"IT DOESN'T feel right ... just sitting here."

Amelia bit her lip as she tried to control her boredom, nerves making her feet jitter despite the pain every time her ankle jolted. Lale looked towards her, sympathy darkening his eyes.

"I know. But you're not going anywhere, with that ankle of yours."

"And you're not going anywhere either, with that rib of yours," she retorted, trying to cover up the quiet worry she had for her wounds. Despite Zoey's efforts after she, Lale and Bradley had rescued the recruits from their TimePods (which already felt like a lifetime ago, although it was only a few days) the bites from the Tanycolagreus were refusing to heal. The punctures across her foot wept with a clear liquid that she was almost certainly sure wasn't supposed to be coming out.

It was futile, though. Both doctors were with Ichabod, and he surely would've come for them anyway. They were on an uneven playing field, but thinking about Shaunia and Tina's mission, Amelia felt relief sink into her chest.

If what Tina hoped to do worked, then they would possibly be at an advantage.

Amelia had recovered her walking stick, and it lay beside her as she and Lale looked over the waterfall. The camp atop it was quiet with people either dozing or quietly recounting how their lives had changed in the last forty-eight hours.

The spray from the waterfall coated Amelia's face and bare arms with cold water, but it felt good. Stripped to her stained tank top, she'd almost been embarrassed by the state she!d been in. Her hair was a greasy mess; her face ridden with scratches and grime.

Lale played with a piece of leaf contemplatively, and the silence between them was easy. For once, Amelia's emotions were in check.

Even though Bradley was gone, and Luca and Zoey were on Ichabod's side, she was happy to sit alongside Lale and just sit. Even if it made her nervous and jittery, like Ichabod was about to burst from the bushes, she was thankful to finally catch a break.

"What do you think's gonna happen now?" Amelia's question betrayed her quiet concern. It had bubbled forth like magma from a deep, dark, buried pit in her gut. Lale looked up, his fringe shaggy in his eyes. She felt the compulsive need to brush it away, and reached out without thinking.

Maybe that's what she wanted. To not think. Not think about Zoey. Or Ichabod. Or anyone.

Lale was quiet as she gently pressed her fingers across his forehead and swept his dark hair across his temple. It wasn't much of an improvement, but Amelia met his grey eyes, which beamed down on her with an intensity that immediately wanted to make her recoil.

Zoey had looked at her with that intensity.

Could she deal with that? Thoughts pressured her mind, but one was the loudest, a roar that threatened to rattle her eardrums. Zoey isn't here. She might never be here again.

Lale caught her wrist before she could move away, and with that her last tendrils of doubt reluctantly backed into the darkened corners of her mind. She didn't break their eye contact, and her skin erupted in shivers where his thumb lightly rubbed against her pounding pulse.

She shut her watering eyes for a second, her breathing shaky. What what was happening ... was it real?

"Look at me." Lale's words were quiet, his tone gentle. His other hand brushed along her jawline, kinking her coiled hair behind her ear. She let him, and her lungs rattled with more than nerves. With a humming in her stomach, Amelia knew she wanted what was happening.

She knew she wanted Lale to take her mind off of the matters of life and death and dinosaurs and the future and past that were raring up to greet her; replaced by a man, however grumpy, who Amelia knew could feel the same frustration. The same determination to save the future of humankind - though, at that moment, that was not what her mind was settled on.

Amelia opened her eyes. Lale kissed her, his lips softer and actions more tender than she had expected. Her arms felt too numb to merely rest at her sides, and she allowed Lale to trail his hand up her forearm and rest it on her bare shoulder as she hooked her elbows around his neck, drawing him closer.

Not close enough. Amelia was contented with the blindness that had struck her mind, no thoughts besides being with Lale, and she didn't want it to stop, even when her lungs were begging for breath and she had to release to take in a breath like she'd come up from a dive.

Amelia flexed her jaw, frustrated by the constraints her injuries had formed. She kept her hand on Lale's cheek, and he shut his own eyes, grey hues vanishing. They were wordless, and maybe that was a good thing. Words invited thoughts, and thoughts threatened to ruin the comfort that Lale presented.

"Thank you." Amelia was a hypocrite, really, and she chided herself internally. Lale's eyes fluttered open. He took her hand, and lowered it.

"I wanted to."

She smiled, her chest and ears suddenly curling with warmth. The embarrassment had snuck up on her, but it was still okay. She could believe everything was okay at that moment, warmed by Lale's gaze.

"Look!" The exclamation was enunciated by pointing - a man held his arm up to the sky, in the direction of a gigantic sauropod that had appeared on the horizon, lumbering through the ferns. It was heading for the falls, long neck swaying like a dancer getting reader to show his moves.

Amelia turned, wonder popping her mouth open. "Oh, wow!" The Brachiosaurus didn't seem to have noticed the tiny humans, and in the face of one of the largest animals to ever roam the planet, Amelia felt small.

But you're still important, a stubborn thought reminded her. Her mind snapped back to the duty that ERAA had implemented into all of them, and she scrambled to climb to her feet. Excitement boosted her up faster than Lale could offer his assistance, and she limped forward, crutch forgotten.

"Be careful," Lale called, more cautious. Amelia waved him off like he was an annoying fly; she knew not to get too close. Still. It was real, breathing Brachiosaurus! Not one of the dusty skeletons assorted in museums, strung up by wires.

Amelia took in a deeper breath, less than twenty yards from the Brachiosaurus on a ridge to the right of the waterfall. She walked slowly so as to not scare it, her heart fluttering like a bird in its cage. She could see into its small, beady dark eyes, which slitted open and closed through a membrane.

The air close to the dinosaur smelled of plant matter and salad. The creature exhaled heavily through its small nostrils, and Amelia's hair swirled in a the gust. A smile lit up on her face, and slowly, cautiously, she rested one hand on the sauropod's snout.

Amelia's insides twisted with a mixture of amazement and disbelief. Her hand was shaking as she took it away, and Lale had to catch her shoulders so she didn't kneel down.

The dinosaur in front of her was why she had become a paleontologist. She owed everything she had to the animals that had tried to eat and attack them; and the ones, like the Brachiosaurus, who just stood and watched with intelligent eyes.

The Brachiosaurus snorted and released a rumbling bray, then lowered its mighty head to drink from the falls. From the corner of her eye, Amelia saw at least ten other recruits staring in awe.

They see it, too. The realization tightened her chest, and she gently worked her way from Lale's grip.

No more distractions. Amelia's emotions hardened a little. The dinosaurs are what matters. Lale would understand, she was sure - she didn't linger on the longing still left by their kiss.

As the Brachiosaurus drank, she worked her way back to her crutch and approached the awake recruits. Her jaw was set with determination, and she silently thanked the Brachiosaurus for reminding her of the overwhelming task before them.

Ichabod or no Ichabod, Amelia's knuckles whitened as she gripped the crutch even harder, we have to protect the dinosaurs.

Protecting the dinosaurs meant protecting humanity. She swallowed back a throb of regret as she felt Lale's gaze burning after her as she retreated from him, hoping to wash up before coming up with a plan of action for the recruits.

And that meant protecting Daryl.

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