Chapter Text
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
You turned your head to look at Ian, giving him a confused look before you quickly looked back at the road, switching the setting of your car’s windshield wipers higher in the hopes that it’d help you see through the pouring rain outside.
“Why? My father invites us over all the time.” You smiled softly, reaching over to place a hand on Ian’s leg after shifting into fifth gear as you drove up the country road to John’s estate. “I thought you two got along pretty well.”
“We do. I mean, he seems irritated by me lately and I have no idea why but that’s not what I mean.” Ian mused, looking back at you before covering your hand with his own. “All I’m saying is that it’s a little concerning that your father summoned us to his estate this early in the morning, don’t you think?”
“Are you sure it’s concerning or are you maybe just a little irritated that you had to get up this early?” You joked, giving him a small smirk. “I mean, there is a reason the university lectures you hold are rarely scheduled before noon.”
“Admittedly good point but I’m being serious.” Ian argued back, squinting at the road as he tried to make out anything through the thick rain. “How are you even seeing anything, darling? It’s raining really and it’s still pretty dark outside. The sun hasn’t even fully come up, yet.”
“I’ve been driving this road for years, love.” You said in slight amusement before sighing softly. “But you’re right, it’s a little concerning. Especially since he knew that we were visiting Alan and Ellie.”
“Especially after your, uh, your argument with him at dinner a few weeks ago.”
The argument Ian was talking about had admittedly been months in the making. Things with your father hadn’t been easy since the incident at the park and he had changed a lot, especially after his nephew had shown up about a year ago to take over the company because it was slowly nearing bankruptcy. As far as you were aware your father was still in charge but that hadn’t stopped the board from trying to take power from him time and time again.
After he had started working with InGen, your cousin Peter had been adamant about making sure all of the people that had been on the island would be silent about the incident. You had all in fact signed Non-Disclosure Agreements but to be honest, you had figured that after what had happened and the deaths of three people, you wouldn’t have to adhere to them. But you’d been wrong.
Unfortunately, though, your father had started agreeing with Peter in the last few months, afraid of what would happen to the animals and his family should InGen actually go bankrupt. And Peter had promised to save the company. This had all resulted in many arguments between you and your father which had come to an acme when he had called while you and Ian had been out for his birthday, resulting in a huge argument over the phone. That had been three weeks ago and you hadn’t visited him since. You still felt terrible about the birthday dinner incident.
“I’m really sorry about that.” You sighed miserably, shaking your head. “We ruined your birthday dinner. I’ve just been so stressed about his constant arguments with my cousin lately. Of course, that’s not an excuse but it’s at least an explanation.”
“I understand that, darling, I really do.” Ian said and gave your hand a small squeeze. “But this is his decision to make. What will come from it is not your fault.”
“I guess you’re right.” You sighed before giving him a small apologetic smile. “I still feel bad for ruining your birthday, though.”
“It’s alright.” Ian said with a small smile, bringing your hand up to his mouth and kissing it. “I don’t really put much value on my birthdays and you more than made up for it.”
You gave him a playful scowl. “With my immaculate oral skills?”
“Exactly.” Ian chuckled before shaking his head. “No, I meant that you made up for it the following day by taking me out for breakfast.”
“Then I’m relieved.” You slowly pulled your hand back to shift gears as you drove off the country road and up the driveway to your father’s estate. “Let’s see why he called us over, shall we?”
You parked your car and quickly made your way to the door, Ian following close behind. Despite your quick pace, you both ended up soaked from the rain by the time you made it to the front door. Your father’s butler opened the door and let you inside, stating that he would see if John could speak to you now and instructing you two to wait in the foyer. You did as you were told and waited in the foyer, hanging up your wet jacket while you looked around the room. Ian’s hand on your shoulder made you look up and he smiled as he brushed a few wet strands of wet hair from your face.
“You look a bit wet there.”
“Thanks, I didn’t notice.” You chuckled, rolling your eyes jokingly. “At least you didn’t make an inappropriate joke.”
“I could.” Ian smirked, leaning closer to press a kiss to the side of your face, right at the junction of your jaw and neck. “I bet I can get you much wetter than that when we get back home later.”
“Is that a promise?”
Ian was about to answer when someone called out your name and you looked up to find Lex and Tim running down the staircase, both diving in to embrace you. Upon seeing them you felt bad because you had avoided the estate for the past three weeks which also meant that you had not seen Lex and Tim during that time. Before that you had been meeting up with them regularly, often bringing Ian along, too. You hoped they hadn’t been too disappointed by your sudden absence.
They pulled back from your hug after a few seconds before greeting Ian, embracing him as well. He hugged them tightly for a second before pulling back and giving them a small smile.
“Auntie, we haven’t seen you in weeks and we haven’t even gotten the chance to say Happy Birthday to Uncle Ian.” Tim complained, frowning at you. “What happened?”
“Just grown-up stuff.” You waved them off, not wanting to bring up the argument you had with their grandfather and risk painting him in a bad light. “But you’re right. I should have visited you two.”
“Happy Belated Birthday, Uncle Ian.”
Tim quickly chimed in with his sister. “Happy Birthday!”
“Thanks.” Ian smiled, coming closer to you and resting his hand on your hip. “How have you two been doing?”
Lex smiled at the question. “Great and we got our invitations to Ellie and Alan’s wedding in the mail yesterday. Are you two invited, as well?”
“They said we are.” You smiled at Lex. “But we have been visiting them for the past few days and haven’t really gotten around to checking our mail, yet. I’m sure we got one, though.”
“When you and Ian get married, are we invited?”
Ian’s hand tightened where it lay on your hip and you quickly jumped in, waving Lex off in fear of her question making your partner feel pressured again. The last thing you wanted was for him to feel like he had to marry you or for him to think you’d be better off without him because he hadn’t proposed to you.
“Should we ever get married you’d definitely be invited. But even if we don’t get married, you’re always welcome to visit us.” You smiled, leaning closer to Ian. “I think right now we’re all happy as it is, right?”
“Right.” Lex nodded with a smile. “Though we were a bit upset that you haven’t visited us in weeks.”
Tim quickly agreed with his sister. “Yes, but there’s this awesome exhibition at the national history museum and we were thinking that since you work there, you might be able to give us a tour. We really want to spend time with you and Uncle Ian again.”
“I’m sure we can find the time to do that very soon.” You smiled and ruffled your nephew’s hair, making him frown. “Now where’s your mother? Is she visiting your grandpa, too?”
“No, she’s at home but she’ll pick us up in about an hour because we spent the night here.” Lex explained before looking at you in interest. “Why are you two here so early?”
“John called us.” Ian jumped in, frowning a little as he looked a the grand staircase. “He called us over pretty early this morning, so we’re a bit worried about what happened. Do you two know what this is about? Is everything alright?”
“Not exactly.”
You were about to ask what was wrong when a familiar voice rang through the hallway and your cousin Peter Ludlow came down the staircase, talking to someone on the phone. Now you suspected why your father had called you over. Something must have transpired regarding the company. As soon as Peter rounded the corner and locked eyes with you, he stopped and sighed quietly.
“Have you come to exchange campfire stories with my uncle?”
“Campfire stories?” Ian asked in irritation, shaking his head as he moved away from you to approach the man. “You know exactly what happened that day and so do we. You can lie to the papers and investors all you want but we were there that day.”
Peter just shook his head and looked back at you. “If I remember correctly you all signed Non-Disclosure Agreements before going to that island so remind me again why we had to do damage control when you went to the public with your wild stories?”
“People died on that island, Peter.” You said sternly, frowning at your cousin. “Do you really think we would stay silent about what happened after three people died?”
“I sure hope you all got the money you wanted out of going to the public.”
Ian scoffed at Peter’s words. “We haven’t made any money from this, nor do we want to. We told people the truth without any ulterior motives.”
“I suppose Lex and Tim didn’t have any motives but you two sure did.”
“You leave the kids out of this.” You hissed quietly, taking a step forward while Lex and Tim slowly distanced themselves from the situation. “They have nothing to do with any of this and I don’t want them affected.”
“Me, neither.” Peter said and slipped on his jacket.
“Then leave them out of this.” Ian said, shaking his head at Peter as the man began to walk past him. “You might try to silence us but we know the truth.”
“Your version of it.”
“There are no versions of the truth.”
---
“A second island full of dinosaurs?”
Almost subconsciously your hand moved to cover the scars on your left forearm from being attacked by the Baryonyx as you were once again reminded of the incident on Isla Nublar. You heard Ian exhale shakily behind you as he sat down on John’s desk. Ian was still suffering from the trauma the incident in the park had caused him and so were you. The fear and pain of those two days were something not easily forgotten.
But with how much physical pain it had caused Ian it was understandable that he was taking this all a bit harder. It had taken him a considerable amount of time to physically recover from the Rex tossing him around by the arm and the nerve damage that had resulted from it. Even now he was still sometimes reminded of it when moving his arm the wrong way or carrying something too heavy caused his pain to flare up again. Knowing all of this, you moved over to Ian and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as your father talked about the location and function of Site B.
“How did the dinosaurs survive there anyway?”
Ian placed a hand on top of yours as he stood up again and watched John pull out some files that presumably contained information about Site B. You just interlaced your fingers with his, knowing that Ian had always been a tactile man and that bodily contact was always a great source of comfort for him. He gave your hand a thankful squeeze as his eyes fixed on your father.
“I thought you’d engineered them so that they didn’t produce lysine by themselves? Shouldn’t they have kicked it after seven days?”
“Yes, but they are flourishing and they have developed their own ecosystem on the island.” John explained and you couldn’t help but feel a bit happy to see him smile about these animals like that after being so devastated before. “Isn’t that amazing?”
Despite how fearful this information made you feel it was also admittedly fascinating to hear and you turned to Ian with a small smile. “It’s like you said, love. Life finds a way.”
“But you have met Peter on the way out, right?” John asked before Ian got the chance to answer you. “A few weeks ago, shortly after our argument over the phone, a British family landed on Site B with their yacht and their wee girl was injured. She’s fine, of course, but the board saw it as a chance to take control from me and now they want to exploit this island as a way to save the company financially.”
Your eyes widened at that. “Is that what you called us over to discuss with you?”
“I need to keep this island as a nature preserve and I need your help.”
“Our help?” Ian asked in confusion. “How could we possibly help?”
“The only way to save this lost world is through public opinion but to rally that support I need a full photographic record of these animals in their natural habitat.” John explained, turning to you and Ian again. “And I have started assembling a team for that but I was hoping you two would help them.”
“A team?”
“It’s composed of a palaeontologist, Nick Van Owen as a photographer and Eddie Carr for the technical aspects. Our palaeontologist is already on the island but the rest will follow her in three days.” John explained, grabbing some files on his desk. “I must admit, you two have a lot of excellent contacts all across different fields.”
“You didn’t send Sarah there, did you?”
“I need you to understand that she came to me.”
“And you sent her on that island alone?” Ian asked in shock before beginning to pace the room. “You sent our friend there on her own?”
“She will be fine. And the research team--”
“No, this is no longer a research expedition. It’s a rescue mission and it’s leaving immediately. I need the number of Eddie and Nick. We can’t lose any time.” Ian explained before turning to you. “I’ll be back in a few days, alright?”
You looked up in confusion at that. “You will be back in a few days? Ian, there is no way I’m letting you go there alone!”
“Darling, please don’t start arguing with me about this.” Ian pleaded softly, worry written clear on his face. “I cannot have you endanger yourself like that.”
“Ian, I’m going with you. I’m not arguing with you about this because there’s nothing to argue about. I’ve made my decision. I know you care about me but I won’t let you go alone.”
“You can’t come with me.”
Your father shook his head at the conversation. “You’re playing the role of a controlling husband very well when you consider that you two aren’t even married.”
You watched Ian’s face fall at that and turned to your father. “We don’t have to be married to worry about each other, Dad. Ian just wants me to be safe but I’ve made my decision. I’ll be alright.”
“I can’t sway your mind, can I?”
“Not a chance.”