Two weeks ago, Owen Grady had been plucked from the Navy and offered a new job as an animal behavior researcher at Jurassic World. To say he was shocked would've been an understatement. Why they had picked /him/ out of- Well, he knew why InGen had picked him. Owen was arguably one of the best at what he did, and what he did was train Sea Lions as patrol aids for the Navy. He hardly considered himself someone to conduct behavior research on a /dinosaur/, but anything would be better than being stuck on that boat for who knew how long. Owen /had/ been the one to volunteer for it, after all. He couldn't exactly complain about something he had volunteered for, now could he? (He did occasionally, but that was beside the point.)
No one had told him, though, how /hot/ the island was. He had grown up in the South, where it was /hot/ in the summer, but this? This was island humidity, and he wasn't used to it /at all/. Plus, where he had been with the Sea Lions was fairly cold. His body was acclimated to cold, and to be thrown back into the heat of a tropical island was a shock. He wondered, after the first week, of being there, if he would ever get used to the searing heat, blazing sun, and pushy redhead that ran the park. (Let's not even /discuss/ how /horribly/ that one date had gone.) He knew he needed to, but he couldn't really get used to something like that so fast, especially not after he had been with the Sea Lions in the cold so long.
For the first two weeks, Owen spent his time familiarizing himself with the parts of the island he would be frequenting the most, the tequila bar in the man area of the park being one of them. At the end of the two weeks, he was pretty sure he would be able to walk all the way around the entire Velociraptor paddock blind folded, drunk, or asleep. He had spent /that/ long walking around it, chatting with his fellow trainer Barry at the same time. Owen had also read and reread both Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm's books /twice/. He spent so much time doing nothing, that Owen was starting to wonder if he would ever get to do anything with the dinosaurs that he had been hired to research.
Exactly fifteen days after Owen had arrived on the island, he got a call from the lab. One of the raptor eggs was due to hatch, and in order for this program to test their intelligence to work, he needed to be there when the dinosaur hatched. The second he hung up the phone, Owen got on his motorcycle, one of the few things he'd brought with him, and headed for the main part of the island. Once there, he headed for the 'Creation Lab', attempting to enter the actual lab section. He was stopped, though, the second he tried, by a guy who looked like he was a legit mountain. Owen was tall, and this guy was actually taller than him. That was a first.
"You ain't gettin' in there without a badge, pal."
"I have one. Just don't have it on me." Owen tried to go around the man, but he was quickly blocked, and he frowned. "/Look/. I gotta get in there to see the Raptor egg hatch or whatever."
"Yeah, you and every other little kid in this joint."
Owen huffed some, again trying to go around this man. This time, though, he moved one way, then went the other, slipping around the guard and into the lab with ease. It was so...white. And it /reeked/ of peroxide. He only got a second to examine the room, though, as the guard from outside was trying to yank him out of the room the second he got over the slight vertigo Owen had given him.
"Hey! Get off'a me!" Owen squirmed free, taking a few steps back. The guard was about to charge, when a Chinese, or maybe Japanese or Korean, man stepped between Owen and the guard, a rather amused expression on his face.
"You must be Mr. Grady."
"Owen, but yeah."
"Henry Wu." He said with a nod, waving the guard away. "I suggest using your badge next time, Owen. It would save us all a lot of much trouble."
"Not a badge guy, but I'll considerate it." Owen shrugged a shoulder, green eyes scanning the pale white room filled with scientists and lab coats. He glanced down at his own attire for a second; a blue shirt, brown vest, brown pants, and work boots. He was /clearly/ no scientist. /Good/. He didn't want to look like one.
"I hope so. Follow me, please." Wu gestured for Owen to follow, then started across the lab to a large round table with four eggs on it. Owen stared at the eggs once there, not looking at Wu even once as he spoke.
"…Those are the Raptor eggs?"
"Yes, they are." Wu nodded, pulling out clear latex gloves from a box, and holding them towards Owen. He didn't take them, though, and Wu waved them in his face some. That made Owen look over and take them, but he didn't put them on, holding them both in one hand as he crossed his arms.
"You have to be here to imprint on them when they each hatch. It'll help them to trust you." Wu explained, putting the box of gloves away.
"Got it, got it…" Owen just nodded. "Y'ever done this before? The Raptor trainin' thing, not the hatchin'. You've obviously done that." Owen was rambling just slightly, but he just wanted to make his words clear.
"I haven't done it personally, no." Wu chuckled some, and Owen rolled his eyes. "The research program for the Raptors is new. We hope to learn many things from it. In fact, we have many plans in the works, all depending on how well this works out, of course."
"Doc."
"InGen, the company that hired you, have a great vision in mind for these animals if this program is a success."
"Hey, Doc. Egg's movin'." Owen nodded to the egg in front of him, and Wu instantly shushed, staring at the egg in silence. The egg wobbled slightly, a tiny crack starting to form on the surface. Owen leaned forwards some, eyes wide as he stared at the egg. He had seen dinosaurs before, but he'd /never/ seen one hatch before.
The crack on the egg turned into several, and soon, there was a piece of the shell lifting up, a tiny screech sounding from inside the egg. Owen moved even closer then, green eyes wide as he tilted his head to try and see under the piece of shell that was lifting up. He couldn't, though, and he straightened his head again, still watching the egg /very/ closely.
"C'mon…" Owen's voice was a whisper as he spoke to the baby Raptor, who was trying to push her way out of her shell, but failing. "C'mon, girl. All ya gotta do is push…"
/Much/ to Owen's surprise, the Raptor pushed, her head now above the egg shell as she made more tiny screeching noises. There was a piece of the shell stuck to her nose, though, and, much to Wu's dislike, Owen reached up and carefully pulled the piece away, a grin starting to form on his lips as he stared at the dinosaur.
"Hey…" He whispered again, the Raptor now clawing at the egg shell in an attempt to get out. Her claws weren't that strong, however, and all the shell did was crack just a little. Owen reached up again, pulling tiny pieces away from the egg. Now he could see the entire front half of the baby Raptor, including the blue streak that started at her eye, and seemed to go all the way down her side.
Wu handed Owen some specially designed wet wipes for the raptor, who was covered in pink gunk from inside the egg. He took them, but set them aside, still staring at the now whining raptor. She was stuck in her egg, so, still not wearing the gloves, Owen carefully pulled the dinosaur from the egg, the pink gunk stringing from her body. Now he took the wet wipes, holding the raptor in one hand as he /carefully/ cleaned her body. She was so…tiny. It was hard to believe that this was one of the animals that Alan Grant had nearly been killed by some 19 years ago.
"D—n she's small…"
"She /is/ a baby." Wu looked to Owen, slightly amused, before looking back at the Raptor he was holding. "All living things start out small, even if their species is naturally big."
Owen wasn't really listening all the much, as he was too distracted by the baby dinosaur in his hands, who was screeching as best she could, and squirming around some. Owen was /holding/ a baby /dinosaur/. That was such an odd feeling, but it was an amazing one, too. How many other people could say they had held a baby dinosaur, let alone have watched it hatch? Despite the number of people in the room, Owen assumed there weren't many people that could really say that.
"Are you going to give her a name" One of the other nurses had come over, and she was peering around Owen's arm at the raptor in his hands. "If you aren't, one of us will. We name all the dinosaurs here."
Owen glanced to the girl, then back at the raptor in his hands, his head tilting some as he looked her over. A name… She did /need/ one, if he was supposed to train her and such. Working with an unnamed animal just didn't seem right, and he didn't think they would respond very well if they weren't named.
"How 'bout…" He pursed his lips, eying the blue streak that went all the way down her side. "Blue?"
The nurse beside him grinned, nodding her head in agreement, and slight amusement.
"I think that suits her, yes."
"Blue…" Owen repeated, talking to himself, like he had been doing this whole time. He hadn't been asking the nurse her opinion on the name at all. "Hey, Blue…."
The Raptor, now named Blue, stared up at Owen, continuing to make her little noises as she squirmed in his hands. She turned her head some, gently biting Owen's thumb. It didn't hurt, considering she had tiny teeth, and he grinned, letting her bite it his thumb as he stared at her in absolute awe.
"You're not s'posed to bite me, y'know." He chuckled some, pulling his thumb away after a second, and gently running his index finger over her blue stripe. "Blue…" Again he repeated the name, this time a little quieter. Blue. He was holding a Velociraptor named Blue, and she was staring up at him, constantly squirming in his hands.
"Y'know… I think I'll like it here after all…" Again, Owen's words were to the Raptor, and she made a sort of squeak in return, which Wu scribbled down on his chart. Yes... Owen was going to like working here most definitely, especially if he got to see more dinosaurs hatch like this.