For a bit of context, Emily survived Jurassic Park at the age of 9, and her only violent dino encounter was the kitchen scene and everything after that point in the movie. Emily, Sam and Izzy are all my characters, the rest do not belong to me.


Emily Grant, daughter of Alan Grant and survivor of Jurassic Park, sat down on her couch with a contented sigh. She took a sip of her coffee and switched on her TV. The local news station was in Spanish, but she wasn't intending to watch it. The paleontologist simply wanted background noise.

The 32-year-old kicked her feet up on the coffee table and reached for her book, intending to get some reading in before she went to work. Unfortunately, her phone chose that moment to ring. Sighing, she lowered her feet to the ground and answered it.

"Dr. Emily Grant speaking. How may I help you?"

"Dr. Grant, this is Claire Dearing."

"Claire! Nice to hear from you," Emily Grant set down the cup of coffee she'd been sipping and switched off her clunky little TV.

"Yes, well, Mr. Masrani has a request that I'd like to pass along. We're planning a series of public speeches for next week and would like you to give one on Friday."

"Uh, one moment. Let me check my schedule," The paleontologist reached across her coffee table and pulled her calendar toward her, flipping it open to the correct day, "What time do you have in mind?"

"Sometime that morning preferably, since we have other speeches later that day."

Emily frowned, "Can I get back to you later today? I've got a couple things I've got to sort out."

"Certainly. You'll be getting an email about it too, I believe."

"Thanks Claire."

"No problem."

Emily hung up and set her phone down on the table with a sigh. Ever since she'd been hired as a consulting paleontologist for Jurassic World in 2013, she'd been living in her little one bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow on Isla Nublar. Recently, with the sharp increase in the species of dinosaurs on the island, she'd been extra busy.

Her job involved checking up on the dinosaur's well-being, ensuring they were happy in their environments and ensuring those environments were accurate and met all the needs of the dinosaurs. Supposedly, the park had recently hired paleo-veterinarian to assist her with the first part of her job, but she had yet to meet the man.

With yet another sigh, Emily got off her couch, coffee cup in hand once more, and crossed the living room to her bedroom door. Once inside, she set down her coffee and peeled off the sweater she'd worn to bed the previous night. She swiftly exchanged it for a gray tank top and dark blue flannel, which was probably completely unnecessary, given that it almost always ended up around her waist by the end of the day. A pair of jean shorts, tallish socks, her usual pair of hiking boots and the classic Grant fedora were added to complete her look.

A quick stop in the kitchen to put her coffee in a travel mug and another stop at the coffee table for her phone, calendar and customary messenger bag had her shutting the front door behind her.

Emily swiftly went down her front steps and made a beeline for her jeep, which was a dark green, and park issued.

"Emily!" The paleontologist glanced around, her blue eyes landing on her neighbor, Elizabeth Greene.

"Lizzy! What can I do for you?" Emily tossed her bag on the passenger seat and jammed her mug in the cupholder. Shutting the door, she turned to face her friend of two years. They'd met when Emily had first moved in and though Lizzy had been a bit of a fangirl and the assistant raptor trainer, the two women had quickly warmed to each other and struck up a friendship.

"Today's not a paddock day, right?" For the past year, Emily had been dividing her time between the researching at the raptor paddock and working with other dinosaurs. It had been a bit of a struggle to be so near the animals that had traumatized her so much, but Emily had worked around it, and it wasn't as bad anymore.

"No, I'm on brachiosaur duty today. And I gotta say, the jungle they've got there is horrid for walking through."

Lizzy laughed, "Alright, you're stopping by tomorrow though right?"

"Of course. I might be a bit late, depending on if my groceries come tomorrow or Wednesday."

"Sounds good. I'll let Owen know," with that, the raptor trainer jogged back across the gravel driveway that they parked their jeeps in and vanished into her bungalow.

Emily hopped into her driver's seat, turned the key in the ignition and drove off to the brachiosaur paddock.


Emily peered over some type of fern, Ellie could likely tell her the exact species, and jotted down yet another thing in her small notepad. The brachiosaurs were recovering from a bout of Bracken Fern Poisoning, and it was her job to check on how they were doing. Emily was then supposed to report her data to the lab for analysis. So far, nearly two thirds of the herd had recovered, and all appeared to be doing well.

She flipped her notepad closed. If she hurried, she'd have time to work her way around to the other side of the herd before noon. And Emily was starving, so lunch break was sounding better and better by the minute. She quickly finished up and started to trek back through the jungle. After a few minutes, she reached the admittance gate and one of the handlers let her through.

"How do they look?" the handler was a middle aged, enthusiastic woman by the name of Mary-Anne. Emily didn't know her very well, but always found her to be a pleasant woman.

"Wonderful. I can email you my notes once I've got them organized," Emily opened the door of her jeep, which she'd parked nearby, and set her bag and notebook inside.

"That would be lovely! Did you get a chance to check all of them?"

"Yes, it looks like some of them are still recovering, but the rest look perfectly healthy. And I didn't spot any more Bracken Fern."

"Lovely! Thanks again dear!"

"It's a pleasure Mary." Emily hopped into her jeep and headed for Main Street, intent upon getting some lunch and starting the process of organizing her notes into something comprehensible. A short while later, she was parking her jeep in the employee parking and making her way down the street, dodging tourists as she went.

The only benefit of having been only 9 during the horrifying ordeal in 1993 was that hardly anybody recognized Emily as an adult. Most of the world knew her as a small and terrified child, hiding from the press behind her father, or clinging to Ellie. And Emily was perfectly happy to keep it that way.

In the next ten minutes, Emily had grabbed a cheeseburger from Dairy Queen and found a secluded, air-conditioned spot to go through her notes. She took a sip of her pop and began transferring her notes to a larger notepad, organizing as she went. In about half an hour, she'd finished her lunch and finished about a third of her notes.

Satisfied for the moment, Emily began packing her stuff up, only to stop when someone called her name. Looking around her eyes finally landed on a young man in a suit jacket and dress pants with tousled black hair and tanned skin.

It took her a moment to realize why he looked familiar, "Sam?"

"I thought I recognized you!"

In college, Emily had done an English project with Sam, and they'd become fast friends. They'd fallen out of touch afterwards, to Emily's regret. Though she'd never admit it to anyone, she might have had a small crush on him.

Smiling, she stood to shake his hand.

He returned the gesture, "What on Earth possessed you to come back here?"

Emily laughed, "A job offer."

"Well, that's the same reason I'm here. What job did they rope you into?"

"Consulting paleontologist. I thought you couldn't decide on your major?"

"Well, I finally did. As of last week, I'm officially a consulting paleo-veterinarian," he puffed up little, obviously teasing Emily.

"So you're the person who's supposed to be helping me!" She shook her head in mock exasperation, "Much help you've been though!"

"I'll have to get started then. It's been kind of hard to track you down though."

"I'm a busy woman. I'll be at Paddock Ten at about eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Hmmm… eight's a bit early for me, but I'll try to make it. What sort of dinosaurs they got at paddock ten?" Sam sat down on the bench.

"Raptors," Emily resumed her packing.

"What?!" he sat forward, his jaw hanging open in disbelief, "You seriously… I can't believe you'd work with them after what happened!"

Emily sighed, "It wasn't easy, but they've got this fascinating relationship with their handlers and-"

Sam cut her off, running a hand through his messy hair, "You couldn't keep your nose out of it?"

"Well," Emily laughed, "Yeah, I couldn't keep my nose out of it."

Sam was grinning as he said, "Well, I'll leave you to what looks like a pile of notes. I've got to pick up my groceries anyway."

"Alright. It was nice to see you. Do you still have my number?" Emily wasn't quite sure what prompted her question.

"Yeah, somewhere in the depths of my contacts. I'll see you around Grant," With one final smile, Sam stood up and walked down the hallway. As Emily finished her packing and strode quickly in the opposite direction, she found that she could barely contain her grin.


Alright, first chapter! And for the record, they do actually have a Dairy Queen at Jurassic World, I did my research.

Feel free to leave a review or tell me your opinion, or even leave some constructive criticism!