He dropped back onto the ground,
wishing for all the world, that it would just open up and swallow him in.
He couldn't take much more of
this.
Dr Grant, yes *the* Dr Alan
Grant, of Jurassic Park fame, had agreed to give him, and one other student, a
'try-out' to determine who joined his team, and traveled with him to the new dig
in Montana. Billy had been too thrilled for words, when Dr Grant had asked him
to try out, which is why he couldn't now believe what a complete mess he was
making of it all.
His 'opponent', a sickeningly
smart, unbearably good looking, and repulsively *blonde* young man named Richard
Davies, was doing *everything* right.
That bastard was asking all of
the right questions, never put a foot wrong, and always looked so fucking
*clean* and tidy.
Billy reined in his general
loathing of the other student, and silently vowed that it was 'nothing
personal', he just hated everything about the guy.
Jealousy was an ugly emotion, but
at least he was man enough to admit that that's what it was.
No, he was striking out because
he was making a mess of things, and Richard wasn't. That was the simple,
inescapable truth.
It had started badly, when he,
and Richard had broken down on the way to the dig, and Billy had drawn the short
straw to get out, and push the jeep...in the pouring rain.
He'd sunk so far into the mud,
that the spatter from the skidding wheels had covered him from head to toe by
the time they'd gotten it going again.
What a way to arrive, looking
like a street bum.
Of course, Richard looked just
fucking *divine* when *he* met Dr Grant for the first time.
Grant had just smiled, that
quiet, enigmatic smile that gives nothing away, when he'd seen the state of
Billy, and told him to get cleaned up before he caught a chill.
Covering his face with his hands,
Billy recalled, in horrible, mind numbing detail, how he'd been unable to say
anything, and just nodded dumbly before scurrying away like a schoolboy.
He was such a *jerk* whenever Dr
Grant was around. Life was *so* unfair.
Not content with that fiasco,
fate had dealt him a few more blows, just to crush his confidence, and grind it
into the dirt, once and for all.
The worst had been when he'd
managed to demolish the tent...with Dr Grant, and Richard inside it.
He'd been sent to collect the new
imaging computer from the truck. It wasn't like a normal personal computer, this
was a cumbersome, brute of a machine, and unbelievably heavy. Billy couldn't
bring himself to go back, and ask *Richard* for help, so he vowed to struggle on
alone. As he'd stumbled along the uneven ground, unable to look where he was
going, he'd managed to trip on the tent's main guide rope, becoming impossibly
tangled, and soon bringing the damnable thing crashing down.
When he was finally 'untangled',
he'd found himself looking up into the smiling face of Dr Grant.
"Billy, why didn't you ask
for help?" Grant had asked.
Once again, Billy found himself
bereft of speech. He'd merely shrugged, and shook his head.
He had never wanted to cry so
badly in his life.
"I....sorry.." he'd
mumbled eventually.
"That's okay, accidents
happen," Grant held out his hand, and pulled Billy to his feet.
"You've cut your head, come with me, I'll clean it up for you."
Billy swallowed hard at that
memory. By the time they'd gotten to a tent that he *hadn't* managed to destroy,
he was shaking like an idiot.
Alone with Grant in that tent,
Billy had so badly wanted to say something, to ask an intelligent question; to
ask about Jurassic Park, and what it was like to come face to face with *real*
dinosaurs, but he couldn't say a word.
Dr Grant had sat him down, and
gently cleaned the small cut on his forehead, finishing it off with a band-aid.
The sensation of being touched by
Alan Grant, had been like fire touching ice, and Billy had melted fast.
Rivulets of sweat had snaked down
his back, and his whole body had felt like it was on fire.
That was another thing that Billy
dreaded becoming apparent.
He was gay.
Bad enough to strike-out because
he was an idiot, but he didn't want to leave here with Grant thinking he was
some kind of freak too. Not that, deep in his heart, he could ever see Alan
Grant thinking something like that, but this was *his* pity party, and he could
cry if he wanted to.
Still lying on the ground,
mourning the broken Velociraptor bone, Billy closed his eyes, and let himself
have a moment of his favorite fantasy. Hell, he deserved it. It had been a
really long, lousy day.
The story was always the same,
and it always starred Alan Grant, a tent, and getting naked in record time. So,
it didn't have much in the way of plot, but the action sequences were *great*.
Alan had that weathered, rugged,
look that had turned Billy on since he was a teen, when he'd developed a serious
'Indiana Jones' fetish.
Then, there was the hat.
There was just something about a
man in a fedora that lit the flame in his belly so bad, it made him ache in all
those pleasant little places just thinking about it.
Yeah, Alan would *have* to keep
his hat on.
Just his hat.....
"Hey, Brennan?" a voice
suddenly shattered his dream, and Billy shot to his feet.
"What?"
Richard smiled that 'perfect'
barracuda smile, "Dr Grant wants to see us. I think he's made his
choice," he smirked.
Never having been the violent
type before now, Billy realized that he really badly wanted to punch that smug
bastard's lights out, but decided he'd wait until *after* Dr Grant had thrown
him out of the program, to do it.
He took one last look around the
site, and sighed. Despite everything that had happened, he'd never been happier
in his life than he'd been this past few weeks, working here, in the field, with
Alan Grant.
Oh well, all dreams have to
end......
Watching the jeep pull away,
Billy still couldn't believe it. Dr Grant had chosen *him*.
"You want a cup of coffee,
Billy. You look like you need one?" Alan Grant called out to him.
"Thank you, sir," Billy
mumbled.
"Don't call me 'sir', I'm
not a knight of the realm. Call me 'Alan' when we're working, and maybe 'Dr
Grant' in front of the backers, but *never* call me 'sir'." Alan smiled
suddenly as Billy's eyes widened in horror, that maybe he'd committed another
faux pas. "Relax, Billy, I'm teasing you."
"Oh, okay.
Thanks...Alan," Billy tried it for size, and the name felt wonderful on his
lips. "Can I just ask you, why you chose me, and not Richard? He was
'perfect'. He never made mistakes, he asked all the right questions, and he
*never* gets dirty," he asked, puzzled, "The guy must be Teflon
coated!"
Alan Grant laughed, as he handed
Billy a cup of steaming hot coffee. "Why did I choose you?" he cocked
his head slightly, and smiled, "Because you're smart, dedicated, and you're
not afraid to get your hands dirty, or anything else, judging by the state you
were in when you arrived. You haven't exactly had the best few weeks here, have
you?"
"You noticed?" Billy
felt his face crack into a shy smile. So, Alan Grant was more observant than he
let on?
"Yet, despite the accidents
that have befallen you, you've never given up on anything. In this field, you
have to be tenacious, driven, and determined. I think you're all of those
things. But, the main reason I chose you over Richard?"
Billy looked up expectantly.
Alan sat back in his chair and
grinned, "You never *once* asked me about 'Jurassic Park'."
The end of the beginning........