Been a while since I've written anything Clawen or Jurassic World, but the Fallen Kingdom stuff this past week has brought my obsession back in full-force, so here I am! I've missed these two more than I knew.
The spoilers in this are only very minor - basically, if you watched the trailer and read the EW First Look, you're good.
It's happening again.
That's all Claire Dearing can think as she and Owen Grady slam the door of an abandoned building on Isla Nublar shut behind them. They've found themselves back on the island, three years after the park, three years after the kingdom she'd helped build came crashing down around her (sometimes literally around her) in a mere matter of hours, and just like the last time she'd stepped foot in these jungles, they've just run for their lives, their legs propelling them faster and farther than they thought possible until they felt like their hearts were about to explode, all to narrowly escape the teeth of a dinosaur, and just like the last time, it's all her fault.
The dinosaurs that had been chasing them roar outside, bang into the other side of the wall they've concealed themselves with. There's a window just on the other side of Owen, so they keep their bodies pressed as flat as they can against the door, lest the dinosaurs peer through the glass to find them. The chattering outside dies down just a little, and for the moment, they're safe. There are so many buildings on the island that were destroyed from the incident with the Indominus and never fixed, destroyed by the dinosaurs left behind since the incident, or just worn down after three years of neglect, and while the lab they're standing in is a complete mess, it was built to withstand almost anything, so for the moment, they're convinced in their surely fleeting safety, and Claire lets her back and her body fall against the door behind her, her head leaning back as she struggles to catch her breath.
"What could go wrong?" Owen had said sarcastically when she had asked him for his help with her mission. She's made it her life's work to protect these animals, these animals that she had once seen as only assets, only money and attractions, only numbers on a page. She's made it her life's work since losing the theme park to make sure these animals are treated as the living, breathing creatures they are, but she just doesn't have the hands-on experience with them that he does, so she'd swallowed her pride, and she'd asked him to help her, just as she'd asked him to help her find her nephews on that fateful, godforsaken day, and now it's happening all over again. She's gotten herself into this mess again, and just like last time, she's put his life on the line, too.
Claire leans over, placing her hands on the top of her thighs, but instead of catching her breath, she lets the sobs that she felt building as soon as the door slammed shut escape, hot tears dripping onto the floor near her feet. Owen, his breathing once again steadied, looks over towards her. She's not a loud crier, but he knows her, and the slightest little noise lets him know she's coming undone. All that running, Claire thinks…all that running she's done over the past three years, the running that she told herself was training for a half-marathon, somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knows it was really meant to prepare her for this. She'd never truly believed it could really happen again, even as dinosaurs continued to be a large part of her life. No, that was something that only happened in her nightmares. Until today. Until now.
Now, the single most terrifying day of her life is seemingly about to repeat itself on a much larger scale, and she's astounded, and she's frustrated, and she's just plain scared, and she can't help the tears.
She had just wanted to help the dinosaurs.
She had a hand in making them. She has a responsibility to save them.
"I can't believe this is happening again!" she cries, because she knows Owen is looking at her, waiting for her to speak. She stands up straight again, finally catching her breath, and leans her head back against the hard door again as her eyes squeeze shut.
Owen pushes himself off the door and comes to stand in front of her. He quickly (but gently) grabs each of her arms with one of his hands, pulling her off the wall to stand before him.
"Hey, hey, hey…" he quickly says, his voice oddly soothing. "We will get through this, okay? We made it last time. We can do it again. You just can't break down on me now."
"How do you know?" Claire cries almost desperately. "How do you know we can survive this again? What if fate decides we used up all our luck with the Indominus?"
"You don't believe in fate," Owen points out immediately, and Claire's both infuriated and comforted that he still knows her so well. "Or luck."
"No, but I believe in probability, and our odds aren't seeming very good!" she argues.
Their odds were bad last time, with the biggest, scariest, toothiest dinosaur ever to walk the Earth on the loose and pteranodons filling the sky, but the dinosaurs are all loose now. There are more of them than there were three years ago, and they are all unaccustomed to humans, and Claire and Owen are nearly alone on this island this time. A nagging thought that she'd had when starting the foundation – that making dinosaurs her new career, too, was almost certainly setting her up for the terrifying death by a dinosaur's claw that she'd just barely escaped last time – teases her mind again, and she looks around almost frantically for something, anything that could help them.
"We will be okay," Owen says again, decisively, his voice filled with a confidence Claire doesn't think is false.
"How do you know?" she asks again.
"Because it's you and me, Claire," Owen says, a small smile tugging at the edges of his lips. "We can do anything."
"Anything except make a relationship work," she mutters sadly. She doesn't even remember who had walked away this last time.
His face steels in front of her, and she lets out a little sigh because she knows that look. They're about to have yet another completely exhausting fight, and she started it because emotions are heightened, and her mouth said something before her brain could stop her, and good job, Claire, perfect timing. Instead of an argument or a sarcastic quip, however, the grip on her arms tightens, and she feels herself being pulled into him. Instead of yelling at her, he kisses her, hard and deep, and she melts into him because it's been far too long since she's tasted his lips. One of the hands on her arms slides around to the small of her back, holding her firmly in place against him, and her hand immediately goes to his face, the stubble along his jaw scratchy against her skin. She's not sure who pulls away first, but when they eventually part, she's catching her breath for a wholly different reason, and he lets her go.
"I love you, Claire," he says. "You know that."
"Then why…" she starts.
A dreadful roar outside cuts her off, and she shudders, a panicky gasp escaping her pink, swollen lips. Owen takes a small step towards her again and cups her cheeks in his palms, keeping her eyes on him. Her face is splotchy – sweat and tears mingling with the mascara she should've known better than to wear – but she takes a calming breath and lets herself focus on his face.
"Later, okay?" he says. "We will make it out of here, and then, if you can be fair, we can have whatever conversation's swirling around in that hyperactive head of yours right now…"
"I'm always fair!" she interrupts with protest.
He, once again, doesn't take the opening for an argument and continues. "But right now, I need you to be the badass who let a T-Rex chase her through the park in high heels. Can you do that?"
Claire draws in a barely stable breath and nods. Yeah, she can do that. She doesn't want to do it – god, does she not want to do it – and she doesn't know how she's going to do it, but she knows she can. She can.
A petrifying rattle shakes the door behind Claire's back, and it sends her stumbling away from the wall, towards Owen. He puts his hand up instinctively, in case she needs steadying. When she doesn't, he holds out his hand – as a peace offering, as a source of support and reassurance; he knows she doesn't need his hand to make it through this. Yet unlike last time, she takes it.
And then, no sooner than her fingers curl around his, they're running from the dinosaurs (again, oh god, why is this happening to them again?) that just narrowly miss them as they burst through the window by the door and into the safety of their lab.
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you've got some time - I'd really appreciate it!