MONDAY
Ding!*
The door to the elevator opened as two women stepped off. They worked on the second floor of the old warehouse building that housed a number of different businesses, including a speciality pharmacy, a few law offices, a moving company and the Dinosaur Protection Group. The two women gave Claire a quick nod as they exited the doors she was about to enter. "That's the dinosaur lady that works on the top floor," Claire heard one girl say to the other. She recognized one and not the other, assuming one of them must have been new. It wasn't the first time she overheard people calling her the dinosaur lady and giving her funny looks. She had a reputation, especially since the second incident on the island and at Lockwood's estate close to two years prior.
Claire stepped onto the elevator and pressed "5" to take her up to the top floor of the building. The building owner advised Claire when she rented out the space a few years prior that the top floor was subject to drafts due to poor insulation and despite being on the top floor, had somewhat poor WiFi connections sometimes. However, he gave her a great deal on the rent and besides, it had lots of windows and the best view of the city around her so she took it.
When the door opened to the fifth floor, Claire, dressed in a tunic length blue chambray dress with shoulder straps, buttons down the front and a belt across the waist, with complimenting gray heels to round out her business casual attire, stepped off the elevator directly into the large room that housed the Dinosaur Protection Group. It was a bustling Monday morning outside but as she looked out into the room in front of her, it seemed as if half of her employees were missing. The majority of the people that worked for Claire were college interns and volunteers. Zia, Franklin and a handful of others, including two graphic designers, a public relations specialist and a freelance journalist were the only ones who worked full-time for Claire and actually enjoyed the benefits of being on the weekly payroll. Claire's eyes immediately fell to Zia when she walked in. She looked at her paleoveterinarian with suspicion. "Where is everyone?" Zia shrugged her shoulders at her boss and replied, "I don't know. You told them on Friday to make sure they were on time today because there was a politician friend of yours coming to meet with you about some legislation and you wanted everyone to be well dressed and working hard when she got here." Zia could sense the immediate tension rising in the room. Claire huffed and walked to her desk and set her purse down. She stood with her hands on her hips for a moment taking inventory of who was present and who was missing.
A couple of minutes later, the late offenders casually walked off the elevator laughing and carrying on about their weekend and how "that party was the bomb!" Claire immediately walked over to the cluster of desks that belonged to them and made it known how she felt about their tardiness. The four of them were college age, young and spoiled, with little to no experience in the work field. They took the internship as part of their curriculum requirements for the spring semester of college. Franklin and Zia often found themselves rolling their eyes at the newbies, talking about how they must have taken this internship because they thought it was going to be all fun and games, not realizing that dealing with dinosaurs was really an important matter, especially after the creatures were released out into society. No one worked harder than Claire to ensure federal funding to get them back to a safe environment where they would be free from human interference, and the humans would be free from any danger of attacks. "Excuse me, but when did you guys decide that you run things around here?" Claire narrowed her eyes at the four kids. She stood over them, hands back on her hips, looking down at them with a look Franklin had seen a few times when he worked at Jurassic World. He had only come in contact with Claire a handful of times when they both worked there, and although he never had any run-ins with her personally, he had witnessed her giving an ultimatum to a couple of other employees before and he knew this was not about to be pretty. The four youngsters stopped laughing and looked up at their boss in shock. "I asked you a question." She waited for one of them to respond. Jake, a young man not a day over 20, finally spoke up for the group. "We're sorry. We didn't know an unpaid internship required such strict curfews." Zia sucked in her breath from across the room. "Ah shit." She knew she had just witnessed a horrible mistake on the part of the intern. Claire cocked her head to the side before responding. "Unpaid or not, you are here to do a job, whether it's for my benefit or yours, and I expect every single one of you to be on time." She then turned to the rest of the people in the room. "That goes for everyone in this room. This organization is set up for a reason, and it's not to show up to work whenever you want to and to goof off and to sit on your ass all day. It's a real job and if any of you don't take it seriously then you're more than welcome to walk out the door right now." Claire had all eyes on her. All the attention in the room was focused on the fiery redhead, something she was good at achieving. She had done it enough times at the park and hadn't lost her touch in scaring the Hell out of her employees. "Anyone have any problems with that?" Claire looked around the room daring someone to say something back. "Okay good. Now that you know what's expected of you, let's get to work." The small group of new interns mumbled something behind her back as she turned to walk back to her desk, but Claire had a keen sense of hearing and turned on her heels to face them again. "Go home." Jake and his three comrades looked at Claire in disbelief. She didn't put up with games at work, and she had had enough. "I'm serious. Get up. Go home or back to school or wherever you want, but you're not staying here today. You can come back tomorrow with a different attitude and work ethic or you can choose to not come back at all. Take the rest of the day to decide what you want to do because I don't have time to decide for you. Some of us here want to work to make a difference for these animals and if you don't, then you can find somewhere else to do your internship." The four college kids got up and walked together to the elevator without saying a word. Claire glared at them until the elevator door was completely shut and they were on their way downstairs.
Once they were gone she took a deep breath, smiled and said, "Okay. Let's get back to work everyone." She ran her hands down the middle of her dress as if dusting herself off like she'd just been in the kitchen baking. No one said a word the rest of the day about the incident that took place that morning. Claire was a little more laid back as a boss at the DPG than she had been working at Jurassic World, and she believed in having a little fun at work and making it enjoyable for herself and her employees, but what she didn't believe in was laziness and a lack of work ethic. Claire spent the rest of her Monday organizing some upcoming trips to some of the elementary schools in the area and meeting with the politician friend of hers who used to work in Washington D.C. as an environmental specialist. Dr. Sage was a former biology professor at Harvard who went on to work in politics to try to gather funding for climate control programs across the country. She had retired a few years prior and moved to the west coast but still had some connections in the political world. Claire introduced her to everyone in the office when she arrived, and she was especially impressed with Zia's medical background and the way everyone in general seemed so passionate about the cause in front of them. Claire took Dr. Sage to lunch to discuss some possible funding opportunities but despite her extreme support for what Claire was doing, she couldn't convince any of her fellow politicians to help secure funding for a sanctuary outside of the country to transport the dinosaurs to in order to let them live out the rest of the their lives. Claire was discouraged but made it known right away that she wasn't giving up. "You would think they would want to get them out of here, so they don't have to worry about any attacks." Surprisingly, there hadn't been many attacks since the dinosaurs were set free from Lockwood's estate. A couple of sightings had occurred, but they were mostly small herbivores who posed no danger to society and hid or ran from any humans that tried to get close to them anyway. "Claire, I believe in what you're doing, and you shouldn't give up. I will keep my eyes and ears open and let you know if there is anything I can do to help. In the meantime, here is a little something for you." Dr. Sage slid a small envelope across the table at the restaurant to Claire. Inside was a check made out to the DPG for $5,000. Claire thanked her friend for the donation and made it clear she had no plans of giving up any time soon. "Trust me, I don't plan on giving up this fight. I feel like I owe it to these creatures to give them the life they deserved to have from the beginning, one they never had from the moment they were brought back to this world, that they are long overdue for."
That evening Claire left work and walked next door to the building that housed the daycare center downstairs that Franklin's mom owned. "Ms. Dearing, how are you?" Claire was greeted by one of the daycare workers on her way down the hall to pick up her baby. "I'm good, how are you?" Claire replied. "I'm good. Hey listen, don't tell the other moms I said this, but Aiden is the best baby in her room." The young girl lowered her voice as she bragged on Claire's soon to be five month old. "She is always smiling and happy, and she hardly ever fusses." Claire smiled at the young girl's remarks about her child. It was true. Aiden usually only fussed when she was hungry or sleepy. She had her father's laid back nature when it came to life. It didn't take a lot to make her happy...some bouncing play time in Mommy's lap followed by cuddle time on Mommy's chest and some milk and she was happy, the same way her daddy was happy just spending time with his three girls, his motorcycle and his cabin by the lake. Claire entered the infant room to find her baby in a playpen with a little boy around her same age. They were both on their tummies playing with some infant toys together. "Hi Claire," Franklin's mom walked up behind her and greeted her. "Aiden's been a little fussy today. I think she's teething, but she's got a little cough too. Being in daycare automatically exposes kids and babies to germs but it's good for them to build up immunity early." Claire had prepared herself for the teething phase. "Yeah, I've got some medicine at home. I'll probably go ahead and give her some tonight and see how she feels. She loves her teething rings too so that should help some as well, I hope!" Mrs. Webb pulled Aiden out of the playpen and handed her to Claire. Claire's face lit up as she held her baby in her arms. This had become her favorite part of every day. "Hi Peanut! My sweet girl, how are you?" Aiden's face automatically lit up as soon as she was in Claire's arms. Claire kissed her baby on the cheek and gathered her diaper bag from one of the other daycare attendants and made her way home.
That night at dinner Claire put some medicine in a bottle with the breast milk she had pumped, hoping to ease her baby's pain and cough. After dinner Owen gave Aiden a bath while Claire helped Maisie with her science homework. "Here she is...all clean!" Owen walked into the living room holding his naked baby out in front of him like she was covered in mud or anything else dirty. Claire was usually amused by his attempt to be cute, but knowing Aiden was getting a cold, she disapproved this time. "Owen, did you not see me put cough medicine in her bottle earlier? I think she's getting a little bit of a cold. Please put her pajamas on her before she gets even sicker." "Okay, Mommy," Owen said as he bounced their little one down the hall in his arms. He re-emerged a few minutes later with Aiden all bundled up in a footed sleeper with a matching hat on her head. "Warm enough now?" Owen asked as he raised one eyebrow at his girlfriend and 11 year old. "Much better," Claire said as he handed Aiden to her. Maisie kissed Aiden on her head as Claire stood up to put Aiden down to sleep for the night. She had heard Aiden crying a little while Owen was bathing her, but then she calmed down once bath time had ended. If there was one thing Claire and Owen both knew about their baby, it was that she loved the water. Bath time was always a pleasurable experience for her. Claire knew Aiden must not have been feeling well if she cried during bath time. She started fussing as Claire adjusted her in her arms to try to breastfeed her. It was clear she didn't want to be moved around too much or bothered. She finally latched on to Claire's breast and sucked for a little while. She usually fell asleep while eating, but that night she was as irritable as ever. Claire burped her and rocked her for a little while with no success in getting the little one to calm down. It took an entire hour for Aiden to fall asleep. "I think the girl at day care jinxed us about you never being fussy, Peanut." She rocked, bounced and sang to her baby, and finally Aiden fell asleep in her arms.
Claire gently laid Aiden down in her crib and walked down the hall passing the hallway bathroom where Maisie was brushing her teeth. "It's past your bedtime missy, what are you still doing up?" Maisie looked up at Claire with her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. "It's only 8:30. My bedtime isn't until 9:00!" Claire's exhaustion had clearly kicked in. "Really? It feels like it's 10:30 already." She glanced over at the clock on the wall across from the sink and apologized to her oldest child. "I'm sorry, Mais. I'm tired sweetie." She kissed Maisie on the head and made her way back to the living room. She threw herself on the couch next to Owen who was watching television. He put his arm around her and she nuzzled into him. Thirty minutes later Claire woke up to the sounds of Maisie saying goodnight to her and Owen. "Goodnight my sweet girl," Claire said sleepily. Maisie scooted back down the hall to her bedroom. "Come on, let's go to bed babe. You fell asleep on me as soon as you sat down half an hour ago." They went to bed, but neither of them got much sleep that night. Aiden's cough got worse throughout the night, and she woke up crying every other hour. At only four and a half months old she already slept through most of the night, usually only waking up once, but teething and having a cold at the same time kept her up crying almost all night. Claire and Owen took turns getting up with her, knowing they both had a long day ahead of them. "We're gonna need a lot of caffeine in the morning," Claire said as she got up for the third time in the middle of the night to soothe her baby back to sleep. Owen grumbled, "I might as well get up and go start a pot now."