Saboteur
by heavensgirl

SYNOPSIS: Saboteur: noun; a person who destroys something deliberately. Also known as: Owen intentionally ruining every date that Claire goes to.

Standard disclaimer applies. Any names used in this story are fictional; they were randomly chosen for the purpose of this fanfiction. Also, I think there are some OOC-ness here; bear with me.


Chapter 1: Green-Eyed Monster

"Please tell me you're kidding."

"With this getup, she won't even recognize you."

"Remind me again why I'm helping you."

A sheepish grin. "Because we're the best of friends?"

"A friend does not risk another friend's job."

"Trust me, Barry, she won't recognize you at all," said Owen Grady, urging his friend and co-worker to wear the wig and fake mustache that Owen held out to him. "You look great!"

Barry glared at Owen and checked himself in the mirror, wearing a waiter's uniform and adjusting the aforementioned mustache on his face. "I look ridiculous," he deadpanned.

Owen ignored Barry's comment and peeked inside the restaurant through the kitchen door windows, finding a certain redhead with a good-looking man sitting across from her. Said man leaned and whispered something in her ear that made her smile and her eyes twinkled good-naturedly. Owen narrowed his eyes as he tore his gaze away from the couple to look at Barry who was scowling at him.

"What?" Owen asked, fishing a vial from his pocket. He gave Barry another sheepish smile before squeezing two drops of an unknown substance on a bowl of clam chowder. With a satisfied nod, he lifted the tray and passed it to Barry.

There was an excited gleam in Owen's eyes as he gave Barry instructions, "He ordered the clam chowder while she ordered the vegetable soup. Make sure you give the right soup to the right person."

"How do you know he won't offer her some of his chowder?"

"She's allergic to shellfish."

"And you know that… how?"

"Not important. Now go, go, go!"

With a groan, Barry slowly made his way to Table 4.

[ ] [ ] [ ]

Claire Dearing was having a wonderful night. Her date, Jake Nielsen, was a great guy. He was smart, sweet, and had beautiful dimples on both cheeks. He was the supervisor for Jurassic World's marketing team and had asked her out a week ago when they ran into each other at Starbucks on their way to work. She gladly accepted his offer, knowing firsthand from their conversations that Jake was an incredibly nice guy.

Claire started out as assistant assets manager in Jurassic World almost five years ago. As she gradually made her way towards the top of the company ladder, it became harder for Claire to find time to socialize – not because she disliked it, but Claire wanted to prioritize what was important to her first, which was to help run a business. It made her happy, productive, and successful.

However, there would be days when she would feel a little lonely, wondering what it would be like to receive some affection from a special person. Her assistant and friend, Zara, kept encouraging her to "loosen up a bit" and to enter the dating world again. Claire gave in; it has been a while since she's been out and about for a date…

"Ah, our soup is here!" said Jake, smiling at Claire and pointing to the tall man with a mustache who approached their table in an almost-hesitant manner.

Claire tilted her head and narrowed her eyes slightly as she examined their waiter. He looked awfully familiar, but Claire couldn't quite place where she has seen him.

The waiter smiled at them nervously as he placed their respective soups on the table. Jake gave an enthusiastic "Thanks!" and instantly devoured his clam chowder while Claire continued to observe the waiter as he almost sprinted back to the kitchen.

[ ] [ ] [ ]

Barry exhaled loudly as he made his way back to Owen who was pacing back and forth until he noticed Barry's return. "So, did he eat the chowder?"

"Devoured it."

"Excellent."

"What did you put in his soup anyway?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Owen…"

"Okay, okay. It's a laxative, nothing harmful! He'll just have to make multiple trips to the bathroom and this date will be out the window."

Barry shook his head. He didn't know whether to feel sorry for Claire's date or to congratulate Owen for his ingenious idea of how to ruin a date. "You're hopeless."

[ ] [ ] [ ]

Claire placed a hand on Jake's arm, worry etched on her face as she watched his face took on a painful look. "Is something wrong, Jake?"

He showed her a weak smile as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. "I… I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Before Jake can utter another word, he made a quick beeline towards the men's bathroom. Claire pursed her lips, confused by his sudden change of demeanor. She played with her untouched soup, wondering if Jake was going to be alright.

Jake emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later, his face sweatier and redder and he looked about ready to return to the bathroom. Claire made eye contact with him and Jake gave her a reassuring smile that turned into a look of pain before he ran to the bathroom again.

"Must be food poisoning," she whispered to herself, pushing the bowl of soup away from her for fear of getting sick like her date.

After another 10 minutes, Jake exited the bathroom again, looking pale and upset. "I… I think I better go home. The soup isn't sitting well with my stomach."

Claire stood up from her seat. "Would you like me to accompany you home? You don't look well."

"I'll be okay as soon as I get home and, uh, let out everything," he said, cringing at his poor choice of words. "I am so sorry about this, Claire."

Claire gave him a sympathetic smile. "No need to apologize. I will have a word with the cook before I leave to let them know there's clearly something wrong with the clam chowder."

"I, uh, I guess I'll call you?" he asked.

Claire nodded. "That sounds great. I hope you get well soon."

He kissed Claire's hand. "Thanks."

Claire watched Jake almost sprint out the restaurant before making her way to the kitchen. She talked to the manager and the cook, both who apologized profusely, especially because they knew who Claire was. Claire actually surprised herself that she didn't feel too angry and instead took their offer of a free dinner for her next date. Maybe she was just too stunned with the night's events to come up with a better complaint.

Claire returned to their (her, she mentally corrected) table and plopped down a bit ungracefully on her seat. She bit her bottom lip; this was not how she imagined this date would turn out.

"Claire?"

Claire whipped her head and saw Owen Grady smiling down at her. "Owen?"

"Fancy seeing you here," he commented. He looked at her outfit for the night. "You look nice in purple, by the way."

A tinge of pink graced her pretty face. "Thank you."

"Are you by yourself?"

"No… well, yes, now I am…" Claire sighed and shifted awkwardly in her seat. "Uhm, would you like to sit down?"

"Where's your date?" said Owen who cackled internally, being fully aware of what really happened to her date.

"Oh, he went home, actually," she said, embarrassed. She fiddled with the table napkin on her lap. "Owen, I don't want you to think that I just asked you to join me because I don't want to be sitting alone… you don't have to… actually, I should probably just go home…"

Owen held his hand up and took the seat across from her. "Relax, Claire. I'd love to join you."

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you." She lowered her voice so Owen had to lean closer to hear her whisper, "Just don't order the clam chowder, ok?"

If Owen could, he would have laughed out loud.

Claire felt quite relieved that her night didn't end as horribly as she thought it would after her original date left in a rush. Meanwhile, Owen mentally patted himself on the back, feeling happy that he was able to pull off a successful sabotage that allowed him to end this night with Claire.


"Is that him, the guy with the green shirt?"

"Yep."

"And you want me to do what, exactly?"

"Get him so mad that he'll try to punch you."

"What in the world, Grady? You want me to get knocked out?"

"We both know that won't happen. You'll knock him out before he can even say 'oh shit.'"

"You're hopeless, Grady."

[ ] [ ] [ ]

Beck, the ACU guy, asked Claire for dinner at Winston's Steakhouse, one of the high-end restaurants in Isla Nublar. It was no surprise for Owen because Claire and Beck knew each other before either of them started working for Jurassic World. They had been friends in high school, lost touch when they went to college, but rekindled their friendship when they met again as employees for the park.

Beck was a sweet guy whenever Claire was around, but Owen knew better. The guy was short-tempered and his hobby included bullying some of the new ACU recruits. When Beck would be assigned to escort another executive to the raptor paddock, he never missed the chance of provoking Owen's raptors by banging on the metal gates of their paddock. It always made Owen see red.

That was why Owen felt particularly happy today because he was going to hit two birds with one stone: first, he's going to make sure that Beck would be the worst date ever and second, he was going to make sure that he would get revenge on him for always picking on his raptors.

His friend, Craig, a hulking guy who worked at the triceratops enclosure, was going to help Owen do just that.

[ ] [ ] [ ]

Beck offered his arm to Claire as she entered the restaurant. "Claire, you look stunning."

"Thank you," Claire said, allowing Beck to take her to their reserved table at Winston's Steakhouse. Before they reached their table, however, a big burly man accidentally bumped into Beck that almost sent him and Claire tumbling on the floor were it not for a few servers who caught them. After composing himself, an enraged Beck stomped towards the man who Claire recognized as Craig, the gentle giant who worked with the park's triceratops.

"Hey!" yelled Beck. "Don't walk away without apologizing! Hey!"

Craig turned around, confused. "What?"

"What the hell do you mean 'what?'! You almost made me fall, you idiot!"

"I'm sorry, I was in a rush," Craig said calmly. He glanced at Claire. "I'm sorry Miss Dearing."

Claire gave him a small smile. "No worries, Craig."

Unlike Claire, Beck didn't accept Craig's apology and excuse. The short-tempered and hot-headed ACU member was about to land a punch on Craig when the big guy instinctively (and easily) dodged his blow. Not backing down, Beck tried to land another punch that Craig dodged yet again, causing Beck to lose his balance and fall face first on the floor.

By then, a staff member had called security to stop the rampaging Beck before he makes the situation worse. Claire – who stood near their forgotten table – looked upset and gave Beck a stern glare as he was escorted out of the establishment. She didn't know that he was that temperamental and she definitely did not like how he treated Craig who did apologize to them.

With a sigh, she apologized to the staff and to Craig before she decided to call it a day. She was stressed and frustrated: first, her second date failed before it even began and second, it was still dinner time and she has not eaten yet. Her stomach growled, but she didn't want to go back to the Steakhouse after the scene with Beck.

She was deliberating on where to go for dinner when a voice startled her. "You look a little lost."

Claire jumped at Owen's sudden appearance. "It's you," she said in a gloomy tone.

Owen raised an eyebrow. "Whoa there, what did I do?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, it's not you. It's been a long night and it's not even past seven." To her horror, her stomach grumbled quite loudly. Claire felt her face grow warm in embarrassment.

Owen grinned. "Sounds like you haven't had any dinner yet."

"No kidding," she said. "I'm actually craving for a burger from Dave and Buster's right now."

"Need some company?"

Her frustrated look was replaced with a smile. "That would be lovely."

Owen got to spend the rest of the night in Claire's company, listening as she shared stories of her college life and her two nephews whom she hasn't seen for many years. As for Claire, she listened with rapt attention as Owen told her some of his experiences while he was in the Navy.

Despite the lingering guilt that was eating at his conscience, Owen thought this sabotage was better than the last one not only because he got to spend more time with Claire, but also because Owen felt that his raptors were avenged when Beck made a fool of himself in front of countless of people, most especially Claire.


"You have such an interesting approach on your endeavor to woo Claire."

"I'm not trying to woo her."

"Riiight. So why are you trying to sabotage this date?"

Silence.

"Admit it, Owen. You're doing this because you don't want her to date anybody other than yourself."

Owen still remained silent.

"You're hopeless, you know that?"

"Like I've never heard that before," muttered Owen sarcastically.

"You owe me big time."

"Thanks, Lowery."

[ ] [ ] [ ]

The Gondola Lift was Claire's favorite ride at Jurassic World. The ride took guests up to the highest spot on Isla Nublar, giving them a spectacular view of the park. It's been a while since Claire had the opportunity to ride the lift, so when David – a tech specialist for the park – asked her what she wanted to do for a nice lunch together, she immediately suggested the ride.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon when Claire arrived at the entrance of the Gondola Lift, fifteen minutes ahead of her scheduled lunch with David. She smiled at some of the employees she passed by as she waited near the entryway, looking out as people excitedly boarded their rides.

Claire frowned when she felt her phone vibrate in her purse. "Hello?"

"Claire?"

Claire could tell David was peeved. "David? What's the matter?"

"I'm afraid I will have to cancel our lunch plans today. Lowery needs my help with our system's firewall; apparently, he found a few vulnerabilities."

"I must get there immediately then."

"No, we've got it under control. It's your day off, Claire. Try to enjoy it. And I'm really sorry again…"

"It's okay, David. I'll see you tomorrow at work, okay?"

Claire understood David's predicament: because he was one of the park's top tech specialists, he was always on call in case serious matters regarding Jurassic World's system come up. Nevertheless, Claire bit back a frustrated groan.

She was on her way back to her car when someone called out her name. Claire turned around and saw Owen dismounting his motorcycle, smiling that irresistible smile that she realized she would like to see more often.

"You seem to always be in the right place at the right time," she said as Owen approached her.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. What are you doing here?"

"It's my day off and I needed a change of scenery. I thought the Gondola Lift is the best place for that."

"Yeah, it's my favorite ride," said Claire.

Owen's smile grew wider. "Well, since we're both here, we might as well go together. Let me just get the tickets."

"No need for that," Claire said, plucking two VIP tickets from her bag, "I have them already."

Owen glanced at the ticket she gave him. At his questioning look, she explained, "I've made special arrangements for a nice picnic for lunch today."

"Were you supposed to be on a date today?"

Claire looked flustered. "Something came up and he couldn't show up."

"I see."

"I'm sorry."

Owen looked at her inquisitively. "For what?"

"I feel like you've been giving me such huge favors for always accompanying every time a date ends disastrously."

"Claire, you don't have to worry about that. I really don't mind," reassured Owen. Owen was telling the truth: he did enjoy being with her, but the fact that he sabotaged her dates made him feel like he truly didn't deserve to be in her company.

His guilt, however, was instantly forgotten (temporarily, anyway) when she beamed at him as their ride started to ascend. The afternoon sun peaked through the mountains and gave Claire an almost ethereal glow and Owen couldn't help but stare.

It was there that he decided that he wouldn't try to sabotage any more of her dates. It was time for him to be honest and straightforward with her.

Now if only Owen had the guts to actually ask her out.


A/N: Please stay tuned for the last chapter! :)

Yours Truly, HG

Edited: 2/13/18