Disclaimer: I don't own Jurassic World
Owen Grady was insane. That was the common consensus around the park. Who else but a madman would willingly raise a pack of velociraptors?
When Owen was offered the chance to train velociraptors on the new site for Jurassic World, he hadn't jumped at the chance. Well, not publicly. Inwardly he might have been squealing like a fan girl but no one would ever know that. He calmly told the representative that he would think about the offer before walking away to do some serious thinking.
Yep, that was his story and he was sticking to it.
In the end though, there was no real contest. As much as he loved the life he had in the Navy, he was ready to move on. He was ready for something different and exciting, a different kind of exciting to life in the Navy.
And he sure got it.
Dr Wu already had a clutch of eggs waiting for him. Four odd-looking eggs, sitting in a sterile warmer. Outwardly they were unassuming, they looked like a prank, unreal, fake. But inside they held one of the most deadly creatures the earth had known.
Freaking velociraptors.
Owen took one look at the four eggs and had the morbid thought that one day the creatures in those eggs might grow up and eat him. He had read the reports. The original reports from the first raptors on Isla Nublar. The cunning, sadistic monsters from the deep jungle, too intelligent for their own good. Almost human in their ability to hunt down and eliminate their enemies. No sense of preservation though, only killing. They had only hunted humans when they escaped, they hadn't gone after natural prey. Owen wondered if they were smart enough to process the concept of revenge. The humans had kept them in a cage; therefore the humans were the enemy. When they got out, instead of fleeing, they had hung around. Despite everything, the human compound was all they knew. And humans meant food, one way or another.
The raptors on Isla Sorna were a whole other breed of creature. From the pack that had slaughtered the InGen team sent to collect specimens, leaving only a small group to flee, to the pack that had chased a small group of civilians across the island in pursuit of their missing eggs. Yeah, those creatures were wild. But smart. Very smart. Smart enough to eliminate the human threat, but also to let them go when more humans arrived. These raptors had a sense of self-preservation that the original Nublar raptors hadn't.
And these four innocent looking eggs contained the next generation, supposedly smarter and more adaptable than their predecessors. Owen would never admit it, but for a moment when he had first spotted those eggs, he had been terrified. Nauseous, anxious, ready-to-run-away-screaming, terrified.
Then the first one hatched.
The hatchling was camouflage grey with a blue streak down either side, starting at her eyes and winding its way down to the base of her tail. Her eyes were vibrant orange with a slitted pupil.
Owen picked her up in gloved hands and helped clean away the shell and fluid from her hide. She looked up at him with big eyes, too big for her current size. He held her in the palm of his hands, tiny and fragile. It was hard to think of her as a future predator that would probably be taller than him and easily outweigh him in muscle alone.
"We've spliced a new set of genomes into the make-up of this nest," Wu explained in his ever-clinical way, barely glancing at the specimen he had produced, instead he was writing things down on a clipboard.
"What kind of genomes?" Owen asked, curious to find out what went into making his new charges.
Wu sighed as if dealing with Owen was too much hassle. "That's classified, Mr. Grady, to protect our interests, no one but myself and a select few know exactly what the patents are for our dinosaurs."
Owen wanted to smack the smug look off his face but his hands were full. The baby raptor was beginning to squirm a little too. She didn't seem to like being held for too long.
Owen placed her back in the warmer with her unhatched siblings and took the soiled gloves off. She watched him with an uncanny awareness. Watching as the gloves were shed and placed with the rest of her shell and amniotic fluid. Owen didn't know what the scientists would do with all that and he didn't much care.
The hatchling chirped suddenly. Owen eyed her as she peered up at him. She opened her mouth in a classic baby-bird move, begging for food.
A bowl of finely chopped meat had been placed by the incubator when the eggs had started to shake. Owen dipped his fingers in and grabbed a piece, holding it out gingerly for the young raptor.
Quick as whip the hatchling lunged forward and grabbed the morsel. She gulped it down and then opened her jaws up again, waiting for more.
Bolstered by the fact that he still had his fingers, Owen offered her more. She took what he gave her until her belly was full. Then she curled up in her birthplace and fell asleep. Simple as that.
"What will you call them?" Wu asked, making his presence known again.
Owen had a mind blank. He was supposed to name them? Really? He wasn't all that creative when it came to naming things and he'd used the military naming system for years.
Wait, military.
"Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo." He stated. He'd remember that.
Wu raised a brow but didn't comment. He wrote something down on his clipboard and then wandered off.
Owen didn't notice him leave; he was too busy focusing on the other eggs. Another one was hatching.
When he had signed up for raptor training he really hadn't thought it through. He had pictured training super predators, as much as they allowed him to. He hadn't thought about the time before that, when they were tiny little babies dependant on him for everything.
Owen had been given his own trailer and cabin out in the restricted section when he accepted the job at the park. The big enclosure was being built for when the pack was full grown. He could drive his bike there and back. Plus he had his privacy from the rest of the resort. After being in such close quarters for years it was good to have some space. Now he was raising his raptor children there, so it was a good thing he didn't have neighbors.
The four hatchlings were now a month old. Whatever mix Wu had used seemed to be an affective one as they were all fine and healthy.
Bravo had been given the nickname Blue because of her odd blue streaks. Often Owen forgot the name he had given her at birth and called her Blue. She was a headstrong little miss, strong and confident, she would be a strong pack member one day. For now, she was a baby and her leadership abilities were limited to bossing around her younger siblings and getting into trouble.
Charlie, the second born, was a little piggy in the making. She would eat and eat everything she got into her mouth. It had been interesting raptor-proofing Owen's house when Charlie was trying to figure out what was edible and what wasn't.
Delta, the third child, was a tough little lady. She might challenge Blue one day for her role in the pack. She liked getting into everything. Her latest habit was to dig all of Owen's clothes out of his cupboard and hide them under his bed. Why, exactly…Owen had no idea. But he had had to put locks on his cupboard doors and get a squirt-gun for when she got too close to it. He couldn't afford to have to replace his clothes every other day. The gift shops only sold a certain amount of decent clothes after all.
Then there was Echo, the baby. She was a big sweetheart. She liked to curl herself around Owen's neck at night and used his pillow as her bed when he was awake. She liked to be up high. She liked to climb his dresser and the drawers in the kitchen. Lately her goal had been to get onto the bench and into the sink. She liked it when the tap dripped. All of them did actually but Echo was the first to figure out how to get the water flowing. Turning the tap was harder now that Owen made sure it couldn't turn easily. He had come home one day to find one or all of them had managed to turn the tap and drop the plug into place, filling up the sink and starting a waterfall onto the floor. Thankfully it hadn't run far but he hadn't made the mistake of leaving the plug nearby again. He kept it up in the cupboard now incase they all put their heads together and figured out the sink handles out again.
They were trouble. Worse than toddlers and puppies combined when it came to getting into everything.
Owen adored them.
Over the past few weeks he had introduced them to the world around them, teaching them as well as he could. He sometimes found himself wondering when they would stop thinking of him as alpha and think of him as an outsider, not pack.
His heart hurt thinking of it so he didn't let himself linger on it for long.
Now it was time to teach the hatchlings about a human holiday.
Christmas.
It was the day before Christmas and he had left everything to the last minute. He could use the excuse that he had been too busy dealing with infant raptors, which was true, but being more or less alone he hadn't been going to bother with decorations.
Then Barry piped up and made him think how cute the raptors would look in tinsel. So Owen had gathered what he could and was going to make an attempt on a tree. It was a small thing he had managed to wrangle through his gift-shop connections but it was better than chopping down one of these tropical trees and pretending.
At least he hoped so.
"This is called a tree, girls." Owen set up a small pine in his house, making certain it was steady. The four baby raptors jumped around the odd new object in their home. Their cute little chirps made Owen smile. Blue was the first to approach the tree. She snuck up on it from behind as if it was going to turn around and growl at her. She stalked the unmoving tree with her head bobbing. Owen watched her fondly as she called to her sisters to rally behind her.
Blue led the way to the tree as the four converged on it, now bold enough in their new numbers.
"If you guys are so excited about the tree, just wait until I get out the decorations." Owen stated as the four finally got over their wariness and jumped onto the tree. It was strong enough to hold them so they climbed. Echo chattered excitedly as she climbed up and up. Delta got a face-full of pine needles and sneezed the pungent things away in disgust. She grumbled as she dropped to the ground, pacing around the base instead. Blue found a branch she liked and settled there to observe. Charlie had decided to see what the branches tasted like and was nibbling on the different textures of bark and pine needles.
Owen smirked as he snapped pictures with his phone. He would bet that no one else could claim they had pictures of an infant raptor gnawing on a tree like a dog with a bone.
He imagined their reactions when he brought out the tinsel and baubles. He wondered if they made industrial strength decorations because they wouldn't last long when Charlie tried her taste test on them or Delta tried to play tug of war with Blue. And then there was Echo who might just be smart enough to use the tinsel to climb…everything.
Owen winced when he thought about it. Decorations had never been his thing but having his girls around had somehow made it important.
Wow, it was official, he was a raptor mom.
"Alright, lets see what you girls think of tinsel." Owen opened up the box and prepared himself for what was to come.
He hadn't prepared himself enough.
The moment the box was open he had their attention. Delta had paused in her stalking around the base of the tree, Blue had peered at him curiously, Echo had paused in her climbing and Charlie had frozen in her taste-test, the branch she was gnawing still in her mouth as she blinked her bright eyes at him.
Reaching into the box, Owen had dragged out a rope of purple tinsel and wondered where on the tree he should hang it.
"Don't eat this," Owen scolded Charlie though he knew it was pointless. He wrapped it around the tree a few branches down from Echo then went back for more.
On the way back with a rope of red tinsel, one end hit the ground…and that was it.
Delta lunged with a squeal at the dangling end of the tinsel and before Owen could yank it out of her reach, she had her jaws locked around it. With a growl, she tugged on it, trying to drag it away from Owen. Right now her strength wasn't equal to his so he didn't have to even fight to keep the tinsel in his hands, but someday she would be able to yank it out of his grasp without thought. Providing her teeth didn't snap right through the tinsel in the first place.
Speaking of which…
Delta tumbled backwards with a harsh grunt a small part of the tinsel in her mouth.
She lay on her back for a moment, seemingly stunned before she scrambled to her feet and dropped the tinsel onto the floor. She eyed it curiously, probably wondering if she could eat it.
Charlie trotted over and body-pounced on the tinsel with a playful growl. It was long enough that when she rolled and rolled with it in her mouth, it wrapped around her body. She gnawed on one end while flicking her tail and kicking her legs in the air. Delta eyed her in disgruntlement then with a sniff, turned to peer up at the rest of the tinsel Owen had in his hands.
"No." Delta's eyes flicked up to him when he spoke, then away as she stalked back to the tree.
Owen followed her and placed the new length of tinsel on another branch. Blue watched him from her spot as he went back and forth, adding more and more tinsel. Delta eyed the colorful wreaths as they adorned the tree but apparently her earlier experience had discouraged her from climbing the tree again.
A plaintive squeak came from the floor and Owen looked down to see that Charlie had finally figured out she was wrapped up in red tinsel. She was now trying to untangle herself and failing miserably.
"How did you tie it in a knot?" Owen laughed as she knelt down to untangle his second-born.
Charlie whimpered pitifully and went limp, looking up at him trustingly. Owen felt his heart melt even more at the adorable sight. Quickly he grabbed his phone again and took a quick picture so he could never forget this moment. How was he ever going to see these raptors as deadly predators when they looked and acted like this? Charlie cooed at him when he unwrapped her then gently clung to his hand, making him pick her up as he stood.
"Oh, no," Owen groaned when he turned around and couldn't find Delta. She had apparently used his distraction and leapt into the box of tinsel. She was attacking the strands as if they were actually threatening her, complete with grumbles and growls. Blue had climbed down from the tree and was standing on her toes, peering over the edge of the box as Delta flung herself amongst the tinsel pile, snapping and rolling amongst the different colours.
"Did you know the tinsel is meant to go on the tree?" Owen commented as he made his way over to the box.
Delta didn't spare him a glance but Blue looked up at him, tilting her head before glancing between him and the box.
"Your sister is a destructive creature," Owen told her seriously. Blue snorted and Delta yipped as if she understood.
Owen glanced over to find Echo had settled in to sleep on one of the top branches. He would move her to his pillow once she was deeper in dreamland.
In the meantime, he had a raptor to disentangle from a tinsel box.
Placing Charlie on the floor by Blue, Owen reached in and gently picked Delta up. She snarled, her mouth and claws full of tinsel. She glared at him but didn't lash out so he knew she was sulking more than actually upset. Little Delta had a temper and she wasn't afraid to show it.
"You're such a trouble child," he told her as he carefully disentangled her from the tinsel strands. They apparently weren't tough enough to withstand a raptor's sharp little teeth. They were shredded like cheese through a grater.
With a sigh, Owen gathered the shredded segments and tossed them randomly over the tree branches. It didn't look neat but at least it was colorful.
Delta cooed forlornly when the box was empty. She eyed the tree mistrustfully; still apparently not bold enough to risk another encounter with the pine needles.
At least that would keep one of Owen's children away from the tree.
He plucked Echo from her branch and placed her on his pillow where she curled up in a ball. Blue and Delta climbed up to join her but Charlie hopped on Owen's shoe and clung there. It was her way of saying she wanted Owen to carry her. She might be the second born but she was a big baby. Echo was the sweet one but Charlie was lazy in an adorable way.
Owen smiled at her as he plucked her from his shoe. She wriggled like an eager puppy in the direction of her sisters so Owen placed her close to them. Dramatically she flopped onto the other three, disturbing their puppy pile. Delta grumbled but made room, Blue just gave Charlie the eye. Echo was twitching in her sleep and wasn't waking up anytime soon.
Owen put the empty box away and reached up into his cupboard for the box of baubles.
"Let's see what you guys can do to these," he muttered to himself.
Five hours and a dozen broken baubles later, Owen gave up and took the rest of the baubles down. The tree looked almost bare with only shredded tinsel decorating it but that was better than nothing. At least the girls had decided they couldn't eat the sparkling segments. Delta liked to move them around but the others ignored them. They were more interested in the tree.
Now for the presents.
The girls were on the ground, racing around the house with their typical after-nap energy. So it was the perfect time to get things done. Hopefully.
Owen had a few gifts he planned on giving to his friends on the island as well as sending a few home to his family. He couldn't leave his girls and his family couldn't travel to the island on Christmas so he was going to celebrate the holiday with infant raptors and the few people on the island who didn't run away screaming from the mere sight of them.
He brought out wrapping paper and set it up on his bed. The girls were still small enough that they couldn't easily climb up so he should be safe.
How wrong he was.
The sound of the paper being cut caught their attention and they made a beeline for the bed. Blue was the first up and she eyed how he folded and taped the brightly colored paper while her siblings made the journey up his blankets and onto the mattress.
Charlie, the adventurous little soul that she was, lunged onto the paper first, grabbing an edge in her mouth to taste it.
Immediately she spat it out and whined tragically. Looking up at Owen in betrayal.
"I never told you it tasted good." That excuse didn't seem to mollify the offended raptor as she sniffed and stalked away to a corner of the bed where she huddled into a ball and watched him like a cat that had been given a bath.
Owen wrapped up another present and moved off the bed to place it in the cupboard. He would normally have placed them under the tree but with four curious raptors that loved to rip into things circling the tree at any given time, placing them there wasn't at all practical.
Turning back to the bed he sighed, "I should have known."
Blue was watching over her siblings as they attached an extended section of wrapping paper. Delta was punching holes in it with her sickle claw, making patterns and then pausing to admire her handiwork. Echo was tunneling under the paper, scuttling under it like a mole in the ground. Charlie was still sulking far away but she was watching now too.
Owen tore off the abused section of the paper and left it on the bed before moving his gifts and the wrapping paper to the kitchen table. He went back for the tape and groaned at what he saw.
"Well at least it wasn't the scissors," quickly he scooped those up and moved them away before going after Blue.
His usually stoic eldest had managed to stick her head between the extended section of tape on the dispenser. It had stuck to her neck and as she lifted up, had disconnected and begun to unravel. Blue was growling at the invisible, sticky enemy that was wrapping around her body as she struggled away from it.
"Hold still," Owen picked her up and began lifting the tape from Blue's form. "Just be thankful you don't have hair."
Blue squirmed and complained as the tape was removed. The sticky residue would probably irritate her for days.
Finally she was freed from the tape and she stalked over to play with Charlie. Owen left them to finish his gift-wrapping.
Once that was done he looked around and frowned, wondering what he was missing.
Lights!
"Oh, God, what those girls could do to lights." He laughed just imagining Charlie with a flashing light in her mouth. It would be cute until she bit down on it and electrocuted herself.
Yeah, that wasn't happening.
But it wouldn't really be Christmas without the lights…
He looked between the tree and his girls as he tried to come up with a solution.
"Maybe a five minute light show." He muttered to himself as he set to work on the lights. The sun was setting on Christmas Eve and the lights would look great wrapped around the tree.
While the raptors were distracted with the wrapping paper, Owen quickly set up the lights and plugged them in, testing it briefly to make sure they worked. There was no light left by the time he was done.
"Hey girls," he whispered softly as he moved to the bed. The four raptors were piled up on his pillow, dozing after a long day of mischief.
"You need to be awake to see this," Owen murmured as he flipped the switch on the lights then crawled into bed.
Four sleepy little raptors opened bleary eyes in reaction to his movements. Then the flashing lights a few feet away diverted their attention. Orange eyes stared unblinking at the multicolored lights
"Pretty, isn't it?" he whispered to them as they all stared at the tree, merrily twinkling away as the only source of light in the house.
Blue cooed then snuggled closer to Owen, the others following her lead until they had all migrated from the pillow to Owen's side, resting near his heart.
"Merry Christmas, girls." Owen murmured, as he looked down at his adorable little children.
A little mess, a few ruined ornaments and a lovely Christmas tree viewing to end their day. Not a bad first Christmas really.
After such a full day, the pack of four infant raptors and their adopted mother didn't wake up when the door the cabin opened quietly.
A smiling face grinned down at the huddled group, illuminated by the Christmas lights flashing on and off.
Barry lifted the camera and took several pictures of the adorable sight before him. This would probably go on the website, definitely on Owen's Facebook page. Maybe under the title Mom and Babies on their first Christmas. Barry was never going to let the handler live this cute little moment down.
"Merry Christmas, Owen," he whispered before he slipped back out the door.
Yeah, everyone was going to want one of these pictures.