Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Inside the small room, the air is thick enough to cut perfect square chunks out of it. Kenji and Louise—

They don't feel like Kenji and Louise. She was still upset with him about his comment back on Nublar, and she knew he meant it, even if he tried to argue that he didn't.

She just remembers how harsh his voice sounded, it was rarely harsh around her. The way her bones jolted within her body as he snatched the computer away—

"God, you and Darius both think you're so smart, don't you?"

Yes, she was smart because she had to be. She knew damn well Kenji wasn't going to take charge when Darius was in his delusional state—the only thing Kenji was right about—And she couldn't let all the pressure weigh on Ben.

They were paired up because well—They had to be. Everyone expected Kenji to grab her hand and say, "She's coming with me!" as he always did without a protest from her. 

But it didn't go down that way.

When Doctor Diece agreed to them sticking in pairs, after Sammy's super convincing puppy eyes, Sammy latched onto Yasmina. Darius taking Brooklynn's hand, and naturally they assumed that Kenji and Louise would go together.

And maybe she'd prefer to be paired with Ben, who was now third wheeling with Darius and Brooklynn. 

Hell, she'd rather be in this room by herself....Actually, no.

She wouldn't. She was secretly glad he was in this too sanitized of a room with her. It was all too white, and there was some chill of an AC that freaks her out.

It was unnatural air, too different from the fresh stuff on Nublar. 

Her eyes almost couldn't adjust to the blank color. They were so use to seeing the bright greens, even if they were all the same shade, it was what she was used to seeing and it was almost- what she wanted to see when she blinked her eyes.

She didn't want to stay on the island like Ben, she was ready to leave only a few days after the initial outbreak and her Toro attack.

'Oh god,' She swallows.

They're going to ask about her Toro attack.

The injuries were obvious, and they'd want to X-Ray her or sedate her to get her into the closest operating room. She couldn't—not today. It was just going to be evaluations, simple questions.

All the complicated stuff tomorrow and the days to come.

She knew that Kenji was staring at her, even if it looks like he was watching the blank wall that makes her think it would slowly push together with the other to crush them between the vinyl.

-KENJI POV-

He was trying to read the look on her face, he knows she's thinking about something.

He wishes that she would talk to him. They hadn't talked since casting off, she avoided him at every cost, even if Kenji's hands were glued to the steering wheel, needing to be peeled off once they reached Costa Rica, they still never talked.

She didn't come to check up on him like Darius, Brooklynn and Ben had. All Captain Kenji could do was admire her from above as she prowled around the yacht below.

He did mean what he said, but he had regretted it the moment it spit out of his mouth so ferociously. 

He could remember her shaking after the fact, whether it was because of his harsh words laced with an even harsher tone or because he had fucked up her already fucked up arm more, Kenji couldn't say.

Maybe a mix of both?

He didn't want to hurt her, he never has. It was just a heat of the moment thing. He would always be the strongest out of them all, even if Ben could beat him out of an arm wrestle (to which they had many rematches and Ben always found a way to win), Kenji would always be stronger than her.

It was so silent in that room as they waited for Doctor Diece to open the doors and ask them the same questions she had asked the campers before them. Louise just wanted to get this over with and he could sense that with the way she was slouching.

She couldn't stand to be in this room with him anymore, the sound of his breathing was probably already setting her off. They were so lovey dovey before this and all because he had opened his stupid trap—when he should've just listened to her!—what they had was gone.

They should be chatting it up and laughing in this room, their voices should be bouncing around the tiny space, they should be interacting!

Kenji could feel his fists balling beside him as he leans casually against an even whiter wall. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, wanting to curse under his breath, but he suppresses his urges to mutter for her sake.

-END OF KENJI POV-

She didn't think the others could tell that they had been fighting—

'Fighting,' She thought. 

Fighting like what? A married couple? No way. Fighting like she had found out he cheated on her? He couldn't have possibly done that unless he was secretly making out with the Compies.

(Poisoning himself while doing so.)

They weren't fighting, they just weren't talking, having some kind of long distant fight even when they were inches away from each other. But maybe—maybe the others noticed. I mean, they used to finish each other's sentences...

They used to josh back and forth, teasing each other with their playful words. She used to laugh at Kenji's jokes, which were said less on the yacht, but they were occasionally cracked and everybody laughed, but her.

Sammy might've noticed. She tried encouraging Louise to laugh at his jokes like before, or she tried to get Kenji to say a few more, then maybe—just maybe she'd pop a smile and laugh.

Ben definitely noticed. Louise almost drove straight off the rails when Ben asked what exactly the plan was with Brooklynn and the computer—

"Wait—Louise, slow down. What's the plan?" Ben asked as he raced up behind her after she sped away from the scene, leaving Kenji in the dust.

"I just told you! We give Darius the laptop. He goes to Wu and Brooklynn, we follow him to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid as he finally faces reality." Louise barked back at him.

It was such an aggressive tone, Louise remembers. She hated it.

"Wu gets the laptop, he and those mercenaries leave and whatever happens with those Indominus samples are not our problem!" She told Ben the plan forcefully.

"Then once he's gone, we're gone. We get to the northwest dock and leave for good, 'Costa Rica here we come'.  How does that sound, Ben?" Louise put her hands together and gave Ben a near crazed look.

She could've gone on a tangent right there and then, but she didn't. Ben had nodded and agreed to her, because it sounded good, right? 

Not too smart, right, Kenji?

Ben knew, he knew badly.

The others—remained mainly oblivious to their "fighting".

Her nose was twitching, scrunching up, she knew it was. It always happened to do that whenever she got angry enough.

It was like a little bunny nose and instead of the bunny being soft and cuddly, it was rough and distant. It- She turned towards the door, the CREAKKKKKKKKKKK of the door turning her semi-relaxed mode to high alertness.

She flinches in the stool and Kenji leans off the wall to look at the door. "Okay, okay—Last group." A different doctor- It's not Diece, opens the door with her back. She's young, blonde haired with blue eyes- in different shades then Louise- and they don't resemble each other at all but that's not the first thing to be noticed about her.

"So, we have Kenji Kon and—You know, I've read your father's magazine, Modern CEO, and my, my, he is inspiring! All the things he said makes me want to quit this job and become a CEO myself!"

And Louise just deadpans at her, her eye begging to twitch at the doctor's attempt to impress Kenji about her knowledge on his father.

Deep down, Louise wants to believe that this doctor—who still hasn't introduced herself—was just trying to be friendly, maybe she'd make him more comfortable by saying all this, but she just. kept. going. 

"Oh and the things he said about Obama, I always knew I voted right. Now tell me, does he take you everywhere? Like when he went to Italy or the deserts in the middle east?!"

She doesn't even look old enough to vote, if Louise is being honest with herself, and she is. 

For this at least.

There was some hope in Kenji's dark eyes, his father—Oh, she just kept talking about his father! He would come for Kenji, he would come for his son, he knew it!

"Ahem," Louise clears her throat, the sound coming deep within her.

Kenji flinches at her voice, he hadn't heard it—Well that was going to be a lie, she obviously still talked when they were in a group, trying to discuss something, but when she was with him, beside him—Her mouth barely opened to even yawn.

The young doctor glances at Louise, taking her clearing her throat as a sign to stay professional.

 "And you must be Louise Crenshaw." She remarks.

"In the flesh," Louise replies, smugly, mirroring Ben because he would definitely reply to her comment that way too. "I'm Doctor Kiera Clarke, and today is just about questions. Alright?" 

Louise and Kenji nod, just questions for today works for them. "Great, now, Kenji, why don't you take a seat?" Clarke offers.

There were two stools perfectly placed next to each other, in the middle of the room—But the room was so small and uninviting that it probably didn't know what the middle of it was. Louise already sat in the one on the left, the one beside her, to her right, empty.

And it would remain that way until Kenji accepted or refused the offer. "I think I'll stand." Kenji says, beginning to cross his arms.

Clarke's eyes seemed to narrow—just barely—but still narrow at him.

"Is that okay?" Kenji asks her.

She sighs lightly, "That's fine."

The doctor pulls a clipboard from under her white coat, her hand swooping a ballpoint pen from the top pocket. "Now, these are the same questions Dr. Diece and our team asked your friends, nothing new." She says.

"Let's start with diet. What did you guys eat on a daily basis?" She asks them, hoping to hear similar answers to compare to the others.

"Canned and fresh fruits." Louise begins. "What kind of fresh fruits?" Clarke scribbles down the new information. "Mangoes and—"

"Coconuts!" Kenji cut her off.

"Mangoes and coconuts," Clarke repeats with a light chuckle, continuing to write down the info.

Louise's nose flares and she closes her eyes to quickly remain her composure, "There were banana trees too, but we never bothered to climb and pick those."

"Okay, so possible exposure..." Clarke mumbles and Louise couldn't pick up what they might've been exposed to.

"I happened to eat some fish and shellfish that I caught or dug up from the ocean that surrounded the island," Louise adds.

Clarke's head pops up and now she faces Louise, her hands putting the clipboard close to her chest. 

"Fish and shellfish? Was it just you who ate this?" She was intrigued now. 

"I never kept track of what kind of fish they were exactly but I know I was eating clams. I introduced the idea of fishing to Ben and he ate some of the same seafood with me, but with everyone else, they never caught on." Louise explains.

A slight hint of laughter from Kenji travels into her ears, "Caught on," He happens to mutter. She wasn't even trying to be funny. 

But maybe he didn't like being in this room—So, focusing on her voice and keeping himself at bay by laughing because maybe he just didn't like this hospital setting was helping him.

"Couldn't keep track or didn't know?" Clarke asks curiously.

Now, Louise was a little annoyed, and not because of Kenji. "I'm not a marine biologist." She says firmly. 

"I didn't examine every pesky scale or interesting pattern on the fish I caught." 

"Food was food and I ate it!" Louise declares proudly.

"Okay...Most fish carry the same things anyway." Dr. Clarke calmly replies.

"Did you or—Ben have any bad reactions to the seafood?" She takes a moment to remember Ben's name. "No, I basically burnt it to the point of charcoal so...." Louise replies.

Clarke nods, "Cooking it into safety," She mumbles as she scribbles some more.

"Anything else?" She questions.

"The occasional bag of chips, that neared or already passed the expiration date." Louise answers. 

"Chips...." Clarke writes down.

"And water sources?" She asks.

"We drank from nearby streams or creeks, we knew which ones to avoid." Louise responds. "And how did you do that?" Clarke asks. 

"Figure out which ones were safe and which ones weren't?"

She almost didn't know what to say—"My best friend, Ben, befriended a dinosaur and she checked the water for us?" Louise couldn't even begin to explain that and it wasn't always the case. 

"Look, Doctor, if it was dirty, we didn't drink it. If we saw a dinosaur drink from it, then we would also drink from it." Kenji provides the much needed answer with a strange sense of confidence.

Louise put her face into her hands—You couldn't tell her that they drank from water with dinosaur salvia in it because now it just meant she was going to order more tests for them!

"Uh-huh..." Clarke nods her head slowly. "And any reactions to that? Particularly to the different points of water on the island?"

"Nope." Kenji says and Louise agrees only because it was true.

The water didn't make them sick, or they were just so in the zone that any hint of a stomachache from the water was blocked out.

"Okay, thank you." Clarke says.

'Oh, no.' Louise swallows again.

She knows that the diet questions are over. Only a few seconds before the hard part, tough questions and memories.....

Kenji weans off the wall, slowly inching closer to Louise in a way that he hopes she won't notice.

"Now, Louise, I want to start with you....." 

Kenji knew how hard this would be for her. He had no major injuries himself, unless you count that time he needed to be revived—But that was for later. 

"Tell me, from the beginning, your very first injury on Nublar."

She could do that—It was easy, it was: "When we fell off the zip line, it was a good fall, at least 30 or more feet off the ground—Some trees broke our fall but we all ended up with some cuts, scrapes and bruises." 

"I'm not asking about everyone else, I'm asking about you." Clarke reminds her. "How did the fall affect you?" She asks.

"I landed on my stomach, like a bad bellyflop into a dry pool...My shoulder was lightly bruised and my nose was bleeding...."

"Okay, good. Now, we're getting somewhere." Clarke assures.

"That's how Ken—" Louise hesitates, "That's how Kenji got that scar on his face...." She mutters. "I see that," The doctor observes. "Come here, let me see..." Clarke beckons Kenji over.

He obeys and took a good step forward, he stands in front of the stool, rather than sitting on it.

"Yeah—I fell into one of the trees that broke our fall," Kenji tells her and Clarke nods while she places the clipboard back in her coat temporarily to cup her hands to the sides of his face.

Louise could admit that Kenji looks a little funny with his face all squished together, the doctor giving him fish lips......

"Hm...." She moves his head to the left then to the right, almost like he was a bobble head or a corpse, something with no bones or free will.

"Not seeing any other facial trauma......" She moves his head up to look under his neck and then down to examine the top of his head. "Some small scarring...."

(It was not an easy sight to take in, watching Clarke manipulate his head around like a puppet wasn't on her bingo card.)

And she basically pushes Kenji down onto the stool by his shoulders. "You should shave that five o'clock shadow when you get the chance." Clarke comments.

"It's more of a six o'clock shadow now," She chuckles, shuffling to change the next page on the clipboard. "So, so, so.........." She draws out as the two of them sat next to each other awkwardly. 

"Next injuries for you, Louise?" 

"Oh! There was those time with those Ouranosaurus', they scooped us right up and tossed us aside! But we weren't hurt, maybe a bit of discomfort but not hurt." Louise playfully describes.

Kenji hesitantly leans into Louise's ear, "That wasn't your next injury, Lou....." He whispers. 

She knows he's right and her face saddens, her eyes softening, becoming less threatening towards him, her lips frowning, seconds from a pout.

The use of the nickname tugged at her strings, she hadn't heard it on his voice in so long.....

Louise looks at him, pleadingly, as in "Don't make me do this,"

But he receives her sad stare, returning it with an even worse one, he nods with a gentle smile.

"You have to do this, Louise." His look tells her and again, there's some hesitation within him as he goes to hold her hand and she doesn't pull away, "I'm right here for you....." His squeeze of her hand lets her know.

Dr. Clarke waits patiently—but also impatiently—Her body seems to bounce up and down as she balances between her heels and foot—A sign that she wants to wait by remaining quiet but a sign that she can't wait because she has to log all this information into whatever system they have and perhaps- report back to the real Doctor Diece.

Louise sighs, shakes her head and blinks a few times, the tears already breaching for an escape.

"Okay," Louise begins, "My next, second injury was not with the Ouranosaurus'...... I was—attacked by the Carnotaurus, a dangerous carnivore, who constantly put us through hell....." Her head hangs low, she just can't face the doctor.

"He was chasing after me and I tried my best to run away—I did.... But you'd never be faster than a dinosaur, especially a predator. And he—" She stops for a moment. 

"It's okay, Louise. Take your time. I know this must be hard for you." Clarke says but she doesn't know shit and her attempt to soothe her doesn't do shit either.

Only another squeeze from Kenji keeps her going, "He crunched down on top of me, consuming half of my body and I—I had nowhere to go....I just—wanted him to eat me! But he never...."

"There was a crack.....And I screamed in agony. He threw me away when he found something more satisfying and I flew through the air....Hit my back against a tree and it was lights out."

"When I came to—I realized I was alive....Which was good...But I was in so much pain and I—still am...." Louise's voice begins to squeak. 

"Okay. That's enough." Clarke says, letting the injured girl know she can stop.

She takes a moment to scribble on the clipboard, her face is covered enough for Kenji to give Louise a small kiss on the cheek—An old reflex of his—But, "Thank you," Louise whispers back between a small sniffle. It was worth it.

"You mentioned a crack. Which side do you believe to be have the break or was broken?" Clarke asks as Louise looks back up at her. "My left one definitely," She surely replies, "The bone that connects my shoulder to my collarbone..."

"Your clavicle?" Clarke asks, scribbling on the paper. 

"Probably...." Louise just agreed, even if she didn't know what the doctor had meant. "I'll take a look," Clarke says, storing the clipboard back into her coat.

"But—It's just questions, no X-Rays or blood tests." Louise reminds her, a slight panic in her voice. 

"Don't worry, although we'll want all of that soon, I just want to get an idea of how bad the break might be....." Clarke approaches her.

"May I?" Clarke asks and Louise wonders why she even did. They have no choice to disagree and Darius said no fighting the medical staff. She nods, giving the doctor enough consent to pull on her tattered shirt.

Louise watches cautiously—Does she dare ask to know what she's about to do? Or does she bury her face into Kenji's ample neck and tough it out? "I'm just going to feel around—See if I can feel the bone." Clarke explains as she reaches her gloved—When did she put those on?—hands towards her left shoulder.

Her bones were certainly visible, not in a "broken through the skin way" but a "she's super skinny way".

But it wasn't enough of the way to tell how broken was broken, thank god for that.....Louise clenches her eyes shut at the first initial touch, Clarke is just doing this so nonchalantly—Louise never even let grass touch this shoulder...

Let alone the gloved hands of some strange mainland doctor.

"It's definitely still broken if it's causing you pain." Clarke points out, kneading her fingers against the skin—What this even a real medical practice? 

Touching around on the skin, massaging like it's play doh? Poking at it like slime?

Kenji watches worryingly as Louise tries her best to tough this out, but it must hurt as it did before she tried to heal it herself. 

"I—I knew it was broken...." Louise utters, "And I—...." She grunts.

"tried to fix it...." She tells Doctor Clarke. 

"Yep....Yep...I can definitely feel that something started to happen. Can I ask why it was removed, the sling?" Clarke says.

It was almost inconsiderate to ask this question as she still kneaded on Louise's thin skin, not even stopping for a second to give her a break—She should know better, she's the doctor.

"It was an...a-action filled decision." Now it was Louise that squeezed Kenji's hand and he lifted their intertwined fingers up to kiss her knuckles, nothing too intimate, but another reminder that he was there for her. 

"Mhm..." Clarke nods, "You two are—close." She admits as she pulls her hands away from Louise, finally giving her a moment to breathe. "You did great," Kenji whispers extra quietly into her ear.

"Did you two ever—" Clarke begins to ask and Louise's eyes shoot open at the question that Kiera dares to ask. "No! How could you even ask that?! It was Isla Nublar for god sake!" Louise gets snapped out of the moment and the pain fades as rage sets in.

Her hand quickly detaches from Kenji's and she wipes his spit off on her black shorts, pulling her shirt back over her left shoulder.

The moment of normality ruined.

"Ugh, do you know how damn disgusting that is? No- Seriously! Why the hell would you ask us that? You do realize there were dinosaurs everywhere and you so much step on a twig, they get alerted, right?!"

"You do realize that we were trying to survive, not repopulate! You inconsiderate—There's more to a relationship than just—Do you even know how hard it was to be in a relationship on an island?"

"To even comprehend such feelings during life or death?"

And the question raises a reaction from Kenji. "It was very hard! Try liking someone on an island when you have to keep constantly playing Pac Man with dinosaurs!" Kenji backs his girlfriend up.

Louise tries her best not to completely flip out—She could cuss the doctor out and cause a huge scene but she doesn't, for Darius. No fighting the doctors.

Kiera is silenced—Does she intervene or let the two of them keep speaking, attacking them with their words? 

Disgust fills Louise and she can't even find the words to keep defending them on this, her and Kenji—Yuck! Ew, ew, gross, gross!

Louise again flares her nose and closes her eyes, cursing in her head, while also telling herself to calm down.

Her eyes open and she faces Clarke, "I don't care about whatever authority you have, but I think we're done with all these questions, Kiera." She stands up from the stool. 

"Okay! Louise, I'm sorry." Kiera puts a hand where her heart is, taking full responsibility. "You're right, I shouldn't have asked such a protruding question like that. I only asked because I would have to tell the lab to run extra tests on both of your bloods." Clarke apologizes.

"Now, would you please sit back down? I still have to ask Kenji about his injuries and there's a few more that you need to tell me about."

Louise stubbornly pushes herself back up on the stool and gives Kiera a bad glare, she watches the doctor's every move. "But first—I noticed that row of teeth on your stomach, so I'm going to feel around and you just tell me if it hurts." Clarke says, "Okay?"

And again, Louise wonders why she asks. 

She growls- like Ben. 

Why does Clarke think she still willingly wants to be touched by her after she asked that question? 

Kenji's eyes widen at the sound that just emerged from her throat- 

Maybe she spent too much time with Ben out in the wild....

"Louise," Kenji leans his head against the side of hers and whispers in her ear, "Don't- Uh.."

But he's actually speechless.

She gives a burning eye roll and sucks her teeth- "Go ahead." She reluctantly says, giving the doctor the consent she needs to continue.

"Thank you," Her still gloved hands press against Louise's abdomen, and there is no pain.

It's only the pressure that feels a little weird. Clarke has to be careful, push too hard and she could probably break Louise's skin as easily as paper. 

"Here?" Clarke asks.

"No," Louise tells. "How about here?" Clarke questions.

"No," Louise shakes her head.  

"Hm, up here?" She moves her hands higher, up to her stomach.

"Still no," Louise says.

"And how about here?" 

It feels like her shoulder all over again—She's just poking! She's just pressing her fingers against the skin for the fun of it. "No pain," Louise admits. 

"Nothing," She says.

"Okay," Clarke backs away from her. "You are very lucky or very unlucky, Louise. Either the teeth managed to miss all your important organs or you haven't experienced or even you've ignored the signs of a potential punctured organ. Or it did hurt and you were lying." She explains as she snaps the latex gloves off of her hands.

Kenji jolts beside her- almost like he wants to lunge at Clarke and attack her for accusing Louise of lying about her own body.

Louise gives Kenji's thigh a quick pat, keeping her eyes on Clarke as she throws the gloves away, but she's letting him know that it was okay.

"Kenji, did you have any major attacks like Louise?" Clarke asks, turning from the trash.

"No, nothing like that. Too cool for those dinos to eat me if you know what I'm saying." He replies with a chill manner but it's obvious he doesn't feel as comfortable around the doctor anymore.

"I did drown though—....I don't know if that's important." Kenji says and that sparks another head jerking reaction from Clarke and she faces Kenji.

"Every single injury you two have is important. Continue, tell me about this drowning experience."

"Well—I can't really remember it," Kenji answers honestly, "It comes back in bits and pieces—I just remember jumping in the Mosasaurus tank to get the kayak and then seeking shelter in the lab." Kenji explains.

"He was unconscious." Louise speaks up, her voice now unfriendly. "I performed CPR on him immediately, he was not down for long, maybe a minute." She answers Clarke's question before she can ask it.

"He was bedridden after that. His body was fatigued and he was loopy here and there, he started to experience—"

"Secondary drowning symptoms?" Clarke interrupts and that just makes Louise pissed at her even more. 

"Yes. If that's what we're calling it." She replies unwaveringly. "I took care of him, kept him warm and hydrated, he is fine now. He hasn't had any breathing problems since the incident so you don't have to beat his chest." 

"I'd still like to listen to his lungs," Clarke says as if she's waiting for Louise to give her permission. 

"With my stethoscope," Clarke grabs the blue stethoscope that's been wrapped around her neck all this time.

"I'm just going to lift up the back of your shirt so I can have a better listen...." Clarke gets behind Kenji sitting on the stool—He's been quiet all this time—She doesn't even wait for him to nod, she just continues. 

She grabs the back of his ragged shirt and when she does this, Louise can see his spine, the sight sends shivers down her own.

She never realized how malnourished they really were.

It was an awkward position, Kiera was basically crammed against the back wall as she continues to lift his shirt to get easier access. 

Kenji is almost frightened by this—Even if it was just a cold piece of metal that was pressed against and moving around his back.

He flinches barely, it must feel odd having something so cold on him after being so hot. And Louise wonders if she should be comforting him during this.

He wasn't it any pain but something was freaking him out.

She didn't want to do anything for him because it would only fuel Clarke's previous question that nearly made Louise throw up.

"Deep breaths," Clarke instructs.

His chest inflates as he breathes in deeply, he holds it for a second and exhales, deflating his chest.

"Again for me," 

He rolls his eyes, knowing that Clarke can't see this. A hopeless smile creeps across Louise's face as she watches him and the doctor carefully.

"Again," She says with a move of the stethoscope. And again, Kenji gives her another deep breath. 

Louise reaches her pinkie out for his and he glances over at her, locking his pinkie with hers. 

"One more," Clarke says, moving the stethoscope up his back. 

"Alright, now breathe from out of your mouth." Clarke tells him.

The stethoscope is removed but only for a second, giving Kenji enough time to roll his eyes again.

But he obeys, and as the still cold stethoscope presses against his below his back, he breathes in and out through his mouth as the cycle repeats. She tells him to do this three times, and then squeezes herself out from behind him.

Kenji fixes his shirt, pulling it back down over his stomach and it appears to fall over his legs.

"Okay, his breathing sounds normal, so good job, Louise." Clarke praises her when she doesn't need it and this is when Louise unlocks their pinkies.

"Any other pressing situations that I should know about?" Clarke asks. "I survived a helicopter crash but again—I wasn't hurt, just some discomfort." Louise says.

"So no coughing up blood, breathlessness, pain at sight of injuries?" Clarke lists off some symptoms of internal bleeding.

Louise and Kenji both shake their heads, if someone in the group was coughing up blood or experiencing any of the things she listed off, they wouldn't have told the others. "Good, good. I think we're done now." Clarke smiles politely.

"Think? No, you are done here." Louise pushes herself off the stool again, still incredibly moody about Dr. Clarke's—sex comment—"Kenji, let's go." She says firmly. 

Kenji sits a little shocked but mildly impressed in the seat and he stands up and leans his shoulders to face Dr. Clarke to say something but he doesn't and runs over to Louise.

"We can find our own way back, thank you very much." Louise slams the door behind them.

"I can't believe—Why the fuck would she—I'm gonna be sick!" Louise rambles outside the room, as they make their way back to hopefully the others. "I feel so gross now—I think I'm gonna need like a day or two away from you—"

Kenji frowns at her sentence, and she knows it wasn't his fault that she thought to ask that.

"And she just kept poking me like pizza dough! She didn't even give me an ice pack, heating pad—Nothing! You know, you think she'd numb the area or something!" 

"Out of all the hospitals in America—We—We land up in this dump!" She mirrors Ben again.

"Don't let some doctor who thinks she's all that ruffle your feathers, Lou—ise...." Kenji goes to pat her back. But she slid across the tiled floor swiftly, before his hand could make it to her back.

 "Alright- I got it." He got the message and stuck his hands into his pocket.

He now unfortunately was used to keeping his hands off of her, but it was in his nature to pat a back or place a hand on a shoulder as a friendly gesture. "At least come back over here, you're disrupting the flow of traffic," Kenji observes as angry doctors swerve around an even angrier Louise.

"I should've pushed her...." She plots, "I would've paid good money to see that." Kenji agrees.

"I knew something was weird when she kept moving your perfectly sculpted face like that!" Louise came back over to Kenji's side and kept fuming. "You think my face is perfectly sculpted?" He asks at her admission.

"I did not say that!" Louise replies loudly. Kenji's face fades with some blush but he shakes it away.

"I mean—Did you see the way she was moving my head? Like it was on some swivel or like I belonged with some creeper baseball bobble head collectors—Preparing to get pick off the shelf and touched by Cheeto crusted fingers!" Kenji joked and he wasn't the one to laugh.

"Oh, I know!" Louise even snorted, "I was scared she was going to break your neck! And—And the way she had the audacity to comment on your 'six o'clock shadow'." She joshed, mocking Clarke’s tone of voice at 'six o'clock shadow'.

And for a moment, it felt normal, again.

"Agh, she was unbelievable." Louise shook her head as she piped down, swinging the door open to where the others had been.

There, Darius stands, panicking.

Chapter Text

His face is sweating, he's breathing even harder than Kenji was when Dr. Clarke was checking his lungs—Louise and Kenji share quicks looks as they race over to Darius. Brooklynn already trying to snap him out of it.

"Darius?" Kenji asks, placing his hands that should be filled in with skin on top of Darius' even smaller shoulders. "Darius!" Kenji repeats.

He gasps for air—And he almost chokes on it. Kenji and Brooklynn hover around Darius and this is when Louise realizes that they were the last one back, Sammy, Yasmina and Ben were already in the room.

"Easy, dude, easy," Louise can hear Kenji in the background as she walks over to the bed she had claimed previously. Brooklynn and Kenji had got it under control, if Louise tried it'd be too overwhelming for the already overwhelmed Darius.

She pushes herself up on the bed with the scratchy sheets and she winces under her breath—Her shoulder. Her damn shoulder.

Ben watches her carefully and tilts his head at her, "What?" She asks, looking up at him. "Your shoulder." Ben says and his sentence is finished with a slight hiss.

"What did she say about it?"

"Oh- She just said it was still broken but she could feel it trying to be repaired. So my sling would've worked if I didn't take it off." Louise explains and Ben only nods, does she return the question?

Does she ask Ben what Doctor Diece said about his injuries? She thinks they were interviewed by her and not crazy, creepy, Clarke.

She shouldn't ask, he would tell her.

Maybe.

She can't wait for him because she chips into the conversation that Brooklynn and Kenji are having with Darius.

"You should've seen Kenji handling the pressure of a stethoscope- He was suffering." She says, loud enough for them to hear her. "It was cold!" Kenji defends himself immediately.

"I got- a chill...." Kenji says.

"Well it came off as suffering," Louise teases, "Good thing I was in the room to help the poor boy out!" She appears to laugh and she doesn't pick up the smile on his face.

"They didn't check anyone else's heart or lungs with a stethoscope- " Brooklynn goes to say. "They did with Sammy," Yasmina chips in.

"They needed to make sure the poison didn't mess with her big heart." She glances at Sammy and her face flushes pink.

"Oh, Yasmina!" Sammy uses her non-blood tested arm to fan at her face. She giggles beside the track star, "Yaz insisted." Sammy says.

"Hey, if we've got the resources to stay safe, we should use them," says Yaz, folding her arms firmly.

"Clarke said that she'd do all that stuff later for the rest of us," Louise tells them. "Clarke? We got someone named—Lopez, yes, it was Doctor Lopez." Sammy is sure of it. "What else did she do to y'all?" Sammy asks and she assumed that she asked everyone else this too.

"She asks us questions, and she felt around to see if she could tell how bad Toro's damage was. And she listened to Kenji's heart," She says but she's lying.

The others don't know that Kenji drowned and had to be brought back to life during their time in Wu's lab. She’s not going to reveal it now.

"She didn't feed you two? They fed me and Yaz some bougie treats—Even for a hospital!" Sammy replies.

"Lou didn't give her a chance to offer us any." Kenji says and he's joking, but he's not.

Sammy's face lights up hearing Kenji call Louise 'Lou' again. "Oo! Do I wanna—" Sammy goes to say.

"Does it feel like everything's falling apart for you guys as well?"

It was Darius, his words cutting Sammy off and rendering the room into silence. Louise thinks about his question as her mind scrambles- Was it falling apart?

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything about it," It was Kenji to break the silence. "I thought it was better if I didn't say anything," Yaz admits. She draws her knees up to her chin and rests it on them. Her dark eyes peer over the top.

There're no tears to see there but that doesn't mean there isn't grief.

"I..."

She trails off, and she's unable to say anything else on the matter.

"Falling apart how?" Brooklynn asks without judgement, only curiosity. "We're safe, right?"

"We're gonna be split up," Darius whispers and Louise can barely hear him. "That's what's falling apart. Us."

And again, his words render the room quiet. Louise realizes he's right- At least her and Kenji were falling apart. Sammy and Yasmina were finding new beginnings in each other, and she sensed maybe something between Brooklynn and Darius....

But her and Kenji- they were done.

In just a few days, their parents would come to collect them like they were children at a daycare—although it would be more heartfelt and teary then that.

They wouldn't have another six months to bond and repair their relationship.

So, maybe Darius was right for her and Kenji's situation, but were the rest of them falling apart?

Separately, Louise and Kenji were fine. Her nightmares had gone away a long time ago, and Kenji just seemed like he wanted to go home. So, they were fine compared to Yasmina, who had more nightmares than her, or Ben—who also had as many nightmares as her—Or Sammy, who was poisoned and was potentially sick from it now.

But maybe she was falling apart, her bones were still broken when she thought they were partially healed.

She'd have to start over—Doctor Diece or another doctor would have to fit her with a sling or get her into an OR to repair the bones.

And who's knows if she'd have to go to psychical therapy or get monthly shots of cortisone...

"Hey," Sammy says and it's her voice that breaks the silence this time. "We planned for this, remember? I still have all your socials and emails."

She's trying to sound cheery- But is it even doing anything for them?

"It won't be the same," Ben voices it for Darius. His voice is purposefully blank. The more wild Ben seemed to grow, the more control he got over his emotions.

And even when Ben was growing wild with Louise- He still had a grip on his emotions. "No," Sammy says, "No," She empathizes in protest.

"After everything we've been through, a few lousy miles of distance isn't going to break us apart. I won't let it." Her words are firm, furthering her protest.

Yasmina's laughs but there's no humor behind it, "Try a few thousand miles," She says, her words bitter. "I know I'm a fast runner but there's no getting around that."

"There're cars. Planes! There're ways to get to each other," Sammy fights back.

"And when our parents say no?" Kenji says. "I don't know about you guys but...it'll be a miracle if my dad lets me leave. Not because he cares, but..."

Kenji's question sparks a series of thoughts inside Louise- Home.

She has to go back home. Her mom is never going to let her out of her sight- She's never going to give Louise twenty dollars again!

What if she doesn't let Louise watch the movies she loves? What if no more Universal trips? But she loves the Jurassic World area—Probably not anymore—But maybe it would make her feel like she was home, minus the campers.....

She's not going to take Louise on any family vacations revolving a tropical island because she'll thinks Louise won't be able to handle it!

But she can- she can.

She can handle it- It was just Isla Nublar, with a few dinosaurs....

(It was so much more than that.)

Ms. Crenshaw isn't going to let Louise go visit Ben—visit Sammy, Darius, Yasmina, Brooklynn, KENJI!

Wait- Why is she so upset about not being able to visit Kenji? She doesn't like him anymore.

Her mom never did well with strangers—Maybe staying with these people for six months will motivate her to say yes?

Now Louise almost mirrors Yasmina, she had lifted her feet onto the hospital bed and brought her legs to her chest- but she can't wrap her arms around her legs because her left shoulder is still in pain, but she can rest her chin on top of her legs and she could even bury her whole head between her legs if she wanted.

"It's been so long since I saw my mum," Ben says listlessly. "Who knows what she'll do? I certainly don't."

"My mom would keep me on a very tight leash," Louise says certainly, digging her chin into her knees.

"We can't talk like this," Brooklynn take's Sammy's side. "We can't act like it's already over. Nothing's changed yet."

"Everything's changed." Darius says and Louise silently agrees.

Darius looks around the room their in, Louise can only see the back of his head- which remains still- but she knows he's looking around this room that everyone wants to love but secretly hates.

It's too white- like before. It's too white and her eyes can't adjust!

It's too bright- this isn't the warm Nublar sun that Louise remembers waking up to ever morning. It doesn't smell like the morning dew.

It smells of harsh chemicals, and the air is stale from a dusty AC vent. It's not green- when she wants it be. She doesn't know why she feels this way, she never wanted to stay on Nublar like Ben.

But she misses it, the old routine, even if it was the same thing with a new dinosaur attack or task to complete. She just misses waking up at the treehouse and she misses having all three meals with them- Sammy and Yaz were fed and she wasn't in the same room as them!

She didn't peel their fruits- Even though she knows that's not what they ate, but if she didn't peel fruits for the campers- Then who would she peel fruits for?

Herself?

The thought makes her shudder, peeling fruits for herself.....

She would have to force peeled fruits on her family when she got back home, she would just have to...

"I'd do anything for you guys," Brooklynn says and she breaks Louise's chance to plot about feeding fruits to her family. "I'd move across the country for you."

"I'd run away from home for you. So don't...don't act like that doesn't matter. Let's give ourselves some credit."

"I'm not trying to say none of that matters," Darius says and she can hear him clearly, his volume is rising and she can hear him fighting to keep it steady.

"We can say we'll do all that, and I believe we want to, but we're just kids!" Darius admits, loudly.

"Kids who survived on Isla Nublar," Sammy reminds him.

"For almost a year, Darius."

7 months was nothing.

But it was everything.

It was more like 8 months- which was still nothing, but it provided Louise with everything; it gave her freedom, and it gave her family.

"We can't act like the worst case scenario is going to happen," Brooklynn says firmly. And it's a tone that Louise can recognize, when Brooklynn wanted to finish an argument or stop Kenji and Louise (yes, she joined him in his evilness) from pulling an extreme prank.

It should work on Darius, Louise thinks, but it doesn't- Did being on Nublar add some magic to her tone that would stop whatever she wanted?

"The worst case scenario always happens for us," Ben snaps. He's got his back to the wall near the door again and Louise didn't even notice he wasn't in the bed beside her anymore.

"A dozen or so failed escape attempts not clue you into that?"

"Not to mention the times when we were close and something always managed to get in the way," Louise chimes in.

"We got out, didn't we?" Brooklynn cries. They did, Brooklynn was right. They got out, but did they get out? Louise wonders.

Everyone was wounded with scars that would serve as a constant reminder that their trip to camp turned disastrous.

They'd never get a full day of sleep again, besides the fact that the majority, if not all of them had nightmares. They'd admittedly would fall asleep to the sound of a dinosaur roaring in the distance or roaming around in the night.

Would the sounds of traffic and angry bus drivers get Louise to sleep like they had before? No, she thinks. They won't. She couldn't even sleep normally- She could lay on her back to sleep now because her the injuries on her core had healed, but she couldn't sleep on her sides because she could toss and turn...

Putting what was left of her body weight on her broken shoulder.

She could sleep sitting up, her body was used to that, but if she couldn't get to sleep, then the position in which she did, didn't matter.

"Yeah," He says.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

Yasmina and Ben exchange glances that Louise notices from the corner of her eye. But they don't say anything when the back-and-forth glances suggest otherwise.

Brooklynn looks at Darius for a second, "No," She says.

No? Louise thinks.

"I mean, no, don't just wave this one away, D. What's this really about?" Brooklynn asks.

"Nothing," He mutters, "It's fine. You're right."

"No," Brooklynn repeats. "We have to talk about these things. Especially now."

"I'm just a bit stressed," says Darius. "But why are you being so pessimistic about it?" Brooklynn asks and now it occurs to Louise that is it just the two of them talking- The others nor herself think to interfere.

She along with the others watch as Brooklynn and Darius shoot words back and forth, and it's the most entertaining tennis match she's ever seen. But- Should she do something? Say something?

Stand up because the others won't? No, she's tired.
Her eyes are droopy, even if she's trying to keep them open, all the questions and poking of skin- exhausting interactions with doctors and Kenji- it was a lot of work.

They talked a lot amongst themselves on Isla Nublar, a mix of silly and serious conversations but it was so easy and even after an intense chase, they could manage an entertaining conversation!

Louise slowly shakes her head- It's her shoulder, it hurts. Clarke royally messed it up with all the squishing and squeezing of it.

She was so cautious not to exert it or lean it up against anything and now that she allowed a stupid excuse of a doctor touch her- it was all fucked up.

"I'm just trying to be realistic," Darius' voice keeps her awake, ignoring her exhaustion.

"That's not what this is," Brooklynn disagrees.

"So you get to tell me how I'm feeling?" He asks.

"Maybe!" Brooklynn bites out.

And, score! Brooklynn's tennis ball lands on Darius' side of the court and it comes in so fast that he can't hit it back. "Because it's not like you ever will! Come on, Darius! We're off the fucking island!"

Louise's eyes widened at Brooklynn cursing- something she barely did. "You stopping to actually tell us what's going on isn't going to cost us our lives."

"I don't want to leave you guys!"

His words burst out quickly- but they're wrapped in a sob of desperation. And Louise frowns at his words, she doesn't want to leave them either.

Her heart is aching in her chest and she can't take it—She can't take it!

She quickly buries her face in her thin knees, but she doesn't exactly start to cry- but she isn't dry sobbing either—If that's even a thing. She's just trying to consume herself in darkness because maybe—

Maybe it'll transport her back to a night on Nublar, where they had a long day of work, running from a dinosaur- carnivore or herbivore- it was always hard work.

They've settled around the living space of the treehouse and they all have their signature Jurassic World marked cups in their hands, drinking the rationed out water.

They're replaying the day they had, what happened and what they need to do next. Sammy plays around with Kenji because she doesn't want to remember the day they had. Darius is leading the conversation as always, telling them about the dinosaurs they saw.

Or maybe it's one of those days—Louise's favorite day if they could remember to do it. Maybe it's campfire day.

It was something they tried to once every week if they could remember, it was usually at the end of the day, during the night.

They gathered near the camp, close to the disheveled T-Rex made out of rubble that is the Jurassic World/Park logo.

They all sat on the dirt and Ben would plop some fire wood in the middle and of course- because Ben loved starting fires- he would always be the one to light it.

They sat crisscrossed around the blazing campfire- Ben was always close to committing arsony on their own camp- which was funny in a twisted way. It was usually up to Darius to tell the stories.

Her favorite would always be that T-Rex story that he never got to finish before the day of the gyrospheres, but he had gotten to finish it during their first campfire day.

The beginning of it was familiar to them all but now that Darius had actually been chased around by a T-Rex himself, oh, the story just got so much better!

And sometimes, it was Ben who took the lead with a story—Can you guess what that story was?

Defeating Toro, because of course it was that. Louise didn't like hearing Ben speak about him defeating the Carnotaurus, even though she should be happy that he had, she just wanted to block out every memory of that dinosaur.

But he's also so happy when explaining it, and they all know just to let him tell it to them.

Louise—She's got a lot of different stories. Her most popular one is the Compies that helped her find the bunker that led her to the precious med kit that she still cherishes to this day!

But there were less action packed stories that were usually shorter—like all the dinos that showed up to the waterfall and when she watched the Ankylosaurus' eat the mangoes together.

And then, Kenji's stories—

Those were- Fever dreams.

It was sci-fi, futuristic, some non-fiction—It was a lot to keep track!

But he was always so imaginative and Louise lo—

But he was always so creative and Louise always enjoyed his stories for that. Her favorite Kenji story?

Oh, gee—So many of those.

There was one where he told everyone how he could breathe in space and he rode Rexy like a rocket to the moon and said, "That's one small step for dinos. One giant leap for dinokind!"

Darius nearly was at Kenji's neck for using 'dinokind' and not some other more scientific word. Then Kenji confirmed the moon was made out of cheese. Louise held back arguing against him because she did like space and knew some stuff about it, but she also knew if he had said that dinosaurs had cheese brains, Darius would surely be on him about it.

Darius. She's transported back into the hospital room but her head remains covers by her skinny legs. The room is silent for a third time as everyone is adjusting to what he has just said and he looks around at everyone's reaction- to which he'll assume that Louise is crying.

"Darius," Brooklynn begins.

"Don't," He says, cutting her off as softly as he can. "There's no fixing this one, Brooklynn. I'm sorry. I should have just said it from the start."

"I mean, you did." Kenji says, and he sounds closer to her, his claimed bed was next to her as well. She was sandwiched between her two favorite boys.

Or at least, one used to be her favorite. Louise lifts her head and she's faced with the blinding lights. But her eyes are dry.

Kenji is still staring at Darius with his eyes that look gloomier now."We just kinda tried to convince you otherwise."

This was going to be terrible, Louise knows. They could barely be apart for that hour when Wu's people tried to fly Louise, Ben, Darius and Sammy away- They didn't know where they were going, but they knew they were stuck.

And if that helicopter hadn't been attacked and crashed- Well, they may never had seen the others again. This was before Louise and Kenji fought so the thought of her leaving him, especially so forcefully- rattled her bones.

This wouldn't be easy for them.

Them getting tested in pairs wasn't helping- even though Sammy and the others think that it is. But the truth is, they should be distancing themselves from each other by getting examined separately like Doctor Diece had originally planned for, that way, saying goodbye, would be less hard.

"Okay," Brooklynn says and she's calmed her expression into something less shocked. "Yeah. I...I don't want us to split up either."

"But....we don't know what's going to happen, yet. We should enjoy our time together now instead of worrying about the future."

"The future's so close," Yasmina says. "Nuh uh," Brooklynn says.

"That counts as worrying. We're here, right now. Together. Let's just live in that moment, okay?"

What moment? This moment where they're off the island and as sad as they were on it? Sad because they don't want to leave each other? Sad because they'll get more tests and questions as they wait for their parents to arrive. If Jennifer even contacted them. It's not a good moment, Louise shakes her head.

Not a good moment, together.

She stretches her legs out on the mattress, it's just some light shuffling of the sheets but it's loud in the room that is silent again as the tension sinks in.

The others looked around- At least that's what she's think they're doing, she doesn't look around with them, she just takes in her legs that her pass as tree branches.

She expected them to look muscly- all that running around they did- they should be able to skip leg day for the rest of their lives! But with the lack of protein and not enough food- She knows why they aren't beefy legs.

Whatever's left of her shorts, is now like a skirt as they lay so loosely around her waist and she noticed before how Kenji's once form fitted shirt hung like it was an oversized one.

"Hey, how about a game of cards?" Kenji breaks the tension.

"Is that living in the moment?" He's been rooting around in a tiny bedside table that kept two of the beds separate, hers and his.

He grips onto the box of cards that he successfully found and he waves them at the others enticingly. "Sure, Kenji." Darius said. "That sounds great."

Kenji leaps off of his bed and scrambles over to Darius', and he shuffles around until there is enough space between them to lay the cards down. Then Brooklynn climbs onto the same bed after Darius nods that's it's okay for her to do so.

Sammy gets off her own bed and pushes it against Darius' to create a card table. "Cards? Oh, this is opening pandora's box." Louise says as she climbs onto Sammy's bed, joining the circle that is starting to be created. With the stack of cards in his hand, he glances up at her and smiles- but again- it goes unnoticed by her.

"Ooo! This is going to be like family game night back on the farm! Minus the mud- and the pigs." Sammy exclaims and nobody mentions it. "Come on, Ben." Brooklynn says to him.

He's still waiting by the door as if E750 is going to claw it away and poison them all. "A dinosaur's not gonna burst through that door." Brooklynn assures.

But a doctor might.

Ben huffs. "What about Compy that stowed away on the boat?"

It could've gotten run over.

And Louise opens her mouth to say this but she notices Kenji's lips part quickly and she knows whatever he has to say will be ten times better. "Dude, that thing fell off halfway across the ocean," Kenji says. "Remember?"

But she didn't remember that at all.

"Fell off?" Sammy pouts beside her. "Fine, I might have pushed it," Kenji admits.

"But it was a fair game, it ate my berries." He says.

Louise noticed that Yasmina leans into Darius to say something- it's a whisper and Yaz is so close to him that she can't pick up what is said. But he appears to say something back and his face looks to be lightened up by the moment. Ben has crept onto the edge one of the bed's, perching on it like an eagle or another flying predator. Ironic- that he resembles a flying predator.

"What are we playing?" He says.

Everyone looks around at the each other. Now they have to think about it- Which on the island, Kenji and Yaz would pick a game, and the rest of them would go with it. Even if a dinosaur attack was in their future, one game of tag with just added an extra player, Allosaurus or not- Tag you're it!

Why can't they think of anything now? There's a stack of cards in front of them! They don't need to create a game using sticks and rocks, and they don't need to play tic tac toe on the chalkboard.

Why is it so different now? It should be easier, not harder.

Louise glances at the red backed cards- reminding her of a picnic blanket. "Go fish," Darius says.

It's not a life or death decision to make, but to them it feels like it.

It probably feels like it more to Darius because he was always the one to make the life or death for decisions for them. He carefully picks up the cards between his frail hands.

He's shuffling them awkwardly and Louise doesn't care that he's doing so, she wasn't good at shuffling either- A good shuffle was usual a whole body production- The hands and the arms- And Louise didn't have good arms.

After a moment, Kenji gently reaches out to take the cards from him, the cards fall easily into Kenji's hands and he gets to work quickly. In a blink of an eye, everyone has a stack of five cards in front of them. Five cards?

That wasn't right, not enough.

"Hang on, isn't it meant to be seven?" Sammy says.

"Yeah, don't you know how to count, Kenji?" Louise asks and the question pokes at him teasingly.

"No, I do." Kenji says after a small giggle, "And it's definitely five," He says defensively. He's gripping his cards as if he thinks Sammy or Louise will take them away from him- which is silly. They're saying to add some, not to subtract any.

Still, Louise observes a smile from Darius as Sammy is giving Kenji an unimpressed look. "Me and my sisters always played with seven," Sammy says.

"I always play with five."

"I think you can do both," Brooklynn interjects. "Like, you do seven if there's not many players. But five if there is."

Huh, that made a lot of sense actually. Louise nods and the 'not fight' that was beginning is stopped as Sammy and Kenji shrug, deciding that sounds right.

Now it's time for everyone to look at their cards, which raises a slight issue for Louise. Normally, she'd use both hands to hold her cards for Go Fish and she'd use her right hand to pass the card to whoever else she was playing with.

Yasmina has already put down a pair of doubles. Ben is breasting his cards near his chest to avoid anyone from peaking and Darius is studying his options- Louise decides she'll hold her stack with both her hands and lift them up as high as she could so nobody would peek- She can already feel Sammy's competitive eyes over her shoulder- Preying on the weak, aye, Sammy?

Louise silently laughs at the thought, little old Sammy- being a predator. And she examines the cards she has. A four, a queen, a six, a one and a seven. Good cards- She hopes someone else has some of these numbers too.

"Oo," Darius says. "Kenji, you forgot to take the jokers out,"

"Oops," Kenji says, "Here, I can reshuffle."

"No," Yasmina says, obviously. She put that pair down so instantaneously, she's not letting go of her stack. "Whoever has a joker can just pick up a card each from the deck. And if you pick one up, just chuck it aside and pick again."

Everyone else nods at the rule- But Darius doesn't do anything about his joker. "Darius?" Kenji says uncertainty. "You gonna swap cards?"

"Huh? Sure," Darius says even though he can't let go of the cards. It's like his hands are a rat trap and his cards are the rat, stuck and unable get off.

"Give it here," Brooklynn reaches out and without even needing to see, she manages to pluck the joker out his stack. She tosses it aside and replaces it with a card from the top of the deck.

Darius looks at it.

It must've been a double because he slowly puts a pair down beside him. "Who's going first?" Darius asks. "Not me or Yaz."

"Why not me?" She mocks a scowl. "We already got pairs," Darius says.

"I'll go first," Brooklynn says. She fans the cards out in front of her face and blinks over the top of them as if she's in a high stakes' poker game. "Kenji, got any queens?"

Kenji doesn't even have to answer, the look on his face is priceless. She isn't surprised when he hands the queen over. So Brooklynn and Kenji had queens, but not anymore, Louise would keep note on that when it came her turn.

And since Brooklynn fished Kenji, it was only right for him to go second. "Uh, Sammy- Got any aces?" Kenji asks and the words come flying out of her mouth, "Go fish!" Sammy yells.

Kenji sighs hopelessly- he's not winning this one. He picks a card from the deck. Now, it's Louise's turn? She guesses- It's going in a clockwise direction and if Sammy went- she'd be skipping over Louise so it was only fair that she went next- Right? Because Sammy wasn't fished.

"Ben," Louise said and a growl forms in his throat- "Got any fours?" She asks him. Ben does a reluctant hiss as he passes the four of diamonds over to Louise and she pairs it with her four of clubs. She can't quite reach it- So Sammy helps with the passing of it.

Louise gently places the pair down and now it is Sammy's turn.

"My turn, y'all!" Sammy says excitedly, "Yasmina~ Got any kings?" She asks.

"Go fish, Sammy!" Yasmina says and theirs competition bouncing between their dark eyes. Sammy snatches a random card and she smiles mischievously at Yasmina- Slapping a pair of doubles down.

"Darius, got any fives?" Yasmina asks. "Oh, what? Yeah..." Darius says, his shaking hand handing her the five of spades. And Yasmina shoots Sammy an even evil face, she was winning this.

Yasmina already had two pairs, Brooklynn, Sammy and Louise having only one. "Brooklynn, have any tens?" Ben asks with a hiss.

Her face is the opposite of Kenji's- She thought she was hiding her cards well or maybe it was just a lucky guess. Brooklynn is surprised- Sure, and her face hints at annoyance.

But, she does have a ten of hearts and she hands it over to Ben.

And now the only one without a pair is Kenji. After everyone has already gone through their turn once, the order repeats itself.

"We should get some sleep," Darius says before they can start another round or different game.

"Before they come back and make us do actual tests. It's been a long day." He says. Yaz sighs, "Try a long almost a year." She says.

"I'll take first watch," Ben says, he slips off the bed as easily as he perched on it, and he creeps back over to the door. "Hey, no," Sammy says. "We don't have to do that here."

"I'm taking first watch," Ben says and there's an unfriendly edge to his voice. "Good idea," Darius says. "I'll take second,"

"And I'll take third," Louise adds.

She notices that Brooklynn has shot Darius a look- and she wonders if Kenji has shot her the same, but she doesn't look at him to see. Instead, she slips off the push together bed and walks over to her own one.

Sammy rolls back onto her bed fully, and Yasmina flops down next to her. It's a tight squeeze- and an unneeded one because there were five empty beds- but neither complained. Sammy doesn't push her bed away from Darius' either.

Kenji scoops up the cards and puts them back into the little red box- that still reminded Louise of a picnic blanket- and he tosses them over to the bedside table that connects Louise and Kenji.

But the box slips off and it falls onto the white tiled floor with a thud. Kenji shrugs and lies down.

Kenji pulls Darius down to sleep with him and Brooklynn- She was probably to sleep with Darius anyways- Kenji was just an added bonus and Louise didn't care.

They weren't in a proper relationship for her to care.

"Sleepover," He says.

"We've been having a permanent sleepover for 8 months," Brooklynn says from Kenji's other side. "One more night won't hurt them," Kenji says. Then, "Ow!"

And Louise almost gets off the bed to be mad at Brooklynn for flicking Kenji but she realizes she would've probably done the same.

It doesn't matter- She doesn't care. Brooklynn can hit Kenji all she wants. Louise lays down, back against the bed like she planned.

She pulls the thin sheets over her body with her right arm and tries her best to snuggle into them- but they're scratchy- and cold. She could never get comfortable like this. But, she closes her eyes.

When Darius wakes her up for the third watch, he won't really have to wake her up. Ben turns the light off and it's dark- Maybe she can finally be transported back to Nublar.

It's fully pitch black now, she doesn't have to bury her head between her legs. Maybe she's sitting with her back against Kenji's bed, like she always had, or maybe she's laying on the floor of the treehouse since she was used to sleeping on the grass.

She was mainly against Kenji's bed though, it took a while for her bite marks on her abdomen to heal so she wouldn't lay on her back. Now- She remembers Clarke's comment- The audacity of her to accuse of lying.

It's cutting into her thoughts! She's back on Nublar- She's back on Nublar! It's going to be campfire day! It's going to be-

It's going to be the night after a long day- They're debriefing, drinking the rationed water.

Darius is telling them about the dinosaurs they saw and the air is humid. It's almost the perfect temperature for her now- Her body is so used to it, she wants it to be warm.

This thin blanket is just making her colder. Again, her present is cutting into her thoughts! These aren't the right variables- Maybe she has to kick the sheets off and bury her head between her legs again! That worked before. But-

"Goodnight guys," Darius says- Cutting through her thoughts.

"Night fam," Kenji says.

"Yeah, what he said." says Yaz.

"Don't let the Compies bite." Brooklynn says which makes Sammy and Louise laugh- But Sammy's laugh is more overpowering compared to Louise's quieter one so she wonders if anyone has heard her.

"Goodnight y'all," Sammy says.

"I love you guys." She says.

"Yeah," It's Ben. "Love you too,"

Her eyes are closed tighter now, she can make it feel darker around her- She can be transported back to Nublar. She was so tired- Why can't she just go to sleep?

Why can't she just bury her head between her scrawny legs and go back to Nublar?

It worked before- But no, it'd be too much of a production, she's already pulled the sheet over herself and the others have settled in. She can hear Kenji snoring and she's almost immediately brought back

He's snoring above her as he lays on his bed at the treehouse, his arm falls over the side and his fingers tickle her shoulder- Maybe that's why her nightmares stopped- After he comforted her about them, and knowing that he was above to protect her- funny because they were on a dinosaur island- and even funnier because Louise could protect herself- it calmed her anyways, knowing someone else might wake up to help her. 

But now she can't feel his fingers ticking against her sleeve-

STOMP

'No.' Louise thinks.

STOMP! STOMP!

Her eyes open quickly- She doesn't want to go back to this version of Nublar! But it's dark when she opens her eyes- She has no choice. Stomp. Stomp...

Chapter Text

She opened her eyes- She has no choice. She's back on Nublar....

Stomp.  She's back on Nublar.

She's standing at the base of the treehouse and she doesn't dare to take a step- What if it falls apart again? Like it had before in her ot-

STOMP... He's getting closer. She swallows- She has to move. She has to run away.

She looks around to see if the others are around- Again, they're gone. No Ben, no  Kenji...

Is this going to be the same nightmare? No- Her mind wouldn't make it this easy. She takes a step and the "floorboard" softly  creaks under her foot.

She freezes- She remembers what it felt like to imagine their camp fall apart. The ladder collapsing and the  fear  that remained inside her after the nightmare was over.

ROAR!

Why is Toro giving her so much time to think? She's sick of his games- He needs to go. He needs to  go . Ben didn't defeat him when she thought- she  hoped that he had.

The roar that she'll never forget runs through her head like water- Easily and clearly, she can hear it.

ROAR.

She wants to clench her eyes shut- Maybe if her nightmare self closed her eyes- She'll  actually  wake up.

Her breathing picks up- and she can't stop it.  Stomp. Stomp...

She doesn't move- Her body is actually  refusing to move.

It's different- She'd be halfway through the jungle now and the Carnotaurus would be after her.

She's waiting for it to come through the clearing, maybe that will kick start her to run.

STOMPING

Oh god- She thinks, there he is. Burnt- and at the perfect speed to crash through camp and sink his teeth into her weakened flesh.

"Please...." She mumbles under her breath.  ROAR!

"No..."

He's come rapidly through the clearing- And his mouth is wide open- She can see his large yellow, tartar filled teeth. She remembers the smell of his breath- Fishy.

Gross, she knows. It's gross breath and her body refuses to even breathe now. Her fight or flight senses should be kicking in by now! She'd always choose flight! She'll be a dead man before Toro gets to eat her. She'll run out of air- that is so much fresher than the hospital.

CRASH- SCREECHYWHINE

The electric fence-

She suddenly feels a hand on her head- "Louise," It's  Kenji  and he is muttering to her- or maybe he's dreaming about her?

"You're doing it again...." He says.

What was this? A nightmare- Than a dream? She's comforting herself . She's sitting back against Kenji's bed and his hand remains on her short blonde hair that is no way soft anymore.

"Toro is gone...." He hums in his sleep. But it's not enough- The electric fence- She's standing up again and Kenji is gone.

She remembers them quickly building that electric fence and she didn't know that it was still working. The Carnotaurus had crashed into the fence and has let out a loud, harsh- definitely angry groan, whine, and screech combo.

He faces her- His blazing orange eyes locking with her cooler blue ones that are filled with fear.

This nightmare is so different- She'd prefer if it was the same.

CRACK—CRUNCH—ROAR!

She watches the  transformation i n front of her. Barbs come cracking through his spine-

Longer claws- Sharper teeth...

It's not just E750. It's the Carnotaurus as well- Some murder hybrid.

She blinks and it's gone.

Growl....grrr.....

Scregrrr....

Louise swallows and she can hear- scraping . Slowly, even longer claws are dragging against the bark. Her body stiffens- She's holding her breath and she doesn't make a step.

But it's stupid, she knows. She also knows that the Scorpius Rex has heat sensors- So it can  clearly  see her.

It jumps down and she falls onto the still creaking wood.

It's going to eat her- She's going to  die .

Growl.....Grrh....Scree.....

It's stalking up on her and she has to breathe- And his—its breath wreaks of fish, fresh blood, and rotting flesh. She whimpers as she backs away.

Drool is dripping from the strange creature's mouth and it lifts its head to roar in her face. That drool flies onto her face- and her clothes. The blobs are huge, and they seep into the fabric.

It continues to approach her and she can't do anything- It opens its mouth and goes to clamp down on her head.....She doesn't even have time to scream- But she can feel-

"Louise!" Kenji's hand slaps her right cheek repeatedly- He's being really lazy about this comforting thing. Maybe her brain is just too tired. "Kenji!" She yells.

He's now kneeling in front of her. "What's going on? I thought they stopped." Kenji says, rubbing his hands down her shoulders gently.

Mm- She's missed this kinda thing from him. Wait- WHAT?

"Me too." Louise says. And he pulls her into a hug- "I'm sorry." He says. He's sorry that she's the one who's having nightmares?

"I'm sorry." He repeats.

"It's oka-"

"I've been a terrible friend," He says.

"And an even worse boyfriend."

They never even put a label on it.

So he wasn't sorry about her nightmares, then. "I'm sorry," Is now all he's saying. He's sorry.

But no- Maybe he's not! Maybe he still thinks she's some smartass- some kind of bossy pants who always needs to be in charge. This is just what her brain wants him to say.

He's not sorry.

She hugs him back though- It's the right thing to do. "No- Kenji," She says but then he fades away from her quickly- Leaving her arms empty. "Kenji!?" She yells.

Where did—Clinking! "Come on, Lou!" Kenji shouts. They're all gathered at the table without her. "Darius was just about to tell us a story over breakfast- But we can't have breakfast without you!"

He says this for two reasons- One, they never ate without each other and two- They need her to peel the fruit.

Sammy can open the tins easily and Ben can throw some berries onto the table for a snack- But they've gotten spoiled with all this fresh fruit and Louise is the only one who knows how to peel them well enough.

(She's the one with the knife too and it is VERY snug in her pocket.)

"Mm, right..." She stands up from the side of Kenji's bed and walks over to the table."You never sleep this late, Louise." Ben observes. He's right- She doesn't.

Darius pours her a cup of water- calculating the amount in his head. "Thanks," She says. "You're right- I don't. Guess I just- was really in a deep sleep." She adds.

Kenji has stacked seven mangoes and four coconuts out on the table where she stands. She picks up a mango and pulls the knife out of her pocket and sticks the tip of it under the skin-

"Deep sleep? Hah, be lucky  you still can get there." Yasmina sarcastically jokes. 

"Heh, yeah..." Louise awkwardly agrees.

She's still half asleep and she knows she just lied to everyone. "Since- Someone is so eager." She hands Kenji the half peeled mango. "You know- You guys can crack your own coconuts. You have before,"

"We know." Brooklynn says, glancing at the designated rock they use to split the coconuts.

"But you always get a nice- even split!" Brooklynn hands her the rock. "Huh- I guess I—" Louise begins.

She groans- The sun is in her eyes- It's bouncing off both the blade of the knife and the rock.

"You what?" Ben asks, concerned. "I do make the perfect split." She says- Squinting her eyes. Why isn't anyone else being affected by such a bright sun?

She turns to look at it and-

"Good morning," It's Doctor Diece.

No! The moment- it was just beginning and now- it's over.

Stupid Toro—Stupid fucking Toro!

Why did her mind have to make it such a buildup? The nightmare- She could've skipped over that!

She would've been happy to- "Did we sleep well?" Diece asks.

She has flicked on the bright lights- and Louise's eyes are forced to adjust to them.

She wants to pull the covers over her face in frustration but when she goes to reach for them- They're gone? Louise slowly sits up and notices that she's kicked the covers off herself, but they aren't fully fallen on the floor.

They're tucked into the bed hospital style- Where it requires true strength to pull them up from under the mattress.

Sammy holds a hand to block out of the fluorescent lights and replies, "Fine, thank you."

Yasmina is still lying down next to Sammy, and this is when Louise remembers- Darius never woke her up for third watch. Had he tried but she was all caught up in the strange- totally bizarre nightmare she was having?

One where she'd rather suffocate herself then get eaten? No- She would've woken up for him, she wasn't a heavy sleeper as she lied to imaginary- in her head Ben.

"Five more minutes," Yasmina groans as she rolls over. Louise can see from the corner of her eye the mess that has become the Darius-Kenji-Brooklynn sandwich.

They're all tangled together, legs are hanging off the bed- Arms raised in the air or being leaned against the wall- She can make out they're clothing and Kenji's red shoe- in which the soles are literally about to fall off.

She can see some of Brooklynn's pink puffer jacket that's become lighter because of the sun- But she can barely see Darius. Maybe a glimpse of his pale blue shirt- a bit of his jeans- But it's really reminding her of that one scene from The Princess and The Frog where frog Tiana and Naveen are wrapped up in each other and Ray has to get them unstuck.

Still, Kenji manages to stick his head out- He's squints over at Diece. "What is it?" He asks.

"Are our parents here?"

"Not yet," Diece says. "But it's time for some tests, if you would."

Louise- her body tenses. She doesn't realize, but it happens.

Not that Clarke did any real tests on them- Sammy had her blood drawn by Dr. Lopez- That was a real test. Poking, squeezing and uncomfortable questioning wasn't.

She notices a scowl on Ben's face- He must not be looking forward to this either. "It can't wait?" Sammy asks, trying her puppy eyes again.

It worked big time yesterday- And it doesn't matter if they work or not today. The tests are happening no matter what.

They're happening.

"It can't," She says, Sammy's dog eyes fail her. "Really, it couldn't have waited at all. We did a big favour for you kids. Time to return it. We need to test you for diseases. Not to mention infection and malnourishment. And all your injuries. The sooner we establish treatment plans, the better."

"Can we at least stay together again?" Sammy asks- and Louise can sense the refusal that Diece wants to put forward. Her mouth twists- Maybe she knows she shouldn't be allowing this-

But how could someone possibly say no to seven kids who have survived a killer island?

She wants to say no- Louise can sense it. "I suppose, if you must." She agrees despite this, "Will you be staying with the same pairs as yesterday?" Diece asks.

Brooklynn sticks a hand out of the Darius-Kenji-Brooklynn mountain.

She waves it around like she's auctioning a higher price. "Can I go with Darius- alone?" She asks.

She moves her hand and faces it the direction where she thinks- actually- where she knows Ben is. "It's nothing against you, Ben."

"I just wanna hang with Darius myself today." She says.

Ben just kinda shrugs- His body language has gotten so hard to read. "No problem, B." Louise says, "Ben can wheel with me and Kenj—i." She adds- The nickname slips from her mouth so perfectly that she hates it. Ben looks over at her and gives an excuse of a nod.

A nod is a nod though- So now the trio is them. She can't tell what Kenji thinks about adding Ben to the mix- He's laid his face back inside the pile of people. Maybe today was the day where they'd wait in that small room and talk.

But now they can't with Ben.

'Sorry, Kenji.' She thinks- It'd be awkward if the newly girlfriends took on the wild Ben. More than anything- Louise bets- She'll put money on it that they want to spend as much time together as possible. When her and Kenji were still  a good thing, they had gotten some alone time on the island- Barely but it was still a bit of privacy.

Yasmina and Sammy didn't have that luxury. And besides- Louise and Ben haven't had a lot of interaction since the yacht.

"Can we at least get ten minutes to freshen ourselves up?" Sammy continues her persuasion. "We're all kinda half asleep." She says and Yasmina rubs her eyes beside her to seal the deal as she still lays down on the hospital bed.

"Ten minutes," Diece says shortly, nothing more- Nothing less. That's all they'll get. "I'll be back."

She backs out and shuts the door, drowning out the faint noises of the hospital behind her. Hm- Louise never even heard a noise until now. They must've been sound proofed walls.

She knows the hospital is busy- because of what happened yesterday but she hasn't heard anything until right now. Sammy pulls a face and flops back down next to Yasmina. "I tried, y'all,"

"Best get up." She says.

Ben slithers off the bed and he tiptoes over to the door- putting a fresh, open ear out for when Diece happens to come back. There's no wall clock in sight- But Darius can and will keep track for them.

The others raise from their beds quickly- The monster that was once the Darius-Kenji-Brooklynn sandwich separates and only the boys remain sitting on the bed.

Brooklynn prances over to the ensuite bathroom- that must've been there all this time- But Louise was too distracted to notice it. Everyone else just adjusts their clothing- pulling a shirt down- fumbling with a waistband to force the clothes to fit on them.

Louise runs a few fingers from her right hand through her hair and she notices how Yasmina takes her thick, dark brown hair down for only a second- Someone must've given her a new hair tie.

She redoes her hair- Putting it in the same but neater high ponytail.

"I need a shower." Yasmina mumbles. "Tell me about it, sister." Sammy agrees but she's probably referring to herself. She takes her coral headband off for a second as well- She runs fingers through her hair like Louise and smooths it over, securing the headband back on her head.

They were still messed up kids fresh off an island- It'd take an hour for all of them to properly freshen up. But they're all covered in filth- She can really feel in now- All the dirt under her nails.

The mud dried to her skin- Grass stains too. Ripped clothes, unwashed hair. She was really gross when she thinks about it.

And she is.

Brooklynn emerges- Her face is bright and sparkling- Her hair is in a neater bun- She must've gotten a new hair tie too. And she exits from the bathroom just in time.

The door swings open and Doctor Diece is back- See? It took all ten minutes for Brooklynn to get ready- Even though it didn't feel like ten minutes- Maybe she should ask Darius when she gets a second.

Brooklynn races over to him so they can pair up before they're assigned to a doctor or doctors.

The others do this too- Yasmina and Sammy are off the bed and stand by each other's side-closely to each other's side.

Louise and Kenji are lined up too- but you could put a good three inches between them. Ben will join them as they leave, she supposes.

"Hang on," Brooklynn says before Diece can assign them their doctors that Louise can see in a large- shadowy huddle behind her. "I didn't say anything yesterday because it was just questions, but can you actually do any of this without our parents giving us permission?"

Woah- It is way too early for these kind of questions, Brooklynn. Louise is still rubbing the sleep from her eyes- She's not awake.

None of them fully are awake.

But it's an important question to ask- None of them are 18 yet- They technically can't do any of this without parental or guardian consent. But it's almost too late to get it now- "We sent for permission." Diece says.

Her tone is heavily laced with frustration- She thinks that they're still trying to stall.

"And you got it?" Brooklynn raises a brow. "We did," Diece says.

"I understand you're probably all afraid but we can't delay this any longer."

"Hey, not trying to delay anything," Brooklynn holds her arms with apparent appeasement. "Just making sure you guys weren't leaving yourself open for a lawsuit."

Hah, nice one Brooklynn. Louise is impressed by her comment- It makes sense- Brooklynn's got to know everything about lawsuits.

Having a social media platform and all- You've got to worry about things like demonetizations or- Louise couldn't think of anything else. Her point that she was trying to prove to herself was that-

Brooklynn could've gotten a lawsuit any time during her brooklander days- And she was just smart like that- If anyone knew about lawsuits it was Brooklynn, besides Ben.

His mother worked for Masrani as a lawyer- That's the reason he's here in the first place. "Thank you for that...consideration," Jennifer says. "If you and Darius would follow me and my co-worker, as you'll be with us. Sammy and Yasmina will be with doctors Diaz and Sharpe. Benjamin, Kenji, and Louise, you will be with doctors Torres, Tanner and Turci."

Louise looks around for their doctors- It's not Clarke- that's all that matters for now. Nobody moves at the name Torres, but at Tanner and Turci- two of them do.

Doctor Tanner has skin that was kissed by the sun- He's wearing some small black rimless glasses and his matte salt n peppered hair is combed over to possibly cover a bald spot.

Doctor Turci is a short woman- the height difference between her and her co-worker is very noticeable. Her hair is black as well and from the pieces she can see, its not as dark as his- and it's curly.

No Torres- still.

None of them have filed out of the room yet- So maybe Torres is just too short to be seen over everyone else. They begin to be led out as soon as she thinks this- Darius and Brooklynn first. Yaz and Sammy second. Leaving the three of them with the three doctors.

And now- another doctor stands, Torres, she assumes. It has to be.

Torres is revealed to be a young man- and his age is apparent against his coworkers. His face is boyish and it looks easy to punch.

Is he an intern? Louise wonders.
Are Turci and Tanner his mentors?

He looks too young to be a doctor. What's with Louise ending up with all these young doctors? She huffs- probably a bit too loud.

They finally step out of the room, Ben makes sure to close the door- tightly- which is weird- There's not even any valuables in there.

Kenji whistles nervously beside Louise as they walk- His hands are in his pockets- Perhaps careful not to touch her again?

Louise offers a hand out from him to take, poking the side of his thigh. He glances at her hand and shakes his head- Still whistling- Directing his eyes at Ben who stands a bit in front of them.

Right- Ben'll flip if he catches them holding hands. They haven't told anyone about their "relationship" and they weren't so open about it like Yasmina and Sammy. She puts her hand down beside her- silently regretting her decision of letting Ben join them.

He hasn't done anything wrong- and now that she thinks about it- These three doctors would suspect them to be lovers too if her and Kenji held hands.

Probably.

Ew- Lovers.

Louise can't put her hands in her pockets- She'll take her pants down with her, they're sliding down as she walks- She's never noticed it before. Maybe it was because the humidity and sweat helped their clothes stick to them better- all that mud acting as glue.

"Just through here please," Torres says as he gestures to a room that looks about the same one as Louise and Kenji were in yesterday. But it has to be bigger- Louise thinks. It has to fit six people.

There's a few more places for supplies to be stored as well.

"You can sit there," Turci offers to Kenji. "Right here is fine," Tanner says to Louise- and he speaks with this foreign accent.

There's two examination tables next to each other. The space between them is wide enough for a doctor to squeeze through.

Ben's going to have to share with either Kenji or Louise. She sits down on the table and there's some paper that CRINKLES underneath her. It's a bit more comfortable than the stool.

Ben stays standing and watches as Dr. Turci SNAPS on some yellowish gloves. "I'm allergic to latex," Ben says and Turci stops halfway through her collection of needles, swabs and vials from the various cupboards around the room.

Louise remembers Ben backing away from the latex gloves in the med kit that she used on Sammy- there wasn't any time to put the gloves on but if he were to have a reaction to them- It would've made the situation a whole lot worse.

"That wasn't mentioned on your chart," Turci says. "Jennifer didn't ask us about allergies," He shrugs.

Turci frowns- She was clearly in the groove- Ready and prepared to examine Kenji. But she deftly switches gloves and goes back to picking out the medical supplies selectively.

Chart- Louise is looking around awkwardly as Dr. Tanner towers over her- He's gotta be taller than Kenji. He's examining her chart, "Dr. Clarke says you got attacked by the- Carniotaurus?" He asks, looking up from his clipboard.

"Carnotaurus." Louise corrects.

It wasn't a bad differentiation from the original but it just proves that Clarke was barely listening to a story that she wanted  her to tell. "Ah," Tanner tuts and nods his head, scribbling down the correction. "And she says you might have a broken clavicle....." He quietly mutters.

It's uncomfortable to just stare up at him as he examines the paper.

Shouldn't he be collecting supplies with his coworkers or will Torres give him what he needs?

She glances over to Kenji on the examination table- He's being hidden by Ben but she tries to hone in on the conversation.

"Just don't like this sorta stuff..." Kenji says. "Me too," Ben agrees.

He was so freaked out by that stethoscope and she didn't even notice the color drain from his face when she mentioned blood tests- She should be sitting next to him to give him reassurance.

"Huh," Kenji says. Ben's doing a good job- Or the best he can.

"Always thought you'd love this sorta stuff, what with all your sanitising and worrying about germs." He says. "You know Ben doesn't use hand sanitizer like sunscreen anymore!" She says.

"Ha, it still comes in handy though." Ben comments, acknowledging her playful remark. "I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a kid," Ben continues.

"None of it was any fun. It...it sticks with you."

Turci, Torres and Tanner are now busy collecting supplies- That answers her previous question.

They aren't listening to the conversation, "It sure does," says Kenji. "I mean, I wasn't there heaps. But when I was..." He trails off and sighs.

Louise listens closely to this.

"Nobody was ever there with me," Kenji says finally. "I was always alone. Imagine getting a broken arm set or having to get a scary injection, and the only person trying to comfort you is the nurse or doctor who's gonna do it."

Holy shit, is all she can think. She would never have known this if they weren't here.

She's trying to comprehend it- It's incredibly sad and he probably wouldn't have said it if he knew she was listening. Her heart nearly breaks for  him- All the doctors appointments she's had, not many but yearly psychical exams and the occasional sickness, her mother or sister was always with her.

Now she's trying to imagine if she could've handled all of those alone- And her mind wanders to think of a younger Kenji sitting alone in a waiting or examination room.

Alone and scared.

Her heart aches like yesterday- She still can't take it, but she doesn't want to disappear back to Nublar because of this news.

She wants to be there for him- give him a hug, kiss on the cheek, squeeze of a hand. Something!

But she's too far away and walking over to him would cause too much of a scene so she remains seated, trying not to move around too much because the crinkling is really annoying.

Dr. Tanner has appeared in front of her- He's not scary- He's just daunting, like he could easily beat somebody up for saying the wrong thing. "Right," Turci says to all of them. "We'll try to be quick about this, okay? Let us know if anything gets too uncomfortable and we can take a short break."

Ben, Kenji and Louise nod. She's trying not to look at the needle that Tanner has in his hand, the last time she had a blood test was a good five years ago- It was the first one she had since she was a baby. "It'll just be a little pinch," Tanner says and he looks at her, assessing his options. Left or right arm? Left arm is already damaged. Right arm is the only working one.

"Left," Louise sighs.

"Oh," Tanner is a bit stunned.

But he gently takes her left arm into one of his gloved hands, he uses his thumb to feel around for a vein slowly- He's very gentle.

He opens an alcohol swab packet and the smell is strong- It wafts into her nose and it's about to give her a headache. He begins wiping the area with the vein calmly.

And Louise stares forward as he sticks the needle into her arm.

"Just imagine a little crab pinching you," Tanner says as he pierces the needle into her skin but she's severely unamused by his comment.

She's examining his medical coat as her blood pours into the vial.

His name is Ali Osman. Tanner wasn't his last name- Maybe he was married? She might've noticed a wedding band on his finger....Or maybe Tanner was easier to pronounce.

But there's something else that catches her eye.

'Pediatrics' it says above his name. He's the only pediatric doctor here! She closes her eyes- Trying to remember if she saw that word on Torres', Turci's, or Clarke's jacket-

"All done," He says kindly and she has to open her eyes- because he must think she'd been scared by the pinch of needle. She looks to her arm and there's a cotton ball taped to it. It's a little sore but what else is new? Tanner/Osman peels a label off and sticks it to the vial of her blood and places it into a hazardous material bag.

"That wasn't so bad, right?" He asks and Louise shakes her head.

"Good," Tanner says, picking out his next tool for the next test.

"Ben," She can hear Kenji hiss. "You good, bro?" Kenji asks.

Louise looks over at the Kenji and Ben, who is still standing but- he's stiff. She recognizes this- He's spaced out. Kenji waves his non-tested arm in front of Ben's face.

She knows it won't work- But she also doesn't know what would  work. She's spaced out too- thinking about Toro and getting eaten- Nobody helped her through those.

They went unnoticed and she snapped out of them herself or at the sound of her own name.

"Ooooooooookay," Kenji sits back uncertainly- Giving Louise a small worried glance. "You're super out of it. That's cool." He says.

If Ben is checked out of his own body and if Kenji becomes too frightened that he wants to crawl inside himself- Louise has to be the responsible one. She has to make sure they stay together, don't get uncomfortable, or get asked questions that they don't want to answer.

She doesn't think Kenji will put in the effort to be the responsible one- They tried on the island, wanting him to climb trees and pick fruit or being in charge of packing up supplies. But, it never came to Kenji naturally, it'd end up with him making a fuss and doing a bad, exaggerated job just to not have to do it again.

She can't be too responsible though- Or else Kenji might bite at her. Call her too smart. She shakes her head- That was a while ago, he has to be sorry.

No- She just wants him to be.

Tanner stands in front of Louise with a long swab in his hand, "This will be used to test for some viruses." Tanner says but she doesn't really hear him.

If her dream had continued- Would her and Kenji have talked?

"It goes up your nose, like we're swabbing you for the flu."

They have to talk- He faded away from her so quickly in that nightmare/dream- They can't leave on such bad terms.

"It's just five swirls around one nostril. It'll be quick, alright, Louise?" He says. "Ye-Yeah. That's fine." She says. His hand reaches for her face and he tilts her head back slightly. 'I could've tilted my head back myself,' She thinks.

But he's still being very careful with her, and the swab circles her right nostril, her eyes watering a little. "And boom," Tanner says.

"All set." He smiles, snapping off the end of the swab stick so it fits in the vial perfectly. He peels off another label and sticks it to the bottle- and again- It goes into a another hazardous waste bag.

She blinks her eyes, "More basic tests now." Tanner says. She has to focus on him- He's her assigned doctor. She can't worry about Kenji, even though she has to be responsible for the both of them.

She hears Kenji sneezing a few times in the background and then, "What else do we have to do?" Kenji asks. "Basic tests," Turci gives him the same answer.

Maybe he was trying (emphasize on trying) to be the responsible one, asking Turci, his assigned doctor question that would inform not only himself but Louise too.

"Yeah, but what?" Kenji probes. "How many?"

"It'll depend on some of the results," Turci says as she clamps the cuff around Kenji's arm. "Blood pressure and oxygen next," Tanner says loudly enough for the both of them to hear him as he also clamps a cuff around Louise's arm- her right arm- opposite to where he took her blood.

Tanner begins to squeeze down on the pump and the cuff compresses onto her arm- She's always felt weird about these blood pressure cuffs- And the fact that she barely has any arm muscle left isn't helping.

She's just thankful it's her right arm- The side that doesn't hurt.

The cuff decompresses and he takes it with a loud scratch of the velcro seperating. He puts it off to the side- But she never sees where it went. "Index finger, please." Tanner tells her and she lifts her right hand up.

"Thank you."

Tanner clips a blood oxygen monitor to her finger and the pressure feels weird- "Sorry it's a little cold," Tanner apologizes.

"It's- fine." She says.

"Is your friend okay?" Torres' question makes Louise whip her head over to Kenji and Ben- still stiff, if not even tense. "I....sure,"

Kenji lies, and he gives Louise another quick look. "Um, he just does this sometimes." He says.

Torres and Turci exchange a look, it involves a raise of a brow from him and a nod from her.

 "Mayb-" Louise goes to say.

"95% O2 sat. 103 beats per minute...." Tanner has un-clicked the blood oxygen monitor from her finger and now he's inputting the numbers on the clipboard. "Heart rates a little fast." He glances up at her from the board.

"Focus on me," Turci says to Kenji. "Torres will look after your friend."

"Is he okay?" Tanner asks her quietly. "I-...I can try to help him." Louise says and it's not the 'yes' or 'no' answer he was looking for.

"If you'd let me," She adds even though she knows she'll jump off this bed and push him out of the way just to comfort Ben.

"Go ahead," Tanner agrees then clears his throat. "Torres." He says firmly as if he's a father trying to stop his child from doing something. Torres backs away slightly from Ben- but it's barely.

Tanner moves out from in front of Louise and he takes this time to review her chart further. She jumps off the bed and quickly walks over to Ben. Turci glances over at Tanner and he nods.

She doesn't take time to notice this- But Tanner must have a higher power over Turci and Torres if he can allow them to stop testing for this. Kenji looks at her as she approaches- It's his usual confused, "What are you doing?" expression.

She has to try and her eyes tell him that. Louise stands about an inch away from Ben, but she doesn't touch him because it could trigger a violent episode or snap him out of wherever he was too quickly.

"Ben," She says, softly.

"Ben, can you hear me? It's Louise." She thinks maybe if she says his name enough- He'll come back. "We're in the hospital- Safe from Nublar, Ben." He's gotta be thinking about Isla Nublar.

Something must've triggered him- But what? It didn't smell like Nublar, definitely didn't look like it either. Doesn't sound like Nublar.

Doesn't sway or move like Nublar-

So what? What was it? None of them had said anything besides doctorey, medical stuff- What word would be triggering to Ben?

There wasn't anytime to think back to the multiple questions that went flying through this room- "Ben, it's Louise. Can you hear me?" Maybe her voice- She had  to fix this- She wouldn't let Torres......Torres. It's Torres...

He must've made some connection between him and-

Toro.

"Okay, well, Louise. You've tried." Turci says, "Torres will take care of him for the both of you." She smiles and Louise can't tell if it's forced. Torres is back by Ben's side, ready to test on him again.

She gets into a defensive stance, standing in front of Ben and holding her arms out in front of him in the best way she can- Even if it hurts- She's protecting him.

"You can't- Not when he's like this." Louise protests. Turci shakes her head, "This can't wait any longer," She says.

"Torres will be extra careful with Ben." She adds.

But it's not enough- She doesn't trust her nor Torres. She barely trusts Tanner and even that was a stretch for her. "I won't let you!" She furthers her protest.

"Louise, we're wasting time, valuable time. Faster you let Torres work on him, faster you guys can get back to your friends." Turci keeps a calm demeanor that makes her feel powerless.

"Faster test results too," Torres adds- Big mistake.

She looks back at him and snarls.

Snapping her jaws slightly and she watched him jump back at this. "No." She hisses.

Again, Kenji is wide-eyed at Louise being wild.

Her words aren't getting through to Turci and they never will. It's not like she's screaming at a dinosaur to get its attention- that always worked like a charm.

Though this- She's just a kid.

A helpless kid.

Turci is the adult, and why fight?
She's done enough of that with dinosaurs and with Clarke yesterday. Her words won't change a thing. They don't mean anything in this room. The doctors have the authority, the power, and Tanner already set that by deciding on Louise helping Ben in the first place.

There's a moment of tension between Turci and Louise.

Kenji's hand slowly slips into one of Louise's and gives it a squeeze.

She doesn't grasp it back.

"Stand down." He's saying.

"You tried your best."

At least that's what she's thinking, she doesn't turn to look at the expression written on his face.

"Will you let my coworker work on him?" Turci asks. "Please," Another squeeze from Kenji.

Louise sighs in defeat and she slaps her arms down to her sides.

Her hand is pulled away from his and she keeps a strong glare on Turci, whose demeanor remains cool, calm, and collected.

She can't do anything- It's easier to argue with a dinosaur than her.

"Since almost all of you are standing, it's time we took some weights." Turci says with an almost satisfied smile on her face.

This makes Louise's look stronger, more filled with anger- Why did she give up so easily? She'd fight more if this she was on Nublar- If Darius was going to do something protest worthy- She and Brooklynn would be on him!

If Sammy wanted to climb a slippery tree after a storm to get some last minute rations- Louise wouldn't let her! They would last till morning. So why is she stopping now? It's Ben!

She has to help him! It's like that time Ben wanted to stay on the island and Darius went after him.

Darius was protesting so hard against it while the others sorta quickly accepted it because they had no choice and Louise wanted to say something, really, she did.

But she knew not to argue with Ben- He was probably the only camper that she didn't protest.

And now- Ben couldn't protest for himself so she had to! She wasn't just a kid! She was a kid who survived on Isla Nublar like Sammy said.

Turci wouldn't last a day on Nublar- Louise knows that.

Even if she's the adult- They always got eaten.

Kenji slips off the bed with a tiny wince, his tested arm sore. They walk over to the scales. Ben is being shuffled into place because he actually will not move. He's like a porcelain statue in Rome, stuck in time and easily breakable.

Kenji and Louise kept their eyes on him and Torres propped him up on the scale like Ben was a defective mannequin- Too small for the clothes to fit or look good on it.

Her and Kenji are in sync- Ignoring what's happening around them and focusing on Ben. Torres has a tight grip on the clipboard and writes down Ben's weight with a shaking hand that she call tell he's really trying to keep steady.

She doesn't take time to notice Tanner's swift moving hand that no way matches his teetering look between concern and uneasiness.

They move accordingly as Turci, Tanner and Torres snap pictures of their various scars. Kenji's only notable one is on his cheek- It's the most prominent and it's the first thing you look at when you're presented with such a modeled face. He's got smaller ones on his legs that Louise notices sometimes- There could be a few bigger ones there or on his arms.

But compared to Louise and Ben- Kenji looks like he got into a bad camping accident scar wise. The camera flashes in her eyes as Tanner takes pictures of her shoulders but she doesn't dare to close them. She needs to watch Ben. He quickly kneels down to capture a photo of her stomach and gets behind her and takes a picture of her shoulders and stomach from the different angle.

Torres is doing all the same things as his coworkers- If not a little faster. Ben's got more scars than Louise- He was majorly attacked by multiple dinosaurs.

She was only majorly attacked by one. Even though Louise was alone on Nublar a little longer than Ben- He had a more hectic way of living island style so he probably collected a new scar every other day when he was alone.

Not to mention how bad defeating Toro got him.

Tanner delicately scrapes her most recent wound- She almost catches herself about to ask why he's doing this but her lips stay glued shut. She can't really remember what her most recent injury was- It doesn't matter. He's the doctor, so he'll be able to tell.

"All right," His accent reaches her ears. "We're all done here, Louise,"

"Just me?" She asks. "What about-"

"No, no. I'm sorry- I misspoke. You're done in this testing room. I have to X-Ray your clavicle, so you'll be coming with me." He says. "Wait- What?" Louise asks.

"Diece agreed for us to stay together." She adds, firmly.

"I know," Tanner replies.

"So why can't we just wait for Kenji and Ben? They're almost done too, aren't they?" Louise questions.

"I know that keeping you together was what Diece has set for you kids, but with variables like this, where the number is uneven and you're the only one who needs this kind of test. It's time to split up." Tanner explains.

"I- I don't want to do that." She says promptly. "I can't do it."

"I know they're your friends but we need this X-Ray to be done today. I need to assess the damage and we can go from there." Tanner tells her.

Her slight protest isn't going to work on him either- Even if Tanner has a mildly softer spot for her than Turci- It's not. gonna. work.

She tries to look over at Ben again- She doesn't know if Kenji is still doing it. "Louise." Tanner says in that same fatherly tone that digs up something inside her.

"You can't do that," It's Kenji and he's trying to protest it too.

"Neither you or Ben need an X-Ray." Tanner turns his head.

"Kenji, it's alright. I need it. I-It's broken." She says, her voice cracking.

"Just like I need to look at your hand, Kenji." Turci strongly advises. What's the matter with Kenji's hand? She can't leave- If Kenji has another issue she needs to stay for him. But her brain is making her walk to the door with Tanner, "I'll meet you back at the room, Kenji." She smiles weirdly with a hand against the doorframe- It's not a real one, she knows he knows that.

Tanner is holding the door open and her ears wiggle at the hospital noises from earlier.

"Yeah...." Kenji says with a frown.

She leaves the room and Tanner pushes the door close, she sighs in disappointment. Louise shakes her head and her shoulders sag, "Don't worry. We'll be back before you can say 'X-Ray.'" Tanner says.

X-Ray.....

Chapter Text

She betrayed all her morals by letting herself walk slowly down this hallway with Dr. Tanner. She doesn’t even pick up her feet as they drag across the white tiled floor.

If she was on Nublar, her feet would be bouncing off or squishing down on the green grass and rich dirt. She would always walk with some kind of authority.

But now- Nothing’s there.

She doesn’t have to walk with confidence because she’s not on Nublar. There’s no dinosaur that will come crashing through some trees and chase her to the point that she passes out.

She is just walking when she needs to be back in the room- Is Ben still spaced out? Has Torres continued to scrape at his skin despite him being out of it? 

Is Turci drilling Kenji about his hand injury? 

She’s never noticed anything wrong with it- They’ve held hands so many times—even if it was a quick slip and their fingers were intertwined—She hadn’t felt anything wrong.

Could Turci have been lying? Saying something was wrong with it just to keep him busy so he couldn’t carefully keep an eye on Ben?

Her main fear is that they’re acting like completely different doctors now that Tanner is gone.

Doctor Tanner walks beside her and he’s humming some tune- She glances over and notices his fingers twitching beside him.

He reaches a hand up to adjust his glasses when they don’t need to be adjusted in the first place. 

“Have you ever had an X-Ray before?” Tanner turns to him and her eyes dart around quickly to make it seem she wasn’t staring. 

“No…” She says. “I haven’t.” 

He’s just said the word ‘X-Ray’ and she’s thought it at least 10 more times- But they aren’t even in the room with the X-Ray in it yet. 

“How long is this going to take? I know you said quick, but-“ She says.

“It will be quick.” Tanner says.

"Just a couple snip snaps and we should be done.” He smiles.

She sighs quietly, should not .

She knows it’s broken when she knows it shouldn’t- It should be healed, like Yaz’s ankle. It should be fused back together. She shouldn’t have taken that sling off- and Clarke shouldn’t have asked her why she did.

‘I needed to ride a motorcycle.’ She remembers, stupid. She threatens to smack her forehead or at least hold a fist to it. A motorcycle? Seriously- Louise.

What was she thinking? It was an action filled decision- It was her first mission back with the campers and that mission was to make noise. What better noise than the revving of a motorcycle?

It was fun and fine in the moment—She didn’t even know if her sling was working in the first place—But now she realizes it was a careless decision and she should’ve reconsidered Ben’s question.

“Are you sure about this?” He had asked her, and at the time, she was. She didn’t think it was bad- 

She just wanted to help them.

And she did, but at what cost?

She knows this news won't be good. If it’s causing her all this pain, it’s something much more complicated than “It’s broken.”

"It's just a few floors up," Tanner says as he presses a button on the- elevator .

There's a white light that circles around the edges as he touches it. She hasn't been in an elevator since the Monolophasaurus had stormed into Kenji's penthouse. Kenji.... She shakes her head- He's alright, she thinks...He's fine.

Probably just extra scared that she's not in the room anymore- Even more terrified as Turci keeps pulling and wanting to invade his privacy by examining his hand.

She blinks a few times, looking to focus on something else. She notices that the elevator is on the seventeenth floor, and then she ponders about what floor they're on. They had arrived at the ER but had been moved since then and she doesn’t know where she is anymore. It's not the lobby, it's not the pediatric wing, and it's not the radiology wing (obviously or else they wouldn't be waiting for this elevator.) But then- Where is she? What floor is she and all the others on? 

She remembers getting shuffled into an elevator- it was crammed and she didn’t have much of a choice, and that’s how she ended up in the room with the seven beds and six other campers.

She looks to see if the elevator is descending rapidly- and it’s not. Louise is tapping her foot lightly, she doesn’t notice this either but it is happening and it’s a sign that she doesn’t want to wait very long.

She then looks to the second elevator and sees that it is on the ninth floor- Perhaps a little closer to where they are. “They aren’t usually slow ,” Tanner comments. They’re being slow now and she sighs again.

Louise wasn’t generally an impatient person- They had to do a lot of waiting out as one pesky dinosaur decided to sniff around the island. It would stomp around looking for them. They might’ve been waiting for minutes, or hours, or months ….Dinosaurs never left them alone.

Surely an elevator would be faster than some 10,000 pound dinosaur. And- DINGGGGG.

The elevator dings and a few doctors step out and exit onto the fifth floor. They’re on the fifth floor. A few doctors greet Tanner with a “Hey,” or a “How are you?” and he responds as normal.

He says he’s fine and they walk past Louise like she’s a ghost- She figured they’d at least have some popularity. Actually, she knows they do- and she’s glad that these doctors don’t show her the fame that she doesn’t need. He keeps her close to his side, even though the doctors haven’t bumped into her- His fingers brush against her elbow and she can feel his arm across her back. 

It’s nice- She thinks. But it feels- weird. Normally it would be Kenji or Ben and it should be them. They should be here with her- She knows she needs this X-Ray, but she’d rather let it wait than abandon her friends. Let her get an X-Ray when she gets home, when she’s not with the campers, not with the friends she has limited time with. Let it wait- It has for so long.

Tanner has led her into the elevator and he presses a button and only the number 10 lights up. There’s some soft elevator music in the background, and she’s standing silently beside him.

He’s no longer touching her arm, his hands are neatly by his side but his fingers still twitch and she notices that he presses them against his white coat- He’s humming again and it matches the elevator music this time. She doesn’t like it- His humming is fine but the music- It’s different. 

It’s too quiet, there’s no birds chirping, no dinosaur roaring- It’s just some light sounds of an orchestra, piano- maybe. The elevator begins its ascent and her stomach drops- She knows that Monolophasaurus aren’t going to attack them in here, and she knows that she won’t have to hang onto the shaft for dear life just to climb down to the bottom of the penthouse. 

But it’s still making her nervous. She was barely in elevators too. 

Only in hotels or hospital buildings similar to this- Never enjoying them.

They took too long, and they could get stuck. She can’t afford to get stuck in an elevator right now, especially if her only savior is a doctor that she barely trusts. She’s trying to look for something enticing- But it’s just gray- some white- and a bit more gray. It’s all metal except for the faux hardwood flooring that’s a silky caramelly brown. She lik- DINGGGGGG!  

The elevator dings and she looks up at Tanner to see if he makes a move to exit.

“Come on,” He says.

Now they’re on the radiology wing- Which looks the same as the wing they were just on. He takes a few steps out of the elevator and Louise follows him, walking down another boring hallway. There’s some light chatter or the sound of them- scanning? Beeping? She doesn’t quite know what it sounds like. It’s still very quiet despite all of this. Not much hustle and bustle.

"Here we are," Tanner holds another door open for her. “Thanks,” She says quietly and steps into the room and he closes the door behind him. There’s nothing child friendly about it.

It’s dull- The same as all the other rooms she’s been in, except it's darker and larger. She was expecting to see some fun stickers on the wall- Or some colorful wallpaper. No , it wouldn’t have made her feel any better but if he was an actual pediatrician- Perhaps a pediatrician radiologist. 

She was expecting to enter a room that was bright and animated- something more appealing to a child’s eye if this room was designed to be a radiology room for children like herself.

Louise is waiting in front of the doorframe, and Tanner walks past her after flicking a light on. It’s not as fluorescent as the previous ones, which she can be glad about. “Just a moment of setting up, then I’ll be ready for you.” He tells her and she gives him a small nod. There’s a longer examination table that is very low to the ground- It has the same white paper rolled out on top of it ready to be crinkled. He would’ve told her to lay down on it if she was supposed to. She knows that X-Rays usually happen laying down but there must be a reason why this one isn’t.

Above the bed is the big X-Ray machine- and again- It is plain white with black accents. She can see something blue hanging on the wall- It must be one of those lead jackets that they make you wear to prevent the radiation from seeping into your skin. She wonders if she has to wear one of those- In the corner of the room, there’s a few small cabinets for supplies and a smaller sink fitted with a soap dispenser. 

She hasn’t notice where Tanner has went- He’s cleary still in the room with her and he’s messing around with some dials and what looks to be like a smaller version of the X-Ray machine stuck to the wall that he has popped out and is lifting it up and down on its swivel.

“Okay, that should do it,” He mumbles quietly. “Come over here, Louise.”

She flinches slightly- It had been so quiet and now he’s spoken again. She turns her body and takes a few steps over to where he is and this is when she notices the radiation barrier that will protect Tanner from all the emission. 

“Stand in front of here, please.” He instructs. “I need to make sure it is tall enough for you.” He adds. She stands in front of the adjusted wall X-Ray machine and he moves it down- He’s made it a little too tall and it has to align with her chest.

“Step forward, up to the plate.” Tanner says, tapping on the X-Ray “plate” in front of her. She listens instantly- ‘Anything to make this go by faster.’ She thinks and steps forward. “A little closer,” He says, “It’s awkward- I know.” He adds softly. “By standing up, it allows me to get a better view of the damage.” 

“But- Couldn’t you just get the same images if I laid down?” She asks.

He smiles at the fact that he’s got her talking- “Yes, I could . I’d be exposing your already fragile body to much more radiation than it needs if I did.” He answers. “It’s only a chest X-Ray.” Tanner backs away from her. “Nothing else is bothering you, right?” He questions. “No, just my shoulder.” Louse says. “Alright,” Tanner nods and he pulls a machine behind her.

A white light is at her back and there’s another red one at her front, in a cross-like formation.

“Front and back images at the same time. Ensures quickness.” He smiles again. And Louise smiles smally at his comment of quickness. “Don’t think I’ll need a side view.” He says. 

“Stay right there. I have to leave through this door to get to that door.” He explains. “Some loop around action.” Tanner adds. “Okay…” She agrees and then he leaves the room.

She’s not left alone for long. “Louise,” Tanner is behind the barrier and his voice is muffled slightly. “You’ll need to stay still.” He tells her. “Take a nice deep breath for me,” He says.

She begins to take a deep breath in and a large red light illuminates from inside the barrier- Letting her know that the machine is on and taking its X-Rays. She’s trying to “take a nice deep breath” but the hospital air is still overly stale and there’s a sharp smell of lavender hand soap in this room especially. 

Her eyes close and she tries to block everything out as she inhales. She’s imagining a colorful scene. Her feet sink into the shiny floor as the fresh blades of Nublar grass pop up around them, heavily rooted into the soil. The roof is crumbling and it separates to let herself feel the bright, warm, yellow sun on her body again. Trees surround her and there’s this content smile on her face. She smells the tropical air, it’s salty and a little sweet, there’s that distinct mix of muddy-mossy-dino dung that took everyone a while to get used to. 

It was the smell of Isla Nublar- And it was making her happy.

She can hear Rexy roaring in the distance- Probably mending or protecting her nest. She can hear the calls of Ankylosaurus’ and Sinoceratops’, she can hear water rushing from that big, beautiful waterfall that kept her safe and resourceful, she’s not exactly near it- but she can still hear it. 

And most of all…… “Louise!” She can hear her name being called in six cheerful voices.

She can’t exactly see the campers in front of her like in her nightmare/dream but she can hear them- laughing, talking, yelling and screaming, they’re all very playful noises though. Maybe they’re playing hide n’ seek, and maybe Kenji is seeking and he has one more left to find….

“Lou! Where are youuuuuuu?” He’d yell singsongly and always manage to crack himself up about the fact that  ‘Lou’ and ‘you’ rhymed. She didn’t have a good hiding spot and sometimes she wondered if he let her win. But he had five other people looking with him- and they’d find her if it was the last thing that they did. “Louise!” It was either Sammy or Ben to call out for her second. She’s hiding behind a tree like usual. She is still and quiet, pretending that she is being stalked by a pack of six Raptors.

The blades of grass wrap around her shoe soles, and there’s some vines that come down from the trees and circle around on her wrists tightly. She’s a little confused because since when did these things become sentient? But she doesn’t care- If the island wants her to stay so she can keep playing hide n’ seek with her friends that are more like family. Then she would let it.

She wa- “Louise? We’re all set.” Tanner interrupts the thoughts he doesn’t even know she’s having and everything quickly comes back into focus. The grass is gone, the vines release, the sky is dark, and the air is chemically. She opens her eyes and exhales, “Sorry,” She apologizes. 

“No worries.” He says and now the X-Ray machine is turned off, the big red light no longer shining in the corner of her eye. He leaves from behind the barrier and enters the room again. 

He pulls out the X-Ray film and holds them in his gloved hands, “I have to put these through the scanner to make sure the images look crystal clear.” He says and leaves. Again, he doesn’t leave her alone for long. “I’ll discuss your results with you in a moment.” Tanner says as he pulls the machine from behind her back. He mounts it back into its place and when she backs away, finally being able to move again, he grabs the plate and swivels it up and down again, securing it back to the wall.

“Is it bad?” The question accidentally slips from her lips. “...Manageable is the word I’d use.” He replies and she swallows. “It’s more good news than bad,” He says.

—

“From what I can see,” Tanner says as he puts the film into a lit up space on the wall in a different but still the same style room- boring but spacious and no X-Ray machines in sight. 

“normally I’d like to discuss this with your parents, but…”

She tenses as he mentions parents . “Your clavicle is definitely broken and the teeth have punctured through your very first rib. There’s potentially some damage to your acromioclavicular joint if your whole arm sometimes feels immobile. Are you following me so far, Louise?”

“Uh-huh….” She trails off. 

“I don’t want to scare you but you’ve waited so long for answers.” He says.

“I want the answers.” She states. “Or at least I-I did…”

Tanner sighs and shakes his head. His lips part and he continues, “There’s another break on the left side of your fourth rib, and a third break on the right side of your fifth rib. In total two broken ribs, but they’ve healed on their own, which usually happens. That’s a very good thing, Louise.”

He glances over to see the look on her face. She’s scared- shocked- more shocked than anything. She just thought it was her shoulder and her collarbone, but it wasn’t. “The spine is split up into three parts, cervical, thoracic and lumbar. Your cervical and lumbar are fine. They both look good all things considered. But, when I look at your thoracics….” Tanner pauses.

“You have three broken thoracic vertebrates, located at th4, th7 and th9. It makes sense considering you told Clarke how you were thrown into a tree. And like your ribs, these vertebrates have healed on their own. You’re extremely lucky that you’re not paralyzed.”

“Did you notice any back or chest pains, shortness of breath, any coughing?” He asks.

No- She didn’t or she just did a good job at ignoring it.

It’s a lot to process, and he’s giving her some time to do so. She stares at the lit up images of her bones. She knew it was going to be bad- She knew it was going to be bad! She feels overwhelmed- Her heart is thumping in her chest quickly like an out of control drummer.

“Louise, are you alright? Have you understood what I’ve told you?” Tanner asks, concerned. 

Her heart is still pounding in her chest- THUMP! THUMP! THUMPPPPPPPPPPP!

She’s afraid it’s going to hop out of her chest, fall through her hands and splatter all over the floor! “I–” She wants to speak- Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. “Louise!” He quickly flicks off the light that allows her to see the X-Rays. “It’s okay- It’s okay!” Tanner stands in front of her.

“I’ll get the perfect treatment plan sorted out for you, alright? I know I made it sound much worse, but it is a good thing that your only underlying issue is your clavicle. Your body has taken care of itself. Now it’s time to take care of you .” He pauses and then sighs deeply. “We can go as fast or as slow as you want, but all these things have to get done today. We can discuss things further tomorrow with Doctor Diece, and your mother or father when they get here.”

“Okay? Did you just hear all that, Louise?”

“Ye-Yeah…” She says. 

“Let’s go get you some water,” Tanner says soothingly as he swipes up the film and places it in a folder that he puts in his jacket. “There’s a bubbler around the corner.” He leads her out of the room. “I’m sorry, Dr. Tanner…” Louise quietly apologizes beside him. 

“Oh, please, don’t be.” He says. “I can’t tell you how many children scream and cry over needles- You can’t blame them really, but it’s difficult to handle a situation like that. The parents get involved- and I get involved- So, what just happened back there with you was surprisingly easy, maybe even refreshing..”

He’s been filling a small paper cup up for her, “But you like working for kids, don’t you?” She asks as he hands her the cup and she sips from the top because he’s filled it a bit too much.

‘It’s so cold,’ She thinks as she swallows, sending a cool surge down her body. Water from the creaks or stream, it was cold but never enough to be satisfyingly refreshing, and the bottles they found had been sitting out in the sun most of the time except for the bottled water from Kenji’s penthouse- They had been chilling in the mini fridge because the bottles were nice and cold when he was tossing them to everyone and they tasted like they’d been sitting in a bucket full of ice like it was premium champagne. 

“I wouldn’t have become a pediatrician if I didn’t like working with them,” He chuckles smoothly. He watches her take small sips of the water, “There’s about a hundred more jugs throughout this building,” Tanner whispers quietly, and the look he’s giving her is implying something.

She’ll never have to go thirsty again.

Louise takes some longer gulps until the small cup is empty. Tanner chuckles again and gently takes the cup away from her to refill it. “We’re not too far from the MRI machine-” Tanner says, handing her the cup. “You’ve never had one of those either, right?” He asks.

She pauses halfway through her next sip- “No,” She says. “I know what it is though,"

“Why do you think I need one?” She asks as they begin walking from the bubbler.

“It concerns your shoulder. The placement of the teeth marks have me curious.” He says.

“Curious? You know I’m not a patient to- experiment on..” Louise replies. “I know and I’m not. If I’m wrong, then I’ll be wrong, and you can leave, take your shower and go back to your friends.” Tanner answers. “May I ask you a few questions on the way?” He asks. “You can try.” She supposes.

“Well, you mentioned to Dr. Clarke how you were in a lot of pain- Try to think about when you’d first wake up on Isla Nublar. What was the pain like then? Numbness, tingling, burning?”

“Think really hard, Louise.” 

“When I first woke up- It was usually sore because of all the running we had to do from the day before…” She begins. “I guess sometimes I couldn’t feel it- So maybe some numbness. But other times it just didn’t feel like I could move it at all….No burning. Tingling? No, I don’t think so- Unless you mean like the tingling you get when your arm falls asleep.” She tells him. “Good, good.” Tanner nods. “Now, an MRI will help me further see what is going on inside your body. It will make a series of noises, but I’ll provide you with some ear plugs. You’ll have to stay still again and I’ll be able to talk you through it. This should take maybe 10 to 15 minutes.” He describes. 

She’s been gone for at least twenty minutes- This’ll turn it into thirty-five minutes. It’ll take another twenty minutes for her to bask in the shower (but she could at least speed that part up.)

“Okay,” She says. “Sounds good.” She adds. “Great. Do you have anything in your pockets?” He asks. Louise grips onto the knife in her pocket- “Whatever you have, I’ll give it back.” Tanner says to her. “Can I give it to you once we get into the room?” She hesitantly asks him.

Tanner’s face hardens barely as he glances over at her, “Of course.” He says.

He opens yet another door open for her- And it’s another…examination room?

“I just have to give you some contrast medium, a small dose to make these images even clearer.” Tanner explains before she can even ask. “Sit on the bed,” He’s looking through some cabinets.

She lifts herself up onto the bed- Using more core strength than arm strength because of the blood test she endured. “Left arm again or your hand?” She finds him asking her. “You can put an IV in someone’s HAND?!” Louise asks and she almost sounds like Kenji she's that surprised.

The doctor chuckles with a smile, “Veins begin at your hand, Louise.”

“Well- Not really.” He corrects. “They actually start as venules and get larger as they start to surround the heart.” He tells her as he gently takes her left hand into his. “This is a port IV, so just the needle here and then I’ll attach the bag once we get into the MRI room.” He’s feeling around for a vein in her hand. Another alcohol swab is opened and the smell hits her nose again- and this time- It’s like her nose hairs have fallen off the aroma is just so pungent. 

He wipes off the back of her hand, near the vein he has found. “It’ll just be a tiny pinch, like a beetle.” The needle pushes into her hand. “Mm-hm…” She murmurs as he tapes the needle that has a rubber blue tube attached to it on her hand. “There,” He says. “Now- That thing in your pocket?” Tanner asks. ‘Oh- We’re back to that.’ She thinks to herself. “It’s uh…” Louise reaches her right hand into her right pocket and slowly pulls out the large black, button locked, pocket knife. It’s not opened, but his widened eyes suggest that it might as well should be. 

“A knife ?” 

She nods. “It was an important survival tool.” She says plainly. “Here,” She holds it out for him.

Doctor Tanner hesitantly takes the knife into his hand and it gets weighed down slightly. “Jeez,” He holds the unopened knife in his hand for a second to assess the weight. “I should’ve asked if you had anything in your pockets sooner…” His comment basically flies over her head.

He goes to drop the knife into his pocket, “You promise you’ll give it back?” Louise looks up at him as he continues to tower over her like he’s been doing all this time. “It’s…sentimental.”

His brows furrowed as he took a glimpse at the knife in his hand. They’re like this for a moment but they soften quickly. “I’ll give it back as soon as the MRI is finished.” He positively says and lets the knife slowly fall into the front pocket of his coat.

She’s then led to where the actual MRI is, it’s a big tube shaped machine and she’s told to lay on her back. “This is a coil,” Tanner is about to place what looks to be a large square on her.

“It's the piece that makes the pictures.” He adds and it’s clear he has cut this explanation short.

He places the “coil” across her chest and it overlaps to her shoulders. “Ready?” He asks.

“I think so,” Louise says. Tanner flashes her another smile as he presses a button and she’s quickly pushed back into the machine. She can hear his footsteps receding through the neon orange ear plugs that are barely wanting to stay inside her ear canals. “You can always press the ball that I’ve given you if you need anything. Just relax and this will be over soon.” His voice comes from the machine. “Breathe normally, close your eyes if you need to.”

She can feel her body become slightly warmer as she stares up at the rounded ceiling, the whole MRI machine consuming her like-..... ‘No,’ Louise thinks. She couldn’t- but she can’t move her arms, only her legs. There’s pressure pushing down on her chest and shoulder –

She’s waiting for it to clamp down harder for something to sink its sharp teeth into her- She wants to flail her legs like she did before- even though it didn’t help her get away from… Toro.

Her right hand abruptly clamps down on the ball/pager that Tanner had given her. “Louise, is everything okay?” He asks her. She’s never been claustrophobic before- Not even in the smallest of hiding spots- It never affected her. “Doctor Tanner-..” She says. “I’m here,” He answers calmly. Toro’s sinking her teeth into her flesh and she can’t move. “Can- Can you just talk to me, please?” She’s trying to keep her breathing steady as Louise asks him this.

She doesn’t want these thoughts to gobble her up- She can’t afford to become spaced out like Ben, she can’t jeopardize this test by flailing her legs for a dinosaur that’s dead and miles away.

“Talk to you? About what, Louise?”

“Anything- Food, okay maybe not food, but u-uh movies! What’s your favorite movie?” She asks.

“My favorite movie…Hm..” She can hear a mouse clicking in the background. “Shawshank: Redemption.” Tanner admits confidently. “I think it’s one of Morgan Freeman’s greatest movies. Have you ever seen it? It’s an older one.” 

“I don’t think I’ve watched that one.” Louise replies. “It’s a good one. Maybe you could watch it when you get home, which will be very very soon. What kind of movies do you like watching?” He asks. His voice remains calm and gentle, his accent keeping her soothed.

“Fantasy movies.” She answers swiftly. She imagines the rounded ceiling begin to crack to let a blue sky seep through, the remaining gray-ish white pieces transforming into fluffy clouds.

“I find that to be a common answer among children. What do you like about them?”

—

The MRI is over, and he doesn’t tell her the results. His footsteps enter the room and he presses the button and Louise is quickly pulled out from the inside of the machine. He removes the coil and tells her to sit up. With his assistant, she’s sitting on the MRI bed, it is very uncomfortable.

Her back feels stiff, it feels like she’s never had to be that still. “Hand, please.” Tanner says.

She puts her left hand out for him as she flicks the ear plugs from her ears. He removes the IV port from her hand and he places a medium sized square bandage in the center of her hand. 

“ Knife .” Louise reminds him rigidly, the word laced with a minimalist growl.

Tanner reaches his hand into the pocket of his coat and pulls the unopened knife out from it. “See? I told you I’d-” He goes to say but she snatches it away from him briskly. “Sorry...It’s just…important.” She looks away from him sheepishly as she rubs the knife with her thumb and index finger from her right hand. “I don’t need an explanation.” He shrugs it off. 

“I’ll go get you some Advil. Have you eaten anything today?” 

And now it occurs to Louise that she hasn’t eaten anything today, there was that half of sandwich she managed to tooth down with a few swigs of juice yesterday. But nothing today. “Not today.” Admitting that she hasn’t eaten doesn’t faze her. “You like Goldfish?” Tanner questions.

“Everybody likes Goldfish!” He exclaims excitedly. The thought of some crunchy, salty, cheesy, snacks makes her mouth water..“I’m more of a Cheez-Its kind of girl.” Louise answers.

“Hm,” Tanner gives her a titter. “I’ll find you some Cheez-Its then,” He says.

He brings her back to the examination room where he had administered the contrast material and he tells her to wait. She’s trying to be patient because he’ll return with something rewarding.

She’s been gone for soooooooooooooooooo long and now only one of her arms is working. Her legs swing slightly against the examination bed and some of the caked on mud flake from her shoes. She remembers all those minutes waiting in rooms like this back home. Nurses say the doctor will “be with you shortly” but it’s always a long and torturous wait. Click. Click…

The door swings open and Doctor Tanner is holding another paper cup full of water and a smaller plastic cup full of two circular pills- Advil. He places them on the bed a few inches beside her, “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget.” He says and he reaches into his pocket to slowly reveal the red bag with the orange writing. “Eat a couple and then take the pills.” He opens the bag for her. Louise holds the bag with her left hand, “Thanks,” She pulls out one singular Cheez-It and places it in her mouth. It’s almost a strange, new flavor. She’s letting the flakes of salt melt on her tongue and the cracker with it. She shakes her head in disbelief- It tastes so good! 

It’d be a bit exaggerative to say it was eating a Michelin star meal...But it was truly a delicious experience. She eats a few more before the whole bag is finished and the pills remain unswallowed. He’s been watching her eat all this time- Not like she took long to finish.

She takes a small sip of water just to get the remaining chewed up crackers from in between her teeth. Louise pours the pills into her hand and pops them into her mouth. She swallows them with her remaining water as Tanner disposes of the empty snack bag. “All done?” He asks.

–

They’re back in the elevator and are descending down to the fifth floor so she can take her shower and get back to the others. “Thank you.” Louise says. It’s just the two of them in the elevator. “You’re welcome.” He replies as if it’s nothing. “No- Really. Thank you , Doctor Tanner.” She repeats a little louder and a bit sincerer. “It’s my job.” He says with a small smile.

He sighs, “I’ve just never seen…You’re all so…”

“Young, injured, scared and tired?” Louise finishes his sentence.

“Unfortunately.” He agrees with everything she’s just said. “You’re a good kid, Louise. I hate that something like this had to happen to you and your other friends.” Tanner’s the first one to genuinely express this. “It’s not your fault. Blame the people at Jurassic World.” She says naturally, “It wasn’t too bad, Isla Nublar and all…” She adds. He clears his throat.

“Okay- It was bad. But at one point we all just forgot the park fell apart and- accepted that this was going to be our life, together, as friends…” She continues. As family she wants to say.

Louise quiets down and focuses on the opening elevator doors. “I’ll bring you a towel and a fresh set of clothes. You’ll just have to go straight down this hallway, take a right, walk a bit more until you find room 501 once you feel clean enough. That’s where your friends will be.” Tanner says as he stands in front of the entrance to the bathroom. “I’ll review your tests and get some consultations later. Then I’ll be back for your IVs. Got it?” Tanner adds. She nods her head.

He smiles warmly and watches her enter the shower room. She pulls her shoes off, peeling her crusty socks off.  Her clothes slipped off her and they could easily disintegrate right in her hands. She’s honestly surprised she hadn’t become one with her clothing. She takes her pocket knife out of the pocket of her shorts and brings it into the shower with her, placing it on the wooden bench. Louise only notices some body wash, no shampoo or conditioner, so everyone’s hair would have to stay rinsed out until they all go home. She fumbles with the dial and much, much, much colder water than she’s used begins spritzing out of the shower head.

She shivers and turns the dial all the way to the right until it starts to feel warmer. The hot droplets swirl around her healed gashes that are now scars from Toro. Water drips down from where old bruises used to be, and it tickles like they're still there. It's quick to turn brown- the water turns mucky as it puddles on the pale green and white tiles. She closes her eyes and just lets the water flow across her body, the shower block is even quicker to become filled with steam and it’s like she’s back on Nublar- Breathing in that humid air that she got so used to.

But she can’t let this pleasure of warmth and familiarity consume her. She has to get back to the others. This shower is the only thing she can speed up and the others would call her crazy for wanting something like this to speed up! All she does is run a hand through her hair to mainly get the dirt and grass off her scalp and whatever else has decided to become nestled into her hair. She switches the dial off and her feet sit in a thin layer of brown water that is beginning to drain- What can’t drain though are the twigs, leaves, and she might’ve noticed some dead bugs…Blegh. Louise grabs her knife and walks out of the shower block.

Tanner has left a towel on the sink like he had said. There’s clothes, some socks and slippers too. She walks over to the sink, dripping water all over the floor like she’d do at home. She wraps the towel around her body and gently peels off the cotton ball taped to her forearm.

She decides to wash her hands (or at least what she can.) She rubs her left palm with soap and washes her right hand fully. And much like her time at Wu’s lab- She doesn’t look at herself in the mirror. She doesn’t want to see the length of her growing hair, she doesn’t want to see those dark circles under her eyes that had been there for some time. She just doesn’t want to see herself . She’s turned the faucet off and glances over at the stack of clothes. It’s a pair of white pants with an even whiter long sleeve shirt. It’s a set of scrubs when she was expecting a hospital gown. However, there’s something that catches her eye. 

A sticker has been placed on top of the pile of clothes, and it’s Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon- One of her favorite movies of all time! There’s some writing that says "I was a good patient." She picks up the sticker with her wet fingers and places it off to the side with her knife. She pulls the shirt over her head with her dominant hand and does the same with her pants. They smell like that lavender soap back at the X-Ray room and she’s not quite sure if she exactly likes it. There’s a pair of white slippers and beige hospital socks under the sink.

Grippy hospital socks, she could melt right into those. She picks up her knife and sticker and goes the way she was told- Her feet squishing slightly in the slippers and socks because they weren’t exactly the driest. She reaches for the door knob at room 501 and opens it to enter.

“Louise!” Kenji and Ben swarm her like a bunch of bees. “Louise! Are–Are you okay?” It’s Kenji to ask. Ben’s just standing to his side and looking around cautiously as if Turci and Torres are still lurking. “I’m- fine.” She says.

They’ve barely given her time to be back in the room. “I-I was- I mean–We were so worried about you.” Kenji confesses. “What did Dr. Tanner say?” He asks.

“He ran the X-Ray, right?” Why did it take so long?!” His hands are swinging beside him. “Did he try to kidnap you?” Ben conspires with a harsh snarl. “No- No, Ben. Not at all.” Louise replies.

Ben jumps over to lurk around the doorframe, growling under his breath.

“It’s broken, Kenji. But that’s all.” She lies straight through her teeth. “The machine was acting up and we had to take the elevators so we needed to wait on them.” She tells a half-truth.

Kenji sighs with relief. “Where are your IVs? Tanner’s going to come back to do mine soon.” She asks. “Ben wouldn’t let Turci or Torres near us again until he knew that you were safe.” Kenji says. It wasn’t just Ben. Something tells her. “I’m not surprised…” She says despite this and lets out a brief sigh. 

“How about you? Are you okay ?” Louise knows to return his question.

His eyes widened briefly. “Me? Oh, me! I’m as cool as a cucumber.” He says.

She raised an eyebrow. “Alright,” She plays it off.

Louise goes to walk back to her claimed bed- But something is planting her feet into the ground. “Kenji- Can we-” He looks at her immediately and her heart begins to beat faster.

“Can we talk ?” She whispers quietly. She hasn’t noticed Darius and Brooklynn laying on the bed with their IVs in, wearing the same white scrubs as her yet. “Yes.” He responds right away.

“Outs-”

“Yes.” He says again before she can ask her question. “But we’ve probably only got two minutes.” Kenji whispers. “Now that you’re back, Tanner has probably notified Turci and Torres.”

“Darius will keep track for us. Right, my dino-nerd?” Kenji turns his head to Darius.

“Two minutes starting now!” Darius says with a smile and a small thumbs up.

Louise shoos Ben out of the way, “We’ll just be outside Ben.” She says calmly.She doesn’t think to ask him about being spaced out- Although she wonders if Ben knows that she tried to help him. Ben’s nails scratch against the door knob as he reluctantly opens it for her.

Now, Kenji and Louise are standing outside of the door, two inches away from each other. 

“Kenji, I-..” She hasn’t exactly planned anything to say and she knows they’re in a time crunch. 

She wraps an arm around him and pulls him into an embrace. “I’m so sorry…I shouldn’t have stayed this mad at you for this long- I guess I was just surprised that you’d even…”

Louise rubs her head into his chest as she continues, “I-I don’t want to leave you on such bad terms…You know? I just-...I didn’t like how we fought and I should’ve forgave you on the yacht.”

 “I should’ve-...”

His arms have been embracing her back all this time as she spills. “No- Louise!” Kenji takes her face into her hands- breaking off the hug. “That wasn’t your fault, okay? Don’t you think for a second that it was. It was my fault. I‘ve never wanted to hurt you and I’m so sorry that I did. I didn’t mean to say what I did…”

“I- Was worried about you and Darius…” He says. “I just got the both of you back from the helicopter-....And with Brooklynn kidnapped- I’ve never seen that side of him before.”

“It just felt like I got both of you back and then I was going to lose you guys again…”

“You know how I feel about losing you,” Kenji adds before he leans in to kiss her. Their lips barely touch at first- A sign of tiredness and hesitation. If they kiss now- Sparks will ignite all over again and they’ll never want to leave each other. She leans her head forward, his hands slipping around the back of her neck. Their lips now touching- Mash together softly into a gentle-tired kiss.

“You’re smart, Louise. Darius, too. It just gets in the way of you guys sometimes.” Kenji says as the kiss breaks. “Don’t push your luck, Kenj.” She leans over and kisses his cheek. 

“W-We should head back in.” Kenji says, nervously and a little flustered.

Chapter Text

“Back already? You guys still have a minute and a half left to talk.” Darius says as Kenji and Louise make it back through the door into the room, hand in hand. Ben makes sure that the door is closed and he puts an ear to it, keeping a listen out for the three doctors. 

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Brooklynn suddenly squeals before Kenji or Louise can respond to him. “You two- Are together?!” She attempts to lean forward from the bed, but she is being restrained due to the IV line. Darius looks over at her and slowly turns his head to them.

Even Ben’s ear slips away from the door and he’s facing them too now. They were just holding hands- Kenji’s slim fingers hover over the back of her hand in order not to brush against the square bandage where she had been given the contrast medium. (Of course he doesn’t know she was administered with it.) Their fingers still intertwine perfectly even if his aren’t quite making contact with the rest of her hand. Had Brooklynn known all this time? Was she secretly conspiring about this with Sammy and Yaz, and would they have the same loud reaction?

Louise didn’t want them to find out like this but she didn’t want them to find out on the island either. She had never thought to tell them because they were nothing too official. But, if it were to become official, she was thinking she’d tell them after Nublar- So this is now the time for them to find out. She leans the back of her hand into his hovering fingers, and he latches down on her hand tighter, each taking a deep breath. Does Kenji just shout “Guilty!” and Louise will follow him with a shout of “You got us!” or do they take the time to explain how long they’ve been keeping this a secret? They exchange small glances as the room slowly builds up with a different but familiar tension. Brooklynn’s comment was never meant to render the room silent.

If Brooklynn had even had an inch of suspicion of them being a couple on Nublar and she asked them that same question. They’d laugh it off or it’d be interrupted by a dinosaur roar.

But they can’t laugh it off, and the only thing to be interrupted by is the trio of T doctors.

If Brooklynn was suspicious- She had now gotten down to the bottom of her investigation.

Louise opens her mouth first, “Kind of.” She says. “Not too official like Yammy.”

(“Yammy” being the ship name that Brooklynn, Ben and Louise came up with.)

Kenji’s grip tightens on her hand. They’re not embarrassed of being with each other. They’re just scared about what others will think. It’s just a bit awkward- She’s mainly worried about how Ben will take this. “I knew it!” Brooklynn’s face is made up with a smile. “I didn’t.” Darius sits in disbelief. “We were going- We just didn’t- Uh…” Kenji tries to say something. 

They’re both waiting on Ben to react. 

He approaches them- Standing beside Kenji, not saying a word. His non-needle poked arm raises and he gives Kenji a small punch to the shoulder. “Ow!” Kenji exclaims slightly. “Don’t mess it up,” Ben whispers to Kenji with a growl. Ben walks over to Louise, leaning into her left ear. “You chose Kenji? Are you sure you’re alright?” He whispers jokingly with no hisses or growls. Louise giggles softly. “What?” Kenji says. “Lou, what did he say?” He asks cluelessly.

She’s only giggling more now as she leads them over to their stuck together beds. “10 seconds,” Darius says and Louise’s giggles are suppressed as Kenji's confused but loving expression fades. Ben returns to his feral self, and he creeps over to his claimed bed. He’s growling under his breath and Louise almost wants to growl with him once Torres decides to approach him.

They all lay back on their beds, Tanner will put the IV in her right forearm, she assumes. There’s three short knocks at the door that all sound like they came from the same fist, applying the same pressure, about to open the door. None of them tell them to come in, partly because they wouldn’t have listened if they had said not too, and partly because they know that Louise, Ben and Kenji are now all back in the room ready for the round of liquid nutrients.

Doctor Tanner’s tall figure casts a shadow in the door frame as he opens it, letting his co-workers walk in before him. Doctors Torres and Turci enter the room and Darius along with Brooklynn lay there awkwardly in silence. They’re wheeling in the IV drip bags, all they need are the needles, alcohol swabs, and gloves, which Louise thinks is all in their pockets.

“Good, you’ve found your beds.” Tanner speaks, and he’s the only doctor to do it at this moment. Torres is quick to get to Ben’s bedside and he makes small hisses under his breath.

‘Just cooperate, Ben.’ Louise hopes for him, averting her eyes from the bright lights- She has a headache. Why does she have a headache? The lights are just too bright, that’s why. Her eyes manage to stay fixed on Torres and Ben- But she feels like she needs to keep a third eye on Kenji. “Doing alright now, Kenji?” Turci asks him. If she’s asking him that, then that means-

Something happened in the room after Louise left.

So when Kenji said he was “as cool as a cucumber”, he was lying - to her.

Did it have some- “You looked refreshed. I take you had a nice shower,” Tanner is by her bedside and he blocks her viewing point of Ben. “I did, thanks.” She says. It feels like she knows the drill a bit too well now. Tanner puts the glove on- he feels for a vein- he rubs her skin with a horribly strong alcohol swab- and he finishes it off by gently puncturing the needle into her arm.

Only thing she’s not quite used to is the blue tube that the IV line will be attached to. Tanner, Torres and Turci are done. They leave as if they were never here and now Ben, Louise and Kenji are practically tied down to their beds, being restrained like Darius and Brooklynn because of these IV lines. She doesn’t like it- Her left arm is completely sore, and now the IV takes over the other. She can’t move. Her legs are still working but she wouldn’t be able to stand because of the long plastic tube that travels from her forearm over to the drip bag. If she wants to move, she’ll have to wheel the bag with her. 

Ben’s muttering under his breath and nobody can pick up on what he's saying. She’s trying to figure out if it’s some paranoid, panicked ramble but she can’t figure it out. From the corner of her eye, Kenji slowly curls up into a tiny ball, pulling his long limbs into his chest, making him appear like a crumpled up piece of paper that’s about to get thrown into the trash can. He looks fine besides this- There’s no other signs that will make her worry about him yet. Louise closes her eyes, her right hand weakly holding on to her knife and the sticker- To the naked eye, her unopened knife would just look like a black block- But to the others, they know exactly what it is. 

Also she’s hot- Not warm like before in the MRI machine. Her body feels hotter . Was it a fever? Louise questions. She can’t blame it on the lights this time and her intimate moment with Kenji has been over for about three minutes now, not that she has asked Darius to tell her how much time has passed. So why was she heating up? Did she have the tropical flu? No- No . Tanner would’ve told her if she was sick- He would’ve told that she had the disease. Right? Right .

“So- How did your tests go?” Darius opens his mouth to ask them. “Okay.” Louise shrugs.

“They’re over now, doesn’t really matter how ours went.” She says. “How bout yours?” Louise asks as she squeezes her eyes shut a bit tighter- Trying to block out more of the lights. “It went well.” Darius says. “They didn’t have to do anything extensive,” He shakes his head. 

“They did end up using a stethoscope on Brooklynn, and she wasn’t as scared as Kenji.” He tells with a little laugh. Kenji doesn’t try to fight back at the poke Darius is trying to make. 

A bit unusual, but nothing to worry about. 

She wants to ask why it was only Brooklynn to get checked with the stethoscope. 

Was it her heart? Too much running making her heart pump too fast for it to keep up?

Was it her lungs, like Kenji? But- No, Brooklynn didn’t drown. She wasn’t in the Mosasaurus tank with Louise and Kenji. She never jumped in to get a kayak- They never swam in the creeks or streams. Brooklynn never swam in the ocean during the yacht party. They were only officially involved with water when it would be poured over them during their small, mock showers.

But maybe something had happened to her when Louise (and Ben) were separated from the campers as they were trying to survive by themselves, and maybe only Kenji, Darius, Sammy and Yasmina know what really happened to the superstar. 

Though, she doesn’t ask- And she can’t see if there’s a nervous expression on Brooklynn’s face. 

Maybe it was just a basic test that Dr. Diece and her co-worker had done to the both of them, but Darius didn’t think to mention that a stethoscope was used on him as well. There’s suddenly one singular knock at the door- And a small nurse enters. “Are you here to tell us about our parents?” Brooklynn gets straight to the point. “No, I do have some information however.” The nurse says. “Pertaining to a Louise Crenshaw,” She adds. “Is she here?”

Normally they wouldn’t give spots away- But those were always hiding spots- And this nurse isn’t a dinosaur that’s going to eat any of them. Brooklynn can let Louise answer for herself.

“I’m Louise Crenshaw,” Louise says, adjusting into the bed. “What do I need to know?”

“You’ll be prepped for surgery when the drips are done,” The nurse says- It’s not a request nor a question- It’s a fact and she'll have no choice but to go under and be operated on.

 “Wait- What?!” Louise asks as she slowly swings her legs over the side of the bed, “Doctor Tanner never said-” She faces the nurse.

“Well, he should’ve.” The nurse cuts her off. “Because this can’t wait.”

She’s so sick of hearing doctors telling her that it can’t wait- News flash people, it WILL wait even if it can’t. “Well, did my mom sign off on this?” She asks, challengingly. The nurse tenses slightly- Diece says that they got parental permission and they believed her- But this random nurse? Slim shot that she is trustworthy. “Yes, she did.” The nurse answers.

“The surgeons will be notified as soon as your drip is finished, so I suggest you relax and let the fluids do their work.” 

“No.” Louise says.

“Louise- This is not up for discussion.”

“No.” Louise says again- The way the nurse casually uses her name makes her sick. “I’ve never had surgery before and I didn’t know I needed it from here . Shouldn’t I get a say in this?” She reaches for the IV bag on wheels and slides off the bed- She uses her slippered foot to fumble with the locks on the wheels and there’s an awkward pause before she gets up and wheels it by her side like it’s an oxygen tank and she’s an old man. She gets up finally and walks over to the middle of the room.

A few inches away from the nurse and she’s trying to search for an embroidered name on her scrubs since she hadn’t introduced herself to them. “The surgery will go smoothly, I promise.” The nurse gives her her word. “It’s okay to be scared about things like this.”

“I never said I was scared. I just said I’ve never gotten it before.” Louise reminds her.

“And I still say no. ”

“The surgeons have already marked their calendars, and it’s not up to you.” Now the nurse seems to be getting a bit frustrated. “I want my mom.” Louise states, and the nurse tenses again. “It won’t wait, Louise. When the OR is booked- it is booked.” She replies. 

Basically- “There’s no stopping this.”

“I want my mom.” Louise repeats a little louder. “Didn’t you hear her?” Ben snarls but remains on his bed. “I sure did- And she said no.” Kenji is somehow standing beside her- with his right hand on her non-aching shoulder- holding onto his IV with his left hand. “This isn’t up for discussion, for any of you. Your mother is on her-”

“She should be here by now!” Louise yells- Slipping away from Kenji’s hand, leaving her IV on wheels slightly behind her. “My mom would do EVERYTHING to see me again!” Her voice is so loud- It crashes through the cramped room like an angry strike of thunder. She calms down only slightly, “You guys think we’re so naive-” She mutters between clenched teeth. “I know my mother. She wouldn’t make this decision over the phone. She’d want to see me.”

Her voice is quieter now, but still firm. Darius, Brooklynn, Ben and Kenji can sense that she’s trying to stay strong, but she’s talking about the woman who gave her life- The reason that she can breathe this air and step on this tile- The reason that Louise is with these campers in the first place, and she hasn’t seen her in months. “If we wait, it will get worse.” The nurse warns.

“Then let it. I don’t care. You aren’t putting me under until I hear my mother give you permission.” Louise declares. “Now- Get out.” This isn’t a request- It’s a warning.

“Louise, I suggest you reconsider.” The nurse strongly urges. 

“And I strongly suggest you get out.” She says with a small twitch of her nose.

“How about-” The nurse goes to offer.

"Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!" Something takes her over as she screams these two words repeatedly- It’s scary. Louise hated H-A-T-E-D to yell- She only did it on the island if an argument was getting bad between the campers- Like when things were falling apart or like with Sammy- When they all were panicking about supplies. She did it simply to ground them or stop the fight completely. And now- she’s having this out-of-body-out-of-mind fit as she yells about her mother- Someone she knows but the campers don’t and the nurse has quickly scurried out of the room. It is quiet for a moment- But they won’t let it get too quiet. Especially if Yaz and Sammy are on their way- Walking into a quiet room would definitely raise their worries and suspicions. 

Louise stares at the door handle as the air tenses- Silence corrupting the room all over again.

Her knees buckle- And she looks like she could be close to collapsing.

“Lo-Louise?....” Kenji uses his free arm to catch her by the stomach before she can fall.

She’s not crying- Or it’s not the violent sob that he’s sort of expecting from her. “Take me to my bed..” Louise mumbles against his white scrubs. He plants a soft kiss on her temple before he leads her over to her claimed bed- IVs and all. He places another slightly harder kiss on her cheek. “Kenji- I’m fine,” She says loud enough for them all to hear you. 

“She’ll come, I know it.” Louise adds, keeping the same volume.

She lowers her voice so it’s just between the two of them. “They’ll just do it anyways- It doesn’t matter- Parent or not. They’ll do it. You know that..” Her eyes grow a little wet.

“I won’t let that happen.” He whispers firmly before placid a third kiss on her forehead. “We won’t let that happen.” Kenji says only a notch louder. Ben growls in agreement and his mutters seem more filled with displeasure as Kenji walks back over to his claimed bed. 

Louise sniffles only once or twice again before her eyes return dry.

“Yaz! Sammy!” Brooklynn suddenly speaks and she looks up with a wide smile. 

“You made it!”

“Looks like y’all are the rotten dino eggs today,” Louise says, she’s just forcing herself to talk to forget what happened merely five minutes ago. Though, it feels like Kenji should be the one to say this- It would be portrayed in a more teasing manner if he had. 

Her eyes remain closed as she speaks- If not clenched tighter. All her yelling has made her little headache into something much, much, bigger.

Sammy giggles slightly, “Took our time in the showers.” She says. “Guess we were incubating ourselves!” Her laugh is a little louder- too loud. A sharp pain shoots across Louise’s forehead and she bites down on her touch so dreadfully that there’s a heavy metallic taste in her mouth.

It’s bleeding- She’s bit her tongue so hard that she has drawn blood . 

“Wasn’t it so nice to actually have hot water!” Sammy continues on.

“I never wanted to leave,” Kenji says and Louise cracks an eye to look over at him.

“Ben had to drag me out.” Oh, she wishes she was there to see that .

Her one eye opens a bit wider as she takes in his curled up figure. He’s pale- And if it wasn’t for his black hair or brown eyes- She would have mistaken him for a bedsheet. Kenji looks too familiar- It’s a bad familiar. She never wanted to see him like this again. Never, ever, again.

His cheekbones have been sunken in for some time now- That was all because of the malnutrition that spread like wildfire throughout the seven of them- But they were even more so when he was dead and drowned. He’s not drowned , she tells herself. He’s alive.  

Alive- Not drowned-

She shakes her head and that only worsens her headache.

He was just a little put off by Turci's comment and the sound of Louise’s yells- that’s all. Whatever happened in the room that she should’ve been in- He’s just upset mainly about that. Or maybe he’s sick! More secondary drowning symptoms- He’ll throw up! He’ll need a trash can! 

He”ll need water- He’ll…

He’ll be better.

“How’d y’alls tests go?” Sammy’s voice finds her ears and it sounds like she’s moving across the room- Perhaps to one of the available beds. “Fine,” It’s Ben to answer shortly for them.

There’s a definite edge to his voice that everyone knows not to press. Ben must be slightly curled up too- As a defense mechanism, even if Torres has left- Knowing Ben he’ll want to be curled up like how a tired animal curls under a rock for protection and shelter. Sammy’ll take this in- Kenji’s shortened limbs- Ben’s edged out voice- Louise’s flushed face and tightly closed eyes- And she’ll assume that they had the worst doctor session of their lives. 

That’s just Sammy- A big bundle of joy and positively- but filled with worry for her friends.

“Do you guys need these as well?” Darius asks- Presumably about the IVs.

“Yeah,” Yasmina says. “I guess they’ll be round soon.”

“Heard anything about our parents?” Brooklynn asks and she doesn’t think twice.

Louise shifts slightly at the mention. There’s no time to be hesitant in a time like this- They say what they have to ask- Ask what they have to ask and go with it. Louise knows Brooklynn won’t bring her outburst up to Yasmina and Sammy- But they must've heard it on the walk in.

“Nope,” Sammy answers with some light falseness. “I guess it’s gotta be soon though, right?”

“It’s almost been twenty-four hours.”

“They could already be here,” Ben mutters. “And they’re not allowed to see us.”

“They wouldn’t do that.” Sammy says convincingly for herself and the others.

‘Oh, yes , they would.’ Louise thinks sourly. This place is marked with accents of unprofessionalism. Doctor Kiera Clarke’s malpractices. Doctor Turci insisted that Doctor Torres still work on Ben even if he wasn’t with them, and Torres not thinking anything of it. It’s not an impossible thought that all these things would lead to them keeping this information secret.

“We’re literally minors.” Sammy adds. In other words, kids who need their parents.

Ben shrugs- Louise can hear the small shuffle against his bedsheets. “I don’t trust these guys. And they said it themselves, we might have rare tropical diseases. They could be quarantining us.”

“I think quarantine means we don’t just get to walk around the hospital having showers in public bathrooms,” Darius counterpoints. “Or have the doctors just run a bunch of tests without any protection.” He adds. “They wore gloves.” Ben points out. “ And they put everything in hazardous waste bags.” Louise backs him up. “ More protection,” Darius amends.

“They’ll be here soon,” Brooklynn says, putting on her voice that stops disagreements, not arguments. Two very different tones.  “And so will our test results. And then…” She trails off abruptly and she never fills in the blank.

“And then we can go from there,” Brooklynn finishes finally.

There’s another one knock at the door- It’s a soft little knock- Definitely not from a huge fist. Louise tenses slightly- It could be that nurse again. She can hear shuffling from her left side- Kenji must’ve shifted to watch the door or Louise, or both. It could’ve been Yaz's and Sammy’s doctors- But it has to be them- Even though Louise doesn’t open her eyes to see them. 

She doesn’t know which one is Sharpe and which one is Diaz, but she doesn't need to know who is who. “Separate beds please,” A lighter male voice speaks. Sammy and Yasmina must’ve been holding each other- Perhaps as they were this morning, just to get one last cuddle in. The room is quiet as it was when Turci, Tanner and Torres came into the room, the others don’t know what to say- But there’s not much to say. Brooklynn said to live in the moment- So that’s what they’re doing. Even if it is a quiet moment- They’ll be living in it.  

There’s some shuffling of sheets as Yammy separates, and there’s the familiar wheeling sound of the IV drips waiting for that plastic tube to be attached to the girl's arms. It almost sounds like one of the wheels is potentially broken- There’s this undertone of squeaking that Louise wants to get out of her head! It’s turning her hyperawareness into a curse- She’s needs to distract herself before her head actually explodes. “All done,” A lovely female voice says.

“Just sit tight, okay? We’ll bring you guys some more food as well.”

Sammy’s and Yasmina’s IVs are finished as fast as Louise’s, Ben’s, and Kenji’s were. The footsteps of the light male and the lovely female begin to recede, but are stopped…

“Wait,” By Brooklynn. “Our parents. They should be here soon, right?”

Again, Louise still shifts at the mention- but it’s barely now.

“We won’t know how far away they are until they get here,” The light spoken male says. “The hospital is quite hard to get to. You need to charter specific vehicles to get out here.”

The footsteps recede again and the door shuts- That’s all they have to say?

Louise cracks both her eyes open to see if they’ve actually left, staring at the door with the rest of them. She is about to seal her eyes shut again when- “Translation,” Kenji’s voice wraps around the one word bitterly. “This is an expensive as fuck private hospital to stay in, and it’s expensive as fuck to actually get here as well.” She glances over at him as he speaks.

He’s still curled in a ball- But it looks a little looser. He’s still that frightening pale color that he probably hasn’t even noticed. His black hair- that’s still substantially wet - sticks out heavily.

She could blink and they could be trapped in the airlock that separated them from the hangered Mosasaurus- That the others distracted just long enough for them to be whooshed into the plexiglass barrier. Kenji’s lifeless by now- He’s not breathing- And she’s in the process of gaining what little strength she has just to save him. She could blink again and he’s dead .

“Expensive…” Sammy says. “How do you thin-”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Kenji says- His words all stuck together.

“They wouldn’t be treating us if there wasn’t some kind of payment happening.”

During all this time- It never occurred to Louise that her mother might not be able to pay for it. If they do have to “charter specific vehicles” to get here- That isn’t a simple flight away. That’s a flight, plus a drive, plus a boat trip- It all costs time and money here, there, and everywhere.

She’s not worried though- Her mother has one less person to pay for, no food consumption, or water usage, or phone bill to pay for. It’s a disturbing way to put it because–like she “told” the others–Louise knows that her mother would do absolutely everything to see her first daughter again. Her middle child, her baby girl, her Lou Lou Bell. She’d drop out of a meeting, leave a boiling pot on the stove, move the heavens and the earth- Learn how to teleport just to see her again…..

She knows she’ll be waiting for her.

“If not, I’m sure we can make Jurassic World pay for our medical fees,” Brooklynn has chimed in. “I mean, hello, lawsuit waiting to happen. They left us on Isla Nublar for almost a year.”

“If there’s even still a company to sue,” Ben mumbles. “Could be long bankrupt.”

“Let’s not worry about it,” Darius says. He laughs self-consciously, “I know I was the one freaking out yesterday, and I’m sorry for that. But…we got through so much on the island.”

“There’s a…what’s the word…”

“Precedent?” Brooklyn suggests.

“Precedent for us to get through the shit stuff,” Darius finishes.

“Language,” Kenji chides and Louise glances over at him again. It looks like some color is gaining back in his cheeks. “You were literally swearing a second ago,” Yaz says.

Sammy gives a little laugh.

“But I’m older,” Kenji sticks a tongue out at Yasmina and Darius too- He flips Kenji off. Yasmina and Brooklynn exchange these glances that tell the others that they can’t believe the two boys and they end up giggling. Louise takes on the small mediator role and injects, (even though they weren’t fighting to the point of needing an intervention. The moment just feels right?)

“We’ve all developed a bit more of a potty mouth ever since the island, but when you’re on Nublar- as my mom always says- ‘Wen interessiert das, Louise!’” It all just kind of slips out of her- The headache is distracting and it might be making her a bit loopy. 

Translation: “Who cares, Louise?”

“Was that- German?” Darius asks.

“Are you having a stroke, Lou? We’ve never-” Kenji goes to say with some worry.

“Ja- Yes. I mean- No, I’m not having a stroke. And yeah, you’ve never heard me speak it because there was no need for me to.” Louise explains. “That’s so cool!” Sammy perks up more than before. “Even after everything- It feels like I can learn so many new things about y’all!”

Sammy’s volume for once, is too much for Louise- Fortunately but unfortunately, Sammy is fast to quiet down because there’s a limited time to learn new things about the rest of them.

“…It just reminds me of my mom.” This information slips through Louise’s cracks in her skin. 

Surprisingly, out of all the campers, Louise barely , if not never mentioned an-y-thing about her family back home. During icebreakers, they learned she had siblings, but that was it. But these past few days- Mainly when they were all freaking out about being separated and what their parents would think about all of this- They’ve learnt a little more about her mom.

Sammy gives a supportive smile at Louise for opening up, “What was everyone’s favorite memory for the island?” She asks- When this question came up on the island- They’d all give her weird looks because they still had a lot more memories to make on the island, and Sammy often wanted to forget about the dinosaur attacks they had encountered. “Not dying,” Yaz says dryly before giving Sammy a fond look. “I mean, I know the dinosaurs were pretty scary,” Darius begins. He’s got that sheepish look on his face that usually means he’s about to start rattling off fun facts about Sauropods or something. “But getting to see them that close was amazing.”

“There’s a difference between getting close and being inches away from their teeth,” Kenji says. 

“But-uh-the watering hole was kinda cool.”

“Majestic,” Darius says, with a knowing smile.

“Watching them from a distance as they munched on mangoes with messy faces was really nice,” Louise agrees with Darius and Kenji. She doesn’t say the species of dinosaur specifically even if she knows exactly what they were by heart for the sake of Ben. 

If he hears the word Ankylosaurus- He’ll wish he had stayed on Nublar with Bumpy.

He’s probably already regretting it- “Um…” Brooklynn taps a finger against her chin. “Unboxing Jurassic World was fun. Even if half the time we just got more questions than answers. And the answers we got were usually just ‘it’s a dinosaur’. I liked the investigating.”

“Bumpy,” Ben says simply. His eyes are miles away as they were when he was spaced out- But at least he’s here and not miles away with his eyes. “And you?” Yaz asks Sammy.

“Um…” Sammy takes a second to think. “The gondola trip was fun before the dinosaur birds got us.” She decides. Louise smiles lightly and nods in agreement- She liked that too- But she’s already told them her favorite moment. “Sammy, we’ve been over this,” Darius says. “They’re not dinosaur birds. They’re technically-”

He’s about to go on- “Oh great,” Kenji says, and his eyes are kind. “You got him going on a dino rant.” He continues and it looks like even more color has come back to his face.

Sometimes- Dino rants were secretly better than campfire day- Or at least to Louise they were. 

Darius’ arms always flailed around when he talked and he’d make out the shapes with his hands- either drawing them in the sky or forming the shapes by putting his fingers together- Like if he wanted to show everyone the diamond plate of a Stegosaurus- He’d make two peace signs and connect them to make a diamond. He won’t be able to do as much as a demonstration because of his IV and the blood that was drawn from his opposite arm. It’ll still be entertaining to listen to. She closes her eyes again, listening to the sound of Darius’ voice.

He said that they were Dimorphodons that attacked the gondolas- And that they weren’t actually considered dinosaurs- But “flying reptiles”. Whatever you’d like to call them- They still screeched, roared, and flew after Yasmina and Brooklynn on that hang glider and they still bumped into the gondola of Sammy, Louise and Kenji- Threatening to knock them off the station.

“Hey, guys,” Darius suddenly breaks off mid rant, and Louise finds herself frowning, and there’s more shuffling like he’s dropped an arm that was once in the air on his mattress.

“Um…I’m really sorry about yesterday.”

“You already said that,” Brooklynn says.

“I wanna say it again,” Darius says. He has his leader voice on- the one that always made the others sit up and listen, even if it meant interrupting a moment of peace, or a legendary Kenji prank. They responded, because it usually meant they were about to make it through something really tough with only Darius’ guidance to be their weapon. “I got all in my head, but I shouldn’t have actually said it. Not when everything was still so fresh and we didn’t know what was going on. It wasn’t fair.”

“It’s okay,” Sammy says instantly. “You’re allowed to be sad about this.”

“We are going to stay together,” He says fiercely. It’s the same determination that saw them come out alive time and time again. “We are. I don’t know how, but that’s okay. We didn’t know how things were gonna turn out heaps of times, and then they always did. We’re gonna make this work.”

Nobody says ‘how’ or ‘we can’t’ or ‘it’s impossible’. They just nod, because if Darius says they can do something, then surely they can. 

“If dinosaurs can’t break us apart, then our parents can’t,” Darius says. He sounds so sure of it.

“That might work if my parent was someone different,” Kenji mutters and Louise hears him clearly because her bed is right next to his- He probably would’ve preferred if it went unheard.

“We should just move in together,” Sammy says and Louise can tell it’s a joke. She hears more shuffling coming from Brooklynn’s bed- She must’ve perked right up at Sammy’s sudden idea. 

“Like an influencer house,” She says and Louise cringes.

Yasmina groans. “I love you, Brooklynn, but absolutely not like that.”

“I was joking,” Sammy starts to say, but Brooklynn is still talking.

“Okay, so not like an influencer house, but something like it. We get a house with six bedrooms- because it’s totally important to have your own space even if you’re dating- and we pick somewhere central!”

“Who’s gonna pay for it?” Kenji asks skeptically.

“It’s a joke,” Sammy tries again, but Brooklynn doesn’t let her.

“What happened to ‘being rich is my only personality’?” Brooklynn asks.

“It’s not my money.” Kenji says.

Money’s not the issue- It is- But not the main one.

Ben is shaking his head. “There’s a lot of holes in this plan.”

“Which we can fill in,” Brooklynn says. There’s such a ferocious eagerness in her tone that it seems like she is heavily considering the idea of the seven of them moving into together.

“Guys!” Sammy raises her voice, “I was joking!”

Brooklynn deflates instantly. “Yeah,” she says. “I mean-duh-of course you were joking. Us, living together. That’s silly. We were pretty annoying when we were on the island, after all.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Sammy says. “Us living together would be amazing. We were perfect on the island. We didn’t even go Lord of the Flies on each other. But it was a joke. I was making a joke. Nobody’s gonna let us do that. We’re kids. We can’t pay for it. We can’t support ourselves. And our families would miss us crazy. And I know maybe it’s not the same for everyone- but I’d miss my family too! Not just you guys. My mum, and my dad, my sisters and everyone!”

Not to mention pets, everybody misses their pets- Louise misses hers like crazy- and what if one of them had a potential allergy to pet dander?- Now nobody could have a pet in this imaginary house. It wasn’t unusual for Sammy to open up in such a way- But it was usually a more positive outburst than this- And maybe if Louise thinks about this petless influencer house- She’ll forget about that Sammy has said that they were kids again- But not kids who survived 8 months on Isla Nublar- Just kids with no money, or freewill once being back on the mainland.

“Sammy,” Yaz starts to say.

“Please,” Sammy says. “You don’t have to say anything. I just needed you guys to know. This isn’t easy for me. I feel…torn in half. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Yasmina says. 

Sammy opens her mouth to say something else, but she’s interrupted by a knock on the door.

Everyone tenses- Louise and Ben especially- as it swings open and they see someone standing that none of them seem to recognize- It better not be that same nurse or Ben and Louise will gnaw at her limbs until she’ll be the one needing surgery.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” They said. “But some of your parents have arrived.”

Chapter Text

“Some of your parents have arrived.” It echoes through her head. Some of their parents, not all. 

Some… Not all. She doesn’t know for a fact that her mother is downstairs in the lobby waiting for her, but she hopes that she is. But how much hoping could she really do? Either she was down there or she wasn’t, that was that. If her mother was downstairs, they would reunite then go home. If her mother wasn’t there, they’d still reunite then go home.

Parents there or not- It’s goodbye.

She’s not ready for that- Not yet. She knows the IVs will buy them some time but not enough of it. There was no time to think about saying goodbye on Nublar- The thought of getting off the island was miles away from them. This could all just be some long dream that Louise keeps having- her brain continuing parts day by day each time she closes her eyes to sleep on the treehouse floor. “Whose parents?” Darius asks. “I’m not sure, sorry.” The nurse shakes her head. “Not sure?” Louise suddenly bites. “How are you-” She gets cut off by Brooklynn.

“Are they coming up?” She asks.

“No,” The nurse says. “They’ve been asked to wait in the lobby for now. We’re still waiting for results on your infectious disease tests.”

Was this still extra protection? Louise thinks. Obviously this wasn't an official quarantine but keeping them from their parents sure felt like it was turning into one. “Do we have to wait until the results come back?” Sammy asks with one leg bouncing in anticipation while her eyes are focused on glancing between Yasmina and the door. “Unfortunately, yes,” The nurse says.

It’s almost bothering Louise that she has no idea who this nurse is- Or the one from before either- Referring to this nurse as “the nurse” makes her think of some kind of horror movie scene where the nurse is a useless character about to get killed. (Not that she was much of a horror fan- Her younger sister just made her watch them with her.)

This nurse is still useless- If she’s not here to escort them down to their parents- And she’s not the same nurse that forced the idea of surgery down Louise’s throat so it’s not time for her to be brought to the OR- So why is she here? “Then why are you here?” Louise finds herself biting out again and she notices Brooklynn’s eyes widen slightly. “Just to give you updates,” The nurse says. 

“Can you go back and ask who’s here?” Yasmina asks. “Just so we know.”

“And are updated.”

“I’ve got a few stop offs, but I’ll do that as soon as I can,” The nurse says.

The nurse leaves, and the volcano erupts.

“Who do you think it is?” Sammy immediately bursts out.

“We don’t even know how many are there,” Darius says. “They just said some.”

“So more than one, I assume?” Yasmina says. “Probably more than two as well, otherwise why would it be hard to just check who they’re here for.”

“Are they gonna take us home straight away?” Kenji wants to know. Louise turns to face him and he’s back to the hospital bed sheet complexion- He must be burning up by now, but Louise can’t- well shouldn’t reach over or get up to check his temperature. “Or do we have to wait?”

“Wait for what?” Ben basically snaps. “There isn’t anything the hospital can do here that a hospital back home couldn’t do.” He says. “Except give us test results,” Darius says. “We have to wait for those.”

“How long do those kinda things usually take?” Yasmina asks. “I mean…is it like, an hour, or a day?” She questions. “Never had one before,” Sammy shrugs. “They weren’t rapid tests.” Louise adds. “Those take 20 minutes, a rapid test.” She sort of scoffs. It’s never fast-

These medical things, always so slow when they promise swiftness. “But surely it’s not too long. Mine had some complications apparently but I dunno why.” Sammy says. They don’t want it to happen fast though. So why are they worrying? If these tests will take a few hours or days, that’ll just give them more time together and isn’t that what they all want? They’re back to worrying about leaving each other again, even if nobody is shouting how they never want to leave. “I wish we had phones,” Sammy has said. “Then we could text and find out.”

Can Louise even remember her mom’s phone number?

They’d be unknown callers anyways if they did happen to grab a phone and text one of them.

And what would they even say? "Hey this your daughter/son and I'm stuck in this hospital room attached to an IV. I missed you, mom/dad." No- Maybe a call?

But it'd still be the same format as the text message: "Hello, parent, it's me your daughter/son and I'm in this hospital room with my friends. I missed you, mom/dad."

“What do we do?” Darius asks. He’s not asking for advice- He doesn’t know what to do.

What do they do?

“We wait to see who it is,” Ben says as he picks at a scab close to scarring. Everyone besides Kenji’s and Ben’s have been wrapped up- They must’ve ran away from Turci and Torres so fast that they didn’t have time to get properly bandaged. Louise didn’t even notice the white bandages on her skin from underneath her scrubs- Tanner must’ve done it fast when she was paying attention to spaced out Ben- But then- Why wasn’t Kenji all wrapped up too?

“Then we go from there,” Ben says. 

“I hope it’s not my dad,” Kenji says quietly- hoping that he’s spoken quietly enough for it to be drowned out. Unfortunately, Louise’s bed is still inevitably stuck to his by that small table where the cards had been found so she hears him along with the others. He’s all curled up still- even smaller now. His chin rests on his bony knees, in a way that lets her know he aches for comfort.

 Comfort that she can’t give him. Comfort that she wants to give him, but she can’t.

“If your dad, I’ll bite him,” Ben says. “Me too, probably...” Louise agrees.

“What’s with you and biting? Now you have Louise on the biting train too!” Yasmina snorts, but her eyes are fixed on Kenji assessingly. “If it’s your dad…” Darius begins but trails off.

“Kenji, is he-”

“Oh,” Kenji gives a laugh- high pitched and nervous. “No, I mean-it’s-it’s fine. I’m just saying. He’s pretty distant, you know. And busy. Super busy. So if he is here, I feel bad he’s gonna have to wait.”

It’s not exactly a lie- But it’s a diversion. They know next to nothing about his father- Only that he works for Masrani and owns a penthouse on the island, owns a Modern CEO magazine- Ugh .

Her face wrinkles slightly as she remembers Dr. Clarke and her magazine, Obama, her comments on everything. Maybe Kiera should’ve quit her job to start her own company-

It would’ve saved Kenji and Louise the trouble of that examination process.

She quickly shakes her head- Shaking the wrinkled expression away.

“It’s probably not him anyway,” Kenji has gone on. “Like I said, super busy. He’ll probably have to wait a bit to get out of here.”

They only knew what Kenji told them about his father- But from the way Kenji was from the start- Annoying, immature, and goofy- It is clear that Mr. Kon did not have his ducks in a row when it came to raising Kenji, if he even did. Kenji is still all of this but when he’s not teasing one of them- He’s kind and gentle- He’s comforting- He makes Louise feel safe every time they hug, kiss or laugh- And if Mr. Kon can only remember an immature version of Kenji, then that’s all he deserves. He deserves to wait in that waiting room for his sweet, caring, and very funny son.

“I just wish we knew,” Yasmina says, accepting the lies and diversions from him. They all know that Kenji simply just doesn’t want to talk about it- So her voice is purposely flat, even with how emotionally loaded her words are. “Then we should make a plan.” 

Plans are good. Plans saved you from razor sharp teeth and even sharper claws.

“I-..” Brooklynn finds her voice after a while. “We don’t…”

“We don’t know yet,”

They never knew- Never knew when the next dinosaur attack was- Never knew when they might have found a way home- Never knew what it would feel like to leave each other…

“Guys,” Brooklynn says, her voice breaking on the one word. “How do we…how do we do this? How do we just…leave?” She asks. They definitely don’t know the answer to that.

Nobody can face her- Ben’s locked on watching the door, Kenji’s dart around. Louise stares down at her feet, wiggling her toes in the grippy socks. Sammy and Yaz exchange a despairing looking, and Darius buries his head in his hands that covers his face completely-

This makes it clear to Brooklynn that none of them now.

There’s this longgggggggg stretch of silence as Brooklynn is clearly thinking about something.

There’s nothing to say- Nothing to do. Bound to the IVs, lips stitched with an imaginary string.

Louise lets her mind wander- It won’t get her killed, it’ll just waste some time before one of them decides to speak again. She thinks that if her mother is downstairs- Does that mean they’ll get her permission again for surgery and now it’s confirmed that she needs it? Will she go under with all the six campers waiting for her only to wake up and they’re already on a plane ride home? No- She’d need Kenji- 

She’d want it to be like those rom-coms where the character is waking up from an accident and they’re love interest is crying by their bedside as they start to wake up- Holding one of their hands with the both of theirs- They’re crying because of relief, but they’re crying because they still look so beautiful as they’re waking up from a groggy state (but that’s just the makeup from the artists before the scene is actually filmed).

It won’t be like that however- She’ll wake up to her relieved mother who she is so desperate to see even right now as she lays back on this bed with the IVs dripping down into her skin and her face still flushed- The headache only increasing. She can see her face- Her brown eyes, brown hair, getting none of those characteristics from her mother but still looking like her daughter with her smooth rounded nose and her slightly oblonged face- She imagines her mother will look the same way as she did when Louise left- just extra sad. She doesn't think she'll bring her older brother or younger sister like Darius is secretly hoping that his mother will bring Brand, his older brother.

“We should stage a protest,” Brooklynn says, she’s going for a light tone to help the growing tension fade but all Louise can hear is that sadness in her voice- the way she sounded when they thought they had lost Sammy- After both Louise and Brooklynn put all their energy into saving her- They thought she just died and Brooklynn didn’t- she couldn’t believe it.

But Sammy was okay- Gave them all such a terrible scare but she was okay and they could continue on trying to get home. “So we can stay together. Tie ourselves to the beds or something.” Brooklynn continues. “They could just untie us,” Yasmina flatly says.

“Get Louise’s knife and cut us all out,” She adds. “Nobody is getting this knife.” Louise says, gripping onto her black handled knife possessively with an edge to her voice like Ben’s.

“There’s medical shears too..” Darius barely pipes up.

Brooklynn’s shoulders have started to slump in defeat but Yaz continues after this, “We have a better chance of just picking someone and stowing  away with them for the ride home.”

This causes Kenji to lift his head up. “If you guys come with me, I’m pretty sure you can hide in my mansion without my dad even noticing.” He says. “I did wanna try your bowling alley,” Darius says thoughtfully. 

“We could have a movie night, we never got a chance to check out the home theater at your penthouse.” Louise adds, also pretty thoughtfully. “Oh, there’s plenty of room on the ranch as well,” Sammy says. “If you like cows.”

“Haven’t met a cow personally,” says Ben. “But they can’t be worse than stampeding Sauropods.”

It’s all just another joke about potentially living together- Something that will never happen..

“Guys,” Brooklynn says again. “I know we can’t all stay together. For now. Cause we’re kids, and we have parents, and like…you know. Reality calls. But we can do something like this, right?”

“Like this?” Kenji echoes. “Trips to see each other,” Brooklynn says in a rush.

“Holidays. Catch ups. I know we live far apart but I’ll pay for it all- I have heaps of savings from the channel! And I can organize it all as well if planning stresses you out. I’ll convince your parents and I’ll work out where we can go and-”

“Woah, Brooklyn, slow down,” Darius interrupts, not rudely. “You don’t have to do all the organizing. We can help as well. Share the load, like we did on Nublar.” He says.

“You mean…” Brooklynn begins, “You want to do it?”

“You’re in?”

"Of course," Louise says, nodding her head slowly even if she knows it'll take some heavy convincing for her mother to let her go ANYWHERE, especially New York.

“Well, duh,” Sammy says. “If dinos aren’t gonna split us up, then what is?”

“But-but before!” Brooklynn sputters like a broken faucet. “When we first got here. You were all so miserable about it. Saying we couldn’t make the distance work. Saying our parents never let us. You all-”

“-said it wouldn’t work.”

Louise hears Darius wince, like he's hurt and disappointed in himself or actually- in all of them. “We did,” He says. “I’m not sure it will. But it’s like you said. We can’t assume the worst when it hasn’t even happened. It’s not fair.”

“The worst has already happened.” Brooklynn says, because it rightfully has. A vacation turning disastrous is absolutely the worst thing to happen- Not to mention getting left on Isla Nublar, a dinosaur infested island where all the workers and adults get eaten and now all that’s left are seven teenagers to fend for themselves. “Okay,” Sammy says.

“So if we can handle the worst, then we can handle this.”

It’ll be hard to handle- It’ll be terrible, it’s getting closer and closer- The split will be hard.

Louise doesn't want to imagine it just yet- But she knows- like before- it will be terrible.

“Sure,” Brooklynn says. “Hey, Brooklynn,” Sammy's voice is gentle and quiet.

“It’s okay to be scared.” 

Louise shakes her head. Even though Sammy doesn't sound like the nurse that pressed on the topic of surgery- It's the same thing she said with less words.

“I’m not scared,” Brooklynn says instantly.

Louise's legs slowly push against her body- It's not exactly what she had said back to the nurse- But it almost feels like the same scene and she doesn't like it.

“I’m terrified,” Sammy says as if Brooklynn hasn’t said she wasn't scared. 

It almost feels like another round of tennis- another familiar scene- But with Sammy taking Darius’ place. The others are just listening- Unsure of what to say- They just watch and listen like spectators at a match.

“To leave all you guys. I know we’re afraid that things will be different, and I’m tryin’ to be real brave about it, but it is scary. And I think if we pretend it isn’t, then it’ll just get even more scary.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it anymore,” Brooklynn says after everyone has been waiting for her to respond to Sammy. “I’m tired.” She adds. “But-” Darius tries to say.

“I’m gonna get some rest,” She cuts him off. “Wake me up if they bring our test results.”

“Brooklynn, please.” Darius says.

She closes her eyes and the tennis match has ended anticlimactically.