Minutes later,

Lily was licking yogurt off her spoon when someone burst through the trailer doors.

She had heard the wind kick up outside and presumed that a storm was blowing in, which was unfortunate with all the work they'd done that day.

She would have popped out to assist in covering the bones, but she was sure her dad would tell her to get back inside.

The youngest Grant froze and watched as the man dressed in white bumbled inside, looking around with a pleased little 'oh!' He was older and on the portly side and carrying a walking stick with a small amber orb fixed on the top.

White hair peeked out from under a pale straw hat, and a matching beard was neatly groomed.

When his eyes landed on her and peered at her through wire-rimmed glasses, a bright, friendly smile appeared on his face.

"Why, hello!" he said, an unfamiliar lilt gracing his voice.

"Um… hi?" Lily asked slowly, lowering her spoon to the countertop on which she sat. She didn't recognize this man, he'd never been on site before.

Her brows furrowed and she watched him warily, unsure of what to do or say. "Who… who are you?"

"Oh, of course, how silly of me," the man laughed, stepping forward and extending a hand. "John Hammond." Lily carefully slipped her hand into his grasp, her hand significantly smaller than his.

"Lily Grant…"

"Oh! You must be Dr. Grant's daughter!" His accent sounded vaguely… Scottish?

He also sounded very excitable, and Lily wasn't entirely sure what to make of this man.

All she did was nod her response and he exclaimed 'excellent!' before he made a beeline for the refrigerator. Lily gaped at him, her hand still hanging in mid-air. The man's name sounded vaguely familiar, though she couldn't quite tell; she was mostly confused.

"Sir?" Hammond muttered to himself as he rummaged around the refrigerator.

Lily hopped off the counter and cautiously approached the white-haired man. "Um, sir? You–you can't be going through our stuff. Sir!"

The door burst open and Lily's head whipped around to see her father, looking very peeved, step inside, slamming the door shut.

He was coated in a fine layer of dirt that made him look slightly grey in pallor, and made his hair look, literally, sandy blond.

Lily gestured to the man by the refrigerator with a look of desperation on her face.

"I tried to stop him!" Lily exclaimed in exasperation.

"It's okay, just… just come here," Alan said, sounding out of breath.

He took hold of Lily's wrist with a dusty palm and drew her to his side, eyes trained warily on the man who stood in front of them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in here?" Alan said.

Hammond stood straight and turned with a champagne bottle in hand.

The cork shot out of the bottle with a loud pop that caused the Grants to jump and duck out of the way as it hit the ceiling. "Hey, we were saving that!"

"For today!" Hammond said with a grin. "I guarantee it!" Alan and Lily fixed him with a look so similar that it made the Scotsman giggle.

Their eyes were wide and disbelieving and their eyebrows rose at a sharp angle he barely thought possible. "Oh, you truly are father and daughter, aren't you?"

With his fatherly instinct kicking into over-drive, Alan pushed Lily behind him, a heavy, upset look sitting in his eyes.

He then stalked forward a few steps, pointing at the older man menacingly.

"Who in god's name do you think you are?" he demanded in a low, rumbling voice.

"John Hammond," Hammond wrapped his hand around Alan's pointing finger, shaking it, "and I'm delighted to meet you finally in person, Dr. Grant." Alan's face when slack and the other man laughed as he drew his hand away and blew the dust out of his palm. "So, I can see my fifty-thousand a year has been well-spent!"

"Aha… yeah. This is, ahem, my daughter, Lily."

"Yes, we met just moments ago! Very lovely young lady, isn't she?" Hammond beamed and moved on to search through the small cupboards for cups.

"Okay, who's the jerk!?" demanded Ellie, storming inside. She whipped off her hat and allowed her blond locks to tumble around her angered face.

Alan lunged for the blond paleobotanist and placed a hand on her arm with a wide-eyed look and a stiff smile.

"This here is our paleobotanist, Dr.––"

"Sattler," she finished.

"––Sattler."

"Ellie, this is, uh, Mr. Hammond."

Of course, Lily thought as Ellie stumbled forward with her mouth agape, Hammond––the Hammond who's funding the dig.

While Hammond apologized for his 'dramatic entrance' and Ellie giggled nervously over her use of the word 'jerk,' Alan smiled down at Lily and ushered her towards the door.

"Why don't you step outside for a bit?"

"But that's…" Lily pointed at Hammond with surprise on her face. "He's…"

"John Hammond," Alan agreed, popping the door open to continue ushering her out. "Which means this is probably business."

"Right… yeah, right," Lily stuttered, practically tripping out of the trailer. Alan quickly snatched up her notebook and a couple pencils––unsure of which ones were actually sharpened––and handed them to his daughter with a tentative, unsure look.

"Why don't you… um… you can go…" he scratched at the back of his head, at a loss for words.

The dig was on hold till Hammond left, since his helicopter had nearly recovered a quarter of their work, and there wasn't much for a child to do in the middle of, well, the Badlands.

Lily blinked up at him, saw his struggle and offered a very small smile, one so faint Alan was convinced she might have been sad.

"It's alright, I'll find something to do." Lily tugged the door shut, and strode out from the trailer's awning, scratching the back of her neck.

She froze when she spotted the helicopter and a number of disgruntled, dirt covered paleontologist. "No way…" Well, that explained the sudden 'wind storm' that had kicked up a couple minutes ago.

Lily snatched her father's straw fedora off the picnic table and sat it on top of her own head, the brim of it sliding down till it sat flat just above her eyebrows.

Flicking her notebook open again, she sighed and pressed her curled fist into her cheek.

Most of the pages were filled with dig notes, properly labeled by date and what specimen number the notes were on.

The notes were detailed, and only three quarters of them were what her father said––the other quarter were own observations.

Scattered around the notes were drawings, some of them better than others, and little snippets of what she'd been thinking. It was like a patchwork journal.

Most of it was work, but some of it was play; such as the sketches she'd done detailing flat grass lands and a number of grazing herbivores.

After attempting a couple sketches and writing down the strange path the day had taken, Lily resigned to lying flat on her stomach on the bench, using pebbles to make curling, indistinct patterns. She had become great friends with boredom.

They greeted each other kindly whenever it rolled around and Lily had a great set of activities stored away in her head to keep herself occupied in such times.

While paleontology was great fun, especially when she was allowed to actually do something, down time was like to happen.

Just when she was about to give up and decided to take a nap, the trailer door opened and the three inside exited.

Ellie and Alan shook Hammond's hand with grateful, bright grins, a look he enthusiastically returned. Hammond turned to make for the helicopter, waving at Lily as he went.

"I shall see you soon, dear girl!" he called out to her giddily. Her lips quirked into a half smile that was filled with confusion while she gave a wave.

Ellie and Alan talked feverishly for a couple minutes and then shared a tight hug that ended when Ellie dashed for her tent.

Everything was plunged into a whirlwind of sand for a couple of moments as the helicopter made to take off, soaring into the afternoon sky.

"Lily, come on," Alan said, gesturing towards himself. She sat up, grabbed her notebook and pencils, and made a beeline for her father. The first thing he did was smirk and pluck the hat off her head before it drifted into her eyes.

As he settled it onto his own, the smirk turned into a frown when he saw the bright red pigment that colored the back of Lily's neck.

Holding her shoulders, he turned her back to face him, moving her braid of messy sandy blond hair out of the way. "Oh, honey, did you not put a hat on?"

"Yeah."

"You burned pretty bad… the back of your neck looks like a lobster," he grumbled before he slipped an arm over her shoulders. He started to lead her towards their tent. "Remember what I always say?"

"Paleontologists never work in the shade," they said at the same time.

Lily sighed and let her head loll back against Alan's forearm, wincing as her neck protested the movement with a sharp sting.

"I know…"

"They also wear sunscreen."

"Dad."

"What?" he chuckled, smiling down at her. "I'm supposed to pester you, I'm your father."

Lily smiled and leaned into his side, causing him to diverge from a straight path, which made them both laugh.

Once they approached their tent, Alan unzipped the flap and gestured her inside.

"Pack up your stuff––some of it, at least. A couple changes of clothes, maybe your bathing suit. A raincoat, definitely. Your camera… notebook. But pack lightly, try to keep it to a single duffel."

"What? Why?" she asked, one foot inside the tent.

"We're leaving for the weekend," Alan announced with a smile. She gaped at him. That was the only description of the look she was giving him; her mouth was dropped open, her eyes were wide, and there was a slight pinch forming between her brows.

"Why?"

"Well, we haven't really taken a family trip anywhere in…"

"Five years."

"Right, five years. You see, Mr. Hammond has this… park on an island just off Costa Rica. He's asked Ellie and I––and you, in fact––to come be three of the first guests. He's asked me to endorse it, actually, offered to fund the dig for three more years."

Lily's brows shot towards her hairline and her mouth dropped open again in shock.

"And I also thought that… it might be fun to get away for a weekend. We don't get to spend much time together anymore and, though it technically is a business trip… it's gonna be fun."

"So… like a… vacation?" Lily inquired slowly, fighting to keep a smile off her face till her suspicion was confirmed. There was an excited glimmer in Alan's eyes, something she loved to see.

With a smile, Alan nodded and placed both hands on his hips.

"Yeah. Like a vacation."

With an excited squeal, Lily launched herself forward and flung her arms around her father's chest.

She hugged him tightly, face pressed into his plaid shirt that smelled like earth, sweat, and the remainders of detergent.

Alan chuckled and wound his arms around her, ducking his head so he could press a kiss to the top of her head.

Vacations were a foreign concept for the Grant family. Alan was almost always working, and Lily's school vacations were typically spent on site.

Their form of vacation was more than two weeks at home or maybe popping out for an evening to go have dinner at a restaurant or see a movie.

Alan regretted not being able to spend much time with his daughter and knew that it put a certain strain on their relationship; and it was hard to admit there was a strain, especially since she was so young.

But to see her so excited made his heart swell.

"I will have to work for a little bit, but…"

"I don't care!" Lily giggled, jumping back and bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"We're going on vacation! We get to spend time together! A–and Ellie'll be there, and… we need to pack!" She very nearly dove into the tent and started rummaging through her stuff, keeping in mind they were going somewhere tropical.

Alan chuckled and followed her inside, rubbing her back as he knelt down beside her.

On Nublar, a boat and chopper began transferring the bull Tyrannosaurus and young juvenile Tarbosaurus into the T-Rex enclosure, while they were still tranquilized in their sleep mode.

Rexy was already asleep in the cage by the time the other two new arrivals were brought in.

Once safely in the enclosure, the workers left, leaving the juvenile female Tarbosaurus and adult bull Tyrannosaurus in the enclosure with the island's resident female T-Rex.