A/N: Written for QLFC Round 3, for Keeper. Jurassic World!AU that is more of a character study then a actual alternate universe.
...
Rowena almost doesn't apply.
Three hours before her resume and cover letter are due, Rowena sits in her university's guidance office in front of a counselor who looks at her nose ring, perfectly straight blue hair, and stack of crumbled papers with all A+ on them, with a wrinkled nose.
"Ms. Ravenclaw," the woman says after a heavy pause, "You study all three sciences. Have you considered applying for the Jurassic Park program? I know they're looking for some fresh researchers and I suspect a more … unconventional program would be to your liking."
That's how she ends up spending her afternoon cooped up in her dorm room, upside down on her tiny bed as she triple-checks that her credits are enough to grant her entrance, and then wastes another thirty minutes cross legged on the floor, praying to the stars that she can leave this tiny midwest college for something, anything, more.
Why would you like to join the Jurassic Park program? The essay question asks and Rowena snorts. This is why she wants to apply: because she hasn't heard from anyone in her family in months, because her professors call her a prodigy and a problem child all at once, because last year she skipped a month of class to sit in the park and blow bubbles and still ended up being two months ahead of her class.
She's bored and frustrated, crumbled like ripped up textbook pages, because she's never even left her hometown and she can still see her childhood home if she stands on the hill at the edge of campus and looks out at the horizon.
…
When she finds out she got the job, it's 3:26 AM on a Wednesday and Rowena sits on the roof of a building she's not allowed to be anywhere near, and flicks her cigarette stub on the ground, wishing for a happy ending.
…
Her co-researcher's name is Helga Hufflepuff. She arrives at the office in a sundress with bright yellow nails and freckles covering every part of her skin and her personality is so bubbly it comes off as desperate, and she says she's a bioethicist — "I just want to change the world, you know?" — and she tells Rowena she's delighted to meet her while engulfing her in a hug so tight it leaves her gasping for air.
Rowena doesn't know jackshit about changing the world, especially on whether she even wants to. She doesn't know anything other than small town life and the books she used as an escape mechanism.
"The delight's all mine," Rowena says, tone bored, and she pops her gum. Beside them, sixty dinosaur samples are laid out in the darkened lab, microscopes and tubes filling the rest of the space.
If Helga is hurt by her dismissal, she doesn't show it.
…
There's a strict schedule at Jurassic Park. 6am is wake up, and lab hours never seem to end. Whenever they're done, they send a lab report on each specimen to the main lab and within an hour, there's another assignment.
"I used to love dinosaurs," Helga says, exhausted, her stomach growling.
Rowena usually doesn't bother responding to her endless chatter but she hasn't slept in a week or talked to anyone but her guidance counselor, who seems to live primarily for her updates.
"And now?" Rowena asks, not looking up from her cell dissection.
Helga lets out a shocked, shocked sound, like a wounded animal, and Rowena thinks she may have been a bit harsh with her nonstop silence.
"Now I'm ready to eat one," Helga says quietly and quickly, like she's hoping not to end Rowena's temporary communication.
Rowena snorts at that, her own stomach grumbling in agreement, and when she looks up, Helga's staring at her like she's never seen her before.
…
They get their first real assignment four months after they got into the program. Cloning DNA is hard enough, but cloning combined DNA from two different samples is worse— nearly impossible.
"I wonder what they're from," Helga says absentmindedly.
Rowena feels it on the tip of her tongue. She's spent the last four months categorizing them and certain names have stuck in her mind despite how often she tries to forget.
"T-Rex and stegosaurus," she blurts out and grins victoriously. It's still classified information clearly, since it wasn't provided to them, but classified isn't in her vocabulary.
Helga doesn't look proud. She looks horrified. "Isn't that a security risk? I thought the park was creating dinosaurs that would be entertainment for the public… not a threat. There's no security that can hold one of those in."
"Ye of little faith," Rowena says with a snort. "Creating dinosaurs was supposed to be impossible too, and here we are."
Helga laughs at that but she still looks uncertain. Bioethicist to the bone, it seems, and Rowena is reminded of their first meeting.
"I just want to change the world, you know?"
Rowena thinks she knows the answer to that now.
…
The opening of the Jurassic Park is quite possibly the most beautiful thing Rowena has ever seen. Glowing lights are hung on the trees, and the dinosaurs stand grandly in their pens.
Above them, the roller coaster ride shines and Rowena wishes she could be up there, going through a safari tour instead of on the ground.
It's a beautiful place, and being here on opening night, it seems like everything is so far in the past. She's not the same girl she used to be who wished for bigger things.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Helga asks, appearing by Rowena's side in yet another one of her flowy dresses.
"Beautiful isn't the right word for it," Rowena says as one of the dinosaurs lets out a roar. "We brought back a dead species. We rewrote the rules. What we did is magical."
Helga nods at that, lacing her fingers together. "I didn't take you to be the kind of person to believe in magic."
Rowena scoffs, is about to retort and that's when it begins.
That's when the first dinosaur cage crumbles. That's when she hears the first human scream.
…
There's a moment where Rowena's heart stops and the world blurs and she thinks this is the end, because there are 100 dinosaurs in the park, which she helped create.
"We need to stop this," Helga says, grabbing her hand, and Rowena isn't a martyr, she's a coward and a genius and she's not going to risk her life, except —
Except that Helga's waiting for her, eyes wild and hand stretched out and Rowena is a girl standing on the edge of a cliff of her own making and she's choosing.
She rewrote dinosaurs back into existence and she can write them out.
I just want to change the world, you know?
Rowena grabs Helga's hand. She makes her choice.