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[pocket-lad]

Grief - Part 3

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“Well I’ll be,” croaked a deep voice.

Rowan froze, afraid to look at its source. The giant was always so loud, so slow. She could hear him coming a mile away, which was why she was so confident in her borrowing. Out of all the places she could have ended up, she considered herself lucky to call this place home. Until today, she guessed.

It made sense. Her luck had to run out eventually, but she never thought today would be that day. That day had to be far in the future.

But the Bean was there. Rowan could feel his presence and she could feel his stare. He hadn’t made a move for her yet, but that could change in the blink of an eye, so she couldn’t just stand there. With the safety of the walls so far away, she couldn’t run either. And despite how hard she tried, she couldn’t think of a third option.

“Where did you come from?” Geoff asked. That was the Bean’s name. Geoff.

Over the course of an eternity, Rowan turned her head to face him, but vastly underestimated his height.

She seemed to realize she was still holding a chunk of a cookie and immediately dropped it to the counter. “You can have it back…I’m sorry.”

Geoff’s eyes widened slightly with the revelation that the small person on his counter could speak. Then he laughed.  “Keep it. I shouldn’t be eating those damn things anyway. In fact…” He made a move to grab the package of Lorna Doone’s and pull out a whole cookie for her, but stopped when she stumbled backward.

“You’re a bit jumpy, aren’t you?” he chuckled. “I won’t hurtcha. Here.” He reached for the package again and ignored her when she moved even further away. The plastic crinkled as he opened it and pulled out a cookie with a suspicious chunk missing. He set it a couple inches away from her.

Rowan yelped and threw her hands over her head as if that would protect her. But when nothing happened, she uncurled to find the rest of the cookie sitting innocently in front of her. She looked incredulously from the cookie to Geoff and back to the cookie again.

“Go on,” he insisted. He noticed the way the cookie was roughly half her size.

Slowly, Rowan inched toward it. She hesitantly lifted up one end and dragged it backward toward the wall, keeping her eyes locked onto Geoff for any sign of deception. She’d abandon the food if she had to. But he just watched her, all the way until she disappeared into the walls.

Geoff hummed to himself, mildly flabbergasted. This was perhaps one of the strangest things that had ever happened to him. It seemed as though he had a tiny person living in his walls, and she was scared beyond belief.  He wondered how long she’d been there. Regardless, he hoped she would come out again. It was about time he found himself a new friend.

Rowan, on the other hand, planned to leave immediately. She was found out. That was that. But there was something holding her back. Not once did Geoff reach for her or threaten her. It was disturbing to have such large eyes tracking her every move, she had to admit, but all he did was watch her. And he let her take the rest of the cookie.

Maybe Rowan would sleep on it. Moving was a big decision - one that shouldn’t be made impulsively. She thought herself unlucky for having been discovered, but perhaps her good luck would continue. Perhaps she found the only nice Bean in the whole world. Perhaps not. Only time would tell.

***

Daisy’s offer shouldn’t have taken Rowan so off-guard, but it did. Her first instinct was to decline and run away. That would mean climbing into the hand of a mostly unknown Bean and trusting that Bean with her whole life. That would mean leaving everything she knew behind.

What did she have left for her here, though? Comfort and stability, maybe? But even then, Rowan was just weighing different unknowns. The unknown of staying, of living with a whole new, potentially dangerous set of people, of risking discovery. Or the unknown of leaving, of traveling vast distances, of trusting Daisy, of uprooting her life.

Maybe going with Daisy was the right option. A terrifying option for sure, but the giant was right. Rowan couldn’t live here without Geoff. It would drive her insane.

Slowly, Rowan edged out of the crack in the wall, keeping her eyes trained on Daisy for any sudden moves. The woman was standing with her chest pushed right up against the mantle, well within grabbing distance. But she stayed still, watching.

“Okay,” Rowan said breathlessly.

Daisy smiled gently. “I’m ready to go. Is there anything you need to pack?”

Rowan shook her head. Everything she held dear was in her bag already. A sentimental part of her thought she should take one last look at the little home she carved out for herself in the walls all those years ago, but another part knew it was just an excuse to delay the inevitable. She’d seen those walls a million times. They would be burned into her memory forever.

Daisy rested her hand at the edge of the shelf and waited expectantly.

Everything in Rowan went cold. It was one thing to say she would go with her, it was another to actually do it. The hand was so big, so alive. It twitched in ways that were probably too small for Daisy to notice and some of its wrinkles were big enough for Rowan to stick her fingers into. The fingers buzzed with an energy that gave the appearance of a trap, like they would snap closed at any second.

“It’s alright,” Daisy said, registering Rowan’s tense posture.

“Please be careful,” Rowan whispered.

“I will.”

Still, she stood for another minute or so, unable to make anything happen. Her feet felt like they were superglued to the wood. But they weren’t, because eventually, one of her feet shuffled forward. And then the other. It was as if Rowan floated over to the hand.

The hand nearly came up to the height of her knees, almost glowing as it reflected the overhead light. There was no turning back now, so Rowan lifted her feet a little higher and stumbled forward onto the palm.

The skin itself was spongy, but the hand felt quite firm underneath her thin shoes. The twitchy fingers felt much more menacing up here, but they did little more than twitch.

Rowan hesitantly looked up at Daisy, who was trying to suppress a smile. The wonder with which the borrower regarded her hand was adorable, and she looked so small. She didn’t know what went on between her dad and the borrower, but she was determined to watch after her. They had to stick together, if only because they were all the other had. They were the only two in the whole world that understood.

“Let’s go,” Daisy said.

Rowan nodded but was only slightly sure Daisy saw it. Regardless, the hand lifted off the ground and Rowan fell to a seat from the quick speed. The world flew by her in a blurry mess of light and color. She desperately wished for something to hold onto, so she clutched her bag to her stomach and closed her eyes. It would have to do.

When the motion stopped, she peeked an eye open. They were at the front door, facing the inside of the home. She felt the rise and fall of Daisy’s chest behind her as she took a deep breath, and she could swear she even heard the air moving in and out of the woman’s lungs. That was…weird.

Rowan ignored it in favor of looking into the empty home. It looked emptier than ever from over here. It held a lot of memories, but those were memories she’d be able to keep in her head. She didn’t need a house to remind her of all the time she spent with Geoff.

“You alright?” Daisy asked.

Rowan only briefly glanced up at Daisy’s face, unnerved by the steep angle with which she had to do so. “Yeah. You?”

“Yeah.”

Daisy turned around, opened the front door, and took a step outside. For the first time in a very long time, Rowan was about to experience a whole new world. And despite the horrible circumstances that led to their departure, she was ready.

[pocket-lad]

Do normal people regularly think about the square-cube law

[pocket-lad]

Grief - Part 2

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The world went still.

A massive, dark pit suddenly opened in Rowan’s stomach. It tore her organs apart and it spread through her body, leaving nothing behind but a faint, numbing buzz. Her ears rang. Her vision tunneled. Geoff was dead. He died. He wasn’t coming back. It was over.

Rowan found herself on her knees, shaking in shock, or maybe in sadness. She didn’t know. Only when the giant hand was inches away from coiling around her body did she realize there was still an active world existing around her.

That wasn’t fair. The rest of the world shouldn’t be allowed to continue while her whole world stopped. But it did. And she either had to deal with it or face some pretty nasty consequences.

Rowan threw her body backwards, scrambling toward the wall and throwing her hands over her head. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed. Her body shook harder with the addition of fear to her already messy, emotional state.

The hand stopped. Rowan eyed the clean, long fingernails that could pierce her body seven hundred different ways. The only movement in the room was the violent heaving of her chest and the stream of tears that traveled down Daisy’s cheeks.

“I have to go,” Rowan said, and dashed off before Daisy could reply.

She ran through the walls for a long time. She just kept running and running. If she stopped running, she’d be forced to think about the reality she now lived in, and that wasn’t an option. She ran to parts of the walls she seldom visited anymore. She ran to parts of the walls she never visited at all.

Only when her lungs felt like they were about to burst did Rowan slow down. Sweat dripped down her forehead. She coughed loudly and violently from the strain, her body trying to expel all the bile that formed in her throat. And then she started to vomit.

Borrowers, as far as Rowan could tell, did not get sick. It was one of the few perks of being so small. So when her lunch made a reappearance, it freaked her out. It just kept coming and coming and it tasted so bad and it burned her throat. The resulting smell wasn’t pleasant either.

Rowan didn’t know what to do. She pushed her back into the wall and slid down, staring at the slimy pile of vomit leaking into the wooden wall supports, looking for answers that would never come. Geoff was dead. And she saw it happen.

Answers actually were readily available, or at least some of them were. Daisy had to know more about the situation, but Rowan didn’t know if she could bring herself to face the Bean again. Not after she tried to grab her…

Tuning in to her surroundings, Rowan realized she was almost back where she started. She nearly ran a full lap around the massive house. Wow.

She could either return to her sad, little home and sit with her sad, little thoughts, or she could spy on the Bean. The answer was clear.

Watching Daisy turned out to be just as sad, though. The woman couldn’t seem to focus on anything. She’d try going through some of Geoff’s stuff in one area and almost immediately break down into tears. The crying would subside, she’d try again elsewhere, and the cycle would repeat. Watching this made Rowan’s heart ache.

She and Geoff found each other for a reason. They made the others’ lives a little less lonely than they were before, and for that, Rowan was grateful. So, maybe that’s what Daisy needed right now. If not a friend, then at least an ear. It's what Geoff would have wanted.

And so Rowan found herself back in the exact spot she was earlier, staked out behind a picture frame for a long, long time.

Daisy sat on the living room floor again with crossed legs, but this time she was surrounded by mounds of junk. Without looking up from the ground, she said, “I’d love some company…if you’d care to join me.”

Rowan backed up out of instinct. There was nobody else Daisy could be talking to, and she didn’t like being singled out like that. She still wasn’t even sure how Daisy felt about her. Rowan’s hesitancy might literally be the reason this woman’s father was dead. Though if that was the case, maybe Rowan deserved whatever was coming for her.

She ultimately made the decision to trust Daisy. She made her way to the mantle and perched in her usual spot, but she was ready to dart back up at a moment’s notice. When Daisy looked up at her from across the room, Rowan instinctively averted her eyes. Though she knew logically that it wasn’t true, the notion that Beans found eye contact aggressive still sat in the back of her mind.

“I’m sorry,” Rowan said.

That was the last thing Daisy expected to hear. “Why?”

Rowan didn’t plan on spilling her feelings, but after a lifetime of isolation it was hard to keep them at bay. “I should’ve helped him. I - I should’ve been quicker. If I was, maybe he wouldn’t-”

Daisy had to strain to hear the small voice, but she was pretty sure she picked up on the correct words, and it hurt to hear. “There’s nothing you could’ve done. The fact that you called at all meant-” She paused to compose herself. “-meant he didn’t have to suffer. They kept him alive as long as they could, but…They said it was painless. I don’t…There’s nothing you could have done.”

There was nothing she could’ve done because she was too small. Even just a simple computer search on how to help him was out of her reach. Rowan didn’t often envy giants, but this seemed to be an exception.

The rest of the day was spent mostly in silence as Daisy slowly worked her way through sorting her dad’s belongings. By nightfall, she felt like she made absolutely no progress whatsoever. She couldn’t do this by herself.

But she wasn’t by herself.

“I’m going home. I’ll be back tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind some help, if you’re up for it.”

Rowan didn’t know what to do with the attention on her. She quickly pushed herself to her feet and prepared to go. “Um, maybe…” After an awkward pause, she decided to call it quits and return to the walls.

Daisy’s voice stopped her. “Will you be alright? For the night?”

Rowan barely looked back at her. “Always am.” And then she went inside.

***

The next day was almost the exact same. Rowan sat on the shelf. Daisy sorted through stuff. Few words were exchanged.

As the week dragged on, they slowly opened up to each other, sharing stories mostly about Geoff but also a little about themselves. Daisy never once got close to Rowan again, which Rowan deeply appreciated.

It was a sad, painful process watching the house grow more and more empty, losing all the personality imbued into it by the man who lived there for some fifty-odd years. Soon, it would be just like any other house.

The one redeeming aspect was that they were not alone. Rowan and Daisy, while not quite friends, at least had each other through their grief.

And then one day the house was completely empty. Daisy sat cross-legged in the center of the living room floor like she did that first day they met. She didn’t cry anymore, but the distant look on her face remained. Rowan sat in her spot on the mantle.

What Daisy had to say next was incredibly hard, and she found herself averting her gaze from Rowan. “I’m selling the house.”

She waited a moment, but Rowan didn’t respond. Confused, she looked up to see the small woman standing there, unmoving. Her eyes flicked back and forth and welled up as she processed the news.

“Rowan?” Daisy asked gently.

“You can’t!” Rowan decided.

“Rowan, I don’t think it’s-”

“You can’t do that! This is my home! This was his home! Does that not mean anything to you?!”

“It wasn’t an easy decision.”

“You don’t have any right. You moved to the city, and then you never visited, you never called. He loved you, and you ignored him. I was the one who was there for him. I’m his friend, and I’m saying you can’t do this!”

Daisy shot to her feet, her voice suddenly aggressive and loud. “You think I don’t regret that every single goddamn day?”

Rowan stepped back and craned her neck. She never shouted at Geoff before. She never had any reason to be angry with him before. She never thought she’d shout at a giant in a million years, but it was completely wrong of Daisy to show up at the very end, acting like she was entitled to his house and his stuff. Rowan didn’t have much, but she had her home. And she wasn’t going to let Daisy take that away.

So she didn’t regret her outburst. But when Daisy rose to her full height and raised her voice, Rowan began to doubt the safety of the situation. She wouldn’t back down in her argument, but she’d do what was necessary to keep herself safe, even if it meant running away.

Luckily, Daisy didn’t step closer, but she looked pissed. And she was crying again. “I do have a right, actually. Yeah, I wasn’t there in the end. But you weren’t there for the other thirty years. You don’t understand how god-awful it could be…” She clenched her jaw and took long, shaky breaths to calm herself down. “He wasn’t always like this. So unless you want to deal with the forms and the documents and the legal shit and the doubt and the guilt and the constant harassment from the rest of my family, then by all means, be my guest. Keep the house. Because I’m certainly done with it.”

Daisy wiped the tears from her face and stormed out the door, slamming it behind her. It shook the whole house, causing Rowan to topple to the ground. She stared after the woman in disbelief. Daisy never got close and never threatened her, but this was the closest Rowan had ever gotten to a pissed-off Bean, and it was terrifying. Daisy could have squashed her like a bug for speaking out. Despite her hammering heart, Rowan considered herself lucky.

***

Rowan jumped and banged her head on the ceiling when she heard a knock on the walls. A couple days had passed, and she truly believed Daisy wasn’t coming back.

Supplies were running low and with the house now completely devoid of food, Rowan didn’t know what her next move should be. She couldn’t leave. It would be a long, hard journey to find another house - both physically and emotionally.  So on one hand, a new set of people moving in would be a welcome sight. She’d be able to borrow for the first time in a while and restock her stash.

On the other hand, a new set of people moving in would provide a whole host of problems. She wouldn’t have any control over who it was. It could be a massive family, they could have kids, they could have pets, they could smoke, they could be loud, they could be observant. And no matter who they were, Rowan would have to return to sneaking around. She’d have to plan her outings and always be on guard. She hadn’t had to think about stuff like that in so long.

And she’d never stop thinking about Geoff. Their constant presence would always be a reminder of the person who wasn’t there.

The knock on the walls was terrifying, and Rowan absently rubbed her head after banging it on the ceiling. She had to assume it was Daisy, but even if it was, she couldn’t go out there. She’d pissed off a giant. One that could kill her in a million different unimaginable ways and Rowan would be lost to time forever.

Minutes passed, and Rowan thought Daisy had given up. But then Daisy’s muffled but very close voice made its way to her ears.

“I’m sorry for yelling. If you could please come out here. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk…Please.”

Rowan looked sadly at her empty food shelf as she thought about what to do. It could be a trick, but she at least sounded genuine. In the end, Rowan found herself back at the mantle, peeking through the wall.

Daisy’s eyes landed on her immediately, which was off-putting. “Come here,” she said.

Rowan shook her head.

Daisy sighed, but saw she wasn’t going to win this one. “I’m going to sell the house. I know you’re hurt and I know it’s frustrating and scary, but do you really want to live here with only his memory to keep you company?”

No, she didn’t want to do that. She wanted to live here forever, but she wanted to live here forever with Geoff, and that simply wasn’t possible.

“Where would I go?” Rowan asked quietly.

“You could come with me.”

.

Last

[pocket-lad]

Grief

A short story about death and the feeling of helplessness that comes along with it, but from the POV of a borrower.

~

“Tea?” Geoff offered, knowing the answer already.

“I’m okay, thanks,” Rowan said for the thousandth time since she met him. She settled down on the mantle in her usual spot and swung her legs over the edge. She then pulled her needles and thread out of her bag and continued on the blanket she’d been knitting for the past week or so. The passage of time didn’t really take up much space in the borrower’s mind. Each day was the same. Each day she hoped for one more day. That was until she met Geoff.

Geoff was old. Rowan wasn’t sure how old exactly, but his hair was very gray, bordering on white, and deep set wrinkles lined his face. He moved slowly and his hands shook and his voice croaked every time he spoke. She hoped she would get to be that old.

Rowan always took care of herself, but Geoff’s knowledge of her existence combined with his patience and kindness made taking care of herself a lot easier. He offered her food, water, tea - always with the tea. Whatever she needed, he insisted that it was no problem to retrieve it. And it wasn’t like she’d make a dent in anything.

But Rowan saw the way he struggled to get out of his chair. She saw the pained, scrunched up look in his face whenever he had to reach for something. She was capable of retrieving her own food, and she didn’t want to make him go through that just for her. And now, she didn’t even have to sneak around!

The two often enjoyed each other's company in silence - Geoff in his chair and Rowan on the mantle. He would watch TV or read the paper or do his crossword puzzles. She would knit or write or organize or simply just sit and watch. Geoff didn’t seem to mind.

There wasn’t much to talk about, anyway. Neither of them went anywhere or did anything new. Geoff could tell her about bingo, he guessed, but she was probably far from interested. Rowan could tell him about the mouse she killed, she guessed, but he was probably far from interested. And so, they sat in silence most of the time. Except when he offered her tea and she declined.

Although, maybe she would try tea today. It was the same old, same old, day in and day out. Rowan liked the stability of a routine, but sometimes the routine got a little boring. Maybe tea was a good way to break it.

She took a break from staring at the pink fabric in her hands to ask. The question was on the tip of her tongue when she realized Geoff looked different than normal. He was sweating pretty hard and his eyes were unfocused. She learned that older people acted or looked weird from time to time and often fell asleep without notice (that had been scary the first time), but this was different. Bad different.

“Geoff?” she tried.

He didn’t seem to hear her. He clutched at his chest as his breathing became strained.

“Geoff?!” she tried again, much more urgently.

He still didn’t respond.

Rowan abandoned her project and whipped out her hook. It was a flimsy paper clip attached to a piece of thread, but it did the job. She lodged it into the mantle and leapt over the edge. It was more of a controlled free fall than a climb, but she had to get to him to see if he was okay.

She sprinted over to the base of his chair, keeping an eye on his slippered feet, especially since he wasn’t at full attention. In less than a minute, she was on the thick, plush arm of the chair, looking up at his face. His eyes were closed and his arms were now limp, meaning he was no longer conscious.

Rowan kicked an arm. It didn’t budge. She shoved at it as hard as she could, and still it didn’t budge. She called his name repeatedly, and nothing happened.

Something was really, really wrong, and Rowan had absolutely no idea what to do.

Looking around for anything, her eyes fell on the phone sitting innocently in its receiver. She could call someone! She could call someone and they could get help!

Rowan thoughtlessly and recklessly leaped across the large gap between the chair and the side table. She landed with a loud ‘oof’ and slid on the newspaper, but kept herself going. She didn’t slow down as she approached the phone, and she threw her whole body at it, tackling it off the receiver.

A loud monotone note rang out from its speaker. What now? Who to call?

Rowan glanced back at Geoff, still motionless in his seat. She had to move fast. Think !

911! That was the Bean emergency number! She’d heard it enough through the TV and probably from Geoff or one of the people he had over once every blue moon. It didn’t matter.

Rowan shoved on the buttons and hit send. It rang once before someone picked up.

“ 911, what’s your emergency ?”

Rowan was tongue tied. This was a real, live Bean on the phone. She couldn’t talk to another Bean! It had taken her forever to work up the courage to talk to Geoff! But one more look back at the man told her she had to, or he might be in some real trouble.

For Geoff.

“ Hello ?”

“Hello, yes, hi. Um…My…my…Geoff. He’s not…he’s not…he looked really bad and then he passed out and I think he needs help!”

“ Is he breathing ?”

“I can’t tell.”

“ What is your address ?”

“I…I don’t know!” Rowan was frustrated with herself for knowing so little. An address seemed irrelevant, since she actively did not want people to know where she lived. And she was unable to provide any useful information about Geoff’s condition because she couldn’t get that close to him while on the phone. It would take too long.

After a grueling, frantic conversation, the operator assured Rowan that help was on the way.

Rowan let the other person hang up. She paced around on the table, biting her nails and keeping her eyes trained on Geoff. He still hadn’t moved, and she really couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

Minutes passed, and Rowan found herself stroking his hand. The skin was wrinkly, tough, and covered in age spots. She never touched a Bean before. Geoff never touched her and she never touched him, and she liked to keep it that way. But touching his hand, holding his finger - it kept her grounded in reality. It kept her thoughts from drifting too far off into worry-land in the torturous minutes it took the medical Beans to arrive.

And then they did, and Rowan couldn’t stay in the vicinity any longer. The sound of sirens caught her attention, so she placed a quick kiss on Geoff’s hand and rappelled down her hook to hide underneath the lower shelf of the table.

A bunch of men burst in through the thick front door. The ground quaked with each of their booming footsteps. They all said fast, loud words she didn’t really understand, there was a lot of commotion, and then the door slammed again and the house went silent.

Rowan let out a long breath. Anxiety still coursed through her body, and she realized the worst part still wasn’t over. The worst part would be waiting.

She had no idea what was wrong with him or how serious it was, and she had no way to find out either. She would just have to wait.

And wait, she did. For days. Each day, Rowan perched herself on the mantle and stared at the full cup of tea sitting on the table. It still had the tea bag in it, but it was long since cold. She told herself that the medical Beans were just busy, or they were working really hard, or Geoff just needed to rest in the hospital for a while so they could quadruple check that he was alright. Each day Rowan told herself a new thing.

Her unfinished blanket sat with the needles in it by her bed for a long time. Every time she went to pick the project up, her hands simply wouldn't move.

Rowan meticulously kept track of the days. It was a struggle to remember at first, but she needed to know how long he’d been gone. Why? She wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like she knew what a reasonable amount of time was, and even if she did, she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t even open the front door. Rowan felt unbelievably helpless. Undeniably small.

If only he warned her! If only she moved a little faster! If only, if only, if only, if only.

A week later, Rowan laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She barely ate anything since the incident, and her stomach growled at her miserably, but she just couldn’t find the strength.

Until the unmistakable sound of an opening door echoed in her ears.

Throwing caution to the wind, Rowan sprinted to the mantle. She burst through the small crack in the wall and pushed all the way to the edge, ready to see Geoff with her own eyes.

It wasn’t the sheer drop off the cliff to the floor below that caused her to falter. It was the unknown Bean that was in Geoff’s house. Without Geoff.

Rowan’s arms pinwheeled as she backed up and hid behind a picture frame. She shouldn’t have been so quick, so careless. That Bean could have spotted her! But she wouldn’t go back to the walls just yet. She had to know what this Bean was doing. She gave herself ten seconds to calm her beating heart, and then she’d peek back around to see what was going on.

The person looked incredibly familiar, that was for certain, but Rowan couldn’t place why. She didn’t even know any other Beans. It was a young woman, maybe in her early thirties. She had close cut, mousy brown hair and a sharp jawline. She wore a beige sweater and nice pants. This told Rowan nothing.

The woman had a distant look on her face. She stood in the middle of the living room doing absolutely nothing, which was odd. Beans were always doing something . And then the woman started to sob.

Uh oh.

Rowan didn’t know what to do. Was she supposed to do anything? Was this lady even supposed to be in Geoff’s house? And then it dawned on her. This was Daisy. And if Daisy was crying, that meant…

Rowan’s heart sank, but before she could even process it, the Bean’s eyes landed directly on her.

Rowan froze.

The shock in Daisy’s eyes was unmistakable. It was the same shock Geoff had in his eyes when he first found her. And just as with Geoff, the shock faded almost instantly and gave way to something else. For Geoff, it had been amusement. For Daisy, it was embarrassment. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes, clearly self-conscious about crying in front of someone else, but she didn’t make a move toward the mantle.

Rowan swallowed thickly as the silence stretched between them. Daisy’s mouth hung open, unsure what to say. There was a tiny person on the mantle. In her dad’s house. And they were staring right back at her.

“Are you…,” her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Are you the mystery caller?”

Rowan nodded with wide eyes. Then, realizing there was no way Daisy could see that, she squeaked out, “Yes.”

Daisy shook her head in disbelief. This had been a really shitty day, and now it was weird, too. She looked down at the phone knocked off its receiver. There would have been no one to put it back after her dad was rushed off to the hospital.

Slowly, Daisy approached the small person. “It’s alright. You can come out.”

But instead of coming out, Rowan backed further behind the picture.

“No! Thank you, I…If you hadn’t called, he would have…” Daisy had to stop talking or she’d start crying again. She squeezed her eyes shut to keep her emotions at bay. She took two deep breaths. “Thank you…I’m Daisy, what’s-”

“I know,” Rowan interrupted from behind the frame. Her back pressed into it so hard she thought she’d send it over the edge. She wanted Daisy to finish her first sentence. If Rowan hadn’t called, then Geoff would have what ? She slowly turned back around and jumped when Daisy was a couple feet closer than before. Not quite within grabbing distance, but she would be soon.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey. Calm down. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. How did you…How did you know my dad?”

Rowan studied Daisy’s face. Her soft brown eyes begged for Rowan’s trust. They were sad. They were looking for comfort. The same way Geoff’s did so long ago. She took a shaky breath and revealed more of herself.

“I live here,” she said quietly.

Daisy seemed taken aback by this. She honestly didn’t know what she expected. “Oh. Oh, um, okay.” She blinked a couple times as if that would help clear things up.

“Is he okay?” Rowan asked shyly. That was honestly all that mattered. If the Bean was really out to get her, she’d deal with it later.

Daisy squeezed her eyes shut again. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No, he’s…he’s gone. He passed away.”

.

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[pocket-lad]

Hear me out, in the tent scene what if Nick Van Owen found Adelaide in the Trex scene / waterfall scene (Sarah comforts Kelly). And he’s suddenly just over protective of her, holding her against his chest whispering “it’s ok, it’s ok”

Your wish is my command.

~

Nick’s muddy, gross hands opened up, but the air was still just as damp outside of his grasp as it had been on the inside. Specks of water from the roaring waterfall in front of them flicked at Adelaide.

She trembled as she took it all in. They were lost, cold, and scared. A man just walked into the jaws of a T-Rex and died. Ian was out there. And she didn’t know if he was coming back.

Nick looked down at his hands. He couldn’t believe he was holding a whole living person in them. In all his years of, well, life, he’d never seen anything like her. As far as he could tell, she was just like any other person, only infinitely smaller. And now she was his responsibility, he guessed. At least until Malcolm came back. If he came back.

“Where is he?” Adelaide whispered, her voice barely audible over the rushing water.

She was shaking like a leaf, but Nick didn’t know what to do. Should he…comfort her? She wasn’t a child. But also, she was scared. But also, they were all scared.

After a painfully awkward pause, Nick finally rested one of his thumbs on her shoulder, hoping it offered something in the general vicinity of comfort.

Adelaide’s shoulder buckled slightly under the pressure and she flinched away from the sudden contact. Nick was strong. She followed through with the motion and ducked away in shock.

He pulled his thumb away. She stared at it, looming above her head.

Oh. He was trying to comfort her.

“It’s okay,” he said placatingly. “It’s okay.”

“I know,” Adelaide snapped, then returned her attention to the waterfall. Watching. Waiting.

Nick sighed. The borrower was starting to turn blue from the cold, and she was shivering more than ever. She’d make herself sick if she worried any harder. So, he brought his hand to his chest and cupped the other one around her, holding her close.

Adelaide instantly wiggled around, trying to find a way out. She needed to be able to see out, she needed to see if Ian was coming, she needed to be able to defend herself. She banged on his chest, yelling at him to let her out, but he held fast.

As the seconds dragged on, her hope started to dwindle. Her best friend was gone. They never should have come to this crazy island and she never should have left his side. And now she was stuck in the hands of Nick Van Owen, maybe forever. Adelaide started to cry.

She felt Nick’s voice more than she heard it. It rumbled in his chest and into her own body as he repeated his words from earlier. “It’s okay, it’s okay,”

All the tension slowly drained out of Adelaide’s body and she let herself sink into the little divot between his palm and his chest. The heat that radiated off him was pleasant, maybe even a little calming. The repetitive phrase wormed its way into her head. It’s okay…

Adelaide could almost say she was asleep when Nick suddenly yelled, “It’s coming back!” She just about jumped out of her skin as the voice enveloped her, but with the way he reflexively held her even closer in his panic, she couldn’t budge. Not that she wanted to move, especially if the T-Rex was coming back. Adelaide was frozen.

But then nothing happened. And then Kelly shouted, “Dad!”

…Ian????

Adelaide resumed her struggles against Nick’s massive hand, pushing and scolding. “Hey!...Hey!!!” she called, and the hand finally pulled away.

A little dazed but overall fine, Adelaide turned to see Ian standing there. Wet, out of breath, and probably hurt, but definitely alive.

She nearly leapt out of Nick’s hand, but Ian’s was there first. He gathered her up and gave her a once over, and Adelaide absently registered Nick talking in the background. “Hey, I said it would be okay, didn’t I?” he said in that stupid, smug voice of his. She ignored him.

But he was right. Ian was here. They were all here. It was going to be okay.

[pocket-lad]

Slight jurassic park 2 story idea:

During the chaos of the T-rex in the tent and wrecking the camp,

Adelaide gets separated from Ian and the group. She is found by either Peter Ludlow or Roland Tembo and taken with the Baby T-rex and held captive. (Maybe Ludlow would want to exspose her kind and make profit?)

I just wanna see Ian go absolutely feral trying to get Adelaide back. 😆

Idk if you were actually asking for a story but I’ve still got a ton of Adelaide & Ian Chronicles juice in me, and this is SUCH a good idea, so I had to write something. Thanks for the prompt!! Hope you enjoy!!

~

It wasn’t hard to find them, really. Follow the roars, follow the screams. Follow the blood.

But the relief Ian felt when he found Sarah and Kelly (and he guessed Nick, too) behind that waterfall was palpable. There was only one person left who he couldn’t immediately make out on anyone’s shoulder or in anyone’s pocket.

“Where’s Adelaide?” he asked.

The guilty expression on everyone’s faces gave the answer away. Adelaide was not with them.

Sarah immediately launched into an explanation. Something about chaos and darkness, but Ian didn’t hear any of it. The ringing in his ears overpowered everything. He just expected Adelaide to be with them because why wouldn’t she be with them? But no, Adelaide was gone. They left her behind. Adelaide was gone.

Ian also didn’t hear himself as he laid into them. It was probably mean and it was probably hurtful. He didn’t care. Adelaide was gone.

“Yeah, well where were you?” Nick yelled over Ian’s shouting.

Ian froze. That shut him up.

He was the one who left Adelaide in the tent. He was the one who brought her to the island. When danger arose, he was nowhere to be found. This was his fault.

Seeing that they now had his attention, Sarah jumped in gently. “Burke said he saw Ludlow grab her. She’s alive. That’s as good a place to start as any.”

Peter Ludlow.

Blood rushed to Ian’s head as he felt the anger boil over again. He threw his fist into the cave wall, looking for something he could take the anger out on, since Ludlow’s face wasn’t readily available. The bones cracked and he cried out in pain.

Without another word, Ian stalked out of the cave. He was going to find Peter Ludlow. And he was going to kill him.

***

Chaos erupted when the T-Rex ripped the tent from its foundations. Screams echoed around the field and stomping feet rumbled the ground beneath her. Try as she might, Adelaide could not locate Sarah or Kelly anywhere. Panic only just started to take over when the world closed in around her.

These were not familiar hands. Adelaide couldn’t say she was very familiar with Sarah, Nick, or Kelly’s hands, but the unyielding grip (despite her struggles against it) was one indication.

Her theory proved correct when the world appeared to her again and she stared up at Peter Ludlow. Great.

This man didn’t scare her before, and he didn’t scare her now. If he wanted to hurt her or kill her, he would have done so already. And Ian would be back to find her shortly. It would all be okay.

“Oh Christ,” an exasperated voice said, and it wasn’t Ludlow’s. It was Roland Tembo’s. Adelaide tensed up. Now that was a person she was scared of.

Roland appeared in the picture and looked down at her disappointedly. “Why did you kidnap the tiny girl?” he asked Ludlow, not taking his eyes off her.

“I’m not tiny,” Adelaide mumbled. She couldn’t force her voice to go any louder if she tried.

“I believe she may be tied to an InGen project from years back,” Ludlow explained. “I’m afraid I can’t disclose much more, but I’m quite curious to see if I’m correct.” His gaze darted off to the left as he searched for something, and his eyes lit up when he found it. “Ah, there we are.”

Adelaide couldn’t see what he was looking for until it was too late. The hand quickly shoved her toward a series of metal bars, which she belatedly realized was a cage. She scrambled away in a random direction, refusing to let him trap her. Ludlow simply closed his hand around her though, squeezing all the air out of her lungs in an overdone attempt to keep her in one place. Then he let go.

Adelaide fell an inch and landed hard against the bars. Before she could even sit up, the cage door closed with a loud clang, the lock snapped into place, and she was set on a big rock at waist height for the humans.

“Watch her, please,” Ludlow said. He didn’t bother to wait for a response as he took off.

Nonononononononono, they can’t do this. They can’t do this to me.

Adelaide started to hyperventilate, but she couldn’t let herself fall apart in front of Roland. She already felt so weak around Beans. She felt even weaker around him. Weaker still if she were to break down. She couldn’t let him have that.

And so, Adelaide ran toward the door of the cage. The lock was way too complicated and large to manage on her own, which left her with one option. She slammed her body into the door, hoping to force it open.

But it didn’t budge. So she tried again. And again. And again. She should at least be able to make a dent, right? And this was a good distraction, because if she stopped to think about the hopelessness of the situation, she’d have a panic attack.

“Stop. You’ll just hurt yourself,” Roland said.

Adelaide flinched from the volume, but she didn’t slow down. “I don’t care,” she huffed.

“Clearly.”

After a couple more attempts, Adelaide had to pause. She wasn’t getting anywhere, and her shoulder protested.

Trying to ignore the looming form sitting on the rock next to her, she looked out into the world beyond. The men that remained carried the baby Rex from earlier over to a cage much thicker and stronger than her own. Adelaide’s heart sank. They succeeded. They were taking the dinosaur back to the mainland.

Was that what they had planned for her, too? Her cage was clearly meant to hold a small dinosaur, but given the options, it looked like they had to make due with the baby Rex.

“Is that what I am to you?” Adelaide wondered aloud, unable to take her eyes off the sleeping infant. “Some kind of animal?”

“What are you, then?” Roland asked, genuinely curious.

“A person.” She turned to look him in the eyes but faltered when they were higher than she originally thought. They stared down at her with an unmatched intensity, and she simply couldn’t hold eye contact. “Just because I’m small doesn’t mean you can-”

“It actually does mean I can,” he interrupted. “I can do whatever I want. So stop throwing yourself into those bars or I’ll stick you somewhere you won’t ever see the light of day again.”

Adelaide thought her heart stopped. It constricted in her chest, because that wasn’t an empty threat. That was a promise.

But she wasn’t a quitter, and she needed the last word. The last word was all she had, because she certainly wasn’t fighting her way out of this one. She threw her body into the cage door again.

In the blink of an eye, Roland snatched the cage up with both hands and held it up to his face. Adelaide tumbled backwards head over heels until her back slammed into the other end of the cage. Held at such a steep angle, she was forced to look directly up into his angry, fierce eyes.

Adelaide went completely silent. Her breathing became sporadic and her fingers coiled around the bars to keep her from shaking. He wanted her attention? He had it.

Roland’s eyes flickered back and forth. He looked like he was about to burst, but then he let out a deep sigh, his hot breath washing over Adelaide. He slammed the cage back down on the rock next to him.

The ground rattled and the momentum caused Adelaide to fall face first, landing in a heap. She had to peel herself off the ground. Despite the way her body still shook and despite the way her mind was still freaking out from the close call, she had to convey that she was unbothered by his antics. Maybe Ian was rubbing off on her more than she would have liked.

“Geez…who died?”

Roland paused in rubbing his face with his hands. “Ajay,” he answered simply.

“Oh, shit………Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“Okay, I’m not sorry.” Adelaide was glad she had the opportunity to take that one back, because she wasn’t sure if she meant it. She knew for certain she shouldn’t be apologizing to her captor though.

“You fascinate me, miss Adelaide.”

“Great. Let me go.” Adelaide wasn’t here to play games or chit-chat.

Roland just chuckled to himself. It was the condescension of the laugh that made her angrily dig her nails into her palms.

Ludlow suddenly reentered the picture. He completely ignored Adelaide and spoke only to Roland. Something about a job offer. Adelaide didn’t hear, since she’d resumed trying to escape.

Only when Roland stood up did she pause, afraid she’d pissed him off again. But he just walked away. “Best of luck with the escape, miss Adelaide,” he said without turning around.

This infuriated Adelaide. Best of luck? If he wasn’t going to help her, then he could fuck right off with his best wishes.

One look at Ludlow showed that he was pissed, too. He snatched up the cage by its handle and took off.

The cage swung rapidly back and forth, forcing Adelaide to wrap her limbs around the bars in the corner again.

“Hey!” she shouted. Ludlow ignored her. “Hey, where are you taking me?” He ignored her. “Hey, I’m talking to you!”

Adelaide shouted at him until she was hoarse, trying to pull any reaction from him. Insults, threats, even jokes. He would not acknowledge her. She screamed until she was loaded in with the other cargo, but then the door slammed shut and she was all alone. Her body deflated along with her hopes of escape.

***

As soon as the guard let Ian and Sarah through the harbor gates, Ian sprinted directly toward Peter Ludlow. Next thing he knew, his fist collided with the man’s nose. Then he was on top of him, and his fist collided with his nose several more times.

It took three security guards to pull Ian off Ludlow and restrain him.

“Where’s Adelaide?” Ian spat. 

“Safe and secure, I can assure you,” Ludlow said, getting to his feet and brushing himself off as if nothing happened. He used a tissue to wipe the blood from his nose and he readjusted his glasses.

“That’s not an answer.” Ian tried to yank free but was held fast. “Where is she?” His voice dripped with venom.

“Now, Malcolm. Come with me. I want to show you-”

Ian was no longer looking at Ludlow. He looked out beyond the man to see a large ship heading straight for the dock with no indication of slowing down. And then it crashed into the harbor, sending everyone sprawling.

***

The adult Rex was now loose in San Diego and Adelaide and the baby were still missing. It wasn’t a stretch to assume they were being held in the same place. Ian marched over to Ludlow and hoisted the man up by his collar. “Where are they?”

Thoroughly dejected from the T-Rex fiasco, Ludlow no longer seemed interested in secrets or plans. He apathetically recited the location and Ian let him drop to the ground.

As far as Ian was concerned, the speed limit was just a suggestion. Not that anyone would care with a giant dinosaur rampaging through the city. He was pushing 100mph by the time they arrived at the facility.

***

Adelaide paced back and forth. The men dumped her cage with the rest of the cargo in some random place, but she had a direct view of the baby T-Rex. It wailed desperately for its mother, which hurt both Adelaide’s heart and her ears. That was until someone tranquilized it again. So now she got to watch it sleep in its almost-definitely-too-small cage.

Adelaide was scared. She had no idea what Ludlow’s plans were. She had no idea what country she was even in. How was she related to some random InGen project? Was she supposed to be a part of the new park, too? An exhibit for people to point and gawk at?

The thought sent a shiver down her spine, but without anything to do, she couldn’t get rid of it. She had to find a way out of here. Repeatedly ramming into the cage door was not helpful, and her now-bruised shoulder probably couldn’t take much more. Studying the lock provided nothing. Adelaide was truly stuck.

The sound of an engine brought her to attention. She steeled herself. She’d make Ludlow listen to her one way or another. She would not go down without a fight.

But all the words Adelaide had prepared disappeared when she saw it wasn’t Ludlow. It was Ian and Sarah!

“Ian!!!” she yelled.

Over the sounds of the car and the generators and the general goings on of nature, neither Bean could hear her. They located the baby first, probably since it was so much bigger.

Adelaide wanted to call out again, but her voice got stuck in her throat. Watching them stomp around carelessly, watching them pry open the heavy door she couldn’t even begin to lift, listening to them shout at each other over the noise, all while they didn’t know she was there. All while she was stuck in a cage. It was humbling, to say the least.

All the fear stored in Adelaide’s body was released when Ian turned around and his eyes landed on her.

He rushed over and yanked the cage into the air, supporting it on both sides with his gigantic hands.

Adelaide fell to her butt from the abrupt movement. One moment, Ian was standing across the room. The next, his face was inches from her. She dizzily looked back and forth between his eyes, unable to pick one to focus on.

“What happened? Are you hurt?”

Disoriented, Adelaide couldn’t come up with an answer.

“What did he do to you?”

“M’fine,” Adelaide laughed. She tried to get to her feet, but the slight tremble in Ian’s hands was amplified at her size, violently shaking the cage and making her fall over again.

Satisfied (for now), Ian switched his gaze over to the lock.

“Ian, we gotta go!” Sarah called from somewhere behind him. She sounded out of breath. She was probably carrying the infant over to the car.

Unable to find an immediate solution to the lock, Ian decided to leave it for the time being. As long as he had Adelaide with him, they’d be okay. He would know she’s safe. He held the cage to his stomach for stability as he ran back to the car.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!” Adelaide yelled.

Exasperated and very short on time, Ian explained, “I uh, can’t figure out the lock right now. We’ve gotta - we’ve gotta get the baby to the ship, so, um-” He paused to open the car door and set her on the passenger seat. As a precaution, he bucked the seat belt around the cage to keep it in place. Things would probably get hairy. “-so we can lure the adult back into the cargo hold.”

“What?!” Adelaide shouted in confusion.

“The T-Rex is loose in the city. Gotta stop it.”

“No, no, get me out of here! I can’t…I can’t stay in here!...Ian!”

Ian was hardly listening, keeping his eyes on the road as he backed up and turned the car around to go find the Rex. “I promise you’re safe, Della. Just hold on.” His words sounded a little rehearsed and therefore not very reassuring, but all Adelaide could do was hold on, like he said.

The next series of events was a blur. She couldn’t see out - only up - and Ian rose way into the air next to her. He wouldn’t look at her. Adelaide knew it was because he had to focus on driving, but down on the seat with nowhere to go, she felt trapped now more than ever. And her only way out wouldn’t even listen to her. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for it to be over.

Her eyes flung open when they crashed through a building. Scattered debris flew everywhere, but once Ian was sure it didn’t hit Adelaide, he climbed out of the car and told her to stay put. As if she was going anywhere.

“Don’t leave me!” she called desperately, but he was already gone.

The silence that followed was deafening. Adelaide felt so alone. So helpless. Ian and Sarah raced off to do who knew what, leaving her here, still stuck in the stupid cage. If anyone were to come by, she’d be a goner. If they got themselves killed, she might never get out. All the energy from earlier, spurred on by her panic and fear, drained from her body. She sat in the corner, anxiously awaiting their return.

***

They did return, albeit sopping wet. Adelaide didn’t ask.

She currently found herself in Sarah’s apartment, sitting on a table, still in a cage. As soon as Kelly saw, she raced over. Ian ushered her out of the way, but that didn’t stop the girl from staring from a distance. Sarah watched, too.

Adelaide knew Ian was focused on picking the lock, but to see him frowning in her direction so intently in addition to the watchful gazes of Sarah and Kelly, was off putting. Especially from behind bars. She felt like a wild animal.

The sound of the lock popping was perhaps the sweetest sound Adelaide had ever heard. She sprinted toward the opening as Ian swung the door open, but her mad dash was cut short as he reached in and grabbed her.

He yanked her out much faster than normal and held her up to his eyes, scanning her for any kind of injury. He was also very pleased to have her back in his hands, protected from all harm that could ever possibly come their way.

“Put me down!” Adelaide cried, but she couldn’t help laughing. “I’m alright. They didn’t hurt me.” She batted at his probing fingers, wishing for solid ground.

Ian reluctantly obliged, but Adelaide could tell he was still anxious and even a bit angry. If Ian was able to get his hands on Ludlow, she could almost say she felt sorry for the man. Almost. Adelaide ignored Ian’s fidgeting and collapsed onto the table, feeling the wood texture on her skin. She was safe. For now.

It didn’t escape Adelaide’s notice that Ludlow, and maybe even the InGen company, had plans for her. She didn’t know what those plans were, but they couldn’t be anything good. They’d have to stay on guard and keep an eye out for anything suspicious, but those were worries that could be saved for the morning. For now, they could rest and celebrate the survival of their second dinosaur island of death.

[pocket-lad]

Uhhh…I’m a (rolls dice) 2 inch fairy who (rolls dice) has beef with (rolls dice) a human electrician because (rolls dice) they befriended the evil possums??

Fuck it send the scenario to the daydream factory for processing I guess

At the end of a 12 hour road trip, desperately rifling through the ‘gt daydream scenario’ folder in my head because I’ve run through all the good scenarios already

[pocket-lad]

At the end of a 12 hour road trip, desperately rifling through the ‘gt daydream scenario’ folder in my head because I’ve run through all the good scenarios already

[pocket-lad]

What was Ian’s POV/thinking when he saw the T-rex was sticking its head into the tent of Sarah, Kelly, and Adelaide? (The three most important women in his life all in danger and out of reach!)

GOOD QUESTION!! Here's how I think it went down:

~

Ian wasn’t always the hero. He never was, and he never would be. Now more than ever, he had people who he cared about and who cared about him, and he supposed that made him act more heroic than usual. It was incredibly inconvenient, but he guessed he liked it. It was better than the alternative, anyway. And so really, that just made Ian Malcolm human.

A human who wasn’t used to exhibiting care, at that. Sometimes he screwed up. Sometimes he made the cowardly choice. It wasn’t something he was proud of, but it happened. In fact, he could classify now as one of those instances.

The telltale quakes were the first thing to alert him to the T-Rex’s presence. And then it was there, sticking its enormous, scaly snout in the tent where the only three people in his life who were worth a damn currently slept.

Everything froze. Ian wanted to say his mind told him to run over and help but his body made him freeze. Or maybe his body told him to run over and help but his mind made him freeze. Neither was true, though. Every single ounce of Ian’s being told him to freeze, because this wasn’t some bully he could go up to and punch in the jaw. This was an angry, prehistoric animal the size of a building that could kill him and everyone around him in an instant.

Ian’s mind instantly transported back to that day when he was nearly killed in an instant by the same kind of dinosaur. The terror coursing through his veins when he suddenly couldn’t feel his body, when he went completely airborne. The crash into the hut. The stabbing pain that shot up his leg and forced him to black out. The confusion of waking up in a dark, stormy world, not knowing if his best friend was dead or alive. Or if he would even survive.

Ian’s bum leg was a physical manifestation and constant reminder of the fear he felt that night. So it wasn’t any coincidence the pain flared up now, as he stared down a full Tyrannosaurus Rex looking to make a meal out of the three people he loved more than anything.

But these women were smart and capable. They’d know to hold still and they’d do everything right and they’d get themselves out because they were the smartest and most capable people he knew. Logically, there was nothing Ian could do to help them.

The terrified scream of an unknown man brought Ian back to his senses. After the initial scare subsided and the reality of the situation sunk in, he didn’t know how long he’d been standing there. But it was far too long. To his horror, nobody emerged from the tent yet, which meant he needed to get them out now. He chided himself for his hesitation as he ran in that direction, but another man distractedly plowed full force into him as he too tried to get away from the Rex, shoving Ian to the ground if it could buy him a spare few seconds.

Ian couldn’t get up. The running and shouting of dozens of men along with the raging storm disoriented him enough, but the T-Rex’s stomping and roaring sent him over the edge, his bearings completely lost. It was coming in his direction, so he took cover under a log and hoped for the best.

Time passed. Everything was a blur. The screaming subsided and the earthquakes disappeared. The world around him was completely devoid of human beings. He had to find them.

***

The world is an unpredictable, scary place. It's impossible to stay one step ahead of anything, and anyone who tried would be doing so in vain. Ian lived by those words, but he relentlessly turned that night over and over again in his mind. The clear image of Sarah, Adelaide, and Kelly all cornered in a fabric prison by such a monstrous creature, while exaggerated in his imagination, plagued him nonetheless.

Ian hated himself for his choices that day, subconscious or not. Everyone had trauma. He wasn’t special for his. He should have acted and he shouldn’t have justified himself through the competence of Sarah, Adelaide, and Kelly. Even if they did find their own way out in the end, just like he knew they would.

It was a miracle they all made it out relatively unscathed, and for that, Ian was incredibly grateful. But the dread that overcame him when the T-Rex found them and the panic that followed were feelings he’d never forget.

All of these self-loathing thoughts added up to an irritatingly unproductive mindset, so Ian did what he did best. He buried those thoughts deep in a vault in the back of his brain, locked them inside, and threw away the key.

[pocket-lad]

Memes for @pocket-lad’s story “Adelaide & Ian Chronicles” aka the Jurassic Park G/t fanfiction I didn’t know I needed in my life, but here we are! And now I’m having major brain rot!🧠 Highly recommend! Hope you enjoy! 😉 🤪 🥰

—————————————————————————

Ian trying to convince Adelaid to go with him to the Island the first time (Ian is Alfred, Della is Batman):

I love how she has a personal grudge against John🤪

——————————————————————————

Ian and Adelaide trying to sneak into places without her being noticed:

Adelaide casually disrespecting Roland Tembo:👨🏻‍🦲 🙄

Adelaide crying in Ian’s pocket: (Just the audio)

Adelaide and Ian’s (possibly) unhealthy attachment to each other by the end of book 2 be like: (Finn can be either of them lol)

————————————————————————

Read ch 1 here! 🥰

[pocket-lad]

CH 14- Epilogue

Prev ; Chapter 1

Adelaide froze. She didn’t know what to do. Ellie was there! Like right there! She’d seen Ian speak on the phone a number of times, and she didn’t think it would be that hard. But in that moment, her head emptied of every word she ever knew.

“Hello?” Ellie repeated.

If she didn't say something soon, Ellie would hang up.

Adelaide hovered over the end of the phone she was supposed to speak into. “Uh, hi! Hi, yes, hello, hi…Ellie? Can you hear me?”

“Yes?” Ellie sounded confused and a little irritated.

“It’s um…it’s Adelaide.”

“...Adelaide? Oh my goodness, hi! Um…what’s…is everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, no, everything is okay.”

There was a long pause. Adelaide didn’t think this far ahead. She was surprised they even made it to this point.

“What have you been up to?” Ellie prompted when Adelaide didn’t elaborate.

Adelaide admired Beans’ ability to hold a conversation. She didn’t talk to people ever until Ian, and for a long time, she only said what was necessary to him. Only recently did she start having conversations about things that didn’t necessarily matter. But Beans did that all the time.

“Uh, dinosaurs, hunters, running and screaming, the usual.”

“Were you on Isla Sorna?”

Adelaide’s jaw dropped. They just aired the news on TV. Hell, they were on the island less than twelve hours ago. “Yeah… Wow, news spreads fast in the human world,” she said.

“I can’t believe you guys would head back there.”

“Well, Ian’s girlfriend went so he had to rescue her, and I wasn’t going to let him go without me, so…Really, we were only supposed to be there for a couple minutes. In and out. Obviously that didn’t happen,” Adelaide chuckled.

“Girlfriend?!” Ellie asked incredulously.

“Yeah, I know, right? But she’s cool. I like her.” Adelaide glanced at Sarah, who was still fast asleep.

“Well, I’m glad…You wouldn’t be up to talking about the island, would you?” Ellie couldn’t keep the curiosity at bay, but she also knew she herself was in no position to be discussing any of what happened in Jurassic Park during the months following their trip. It was too much.

“Sure?” Adelaide was currently numb to all of the events. Maybe later she’d freak out, but if she could talk about it now, she should. She also didn’t mind talking on the phone. In fact, it was infinitely easier than talking to Beans in person. There was no fear of offending them or getting snatched up, and if things went sideways, she could just hang up (if she could figure out how).

Ellie asked question after question, and Adelaide answered them to the best of her ability. She could tell Ellie wanted to know about the makeup of the island and the flora and fauna, but she kept her questions as broad and accessible as possible, since Adelaide couldn’t really speak to the science side of things.

“So…what are you up to?” Adelaide asked.

“Well, I’m trying to write a book, but it’s going a lot slower than I imagined,” Ellie huffed.

“Woah! Is it, um…is it on…”

“No, it’s not about Jurassic Park. It’s actually about soil.”

“Oh…Neat.”

Ellie laughed. She didn’t expect anyone else to be that interested in soil. Adelaide’s reaction was the same reaction she got from most people.

Suddenly, a shadow caught Adelaide’s eye, accompanied by a shuffling sound. She whipped her head toward the sound but didn’t see anything.

“Ellie, I gotta go,” she said distractedly.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m…fine. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay-”

Adelaide didn’t know how to hang up, so she just walked away. She took out her hook and slid down her thread, going through the motions but minding her hand. She kept her eyes trained on the giants’ legs hanging over the edge of the couch as she did so, just in case.

Now that Adelaide was on the ground, she didn’t know how to proceed, but if it was a predator, it needed to be taken care of. She didn’t know how long they’d be staying here, but she wanted to spend absolutely zero time with a pest of any kind. It had to be killed.

But now what? She didn’t see what direction it went in. It was at least safe to assume the kitchen would be a good place to start. If animals and bugs weren’t inside for warmth, they were inside for food.

Still sticking close to the walls, Adelaide withdrew her knife and jogged in that direction until the carpet changed to tile.

Clink.

Adelaide angled herself toward the sound, and what she saw made her drop her knife. Never in a million years would she have guessed this. Never in a million years would she have hoped for this. But despite the complete and utter improbability of the situation, Adelaide found herself looking dead in the eyes of another borrower.

[pocket-lad]

CH 13- We Won, Right?

Prev

Ian and Sarah sprinted in the opposite direction, no longer concerned with the cargo hold. They needed to get out of there before a T-Rex with a grudge decided to make them supper. 

Running. Why was it always running? They were back home, back on the mainland, where no dinosaurs were supposed to exist, and still they were running.

They watched helplessly as the T-Rex took off toward the city with no possible way to stop it.

Sarah turned to the group. “The animal’s dehydrated. First, it’ll go to a water source, then look for the next thing its body needs. All the containment equipment is here. We gotta get it to the dock. The boat might be seaworthy. I know what you’re gonna say. When we brought the baby to the trailer, it came. There’s no reason why it won’t do the same thing here.”

Ian protested throughout Sarah’s speech, but she talked over him.

“Ian, we have to. If not us, who?” Adelaide said.

Ian looked at her in shock. He didn’t expect them to team up on this one, but it looked like he was left with no other choice.

Seeing this in Ian’s face, Sarah turned to Ludlow, who sat on a ledge above them looking utterly dejected. “Where’s the infant?”

“In a secure facility,” Ludlow mumbled apathetically.

“Where’s the facility?”

And with that, they were off again, driving to go pick up a baby T-Rex. Adelaide watched in awe as the world passed them by. Not only was she seeing things she’d never seen before, but the way Ian could just…drive a car like that.

Adelaide didn’t take trips in the car often. She didn’t go places often. It never ceased to amaze her how Beans could operate something so big and complicated, and everyone just did it every day like it was nothing. All those rules, all that technical skill, all that coordination. She didn’t think much of most Beans, but she had to commend them on that one.

Adelaide knew Ian had to be breaking some kind of rules with how fast he was going though, and how he crashed through a gate that had big, red sign that said, STOP. That probably wasn’t allowed.

They kept going until they reached a familiar gateway. It was a little smaller than the original, but in all the ways that mattered, this stone arch was the exact same one they saw when they entered the original Jurassic Park.

Beyond that was a bunch of equipment, and the car came to a screeching halt, temporarily sending Adelaide to the bottom of the pocket.

The Beans wasted no time hopping out of the car and heading toward a cage. The baby T-Rex laid there in a pile of hay, and Adelaide couldn’t help but feel sorry for the creature. It didn’t ask for this. She had to consistently remind herself that they were doing the right thing here, even if it was terrifying.

Sarah hoisted the baby out of the cage and carried it to the car, Ian opening the door for her.

“When the adult sees us again with his baby, isn’t he going to be like, ‘You!’? There may be some uh, angry recognition there,” Ian suggested as he climbed into the car.

“Who knows? He may be just happy to see us,” Sarah countered.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” A rough, masculine voice shouted at them from nearby. All three of them turned to see two men pointing guns at them.

Adelaide’s heart stopped. Anything but guns. She’d rather sit down and have a conversation with these two unknown giants. Because not only would a gun obliterate her, it had the power to kill Ian and Sarah with just one bullet. As Adelaide admired Beans for some of their inventions, she really despised them for others.

Besides a faint increase in heart rate though, Ian seemed unbothered. “We’re taking the kid. If you really want to stop us, shoot us,” he said.

Adelaide’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, you’re going to get us killed,” she muttered. Most of the time, Ian’s cockiness was admirable, even entertaining. Now did not feel like the time.

The men held their guns steadfast. They didn’t even blink.

Before she could think about the consequences of what she was about to do, Adelaide shouted, “Hey, hey! Look at me!” She waved her arms and tried to draw as much attention as possible.

Stunned at the sight of such a small being, the men faltered. Their weapons dipped. Ian used the temporary distraction to gun it, slamming on the pedal and sending the car flying backward.

Only when the men were small dots in her vision did Adelaide let herself breathe, but their adventure wasn’t over yet. That probably wasn’t even the hardest part. Hopefully they wouldn't tell their friends about her, but she also suspected nobody would believe them if they tried.

Curious, she dragged herself out of the pocket and up Ian’s shoulder. It took a lot longer than usual with the wind and the jerky movements of the car and the fact that she couldn’t use her left hand.

“Della, not now,” Ian sighed, knowing he couldn’t take his eyes off the road to help her if she fell.

“I got it,” Adelaide insisted, annoyed that he just assumed she would fall.

Once she made it to his shoulder, she stared back at Sarah and the baby in the backseat with wide eyes. It was so little, relatively speaking, and it looked dazed beyond belief. It had the same yellow eyes as its parents, but its pupil was massive.

“Is it okay?” Adelaide asked Sarah.

Sarah looked between Adelaide and the infant. “Yeah, just drugged out.” Then, something caught the woman’s gaze from way up above. Adelaide turned around to follow her line of sight, and there stood the full adult T-Rex, rampaging through the city. That was easy.

Adelaide finally took stock of their surroundings. She wasn’t exactly sure what a city was supposed to look like, but it certainly wasn’t supposed to look like this. Cars littered the streets, some upside-down, some on fire. Glass windows lining shops and restaurants were all smashed in, the glass scattered everywhere. People screamed and ran in every direction. It was amazing how much destruction one animal could cause.

Adelaide thought back to Jurassic Park when another Tyrannosaur knocked Ian into the air and sent him crashing down onto a roof. She remembered how small she felt then. She was feeling something quite similar now. Even together, all these big and powerful Beans stood no chance against it.

“He won’t know we have it unless it makes some kind of sound!” Ian shouted as Sarah tried to wake the baby up. But the T-Rex trained its eyes right on them. It knew.

Ian took off again, leaving Adelaide clinging on for dear life. Still, she was incredibly fascinated by the infant, getting to see it up close. She watched it blink and breathe and wiggle around. It was almost…cute? It was hard to believe it would grow up to be such a giant, horrifying monster.

Eventually, the baby was awake enough to start wailing. It hurt Adelaide’s ears like all loud noises did, but it also hurt her heart. It was scared and alone. It just wanted its parents. She could relate to that.

They raced along for what felt like ages. At any moment, that dinosaur could close in and smash them to pieces. Ian kept looking to his right, trying to find a way through the blurry warehouses.

“Is there a way through?” Sarah shouted.

“God, there could be,” Ian said nervously. Without thinking much about it, he jerked the steering wheel to the right and plowed through one of the warehouse doors. Luckily, the doors gave way and they made it through without injury. Unluckily, the car didn’t fare so well. On the surface, its windshield was severely cracked and the car was covered in scratches. He was sure it was even worse underneath.

Adelaide screamed, but also made it through unscathed. She didn’t even have time to process what just happened before Ian was out of the car and headed toward Sarah and the dinosaur.

“Trade you?” he said to Sarah, and Adelaide knew what that meant. She also knew protesting was useless, but that didn’t mean she was happy about it.

Ian gently took the infant from Sarah, then rolled his shoulder forward for Adelaide to fall off. She screamed again, unprepared for the fall. It never got any easier, falling from heights like that. To Beans, the fall itself was only a couple inches, and it was only over a four foot, maybe five foot drop. Scaled to borrower size, she fell a couple feet over a one hundred foot drop. There was always someone there to catch her, but the brief moment of weightlessness always gave her a mild heart attack. She preferred to have her own two feet firmly planted on solid ground where she could control her environment. But she chose to exist with giants. This was the price she would have to pay.

Adelaide landed with an exhale in Sarah’s soft hands. She blinked a couple of times to regain her bearings and found herself looking up at Sarah’s face.

“I got you,” Sarah assured her, and Adelaide gulped. She did this before. She could do it again. She trusted Sarah.

They ran along toward the wrecked boat, Adelaide bouncing up and down in Sarah’s hand.

“Where’s the Rex? Is it behind us?” Sarah asked.

As if on cue, the dinosaur smashed through the warehouse walls, leaving behind a much larger hole than their car. The sudden noise scared all three of them, but they didn’t slow down.

“Holy shit!” Adelaide hollered, instinctively ducking down for cover. “Sarah!” she called.

“Yup, got it!” Sarah responded, placing Adelaide in her pocket as softly as she could manage while running.

The boat was in sight. Then they were on it. Then Ian was depositing the baby dinosaur in the cargo hold. Then they were running again. Running straight to the edge of the boat.

Adelaide waited for them to slow down or make a hard left turn, but it never came. She realized too late that the Beans fully intended to hop over the railing and fall to the water below to escape the adult T-Rex. It would probably (hopefully) be too distracted by its baby to take any interest in them, especially down in the water.

“ Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait !” Adelaide cried, but her voice was lost to the chaos around them.

Everyone was momentarily airborne, and then they crashed into the harbor.

Adelaide’s breath was knocked right out of her from the impact, and then she registered the cold. It was beyond freezing. She couldn’t feel anything - her toes, her fingers, her face. It was like she ceased to exist.

She probably would cease to exist momentarily if she didn’t find her way to the surface. The water was not only cold, but incredibly dark, too. Her air was running low, and it was only exacerbated by her panic. Adelaide flailed and flailed, gasping for breath that wouldn’t come. Water entered her lungs instead, which she instinctively coughed up along with the small amount of remaining air. Her grasp on consciousness was slipping fast.

As light as her body was, combined with all the flailing, Adelaide’s body found its way to the surface naturally. But the small, calm waves created by falling bodies may as well have been a tsunami to her.

Just when the lightheaded feeling threatened to overtake her, something large wrapped around her body and squeezed tight. It was probably someone’s hand. God, she hoped it was someone’s hand. It would be just her luck if a big sea creature came by to drag her down into the depths of the ocean.

Thankfully, she was right, because not seconds later her face found light and air. Adelaide didn’t even have time to struggle against the hand before it opened. Her body sprawled out across the palm as she coughed up all the remaining water in her lungs. It just kept going, more water kept coming out, and she still couldn’t find air. She thought surely she’d be able to breathe once she left the water, but only after a solid ten seconds of coughing was she able to take a meager breath.

After Ian was sure Adelaide was breathing, he swam toward the boat. He tried to keep her as stable as possible, but it wasn’t easy.

On her part, Adelaide felt like she was going to throw up from all the movement. She felt the waves overtake her body a couple times as Ian swam along, and each time she thought she might drown.  After what felt like forever but was probably less than a minute, Ian dragged himself up a ladder and out of the water.

Adelaide thought the ocean was cold. The air was infinitely worse. Her jacket was no match for the cool night air of San Francisco when she was dry, and now she was soaked to the bone. She curled up into a ball to try to preserve heat, but it felt useless. Her body was incapable of doing anything but shivering.

Ian tried to talk to Adelaide this whole time, but she couldn’t hear him over the sound of her own teeth chattering, so he  gave up for the time being. As long as she was breathing she’d be fine for a couple more minutes. He cupped her to his chest and followed Sarah up some stairs. Reaching the control panel, he wasted no time in smashing the button to close the cargo hold. Now all he could do was watch anxiously as Sarah readied the tranquilizer.

A helicopter flew by full of men with guns. There could only be one reason they were there - to kill the T-Rex.

Adelaide heard the commotion above and tried to peek out to see what was going on. Uncurling her body let the cold air back in though, and she started shivering more. Ian cupped her closer to his chest, absently shushing her but keeping his eyes trained on the Rex. There was nothing so important going on that she needed to see.

Adelaide didn’t fight it. Something in the back of her mind told her she was supposed to be miffed, but a larger part of her mind said, cold.

Being in such a small space next to a massive being that absolutely radiated heat helped a lot, but Ian was also soaking wet. His T-shirt felt cold and water dripped down his body and onto hers. What she wouldn’t give for a towel right now.

A final clang and the absence of dinosaur noises signaled to Adelaide that it was over.  “We won, right?” she called up to Ian. They had to have won.

Ian distractedly looked down at her, then laughed at her over-simplification of the situation. “Oh yeah, we won,” he said. He looked back at Sarah, then back to the enclosure. She successfully tranquilized the dinosaur just before the big cargo hold doors slammed shut. The T-Rex was going home, and so were they.

The ride back to Sarah’s place was quiet. Adelaide remained in place, still trying (unsuccessfully) to warm up her small body. Sarah and Ian were just too shell-shocked to say anything. What was there to say, anyway?

They promptly bypassed and ignored any security personnel who tried to stop them or ask questions. That could be an issue for later, but they were tired, cold, and wet. They wanted to go home.

The door slammed closed as they reentered. “We’re back!” Ian called out, and Kelly only gave them a brief glance and a wave. Then, seeing what they looked like, she did a double take.

“What happened?!” she asked, attention fully on the adults now.

“Oh, you know. Fought some bad guys. Saved some dinosaurs,” Ian shrugged, searching for a hook to hang the car keys on. Sarah snatched them from his hand and tossed them on the table.

“Great! So they’re headed back to the island?”

“You got it.”

For the first time in a while, Adelaide’s surroundings changed. Light filtered in and she whined when she was pulled away from the radiator that was Ian’s body.

She was placed on something mildly soft, which wasn’t half-bad. Then that soft thing wrapped around her body just a little too tight, pinning her arms and legs in place, and she was lifted into the air again.

Adelaide’s eyes whipped open and she violently wriggled in place, trying to free herself of the towel. Above her was Ian’s face.

“You gotta warm up, Della,” Ian said, holding the bundle against his chest and anticipating her protest .

Adelaide tried to stay calm as she spoke, but it felt like her confines were getting tighter by the second. Despite her efforts, her voice shook. “Ian, let me go. I’m seriously…I’m seriously going to freak out.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, setting her back down on the table and unwrapping her so that the towel only draped loosely over her body. “But don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

With that, Ian disappeared. Adelaide took a shaky breath and considered her options while she laid there. She wasn’t frozen anymore, but it still wasn’t warm, especially with the way her clothes still clung to her body. Impatient, she sat up, looking for a better way to dry off. After a bit of searching, her eyes fell on a heating vent down by the floor across the room. If the disturbance of the various objects around it was any indication, it looked to be on.

That settled it. Adelaide stood up, letting the towel fall to her feet. She pulled her hook out of her bag, which now reeked of old, wet clothes. That would have to be a later problem. She turned to latch her hook onto the edge of the table, but when she did so, she was faced with the torso of a human.

Adelaide jumped, but it was just Kelly. How did she not hear the girl coming? Looking around nervously, Adelaide noted that they were alone. Obviously she trusted Kelly, but without another adult nearby…

“I thought my dad said not to move,” Kelly said. There was fascination in her eyes. Now that they weren’t concerned with dinosaurs or running for their lives, Kelly marveled over how cool it was that there was a tiny person living with her dad.

“Well, your dad’s not the boss of me,” Adelaide said, hoping the girl wasn’t going to stop her, but Kelly only smirked in response. Something about the rebellion of it all or whatever.

It didn’t look like she was going anywhere though, so Adelaide was going to have to climb down with a giant studying her every move. It wasn’t like she’d never done that before, but she didn’t know Kelly super well, and it was hard to miss the way the girl emanated, ‘I want to hold you’.

Adelaide gulped, then swung herself over the edge. She gasped in pain when she tried to grab the thread with her left hand. With that hand out of commission, it was much harder to do anything, especially climb. She squeezed her legs tight to the thread and slowly let herself slide down, using her functional hand to steady herself. She should have asked for help, but it certainly wasn’t going to be Kelly, and she vaguely recalled instructions from Ian to stay put.

To Adelaide’s delight, Kelly stayed rooted in place, though it was a little too close, and she could physically feel the eyes tracking her every move. When she made it to the ground, she flicked her hook off the table and eyed the pink socked feet standing less than a foot away. Adelaide steeled herself, then ran toward the heating vent. It took far too long due to her stubborn insistence on sticking close to the walls and refusing to cross the center of the room. The center was where giants walked. The center was a no-go zone.

When Adelaide made it a decent distance, she felt a tremor shake the ground. Startled, she glanced up. Kelly was following her. A comment about 'backing off' was on the tip of her tongue, but that probably wasn't nice. She didn’t know what else to say though, so she didn’t say anything - just took a deep breath and kept moving, trying to ignore the earthquakes in the ground and the massive presence casting a shadow on her.

Adelaide made it to the vent without incident. Thankfully, she was right. It was blowing heat. She collapsed in front of it, thrilled to have some kind of warmth. The towel was fine enough, but the large fibers were scratchy and the moving, heated air would dry her off faster. And it felt so good .

Another longer tremor shook her into active perception and she rolled over to see Kelly laying on her stomach. The girl crossed her arms and rested her head on them, studying Adelaide.

“Can I help you?” Adelaide asked through gritted teeth.

“Nah,” Kelly shrugged.

“Okay…um…what are you doing?”

“Looking.”

“Right,” Adelaide said uncomfortably and a bit awkwardly. She turned back toward the vent, then noticed something along the wall.

Tucked in the corner was a small hole expertly concealed by dark molding. Even Adelaide hardly noticed it, and she liked to think she was quite perceptive. Pushing herself to her feet, she inched toward the hole.  It could just be a mouse hole. Or a bug hole. Or just worn due to age. Or…

Even stronger shaking in the ground alerted Adelaide, but when she turned around, it wasn’t Kelly. Kelly was looking back over her shoulder at Ian and Sarah who had just returned.

Ian looked at the empty towel, then at his feet. He didn’t need to panic just yet. He knew when he asked Adelaide to stay there that there was a fifty percent chance she’d listen.

Kelly shot to her feet, not wanting to give Adelaide’s position away. She liked to think they were conspiring. Against what, exactly? Maybe her dad? It didn’t matter, but she wanted to protect her new friend.

Adelaide scrambled back when Kelly was suddenly on her feet and infinitely taller. She blocked the borrower’s view of Ian, but she couldn’t imagine he was very happy.

“Where’s Adelaide?”

Kelly made a noise that kind of sounded like ‘idunno’.

Ian thought his daughter was responsible (for the most part) and very smart. He hated to consider that she might have picked Adelaide up and stuffed her away. “Kelly…”

“I’m down here,” Adelaide sighed. A long lost feeling crept over her - one that she quite enjoyed. She realized that she kind of missed sneaking around, that she missed being this mysterious, unpredictable being who didn’t have to let the giant know when she went anywhere. She really didn’t want to give away what she was doing and she desperately wanted to explore Sarah’s walls.

Ian took Kelly by the shoulders and lightly moved her out of the way. He approached Adelaide and knelt down when he got close. “Why?”

“The vent,” Adelaide explained. “Heat.” She saw he was completely dry again and felt a hint of jealousy.

Ian noticed the hole in the wall behind Adelaide. He reached past her to poke his finger into it. “What’s this?” he asked.

Adelaide stepped back out of respect for the sheer size of his hand as it soared over and next to her body. The feeling of being cornered might have played a part in it as well. “That’s what I’m about to find out…And get your finger out of there.” She didn’t want to hint that there might be other borrowers. That wouldn’t be fair to them if they did exist. It was kind of hard to hide, though.

Ian was going to protest. He really wanted to. But he was trying to keep Adelaide’s request to trust her in mind. It was getting increasingly difficult. “Why don’t we - why don’t we rest for a while…first. You’re still soaked.”

“Vent. Heat,” Adelaide repeated matter-of-factly.

“You’ll have…oodles and uh, oodles of time to explore later. I promise.”

Adelaide could see him fighting with himself in his head. Maybe she would go later while the Beans slept. She didn’t think Ian would poke around, but given his recent protective streak, she wouldn’t put it past him to hover while she ventured through the walls.  She also appreciated the effort he put in to not just tell her to stop. Reluctantly, but with a small smile on her face anyway, Adelaide gave in. “Fine.”

Without warning, Ian scooped her up and cupped her to his chest. Adelaide fell back into his palm, trying to stay off her injured hand. “Ian Malcolm!” she complained.

Ian plopped down on the couch with a towel, all of the exhaustion finally oozing out of his body. Adelaide rolled around, trying to get herself upright, then used his arm as a bridge to the arm of the couch. Sarah and Kelly shortly joined them and not long after, Ian and Sarah were fast asleep.

Neither Adelaide nor Kelly found themselves that tired. Kelly busied herself with watching the TV, but seeing it was about Jurassic Park and the incident in San Diego, Adelaide decided to tune it out while she dried herself off. And after a while, even Kelly had to succumb to the exhaustion in her bones. Her head gave one final bob as she nodded off.

Bored, Adelaide wandered over to the side table. She eyed the massive phone sitting on a receiver, and an idea came to her. Ian vaguely showed her how to use a phone after they came back from Isla Nublar, and she thought she remembered most of it. If not, she could probably figure it out. How hard could it be?

Adelaide kicked at the phone, but it didn’t budge. Then she leaned her back up against it, using her legs to push backward.

The phone gave way and clattered loudly to the table below. Adelaide fell with it, and pain spiked up her hand. Beyond that, she was fine. She rose to her feet and dusted herself off, glancing at the Beans to see if she’d woken them up. They slept on.

The phone emitted a prolonged noise, and Adelaide absently hoped she didn’t break it.

She dug a piece of paper out from the bottom of her bag. It was soggy and soft and dirty and she could barely read the writing, but it was there.

Slowly, Adelaide clambered up onto the phone itself. It wobbled under her feet and she had to stick her arms out to maintain her balance. Looking from the paper to the phone, she stomped on the corresponding numbers. Then it rang.

Maybe she shouldn’t have done this. Maybe she was being rash. What would she even say? She didn’t know how to hang up though, so at this point, it was happening.

After two and a half rings, the voice of Dr. Ellie Sattler spoke through the phone. “Hello?”

.

Last

[pocket-lad]

CH 12- An Unceremonious Departure

Prev

The operations building - it was right there! They’d made it!

A scream from behind them caught their attention, and Ian whipped around, leaving Adelaide clinging to his shirt for dear life.

Her jaw dropped. A raptor had appeared from seemingly nowhere and lunged at Sarah. It had her pinned to the ground, furiously chewing and ripping at her backpack.

“Ian, do something!” Adelaide yelled.

There was nothing they could do but watch. Ian had to keep Kelly and Adelaide back and trust that Sarah could fight her way out of it, but every second they stood there, the horror grew.

Ian was right, though. Sarah pushed the raptor off her and left her backpack behind, hoping it distracted the dinosaur for at least a couple seconds. The group tried to sprint around it toward the operations building, but it was too close to the door. Their movement caught its attention and it suddenly wasn’t very interested in the backpack.

Ian lifted Adelaide higher, and she saw what he was trying to do. “Don’t!” she said forcefully. “We’re sticking together this time. Don’t even try it.” He was going to pass her off to Sarah and tell them to run. For somebody who studied chaos and unpredictability, he sure was predictable. And Adelaide wasn’t having it. Plus, if he had her with him, he was much less likely to run into danger and get himself killed.

There wasn’t any time to argue. Ian set Adelaide on his shoulder and ordered Sarah and Kelly to go inside while he banged on an old car with a stick, calling the dinosaur to him.

“Della-”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Adelaide said. She slid into his pocket from his shoulder, trying to keep her hand out of the way. She landed softly in the bottom, but as always, needed to see what was going on.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, two more raptors appeared, again out of nowhere. They preoccupied themselves with getting into the building Sarah and Kelly took refuge in, which was deeply concerning, but they were safe for at least a little while longer.

Ian sprinted (as best he could) into an empty building with glass windows and slammed the door behind them, but before they could even think they were safe, the raptor leapt through the window, smashing through the glass like it wasn’t even there. It hissed and bared its sharp teeth, claws raised in an attack position.

Thinking fast, Ian ripped the door off its hinges and used it as a shield between him and the dinosaur. It was probably an old, rusty door, but regardless, Adelaide was speechless at the level of strength that must have taken. Human Beans were strong. Terrifyingly strong. She was lucky to have this one on her side.

Undisturbed by the door, the raptor lunged again, knocking Ian backwards. He crashed through the window behind them, legs catching on the window ledge. He hung upside down for a moment, but it was long enough to send Adelaide tumbling out of the pocket.  She fell straight onto the dirt below. It was a long fall - she’d experienced worse, but it hurt all the same. The wind was forced from her lungs and her head and ribs ached from the impact. She groaned and tried to roll over to push herself up, but a tremor shook the ground, forcing her to fall over again.

Adelaide looked up to see Ian also tumble out of the window. He rolled backwards over his shoulder, narrowly missing her. She wouldn’t have been able to get out of the way in time if he’d landed a couple inches to the left.

It was a scary thought, but she didn’t spend much time with it, since Ian’s hand was suddenly in the picture. It scooped her up and deposited her back in the pocket, unconcerned with speed or roughness.  Adelaide’s hand was jostled at the movement, and she clenched her jaw to keep from screaming. Gravity forced her to the bottom of the pocket as Ian stood up and ran.

Just as she was able to finally pull herself up again, her vision filled with car door and raptor. Ian took refuge in an old car, but the raptor was close behind. It leapt at them, forcing the door shut and Ian backwards, which also meant Adelaide was forced backwards.

Everything had been a blur so far. A blur of danger and fear and darkness and dinosaurs and it was all too much. It was only when everything stilled did Adelaide register everything that just happened.

“Oh my god,” she breathed.

Ian could only spare her a glance, since the raptor wasn’t done trying to get to them. She didn’t look like she was dying, so his attention returned to the dinosaur.

Together, they watched helplessly as it carved a bigger and bigger hole into the passenger window, the high-pitched sound of its claws against the glass bordering on painful. If they didn’t move soon, it would get to them.

“Ian, we have to move,” Adelaide said.

He didn’t move.

“Ian, look at me!” she said, louder.

“Huh?” He looked down as if he just realized she was talking.

“We have to move. Now.”

Ian glanced between her and the raptor repeatedly, still not moving. Adelaide felt his heart hammering in his chest. He was paralyzed with fear, and while she didn’t blame him, they couldn’t stay here forever.

Twenty feet in front of them was the building Sarah and Kelly hid in. It was as good of an option as any, so Adelaide picked it as their destination. “See that door in front of us? That’s where we’re going. Okay? Just to that door.”

Ian blinked a couple times, slowly processing her words. He looked ahead at the door, figuring out if he could actually make it.

“Hey!” Adelaide called, and he finally, really looked at her. “It’s not far at all. It’ll be easy. Nothing to it. We go on three, okay?”

Ian nodded. “Yeah, yeah, that’s um…”

“One, two-” Adelaide couldn’t even get to three before Ian pushed the car door open and sprinted (again, to the best of his ability) toward the door. He made it inside, and they breathed a sigh of relief together.

“Nice j-” Adelaide started.

“Look out!” Kelly and Sarah called.

Ian turned, and they were faced with a raptor crawling its way toward them from underneath the wall. Truly an unstoppable force.

“Up here!” the girls called again.

Wasting no time, Ian clambered up some equipment to a higher level, hoping it would be far enough away. It wasn’t. The raptor fought its way in, and with its strong hind legs, leapt higher than Adelaide thought possible, right up to their level.

Taking Kelly’s hand, Ian jumped back down while Sarah climbed up to the roof. The raptor chose to follow Sarah.

They ran together outside and waited impatiently. Both Ian and Kelly’s heads were on a swivel, looking out for the other raptors which were certainly lurking close by, camouflaged by the dark greenery.  The sound of beating propellers filled their ears and bright lights dotted the landscape. A helicopter arrived. Nick did it.

“Come on,” Ian ushered Kelly toward their rescue, but Kelly pushed back.

“We can’t leave her!” she cried.

Ian sighed. He needed to get Adelaide and Kelly out of here, but Kelly was right. He couldn’t leave Sarah. He wished he didn’t have to be the one to make the call.

Luckily, Sarah came tumbling down out of a window. She crashed to the ground below. Ian and Kelly helped her up, and all four of them moved as fast as they could in their frazzled, injured states toward the helicopter.  Nick stood in the doorway, ushering them along and up some stairs.

Adelaide collapsed into the bottom of the pocket and plugged her ears as they got closer, unable to handle that level of noise. She felt Ian shout something overtop of it, but she couldn’t make out what it was.

When the movement stilled and the noise of the engine mostly disappeared, Adelaide unplugged her ears. Her heart thumped in her chest, her head throbbed, and her limbs kept twitching. Her body simply couldn’t comprehend that they were safe now, and her mind wasn’t doing much better. She should probably just go to sleep. She was exhausted. But if she tried to sleep, she’d be left alone with her thoughts, and that certainly wouldn’t do.

Adelaide also didn’t want any Bean interaction right now, but that felt like the lesser of two evils. She resigned herself to getting up. It was difficult without her left hand, but she managed. She doubted she’d be able to make it all the way to Ian’s shoulder, though.

Ian was in the middle of comforting Kelly, who Adelaide belatedly realized was crying.

Oh.  She supposed this was all pretty traumatic.

“It’s okay. It’s over now. You’re safe. I’m safe. I’ve got you, alright?” Ian continued spouting a stream of comforting words to his daughter, though he wasn’t sure if it was working.

Adelaide felt tears form as she watched. Why were tears forming? That’s dumb, she didn’t need to cry right now. She wasn’t a child and crying wouldn’t help anything. Ian was right, they were safe. She was being stupid. She willed the tears away, but an inexplicable emptiness overcame her chest and the tears kept coming and eventually they spilled over.

Adelaide wanted her parents. She wanted her mom.

Watching Ian comfort his daughter widened the pit in Adelaide’s stomach that had been forming ever since she was fifteen years old. When they were separated.

She was sure Ian would comfort her too, but it wasn’t the same. Ian was her friend, but he was a Bean. He couldn’t relate to her. He couldn’t hug her. God, what she would do for a hug from her mom right now, for her mom to tell her everything would be alright.

Adelaide was on the verge of sobbing at this point. She welcomed the dark, humid depths of the pocket where she could cry in peace. Her fit would only make it warmer, but it was a price she was willing to pay. She wanted to miss her parents in peace.

Ian must have either heard her or felt her shaking, because a moment later, the pocket opened wide and Adelaide’s sight was filled with his eyes.

“Uh…what’s up?” he asked awkwardly.

“Nothing,” Adeaide said, hurriedly wiping the tears away and failing miserably to hide her sniffles. “I’m fine.”

Ian went to reach in because she was not fine, and they’d been through this ‘I’m fine’ / ‘you’re not fine’ dance a million times.

“Don’t!” Adelaide called, voice shaking, not strong enough to face anyone just yet. She knew her face would be visibly red, even from a distance, and she wouldn’t be able to stop sniffling for a while.

“Okay,” Ian placated, withdrawing his hand. “No worries, it’s alright. We’re safe, Della.”

“No,” Adelaide swallowed. “No, it’s not…it’s nothing. It’s not Jurassic Park. Just forget it. Sorry…can you pull me out? I’d climb but…” She showed off her poorly bandaged hand.

Ian reached in again and slowly and gently wrapped his fingers around her, trying to give her as much space as possible without letting her fall. Once Adelaide was on his shoulder, she felt the stares of everyone in their small group.

Deciding the tension needed to be broken, Nick pulled something out of his pocket and let them fall to the floor. Bullets. “Welp. That’s one souvenir they won’t be taking with them.”

Adelaide stared at him in awe. “Did you…” The question hung in the air. Did you steal their bullets ?

Nick nodded smugly.

“That’s awesome,” Adelaide said, forgetting about her worries for now.

“I try,” Nick said, and he casually reached out for a fist bump.

Adelaide screamed and tumbled backwards as Nick’s fist plowed toward her. She would’ve fallen directly off Ian’s shoulder if he wasn’t leaning against the seat. As it was, she had to slowly peel herself off the seat when Nick’s fist hung in the air a couple inches in front of her. Her heart pounded as she stared at it, wondering what to do next.

“It’s a fist bump,” Kelly giggled. Tears stained her face, but the distraction was a welcome one.

“Right…” Adelaide trailed off, still not getting it. She stayed propped up against the seat, not wanting to get any closer.

“You can't leave me hanging,” Nick said.

Adelaide’s eyes were wide as she tried to figure it out. What did they all know that she didn’t? A lot, probably.

“You do it back,” Kelly said, and she held her fist out to Nick, who tapped his against hers. His hand returned to its original position right after.

Was this normal? Why hadn’t Ian done it before? Tentatively, Adelaide stood up straight on Ian’s shoulder, holding her arms out for balance. She slowly approached his fist, having to get really close with how short her arms were. She gave one last wary look to Nick and Kelly, then reached out and tapped her fist against his. Her hand didn’t even cover the width of one knuckle, so she could hardly call it a ‘fist’ bump, but whatever.

The speed with which Nick withdrew his hand created an air vacuum that almost pulled Adelaide with it, her arms pinwheeling. When she was sure she wouldn’t fall, she looked at everyone as if they were aliens. “Beans are weird,” she muttered, which made Kelly giggle again.

“Adelaide, do you know rock, paper, scissors?” Kelly ventured.

“Uh, yes?” Adelaide asked, disoriented by the introduction of all these weird new Bean things when not too long ago they were running for their lives from dinosaurs. She was pretty sure she knew what rocks, papers, and scissors were, but the way Kelly asked had her hesitant.

“Do you wanna play?”

Adelaide blinked. “Play?”

“I don’t think she knows, hon,” Ian said.

“Hey!” Adelaide argued.

“It’s a game,” Kelly said. “Here.” She shifted so that her back was pressed against Nick and she faced Adelaide.

Adelaide steadied herself, refusing to back down.

“Hold out your hands like this,” Kelly explained, and she held out a sideways fist and rested it on the palm of her other hand.

Adelaide flinched again at how fast the girl moved. The bumpiness of the helicopter didn’t help, either.  She slowly held her hands out in the same position, unsure where this was going.

Kelly continued. “You tap your hands three times like this, and then on the fourth time, you pick either rock, paper, or scissors.” She demonstrated each of the hand gestures. “Scissors beat paper, paper beats rock, and rock beats scissors. Here. Dad, play with me.” They demonstrated a couple rounds. Adelaide watched intently. “Like that, okay?”

“Okayyy,” Adelaide trailed off. It seemed easy enough.

“Okay, ready? Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” Kelly held out her hand in the shape of scissors and Adelaide in the shape of rock.

Realizing just how small Adelaide’s hands were, Kelly leaned in for a closer look, which caused Adelaide to fall back into Ian’s neck.

“You win!”

Eyes wide and chest heaving, Adelaide peeled herself off Ian’s neck. “That’s it?”

“Well then we just keep playing.”

“Oh.”

They played round after round. Adelaide didn’t like that Kelly stayed so close, but it wasn’t the girl’s fault. Eventually, she completely forgot about the proximity, and even got pretty competitive about it.  She also realized somewhere in the back of her mind that this was a good distraction for them both. Neither wanted to think about what just happened, so they were better off playing a silly game.

Sarah abruptly opened the helicopter’s door, assaulting their ears and letting in a huge gust of constant wind. Ian stood up as she did so and made his way to the open door. Adelaide shouted at him for interrupting their game.

Then she saw what the Beans were looking at. Down below, a massive cage laid on the dirt, and in that cage was a T-Rex.

Nobody could say anything. InGen succeeded. They were taking the dinosaur to the mainland. 

Resigned, the Beans sat back down.

“What are we going to do?” Adelaide asked.

“We’re going to stop them,” Ian said.

“Yeah, but how?”

“I haven’t gotten that far yet.”

“Hmmmmm,” Adelaide grumbled. She no longer felt like playing games. After all that time, after all their efforts, all their suffering, they failed. Ludlow won.

Adelaide remained lost in thought until the helicopter landed and they said their goodbyes to Nick. It all felt very unceremonious, despite the life-threatening adventure they all experienced together. That was it. That was the end. Adelaide would probably never see Nick again, and all they exchanged was a polite ‘see ya’.

They decided to stop at Sarah’s while they waited, which wasn’t far away, to drop off Kelly and freshen up. Adelaide was just along for the ride, too tired to ask questions. She hid in the pocket most of the way and only emerged once they reached Sarah’s apartment.

Adelaide wasn’t sure what she expected. She’d never been in another Bean’s house before, but this was vastly different from Ian’s. It was a lot smaller and warmer, and it was definitely more lived-in. Even as Ian fished her out of the pocket and set her on the table, she gazed around, unable to pick something to focus on.

Why couldn’t she have ended up here? Adelaide was grateful Ian was so gentle and patient, and she wouldn’t trade him for the world, but borrowing here would be infinitely easier than borrowing at Ian’s house. She’d never get caught here! There were so many hiding places and so much junk to sort through.

“Sarah, this is amazing,” Adelaide mumbled.

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“It’s so messy!”

“Della!” Ian scolded.

Adelaide turned to look at him, wondering what she did wrong. Then she remembered that humans didn’t like mess. That probably came off as offensive. “Oh, sorry…”

Sarah just laughed, though. “No, it’s alright. It is messy. You are not wrong.”

She rummaged through some drawers and threw something at Ian, then carried clothes for herself into another room. Ian went to follow, but stopped and looked at Adelaide. “Don’t get into trouble.”

“How could I possibly get into trouble here?”

Ian gave her a look and then left. Adelaide threw her arms in the air, exasperated. She was up on a table. There was nothing to do up here but breathe and exist.

She glanced over at Kelly, who laid on the couch watching TV. Adelaide could hardly see it from where she was, so she resigned herself to laying down on the hard, wooden surface and staring at the ceiling, already bored.  Despite how tired she was, her body couldn’t rest. It still felt like it was in danger and she felt the need to keep an eye on her surroundings. At the very least, she wanted to explore, but something told her she didn’t have a ton of time to do so. Also, her hand continued to throb.

Adelaide didn’t have to wait too long, though. She heard rhythmic thumping that indicated the humans’ return. When she sat up, she saw that they looked a lot better than they did two minutes ago. Fresh clothes, clean faces, the works. Adelaide was bummed she wouldn’t be able to change until they got back to Texas.

“You uh, you want to stay here?” Ian asked hopefully.

“Not a chance,” Adelaide said as she got to her feet.

“Great.” Ian scooped Adelaide up and placed her in his pocket.

Adelaide was miffed, but at least it was a new, clean jacket. “Give me a warning!”

“Right,” Ian said, mildly in a hurry. “Kelly, behave,” he warned as he gathered his keys. Kelly gave a distracted wave in return, eyes glued to the TV.

With that, Ian, Sarah, and Adelaide left to go on their next adventure. Adelaide wasn’t sure if she missed something, but she didn’t really know what the plan was. Either way, she wouldn’t sit this one out.

They hopped in a red car without a roof. Adelaide wasn’t looking forward to the wind, but it wasn’t a long drive, and beyond the jumpscare of the engine turning on, it was relatively peaceful.  When they parked, Adelaide chanced a look. Up ahead was a massive group of people all crowded around a pedestal, so she’d have to stay hidden. She fell back into the pocket as Ian and Sarah approached a gate with a guard behind it.

“Is this the Ludlow affair?” Ian asked.

“It’s private property,” the guard responded.

“We’re on the list. This is Dr. Harding, I’m Dr. Malcolm.”

“We have Mr. Ludlow’s test results,” Sarah chimed in.

Ian continued her train of thought. “We have good news and we have bad news.”

Adelaide heard the sound of a gate shut. So much for that. But before she could ask what the backup plan was, another voice rang out.

“Dr. Harding? Dr. Malcolm? Come with me.”

The gate opened back up again and they were on the move. Despite the circumstances, Adelaide found herself quite bored. It was hard staying in the pocket all the time, missing all the action. That is, until everything suddenly became not boring, like right now.

Ian’s heart picked up pace and his body froze. “We should’ve stayed in the damn car,” was all the warning she got before a massive crash echoed across the harbor. It sounded like the wood of the dock was being torn apart by something massive, and for a short, irrational moment, Adelaide thought it might have been a dinosaur.

Ian was thrown backwards and Adelaide braced for impact. It wasn’t anything too bad, especially compared to the last forty eight hours, but her existing injuries felt exacerbated by the fall.

Ian quickly checked to make sure Adelaide was still in one piece before he stood up and took off. Once Adelaide was able to fight gravity, she looked out to see a gigantic boat taking up most of their field of view. That was the thing that had crashed. But why?

Everyone seemed to have the same question as they made their way onto the boat. An eerie silence filled the air when they saw dead crewmen littered across the floor. Most of them rested in gruesome positions, likely attacked by dinosaurs. One was clutching onto a remote control with two buttons on it, and behind them was a massive cargo hold that could only contain one thing. The T-Rex was here.

Another guard waltzed over to the crewman, curiously lifting the remote control. Seeing that it likely controlled the now malfunctioning cargo hold, he pressed the top button.

Ian, Sarah, and Adelaide all caught this at the same time and in unison screamed at him to stop, but it was too late.  The sound of breaking machinery and an angry T-Rex filled their ears. It was loose, and it was headed straight for them.

.

Next

[pocket-lad]

CH 11- I Don't Go Outside

Prev

“Ian, those are velociraptors,” Adelaide whispered.

Ian briefly glanced down at her but kept his focus on the field in front of him. He didn’t have firsthand experience with velociraptors, but Adelaide sure did, and from what she told him, it wasn’t anything good. Their chance for escape dwindled dramatically.

“Go. As fast as you can, go!” he shouted at everyone, and they took off, sprinting through the long grass without regard for volume. The dinosaurs knew they were there. There was no point in trying to keep quiet anymore.

Adelaide could feel how pronounced Ian’s limp was when he ran, and his heart beat rapidly behind her.

That is, until she felt nothing. Weightlessness overcame her whole body, so she curled herself into a ball and dug her fingers into the fibers of the fabric around her. Ian must have fallen, and judging from how long she spent suspended in air, Adelaide suspected it was a nasty fall.

Then his body came crashing down to the ground, and so did hers. He tumbled uncontrollably downhill, and Adelaide wasn’t sure who she should be more worried about - herself or him. There was nothing she could do except hold on. She really hoped Ian wouldn’t land on her and crush her, but she knew realistically that he was not in control of his body.

A sharp pain abruptly spread throughout Adelaide’s left hand, pinched under the weight of her own body. She screamed from the pain, but forced herself to continue holding on. If she let go, she would for sure be thrown out of the pocket. One of her fingers was definitely dislocated, but the rest of her hand was numb.

Eventually, the movement came to a halt and Adelaide immediately crawled toward the opening, keeping as much pressure off her left hand as possible. She crawled right up Ian’s chest and onto his face. She had to know if he was okay.

“Ah, Della, what the hell,” Ian complained, gently wrapping his hand around her and plucking her off his face.

“I just,” she breathed heavily, “needed to see if you were okay.”

“I’m okay,” he assured her, laughing lightly. He sat up and held her to his chest. “I’m alright.” After a moment of catching his breath, he was on his feet again, but staggered when pain shot up his leg.

Ian reflexively closed his hand around Adelaide a little tighter, worried he’d fall and drop her. She winced, but beyond that didn’t react. Try as he might, Ian had to stop and sit down on a nearby rock.

The group gathered around him and Nick spoke. “I see structures there. They said the communications center is in the operations building. I’ll get in there and send the radio call. See you there.”

He was already running when Sarah called out to him. “Wait for us!”

“Every second counts,” Nick said. “If you can keep up, you’re welcome to try.” And then he disappeared.

Ian took that as his cue. Break was over. “Okay, here we come.”

He struggled to stand, and Sarah forced him to sit back down. “No, rest,” she commanded.

Ian clearly wasn’t happy about that, but there was no use fighting her. He gave himself two minutes. Then they had to move. He glanced down at Adelaide, who gingerly rubbed her hand.

Adelaide started to get a tingling feeling back in her left hand, so she massaged it in hopes it would wake up. She avoided her probably broken pinky. That was a later problem.

“What happened?” Ian’s voice made Adelaide jump. She looked up at him. Pain showed through on his face clear as day. God, they were a mess.

“My hand just got caught in the fall. Should be fine.” She downplayed the situation, knowing it would make him feel guilty.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked urgently, lifting her higher.

“No, it wasn’t you-”

“What happened?” Kelly repeated. She didn’t hear Ian ask a couple seconds ago, too preoccupied with literally everything that was happening.

“Nothing,” Adelaide said irritably. She didn’t want anyone fawning over her right now. They were so close to safety, and she didn’t want to serve as a distraction. Ian looked a lot worse than her anyway.

“Sorry,” Kelly mumbled, registering Adelaide’s tone.

“No, no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t get angry,” Adelaide sighed. “I’m fine. We’re all fine. We’ll be out of this in no time.”

“That doesn’t look fine,” Sarah said, bending down to get a closer look at Adelaide. Even from a distance, she could tell one of those small fingers was bending the wrong way. “We’re gonna have to set that.”

Adelaide backed up against the wall that was Ian’s chest, clutching her hand to her body. “Don’t touch me!” she cried.

Sarah held out her hands placatingly. “Adelaide. It’s not going to heal if we don’t set it.”

“You’re too big,” Adelaide said. “You’ll make it worse.”

Sarah didn’t take any offense. Setting a bone was difficult for the strongest humans. Adelaide was tiny, and she had to admit it would be hard to get it right. There wasn’t any guarantee she wouldn’t snap it right off. “Okay, let’s-”

“I’ll do it myself.”

“You really shouldn’t,” Sarah warned.

“Do you have a better idea?” Adelaide shouted. She hated how irritable she was getting, but the pain was spreading and their situation grew more dire.

Before anyone could stop her, she breathed heavily and grasped her hand, counting to three. On the mental three, she pushed with her palm, and she heard a loud snap accompanied by some of the worst pain she’d ever felt. Adelaide cried out and hot tears fell down her face. They weren’t connected to any emotion, but were rather forced out of her eyes from the sheer pain that pounded in her finger.

All three Beans winced at the sight.

“Della, I’m so sorry,” Ian whispered.

“Stop saying that! It’s not your fault!” Adelaide said, exasperated.

“I landed on your hand!”

“ I landed on my hand. And how were you supposed to control that anyway?!” she yelled. “You were falling off a cliff!”

“Let’s calm down,” Sarah said. “Do you have anything to wrap that?” Adelaide would actually have rather done anything else but calm down, but Sarah was right. Her sour attitude wasn’t helping anyone.

“Yeah,” Adelaide muttered, digging through her bag to find her disgusting old clothes from earlier. She saw Sarah give her a disapproving look for the dirty fabric, but it was the best they had right now. She got to work wrapping her hand.

“We should keep going,” Ian said. He was going to continue the conversation later. He felt horrible for putting Adelaide through that, and it could have been so much worse.

“What about your leg?” Kelly asked.

“It’s better,” he said as he stood up with a limp. He did look marginally better, but definitely not enough to be walking. Nobody protested, mostly because they knew Ian would shoot them down, but also because they really did have to keep moving. He kept Adelaide in his hand, liking the feeling of knowing she was there. Here, he was able to feel, see, and hear her.

On her part, Adelaide laid down and held her injured hand. She felt the steady pounding of blood coursing through it, which she tried not to focus on. She stared up past Ian’s chin and into the sky, searching for stars that weren’t there. The breeze felt cold against her wet skin and her body wavered with each pronounced step Ian took.

It was as if Ian read her mind. “Sorry,” he said, and Adelaide shifted her focus to him.

“Stop apologizing,” she said shortly.

“I uh, I know it’s been hard for you to adjust ever since - ever since my, um, my leg stopped… functioning.”

Ian apologized a lot lately. He never did that before, especially when it was something he couldn’t control. This worried Adelaide. She didn’t want him to feel self-conscious over something like that, especially if it was because of her.

“You’re being stupid,” she said. Nothing like an insult to boost someone’s confidence.

“Maybe.”

“I don’t care about your leg. I mean, I care, but I don’t care, you know? So what if I have to adjust? There are worse things, and I can’t complain if I’m getting a free ride everywhere. And now it’s more fun. Like a rollercoaster or something.” In all honesty, it was hard getting used to his limp, and sometimes it was less than enjoyable. Ian did not need to know this, though. She would get over herself.

It was also hard getting used to riding on a Bean’s shoulders at all in the first place, but she did that eventually too. It would all come in time.

***

The cabinet door swung open and Adelaide yelped. Light assaulted her eyes, so she dropped the wrapper in her hands and prepared to make a run for it.

“Good morning,” Ian laughed. “Excuse me.” He put whatever was in his hands up in the cabinet next to Adelaide, and she stumbled backward a couple feet at the hand’s proximity. Her heart pounded in her chest.

“Can’t borrow in peace anymore,” she grumbled to herself, kicking at a nearby container to release some tension.

“I’ll uh, leave you to it then,” Ian said. He went to shut the cabinet door, but stopped halfway when Adelaide continued speaking.

“No, I’m pretty much done. Do what you need to do.” She found jack shit that day, so she was hoping Ian went to get groceries and would be putting more stuff away. That way, she could come out tonight and borrow further.

“Bag looks pretty empty,” Ian pointed out, indicating it with a finger. Adelaide flinched but didn’t retreat.

She threw her hands up as if to say, Really? “S’not my fault,” she said, then quickly tried to take it back. She didn’t want him to think she relied on him or expected anything of him. And she didn’t want him to think she thought he owed her anything. “But really, it’s no biggie. I’ve got stuff at home and this is your food and…” she trailed off, fearing if she talked more she’d only sound stupider.

“Well, good news for you. I just stocked up.” Ian reached down into a plastic bag (if the rustling noise was any indication) below Adelaide’s eyeline and produced a strawberry. When Adelaide gave him a wary look, he clarified. “Save you the trouble.”

“I don’t need this,” Adelaide said.

“When’s the last time you had fresh fruit?”

“Long time ago. But I don’t need it.”

“Take it.”

“I don’t want it.”

“I insist that you take it.”

“I. Don’t. Want. It.”

“Why are you being so stubborn?” Ian raised his voice, but when he saw Adelaide flinch, he made sure to lower it again. “It’s good for you.”

Adelaide clutched her hands together to keep them from visibly shaking. It was easy to forget just how loud Beans could be and how much she appreciated Ian’s ever-present sense of calm. “I’ll go to the grocery store myself and get some if I really want,” she said.

“You could come next time. Pick out your own stuff.”

“Oh god, no. I’ve never been outside and I’m not starting now.” Adelaide didn’t bother getting into the million other reasons she didn’t want to go. She wished she could leave the conversation at that and disappear into the walls, but the entrance was down on the counter.

“Woah, hey, hold on. What do you mean you’ve never been outside?” Ian asked, stunned.

“I mean I’ve never been outside,” Adelaide said as if it was obvious. “Well, except when I found your house.”

This prompted Ian to ask a question he’d been curious about for a while. “Why’d you pick mine?”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly.”

“It was the closest one. I escaped the truck and chose the nearest house possible because I don’t go outside.” She emphasized that last part because for some reason, Ian just couldn’t grasp the concept.

“Huh,” Ian said to himself. He never thought about it much before, but it made sense. She’d lived in the walls of a motel her whole life. Though when supplies ran low inside, there were plenty of resources outside to choose from. But then there were probably infinite dangers that lay waiting for someone who wasn’t even half a foot tall. Bugs, animals, weather, humans. If she went out in the open, she’d be a sitting duck. If she took cover in the grass, she’d have no idea where she was. It was a lose-lose-lose-lose situation all around.

Ian had an idea. “Would you like to?”

“No thanks,” Adelaide shot back. In truth, she was deeply curious about the outdoors, and had been ever since she was little. There was a whole world out there, bigger than she could ever imagine, full of stuff she could never imagine. Her one time out soured that desire though, so unless she magically became the size of a regular human, it wasn’t going to happen.

Ian could see the hesitation in Adelaide’s posture. “We’ll just go right out the door, and if you don’t like it, we’ll come back in.”

“Oh, we?” Adelaide paused. She just assumed he was asking if she wanted to try going outside by herself. She didn’t think he was offering to go with her. That took care of a lot of problems, but it brought up a bunch of other concerns.

Adelaide had let Ian carry her quite a few times now and she didn’t hesitate as much when she climbed into his hand. But this was on a whole new level. She’d be leaving behind everything she was familiar with and placing her trust and her life solely in his hands. She could not survive out there on her own. She needed Ian to keep her safe, and she wasn’t sure if they’d built that kind of trust yet.

Ian had also never carried her for long periods of time. It was usually from the kitchen to the living room, or from the living room to the kitchen, and that was about it. The trips were short and manageable, so she didn’t have time to register her fears before it was over.

Adelaide suddenly felt cornered in the dark cabinet. Her only way out was through the cabinet door, which was currently being blocked by Ian. He’d gotten a lot better at not just grabbing her, but it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities. She curled in on herself and backed away.

Ian saw this and debated what to say. He didn’t want her to feel pressured, but he knew she didn’t like when he brought attention to her nerves. “I’m uh, not going to force you - force you to go, but…let me know.”

With that, Ian shut the cabinet. Not long after, Adelaide’s small voice rang out from inside. “Ian?”

Ian stayed close by, expecting this to happen. He opened the door back up. “Yes?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.

“Let’s do it.”

Adelaide even surprised herself. There wasn’t really any justification for it, at least none that she could find, but she knew she definitely didn’t want to continue borrowing while Ian was up and about. It was a private thing, and she’d get asked at least two more times why she doesn’t just take the food that is offered to her.

Before Ian could move, Adelaide listed her stipulations. “But I don’t want to be seen by other Beans. And don’t grab. And don’t move too fast.”

Ian tried (and failed) to hide his amusement. “Got it,” he said as he held his hand out. Adelaide took her time gathering her things, delaying stepping into his hand as long as possible. She could just say ‘no’ at any point and he would probably leave her alone, so she wasn’t sure why she was procrastinating.

Eventually, there was nothing left to do. She looked between Ian and his hand a couple times, waiting to see if he would do anything, but she just received a blank look. She took a deep breath and stepped on.

As per usual, Ian cupped his hand to his chest and Adelaide wavered in place, but instead of walking to the living room, he went to the front door. He glanced down at her before asking, “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Adelaide sighed, wondering why she put herself in situations like this.

Ian yanked the front door open with a loud suction noise and Adelaide was blasted with cold air. “Jesus!” she yelled, wishing she had a heavier coat. But then she breathed in, and the cold felt good in her lungs. It wasn't the typical cold of the house. It was fresh and sharp and it filled her with energy.

Adelaide wasn’t sure what to look at first. Sure, she’d seen some of this stuff through the windows before, but that was nothing in comparison. The colors were so much more vibrant, the textures clearer. Speckled concrete sat directly beneath them and beyond that, uniformly trimmed grass stretched out forever. The bright blue sky was punctuated with fluffy white clouds, and a clean, black gate stood up ahead, separating them from the rest of the world. It was like something from a painting, it was so perfect.

Adelaide couldn’t believe this was what she walked through when she first arrived at Ian’s house. From below, it was a scary, treacherous journey with a thousand unknowns. From up above, she felt like she could conquer the world. She could see the whole picture, and it was beautiful.

“Marvelous, huh?” Ian asked after a couple minutes, giving her time to process it all.

Adelaide looked up at him as if she forgot he was there. “Yeah, it’s alright,” she shrugged, trying to downplay her excitement, but Ian saw right through her. It was hard to miss the way her eyes darted around or the way she took intentionally long, deep breaths to soak up as much of the fresh air as she could.

“You trust me?” Ian asked. He gave her his most winning smile.

Adelaide’s face fell. If only this question had a simple answer. Her initial instinct was to say no, but after she thought about it, yes, but after she thought about it some more, she had no idea. She trusted him to get her to and from the living room. She trusted him to watch his step. She trusted that he wouldn’t snatch her up and sell her to the highest bidder. Beyond that, she wasn’t sure.

Adelaide gave as honest of an answer as she was willing to give. “I think so.”

That was all the confirmation Ian needed. He held his hand up by his shoulder, which confused Adelaide.

Oh! He wanted her to get off…Right? This was new. Taking her best guess, Adelaide stepped onto his shoulder, and as soon as she could, grasped the fabric of his jacket to keep herself steady. Ian’s shoulders were big, but one wrong step and Adelaide was slipping off a one hundred foot mountain.

Heights weren’t an issue for her. Heights were her life. But when the mountain had a mind of its own with unpredictable movements, that was another story. She had to admit that being out of his hands was a huge comfort, though. She no longer had to worry about something closing around her in the blink of an eye, and the birds-eye view of the world was great.

Once she was settled, Ian took off. Adelaide gripped the fabric even tighter until her knuckles turned white. Balance was a lot harder up here, especially with the way the wind whipped in her ears. She took calming breaths, wondering for the seventh time since they left why she was doing this.

Ian pushed through the gate and closed it behind him, and Adelaide marveled at how she basically had the same view as him right now. The gate was so far down, the ground even further. This was what he saw every day. No wonder humans had so much confidence.

The scenery passed them by so fast that Adelaide couldn’t pick what to focus on. A squirrel skittered by, looking incredibly small, even though if they were eye to eye it would be double her size. The occasional bird flew through the air, too high to make out any details. Trees and flowers and different landscapes and different houses of all different shapes and sizes and colors. No people yet, but Adelaide made sure to keep an eye out. Mostly. It was hard not to get distracted.

Ian was also on high alert for any other people. He tried to strike a balance between ‘don’t notice me’ and ‘don’t mess with me’. Being over six feet tall, the former was quite hard, the latter quite easy.

A bicyclist sped past at one point on the opposite side of the street, and Ian angled his shoulder away from them. Adelaide felt dizzy from the quick motion, but her jaw was on the floor. A human just passed them by and didn’t pay them any mind. They didn’t even notice her! And she was way out in the wide open! The power of having a Bean on your side, she guessed.

“Here we are, ladies and gentlemen,” Ian said as he entered a big, grassy area. Trees dotted the landscape and a couple Beans threw a ball around in the distance. They were far enough away, but Adelaide shrank down against Ian’s neck nonetheless, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“Where is ‘here’ exactly?” Adelaide asked.

“The park,” Ian said as he leaned against a tree.

“And what are you supposed to do?”

“You don’t do anything. I mean - I mean you can, um, do anything, if you want to. But you don’t have to.”

Adelaide looked around. It was so…peaceful from up here. The cool breeze made her teeth chatter, but she couldn’t care less. “Is this what all of outside is like?”

“Around here, um, yes. A bit further out and you get to the heart of the city. Big - big buildings and such, no grass. And then, of course, if we’re talking globally, there’s places that are uh, vastly - vastly different. Deserts, mountains, forests, oceans…”

“Hmmm,” Adelaide hummed to herself. That gave her a lot to think about. If she was a Bean, she’d travel the whole world and see all these things. She wouldn’t take any of this for granted. “Why don’t Beans spend all their time here? I already feel so relaxed, like I feel like my mind can breathe.”

Ian laughed. “I guess we just get busy.”

“Too busy for this?” Adelaide’s eyes were trained on an animal hopping along, minding its own business, going about its life.

“Hey, um…how would you feel - how would you feel about staying in my pocket?” Ian said urgently.

“Huh?” Adelaide was pulled out of her thoughts by the weird comment. Then the words actually sank in. “Absolutely not,” she declared.

“Okay, well, there’s someone, uh, headed this way. What would you suggest?”

Adelaide followed Ian’s eyeline and saw what he was talking about. Two people had their eyes trained on Ian. They were too far away to tell what Adelaide was yet, but that would change very, very soon.

She was not, under any circumstance, going in his pocket though. Adelaide wasn’t about to be stashed away like some trinket, and she wasn’t about to be robbed of all her senses. Every time she thought she’d given up the last bit of control she had, there was always something new to take a little more. In his pocket, she’d be blind. She wouldn’t be able to see anything coming, and she didn’t think she’d be able to get out unless he let her. That was simply too much, especially in one day.

“I don’t know! I suggest maybe we leave!”

“Professor Malcolm!” one of them shouted.

Ian peeled away from the tree and took off in the opposite direction of those people. Whoever they were, they knew him and they were persistent, because they picked up the pace and closed in on him.

Adelaide turned to face backwards and track their progress, and she nearly jumped at how close they were. “Who are these people?”

Ian whipped his head around, nearly knocking Adelaide off his shoulder. “Sorry,” he whispered distractedly. “Any other ideas?”

“Not really!”

“Okay, so-”

“Fine!” she snapped. She started to say more, but that was all Ian needed. His hand coiled around her. It was loose enough, but it still kept all her limbs secure and thrust her into darkness. She kicked and yelled, thoroughly pissed off.

Then the hand let go and Adelaide was falling. It was only a couple inches, and she landed safely with a soft cushion underneath her. The walls were tight but moveable. The floor swung like a hammock. She was officially in his pocket.

Adelaide growled in frustration, trying to stand up and gain her footing in the small, shifting space. The walls were dark, given that his shirt was black, and the light from above was eclipsed by Ian’s retreating hand. The first thing she noticed was how much harder it was to breathe.

Adelaide tried over and over again to stand up and pull herself out, but the fabric around her wasn’t having it. Once his hand left, she received a bit of light only for a moment, and then she was shoved into Ian’s chest.

He pressed on her from the outside, probably trying to get her to sit still. Adelaide didn’t care what he wanted, though. She wanted out. Only when she heard voices from outside did she finally settle down.

“You’re persistent,” Ian mumbled.

“Professor Malcolm, what are you doing here?” one of the people asked, out of breath.

“Just trying to enjoy my evening,” Ian said with a forced smile. “What can I do for you?”

Adelaide nearly fell over when she heard Ian speak. She understood logically that he was speaking at a normal Bean volume so that he could be heard by the other Beans, but right up against his chest, the vibrations alone were enough to make her head hurt. She’d never been able to feelsomeone’s voice before, and she was pretty sure she didn’t like the sensation.

“About Making a New Science ,” the person continued, “the chapter on Strange Attractors - I was wondering if-”

“Can this wait until office hours?” Ian asked pointedly.

“Yeah, no, um. For sure… Sorry.” The person and their friend walked off awkwardly. Normally Ian enjoyed talking to students about Chaos, even if Gleick’s writing was a bit technical, and he probably wouldn’t have shot her down so quickly if Adelaide wasn’t in his chest pocket.

Speaking of, he pinched it open and peered inside.

Adelaide flinched. It was like he was staring at her through a tunnel. And the only way out of the tunnel was to go through him. She felt claustrophobic, which was a feeling she seldom felt. There was nowhere to escape to.

“How’s it going in there?” Ian asked.

Adelaide just stared up at him angrily.

“What’d you want me to do?” he continued.

Adelaide stared.

While in the pocket, she figured out that she could lace her fingers into the fabric. It wouldn’t actually be that hard to climb out, but having a giant watch her do so would probably slow her down at the very least.

Ian clicked his tongue, and his face was soon replaced by grabbing fingers. Adelaide kicked at them halfheartedly, but she didn’t want to be in there any more than he wanted her in there, so she let him gather her up. She held her breath, clenched her jaw, and closed her eyes the whole time, wishing for it to be over.

The hand came to a stop, but she still didn’t want to open her eyes. The feeling of fingers around her body wouldn’t go away, even when the fingers themselves were gone.

“You’re being dramatic,” Ian said.

“So?” Adelaide said, opening her eyes. Maybe she was being dramatic. That still didn’t change his actions or the way she felt about them. He hadn’t grabbed her like that or held her that tightly in so long, she’d almost forgotten how powerless it really made her feel. How constricting it was. She was obscured from the world completely in that pocket.

“That was one of my students, and she was high-tailing it toward me. She would’ve - would’ve seen you.”

“That was scary. Do you understand how that was scary for me? Can you even try to imagine it from my perspective?”

Ian honestly thought about this. He supposed he wouldn't enjoy being grabbed by giant fingers and dropped into a dark enclosure with no way out. “I wouldn’t let anything hurt you.”

“That’s not…” Adelaide took a deep breath to compose her thoughts. “I don’t like not being in control.”

“You said it was okay!”

“Just…let me do it myself next time, or something, okay?” Then she felt like she needed to clarify. “Not that there will be a next time. That sucked.”

“Can do…You wanna head home?”

Ian’s casual attitude usually made Adelaide even angrier, but she heard the earnestness in his voice and decided to let it go for now. She thought about his question.

“Can we stay a little longer?” she asked shyly. She didn’t want to admit how much she actually enjoyed being outside, especially after she railed against it for so long.

“Sure,” Ian smirked as he set her on his shoulder again.

They stayed in the park for another hour, occasionally talking but mostly people watching. Nobody else bothered them, which Adelaide was super grateful for. She didn’t want to test Ian’s promise so soon. It wasn’t until the sun was setting did they decide to head in.

Ian could feel Adelaide shivering on his shoulder and insisted that they go back. He knew she wouldn’t admit how cold she was, so he just told her it was him that was getting too cold. He didn’t know how else to get her back in.

“Do not put me in the pocket again,” Adelaide warned.

“It couldn’t have been that bad,” Ian said. Adealide shot him a look, and to that he responded, “Noted.”

Adelaide watched the scenery again as they walked back, impressed with how different it looked under the setting sun. All those vibrant colors grew warmer and darker. Crickets chirped and beetles buzzed. Nothing ceased to amaze her today.

Adelaide welcomed the heat of the house, rubbing her hands together to try to warm them up. Ian set her on the counter and they said their goodbyes.

“Thanks,” Adelaide said. “That was…cool.”

“Any time,” Ian said.

Adelaide turned to head into the walls and almost jumped out of her skin when something sat in the doorway. Her heartbeat slowed back down when she realized it was the strawberry from earlier. The one they left in the cupboard. She turned back to Ian in shock. “When…How…?”

Ian shrugged then smirked.

Adelaide rolled her eyes with one final ‘goodnight’, and she began lazily kicking the strawberry down the hallway. After all, she couldn’t let it go to waste.

***

Adelaide thought about how Ian got her on his shoulder and in his pocket for the first time all in one day. She remembered vowing to never go in the pocket again. If that Adelaide could see her now, she’d be rolling in her grave…or something like that. 

Regardless of how that first time went, it was probably an overall net positive that she got used to traveling different ways. (Even if other borrowers would scoff at her. She tried not to think about that part.)

Adelaide stared up at Ian’s chin from his hand. If she could get through that experience, she could handle anything, limp and all. They were so close. Not much longer and they’d be safe. The group walked further into the night, ready to face whatever came their way.

.

Next

[pocket-lad]

CH 10- Lost in the Chaos

Prev

“They’d have to go through both Sarah and Kelly to get - to get to you,” Ian explained as if Adelaide didn’t already know that. He was trying to convince her to go lie down and get some sleep in the tent with Sarah and Kelly. It was an unspoken agreement among everyone that the women got the privacy of the tent while the men slept outside.

“I’m just not tired,” Adelaide yawned.

“Regardless, you should uh, get some sleep.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Della.”

Ian wasn’t going to pull anything else. He passed her off to Alan, to Nick. He wasn’t going to do that to her again, what with their trust already being stretched so thin. Even though he desperately wanted her to sleep in the safety of the tent.

“I’ll let you know if I get tired, and then maybe I’ll join them,” Adelaide conceded. That was as good as it was going to get, and Ian knew that. “And why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I’m not tired,” Ian said. They both knew it was a weak excuse since Adelaide literally just used it, but really, they were exhausted.

They joined up with the few other people who were awake. Adelaide regarded the big group of sleeping people. They all looked so peaceful when they slept, but she knew better than anyone how quickly their demeanor could change.

“Did you find him?” Ian asked Roland. They sat together on a log with Ajay, who Adelaide learned the name of five seconds ago. Apparently he was Roland’s friend. She didn’t know it was possible for him to have such a thing.

“Just the parts they didn’t like,” Roland said. He shot Adelaide a look that said, try me, so she did, mostly prompted by morbid curiosity.

“What did it?”

“Compys, I believe. Dinosaurs not much bigger than you, actually.” A ghost of a smile flashed across his face, but it disappeared so quickly that Adelaide thought she must have imagined it.  She straightened a little and smiled too. There was something fitting, poetic even, about Dieter Stark, a man who tormented her because of her size, dying at the hands of some of the smallest dinosaurs.

Roland pulled out a map and continued, explaining where they were going and what route they were taking. “We’ll let them sleep one more hour. Then we’ll hit it.”

Adelaide’s eyes grew heavier and heavier, and once the prying eyes of Roland and Ajay disappeared, she relaxed even more, her body threatening to succumb to sleep. But she had to stay awake.

Ian rolled his shoulder forward to let Adelaide slide off into his hands. She barely even protested, too comfortable to put up a fight. That’s when Ian knew it was over. “You are quite literally falling asleep in my, uh, in my palm… as we speak. Go to bed.”

“I can’t,” Adelaide mumbled.

“And why not?”

“Because they’ll take me.”

Ian wasn’t sure her thoughts were coherent and considered dropping her in his chest pocket to let her rest there, but curiosity had him prompting her further. “Who?”

“Hm?” Adelaide asked, already forgetting what she was talking about.

“Who will take you?”

“Oh…um, anyone?” She forced herself to sit up and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t like letting my guard down that much, even with you, no offense.”

“None taken.”

Adelaide yawned. “Are you sure Beans don’t eat us? He looked like he wanted to eat me.”

“I think he always looks like that.”

“Hmm…Being unconscious around strangers isn’t…And besides, I’m awake now. I’m sitting up.” Adelaide closed her eyes again and her head bobbed.

“Hey, you’re gonna fall asleep anyway, so you might as well do it somewhere safe.”

“I’m safe with you,” she whispered, curling back up in a ball. A couple minutes wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Curled up like that, Adelaide looked so tiny, and to know she felt safe with him made Ian’s heart grow approximately three sizes. He lifted her up close to his eyes, trying to see if she had officially fallen asleep.

Adelaide slowly peeled her eyes open and found herself staring directly into Ian’s. “I’ll take the tent,” she said, defeated. If anything, it was to get herself on solid ground for maybe the third time since they’d arrived. Her eyes closed again and she fell right asleep.

Ian wordlessly made his way over to the tent, pushing the flap open. Sarah stirred, and when she noticed that there was someone inside, she bolted up.

“It’s just me,” Ian assured her.

“Oh,” she said, eyes barely open and hair messy. “What’s going on?”

“Mind if Adelaide stays with you for the night?” He neglected to mention that they’d probably take off in an hour anyway.

“Uh, sure.”

Ian crouched down and reached across the tent to lay Adelaide in the back. There was a small empty space up by Kelly’s head that would give her enough room to sprawl out and roll around. She was fast asleep and remained so even as she slid off Ian’s hand onto the hard ground.

“Get some rest,” he said to Sarah, who nodded sleepily. Ian took one last look at everyone before he left.

It was that moment that Adelaide came back to the world. She felt the hard ground beneath her body and registered movement, so she blinked her eyes open.

An unfamiliar, dark world stretched out before her, and she felt the presence of two giants, none of which were Ian. She shot upright and pulled out her knife.

Sarah saw this and slowly reached for the borrower, trying to let her know she was safe, but before she could say anything, Adelaide swung at her with the knife.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s me. It’s Sarah.”

“Where’s Ian?” Adelaide said forcefully and at full volume. Though it was quieter than a normal human, she sounded just as loud, if not louder, against the silent backdrop of the night.

“He just left. He’s around here somewhere though,” Sarah whispered. She glanced at Kelly, hoping Adelaide’s outburst didn’t wake her. Kelly was still dead to the world. “I can-” she yawned, “- I can go get him if you’d like.”

The memories came rushing back to Adelaide. She remembered something along the lines of agreeing to sleep in here, but she wasn’t happy about it. “No, no, that’s okay. Sorry. I didn’t know where I was.” She rubbed her eyes and tucked her knife back into her belt. She didn’t like how close Sarah was and how she towered over her, even resting on her elbows, but Adelaide was semi-confident she wouldn’t need her knife.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sarah said as she laid back down.

Adelaide tried to do the same, but the ground was littered with wrappers and crumbs, and the soft light emanating from the lamp was too bright for her small eyes that were accustomed to the dark. She rolled around for what felt like forever and eventually gave up. There was no way her body was going to let her sleep around two giants.

“Sarah?” she tried.

“Mm?” Sarah responded. She sounded like she’d also been (unsuccessfully) trying to fall asleep.

“Thanks.” Adelaide couldn’t let Sarah’s efforts back after they escaped the trailer go unrecognized. At the very least, Adelaide owed her a thank you. And so that’s what she did.

“What for?”

“For saving me, I guess. Trying to keep me hidden.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you from that guy.”

Adelaide chuckled, then looked for a way to change the subject. “That wasn’t your fault. You did the best you could… Can I have some of this candy?” There was a half-eaten candy bar sitting not too far to Adelaide’s right, and it didn’t look like anyone was going to finish it anytime soon. Seeing it in front of her made her realize how starving she was, especially since she wasted the peanut she packed by throwing it at a spider. It did feel weird to ask for food, though. Normally she just took it.

“Oh, sure,” Sarah said. “You don’t have to ask. It’s not like you eat much anyway…right?” Adelaide was tiny, so Sarah assumed she couldn’t eat a ton of food, but she wanted confirmation. On all accounts, Adelaide appeared human. But was she? If not, then Sarah couldn't assume anything.

“Right…” Adelaide trailed off. She dug into the candy bar, breaking off small chunks with only a bit of extra effort. It was some kind of chocolate, probably. Whatever it was, it was good. It stained her fingers and left behind a sticky residue, but that was at the very bottom of Adelaide's list of things to be worried about.

After a long stretch of silence, Sarah rolled over onto her stomach and rested her head in her arms. “Can I ask you something?”

Adelaide jumped, and when she looked up, Sarah was a lot closer than she’d been before. She took a couple steps back on instinct, eyeing the opening of the tent which felt like a million miles away and was blocked by the two giants. She swallowed. “Uh, yeah, but I don’t know anything about why I exist when I shouldn’t, or how my brain works, or how my body functions at such a small size, or anything like that.” Adelaide recalled the questions Alan had for her way back when and how she wasn’t able to answer any of them. She didn’t know how she existed. She just did it.

Sarah started to ask something, but another thought popped in Adelaide’s head that she had to voice. “Oh, and I don’t really want to talk about Jurassic Park. The first one, I mean. It’s still kind of overwhelming…If you don’t mind.” Her voice got quieter as she went on, and by the end, it was barely a whisper.

“Why did you feel like you couldn’t introduce yourself? I assume you kind of know me if you live in the walls. Am I really that bad?” Sarah asked.

Adelaide realized what Sarah was implying and grew nervous. She fidgeted with her hands while she stood awkwardly in place. “I don’t eavesdrop,” she quickly clarified, “if that’s what you mean. At least, I try not to. Beans are kinda loud.”

Sarah saw how twitchy Adelaide got. She must have missed Sarah's attempt at a joke. “No, I’m not mad! Just curious.”

Sarah’s soft smile helped Adelaide relax a little. Beans got touchy when it came to privacy, so she felt like she had to tread carefully. But Sarah was Sarah. She was the same Sarah whether Adelaide was watching her from a distance or talking directly to her. And the Sarah she knew was friendly and cool.

“I don’t think you were around when I was telling Nick earlier, but um…I was kidnapped. Like a long time ago. And then Ian caught me and that was a whole thing, but anyway, I was raised to mistrust Humans. And the kidnapping kind of confirmed those beliefs, so I just need to be wary. I can’t really control what you do, and I never know for sure how people will react. Better safe than sorry, I guess.”

“You told Nick before you told me?!” Sarah teased her.

Adelaide was quick to defend herself. “Hey! He was my only option! I was looking for you but you were nowhere to be found.”

“Aw, I’m flattered.”

Then the ground shook. It was a feeling Adelaide was growing quite familiar with, and it wasn’t a welcome one. Her tone shifted to dead serious. “Is that…”

Sarah glanced up at her jacket covered in the baby T-Rex’s blood. That was what they were smelling, which meant two Tyrannosaurs would soon be approaching.

“Adelaide, we’re gonna stay completely still, okay? Come here.” Sarah’s voice shook as she shoved all the remaining food and wrappers into a plastic bag and tucked it under their blankets. She turned the light off and pulled a blanket over her head just as the shadow of a massive dinosaur appeared alongside their tent.

Adelaide ducked as Sarah's hand snatched up all the Adelaide-sized things around her. It was so easy to forget that Beans could move that fast. Something that big physically shouldn't be able to do that. But when Beans were in a rush - oh boy, did they know how to move, and all a borrower could do was try to get out of the way. Registering Sarah's words, Adelaide came a couple paces closer but couldn’t bring herself to close the distance. Whether it was fear of Sarah or fear of the T-Rex, she wasn’t sure, but she was rooted in place.

She could hear it before she saw it. The huffing of a giant animal. One that was smelling its surroundings, one that was hunting. Then it was visible.

The first thing Adelaide saw was one of its horrible yellow eyes. Then its snout peaked in between the tent flaps, its large, pointed teeth protruding over its curled lips. It sniffed at the jacket. Then it sniffed at Sarah.

The breeze coming from the animal was so strong that it knocked Adelaide to the ground. She had to hold her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming and her body quaked with fear, but beyond that, she didn’t dare move. She looked at Sarah for guidance, but Sarah was just as scared.

Kelly stirred, and Adelaide prayed she wouldn’t fully wake up, but luck was never quite on their side. Kelly obviously felt the dinosaur’s massive presence, and turned to look at what it could possibly be. When she saw what it was, she screamed, but Sarah was quick to cover her mouth. Tears streamed down the girl's face.  She instinctively held still and kept her crying quiet, and Adelaide had to commend her for that, though she felt truly awful about it. No child should have to be this brave. 

A scream from outside startled them all, including the T-Rex. Startled by the sound, it stood up to its full height, ripping the tent out of the Earth.

Adelaide finally let out the scream she’d been holding in. It would get lost in the chaos anyway. She looked around to see the whole group freaking out - screaming, running in all different directions, trying to get away. All of the rumbling and stomping prevented her from getting to her feet, try as she might. She searched for Ian in the fray, but down on the ground, it was impossible to see very far.

Nick was suddenly at their side, his enormous boots shaking the ground. Adelaide threw her hands over her head protectively, convinced he couldn’t see her in the dark. Whether it was intentional or whether it was luck, Nick didn’t step on her. He helped Kelly to her feet and then Sarah, urging them to move . Apparently he did see Adelaide, since he scooped her up and shoved her into Sarah's hands.

One second, Adelaide was on the ground. The next, she was enclosed in darkness as massive hands obscured her from the world. The next, she was four feet in the air. She struggled to get a sense of her surroundings, and by the time she did, Sarah was running. She gave Adelaide a rushed apology, and though it was scary and uncomfortable, Adelaide knew it was for the best. She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down but was only half-successful.  Muffled sounds of terror reached her ears and it was hard to tell up from down. Her head pounded with each step Sarah took. And yet one prevailing thought occupied her mind: Ian .

Sarah’s hands suddenly opened up and what little light existed around them made its way to Adelaide’s eyes. The landscape passed them by in a blur, though she recognized there were people running alongside them in every direction.

Her time out in the open didn’t last long, though. She was abruptly lifted higher into the air, and then she fell into darkness. It was only about an inch, but the shock disoriented her nonetheless. Fabric clung to her slick skin and she scrambled for purchase.

She recognized this. This was a pocket. Sarah put her in a pocket.

Okay, Adelaide thought. You get ten seconds, and then you get up. 

After seven seconds, Adelaide got impatient and pushed in the direction she thought might be ‘up’. Her face found fresh air as she hoisted herself over the edge of the pocket.

There wasn’t much Adelaide could do at this point except watch where they were going and hope they didn’t get eaten by a dinosaur. She desperately tried calling out for Ian, but she doubted even Sarah could hear her over the commotion.

Any mildly tall person in dark clothing could’ve been him, and Adelaide had no way of knowing. She called out until her voice was hoarse, until nothing could come out anymore.  The Beans approached a waterfall, and Adelaide squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the worst.

Though they didn’t end up underwater like she expected, she was suddenly drenched head to toe. When she opened her eyes, they were behind the waterfall in some sort of small cave. Her, Sarah, Nick, Kelly, and some other guy she recognized from earlier.

Adelaide didn’t have time to ponder it though, because the T-Rex was on their tail. It forced its head into their cave as much as it could. There was nowhere for them to run.

But then the dinosaur's head got stuck. It was very, very close, but just far enough away that it couldn’t eat them. Still, it's hot breath filled the small space and its long tongue searched for anything it could grab.

Adelaide thought she was scared of being anywhere near a Human Bean’s mouth. That was nothing compared to this. She ducked back down in the pocket, hoping it would provide some form of protection, and she felt a very strong pressure just off to her right. She could hear the slimy tongue tasting Sarah’s clothes, which made her gag.

Then, the pressure disappeared. Adelaide gave it a second before she stood up, but when she did, the dinosaur was still there. She wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of this one. At this point, it was a waiting game.

A streak of color caught Adelaide’s eye, and she turned toward it. It was a snake. Beautiful and graceful, much like the spider, but incredibly deadly. It slithered down the cave wall, headed straight for the unknown man.

“Look out!” Adelaide cried, and the man turned in her direction.

He stared at her with wide eyes, realizing for the first time that a three inch tall person was hanging out in a woman’s pocket. Then her words registered, and he looked to where she was pointing.

At this point though, the snake had wormed its way into the man’s clothes. He freaked out, batting at it and trying to get it out. In his panic, he backed away from the wall of the cave, despite everyone yelling at him not to.

Adelaide saw it before it happened, and it wasn’t pretty. The man backed right into the jaws of the T-Rex. It grabbed him by the arm, dragged him outside above their eyesight, there was a loud, agonizing scream, and then the waterfall that served as their door ran red with blood.

It all happened so fast. Sarah and Kelly were crying. Nick looked like he wanted to throw up. Adelaide could only think about Eddie. And Muldoon. And Gennaro. And John Fucking Hammond.

So many lives were lost because of this idiotic man’s idiotic dream. And where was he? Back in his luxurious mansion, probably sipping on tea, while they were here fearing for their lives. A classic example of the arrogance of Human Beans. They thought they could control everything, own everything, but they were wrong. And now they were paying the price for it, dragging a whole hoard of innocent people down with them.

A single tear slipped down Adelaide’s cheek. She wanted Ian. She wanted to go home.

“Where is he?” she croaked, defeated. It wasn’t directed toward anybody in particular - maybe the whole cave? She didn’t know. But Ian hadn’t returned yet and Adelaide was starting to fear the worst.

Sarah glanced down. “He’s coming,” she assured Adelaide. Nobody had any way of knowing if that was true, but hopefully speaking the words aloud sparked at least a little confidence. It didn’t.

Sarah delicately gathered Adelaide out of the pocket and ran her finger down her wet hair, brushing it away from her forehead. Adelaide twitched away in surprise, but was way too deep in shock to care. She let Sarah continue the repetitive motion. In a way, it calmed both of them down.

“I’m so stupid,” Adelaide said, voice still hoarse. “I shouldn’t have left him. I shouldn’t have left him. I should’ve stayed, should’ve insisted…I can’t…I can’t do this again, Sarah.” She started to hyperventilate, and more tears began to slip down her cheeks.

Every time Ian and Adelaide got separated, something bad happened. She made Ian promise that this exact thing wouldn’t happen. But Adelaide was stupid and gave in to sleep. She’d been awake longer before, she’d handled worse. She should’ve forced herself to stay awake. She should’ve insisted on staying with Ian. Because now she might never see him again.

Adelaide wanted to jump out of the pocket and let the Earth take her. She was so tired, so over it all.

A shadow appeared outside the waterfall again, and everyone in the cave pressed themselves as far back as they could. Sarah held Adelaide against her chest, blocking out her vision, so Adelaide pushed and pushed and pushed at Sarah’s hand. If she was going to die, she at least wanted to see it coming.

“It’s coming back!” Nick yelled.

But what emerged from outside surprised them all. Ian, soaked to the bone and panting, but definitely alive.

“Dad!” Kelly cried, jumping into his arms.

Adelaide let her tense body collapse, relief flooding every ounce of her being. She laughed and she cried so hard she could barely breathe. But that was fine because Ian was alive and she was alive and Kelly and Sarah and Nick were alive.

After Kelly peeled herself off Ian, he looked around. “Where’s Adelaide?” His voice was intense and worried.

“I’m here!” Adelaide called from Sarah’s cupped hands. He probably didn’t hear her, so she pushed at the hand again and Sarah obliged. “I’m right here!” She continued to let the tears fall and just hoped everyone mistook it as mist from the waterfall. She knew she wasn’t fooling anyone, but she didn’t care.

Ian stepped closer to Sarah and impatiently reached out to retrieve Adelaide himself.

“Hey!” Sarah yelled, also laughing through the tears.

Everything was dark for a moment before Ian opened his hand in front of his face. He gave Adelaide a once over, and after he determined she was okay, he turned toward Sarah and Nick.  “Thank you,” he said to both of them, completely earnest. They nodded back. “Let’s get out of here.”

“The dinosaur is gone?” Kelly asked nervously.

“The dinosaur is gone,” Ian said, though he sounded unsure. “Della, it’s gonna get bumpy. Pocket okay?”

Adelaide nodded. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” She didn’t really care, as long as she was with Ian.

She was prepared to get drenched again, even though she never really dried off, but as they passed under the waterfall, Ian held his hand above the pocket. Adelaide still got wet, but significantly less so, and she realized how much she took Ian for granted. He thought about the little things like that.

The small group quickly headed in the direction they remembered the operations building to be. There was a notable absence of people, though nobody wanted to think about what may have happened to them. Eventually, they came upon a field of tall grass.

Adelaide had mixed feelings about tall grass. It provided a great sense of cover, keeping exposure to a minimum. But if it provided cover for her and her friends, it provided cover for other things too, much more dangerous things. However she felt though, she wasn’t in charge. She was just along for the ride, as per usual.

The Beans decided the grass was the way to go. It was the fastest route, after all, and they wanted out of this place now .

Adelaide heard it first. She always heard it first, what with her sensitive ears, but it didn’t take long at all for the Beans to pick up on it. The sound of multiple dinosaurs, and this time, it wasn’t Tyrannosaurs. This time, it was something much deadlier, something that scared Adelaide to her core. This time, it was the sound of Velociraptors. And they were close.

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Next

[pocket-lad]

CH 9- Nick Van Owen

Prev

“Oh,” Ian said. “That’s fine.” He thought about how deep and how fast the stream must look from Adelaide’s perspective, especially if she couldn’t swim.

“So, we can just go… I guess,” Adelaide said.

Ian didn’t move from his seat. “Have you ever tried?”

Adelaide looked up at him, confused and a little annoyed. “In what circumstance do you think I’d have the chance to swim? I haven’t found the lake in your walls yet.”

“Ha, point…point taken,” Ian admitted. Sitting next to her like this, Adelaide couldn’t even pretend they were on the same wavelength. They sat the exact same way, side-by-side, but he rose up taller than any building. She forced herself not to back away.

“You want to learn?” Ian asked.

“Not really.”

Ian laughed. “I can just hold you, then.”

Adelaide looked up, searching for his eyes, but they were simply too high. Ian didn’t realize how absurd that suggestion actually was, but it was either that or stay filthy.

“Okay,” she said quietly. Adelaide slowly peeled her jacket off her body, removed her bag from her shoulders, and took her knife off her belt, setting them all in a small pile away from the edge of the stream and stalling for as long as possible.

Ian lowered his hand for her to hop on. She did without hesitation, but that wasn’t the hard part. The hard part happened when his hand lowered toward the surface of the stream.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait,” Adelaide yelled. She could hear the rushing water and felt cold flecks of it spring up onto her skin.

Ian paused, awaiting further instructions. When none came, he said matter-of-factly, “I won’t let you drown.”

“Yeah, but what if a fish tries to eat me?” Adelaide laughed, but behind the joke there was truth. She took a few deep breaths. “...I trust you….On the count of three?”

This was stupid. This was so stupid. She could live with mud. But before she could second guess herself, Ian was counting.

“One…two-” The cold water splashed against her body, forcing her backward against Ian’s hand. The shock was the worst of it, going from mildly warm air to freezing water. The movement of the water was off-putting as well. She knew if Ian wasn’t there, she’d get swept away in the current, never to be seen again.

Adelaide sputtered and splashed, trying to gain her bearings. When she finally stood up, she realized the water was really only up to her waist. She could do this.

She scrubbed at her face and arms as fast and as best she could, washing away the ground in dirt until she couldn’t see it or feel it anymore. She also tried her best to ignore Ian hovering over her. Knowing they were on a time crunch, she called it when she felt mildly clean.

Ian lifted her out of the water and set her shivering form on the ground next to her stuff.

“I distinctly recall saying on the count of THREE!”

 “It wasn’t so bad!”

“It was actually weird and horrible and freezing, thanks. But also… thanks.”

“Of course. Probably one of - one of the weirder things I’ve…done,” he said.

“Alright, don’t look!” Adelaide said as she opened her bag to pull out her spare clothes.

“Okay,” Ian laughed, turning away.

Adelaide did feel a little nervous with Ian’s back turned, but knew she was being completely irrational, so she hurried up and changed into her new clothes. She was still pretty wet and her hair dripped down her back, but the dry clothes helped immensely. She couldn’t say she felt completely clean, but she felt a lot better. “Okay,” she said, calling Ian’s attention.

“Excellent,” he said. Before he hopped to his feet, he cupped some water in his palms and splashed his face. Water sprayed everywhere.

“Watch it!” Adelaide yelled.

“Ah…whoops,” Ian said, but he was obviously amused. He wiped his hands off on his clothes and held one out. When she stepped on, he cupped his hands around her and blew hot breath onto her body, hoping that would suffice as an apology.

Adelaide recoiled. "Ew, stop! Gross!" she exclaimed. Ian's breath smelled like a dying animal and the invasion of her personal space was too much. No matter how much she trusted him, she couldn't stand to be anywhere near a giant's open mouth. Even if the warm air felt kind of nice.

"Suit yourself," Ian shrugged. As he stood up, he set her on his shoulder and they heard Roland call off the break. Just in time. “We are gonna teach you to swim when we get back home, though.”

“We’ll see,” Adelaide muttered. She never had any reason to learn and shouldn’t ever have any reason to learn, but here they were.

They rejoined the group, and instantly Kelly asked to be carried. She looked exhausted, and Adelaide couldn’t blame the poor girl. Not only was Kelly facing threats no adult should face and was probably scared out of her mind, but the humidity and uneven terrain made for a very difficult walk. How was a child supposed to prepare for or deal with any of this?

“I can’t, sweetheart, I’ve got Adelaide,” Ian said.

Oh.

Adelaide felt very guilty all of the sudden. She knew Ian was struggling with their relationship and she didn’t want to be another wedge splitting them further apart. Also, she didn’t want Kelly to resent her (for multiple reasons). Also also, she certainly didn’t want to be a burden to Ian.

Without thinking much about it, Adelaide offered to ride with someone else. “No, it’s fine. I’ll, um, I’ll go with…um…” She was hoping Sarah was nearby. If she could trust anyone else here, it would be her. But with Sarah nowhere to be seen, she went with the only other option in the vicinity. “...Nick!”

Upon hearing his name, Nick turned in their direction, oblivious to the conversation.

“Della, she’ll survive. She has two completely functional feet. She can walk,” Ian said, but the sentence was pointed at Kelly.

“Seriously, I’ll be fine,” Adelaide said in a voice that did not sound fine. In fact, it sounded scared. “Nick, is it okay if I stay with you for a little bit?”

Nick looked dumbfounded. “Um…sure.” He hesitated then reached for Adelaide on Ian’s shoulder.

Adelaide yelped and Ian stepped backward with his hands up. Nick stood there, confused as to what exactly was happening.

“Okay,” Adelaide breathed, shaking. “So, uh, first of all. No grabbing. That’s - that’s not, uh…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, too frazzled. In the blink of an eye, Nick's hand could've yanked her off her perch and carried her off to God knew where. It was a stark reminder to always keep her guard up around Beans. Even 'friendly' ones. It also didn't help that she was still shivering from her time in the stream, unable to retain enough body heat while she was still wet.

“Here,” Ian said, and he held his hand out for Adelaide.

Adelaide began to regret this decision, especially after Nick reached for her. She obviously couldn’t back down, but she proceeded with much more caution, intently watching each of his fingers for any sign of movement. Not that she'd have much time to react. Clearly.

“I don’t bite,” Nick joked.

Adelaide knew he was joking since Eddie made that exact same joke earlier, but he didn’t know how real of a concern it was for her. She forced a nervous laugh. Why did Beans find that so funny?

Slowly, she shuffled onto Nick’s hand. Adelaide reminded herself she’d already been there before, back in the collapsing trailer, so she should be completely fine. Granted, he was holding her captive in a massive fist at the time, but he definitely didn’t hurt her.

“Do not go far,” Ian warned Nick with a pointed finger, then turned to pick up Kelly.

“I’ll. Be. Fine , Ian. I can already see you stressing out,” Adelaide assured him. She paused, then added, “Go talk to her.”

Ian gave her an imperceptible nod, grateful for the chance to talk (semi) privately with his daughter. But before he walked a couple paces ahead, he also made sure to give Adelaide a look that said, behave.

Adelaide rolled her eyes from down in Nick’s hand as she watched him walk away. The sudden realization that she was completely alone with Nick hit her like a truck, and nerves began to worm their way through her spine again. Realistically, Ian was well within earshot, but a million things could go wrong at any moment, and her mind conjured up all of them at once.

Adelaide looked straight up at the underside of Nick’s chin. She gulped, but was able to choke out a repeat of Ian’s request. “Please don’t go far.”

Nick knowingly smirked. “You got it.”

Trying to counteract her pathetic admission of nerves, Adelaide pushed off of Nick’s hand and immediately got to climbing up his olive green T-shirt.

Nick froze in his tracks, eyes wide and tracking her progress, arms hovering uselessly in mid-air.

Once Adelaide reached his shoulder, she gave a little smirk of her own. Giants freaked out when she did that, and though she wasn’t sure why, it made her feel powerful and mischievous. Good. Let them freeze.

Nick shook his head to clear the feeling of tiny people crawling up his body (causing Adelaide to give a quick, annoyed shout.) He expected Adelaide to say something, considering she asked to ride with him. When she didn’t, he was content to walk in amicable silence.

It was true that Adelaide had nothing to say; she didn’t even know where to start, so she just kept her mouth shut. Another reason was that she was focused on working out Nick’s walking pattern. It was still casual, but not as casual as Ian’s. They were similar heights, too, but the gate was just off enough to require concentration.

Eventually, Adelaide got the hang of it (mostly), and that also happened to be the moment Nick reached his maximum threshold of boredom.

“So…how’d you end up here?” he offhandedly asked.

Adelaide jumped, used to the pleasant silence. His voice was much louder than Ian’s. “Like here here, or…?” she clarified.

“Well, looks like we’ve got a lot of time, so,” He gestured vaguely to the space around him, giving Adelaide the floor. She assumed this meant he wanted the full story, which put her fight or flight instincts on high alert. Her first instinct was to tell him off, to let him know it was none of his business, but she had to remind herself that he was just curious. He was just trying to fill the time. So, Adelaide took a deep breath and tried to tell the most bare bones story possible.

“Uhh…I mean, I guess I lived in another state when I was little. Then I got kidnapped and shipped to Texas. I found Ian’s house, I lived there on my own for eight years, then Ian kidnapped me, but then we became friends, I guess, then he dragged me to Jurassic Park the First, and then he tried to get me to stay home from Jurassic Park the Second, but I said if he goes, I go, so. That’s how I got here. You?”

“Woah, woah,” Nick said, gesturing for her to slow down. “You can’t just drop something like that, like it’s nothing, then ask about my boring-ass life.”

“I’d hardly call it boring,” Adelaide interjected, thinking about all the cool shit she’d seen from him so far, and something told her that was just the surface. Whether Nick heard her or not, he kept talking.

“You were kidnapped?” The tone of the question was much more casual than Adelaide expected, as if he were asking how her day was.

Still, Adelaide’s defenses rose. She didn’t know his intentions with this information. “Twice. Why?” Her demeanor grew spikier by the second.

“Just making conversation, s’all,” he shrugged, sending Adelaide into his neck. She pushed off it, body rigid and alert. Then his words sank in. She relaxed a little. She was being ridiculous.

“No, right, sorry, um… just a little protective of information regarding my… kind, y’know?” she admitted.

“Understandable. I wouldn’t tell us either. Especially if-” he indicated the kidnapping.

“Yeah, um, the guy knew about us or specialized in us or whatever. He took us to sell as pets.” Adelaide made sure to emphasize the pause after that part, hopefully making Nick realize why his ‘pet’ comment offended her so much. She couldn’t bear to mention the part about her parents, so she didn’t. “I escaped somewhere en route and went to the nearest human house I could find. Blah, blah, blah, eight years. One day I get stupid or lazy or whatever and drop my guard, so Ian finds me and holds me hostage till I tell him information about myself.”

“And you still trust that guy?” Nick blurted.

Adelaide gazed up ahead at Ian, who was laughing with Kelly, while she thought about her answer. “Yeah, I mean, he let me go. And also he’s done a lot of things to build up that trust over time. Wouldn’t you do the same, if Ian weren’t here with me? If you found me on your own? Beans don’t react logically to people like me.”

“Hmm,” Nick hummed. “You know, if you allied yourself with the right people, we could take down guys like him and whatever organizations they’re working for.”

“And reveal our existence to the whole world? No thanks.” Ever since meeting Ian, Adelaide considered options like that, but at the end of the day, the risks far outweighed the benefits. And if, by some miracle, borrowers were able to rally public support, that still didn’t stop the government from doing what they wanted to do. 

The silence dragged out for a while until Adelaide remembered to be polite. “And what about you? How’d you get here?” she asked.

“Money,” Nick said, but then elaborated. He talked about his background in photography and documentary filmmaking, how he traveled to the craziest places for odd jobs. It really did all come down to money in the end, but there were added benefits - women, awards, saving the Earth. He explained his affiliation with Greenpeace, which was some kind of organization working toward a ‘greener Earth’.

Adelaide listened in awe. She knew her scope of the world was much smaller than humans, but it never ceased to amaze her just how vast it really was. This was a completely different reality than she, and even Ian, experienced.

Their conversation was interrupted by Roland calling for another break. That seemed odd, considering they took one not too long ago, but nobody was complaining.

Nick plopped down on a log and Adelaide clung on for dear life. She started to ask a question, but Nick shushed her. She was going to protest until she realized they were eavesdropping.

“Come with me,” Roland said to some guy. “And you. If he’s alive, we’ll find him. The rest of you keep right on. Ten minutes, you’ll reach the ridge. Wait for us there.”

“Ten minutes, you’ll reach the ridge. Wait for us there,” Adelaide repeated in a bad imitation of Roland’s accent. She and Nick laughed, unable to help themselves. “Why is this guy in charge?”

“He is in charge because he’s an expert in his field - tracking, navigating, and hunting large predators,” Roland said, turning to face them. The smiles dropped from their faces as he approached, gun resting on his shoulder. “If you would like to lead the rest of this expedition, Miss Adelaide, then be my guest.” He stared down at her, waiting for an answer.  Adelaide shot to her feet, eyeing the gun. It was maybe three feet long and looked heavy, and despite the fact that the most dangerous thing in her immediate vicinity was a Bean, the gun scared her infinitely more. They were deafeningly loud, and Adelaide knew that if she were to get shot with one, there wouldn’t be a trace of her left.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size,” Nick said, trying to keep antagonization to a minimum but having trouble.

“I have. Many times. And then it got boring.”

Nick changed the subject. “Who’re you looking for, anyway?”

“Dieter Stark. Disappeared maybe fifteen minutes ago.”

“Good,” Adelaide blurted, drawing all eyes to her. (Or at least, Nick tried to look at her, but she was too close to his neck for him to see properly.) She shifted uncomfortably but held her ground.

“I know you may have had your differences, but no man deserves to die here-”

“Yeah, like Eddie,” Adelaide goaded. She didn’t know why she kept bringing the man up. It wasn’t like she was close to him, but the fact that he saved their lives without a second thought deserved respect. But in the end, it wasn’t about him. It was about making a point, making the InGen team feel bad. Adelaide felt a little guilty using his name for her prideful cause. 

“-He is one of my men. He will not be left behind,” Roland finished without blinking.

“Easy for you to say. He didn’t dangle you by your leg.” Adelaide could feel herself digging a deeper and deeper hole. Her brain begged her to stop, but her mouth didn’t seem to care.

Roland crouched down quickly, putting himself closer to eye level. Adelaide jumped, then shifted closer to Nick’s neck, which at least provided the appearance of protection. Roland noticed this but chose not to say anything.

“Get out of my space,” Nick said, and Adelaide could feel him tense up.

Roland ignored him. “You’d be happy to know, Miss Adelaide, that Deiter’s most likely dead. I will give him the courtesy of searching, but I highly suspect he’s gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle.”

With that, Roland stood up and took off. Adelaide let out a deep, long, sigh and wiped the sweat from her forehead. That man was intense.

“You like picking fights or something?” Nick asked.

“Do you?” Adelaide shot back.

“As a matter of fact, I do. You just gotta be able to finish what you start.” Nick stood up, leaving Adelaide with those thoughts. He called out to everyone to keep going, and the group obliged.

What made Adelaide the angriest was that Nick was right. She couldn’t act nervous and scared if she was going to antagonize Beans, and she couldn’t antagonize Beans if she was going to act nervous and scared. It was just so hard to keep her mouth shut sometimes. And on the other hand, Beans had no right to use their height advantage to purposely intimidate her just because she felt like there was something worth standing up for. At least, that’s how she justified it.

Movement caught Adelaide’s eye, and she saw Ian struggle to stand up. His leg must really be killing him, but she knew he would never admit it. She should probably go free him from carrying Kelly.

“Can you take me back to Ian?” she asked.

Nick also saw this and understood. “Yeah, sure thing.”

Ian was just about to lift Kelly up when he saw Nick approach. His heart pounded and his head immediately jumped to everything that could be wrong. When he saw Adelaide sitting calmly on Nick’s shoulders though, he relaxed.

“She’s sick of me already,” Nick said with a smile on his face, and before he could grab Adelaide, Ian’s hands were already there. Nick flinched, mildly uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space, but Adelaide quickly hopped on Ian’s hands as he pulled them out of the picture.

He put her on his shoulder and nodded a ‘thank you’ at Nick, who returned the nod.

“You know I have to ask. Is everything-” Ian began.

“Yes, everything is okay. He didn’t hurt me, he didn’t call me any names. We had a lovely conversation,” Adelaide rattled off.

“Good.”

They walked silently for a moment as the sun slowly set.

“How’s your leg?” Adelaide asked. She figured she’d given it enough time so that her request to go back to Ian and her worry over his leg wouldn’t be connected. She was wrong. Ian saw right through her.

“Is that why you came back? Because you saw me, um…?”

“No!” Adelaide said a little too quickly. “No, um, Nick is um… I actually hate him now. He hurt me and called me names and we had a terrible conversation.”

“Mhm,” Ian said.

Adelaide changed the subject, but it still wasn’t a comfortable one. “How did it go? With Kelly, I mean?”

At this point, Kelly had already run off to talk to Sarah, so they didn’t have to worry about her hearing the conversation.

“It, uh…it went good. We had a talk, and it was - it was good.”

“Riveting,” Adelaide said sarcastically. Ian just laughed.

They walked on, and Adelaide told Ian about Nick and his adventures and how cool she thought he was. Ian listened patiently, but he knew people like Nick. He kept his opinions to himself, whether good or bad, not wanting to taint Adelaide’s opinions on the world.

It didn’t skip their attention that Roland and his men returned sans Dieter Stark, and after a little more walking, they decided to call it for the night and make camp.

Right. Camp. Sleeping. Sleeping in front of Beans. Falling into a state of unconsciousness with hostile Beans everywhere. It was in that moment that Adelaide decided she wasn’t going to sleep that night.

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Next

[pocket-lad]