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“Yaz.”
It's the first time Sammy's spoken in a while. They're all quiet, subdued, waiting. Kenji and Brooklynn stand at the railing, staring into the darkness, hoping and praying for Darius and Ben to appear.
Yaz is sat beside Sammy a little further back. Sammy keeps insisting she's fine, but she still looks a little green, and she refused to sit down and get some rest unless Yaz did, too.
“Yeah?” Yaz says softly, keeping her arm tight around her friend's shoulders. The nights on the island don't get that cold, but this closeness is for comfort, more than anything else.
“Y'know I said thanks, for saving me?”
Yaz nods, wondering where this is going.
“I really meant it. Thanks. So much. But... how did you even do that? You just said you got the antidote, but with the Scorpios out there...” Sammy looks at her, unhappiness all over her face. “How did you not die?”
“I just ran,” Yaz says, not sure what else there is to say. “The others helped distract the Scorpios, too. But I mostly just... I knew I had to make it back to you. And I guess I got lucky.”
Sammy looks even more distressed by this. “You just ran out across the island with the most dangerous dinosaur ever created?”
“You were dying,” Yaz says blankly, not sure what's so hard to understand. “Of course I did.”
Sammy puts a hand on Yaz's knee, and a tingle of warmth goes over Yaz's skin, her heart lifting the tiniest bit at the touch. “I like bein' alive,” Sammy says earnestly. “I really do. And I'm really happy you saved me. But I don't want you to die 'cause of me.”
Oh. Yaz thinks she gets it, now. Remembers the way fear for Sammy had crushed her heart, filled her throat until she felt like she couldn't breathe. How the choice between sitting there or running out across a dark island with an apex predator was no choice at all, because the idea of life without Sammy was just... bleakness. Nothing. An endless stretch of sad, colourless days.
Maybe Sammy feels the same about her, wild as it seems, when Sammy's the type to make friends wherever she goes. Maybe the idea that Yaz could've died saving her fills Sammy with that same lurching, terrified dread.
Still. That's not going to make Yaz regret any part of it. And it's not going to stop her from doing it again, if she has to.
“Hey,” she says softly, leaning her head against Sammy's. “I didn't die. I'm here. And so are you.”
Sammy leans in to her, taking a slow, shaky breath. “Yeah. I know. It's just... you really went up against a Scorpios just for me?”
“There's no just,” Yaz says fiercely. “We keep each other safe. All of us. But... especially me and you.”
She hesitates, feels heat burn her cheeks, because talking about feelings is still hard. But since almost losing Sammy, she's made a silent promise to herself not to hold back on letting Sammy know just how much she means to her. Because they're never really safe on Isla Nublar, and who knows what might happen next?
So... “You were dying, Sammy. I'd do anything to stop that happening. I'd do anything for you.”
“Anything?” Sammy asks exaggeratedly.
“Almost anything,” Yaz amends, because she's still got a moral compass, after all.
“I'd do almost anything for you too, Yaz,” Sammy says softly, and she reaches across, takes Yaz's free hand in hers and links their fingers together. Yaz holds on tight, letting Sammy anchor her.
Her best friend. Her favourite person. Her... well, right now, kind of everything.
They sit there in the dark, and the fear and sadness isn't gone. Darius and Ben still aren't back, and Yaz is scared for them, and she's scared of the Scorpios, and whatever other dangers this island has waiting for them.
But Sammy's fingers are linked through hers, Sammy's leaning in to her side, and she's alive and okay and here.
Yaz squeezes Sammy's hand, and Sammy squeezes back.
Yeah, she thinks. She'd go up against a thousand dinosaurs to keep this.