Chapter Text
The taxi pulls up outside of Ellie's house. As I'm paying the driver, I see Mark pull in. He waves at me through the window.
"Hey, Mark. Thanks for letting me crash your dinner party," I say, giving him a hug as we meet at the gate.
"No problem, Em," He replies, giving me a tight squeeze. "I know you haven’t seen your dad in a while." He opens the gate and dad and Ellie look our way.
"Hey, Em. Hey, babe, look who's here." Ellie walks up to me talking in her baby voice and hands me my niece, stopping briefly with a peck on my cheek. My nephew runs up with one of his toy dinosaurs.
"Emmy, Emmy, this is a herbivore and that's the dinosaur man," he says to me excitedly, pointing to my dad. I chuckle as I bend down so he can show me the toy.
"Dinosaur man?" Mark asks with a playful expression on his face. Charlie looks up at him and beams before rushing back over to the sandbox. I stand up and hand the baby to Mark, turning to my dad.
"How are you doing with this?" I ask, motioning to Mark and Ellie.
"It's a little strange," he admits with a sad smile. "I'm glad you still have a good relationship with her."
"Why don't we head inside?" Ellie directs. "Dinner is almost ready."
EGEGEGEGEGEG
We all find ourselves in the dining room enjoying dinner. The baby and Charlie are both in bed.
"So, you know Mark works for the State Department." Ellie says to break the silence.
"Yeah. What do you do, Mark?" Dad asks incredulously. Ellie gives him a look.
"International relations, mostly treaty law and things like that." Mark says without missing a beat. Suddenly we are interrupted by the baby crying.
"Uh-oh. Call of the wild one." Ellie says getting up. "I'll get her. You two…catch up."
"I'll get her." Mark offers. "Why don't you all catch up?"
"Thanks babe." Ellie say as he gets up and heads out of the room.
"He's a great guy." Dad says after a beat. I turn to look at him and see that he is sincere.
"I think so too." After a brief pause, Ellie goes on. "So, what are you working on now?"
"Raptors, mostly."
"Our favorite." I say sarcastically and Ellie chuckles.
"Do you remember the sounds they made?" I shiver as I remember.
"I try not to." Ellie and I answer at the same time. He gives us a knowing glance.
"All our theories about raptor intelligence, what they were capable of-we weren't even close." Now, I'm interested.
"Tell us," Ellie insists.
"Well, we did cranium scans of a fossil skull. We found what looks like a very sophisticated resonating chamber." He looks at us while he waits for this information to sink in.
"Wait a second." I say putting my hand up to stop him. "So, you were right? I mean, they had the ability to vocalize?"
"I'm convinced that's the key to their social intelligence."
"Which explains why they could work together as a team."
"And coordinate their attacks so the prey wouldn't know what was going on."
"They could talk to each other." The realization intrigues me and frightens me at the same time.
"To a degree we never imagined. They were smart. They were smarter than dolphins or whales. They were smarter than primates." I let this settle in as I just stare at my dad.
EGEGEGEGEGEG
Ellie walks us out to dad's car. I’m on my way to the dig site in Montana to do some research for my dissertation. Dad is heading to UC Berkeley to give a lecture.
"I just want to say, if you ever need help with anything-sometimes you forget to ask." Ellie looks at my dad with seriousness in her eyes. "So, you can call me. Anything, anytime."
"Sure." Dad replies hesitantly.
"You're still the best. I mean that."
"The last of my breed." They say goodbye. Dad gets in the car as I walk up to Ellie.
"I'm glad you were able to stop in with your dad," Ellie admits with a small smile.
"I will never pass on an opportunity to see you and the kids," I admit easily. "I think it also helped with dad to have me here as a buffer."
"He's burying himself in work, isn't he?" Ellie questions concern laced in her voice.
"I think it was you and nobody else for him," I point out before adding, "and I'm including my mom in that."
"We just wanted different things," Ellie sighs. The car horn honks. I look over and dad is pointing at his watch.
"I better go." Ellie pulls me in for a fierce hug.
"I love you," she whispers. "Don't be a stranger."
"I love you too." We pull apart.
"Be sure to take a break and come see us soon." I nod in agreement and walk to the car. I wave goodbye and get in.
"What took you so long?" he inquires after a few moments.
"Girl talk," is all I say. He scoffs and turns his attention to the road.
EGEGEGEGEGEG
The jeep rumbles over the uneven but familiar terrain of the Badlands. As much as I love the lecture side of my education, the hands-on experience in Montana is where I thrive. I’m excited to dig deeper into the new information dad provided at dinner the other night. If it is true, then this opens up a whole new discussion about the true apex predator of the Cretaceous Period.
The sun is just setting as I finally arrive at the site. A couple volunteers look up from the central fire pit. I give them a small wave as I pull my bags out of the back of the jeep.
“Emily!” An excited voice floats on the wind. I have a couple seconds before I hear the rushing footsteps. Dropping my bags, I am swiftly pulled into a bone crushing hug.
“Can’t breathe here, Billy,” I gasp after a couple moments. He quickly releases me and bends down to grab my bags.
“How long has Dr. Harding granted for your research?” He questions as we make our way over to my tent.
“The written portion of my dissertation is due in six weeks. I’m hoping to have my research completed in three. That will give me time to go over my findings and write out the results,” I answer as he drops my things on the cot. “After that, I’ll have three more weeks to prepare my defense.”
“So, nine weeks before you’re officially Dr. Grant.”
“Wow,” I pause as I digest that information, “I can’t believe it’s this close.”
“It’s all your dad talks about,” Billy admits. “I’m ready for it to be done all ready, so I don’t have to hear about it anymore.” I swat at his arm. He smiles widely before bowing out of my tent.
EGEGEGEGEGEG
I watch as Billy flirts with one of the girls at the site.
"Billy, I don't think I'm doing this right." The girl states.
"Let's try the toothbrush. You got to go slowly. Just take a little bit at a time." He models while staring at her. I just roll my eyes.
"I can never tell what's rock and what's bone."
"Technically, it's all rock. The calcium in the bones is replaced during fossilization." I say like the answer is obvious. Billy glares at me and I glare back. He turns to the girl.
"But you can feel the difference. See? Rough…smooth. Rough, smooth." He says taking her hand in his and they feel together. I hear a car door slam and see my dad.
"Dad." Billy's head flies up at this.
"Dr. Grant." We both quickly drop what we are doing.
"Emily, Mr. Brennan." He yells down to us. We both make our way up to him.
"You know she was playing dumb on purpose,” I comment as we make the trek up the hill.
“I know,” Billy admits. “You can’t be as good looking as I am and not know when a girl is flirting.” I swat him on the arm as we reach my dad.
"So, how'd it go?" I ask.
"Well, it's not too late to change your major." Dad answers looking at me and Billy.
"Not good, huh?" Billy surmises.
"Worse, we're gonna have to pack up in four weeks."
"Three. I had to rent equipment. Come here, I gotta show you something. You like computers, right." Billy motions toward a tent.
"Dad likes the abacus, Billy." I joke. We enter the tent to see a massive computer.
"Meet the future of paleontology. It's a rapid prototyper. I enter in the scan data from the raptor's skull. The computer breaks it down into thousands of slices. Then this thing sculpts it, one layer at a time. It's done." He pulls out the wooden resemblance of the resonating chamber. "I give you the resonating chamber of a Velociraptor. Listen to this." I listen as Billy blows. The sound sending shivers down my spine.
"Wow. This is brilliant, guys. Really, it is. Sad to say, it's just a little bit late." At that moment a man comes into the tent.
"Dr. Grant? Paul Kirby, Kirby Enterprises." He reaches out his hand and shakes dad's hand offering a business card. "Hey Billy," Mr. Kirby says. I give the man a once over before casting a sideways glance at Billy. He doesn't meet my gaze.