The total darkness hovered under the silent night. The only light they could see was the car lights on the road ahead, and the shy stars in the dark blue sky.

Claire Dearing looked over her shoulders to find a peaceful Maisie sleeping like an angel. They've had a couple of exhausting days after the incident with the dinosaurs and the Indoraptor at the Lookwood mansion. They had to explain everything to the police, hiding the fact that the little girl was responsible for the opening of the gates and the dinosaur's scape, of course, and just now were free to finally go home. But then, where would they go?

"What do we do now?" Her tired whisper escaped from her lips before she could stop it.

Owen turned his head, taking his eyes away from the road for the first time in almost an hour. It was impossible not to think about that sentence and what it meant to them. Claire was the kind of women that didn't need assurance all the time, but on that particular subject she always tended to look for something solid, and maybe the reason was the emptiness after an event like that, when they were brought together - too close for comfort - and then, after, everything needed to go back to what it was.

The familiar feeling brought a sense of warmth to Owen's body, and he could swear he felt like he was just where he was supposed to be. Right there, looking at her, having to whisper because of sleeping kids. He knew that this was everything he wanted.

"You know what we do now." He didn't really have to say much. His lips turned into a smirk.

"I'm looking for something deeper this time, Owen." Claire sighed. "I don't want to try again if we're not gonna make it work." She went straight to the point with an annoyed voice tone.

The problem was that last time she spent a long time thinking about what it meant to "stick together for survival". How long does it take for one to feel safe enough so he doesn't need the other anymore? How long until one of them leaves?

She used to ask herself all those questions and many others after the incident on Isla Nublar, when Jurassic World was shut down after the consequences of the Indominus Rex escape, and now it wasn't very different. It didn't take long last time. So what about this time? How long would it take for him to realize how incompatible they were and just leave?

A lot of things changed inside of Claire after almost dying, and although life found a way to move on despite the tragedy, she was stuck again. For survival.

"It's not just me and you anymore, you know?" She looked over her shoulder again but little Maisie was still asleep, totally unaware of what was happening. "You tend to run from things, Owen. You can't run from everything."

"Why do you keep saying this? I wasn't running from anything." Owen raised his voice a little in the beginning of the phrase, but had to bring it down again, because of the look on Claire's eyes.

"Shhh! You'll wake her!" She whispered furiously.

A distressing silence took place in the car for a second. They both looked away as a light rain started to fall.

"I wasn't running from anything." Owen's voice was just a whisper again and he sounded hurt, so Claire turned to him. "You told me you didn't want to stay. What was I supposed to do?"

"I thought you were telling me to leave." She hit back. "I thought you were sure that you left me and not the other way around."

"This is not important anymore." Owen sounded tired and hurt again, and Claire felt that maybe it wasn't the right time to talk about it.

"You were gonna let them die." She was Claire Dearing, so she said it anyway. Plus, she was hurt too.

"What was I supposed to do? Look what happened. Look what we got ourselves into." Although they were still having a discussion, the voices were very low, respecting the child in the back seat. "They're gonna die anyway, Claire."

She couldn't argue about that. Owen was right, they wouldn't let dinosaurs live among us, they would kill them. They will kill them.

The conversation stopped for a while, and silence helped to increase the feelings of sadness and impotence inside of both. The rain pouring against the truck was all they could hear for a couple of minutes.

"Do you want me to drive a little?" Claire broke the silence.

"No, I'm fine." Owen shook his head.

Typical him, she thought. He was tired too and she could see it, but that's just how he was and nothing would ever change him.

More silence. This time it was very welcomed as Claire was closing her eyes and about to try resting a little.


"She's sleeping again." Claire came downstairs after spending a long half hour in the bedroom with Maisie.

They were in her house for a couple of days now and the girl was having a difficult time adjusting to everything, plus her nightmares were getting worst everyday. Claire had the impression that Maisie wasn't sleeping more than two hours a night, and when she would finally fall asleep, she tended to wake up screaming all over again. She was tired, the girl was exhausted and Owen was so tired that he couldn't keep his eyes open.

They were taking turns waking up to check on her, almost like they had a baby in the house. Maisie was as fragile as a newborn after all she had been through in the past days. Not only was she hunted by the Indoraptor, but she was told the truth about who she was and what that meant in a terrible way and by a terrible person. Maisie was broken, and it didn't matter what would take for her to get better, Claire and Owen would be there for her.

"She's a tough kid." Owen sighed. "I don't know what I would do if it was me."

He was sitting on the couch. Owen was sleeping there every night - when he could sleep, of course - simply because they haven't figured anything out just yet.

"I know." She sighed. "I still have nightmares too."

"Yeah... Me too."

"But we're going to take care of her." Claire said. It wasn't a question, but she waited for a confirmation from him anyway. It never came.

Owen was staring at a white wall on the other side of the living room. He didn't move, he wasn't blinking, he didn't flinch. She asked herself if he wasn't sleeping with his eyes open. That would be totally understandable.

Claire sat by his side on the couch. He blinked, finally, but didn't look at her. "Are you ok?" She asked.

"Yeah." He run his hands through his hair and sighed again. "I'm just worried, you know? I mean... How do we move on now? How does one survive this?"

"Hey!" She got closer to him. Her hand touched his fingers and the familiar warmth coming from him caused a strong feeling of affection on her. "I know how we survive. We stick together, that's what we do."

That sentence. The way she just said it out loud without feeling guilty or shy. Maybe she was all in this time, he thought. But Owen was also overwhelmed by Claire's touch, her smell and her body so close to his. He had to close his eyes for a second to control his breathing as his heart started to accelerate. He couldn't explain what he was feeling for her, it was different from anything he was used to. Stronger, he would say. But it was also the wrong time. It looks like bad timing was their thing.

"Claire?" He turned his head to her and felt her breath against his face. That's how close he realized they were on that couch.

"Hm?" She didn't really answered. Their eyes had just met and none of them were strong enough to look away.

Owen's hand stroked her arm, going up until he could reach her neck. His thumb caressed her cheek, skin to skin, feeling a nostalgic, but really good sensation. Owen felt home. It wasn't the couch or the moderate house. It was Claire, she was home.

He kept caressing her skin and her hair, but his eyes never left hers, at least not until he saw her closing them. Then Owen stared at her lips until he was close enough that he could touch it with his own.

Claire felt the butterflies on her stomach waking up like it was Christmas morning. The familiar feeling of being in Owen's arms and having his lips pressed against hers was the best thing she had felt in a long time, and although she would never admit that, she wished they could stay like that forever. If they could, then they would survive anything. That, right there, was the real meaning of sticking together for survival.

But Owen broke their kiss. "Wait, Claire." He placed his hands on her shoulders. "I can't do that."

"Do what?" She was confused and a little annoyed that he decided to talk right when he should just be kissing her.

"I can't…" Owen whispered to her and Claire pushed him away.

"Can't what?" She was starting to freak out. Why was he being so weird about a kiss?

"I can't do this with you." He said. "Our timing is wrong again, and I can't be completely present. I don't want to promise you things that I can't do right now."

"What are you talking about?" She frowned.

"I'm not here one hundred percent because I'm worried about Blue." He finally confessed, and it wasn't as bad as she thought.

Claire took a deep breath. "I'm worried about Blue too."

"I have to look for her, Claire. If they find her, they will kill her."

It was very weird that no official statement was made about the dinosaurs being loose in the United States, and all Owen could think was that they wanted to capture and kill all of them before people could actually believe that dinosaurs were living among them. The government, the army, the police, every one of them were outside hunting dinosaurs, and they were going to kill every single one of them.

"You're right." Although Owen knew everything about Claire's passion for dinosaurs, he was not expecting her to be so understanding. "You have to look for her. I know Blue is smart, but we don't know how she's going to react to the dangers of our world."

"I'm afraid they'll catch her. She's probably very confused." He sighed.

"She needs you." Claire agreed. "You have to find her."

"But you and Maisie need me too." He caressed her shoulders. It was time to face his dilemma.

"We will be fine until you come back."

But she wasn't really certain that she could do it all by herself. She would try and she would do her best or she wasn't Claire Dearing, but at that point she wasn't sure that her best was good enough for Maisie.

"I'll be back for you." He promised. "And I'll make it right this time. One step at a time."

"One step at a time." Claire agreed as she felt his fingers touching the skin on her neck again, and then her hair and face.

He was full of love and affection for her, and was impressed by how much she had changed since they met. Claire was matured now, very understanding and way more selfless than Owen could ever imagine. And although he knew he had to leave, he could feel that his place was really right there with her. Forever.