Chapter Text
Claire had been on edge all day. She was expecting the new CEO of Masrani Global to come into her office today to discuss the future of the park. In all honesty, Claire was surprised the park had a future at all, she was even more surprised that two months after they reopened after the incident, all hotels on the island were sold out and ticket sales were through the roof. Now, almost a year after the Indominus, the park had fallen back into it’s normal routine, though everyone was a bit more cautious – especially Claire. She saw all the animals a bit differently now, the first difference being that she could no longer see them as just numbers on a spread sheet, they were living beings now all ingrained into her mind, particularly a newly hatched group of velociraptors.
Four months ago, Claire had been there right by Owen’s side when four new baby velociraptors poked their way out of their eggs and into the world. She had to admit that they were fairly cute as babies, and she even held them for a little while as Owen decided on names for all four of his new girls, and even asked Claire for a bit of help in naming them. Of course, in order to regain control of the park, all the dinosaurs had to be returned to their proper paddocks, and Blue was the last of them to have been captured, but she had made it. With India, Juliette, Kyla, and Lori to take care of now, Owen had a full plate, on top of looking out for Blue, and some days Claire swore he was busier than her anymore. Every night though, she made her way into their bed in his bungalow and curled up beside him, falling asleep to the steady sound of his breathing unless they had other plans in mind. And right now, more than any place in the entire world, Claire wanted to be in that bed beside Owen instead of trapped in her office as if it were a cage, waiting for some word that Lydia Carson was on her way.
A little ding chirped from her phone and Claire had hoped it would be Owen, letting her know he was still alive after she hadn’t heard from him all day. Instead it was Zach, who seemed to have formed a routine in the past six months, of texting Claire at least once a day everyday; and he always started with asking the same thing.
‘hey aunt claire, when can we visit again?’
She kept putting him off with promises of talking to Karen about it and rearranging her schedule since she was so busy with the park getting back on its feet. Claire knew it was only a matter of time though before those little white lies would catch up with her and both Zach and Gray would find a way to get here to her, if they were determined enough – which she knew they were.
“Ms. Dearing?” Her new assistant, Emma, was a polar opposite of how Zara used to be. Emma was quite and cautious; Claire often found herself mentally comparing Emma to a newborn deer, all big brown eyes, taller than Claire and as big around as a twig, and startled at the most sudden of noises.
“Go ahead, Emma.” Claire sighed and put her cell phone down without a response, she’d get back to Zach later at some point.
“Uh, Ms. Carson’s assistant just called, she said that Ms. Carson won’t be in today. She’s showing potential sponsors for a new attraction around the island.” Emma chewed on her bottom lip, nervously awaiting Claire’s reaction.
“Now she decides to call,” Claire grumbled. “No one cares to tell me anything in this place anymore.”
“If you want, you can go Ms. Dearing. I know you want to leave, I can handle things here.” Emma said as she tucked a stray piece of her blonde hair behind her ear.
Claire knew there was no other reason for her to stay today; things had been slowing down at the park, and as much as it bothered her that she had no idea what this new attraction was that Lydia Carson could be showing to sponsors, Claire had better things to do with her time now – like checking to see if Owen was still upright and breathing.
“Okay. Call me if there is any emergencies, and if Ms. Carson calls for me, give her my cell phone number.” Claire rose from her seat and grabbed her phone and purse, she remembered when she would trap herself in this office from dawn until dusk; ever since the incident however, Claire saw things differently and realized there were plenty of other places she would rather be spending her time.
“Enjoy the rest of your day!” Emma called out to her as Claire left the office.
There were only two places on the entire island that Claire knew she would find Owen at during the day. Her first stop the was paddock for the babies, it wasn’t far from where the old paddock had been for the girls, though it was drastically different from the one that once belonged to Blue and her sisters. This time, Jurassic World owned the raptors in that pen, and their home was built to be an attraction, at least for when they were grown and trained. Claire still remembered the day she told Owen that these raptors would have to be part of the park, the deal had been either they make a new pack of raptors for the masses, or Blue would be put on full display. She knew how much Blue had meant to Owen, and she fought tooth and nail to keep Blue out of it, these new baby raptors were the price of saving Blue.
“You can’t just turn them into damn circus animals! They’re animals, dinosaurs! They are not something that can be controlled, when will you understand that?” It had been their first real fight and Claire still felt the sting of it every time she came out here. It had taken her a while to calm Owen down and tell him it was either the babies or Blue and she did what she had to in order to protect the raptor he still loved so much. As it was, the chairmen of the company often reminded Claire how generous they were being in letting Blue remain alive and in her paddock that was earning them nothing.
The entire mood of this paddock was drastically different from the old paddock, not only was everything shiny and new, walkways in place for future park guests that led up into the paddock which resembled more of an observatory on the inside than anything else. There were still the catwalks that stretched out over the top of the paddock that no guest would ever be able to get to thankfully, but even the people there were different. Before most of the employees who had worked with Owen and Barry were all part of InGen as well, they did have a few interns from the park, but they were few and far between; now everyone was a Jurassic World employee and cared about the velociraptors being happy and healthy as opposed to thinking they’d become weapons someday. As much as Owen had wanted to hate the thought of these new raptors becoming an act, he had mentioned multiple times how he liked the new people he’d been working with – people who cared like him and Barry.
As Claire got out of her car, she wasn’t surprised to have almost immediately been spotted one of Owen’s interns – Trevor. Trevor was at best only a few years older than Zach but had Gray’s fascination with dinosaurs, particularly the velociraptors. Claire often teased Owen that he had a shadow now, and it didn’t help that Trevor resembled Owen a bit; Owen would occasionally grumble about how Trevor better not get any ideas about developing a crush on Claire. She hated to admit it sometimes, but Owen’s jealousy was adorable, especially when he thought a nineteen-year-old boy had a chance of stealing her away.
“Hey, Ms. Dearing!” Trevor called out to her from the top of the catwalk. “Are you looking for Owen?”
“Is he here?” Claire asked.
“He just left a few minutes ago, I don’t know where he went but…he was pretty pissed off after Barry talked to him. Tore out of here on his bike like a bat out of hell!” Trevor exclaimed.
Shit, Claire thought. There was only one thing that could tick Owen off, and there was only one place where he would go.
“I’ll find him.” Claire sighed.
“When you do, could you tell him that India is acting weird? She won’t eat anything and she won’t let her sisters eat either.” Trevor explained.
“I will.” Claire responded, though she knew more bad news would probably be the last thing Owen would want to hear right now.
Claire knew she had pulled up to Blue’s paddock just in time as soon as she saw Owen outside of it, yelling at one of the ACU guys and looking as if he were about to strangle him with his bare hands.
“Do you have any idea how long it will take for her to trust me again because you have a couple of trigger happy idiots working for you!” Owen was shouting at the man in front of him, though the man never flinched an inch.
“She was trying to escape.” The man stated calmly.
“Of course she was! She always has tried to escape, that’s why I’m here in the first place!” Owen was five seconds away from decking the guy square in the jaw.
“Owen!” Claire shouted as soon as she got out of her car and ran towards him. “Owen, what’s wrong?”
“Blue tried to get out and before Barry could even come and get me they shocked her and hit her with enough tranquilizers to keep her knocked out until tomorrow morning!” Owen was still riled up, and the chances of him hitting the ACU guy were still pretty high.
“She’s been out of her cage before, if she found a way out she would put the park at risk. You said it yourself that she doesn’t trust you fully yet, she wouldn’t listen to you like last time.” The man said.
It was the final straw for Owen and before Claire could even react, Owen’s fist made direct contact with the man’s jaw and sent him tumbling back a few steps.
“Okay, come on Owen.” Claire took his free arm and tried to pull him away. He stood his ground for a moment, having a silent stare down with the guy from ACU, but he finally relented and followed Claire into the safety cage where she could see a glimpse of Blue lying passed out on the ground inside the paddock. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Owen sighed as Claire took his hand; she knew he hit him pretty good since his knuckles were already turning a bit red.
“Blue tried to get out?” Claire asked.
“Third time this month, only every other time it was at night and usually either me or Barry was here with her and able to stop her.” Owen was relaxing a bit now, that much Claire could tell, but as he heard the other ACU members climb down from the catwalk, Claire could still see him bristle at their presence. “They just set me back three months with her or more.”
“Hey, it’ll be alright.” Claire reassured him, she had set a rule between them of no kissing at work, but she had been tempted in times like this to break those very rules.
“Yeah.” Owen mumbled. He gave Claire a quick kiss on the forehead, something she couldn’t really argue, before he walked over to the gate and watched Blue sleep.
Everything was still the same about Blue’s paddock, including the four harnesses that once held her and her sisters whenever Owen and Barry put them in there. Now they served as nothing but a haunting reminder of what had happened, and just how lonely Blue was in the world now.
“I know you’ve had your share of bad news for the day, but Trevor told me the girls were acting funny, India isn’t eating or letting the others eat.” Claire walked up beside him and watched Blue.
“They’re going to drive me nuts,” Owen gave a slight laugh, “that’s their new thing, they only eat if I’m there.”
“You’re their alpha after all, makes sense.” Claire gave a smirk while Owen laughed even more.
“India is their beta and she’s just like Blue. She likes to try and climb all over me to get my attention, do you know that this morning she tried to bite my ear to get my attention?” Owen smirked.
“She sounds like a little kid trying to get daddy’s attention.” Claire remarked.
“I wish she’d try with less teeth.” Owen said. “So, my day’s going spectacularly, how about yours?”
“I just want to go home and go to bed.” Claire sighed. “I spent all day waiting for that Lydia Carson to show up and she just had her assistant call a little while ago saying that she wasn’t going to be coming in today. Worst part is she mentioned something about showing sponsors around for a new attraction.”
“New attraction? You didn’t tell me you guys were working on a new attraction.” Owen looked down at her curiously now.
“Apparently no one decided to tell me that either. If you’re alright here, I’m thinking about paying a visit to the lab.” Claire said.
“Go ahead, I’m fine. I’ll go get the girls to eat and have Barry check on Blue. I’ll see you tonight, right?” Owen asked.
“Of course.” Claire grinned and gave Owen a peck on the lips.
“Hey, what was that about the no kissing rule again?” Owen asked with a smirk.
“Well, no one is really around so, it’s fine.” Claire shrugged.
“I knew this day would come, I’ve turned you into a rule breaker.” Owen sighed. “It was only a matter of time I guess, not much longer now until you’re breaking every single rule you can find.”
Claire rolled her eyes while Owen got a good laugh out of it. Claire’s phone started ringing and she had a dreadful feeling that it was either Emma calling with an emergency, or Lydia herself. Instead she saw a picture of Zach lighting up her phone, one she’d taken during her visit to Wisconsin a few months ago to check on the boys.
“Wow, from texting everyday to phone calls, if he wasn’t your nephew I’d be a bit suspicious.” Owen grinned though his smile faltered when he saw how worried Claire looked. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Claire sighed as she gave Owen a kiss on the cheek before answering the phone and walking away.