Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They must look like a group of homeless people. 

Sammy mused as Gia ushered them inside. They all had to look like they hadn’t slept in days. Kenji was still holding his shoulder and a suitcase filled with dinosaur eggs, Yaz looked like she had lost a fight with a bear (thought she’d probably argue that she won), and overall, they still smelled like they had run through half of Senegal. Dirty clothes clung to their skin as they shivered in the cold Italian air. Sammy chanced a look at her girlfriend as they entered the warm house, and the smell of garlic and tomato sauce wafted in the air. Yaz still looked like she was fighting off sleep, the left side of her face still bruised from the Sucho, her arms cut up from the Dimorphodon claws, and a series of other scrapes hidden under her clothes from fighting through the lab.

Senegal had been… messy to say the least. Their encounter with Santos still played in Sammy’s head, of Brooklynn refusing to come with them. The interaction only lasted a few minutes before hell broke loose. In Ben’s defense, he only wanted Brooklynn to hand over Bumpy’s egg, but as soon as Brooklynn tried to balance the case, Darius grabbed her arm and started running, and suddenly they were all running. Brooklynn tried to break away at one point, but was promptly tackled into the dirt by a ‘definitely has had enough of this bullshit’ Yaz. Kenji grabbed the eggs as they heard the barking of Santos’s Atrociraptor, while Yaz tossed a dazed Brooklynn over her shoulder and booked it while Brooklynn protested the entire way. 

Honestly, Sammy was shocked the poor girl hadn’t fainted yet. Though she’s sure Yaz was running purely on adrenaline and anger at one point, as Brooklynn continued to protest until Agent Barry got them onto the plane. Ben and Yaz had to take turns making sure she didn’t run off again. Agent Barry even questioned Brooklynn while the medics looked over the rest of the Nublar Six once they made it to the base, the agents were working out of. For the most part, they had avoided serious injuries, except for poor Yaz, having been diagnosed with a mild concussion, shocking considering how hard the Suchomimus must have hit her to leave the bruising on her face to begin with, so she had been told to rest, and knowing Yaz, “rest” wouldn’t come easily. Especially when the girl seemed to make it her mission to keep Brooklynn where she can see her at all costs. They already had one incident of Brooklynn trying to run off again, resulting in another well-placed (seriously, her girl should play rugby or something with a tackle like that!) tackle ending in Brooklynn kicking out her bad ankle and Ben having to break it up.

But that was Yaz; she was driven and determined to the point that once she got something in her head, it would be impossible to talk her out of it. Like keeping Brooklynn from doing something stupid again.

Seriously, it was like Brooklynn was making it her mission to avoid them. Even landing in Italy and their way to Gia’s place was Brooklynn being either entirely too quiet or scheming some escape plan, only to be foiled by Yaz promptly growling that Brooklynn better not under any circumstances give her another reason to chase her. 

By the time they got to Gia’s, Brooklynn seemed to finally give in to her fate of sticking around with the group. Something that slightly bothered Sammy. Sammy had thought getting Brooklynn back would feel more like a victory, but honestly, she was so angry at her she could barely look at her. Gia talked animatedly to her grandmother for a moment before turning back at them with kind eyes. Gia still ushered them into the kitchen and set hot plates of ravioli in front of them. The boys were quick to dig into the meal offered to them, while Gia mentioned something about grabbing the guest items for the showers and fresh towels. Sammy sat for a moment, her head spinning with everything that had happened: Brooklynn rejecting them, them stealing the entire suitcase of eggs, them practically kidnapping Brooklynn to get her away from the broker, Kenji and Ben arguing. All of that was racing through her mind. 

Kenji still seemed mad at Ben, opting to sit at the end of the table across from Darius. Ben seemed to sense he was still mad and sat on the opposite end, while Gia sat in the middle between the two boys. Nonna sat at the head of the table, a grumpy-looking old woman who seemed both confused and concerned for the group of ragtag people whom Gia greeted and ushered into the house. The only one she seemed to know was Ben, and given the looks she was giving him, she was not a huge fan of Ben. 

So Sammy sat at the table, turning her attention to her own conflicted thoughts about Brooklynn, BioSyn, and everything in between. Suddenly, her heart ached, and her mind went back to when she was alone on the ranch with Yaz, not answering her calls all the time. Weekly calls that sometimes ended up being bi-weekly because Yaz was busy with some project or had schoolwork that she needed to get done. And Sammy understood that, but was it really so hard to keep a weekly phone call schedule? 

Until she noticed her girlfriend had swapped their plates suddenly. She looked over to see Yaz, eyebrows narrowed, cutting open all the ravioli on the plate. For a second, Sammy questioned if Yaz maybe didn’t like the food, but Yaz was probably one of the least picky eaters Sammy knew. And she hated food waste more than anything, so it was strange to see her analyzing food with such a serious expression on her face. It took Sammy a second to notice that there seemed to be two different fillings in the ravioli; one looked like cheese and spinach, and the other looked like beef and cheese.

Yaz was cutting open each piece on her plate, sliding the non-meat ones into Sammy’s dish while eating all the meat ones. Despite the weirdness of it, Sammy felt her heart swell a bit, a small smile making its way to her face as her silly girlfriend continued her focused work, making sure Sammy didn’t get any of the meat-filled ones. 

She held on to the warmth that settled in her chest. Yaz had remembered she was a vegetarian and even noticed the meat in the food before she had. It was something that felt stupid to be happy about; that Yaz had paid attention to something so small, but after being away from her girlfriend for so long, the idea that Yaz cared enough to remember something so small felt like winning the lottery.

Her smile faded a bit when she noticed the tremor in Yaz’s hands. The fork hit the plate with a clink every time Yaz cut open one of the ravioli, inspecting its insides to see which filling it was. Her dark eyes focused on the task. Sammy watched her tense the muscles in her arm, clearly trying to stop the shake while she worked.

Yaz hadn’t talked about her PTSD, but Sammy was sure getting stuck with a Sucho and a Majunasaurus hadn’t helped at all. And yet, Yaz was still holding it together, far too focused on ravioli fillings. It’s something so silly, so little, but it was a small reminder that Yaz, at least, was trying to think of what Sammy needed. Sammy just… needed more of that from her girlfriend. Especially now, as she felt her emotions whirl in her head, emotions she didn’t want to think about. Things she didn’t want to focus on. 

Sammy moved her hand subtly, resting it against Yaz’s leg. The feeling grounded Sammy a bit as she focused on her girlfriend instead of the storm in her head. The brown-eyed woman's head snapped up to meet her eyes, an adorably sheepish smile appearing on her face once she was caught. 

The moment was quickly broken when Nonna slammed a spoonful of ravioli on Yaz’s plate, scolding her in Italian for a moment before looking at her expectantly. Yaz only stared back at the woman blankly, clearly understanding she was being scolded, but had no idea what for.

“Nonna says you should eat the spinach ones if you want your bruise to heal,” Gia quickly translated when she noticed Yaz’s very confused look. 

Nonna barked a few more sentences in Italian, jabbing her spoon in the direction of Yaz’s now completely loaded plate filled with ravioli.

“That’s my fault,” Sammy quickly intervened. “I’m a vegetarian. Yaz was trying to make sure I only ate the ones without meat in them.”

“I am so sorry, I should have asked before mixing the two,” Gia apologized as she translated the message to Nonna, who scoffed, gave Yaz one more warning look, and scooped a bit more of the meat-free ones into Sammy’s plate. Nonna speaks in a much softer tone in Sammy’s direction before turning to return the pot to the stove.

“Nonna says not to be afraid to speak up; we’re more than happy to accommodate you during your stay.” 

Sammy flashed an apologetic smile, feeling a little silly for not standing up for herself before, and causing Yaz to get a little scolding before clearing up the issue. She shook her head, trying to clear the negative thought before she could hear Ben and Kenji snickering as they laughed to themselves. Ben was only being slightly more polite about it, hiding his snickers as a cough when he noticed Sammy had looked over at him, and Yaz flashed him a warning look. Kenji, like always, was more relentless. 

“Don’t laugh at them,” Gia quickly scolded, swatting Ben’s arm as the two quieted their laughter. “It was sweet.” 

“That’s our Yaz for you,” Kenji teased as he eyed Yaz. “She’s just the sweetest.” 

Yaz’s eyebrow twitched at Kenji’s overly saccharine sing-song tone as she growled in Kenji’s direction. Sammy and Gia shared a look before rolling their eyes.

“Come on, Kenji, cut her some slack,” Darius said with a stern look. “She's concussed.”

“Concussed?!” Yaz glared at Darius as if that was the most offensive thing he could have said to her. Kenji laughed loudly as Darius raised his hands in surrender. 

“That's what the medic said!” Darius tried to defend before giving Yaz a concerned look, “You do remember that, right? Because memory problems could be a side effect of a worse concussion.”

“I remember what he said! It's a mild concussion; it's not that big of a deal.”

“Isn't a mild concussion still a concussion?”

“Yes,” Sammy and Ben said simultaneously, causing Yaz to grumble.

“Dude, not with her thick skull. The damn Sucho would have a worse concussion-OW!”

Kenji jumped out of his seat as he glared in Yaz’s direction, who had an overly satisfied look on her face as she turned her attention back to her food. Darius snickered a bit as Ben rolled his eyes.

“Not at the table, kids,” Ben chuckled as Sammy shook her head, the familiarity of them all teasing each other lightening the load of emotions a bit as they tried to cling to something happier, at least for tonight.

Sammy barely registered Brooklynn’s ghost of a smile as she watched her friends bicker. Something about it felt wrong, like it didn’t feel right for Brooklynn to suddenly just be back without any remorse for the pain she put the rest of them through.

But Brooklynn’s focus didn’t stay on them for long, she was otherwise preoccupied with a burner phone that sat in her lap, obvious enough for Sammy to know it was there, but not directly at the table. For a moment Sammy wondered if anyone else had noticed. If they did, none of them said anything about it. 

“You all must be so tired,” Gia quickly redirected as Kenji sat back down, rubbing his bruised shin from Yaz’s well-placed kick. “I can show you all where you’ll be sleeping after dinner!”

The group stuffed their faces like starved animals for the next few minutes, almost peacefully, despite the tension and heaviness that seemed to linger, eating away at Sammy’s little bubble until it felt like a gnawing in her insides. Her perfect little bottle of emotions felt like it was being shaken up, fizzing and bubbling uncomfortably under the surface.

“So, what next?”

Darius’s voice felt like cold water. Everyone seemed to freeze at his words. What did they do next? They effectively had the Broker after them, they stole a case full of dinosaur eggs, they crashed a plane (thought Barry seemed chill with that), were in another country, and worst of all, they didn’t have a solid way home.

“Let’s call that a tomorrow thing,” Yaz’s voice was soft, clearly trying to assure Darius in some way. Ben was quick to agree, and the group split up into their two assigned rooms for the night. Yaz and Sammy would stay in Gia’s room while Kenji and Darius stayed in the guest room. Ben offered to sleep in the living room with Brooklynn. Gia would bunk with Nonna during their stay. Sammy couldn’t help but feel a little bad about kicking the woman out of her room. Gia assumed them she switched everything to clean sheets and towels in the bathroom before Sammy and Yaz were left alone in the room. Sammy pushed Yaz to shower first, so she could get some first aid supplies from Gia to re-wrap Yaz’s injuries that had been half-hazardously taken care of in Senegal. While Yaz was in the shower, Sammy went through the first aid kit, pulling out the needed bandages and antibiotics that would be needed to properly wrap up Yaz’s injuries this time.

Sammy’s almost unerved by the calm energy of the house. She’s surrounded by muffled noises of the boys talking a few rooms over; she can hear the buzz of chatter from Ben, hushed whispers from Kenji and Darius, and the constant sound of the water in the shower. Everything sounded off. Too normal, too calm. Sammy shook her head, trying to shake off the itchy feeling beneath her skin. She decided to blame the feeling on too much adrenaline from their recent dinosaur encounters. 

“...Babe?” 

Sammy nearly jumped out of her skin at how close the voice was, spinning to see Yaz, hair down and damp against her shoulders, as she looked at Sammy with concerned brown eyes. Yaz had changed into a pair of joggers that had been half-hazardously tossed in her makeshift duffel bag, which hadn’t gotten any wear since they had been non-stop since they got on the boat in Louisiana. She was also in a sports bra, never one to sleep with a shirt on as she ran warm.

“Sorry,” Sammy muttered as she blinked the haze from her head.

“Do you feel okay, Sammy?” Yaz asked as her hands came up, fingertips gently grazing against Sammy’s jaw. Her hands cupped Sammy’s face gently as she pulled her closer, resting her forehead against Sammy’s gently.

Her skin is warm against Sammy’s, damp from the shower, and Sammy couldn’t help but close her eyes at the warm touch.

“You’re a little warm,” Yaz muttered as she pulled away a bit. Those darn brown eyes filled with concern almost had Sammy falling into her arms the second she blinked open her grey ones. 

“It’s nothin’,” Sammy assured, “just tired.”

“How’s your shoulder?”

Sammy backed up a step and moved the banged-up appendage. It hurt to move certain ways, and she’s sure by the way Yaz’s eyes widened a bit that she’s flinching as she tests the usage of her shoulder. 

“Try not to move it too much.” Yaz’s voice was firm but concerned. “Go clean up, and I can dig through the first aid kit for something to help with the pain.”

A shower did sound nice. 

“We should probably get your wounds all wrapped up first,” Sammy suggested. 

“I can handle that.”

Yaz waved her hand a bit, an easy smile making its way to her face, the kind of smile she gave Sammy when she was trying to make something sound like no big deal. Sammy raised an eyebrow at that. A buzzing in her stomach made her feel a bit ill. She didn’t love the idea that Yaz didn’t need her help, even if it was something as simple as her wrapping up a couple of cuts. 

“You sure?”

“I’ve got it, Sam. You run some water over that shoulder. And if I do need your help, it can wait until after your shower.”

Sammy gave in and grabbed some spare clothes from her own duffel bag before heading into the small room. The bathroom is small, and the shower is a glass cube in the corner of the room. The mirror still had some condensation on it from Yaz’s shower. The air is still warm, damp, and oddly normal-feeling. Sammy couldn’t hear the boys bickering as much from the small walls. Sammy stepped closer to the shower, pausing when she noticed something in the condensation on the glass walls.

A heart is drawn into the dampness on the glass, and it instantly brought a little smile to Sammy’s face. It was a habit she and Yaz had developed over the years, in the events they didn’t shower together, the first one would draw little pictures in the mirror or shower for the other to find. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine she was back at the ranch with Yaz and her cows, soaking in the Texas sun while they mucked stalls and moved hay. They would shower and laze around the house in the afternoons when the sun was at its hottest, plan dinner from the comfort of the couch, or talk about everything and nothing at all while Yaz sketched or Sammy knit. 

The warm water did feel nice on her shoulder, soothing some of the pain as she washed away the grime and dirt that was starting to feel like a second skin. When she stepped out of the bathroom, Yaz was still seated on the bed, though she had tossed one of Sammy’s tank tops over her sports bra as she analyzed a few ice packs that had not been on the bed before.

“Hey,” Yaz greeted softly, and Sammy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the lack of bandages on her arms.

“Hey, yourself.” Sammy crossed her arms. “What happened to wrapping those cuts?”

“So… turns out that's a lot harder to do with one arm.” Yaz offered sheepishly, “So I would really appreciate your help, Nurse Sam.”

Yaz flashed a dorkishly charming grin, and Sammy wasn’t sure how she would say no to that. A rogue giggle pasted her lips before she could stop it.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sammy shook her head as she sat next to Yaz on the bed, quickly fumbling through the first aid kit to find the antibiotic and bandages needed to wrap up Yaz’s arms.

“Do they hurt?”

“Not that much,” Yaz said as Sammy applied the cream carefully, “it’s still tender, but it doesn’t burn as much.”

Sammy hummed in acknowledgement. Zayna had instructed them on how to disinfect the wounds when Yaz had gotten them. Deep cleaning the cuts had been its own hell. Yaz had been a good sport at the time as they poured unspeakable amounts of a solution Zayna’s mother had packed in case of injury. Yaz had whimpered for at least an hour after, as she could still feel the burning sensation. Thought she might have been playing it up for extra sympathy cuddles from Sammy. Which, of course, she got. And how could she not get extra cuddles when she looked up at Sammy with those big brown eyes? Especially after scaring the devil out of Sammy to begin with when she had gotten separated.

Sammy smiled a bit at the thought as she continued working, wrapping the cuts on Yaz’s arms until the only one that remained was the cut up by her collar bone, a diagonal mark from when the Dimorphodon tried to grab onto her shoulder. 

“Lose the shirt.”

Yaz dared to look scandalized.

“There are other people in this house.”

“Dork,” Sammy scoffed as Yaz removed her shirt, leaving more room for Sammy to bandage the wound, “there ya go.”

“Thank you.”

Yaz’s voice is soft, gentle in a way that only Sammy got to hear. The house had gotten quieter, and Sammy could tell the boys must be asleep by now.

“We should get some sleep,” Sammy offered as Yaz shifted back against the bed, already ahead of her. Sammy felt Yaz’s hand wrap around her wrist, gently guiding her closer. Sammy’s almost surprised when Yaz pulled her until she was almost fully lying on top of her, head on Yaz’s chest, as her girlfriend let out a contented sigh.

Sammy giggled a bit at her girlfriend’s insistence, the steady sound of Yaz’s heartbeat in her ear.

“You sure you want to sleep like this?” Sammy asked as she braced her hands on either side of Yaz, preparing to push herself away, “I’m kinda on top of your injuries like this.”

No sooner did she try to push away did she felt Yaz’s arms wrap tighter around her shoulders, a noise of protest leaving her throat. 

“Please?”

Sammy froze at the tone. She was expecting Yaz to fight her a bit, but she didn’t really anticipate a “please” or the way Yaz’s heart rate picked up anxiously when Sammy tried to pull away.

“I…uh,” Yaz immediately stuttered, “I miss having you this close.”

Her voice was so small, vulnerable in a way Sammy hadn’t heard in a long time. Sammy felt warm at the words as she snuggled up to Yaz, letting her head fall against the other woman’s chest and draping an arm around her waist.

“I missed having you this close, too,” Sammy muttered as she felt Yaz’s hand tangle into her hair, nails brushing her scalp pleasantly as she felt her eyes drift closed. The gentle touch was familiar, warm, enough to lull Sammy closer and closer to sleep, before she pushed herself upward again, meeting Yaz’s surprised face a moment before she pressed a gentle kiss to the other girl’s lips. She felt Yaz freeze for a minute, confused, before she felt lips move against her, a satisfied hum vibrating against her mouth, before she pulled away.

“You sure you don’t want to ice your shoulder?” Yaz dared ask when they pulled away. Sammy thought for a second about the icepacks and then shook her head.

“The water did a good job, I think I’ll leave it for a bit.”

Besides, the ice packs were within reach distance if Sammy wanted them later, and she would rather get chased by raptors than move even a fraction of an inch away from her girlfriend right now.

“Goodnight, Yaz.”

“Sleep tight, Sammy.”

Sammy snuggled back into her girlfriend, a smile forming at her mouth, and before she could stop herself.

“Don’t let the dinosaurs bite.”

She felt Yaz swat her shoulder lightly as a laugh filled the air, Yaz’s chest moving up and down with the familiar sound. Sammy felt herself laugh a bit as the two tried to settle down the noise bubbling from their throats before quickly drifting off to sleep. 

Chapter Text

The next morning, they are woken by the obvious failed attempts by the boys to be quiet. Sammy felt herself slowly wake from her sleep to the sound of Darius and Kenji arguing in what they thought was a hushed tone. Yaz let out an annoyed groan as they somehow got louder.

“Your boys are awake.”

Sammy scoffed, “My boys?”

“I don’t claim any of them.” 

Yaz tossed her arm that wasn’t around Sammy’s shoulders across her eyes, blocking out the sun coming in from the window and trying to block out the noise, a move that Sammy had seen so many times when Yaz’s alarm went off, but she didn’t want to get out of bed. Sammy almost wondered if they could get away with drifting back off to sleep before there was a dull clattering sound of something hitting the floor. Yaz let out another sigh, resigned to the fact that she would not be sleeping any later.

“We’re having girls.”

Sammy almost double-taked at the casual way Yaz said it, half-asleep and groggy. Surely Yaz was still joking around, because there was no way she was seriously thinking about future kids… Sammy felt her face heat up a bit at the thought. Kids? Ridiculous, they hadn’t even thought past getting back home!

Sammy felt Yaz try to stretch underneath her, muscles tensing and flexing in a way that didn’t make Sammy’s face grow a little warmer after her previous thought, before she sat up a bit, listening to the bickering as Gia’s voice seemed to try to mediate. Poor girl, she had no idea what she was in for.

“We should probably be nice and help Gia calm those two down.”

Yaz has a little mischievous smirk on her face, though, so she wasn’t horribly concerned with protecting Gia from whatever argument Kenji and Darius were having right now. Sammy shook her head, 

“We can’t leave her to babysit herself,” Sammy offered a bit more firmly as she pulled herself regretfully away from the bed and stretched, watching as Yaz did the same as she stood, grabbed a hairtie from the side table, and tossed her hair into a messy low bun. Sammy almost wanted to pout at the move. While she understood the function of Yaz keeping her hair up, she loved it when she kept her hair down. Sammy watched as Yaz grabbed the tank top she had stolen from Sammy the night before to toss it on before heading towards the door. The voices grew slightly louder as Yaz carefully opened the door.

The three boys seemed to stop their semi-hushed conversation before Darius lit up, made direct eye contact with Yaz, and loudly proclaimed.

“Yaz can watch them!”

Yaz tilted her head a bit as Sammy stepped up behind her, eyeing the scene before them as Darius excitedly gestured to them. Darius and Kenji seemed to be having their argument in the main living area, Darius trying to tug Kenji along somewhere while Gia and Ben watched from the sidelines.

“Yeah, Yaz and Sammy can totally keep an eye on the eggs while you and I get breakfast.”

Darius repeated the request, turning to Yaz with pleading eyes, and Sammy knew neither her nor Yaz could say no to Darius when he looked like that. It was his superpower as the baby of the group. The baby of the camp fam if Sammy really thought about it. 

“Sure, we can watch them,” Yaz answered. Darius gave her a grateful look as he took the keys from Gia and headed out the door with Kenji on his tail without another word. Kenji looked back for a moment before the door closed behind them. 

“What just happened?” Sammy asked as she and Yaz walked towards the small living space. Ben rubbed the back of his head as Gia shrugged.

“Well, Kenji’s been obsessing over the eggs, and Darius wanted to get him out of the house. And I don’t think Kenji really wants to leave the eggs unsupervised with Brooklynn around,” Ben explained as Gia nodded. 

“Where is Brooklynn?” Yaz asked as she crossed her arms.

“Kitchen, on the burner.” 

“We’ll watch the eggs,” Yaz sighed a bit. “Any idea why she’s glued to the phone?”

“I tried to talk to her last night,” Ben started as he rubbed the back of his neck, “she wouldn’t tell me much, and she got really quiet when I brought up the raptors attacking us all.”

“She won’t say anything else?” Sammy asked.

Like sorry? Not even a quick “my bad” to make up for everything she’s put them through?

Sammy thought about the funeral, of Kenji’s sobbing, of him and Darius getting into a fight, of Yasmina and Ben stepping between the two as Kenji yelled in grief and sorrow, the sound of Brooklynn’s dads barely able to console themselves. She remembered her girlfriend’s darkened face, how out of it she had been the day after. How Ben nearly dropped to his knees when he finally broke down to cry. How her own eyes burned all day watching everyone she loved in pain. How they all had drifted apart after the funeral, everyone either too shaken up or throwing themselves at other projects so as not to think about the damage Brooklynn had caused their small family. Surely Brooklynn was sorry about some of it.

“Not really,” Ben said.

The four stood in silence for a second, obviously not knowing how to continue from where they were.

“Why don’t I toss some laundry in?” Gia offered, “Focus on what we can do for now and regroup on how to get you guys home later. Focus on the eggs, Kenji has them all in the guy's room, right? Nonna doesn’t have a reason to go in here. If you guys can grab the laundry, I can toss it all in.” Gia offered. Yaz offered to grab the guys and check the eggs while Sammy went to grab the laundry from their room. It feels almost too normal, grabbing the clothes from the basket in the bathroom and dropping them into the hamper Gia had handed her.

“You sure I can’t help you? I feel bad dumping all our dirty laundry on you.” Sammy offered as Gia quickly waved her away, taking the basket.

“It’s no trouble at all, and I’d happily trade for any stories from your adventures.” Gia smiled as her eyes lit up similarly to how Darius’s did when there was the promise of learning more dinosaur facts, “The only one I know by heart is Ben’s encounter with a Carnataurus.”

“Oh no, he’s subjected you to the Toro story?” 

Sammy remembered the story word for word, a side effect of having to listen to it non-stop for weeks on Nublar.

“You know, he told me that story on our first date?” Gia asked with a grin, and Sammy smiled at how excited Gia was to talk about her and Ben.

“You guys are slobs.” Yaz’s voice cut through the house as she and Ben’s footsteps drew closer.

“It’s just Kenji!” 

Gia and Sammy chuckled a bit at Yaz and Ben’s bickering as Gia dumped the girls' clothes into the washer. 

“How is Yasmina feeling, by the way? I didn’t want to say anything, but the bruising is-” Gia gestured a bit to the side of her face that mirrored where Yaz had been struck. Sammy had to agree, the bruising didn’t look great right now, particularly dark against Yasmina’s skin, and truly did look like she had lost a fight with someone at least five times bigger than her. Which, Sammy supposed, was fair for getting smacked around by a Suchomimus.

“The medic in Senegaul said she probably had a mild concussion, so she just needs to rest up, she’s too stubborn to take any pain killers, though I’m sure she’s got at least a little headache goin’.”

Sammy sighed a bit as she heard Ben and Yaz draw closer. She noticed Ben had the basket of clothes from the boys' room as he bickered with Yaz, the two quieting as they drew closer, and Ben rested the basket by the machine for Gia.

“I do have some menthol in the hallway bathroom cabinet that could help with the discoloration, though; it won’t help with the tenderness, but it would fade the bruising a bit.”

“Talking about Yaz’s killer black eye?”

Ben asked as Yaz grumbled and nudged him, but Sammy could tell she was starting to get self-conscious about it. 

“You guys are free to rest the next few days,” Gia offered, quickly catching on to Yaz probably not wanting to be singled out because of her injury. “How are the eggs?”

“Bundled up in Kenji’s little pillow and blanket nest,” Yaz said easily, thought she furrowed her eyebrows in worry a moment later, “thought, I have a feeling if they don’t hatch soon, we’re going to have bigger problems.”

There was a moment of concerned silence as Gia closed the washer and turned to the three. 

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Ben crossed his arms, a look of worry quickly making its way to his face. Kenji wouldn’t be the only one upset that Bumpy’s baby had somehow… Sammy didn’t want to think about it; it felt far too awful to think about. It was bad enough losing one member of the camp fam (even if she did come back), let alone learning that the newest little life could have been squashed out before they could even be born. Sammy didn’t even want to think about whether Bumpy would react negatively to her egg never returning to her… or if her baby had been harmed while the little one was with them, Bumpy would simply never forgive them!

“How about I start up the espresso machine? I have water and juice as well to tide us over until the boys come back,” Gia offered as she headed towards the kitchen, “Unless you’d rather have your awful American coffee?” 

Ben chuckled, shaking his head, “Nothing wrong with my ‘American’ coffee!” 

Ben and Gia make their way into the kitchen as Yaz and Sammy watch from their spot in the hallway.

“Benjamin’s all grown up,” Sammy spoke like a dotting mother.

“When did that happen?”

The two share a look before sharing a laugh of their own. 

“Remember when Darius was still the shortest?”

“God, who’s feeding that kid? It’s almost as bad as Ben’s growth spurt.” 

The two share a soft laugh as they recall when their friends weren’t so tall. Sammy stepped closer, brushing Yaz’s hair out of her face to examine the bruising still on her face. 

“Does it look that bad?” 

Yaz asked with a little vulnerability hanging in her voice. Sammy shook her head.

“It’s bruised like a horse kick, though, I think we should take Gia up on her offer of menthol to see if we can help the bruising. I can grab that right quick, and we can get yet set with that.”

Yaz hummed a bit as Sammy pulled her hand away. Sammy turned towards the hall leading to the hall bathroom and retrieved the container where Gia had said it was. She returned to the living area to see Yaz perched on the couch, Gia and Ben’s giggling having only quieted a bit. As soon as Sammy entered the room, Yaz looked up to meet her gaze, rolling her eyes as Ben and Gia broke out into another fit of laughter. 

“Any idea what they’re giggling at?” Sammy asked with a laugh of her own as she sat next to her girlfriend on the couch. She momentarily fought with the menthol jar and dabbed the jelly-like substance onto a cotton ball. 

“How Ben makes toast from what I can hear.” Yaz offered with a chuckle, shaking her head before Sammy sat a bit closer, gently brushing the cotton ball against the bruised skin of her face. Yaz flinched under Sammy’s touch, her jaw setting as she tried to keep still.

“Still hurt?” Sammy asked as she continued her work, trying to be as gentle as possible.

“A little.”

Yaz’s voice was tight as she tried not to flinch at Sammy’s touch. Sammy frowned a bit as she tried to apply the menthol as gently as possible. Of course, her girlfriend was going to be stubborn and downplay how awful that bruise had to hurt. That’s just what Yasmina had made a habit of doing. At least that’s why Sammy used to think before seeing her on that island, seeing her not even flinch at the T. rex hologram… maybe Yasmina really didn’t need her anymore.

Sammy tried to bury the thought as she swallowed thickly, focusing on right now as she moved the cotton ball against the darkened markings on Yaz’s face. The bruising was a nice dark purple color with greenish undertones that made Sammy flinch a bit if she looked too close. 

“You okay, Sam?” 

Sammy almost jumped at Yaz’s voice. She met the other girl’s worried brown eyes for a second.

“You got really quiet.”

“Sorry, I guess I just got to thinkin’”

“About… Brooklynn?”

Yaz’s guess wasn’t off per se, but right now, Sammy really just wanted to put Brooklynn as far off into a corner in her mind as she could. 

“I just got a lot on my mind,” Sammy offered, not really answering Yaz’s question one way or another, “I just want to focus on this for now.”

The two sat in quiet for a few minutes while Sammy focused on her task. Yaz’s eyes fluttered closed against her gentle touch. Sammy felt a smile come to her face, and she only wished they were having this tender moment, not because they had just traveled halfway across the world trying to solve dinosaur mysteries.

“There,” Sammy’s voice gentle as Yaz’s eyes blinked back open, “feel any better?”

“It actually does take a bit of the sting out of it.” Yaz said as she leaned back a bit, a mischievous smirk making its way to her face, “Maybe a kiss would help too.”

Sammy laughed, her shoulders shaking off what felt like a year’s worth of stress at the absolutely dorky suggestion from her girlfriend. For a second, there were no dinosaurs, no missed phone calls, no thumbs-up texts, just her and Yaz, sitting on the couch. Just her Yaz with that silly dorky grin and sparkling eyes. Sammy grinned as she rested a hand on the unmarred side of Yaz’s face.

“Ya know,” Sammy started as her giggles subsided, still bubbling in her throat, “if you wanted to kiss me, you could have asked, the getting-a-concussion part we could have skipped.”

“You know I never do anything halfway.”

Sammy rolled her eyes, thought the smile stayed on her face.

“I would have settled for one of your signature picnic dates.”

“We should do that once we’re back home,” Yaz offered, voice soft enough to make Sammy’s heart skip a beat, “Or… you can come back with me to Wyoming and I can take you on that lunch date I planned before a dinosaur ruined-”

Yaz doesn’t get to finish the thought before Sammy’s lips are on hers. A date. A real date. Sammy’s heart fluttered at the promise, at the idea of finally getting time with Yaz like that. Finally, having Yaz’s full attention for a few minutes. They could go picnic on the ranch, see the cows, oh, Bessie would be so excited to see Yaz again!

Or they’d get to go to lunch in Wyoming, maybe she’d get to see Yaz’s apartment while they were there, and she’d get to snuggle up with Yaz watching a movie.

The possibilities bloomed in her chest as she kissed her favorite person until she needed to pull away for a breath, grinning at Yaz the second she moved away.

“I’d like that.”

Yaz flashed her a soft smile, a moment before they heard more commotion from the kitchen. Sammy rolled her eyes at the noise.

“Should we check on them?”

“Probably… but, I’m going to peek at the eggs first, that way Kenji can’t whine at me when he gets back.” 

Sammy nodded as she stood up. Yaz stood up as well and flashed her another soft smile before disappearing down the hall towards the guys’ room. Sammy turned back to the kitchen, stepping through the doorway as she saw Ben and Gia talking animatedly over coffee at the kitchen table. 

That’s when she’s hit with a reminder of who else had been lurking in the kitchen. She had almost forgotten all about the subject of her lingering doubt and anger.

Brooklynn sat across from Ben, the two seemingly chatting like no time had passed between them. Sammy can’t help but feel annoyed. Brooklynn hadn’t even apologized! How was he just… OK with all of this?

“Coffee?” Gia asked as she walked towards the kitchen to grab a mug.

“Yes, please.” 

“Where’s Yaz?” Ben asked as Sammy took a seat at the table.

“She’s checkin’ on the eggs.”

Gia returned with a hot cup of coffee, placing it in front of Sammy before taking her seat next to Ben again. 

“So…” Ben started quietly, looking down at his coffee, “Brooklynn and I were talking about what our next move should be.”

Sammy froze mid-sip. In a moment, she can see Brooklynn’s face, stony and cold as she turned her back on them and left with the Broker. Anger bubbled against Sammy’s chest, an annoyance and betrayal that stung in her veins. Even now, Brooklynn hadn’t said a word to her, slumped in her seat across from Ben and not making eye contact. At first, Sammy might have thought it was shame, but she could see the faint light of the burner phone against the pale skin of Brooklynn’s face. Sammy has never wanted to smash a phone so badly in her life. In fact, she almost felt like glaring at Ben, after all, what happened to ‘phones are traceable’?

Before she can even fathom an answer, the familiar scrambling of Yaz’s feet can be heard a second before she bursts through the door to the kitchen, looking slightly more disheveled than she had a moment ago.

“Soooo… good news, bad news,” Yaz started as she stepped closer, “good news is I found these in the nest.”

Yaz held out her hands, revealing fragments of a broken dinosaur egg. The fragments held a familiar blue color adorned with speckles.

“The egg hatched!” Gia cheered a bit with a smile as Ben stood up as well, a relieved grin making its way to his face.

“Yeah!... Bad news is there’s no sign of a baby dinosaur anywhere.”

A beat passed as they all looked at Yaz with blank looks before the panic set in… The baby dinosaur had gotten out of the room and was somewhere in the house.

Ben was the first to move, rapidly claiming they needed to look for the baby dinosaur before something happened, or worse, Nonna found them.

***

And suddenly they were tossed into another panic. Nonna would be back from grocery shopping soon if Darius and Kenji didn’t beat her home. Sammy hadn’t even gotten to finish her coffee before she found herself on her hands and knees searching every room in the house for a baby dinosaur. And then there was Brooklynn, a constant unpleasant buzz in her head.

How could Ben just forgive Brooklynn? Brooklynn pretended to be dead! For six months! And then when they did get together, she turned her back on them. They had to chase her! Yasmina had to tackle her! Why were they even discussing this? 

“How can a baby dinosaur be so good at hiding?” Yaz grumbled as she checked under the beds and furniture across the room. 

Sammy let out a sigh, the sound coming off as frustrated. Honestly, how was it that Yasmina, of all people, didn’t understand how easily it was to run away? God knows that girl had been doing it for the last six months since Brooklynn “died.” After all, as soon as the funeral was over, Yaz had pretty much locked herself up in her nice little apartment in Wyoming, diving herself into her work and not returning Sammy’s calls. Missing their Friday Date Night video calls.

When was the last time they had one of those anyway? Before Brooklynn died? Sammy used to look forward to them all week, and then suddenly Brooklynn was gone and then her girlfriend was half-there like a living ghost.

And then she dared to be cute? To make Sammy forget how mad she was at her with cute little smiles and promises of dates that might not happen as soon as they got home, and she found another reason to stay away from Sammy? 

“Yeah, wonder why it’s hiding away from all its friends and family.” Sammy was almost shocked by her own tone, how edgy her voice sounded, and how low it had gotten. She heard Yasmina pause in her search and could almost feel her eyes on her.

“Sammy?”

And there it is again. Sammy. Her full name was spoken in that soft voice. Yaz had sat herself more upright, and Sammy could feel her gaze.

“Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay!” Sammy snapped, raising her voice at her girlfriend, “Why would I be okay? Our friend, whom we thought was dead, just appeared working for the woman who wants us dead, and then she doesn’t even want to come back with us; we have to force her. I think I get to be upset about all that. And then Ben’s sitting havin’ coffee with her like everything’s fine and dandy when it’s not!”

Sammy turned to Yaz, seeing the other girl’s facial expression soften, and suddenly she heavily regretted raising her voice. She’s never… yelled at Yaz like that. She looked away, ignoring the burn in her eyes,

“I hear you, a lot is going on, and it’s overwhelming. What can I do to help?”

Sammy let out a breath, rubbing her eyes for a moment before shrugging her shoulders.

“I don’t know.”

Sammy felt helpless in that moment, sitting on the floor with too many feelings swirling in her head. The last thing she could think about was what could help; she truly didn’t know if there was anything that would help what she felt in that moment. She heard Yaz shuffle closer before feeling a hand rest on her back, slowly rubbing circles against the tense muscles. Sammy couldn’t even remember when the knots had begun to form. 

“Do… you want me to try and talk to Brooklynn?”

“And tell her what?”

“That she should apologize if something is bothering you-”

“Why doesn’t it bother you?” Sammy snapped before Yaz could finish her thought. There it was again, her raising her voice at her girlfriend, almost yelling at her. But what else was Sammy supposed to do? Why wasn’t Yaz more upset about this? Why was Yaz suddenly just fine with everything Brooklynn had done? 

“It does bother me.” 

Yaz’s words were soft, almost surprised that Sammy could think anything different.

“Brooklynn hasn’t explained anything since she’s gotten here. And I get BioSyn is our main objective, but it’s a little weird that she hasn’t apologized yet.”

Sammy was slightly unsettled by Yaz’s words. Though she’d hardly call BioSyn her number one priority, it was clear they were stuck in a unique situation with a bunch of baby dinosaur eggs, a missing dinosaur at the moment, and all the drama with Brooklynn. 

Yeah, Sammy could understand how easy it was to prioritize BioSyn over everything else, but it didn’t make it feel much better.

“It’s okay to still be upset with her.” Yaz assured as she reached over, taking Sammy’s hand in her own, “and I’m right here if you want to talk. Okay?”

“Right,” Sammy scoffed as she turned away.

What if you don’t pick up?

Sammy’s thought ripped through her, completely shattering the serene little space Yaz was trying to create with her kind words. 

What if I need you and you're not here? 

What if you don’t answer the phone?

What if I need more than a thumbs-up emoji?

There were so many things Sammy wanted to voice, wanted to ask, wanted to call out. Before Sammy can try to bring her feelings to words, they both jump at the loud crashing noise. They both jumped to their feet and swung the door open to see Kenji and Darius opening the door moments before Kenji brought a tiny baby dinosaur into his arms. The baby Ankylosaurus let out a bellow as it made eye contact with Kenji.

For a moment, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted.

Chapter Text

It seemed that Kenji and Smoothie were inseparable. It was nice seeing Kenji brighten up as well. But that slight victory did little to help the situation they were in right now. They all sat around the living area. Nonna had gone out for the day, and they had dove into a meeting where Ben and Brooklynn caught the gang up on Brooklynn’s investigation. 

Still with no apology, Sammy felt like adding as Ben dove into details about dinosaur trafficking and BioSyn. Kenji seemed to be in the same boat, focusing more on Smoothie than the two pitching different ways to stop BioSyn from continuing to experiment and trade dinosaurs. Yaz and Darius seemed to be in the middle, cautiously listening to what Ben and Brooklynn said while trading concerned glances with each other.

“Shouldn’t we focus on the fact that we have eight other dinosaur eggs?” Darius asked.

Truthfully, they hadn’t spoken much about the other eggs. Besides Smoothie’s egg, there were four other eggs similar in size, one slightly bigger, and three more eggs that reminded Sammy of chicken eggs. The eggs ranged from classic eggwhite, slightly green-tinted, and light blue hues, with one of the eggs being a fierce red color. While Bumpy’s egg had been a priority, now the Nublar Six were faced with a predicament of having eight other dinosaur eggs that had the possibility of hatching.

“We could use them as leverage,” Brooklynn pondered out loud, “that would help us get access to BioSyn’s underground dinosaur trading route.”

“That seems risky,” Ben muttered.

“And wouldn’t Santos be super mad since you left her in Senegal?” Darius asked, and Sammy had to stop herself from snorting; thankfully, her girlfriend spoke up.

“That probably looked more like us kidnapping her.” Yaz offered, though her shoulders are still stiff, clearly not convinced by any of Ben and Brooklynn’s plans so far.

“Doesn’t seem fair to use a bunch of baby dinosaurs as leverage,” Kenji added darkly as he drew Smoothie closer to his chest protectively at the idea. 

“What are we going to do with nine baby dinosaurs?” 

Brooklynn’s question hung in the air. Sammy could see Darius shift uncomfortably. 

“We can’t let BioSyn do whatever they want with them,” Ben spoke up, his brow furrowing, “we all saw that crazy blind Baryonyx at the lab, they’ll probably do worse to the others.”

“Maybe we should take a break,” Yaz spoke up, seeing Darius squirm in his seat. Darius flashed her a grateful look as he quickly agreed.

“Why don’t Kenji and I get some pastries from that bakery down the street?” 

“Oh, I can get some coffee ready.” Gia jumped in as the group moved around, trying to shift into a more neutral air that wasn’t as tense as it was previously. Darius mentioned something about grabbing his jacket from the room as Ben and Brooklynn went back to going through Dark Jurassic on Gia’s laptop. Kenji huffed from his spot next to Sammy.

“How’s Smoothie doing?” Sammy asked in place of asking Kenji how he was directly. Kenji eagerly lifted up the little Ankylosaurus.

“He’s doing good, it’s almost time for a snack! I think he’s feeling tomatoes.”

“He really loves those,” Sammy added as she brushed her fingers across Smoothie’s head, earning a happy little chirp from the dinosaur.

“We should try mangos, Bumpy loved those.” 

Ben added as he stepped away from the computer to get closer to Kenji and the baby dinosaur.

“Remember when we broke into that bunker and got all that food?” Ben asked with a smile, “Bumpy loved those dried mangos we got from there, I swear she was so mad when we ran out.”

“I remember.” Sammy chuckled at the memory, “She headbutted you for weeks after.”

“She was a woman of refined taste.”

“Guys,” Darius' voice echoed through the house as he scampered back towards the living area. Sammy could see the panic in his eyes, “It’s a Carnataurus.”

“What?” Yaz stood from her spot on the couch as Darius swallowed.

“One of the eggs hatched… It’s a Carnataurus… It ate some of the other eggs.”

***

The scene before them is not a pretty one; the baby Carnataurus was standing over one of the broken chicken-sized eggs, eating the contents with a sickening noise. Darius made a short gagging sound similar to when Kenji dislocated and relocated his shoulder. He shook his head, looking around the hallway for something they could use.

“I don’t suppose you have like… a cat carrier or crate or something?”

“Nonna used to have cats; we have one of those heavy plastic carriers.” Gia offered before hurrying down the hall to retrieve the promised item. Darius looked around some more before grabbing some of the towels from the pile of clean ones in the basket next to the washing machine. 

“Are we going to seriously catch a Carnataurus like it’s a house cat?”

Kenji’s question sent an air of dread through the other Nublar Six members. 

“Kinda, first we have to grab it, so Yaz will wrap it up in one of these and we’ll toss it in the crate!”

“Yaz who?” Yaz choked out as Darius pushed one of the towels into her arms, one of the thick, fluffy ones similar to what Gia had put in the bathrooms when she set the spaces up for guests.

“Yaz you, duffus,” Brooklynn rolled her eyes, “you’re the fastest.”

“Not anymore.”

“Really?” Brooklynn teased as he nudged her, “You never pull the ‘I have a fucked up ankle’ card, you’re really gonna start now?”

“Yes!”

“It doesn’t matter, you’re still the fastest with your ankle!”

“I’ll go with you,” Sammy offered, growing quickly annoyed at Brooklynn teasing her girlfriend, “I can distract him a bit and then toss the towel over him.”

“I’ll go too,” Ben quickly added, “since I have experience with this kind of dino-”

“Oh my god.”

Gia returned with the crate, handing it to Ben as they formed their loose plan. Charge into the room, Ben was to distract the baby dino while Yaz grabbed it and tossed it into the crate. Sammy was in charge of shutting the door to the crate once the dino was inside. Kenji, Darius, and Brooklynn would wait outside with Gia while they captured the dino.

The three manage to creep into the room while the Carnataurus chomped on what remained of two of the smaller chicken-sized eggs. Yaz quietly vaulted over the beds to get in position behind the Carnataurus while Ben shifted so he was in view of the baby dinosaur, who immediately raised his head. 

“Hey, ugly, over here!”

 The little Carnataures let out a squeak of a roar before charging at Ben, giving Yaz the opening she needed to dash behind the dino, throw the towel over it like it’s an angry cat, and lift it from the ground. Another squeaky roar is muffled by the towel as its tail thrashes against Yaz’s ribcage before Sammy placed the crate on the ground, opening it up so Yaz could toss the little angry guy into the crate before Sammy slammed the door.

“Well, that was probably our easiest dinosaur problem so far.” 

Yaz offered as Sammy let out a sigh, matching her girlfriend’s smile as the others filed into the room. Kenji immediately turned Smoothie around so as not to see the carnage of the two broken eggs. Ben muttered something about getting some stuff to clean up what remained of egg goo and blood from the floor and blankets while Darius kneeled by the remaining eggs. The Carnataurus seemed to have come out of the red-toned egg, oddly fitting, Sammy thought as the little guy continued to squeak and stomp from inside the cat carrier.

That still left four eggs that were a similar size to Smoothie’s egg, one bigger, and one chicken-sized egg left. The largest egg had a gash across the bottom, a clear sign that the Carnataurus had tried to get to that one before settling on the smaller eggs. Darius picked up the surviving chicken-sized egg; it was mostly intact, with several punctured holes. The little dinosaur inside seemed to still be moving, trying to break away from the remaining egg.

“It’s still alive.”

Darius whispered in awe before the little dino stirred more, picking at the shell of the egg until he could stick his head out. 

“It’s a Gallimimus.”

***

Ben and Kenji end up cleaning the remains of the Carnataurus assault on the eggs while Sammy gets put in charge of watching Smoothie for Kenji. The little dinosaur was chirping away as he ate some cherry tomatoes for his afternoon snack. He was such a happy little guy, it was hard not to be in a good mood around him. Sammy smiled as he tried to fit a whole cherry tomato in his mouth, opting to awkwardly carry it around the room a bit before settling on a big bite.

The little Gallimimus watched from his perch in Darius’s hands as Darius sat a few feet away. Gia returned from the kitchen with some assorted fruit to see if they could get the little guy eating. Brooklynn was… back on the computer at the kitchen table, away from the commotion involving the new dinosaur addition to their little family.

“We have some pomegranates and figs, maybe one of those would appeal to the little guy.”

Gia and Darius begin chatting about different dietary plans for the baby dinosaurs while the Gallimimus picks seeds out of the pomegranate. The two seemed to have bonded over their mutual love for dinosaurs as they chatted about different fruits and protein sources they could get for the two babies in front of them, as well as the Carnataurus that was still in the cat crate in the guy's room. However, two dinosaurs meant that there was now more to hide from Nonna. Sammy could see that it started to wear on Gia a bit; the other woman looked a bit tired as she chatted with Darius about ways to keep all the baby dinosaurs hidden. The Carnataurus would be the biggest problem; they couldn’t leave him alone with the other babies in the event that he broke out of the crate and attacked them. Not that he was big enough to do a lot of damage, but he could do a bit to Smoothie, and the Gallimimus was way too small to protect itself.

“Ok, TJ is all set in the crate and the nest is all re-organized,” Ben announced as he and Kenji emerged back into the living room. Kenji crossed his arms, a troubled look on his face, “We even tossed him some raw meat so he'll hopefully nap.”

“TJ?” Sammy asked from her spot.

“Toro Junior.”

Ben puffed up his chest proudly as Gia giggled a bit. Sammy can see Yasmina roll her eyes from her spot next to Sammy. 

“We’re gonna have to hear that story a lot more now, aren’t we?”

Darius asked with a smirk. Suddenly, Kenji made his way to the door, footsteps heavy.

“I’m going for a walk.”

The door opened and closed with a thud. Darius and Ben shared a look before both looking over at Yaz like children asking a parent for help. Sammy knew those looks well. Yaz seemed to pick up on what they wanted to ask, too, because she had already hopped to her feet with a sigh.

“Yeah, yeah,” Yaz muttered at them both before heading to the door, grabbing Sammy’s denim jacket and tossing it over her shoulders on her way out, following the disgruntled Kenji.

“Thief,” Sammy shook her head fondly before turning her attention back to Smoothie, who was stepping closer to the little Gallimimus, bowing playfully as the two sniffed the air around each other. 

“Looks like they want to be friends,” Gia offered as the two touched noses. 

“They’re kinda like… brothers.” Darius offered as the two turned to share the pomegranate that the Gallimimus was eating. 

“So, does he have a name yet?” Ben asked, gesturing to the long dinosaur. Darius seemed to think for a minute before offering in a small voice.

“Fredrick.”

***

Yaz had to jog to catch up to Kenji, the young man hunched over a bit as he walked angrily.

“Dude, wait up.”

Kenji seemed to straighten when he noticed her voice, immediately trying to come up with a joke.

“What’s wrong, Fadoula, more ankle trouble?”

Kenji smiled and chuckled in a familiar forced way that immediantly caused Yaz to raise an eyebrow at him. He tried to keep up the charade for a few more minutes before exhaling loudly and shoving his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

“Sorry,” Kenji muttered, “It’s just… It really sucks.”

Kenji shook his head, trying to convey his emotions in words, and failing pretty badly. Yaz walked at his now slowed pace. 

“I know this is probably a stupid question, but what part sucks the most right now?”

“I… I don’t know,” Kenji sighed, his breath appearing in a burst in front of him from the cold, “I guess, I’m really upset with Brooklynn right now. She’s acting like everything is normal, and it’s not. We all went to her funeral! We thought she was dead. It really… I feel like we all kind of stopped talking when she died.”

Yaz is quiet for a minute, carefully considering her response.

“My PTSD got really bad after,” Yaz admitted into the cold air, “It was kind of my biggest fear where the dinosaurs were concerned. Like since Nublar, the worst thing that could happen would be losing one of you to the dinosaurs. Like… how we almost lost Sammy.”

Kenji looked over at her, a sympathetic look on his face.

“I wish I had talked to Sammy more, though,” Yaz added as her shoulders dropped, “I got really bad at answering her texts, or really anyone’s texts. I just wanted to focus on making up all the ground I lost after Brooklynn-”

“And then this happens,” Kenji muttered sympathetically.

“My therapist is going to quit on me,” Yaz groaned, “I’m a big enough problem without all this added trauma to dive into.”

“You think you’re a problem?” Kenji shook his head, trying to lighten the mood, “I got to watch my dad get killed by Atrociraptors.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.”

The two walked in silence for a few moments.

“I got to watch one of my friends from Therapy get eaten alive by a Becklespinx.”

“Shit, dude, I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.”

Another beat of silence.

“We really suck at this.” 

Kenji chuckled. Not the kind of sound of someone who thought their situation was in any way funny, but the kind of laugh of someone trying to find humor in an otherwise bad situation. 

“Honestly, I have no idea how you're so calm,” Kenji shook his head, “The Becklespinx, the Baryonyx, the Suchomimus, how are you not completely freaking out by now?”

There’s some humor to Kenji’s voice, but there was also genuine concern and astonishment, like Yaz had some secret to being calm in what had to be an absolute nightmare for her.

“I have to be.” 

Yaz said it with such definiteness, like there was no other choice. 

“If I can’t hold it together, then I only make trouble for Sammy. Just like I did before. I don’t want to put her through that again. I was really hoping for a better way to show her how much I’ve grown than ‘get in the van, we’re being hunted’.”

Kenji glanced at Yaz, seeing the determination that set into her features.

“What was your big plan?”

“Surprise her with a visit, take her to her favorite restaurant for dinner, show her I can be a fully functioning partner and not-”

Yaz trailed off, the shame of how bad her PTSD had been, how much weight she put on Sammy. How much Sammy had to deal with because of her.

“Sammy’s lucky,” Kenji smiled, “but can I give you a piece of platinum advice from the Kenjinator?”

Yaz looked up at him, tilting her head a bit.

“Don’t not answer the text messages. When Brooklynn and I were together, the one thing that bothered me the most was the idea that she wasn’t there. Like, not physically, but she wasn’t within reach. She felt so far away, and I don’t think you want to make Sammy feel like that, because it really hurts to think that the person you love isn’t thinking about you, too.”

Kenji sighed as he looked away.

“You think… Sammy might feel that way?”

Yaz’s voice is a lot smaller, 

“I mean, she was pretty upset when you didn’t answer your phone before she and Ben split and went to get you,” Kenji offered, “and I kinda overheard her saying something about you pulling away from her.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Yaz shifted, curling herself into the jacket. It still smelled like Sammy, and the smell was comforting, “I just… didn’t want to hurt her like I did when my PTSD was really bad.”

“When Brooklynn and I were together, her not being present hurt a lot worse than any argument we were in. I get wanting to be better with your PTSD and stuff, but I think Sammy’s probably like me in a sense that she also just really wants to experience the now just as much as the future.”

Yaz pondered for a second, her features softening as she thought on Kenji’s words.

“I think you might be right.”

“Sorry, could you say that again? I need to set it as my ringtone.”

“Nope.”

“Fair,” Kenji chuckled as the two settled into a more comfortable silence, “Wanna hit up that bakery on the way back?”

“Race you there?”

“What happened to your ankle hurting?”

“ReadySetGO!”

***

Darius and Ben were focused on watching the two dinosaurs play while Gia stood up to switch the laundry. Sammy immediately hopped up to help her, needing something to do to keep her mind from going haywire with all the dinosaur and Brooklynn nonsense. The dryer was filled with the last few things from Yaz and Sammy’s hamper, so Sammy folded the items neatly into the basket to be returned to their room while Gia loaded the remainder of the boys' things.

Sammy had pulled Yaz’s familiar jacket out of the dryer, almost immediately rolling her eyes when she felt one side weigh a bit more than the other. Yaz was notorious for leaving things in her pockets. It ranged from uneaten granola bars to spare change, and papers she shoved in her pockets and forgot about. Sammy patted down the pockets before feeling something in the interior chest pocket.

It seemed paper was the victim today, a few pages of it folded neatly… which was a bit odd, the papers that Yaz usually had in her pockets were folded half-hazardly and ranged from grocery lists to printed recipes. This was much thicker than either. Sammy suddenly worried that it might have been something more important. Perhaps a college paper or something Yaz had been meaning to turn in, or something like that. Sammy carefully unfolded the papers from the pocket to inspect what they were before they were to be thrown away, hopefully to at least tell Yaz what was in there.

It was a printed airplane ticket.

Sammy blinked, looking at the date. It was for the weekend after she and Ben had arrived on the island to get Yaz, while Darius had stayed with Kenji. Sammy flipped through the papers. A round trip to Texas, to the airport Sammy usually picked Yaz up at when she visited. The first few papers outline a three-week visit that ran through Thanksgiving. Followed by another planned round trip that started the second week of December and didn’t return until mid-January. 

Yaz had planned two visits. 

Yaz had planned to surprise her with two long visits.

“Is it something important?” 

Gia asked nervously, her voice breaking Sammy out of her stupor as she folded up the papers and put them in her own pocket.

“Oh, no, just some old papers, I’ll make sure Yaz knows she forgot to empty her pockets again.”

Sammy smiled, forcing a laugh as she picked up the basket,

“I’ll get these to our room so they’re out of the way.”

Sammy turned and took the basket to the room she was sharing with Yaz, her eyes burning a bit as she closed the door.

If we were still at home, Yaz would have surprised her by now.

Sammy fished the papers out of her pocket. The tickets, and a customer copy of a receipt for something picked up from her campus mail room. 

If Brooklynn had just left the dinosaur trafficking stuff alone, we could have been on the ranch feeding chickens and listening to the cows.

Sammy felt her eyes burn with tears as she folded the papers back up and put them on the nightstand closest to the side Yaz usually slept on. It wasn’t fair. How come they had to be the ones dragged into all this dinosaur nonsense? Sammy suddenly felt heavy and sat on the bed to quell some of the shaking in her legs. 

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair!

The words repeated in Sammy’s head over and over again as a fresh weave of tears ran down her face. A moment later, there was a soft knock on the door, and Sammy scrambled to wipe her eyes as the door slowly opened, Gia popping her head in with a concerned look.

“Is everything okay?”

No

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Sammy said quickly, hoping her voice didn’t give away that she had started crying only a few moments ago. Gia didn’t seem convinced. She took a step into the room and softly closed the door behind her.

“I can’t imagine how hard everything has been on all of you,” Gia started carefully, her tone honest, “I’m here if you ever want to talk.”

The offer sits in the air for a bit, Sammy biting back the desire to cry about everything that should be and wasn’t because of Brooklynn. Because of the situation they were in right now.

“I appreciate it, but I’m okay, just a little out of sorts.”

“I can put on a pot for some tea,” Gia offered, seemingly recalling Sammy’s preference for tea over coffee, “I also have some cocoa I’ve been saving for a rainy day.”

“Tea sounds nice.”

“Coming right up.” Gia offered a soft smile before slipping back out the door to the kitchen to start the water for the promised tea. After a few minutes, Sammy could hear the commotion of Kenji announcing him and Yaz returning with pastries. Sammy stood from the bed, wiping her eyes one more time and taking a few deep breaths before leaving the room. 

The group had already moved to the kitchen, Kenji chatting about the pastries they had scored at the bakery, about two boxes worth from what Sammy could see on the table. Kenji seemed in better spirits, joking about how his boyish charm had earned them free pastries while Gia made coffee and tea on the other side of the kitchen. Darius and Ben teased Kenji about this claim as the baby dinosaurs played on the floor a bit away from the table.

“Hey,” Sammy almost jumped at the familiar voice. Yaz appeared at her side, handing her a small box.

“What’s this?”

“It’s an Italian apple cake, it reminded me of that cake you always get at the bakery back home,” Yaz explained with a sheepish grin. Sammy smiled a little wider. Partially because Yaz had remembered her go-to order from when they lived together.

And the fact that Yaz called the ranch ‘home’. It made something warm settle in her chest.

“You sure it wasn’t your charm that got ya’ll those extra pastries?”

Sammy raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend as she took the offered box. 

“No! It was mine!” Kenji protested, “That shopkeeper totally thought I was cute.”

Sammy chuckled a bit before turning her attention back to Yaz, noticing she looked a bit more out of it, a usual look that seemed to follow her the last few days since the Sucho attack. She recalled the medic saying it was normal to experience some exhaustion. Yaz had been napping on the couch before now.

“You okay?” Sammy asked as Yaz’s attention snapped back to her. For a minute, Sammy is expecting another excuse, a deflection of the issue.

“I... may have overdone it a little. I think I’m going to go lie down for a bit, if that’s okay?”

Sammy blinked, surprised a bit at the honesty from Yaz regarding her concussion recovery. She barely noticed the smile from Kenji and clued in that he and Yaz must have talked about it during their walk.

“Of course. How about I make some tea and join you in a bit?”

Yaz’s eyes actually lit up a bit at that. Thought she still looked tired.

“The concussion is probably making you tired. You should get some sleep; it’s how your brain will recover.”

“Thank you, Darius.” Yaz snorted as she regarded Darius’s fun fact with an offended look. Sammy chuckled as Yaz reached up and kissed her on the cheek before heading towards the girls’ room to lie down.

Sammy felt a bit like she was walking on air as she prepared a mug of tea while the boys and Brooklynn carried on their conversations. Gia offered her a smile as she settled into the more comfortable rhythm of making herself a mug of herbal tea before slipping away from the lively kitchen to the bedroom where Yaz was probably already dozing off. Sammy opened the door and almost shook her head as she noticed her girlfriend’s deep breathing, a clear sign she had already nodded off. 

Sammy stepped farther into the room, watching her girlfriend for a few minutes; her back was to Sammy; it was unusual that Yaz would sleep on her side, but Sammy supposed that with the bruising on one side of her face, this was easier to keep from rolling on her injuries in her sleep. Sammy smiled before making her way to the desk with her mug, choosing that to be a good spot to watch her girlfriend sleep and possibly read through one of Gia’s books on the shelf while she passed the time. 

Sammy settled the mug on the desk and looked through the titles before casting another look at her girlfriend sleeping peacefully on the bed.

Sammy’s blood ran cold as she stood up quickly; her girlfriend was not alone. Sammy stood there as she watched her girlfriend sleep soundly next to a curled-up baby apex predator. She recognized the dinosaur. Sammy felt her panic rise as she whispered the name of that familiar creature.

“Spinosaurus.”

Chapter Text

This was bad. Sammy watched the small Spino as it breathed deeply at almost the same pace as Yaz. There was no way this creature came out of anything but the largest egg in the bunch, based on how large it was, bigger than Smoothie for sure, with its dark grey colored body that ombrèd into a lighter grey around its belly and legs. Its sail started as a light gray at the spine that darkened into a grey and then almost deep purple color. It reminded Sammy of the Spinosaurus on Mantah Corp Island with darker colorings. 

Sammy was stuck on what to do. Did she try to move the baby Spino? Or wake Yasmina up from her nap? How many teeth were lurking in that baby Spinosaurus’s mouth? 

Sammy took a deep breath, focused. She had to focus on the best way to get Yasmina away from the Spinosaurus. The baby dinosaur was cuddled up pretty close, lying on its belly with its snout propped up against Yaz's arm. It reminded Sammy vaguely of when her cat would snuggle up to Yaz.

The risk of getting bitten was remarkably higher in this case. Sammy moved to the other side of the bed. She could, theoretically, pick Yaz up. She stood on the side of the bed with Yaz's back to her to figure out the best way to approach this task. Getting an arm under Yaz's knees would be easy, but with that dinosaur snuggled so close, she'd need to loop her arms closer to the middle of Yaz's back to have a little bit of leverage to lift Yaz's arm out from under the dinosaur in one easy sweep.

To heck with it, Sammy thought as she made her decision. In one big swoop, she pulled her now startled girlfriend up into her arms and away from the bed. Yaz, clearly disoriented for a minute, let out a surprised noise before the little Spino woke up and hissed angrily at Sammy. 

Yaz jolted a bit as she became more aware of being lifted off the bed. Sammy felt the other girl's grip tighten against her shirt as Yaz jumped at the baby dinosaur sounds that filled the room.

The little Spinosaurus was not happy to be woken up in such a way as she hissed and stomped her little feet on the bed. That's when Sammy noticed the large gash on its left leg, how it leaned over to walk more on its good leg, and its two arms as it tried to look angry and intimidating.

How had it hurt itself? Against what should have been her better judgment, Sammy felt sorry for the baby. 

Yaz seemed to relax a bit when it became clear the dinosaur wasn't going to jump off the bed. Her grip loosened from Sammy’s shirt as her breathing evened out a bit from the initial panic. Sammy was vaguely aware of Yaz’s fingers tapping against her shoulders as she took a few steady breaths. 

“She's hurt.”

Sammy muttered with her usual sad voice whenever any animal was hurting. 

“I bet that mean old TJ tried to get into her egg. Look at that gash.”

Sammy added as she felt Yaz shift, moving to place her girlfriend's feet more securely on the ground.

“How did she even get in here?”

A good question, Sammy looked around, the door might have been open a bit, as she couldn't remember if it was completely closed when she had walked in. The Spinosaurus's demeanor changed slightly as soon as Yaz's feet were on the ground. It stopped hissing and stopping and was now observing the situation as it paced on the bed.

“Are you guys okay?” Darius’s voice echoed as he, Ben, and Kenji burst into the room. They immediately skid to a halt, seeing the baby dinosaur on the bed.

“Spinosaurus,” Darius mumbled as they all stayed still, watching as the baby dinosaur observed from her place on the bed. 

“BioSyn had two predators in that case?” Ben asked as he looked around. 

“I don’t suppose Gia has another cat carrier,” Kenji added.

The Spinosaurus seemed to have honed in on Yaz, letting out a higher-pitched noise. After a few seconds, she moved to get off the bed, going closer to the edge of the bed and using a combination of its front arms and teeth to help lower herself and her injured leg to the floor. She then tried to close the distance between herself and Yaz, who seemed less than thrilled with that development, backing up a step as the little dinosaur hobbled over. 

Sammy picked up on her girlfriend’s discomfort and tried to step in front of her, resulting in another round of hissing from the baby dinosaur. She snapped her jaws at Sammy in warning as she tried to make her way around her.

“Alright, enough of them teeth, little girl,” Sammy scolded as the little dinosaur stomped and tried to be intimidating. Yaz pulled Sammy back a step as the little teeth of the dinosaur barely missed Sammy’s cowboy boot.

“Alright, Missy, let's settle down,” Sammy frowned as she faked a sidestep so the dinosaur would dash forward, gripping her firmly by the sail and tail before hoisting her into air jail.

Once in the air the baby dinosaur began to cry and let out high pitched sounds as its little arms reached for Yaz as if asking for help.

“Uh, I think the Spinosaurus thinks Yaz is her mother.”

Darius’s observation hung in the air for a second. 

“What makes you say that?” Sammy asked incredulously as the dino tried to kick her feet a bit to loosen Sammy's grip of her.

“The way it’s vocalizing. Different dinosaurs have different ranges of vocalizations, ranging from warnings to endearment. A lot of younger dinosaurs also use vocalizations to get the attention of their parents. Yaz must have been the first thing she saw after it hatched, so now it thinks Yaz is her mother.”

“Why didn’t TJ think Ben as his mother?” Kenji asked, “Since Ben would be the person he saw first?”

“And why didn’t the Spinosaurus go after the eggs like TJ?”

“Spinosaurus’s eat mostly fish, so the eggs might not have appealed to her, at least since she doesn’t know their edible yet. Since Jurassic World modified the dinosaurs to imprint on their handlers, maybe BioSyn used a similar process. Since they’re using trained Atrociraptors, maybe they thought they could control bigger dinosaurs?”

“So what do we do now?” Yaz asked, thinking she sounded like she didn’t want to hear the answer as the baby dinosaur tried to wiggle out of Sammy's arms. 

“Well, first, she clearly wants you to hold her; that might be a good way to look at that gash on her leg.”

Darius's voice was steady as he looked between Yaz and the dinosaur.

“And what if she decides to bite?”

“Gia has some medical tape in the first aid kit,” Darius pondered, “we could tape her snout shut like when people handle alligators. Spinosauruses have a similar muscle structure to their jaws as alligators and crocodiles, so taping it should keep her mouth closed so Yaz can hold her.”

“About that ‘Yaz can hold her’ part-”

Yaz doesn’t get to really voice her discomfort at the idea before Darius bolted from the room to retrieve the medical tape, he almost seemed too excited to be handling a Spinosaurus like a baby alligator… After a few minutes Darius came back into the room with a can of sardines and the medical tape. 

“Ok, give Yaz the dinosaur.”

Sure, let’s give the member of our team with crimpling PTSD the angry baby dinosaur. Sammy glanced over at Yaz, who looked like she’d rather do anything but take the angry dinosaur from Sammy.

“You sure?” Sammy asked slowly as the Spino snapped it’s teeth again at Sammy, this seemed to snap Yaz to action, reaching out in a second before the baby Spinosaurus’s little arms gripped onto her sleeve. 

Once out of Sammy’s arms the Spinosaurus immediately calmed down while Yaz looked like she made the biggest mistake in her life, looking completely dissociated for a good ten seconds. 

“See, easy, now we just gotta tape her mouth.”

“Yeah,” Yaz said uneasily, “Easy Peasy.”

***

Honestly, Yaz was sure she had only grabbed the dinosaur because she was horrified at the idea of it biting Sammy. She’d feel so much guiltier if Sammy got hurt because Yaz didn’t want to pull her own weight. At least that’s what Yaz told herself as she held on to the little dinosaur as Darius got all the first-aid items together. He had done first-aid with DPW, he announced this proudly when Ben had asked if he knew what he was doing. It seemed the baby dinosaur was content to only take food from Yaz… and only be near Yaz… and if Yaz left a room, the little dino followed with her usual hobble. She didn’t seem to bother much with Smoothie or Fredrick, which seemed to satisfy Darius. Once the Spino was well fed from several cans of sardines, Darius suggested they take a better look at the cut on its leg. He stepped up to take a look since he had dino-related first-aid training from the DPW, and he and Gia worked to get together some items he would need to clean and disinfect Spino’s injury.

This resulted in their next big challenge. Darius had an array of first aid supplies on the kitchen table while Yaz held the Spinosaurus still. He carefully taped her mouth shut with some medical tape so they could handle the Spinosaurus with less chance of injury.

Gia had recruited Sammy’s help to swap out the sheets and help soak the area rug in the guys' room that had fallen victim to blood staining from the Spinosaurus’s injured leg. When those two were otherwise preoccupied with that task, Kenji and Ben offered to get more food suitable for the dinosaurs so they wouldn’t constantly take food from the pantry.

TJ would need raw meat, and now the Spinosaurus was going to need fish. But right now, their biggest issue was that the dinosaur was not staying still.

The Spinosaurus was barely a foot tall; it really shouldn’t be this hard to hold her, but she had a mean streak a mile long, it seemed. Before Darius could even touch the injury, the Spinosaurus started thrashing, pulling hard against Yaz and tail flying wildly in Darius’s direction. 

“Yaz, hold her still!” Darus grumbled as he tried to apply a wound cleaner to the cut. 

When dinosaurs were injured, they lashed out. It was something Darius learned very early on with the DPW. Dinosaurs were like any other animal; when they were hurt, they didn’t know you were there to help. Darius knew his baritone voice could only soothe so much. But this? The Spinosaursus was trashing like it was panicking. The movements were sharp, and Darius could feel the slam of the tail against his arm and ribs.

“Yaz!” 

Why wasn’t Yaz tightening her grip like he asked her to? 

Darius got his answer when he looked up, ready to raise his voice again, only to stop cold. 

Yaz looked pale, and Darius immediately thought back to her panic attack on Mantah Corp Island. When she had her panic attack, when Darius found out he was the last one to know about everyone having nightmares because of the dinosaurs, because of the decisions he made.

“Yaz,” Darius tried again, softer, as he placed a hand on Yaz’s arm, firmly enough to get her to look up at him, “hey, take a breath, it’s okay.”

Darius had gotten some training on how to handle panicking people during his time in the DPW, but he never thought he’d have to use it on one of his friends. The Spinosaurus continued to squirm as Yaz tried to calm her own breathing. The Spinosaurus seemed to calm itself a bit as Yaz calmed down, arms still shaking, but some color returning to her face.

“Spinosaurus’s are semi-aquatic hunters who eat mostly fish. And she’s just eaten a bunch of sardines, so she’s not hungry. And Spinosauruses are only really aggressive when people or other dinosaurs encroach on their territory, and since she doesn’t really have a hunting ground, she’s not going to be territorial right now.”

Darius reasoned as he racked his brain for more dinosaur facts, ones that would provide some comfort to his panicking friend. 

“Um, oh! There was a recent study about how Spinosauruses may have been pretty smart, too! Almost like Raptors, thought researchers are still trying to determine if Spinosaurus had raptor-level intelligence. That might be why she thinks you're her mother, because raptors have a similar imprinting memory style where they believe the first person they see is their mother. But, I guess that one isn’t super comforting. Do you want me to hold the dinosaur?”

“No,” Yaz assured as she took a breath, “I got her.”

“Okay.”

Darius hesitated before pulling his hand away, turning to grab new first-aid supplies from the kit.

“...Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

***

Gia was leading the two boys through the grocery store. The inside of the Conad Superstore looked similar to a lot of US markets Kenji had been in. Since his father lost their money, he had grown to enjoy grocery shopping, even though his cooking skills weren’t the best, limited to his signature Chili Kon Carne and a few other easy one-pot recipes. There was always something normal about trips to the grocery store. He liked browsing the sales shelves and learning about new ingredients, picking up some of his favorite protein snacks or trail mix for rock climbing adventures, and chit-chatting with cashiers.

His current third wheeling was entirely because he refused to be in the house with Brooklynn, even with Darius, Yaz, and Sammy there; it was hard to watch Darius make eyes at Brooklynn like she was the best thing ever. Like she hadn’t broken his heart. And what if she did the same thing to Darius next? What kind of big brother would Kenji be if he just sat back and let that happen? 

They were currently in the produce section, looking at some fruits and vegetables that Smoothie and Fredrick would like to eat. Ben pushed the cart along while Gia read off a few other things on her list that they had to pick up for Nonna. They almost looked like a married couple. Ben smiled the entire way while Gia talked about paleo diets of different herbivores. It was almost like he was dating a girl version of Darius. Kenji shoved his hands in his pockets, unable to feel like anything less than a third wheel.

“We should probably stock up on a few more fruits in case the other eggs hatch.” 

Ben had offered as Gia added more pomegranates to the cart, a favorite of Fredrick, it seemed that the little Gallimimus seemed to prefer those to most other fruits that they had offered him. 

“We can also get some fresh fish for the Spino,” Gia added as she gestured to an area of the shop next to the butcher, “and fresh meat for TJ.”

TJ and the Spinosaurus were more complicated. Kenji couldn’t help but wonder how long they could feed those two to keep them more docile. At least the Spinosaurus had that weird connection with Yaz that kept it more docile than TJ, but TJ was a menace. It took two of them to feed him and wrangle him back into the cat carrier. The entire time, he would try to bite at their ankles or stomp at them like he was much bigger than he actually was. 

Kenji was starting to wonder if Brooklynn had a point using some of the dinosaurs to buy back Santos’s loyalty. At least that way they wouldn’t have a bunch of aggressive baby dinosaurs in the house, constantly hiding them from Nonna and keeping them all happy enough so they don’t eat each other. It was starting to get very complicated.

“You okay back there, Kenji?” Ben asked as he noticed Kenji trailing farther behind. Kenji looked up, noticed the concern on his friend's features, and immediately tried to sound more upbeat.

“Yeah, sorry, just thinking.”

Ben nodded but didn’t look as convinced as Kenji would like him to.

“So, what do you think about Brooklynn’s plan?”

“Brooklynn’s give up a baby dinosaur to Santos plan?” Kenji asked with a shake of his head, “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, but we can’t keep all these baby dinosaurs, especially if the others hatch and we have more carnivores.”

“Technically, the Spinosaurus is a piscivore,” Gia added.

Kenji couldn’t help but shake his head.

“You sound like Darius.”

Now there were two people offering up dinosaur facts. Ben leaned more on the cart as they waited for Gia to pick out some figs from a produce display.

“Whatever we do,” Ben sighed, “we need to do it soon.”

***

Darius and Yaz had finished bandaging the Spinosaurus. Yaz had excused herself back to the girls' room so she could finally take that nap that had been interrupted by the sudden Spinosaurus appearance. Sammy took care to make sure the door was closed and that all the eggs were accounted for as soon as Yaz went to lie down; at least then she could be sure her girlfriend actually got a nap. 

Now, Sammy was left with some time on her hands and not much to do. Darius was in the living room with Smoothie and Fredrick. The Spinosaurus sat on the couch, watching the door leading to the girls' room, slowly shifting her bandaged-up leg to a more comfortable position.

“The Spinosaurus needs a name,” Sammy felt herself say as Darius lifted his head up from watching the two other dinosaurs playing, “if she’s gonna be sticking around.”

“Yaz should name her,” Darius said quickly, “since she thinks Yaz is her mother.”

Sammy looked over at the baby dinosaur as it stared longingly at the door Yaz disappeared behind, its little face waiting patiently for Yaz to come back. I know what that feels like Sammy thought to herself as she forced a bit of a smile.

“We’ll let her do that after her nap.”

“Yeah, it’d probably be easier when she can think more clearly. Not napping might make her concussion worse.”

“Don’t tell her that,” Sammy chuckled as Darius nodded a bit, preoccupied with watching the other two baby dinosaurs. Now Sammy was left with a little anxious energy and nothing to do. Gia and the boys were likely to be at the grocery store for a bit, and Nonna was out to lunch with some friends. (Seriously, that woman had an active social life; Sammy only hoped to have friends who were still anxious to hang out this much when she was that old.) 

Sammy wondered if Yaz ever thought of them growing old together. Until they were grey in the hair and harder of hearing, would Sammy see Yaz more than, or would Yaz still be out of reach? 

Sammy shook the thought out of her head as she headed to the kitchen with the intent of doing the remainder of the dishes before Gia and the guys got back, that way they could just put away the groceries and get the baby dinosaurs back to the room before Nonna was scheduled to get back. The second Sammy entered the kitchen, she immediately wanted to leave it. Brooklynn sat at the kitchen table, completely absorbed in something on Gia’s laptop, probably some dark Jurassic nonsense that she was trying to drag the other Camp Fam into. Sammy stiffened in the doorway as Brooklynn scrolled on the computer, not even looking up at her.

Sammy should turn and leave, but why should she? Why should Brooklynn have the ability to dictate what she did and when? So instead, Sammy walked over to the Sink and started hand-washing the leftover mugs from breakfast that morning. The only sound echoing through the kitchen was the running water for several minutes as Sammy hand-washed mugs and placed them on the drying rack next to the sink. She could hear the clicking of the D-pad on the laptop every now and again, a sign that Brooklynn was too absorbed in what she was reading to look up.

It made Sammy see red for a minute. Honestly, she was standing right there, and Brooklynn wasn’t even going to acknowledge her? It felt like a stand-off, as soon as the mugs and dishes were done, Sammy chose to stay where she was, waiting for Brooklynn to make the first move, waiting for her to say something, but nothing, just clicking. 

After what felt like an hour of silence, Gia and the guys came home and started unloading groceries in the kitchen. Kenji swiftly moved so he was closer to Sammy as groceries got put away, and Ben and Darius quickly started conversing with Brooklynn about their next course of action. Ben is chatting about dinosaur trafficking routes with Darius nodding along and Brooklynn offering some ideas of where to start looking for a way to gain access to Santos’s inner circle and get an idea of what BioSyn’s role in all of this was.

Gia seemed to pick up on the tension, offering to make some tea with a nervous smile. Honestly, that made Sammy feel worse. Gia wasn’t part of this; she didn’t need to get dragged into the tension in her own home. Hiding baby dinosaurs and housing a bunch of people was probably not on her weekly to-do list. 

A few tense minutes later, Yaz seemed to emerge from her nap, immediately hesitating at the doorway of the kitchen as if sensing the tense air around everyone.

“Hey, how was your nap?” Gia asked stiffly as she grabbed another mug and dropped a tea bag in it for Yaz. 

Yaz’s eyes narrowed as worry engraved itself on her face. She eyed Brooklynn, Darius, and Ben first, before making eye contact with Sammy and Kenji. Sammy watched the worry shift into determination as she frowned and stepped closer to the table where Brooklynn was still clicking away on that damn laptop. 

And promptly closed it.

“Hey!” 

Brooklynn’s voice was sharp, piercing through the air with a clear warning, before her facial expression shifted, seeing Yaz’s hand on the top of the laptop and a stern facial expression. For a second, Brooklynn looks just like she did on Isla Nublar when Yaz scolded her for her poor plans to get off the Island. 

“We were-” 

Darius immediately cut off when Yaz’s gaze shifted to him, quieting him before she picked up the laptop, tucked it under her arm, and left the kitchen with it, probably to put it back where it belonged in Gia’s room. The rest of the Camp Fam looked at each other in silence before Yaz returned, casually picking up the mug Gia had set out for her and taking a sip.

“So…” Ben started as he rubbed the back of his neck, clearly at a loss for what to do without the computer acting as a barrier.

“So,” Yaz repeated swiftly, “anyone have anything they’d like to share?”

Silence.

“Gunna let the tension simmer then, huh?”

“What’s the plan, exactly?” Brooklynn huffed at Yaz, “Lead us into a guided meditation to help us work out our feelings?”

***

“I was joking.”

Gia apparently loves meditation, and Yaz had been required to do it as part of her therapy, so now the two were leading the rest of the disgruntled camp fam through breathing exercises in the middle of the living area. The baby dinosaurs all napped on the couch, with the exception of the Spinosaurus, who had decided to sit as close to Yaz as Yaz would allow. The Spino got as close as she could before Yaz gently shooed her back a few inches. The Spino stepped back and sat down on the carpet, looking at Yaz expectantly, waiting for a reward for her good behavior. 

Yaz grumbled a bit before fishing a few crackers she smuggled into her pockets for the other dinosaurs and sliding one over to the Spinosaurus. She chirped happily as she inched a bit closer to Yaz, her little hands gripping the offered snack and crunching on it happily. Sammy shook her head a bit at the little dinosaur’s antics. Though she couldn’t help feeling bad for her, she clearly craved Yaz’s attention, seeking her out at every chance, but Yaz either didn’t stay in one spot long enough for the little dinosaur to scramble over or she’d shoo the Spino away when she got close.

“Less talking, more deep, grounding breaths,” Gia instructed in the same tone a yoga instructor would use, “In… and out.”

“I kinda feel more relaxed,” Darius offered as he followed along with Gia’s instructions.

“That’s the idea,” Gia said cheerfully. 

“Didn’t know you were into meditation now, Fadoula,” Ben offered with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not,” Yaz huffed, “but breathing techniques are good for managing panic attacks.”

Sammy cracked her eyes open to watch her girlfriend for a second, peacefully sitting and breathing, fingers tapping out counts to a breathing exercise she must have learned in therapy. 

Sammy wondered if she used some of those to keep her head about herself when she was alone with the Sucho. 

“We should be tracking Santos and BioSyn,” Brooklynn grumbled.

“We’re not going to get anywhere if we’re not working together,” Yaz pointed out, “we’re a team, we need to be acting like one, and be able to talk to each other if something is bothering us instead of keeping everything bottled up.”

Sammy knew what Yaz was trying to encourage, but she didn’t really feel like being the one to start this little therapy thing Yaz was trying to get them to do. If anything, Sammy wondered if this was too forced, trying to get them to discuss their problems now instead of having them figure themselves out more naturally.

“I don’t like that you guys made fun of me having a girlfriend.”

Ben’s voice blurted out suddenly, causing the attention to drift to him. 

“That wasn’t cool,” Ben continued, “I’m not some weird jungle kid anymore, I’m in college, I can have a girlfriend and have her be real.”

“Sorry, Ben,” Darius offered first, shifting as he turned to look at his friend, “I guess, it doesn’t really seem cool, and I’m sorry.”

There’s a round of apologies as Ben sat up straighter.

“Apologies accepted.”

“I also think we do have to continue investigating BioSyn and the dinosaur trafficking. Santos sent dinosaurs after us; we’re stuck in this situation if we want to be or not.”

“Why does it have to be us?” Kenji asked miserably, “We were just a bunch of kids who got stuck on an island; we don’t have anything to do with the dinosaurs. They didn’t even really believe us when we handed over all of Dr. Wu’s stuff on the Scorpius.”

“But, if we don’t do something, who will?” Brooklynn offered quietly. The room fell into silence.

“Who cares?”

“Someone has to!” Brooklynn replied, “No one cared enough to keep looking for us on Isla Nublar; we had to save ourselves. We had to work so hard to get help. No one deserves to feel like they’ve been forgotten.”

“What about us, Brooklynn?” Kenji asked as he stood up, “What about us? You pretended to be dead for six months! We went to your funeral. We all had to come to terms with you being gone. We sat here with our guilt and sadness and everything, and you were gone! And you know the worst part, we’re sitting here talking about how we’re all family, but the second one of us was gone, we all stopped being family.”

“Kenj, that’s not true-” Darius tried to cut in, but was swiftly cut off by Kenji again.

“How many weekly check-ins did we have after the funeral? None. How many messages were sent in the group chat? None. How many emails or phone calls, Darius? Don’t act like we’re all suddenly family again; we were never family. We don’t act like family! That was just a stupid lie we all told each other as kids to make ourselves feel better about being stuck on a dinosaur-infested island.”

The words rendered everyone silent. Guilt burned into everyone’s expression. 

“Life… got away from us,” Ben offered while looking away, “We could have, should have done better.”

“We should have kept our weekly check-ins,” Sammy added. 

“We should have made time,” Darius added.

“If I could interject,” Gia offered, voice cutting through the guilt of the Nublar Six, “there isn’t much you can do to change the past, but it sounds like you all could benefit from a nice family dinner. No dinosaurs, no trafficking talk, just a nice evening to catch up. And I may have some ideas to help with that.”

Chapter Text

Gia’s big plan to help Camp Fam was a Camp Fam family dinner, with multiple courses cooked by Camp Fam members. Gia decided to take Nonna out to treat her to dinner while the Fam had the run of the kitchen, meaning the baby dinosaurs got to roam while they prepped food from the recipe cards Gia had dutifully assigned them. 

The Camp Fam divided the tasks among themselves to form loose teams. Darius and Brooklynn were to work on the appetizer, Yaz and Ben were put in charge of the main course, Kenji and Ben were on salad (and dinosaur feeding duty), and then Sammy and Kenji were to work on the dessert. 

Yaz and Gia had, for the most part, worked out the grocery list. Gia then ran it by Sammy to make sure everything looked good for the desserts and that everything was good as far as vegetarian-friendly. Then she promptly sent Yaz and Brooklynn to do the grocery run. 

To avoid any more tension, the two grabbed jackets and headed out without making too much of a fuss. Brooklynn grabbed one of Gia’s coats to borrow while Yaz dutifully grabbed Sammy’s as if it were now a communal jacket, hearing Sammy playfully call out her thievery before the two left the house. 

In the meantime, the remaining Camp Fam members shuffled awkwardly. Darius and Ben excused themselves to feed TJ and take the other dinosaurs out back for a bit so they could play and do their business, while Kenji seemed to disappear back into the guys' room. 

Gia shook her head a bit at the boys. She then gets a conspiratorial look on her face before dropping next to Sammy on the couch,

“Sooo” 

“So?” Sammy asked, suddenly feeling like she had fallen into some kind of trap. 

“You’ve heard the story of Ben and I’s first date, I want to hear about you and Yasmina’s.”

Oh, girl talk. 

Sammy relaxed a bit at the fond memory.

“Our first official date, or our first date while we were all still in the hospital after Isla Nubar?”

“Both!” 

“The hospital date only kinda counts. Yaz needed surgery on her ankle from breakin’ it on Nublar. She was so out of it the rest of the day; they really drugged her up after that surgery. I felt bad, so I raided the vending machine. We were told not to touch it, but Kenji and I did anyway, and we watched a really bad British rom-com movie that I can’t even remember its name.” 

Sammy remembered the private hallways of the hospital wing that protected the Nublar Six from newspeople and reporters while they healed. She remembered how much Yaz slept after her surgery and how she lit up at the offering of M&Ms and a bad movie date.

“Yaz was in physical therapy for her ankle after, so we didn’t get to go on another date for a while. But when we did it was her coming down to visit me during Spring break, and we went on a picnic.” 

“Cute!” 

“Yaz loves picnic dates, it was practically her go-to when she wanted to take me on a date,” Sammy chuckled, “I think it’s just because she liked food during our dates. She used to insist on making most of the food herself, since she was treating me to a date.”

“Ben does that too, but I’d hope Yasmina had better cooking skills than Ben did when I first met him.”

“Oh, no, Yaz is a really good cook; she got really into it after Nublar, her mom and her took cooking classes together at some point.”

“That’s adorable.”

“Yeah, she and her mom are really close. Her mom’s a surgeon, so Yaz does a lot of the cooking for the two of them.”

Yaz’s mom had made it a point to cut back her hours the first few months Yaz was back home. They went through a period of time where her mom signed them up to do all kinds of things together. Sammy often wondered if that was because Yaz’s running career was over. Her mom wanted her to find a new passion, something else she could do to occupy her time while she slowly built up her ankle again to be able to run leisurely. 

She couldn’t recall her parents doing anything extra for her like that when she got home. It had just been business as usual, other than constantly planning when Yaz would come visit her. Her parents usually pushed for Yaz to visit the ranch rather than sending Sammy to New York to visit Yaz and her mom. It wasn’t until Sammy was much older did she realized that was because her family didn’t want to pick up all Sammy’s chores if she left. Funny since they had to do her share of the chores when she was stuck on Nublar.

She remembered visiting Yaz and her mom once in Upstate New York, it was an amazing trip where Yaz had been so excited to show Sammy all her favorite places around her hometown (and take Sammy ice skating, she was way too excited to take Sammy ice skating.) but the second she had come home, Isabella and Sofia had complained heavily about having to do all Sammy’s chores while she visited her girlfriend. At the time, it made Sammy feel guilty; her two younger sisters always had that power over her, and eventually Sammy would give in, and over time she pushed more to have Yaz come visit her more than she would go visit Yaz. 

Eventually, Yaz gave up on trying to get her to come back to Upstate, and Sammy wondered if that was also the reason Yaz very sparingly asked Sammy to come visit her in Wyoming. 

“Sammy?”

Sammy looked up at Gia’s voice, having gotten lost in her thoughts.

“Are you alright?”

“Sorry, just… thinking.”

Gia put a comforting hand on Sammy’s arm. 

“Long distance is pretty hard. Ben and I have only been dating for less than a year, and it’s hard. I can’t imagine how you and Yasmina have been doing it for so long. I can’t tell you how much I missed coffee the minute I wasn’t going on our regular coffee dates. The cafe on campus was probably happy to get rid of us, though.”

Compared to Sammy and Yasmina’s dates, getting coffee sounded like something two normal college students did. Not that Yaz and Sammy didn’t do normal couple things… but when Yaz’s PTSD started really acting up, the dates that were the most consistent were the ones that hid them away from potential dinosaur threats.

“Honestly, you two make it look easy,” Gia continued.

“Can’t say I’ve made it easy,” Sammy shook her head, “Back when we were still in high school, my parents never wanted me to go visit her. I had to convince Yaz to come visit me all the time. Looking back, I kinda feel bad for making her do all the traveling to come see me.” 

“I don’t think she minded that much,” Gia chuckled, “at least watching her and you together now, she doesn’t act like that weighs on her at all.”

“Yeah,” Sammy smiled a bit, “I just wish she called more. I know she’s been busy, and when Ben and I went to visit her, she was showing us this holographic dinosaur therapy thing. I don’t really get it, but it’s important to her, and I guess it would have taken up a lot of her time to work on.”

“I bet she was excited to show it to you.”

Sammy felt a wave of guilt wash over her, thinking back, Yaz had been excited to show her that project, but… Sammy can’t say she reacted the way Yaz probably wanted her to. But Sammy didn’t really understand that project, but maybe she should have tried harder to see how important it was to Yaz.

“Dinosaur Hologram?” Darius’s voice asked as he and Ben came back into the living area, his eyes looked over at Sammy excitedly.

“Talking about Yaz’s immersion therapy station?” Ben asked, “You know, Darius, you probably would have gotten a kick out of it. Yaz has this big dinosaur hologram program that’s supposed to help people get acclimated to dinosaurs without being around dinosaurs.”

“That’s so cool!” Darius’s eyes lit up, and for a moment, he reminded Sammy of how he looked on Isla Nublar when he saw a new type of dinosaur or witnessed a new behavior, “How does it work?”

“You’d have to ask her. We didn’t really get to ask questions.”

“If we weren’t being hunted, we could have also told her how cool it was.” Ben rubbed the back of his neck, “because it was super cool and I wish we had time for her to tell us more about it.”

“Well, you guys have tonight,” Gia offered, “I also want more information about these dinosaur holograms.”

***

Grocery shopping was… awkward to say the least. Yaz and Brooklynn had grabbed the remaining ingredients that they were going to need rather quickly and were in the process of walking back to the house. Brooklynn was typing on the burner as she walked, and while Yaz was trying to be understanding of Brooklynn’s obsession, the clicking of the keys was really starting to grate on her nerves. 

“Gonna say something, Fadoula?” Brooklynn huffed as she shoved the burner into her pocket, “Wanna take your shot at me, too?”

“No,” Yaz said in an even tone, “I just want to understand why you ran off on your own.”

Brooklynn doesn’t answer right away. 

“B.”

“It was better that way; the rest of you were supposed to be safe. Do you think I wanted to be away from you all for that long?”

“I’d like to think not.”

Truthfully, Yaz understood the feeling, she’d be a hypocrite if she didn’t, after all she had gone to Wyoming to keep Sammy safe. Despite how badly Yaz didn’t want to go, she had put on an excited act for Sammy so she’d be more okay with letting Yaz do that. In the end it was all to help her PTSD and hopefully make her a better partner for Sammy in the end, but that didn’t make it easy to leave or easy to stay away.

“This was my mess, I got into the story, I wasn’t going to have the Broker or anyone go after you guys if they thought I was still alive, so I stayed dead, you all were better off.”

“Until Ben started digging around, and then the Broker decided to take us out anyway.”

Brooklynn crossed her arms to the best of her ability, huffing into the cold air.

“Kenji was… harsh, but he had a point. Losing you was hard on all of us.”

Brooklynn’s shoulders dropped a bit.

“Everyone’s going to have their own feelings about it, anger, relief, confusion.”

“What are you?”

Brooklynn asked with an edge to her voice.

“Are you pissed at me, too?”

It was something that had been unnerving Brooklynn for a while; she was used to seeing Yaz angry, annoyed, pissed off. This new calm that had settled over them since they left the house was unnerving. 

“I’m happy you're alive.” 

Yaz answered honestly. Thought Brooklynn bristled a bit at her words. It wasn’t what she wanted to hear at all, mostly because she felt like it would be easier to deal with angry Yaz over this completely calm version. Angry Yaz was easy to deal with. Angry Yaz could be avoided for a while and then be done, but this tone of disappointment in Yaz’s voice stung a lot more than anything that Yaz could have yelled at her. 

“It was like when we were back on Isla Nublar and we found out Ben was still alive. At first it’s like seeing a ghost, which is pretty cool in itself, but then it’s not a ghost, and it’s like a little piece of our family shifting back into place.”

“That’s so stupid.”

“Yeah? Too bad. You’re stuck with us whether you wanna be or not.”

Suddenly, Brooklynn swung on her, hand flying wildly until it hit hard against Yaz’s collarbone. The strike stunned Yaz a bit as Brooklynn grabbed her jacket.

“You should be angry.”

Brooklynn’s voice cracked, and Yaz’s eyes softened at the sound. She then feels Brooklynn shove her with the hand still wrapped around Sammy’s jacket.

“You should be angry! I broke every promise I made to keep Sammy company while you were gone. And you’re telling me you aren’t angry with me? I don’t believe you!” 

Brooklynn reeled back to hit her again, only to be cut off by Yaz stepping forward, pulling Brooklynn forward until she’s trapped in a firm hug. She immediately stiffens when her head hits Yaz’s shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Yaz offered, “I shouldn’t have made you promise that in the first place. I should have been better about calling my girlfriend from the start instead of having someone else do it for me. So I forgive you for breaking your promise. And I forgive you for not telling us you were alive earlier. Even if you don’t want to tell us why, I know you’d have a good reason to keep it from us. And I know you’ll make it up to everyone else, too. No matter what, we’re family. You don’t have to do this alone anymore.”

Brooklynn’s shoulders shook a moment before a sob muffled into Yaz’s shoulder. 

***

Darius should never be allowed to use a knife, Sammy decided as she watched him cut up some few days-old Italian bread for the bruschetta he and Brooklynn were assigned to make. Thought it seemed while the group had been split up into teams, Darius seemed to want to get a head start on it. He had taken it upon himself to start some of the grunt work while Brooklynn and Yaz did their grocery run. Which would be fine if the poor boy knew how to hold a knife correctly.

“Darius, please watch your fingers.” 

Sammy offered as she cut up some fruit for the baby dinosaurs. Frederick and Smoothie were getting antsy for lunch, and she was sure the Spino and TJ were gonna start getting restless too unless they were fed on time. 

“Don’t worry, Sam, I got this.” 

Famous last words, Sammy thought as she tried to focus on her own task, though she worried every time she heard the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board from Darius’s side of the kitchen. Before she can voice her concerns again, they hear a scream coming from outside the kitchen, they drop their utensils and rush out the door to find the source of the sound.

“Adorabile piccolo bambino,” Gia squealed as she scooped up the small dinosaur that had wandered into the living area. Ben had jumped up from the couch as well at the sound of his girlfriend squealing over the small dinosaurs.

Sammy and Darius drew closer and noticed the small, long-necked dinosaur in Gia’s arms. The little guy was almost white in color.

“Dreadnoughtus!” Darius said in wonder.

“Dreadnoughtus? What a gloomy-sounding name for such a cute little dino.” Sammy noted as the small dinosaur cooed up at Gia.

“It means ‘fear nothing’, they’re late Cretaceous dinosaurs that were estimated to be eighty-five feet long. They were one of the biggest dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period.”

“I guess that means we’ve still got baby dinosaurs coming,” Ben rubbed the back of his head. It had been a question on everyone's mind, if the rest of the eggs were going to hatch or if they were no good after TJ’s attack on them two days ago, “It’s going to start getting crowded. How many eggs are left?”

“Two,” Kenji offered from his spot on the floor, playing with Smoothie. 

“We’re going to start having a huge problem keeping them all hidden from Nonna,” Gia added sadly as she petted the small dinosaur in her arms. Kenji, seemingly eager to dispel the gloomy energy, hopped up.

“So, Chef Sam, anything I can prep before the groceries get here?”

“Dunno, do you cut things like your brother?”

“Hey!”

Kenji chuckled a bit at the jab as he ruffled Darius’s hair as he walked past, giving Sammy a grateful smile.

“We could get stuff mixed and baking since there’s some time before anyone else has to use the oven.” 

Sammy offered as Kenji nodded before the two headed to the kitchen to start the cake that was scheduled for dessert.

***

Yaz and Brooklynn returned a few minutes later. Yaz immediately went to drop the groceries in the kitchen. She greeted Sammy immediately before the bags were even on the kitchen table. Kenji stiffened a bit, seemingly remembering who was likely behind her. Brooklyn moved through the room, far more awkwardly, resting the bag she was carrying on the table as Yaz moved more quickly, dividing what was purchased and putting the items that needed to be kept cold away. 

“Hey, Sammy, can we talk?”

Sammy’s eyebrows rose at the question, and as much as she wanted to stay angry, she couldn’t find it in herself to turn Brooklynn away when she looked that guilty, or when it looked like she had been crying before. Reluctantly, Sammy nodded, and the two headed to the girls’ room to chat with worried looks from the boys following them. Kenji watched them leave with concerned eyes while Yaz met Sammy’s gaze with a concerned look of her own. Sammy nodded a bit at her as they left the kitchen and made their way to the room she and Yaz had been sleeping in.

The room felt both bigger and smaller at the same time, and Sammy suddenly hated having Brooklynn in a space that she and Yaz shared. Sammy didn’t know where the rush of possessiveness came from, but she suddenly didn’t want Brooklynn between her and Yaz. 

“I’m sorry,” The apology flew from Brooklynn’s mouth before Sammy could process anything further, “I’m sorry for everything my investigation caused with you and everyone else. You’re one of my best friends, and I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Part of Sammy wanted to forgive Brooklynn, wanted to go back to being besties with her, but another part of her felt like it made her a pushover; right now, an apology didn’t feel like it solved the biggest issue sitting between them. 

Sammy’s gaze moved to the folded-up papers on the nightstand, of the unused plane tickets. 

“I can’t say we’re going to immediately go back to being friends after this,” Sammy muttered as she crossed her arms. 

Brooklynn nodded like she understood.

“That’s fair.” 

Brooklynn’s shoulders fell a bit.

“I hope we can be friends again, maybe when this is all over,” Brooklynn offered, “no more dinosaurs, just us.”

No more dinosaurs, just us.

“It’ll take some time.”

Brooklynn nodded before shifting slightly and excusing herself, saying she wanted to talk to the guys one-on-one as she left. Sammy let out a breath; the bitterness in her throat remained. She didn’t feel like she could just forgive Brooklynn just like that after everything. Maybe someday, if she’s earned it, but not today, not now. 

***

Turned out Brooklynn and Bruschetta weren’t going to be a good combo. She couldn’t really figure out how to help cut the tomatoes, resulting in Darius insisting that he could do it himself, despite the very worried noise that left Ben’s throat at the suggestion. 

“One of the other dinosaurs hatched,” Darius offered awkwardly, “A Dreadnoughtus.”

“Gia’s gonna name her Dolce,” Ben smiled as he talked about his girlfriend, “Dolce is hanging out with the other dinosaurs and gets along well with everyone so far.”

“That’s good,” Brooklynn offered as she continued to pull leaves of Basil for the bruschetta.

“I can do that-”

“I don’t need you to do everything for me, Darius,” Brooklynn said with an annoyed tone, “I’ve got this.”

“Right, sorry,” Darius muttered as he went back to the tomato cutting, “I’m surprised you’re not on the burner, I thought you said you had a lead.”

“Yaz pickpocketed it from me and said I can’t have it back until after dinner.”

Ben snorted.

“You two always did keep each other in perspective.”

“Yeah,” Brooklynn shook her head, “I am… Sorry, by the way, I haven’t really said it to either of you yet, but I am sorry for all the crap I put you two through. You guys are like my best friends and-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ben quickly cut off with a wave of his hand.

Darius hesitated lightly at the mention of ‘best friends,’ and Brooklynn could feel his puppy dog eyes as she tried to keep her steely guard up.

“Yeah, Superstar, no worries.” 

“Why don’t we get the dinosaur’s food settled? Kenji should be here soon to help with that.”

Ben offered as he picked up on the awkwardness.

***

Kenji almost immediately turned away from the kitchen when he noticed Brooklynn in there chatting with the other two. Before he could, Brooklynn immediately excused herself, leaving the boys alone in the kitchen. Darius slinked a bit in on himself as he finished mixing the bruschetta and popped it in the fridge.

“So,” Ben stuttered, “we got some cheap stake for TJ and some salmon for the Spino.”

“Good, keep everybody fed and happy,” Kenji nodded as he turned to start prepping the food, surprised when he saw a few mangos set aside for the dinosaur chow.

“You guys found mangos?”

“Brooklynn did when she and Yaz went to get groceries.” 

Kenji frowned a bit as Darius explained. 

“Let’s just get everyone’s food together.”

Kenji grumbled as he picked up the other fruits and vegetables, ignoring the mangos as he started cutting everything up for the baby dinosaurs. Ben and Darius watched him with worry for a few minutes before going about their own tasks. 

***

Awkwardness has really set in the last few hours. Sammy noted as Kenji fed the dinosaurs in the living area while Brooklynn slinked off to the yard to gather some last ingredients from Nonna’s garden that they had gotten permission to use. The two were walking on eggshells around each other, or maybe eggshells wasn’t the right word. Kenji was avoiding Brooklynn like a disease, and Brooklynn seemed to try to keep her distance from him as well. She still looked at him with her puppy dog eyes, waiting for an opening to talk to him.

Sammy wondered if she wanted to talk to Kenji like she had talked to Sammy. Maybe she did want to apologize… Even so, it was something she and Kenji would have to work out. Sammy told herself she wasn’t going to get involved in Brooklynn’s apology tour. She had enough on her mind to try figuring that out on top of everything else.

Sammy decided to head to the kitchen as she heard some chatter and movement short of chaos and decided maybe Gia needed help supervising. That and she was hoping to catch her girlfriend cooking. It was always a sight that warmed Sammy’s heart. Gia would have to leave to get Nonna soon and whisk her off to dinner. A little disappointing, as Sammy was starting to enjoy talking with Gia. It was a breath of normality in their dinosaur-filled days. But, with all the chores Gia had them doing, Sammy was also starting to miss her girlfriend a bit.

“Hey, Beautiful.” 

Speak of the devil. Sammy immediately raised her eyebrow at the nickname that left Yaz’s mouth the second she stepped into the kitchen. Taking in her surroundings, she noticed Ben stirring something on the stove, Gia at the table watching them cook, Darius looking guilty, and Yaz’s arm in the sink with water running.

Oh, Sammy was very familiar with this scene. She’s seen it several times when Yaz used the oven at the ranch. As much as she loved her girlfriend, she had one nasty habit that gave Sammy grey hair when she cooked.

“Yasmina, did you stick your hand in the gosh darn oven and burn it again?”

Gia lost it, her laugh loud enough to travel through the entire house. Ben’s shoulders immediately start shaking with laughter as well, while Yaz looks absolutely dumbstruck. Sammy crossed her arms as Yaz stuttered, trying to come up with an excuse besides the obvious.

“It was my fault,” Darius spoke up. “The bread we were toasting for the bruschetta started burning, and when we rushed to pull it out, I kinda bumped into her.”

“He’s not kidding,” Ben added as he tried to suppress his laughter, “it looked like something out of a cartoon.”

“You two are not allowed in the kitchen together anymore,” Sammy huffed as an amused look started making its way to her face before she walked over to examine the burn on Yaz’s arm, “let me see.”

Yaz pouted a bit as she showed Sammy her arm. The burn itself wasn’t too bad, a few inches above her wrist and probably caused by having touched the top heated part of the oven. It was going to blister, but it didn’t look like it would be that bad.

“You’re a menace.”

“You love it.”

“No, I love you, I don’t love the grey hair you’re gonna give me!” Sammy tried to sound stern but felt the smile trying to break through her charade.

“I think you’ll look beautiful no matter how much grey hair you have.” 

“Good, since you’re gonna be the cause of it! Now stop trying to be cute to get out of trouble.”

“Never.” 

Sammy pushed Yaz’s arm back under the cool water, trying to still at least look annoyed but failing at the absurdity of their current situation. 

“I don’t suppose your first aid kit includes something for burns?”

“Oh, it does,” Gia assured as she stood to retrieve the first-aid kit under the sink, “I added it after a date night with Benisimo, where he accidentally forgot to not put tin foil in the microwave.”

“H-hey!” 

“Natural disasters, these two,” Sammy hummed as Gia giggled and handed Sammy the first aid kit.

Ben and Yaz pouted as Sammy set a timer to have Yaz keep her arm under the water while Ben took over checking on the polenta on the stove. 

“This happens almost every time I let Yaz into the kitchen,” Sammy teased as she looked through the first aid kit, “she refuses to let me cook.”

“You cook for everyone, all the time!” Yaz pointed out seriously, “I get to spoil you by cooking for you.” 

Sammy smiled a bit at the words. She couldn’t really argue much; she liked the image of her girlfriend cooking way too much to actually tell her to stop. There was just something extra sexy about her girlfriend in an apron that stopped Sammy from scolding her on the subject. And it was nice to be taken care of, to have Yaz do something for her that felt more intimate. Cooking was like a love language, and Yaz had always put so much time and effort into cooking meals Sammy would like.

“An oven mit babe, I’d love it if you’d learn to use those while in the kitchen.”

The Spinosaurus had wandered into the kitchen, immediately cooing and running over to Yaz as fast as it could. Despite the few days her leg has had to heal, she seemed to still be favoring it, galloping along on her front arms and good leg. 

“Well, I should get going. Nonna will be home soon, and I want to grab her before she sees all these baby dinosaurs,” Gia offered as Ben quickly moved to walk her out,  Darius muttering something about feeding TJ before leaving the kitchen as well, leaving Yaz and Sammy alone with the Spinosaurus in the kitchen. 

The Spinosaurus used Yaz’s shoelaces to tug herself more upward, leaning on Yaz’s foot for support. Sammy watched as Yaz gently shooed the dinosaur away a bit, the little dinosaur backing up a step before deciding to sit there and watch Yaz from the distance allowed instead. 

The motion struck a bit of a nerve with Sammy. All this little dinosaur wanted to do was love Yaz, and Yaz kept pushing her away. The worst part was that Yaz could completely tolerate the other baby dinosaurs outside of TJ, but whenever the little Spinosaurus came over for her turn for pets or attention, Yaz shooed her away.

“That’s not really nice to shoo her away like that.”

Sammy’s voice was firm, causing Yaz to turn to her in surprise. 

“She’s been super well-behaved too; she just needs a little love.” 

Sammy tried to fix her tone, making it a little lighter as she knelt more to the Spinosaurus’s level. The dinosaur regarded her for a second before looking back up at Yaz. Yaz is super quiet, not looking at the dinosaur to her left or Sammy at all.

“Come down here.” 

Yaz’s head snapped to Sammy, startled.

“What?”

“Come here,” Sammy repeated, reaching out her hand to invite Yaz to kneel on the floor with her, “She ain’t gonna hurt you.”

“You don’t know that!” 

Sammy blinked, completely surprised by the higher pitch to her girlfriend’s voice.

She’s scared.

Sammy almost feels stupid for not thinking of that sooner, of the fact that the Spinosaurus was still a dinosaur. 

“Why is she scary when Smoothie and Fredrick aren’t?” Sammy asked honestly.

“They’re herbivores,” Yaz muttered as she shifted uncomfortably, “she’s not.” 

Sammy dropped her hand for a second, processing. Pushing probably wasn’t a good idea, but a sudden surge of determination took over Sammy.

Why did Yaz trust Brooklynn when they were around dinosaurs and not Sammy?

Brooklynn’s gotten to be around Yaz during her exposure therapy, Sammy hasn’t. Why didn’t Yaz trust her to help? 

And if you push her while she’s afraid, she won’t trust you at all. A more sane part of Sammy’s mind yelled. 

Sammy doesn’t know who to be angrier at: herself for not knowing how to assure Yaz more that this baby dinosaur wasn’t going to hurt her, or at Yaz for not telling Sammy how she was supposed to help. 

“I don’t know much about psychology,” Sammy started, “but maybe her being here is a good thing, like a level up from your holograms. That was what they were for, right? To get people used to dinosaurs without being around dinosaurs? So would the second step be little dinosaurs?”

“I can’t really say I thought about the next step being tiny puntable predators,” Yaz muttered, thinking she does lower herself to the floor next to Sammy, “The idea was more… Stegos and other docile herbivores.”

“I’d argue the Stegos aren’t always docile, but I get your point.” 

“When something scares you, things that look and sound like it trigger a panic response, so the machine was supposed to get people used to the sounds and appearances of dinos without them being right in front of them. Then, once the person got comfortable with the holograms, they would move on to the real things. But the holograms wouldn’t be effective if they weren’t super realistic, so I designed and modeled the dinosaur models to be as realistic as possible.”

Sammy blinked, listening to Yaz’s explanation, “You figured all that out yourself?”

“Kinda, I figured out the basic coding and parts to build it, and did all the models and sound effects. As you saw, thought, the sensor still gives me trouble-”

“That’s still impressive,” Sammy offered with an encouraging grin, “I guess I didn’t really take the time to tell you how amazing your project was when we met up in Wyoming.”

“I think being distracted by dinosaurs is a good reason,” Yaz tried to joke, but Sammy could see she was still a little hurt. She had been excited to show Sammy her project, and that moment was stolen, in a way, like most other things Sammy could think of. Like their time together in peace was stolen. Like how those plane tickets went to waste. 

“It’s not,” Sammy offered gently, “You’re a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for.” 

“If that were true, I wouldn’t be cowering from a baby dinosaur.”

“Stop that,” Sammy scolded, “You’ve come a long way, Yasmina, and I am proud of you. And even better, you’ve got this big project goin’ on that’s going to help other people struggling with their PTSD, so they don’t have to be scared of dinosaurs all the time. It’s perfectly okay to still be afraid sometimes… I think after the few weeks we’ve had, you’ve earned a little grace where that’s concerned… I just wish you’d let me know how I can help.” 

“... Is it bad that I don’t know?” Yaz asked with a defeated look, “It’s hard when it’s anyone, but when it’s you… What if you get bitten? Or hurt? And then it would be my fault…”

Sammy immediately softened at Yaz’s tone. She could agree that if she were in Yaz’s shoes, she’d have similar worries. About making a wrong move and causing Yaz to get hurt, she can’t even deny that she wasn’t there herself during her coddling Yaz during the worst parts of her PTSD. After all, it was easier to think about keeping someone safe than asking them for help, even if keeping them safe ended up hurting them. 

Sammy shook her head, “The last thing I want to do is have you worryin’ like that. We just need a new way of workin’ together, that way I’m not draggin’ you down like that-”

“What? Sammy, you’re not dragging me down.” 

“No, you made it pretty clear my coddling you wasn’t helping. I just wish you had talked to me so I could help you the way you needed.”

Sammy’s voice comes out a little harsher than she meant, and she sees Yaz flinch a bit at the tone. Sammy almost shook her head. This tone again, why was she taking it with her girlfriend so naturally these last few days? Was she really that angry at Brooklynn? Or maybe she was a little more upset about how communication had been going than she wanted to admit to herself.

“But you already do so much, Sam. I don’t want you to go back to having to do everything for me again. I don’t want to go back to waking you up at two in the morning or keeping you from doing what you love because you’re too worried about me.” Yaz explained as she looked away, “I want to be your partner, not someone you have to look after.”

“I understand that, but clearly you’re very good at not needing me to look after you; you’ve done all that amazing stuff without me.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want you there.” Yaz’s voice was really small, “Sam, you delivered Bessie’s baby single-handed and brought a Kentrosaurus back to life. You’re not giving yourself enough credit for being amazing. You deserve better than a partner who can’t do anything for herself.”

The two looked in each other’s eyes, absorbing everything that had been said. There was still more, Sammy felt, but right now felt like progress, even if it was a little bit. 

“I’m sorry I got so bad at calling,” Yaz blurted with a guilty expression on her face, “I should have been way better about that. And I promise things won’t go back to that when this is over.”

Sammy smiled a bit, and hoped Yaz would be true to her word…

She will be a confident voice sung in Sammy’s head.

“Maybe I can work out a way to come visit you for a bit while you rebuild your Immersion Station.”

The small suggestion had Yaz’s eyes lighting up in excitement.

“I can finally take you to that lunch date we didn’t get to go on.”

“Lunch date? Ben was with us!”

“He was third wheeling,” Yaz snorted as the two looked at each other a minute before laughter shook through them.

Suddenly, they hear the chirp of the dinosaur, a minute before something nudged Yaz’s hand. They look down to see the Spinosaurus as she nudged Yaz’s hand a bit before turning her back to Yaz and sitting on the ground, Yaz’s hand brushing against her sail. Yaz’s fingers twitched a bit before she chanced a short pat on the Spinosaurus’s back on the side of her sail.

“She’s kinda rubber-y.”

Sammy reached over and brushed the thick, rubbery skin of the Spinosaurus, letting her fingers brush against Yaz’s in the process.

“You should give her a name; she’s been waiting on one.”

“What about Daisy?” Yaz asked as she looked up at Sammy. Sammy tilted her head.

“It’s certainly cute. What made you think of that for a Spinosaurus?”

“Remember when I needed ankle surgery after Nublar and we were all still in the hospital? We watched that bad British romcom when I finally somewhat came out of that drugged stupor,” Yaz explained with a grin, “An Aligator Named Daisy, remember? She kinda looks like an Alligator.”

Yaz gestured to the Spinosaurus. Sammy was too caught up in the fact that Yaz remembered the movie they watched on their first date. Sammy used her free hand to hook a finger under Yaz’s jaw, turning her head until Sammy could press their lips together. Yaz responded to the kiss quickly, though it was certainly not the most comfortable position, kneeling on the kitchen floor. Sammy pulled away when Daisy hissed a bit, clearly displeased that Sammy had distracted Yaz from petting her.

“Okay, okay, rude, I’ll kiss my girlfriend whenever I want, thank you very much, little missy.” Sammy mock scolded the little dinosaur, who was already getting scratches again from Yaz. 

“I should probably finish making dinner,” Yaz stated as she turned to Sammy shyly, “will you stay?”

“Will I stay and watch my girlfriend cook? Absolutely.”