How Life Finds a Way
Chapter 2: Coffee and Dinosaurs
Jurassic World is owned by Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, and Universal Pictures.
Luckily though, Alice is mine!
1. Thank you for all the positivity guys. It means a lot considering this is my first non-anime related story, I really didn't know how this would go.
2. I'm glad everyone likes Alice. I made her a complete opposite from Claire and her sister, both serious business women with the older one being slightly more laid back. With Alice being younger, I figured I'd give her a special bond her sisters, but also this distance that they'll never be able to understand about her that Owen and Alan can.
3. To JJChandler, that is a definite yes. I will be in fact incorporating different species of dinosaurs into the story. That is one of the very few things I think the movie lacked, was diversity, as they only brought back old species excluding the Mosasaur and Indominus Rex.
4. And the concept of a younger Alan working a Jurassic World came to me when I was watching the original movie. The plot for using the first park is used to much in my opinion, but often Alan is a forgotten character even though he is the main character, and my favorite of the franchise.
5. Also, forgot to mention but if you want to know what Alice looks like or want an idea, google Jane Levy.
[Jurassic World, Plaza Area 8:43 A.M.]
Alan Grant was typically a morning person, having spent many weeks in the Montana Badlands getting up at six in the morning and even getting up early in college. He could control what time he woke up, what he watched on TV in the morning, what he had for breakfast. One thing he couldn't control, though, was whether he had a good morning or a bad morning.
Like, say for instance, him not getting his I-Pad to work. All he'd wanted to pull up his schedule for the day, but to do this it required a password and ID, both of which he'd forgotten. After an hour of cursing and beating the device against his kitchen counter, he was finally about to throw the darn thing away and request a new one from Claire, when a knock came from his door.
"Who is it?" He asked in a very irritated voice.
"It's Alice! Is everything okay in there?"
Alice. Of course she would be passing by just as he was having one of his technology episodes.
Opening the door for her, he met the redhead in the doorway.
"Uh, hey Alice. What can I do you for?"
"Oh nothing, I was just on my way to Starbucks for some coffee. That is, until I heard some very obscene words coming from your suite. Now I wonder why that is?" She spoke with curiosity and a hint of playfulness.
He stared at her for a moment, shocked that she'd heard everything. With a sigh, he held out his tablet to her, which now had a large crack leading across the screen.
"I… Can't get the damn thing to work." He mumbled while scratching his face.
"Lemme see it." She took it and began to tap it a few times. The woman had to stifle a giggle from the thought of Alan getting so angry just because of a little tablet.
"Here." She handed it back to him.
He was in shock, again! Staring at the screen, he'd found that she was able to get him into the Jurassic World staff work site. Now he could see his schedule!
"By the way, it wouldn't work because you kept tapping on 'create new account'." She said with amusement in her voice.
This made him red in the face with embarrassment.
"God I hate technology." He grumbled, setting the tablet on the dresser by the door.
"So what are you doing now?" She asked, hoping he was free.
"Well…"
They both had another hour before their shifts started, so Alice offered Alan a cup of coffee. He initially declined, not wanted her to spend her money on him and not wanting to trouble her, but she waved him off with a grin.
"It's on me! Besides, what are friends for?" She looped her arm through his and walked him down the plaza area.
Now both Alan and Alice sat under the patio of the local Starbucks of Jurassic World. Alan wasn't much of a coffee person himself, but as he watched Alice down her hot beverage, he began to wonder if this was where she acquired all of that energy he'd seen her display over the last few weeks.
Since he'd met her, the two had become close friends, often spending a lot of time with each other in their off time. He had to admit that he honestly didn't know if Owen was trying to set him up with the lively redhead, or if he'd just been trying to help Alan spread out his variety of friends.
He did have to admit to it though, for a guy who had a job that required him to spend most of his time outside with other people digging through dirt, he wasn't the most social person. So up until his job at Jurassic World, his only friend for the most part, was Ellie. Owen was probably able to pick up on this the first day they met at the raptor paddock, as the only thing the paleontologist talked about that day was his theories on the prehistoric reptiles, only to find out that most of them were true.
Alan wasn't dumb. He knew he wasn't the greatest person to have around for company, but he did try.
When he went into one of his rants about the habits of the ex-extinct animals, Owen was only able to offer what he knew about his raptors to the conversation, and he was pretty sure most of the time the ex-Navy man pretended to know what Alan was talking about.
As much as that pissed him off, he couldn't blame his friend, as it was part of Owen's personality and he also hadn't studied his whole life to learning what he could about prehistoric life.
Alice, on the other hand, didn't have that much trouble understanding him. She'd gone to college at the University of Michigan, taken classes in biological and prehistoric sciences, but she'd ultimately gotten her degree in Zoology. She was a smart woman, and could've literally gotten a job doing anything else with Claire backing her, but she'd chosen to be part of the resort's animal care team. So he learned that she'd spent the better part of two years feeding and cleaning up after the dinosaurs here on the island.
He shook his head at the idea. As much as he loved and was amazed with these creatures, he wouldn't be caught dead cleaning up after Rexy was finished with her "business". Yet, here she was, just as energetic about her job as the first day he'd met her.
"Alan!"
Her voice shook him from his reminiscing thoughts, turning to her with his ever present frown. Upon observation of her facial features, he couldn't really see how she and Claire could be sisters, besides the fact that they both had red hair and they were blood related. Claire had a stern, hard set face befitting a business woman such as herself. Alice on the other hand, had softer features that complimented her laid-back, yet energetic personality.
"Hm?" He grunted, taking a sick of his black coffee.
As they stared at each other, she made a confused look, as if she was trying to figure him out.
"Don't you ever smile?" She began laughing, before drinking some of her latte.
God, he could still remember when Ellie use to ask him that, of course she was just poking fun at him. He honestly couldn't help it, what with growing up with a strict childhood, he had to be tough so he adopted a tough face. Besides, Alice was genuinely curious about it, at least that's what he thought.
"Sure I do, sometimes…" He joked, giving a small, half-grin before taking another sip of his coffee.
"That counts! You just smiled!" Alice quickly leaned back in her chair, throwing her finger at him with a large smile.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He mumbled, slightly turning his head to try and hide the ever growing smirk on his face.
When he looked back at her, he didn't have time to protest as he suddenly found himself in the crosshairs of her phone's camera. The SNAP sound of the camera going off told him that she'd indeed taken a picture of him.
"What was that for?" He asked, not too keen on people taking his picture.
She looked down at the device for a few more seconds before looking at him with a soft smile.
"Memories." She simply stated, putting her phone back into her pocket.
"I wanted to save all the fun times I have with you and Owen here on the island, you two are my best friends after all."
Best friends? They'd only known each other for a few weeks and she already considered them to be on that level? He'd guessed that only showed how trusting she was.
"I can delete it if you want."
He was shocked at her statement, but shook his head.
"I don't mind, just don't you go showing every other worker on the island." He jokingly pointed a finger back at her, with a mock glare.
"Oh? And what'll happen to me if it does get out?" She asked, leaning forward with a hint of mystery in her voice.
"Let's just say Claire might find a picture of you raiding the Ben and Jerry's back room." He leaned forward, gained a glint of mischief in his eye as well.
She gave a hard gasp, before slowly leaning forward some more. How did anyone find out about that? Lowery was supposed to make sure the camera was turned off!
"You wouldn't!"
"Try me." He gave a relaxed smirk, leaning back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head.
She then rolled her eyes in a circle, as if in thought for a second.
"And what would it take to keep word from getting out?" She squinted her eyes at him.
They both kept a hard stare on each other, until Alan broke the ice.
"Well, you could keep that picture just between you and me…" He trailed off, wanted to see what her reaction was.
She then leaned in even closer over the table, if that was even possible. The redhead made a face like she was expecting him to say something else.
"And you can let me pay for the coffee." He smirked, pulling five dollars from his wallet.
"Wait, what?" Alice blinked for a moment in confusion, seeing that the waiter had finally come for the ticket.
"Will that be all?" The woman asked, taking the bill and reaching into her apron for some change.
"Now hold on just a minute!" The redhead raised her brow.
"Is there a problem?" The waitress asked nervously, wondering if she'd made a mistake.
"Hell yes! I didn't agree to you paying." Alice puffed out her cheeks.
Alan only stared for a second, before giving a small chuckle.
"Oh this is fantastic." He muttered to himself.
"We-well it doesn't matter who pays, just as long as someone does." The brunette said, wondering if she should also give Alan his dollar back.
"And that SOMEONE will be me!" Alice declared as she dug into her purse for her wallet.
Alan rolled his eyes and grabbed his hat, setting it on his head as he got up from his seat.
"Keep the change, but whatever you do, don't let her pay." He whispered to the woman.
"But… She's looking for money right now. It looks like she's intent on paying for this coffee." She answered back.
"Then take it and make her think she paid for it." He shrugged, and began walking away.
"Here it is!" Alice exclaimed, holding a debit card out to the woman.
"But sir-!" The waitress began to call for Alan.
"You'll think of something!" He waved over his shoulder, never looking back.
Now at odds, the Starbucks worker stood there, baffled at how she'd landed herself into this situation.
[Raptor Paddock, 10:05 A.M.]
Once Alan had gotten to the paddock, he could already tell that it was going to be a long day, as he could see Owen in the middle of a heated conversation with an overweight, middle aged man.
"What the Hell?" He quietly asked himself as he unbuckled and got out of the vehicle.
As he slowly made his way up the stairs to the walkway, he could hear the distress in Owen's voice get louder and louder.
"Damnit Hoskins I you this isn't what the raptors were made for so just let it go!" The handler waved his hand furiously at the older man.
"You'll see Owen, you all will! This will save lives one day, it could end wars!" The man, now known as Hoskins pointed his finger at Owen, going to leave until he caught site of Alan.
"You! Come here!" He gestured to the paleontologist.
Alan had to bite back the urge to reply back with "who me?", but ultimately decided against it. Seeing as this man could possibly rank higher than him on Masrani's work force, he didn't want to risk losing his job.
"You're the new dinosaur expert Claire and Masrani hired a month or two back right?"
"Yes sir. I am." Alan let out a sigh, not liking the way the man had just referred to him.
"Alan Grant, this is Vic Hoskins. He's the head of the security here at Jurassic World. Vic Hoskins, meet Alan Grant. He's a member of the research and behavioral division here."
"Nice to meet you Mr. Grant." Vic held his hand out to shake.
"It's Dr. actually, and likewise so far." Alan gave his best smile to hide the sarcasm in his voice.
"Tell me Dr. Grant, as I would love a second opinion on the matter." He gave a side glance to Owen, who rolled his eyes, as if he already knew what Alan's answer would be.
"What would the chances be of successfully breed raptors like these for military usage?" He asked, placing his hands on his rounded hips.
A moment passed by.
Then two.
Then a third went by, before Alan finally processed what the man had exactly asked.
"I… I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Alan asked seriously, picking at his ear to make sure no wax was messing with his hearing.
Hoskins looked confused for a moment, then offended at Alan's response.
"I asked, what do you think about raptors like these being bred for military purposes, and what are the chances of the project being successful?" He asked again, though more clearly and loudly this time.
This time Alan had heard the man correctly, though was still in shock at the question. He looked from Hoskins to Owen, who just rolled his eyes and shrugged, then back to Hoskins. The Montana native almost broke out into laughter, thinking the man was telling a sick joke.
"Oh God, you're serious about this, aren't you?" Alan asked, scrunching up his face at the sheer stupidity of the idea.
"As a heart attack, Dr. Grant." Hoskins gave a look that said he wasn't amused with Alan's response to his question.
Alan took a minute to ponder an answer for the man, when the chirping of the Velociraptors reached his ears. Looking down, he saw them pass by in a pack, at high speeds that would give a cheetah a run for its hide. He was then reminded of how dangerous these creatures were, and how catastrophic it would be they were set free among the public.
"With all due respect, sir. This is a terrible, and I mean horrible idea." He offered his opinion.
"Excuse me?" The older man asked, not believing that he was being ganged up on.
"Not only is this a terrible idea, but it could possibly top the ten worst ideas in history. Even in war, I wouldn't wish this kind of death on my worst enemy. These animals have sixty-five million years of wild instinct that have been suppressed, and now that they're back from the dead there's no possible way we could ever understand these creatures in a way that we could ever control them. There would be no enemy for them, only food." Alan finished, giving a serious expression to the man.
"So no Mr. Hoskins, I do not think that this is the greatest of ideas. It could never possibly work." He finished, offering his two cents on the matter at hand.
Hoskins gave a glare, before slowly nodding at Alan.
"I see that no one around here envisions change for the betterment of the world like I do." He began to make his way off the walkway and out of the paddock.
"You watch yourself Grant, or you can kiss your new job goodbye!" The oversized man called to them.
Both Alan and Owen watched the man waddle his way to a InGen jeep that was parked outside the compound, before he abruptly started it up and left.
"Hey, sorry for you getting involved in that, he's the residential douchebag. But thanks for coming to the rescue." Owen thanked his friend, patting the younger man on the shoulder.
"Good timing was all it was, but now I'm starting to think it was bad timing." He shook his head.
"Why is that?"
"Because Claire's shit list isn't the only list I'm on now." Alan sighed, taking off his hat and rubbing the sweat from his hair.
"Trust me, you'll get used to it. They'll never do anything as long as you do your job right. Especially Hoskins. That guy is all bark."
"For your sake, and mine, I hope you're right."
The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent with Owen running the girls through various exercises, and Alan jotting down notes on their behavior patterns and their health status. After they were done for the evening, Owen found Alan in the little office above the paddock writing on his clipboard.
"So…" Owen began, hoping to get the man's attention.
"No." The paleontologist said without even looking up from his work.
"But I wasn't even gonna ask anything!" Owen groaned like a child.
"Didn't have to."
"Aw c'mon man!"
Giving a sigh, Alan put his clipboard down and gave a forced smile to his friend.
"Well then, let's hear it then."
"Well I heard from a guy, that you and a certain redhead had coffee at Starbucks this morning." Owen slowly wandered his way to a chair that sat on the other side of the table Alan sat at.
"Is that so?"
"Yep!"
"Is that it?" Alan raised his brows, giving a questioning look.
Alan's reaction to Owen's news had surprised the man. He'd expected Grant to be blushing and begging him not to tell anyone, or something along those lines.
"Yes?" Owen answered back, unsure of himself.
"Owen if you're looking for dirt, you can look somewhere else." Alan just sighed and returned to writing down details about Echo's Behavioral habits.
"What? No, it's nothing like that!" The raptor trainer waved his hands around.
"I was just wondering if there was something between you two or…?"
"No Owen, there is nothing going on between myself and Ms. Dearing."
"Ha! Gotcha!" Owen pointed a finger at the dinosaur expert.
"What are you going on about?"
"You never call her 'Ms. Dearing'. You only call Claire that when you talk to her or you're pissed about something she did! You only call her Alice, or Ali when it's just us three!"
"You've got a pretty big mouth, you know that Owen?" Alan looked at the man with a humorous, yet serious glare.
"So I've been told."
"And you wonder why I don't tell anyone about my private life."
"Hey bro, your secret is safe with me!"
Alan only gave a blank stare.
"There is no secret Owen."
"So you openly admit to liking her?"
"Owen, we're about to see how much your girls imprinted on you."
"Right. Gotcha. We're done. No more on the subject!" Owen made a zipping gesture on his lips.
"Good."
A moment passed by.
"You weren't serious were you?"
The two men stared at each other.
"Alan?"
Grant gave a small chuckle as he finished up his paperwork and got up from his chair, making his way out of the office.
"Hey come on Alan that's not funny!" Owen hastily got up and followed his friend out the door.
[Claire's Office, 8:04 P.M.]
"We'll have a busy schedule these next few weeks. Tomorrow we have an employee meeting in the main room of the Innovation Center before the park opens to discuss management and care for assets and visitors." Claire explained, looking through the itinerary on her tablet.
After a long day, and a long week of busy work, she'd finally found some time to spend with her sister. So she invited Alice to her office for some delivery dinner.
"Uh huh." Alice nodded, staring out the window that overlooked the resort. At first she was happy to be able to visit with Claire, not being able to see her much with her sister's busy schedule. And of course, during their only time to have some sisterly bonding, all Claire wants to do is talk about work.
"Also, with summer beginning, we will see more tourists every week. And with the temperature like it is, more people will be vacating the restaurants and creameries. The assets will also be more active as well, needing more water and food to make it through the heat, especially the carnivores."
"Interesting." Alice said off-handedly again, only thinking back to the events of her morning. To her memory, that had been the longest she'd ever hung out with Alan, with it just being them two. She was inwardly screaming in excitement.
The dinosaur expert probably didn't think much of it, and she was still pretty pissed that he'd gone out of the way to make sure she didn't pay for that coffee, but it was a huge step to her! It probably wasn't much of a surprise, or much of one at all to anyone on the island, but Alice had it bad for Alan Grant. She didn't even care about Owen's teasing, she had dirt on him because of his awkward date with her sister, she had feelings and she wasn't afraid of admitting it either if the way she acted around Alan himself was anything to go off of.
"This means as usual, we'll have to spread out the staff as much as possible, meaning you will have to work with who you can get. Though, there is the option of getting interns…" Claire stopped her talking when she noticed that Alice hadn't been paying attention.
"Alice?"
The younger Dearing sister snapped her head up at the mention of her name.
"Hm?"
"Did you hear any of what I just said?" Claire asked, giving a 'really?' face.
"Uh…" Alice trailed off, her eyes slowly roaming across the room, and over her sister's head to try and figure something out.
"We were talking about Summer time, weren't we?" She asked, lifting her shoulders in doubt.
Claire sighed, looking down at her tablet, resisting the urge to throw it in the trash can.
"It's fine, don't worry about it. Now isn't the time for work anyways." Claire waved her sister off, setting her device to the side of her desk, ignoring the email Hoskins sent her from earlier today.
"I expected it anyways, it's cool." Alice went back to staring out the window.
Claire made a face, almost offended.
"That hurt, it almost sounded like you think all I do is work."
"Well you do, don't you?" Alice shook her head in a sarcastic tone.
"Not all the time! I make time for fun!" Claire crossed her arms and puffing out her cheeks, which were now a light shade of pink.
"Oh stop, you know I'm joking!" Alice grinned.
"I'm not sure what I know anymore, since I don't know what fun is apparently." The older sister said with feigned hurt in her voice.
"Are you kidding me? That time you replaced Karen's shampoo with blue hair dye was phenomenal! I would've never thought of that."
"She still doesn't know it was me, mostly because I blamed on the cousins when the family got together for Thanksgiving."
"And she still thinks it was them!" Alice said as both sisters laughed at the memory.
A moment passed by once the laughter died down.
"Gosh I miss this." Claire looked down at her desk, her eyes running over the paperwork that had managed to stack up over time.
"What, spending time with your little sister or acting like a teen?" Alice asked.
"Both."
"Amen to that."
Claire looked back at her younger sister, finally feeling like the time was now to bring up a different subject.
"So…"
"So?" Alice gave a confused look.
"I heard from Zara that you and Dr. Grant were having coffee together this morning." The older sister gave a sly glance to Alice.
Alice's face burned brightly. Of course Zara saw them together this morning! The British woman went to Starbucks every morning. And of course she would tell Claire! The girl was a sucker for gossip.
"Well you see, it started early this morning when I was leaving the staff suite, and as I was passing Dr. Grant's room I could hear him yelling curses and making all kinds of noise…" She began to explain the events from earlier.
Thanks again for all positive reviews! I hope to turn this story into something, but only if you guys want me to continue with it. I'm just so hyped about Fallen Kingdom that I had to make a Jurassic story of my own. Again I appreciate you guys. Let me know what you thought of this chapter!