10

Zach, Gray, and Maisie gathered in Gray's room. Gray plopped onto his beanbag while Zach took the desk chair and Maisie sat on the bed, pulling the book out from under the pillow. For a moment, she just stared at it.

Gray jiggled his leg impatiently. "Did you change your mind?"

She shook her head. "No." She hadn't, but now that the moment was upon her, she suddenly felt afraid again.

"You don't have to do this now if you don't want to," Zach reminded her. "It's not going anywhere."

But that was the thing, Maisie thought. Answers might be just inches away, and the longer she went without knowing, the worse the itch was going to become. Determination returned, and she flipped the cover open quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid.

It was anticlimactic; the first page was almost blank, save for Benjamin Lockwood's spidery signature in the upper right-hand corner. She took a deep breath and turned to the next.

"Well?" Gray asked after a very brief pause.

"Jeez, Gray, give her a minute," Zach hissed.

Maisie licked her lips. "It's a diary. The first entry is dated March 26, 1981." She read aloud: "Elaine and I took Nora to the zoo today for her seventh birthday. She was enthralled by all the animals, but especially by the orangutans. I want to tell her that If John and I are successful, someday she will be able to see dinosaurs this way, but I don't want her to get her hopes up. We still have so much to do, and of course there's no guarantee any of it will work."

"Who's John?" Zach asked, frowning.

"John Hammond," Gray said knowledgeably. "Lockwood's partner."

Maisie turned to the next entry and skimmed it. At some point, she would want to read the whole book cover to cover, but right now she was on a quest for specific answers, and events that occurred over thirty years before she was born wouldn't provide them for her. She flipped through the pages carefully but quickly, looking specifically for mentions of Nora. There were plenty, but she didn't stop until she caught sight of her own name.

"October 14, 1999: My dear Elaine has been gone seven months, and I am finally finding my footing again. Nora has been wonderful. She moved back in to help take care of me. In going through her mother's things, we rediscovered some of Nora's old schoolwork. She signed all her drawings "Maisie" for three months when she was eight because of that old film series Elaine used to love. I'd forgotten about it until now."

"What's that?" Zach asked, pointing to something that had fallen out of the pages.

It was a Polaroid of a young woman with a strong resemblance to Maisie.

"So this is what I'll look like in fifteen years." She passed the photo on to Zach and flipped to the next entry, which was extremely short. "June 12, 2001: Nora is gone and my heart is broken." She looked up. "The timelines don't match up. I wasn't born for another seven years."

"DNA can be kept for a long time," Gray pointed out. "I mean, just think about how long dinosaur DNA stuck around."

"Lockwood must have taken a while to consider what he was doing," Zach agreed.

"But he had to know I would figure it out eventually. I mean, at some point I was going to find out what year Mo—Nora died."

Zach shrugged. "He probably didn't think that far ahead."

The next entry was what Maisie had been waiting for.

"April 15, 2008: I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, but it's too late to turn back now. This could still go terribly wrong; human cloning has never been successfully accomplished, and I'm no geneticist. But I have high hopes. I know what John would say, but he doesn't understand what it's like to lose your whole family. I'm not trying to bring Nora back. No power on Earth can do that. But I'm a lonely old man, and this house needs some laughter. I need it, too."

Maisie sniffled.

"What's wrong?" Gray asked.

She shook her head and wiped her eyes. "It's just…it's almost like talking to him." She turned the page. "December 4, 2008: Maisie is here, and she is perfect. I used to tease Nora about giving me a grandchild, and I suppose she finally has, in a way. Iris has been wonderful—supportive through all my worrying, the voice of reason when I need it, and, of course, as good with Maisie as she was with Nora."

"Iris?" Gray asked.

"My nanny," Maisie explained, a tear running down her cheek.

"What happened to her?"

"She didn't make it," Maisie said flatly, remembering when Owen and Claire had sat her down, a few days after that horrific night, and broken the news that Iris' body had been discovered.

"I'm sorry," Gray said softly.

Maisie took a deep breath and snagged a tissue from the nightstand to blow her nose. Then she straightened her shoulders and returned to the book, reading the next three entries all in a row.

"October 11, 2011: Maisie is growing up so quickly. She looks just like Nora. She even has many of the same mannerisms. It can be painful, but it helps that my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. Some days, I could almost believe Maisie really is my granddaughter.

"May 30, 2015: Maisie has the biggest imagination of any child I've ever known, including Nora. I think it has something to do with all the books she reads. I know I don't make very good company for her, old and bound to a wheelchair as I am. But she always brings a smile to my face. She reminds me of the reason John and I embarked on our adventure in the first place—to see the look of wonder in a child's eyes.

"January 12, 2018: I've instructed Eli to tuck this book away when I die, and to give it to Maisie when he decides she's ready. I know it's the coward's way out, but Maisie is too young. I don't want to spoil her childhood with knowledge any adult would find hard to bear. I wish I could hide away the truth forever and spare her from facing it at all, but I know that's not fair. My only hope is that she will understand how much I loved her."

Maisie looked up. "That's the end."

"Are you okay?" Gray asked.

"I didn't really get the answers I wanted." She sighed. "But I guess I don't know what I was expecting. I mean, at least I know he thought of me as separate from his daughter, and not just a replacement for her."

"You know, your grandpa probably kept other records," Zach mused. "With everything he was involved in, there has to be more out there somewhere."

Maisie frowned. "What are you saying?

"If you really want to know more, don't stop looking."

Maisie nodded thoughtfully. This was only the beginning of her quest for answers, but for now at least she knew she'd had a grandfather who loved her. And friends who would support her on her journey.

:

Claire woke with a scream dying in her throat. For a moment she was paralyzed by the terror left by the dream. She slowly rolled over. The other side of the bed was empty, which mean Owen had likely had some nightmares of his own. He never wanted to discuss them with Claire, and she wasn't sure if it was because of his pride or if he just didn't need to talk things out the way she did.

She rose from the bed and pulled on a robe Karen had leant her, opening the door soundlessly and stepping into the dark hallway. She checked on Maisie as she passed Gray's room and was pleased to see the little girl was sleeping peacefully.

Owen was sitting on the back deck, staring into the woods. He didn't react when she sat next to him, except to wrap an arm around her shoulders. She curled into his side.

He broke the silence first. "Bad dream?" When she murmured an affirmative, he heaved a sigh. "Yeah. Me too."

Claire was surprised he admitted even that much.

"Want to talk about it?"

"You first."

She stared out into the woods. "We were back on Isla Nublar, that night with the Indominus Rex. The Mososaur dragged her into the lagoon, and just when we thought it was safe Blue turned into the Indoraptor and attacked us." She shivered. "And Maisie was there, and she was screaming."

Owen pulled her closer. "I'm sorry. That sucks."

After a long moment, Claire sighed. "I wish none of this had ever happened."

"No, you don't." Owen smiled wryly. "'Cuz then you'd still be a workaholic with no time for family."

"Does that make me a terrible person?" Claire wondered aloud. "That I'm grateful for the way things turned out? I mean, obviously I wish nobody had died…"

"It wasn't your fault," Owen said firmly, correctly guessing where her thoughts were headed.

She sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"No, you don't," Owen repeated. "You keep beating yourself up, but there's nothing you could have done. That place was a disaster waiting to happen. We just didn't realize it until it was too late."

"So you don't think we're the "parents" of this mess?" Claire asked dryly.

"No. But I think we might be the parents of a little girl whose whole world just got turned upside down."

Claire blew out a breath. "That's going to take a while to sink in."

"Tell me about it. But hey, my last kids had razor sharp teeth and would have eaten me if they ever got the chance. It can only go up from there."

Claire snorted. Then she asked hesitantly, "What are we now? I mean, are we…?"

Owen quirked a smile. "Well, I was kinda hoping we could give it another try. Third time's the charm?"

Claire surged forward and Owen met her in a passionate kiss, not unlike their very first.

When they parted, Claire grinned. "Does this mean I get to drive the van?"

Owen rolled his eyes playfully. "I'll take it into consideration."

They sat in a comfortable silence for several minutes.

"So…what do we do now?" Claire asked, unintentionally echoing her words from three years ago.

Owen smiled. "Stick together."

"For survival," Claire nodded.

"It's a whole new world out there."