London traffic was crawling that afternoon as Lily Goodwin scurried through the cars quickly as she crossed the street. She reached the sidewalk and slowed her pace as she caught her breath. She adjusted the shoulder strap to her messenger bag as she continued on her way to the Natural History Museum for her shift.

The door opened up as she reached it revealing Mr. Rogers, the senior security guard.

"Thanks Rogers." she smiled as she came in.

"Not a problem, Miss Goodwin. How are you doing this afternoon?" the elderly man asked her.

"I'm doing alright." she told him before looking around at the museum. She saw several people walking around, pointing out a few of the exhibits.

"Not a big turn out today, huh?" she asked him.

"Hey, it'll pick up." he told her with a kind smile. "Wait until the children get out of class, and it'll fill up."

Lily chuckled softly. "I don't know Rogers, most kids don't come running to the museum after school anymore."

"Well, I distinctly remember a little girl coming by here everyday after school let out."

Her cheeks tinted pink. He ruffled her hair with a hearty laugh. "And she grew up to be a genius."

Lily set her bag down in the employee room and grabbed her badge throwing it around her neck. She pulled her gray cardigan out of her bag to cover up her horrendous tan lines from earlier that spring working at a dig site on the Isle of Wight. She entered the bathroom to fix her hair that Mr. Rogers had turned upside. She placed her hair tie in her mouth as she pulled her chocolate waves into a ponytail. She straightened her clothing before heading out.

The Dino Directory currently had a few people wandering around looking at the bone exhibits. Lily grinned as a little boy excitedly pointed at the skeleton of a Baryonyx.

"Mum, do you see it's claws?!" he jumped up and down.

Lily approached them. "This is called the Baryonyx," she began," it's name means 'heavy claw'."

"They're so sharp, I bet they hunted all sorts of dinosaurs!"

"Actually, while they are carnivores, they were actually excellent at fishing. They would take their claws and swoop down," she whooped her arm curling her fingers, " scooping up fish, just like that."

The little boy's eyes widened. "Wicked."

"Care for a tour?" she asked kneeling down to his eye level. "There's lots more to see."

Lily arrived home to her parent's house that evening to find her father snoring on the sofa again. She frowned before grabbing the throw blanket off the back of the sofa and threw it over him before heading into the kitchen. She took a bowl of leftover chicken salad and headed to her room.

She passed her parent's room to see her mother asleep on her side of the bed. She sighed before closing the door over. She didn't even want to know what they had fought about. She turned on the light to her bedroom and plopped onto her bed. She kicked off her flats and rested her head back.

It never crossed Lily's mind that when she received her Ph.D in paleontology that she would wind back up living with her parents. She figured she would see the world traveling to different dig sites to uncover dinosaur fossils and discovered buried history. But with grants being cut for dig sites, it was almost impossible to find one and if she did, it never ran long. Money was tight and her parents offered her to come back home. She dreaded the idea, but she had no choice.

Everyday it seemed her parents were fighting about something just as they did when she was a child. She would normally find her father sleeping on the couch and her mother passed out with an empty wine bottle nearby. Why they stayed together, she couldn't figure out.

Lily spooned a big glob of chicken salad into her mouth looking around in silence.

The smell of burnt bacon filled her nose the next morning waking Lily up. She coughed as she sat up in bed before covering her nose and mouth with her shirt and stumbling out of bed. She walked out to the kitchen to see her father, Harold, mumbling to himself as he brought the burning food outside. She shook her head with a slight grin before sitting down at the table.

Harold Goodwin came back in. "Did I wake you?" he asked seeing his daughter.

"No, I was due to get up anyways." Lily told him.

"I was attempting to make some bacon and eggs for us this morning, can you settle for just some eggs, then?"

"Of course."

Her father made two plates before sitting down beside her.

"Where's Mum?" she asked.

"I dunno, woke up this morning and she was gone." he shrugged. "Probably sharpening her pitchfork."

Lily giggled. "Sounds about right."

The two ate joking around when the front door opened and Lily's mother Marianne came in with a few shopping bags.

"Morning." she said to Lily completely ignoring Harold.

"Morning Mum."

"Do you have the day off?" Marianne asked her.

"No, I go in a little later. Hours are being cut back a bit."

"You ought to get a real job." Marianne told her.

"Mari.." Harold said in a warning tone.

"It is a real job Mum." Lily said defensively.

" You playing around with a bunch bones is not a real job...and then this museum job..."

Lily arose quickly dropping her paper plate in the trash and heading to her room to get ready for the day.

Too many times her mother had thrown her lack of career in her face as if her current situation had always been so. After receiving her doctorate, she had success with her published papers and giving lectures to several universities but times were tough. Marianne had pressured her into looking for other work but Lily refused, she couldn't imagine working with anything but dinosaurs. She had dedicated her education to it and her life.

"What are you reading there?" Mr. Rogers asked walking into the break room to find Lily with a book in front of her.

She lifted the book up so he could see the cover.

"God Creates Dinosaurs." he read. "Any good?"

She shrugged. "His experiences sound incredible but the man is completely full of himself."

Mr. Rogers sat across from her.

"It's amazing, he experienced the first Jurassic Park, the one that failed and was there for the San Diego incident."

"The one where the dinosaur got loose?"

She nodded."Can you imagine, seeing them up close, close enough to touch one?"

Mr. Rogers gave a sincere smile. "You'll get your chance kiddo, I know you will." he said.

She stood up. "I hope so." she exhaled. "I have to head back, I have a group of students coming in for a tour."

"You're specialty. Go knock those kids dead."