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“I never can be sure, but I think it’s done this time. It’s finally done. For us, at least,” Alan said wiping his brow as they walked out into the muggy heat of Washington, D.C. after the Congressional hearing.
Ellie reached over to push his hair back and affectionately let her hand slide down the back of his neck. “I think it’s over for us,” she agreed.
Alan took her hand and turned to face her. “So now what?”
“What do you mean?”
“Where are we going? I told you, Ellie. I am coming with you. Wherever you go, I’m going, too. Until you tell me not to,” he vowed.
Ellie had to bite her lip to keep from grinning too wide. It still didn’t seem real that Alan Grant had chosen her, at long last. He knew who she was and what she wanted from the beginning. She’d never made a secret of it. She’d also never made a secret of the fact that she would do what she wanted all on her own if she had to. Ellie Sattler had lived a life as a woman in science where her ambition pushed her forward. And if a man couldn’t keep up, she’d cut him loose. She cut Alan loose once before when he was unsure if he wanted to go where she was headed. Now, finally, he had decided. He was coming with her.
They walked down the steps from the Capitol as Ellie pondered Alan’s question. Where were they going? What were they doing? The simple answer was that they were going to figure out how to build a life together. Not in a hotel as refugees from Biosyn or staying in New York to get the locust DNA tested or in D.C. to testify for Congress. They were free from all that now. So, as Alan had astutely asked, now what?
“Let’s go home,” she answered simply.
Alan furrowed his brow. “Whose home? You’ve been living in St. Louis, right? And I just follow my dig sites every two-year cycle. I have an apartment in western Utah for now.”
“Your place. We can hide there for a week and figure everything else out,” she suggested.
He brightened at that. “Okay. Utah it is.” He put his arm around her waist as they walked down the street.
Thanks to a last minute flight to Denver, a convenient charter, and the time difference, Alan and Ellie arrived by cab to his apartment just before midnight. They were exhausted beyond belief.
“I need a hot shower and somewhere to lay my head for about twelve hours,” Ellie groaned, dropping her bag by the door.
“How about a hot shower and a glass of wine before we crawl into bed?” Alan suggested.
A smile curled up her lips. “You’re on.”
Alan gave her a quick tour of the two-bedroom apartment—master suite, office, half-bath, living room, kitchen—and showed her how the shower worked in the master. He made sure she had towels and whatever else she needed, and he left her to it.
In the years they had been apart, Alan Grant had developed a bit of a wine hobby. He stuck to beer out on a dig, but if he ever had the chance to go out to any restaurant or have a quiet evening to himself, he enjoyed a nice bottle of wine. It felt a little more festive than just beer. And if ever there were a reason for Alan Grant to want to celebrate, it was the opportunity to have Ellie Sattler in his home.
Home was a funny thing, he realized. Alan had traveled around from university to university and from dig to dig without ever putting down roots. He had a place to call home just because it was where his mail got delivered. He wasn’t sure that really qualified as a home. Ellie had made a beautiful home with Mark and their kids. Alan had visited a number of times and had truly appreciated the homey feel of it. That was all Ellie. She had such a warmth that she could make anywhere feel like home. Or maybe Alan just always felt that way around her because he was in love with her. Whatever the reason, Alan found himself eager to build a home with Ellie now, wherever that would be.
“All yours,” Ellie announced, coming out of the bathroom with her hair still wet and dripping on the soft clothes she’d put on to relax a little before bed.
“Give me five minutes, and I’ll be right out,” Alan said, hurrying past her. The quicker he got all the muck of travel off him, the quicker he could be back with her.
While he was in the shower, Ellie took the opportunity to wander around the living room and see what all he had around. It was somehow both spartan and cluttered. Barely any furniture beyond necessities. Fossils and books crammed on every surface without any rhyme or reason that Ellie could see. But there was surely a system, and Alan knew where everything was. It might take him a minute to sort through the piles, but he would instantly find any volume he needed, she was sure.
There was a small collection of frame photos shoved back against the wall on a side table crammed between a bookshelf and the sofa. Ellie leaned in to take a closer look, and her heart constricted in her chest. It was her. He had a framed picture of her in his house. The man who moved all of his belongings to a new place every two years had taken the time to put out a framed photo of the two of them together when she’d completed her Ph.D. just before joining him on her first professional dig. She remembered it like it was yesterday. It had been about a year before Jurassic Park. Back when they were happy and she was so positive that they were going to change the world together. And maybe that’s what they did, eventually. Oh to know then what she knew now.
“I have another one of us that I keep in my office at school or on a dig, wherever my office happens to be,” Alan said as he walked out into the living room feeling much more refreshed. He saw where Ellie was and immediately knew what she was looking at.
“What one is that?” she asked, standing up straight to speak to him.
“You and me on the Montana dig just a few days before Hammond showed up,” he reminded her.
“Ah yes. You knew, I was just thinking how strange it is that we had so much time apart but it was the dinosaurs that brought us back together again. We had no idea what was coming when we took those pictures, did we?” she said with a little laugh.
Alan chuckled in response. “No idea,” he agreed. “We ought to take a picture together now to show those kids what they’re in for.”
Ellie grinned immediately. “Go pour us some wine while I find my phone.”
She rummaged through her purse for a minute to find her cell phone. She hadn’t checked it since they were at Dulles earlier that morning. But Alan was waiting, and Ellie was frankly too tired to bother. She made her way into the kitchen.
Alan was just pouring some red wine into two glasses when Ellie came over to him. “Alright, quick selfie, please,” she announced.
He handed her a glass and picked up the bottle for a little pose. Ellie took a few shots. One of them smiling politely. Then with them toasting with their glasses. The last one, Ellie snuck in a kiss to his bearded cheek just as he was taking a sip of wine. They both started laughing, and that was enough for now.
“Okay, a real toast this time. If I may, Dr. Grant?”
“By all means, Dr. Sattler.”
She smiled and raised her glass. “To the start of us being home together. Cheers, sweetheart.”
“Cheers,” he murmured in response as he clinked her glass.
And it was a perfect toast, in his mind. They were together. And they were home. It didn’t matter if it was his apartment on an inflated mattress under the stars, which was Alan’s next location of choice. They’d surely go to the dig site and at some point to Ellie’s house. All of that they’d figure out in time. But for now, right here, they were home.
THE END