Midnight Ch. 08

All four of us stood in silence for a moment or two, then Nathan broke out into a wide grin, "Looks like we'll need a few more diggers."

Arnold glanced at his screen briefly, "When I say huge, I am really not joking."

I must admit, their nervous energy was beginning to infect me too, even though I still had no idea why. Again I asked, "Okay, so it's huge... How huge is huge?"

The Geophysicist faced me and said, "Are you familiar with a place called Zhu City in China?"

Confused, I looked from Nathan to Diana. Both of whom were now wide eyed.

"As big as that?" asked Nathan in awed tones, "That's fantastic!"

"What? What is it? What's Zhu City?" I asked.

Diana flopped into one of the folding chairs and stared glassily into space, she murmured, "Bloody Hell."

Nathan too looked somewhat shell­shocked as he stood there absently tapping the heels of his hands together.

Exasperated, I shrieked, "Why do I always have to ask twenty fucking times before someone answers me? What the fuck is Zhu City?"

Nathan zoned back into the room and looked at me. Abashed, he said, "Sorry Midnight... Erm... Zhu City is a place in China where they dug a trench about 300 metres or so and they found dinosaur bones... Lots of them," he grinned mischieviously at Diana, "I think we'll have enough to share."

Diana jumped up, "Really? You wouldn't mind?"

"I see no reason why not."

Diana gave him a fierce hug. Clearly all thoughts of the lost Saxon settlement now driven from her head.

I coughed meaningfully, not altogether happy about Diana in a clinch with my Nathan.

She threw me a quick look and then stood away from Nathan, she was blushing, "Erm... Yeah... Sorry... Anyway, Zhu City. They found about 9,600 fossils. If we have that sort of number, we're looking at many years of work."

To our surprise, Arnold shouted, "No! You still don't understand! Zhu City was 300 metres long. We've scanned an area over 400 by 100 metres and we're still finding positive results. I've even sent my boys up onto the slope at the western end and although I can't be certain," he looked at me directly, knowing I would need extra explanation, "The fossils will be buried too deep there to be sure, but initial results suggest that it continues even further. Also, we have no idea how far north it goes under the spur. Anyway, if the results come back positive, this site doesn't rival Zhu City... It dwarfs it!"

I must admit I was smiling now, "So our dig site is bigger than this Zhu City place. Cool!"

Nathan took a firm hold of my arm, "Midnight, you... You may want to sit down for this."

"What?"

"Well, not only did you discover what is definitely the biggest dinosaur field in Europe... It's possibly the single biggest find in the world."

Oh fuck!

I needed a minute to get my head around this particular nugget of information.

So... I'd found a dinosaur... Cool!

Which turned out to be possibly a new one... Way cool!

And only one of many fossils... Better and better!

That could be the biggest find in the world... Nope! Can't handle this.

The rush of blood in my ears was deafening. My head was pounding, and my heart was thumping at a thousand beats per minute. My legs were turning to jelly. I held on tightly to Nathan, desperately trying to keep control. I was losing the sensation in my hands and feet and my arms started to twitch uncontrollably. Tears were flowing freely as I looked up into Nathan's shocked face and sobbed, "Shit like this doesn't happen to people like me."

My eyes rolled back into my head and it all went dark.

I came to surrounded by blurred images that slowly resolved into three concerned faces. Nathan was holding my hand, "Are you okay, Midnight."

Blearily I answered, "Think so."

"Do you know where you are?"

I glanced around, "Yes. I'm on the floor."

Nathan helped me to stand up and sat me in a chair that Diana pulled over from by the table. Arnold poured a coffee from a thermos flask and offered it to me. I took a sip and then screwed up my face, "Blergh!"

Arnold asked, "What's the matter?"

"You could have put some fucking sugar in it!"

Nathan grinned, "I think she's fine."

I looked at him, "Not sure to be honest. I had this strange dream where you told me I'd discovered the biggest dinosaur field in the world."

"That wasn't a dream."

"Oh."

I sat in silence for a moment. It was still too big a deal for me to take in. Eventually I asked, "So what happens now?"

Diana piped up, "Now we do some digging and then make some more phone calls. We've got a mountain to climb."

With that, she headed out of the tent and I could hear her shouting for all the students to congregate at her admin tent. Arnold returned to his computer and started printing out hard copies of his images. Then he too headed out to talk to the Geophys teams. Nathan and I remained in the tent. He stroked my cheek and said softly, "Are you sure you're okay? This must be a bit overwhelming."

I sighed, "No, I'm good. Still don't quite believe it though."

"Understandable."

Still somewhat shaky on my legs, Nathan helped me to stand and then we followed Diana to the admin tent. When we got there we saw Diana surrounded by the students as she addressed them, "Right kids, as you know, the Saxon settlement is a bust," she paused to shake her head sadly, "But that's by the by. I have new tasks for all of you. Working individually, pick a spot at random and dig until you find evidence of fossil remains. Don't dig it out, simply mark the spot with a stake and then find another one. Keep at it until you've covered the entire area out from Alice to a distance of 100 metres that way," she indicated direction with a wave of her arms, she watched her students who stood in confused silence, "MOVE!"

The small crowd scattered to carry out her instructions and Diana turned to face Luke and Allison, "If you could join them it'd help."

Luke and Allison glanced at each other, and then Allison said, "But Dr Smethwick told us to keep working on our grid..."

Diana smiled, " I know that, but there's a change of plan and a big game may be afoot. I'm asking you to help the effort. We need to get some information back and then we'll be in a position to tell you what we know. Okay?

Luke and Allison glanced uncertainly at Nathan who nodded and then indicated with a flick of his head for them to comply. They shared a confused look and then hurried away to join Diana's students with the new task at hand.

I looked out across the area to see the students moving around, digging into the earth with their trowels. I was amazed at just how many times the digging stopped and a stake was placed. In the distance we could see Arnold directing his teams to re-scan the ground as it sloped back up and out of the scar. Then he came hurrying back and disappeared back into his tent.

I looked at Nathan and said, "You know what?"

He turned to face me, "What?"

"When we get to bed tonight..."

"Yes?"

I gazed back out at the hive of activity unfolding before us, "I'm gonna suck you inside out."

He laughed and drew me into a hug, "I love you, Midnight."

At this point, Diana wandered back towards us, "Oi! Get a room!" she giggled, "Come on, let's go and see what Arnold's up to."

Making our way back into the Geophys tent, we could see Arnold once again transfixed by the information building on his screens as the teams transmitted their data back. We watched in silence until finally, Arnold waved us over, "Look," he indicated dark areas on his screen again, "I got the boys to boost the power. Probably gonna burn the scanners out, but we are getting deeper into the ground. Look here, here and here."

He swivelled around on his chair to face us, "The field extends at least another 50 metres west.

I'm willing to stake my professional reputation, my first born and the sexual favours of my wife that we've hit the absolute jackpot!"

All four of us raced back outside and looked at the sea of stakes covering the ground. Nathan shouted for everyone to come back in. Once everyone was back, he addressed them, "Right! Listen in please. From this point on, what you hear is in strictest confidence, no talking about this site to anyone outside this group," he waved his hands for silence and waited for the excited muttering to die down, "I can't stress this enough! Absolutely nothing to anyone without the express permission of myself, Dr Pranaju or Professor Hendrik."

He then went on to explain exactly what we had found. The crowd listened in shocked silence.

More than one mouth hung open.

Nathan finished off, "Okay. We're going to arrange for the Earth Science Departments of Hull and York to be informed of our preliminary findings," he glanced at me, "Midnight, you'll be coming with me. I'll need you to put together a PowerPoint okay?"

I nodded.

He then turned back to the crowd, "Professor Hendrik, if you could take a couple of strong backs for digging some test pits, see if you can get some better results on the western slope and if you could email me all the images as and when you get them. Diana, if I could ask you to remain here and supervise the investigation of the area we've staked," he paused as Arnold and Diana nodded agreement, he grinned, "And nobody, but nobody is to touch Alice... That's Midnight's job."

There was general laughter and an excited buzz of muttered conversations. Nathan asked Diana, "Can you arrange for as many of your people as possible to get to Hull tomorrow afternoon?"

"For this? We'll be beating them off with a shitty stick!"

"Okay, say 2 PM? I'll let you know which lecture theatre I can get."

She nodded and then bustled off to make her calls and then to take control of the students.

Nathan smiled at me and then made a call of his own, "Hello Paula? It's Nathan. Tell me, is there a lecture room free for tomorrow afternoon?... Good, can you book it for me. I know it's short notice, sorry about that, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important... Okay... Thanks... Can you put me through to Dr Murtaugh?"

He waited and when the call was picked up he explained the situation in as much detail as he could, he finished off, "Okay Paul? I'd like as many of the Earth Sciences faculty as possible to attend... Okay... Yes, Diana Pranaju's going to stay here in charge and she's getting lots of hers from York to attend as well... Yep... I know, it's amazing... Okay, see you tomorrow... Bye."

Nathan turned to me and said, "Right! Lets get some photos."

We both spent the next hour using our mobile phones to take photographs of anything and everything all around the dig site. Nathan insisted that I pose with Alice, something to which I was far from averse. She was my friend after all. But I also demanded that we had a photo of Alice with me on one side and Nathan on the other.

"That'll be for my desk," I smiled.

Once it was decided we had enough, we hit the road. Not even stopping at the pub to get our clothes, we simply headed straight back to Hull.

"No point," Nathan explained, "We'll stay at home tonight and be back here tomorrow evening."

To be honest, it amazed me how animated Nathan had become and I was also surprised at how he had immediately taken control of the situation, he was displaying a level of confidence that I hadn't seen before. It seemed to me that I wasn't the only one with hidden depths.

We arrived back home at about 7PM. Once inside, Nathan fired up my Mac whilst I popped out to the chip shop for some food. When I got back, he had already started extracting images from his emails from Arnold onto the Desktop.

We sat down together eating sausage and chips straight from the paper and discussed what he wanted for the presentation. I balled up my empty food wrapping, dropped it in the bin and then made a start.

It was a simple enough affair. Just a photo per slide overlaid with one or two bullet points.

Nathan said, "I'll just wing the meat and gravy of it," he grinned and wrapped an arm around my shoulder causing the usual bolts of electricity and shivers, then he continued, "I've never worked so fast. Still, we need to strike while the iron's hot. And we need some proper confirmation before it all becomes public knowledge."

Once the presentation was completed, Nathan insisted that I was credited on the introduction page, so I quickly added my name under his and saved it in the shared directory.

I looked at my watch, "Blimey! It's nearly ten. What are we going to do now?"

Nathan planted a quick kiss on my cheek and smiled, "I recall someone made a threat earlier today."

I gave him a predatory smile, "Oh yeah," I grabbed his hand, "I'll race you to your room."

He pulled me up short, "No."

I looked puzzled until he said, "I'll race you to our room."

My face was beaming as I dragged him upstairs and did my very best to wear him out.

I think we called it a draw at about 1:30 AM.

The next morning found us back at Hull University. As we stood at the back of the car, Nathan grabbed his briefcase. He closed the rear door with a clunk and then took my hand in his, "Remember Midnight, I'd really rather nobody here knew about us."

I smiled gently at him and said, "It's okay. I understand."

Together we started towards Earth Sciences and talked as we walked, "Honestly Midnight. I just don't want you thinking I'm embarrassed or ashamed. I'm really not."

I was smiling to myself, "Nathan, I get it. I really do."

As we neared the building, I could see Paula through the window, she was sat at her desk busily typing away. She glanced up and spied us heading towards the front door of the building, when a smirk grew on her face. I waved and grinned back at her.

Nathan didn't notice, he continued, "I just don't want our relationship to change the office dynamic."

I glanced at him, he was clearly ill at ease, but I was beaming, "We've been through this already."

I could see that Paula had ceased typing and sat watching us, with her chin resting in her cupped hands, her grin wider than ever.

Nathan said, "I just like to keep my private life private."

"Yes Dear."

Nathan chuckled,"Sorry. I know I'm being silly. It's just I don't like my personal business being the talk of the department."

As we neared the building, I laughed, "Oh, I think it's too late for that."

"What do you mean?"

I nodded towards the window. He looked and we could see Paula, still smirking at us as she chattered excitedly into her phone. Nathan was puzzled, "Eh?"

"Nathan my Love... Look down."

He did so and I watched as the light dawned, "Shit," he muttered, "It'll be all over the department by coffee break."

I smiled broadly, "And all over the university by lunch."

Nathan hadn't realised it, but he had been holding my hand all the way from the car.

Nathan sighed, "Oh shit!"

As we passed Paula's desk, she offered us a wicked grin, "Good morning Dr Smethwick, enjoying the dig so far?"

He glared at her, "Not a word!" and stomped into our office.

She winked at me and then shrieked with laughter before she returned to her typing.

Nathan fired up his PC and started checking through the presentation again. It was obvious that he was upset by the fact that our relationship would soon be common knowledge around the campus.

I stood behind him and started to massage his shoulders as he sat at his desk. Speaking gently, I said, "Nathan, I'm sorry but did you really think it would remain secret? Even if you hadn't held my hand?"

He sagged, "I suppose not. It's just... I like to keep private things private... You know?"

"Good luck with that. It's like living in a goldfish bowl around here."

Nathan laughed, "I suppose. Still I just hope it doesn't cause any issues. I don't want people thinking... I don't know... That I was unprofessional."

"What do you mean?"

"That maybe I pressured you into anything."

I couldn't help smiling, "Nathan my Love, the only pressure I was under, was the pressure of keeping my hands off you... Almost from the day I met you."

We heard a nervous cough and looked up to see Paula stood quietly in the doorway. She looked embarrassed and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to listen in, but I couldn't help overhearing..."

Nathan looked angry, "What do you want, Paula?" he snapped.

"Well, the thing is... I'm not sure how to say this, but... Everybody already knew."

He looked scandalised, "What do you mean?"

Paula smiled gently, "I'm sorry to have to say this, but you're a pair of idiots. You two have been an item since day one. I saw it and over the months, so did everybody else. Seems to me, the only people who didn't," she waved her index finger at us, "were you two."

Now both of us must have looked shocked as Paula shrugged,"Sorry. Just thought you should know."

Then, with a wink, she closed the door and I assume, returned to her desk.

Nathan looked like he was in shock, "Really? Everyone already..."

It was then that something occurred to me. When Allison had been talking to me in the minibus back at the dig site, she had made a slip of the tongue. She had started to refer the Nathan as my boyfriend, but then corrected herself and called him my boss. Looks like Paula wasn't wrong.

I leaned down and draped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, "Discrete. Yeah. Sorry my Love but the cat is well and truly out of the bag."

Nathan leaned his head against mine and laughed, "I was being a bit silly, wasn't I?"

"It's okay, even a super genius can have an off day... Never mind that now though, let's make sure the presentation's set up."

After lunch, we made our way to the Faraday Lecture Hall and found that Dr Murtaugh had already herded most of the Earth Science department there. We could also see a number of faces we didn't recognise filing in and taking seats.

Nathan watched them for a moment, "Must be the blokes from York."

I made my way to the stage to set up the projection system and then waited. Nathan joined after a brief whispered conversation with Dr Murtaugh. Then he called for everyone's attention and when he had it, launched into his presentation.

First he gave an overview of the area and then went on to talk about the possibility of a Saxon settlement, which turned out to be a bust.

And then he started talking about my discovery of Alice, and I was quietly proud to hear just how heartily he stressed that she was was my discovery. He covered the initial investigation of Alice and how both he and Dr Pranaju came to the same conclusion that Alice was the first example of what he had tentatively named Hylaeosaurus Mediam, obviously subject to confirmation by the committee responsible for ratifying names of new species.

Then he went on to talk about the Geophy results and mentioned Professor Hendrik's thoughts on how much more extensive the dinosaur field could be.

I must admit, I was once again amazed at just how animated he was when discussing the subject he loved and also how good he was at taking command of the situation... So very different than the behaviour he displayed in social situations, such as faculty cocktail parties, etc, very few of which he attended anyway. I had to admit, it was like watching two different people.

At several points, various people had attempted to ask questions, but he politely brushed them off and said that all questions would be answered at the end. But apart from those random interruptions, the room was completely silent as the audience sat, hanging off his every word.

He than said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, that's the end of our presentation. Are there any questions?"

After a long moment of silence, the room erupted.

Nathan was unable to make himself heard over the cacophony of questions being thrown from all quarters, so Dr Murtaugh and another man I didn't recognise, joined us on stage.