There, good as new—no, wait.”
She leaned down and brushed her lips against the bandage, and Ellie took a stuttering breath that seemed to get caught somewhere in her chest. The air seemed to gain a charge when they locked eyes.
“Hey, dinosaur nerd,” Abby said impatiently, making them both jump. She was leaning against the edge of the staircase with both arms, her muscles popping as she ducked forward to look at them. “We got the gear. You ready to get this show on the road?”
“Jesus,” Ellie muttered, scowling when Dina suppressed a laugh and mouthed see? “Yeah, just—give me another minute.”
Abby rolled her eyes and backed away to lean against the wall opposite them.
When Ellie faced Dina again, she was biting at her bottom lip. The concern swimming in her dark eyes was heart wrenching. She reached out and touched her knee. “We’ll be okay.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I—I know you will,” Dina said, still biting her lip. She watched Ellie shrug on her flannel and caught her hand before she could stand. “Wait.”
She removed her bracelet and put it on Ellie’s wrist, her fingers lingering long after she’d fastened it in place. “For good luck.”
Ellie smiled. “I don’t believe in luck.”
“I do.”
Something warm and affectionate ballooned between her stomach and chest as they smiled at each other. Before she could talk herself out of it, Ellie leaned forward and kissed her.
Dina made a soft, surprised noise against her lips, her fingers sliding down her skin to curl around Ellie’s while her other hand twisted in her flannel to tug her closer.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Abby huffed. “Is this really the time, guys?”
Without pulling away from Dina, Ellie flipped her off. Abby muttered something and went to stand by the table.
“You better stay safe—and you better come back,” Dina said when they finally broke apart, pressing their foreheads together. Her cheeks were flushed beneath her freckles, her hair curling in messy strands against her face and neck, and Ellie thought she just might be the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“I will,” she said, reaching out to tuck one of the loose strands behind her ear. “We’ll be back in a flash.”
__________________
“I grabbed something extra for you,” Abby said as they left the bunker and headed toward the atrium.
“What, the fucking radio, utility belt, and industrial size flashlight weren’t enough?” Ellie asked, tapping the gear Abby had shoved into her chest when she and Dina had rejoined the group at the table. Jerry had given her a quick rundown of how to operate everything before she and Abby had left. “Do I get a rifle too or do you got us fucking covered, Rambo?”
“You’re gonna wish I had more than just a rifle if we run into those raptors,” Abby said tersely, readjusting the scoped rifle on her shoulder.
Her mouth snapped shut. Well, she fucking had her there.
“Here,” Abby said, pulling a revolver from her waistband and holding it out. She raised her eyebrows expectantly when Ellie just stared at her. “For protection.”
“I mean…I have a knife,” she said, showing her the switchblade she always carried around.
Abby scoffed. “You think a knife is gonna do anything against a raptor?”
“I don’t fucking know,” she retorted defensively, stowing the knife in her back pocket and accepting the revolver. “It doesn’t seem like a gun will do much good either.
“Yeah, I know,” Abby admitted quietly, surprising her. She kept head on a swivel as they descended the steps outside the visitor center and cut across the manicured lawn, giving her a sideways look when she deftly flipped open the chamber to count the number of bullets. “You know how to use that thing, right?”
“Yeah,” she muttered, flipping the revolver shut with a snap and sliding it into the waistband of her jeans. “Jo—my dad taught me. I’m a pretty decent shot.”
“Good. It might not do much damage, but it’s better than fucking nothing.” She paused, and there was a hint of sly humor in her eyes when she added, “And by fucking nothing I mean a knife.”
Ellie grinned despite herself, but it faded when she thought of her and Dina’s conversation their first night here. “Hey, did something, like, happen with the raptors before we came here?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it did,” Abby said, her shoulders tensing. “We had…an incident with one of our employees a few months back.”
Her stomach sank. “What kind of incident?”
“The kind that involved the employee being killed and the family suing.”
Ellie blanched. Jesus fuck. No wonder why she didn’t like the raptors. “And that’s why you guys brought us in?”
“Yeah. It caused a huge stir with the park’s investors, and they got the lawyers involved,” Abby said, her face twisting in disgust. “They didn’t even care about the employee or their family—it was all about protecting their own asses from potential liability.”
“Shit, dude. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too,” Abby murmured, her eyes darting toward her and away.
They approached the fenced-off enclosure surrounding the maintenance shed in tense silence, keeping watchful eyes on the surrounding foliage.
“Alright, I’ll be here when you get back…hopefully,” Abby said once they were outside the entrance, swinging the rifle from her shoulder. She hesitated, seemingly holding her breath. “Good luck.”
“You too,” Ellie said, stepping inside the shed and turning on the flashlight as the door clicked shut behind her. She retrieved the radio from her belt. “Hey, it’s me. I’m in.”
The radio crackled a moment later with Jerry’s distorted voice. “Okay. Head down the staircase and look at the ceiling. There should be a bundle of cables and pipes all heading in the same direction. Follow that and it’ll lead you straight there.”
“Right. Follow the yellow brick road,” Ellie muttered, shining her light toward the ceiling before hurrying forward. She’d only been walking a minute or two when she reached an area cordoned off with metal fencing and plastered with warning signs about high voltage. She pulled open the door and stepped inside. “Okay, I see the electrical box.”
“Good. Before you throw the main switch, you’ll have to pump the primer handle—it should be labeled—to gain a charge. Once you do that, you’ll want to find a round, green button that’s labeled ‘push to close’ and press it.”
Ellie hastened to follow his instructions, pumping the primer handle before pressing the button. She started when all the breakers lit up, wiping an arm across her sweaty face before retrieving the radio. “Okay, got it. Now what?”
“You see the red buttons? Those are the circuit breakers to each of the park’s main functions. Switch them all on.”
She swiftly pressed each button, turning to watch the lights flicker on in the shed with a triumphant grin. “Fuck yeah.”
“Ellie, you did it! We have power again!”
She opened her mouth to respond but hesitated when the overhead lights glinted off something beside the electric box, where thick insulated cables stretched from ceiling to floor.
Was that—? Was that a watch?
Ellie stepped closer, leaning forward to examine the watch attached to the wrist of someone’s—oh. Oh. Very severed arm.
And that was when the raptor lunged out of the cables.
Notes:
Day 6: Touch
I hope you've all had a pterrifc weekend! Just one more chapter to go :)
I seriously can't express how much the support means, especially since this story has such a fast-paced release schedule. You're all t-rexcellent!
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Chapter Text
Ellie stumbled back against the metal fencing with a shout as the raptor lunged at her—only to stop short, ensnared in the mess of thick cables.
She sprinted out the door and spun to slam it as the raptor tore itself free. It charged the door at the same time she closed it, sending them both flying from the momentum. Winded, she scrambled to hold the door shut while it shoved against the fence.
“Fuck you, motherfucker!” Ellie spat, flicking out her knife and slashing it across the snout when it stuck its face in the gap. It fell back with a screech, and she wasted no time in latching the door.
“JJ was fucking right,” she huffed, sprinting down the hallway and up the staircase while the raptor’s snarling cries echoed around her. “You fuckers are better as fossils.”
She shouldered through the main door and slammed it behind her, pressing back against it while she caught her breath—and then something grabbed her arm.
Ellie flicked out her knife and blindly slashed at whatever had hold of her, and it was only pure reflex that saved Abby from getting stabbed. She caught her wrist, hissing, “Fuck, it’s me!”
“Jesus fucking Christ, dude,” she panted as Abby released her. “I thought you were one of them!”
“You’d be fucking dead,” Abby said bluntly, beelining it toward the fence. “I heard the alarm. You got everything back online?”
Ellie jogged after her. “Yeah. Yeah, the power is back, but there’s a raptor in there. It—killed Arnold.”
Abby swore and walked faster, yanking her arm to pull her onto a different path than the one they’d taken to get there. “What’re you doing?”
“We need to go a different way—and we’re running back.”
“What? Why?” She asked, hurrying to keep pace with Abby when she started running.
“Because that way isn’t safe.”
“Okay, Ms. Obvious,” Ellie said, already panting. Fuck this was a lot of cardio. “Why isn’t it safe?"
“There’s two raptors back there and they’re—distracted by something,” Abby said, a muscle jumping in her jaw.
“Okay cool, thanks for the great explanation.”
“I climbed on top of the shed and was scanning the area through my scope when I spotted the raptors,” Abby said, sighing like Ellie was the one being a pain in the ass. “They were…hunting someone through the forest—Nedry."
“The computer fuck?” Ellie asked, putting on a burst of speed as they reached the main road. “The fuck was he doing there? Didn’t he, like, fucking vanish?”
“Well, he was covered from head to toe in mud, so…I don’t know, maybe he got turned around in the storm and his car broke down?” Abby said, not even a little out of breath. “However the fuck he got there, better him than us.”
“Better him than us,” Ellie agreed grimly as the visitor center came into view. “Oh, and by the way? My knife was useful against that raptor, fuck you very much.”
Abby snorted and grinned at her sideways. “Guess you’re more capable than you look.”
“Try not to hurt yourself giving a compliment,” Ellie shot back sardonically, but she couldn’t help but grin in return.
JJ launched himself around her midsection the second they walked into the bunker, and she only hesitated a moment before returning his embrace. “Ellie! You’re okay!”
“Yeah, dude. We're totally fine,” Ellie said, meeting Dina and Jesse’s relieved expressions over his head while Jerry pulled Abby into a quick hug.
“Hey, you. Glad to see you back in one piece,” Dina said, grasping her arm when she and JJ joined them at the table. They all just looked at each other for a long moment before Dina touched JJ’s cheek. “You ready for this next part?”
JJ nodded solemnly. “I’m ready.”
“Alright…let Jesse and I know as soon as you’ve reactivated the phones,” Jerry said, squeezing Abby’s shoulder. “We’ll call for help, grab a Jeep, and meet you out front.”
“You got this, little man,” Jesse told JJ, ruffling his hair. “We’ll see you guys soon.”
Her, Dina, JJ, and Abby hurried out of the bunker. They were halfway across the landing when Ellie paused, gripping the railing while she scanned the atrium.
“I thought I heard something,” she explained when her companions swiveled to look at her questioningly. They tensed when a loud bang echoed from the cafeteria a moment later followed by the distinct sound of crashing pots and guttural calls.
Abby gestured at them to move and, staying as quiet as possible, they continued across the landing and down a hallway.
“Does this fucking door lock?” Ellie asked once they were all inside the control room.
“It’s electronic,” Abby said with a grimace while JJ hurried toward a cluster of computers and turned one on.
“Of fucking course it is,” Ellie muttered, turning to look at JJ and Dina. “Reactivate the door locks fir—what’s wrong?”
Dina’s face had gone pale. Before she could respond, Ellie spun to see a raptor staring at her through the door window while its breath fogged the glass. “Uh—they don’t know how to open doors, right?”
As if in answer, the handle swiveled and the door inched open. Ellie and Abby threw themselves against it, pushing it shut before the raptor could get inside.
Dina moved to help them. “Ellie!”
“No, we got it!” She said, tugging the radio from Abby’s belt and tossing it to Dina. “Help JJ—and let them know when the phones work!”
“The system is online,” JJ said, his gaze intent on the screen while the raptors smashed into the door. “I just have to find the right file to reboot it.”
“Guys,” Abby said through gritted teeth as the door rocked open. “Any fucking minute now.”
“Visitor center—I think this is it. I’ve almost got it!”
“Come on, JJ,” Dina murmured encouragingly, her eyes darting between the computer screen and the door. “Get the locks.”
“Yes, I got it!” JJ said triumphantly as the computer beeped several times in succession. The locks engaged a moment later and secured the door. “It’s all back online! Security systems, phones—it should all work again!”
Ellie joined them at the desk and ruffled his hair. “Hell yeah, JJ! You rock!”
Dina pulled him into a one-armed hug and held up the radio. “Jerry—the phones are up and running. Call the mainland and tell them to get us the hell out of here.”
“On it! Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. We just need to—”
“Guys,” Abby interrupted as the glass windows running beside the door rattled. “They’re trying to get through, and that glass isn’t gonna hold for long.”
“Dina? Dina!”
Ellie frantically scanned the room, her eyes landing on a ladder propped against the wall. “There! We’ll go through the ceiling.”
They hastily positioned the ladder under one of the ceiling tiles while two of the raptors charged the window simultaneously. Cracks appeared in the glass.
Dina, JJ, and Ellie climbed the ladder while Abby shot at the raptors through the glass, cursing when her rifle jammed.
“Abby, let’s go!” Ellie urged from the ceiling crawl space. “Fucking leave it!”
She tossed the gun aside and clambered into the ceiling right as the glass shattered. Ellie leaned out and kicked the ladder down while a raptor leapt onto a desk, its cold eyes tracking the movement.
“Ellie, over here!” Dina said, gesturing at her from beside a vent opening. “Come on!”
She swiftly crawled across the ceiling and into the opening after Dina, pausing beside her when they reached a dead end.
Abby pried open a ceiling vent. “Here, we can cut through the atrium.”
She dropped down onto the construction scaffolding and helped lower JJ. They dropped down next, and Ellie’s heart plummeted when she saw the raptors were already spread out between the first and second floor. She retrieved the revolver from her waistband.
“We need to climb,” Abby said, tugging the pistol from her thigh holster and shooting at one of the raptors circling on the ground floor.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Ellie snapped, firing a round at the raptor on the second floor and missing spectacularly when it darted behind a pillar. “How’re we gonna get out of here from the roof?"
But Abby had already climbed up to the next level of scaffolding and was leaning down to pull JJ up.
“O-kay then, up we go,” she said under her breath, sticking the gun back in her waistband and waiting for Dina to climb before following.
They climbed until they reached the last platform just beneath the windowed dome. Close-up, she saw that several of the windows were covered with plywood instead of glass.
“The back of the visitor center is still under construction,” Abby explained, her long braid whipping Ellie in the face when she knelt and began pulling at the edge of a plywood panel. “We can climb down from outside and circle toward the front while they’re trying to figure out a way up—ugh, help me with this damn thing!”
“Uh,” JJ said, his hand blindly reaching out to tug at Ellie’s shirt while Dina grabbed the other end of the plywood. “They’re, uh—ha. Figuring out a way up.”
Ellie peered over the edge of the scaffolding and swore. The second-floor raptor had leapt onto the platform suspended above the fossils. As she watched, it leapt onto the neighboring platform while another raptor followed its example.
She hurried to help Dina and Abby pry at the panel. Together, the three of them tugged until the plywood snapped free, Dina catching Ellie’s arm when she stumbled backwards toward the edge.
“Come on, go!” Abby said, ushering JJ through the window as the sound of snarling grew closer. Dina ducked through next, Ellie and Abby right behind her as the first raptor reached their platform. It slammed into the opening and snapped its jaw at Abby, missing her leg by inches.
They slid down the thatched roofing and onto a flat section of the building, watching the raptor struggle wildly to squeeze through the window before vanishing.
“Come on,” Dina said, grabbing JJ’s hand and hurrying toward the scaffolding on the edge of the roof. “Let’s try to get down before they regroup.”
They clambered onto the scaffolding and descended from platform to platform until they reached the ground, sprinting around the curve of the building toward the front entrance—
And then the raptors were there, flanking them from all sides.
Ellie threw a protective arm in front of JJ as the raptors slowly advanced on them. One of them had a deep slash across its snout and was watching her with beady eyes. Even knowing they were about to die, she couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that it had the cognizance to fucking recognize her.
She groped for Dina’s hand when their backs hit the wall. Dina met her halfway, her grip so tight that it verged on painful. The injured raptor prepared to leap—and then paused, its head cocked to the side.
It was the only warning they got before the T-Rex burst through the tree line and charged the raptors, grabbing the closest one in its jaws and shaking its head until it went limp. The remaining raptors screeched, leaping onto the T-Rex’s sides and tearing at it with their claws.
Without pausing to see which animal emerged victorious, they edged along the wall toward the front of the building while snarls and roars rang behind them.
They reached the front entrance right as Jerry and Jesse pulled up in a Jeep, cramming themselves into the backseat. Ellie tugged Dina onto her lap to make room for Abby and JJ, her arms encircling her waist as she told Jerry in a breathless voice, “After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided not to fucking endorse your park."
“Me either,” Jerry said grimly, peeling away while the T-Rex’s triumphant roars filled the air.
__________________
Epilogue
“This is Joel. If you’re hearin’ this, I ain’t here.” A brief pause as muffled laughter floated in from the background, followed by a sigh into the receiver. “Leave a message and I’ll call you back.”
*beep*
“Hey Joel, it’s Ellie. Just—calling to let you know I’m okay, so don’t freak out or anything when you see the news.” A pause. “Actually, just don’t look at the news right now. Anyways, I’ve, uh, been held up in Costa Rica for a bit longer than planned, but I’ll hopefully be back in a week or two.” Muffled sounds. “Also, I…think you’re, you know, kind of awesome or whatever. Don’t fucking watch the news. I mean it. Okay…I’ll talk to you soon.”
__________________
“Hey.”
Dina stood on the edge of the terrace, her smile as bright as the sun shining down on them from the cloudless sky. Ellie couldn’t prevent the smile that spread across her face in return. “Hey.”
“Déjà vu,” Dina joked as she joined her at the railing overlooking the meticulously gardened lawn behind the hotel.
Jesse and Jerry were sitting in the shade of a palm tree watching Abby show JJ proper push-up form. Even from here, they could see JJ’s rapt attention while he watched Abby effortlessly lower her body to the ground before pushing up again. “I’m glad he’s made another friend. I think it’s helping him cope with all of this.”
She gestured vaguely around them with a grimace, and Ellie felt a wave of understanding. They’d been on the mainland for all of five seconds before several U.S. and Costa Rican officials had appeared beside the helicopter and whisked them away.
After sitting through a mind-numbing number of debriefings, they’d been temporarily detained at a hotel while the two governments attempted to sort through the so called ‘Jurassic Park disaster.’ It’d been days before they’d even been allowed to contact their families.
Ellie grinned as JJ attempted a push-up and tumbled into the grass with a laugh. In truth, they’d all become fast friends since their escape from Isla Nublar. She figured if near-death experiences with dinosaurs couldn’t bring people together, than nothing could.
Dina pressed their arms together before asking, “Did you finally get ahold of Joel?”
“Yeah, fucking finally,” Ellie said, entranced by the way the light was turning Dina’s eyes every shade of brown. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him so panicked.”
“Oh no…”
They’d been playing phone tag since her first message, and he’d definitely watched the news before speaking to her because he’d used ‘fuck’ during their conversation at least three times.
That’s when she’d known how bad it was—because she could count on one hand without using all her fingers the number of times he’d said that word in front of her.
“Yeah, he was pretty upset,” she said, angling her body toward Dina and reaching out to take her hand. “I barely managed to talk him out of taking a fucking flight straight here.”
“Poor Joel,” Dina sighed, intertwining their fingers. “Hopefully we aren’t here for much longer.”
“For fucking real,” Ellie groaned, kicking at the railing. “I’m ready to go home.”
They all wanted that—wanted things to return to normal, even with the knowledge that might not be possible anymore. And it wasn’t just the imminent media circus—their trip had left scars on all of them.
Ellie had spent her first night at the hotel wracked with brutal nightmares. She’d finally decided to stay up the rest of the night when a knock at the door had pulled her from bed. It’d been Dina, her hair in a low, messy bun while strands curled against her face.
They’d spent the rest of the night just holding each other, too tense to sleep but too tired to talk. It’d gotten a little better after that. The nightmares still came, but now they’d wake up curled around each other and talk until they fell asleep again.
“Speaking of home,” Dina said slowly, a glint in her eyes. “I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately and I decided that…maybe it’s the right time to move to Wyoming.”
Ellie straightened and twisted to fully face her, not relinquishing her hold on Dina’s hand. “Oh yeah?”
Dina bit her bottom lip, her eyes sparkling. “Yeah. I already talked to Jesse and JJ about it, but…you know, I think it would be nice for them to be closer.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
“There might be some other benefits,” Dina admitted, looking at her from beneath her lashes.
Ellie leaned closer while a grin curled the corners of her lips. “What kind of benefits?”
“Well, I hear there’s this really cute girl who lives in Jackson. Super nerdy, but she’s also pretty cool.”
She scowled. “Pssh. Sounds like I need to fight someone.”
“Shut up,” Dina said, laughing even as that lovely blush blossomed across her cheeks. “What do you think?”
Warmth bloomed in her stomach. “I think it’s a fucking awesome idea.”
“Yeah? Well alright then,” Dina said playfully, and the look she gave was like a promise. “I’ll need to find a job first though. Know of any universities that need a paleobotanist?”
“I can think of one,” Ellie said, grinning so broadly that it made her cheeks hurt.
“Exactly what I was hoping to hear,” she said, her smile impossibly warm and soft. “Hey Ellie.”
“Yeah?”
“Kiss me.”
She did.
END
Notes:
Day 7: Discovery
There are many benefits to being a paleontologist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thank you SO much to everyone who left kudos, comments, and took the time to read this story! I hope your reading experience was raptorous, and I seriously appreciate everyone who was along for the ride!
Feel free to come nerd out with me on tumblr or to check out all the fantastic, insanely creative content people made in honor of EllieDina Week.
Thank you again! :)
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