Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

 They made it 

     They made it home with everyone alive, scarred and different but ALIVE. 

     The campers all felt bone crushing relief when they collided with their families.

     But they also so scared. What was going to happen, none of them live close to each other, this isn't this island where they can claw their way through any obstacle to get what they wanted. 

     The fear lingered for a moment before it solidified into determination. They were all each other had on that island, and as they all turned to look at each other, eyes far too old for bodies far too young, they knew they would be okay. Come hell or high water, they would fight the world itself if they had too, but they would stay together. 

     They needed each other, for their habits that got too far out of hand, for their nightmares, for their fears, for their new senses of humor. 

     They needed each other and it seemed that the adults surrounding them felt the shift in their kid's demeanors and looked at them, truly looked at them. 

     Brand and Darius's mom saw Darius. The once dorky, excitable person, who burst out the seems at the mention of any of his interests and never seemed to find someone he could really click with. Now he stood tall under the gaze of his friends. Ready to guide them through what he could (still equally dorky). But along with it was a weight that looked like it might destroy him.

     The two then looked at their new addition Kenji. And wondered how much he had changed on the island. Why there wasn't someone waiting for him. What he had gone through. But they also saw the trust in Darius’ eyes when he looked at him. The way Kenji's eyes darted over at the others several times to check on them. The way he hugged all three of them like they were a life-line.

     Brooklyn's dads looked at their little girl. After any situation where things went wrong and she had been in actual danger during a stunt or such for a video, she'd simply give an “I'm okay” and “This'll do great for my channel!”. It had seemed turned into a coping mechanism of sorts. She'd laugh it off, exuding confidence and a carefree teenage attitude. Now she clunge to them, not a single joke through her tears, mention of her channel, or anything. She just clung to her parents before she looked towards her friends and stood taller when they looked back.

     Sammy's dad looked at her. Sammy who had a huge heart and a fierce love for the farm, her home. Sammy who had takin’ a job as a spy to save that home, and suffered for her kindness. His Sammy, who stood next to him, with that same kindness still instilled in her being, but an extreme protectiveness alongside it. One that ensured she would defend those close to her with her life, no matter what, and a self-assurance that hadn't been there before

     Yazmina's mom looked at her kid. Her sarcastic demeanor and generally anti-social self a staple in their household. Even with those attributes and Yaz not being one for things like hugs, she knew her daughter loved her (After all she had gotten some of those traits from her mom). Now Yaz was refusing to let go, letting tears fall and rambling coming from her mouth. She saw the fear hidden under the relief, the way she favored one of her legs and winced every so often. She watched as her reclusive Yaz looked to the other survivors with a strong care in her eyes that had always been reserved for family, and introduced her mom to her girlfriend.

     Ben's mom looked at her kid. However much she tried she had never able to suade him to change in any way. Not in his germaphobe tendencies, or his reclusiveness, or his fear for almost everything. Now she looked at her kid, the amount of mud packed on his skin he didn't even seem to notice. The crud bark armor and the remains of his blue shirt around his head. She saw the change in the way he held himself and the new confidence. She saw an overwhelming amount of protectiveness and love in his eyes when he looked to his friends.

     Their children who once looked completely different, now stronger and so bone achingly tired, stood like they were an army. Just looking at them, they were comviced they could destroy anyone or anything if they had enough gumption and a half-assed plan. 

     Their children, not one of them without scars across their face, arms, or legs. Not one of them was the same and they all looked like they could take on the entire world.

And they would

[—]

Identities:

Sammy's Dad: Jonas

Sammy's Mom: Madelyn

Yaz’s Mom: Leila

Brooklyn's Dad pt 1: Sam (Dad)

Brooklyn's Dad pt 2: Morgan (Pops)

Ben's Mom pt 1: Lyra (Bio - Mom)

Ben's Mom pt 2: Evelyn (Step-mom - Mother)

Darius's Mom: Jana

Chapter Text

Unfortunately they all had to go to the hospital. Ya know, crazy dinosaur island, getting poisoned, malnourishment, the whole shebang.

Which sucked by the way. At least in the campers opinion. 90% of the time a new place equaled new dangers and people and animals alike trying to kill them. And now they're stuck to beds with people they don't know poking and prodding at them AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF they're in separate rooms. 

The lady that arranged it received several glares for it beforehand, but she at least looked a little apologetic.

“Look, I know none of you are happy with this-”

Ben glared “Understatement of. the. century.”

“BUT it's necessary-”

“For what?” Brooklyn picked up one of the pens and started messing with it “We can all fit just fine in one of your big fancy rooms. And wouldn't that help contain whatever supposed ‘diseases’ you say we may have from the island?”

“Maybe, however, this isn't just about that-”

“Then tell us what it's about,” Darius this time. “We want to know exactly what's gonna happen AND why. No info left out.”

“Okay, I would, if you all would stop interrupting-”

“Sorry that gonna be a bit of a problem,” Yaz smirked “Some of us, not naming names, have a bit of a blabber mouth”

“HEY!” Kenji put an exaggerated hand to his chest and put on the most offended face he could “I'll have you know, my blabber mouth comes up with the best jokes, so watch it before you poke fun at your free entertainment”

“Listen, the separate rooms thing will be temporary. It's so we can get a look at you guys individually and make assessments without interference or unwanted personal information being spilled out.” The lady - Dr. Marsh - took out her papers “It's less than ideal, I know, but it'll last 1-2 weeks max”

This didn't really help suade the campers in liking it anymore, but they did understand why they were being separated somewhat so ya win some ya lose some.

            —------------------------------------

“CampFam back together once again!”

“Fucking finally!” 

“Couldn't have said it better myself Kenji!”

Said CampFam were currently squeezing the life out of each other while nurses rushed to make sure none of them jostled any injuries. 

Their families watched from the side trying their damndest not to burst out laughing at the site of the kids giving shit-eating grins before scattering and evading the nurses, laughing the whole way. 

Darius, Sammy, and Ben’s families in particular were toeing the line between amusement and disbelief at their kids’ new attitudes.

“Darius!” Ben pivoted around, before using a desk to jump up and swing himself onto one of the overhead beams “Come on!”

Darius sprinted towards him, jumped, and took his outstretched hand, successfully putting the two out of reach of the nurses (and now security after the commotion). 

“There is no way this is happening” Ben’s mom - Lyra - repeatedly blinked and rubbed her eyes “I am 100% hallucinating”

Mr. Gutierrez lost the ‘try not to laugh’ competition at that “OH! It'll be a treat gettin’ used to that won't it Mrs. Pincus!”

The adults had all formed some friendship over the loss of their kids. They had all been in the same boat after all, the only ones they knew who understood their situations. As a result, they had all heard a lot about each other's kids, what they looked like, fears, preferences, friends, favorite things, anything and everything. 

He guessed they would all have to get used to the new people their kids had become. It was amazing how attached one could get to someone they had never even met in person.

“Everyone!” Dr. Marsh walked in, amusement behind the scolding tone “While it is great to see your spirits up and health improving, I'd prefer you not run circles around my hard working staff.” She quirked an eyebrow “Besides, we have a couple more visitors for you all”

Curious, the kids all got down from their spots and grouped up near the couches in the corner of the room.

“Alright, you can come in!”

At that, three adults walked in “Sorry about the wait kids, since we weren't technically family we had to wait” Roxie walked in, Dave and Mae not far behind.

For the second time the three adults were barreled over by the campers. Not that they minded, if they had it their way the kids would never leave their sides after all the trouble they had managed to get themselves into.

“Alright, alright, I'd like to not be crushed to death before I'm 40 you know?” Dave, much to Roxie’s annoyance, laughed at her complaints “You're not foolin’ anyone Rox, just accept your fate! Now,” he peered around the group, “Where's- My bandana buddie!”

That was all the warning Ben got before he received the bear hug treatment. “ACK! No surprise hugs! And when did you come up with that!” 

Everyone was laughing now, still running on the high of everyone being together, of everyone being safe. 

This wouldn't last forever, they know it. There's layers upon layers of trauma and stories to go through. Survival instincts and defense mechanisms to peel back so the kids can be kids again. 

But for now they can ignore it, accept the kids' attitudes as meaning they're fine. Let them pretend before everything sets in and it can't be ignored anymore.

Chapter Text

“What are we going to do?”

The question was met with silence. The campers were all in Darius's room in the hospital, all wearing the same hospital provided sweatpants and sweaters discussing everything behind closed doors. No prying eyes, concerned adults, or well-meaning but patronizing hospital appointed therapists. No one to put on the facades they've been keeping up for.

Just them and their infinite questions with no answers.

“What if they separate us?” The voice behind it sounded small, much smaller than Ben would normally ever allow himself to sound anymore. It strengthened with anger as he went on “What will we do? We're not survivors here, we're just kids to them.”

Darius considered Ben's words, to be honest he had been avoiding it. He had wanted to believe this would never end, that they could stay in this bubble with everyone. 

“Brooklyn, do you have any knowledge on situations vaguely like this? You ever ‘unboxed the American housing systems’?” Darius winced as he spoke, saying it out loud felt a little ridiculous but Brooklyn has known about far more niche subjects.

His words got a smirk out of her “Unfortunately, no, but hey, thanks for the idea”

Sammy sighed “I wish we could just live together, get a big ol’ house or even make one of those ‘mini neighborhood’ things I seen online before this whole thing”

“Near a lake maybe” Yaz smiled

“Plenty of open space but also next to a forest” Ben added

“Decent weather and close enough to civilization to where we can get supplies and medical aid if needed” There was no way Brooklyn was going to leave that out 

“I second that” Ben laughed

“Oh we'd have to be at least semi close to some mountains!” Kenji jumped up at the idea

“What why?” 

“Because, Dino-Nerd, now that I don't think I really have dear old dad's funds, I started thinking about what I wanted to do and rock-climbing is starting to take my interest”

They kept talking, adding things to their imaginary paradise. Even Bumpy, Firecracker, Angel, and Rebel made it into the mix eventually.

They talked and talked and talked, doing as they always did trying to survive. They ignored the possibility that this might not happen that they might not make it. That some of them were in whole worlds of pain from previous injuries that were finally getting treatment. 

Ben froze and looked towards the door. The campers' reactions were immediate. They stopped talking and followed Ben’s gaze, muscles tense and objects are grabbed (pens, books, small containers, etc) to use just in case.

The silence was deafening until the door creaked open to reveal Dr. Marsh. The collective sigh of relief and polite smile from Darius was enough for her to enter. 

“I was wondering where you all were. I came to give some results to Ben but imagine my surprise when I walk into an empty room after lights out. And the several others after.”

Said child shrugged, not looking apologetic in the slightest. 

“Anyway, I left them on your side table, take a look when you're ready.” She turned to take her leave before looking back “And if you are going to continue this then, for my sanity, please leave a note of which room you went to?” With that she left the room.

“.....told you so” 

“OH come on Yaz! I feel like it was a valid assumption that she'd be more upset about the midnight meetups” 

“‘Midnight Meetups’? Not your best work Kenji” 

The two bickered for a little bit more, Ben and Brooklyn eating popcorn like this was their personal telenovela (Where did they even get the popcorn????) And things felt just a little bit more normal.

-------------------------------

They ended up all managing to get a little bit of sleep between talking and watch shifts. 

Darius was in the middle of his shift when he heard shuffling. He surveyed the room, watched the door, and found nothing, before looking towards the others.

Everyone was asleep, decently peaceful, except one figure. Ben.

He got over as fast as he could without waking everyone else and crouched next to his distressed friend. Sadly this is far from the first time any of them have dealt with nightmares, their own and each other's. 

But it's normally not Ben, not for lack of nightmares, but for the fact that he learned to be silent from his time alone. From what he'd been told Ben had needed to try to avoid drawing any and all attention from living things.

As a result, he's often the most silent of them despite his louder tendencies. He scared the living daylights out of them a couple times by accidently sneaking up on them Especially at first when they weren’t used to him being alive. 

“Ben!” Darius whisper-shouted at him, last thing he wanted to do was startle him “Come on, please wake up, whatever it is, it's not real!”

All he got was a wince and Ben’s breath picking up

He shook his shoulder “Hey! Ben!” He shook harder “Wake up!-” Out of nowhere Ben shot up and immediately socked him in the face.

--------------------------------

He was back, he was alone. Bumpy was gone, the other campers were who knows where, and Ben was completely and utterly alone.

Well…..except for the dinosaur trying to kill him.

He couldn't tell what it was, all his brain processed was; Sharp teeth, fast, angry, it's going to kill you. 

He remembered this, he killed this dinosaur, before Toro, after he fought the compies. He had been alone and bleeding, rewrapping leaf bandages from where the Pteranodons had dug into his skin and clawed at him.

It was going to kill him; he had to kill it first.

Wait. He remembers this happening? So how is it happening again? Is this real? 

He heard a voice but his attention was snapped away by the dinosaur running at him again, he's trapped, he can't get away, he's going to die here. 

No. No. No. No. Not here, he will not die here. He still has to apologize to Bumpy for scaring her and find a way off this island.

Something is on his shoulder. The dinosaur? It doesn't feel like it. Doesn't matter. It's going to kill him. He has to fight. So why isn't he moving.

Next thing he knows he's awake on his palette on the floor having just punched Darius across the face

------------------------------

“OW!”

“Shit shit shit, sorry Darius!”

“It's okay, it's okay, I'm alright”

“You sure?” They were both sitting on the floor with Ben hovering his hands near Darius's face.

“Yes Ben, infact, I should be asking you that question” Ben tilted his head, looking confused for a moment before realization set in. 

“Oh that? No biggy, just couldn't get comfy you know, anyway time for my shift yet? Thanks for waking me up for it I'll get right to it-”

“Ben” Ben's mouth promptly snapped closed. “I'm here to help, don't try to deflect, we know each other too well by now for that. You don't have to talk but…. I'm here if you'd like to.”

They just looked at each other for a minute, locked in a really intense staring contest. Before Ben just sighed and Darius opened his arms. He took the offer and fell into the hug. 

“I can’t, not yet” His voice crumbled.

“Okay”

They fell asleep not long after.

(They got a free pass for accidentally skipping watch and not waking anyone else up once they briefly explained. However they were not spared endless amounts of teasing and squealing about it since, thanks to their luck, they were the last to wake up)

Chapter Text

“We sure this is the best way?”

“Kids love stuff like this don't they? Besides, how else would we do this?”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe not a banner.”

“Well-”

“Whaaaaat are you guys doing?” Darius walked in on all the adults bickering, a brightly colored paper spread across several tables. 

“OH Darius!” Brand slid in front of him, blocking his view, “How are you this very uh swell? Morning!” 

“Okay, somethings up, what are you hiding?” He tried to peer around his brother.

“NOTHING!”

“.....”

“.....I-I mean uuuuuuuh where's…..where’s the rest of the CampFam? Normally there's at least two of you?”

Not a second later there were hands on his shoulders “Boo!” 

Brand let out the most shrill sounding scream ever as Ben bent over cackling.

“Oh. That solves that mystery heh.” Darius put a sympathetic hand on his brother's shoulder

“He does that a lot, although not normally on purpose.” He leveled Ben with a look, Ben just grinned back at him. “So you gonna tell us what you all are hiding?”

“Even if there was something to tell you, which there isn't, I can't tell either way, Roxie’s orders.” 

“Well, are we at least going to find out soon?”

Brand looked towards the others, Ms. Fadoula answered “Well, you should find out soon if we can agree on how to do this.”

“Well, that's reassuring,” Ben deadpanned, “I think we'll be 80 by the time they do that.”

“Hey! Have a little faith in your mother!” she shouted across the room

--------------------------------

The two returned to Yaz’s room, in the middle of said trackstars's rant, “-I mean seriously I’m going stir crazy! What could possibly warrant us being here for this long!”

“I second that," Ben plopped down beside her, "I've now reached max entertainment value out of scaring the crap out of everyone.”

“Well, considering we still aren't exactly in ‘tiptop shape’ according to literally everyone here…” Darius trailed off.

A collective groan was let out at that. While not all of them had been active people to begin with, they were all getting antsy. The most they could do around here was run down the hall (which they had gotten in trouble for) or play hide n seek (which they had gotten bored of, they're gods at that game at this point)

“Jeez, is this what life's gonna be like now?” Brooklyn continued at the confused looks she received, “We've spent so long doing so much and running on pure adrenaline half the time. What if nothing ever feels like enough of that anymore?”

“Nope. No way, I am not spending the rest of my life feeling like this!” Kenji stood up “Any ideas of things we can do once we get out of this box?” 

“I mean, I was thinking of taking self-defense lessons of some kind, ya know, improve my skill set.”

“Good idea Jungle Boy! Keep ‘em coming!”

They all wrote down several ideas for things to keep them up and moving once they got out. So far they had:

Self-defense/fighting lessons

Rock Climbing

Paintball

Build a treehouse

Get some pets

Learn how to build things (That don't fall apart)

Start a garden

Play twister

Go to Sammy's farm

Race each other

Pottery 

Archery

Learn other languages 

Binge the Ester Stone show

Binge everyone's favorite shows

It ended up just being things they wanted to do in general, things they thought they might never get to do, instead of just things to keep them from being bored.

This went on for a while before it turned into everyone ranting about their favorite shows

“I'm tellin’ ya Yaz! You'd love Carmen Sandiego!”

“I'm hearing you Sammy but I don't think anything will beat Mandelbrot Hall.”

“Oh I forgot about that show! I watched the pilot but never watched the rest, is it any good?”

“You'll have to find out for yourself.”

“My favorite's Ramshackle”

“Really? That doesn't sound like somethin’ pre-island Ben would like.”

“100% agree with you there but I was bored and the pilot had just aired, so I watched it and ended up really liking it.” 

“Dam, we all have so many shows that we need to check for updates on.”  

“Couldn't agree with you more Superstar.”

“Actually, I heard that Nimona finally released a bit before the island! We should all go watch it!”

--------------------------------

A couple mornings later they were woken up by Dr. Marsh for food. 

“When you're done, head down to your families, they have a surprise for you all.” Darius turned to Ben as she left.

“You think they went with the banner idea?”

“I’m really hoping they didn't.”

“Actually,” Sammy jumped in, “I've been wonderin’ why Dr. Marsh has been with us this whole time. We've been here a month, we're mostly recoveredish, she must have other things to do and patients to attend to. So why's she hangin’ with us? Don't get me wrong, I ain't suspicious of ‘er or anythin’, just curious.”

“That's actually a good point.” Darius did his ‘thinking pose’ thing, “Maybe it's since we're kinda a special case?”

“You got a point,” Brooklyn said from her position on the window, “There's not exactly other cases of a bunch of kids getting stuck on a dinosaur island for months and possibly contracting prehistoric diseases.”

“That seems possible but, hey, maybe we're just her favorite patients.” Kenji put on his sunglasses (Again, where does everyone keep getting this stuff?) and gave a finger gun

Yaz rolled her eyes, “Not sure doctors have favorite patients and if they did, I'm not sure it'd be the kids who annoyed the hell out of security and nurses alike. Plus someone giving them heartattacks.”

“One. Time. I jumped out of the window one time!” 

“Even though we're in civilization you're never gonna stop being the ‘Wild Child' are ya?”

“Ya know what? I'm going to become an esteemed gentleman, just to spite you.”

“It'd be a cold day in hell if that ever happened.”

The others watched Yaz and Ben go back and forth before Darius cut in

“Alright guys, let's eat so we can see what everyone has in store for us.” Darius had been curious about it for a while and, tired of waiting, had made a couple theories of his own in the meantime.

--------------------------------

“If you don't put the damn banner down I swear.”

“Hey! I worked really hard on it!”

“I don't care, we are not breaking this news with a colorful banner.”

Hospital staff had been watching the kids’ parents argue about this for days. It was free entertainment, leave them alone.

The parallels between the ‘CampFam’ group and the adults had been great to witness as well.

As said before, the adults had formed a friendship. Which came with upsides and downsides. Roxie, Dave, and Mae joining the mix too was….. interesting for staff to say the least.

While some had had migraines from the ‘Chaos Kids’ as they had been lovingly dubbed. Quite a few were going to miss them.

It had been forever since they last had long stay patients (Not that they ever wish for anyone to have to) and those patients were older most of the time. 

The kids had added a new sense of life to their hospital. If they were out of their rooms they would be seen running down halls, playing games, and climbing anything and everything. (And jumping out of windows)

If any of them were alone (which wasn't often) they had been found comforting a stressed out staff member and providing them with advice several times. Even going as far as to try and crack a smile.

They were also really good about staying out of the way of people who were busy or doing things too important to rest on.

All in all, despite the mistrust and testing in the beginning, a couple incidents, and general concern about their worrying conditions, the kids had been a delight to see around.

They'd even captured the heart of professional Dr. Marsh.

Definitely not what they had expected from dino-island surviving teenagers but they absolutely weren't complaining 

--------------------------------

“Do you think the staff have realized yet?” Kenji asked, all the campers safe in the boy's room.

“Probably not,” Sammy chuckled, “I doubt we'd be allowed to walk around unsupervised if they did.”

“Let's just hurry up so we can get this back to the file room and get down to whatever our parents have planned for us before anyone gets suspicious.” Yaz sat next to everyone so she could see the tablet they nabbed as they started watching what was on the flash drive.

------

To the staff, they had been typical kids. Well, other than their injuries and ailments. But, they may or may not have been hatching a plan under the staff’s noses. They had been betrayed and lied to by almost every single other adult or group they've come across, no way there were letting another group get the drop on them.

As per result, the campers all came to the same conclusion, there was they were not going to trust these people with any of the campers’ health. At least, not without proper investigation.

This led to a careful plan, as careful as they could while having to speed run before they got separated and quite a few of them, if not all, bed bound. But they were used to extreme time limits and winging it so it was nothing new.

It was simple, they'd have to allow initial treatment until they were allowed to leave their rooms unsupervised. Not happy about it but necessary. 

Then, first chance they get, make sure the staff clocks them as 'rambunctious and mischievous' kids. It'd be easier to pass off things they do later on as part of that.

They'd need to get past security somehow. Either find out how to take care of cameras without raising suspicion or find some way to block themselves while they enter.

After that's taken care of, get access. This hospital used keycards for the rooms they needed to get into (Seriously? Why are keycards all the rage these days?) They'd have to get close to a high enough level staff member to nab one.

They felt a little bad about taking advantage of a stressed out worker but Brooklyn made sure to help them out and provide actually good advice. 

With that, all they had to do was wait for a good moment to slip into the file and security rooms. Dr. Marsh’s announcement of a surprise from their parents was perfect: 

They'd probably be given space if they were seen around (Big surprise = Big emotions = Emotional kid that needs space to think), they had a decent window since they still took a while to eat everything they were given after their ‘Island diet’, and Dr. Marsh will most likely be with their parents waiting for them, two floors down from the rooms the kids would be infiltrating.

They combed through everything they could. Checking and double checking for any other groups, if they were dealing with anyone nefarious, etc.

Ultimately, any connected companies posed no threat, they were clean, cards were (discreetly) returned, and no harm was done.

“While not technically what we were looking for, I did find something interesting.” Kenji then pulled out a flash drive titled ‘Chaos Kids Moments’

------

And now they were here, watching a bunch of different clips of all of them running around, Brooklyn talking to that person, Ben scaring people and jumping out of that window, all of them running circles around security, and even everyone, including the adults, sitting in the side room and hanging out.

“.....told you we were their favorites.”

Yaz didn't even have it in her to punch him for it. After spending so long being with adults that literally wished for their deaths, it was a nice change of pace.

Really really nice.

The drive and tablet were safely returned and they all began to head down to whatever was waiting for them.

Chapter Text

The campers headed down to their families (Roxie, Dave, and Mae had ended up included in that list somewhere along the line) They were admittedly worried about what their parents had in store.

While not all of them were cleared for leaving quite yet (They had adamantly refused to leave until they could all leave together and it just so happens that you “can never be too careful in this situation”) It was a possibility that their parents made the decision to go home for them.

This had them all tense. However unlikely it was considering the behaviors of their families thus far.

When they made it to the door, Darius hesitated, hand hovering shaking over the door knob.

He turned around, finding similar states of apprehension on the others' faces. “Are we sure?”

“Nope,” Yaz put her hands on her hips, standing taller, “But I have a feeling we’ll be fine anyway.”

“Yeah!” Kenji put his arm over Yaz’s shoulders “We got this! And, hey, if anything bad happens……we chuck Ben at them and run.” He promptly got double punched by Yaz and Ben.

Sammy smiled and made eye contact with everyone, “We ready?” 

Firm nods and grins met her question.

Darius opened the door.

--------------------------------

“We're 100% sure this is going to work out?” Ms. Fadoula crossed her arms.

“On our end? Yes. It's up to the kids from here on out.” Mr. Lyn sat on the couch, leg having been bouncing for the past 10 minutes.

They all shuffled anxiously. They had had this planned for a while, about 3 weeks into the kids’ recovery is when they began the whole process. 

While they had played with the idea for a bit, it became solidified the moment Roxie, Dave, & Mae had joined the crew. Roxie gave them a whole lecture the moment the kids had left to make sure that both the kids’ physical and mental health were being considered in all this.

Thankfully, they didn't need to stew in their anxiety much longer cause the CampFam™ soon made their entrance.

--------------------------------

The air in the room was filled with tension so thick you could cut it.

For a moment everyone was stuck staring at each other. Before Kenji broke the silence, “Soooooooo, whatcha got for us fam? Secret treasure? Blackmail for the government? Candy!?” And he never failed to cut the tension, thank you Kenji.

“Those were several jumps you made between those guesses Kenj,” Brooklyn put a hand on her hip, “But I will give you 50 bucks if it's either of the first two.”

Just like that, most of the tension was gone, only light anxiety filled the room now.

“I'm telling you right now, it's none of those things.” Mae smiled at the kids, she still had a lot to get in order in her outside life and hadn't gotten to see the campers much, so it was always nice when she had a chance. And a relief that they seemed to be recovering semi-well.

Kenji let out a dramatic groan while Brooklyn pumped her fist in silent victory.

“BUT-” Mae continued, “We do have a pretty big surprise for you all!”

The campers' curiosities were peaked at the genuine excitement behind her voice. “Okay, so what exactly is this ‘big surprise’?” Ben raised an eyebrow, a bit skeptical.

“Well,” Mrs. Fadoula started off, “We've been doing a lot of thinking and came to a few conclusions. One, you all seem to fare better together. Two, none of us have tried to kill each other or expressed huge dislike towards anyone. Three, we're all way too attached to you guys and each other.”

Something clicked for the campers at that last point. Their families had been there for each other when they were all proclaimed dead. They had grieved together, felt some of the worst pain a parent can feel. Having to face the prospect of never seeing their children again. Never seeing them grow up. And they did it together.

Mrs. Pincus picked up where she left off, “So with the money we got from suing the ever loving hell out of Jurassic World,” (That had been a fun bonding activity)

“We managed to make arrangements.” Mr. Gutierrez looked to Mr. Lyn.

“That haven't been completely finalized so it's still up to you guys.” 

Mrs. Bowman walked up to the ragtag group. “We were wondering if you all would be okay if we all lived together.” She put her hands on Darius and Kenji’s shoulders.

There was no fucking way this was real. This doesn't ever happen in real life. In real life, they would separate eventually, make do with phone calls and occasional meetups.

In real life the adults wouldn't be able to pull this off. They'd go back to their homes, keep in touch, but never even consider the possibility of all of them under the same roof.

But here, now? The author said fuck it cause they were sad and needed the CampFam™ to stay together.

Sammy snapped out of her stupor, “But, what about the ranch?” Fear leaked into her voice, “What about Ma and my siblings?”

Mr. Gutierrez was quick to step in, “Hey it's okay, the ranch is still there, still safe.” He walked up to her, “The planned place is only a couple hours away from the ranch. So, we can travel back and forth, stay in one place for however long and then the other. We can start once you and the other kids adjust”

While this was going on, Mrs. Bowman and Brand took Darius and Kenji outside (After a quick reassurance to the other campers)

“Look, I know this is bombshell number 2 of the day but I'm running out of time to do this because I got stuck with a prick of a person that loves making my life difficult.” She turned to Kenji, “As you know, your father was arrested and normally that would place you in the foster system,” Both boys tensed at that, “But, in the time you all were here, I managed to become approved to foster and adopt.”

They saw where this was headed, “Darius, I brought you here as well because this majorly concerns you as well and I've already talked with Brand,” she turned to Kenji and gave him a paper. “Would you be okay if I adopted you? You don't have to answer right now, you can discuss it-”

Both boys had tuned her out. They were stunned, like deers in headlights before looking at each other.

Darius's face morphed into a smile that almost split his face in half. Kenji’s face mirroring the movement not a second later. 

Maybe it should've been a harder choice. Maybe there should've been some turmoil over his dad. But…..the Bowmans had given him more love and care in 2 months (longer if you count on the island with Darius) than he had gotten from his dad in years. 

He had thought about it, a lot, gone over everything in his mind and out loud with his ragtag family. This was a choice that for once felt as easy as breathing.

“I-Yes. YES!”

--------------------------------

“HOW IS THIS REAL!” Was the general point being yelled by the campers the moment the door closed.

It took a few minutes but a lot of jumping, pacing, and running around the room later and they were all sat in a circle on the floor, a bit winded.

“Okay, we all good? No one needs to get anything else out?” 

Kenji looked around the room, “Nah, think we're all good.”

“I do have a note though,” Yaz leaned back on her hands “We've got to do some form of exercise everyday when we leave, cause we are out of practice from all this mandatory resting.”

“Speaking of leaving,” Ben was laying on the floor, crossed arms holding him up, “What are we thinking about the offer?”

--------------------------------

“-and remember to watch out for hypertension and metabolic syndrome, you can never be too careful.”

They were in the hospital lobby, families and all, getting the rundown of how to continue their recoveries outside the hospital. 

Some of them only needed some more rest and other minor things. Yaz, Ben, and Sammy had more extensive things to do. 

Yaz cause of her ankle, Ben cause of surviving off of berries and dinosaur injuries, Sammy cause of the Scorpius’ poison.

They were all preparing to go their separate ways.

For now, until they all get their things from their old houses and they move into the new one.

They had admittedly briefly considered all traveling house to house together, but the campers were nothing if not efficient, and it was also way too expensive.

So here they were, preparing to leave, (Pretty sure they saw one of the staff members shed a tear) Dr. Marsh standing in front of them.

“Be careful. Just because you're getting released doesn't mean you can go jumping out of windows-”

“Never gonna let me live that down are ya?”

“Or galavanting around. Keep yourselves safe and healthy and take care of each other.”

“Can do Dr. Marsh,” Darius smiled at her. Despite the fact that their guardians were all here, it had become natural for the campers to be addressed when it came to treatment or questions

And Dr. Marsh had adjusted to it, began referring to the campers most of the time even with their parents in the room. It was nice to not have to deal with someone asking someone else if you would be okay with something or how you would respond to such and such.

“I'd say we are pretty good at not dying,” Kenji smirked “If we do say so ourselves.”

“I know you all are good at not dying, I am making sure you get better at being healthy.”

“I second that,” Brand, the traitor, “You guys love making sure each other is okay while refusing to take care of yourselves. You've given everyone in this building several heart attacks each.”

He was met with a surprisingly coordinated glare from all of them at once.

“Point taken.” Raising his hands in surrender before stepping back.

Dr. Marsh grabbed the last piece of paperwork from Mrs. Pincus before turning to them, “Well, you guys are all set to leave. You all ready?”

“Oh absolutely not!” Kenji said with a smile.

“But when have we ever been?” Ben crossed his arms, grin growing on his face.

“And hey,” Yaz shrugged, “ It's the name of the game right?”

The staff watched from afar, all smiling to themselves while they listened. Yeah, they'll be okay.

Chapter Text

After a tearful see you later, they were all on route to go to their homes for the week. 

It's going about as well as anyone can expect 

--------------------------------

Yaz looked at her room, the place she had lived, had grown up in, and yet her feelings were minimal.

While she obviously had spent her younger years here, she could hardly remember those times. Most of the things at the forefront of her mind was after she had started taking running more seriously.

When she had gotten old enough to start taking things to the next level, she was hardly ever here. Always traveling to competitions, practices, you name it. This caused her room to be mostly for sleep or occasional off-day.

It felt so dead now. 

“Well,” Yaz turned to her mom, “I think I'll have an easier time packing than the others.” 

“You've got that right, all your old clothes are still in your closet and clean.”

“How? You didn't know I was alive and when you did you never went back home.”

“Friend of mine was nice enough to take care of the house while I was gone. Didn't even ask questions when I asked them to clean my dead daughter's old clothes.”

“Well, after our little mini interview with the press, they would've gotten their answer pretty damn soon anyway.” She smiled to herself, “Are we entirely sure all of my old stuff will fit?”

She chuckled, “The plan is after we move we'll take all of you shopping, you know, so it can feel more like a fresh start when we get there.”

There was silence for a minute, Yaz scanning her room and her mom looking at her daughter. Her Yaz, standing in the room she thought she'd never step foot in again.

“Yaz?” 

“Yeah?”

She held her arms out, a silent question. Yaz accepted. “I'm still not a hugger.”

“I know, neither am I. It's just so good to have you back.”

They parted and her mom left to give her some space to think, at her request.

There was a buzz under her skin. A sense of wrongness that refused to leave since 10 minutes into the plane ride. She was left pacing the room, agitated, going over the same things in her mind. She wasn't worried, no, the CampFam™ were all extremely strong in their own right. They could all take care of themselves for a week.

She pulled out her walkie talkie: A gift, the expensive ones that could reach extremely far. Something familiar to their life on the island in the best way possible. She was grateful for Kenji's blabbermouth for once (don't tell him she said that) since he had been the one to tell everyone about the walkie talkies the kids had used to stay in contact back on the island.

The weight was familiar in her hand, she could almost pretend she was just checking in and they would be back to base soon, a story about a dinosaur chase or new location to check out. They would be back soon of course, a week really isn't that long, but of course logic and emotion aren't always best friends.

After a bit, she decided against checking in on the others. Just to test how long she could hold out. To time and watch her and the other's improvement. To push her to her limit before quelling the buzz and doing it all over again. Something familiar, routine, something she could control.

Even if she was screaming inside to make sure everyone was okay.

--------------------------------

Sammy was immediately tackled by her 3 crying siblings, her mother not far behind.

All of them talking, babbling, sobbing. Her mom holding her face, she could see the way they scanned each and every visible scar marring her daughter's skin. Her small too young little brother pressing their foreheads together. Little and big sisters clinging to her and refusing to let go.

Sammy looked into her little siblings' faces. They were so small, so young, barely grown kids, who had to deal with the fact that their big sister was not coming home. 

Then her older sister, the one who took care of her when their parents were too busy with farm work to have time to. Knowing her, she probably stayed with the other two as they cried, sleeping in their rooms, and comforting their parents along the way.

Her heart broke for her family. 

Her family's hearts broke for her.

After they all calmed down, they took her back to her room. There wasn't the layer of dust she had been expecting, her belongings weren't in the exact same places, her bed, while made, looked like a rushed job.  

It was relieving. She was worried she'd have to either see her room covered in dust and feeling like a memorial to the dead or a room that looked like it was cleaned by nannies everyday.

Her family had never been the type to ‘preserve the past’ or obsess over things like that.

Blankets from their passed great-grandma? Distributed among them and used everyday

Family tool preserved for generations? Restored, taken care of, and used for its intended purpose.

Nothing was ever left on a wall if it could be used to help them. A useful lesson in society and on the island. 

A giggle left her as she darted around her room. Looking at all the nick nacks, items, quilts, homemade projects, everything like it was her first time seeing it. 

Soon she ventured out into the rest of the house, scanning the pictures on the walls, hugging Bessie, checking on all the familiar spaces. She started sprinting around their yard, ecstatic that their farm was safe, everything she did to save it wasn't for nothing. The only thing missing was…….the other part of her family.

She missed them, the momentary distraction of the farm wasn't enough to distract from that fact. She felt….fidgety, bothered. She wants Darius’ little dinosaur facts, Kenji’s jokes, Ben’s snappy remarks, Brooklyn's niche knowledge, and she wants her damn girlfriend. 

She wants them to visit her home, have dinner here, she wants her families to properly meet.

She shouldn't focus on that. She still has to figure out how what she's gonna bring to the new place. She hopes there's still gonna be stuff to do there. On the farm she helped with chores and such when she got old enough. On the island they all had their constant jobs and things to do to keep them all safe.

Besides she was already itchin’ for things to do since the hospital-

“Sammy, honey! Come on back inside! Dr. Marsh told ya to rest more, not sprint ‘cross the entirety of the farm!”

Speak of the devil. A heavy sigh and an amazing dinner later and she was sitting on her bed, alone….and no CampFam to have a sleepover with.

Her hands were around her walkie talkie, she pressed the button to put out a message-

“Sammy?” Her little brother - Nate - was standing in her door, blanket around his shoulders and the other little - Lyna - peaking out behind ‘im.

“What are y'all doin’ up? It's way too late for y'all to be up ‘n about!”

“Yeah, ‘bout that,” Their eldest - Gwen - walked in front of them, looking a little sheepish, “We were wondering if we could have a sleepover? We brought supplies for a fort.”

Gwen barely finished before Sammy said yes. One part of her was delighted at having them close to her again, another part whispered about safety in numbers.

She vowed she would talk with everyone in the morning.

--------------------------------

Brooklyn's beginning to realize she and Yaz might have some more things in common.

When they had had a rare moment of peace on the island they all talked about their lives, who they had to get back to, what they were excited to do.

Yaz had mentioned she was constantly traveling due to her running career. She herself was always traveling due to her online one. She supposed she forgot the flip side of travel.

Her room felt unbearably bland. Built for the occasional unboxing video or sleeping in the rare moments she was here. It almost made her mad, even the treehouse had had personalization to it. A testament to the people who lived inside.

If anything it certainly felt like an influencer’s room.

She swiveled her head at the sound of footsteps down the hall. She felt way to keyed up for being safely home. 

“Brook?” Her dad rounded the corner, “We were wondering what you wanted for food. You can get anything you want.”

She smirked, “Am I not supposed to ‘have a healthy diet to recover’?” 

“Eh, one little meal won't hurt that much. So, lay it on me.”

“Wendy's? I missed their potato wedges.”

A soft nod and he was out of the room. She had been excited to see her other dad when he got back. He had had to come back home to take care of the house and make sure nothing went up in flames on the business side of things.

Speaking of which, she pulled out her laptop from under her bed. Sitting on the floor, she checked on her channel and surprisingly found new videos there. 

She clicked on one titled ‘Happy Birthday Brooklyn’ 5 months into her “death”

She watched her parents do her intro, hand guns and all.

Watched them make her favorite dinner (She never loved birthday cakes) 

Watched them leave it in front of her door.

Heard their voices break.

Watched it fade to black.

Tears gathered in her eyes. 

She pulled out her walkie talkie, holding it in both hands and pressing it to her forehead. She tried to calm her breathing enough to put out a call. 

A knock at her door.

She quickly wiped her tears before opening the door. “Food?” Her dad held the bag out for her. How long had it been? She wasn't paying attention.

All she could focus on was him standing there. Him not having to leave it at her door. Him not having to pick up cold, uneaten food before it rotted. 

She crashed into him with a hug, tears building up again. He didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around his daughter.

Neither were going to admit just how long they stayed there.

--------------------------------

Darius stepped into his room, almost exactly as he left it. A few books on his bed and things shifted but otherwise, exactly the same.

“Wow, you are really living up to your ‘Dinonerd’ title.” Kenji looked over his head into the space.

Darius snorted, “Thank you for pointing out the obvious, as always, Kenj.”

“Just doin’ my part!”

It had been a not so surprisingly easy transition from friend to brother than he expected. The CampFam were already his family as far as he's concerned, it was just more officially true for Kenji now. And he, Kenji, Brand, and mom had gotten chances to hangout, talk, go through at least some growing pains during their hospital stay.

So really it was expected. There are still a lot of things to go through but he's hopeful.

Kenji snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, “Earth to Dariusaurus, you good? You got stuck up there.” He poked his forehead, which Darius swatted at much to Kenji’s amusement.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm…..” He let out a heavy sigh, weird. It's all weird. Here. Moving in week. This is his home, his dad's home. He doesn't know how he could leave. He doesn't know how he could stay. “I-....I don't know how to feel….I'm going to pivot for now, talk later.”

“Okay, sooooooooo how bout we talk about you and Ben-”

“Pivot in a different direction!”

Brand chose that moment to stick his head in the door. “Do I hear the telltale sound of teasing Darius? I'm offended that I wasn't invited to this fair occasion!” He entered the room with the fanciest accent and walk he could muster.

“Well, College boy-”

“College boy?”

“Your nickname for now. It's a work in progress and I’m tired, give me a break. Now shut up and let me finish-”

“No actually, Brand, don't let him finish.”

“Now I have to see where this is going, Kenji, carry on.”

Darius smacked his hands over Kenji’s mouth. Kenji looked at him, searching for any signs of actual discomfort. After finding nothing to warrent him stopping, he escaped from his grasp and sprinted across the room to whisper in Brand’s ear.

“The pyromaniac kid? Oh I already knew that. You two are painfully obvious.”

“I will turn both of your insides out.”

------

It was dark, Darius was staring at the walkie talkie. He didn't get the chance to look up time zones so he didn't even know if anyone was up. Kenji was doing the same, trying and failing to not look antsy.

Besides letting everyone know they all landed and made it home safe, there had been little activity, it made him nervous. 

“They're probably all settling in, I mean, that's what we've been doing all day.” Kenji’s words made sense, they didn't help ease him at all though. 

He was so used to being able to physically go and check on them. To make sure they weren't lying about their conditions to not become a burden (Which seems oddly specific but they are all very guilty of it so it's warranted).

It shouldn't be this annoying, at least not yet. They had been separated before, with minimal contact and a low chance they'd never see each other again. He should be more prepared for this. After Ben with the monorail, K#sh with him, Dr. Wu with Brooklyn, Mr. Kon with Kenji, etc. He should be more prepared.

It doesn't feel right for their group either. It feels like they would be constantly giving updates, checkups, the whole thing. But they're just not today and it feels wrong-

“We wait till morning.” Kenji’s voice broke through his whirlwind.

“Okay…”

--------------------------------

Kenji was pacing again. Mrs. Bowman (Mom? No that doesn't feel right yet) had come up to talk with him. She had asked if he wanted to go back to his old house Not home, never home and grab his things.

He doesn't know. It'd be nice to see it again, he guessed, grab a few bits and bobs. 

“Kenji?” Darius put his hand on his shoulder, despite the kind tone Kenji knew it was his ‘You can't escape this conversation cause keeping it in isn't helping you’ voice (Again! What is with them and specific bullshit!) 

Fingers snapped in front of his face, “You good? Getting stuck up there?” Darius poked his forehead, looking equally smug and concerned.

“Way to throw my words back at me D, that hurt.” He pointed a finger to his chest, “Right. here.”

“Pfft……seriously though, we gonna talk about it?”

“Talk about whaaaaaaAaa- don't give me that face! I hate that face!”

“Don't try to bullshit me then.” Kenji tried to interject but Darius kept talking, “Just because we're off the island and out of the hospital doesn’t mean I'm going to stop trying to make sure you're okay. Im not going to stop playing my part in the group or caring as much just because we're technically safe. I'm still me, I still care, you are a part of my family, and I know something's wrong. I've tried giving you space in the past and all it did was make it worse, so I'm trying a different approach.”

Kenji was silent before a heavy groan left his mouth “Fine, score one for Dinonerd.” 

They sat down and Kenji started talking, about his house, going back, etc.

“Well, why would you go back? Would it be like closure or are there items you want back?”

“Not closure, I don't think, I feel pretty disconnected from the place at this point. But,” Kenji fiddled with his fingers, “I think dad has some of Mom’s old stuff that he shoved out of sight when she died.” 

Darius eyes widened a bit, “Do...do you have any memories of her?”

“Not really, more like feelings, just knowing she did certain things.”

“....well...I think… it could be good for you if you decide to go.” 

Kenji was silent for a second, “You think?”

“Yeah, I'd recommend having someone to ground you though, keep you out of your thick skull.” He knocked his knuckles again Kenji’s head.

“Hey! My thick skull is awesome. You're just jealous!" He turned towards the door, heaving a sigh, "Alright, that's enough emotion for today." Kenji took a deep breath before cupping his hands around his face and walking out of the room, “Hey Mrs. Bowmaaaaaaaan! I think it's time you see Casa da Kenji!”

--------------------------------

Fuck. This. Absolutely and truly fuck this. 

Mom was with him in the living room, they were waiting for his Mother, her wife, to show up. Because the world said ‘Fuck you’ she had been on a business trip halfway across the world when the campers made it off the island.

Admittedly he was very nervous. He had only recently begun to see her as and call her his mother for a couple months before he went to camp. She had little real obligation to him other than her partner’s kid, in his mind anyway. 

What if she hated who he had become, saw him as a stranger- No. No. We are not spiraling right now. It will be fine.

Despite his inner attempts at reassuring, he was still anxious. So he decided to go with his tried and true method of just ignoring his feelings in favor of survival it's not survival anymore. 

He was sat in the corner of the couch, in clear view of entrances and exits, constantly looking around. The others were gone so he had to cover any and all weaknesses. And sure, it felt a little too close to Jungle Ben for comfort but that doesn't matter. 

He straightened up as soon as he heard footsteps outside the door. “Mother’s here.”

“What? No she won't be here until-”

The door burst open as she practically ran it down. Her eyes immediately landed on him and tears fell. Arms were around him not a second later. 

“You're okay you'reokayyou'reokayyou'realive” She repeated it to herself more than him, she sounded like she was trying to convince herself of it more than anything.

Her hands went to his face and he saw her eyes zero in on the scars on it. The claw marks to the side of his eye from the Pteranodon that failed to catch him, the smaller one above his lip, the nicks and scratches that had long faded, nothing escaped her. 

“I made it.” His smile was nothing like the crooked one he normally gave nowadays. It was wobbly, fragile he hates it. “I did it.” The smile cut through his face now.

He felt relief. She still cared for him as much as she had before for now. 

He just has to hope they accept the person he is now. He had honestly avoided his mom while in the hospital. When they had talked he had either deflected, focusing on his triumphs, or maneuvered the conversation to be about her.

Now there would be no avoiding everything. And he'd just have to hope.

After a good ol’ cry session, they were all sat on the floor, talking.

“-and your cousins are so excited that you're okay! They're hoping we'll visit them after we all get settled at the new place.”

“Wait really? They want to see me?”

“Yes? They missed you Ben.”

He raised an eyebrow, “I find that hard to believe. I wasn't exactly the most fun person to be around.”

------

They stayed up for a couple hours before moving to his room. They had stayed longer still, nervous to leave him after….everything.

Now he was sitting on his bed, alone. His parents were in their room, probably asleep. He was messing with and twisting his bandana.

This felt so wrong. He wasn’t alone but it wasn't the campers that were with him. The bed was so soft, there was no dirt or mud getting all over him, no rustle of leaves, no dangers to look out for but imaginary ones.

It's also not helpful that the house has absolutely no defense whatsoever and it was driving him nuts.

Seriously, unlocked doors, no second measures, no hidden traps or alarms, it's like they're asking for something to happen. Well, he is only going to be here a week, so it'd be fine to set up some temporary defenses right? Nothing crazy. Just enough so he can sleep a little.

Lock all doors, a trip wire here, noise maker there, nothing crazy….

------

Next morning he was asleep on his floor, woken up by the feeling of eyes on him.

“...why are you on the floor exactly?” His mom stood in the doorway, amusement leaking in her voice.

“It's comfy.”

“Well, time to get up for breakfast, we'll be down in a smidge but your mother's not exactly what I'd call a morning person.”

He was up and out of his room before she could turn around. 

Careful to avoid the traps he had set up, he surveyed the area and sat down.

With the haze of sleep behind him, he was now severely aware of his quick revert back to old habits, instead of the middle ground he had found on MantaCorp Island. But, that was a concern for future Ben. Now Ben, was going to try to enjoy breakfast with his moms for the first time in forever.

“Hey y'all! It's Sammy, is everyone alright?”

The walkie talkie went off with a chorus of answers immediately. He picked it up and sent out his own.

“Hey guys! Ben here, and I'm good! So far nothings gone wrong and my moms will be down for breakfast soon-”

Out of nowhere a loud noise went through the house along with a startled scream. Ben winced.

“....you set up traps around your house….didn't you” It wasn't a question.

“No….maybe…..yes, but only a few! Nothing too big! I promise Darius!”

“What was that about nothing going wrong?”

“Yaz one more word and I will jump through this walkie.”

“Help your parents now, jump through an inanimate object later.”

Chapter Text

After the initial day, the calls and check ups picked up a lot. None of the kids went anywhere without the walkies and it seemed there was a new thing to share every 10 minutes.

“- and I forgot how much I missed trashy fast food. Like, it's terrible but in the best way.”

“Speaking of food, how's everyone doing eating wise? Any troubles?”

“In comes Mama Kenji, hey, how's long-distance motherhood going for ya?”

“Excuse you, I am not mothering you guys!”

“Sure Kenji, suuuuuure.”

It was amusing for the adults, the banter, inside jokes, careful concern. It was all very fun to see, even if it was long-distance, especially for the ones whose kids had been very closed off before the island.

Seeing the kids’ differences individually was interesting as well.

Darius offering and openly opposing ideas where he would either just go along or sulk before.

Kenji using his humor to help the Bowmans feel better and laugh instead of poke fun.

Brooklyn stepping away from her channel, no longer basing herself on views and her persona. 

Sammy taking her own stand points in disagreements and being more sure of herself.

Yaz occasionally talking about the others to her mom and taking more breaks. (Still not a whole lot, she's Yaz after all)

Ben seeing a challenge and running at it full force, not cowering or letting someone else do it for him.

Despite these things, they could see the effects of the distance taking hold. Nervous ticks and prolonged conversations becoming more and more obvious each day. Harmless noise makers turning into elaborate and effective traps. Doing little tasks turning into trying to do so much each day that they were dead on their feet by the end of it.

They tried to stop them, reminding them they have to heal, ‘doctor's orders’ and all that. It never lasted long before they were back at it.

Sometimes one of them would sit and stare at their walkie, leg bouncing, like they were daring the thing to stay silent.

All in all, all of the adults were quite happy when the week was coming to an end, despite the sadness at leaving their old homes. Mostly they were excited to see the campers interact. They had seen them occasionally in the hospital, but never all of them for more than a couple minutes.

But, hey, how bad can it be? (Said the parents with kids who fought mercenaries and won)

Chapter Text

They could hardly blame the kids but it didn't stop the heart attacks they got when they pretty much tackled each other with no regard for their injuries as soon as they laid eyes on each other.

But even at the worried shouts Ben couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled in his throat. He had missed them so much. You'd think that being separated from the others before, for way longer, would make it easier. In a way it was easier, in another it wasn't.

But that was last week, that was the past. In the present he's with the other’s, they're safe, so there's no use dwelling on it.

Not like he could focus enough to do that anyway, the longer the hug went on the more he wanted to just melt into the ground. It was a familiar feeling, one he could never seem to get rid of no matter how hard he tried.

Eventually, they all separated, doing once overs and giving a few people a ‘we'll talk about that later’ look.

Cause in true fuck him fashion, spending so much time with the same people means they can read your emotional and physical well-being pretty damn well, even at their best attempts at hiding anything that was wrong. But he wasn't the only one who got a ‘look’ so at least he wasn't alone……yippee

-----

They separated again for the drive from the airport to the house. But as soon as they got there the campers made sure they were next to each other again before they took a look at their new homebase.

Which was a two story, big ol’ log cabin, classic roof, pond, middle of the woods, and all. It was much bigger than most of them have ever lived in, Brooklyn and Kenji being the exceptions. Which left the kids gobsmacked.

Quick glances at each other and they were sprinting inside.

They all scouted the house, finding every room in the house in record time. Most of the rooms were upstairs, a few guest rooms on the bottom floor. The living room was open to the second floor, had a pointed ceiling, and huge windows to the back porch and pond. 

It's not exactly what most would call a huge log cabin, more like a bigger than normal, fancier, long-term stay, log cabin.

“Y'all this place is huge!” Sammy practically screeched, running around and touching everything.

“And much more homey than the Mantah Corp place already.” Yaz poked her head into the living room from the second floor.

But that doesn't stop any of the campers’ exaggerations or excitement.

“Alright kiddos,” Mr. Gutierrez walked in, “Come on, let's start unpacking and picking rooms!”

“One problem,” Darius started, “There's not enough rooms for everyone.”

“We know,” Mr. Lyn came up beside him, “We thought we'd all probably suffocate with fourteen of us under the same roof, especially the adults. So there's another area, not even a minute's walk away, where the rest of us will be and so will Roxie, Dave, and Mae if they want to come visit for a while.”

Darius turned to his mom, put back in shock by that new piece of information, “How much money did you all get exactly to be able to pull this off?”

“More than we know what to do with. That said, we figured we should spoil you all a bit with it.”

“Well that was frustratingly vague” Yaz deadpanned.

Kenji jumped in, “Hey, with all I got from the old man, we have even more money than we know what to do with!”

“I know what to do with it,” Brooklyn walked around the corner, Ben not far behind, “Get makeovers.” She grabbed the back of Ben's tank top the moment he turned to run. “That includes you Jungle Boy.”

--------------------------------

“I hate this.”

Darius put a hand on Ben's shoulder, “Oh, come on, it won't be that bad.”

Brooklyn turned and crossed her arms over her seat, “As the only one of us who has dealt with being famous? A group of kids coming back from the dead from a dinosaur island, one of which being a beloved content creator? Oh yes, it will be that bad.”

Ben groaned, “Why do we have to do this again?”

Yaz turned to face them, “Uh, you mean besides the fact that we don't have any clothes that fit us and we all desperately need haircuts?”

Ben swatted at her hand as she ruffled his hair, which now reached mid-neck, “I hate it when you have a point.” 

“You must hate it a lot then.”

The rented car slowed to a stop, which they got so the kids could all ride together while the Pincus’ drove them to the nearest mall. Yaz, Brooklyn, and Kenji in the back. And Darius, Ben, and Sammy in the back back, in those orders. 

“Hey look on the brightside!” Sammy turned from looking out the window, “We already took care of our rooms so we don't have to worry ‘bout that when we get back!”

“Yes. That makes this situation so much better. Thank you Sammy. I said with no sarcasm whatsoever.” To which she (lightly) punched him in the shoulder.

“We're here!”

“Hey before we get out, what should we call you guys? I mean you're both ‘Mrs. Pincus’ so how will you guys know who we’re talking to?” Kenji asked.

“Well, I'm Lyra, Ben calls me Mom.”

“And I'm Evelyn, he calls me Mother.”

“You both have such pretty names!” Brooklyn practically squealed.

“Speakin’ of, Brooklyn, what about your dads? Would they mind us callin’ ‘em by their first names?” Sammy leaned over Ben to talk to her.

“Yeah, the dad that stayed at the hospital was Sam. The other one is Morgan.”

“Great info Brook, really great, now Sammy, can you please not crush my ribs-”

“Oh, sorry Ben!”

“Come on guys!” Kenji shouted as they all started climbing out, “Time to get some fresh fits!” 

“Never say that again!” Yaz shouted over her shoulder while putting the seat down for the other three to get out.

As soon as he stepped out Ben could already tell this was gonna suck. “This is a bad idea.”

“So you've said,” Darius stood beside him, looking a bit amused, “But this is a necessary trip and hey, it's us, we'll find some way to make it less miserable.”

“Even with this being our first time in public and a high chance we'll be recognized and oogled at?”

“Even with that.”

“...” Ben sighed, “Might as well try to get this over with.”

“That's the spirit!” 

They all headed inside, a quick scan of the area and they were off. It felt so oddly…normal. After everything, here they are, shopping for new clothes and accessories in a decently populated mall.

Ben was pulled from his thoughts by a loud bang. All of the campers snapped their heads in the direction of the sound…..and saw someone pick up a large item they had dropped.

Darius let out a breathy chuckle, “False alarm.” and they continued on their path.

Ben decided to remain guarded anyway, he's had enough heart attacks for a lifetime so he'd prefer to know if they all were in actual danger or not. 

Which was a good call cause he spotted a bunch of people pointing at them and heading their way.

He sped up to be in step with Darius and jerked his head towards the group. Darius caught the message silently caught the attention of everyone else. 

“We gonna give them the slip?” Kenji asked in what was probably the quietest whisper-shout he could manage.

“Oh, most definitely,” Brooklyn walked in step with him, “This is gonna be fun.”

Sammy drifted to Ben’s parents, “Stick close to one of us alright? Bunch ‘o people recognized us and we're gonna get away before they can ask pesky questions.”

“Alright guys, you know the drill,” A light smile ghosted Darius's face, “Three,”

Brooklyn smiled, “Two,”

Ben grinned, “One.”

And they were off. They had seen where everything was through an app and planned the main stops beforehand so they all knew where to go. It was the different routes to test that were the fun bit. 

And maybe the looks on that group's faces when they skedaddled out of fuckin’ nowhere was quite fun too.

They spilt off into their normal groups, Lyra joining Sammy and Yaz, and Evelyn joining Darius and Ben, as they tried to go as fast as they could without drawing too much attention. Which they weren’t the best at but they'd figure it out eventually.

After running circles around the group for a bit they met up at the Hot Topic.

“Why is this our first stop again?” Yaz questioned.

“Because, whenever I've been here there's not that many people and there's some pretty cool stuff in here I want to check out.” Brooklyn proceeded to walk inside, everyone else close behind.

Ben had to admit, there were some pretty cool bits and bobs around the place. Nothing he was willing to get quite yet, but definitely clocked for later. Once again, same old same old, split off, groups, cover ground, meet back up later. 

While Darius was looking through the bucket of pins, something caught Ben’s eye. He walked over and examined the piece.

It was just a pair of plain dark cargo shorts. But cargo shorts are known for their pockets, and he was never one to deny more storage. And maybe he just liked them in general. The hospital had said they all need to work on the whole ‘Getting things because you like them and not just cause they're useful’ thing.

Personally, he thought that was stupid but might as well give it a run.  

He grabbed his size and felt a giddy feeling built in his chest. He hadn't strayed far, still in Darius's line of sight, regardless he sped walked to get there faster.

“Whatcha got there Ben?”

“Cargo shorts, I figured the extra storage would be useful.”

Darius smiled at him, “I actually found something for you!”

Ben tilted his head, “Really? What did you find?”

He held out a light blue bandana with white detailing, “I figured since your current one is a literal Tee-shirt and pretty worn down, you'd want a new one?” Darius shuffled a bit nervously.

Ben's face split into a smile as he took it from Darius, “Thank you! I honestly forgot that this thing was on its last leg.” The bandana itself was actually a thicker material than he thought it would be and pretty soft.

Darius smirked at him, nerves gone at Ben's reaction, “Yeah, I figured.”

“Oh hush up Bowman.”

After they all got some things from Hot Topic they went to several other stores, having to give a couple more people the slip along the way. It was admittedly more fun than Ben thought it would be. And in Sammy's words 'Much more fun to use on mostly harmless people rather than dinos'.

Sammy and Brooklyn had attempted to get him to indulge and try new things and styles but that was decidedly an adventure for another day. He did grab an olive green tanktop looking thing and they did all get haircuts. The hairstylists were honestly very nice and not pushy or rude about the whole 'Nublar Six' thing.

For fun they all got a little bit of pink in their hair, some streaks, tips, touch ups, etc. They all were happy with the results despite pink not suiting everyone super well.

They were at their last stop, buying things that Dr. Marsh recommended to help with the bad days. A few compression gloves, stabilizers, a forearm crutch, etc. His parents had waved them on ahead while they payed, a few people had began to look longer and they didn't want to take chances.

He just counted them lucky they had managed to avoid everyone thus far. Seemed almost suspiciously nice given the CampFam’s past record.

…..Nevermind, just their luck, as they tried to exit the store there were people, maybe early-late 20s, blocking the entrance……shit.

“Oh, hey, there they are!” Oh this guy just sounds like a douchebag, “See! Told you I wasn't lying, the Nublar Six in. the. flesh!” 

At that a few people in the store looked their way.

Double shit.

“Well I'll be damned!” The girl next to the guy spoke, “It really is them! Hey, can we ask some questions?”

Brooklyn started to answer, “Uh, no, we are actually trying to leave-”

“Great! So,” A new guy popped in, way too far in their personal space for comfort, “How did you all manage to survive? I know you guys had a little speech with the press but I want to know the actual story. Did you turn on each other? Cannibalize? You kill anything? Anyone?”

“What! Why would you ask that?” Kenji spoke up from the back of the group, keeping an eye on the people that were still staring.

“Not hearing a no~” the guy fucking smirked like he had won some big argument, “And, let's face it, there's no way you get away with scars like that without having killed something.” 

He proceeded to grab Ben's face in one hand, an arm in the other, and yank him towards him. Turning his face and arm this way and that, examining the aforementioned scars. 

Well and truly, what the fuck. He remembered society being more polite than this. He expects something like this from the people on the islands, not random strangers in a fucking mall. For a moment he was so stunned he didn't react, before Darius and Yaz’s voices broke him out of it.

“Oh I think the fuck not!” Yaz yelled, that was enough for his body to kick into gear. He twisted his face out of the guys hold and full on bit the fucker's hand hard. He held on while the guy tried to yank his hand back, he didn't let go until there was a slight taste of iron in his mouth.

The guy scrambled backwards, holding the hand to his chest, and shouting his head off, "What the fuck is wrong with you? What are ya some kind of animal!?"

“You should leave.” Darius stepped forward and  glared at the guy. For a moment the dumbass looked like he was about to argue. At least before the rest of the CampFam leveled him their own murder looks, Ben included of course.

The guy scoffed, “Whatever, I got what I was looking for anyway.” He and his group walked away.

After watching them until they were out of sight, Darius's face softened as he turned to Ben, who was itching at his face and arm, “You good?”

“Other than getting reminded why I used to use hand sanitizer religiously? I'm all good, guy didn't even have enough strength to lightly bruise.” 

Darius opened his mouth to say something else before Ben's moms came running up.

“You kids alright?” Evelyn did a headcount as she spoke, “We heard some commotion.”

“Some stupid people cornered us and started asking stupid questions,” Brooklyn crossed her arms, “I don't remember people being that bad.”

Sammy was pacing a bit, “If another person tries to touch one of us again I swear-”

“Agreed.” Yaz glared in the direction the group disappeared to.

Lyra and Evelyn glanced at each other and at the kids before Lyra spoke up, “How bout we go back? We've got everything we need and we should book it before those guys call security or management about it.”

“Couldn't have said it better myself.”

Chapter Text

The drive back was quiet for the most part. 

The campers were all still keyed up, staving it off by watching out the windows for nothing, there was nothing to find, nothing was going to get them here, no danger, nothing

Lyra and Evelyn tried to figure out what happened, but either got a vague response or nothing at all. After those attempts it was decidedly silent.

Silent when they got out.

Silent footsteps while they walked.

Silent as they all went to Darius's room.

Silent when they closed the door, leaving Ben’s parents staring up the stairs, worry contorting their faces.

A bone-deep sigh left the campers at the light click of the door behind them. They settled into the space, Yaz leaning against the door, Sammy in the bean bag, Kenji on the desk, Brooklyn on the floor in front of his bed, and him and Ben on said bed.

The room itself was pretty spacious, enough to fit them all comfortably. A poster and some of his stuff had already been set up, not everything given that they haven't been here long, but enough to feel cozier.

He has to say the giant beanbag and the pillows and blankets piled on it was a welcome new addition.

He surveyed the room to see everyone staring into the distance, collecting their thoughts on what had happened.

Eventually, his eyes landed on Ben, he was staring. His eyes were narrowed, constantly darting from the window, to the door, to the campers, and back again. Strangely, his head kept tilting slightly side to side.

Checking for noises 

Despite Ben’s reassurances right after the event, he was still itching at his arm, leaving red marks and flaking skin.

Darius reached over and grabbed Ben's hand and pulled it away, locking their fingers together. “We okay?” 

The silence that answered spoke volumes. The looks in their eyes spoke more.

He thought for a moment. Thought how to approach this. They have options here, on Nublar they had to deal with things as soon as possible and get it over with. On Manta Corp Island they could go a bit slower, not a lot though, it went to shit pretty quickly. In the hospital they couldn't even be entirely sure they were safe with those people until later in their stay.

Here they have time. They were in the middle of the woods, with trusted adults who they knew wouldn't hurt them, and easy escape routes at their disposal. 

He knew they all had different ways they dealt with things, different paces they go at, and different paces that are best for them. And, all in all, the encounter was not nearly as bad as everything and everyone else they faced before.

They had learned to take one thing after another and learn to be okay with it.

So why was one weird guy so jarring after everything they've seen? Especially already knowing what people can do and become, the lengths they'll go to. 

It would be easier to fall into their usual rhythm, take care of the problem so they can move on from it……

But, what's the harm in trying to go a bit slower for once?

“Come on, let's go to the living room.” They all snapped from their thoughts and looked confused, “Just trust me on this one, okay?”

Almost everyone nodded and he made eye contact with Ben. After a few seconds of shifting around he nodded as well. Darius smiled and pulled Ben along, everyone else not far behind.

The Pincus’ had already vacated the space by the time they got there, so that spared them that slightly awkward conversation. “Alright,” Darious turned to face the others, “We're gonna do this the ol' fashion way-”

Yaz pointed at him, “Never say that again.”

“-and divide and concur.” A bright smile followed his words.

Kenji put his hands on his hips, “Whaaaaaat are you playing at D?”

“Nothing. Just follow my lead alright?” 

“Alright Dinonerd,” Brooklyn crossed her arms, “What's the plan?”

------

“Why are we doing this exactly?” Ben asked, pulling a branch out of the way for Darius. 

It was just them, the others doing their own tasks (for the plan he has yet to explain)

“We're getting some light foods from the woods.”

“Well, yeah, but why?”

“A few reasons, one, grabbing lighter foods since I doubt any of us are feeling particularly adventurous after the mall fiasco. Two, It'll be quicker and familiar with the team splitting. Three, preparation for the suprise plan.” Darius paused, “And, I thought you'd like to get used to our surrounding area without having to explain it to the adults, learn where food sources are and all that.”

Ben stopped in his tracks, rushing to catch up with Darius after a moment too long. He opened his mouth to speak before Darius continued.

“Not that I particularly like that you feel the need to, but you seem to feel better if you know so- yeah-”

They walked in silence for a bit before a small smile made its way to Ben's face, “Thank you.”

------

When they made it back the others were already there waiting for them. 

Kenji laughed between his words, “Gotta admit Dinonerd, not a bad idea.”

“You guys figure it out?”

“Well considering everything we have here,” Yaz gestured to the piles of blankets, pillows, chairs, and cushions, “It pretty much spelled itself out.”

“What are we gonna put on though?” Kenji pointed to the TV.

“Um, is that even a question!” Brooklyn dug through their pile of assorted proper sleepover junk.

“Uh, yes, that's why I asked?” 

Brooklyn ignored him and pulled out a couple discs from the pile. “Ester Stone!”

“You have the seasons on disc? Since when?” Sammy ran over and grabbed the first season from her hand.

“Since I made an apocalypse video when I was a little kid and panicked cause I was worried if it actually happened and the internet went down I wouldn't have access to them. My logic was you can probably fix a TV and DVD player a lot faster than the entire internet.”

Yaz shrugged, “That tracks.”

“Okay, now that we have the movie set, fort time!” Kenji ran towards the pile and began setting up.

“Not like that dingus!” Yaz took one of the cushions from him, “That wouldn't fit one person, much less six.”

“Nuh uh-”

Soon the other two joined in.

Darius smiled at the scene and turned to Ben, who was setting the food they collected on the coffee table, “You want to throw your two cents in?”

Ben took in the scene before them, rolled his eyes, and walked over, squatting next to Kenji, “Ya know Kenji, you could do with listening to Yaz in situations other than life and death?”

Yaz leaned over from Kenji’s other side, “No I'm pretty sure that would actually kill him.”

“Really? Damn man you should get that checked out.”

“I already tried to talk with him, he insists it's fine.”

“Ah, he's in the denial stage then?”

“Yep.”

“Shame, real shame.”

Yaz put a hand on Kenji's shoulder, “You'll get there eventually.”

Ben copied the motion, “It's never too late to get hearing aids.”

“Hearing aids?-” Yaz cut herself off and laughed, “Nope nevermind, I got it.”

Kenji let out a groan, “Dariuuuuuuuuus Sammmmmmmmmmmy, come get them. They're gonna kill me before I reach 20.”

Eventually they got there when it got dark. They could've finished sooner, but anytime someone got too focused or zoned out they'd be swiftly pulled out of it by friendly banter or a shoulder bump that turned into competition.

Now they were all in the (Pretty damn impressive) fort, watching Ester Stone…or at least they were. Now it was just Ben and Darius up (shocker) hands intertwined and blinking sleep from their eyes.

“Are you okay?” Darius had asked before, this time he hoped for a truthful answer.

Ben was silent for a while before he took his free hand and rubbed his thumb over the peeling skin and scars on the arm Darius was holding

“Maybe a human's hand is more grotesque than any monster's.”

Chapter Text

Ben had managed to get a little bit of “eyes-closed rest”, but neither him nor Darius really got to the sleep portion of the night.

If he's being honest he feels a bit guilty for shutting down on Darius since his last sentence had been…a bit concerning he supposed. To someone as caring as Darius at least.

“Hey, I know you're up, you wanna come on a run?” 

Ben opened his eyes to Yaz kneeling next to him. “Sure, why not, might help me clear my mind,” He took the offered hand up.

Yaz grinned at him, “Try to keep up.”

“That's my line.”

--------------------------------

“Regretting coming with me yet?” She looked at him, running side by side.

He panted a bit between his words, “A little, not yet though!” While Yaz definitely still had the upper hand in stamina, (she was pretty much in the Olympics for crying out loud), he was the second running in the group, which he wants to maintain, so he joins her for runs sometimes…

And maybe to try and beat her one day but what's a little friendly competition between trauma-bonded friends.

“Oh really? Well, hope you can keep that up!” She proceeded to speed up to near sprinting.

Ben groaned and sped up to match her pace.

A while later, they stopped under a fairly large tree to rest up before the run back. 

Ben was heavily panting now and turned his head to Yaz, “You made this run longer on purpose…didn't you?” 

“Hey, you said it, not me.”

“I hate you.”

“Keep telling yourself that buddy,” she was quiet for a moment before speaking up, “You manage to ‘clear your mind’ a bit?”

He shrugged, “A bit, yeah.”

He leaned against the tree trunk and closed his eyes for a moment. After he caught his breath he opened his eyes to the tree branches above him. More specifically, the fruit in said trees.

“Hey, Yaz, you want a snack?”

“What? You stash some in your dork pouch?”

“Why are you calling it that now too?”

“It's got a nice ring to it, now, you got food in it or what?”

Ben rolled his eyes and reached up to the nearest branch. He hulled himself up, adjusting his stance a bit so he didn't feel like he was gonna fall off. Man he was out of practice, he really needed to get back on climbing cause he swears it used to feel easier than this.

“You look like a knockoff Spider-Man!” 

“Very helpful Yaz thank you!”

He repeated the process till he was pretty damn high in the tree. Sure, he could've stopped sooner and grabbed the apples nearest to the ground, but it's so nice climbing up and up in trees. A familiar, practiced motion he had used for so many reasons that there's little severe emotion attached to it. And the emotions that were there were positive for the most part.

Somewhere along the way he'd reached the branches that could no longer hold his weight. He settled down on his current branch, gazing at the rising sun.

Once again, he found himself closing his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin and breeze against his face. He'd forgotten about his original task for apples but he didn't feel too upset about it.

“I'll never understand how you like climbing so much.” 

He slowly opened his eyes a bit to Yaz, having made her way up next to him.

“You said it yourself during one of my first runs with you, ‘Do it enough and you might actually start to like it’.”

She heaved a sigh, “I did say that didn't I.”

They stayed in peaceful silence for a bit, they didn't say much, even though they both wanted to, to some extent. But that's for another day, today they only said a few things.

“Hey Yaz?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Hey Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

He cracked a smile, “Copier.”

She hooked her arm over his shoulder and gave him a noogie, dislodging his headband, “Come on, let's get back and get on some clothes that aren't falling apart as we speak.”

“Wise as ever Yaz.”

--------------------------------

When they got back they were not expecting a slew of concerned adults running up to them, talking over each other and fussing. The duo looked at each other before simply pushing past them to get to the other campers who had the most ‘I am done with this’ looks on their faces.

“Uh, what's going on with them?” Yaz gestured behind her.

Darius sighed, “Well, some of them came to check on us this morning and upon finding out you two were gone and we didn't know your guys’ exact location, they got everyone over here to search about 10 minutes ago.”

Kenji interjected, “Before you guys ask, yes, we did tell them you guys were probably out for a run.”

Brooklyn continued, “But they're all parents at heart, so they went Raph ROTTMNT panic mode.”

Sammy looked confused, “What's that?”

“Did I not mention Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when we made the watch list? I'll add it.”

Not a second after she finished did a jeep pull up.

To the kids’ delight, it was their three favorite dino-traumatized adults, Dave, Roxie, and Mae.

Who, when they did a quick survey to see all campers accounted for, they gave expectant looks to the sheepish looking parents. Lyra stepped forward, “Sorry guys, false alarm. Yaz and Ben just came back not a minute ago.”

“Well,” Mae walked over to the two, checking them over before moving to the others, “I guess I'd rather an inconvenient misunderstanding than genuine trouble, but,” She side-eyed the campers, “I'm sure there's plenty of both with this group.”

They smiled at her comment before Brooklyn asked, “But, how did you three get here so fast? Don't you all have lives that don't revolve around a bunch of kids?”

Roxie stepped in for this one, “We thought it best to stick a bit close by for a while, just in case. Our current jobs can be done remotely for the time being while we find new ones, so it wasn't a huge change.”

“I have a question too,” Dave addressed the campers, “Why are you all still wearing your old stuff? Didn't you all go shopping?”

Sammy answered, “We did but…uh…we ran into…complications.”

“Well, go change! I wanna see these new outfits!”

They were in the house and up the stairs in seconds.

Yaz was down first, pink streaks in her hair, a simple tight purplish shirt and athletic black shorts. Coupled with a sweat sleeve on her left arm, gray and….darker gray shoes, and white socks with two purple stripes.

Kenji was down next, having gotten the tips of his hair dyed pink, a light blue bomber jacket, blue jeans, and-

“I told you those white and red shoes would look stupid.”

“Well now I'm definitely keeping them, just to spite you.”

“Y'all, ain't no reason for fightin’ ‘bout it,” Sammy walked down, a pale blue tank top, color blocked jeans, classic muck boots, and an even more classic orange flannel overtop, ends tied so they weren't hanging down.

She kept her old headband on but tied her hair back in a light blue bandana, pink ends to match with Brooklyn.

Speaking of, Brooklyn popped out the door. Surprisingly, she kept the brown roots she grew out since her redye at Manta Corp. She did add a blend of hot pink to the very ends though.

Her hair was in a low pony, cut so it lay a bit past her chin when it was down. She went with a light pink tank top with darker details, the jean shorts over legging combo, elbow length fingerless gloves, and of course her classic shoes, same model, new pair. Tied around her waist was a pale yellow jean jacket.

“Gotta say Brooklyn, didn't expect that style from you but it fits ya real well!” 

“Thanks Sammy,” Her eyes landed on Kenji, “Did you straight up copy my old look?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...Nuh uh.”

Darius walked out before she could respond. Because of his hair type, they ended up using this wax dye stuff they found online. Which ended up a bit darker than anticipated, but still looked cool.

He ended up with a lightish blue long-sleeve shirt with (Pretty much white) light blue sleeves. He got the shoes Yaz got but in reverse cause why not, light gray jeans, and a light yellow short-sleeved hoodie.

He found “gloves” that only looped around his thumb and wrist instead of his whole hand/fingers that he was trying out as well.

Darius looked at them and did a double-take, “Did you copy Brooklyn's old outfit?”

Brooklyn put her hands on her hips and gave Kenji an expectant look.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

Kenji slowly grabbed sunglasses from his pocket and put them on, “...Nuh uh.”

“Oh for the love of-”

Ben walked out next, “How are you already about to fight Kenji in the span of like 2 minutes?”

Ben had changed up his haircut a lot from his original look. It was cut short again in a way so it was a lot more fluffy and didn't lay flat anymore with pink streaks strewn throughout. He had on an olive green tank top that looked more like he had just cut the sleeves off a tee-shirt than anything, with darker olive accents. (See: Jack Sullivans’s shirt; red = darker, white = olive green)

He had the cargo shorts he grabbed from the mall, his fanny pack around his waist, new bandana still resting in his hand, and his old one tied around his arm. 

Darius looked at his shoes, “Ben where did you find slades in a mall.”

“Don't worry about it,” He finished slipping on his compression gloves before looking up at everyone, “Sorry it took me so long, I can't figure out how I want to tie this stupid thing,” he held out his new bandana, which was promptly snatched from his hand by Brooklyn.

“I have an idea! I've been going through all the stuff that's popular online nowadays to catch myself up, and the people on witchtok tie their bandana in a really cool way! Here, let me try.”

Ben shrugged, “Tie away.”

When she was done, leaving his bangs out in front, he actually did really like the look and left it alone.

“My work here is done.”

“I gotta say, I feel a lot better in these,” Kenji adjusted his sleeves as he spoke.

“I second that,” Sammy smiled, “I missed my old clothes but they don't exactly fit anymore.”

“Well,” Dave clap his hands together, “Now that you all have brand new clothes on, why don't we immediately go get mud on them!”

Roxie gave him a ‘Why are you like this’ look, before sighing, “What are you planning?”

“Well, since we never got to really be camp counselors and do the whole ‘camptivities’ thing, I thought we could do a couple,” Dave rubbed the back of his head, “crafts, hikes, smores, the whole deal.”

Roxie thought for a moment before shrugging, “Not a half bad idea actually, what do you kids think?”

Kenji started to speak, “Um. I'm no-”

“-YES! THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE BEST IDEA EVER!” Before Sammy interrupted him at least.

Ben shrugged, “Could be fun, why not.”

“Great!” Dave cleared his throat, “First activity!”

--------------------------------

That was how they ended up in the woods, building a new treehouse.

Their parents and Mae were all still back at the house, ‘Campers and Councilors only’ as Dave had said. They traveled pretty far back into the woods to find a tree big enough for what they needed, which was nice for the campers. A disconnect from the confusion of their new lives. Darius was grateful to Dave for this whole idea, it was quite nice after they finally decided what they were going to do first.

Brooklyn's voice broke through his thoughts, “Na na na na no, if you do that there's no way this thing’ll last! You should put this here, and add a beam there to support it.”

Even if there were several disagreements on nearly everything. 

So far they already had an outline built in the tree. It was in no way stable or suitable for stepping a toe on, but it was a start. (He will forever be grateful for Ben's climbing skills after this project)

He felt knuckles tapping on his head, “Hey, the point of this was for you guys to get out of your heads, not buried in them,” Dave smiled at him, “I will give it to you, you guys do get things done when you're in the zone, but try to enjoy the process, yeah?”

When Darius didn't answer, Dave put a hand on his shoulder and guided him over to where Brooklyn, Yaz, and Roxie were talking. When they reached them Darius hopped into the conversation. 

“We should try to make a bigger second floor,” He pointed up to the treehouse, “Our last one was too small and I wanna see how far we can push this thing!”

Yaz put in her two cents, “Oo! You know those mini elevator things some mansions and hotels have?”

“A dumbwaiter?”

“Yeah, we should build something similar. It could come in handy.”

Brooklyn lit up, “What if we span it across multiple trees! We could use rope bridges to connect them, and we'll have a lot more space to work with!” 

“Ambitious…” Roxie’s skeptical tone was met with a variety of pleading looks, to which she sighed, “But, I guess we can try to make it work.”

The cheers she got were worth the huge headache this ‘small project’ just became.

Darius turned his head to look for something before turning back towards the group, “Hey, where's Ben, Sammy, and Kenji?”

--------------------------------

“Guuuuuuys! I'm pretty sure it's long gone by now, can we go back!” Kenji panted and took a breath, “Or at least can we stop running!”

Sammy looked back at Kenji, “Not until I make sure the critter is okay and back with their mama.”

He let out a long groan, “Ben, please, back me up here, I'm sure it's fine!”

“I'm with Sammy,” Ben responded, “We should make sure.”

“Of course, why did I expect any different from Mr. Adoptadino.”

“You're just jealous animals don't like you as much.”

“At least I'm not in danger of attracting zoos into the new house.”

“Guys! I see somethin’!” Sammy slid to a stop behind a bush.

Ben was crouched beside her in a second, Kenji not far behind. When they peered out, they saw a field full of deer, sun catching on the ends of vegetation and the deers’ pelts, wind blowing through the scene, it looked like a scene straight out of a movie.

Sammy pointed, whispering now, “There.”

A small fawn stumbled out of the forest a little ways away from them, picking up speed and running to the herd.

“Come on little guy, you got this,” Kenji whispered. (So much for ‘it'll be fine, leave it alone’)

After a few painstakingly slow minutes, a doe let out a call that the fawn ran towards. The two met between the crowd of deer and stayed still for a few moments, like they were trying to savor the feeling.

They stayed behind the bush for a while. Just watching them until it was dusk and the deer had all left the field.

“Wait,” Sammy hesitantly looked at the other two, “Did either of you tell anyone before we left?”

“...shit.”

--------------------------------

“Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit-”

“So much for not doing anymore running!”

“We are so dead! We were gone for hours! Who does that!? Who disappears for hours, literally just watching deer!?!?”

“Us?”

“That was a rhetorical question Ben!”

Sammy interrupted the two, “We're almost there! Step on it!”

The three burst out of the treeline at seemingly the perfect moment. The other half of the campers looked like they were about to start a fight. Dave and Roxie looked equal parts worried and exasperated. And they were all in the middle of an argument.

They stopped when they arrived, greeted by the sight of them all nearly doubled over panting. Roxie started to speak but Ben held up a finger, “Hold- on- give us a- minute-”

After managing to catch their breaths, they gave the other five sheepish looks, “Sorry y'all, we were tryin’ to make sure a fawn got to their mama safely and…lost track of time?” 

Roxie pinched the bridge of her nose, “You guys were gone for three hours helping one fawn??” Sammy shrugged apologetically.

Kenji crossed his arms, “I'd like to say I was dragged against my will.”

Ben quirked an eyebrow, “You watched me and Sammy leave before running after us and shouting about at least telling someone when we run off.”

Kenji elbowed him in the stomach.

Sammy picked up the sentence for Ben, “Which you didn't do either sooooooooo.”

They gave him shit-eating grins and Kenji groaned, “I hate both of you.”

Dave spoke before they could continue, “As much as I love this whole banter thing you guys have going on here, we've gotta get you guys back before your parents kill us.”

“...shit.”

--------------------------------

Now all camp affiliated individuals were panting their lungs out.

Darius spoke first, “I am beginning to regret our choice in location for the treehouse.”

Ben let out a chuckle, “You're telling me.”

“Alright guys,” Yaz started walking towards the house, “How about we get inside so we can get some food!”

“For once I agree with you Yaz,” Kenji and everyone else started after her.

Once they reassured a bunch of anxious adults and were all inside, Dave, Roxie, and Mae all stood at the entrance.

“Sorry kiddos, we've gotta head out,” Mae gave an apologetic smile and held out her arms for a hug, “Sorry we didn't get the chance to talk much, you all will have to fill me in next visit.”

The kids crashed into her and nearly squeezed her lungs out, giving similar treatment to Dave and Roxie soon after.

A “Bye kids!” and they were gone, leaving just the kids awake in the house.

“Alright guys,” Sammy said as she and Yaz walked to the kitchen, “I'm heating’ up somethin’ quick, want anything? Brook?”

“Hot Pocket!”

“Alright, Darius?”

“Can you air fry some of those frozen fries please?”

“You got it, Ben?”

“Not hungry.”

“Kenji?”

“I'll steal some of D's fries.”

The two left and came back with everyone's food ten minutes later.

“Sleepover again?” Darius asked

Kenji cleared his throat and spoke in his poshest accent, “Well, why waste a perfectly constructed fort? One of such excellence should be slept in for more than one measly night!”

Brooklyn smiled and copied it, “Exactly, anyone of any respectable status would be able to make that deduction with their eyes closed!”

“Quite right, Ms. Brooklyn, good to see the youth aren't all uncultured,” Ben lifted a finger as he spoke, waving around like he was making a decree.

Yaz groaned, “Please Ben, stop trying to attempt accents.”

Ben laughed as he threw a pillow at her, “Oh shut up!”

Once again they all fell asleep in the fort in a tangled mess of limbs, watching Ester Stone. But, unlike last time, they all felt a lot lighter.

They still fell asleep halfway through the episode though.

Chapter Text

Yaz yawned as she woke, feeling more rested than she had in a while. Maybe yesterday caught up with her for once. Whatever it was, she was damn grateful for it. She crawled out of the fort, stretching her limbs.

She felt ready for a run and was about to wake Ben up to invite him when Evelyn put a hand on her shoulder, “Best let ‘im sleep, it's a big day today, kinda for all of you actually.”

Yaz gave her a confused look, “Really? What's happening today?”

“I'll tell you when everyone else gets up, now, better get a move on if you want to be back in time,” Evelyn turned and left to the kitchen.

Satisfied (ish) with the answer, she moved past Ben and out the door.

--------------------------------

When she walked back into the living room Brooklyn and Ben were the only ones awake this time. When he spotted Yaz, Ben looked at her with a pouty face that took her entire being not to laugh at.

“Sorry for not waking you Ben, I was under direct orders to let you sleep, my hands were tied.” 

His face twisted from pouty to confused, “Orders? From who?”

Evelyn chose that moment to turn the corner and make her entrance, “Me.”

Brooklyn threw her hands up, “Why did you just go sci-fi twist villain on us!? Can I go one day without being haunted by you fiends!”

Evelyn gave Ben a questioning look, “Ester Stone.”

She gave him an unimpressed look, “Not helpful.”

He shrugged very unhelpfully.

“Just wake up your friends please.”

He gave her a mock salute and moved to do just that in the most annoying way possible…:)

--------------------------------

Kenji rubbed the kink in his neck, “You know, I kinda wish we were back on the island.”

“What why?” Sammy asked.

“So Ben didn't have access to air horns.”

“...fair.”

“Hey!-”

“Alright everybody, listen up!” Evelyn interrupted, “We've got an announcement!”

Lyra jumped in, “So, we've decided to give y'all a big heads up so you have time to prepare, so this isn't happening tomorrow or anything, no need to panic-”

“Love, they get it, just tell them please.”

“Yeah, okay, there's a family gathering on my side happening in a week or two and we'd like for all of you to come!”

Sammy jumps up, “Wait! We get to meet Ben's family!?” 

“Yep! Soon, at least.”

Sammy's smile stretched across her face, “This is gonna be awesome!”

“This is gonna be awful.”

“Aw, come on Ben! Aren't you excited to see your family?”

“Uh, earth to Sammy, remember who I was when I first got to camp? How I acted?.”

Lyra chuckled, “They're still your family, they missed you and were ecstatic to hear you and your friends could be coming to the next gathering.”

Evelyn jumped in, “But don't expect to be spared from the usual ribbing and such. Although, I think you're much more prepared for that, aren't cha?” 

Ben mirrored her grin and Lyra sighed, “Please don't traumatize my family you two?”

“What? Me? Mom, you know me, I would never do such a thing!”

“Yeah, besides, I'll watch and make sure. You can trust your loving wife with the job. In fact, Ben, let's go over the entire day just in case.” 

The two walked away, as Lyra buried her face in her hands.

“God, this is gonna be so much worse with two of them.”

Sammy looked confused, “Two of what?”

She blank-face stared at her, “Hellraisers.”

Kenji smiled, “M’am, all due respect, you miscounted. I think you meant seven.”

“I hate all of you.”

--------------------------------

Ben was alone for the first time in quite a bit. It was almost time for bed and Ester Stone, so he wanted to make some popcorn for everyone. Problem is, he can't get the stupid thing open.

It's simple. It's easy. It's something he's done si many times before. And yet the thing still isn't opening.

Unfortunately, anything sharp was always confiscated pretty quickly at the hospital, so he lost his old stuff. Most things sharp that had been in the kitchen, were already claimed by the others and/or locked away (Per recommendation of the hospital, he hates that stupid hospital) and his new assorted sharp junk was in the fort.

Could he just go get his stuff from the fort? Yeah, but he doesn't want to. He'd have to come back to make the popcorn anyway and besides opening the bag should be easy even without a stupid knife.

Like seriously, why are his hands so slippy? Why are they so shaky? Why do they still itch? Why can't he figure this out? Why does he still feel so on edge? Why has he felt on edge since this morning? Why does his breath feel shallow? Why does his face feel wet?-

“Ben? You coming?” Darius walked in, luckily Ben was faced away from him so he had time to try to wipe the tears away. Unluckily, Darius noticed the motion, “Hey, you good?” 

He tried to calm his breathing as he stared at the floor and opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He vaguely recognized he's still shaking.

Darius rounded the corner, grabbing his hand as he leaned down to meet Ben's gaze. Except Ben seemed to stare straight through him. 

“Ben? Hey, you there?”

Darius's voice felt far away. The only thing he could focus on was his hand in his. How much he wanted the feeling gone. But he feels stuck, he can't move or speak. He can't ask Darius to let go or step away. All the work of wiping his tears away was soon undone as they free fell from his eyes.

Darius started panicking and asking what was wrong, gently grabbing Ben's face to wipe away the tears.

StoptouchingmeStopitLetgoIhateitstopstopstopstopstop.

Ben felt his knees buckle as he finally managed to let out a sob. Darius moved to catch him but Ben pushed him away and scrambled backwards until his back hit the counter and he curled up in his spot on the floor. 

Darius recovered from his stupor and moved towards Ben once again. That only achieved the other boy curling up further.

He had no idea what to do. Darius has never seen this before and he doesn't want to attract the attention of anyone else in case that makes it worse. But anything he does to try and help makes it worse too and he can't just sit here and watch Ben sob his eyes out and hyperventilate without doing something to help.

The others soon ran to the kitchen at the commotion but left when Darius continuously shook his head and waved them out. 

The lovely thing about being back in society was Google. Which Darius remembered he had and whipped out his phone to search up the symptoms and what to do.

Which led to him whisper-screaming at his device as quietly as he could, “Seriously phone?  How am I supposed to do that if I can't get too close to him?”

Another choked sob interrupted his anger. He sighed, “Right, step one, stay calm. Step two… close enough. Step three…”

Darius scootched closer to Ben and started talking (still quiet), “Hey Ben, need anything?”

All he could hear was Ben whispering under his breath, “Can you…uh…I…just-” 

Darius looked around the room and his eyes landed on the bag of popcorn, plastic still on it, “Hey, were you making popcorn? That's a good idea, I think we have seasoning, do you have a favorite flavor? Mine might be White Cheddar, I know that's basic but it's good.”

He kept rambling on and on about little things, his favorite food, theories on the show, ideas for the treehouse, how many red items were in the room and how a different color would look better, trying to give Ben something to focus on. He occasionally asked Ben a question, gauging his friend's coherence.

Eventually, Ben's breath slowed down and he took his face out of his arms, letting his gaze bounce around the room before landing on Darius.

“Hey, you back with me? You okay?”

His head felt like it was about to explode, his stomach hurts, his hands are still shaking, his face hurts from crying, and he feels like he's about to keel over again. Instead of saying that, he lets the thoughts he's been fighting to maintain and control fade.

--------------------------------

Darius hesitantly put his hand on Ben's arm. When he didn't pull away, he managed to get the other boy into the beanbag in his room. He thought about leading him to the much closer fort, but he didn't want to risk it given his reaction to touch earlier. He also didn't want to risk him falling off his bed if something happens. 

Is he being too paranoid? Maybe, but better safe than sorry in this situation I guess. He managed to get him to drink some water and eat something before letting him lay down.

All the while, Ben remained silent. He didn't resist or talk or react, it was kinda freaky to watch the normally rambunctious boy move like a doll. 

Darius made a pallet on the floor to be closer and managed to let the stress of the situation drag him into sleep.

He didn't notice Ben not closing his eyes. Ben felt exhausted beyond belief, but something was keeping him up. He still felt…anxious? Worried? After a few hours of staring he managed to reorientate himself enough to feel like he can function a bit.

And with that came the itch to get out and walk or do anything besides sit in this room and stare.

--------------------------------

“Ben?” Darius was walking around the house in the middle of the night, having woken up to a missing certain someone. After twenty minutes and no sign of the Jungle Boy he decided to go searching.

It wasn't like this was the first time Ben left without telling anyone. Chances are he went for a walk to clear his head and is on his way back right now. And normally Darius would just leave it alone and ask in the morning. 

But with what happened earlier, he decided to check anyway. Call him paranoid, whatever, he's worried, sue him if you want, but he didn't get this far by not trusting his gut and his gut is telling him to find Ben. I sound like him. The thought made him chuckle.

He scoured the house with no sign of him before heading outside. And just his luck, he ended up finding him in the first place he should've checked.

He smiled at the sight of Ben sitting at the edge of the pond with his knees to his chest, poking at the water with a stick. For a moment it felt so familiar and peaceful he could forget about what happened in the kitchen. 

Darius made his steps louder as approached, but quieted his voice when he spoke, “Hey, whatcha doin’ out here?”

Ben's voice croaked, “Hey.”

While he was relieved to get a response, Darius's face morphed from a fond smile to a worried frown at the word. Sure, it was just one word, but this is someone he's faced death with on a day to day basis. Someone who would refuse to talk about how he felt most of the time - as did several other campers including himself - so tone of voice is something they've all come to rely on when finding out if something's wrong.

And that meant something’s wrong (you know, besides the obvious).

He narrowed his eyes a bit and voiced his concerns, “What's wrong?” Being direct doesn't always work with Ben, he knows this, but he also knows it's a surefire way to make sure something's wrong, even if he doesn't find out exactly what it is. 

“I-” Ben glanced at him before making eye contact and quickly looking away, “I don't think I know how to say it.”

Darius scooted closer and put a hand on his shoulder, “Spew random thoughts then, it might make sense eventually…or maybe not, Imma be honest I don't really know.”

Ben chuckled and thought for a moment, “I mean…I guess I'm still stuck on the ‘I don't know who to be’ thing, ya know? It's just the same as before, we've already talked about it, no need to worry, I've just gotta work through it on my own, and I'll straighten it out.” He tried for a weak smile.

Darius hesitated, “Well, if it was the exact same as before, and we talked about that, then you would've known how to explain it a bit already?”

Ben groaned into his folded arms, “Why do you insist on poking holes in my bullshit.”

Darius chuckled, “Maybe, and hear me out here, just maybe because I want to help and letting you stew in your mind like this doesn’t seem to help, like, ever?”

Ben scoffed and rolled his eyes, “...do you think I would've been better off…not changing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean do you think I would be having an easier time now if I stayed scared-camp Ben? If I never learned how to change into someone new?”

Darius thought about it, about everything. Ben had survived because he changed the way he thought and lived. But that caused him to have health troubles and survival behaviors. Ben switched the way he kept everyone safe and alive. But he doesn't trust safe places or people anymore and refuses to let his guard down. Ben tried to adapt to every new situation and environment to make things easier. But that seems to be causing an identity crisis in the current moment when he's trying to heal. 

“Is this what caused what happened earlier? Or did it have something to do with what happened at the mall?”

“I…I don't know, truly I don't know. Maybe I guess? I think the mall may have played a small part in it? It didn't feel like the main cause- Whatever, can you please just answer my question?”

Ben was constantly changing, yet he also remained stubbornly the same…

Here he is, still holding his knees to his chest to self-soothe, still having comfort items - more dangerous and flammable comfort items, sure, but still comfort items - , still always trying to keep everyone safe, still a creature of habit, still his Ben.

“...In some ways you actually really haven't changed all that much. In others, it's blatant that you have…” Darius paused, collecting his thoughts, “I think you needed to learn how to change. I think it's a part of who you are now…”

The silence rang out as both boys grappled for what to say. Neither really knew how to continue, how to get their point across. At least until Ben took Darius's ‘spew your thoughts’ advice. 

“What if I don't want to keep changing though?” His face turned angry, his hands moving and waving around, “What if I'm tired of having to deal with a new version of myself every time we go someplace new? What if I'm tired of having to relearn myself like I'm a stranger in my own body!?” 

Darius opened his mouth to respond but Ben powered on. His voice morphed from frustration to pleading, “I can't even get a break here on the mainland! I turned into a more carefree prankster around staff in the hospital, but a more sarcastic guardish type around you guys. I started falling back into Jungle Ben during the week with my parents! I don't know who I'll be this time tomorrow when I adjust to living here! We've only been here a couple days for crying out loud and I'm already having a freak out! I just-...I don't know who I am! I know you said I could be just Ben but I don't know how to if I don't know who that is! I I don't-!”

“I'm I'm just tired Darius, I can't keep doing this!” For a moment Ben's heavy breathing was the only sound that could be heard. 

Then Darius grabbed the boy and dragged him into a hug, tucking Ben’s head under his chin and squeezing like his life depended on it. Ben started to cry as he squeezed back.

“Darius, I don't know what to do,” his sobs broke in his sentences, “I don't know who to be. Especially not to my mom's family. They knew who I was before. How can they meet the new me if I don't figure out who he is?”

He just held him and listened to him talk. About his family, the mall, the island, how he doesn't know what problems to focus on, how he's sick of crying, how much his body hurts. He couldn't make heads or tails of most of it but he still did his best to listen. Eventually, Ben fell victim to sleep, lightly snoring as he went lax in Darius's arms.

Darius smiled at the image, readjusting to lay down and resigning himself to a familiar night of sleeping on the ground, under the stars. With the addition of being Ben's pillow, seeing as he couldn't escape his hold even if he wanted to. Then again, Ben probably wouldn't be able to either.

Chapter Text

If the campers had a nickel for every time they woke up to Darius and Ben cuddling after an emotionally draining night and then got to tease them for it, they'd have two nickels.

Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice in the same story, right?

Despite the still present concern over yesterday, they all agreed to leave it alone for a day or two. Instead, they ventured into the woods (They left a note for the parents this time) to work on the treehouse.

Darius straightened up and clapped his hands together. “Alright guys, we've got an early start today. Which means a lot of time to kill and a lot of work to do!”

A few cheers and a few groans and the kids set to it.

Brooklyn rolled out her mockup for her earlier idea on a tree stump and called out, “Anyone else have any vague architecture knowledge so can we pull this ‘Treetown' idea off?”

“One, we're naming something so much cooler than ‘Treetown’, two, we all do from the nightmare that was building the old treehouse,” Kenji pointed out

She rolled her eyes, “Anyone with moderately better vague architecture knowledge? Specifically connecting two floating objects and making everything stable.”

He flicked his sunglasses open and put them on, folding his arms behind his head as he settled into his resting tree, “....No.”

Brooklyn grabbed the sunglasses and snapped them in half.

He held eye contact for a solid minute, slowly pulling out his second, smaller, pair of sunglasses from his pocket.

“WHY-”

Darius chose that moment to interject, “Okay guys, let's cool it. How about we just make a list of supplies and wing it like we did with the OG treehouse?”

“You're toeing the line of ‘bro-talk’ D, you are-” Kenji pinched his fingers, “This close. So please back away from the line for my sanity.”

Darius rolled his eyes and turned to the rest of the group, “Alright! I'm thinking we start with the basics…”

The group brainstormed, throwing in layouts, additions, and material ideas. And before they knew it, it was midday and they were getting anxious to make some tangible progress.

“Yaz,” Sammy handed him the list they managed to compile, “Could you be a peach? Grab Ben and you two go get some of this stuff for us while we try out some foundations with the scrap we’ve got laying around? Oh and grab your forearm crutch while y'all are down there just in case.”

She gave them a mock salute and was off.

Darius asked, “Actually, Kenji? Go with them, we need more people to know the area.”

While Kenji went after the duo, Sammy turned back to the others, “So who's gonna be our climber understudy while Ben’s gone?”

Brooklyn shook her head, “I want to be on the ground for this one.”

Darius shrugged, “I mean I could give it a shot?”

“Great! Alright, let's get this party started!”

--------------------------------

“You're doing great D!”

Darius rolled his eyes, “Starting to think you're more worried than I am! I'm fine, just got to get this piece to stay!”

“Yo! Guys we're back!”

Darius startled, digging his hands into the coarse bark to keep himself steady. He let out a sigh of relief as he settled back on the branch, glaring down at the yeller.

Kenji gave a sheepish smile, “Sorry, my bad!”

When Darius only glared harder, Kenji went with tactic number two, distract, “Uhhhhhhhh- Ben and Yaz found something!”

“Really? What?” -works every time!

“AWWWWWW HE'S SO CUTE!” Sammy's voice rang through the air.

Darius looked to see Ben holding a baby raccoon and petting it like it was a cat.

“Ben, why do you have a raccoon!?” Darius shouted 

Ben gave a very self-satisfied smile, “I caught ‘im!” He held the animal up to show the little guy in all his glory, “His name's Sticky!”

Darius put his head in his hands, “He named it. He already named it.”

“Come say hi!”

Darius sighed, moving to figure out how to get down- at least until Ben shouted, “Don't put your hand there!” and he felt himself slip.

He flung his arm out to break his fall, which it did, in the worst way possible. The crack that resounded through the air made them all freeze.

Darius screamed and the others rushed to him. 

Ben helped prop Darius up, the latter cradling his arm. 

Yaz was the first to speak, “We should get him back to the house-”

Darius’s eyes shot open, “Nonononono- No- they'll call- call a- hospital- no hospitals- no hospitals-”

The urgency and panic in Darius's voice shocked the campers. As far as they knew, Darius had had minimal problems with the hospital, besides the obvious. Evidently they were wrong, but that was a conversation for later. Right now, Darius was their main concern and Darius says no hospital. 

Minds set, Sammy gently took the arm in her hands, feeling around the sizable bump and putting a bit of pressure occasionally, testing out the waters. 

Darius tries to bite off every cry and scream during this whole process. Yaz did what she could to make sure he didn't move around too much, “I know it hurts Darius but you've gotta stop moving or you might make it worse.”

She glared at the very pointed look the younger was giving her, “Yeah yeah, hypocrite, I know, just- Ben- Help me keep him still will ya?”

Kenji reached out a hand, “You can squeeze my hand if you want. It might help.”

Darius took the offer and cracked a smile, “Are- Are you the resident injury- emotional support now?”

“‘Now’? Excuse you! This has always been my job, so watch your mouth and show me some respect Junior. Or you might find your next injury not emotionally supported!”

“Oh- Oh no, what a- travesty,” Darius deadpanned.

They chuckled a bit before Darius bit back a shout, bringing them back to the situation at hand.

Sammy sighed, “Well, seems like your right arm's not horribly shattered. It might just be a fracture but chances are its broken.”

Brooklyn took over, “We need to make a splint like we did with Yaz.”

Kenji saluted, “On it,” and he ran over to the pile of supplies they had brought back, Yaz, Brooklyn, and Sammy close behind. 

Ben looked at Darius’s face, “You doin’ okay?”

He gave him a pained smile and a thumbs up, which both dropped when Ben didn't let up his stare.

Darius sighed, “It hurts, but it'll be fine. Just a splint and I'll be back on track!”

Darius shifted and leaned forward before he was swiftly dragged back to his original position. Ben gave him an incredulous look, “What are you doing?”

Darius cocked an eyebrow, “Getting up?”

“Nuh uh.”

“The hell you mean ‘Nuh uh’?”

“You are not going anywhere.”

“Uh, actually, yes I am.”

“Why?”

“To help find stuff for a splint?”

“The others are doing that and they also don't. have. a. broken. arm.”

“I'm just gonna-”

“No.”

“But-”

“Bowman.”

Darius snapped his jaw shut and Ben’s face softened, “...just…let me help you for once, yeah?”

Darius couldn't think about how to respond. The words kept slipping through his fingers because Darius wasn't focused on conversation. No, instead Darius's only thought at the moment was …wow he's really pretty.

Which, helpful, brain, reeeeeeeally helpful.

When Darius didn't respond Ben rolled his eyes good-naturedly, “I'll that as a yes.”

Sammy and Kenji were the first back, each with actual bandages (Thank you med kit) and various stripes of cloth in their hands.

“Hey Darius, Yaz and Brook are findin’ good pieces for support, they'll be back soon, how you feelin’?”

“...could be better, if I'm being honest.” Darius looked at the items, “Why the cloth pieces if we already have bandages?”

Kenji answered, “Padding and comfort mostly, we don't have a whole lot out here since we're not heading back, and what we can find is not exactly made for comfort.”

He winced, Right, he almost forgot about his little outburst. 

Before any more could be said Yaz and Brooklyn sat next to them, “So,” Brooklyn spoke, “Do we gotta set this thing or what?”

--------------------------------

“-That sucked that sucked that absolutely sucked-”

“How many times are you gonna say ‘that sucked’ before you feel like it's adequate?”

Before Darius could give Brooklyn a retort, Yaz interrupted, “Well at least it's over, but, what's happening now?”

Sammy shrugged, “I mean, there's still time to kill and there's no point in going back now. Plus we should figure out what we're gonna tell our parents.”

They all winced and Kenji spoke up, “How about we wait to talk about that and just keep going with the treehouse?”

Darius pointed at him, “I second that.”

Ben shrugged, “Sure, But,” he leveled Darius with a look, “You are resting, at least for a little bit.”

“I can still help, it's not like my whole body is broken.”

“True, but I feel like a broken arm requires rest because, ya know, pain.”

Darius rolled his eyes and paused, “Wait, what happened to Sticky? -Horrid name by the way.”

Ben let go of Darius and twisted around to show the raccoon clinging to Ben's back, having the time of his life.

“Is that why you named him Sticky?”

“...maybe- not important. Come on, let's get you some place to sit. We can even steal Kenji's ‘Resting Tree’ if you want.”

Darius finally accepted (with several complaints) and was soon leaning against Kenji's resting tree. He had shooed the others off to continue the treehouse so the day wasn't wasted, including a certain very stubborn Jungle Boy after pointing out the climbing task. So Darius was alone with his thoughts

He forced a smile, cause all he has to do right now, is sit and relax. He didn't have to do any hard, soreness inducing work for a day or two, and that's an opportunity not to be wasted! 

So he'll just sit here, doing nothing, just feeling the pain pulse through his arm…watching everyone do the work he was supposed to help with…

Yeah this wasn't gonna work.

He turned his thoughts to something else. Yaz had done blueprints when she broke her ankle, so he could probably find something to do to help too.

He took his field guide out of his hoodie pocket and flipped through. Sure, he had pretty much memorized the thing by now, but this was his thing. 

Dinosaurs. His life on, probably after, and before the island. He was happy with that, yeah, but now he's aware of how wrong and/or misleading a lot of the “facts” about dinosaurs are. Maybe he could try to correct it? Use his field guide, up-close knowledge, and Brooklyn's internet skills to educate?

That's for later though, right now, dinosaurs aren't a problem or something he can research (They keep forgetting their phones plus the service was probably horrible all the way out here) or something he can go see and study. What else, what else, what else.

He let out a frustrated huff. 

“I can hear you thinking.”

He looked up to see an upside down Ben right in front of his face, hands folded behind his back and legs hooked over a low-hanging branch.

Darius rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself, “Now you're just showing off.”

“Ehhhhhh maybe a little bit,” Ben leaned up and grabbed the branch he was hanging off of, using it to swing upright and plop down next to Darius, “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Aren't you supposed to be helping with the treehouse?”

“Nah, I've done most of my bit. Besides, I'm busy planning a climbing class for everyone, led by yours truely!”

“Still can't believe that learning to climb right was something I forgot to learn.”

Ben bumped his shoulder, “Don't worry, I'll catch you up.”

“...”

“...”

“...They booted you from helping too didn't they?”

Ben let out a loud groan.

“I'll take that as a yes.”

“I don't even know why. I mean, I get to chat with you now so I can't really complain. But what kind of reason is ‘Your unstable ass needs to stabilize itself before you try to focus on this’?”

Darius let out a loud laugh and Ben paused mid-rant. A victorious smile spread across his face. 

Both smiles quickly vanished when Darius let out a yelp when the movement jostled his arm again.

A solid minute passed as Darius stared at the offending arm. He let out a frustrated yell, “Argh! Come on!” He got up and started walking towards the treeline.

Ben was quick to scramble up and follow behind, “What are you doing?”

“Something? I don't know. Anything besides sitting down.” 

“Why all of a sudden?”

Darius paused, why had he gotten so worked up all of a sudden? He had been a little frustrated with his thoughts and the pain had been annoying so maybe that was it? But he had felt better when Ben made him laugh. 

So why did a small shoot of pain tick him off so much? 

He pulled himself away from his thoughts and continued walking. He didn't want to get stuck in a circle of thoughts right now, and that's where questioning like this always gets him.

Ben kept behind him, staring at the forest floor like he held a personal vendetta against it. 

Eventually, Darius felt an arm hook around his left arm and led him in a new direction.

“Hey- Where are we going?”

Ben simply let go and kept walking, expecting Darius to follow. Which he did, obviously. Along the way, Ben matched pace and gave Darius some of his berries. Then patted his shoulder, inviting Sticky to climb up.

“What are these for?”

“You'll see,” Ben answered as he fed the small raccoon.

They walked for maybe 40 minutes before Ben slowed and layed on his stomach, peering through the thick foliage. Darius settled for crouching so he didn't upset his arm.

When Darius followed Ben’s eyeline, he held his breath. 

The sunbeams hit the waves of the river in the clearing. A rotted log fallen across it and twisted branches split from the remains. 

But the thing that caught his attention the most was the young bear playing in the water, it's mother fishing a couple feet away. 

Ben whispered, “You can leave the berries here, I'm giving them gifts to see if they get used to my scent. A little experiment. I've been keeping an eye on them and I know they're not exactly dinosaurs and it's way too early for this but,” he pulled out a wrapped box from one of his pockets, “Happy early birthday.”

Darius slowly took the box and opened it (with minimal difficulty). In it was a camera, nothing really fancy, but a small camera with a necklace attachment.

For a good minute, Darius stared at it (He'd been doing that a lot lately, spacing out) it was such a small thing and yet it made him want to smile, it made him want to cry. He didn't know why exactly he never knows anymore but he was gonna hold it close till it clicked.

When Darius didn't respond Ben started talking, “I was gonna give it to you on your actual birthday but you broke your arm so I thought giving you a gift would be nice? -And I thought you'd like a camera cause you kept doing the fake camera click thing back on the island and it might make it easier to document creatures and-”

“When did you even get this?”

Ben hesitated, “The mall? I snuck it into the cart when you weren't looking.”

Darius smile split his face in two and he quickly poked the camera through the bushes. He stuck his tongue out in concentration, trying to keep his hand level while also snapping the picture.

The tension rolled off Ben’s shoulders at the clear excitement. He thought about helping but decided to let Darius do it fully on his own. Let him get back some control.

The picture was very clearly taken by an amateur. A bit blurry, the bears weren’t fully in focus, the water created a glare, the sun washed out the top right corner.

“Perfect.”

Chapter Text

So, I've been rewatching Camp Cretaceous, and have realized some of what I've written into this fic is kinda just straight up wrong, especially with the last chapter…so that's fun :)

Also sorry I haven't updated in a bit, I've been writing/starting a lot of different fics and ideas (No i haven't posted any yet, i should probably do that) so this fic was put on the backburner on accident, my bad TvT

I'll do my best to get a new chapter out, I'm just in a bit of a slump when it comes to this story

One more thing, I need a vote:

do we want to sick to the spacing btw paragraphs that I've been doing, or do we want to get rid of the extra space like it is btw this paragraph and the one above?

Chapter Text

Everyone ready?”

“This is a stupid plan.”

“I mean yeah, but when is it ever a not stupid plan?”

“...fair point carry on.”

The six of them were crouched, scouting out the house from the treeline. They had waited until late to return in hopes everyone would be asleep, but of course, they couldn't be that lucky.

Darius squinted at the figure in the living room, “Pretty sure that's Evelyn in there.”

Ben groaned, “Nooooooo she'll definitely know something's up.”

“Well, could we try to find a different entrance?” Brooklyn asked.

“Wait,” Kenji put a hand up, “There are windows in the kitchen aren't there?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay so, we send four of us to talk with Evelyn, distract her and such, and Darius and the other person sneak in the windows! Boom! Straight shot up the stairs to our rooms!”

Darius smiled, “That could work! Sammy, you're with me, everyone else, you know what to do.”

—

The group of four stood at the side of the house, out of sight.

“Okay, so we just go in and start yapping?” Kenji asked.

Yaz smirked, “Pretty much. Shouldn't be too hard for you.”

“Normally, I'd agree. However, Evelyn freaks me out- no offense Ben-”

“I have decided to take full offense-”

“-And I don't trust that stupid sixth sense she has.”

Brooklyn popped in, “Dude, chill, it's only going to make it worse if you're nervous before we even start talking to her.” 

“Let's just go already, we have to be in there before Darius and Sammy start climbing through the window.” Yaz interjected and walked towards the door, the other three quick to follow after her. 

Yaz opened the door, Evelyn looked up from her book.

“What are you all doing back so late? And where are the other two?”

Really, immediately? 

“Lost track of time again. Darius and Sammy hung back to do something,” Ben answered.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes, “Are you sur-.....Ben?”

“...Yeeeeeah?”

“...Is that a raccoon on your arm?”

“Huh- Oh yeah! His name is Sticky!” Ben once again held up the small creature in his hands, practically asleep and hanging limp, “I'm keeping him.”

Evelyn let out a heavy sigh, pinching her nose bridge and taking off her reading glasses, “...fine- But, one condition.”

She crouched a little bit, resting a hand on Ben's shoulder and whispered, “We don't tell your mom. Copacetic?” 

Ben grinned and nodded, tucking Sticky against his chest.

“Good. Now get outta here and get to bed, all of you.” She ruffled his hair before taking her book and heading into her room.

They were quick to scamper up to Darius's room, finding Darius sitting on his bed and Sammy laying on the beanbag.

Sammy perked up as soon as they came in, “Oh hey guys! Did it go well?”

“...Ben's Mother is unreasonably scary.”

Ben sympathetically patted Kenji's shoulder, “Just wait till you're actually in trouble.”

Yaz raised an eyebrow, “It wasn't even bad-”

Kenji shuddered, “Well, at least we didn't get caught.”

Brooklyn raised an eyebrow, “Don't jinx it, there's no way we're gonna be able to keep this up long enough for D's arm to heal.”

Yaz sighed, “Maybe…maybe we could trick them?”

Kenji looked skeptical, “Yeah. Okay. How?”

Darius perked up a bit, “Well…does anyone know if Mae has any experience as a medical doctor?”

Sammy shook her head, “No idea, we didn't get a whole lot of personal life talk done while we were stuck.”

“Okay, bit of a wrench, but if Mae can do what we need, we get everything to make a real cast, get Mae to take care of my arm, and get her to tell our parents that it had just happened that day and she already took me to the hospital.”

“Well,” Brooklyn paused, “It's a pretty plan on paper…might as well try.”

Darius nodded, “Everyone keep brainstorming just in case. I'll do what I can to avoid everyone else till Mae comes to visit, and we hope it ends well.”

Brooklyn snapped her fingers, “That's right! Mae will be here in two days! We can be out before she even gets here, lead her to you at new camp c, and the plan will be set in motion before we even know it!”

Kenji breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god, I thought we'd have to do this waaay longer than that!”

“Then it's settled.” Yaz stood up, “Come on, let's go make appearances and make sure we're not due for an impromptu checkup.”

Sammy jumped up, “Oo! Can I come? I wanna talk to my dad about something.”

Yaz nodded and the two left, Kenji and Brooklyn shrugged and followed.

Darius shouted after them, “Bring back some more stuff so we can set up this room for all of us!”

When they left Darius let out a heavy sigh and flopped down onto his bed. He bit his tongue when the movement jostled his arm.

Ben sat down next to him, leg pulled up to his chest. He held Sticky in one arm, while he leaned back on the other.

Ben looked down at Darius, “Are you sure?”

“...About what?”

He paused, “If you change your mind and you want to get that-” he pointed to the arm in its makeshift cast, “-Looked at professionally…we'll be right there with you. Okay?”

Darius stared for a minute. Ultimately turning his head and looking at the ceiling instead of Ben, “I-...Yeah,” he reached out and took Ben's hand, “Yeah, I know.”

“...Okay.”

Chapter Text

The next two days waiting for Mae were spent sightseeing around the forest. 

Oftentimes it was Ben leading them to his animal friends’ hangouts.

Sometimes they just wandered aimlessly.

Either way, Darius got tons of practice with his camera.

“Dude, how is that not annoying doing that with one arm?”

“It is. Severely annoying, Kenji. But I’m getting better with it. Plus I'll have a fully functioning second arm in no time anyway."

Yaz snorted, “I hope Mae can help us out. We know what happens when broken limbs don't get proper treatment.”

Darius's smile looked more like a wince, “I know.”

Ben piped up from the front, turning his head to look back “Hey, at least he's not using it.”

Yaz snapped her head and glared, “Would you like to continue to be able to use yours?”

He paused, gave a nervous chuckle and shuffled away, “Ummmm I think I see something- right- over- yeah, bye!” And he was gone.

Kenji groaned, “Ben! You know the rules! No one goes alone!” As he raced after him.

Brooklyn watched them leave, “Oh they are so gonna get lost.”

Sammy laughed, “Have a little faith! I'm sure they'll figure it out.”

Brooklyn leveled her with a blank stare.

“Actually maybe we should leave a trail just in case.”

“Good ide-”

“Hey guys look!” Darius shouted.

The three ran over to where he was a few feet away.

Yaz spoke first, “What? What is it?”

Darius smiled over his shoulder, “Look what I found! If I'm right that means-”

Sammy jumped in, “There should be a momma critter and ‘er baby in this area! We should track it! Ester Stone style! Pew pew!” 

Yaz was tempted but hesitated, “You two do that, me and Brooklyn will continue. Pay attention and catch up when you can.”

“Yeah yeah yeah cool cool got it!” Darius said distractedly.

She rolled her eyes and tugged Brooklyn along. Soon they were far away and alone.

And Yaz was never one for tactfulness, “What's up with you.”

Brooklyn startled, “I- what?”

She narrowed her eyes, “You've been snappy- more than usual. I just want to know if something's up.”

“I-” Brooklyn sighed, “I didn't realize I was being snappy. Sorry. I don't know why. I don't know if it's because of something or if it's just a thing now or-”

Yaz stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, you may be a bit more snappy but you're still not the snappiest of the group, and even if you were, no biggie. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't because of anything specific.”

Brooklyn paused, “I don't think so, I think it's just…new.”

They walked in silence for another five minutes before Brooklyn started talking again, “Can I rant about something to you?”

Yaz quirked an eyebrow, “Suuuuure?”

“It's about Darius and that whole thing. I know it's nowhere near as bad as it could be, given who Darius is. Plus we reached a good comprise very quickly, but it's still just-”

Brooklyn groaned, “A part of me still doesn't get it. He watched you go through something similar with your ankle. He agreed with us when we said you needed rest and that it's okay to rest, especially injured. Hell, we've gone over his tendencies before. So why do we all keep having to relearn this stuff?”

Yazmina held a small smile on her face, “...sometimes it's not enough to know it. Sometimes- most of the time- you have to go through something before you fully understand. And then you have to relearn it, again and again and again and again, before it feels like you're making progress.”

“That isn't reassuring.”

“No, it's human.”

--------------------------------

The next day, they were watching Mae pull into the driveway.

Darius and Ben were waiting at the treehouse. They all just had to play their parts and get Mae to them. 

When she stepped out of her car they immediately rushed her. 

“Mae! So so so happy to see you!” Sammy yelled as she hugged her.

Mae chuckled, “Glad to see you all too. Well, two-thirds of you.”

Brooklyn spoke up, “The other two are waiting at Camp C 2.0. Speaking of! We want to show you! Come on!” 

She didn’t get a word in before they were dragging her to the backyard and into the woods. Only bothering to shout to the parents on the back deck that they were ‘Stealing Mae, suck it up, we'll be back sometime today!’.

Eventually they slowed down to a walk. Mae sighed in relief, she could not deal with that much running.

Kenji cleared his throat, “Umm Mae, sorry about this since this is the only time you've been able to get down here to hang- but there is a…problem we need your help with.” 

She narrowed her eyes, “What problem?”

-

“A broken arm- are you kidding me!?”

Mae was now at the front of the group, taking the directions shouted at her by the kids, while she shouted at them at the top of her lungs.

Yaz pulled up beside her, “Yell at us later, talk to us now. Can you help Darius?”

“I don't know, when did this happen?”

Kenji shouted from the back of the group, “Two days ago, we set it, made a brace.”

Before she could say anything in response they burst through the treeline.

The other two stood up from their place on the ground, walking to meet the group of five in the middle. 

Darius couldn't get a word out before Mae grabbed his arm, gently, and inspected the makeshift cast closely, poking and testing it in a similar fashion to when Sammy had done it. 

She sighed and released the arm, “You're lucky. This could have been a lot worse.”

They all let out a sigh of relief at that.

Mae groaned into her hand and snapped her head to face the campers in front of her, “What the hell!?”

Their faces dropped.

“Your arm is broken Darius! This isn't some minor injury! This isn't a scrape! Why haven't you told someone! Why haven't any of you!? Why haven't you seeked medical attention!?”

“I-” He trailed off. He didn't have an answer that would be enough, none of them did, “I'm sorry.”

Mae's anger held onto her face for a moment more before it softened, “...I-I know that it's all still a lot. Normal life and all that. But I need you all to understand. This- This hiding from everything, trying to handle everything by yourselves. This isn't going to help you.”

“This isn't the islands. This is the mainland. And life here won't get easier here if you don't try.” her voice broke. 

“You all have earned your independence, have earned the 'title of survivor'. But you won't be able to stop surviving and start being able to live as kids if you don't try.”

She was met with silence, the kids all looking down at the floor, thinking and mulling over her words. 

She sighed, again, “I know it's hard. I don't understand fully but I know it's hard for you, but Darius,” Mae rested a hand on his shoulder, “I am not a doctor- well I am but you know what I mean- I cannot help you here. So, please, let me take you to the hospital, they'll be able to help.”

Yaz stepped forward, a silent, steady hand on Darius's shoulder.

He breathed through his nose and nodded. 

--------------------------------

That day Mae took them to the hospital.

Mrs. Bowman and Brand freaked out when they got back.

They ate dinner with everyone for the first time since they started living at the new house.

They all signed Darius's new cast.

They spent the night in their living room fort, piled on top of each other.

They all thought about what to do and chnage moving forward.

Not all of them could accept it at the moment.

But they still had each other. 

Chapter Text

“Ben get back here!”

He turned his feet, skidding to a stop on the deserted road and groaned, squinting in the midday sun, “Come on! You can't give me rollerblades and not let me use them!”

Evelyn put her hands on her hips, black hair pulled into a braid, “I will let you use them, but you gotta stick with the group. People suck and I don't want to take any chances, even if anyone hardly ever drives here.”

Ben sighed, “..fair point,” and turned back to them. 

Evelyn had bought three pairs of roller skates and three pairs of roller blades respectively and basically said “split amongst yourselves”.

Him, Yaz, and Brooklyn had practically dove for the blades, leaving the skates to the other three.

Most of them had gotten the hang of it pretty fast…Darius and Kenji on the other hand.

“Ack!-”

Ben winced as the two crashed into each other…again, and made his way over, “You guys sure you got it?”

Kenji groaned from his place on the ground, “Yes. For the fifth time, yes. We totally got it.”

Darius lifted his head from where he face-planted, casted arm awkwardly laying on the ground in front of him, “I veto that statement.”

“Traitor.”

“Fibber.”

Ben interrupted, “Guys we're falling behind.”

They scrambled up and rushed past Ben to catch up, nearly knocking him over in the process. 

…actually not nearly, they did knock him over, for which they will pay dearly, in due time. 

He got up and was swiping at the road grit on his elbows when his attention was grabbed by something sticking out of the ground close to the road.

He picked up the item, nothing special really, just a weird, curved circle. 

Ben glanced at everyone up ahead, all of them nearing the edge of a hill. 

He looked back at the circle, then the hill, then the circle again….

This is definitely a good idea.

-

Evelyn grabbed Kenji’s arm before he tried pushing off down the hill, “Might be a better idea for you all to take off your skates and just…walk down.”

Kenji groaned, “Come on, we totally got this!”

Darius piped up, “Lie number six.”

“Shut it.”

“Listen, you guys have had these for a day and we are all seeing the fact that this is, in the most simple terms, a huge ass hill,” Evelyn gave them all a very pointed look, “I don't want anymore broken bones-”

“INCOMING!”

The shout had them all ducking as Ben launched himself overhead.

They barley had the chance to process before he was successfully over and speeding down the hill, sledding on a piece of scrap, screaming and laughing like a maniac the whole way.

They stared blankly for a solid 10 seconds.

Yaz snapped out of it and let out a loud whoop, “Now that's what I'm talking about!”

The girl didn't look for a sled herself, opting to zip past and down in her skates, doubling the loud cheering echoing around the area.

Sammy blinked, “...that's fine, right?”

Evelyn copied her motion, “...yeah, they're durable…for the most part.”

Kenji rubbed the back of his head, “If not durable then stubborn enough to not die.”

Darius and Brooklyn only nodded in agreement.

--------------------------------

“What design are you thinking of doing Yaz?” 

Yaz raised an eyebrow, “Probably hmmmmmm I don't know…dinosaurs?”

Kenji bumped her shoulder, “Oh come on, be original. A dinosaur? On Darius Bowman's cast? Everyone's gonna do that.”

“Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”

--------------------------------

“Perfect!” 

Brooklyn dusted her hands off, standing and stretching from her place on the floor, “My work here is done- please, hold the applause.”

The face paint on Ben was probably only recognizable to them; teals, tans, and greys solid against each other in some places, half-blended and textured in others.

But they laughed and made comments on how ‘It looks exactly like her’

It really didn't, but it didn't matter.

--------------------------------

Darius hesitated as he held out his hands, cupped together, until his fingertips touched Ben's. 

They mirrored each other almost perfectly, only difference was the big spider crawling its way across Ben’s palm. It's legs tapping and testing and twitching slowly over to him.

“It's alright, she's friendly.”

He didn't relax at the words. 

A part of him half expected Ben to grab the thing and crush it between his teeth like he's seen so many times before.

He didn't, the look in his eyes curious and almost laughably affectionate of the arachnid.  

Alas, Ben's fascination didn't stop Darius from shrieking when he realized the thing made it to his wrist.

--------------------------------

“-To be honest we don't really know most of the grandparents or the adults, I'm half convinced some of them are just friends, neighbors, or random people that show up to family events. But the ones we do are my two Aunts, an Uncle, a divorced uncle, five cousins-”

“Eight, Uncle Andy and his wife have another on the way and your Aunt finally got approved and adopted two siblings.”

“Really? It's about time!-”

--------------------------------

Kenji stared into the window, his face pressed against the glass.

The dog was young, scruffy fur of mix matched patterns bright against the bleak background of the kennel. 

It hopped up, eye level with Kenji, front paws resting on the glass, and barked at him, tail wagging wildly behind it. 

“Kenji! You coming!?”

He startled away from the glass. Hestating for a moment, looking back at the dog before settling for a small wave and rushing to catch up.

--------------------------------

“What about a metallic color?”

Darius gave Brooklyn a look, “Nah, catches too much light.”

“Yeah, that's kinda the point- okay fine, I'm still grabbing it, cause we are definitely gonna try it eventually.”

They perused the collection of old nail polish: gifted from the parents that either didn't like the color anymore or found the old polish too annoying to work with, for a couple moments longer.

“Oh maybe this light purple? Or this minty color? I think it'd give a nice pop.”

Darius hummed in response, “I like both, you choose.”

“...well I can't summon the Brian power to do that right now so we're just gonna switch colors every other nail.”

He chuckled, “Sounds good. I was thinking for you we go teal-”

--------------------------------

Yaz relaxed in her seat in front where Sammy sat on the couch, humming as finger carded through  hair, effectively undoing any knots or tangles. 

She huffed, a laugh in her voice, “This feels nice, normally Mom does her best to yank my hair from my scalp when she braids it.”

Sammy chuckled, “Tell me about it, it was honestly a deciding factor when I got my hair chopped short a few years back.”

Sammy went on to separating it in sections and weaving the strands together, a comfortable silence settling over them.

When it was done Yaz let it hang over her right shoulder. She stared at it a moment before giving Sammy a smile, “Thanks Sammy, I love it.”

--------------------------------

“Oh you are going down Brook!”

“No way I'm going to lose! I refuse to be dethroned as Mario Kart King!”

Neither of the two risked looking away from the screen or even blinking. Well, besides some light sabotage. 

“Kenji I swear! Stop pressing buttons on my controller!”

“I will if you stop kicking me!”

In the end Brooklyn lost her record, she hardly complained though, it gave her an excuse to challenge Kenji to another round.

Chapter Text

“Okay everyone, please sit down.”

The campers hesitantly followed Leila's request, varying stages of apprehension painted across the faces of every single person in the living room. 

Which really was everyone; the campers, their parents (Both of Sammy's actually, strange since one of them is always at the farm), Brand, Dave, Roxie, Mae- which probably meant that whatever this is, isn't good.

Darius stayed calm and hid his nervousness- ignoring the finger tapping- “So. What's going on?”

“We…listen, we didn't want to hit this with you all right away after getting back and then the hospital and then the mall and settling in and well…”, Leila sighed and looked to the others for help.

Jonas picked up for her, “We want to all be on the same page before we go to the Pincus’ family gathering.”

Sammy shuffled in her seat, “Meanin’?”

Mae hesitated, “We want to ask you all to explain what happened on the island, so we can be prepared and figure out how to navigate it when the inevitable prying question comes up.”

The silence that followed was suffocating. 

The campers slowly looked between each other. Their shaky breaths were the only thing that pierced the quiet for those few minutes.

Eventually, Darius nodded slowly, “It…it was going to- to come up eventually, so it's better to do it now. Sooner rather than later.”

Even as he said it his expression was pained, seemed like he's trying to convince himself- more than anyone else.

He powered through, “Where do you want to start.”

Dave shrugged, “I was thinking when you all left the Camp? That way me and Roxie can fill in our end of things.”

Brooklyn snorted at that, “Sammy, that's when the whole phone thing happened, remember?”

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot that's how that whole fight got started!” Sammy giggled through her words.

Leila looked confused, “What?”

“Oh! I stole Brooklyn's phone cause she had video evidence of me collecting dino DNA for Mantah Corp. She confronted me about it that mornin’ after y'all left actually.”

“We got them to drop it for a bit, besides,” Yazmina grimaced, “What's a missing phone next to huge thundering footsteps we just had to check out.”

Roxie slapped her forehead, “That's why you all left the treehouse!? Because you had to check out the scary noise!?”

“Hey! In our defense we'd de-heh-finitely be dead already if we hadn't left so…” Kenji made a ‘what you gonna do’ gesture.

“WHAT!?”

Brooklyn interrupted, “We'll get to that later. For now, we made it up to that zipline place you two took us to- thanks to yours truly and her awesome pick-locking skills.”

“We saw a brontosaurus from the top and thought it was the cause of the noise but…” Darius trailed off.

Kenji looked a bit grim, “There were these worker dudes that showed up at the bottom and started yelling at us. Tbh, didn't really know what they were saying, I assume it was along the lines of ‘Get down here now, idiot kids’ but good thing we didn't cause…it, uh…”

“It ate them.” Ben stared straight ahead, “The Indominous- the hybrid that caused the whole lock down- came up behind them from the treeline and ate them.”

They were silent for a moment, they weren't naive enough to think their children were able to completely escape witnessing death but…it was still hard for it to be so blatantly stated. They moved to offer words of comfort but Sammy powered on.

“The Indominous turned its attention to us next,”

What.

“We tried to escape through the zipline but the Indominus…kinda tore it down when we were about halfway down and we fell.”

What!?

Brooklyn raised her hands on a placateing manner- something told them she was gonna end up doing that a lot- “Chill, it wasn't that bad. Just some bruises.”

Roxie looked lost, “I- How!? People have died falling from that height!”

“We don't obey the laws of physics.”

Yazmina rested her hands behind her head, “We don't listen to people telling us what to do, checks out that we wouldn't listen to the universe either.” None of them looked the slightest bit fazed by the panicked looks on their faces, snorting laughs and voicing agreements.

She continued on, raising a finger each point she made, “We all woke up with only minor brain damage, totally freaked out, hearing The Indominus through the trees, and booked it in the direction we thought camp would be.”

“Might I add,” Kenji hopped up, “Successfully!”

“Yes yes, we made it back to find the camp completely demolished by, what could only be, the Indominus. Everything on the ground in pieces, tipped over jeeps, a couple corpses.”

Darius lit up a bit, “Speaking of, I thought about it and I think the Indominus followed our old scent trail from the tower all the way back to camp! Impressive when you think about it, considering it saw the direction we fell and decided to trace back to where we were anyways.”

Ben hummed, “Probably, that thing was crazy smart for a dino. Makes me wonder what exactly they put in the thing,” Ben lit up a bit, “Oh! We're getting close to one of my favorite bits! Keep going.”

“You got it. We sparked a couple of high stress arguments. Brooklyn was desperate to get her phone from Sammy, Sammy was deflecting, Yaz was defending Sammy, Ben was anxious, Kenji was annoyed at Ben, and so it spiraled a bit. We had some individual moments of despair before-”

“Darisaurus here swooped in with a killer speech,” Kenji shook Darius's shoulders from behind, “Seriously. You gotta listen to an organic one someday, life-changing.”

Darius rolled his eyes, “You're way overselling it, now let me continue. Anyway, we made a plan to find help and walked back into the jungle where-”

“We reunited with Bumpy!” 

Dave paused. A quick look over told him no, they were not joking. He blinked at Ben, “Bumpy? As in…”

“The baby ankylosaurus from Wu's lab?” Yaz snapped her fingers with a smile, “The very same! And to think we almost managed to make you leave her behind.”

Kenji snorted, “You kidding? No way Bumpy would have stayed away, she and Ben adopted each other on sight, she would've found us again right away.”

“How did you all meet the infamous Bumpy anyway?” Mae crossed her arms and leaned forward. She had heard so much about the dinosaur and had yet to hear her origins.

Ben shrugged, “Simple really, she was an early hatch out of the batch while we were touring the genetics lab. She feel over the edge, I caught her, and the rest is history.”

Brooklyn groaned, “Speaking of the genetics lab. We found a can and headed there next. After another close call with the Indominus- high speed chase style- and we met Eddie.”

A collective groan went out across the room.

“Oh! I signed that guy's birthday card!”

The campers slowly turned their heads to glare at Dave.

“...what? It was empty, what was I supposed to do?”

Brooklyn rolled her eyes, “Anyway, long story short; he sucked. In all honesty, the way he was acting was kinda fair given the situation, and he was low key right during his whole ‘Jurassic World is a powder keg’ speal. But then we told him about the van and he booked it and tried to leave us.”

Jana's head snapped up, “He what.”

Yazmina sighed, “Yep, and I almost caught him but Bumpy tripped me, effectively saving my life cause the Indominus showed up, attacked the van, and ate Eddie so, thank you Bumpy.”

Sammy leaned on the arm of the couch, “Yeah, can't say I miss the guy. Anyway, we ran and ended up stuck in this storage container area thanks to-”

“That stupid park's only intact fence!”

“Yes, thank you Kenji, and had one of our many Hail Mary's of ‘Yeah no, we gotta do this on our own cause no one else is helpful’.”

Darius grimaced, “Then the Indominus started hunting us through the area. I managed to guide us out but it was…a close call.”

Brooklyn pointed a finger, “Several close calls where Sammy saved my ass, and then you saved the both pur asses by banging against that crate to draw it's attention.”

Brandon startled, “You what!?-”

Kenji raised an eyebrow, “Moving on, we made it back to the van and out of there safely. Which is when Dave and Roxie managed to contact us through the walkie talkies and we were almost safe wheeeeen,”

Sammy winced, “Brooklyn's stolen phone fell out of my pocket and we crashed.”

Yaz winced with her, “Yeah all the stuff about Sam's farm being in trouble and money and spying for Mantah Corp came out and it created a…rift between a few of us, it was bad."

“Yeah, that's one way to put it,” there was a pause before Brooklyn sighed, “Not like we had a chance to process. The stupid Indominus came through, it ignored us cause it was being shot at by Masrani but it wasn't enough and the helicopter went down. It exploded and let all the Pteranodons out.”

“Luckily, Kenji knew where the Kayak River was so we were able to get underground and take the river closer to the park.”

Roxie nodded, “Well, that's a relief. While that was happening we were hijacking a park vehicle.”

Kenji had the widest smile on his face, “You what!”

“Yeah, we were trying to get through to touch guys, didn't work. Then we tried to get someone to help us search through the emergency channel, they cleared us off the line. So we stole a vehicle and looked for you ourselves.”

“Awesome! Speaking of awesome, while we were cruisin’, Brooklyn got some awesome Kenji advice that totally saved her and Sammy's friendship, you're welcome!”

Brooklyn chuckled, “Kenji's not exaggerating. It was genuinely great advice that helped a lot. So, Kenji, I owe you an official thank you.”

Yaz elbowed her, “Make sure you don't lay it on too thick, don't need his head getting any bigger.”

“Oh hush,” Kenji rolled his eyes and turned back to the adults, “While we were in the tunnel we got attacked by some glowy dinos and then we got sucked into a pipe.”

“Right, yeah, the Mosasaurus lagoon.”

Dave snapped, “So that's how you ended up there! We saw your tablet signal! You all gave us a heart attack by the way, we thought the Mosasaur ate you until we saw you on the monorail. How did you get out anyw-”

Yaz spoke curtly, “We paddled, I had to get out in the middle to distract it, used the feeding line to travel back, almost got eaten, and landed on my ankle, causing my injury. That's it, we are moving on.”

Leila moved to speak, fear and worry evident on the mother's face, but Darius beat her to it, “Okay, up to you. But I'd just like to say how awesome that was, we hardly got the chance to congratulate each other for our impressively reckless stunts so we're doing that now, so thank you,” The others voiced similar sentiments before turning back to Darius, “Moving on. We all got out and realized everyone else was gone. We stayed for a while until we heard the alarm about the evacuation.”

“We saw the monorail passing by and figured we could use it, only problem was,”

“Toro,” Ben only looked a little too happy saying the name, “was blocking the path, we managed to sneak by but she saw us last second, made it out with minimal near death, before we were…,” he cleared his throat, “on the monorail.”

Brooklyn smirked, “The first calm environment we had since it all started and you know what our first conversation was?”

Sammy hummed, “I honestly forgot what all we talked about when.”

“Trauma Dumping. We all straight up trauma dumped the second we could have a clear conversation.”

Sammy giggled, “Oh yeah! Plus we got some bonus trauma from Ben's carob bars!”

“They were not that bad!”

“I resent that statement.”

The six laughed for a while, the sound ringing across the room. As it pattered out, tense silence filled the space. They took a pause, before turning to Ben. Who, to his credit, only winced a little at the oncoming event.

“Right. We were attacked by…,” he cleared his throat once again, deciding to go with Yaz's route of point blank statements, “Pteranodons showed up. They attacked. A crashed monorail was on the tracks so we had to switch the tracks so we didn't crash head first into it. Shocker, the control room was locked and me and Darius were the only two who would fit…”

He trailed off and Darius gave him a small smile, “Like we said to Yaz, you crawling across the top of the car to get to it was awesome dude, you were amazing.”

He tried for a smile and rubbed his arms, “I rerouted the train in time but- I- a Pteranodon was still there and…well, it flew through and grabbed me. Darius tried to save me but they kept knocking me around and eventually I slipped and it dragged me off of the monorail, separating me from everyone else for the foreseeable future.”

She didn't speak, but Lyra stood up and sat beside her son. She took a moment to take a breath before wrapping her arm around him.

They could talk later- she had a feeling there'd be a lot of tears when they all had the chance to process- for now they had a story to finish.

Ben relaxed a small bit into the hug and gave a small nod to the others to continue on.

The five returned the nod and Darius continued, “We thought Ben was…dead- but we had to get off the monorail. The track switch set us going the opposite direction we needed to be, so we jumped off when the track dipped. Bumpy got separated from us in the fall and we decided to take the underground tunnels to get to the docks faster.”

“Where Toro ended up being, we had to run. We escaped and got to a cargo space through a vent that was close to the docks.” Brooklyn clenched her fist, “We probably could have made it if the entrance wasn't completely sealed off.”

“I may have had a…moment of imposter syndrome but Kenji, Brook, Yaz, and Sam had their own awesome speech hidden up their sleeves and it helped a lot.” Darius smiled at them.

They smiled back but then Brooklyn threw up her arms, “But wouldn't you know? Toro found us. We tried to blow him up using pressurized air tanks, missed our shot, and ran around trying to not get eaten.”

“You make us sound so unheroic you know,” Kenji deadpanned, “Well, while that did happen, one of the tanks opened and Darius made a killer throw and blew up both Toro and the door to smithereens! Seriously, we gotta get you and Benny in Javelin or something.”

Mae's jaw dropped, “You blew up Toro?”

Yaz smiled, “Yep. He survived, but he gave up the fight. Which is how he got those scars.”

Her smile turned a small bit bitter, “The victory was kinda short lived, the ferries were gone by the time we got to the docks.”

Roxie winced, “We're sorry. We promise we tried everything we could to get them to wait or turn around but they wouldn't listen.”

“It's alright, no one expected our survival anyway. We don't blame you for that."

The two shared a nod, and Darius clapped his hands, "Anyway, that's how we started our official survival camp at Jurassic World.”

Chapter Text

CampFam Designs (Redraws)

Moments Throughout the series

I'm struggling through these explanation chapters so have these as a tide over

Fyi, I'll probably post more art in the future

And like everything else I do, feel free to make requests 

Chapter Text

Darius took a deep breath, “First order of business- minus a couple days of endless running for our lives and grieving- we went to Main Street.”

“And after several hours of useless searching, finding out aircraft can't fly over the island, and the acquiring of the infamous dino-walkie-talkies- oh and that Mosasaur ate the Indominus- we found out about an emergency beacon hidden in the park.” Yazmina smiled a bit.

Kenji’s face contorted into a only slightly insane looking face and gestured wildly, “Oh yeah! And you know where it was??? Cause the universe hates us?”

Roxie chuckled, “What? A T-Rex nest?”

Silence.

“Oh you're joking.”

“Nope. And like anyone with self preservation, we walked straight into it, on purpose!”

Yaz leaned towards the non-campers, hand held to the side of her mouth, “This is gonna happen a looooooot, just let him get it out.”

Darius chuckled, “Well we successfully set off the beacon and made it out alive, with some patented help from cardboard cutout Brooklyn, of course.”

“We shall forever miss her. Anyway we couldn't stay on Main Street thanks to Rexy so we went back to the original campsite,” Brooklyn crossed her legs, “Yaz and Kenji ended up staying behind while the rest of us went to get medical supplies for Yaz's ankle. During which I'm assuming those two had some character growth moment. Their tolerance of each other grew exponentially.”

The two high fived and Yaz picked up, “Since I was firmly unable to walk, I sketched out plans for the new Camp Cretaceous and the others built it. It was above ground, had running water. We made showers, scavenged beds, had canned food, made me a brace, it was pretty awesome.”

Brooklyn popped up, “And while Darius and Kenj were fixing a problem with the river-”

“Which we had to get ourselves attacked by a Stego to do-”

“-But! We got to see a watering hole! A neutral ground for all dinosaurs! It was so. cool.”

“-We went on a girls trip to Unbox the Frozen Flowers! With a bonus of bonding over Ester Stone. After a close call in the lab with Chaos, Grim, and Limbo-”

“Uhhh who?”

“-Trio of Baryonyxs. In that whole situation, we found an envelope titled ‘E750’. It had a bunch of weird tags and a key card inside. We didn't find anything else though, so we headed back to camp.”

Kenji smiled, “Yep! And at the end of the day I found a certain tape that a certain camp counselor made!”

Dave's jaw dropped, “Wait. No. Way.”

“Yes way dude! As I always say, can't have a good party with some good music and, can't have a great party without Dave's Demos!”

Yaz groaned, “And you can't have a traumatic experience without some good ol’ false hope. Remember what's next?”

Everyone's faces dropped and Ben snapped his fingers, “Oooooh is this when you all met that fancy couple?”

Darius sighed and nodded, “Unfortunately. We spotted a campfire in the distance, assumed our beacon worked and that they were there to help us. We got attacked on the way there and they helped us get away. The couple, Mitch and Tiff, and their bodyguard slash guide, Hap.”

Brooklyn's face scrunched, “They seemed so nice at first, so concerned about if we were okay and then they go and-” She pinched the bridge of her nose, “Whatever, people don't make sense. And anyway the most they did to help was stand there with their hands out like knock off Raptor trainers, Hap did the heavy lifting. After that, they took us to their camp, saying they were eco-tourist taking pictures of rare animals, and Hap their expert guide.”

Sammy got a wistful look on her face, “One good thing about those two? They had a can opener. It might've been the best moment of my life to get that thing back to camp.”

Yaz chuckled, “ Too bad they sucked, and B? I just wanted to say, you were right- but only half right.”

Brooklyn stuck her tongue out at her and turned back to the others, “They said their boat would be back in two days. And, yeah, I had my suspicions about Hap, ended up getting into an argument with Darius and saying something really stupid, sorry again Darius.”

“Long forgiven B. Because of the argument we split up, Brooklyn and Kenjj stayed behind, while the rest of us were taking Mitch and Tiff around the island to get pictures of dinos.”

“While they were gone we overheard Hap talking with Mitch and Tiff over walkie, said something along the lines of, ‘Stay out of my way, and I'll take care of these kids myself.’”

Sam's head snapped in his daughter's direction, “What!”

“Right? Like, try to make it sound more like you're trying to kill us. Anyway, he heard us and chased us through the woods.”

Sammy nodded, “Which would explain why y'all were gone when we got back.”

Brooklyn nodded, “He cornered us but before he could do or say anything…” she trailed off and gestured to Ben, who looked far too proud of himself.

“I hit him over the head with a branch and knocked him out.”

“Which officially made Ben not-dead and brought him back into the group.” Kenji fistbumped him.

Brooklyn made a face, “Hey, by the way, in your whole one-up thing with Hap, why did you go for ‘leech bite’ and not, I don't know, ‘Fought a full grown Carnotaurus’?”

Ben opened his mouth but Roxie beat him to it, “You what!?”

“Oh yeah, I couldn't get to mainstreet cause ol’ Toro was blocking my path, so I fought her with my spear and Bumpy. And for your information Brooklyn, I was getting there but someone cut me off.”

Roxie tried to speak again but Ben just continued, “Not important, anyway, on my end, spent a while by the river, eating berries n such, and trying not to go insane over Bumpy stealing the lean-to every night. Failed at not going insane, scared her off, scared off compies that tried to kill me, figured my shit out, defeated Toro- which Bumpy came back and helped out with in the middle of it- heard the Fancy couple saying something about a ‘bratty internet kid’ and being all sketchy, so I figured they'd need my help.” 

Ben let out a breath and gestured to Kenji, who gave him a thumbs up and jumped in, “With Hap tied up, we got to interrogating! He said he was trying to help us and get us home cause Mitch and Tiff were going to leave us to die on the island. Ben thought we shouldn't trust him-” Brooklyn muttered what sounded like 'understatement' under her breath, “-but he said their boat was at the Northwest dock and vehicles were nearby to get there, so decided to take him with us to check it out.”

Darius cut in, “And on our end, we had just found out that Mitch and Tiff were not eco-tourist but were big game hunters, who were trying to kill the dinosaurs, and now had information about the watering hole, us who knew where is was, and Sammy and Yaz at gunpoint.”

“Wha-”

Yaz facepalmed, “Look, guys, I know this is all very shocking, but can you not say ‘what’ every two seconds? We have a lot to go over and we can all chit chat about every little shocking detail when we finish, capish?”

She didn't wait for a response and gestured for the others to continue.

“We found the garage, which we opened with the E750 keycard, and, yes, Hap was telling the truth. We were also getting cornered by our favorite Baryonyx trio, so, that was great.”

Ben popped up, “I know that was sarcastic but legitimately? It was great, you know why?”

Brooklyn sighed, “Cause we got to blow something up?”

“Cause we got to blow up a whole building and look sick as hell doing it!”

The three laughed a bit before Brooklyn winced, “They started chasing us, we split up, trying to draw them apart but…Hap…”

Kenji rested a hand on her shoulder, “Sacrificed himself. He separated our motorcycle, and drew all three to him, he saved us.”

The silence that followed was loud. Some opened their mouths to speak before closing them again. What do you say to that?

Brooklyn took a deep breath, “I'm okay to continue if everyone else is?”

Darius nodded and took over again, “We managed to get Yaz away from Mitch and Tiff. I gave her a map marking where I was actually leading them; Main Street.”

Jana narrowed her eyes, “Main Street? Isn't that where you said-”

“Rexy was? Yeah. Not ideal but, home court advantage is always nice.”

Sammy nodded, “Not our brightest idea, but we managed to get the guns away from them so they couldn't shoot us! Although, they did then hunt us down like wild animals and we did get cornered again eventually, and the power turned back on so they just used the tablet to find the waterhole- But! Rexy showed up, very helpful, scared Mitch and Tiff right off!” She winced, “Oh, but then she turned her attention to us and that was a very close call. But we got out just fine and were able to chit chat with everyone else over the intercom!”

Kenji perked up, “Thanks to yours truly! We met up with Yaz and took the tunnels to try and get there, it was blocked off, but we found a control center, so we were able to mess with the lights and holograms to help get them out. We talked over the intercom and figured out what we were going to do. Darius, as it was your plan, would you do the honors?”

Darius stood and bowed mockingly, clearing his throat before starting, “Well, they were going to the Watering Hole to kill dinosaurs so, we just needed to make sure the dinosaurs weren't there to kill,” He pointed to each person as he spoke, “Brooklyn on intercoms, our eyes and ears” She motioned a salute, “Kenji, me, and Sammy were going to get there to slow them down if they made it there before Ben and Yaz could, who were to simply put it, on ‘big and loud’ duty,” the two fist bumped, “though I ended up splitting to directly intercept them since we wouldn't have made it in time-”

“Without a plan. Which had me running to a gyrosphere to intercept him-”

Jana and Brand opened their mouths but were very quickly shushed when Yaz glared at them.

“-which ended up with me straight up just running them over with said gyrosphere.”

“They did get their guns back again but we stalled long enough that everyone else,” Darius smiled wide, “Was able to complete the plan and get the dinosaurs out of there! Leaving me and Brook to book it from an angry Mitch and Tiff.”

Ben winced, “Right, relatively successful, except for the fact that Rexy showed up and chased the stampede right back at us, so that was semi bad.”

“Oh we know about the stampede. The gyrosphere broke down with both of them waiting outside but the stampede showed and got us out of that situation.”

“Oh! Nevermind, full success.”

“We found what was left of Mitch in a snare trap but Tiff made it to the boat and left before we could stop her.”

Everyone in the room got real mad, real fast.

Brooklyn smirked, “But don't worry about it, she's still got a part to play in this story.”

Chapter Text

“...the raft was only mildly disastrous.”

Yaz gave Brooklyn a look, “Yeah. Mildly. And we only mildly almost drowned.”

Brooklyn rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. After that, we decidedly did not use Kenji's catapult idea, and went to the hang glider area to use them for fabric for another sail and another boat.”

“Ugh,” Yaz shuddered, “Brook, I love you, but I will never ride in a gondola with you again.”

“Believe me, I am fully with you on that one.”

“I don't know what y'all are talkin’ about, that was so fun!”

Yaz gave her an exasperated smile, “Sam, you got paired with Kenji. And you were yelling like idiots, rocking the thing back and forth like a rickety bridge. I do not doubt you two had fun.”

Brand smirked, “So, that leaves you and Ben together, D. How would you rate your ‘gondola experience’ from a scale of Yazlynn to Kammy.”

Sammy giggled, “Love the names Brand.”

Darius made a face, “I don't. And we didn't go on the gondola. We stayed on the ground with Bumpy. I wanted to talk to him and get him to tell me what was wrong, even at his insistence that he was ‘fine’- which I was right.”

Ben rolled his eyes and lightly pushed him, “While he was doing that, I was making a Bumpy sled for the stuff, you know, something useful.”

“Hey, my pestering is useful, thank you very much.”

“...”

“Anyway, while Kenji and Sam were messing with the binoculars, me and Brook were taking care of the hang gliders.”

“Which, we did get one unlocked, but we kinda realized we were standing in a Dimorphadon nest. And to escape, we literally flew out using the hang glider!”

Yaz smirked and high fived her, “We're just that awesome!”

Kenji stood up, “And while they were looking awesome, we were figuring out awesome things because guess who's boat we spotted!”

Brand sat up straight, “Wait, really?”

“Yes sir! And completely free of one Tiff, courtesy of Chaos and Limbo.”

Roxie looked confused, “Chaos and Limbo? Why? I imagine Tiff was sailing away from the island. Why go through the extra effort?”

Brooklyn winced and chuckled, “Right. So while we were hatching our ‘stop Mitch and Tiff’ plan something happened.”

The room looked at her expectantly.

“...-I'm just gonna say something funny first and then the other thing- I think my favorite part of that whole situation was watching Tiff get launched backwards because she touched an electric fence I activated.”

Yaz's jaw dropped, “She what!?”

Ben looked equally affronted, “Why are we just now hearing about this? I want that on video.”

Brooklyn's smile fell to a grimace, “Probably because I was more focused on the fact that she shot Grim right after. I think Chaos and Limbo were looking for revenge and, well, they got it. Tiff and Mitch are dead.”

Brand stared for a second before letting out a low whistle, “Damn, angry dinos.”

Darius chuckled, “That's one way to put it. Especially since the control panel, radio, and gps systems were all busted. Plus there was barely any gas, but a boat's a boat.”

“And that boat held up for a perfect yacht party! A whole few hours of swimming and shenanigans,” Kenji walked around from behind the couch and sat down, resting both elbows on the back, “And the calling of the best captain ever! Me.”

Jana smiled, “You know how to drive a boat?”

“Yeah! Picked up some stuff from watching Dad at his membership.”

“Woah, really? That's very impressive Kenji!”

“I- thank you?”

Darius decided the awkward silence filling the room after Kenji's butchered attempt at excepting a compliment was awful so he continued, “The boat had a hole in it and while we were searching for supplies to fix it, we got attacked by dinosaurs. Except they were normally peaceful dinos that minded their business. But they full on hunted us, even when we sailed away on the yacht! We scared them off with some roman candles we had on board, and made it away safely, so no harm no foul I guess.”

Kenji popped back in, “And with that dock out of the question, we went to the Penthouse's secret dock connected to the penthouse! It was an awesome spot to chill…for all of, like, twenty minutes. Cause some dino douches decided they were gonna act weird like the other guys and spoil the fun.”

“Honestly? Major FOMO energy.”

“Preach it B.”

Darius lit up and the duo paused their handshake, “Not only was it a nice spot to chill for a bit, but Kenji saved me and B from a dinosaur by breaking his dad's gaddi over its head!” 

“Woah dude really?” Brand sat up, “That's sick! We gotta test out that arm strength if you were able to do that!”

Kenji chuckled nervously, “Eh, its a little cool, and don't worry, we only get cooler! Straight up completing all the movie troupes. While we were doing the elevator fight scene, Ben, Yaz, and Sam were hijacking a limo!”

Brooklyn's jaw dropped, “Wait. Pause that for a second. Oh my god. Guys, do you think they're gonna make like a movie or documentary about us or something.”

Sam chuckled, “I mean they probably already have. Even before you all got back there were videos talking about you six. It…admittedly probably didn't help that we made it a lot more public when we sued, but ehh.”

She rapidly blinked before moving on, “Leaving that for later, we got back to the yacht safe and sound with the help of our getaway limo and, of course, Bumpy. Patching the hole in the boat, getting gas, and a compass all in one go.”

“Well,” Darius interrupted, “I patched the boat. Cause you abandoned me to go run around with Sammy.”

Brooklyn grabbed an empty bottle off the ground and threw it at him, “Oh quit being a drama queen. We were doing important stuff!”

Kenj put his hands on his hips, “Well. While you were doing that ‘important stuff’ a compy stole our compass, and we got the pleasure of meeting our dear friend Blue in the old Jurassic Park building.”

“Well. Considering she helped us because of that incident you three had with her, I'd say that's a win, Kenji.”

“And our thing was doubly important because we got information on…the…” Sammy cleared her throat, “Scorpios Rex. We…found out about the Scorpios Rex that day, huh?”

Jonas preemptively raised his hands in mock defeat, “I know you said to keep our mouths shut until you were done, but what is that? It doesn't sound like any dino I've heard of.”

Yaz just looked tired, “It's not, it's-”

“An abomination.” The room turned to look at Darius, “The Indominus wasn't Wu's first hybrid. No, that title belongs to The Scorpios. The first sentient hybrid dinosaur. Except it wasn't a dinosaur. It shouldn't have existed- its consciousness is was fragmented as its body- it's awful to even look at it- it's not-”

He took a deep breath, “Out of everything we experienced, I think that that thing was one of the worst. It was grotesque in nature and existence, and I would sooner burn that island to the ground, before I allow it to live.”

During Darius's little speech the six had shuffled closer until they were all not an inch from one another. 

“And you know what? Funny thing, we were finally packin' to leave but, whoop! The Scorpios was alive and runnin' around the island. Which was causin' all the freaky behavior we were seein' from the other dinos. Lucky us, right?”

Silence met Sammy's question and she filled it with a strained chuckle, “Well, Darius, right around that time, didn't you get up to check up on some dinos for your field guide before we were plannin' on leavin'?”

A small smile broke out on his face, “Gallimimus, dad's favorite. Kenji was taking care of packing to let me do that cause you two were off with your investigation, Yaz was on a run, and Ben-”

“Was ‘probably somewhere being weird’?” Ben stared straight at Kenji as he said it.

Kenji groaned as he buried his face in his hands, “Darius, dude, you told him? Come on!”

Darius shrugged, “Small revenge for you not doing your job properly.”

Ben piped up again, “And, ya know, I was kinda like, right there, so I heard you.”

“Not my fault you're all quiet and mysterious and impossible to spot all the time- and hey still lowkey upset you dipped for over an hour and didn't tell us.”

“In my defense, I was having a crisis- which, Yaz, sorry for giving you a crisis from my crisis while I was being moppy-”

“You can't seriously think that excuses it-”

“No. I don't. But it was fun to say. Sue me.”

“I- you know what. We're going back to D and his Galli guys.”

Darius grimaced, “Not exactly better over here Kenj. By that point, I found the Scorpios' spines and nearly got crushed by a Gallimimus corpse that it strung up in the tree.”

“Oh…that's…no.”

“Anyway, Brooklyn and Sammy found me, told me about the Scorpios and kick-started ‘Get off the island’ to a whole new level. Kenji came up with a plan to make up for the lost time from his lollygagging, but by that point the sea was too rough to leave and the storm was getting worse and worse. We ended up just fortifying the treehouse to hunker down in hopes of surviving long enough to get off before that thing killed us. We even managed an electric fence. Thank you Kenji.”

Yaz winced, “And while we were doing that, my crisis came to a high while I was talking to Sammy. And, in Ben’s words, Sammy, sorry for giving you a crisis from my crisis.”

Sammy giggled, “Oh it’s alright, we already talked about it plenty. Plus you more than made up for it when you solo went to get the poison cure to save my life!”

Horrified silence once again followed her comment.

“...can I stop being the one bringing up the Scorpius stuff? Cause this sucks.”

Yaz let out a small chuckle, “Sure Sam, I hereby shirk the responsibility from your shoulders. So, yeah, the Scorpios got through our defenses and attacked us, stabbing Sammy with its spines in the process and poisoning her. We…almost lost her, but I found the antidote in Wu's lab and got it back. Unfortunately, it reinjured my ankle.”

Leila's face pinched with worry, “Honey, why weren't you more careful? I know Sammy was in danger but reinjuring your ankle only slows you down.”

“Well,” Yaz stood, face set, “I didn't have much of a choice. I had company. And besides, like you said, Samny was in extreme danger. I wasn't, and will never, put an injury over her life.”

Sammy took Yaz's hand, “And I will never be able to thank you enough, Yaz. And mom, dad, I can see your faces. I'm alright. It sucked and was very…painful…but I made it through with my CampFam! And the little attack gave us the info we needed to draw it away from Yaz. Turns out, it loves heat, and-...actually I don't think I got briefed on what was happening other than that. And I'm assuming the plan involving fire was given to Ben, so it's your turn now.”

“Gladly. I dragged Darius with me to drop by one of my supply spots I stored some gasoline in. It was a simple plan really, rig up a gondola, send it to the top, and watch it blow sky high.” 

Yaz held up her hand for a high-five that Ben met, “Saved me big time you two, much appreciated. It was a close call but we saved Sammy, and got everyone back to camp relatively safely.”

“I'm assuming that ‘relatively’ was for the fact that your ankle got all jacked up again? Worse.”

“Yes. Ben. No need to spell it out. Plus, you got your finger tips all singed from the gondola. So, it's not like I was the only injured one from that expedition.”

“I don't feel like that's an equal comparison.”

“I don't need equal comparison, when your dumbass ran off again to find Bumpy without telling us.”

“How did we get here.”

Darius smirked, “It is the next event in the timeline. Chronological order and all that.”

Brooklyn sat up ramrod straight, “Okay, I never got a chance to complain about this, so I'm speaking now. Okay? Okay. So, Ben ran off to find Bumpy right? We searched for a bit before Darius decided he was going to go alone, again. And to leave if they didn't make it back before sunrise. You with me so far?”

No one got the chance to respond before the girl barreled on, “Obviously we argued against that and instead of talking more this dingus decides to pull a ‘Oh, look over there, what's that?’ and book it.” As soon as she was done she reached over to punch Darius in the shoulder.

“Ow! Hey, you fell for it.”

“Ignoring that. We almost got lost because Scorpios had trampled our landmarks, but we made it relatively safe and sound with only a sorta minor run in with it and the glowy dinos. Meanwhile Ben and Darius were apparently-”

“Fine! We were good, just had some trouble finding Bumpy and got to see some ankylosaurus defense behavior in person!”

Yaz raised an eyebrow, “But isn't that when-” she snapped her mouth shut at the look on the two's faces, “Oh! Right, sorry, mixed up some events there for a second. My bad.”

Ben let out a small breath, “Yeah, that. It was when I-...made the decision to have Bumpy stay on the island instead of coming with us to the mainland like we planned. It was hard but ultimately for the best…I think.”

Darius laid a hand on his shoulder, “So we headed to the docks only to find them empty-”

Mae's eyes widened, “Wait, you actually left?”

Kenj waved his hands, “Oh no no no. Unfortunately we had to temporarily leave due to the Scorpios coming to the dock, but no way we were leaving without them.”

“And thank you guys for that,” Darius smiled, “But with this came an…unfortunate realization when we encountered said Scorpios’ and got cornered.”

Roxie stood, “Wait. Scorpios’? As in plural?”

He nodded, “They reproduce asexually, and there was no way that anything on the island was going to survive if we left. So me and Ben headed off to Jurassic Park to grab a tranq gun for step one of the plan to get rid of it.”

“With the rest of us trailing behind them, trying to find them, which we did pretty much as soon as they found the gun. And reunited a baby dino with their herd along the way.” The four of them high fived.

“Right, and with all of us together, we came to the mutual decision to put off leaving until we dealt with the Scorpios’. Good thing we didn't have time wait long, considering one of them was literally right above us.” Darius groaned, “I forget how exhausting they were to deal with. One thing after another.

“Anyway, long story short, we collapsed Jurassic Park on their heads with the help of our dear friend Blue- no we will not be talking about the fact that I missed the tranq shot Kenji- Taking care of that situation, once and for all, leaving us free to leave the island…”

Brooklyn's face fell, “Well…for like, a couple mminutes but we got some...distinctly human company.”