Chapter Text
Being a single father wasn’t something Owen Grady every expected he would be. He went from serving in the Navy with a PHD in animal behavioral science and Zoology to getting a job as a dinosaur researcher at the renowned Jurassic World. He enjoyed working with the herbivores and even more so with the few carnivores, but he was the farthest thing from working one of the shows. He was an outdoorsman, he prefered animals to people, he occasionally forgot to shower, but after seeing his pudgy chubby cheeked little baby boy he was all for trying the whole father thing. The mother didn’t want to be in the picture, but it didn’t matter much to Owen mostly since they hadn’t even really had a thing in the first place.
His little nose, his rosebud mouth that gummed on his ears, pink chubby cheeks, fingers that found their way into everything. Little Dante Grady was Owen’s world and as much as his mother disagreed he couldn’t leave his life at Jurassic World even with Dante. The Apatosaurus’ always made him smile and Owen never forgot to put sunscreen and a hat on his precious little baby. The one time his favorite teddy bear had gotten dropped in the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo almost ended in disaster when a baby dino had thought it looked tasty and almost took a bite out of it, but the caretakers rescued the teddy saving everyone from having to hear Owen’s little boy’s heartbreaking cries.
The Velociraptors being hatched took a couple tries, but the second hatch yielded one survivor of the clutch and just like when Owen first saw little Dante he instantly fell in love with Bravo, who was renamed Blue, after seeing her signature stripe running down her body. She was so intelligent, sharp, no way in hell docile especially with how she treated the scientists, beautiful. Imprinting on him helped, but Owen tried to radiate calmness, warmth, security, and strength. She scratched his fingers a little with her tiny claws, but thankfully doesn’t nip once he has some bits of meat in her mouth, “You’re gonna do great, Baby Blue, I just know it.”
Dr. Wu said, “She’ll need to be fed often, so I can have some people make rounds to drop food in for her. It will take time to make a new clutch.”
Owen took Blue into his arms ignoring her new initiative to burrow into his Henley, “Raptors are social animals. She doesn’t have a pack at the moment and she can’t just be left alone waiting for food to drop into her cage if you want her to grow up well adjusted. She can stay at my place with me.”
Dr. Wu frowned, “Mr, Grady, you do realize you have an infant son at home and you want to bring an apex predator, even a hatching, into your home?”
Owen spoke to Blue more than he did Henry, “Dante’s being watched by Barry. You’re gonna be real nice to him aren’t you. Baby’s are friends not food. No eating humans. Even Vic Hopkins; don’t want you eating any junk food. Baby Blue’s got those big beautiful eyes just like my baby.”
Dr. Wu rolled his eyes, but didn’t comment. One of his assistants on the other hand, “You’re a madman, You’re completely insane.”
Blue gave a squeaky squawk in reply and it made Owen grin, “My psych eval came back just fine thank you. Henry, I wanna be notified when the next clutch is ready to hatch. Until then piss off.”
Dr. Wu sighed and got back to work, “As polite as always, Mr. Grady.”
When Owen first walked into his bungalow with Blue bundled up in his jacket Barry got onto the counter and held a smiling Dante over his head, “Merde! Owen, why in the name of God would you bring that raptor in here! I know you told me to put him in the raptor onesie for the occasion, but this is too far.”
Owen sat Blue down on the floor to let her explore, and Barry seemed to hold Dante even higher into the air. Dante wiggled as he smiled at the baby dinosaur that was sniffing her stroller. Owen explained, “Barry meet Blue. Her whole clutch died, okay, and she can’t be alone. That’s why I brought her here. Just get down from there and let me introduce Dante to Blue.”
Barry slowly climbed down, but kept a close eye on Blue who was watching him with a piercing gaze, “Owen, you know I wanna work with the raptors, but Dante is just a baby. We don’t know Blue might just decide to make the little human out as a midnight snack.”
Owen assured him, “She won’t. If she knows since she knows I’m pack. Dante’s scent will be a little like mine since he’s my baby. He’ll just smell more babyish. Come on, give him here.”
Blue hissed at Barry cautiously and moved back a few paces, but didn’t do anything when Owen walked towards her with Dante in his arms. Barry muttered, “It’s like your introducing the new baby to the family dog.”
Owen chuckled, “That’s ridiculous. Blue’s the new baby here.”
Owen kneeled down and situated Dante on his knee. Dante gurgled with his pudgy hand in his mouth while Blue peeped in return, “Dante, this is Blue. Blue, this is Dante. Be nice to each other. Ohana means family.”
Barry said, “We’re near Costa Rica, not Hawaii.”
“Buddy, don’t bash on Lilo and Stitch. Dante, say hi to Blue.”
Dante reached his wet little hand out to Blue. Owen heard Barry draw in a sharp breath, but he had faith in his new little girl. Barry jumped when Blue squawked, but instead of testing out the baby hand with her teeth she butted into it with her head. Dante tried his best to mimic her squeaking sound. Even if no one else did, Owen had a good feeling about Dante and Blue getting along great.
Blue never once used her claws or teeth against Dante. There were a few accidents with Owen, but never Dante.
As Dante sat in his bouncer, Blue would knock her hands and head against the little toys overhead making him giggle and kick his legs. She would whack them back and forth while Dante held onto his toes. Occasionally biting the toys, but never destroying them since they were Dante’s toy’s and not her’s. Blue would try and copy the baby’s shrieks of joy, and it made Owen smile as much as it nearly gave Barry a heart attack.
It never ceased to freak people out when he took Blue and Dante for a walk around the park. Dante in his stroller, and Blue walking alongside with a binky in her mouth she had commandeered.
Owen tried his damn well hardest to get Dante’s first words to be Dada, but he still got teary eyed when the first word out of his baby boy’s mouth was Boo. It didn’t even take that long for Blue to start responding to it. Sometimes Blue would even respond more to Dante’s baby talk then she would Owen’s clicker.
Blue eventually developed a series of honks to signify calling for her alpha. Long honk, short honk for Owen. Dante tried to emulate it, but eventually just settled for Dada. Blue was developing magnificently, but the time came for her to meet her new packmates. It took some sniffing, some nipping, and some squabbling over strips of meat, but Blue accepted them and the younger ones accepted Blue as the boss. With Charlie, Delta, and Echo Blue really wouldn’t have to stay in his house anymore. He wouldn’t find Blue curled up next to Dante in his bed, or find her guarding his bassinet. She wouldn’t have to curl into a bundle of blankets. She could have a pack to cuddle up with and spend her time outdoors in the small paddock while the big one was being built.
The whole plan might have turned out better if Blue hadn’t been so close to her Alpha and accepted the alpha’s offspring as pack.
Owen got phone call after phone call of people saying the raptors wouldn’t calm down, and wouldn’t stop screeching. He also had to deal with a screaming baby who wouldn’t settle down after his favorite playmate couldn’t be found. He dragged himself across the floor, copying Blue’s noises trying to get a response, and falling back on his diaper clad tush in tears when his searches of the bungalow ended in vain. No one slept very well that night.
The next day the raptors were moved back Owen’s house.
Blue didn’t leave Dante’s side and followed him wherever Owen took him; his highchair, his crib, he had even found Blue managed to get into his playpen at one point.
Delta was the second oldest, quick and attentive, her DNA was definitely more birdlike. She was a quick learner, sometimes even more so than Blue, and she had a strong taste for hot dogs. It was their little secret since if Barry found out he would flip since Delta was his favorite girl.
Charlie was a sweetheart most of the time. She had a nasty habit of going after shoelaces, but she was extremely affectionate and sometimes pretty lazy.
Echo was the youngest. She was loud, mischievous, and determined to prove she was strong even though she was the youngest. She tried to use Owen’s fingers as a chew toy on more than one occasion. He didn’t really mind. He’d only tap or nose when she cut too deep.
They never had any big incidents involving Dante until they started getting bigger and Dante was just over a year old and learning how to walk. Dante would grab onto furniture and bounce himself up and down. He’d hold onto Owen’s fingers as he supported himself onto his chubby legs and on one occasion Owen had caught him holding onto Blue’s claw and the two moved slowly across the kitchen before Dante fell back down.
Dante laid on the floor in the living room and kicked his legs back and forth, “Dada, dada dada! Boo!”
Owen had been in the kitchen giving Blue a check up when he heard Dante calling for them. He didn’t think anything of it since Dada and Boo were some of his favorite words right up there with Cookie, but Blue immediately jumped off the counter and ran into the living room. Owen rushed after her to see Echo dragging Dante across the floor with her teeth dug into his sock. Blue jumped onto Echo and made her let go with her own teeth and claws. Delta ran out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion was. Blue let Echo go, but Owen saw a little blood drip onto the floor, but Echo got away and hid.
Dante started to cry, so rather than Blue going after Echo she tried to inspect his foot for any injury. Charlie peeked out of Owen’s laundry basket and hopped over to see what was up. Blue growled in warning at her, but Charlie slowly approached Dante and gently licked at his tears.
They moved away when Owen picked Dante off the floor and rocked him, “Oh, my poor baby. Are you okay, baby boy? Let me see your footsie.”
Owen slowly took the sock off. Some threads were torn on the sock and there were some pinprick bruises from the pressure of Echo’s teeth, but no blood. Dante whimpered and Owen tried to soothe him, “It’s okay, Baby. Did mean old Echo scare you, hmm? It’s okay, Daddy’s here. Blue got Echo into trouble for being mean. It’s okay.”
Dante cried, “Boo, Boo!”
Blue licked his foot and nuzzled her head against Dante and Owen. Charlie and Delta tried to show some love too, but only were allowed after Blue was sure they wouldn’t do anything bad. It took a long time before Blue would even let Echo anywhere near Dante, but Dante forgave her almost immediately, and Blue did too with time.
One thing Owen knew for sure of, no matter what anyone else said, was Blue would protect Dante no matter what.
They would all end up in Owen’s lap with Dante laying on his chest surrounded by Blue until they started getting too big moving on from their toddler raptor stage to nearly full grown raptors. Dante still threw a tantrum saying he was a mean daddy and all the raptors looked at him like Owen had just broken their raptor hearts, but he had no choice. Vic had already been breathing down his neck, but Claire put her foot down. The large permanent paddock had been finished. and even if his house was close enough drive to the paddock it wasn’t close enough for Dante’s taste.
The girls got used to their new home, but Dante still didn’t like not being able to play with them anymore.
Security made it well known they didn’t support Owen’s decision to have Dante around the paddock even though it was only on the catwalk much to Dante and Blue’s dismay. Dante would toddle around and try his hardest to help his daddy with the girl’s training or just play quietly with his toys if the security team on duty were being particularly grumpy.
They’d probably blow a gasket if they knew Owen took Dante into the paddock when no one was around. His girls and little boy were all growing up. Dante was picking up more and more words in English and even some in French, even more puzzling was when Dante would try and speak in squawks and the occasional growl. Blue would seem to know what he was saying and react accordingly. Owen just took it as a sign he needed some human time and be around people who spoke in actual words.
The girls were becoming the vicious apex predators of their ancestry, to really everyone but Owen and Dante. Owen still saw his chihuahua sized little girls who curled into his bed during a thunderstorm. Barry had joked that Dante had four protective older sisters, and Owen couldn’t think of a single thing to counter it.
The park was thriving.
Everything was fine until Owen woke up one day to find his girl’s paddock empty, and his toddler, Dante, was nowhere to be found.