Chapter Text
Watching him drive away was the hardest thing you’d ever done. You loved him, there was no denying that. However, you both agreed that it would be too hard to maintain the relationship while he was overseas. You decided to take a break and, when he finally came home, you would get back together if it were still meant to be. The only problem was, he never actually came back home.
You had sent him a letter when his mom passed, and you didn’t really expect a reply, but were disheartened none the less when nothing came back. You never stopped loving him, though; never even went on another date. You knew your heart would always belong to him even if he never came back to your small town. After a while, you decided you didn’t want to know why he didn’t return or even where he ended up. You went on with your life; saving up enough money for college where you began studying animal behavior. When InGen approached you through the Jurassic World Park with a job opportunity, you thought you’d give it a try. You’d never worked with dinosaurs exactly, but how different could it be really?
On your first day, you find out that you have to be analyzed before being placed with a certain dinosaur. This involves visiting every exhibit and listening to its trainer talk about their dinosaurs before you ever step foot in a paddock.
The t-rex exhibit was first, (weeding out the weak ones, you guess) and four of the nine people decide that they definitely couldn’t do that. It’s not a big deal to you, you’re not really afraid of big things. Next is the aviary: scary, but still doable. The Apotosauraouses are your favorite so far. The gentle giants just called to you. One actually came right up to you, sniffing you, and allowed you to scratch her head. It was the single greatest accomplishment of your life.
However, as you approach the raptor exhibit, you suddenly wished the T-Rex had eaten you. You see him up there on the catwalk, calling out commands and you panic. It’s been years since you’ve seen him, and frankly, you didn’t think you ever would again. You pull your hair back into a ponytail and put on your official park trainer ball cap, slip on your sunglasses, and try everything in your power to just not look like yourself. All you have to do is get through this and you’ll never have to see him again (at least that’s what you tell yourself).
He walks over to the group with that goddamned smug look on his face that you could never get enough of. He looks the same, but different somehow. He looks harder, and sadder, and less… trusting. His eyes don’t shine like they used to, and he doesn’t seem to smile much anymore, at least not genuinely.
The way he talks about the raptors nearly takes your breath away. He loves them. You can see that, because that’s exactly the way he used to talk about you way back when. You can see by the way that they react to him that they love him too or at least respect him greatly. You remember all your old fantasies of seeing Owen raise a baby and replaced that image with baby velociraptors and you were sure he made a great father. He seems to be just about to finish up when he asks if anyone wants to volunteer to go up on the catwalk. Obviously everyone is too afraid to so he looks in your direction and your blood runs cold.
“How about you, ponytail?” he asked, “You too scared?”
You can feel your posture straighten as his challenge sinks in. You shake your head, not trusting your voice and go to walk up but he put his arm out to stop you.
“Hold up now, first they gotta know your name. It’s all about trust with them.” He gives you a smirk, turning on all his charm and you’d be lying if you said it didn’t hurt your heart a little.
“Well,” you say, trying to keep your voice calm (and slightly different than how you normally sound) “Just call me ponytail.”
You walk up to his spot on the catwalk and call their names like he had, and they come running. However, after a few moments you hear someone yell “PIG LOOSE!” and you feel the catwalk shake as a keeper runs by you. He bumps into you, knocking you into the railing and you lose your balance, falling over into the paddock.
Your first thought when you hit the ground is how bad your ass hurts, but you quickly look up into the eyes of four preening raptors. You hear Owen behind you in the safety cage trying to get the door open when you stand up.
“No, stay down!” he shouts, sounding panicked, “they’ll think you’re challenging them. Just stay down.”
You ignore him, and for a split second you think that dying because of him might give you some sort of relief, but you press that feeling down quickly. Instead, you slowly take off your hat as you stand up and remove your glasses. You keep your body bent slightly, so they’re still towering above you, but you put your arms out.“C’mon now Blue, down girl. It’s okay.”
Owen finally gets in the cage and jumps in front of you, slowly pressing you backwards towards the door before you both jump through.
You sit on the floor laughing at the adrenaline pumping through your veins when Owen looks up at you. You remember you’re no longer wearing your disguise, but you feel no shame or embarrassment. He’s the one that deserves to be embarrassed. You puff your chest out slightly and stand up, brushing the dirt off your pants.
“Thanks. Thought you were just gonna leave me. You’ve always been pretty good at that.” You mood shifts as you say this coldly and begin to walk out of the cage.
Owen jumps up and grabs you by the arm, spinning you around to kiss you hard and you could swear you hear people cheering. His lips taste the same as they always did, but now they’re desperate and hungry. It feels like he’s pouring his soul into you and begging for forgiveness, but that just isn’t enough for you. You pull back, and look him in the eyes, actually unsure of what to say. You just shake your head, pretending there aren’t tears in your eyes as you turn and walk away.
You hear him behind you, “Y/n, I-“
But you cut him off. “Not now Owen.” You say, still shaking your head, “I juts can’t do this right now.”