Amelie Dixon stepped out into the humid tropical air.  It was a muggy morning much like every other morning on Isla Nublar.  She trekked her way from her cabin to the visitor center where she worked for the upcoming Jurassic Park attraction.  The job was great.  She got to live on a remote island paradise and who else could say they got to see living, breathing dinosaurs every day!  But Amelie had to admit, sometimes a girl gets lonely.  Yeah, there were plenty of guys on the island, but none of them were particularly cute or interesting, and when you’re stuck on an island like this you don’t want to risk making things too awkward.  She let out a frustrated huff and tried to push it to the back of her mind.

When she arrived at the visitor center, she made her way to the control room to begin her work for the day.  Before she got completely settled in John Hammond, the park’s eccentrically optimistic creator, stopped by to share some news.  Today, Jurassic Park would be having its first visitors!  He advised the crew working in the control room to make sure everything was running as smoothly as possible because the fate of the park depended on this visit. 

“Oh! Miss Dixon!  If I may have a word with you before I go,” the old man said.

“Certainly, Mr. Hammond,” she replied and followed him outside the room.

“Now, I understand this may be completely out of your comfort zone—” Hammond started.  Amelie expected the worst already, you never knew what to expect when it came to John Hammond.  The man was an enigma.

“—And you can refuse this if you wish.  But this visit was sprung upon me suddenly by my lawyer and I haven’t the time to hire a guide to accompany our guests.”

“I’m flattered, Mr. Hammond, but… why me?” Amelie asked with a forced a smile.  She was well aware that the only reason she was being asked rather than the others in the control room was because of her gender.  She didn’t mind socialization, but she was here as a computer technician.  She didn’t know the first thing about the park’s exhibits.  “I don’t think I know enough about the park outside of the computer systems to help guide a tour.”

“Oh dear, dear!  You don’t have to worry about lecturing our guests on the attractions!  Remember, we have equipped the vehicles with all that information!  I need someone responsible, whom I can trust to chaperone these guests.  My grandchildren are visiting, too, you know.  You can also think of it as research!  What better way of ensuring your systems function properly than viewing them in the environment they are intended to be used in!  And besides, you’re a lot more pleasant than Regis.  I know you have what it takes to make our guests feel at ease.”

Amelie thought about it for a moment.  It would be nice to get out of the control room and get some sun for a change.  She was so pale; you could hardly tell she lived on an island.  And hell, she thought to herself, what if a cute guy is visiting?  She felt her face flush at the thought.

“Alright, Mr. Hammond,” she said.  “I’ll do it.”

The old man’s face lit up and he promptly shook the young woman’s hand.

“Wonderful, Miss Dixon!  I knew I could count on you!” he exclaimed.  “Drop by the visitor center and pick up a uniform!  I need you to meet in front of the visitor center at 3 PM.  That’s when we’re expected to return.”

Amelie nodded and assured Hammond that she would.  The man went on his way.  It was still pretty early in the morning, so she did a few hours of her usual work.  Around lunchtime, she headed to the visitor’s center to pick up the uniform she was required to wear as a tour guide and headed back to her cabin to make herself presentable.  After all, she couldn’t let Mr. Hammond (or the potential men) down by looking like a throwaway!  She tied her hair up and looked in the mirror.  Not too bad.  She wished the Jurassic Park employee colors were something other than pastel pink and khaki, but she could manage.  She unbuttoned the top button and pushed her boobs up, making her cleavage look more appealing in the tacky Jurassic Park pink polo.  Yeah, she could manage.  She looked at the mirror again and sighed.  What a shame that all this effort is probably going to be wasted on super old investors or something.  She glanced at her watch and realized it was nearly time to meet the guests.  She made her way back.

Amelie arrived at the visitor center around a quarter to three.  Now that she was outside of her room, she felt super silly.  She hardly ever wore makeup anymore because there was no one on the island to impress.  She shook her head and tried not to overthink things.

Three o’clock came and passed and there was no sign of Hammond or anyone.  Was this some kind of joke?  She stuck around and waited.

… And waited…

… And waited…

Finally, around 4 PM she saw a few Jeeps approaching the visitor center.  She stood up from where she had eventually flopped down on the steps of the entrance in frustration and put on her best smile.  The Jeeps parked in front of the visitor center and people began to climb out.

There was John Hammond, of course.  It was hard miss him dressed in all white.  She recognized his lawyer, Donald Gennaro, of whom she wasn’t too fond.  Next, there was a man who looked as though he was trying too hard to be an Indiana Jones look alike.  She figured he was probably a paleontologist or something.  It would make sense considering the exhibits.  Walking close to Ol’ Indy was a pretty young blonde woman, who appeared to be in her mid to late twenties.  There was a little girl in the midst of the group who had to be no older than 10.  And finally, good lord.  There was tall, dark, and handsome in all black— a polar opposite of Hammond.  Black dress shoes, tight black jeans, a black button up shirt that served no purpose because it was barely buttoned, black leather jacket like no one told him he’d be going to an island off the coast of Costa Rica.  Even tinted black glasses sat on his face.  Amelie had no idea what a man like him could possibly be doing on this island.  Oh God, was he smirking at her?  Was he just smirking in general?  This was a mistake.  Was it too late to tell Hammond she couldn’t do this?

“All!  I’d like you to meet Miss Amelie Dixon!  She’s a computer technician here at the park but today she will be accompanying you as your guide,” Hammond said, putting a firm hand on her shoulder.

She just grinned and waved sheepishly.  It was too late.  No way out now.

“Amelie, I’d like you to meet our guests.  Of course, you know Donald.”

‘Unfortunately,’ she thought to herself, but still smiled and greeted him.

“Then, we have Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler.”

Amelie shook their hands and told them it was nice to meet them, making a mental note not to refer to Alan as Indy.

“And I’m Dr. Ian Malcolm, Chaotician.  What a pleasure to meet you, Miss Dixon” the man in black purred as he reached for her hand.  Amelie giggled; Hammond visibly rolled his eyes.  Obviously, he wasn’t this man’s biggest fan.

“Pleasure to meet you too, Dr. Malcolm.  Please call me Amelie.”

Ian didn’t withdraw his hand immediately, instead opting to let it linger before sliding it out of hers.  His touch sent shivers down her spine.  He was really gonna have to stop this attractive shit if she wanted to keep her job.  Chaotician, was it? With her dry spell and his charm, she’d certainly fall victim to his chaotic charm.

Snapping back to reality, she leaned down to address the little girl.

“And who are you?” she asked.

“JT,” said the girl in a quiet voice.

“This is my daughter, JT.  She’s ah, a little shy,” Ian said.

“It’s so nice to have you here, JT!  I hope you have lots of fun with us at the park!” Amelie smiled. 

‘Daughter.  Damn,’ she thought to herself.  ‘This man is a father.  Probably married.  Great.’

“Well, now that we’re all familiar with each other, let’s continue the tour!” Hammond ushered everyone into the visitor center.

When inside, Hammond began to talk about his park and the attractions as he led the pack.  Amelie wondered what her role was in this since Hammond seemed to be leading the pack.  As they took the stairs, Ellie asked Alan what he was thinking.

“We’re out of a job,” the man replied.

“Don’t you mean extinct?” Ian said, nudging Amelie and grinning.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered.  Everyone else just ignored him, which, Amelie decided, was probably a good idea.

Hammond led the group into a small room with two rows of seats and a small theater screen.  Amelie grabbed a seat up front and Ian sat himself down beside her.  He was so close to her.  She felt herself heat up at the scent of his cologne.  Her eyes wandered down to his hands that he had steepled on his lap.  There was a ring alright.  A big, gaudy ring on his middle finger, but no sign of wedding ring.  That was a good sign.

‘Christ, Amelie, excuse yourself and drink a glass of water or something.’  She hadn’t even noticed that John Hammond was talking to his likeness on the screen until Ian leaned over and whispered “Phenomenal acting” sarcastically.  She stifled a laugh and tried not to blush.  She couldn’t help but notice his breath was so minty thanks to the gum he was perpetually chomping on.  He smiled and she cursed herself.  Though her groupie days were long behind her, everyone in the room probably noticed how easy she was.

Amelie turned her attention to the screen, trying to at least act like she was paying attention.  A goofy animation about the process of extracting DNA to create dinosaurs played.  It was well done and informative, but obviously for the park’s younger demographic.  She looked over at JT to see how she was reacting to it.  Alan, Ellie, and Ian seemed more intrigued than she was.  After the short ended, the bars in front of the seats descended and the room began to turn to reveal the laboratory where the dinosaurs were created.  The adults got extremely excited and wanted to stop, but Hammond insisted the ride must continue.  Ian, Ellie, and Alan pushed forward on the bars, freeing themselves and got up to view the lab.  Ian glanced over his shoulder back at the stunned young lady, silently encouraging her to join them with a smirk and a tilt of his head before following the other two out.  JT remained in her seat, looking unsure of whether to go or not.

“Sorry, Mr. Hammond but I’ve got to keep up with our guests.  Let’s go, Miss JT,” Amelie tried to sound apologetic while getting up and guiding the young lady to meet up with the rest of the group.  The solemn nod to proceed from the older man had her thinking she may have been believable enough.

“So, having fun yet?” Amelie asked the girl.  JT nodded.

“Good!  I’m sure the tour will get more interesting when all the technical stuff is out of the way.  How old are you?”

“Eight.”

“Cool.  Mr. Hammond’s grandchildren are supposed to be joining us later on.  Maybe the tour will be more fun when you’re not stuck with all us lame adults,” the young women added and winked, finally earning a smile from JT.

They met up with the others, who were observing eggs in the laboratory.  John Hammond and his lawyer weren’t far behind them.  Hammond introduced the group to Dr. Henry Wu, the chief genetic engineer. The group arrived at the perfect moment.  One of the eggs was about to hatch.  Hammond was filled with even more enthusiasm, talking to the egg and encouraging the creature inside to hatch.  The egg shell began to crack, and a very tiny baby dinosaur emerged and began to chirp.  Amelie gasped along with the others.  She had been on the island for years and had never got to experience the birth of one of the exhibits.  It was truly breathtaking.  Hammond explained that he was always there for the births of the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.  It apparently helped them to trust him.

“Surely not the ones that have bred in the wild,” Dr. Malcolm butted in.

“Actually, they can’t breed in the wild,” Dr. Wu said proudly. “Population control is one of our security precautions.  There’s no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park.”

“How do you know they can’t breed?” Malcolm asked.  Amelie looked away from the baby dinosaur and up at the men.  Their tones implied things were about to get interesting.

“Because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female.  We’ve engineered them that way,” Wu answered.  Everyone else was still distracted by the baby dinosaur and not even paying attention to Malcolm’s shenanigans.  The man walked around the incubator over to where Wu was standing.

“But again, how do you know they’re all female.  What, does somebody go out in the park and pull up the dinosaurs’ skirts?” Malcolm laughed.  Amelie looked over at JT who was visibly embarrassed at her dad’s last statement.  She then looked back at Malcolm and Wu, who was obviously getting a little frustrated at the chaotician.  Wu began to go into detail about chromosomes and embryos, stating that they deny the hormones needed to make the dinosaurs male.  Everyone was now paying attention to the two men.  Malcolm had sat down at this point, looking very amused.

“John, the kind of control you’re attempting is not possible,” Malcolm began.  “If there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained.  Life breaks free.  Expands to new territories and it crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously but, uh…  Well, there it is.”

Amelie just looked at him in awe.  She knew he had to be an intelligent man but she wasn’t expecting that kind of speech to come out of his mouth.  Her heart skipped a beat hearing him speak with such passion.  If she didn’t find him attractive before she was definitely attracted now.  But his words seemed to have fell flat on the other members of the audience.

“You’re implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will… breed?” Wu asked with a grin.

“No, I’m simply saying that life, uh, finds a way,” Malcolm said.

Nobody was paying attention to him anymore.  All eyes were back on the newly hatched dinosaur, which Dr. Wu revealed was a Velociraptor.  Amelie felt a little frustrated that nobody took Dr. Malcolm seriously.  Yeah, the guy was a bit of a ham, but he had some really interesting ideas.  She longed for a moment alone with him to hear what else he had to say.

Dr. Grant insisted on seeing the mature raptors, so Hammond reluctantly led the group to see them.  He tried to distract the group by saying his chef had prepared a gourmet meal for the visitors, but Grant was still persistent on seeing the raptors.  When they arrived at the enclosure, a cow was suspended above it.

“What are they doing?” Grant asked, not paying one bit of attention to the old man’s attempts to sway them elsewhere.

“Oh, uh, feeding them,” Hammond said.

Everyone looked at the enclosure with anticipation as the cow was lowered in.  JT hid behind Ian, hesitantly peeking out around him.  The mooing started to get more frantic as the cow descended.  Suddenly, loud growls and snarls were heard from inside.  JT screamed and ran in the opposite direction, while most of the adults looked on in amazement and disgust.  Amelie and Ian exchanged a look of concern.

“I’ll go see if she’s okay, if you wanna stay and watch,” Amelie said.  Ian gave an appreciative smile and nodded.

After a bit of trekking, Amelie deduced that the girl had made her way back to the safety of the visitor center.

“JT?  JT are you in here?” Amelie asked when she entered.  She found her sitting on the bottom step of the stairs inside, sniffling and shaking.

“Are you okay?” the woman asked, sitting beside the girl and putting a hand on her shoulder.  JT nodded and wiped the tears from her face.

“There’s nothing to be scared of.  The raptors are loud but those things can’t get out.  We’ve got moats and electric fences and all sorts of stuff to keep us safe.  I promise I won’t let anything happen to you while I’m around,” Amelie said, rubbing the girl’s back to comfort her.

“Promise?” JT said quietly.

“Promise.”

“Sorry I took you away from the tour,” the little girl added.

“Don’t be.  God, John was getting on my nerves I needed a break,” Amelie blurted out and then covered her mouth. “Uh, don’t tell anyone I said that.”

JT laughed.

“Mine too,” she said.

Amelie smiled and said, “I think you and me are gonna get along just fine.”

JT looked much more at ease than she had been her entire time at the park.

“Hey, since we got a minute, do you wanna see what my REAL job is here at Jurassic Park?” Amelie asked. “Don’t worry, there’s no dinosaurs involved.  It’s inside.”

JT nodded and the pair got up.  Amelie led JT to the control room.  It was late, almost half past six, everyone else had gone for the night.  Eventually, the park would have someone stay overnight to watch the systems, but since the park wasn’t yet open, they hadn’t worried about it.

“This is it!  I’m a computer technician here at Jurassic Park.  I make sure all the systems are running properly.  I’ll have to introduce you to Mr. Arnold and Mr. Nedry sometime tomorrow,” Amelie explained and sat down at a desk.  “I don’t get to go out on the actual park much, but I can watch everything that goes on from here.  Like, check it out.”

JT sat down in the big rolling chair beside Amelie as she opened up a window on screen with a video feed from the raptor enclosure.

“See, there’s your dad!  And John and the others.  It looks like they’re about to start heading back this way.  Pretty cool, huh?”

“You know, Miss Amelie, if you like my dad, you should just talk to him,” JT said.  The woman froze and looked over at the girl in shock.

“Don’t worry, everyone likes him.  I can tell, it happens all the time.  But you’re cool.  I like you.”

“You’re one smart girl,” Amelie laughed, trying to fight the embarrassment of getting clocked by his daughter.  “Your dad is cute, but you two are on vacation and I don’t want to intrude.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?” JT asked.  “Do you want me to tell my dad to talk to you?”

“N-no! I don’t… and thank you, but that’s not necessary, JT.  I think your dad already has talking down pat.  Anyway, I, uh… think we should be headed back too.  I believe it’s almost time for dinner.”

After JT nodded in agreement, the girls exited the control room and walked back to the main lobby of the center.  The others still hadn’t made it back yet.

“Do you live here?  On the island?” JT asked.

“Yeah, I stay in one of the cabins near the Safari Lodge where you guys will be staying at.”

“Do we all have separate rooms?  Mr. Grant is dusty.  I don’t want to share with him.”

“Jesus,” Amelie spit out, laughing.  She thought she was the only one that noticed how dusty he was.  “Yeah, I’m sure you all get your own rooms.  You don’t have to worry.”

They continued laughing and joking around.  Amelie was grateful to have someone to shit-talk with and she was glad the girl opened up to her.  About that time, John Hammond and the others walked into the visitor center. Amelie and JT joined up with the group near the giant T. Rex statue.

“My girl!  Are you alright?” Dr. Malcolm said, leaning down to give JT a hug.

“I’m fine, dad,” she said flatly.  Amelie could tell she was a little annoyed with him.

“And, ah, thank you for going after her,” the man added, flashing a smile and patting Amelie’s shoulder.

“No problem, Dr. Malcolm.  We had fun, I gave her a little private tour of the control room,” said Amelie.

“I got to see the computers,” JT beamed.

“See JT, I told you you’d enjoy yourself!” the man said.

“Let’s not dilly-dally any more, I’m sure Alejandro has finished preparing our dinner by now!  We don’t want it getting cold!  Let’s eat!”  Hammond said and ushered the group in the direction of the park’s restaurant.

As they headed to dinner, everyone was chatting amongst themselves.  Hammond spoke to the crowd, Gennaro butted in, Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler whispered to each other.  Amelie stayed near the back of the group to make sure everybody was headed in the right direction, and Dr. Malcolm lingered beside her.

“Maybe later on you could give me a private tour of the, ah, facilities,” Ian said softly to Amelie.

Amelie’s heart skipped a beat and she felt her face flush.  Did he just—?  The man was very obviously flirting with her at this point.  She decided to take JT’s advice and flirt back.

“Certainly, Dr. Malcolm, it would be my pleasure.”

“Ian, you can call me Ian.  My students call me Dr. Malcolm.  And I’ll hold you to that, Amelie,” he laughed.

“I believe after dinner Mr. Hammond is going to show you to your rooms for the night.  It’s much too late to begin the main park tour. So, we could meet up after you and JT get settled in,” Amelie said.

“Finally, something to look forward to on this island.”