Chapter Text
Sleep slowly lifted from Alan's mind. The high sunlight shining through the curtains on the right side of the bedroom is one of the first things he notices. The second being the weight of a warm body next to his. Ellie.
It's well over a year since the whole adventure on Biosyn's Jurassic Sanctuary. And even though the death of Dodgson prevented him from taking accountability for his schemes, it enabled Dr. Cole—alongside one Doctor and chaotician Ian Malcolm and his team of lawyers—to take over the company and slowly start to set everything to rights after winning the lawsuit. Now, he and the woman who his heart has always longed for, for thirty years, are living under the same roof on a good, small, two-bedroom, two-story house in Utah on the outskirts of Salt Lake City.
Moving in together wasn’t really easy, they had talked sincerely and at length, but his ultimately re-stating that he meant what he said—that he would go with her to live on the moon if that’s where she was headed, quite settled the argument. With Ellie’s job taking her all over the country, the divorce and the kids moving away to college making her just as untied-up enough to actually waste no time to pack her things and settle down with him back in the Mountain West. Not really in a trailer or a couple sized tent, for they were not in that age anymore, but in an actual house. Alan having finished, just a couple of months back, with the latest dig job he was at before being swept up in the whole locust situation and now taking a bit of a break (if one can even believe it) from digs, was currently in talks with Owen Grady about the younger man’s continued research on Raptors. He was interested in writing a book about it and asked for the paleontologist's mentoring on some of his ideas.
And it’s not like Ellie had stopped her work either, she was able to get a transfer to be a lecturer in Botany Studies for Utah State University, inside the Biology department. Not quite about prehistoric flora, but focused on the changes in world climate and how, through academic research, it can be helped. She was just a few weeks into the new semester but with the recent popularity due to her very public role on battling the locust plague and her continued research on regenerative farming, her classes were full to the brim with talks from the board about permanence for future semesters.
They still had jobs to do, and Alan thought to himself that he wouldn't have the will or even the courage to head into this most recent chapter of his life if it weren’t for the woman currently with her head resting on his chest. He let himself unabashedly admire the way the color of her hair turns to gold and her facial features almost glow in the soft morning light. Just as breathtaking now as on the day he first set sight on her. Feeling the warmth of her through an old and worn t-shirt of his that she’s stolen to use as a camisole on the night before. His eyes roam, from the gentle rise and fall of her back as she breathes to the slender arm she has resting over him. He caught the way her hand lightly twitches in her sleep where it sat on his stomach on top of the bedcover and remembers, in flashes, how her blunt nails scratched his shoulders as she moaned sweetly against his lips and just like that and how her legs squeezed tight around his waist as she came undone under him. The memory of her whimpering his name waking him quicker than a shot of espresso could ever do.
In the present, he feels more than sees the way her breath changes as she wakes up. He looks at the clock on the nightstand, 08:42 AM. The both of them were never really early risers but that’s something that age can turn you into. He watches as she presses her face on his chest for a moment, feeling her breath ghost over his skin as she tightens the arm she has over him, her hand sliding soft and warm over his ribs, before raising her face and his own blue eyes meet an even more crystalline pair of blue irises.
“Mornin’...” He says, voice a bit gravely both naturally and from the remnants of sleep.
She groans softly before burying her face back to his chest and he can't help but smirk as he sweeps one broad hand over her back, fingers catching the softness of her hair.
“Sleep well?” He asks and she sighs as she feels the vibration of his voice and the heaviness of his broad palm over her back.
“Hm… it must be some residual tiredness from being chased by dinosaurs all over that damned valley because this last week at USU was wearing me out…” She said with her face still pressed against him, feeling his chest shake as he exhaled a small chuckle through his nose. “But yes, I slept like a baby.”
She raised her head to rest her chin on his chest and look at him with a tender and happy smile.
“...in part thanks to you, if you must know.” She adds cheekily, her eyes a little dazed as she runs her gaze over his face, stopping for a few seconds on his lips, letting him know she remembered last night just as well and making his face feel hot under his beard. “I forgot to ask before, is our dinner with Owen still up?”
“Heh— yes, it is—he's still talking about that book mentoring idea but—” He replies, squeezing her gently before she could reply and pulling her up to leave a kiss on her forehead and just as gently disentangle himself from her. “That's later today. For now, I'll go downstairs and make us something to eat.”
“Waffles…?” She requests sweetly.
“As the lady wishes.” He replies with a chuckle.
“And coffee.” She adds.
“And coffee.” He repeats, another chuckle bubbling out as he gets up wearily, stretching his back a little before moving.
“I can help…” She offers while she bites her lower lip as her eyes openly take in the way his flannel pants sit a bit low on his hips. How his salt an' pepper chest hair spreads over his broad chest, trailing down his soft stomach in a happy trail and into his waistband. He's aged, sure, but he's still kept himself fit enough and she feels a familiar tingle wash over her body while looking at him, even thirty years later. Then, she watches as he grabs and puts on a shirt from the nearby vanity chair. His hair falling into his forehead in that attractive way that secretly makes her heart race.
“No no…” He immediately replies to her offer as he leans over to give her a chaste kiss on the lips, his beard scratching her mouth lightly. “Just stay and rest some more, darlin’, I'll be right back.”
She watches him disappear through the door before hugging his pillow, still warm and smelling like him, and with a content sigh relaxes under the covers. The smell of fresh brewed coffee coming into the air a moment later.
Ellie appears on the open door to the small study room that they share on the first floor, a couple of hours after breakfast. She's just clasping the second pearl studded earring to her ear as she spots Alan, clad in a light grey button down, jeans and loafers, standing near the bookshelf looking over some of his old, handwritten notes from a few of his studies from back in the day that he kept in storage.
“Honey…? Are you ready? We need to pass through the farmers market on the way back to grab some of the lettuce and the butter for dinner.” She calls over to him, who lowers his hands as he turns around in her direction.
Alan gives her a once-over, taking in the way her fringe and loose golden hair frames her face. The fact that she’s wearing one of his few white button ups open and over a green sleeveless shirt. Her wonderful legs clad in light wash jeans. The lace detail of her bra peeking under her shirt and over her cleavage and it’s simple and casual but it makes his heart beat hard like a fool nonetheless. Good God, it’s like when he first saw her in his tent a year back after all that time apart, he thinks, like a vision from his dreams. At the sound of her pointedly clearing her throat, his eyes snap up to lock on hers, taking in her smile as she grins at him. Stammering and trying to look like he wasn’t, he tidies up some of the notes and leaves them out on top of a few books on the office desk before grabbing the keys to the truck and walking past her.
“Yes—Yeah, I-I was just—some notes—with Owen—” She laughs under her breath at his attempt at a full sentence as they walk down the corridor. Grabbing her purse from the hook while slipping her sock clad feet into a pair of sneakers. He guides her out the door first with a gentle hand to the small of her back, pointedly ignoring her snickering.
The drive to the grocery store is nice, with just the expected amount of traffic on a Friday in the early afternoon. The radio plays a soft 80s tune in the background, he has one hand on the steering wheel and with the other he takes her hand in his and laces their fingers together. Resting their clasped hands on her lap, she runs her thumb over the back of his hand tenderly. The only detour being stopping at an intersection for a couple of minutes, watching as the fire brigade and the national guard herded a young and lost Brachiosaurus out of the streets. The couple share a look, still disbelieving even after living in this world where prehistoric creatures walked alongside them for a while now.
Walking down the frozen food aisle looking over the ice cream pints on the freezers, Ellie stops their cart to look over a particular flavor of Ben & Jerry’s, examining the packaging as Alan continues cruising down the way. He's looking at some of the most expensive price tags when, suddenly, something small but solid slams into his legs. Looking down his brows rise up as two small, green eyes look up at him.
The kid, a brown haired little girl, looks up at him a little quizzically, like she knows him. Or at least she thinks she knows him, because he's certainly never seen her before. He notices how she has one small hand grabbing his pant leg and, with a slight panic, how her cheeks were damp with shed tears.
“You’re…not my daddy…” She says, her voice small and wobbly, sounding more like a statement and less like a question even though he sees in her eyes the impression as if she's questioning the fact that he’s most certainly not her father. She couldn’t be much more than four, maybe five years old. And even though never being in this particular type of situation before, he immediately realises this is a case of a child who got too distracted and got separated from her parents.
“I’m sorry, but I am not your dad.” He replies, not unkindly. Noticing the T-rex plushie she has under one arm, the green color of the toy a contrast to the little blue dotted overall and yellow blouse she wears, he also notes the scared look that comes over the little girl’s face and the way her eyes start to water again. “Oh no, no no…”
Gingerly, he goes down on one knee to look her in the eyes, trying not to wince as he feels the contact with the cold hardness of the tile floor in his joints. The little girl uses her now free hand to clumsily brush a tear away, and tightens her hold on her plushie with the other.
“Don’t worry, I-I’m sure we can find him.” He says, his warm and gravelly voice and the way his face is at her level height then seems to calm her down somewhat, even though her brows stay in a frown. “Where did you last see him?”
“I-”
“Alan…?” Ellie’s voice, despite being gentle and quiet, startles both him and the child who looks up with slightly wide eyes as the blonde approaches with the grocery cart in front. Her brows furrowed faintly at the scene. “What’s going on?”
“I think she got lost from her parents.” He says, jerking his thumb at the little girl, who sniffles as she looks shyly from one adult to the other.
“Oh, sweetie…” Ellie sighs as she walks away from the cart and crouches down to look at the little girl. “What’s your name?”
“Carley…” The little girl, Carley, replies.
“My name is Ellie, this is Alan.” Ellie’s motherly demeanour and tone of voice seem to calm her down fully. The little girl's eyes turn from her to him, who nods, looking back at her with a reassuring gaze.
“I want my daddy…” Carley says, her chin still wobbly despite seeming less scared than before.
“We can help you find him.” Ellie says, looking around as she rises up, Alan rising afterwards. The older woman spots a clerk just over the bend on the next aisle and raises an arm to attract his attention. “Hey! You over there!”
The young man pops his head over the bend and walks over to her, taking in the scene with the older couple and sad looking child, who unexpectedly grabs into Alan’s hand and hides a little behind his legs while still clutching her toy dinosaur.
“How can I help you, ma’am?” The name tag on his work uniform shows the name Daniel.
“She’s lost herself from her father, could we maybe call him over the speakers to see if he can come and find her?” Ellie asks and pays attention as the young man radios over to the reception to communicate a lost child on aisle three.
Alan looks down as he feels the little girl hiding her face on his pant leg and, as he hears a sniffle, gently lays a hand over her soft chocolate-colored hair.
“Hey…Carley…” He calls to her softly, the noise of the clerk on the radio and the grocery store's ambient music being cut off fading away as the kid looks up at him with teary eyes. He tries to give her a reassuring smile. “It’s gonna be okay…”
Ellie glances back and does a gentle double take as she sees Alan run a comforting hand over Carley’s head. Unexpectedly, the little girl holds her arms up and without thinking he picks her up in his arms. The blonde can’t help but smile at the slightly terrified look in his eyes as he turns to her after the girl lays her head on his shoulder and settles in his arms. The scene taking her back a couple of decades ago, when Lex and little Timmy cuddled up to him on that helicopter, feeling just as safe and protected. She approaches them to rest a warm and comforting hand on the little girl's back, who nuzzles a little more into Alan's neck, all the while never letting go of her toy. Ellie holds back a laugh as she looks up into Alan’s faintly panicked eyes. Kids always seemed to gravitate towards him. One way or another. And even with his helplessness he was actually always good with them.
All of a sudden, there’s movement from down the aisle and they look over to see a man, about the same height as Alan with the same salt and pepper hair, but less tanned and dressed in a blue henley and dark jeans. He was quickly approaching, almost running, in their direction. His terrified expression just lightly easing as he sees the child in Alan’s arms. A female security officer trails behind him, speaking to the radio on her hand.
“Carley!” He calls out as he gets near, the little girl extending her arms towards him without hesitation and Alan passes her over into the man's embrace. One of his hands goes to cradle the back of her head as he breathes out a relieved sigh. “Oh… thank God…”
He draws back to look at her, the same pair of green eyes looking over the girl’s small and chubby face.
“Please don’t ever wander off like that, okay?” He asks, looking her right in the eyes. The girl nods her head minutely, still a little scared and teary eyed, but happy to be reunited with her father.
Ellie notices that the girl had dropped her toy during the exchange, and grabs it quickly, holding it out to her.
“Don’t forget this.” She says softly, smiling as Carley hugs the toy in her arms and lays her head on her dad's shoulder much like she did to Alan’s.
“Thank you so much for looking after her.” The man addresses the couple, a little out of breath. “I was so worried—I saw a kid with a shirt similar to hers in the parking lot, bu-but when I searched s-she wasn’t there—”
“It’s no problem.” Alan waves him off kindly.
“Yeah, we’re just glad she’s alright.” Ellie nods along.
The man still thanks them one more time before nodding and walking away with the little girl in his arms. Carley turns to look over her father’s shoulder and catches Alan’s gaze, raising a small hand to wave goodbye. He gives a small wave back before turning to Ellie, who was standing with their shopping cart a couple of feet back and watching the scene with a fond smile.
“You’ve always been a kid magnet, haven't you, Dr. Grant?” She jokes, chuckling softly as he avoids eye contact and takes over steering the metal cart, walking in the opposite direction. She’s still smiling as she follows behind. “Wait!—We should make the ice cream tart for dessert!”
The couple are busy at the kitchen, Alan at their small kitchen island chopping some of the berry tomatoes they got fresh from the farmers market and dropping them in the salad bowl while Ellie checks the oven when the doorbell rings. They both freeze, exchanging a look before he grabs a dish towel to clean his hands and she unties her apron as they head over to the front door, opening it wide to find both Owen and Claire Grady (as of last summer), sans Maisie, waiting on the other side. They greet each other with smiles and hugs, a bit gingerly in Claire's case as the seven and a half month pregnant belly makes hugs be a little different now. Both couples stayed in touch after the adventure at Biosyn Valley and had met each other many times afterwards, striking a good and welcome friendship. Especially after the Lockwood teen has taken a liking to both Ellie and Alan, looking up to them and wanting to know more about their past adventures with revived prehistoric animals.
“Come on in and get comfortable, dinner’s just 10 minutes out.” Ellie calls, waving them into the living room. “Can I get you both something to drink? I just made fresh lemonade this morning.”
“I would love some, thank you, and I can help you, you don’t need to—” Claire starts, halting on her way to the worn and comfortable looking sofa, but Ellie cuts her off with a wave.
“It’s not a problem, you’re guests tonight.” She says to the couple, watching with a smile as Owen sits down beside his wife on the sofa, Alan sitting down one of the two armchairs nearby. “I’ll be right back.”
She touches a hand to Alan’s shoulder, his own raising to swiftly catch hers, kissing the back of it briefly before she leaves the room. He turns his gaze to the young couple in front of him, taking note of how Claire rests her hands gently over her baby bump.
“And how’s Maisie liking the pre-college summer program at Boston?” He inquires after the now 16-year-old girl, to the delight of her parents whose expressions lights up in excitement.
“She’s had a slow start, didn’t really know where to focus her attention at first, there were just a lot of options…” Claire gestured a little helplessly with her hands.
“But, a couple of weeks ago, we were talking on the phone and it seems like she's hitched into a particular field in science.” Owen continued, exchanging a brief glance with his wife before looking back at the paleontologist.
Ellie comes back with a pitcher of lemonade and four glass cups on a tray, placing it on the coffee table, serving all of them and passing out the cups before perching on the arm of the armchair with Alan. The older man places his free hand on her thigh as she lays an arm on the back cushion and they both lean into each other.
“And what scientific field has caught Maisie's interest?” Alan asks while Ellie takes a sip.
“Paleobotany.” Owen says before taking a sip himself, half-heartedly hiding his smile behind his glass as he takes a sip, watching the older couple raise their eyebrows while his wife chuckles softly.
“Oh...wow…” Ellie, still taken by surprise, smiles as she tries to formulate a proper response. “That’s-that’s really good—Wow, b-but she’s still got a lot of time to really make her mind though…”
“Oh she’s quite taken with it,” Claire says, nodding excitedly as she swallows a sip with a smile. “and when she sets her mind to something… She’ll do it.”
“Hm, that reminds me of someone I know…” Alan comments as he smirks fondly up at Ellie, who smiles more as she rolls her eyes gently.
“She has her mind caught on research about prehistoric ecosystems and their relevance to climate change.” Owen adds gesticulating with the hand holding the lemonade glass before taking another sip.
Alan glaces back at Ellie as she lowers the hand holding her glass of lemonade and sees the impressed and pleased look in her face.
“And I know that she would die of mortification if she were here tonight because — teenagers — but,” Claire exchanges a look with Owen, who seems to know just exactly what his wife is talking about. “she’s been obsessed with some of your previous studies on Cretacious flora and then there's regenerative farming and your studies on the genetic comparison between vegetation that went extinct millennia ago with similar green life on earth in the 21st century and many more stuff…”
Ellie’s eyebrows raise even higher than before while Owen chuckles and Alan and Claire smile.
“She couldn’t stop talking our ears off about it.” The animal behaviorist adds, the blonde woman getting increasingly flustered by the seriousness of the teenage girl’s dedication to her works. Claire starts to softly caress her baby bump before continuing.
“The day before yesterday we were talking on the phone, about her studies, before she went to bed and she said…” She glances down at the bump for a moment. “...she said that she wanted to make the world a better place, for her baby brother to grow up in.”
The redheaded woman looks up at the older couple, focusing her blue eyes on the blonde paleobotanist and giving her a kind and grateful smile.
“Your studies are her beacon.” She states quietly, her natural motherly aura shining through when talking about her daughter. “They give her not only inspiration, but hope.”
A few unexpected tears escape Ellie’s eyes and she sniffles gently as she brushes them away and smiles. Alan slides his hand from her thigh to around her waist and smooths it over her hip, squeezing her once and comforting. But the paleontologist couldn’t keep the pride from showing on his face at her accomplishments and thinking how she deserves every praise and admiration there is.
“She wouldn’t admit it to your face because it'd be 'so embarrassing, dad' but she’s become a huge fan of yours, doc.” Owen adds, his hands raising to make air quotation marks, then giving a bashful smile towards the blonde woman, who answers with a quiet laugh.
“With the way she’s headstrong and intelligent, I'm sure she’ll have a bright future for herself and her research.” Alan speaks up, before smiling with a subtle mischief. “And don't worry, she’s not the first groupie Ellie’s had in her career, believe me.”
His fake casual comment pops the solemn air bubble that the two couples were in. Owen and Claire releasing surprised laughs while Ellie sputters and promptly blushes while Alan pats her hip good-naturedly with a smirk.
“Wha— You’re one to talk, Alan Grant! ” She exclaims just as the timer dings loudly from the kitchen.
“Oh, dinner’s ready.” He comments, pretending not to hear her and groaning exaggeratedly as he gets up from the armchair, carefully but swiftly disentangling himself from her and taking his lemonade glass with him. “Come on, Grady, help me set the table.”
"Yes, sir." The animal behaviorist places his half-full glass on the coffee table before getting up and following the older man out to the dining room.
Ellie stands up, turning her flustered face towards Claire, who’s up and giving her another humoring smile as she walks past her to take the pitcher of lemonade back to the kitchen, leaving the blonde to gather the remaining glass cups and the tray.
All of an old paleontologist’s witty remarks aside, dinner was nice. The younger couple exclaimed their praises and enjoyment at Ellie’s pot roast dish and the side salad dish made with fresh greens, olive oil and parmesan. Claire sheepishly accepts a second serving, and the evening passes pleasantly as they talk about some of Alan’s previous digs and some of Ellie’s in-field research and her lectures. They also talk about Claire’s work on dinosaur welfare advocacy and the younger couple’s plans for the baby's arrival in early autumn. Afterwards, Owen politely declines the banana and caramel ice cream tart for dessert as Alan invites him to talk in his study, leaving the women to chat in the living room.
Entering the study room, the younger man looks around in quiet wonder. The couple of high bookshelves on the side wall are full with stacking books and manuscripts and a few notebooks. A lot of the flat surface space in the room is filled with fossil samples, rocks and loose handwritten note pages and cream colored files. Some memorabilia and tools such as old brushes and digging equipment lay arround in shelves and couple of accent cabinets. A few pictures framed on the wall showing groups of people that he immediately deduces are some of the teams that Alan has worked with in the past. In one, he spots a very bright and familiar head of blonde hair reflecting the sunlight amidst a group of about 11 people. And to the left of a young Ellie Sattler, stood a young brunette man with a very distinctive fedora hat. Similar to the one hanging on the top of the coat hanger beside the door.
He follows the paleontologist until they stop in front of a filing cabinet, noticing one the drawers was already ajar. He watches as Alan pulls out a medium sized, old and worn book and hands it to him before walking to lean against the wooden desk in the far side of the room, gesturing to the single armchair situated in front of the bookshelves for the animal behaviorist to sit down. And, after sitting down with the book on his lap, he opens it up to find out it was actually a photo album. On the very first page is a yellowed picture of a teenage boy, sixteen, maybe seventeen years old, with a dark brown mop of hair on his head and his eyes almost closing due to the wideness of his smile as he stands in front of a Raptor skull fossil in a showcase.
“I was just a boy when my interest for those creatures began.” Alan starts, watching as Owen turns over the pages slowly. “At first it was just this great wonder about the unimaginable thought of how they lived, so long ago, on the same earth that we walked on...”
Owen turns the pages to see other pictures, noticing that they're of an old sort of quality, like they were made with a film camera. This time, he looked at a twenty-something Alan Grant in the sun on the side of a highway with a wide open desert backdrop and his arms spread wide, his smile not as wide as before but just as present. Next, some pictures of a couple of loose fossils still caught inside rocks, some of himself standing beside the findings, others of him and his team working on a dig site. The time seemed to pass in the photos but the landscape stayed pretty much the same. Owen had seen a couple of the old news and pictures from the time of the first Jurassic Park. Of the group of survivors. The Alan Grant in the pictures of the photo album started to look really similar in age to the one who survived that island back in the 90s.
And then, his deduction was confirmed when the first picture to draw his eye on the next page was another one of a young and handsome looking Ellie Sattler, this time smiling wide at the camera as she held up a small piece of a rock cut in the middle, a fossilized plant visible on the inside.
“...It turned into so much more.” Alan said, his voice quiet and just solemn enough to draw the attention of the younger man. Looking up at him, Owen watched as Alan gathered a couple of bound articles and file cases from the top of the table behind him and handed it over. “These are a few of my official drafts and data from my research and published studies on theropod dinosaurs, focusing on the Raptors and their life on prehistoric earth.”
Owen takes the files and opens one, turns over some of the pages, seeing other pictures, in better quality, probably taken in a museum lab, showing fossils on a white background beside a few colored illustrations of dinosaurs of the Dromaeosauridae family, the more constant one being of the Velociraptor species. The drafts had to be over 30 pages each, front and back filled with text and data.
“This is amazing, doc.” Owen says with a small and breathless laugh, opening a file, eyes going over the collection of data briefly before looking back up at the paleontologist. “We’ve been keeping an eye on Blue and her family, she had another hatchling on her own.”
Owen closes the files and holds all the material on his lap with care as he talks.
“We’ve been able to study them from afar, and identified a set of minor characteristic changes. Different from their mother. I think that they’re not only adapting to the environment, but also regressing to their original genetic nature.” The younger man continues, the excitement clear in his voice. “Or as close to it as they are actually able.”
“You think their primary genes are overruling the genetic alterations made to bring them back from extinction.” Alan theorizes, the spark shining on the younger man’s eyes confirming his suspicion. “That’s one hell of a breakthrough.”
“You bet.” Owen agrees, confidently, before rising from the armchair, taking some of the bound articles with him as he takes a few steps to stand in front of the older man. “Claire hit me up with a contact of hers on an independent publishing company, and they’re interested in a two novel deal to start.”
Alan’s brows go up at this, nodding his head and smiling at the younger man, opening his mouth to congratulate him but Owen speaks up before he can.
“I want you to co-author it with me.” He adds.
The paleontologist does a double take as he looks the brunette man in the eyes, his brows raising even higher than before.
“What…” He breathes out, disbelief and surprise taking over him as he puts his hands on his hips, rising from his leaning position on the desk to pace in a small line.
“Think about it, Alan, your knowledge on the original Raptors combined with my research and the new thesis that they could regress to their original selves on a deep, congenital level, in 21st century earth…” Owen argues, his voice earnest but serious. “It would not only be a hit but really important to the current situation in the world we live in.”
“It…You-” Alan tries to make out a proper response, stopping his pacing to turn back to the younger man. “You’re young and already accomplished in your field, Owen, you would want the input of a man who studies a field of science that’s not even relevant anymore-”
“But it is! And not only for me, because I know that your studies are some of the base material for much of the research done even nowadays with the live prehistoric creatures out there.” Owen continues to make his case. Seeing that the paleontologist seems to look tempted, he approaches him and holds out his hand. “What do you say, Dr. Grant?”
Alan looks out at the younger man’s hand and just as he was about to raise his own the loud, clattering noise of glass breaking followed by a heavy thud from outside the room startles them.
“ OWEN! ALAN! ” Claire’s voice calls out.