man destroys god || i. malcolm

13

After dinner, Aria tossed and turned in her bed. She had sworn to herself never to get involved with InGen again. Why had John reached out to Nick, of all people? Out of every combat photographer there was, he had to pick the only one she even knew? Aria had to admit, Nick checked every box. He'd seen combat, he was an environmentalist, and he was interested in the original case four years back (though he avoided the subject around Aria).

She woke in the morning to Nick shaking her. "Geez, will you quit it?" She groaned. "I was busy having the best sleep of my life."

"Come on, it's breakfast then we get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."

"Well, good luck on Isla Sorna, then." Aria muttered, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

Nick gave her an unimpressed look, but stepped out of the room to let her get ready. She joined him in the hall just minutes later, and they walked down the stairs side-by-side.

Aria said her goodbyes to the kids and the two journalists headed back for the bus stop. "Hammond called me back to his office after dinner. He has a team already prepared, but I thought I should tell you — Ian Malcolm is on the list."

Aria froze up. "There's no way he's going back, he was worse off than I am. In fact, there's no way he's even going to talk to John."

Nick shrugged. "I don't know, Hammond seemed pretty confident in it."

Their conversation trailed off after that, both retreating to theirselves for the next few hours of the bus ride. They returned home, and spent the next month working. Nick's work with Greenpeace kept him very busy, and Aria did some volunteering for them every now and then.

Aria's nightmares, that had slowly faded with time, were coming back at the prospect of returning to Costa Rica. She was getting more and more anxious as the date approached.

Aria and Nick were having breakfast one morning when the phone rang. "Hello?" Nick picked it up. "Hammond! Tomorrow? Oh, well, alright. Yes, we'll be there."

Aria looked up at him. She already knew what the call meant, but she was hoping that she'd get some more time to prepare. She was still trying to fight her trauma. Not that the extra week would really help.

"We're leaving tomorrow. There's been some new development that Hammond won't tell me about."

Aria cursed, then stood. "Time to go pack."

The two friends packed their large backpacks. Notebooks, their cameras, weather-permitting clothing. Aria made sure to bring an extra shirt this time. And wear a belt. She used most of the space in her bag for first aid supplies. She would not be caught off guard this time.

She could tell Nick was excited, so she tried to be positive about it.

When they arrived at Hammond's house, Aria and Nick hopped into a van. They followed Hammond's directions to where the equipment was stored and their engineer, Eddie Carr, was waiting.

Aria took in a shaky breath.

"Hey, we'll be okay," Nick patted Aria's leg. "I can't wait to meet your ex-boyfriend, though."

"Yeah? That's not my biggest worry here."

Nick chuckled quietly for a moment, then turned to Aria with his familiar mischievous expression. "Would it be so funny if we tried to make him jealous?"

Leave it to Nick to try and bring light to the increasingly bad situation. Aria only grinned in response.

They backed into the garage and hopped out. "Thanks for the two-minute warning, Eddie." Nick said drily. Neither of the journalists were exactly happy to be there early.