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The hospital room was dark and lonely, and Darius felt like he was going to explode if he didn’t get to see his friends. Shadows splayed over the bed he lay in and he felt claustrophobic. The camp had been airy; this place was closed off. Dangerous.
They’d been rescued, finally, after three years on the island. He almost couldn’t believe it himself, but here he was, in a hospital in Costa Rica. Darius didn’t know what to think, but he knew one thing. He was alone, and being alone meant death. His breathing was irregular and he did not feel good on his own.
Darius clambered from his bed, ripped the IVs out of his arms, and steadily moved across the floor to the door, pillow, and blanket dragging behind him. Three years of stealth had made his steps so silent he almost couldn’t hear them himself. He opened the door slowly and walked into the hallway to see if he could spot his friends anywhere. The hallways were dark and he couldn’t see any nurses as of right now. Darius carefully made his way forward.
Darius knew some of his friends had been in dire need of medical aid, so he went to check on Ben first of all. Ben had an encounter with Chaos right before they were rescued, and the Baryonyx had almost killed him. They had managed to scare her off, but it had been difficult. Ben had almost bled out right there on the island, but they had fought and fought until he barely hung on.
Darius shook his head to clear his thoughts and found the door he was looking for. He held his pillow under his arm and the blanket was draped over his back as he carefully opened the door. He wasn’t at all surprised to see Kenji, Yaz, Sammy, and Brooklynn sleeping on the floor, in chairs, or on the windowsill. Ben was lying on the bed, quietly resting. His eyes were open and he was watching the city lights through the window.
“Hey,” Darius whispered.
Ben turned his head to look at him and smiled.
“You too, huh,” he said. “I almost wanted to climb out of this bed myself to be with you guys. But it seems like I didn’t need to.”
Darius smiled. When they had been separated on the island, nobody truly slept, but once all together again, sleep was something they re-encountered. Resting in a group was safe because any one of them could wake up to danger. Ben had saved them a lot of times with his keen senses, and now it simply felt wrong to sleep without him or the others.
Darius dropped his pillow and blanket on the floor and lowered himself to sit on his pillow. He couldn’t believe they had actually made it off the island, and for some reason, returning to normal life seemed so difficult now. Darius didn’t know if they could, truly, go back to the way things used to be.
“Sleep,” Ben told him, yawning himself. “We’re all safe.”
Darius nodded and let himself drop all the way to the floor. Kenji was close to his side and Brooklynn had one arm thrown over the larger boy’s chest. Sammy was on the windowsill and Yaz looked very uncomfortable in her chair, but she was sleeping soundly. Darius smiled, pulled the blanket over himself, and drifted off into dreamland.
OOO
In the morning, all the nurses were scared half to death when they found empty beds, only to be reassured by the one assigned to Ben’s room. She’d found all the kids sleeping soundly by his side, and she had never seen anything more adorable.
OOO
The farm was big enough to house a small herd of cows, or in this instance, one Bumpy and a small herd of cows. Darius smiled as Ben patted the Ankylosaurus on the back and walked away from her, no longer scared to leave her alone. It had been a few months now since they had returned to the mainland. Dinosaurs weren’t uncommon these days and Darius was glad they were way out in the countryside. He didn’t need any more scary dinosaur encounters for a long while. He followed Ben inside and went to his favorite chair, pulling his field guide from his back pocket to write something down.
The farm was their home now, and since they’d lived together for three years, their parents had been unable to separate them for long. Each had gone back to their own houses for about a month before it became clear that they almost couldn’t live without the other. It had been scary for their parents, that one month when their kids went crazy because their herd wasn’t around.
Ben had had multiple panic attacks, and Yaz had screamed herself awake every night. Sammy had cried and cried so much that even Bessie couldn’t soothe her. Brooklynn had been scared the world over and Kenji hadn’t even left Darius’s side once, living with him since his dad hadn’t even shown his face. Unanimously their parents had decided it was best for them to stay together. They’d bought a farm close to Sammy’s ranch, where they could live without their parents but still be close enough to monitor. For now, it had gone very well.
Sammy and Yaz were happy, Kenji and Brooklynn were as well, and Ben and Darius had settled in nicely. Bumpy was a part of the family and none of them would ever be alone again. Their days were filled with fun, their nights with nightmares and screaming awake, but now they had each other for comfort.
Darius didn’t know if they would be able to live normal lives, but at least they were home and safe, and that was all that mattered. They had survived Isla Nublar and had come back alive. It was more than Darius could ever ask for.