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“Oh, hello David! How’s Mommy’s little boy?” Ellie asked, catching the boy in her outstretched arms and running her hand through his hair.
“Hey mom.,” came the voice of Charlie from the stairs, now almost 9, as he walked by heading towards the kitchen. Walking into the house behind Ellie, Alan watched the now young man, amazed at how much he’d grown in the five years since he’d seen him.
Ellie picked up Alan’s bag and started walking towards the stairs.
“Where’s Dad?” she questioned Charlie.
“I’m over here,” came the voice of Mark from the kitchen.
“I started dinner.”
Ellie motioned for Alan to go sit in the living room while she brought his bags upstairs.
"Come to teach me more about dinosaurs?” Charlie asked, turning around on the couch.
Alan wondered how the boy could remember that. It had been so many years.
“How did you–“
”–Remember? That was the happiest day of my life! Meting the Alan Grant. Besides, my mom kept telling me the story so I couldn’t forget it if I wanted to. She was so glad you came.”
Alan had many years prior been invited to visit Ellie and her family whenever he wished to and having just been to New York, he decided to fly to D.C. and under Ellie’s coercion, spend the night in the guest room rather than a hotel.
“Oh, common’ Al! D.C. living is expensive. It’ll be free if you just stay over out my house. We have a spare bedroom. One night at any hotel will cost you a bundle. Besides, my neighborhood is safe. You can’t say that about most D.C. motels!”
He had protested but Ellie was a very persuasive woman. That’s why he had her on the team those years ago: she got the funding.
“Alright, but only for the night, Ellie. I have a plane to catch in the morning back to Montana.”
“Great! You don’t think I could persuade you to stay an extra day, hmm? I can get them to move the ticket to the next day,” Ellie teased pleadingly.
“Two days, no more,” Alan agreed, with much hesitation.
“So, Dr. Grant,” Mark began, cutting into his pork chops, “What do you do now–now that people don’t care about fossils anymore?”
“On the contrary,” Alan started, “there are people who, like me, care about the dinosaur fossils: the problem is finding them.”
The group laughed. David started to mash his pees into a pulp and Charlie watched the grownups like a tennis match.
“I actually have started working at the Museum–of the Rockies. It helps fund my digs every summer or so.”
“Still keeping to your old habits,” Ellie said, laughing. Alan smiled.
Alan had to admit: the did miss her. He had always loved her but after Isla Nublar, they both had changed, like people do after they return from war. Alan still wanted to work with the bones and Ellie couldn’t stand the site of them. All she saw was the potential. The potential that money and ambition had to pervert the bones into creatures that nearly took her life. She wanted nothing to do with them anymore. Their relationship began to fall apart; lived separate lives and eventually broke up. He said she had changed; she said he hadn’t.
“Ellie, I need to ask you something,” Alan began, leaning back into the sofa in the living room after dinner.
“Shoot Alan. Anything.”
“I was asked to go to the U.N. the other day: that’s why I was in New York. They wanted me to talk about the islands; how safe they were and such. I think something is up. I’ve been told they are planning an expedition.”
“Wow, Alan. That’s big. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the news. What did you tell them?”
