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“Who is the cutest little baby?”
He scooped Blue into his arms, ignoring the shocked and disgusted look from Dr. Wu.
“What are you doing?”
He pulled Blue closer, feeling her cuddled against his chest, and gave the scientist a confused look.
“What do you mean?”
“That’s a vicious raptor, not a baby.”
“I know, obviously.”
He glared, and Blue purred in his arms. Her little head bumped into his arm, wanting attention and affection. Owen looked away and began fawning over his raptor instead. He stared at them for a long moment, wondering if he was seeing things. There was no way someone was crazy enough to hold a raptor Blues age, much less close to anything vital.
He watched as Owen nuzzled their noses together, completely ignoring the sharp fangs by his face. He sighed internally and reminded himself that whoever agreed to be the Raptors' handler had to be crazy.
He’d have to get Barry involved and hope the other man wasn’t as crazy and could maybe, by some miracle, talk some sense into Grady.
Owen ignored the weird comment and took Blue home. They played around for a bit until lunchtime rolled around. He went to his fridge and noticed there was food for Blue but none for him. He fed Blue, who sat in his lap, eager to have lunch. She was so cute, even when she almost bit his fingers.
Grabbing a car seat and Blue's favorite blanket, he placed her inside and wrapped the blanket around her.
“Shh. I need to grab some food, and I don’t want you scaring the guests. Claire will be very unhappy with me if I do that.”
He spoke the last part in a baby voice.
Blue cooed, and he smiled. Playing some 90s rock in the car. It wasn’t long before Blue fell asleep in her car seat. He carefully buckled the seat into her stroller and placed a blanket over the opening so no one could see inside.
He found a restaurant that wasn’t very crowded and also allowed take out. Ordering his food, one of the workers smiled at the stroller.
“Who's this little cutie?”
Before he could stop her, she lifted up the blanket and looked inside, which was really rude. The worker gasped and took a step back in surprise.
“Is that a dinosaur!?”
“Sorry, I didn’t have any food at home, and I can’t just leave her behind, she’s only a baby after all.”
He gave the worker a sheepish look and forced himself to be friendly even though he was angry at her for almost waking Blue when she moved the blanket to the side.
The worker looked between him and the stroller in a mix of emotions. He just smiled and acted as though everything was perfectly normal. When his food arrived, one of them asked what kind of dinosaur, and he calmly replied.
“She’s a raptor.”
He didn’t notice the way their eyes went wide or their face went pale as they looked at the stroller. All of them backed away in fear, acting as though he was holding a bomb. It was a little too much for him, and he realized why the line was so short. No one wanted to deal with the staff's nosiness always up in other people's business. He waved goodbye and went back home with Blue, where they shared his meal.
After a short nap, the two of them decided to explore a little on his bike. He wondered if he could take Blue on some of the rides during off-hours. Not any of the big ones, but one of the smaller ones for babies. He knew other employees would ride the rides after the park closed, and it was one of the benefits of working there. He’d been so busy getting ready to raise raptors, he’d never taken advantage of it.
When the park closed, he went to the ride portion of the park. Other employees were also gathered around waiting to go on rides. He had Blue strapped against his front with a hat on her head since it was getting colder.
They went on a few rides together, with Blue cooing and looking around in excitement. He held her close, laughing and enjoying her happy tail wags. The other employees stayed away from the two of them, quickly realizing he wasn’t holding a baby, and instead a raptor. They whispered behind his back, asking if he was insane. He was used to it and ignored them, not wanting them to ruin their fun. Blue was enjoying herself, and that's all that matters. Going on these rides was a good idea, and he was glad to see her so happy.
Whenever he walked up to a ride, he noticed the employees working the rides looking conflicted. They didn’t want him on with a baby raptor, but they were also too scared of her to say no, which was ridiculous. He’d trained Blue since she hatched that humans weren’t food. She wasn’t going to attack them unless provoked.
After riding on some rides, they grabbed dinner at a different spot. He didn’t want to deal with those rude employees from earlier. When he arrived, they offered him take-out with a large variety of food to try. He thought it was very nice of them and didn’t realize they did it because they didn’t want Blue inside.
After the long day, Blue ended up falling asleep, and he took her home. She woke up enough to help him eat his dinner and her own before falling back asleep. He smiled, taking a picture to send Barry, and fell asleep with Blue in his arms.
In the morning, he was awoken to someone knocking on his door. Disoriented, he opened the door and found Barry standing outside looking unimpressed.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Do you know how many complaints I’ve received?”
“What?”
He gave Barry a confused look, wondering what he was talking about.
“Multiple employees have sent in complaints about you putting their lives at risk.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
He scoffed.
Blue barked at his feet, agreeing with his assessment.
“See, even Blue agrees.”
He walked into the kitchen to make Blue her breakfast, and Barry followed, looking annoyed.
“Multiple employees claim you brought Blue to Main Street.”
“I needed food. Besides, Blue didn’t do anything; she was sleeping. If anything, that girl was bothering us. She’s the one who peeked into her stroller. I should make a complaint against her if she's doing it to my baby, she's doing it to other peoples.
“Blue isn’t your baby.”
He gasped, giving him an offended look.
“You take that back right now.”
“Come on, Owen, can we please not get into this. Upper management is breathing down my neck to talk to you about bringing Blue near guests.”
“Fine, I won’t bring her to Main Street when it's open.”
“Or at night.”
“What? That’s not fair. She likes the rides, and when she's older, she’ll want to roam around a bit. I promise I’ve got her under control; she won’t do anything.”
“You took her on rides?”
Barry stared at him as though he were insane, and he shrank back, mumbling.
“Only the baby ones.”
“I thought that complaint was fake. I thought there was no way you would take a raptor onto a ride.”
“I wanted her to have fun. You should have been there, Barry. We had so much fun together.”
Blue barked in agreement, and Owen smiled, holding her closer.
“See, she liked it. I don’t want to tell her she can’t go on the rides again because a couple of busybody humans are scared.”
“They have every right to be scared. You know what those raptors did at Jurassic Park.”
“Blues not like that.”
He sighed, collapsing onto the couch. If he weren’t working right now, he would have asked for a beer. Owen sat next to him with Blue in her arms. The raptor cuddled close and quickly fell asleep. Like this, she looked adorable, but he knew how dangerous she could be.
“Wu is questioning your mental state.”
“Whatever?”
He huffed.
“Owen, please just try not to make any enemies… More enemies than you already have.”
Barry added the last part, remembering Claire.
“I’m not trying to. The people who complained are the problem.”
“Just try and meet them halfway, you know they're scared. They don’t know Blue like we do.”
“Fine.”
Owen sighed and pet Blue's head.