TUESDAY

Tuesday morning Maisie woke up to a quiet apartment. She was usually the last one to get up in the mornings, Claire being the first. Usually Owen was helping Claire in the kitchen either with Maisie's lunch or with gathering Aiden's things together for day care. Maisie walked past Aiden's nursery and looked in the open door that was usually ajar. Aiden was not in her crib. She then made her way to the kitchen that was still dark, except for the dim stove light Owen left on at night in case anyone needed to get up for a drink of water or something for the baby. Aside from the occasional nightmares she still had, Maisie was a heavy sleeper, and Aiden's crying seldom woke her up at night. Confused as to why Claire, Owen and Aiden weren't up yet, she turned on the living room light and walked back down the hall to Claire and Owen's bedroom. Their door was usually closed or ajar, but this time it was wide open. She walked in quietly on her bare feet, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness of their room. They were sitting up in bed together, both asleep, Claire's head resting on Owen's shoulder, and Aiden asleep against Claire's chest. She figured they finally gave up at some point during the night trying to get Aiden to sleep in her crib and just settled for letting her sleep on Claire's chest all night. It was her favorite place to sleep anyway. Maisie knew it was past time for them to get up and even though she would have loved to play hooky and stay in bed all day with them, the mini Claire in her knew school and work were important and that they needed to get out of bed. She climbed in their bed next to Owen and made a point not to do it lightly. Owen stirred as soon as he felt her next to him. "Hey kiddo, good morning." "Morning," she said back to him. "Aren't you guys late getting up?" Owen sat up straight immediately. "What time is it?" "Almost 7:00am." Maisie crawled out of their bed to go get dressed for school. "Claire, babe, we gotta get up!" He shook Claire's arm and she jerked a little. Her jerk scared Aiden out of her sleep and she started crying. "Oh God, we had two straight hours of peace, and now here we go again." Claire handed Aiden to Owen and got up, walked around to his side of the bed and took her right back from him. "Come here, Peanut, shhhhh, its okay." She bounced Aiden in her arms while giving orders to Owen and Maisie. Owen was instructed to make Maisie's lunch and not to fill her lunchbox with junk food. Maisie was instructed to finish getting dressed so Owen could take her to school. Claire nursed Aiden and hurriedly dressed her for daycare. She threw on some black skinny dress slacks and a white button down blouse with black heels and threw her hair up in her famous ponytail that she rocked almost every day anyway. She ran her fingers through her bangs and put her makeup on as fast as she could with Aiden watching her from her car seat she parked right outside her master bathroom door.

Miraculously, Claire dropped Aiden off at day care and was still ten minutes early for work. She was exhausted but wasn't about to be late when she scolded four of her interns the day before for the same thing. She got upstairs to the office and sat down, regretting that she didn't have time for coffee before leaving the apartment. A few minutes later the four late offenders from the day before showed up together again and took their seats and got straight to work. She watched from her desk, impressed with the way they must have learned from their actions the day before. Everyone was at work on time, busy and motivated, or so it seemed. A few minutes later, Jake's cell phone went off and he answered it. Claire didn't have a problem with cell phones being out and about in the office as long as her employees didn't abuse the privilege and managed to get their work done. But abuse it, he did. He took the call and instead of asking to step out for a moment he propped his feet on his desk and leaned back and chilled while holding a conversation with a friend of his about which beer was best for the upcoming Super Bowl party he was throwing at his dorm. Zia, whose desk was close to Jake's, saw Claire walking over. "Dude, you better hang up now if you know what's good for you," she whispered to him while nudging his arm. Jake decided to ignore her and carried on with his conversation. Claire's heels clicked louder and louder the closer she got to him. As she passed the elevator doors she heard them open but didn't even pay attention to who was getting off the elevator and stepping into her office. "Hey!" Jake yelled as his feet were thrown off the top of his desk. "Young man, give me the phone." "Ms. Dearing, I'm an adult. You can't treat me like a child." Claire suddenly smelled a hint of coffee in the air but she was so caught up in her debacle with Jake, she didn't bother to turn around to see who brought coffee in. "If you insist on acting like an immature, entitled, selfish child then yes I can. Now either give me the damn phone or exit this building and don't bother coming back this time." "Ah Hell." Owen mumbled under his breath. He had been the one that stepped off the elevator into the office with coffee for Claire. He was standing at her desk watching the whole scene take place which brought back memories of the park. He loved this take charge attitude she possessed, especially when she was in charge and someone tested her on that, except of course when it was him on the receiving side of an argument with her. Suddenly, Jake stood up and grabbed his keys. "Ms. Dearing, you can't kick me out of this internship." Claire cackled in his face. "Oh watch me, Mr. Hillard." "Man, this is bullshit!" He stormed off around her and got on the elevator. "Anyone else want to follow him?" Claire was hot. She was fuming mad, exhausted from the night before and baffled by the lack of work ethic the young man possessed that just left her office." "We're here to work, Ms. Dearing," said Allison, one of the other interns who had been part of the late group with Jake the day before. She had learned her lesson but clearly he had not. "Good. And you can call me Claire. I've said that from Day 1. Guys, this is like a mission. One we need to take very seriously. Please show me that you're willing and capable of giving 100% every day towards our goal here, otherwise, this isn't the place for you. I need dedicated people who want to make a difference in these animals' lives, not sit here and just pretend to care." Everyone in the room shook their heads in agreement, partly because they were all frightened by their boss a little bit. Claire walked back towards her desk to find the person who made her office smell so good. "Owen!" She was more excited to see the coffee than to see him. She grabbed the cup he had set down on her desk and took a sip. "I figured you would need that." She kissed him quickly on the cheek and thanked him. "You saved me this morning with this. I hope you got yourself some." Owen chuckled. "Ha, I guzzled mine down in my truck. I really could use another one." He was on his way to his warehouse down the street to work on a sign for a new local restaurant. His side business of making wooden and metal signs for the public and small companies in the area was growing and he was getting more requests and orders by the week. "That poor kid is gonna need something strong after being emasculated by you this morning. You're just missing your corporate bob again to go along with that attitude." Claire rolled her eyes at Owen and told him to go on to work so she could set an example for her employees and get to work herself.

The rest of the day was routine. Claire had a few phone meetings with a few of the local schools to set up dates for her to come and talk to the kids about dinosaurs and the importance of safety involved both in keeping them safe and humans safe as well. A handful of schools had pulled out from participating in any future visits from the DPG due to their disapproval of the dinosaurs being set free. Maisie's school luckily was not one of those schools and Claire had visited there several times in the past before the incident involved in releasing the dinosaurs took place. They were on her list of schools to visit soon, mostly the kindergarten and 1st grade classes. Everyone else worked hard the rest of the day as well, Zia on the phones trying to get politicians to talk to her, Franklin revamping the DPG's website, and everyone else working on graphics, banners, signs, articles, etc. for various publications involving dinosaur rights. Claire was glad to see after two rough starts so far that week, her team was working hard and looked like they really wanted to make a difference. Maybe that one bad seed just needed to be excused so that everyone else didn't follow in his footsteps and go down the disillusioned path with him.

Owen picked Aiden up a little early that evening and surprised Claire at work with her. She was standing over a large table going over some ideas for visual aids and posters to take to the schools to show the kids the following week. She had a group of about six or seven employees standing around the table with her and again, she was so focused on her work she heard the elevator door open, but didn't register the fact that she should turn around and see who just came in. She had her back to the elevator and one of the young graphic design interns saw Owen walk in with the baby on his hip and said, "Awwww!!" Claire, who was leaned over the table, stood up straight and turned around and saw two of her three favorite people stepping off the elevator. "Awwww, is right!" she said. He walked over to her with Aiden and she immediately reached for her baby and took her from Owen's hold. "Can you say hi to everyone, Peanut?" Claire bounced her in her arms, still standing at the large table with everyone. Most everyone in her office had seen or met Owen once or twice, but Aiden had only been there once before. Claire didn't bring her upstairs to the office, mainly because she was still so young and didn't want her around so many people, aside from everyone she was around at day care every day. Everyone in the room gazed lovingly at Aiden and told Claire how much her baby looked just like her. Owen stood there and rolled his eyes, but smiled at the same time. He had been getting that remark since the day their baby was born, but he agreed, even saying it to Claire himself as she held Aiden in her arms for the first time. "Claire, where did the name 'Peanut' come from?" Zia walked up and inquired about the little one's funny nickname. Unlike everyone else at the DPG, Zia had been around Aiden pretty frequently, coming over to Claire's apartment often to work on things for the DPG or just to visit. Zia was like Claire's right hand man, or woman rather. She was one of the first people Claire hired when she started the DPG and she proved to be a valuable part of Claire's team, especially during the mission back to the park and to Lockwood's estate. She saved Owen's life, so if nothing else Claire and Owen were both indebted to her for life. "'Peanut' is just her nickname. Because she's so little. I don't know, it just came out one day shortly after she was born and I've been calling her that ever since." Owen chuckled a little bit and said, "the poor kid is going to grow up not knowing what her real name is." Claire rolled her eyes at Owen and laughed. "She will know what her real name is. I'm sure you'll make sure she knows what her 'full' real name is." She put emphasis on the word "full", still making it known how she was a little upset that Owen changed Aiden's middle name behind her back in the hospital. Owen proudly spoke up. "She sure will!" It was 4:30pm and Claire, not wanting to let her employees think regular visitors were acceptable, told Owen to go on home with Aiden and she would be there by 5:15pm. She usually kept everyone until 5:00pm, but Zia managed to persuade her to just let everyone go a few minutes early that day. "Alright, we'll cut out a little early today. But everyone make sure you're here on time tomorrow morning again, and let's please not start the day tomorrow like we started the last two mornings this week, okay?" She smiled a little, reassuring her team that she didn't have to be the scary, cold boss she was known to be at Jurassic World. Everyone scurried off quickly, excited to be dismissed a few minutes early that day. Franklin walked up on his way out and said hi to Aiden but that's as much as he could muster. Aiden smiled back at him and he tickled her a little in Claire's arms. "You're getting more comfortable with her, see? Maybe you'll actually be able to hold her one day, Franklin." Franklin backed up and threw his hands up. "Oh no, I'm good!" He said his goodbyes to Claire and Owen and quickly made his way to the elevator. Owen laughed, knowing how timid Franklin was. "Yeah I think he's good. Please don't ever let him hold our child." Claire laughed back and walked over to grab her purse from her desk. Aiden coughed a little in Claire's arms and she asked Owen if anyone at the day care had mentioned anything about her cough when he picked her up. She had asked them that morning to call her cell phone during the day if Aiden's cough got worse. "Mrs. Webb said she coughed a little but they gave her some of the medicine down in her bag and she was okay after that for the most part. She said usually a cough is worse at night." "Yeah, unfortunately she's right, huh." Claire knew they would probably be up most of the night with her again.

That night Aiden woke up one less time than she did the night before. Claire sat in the rocking chair in Aiden's nursery that Owen built for her and tried breastfeeding her fussy baby for a second time since her bedtime. She looked down at her hungry infant and said, "They say milk only makes you cough more, but what else are you supposed to eat? All this fussing and you don't even have any teeth to chew anything yet." Aiden looked up at her mother intently, sucking and using both hands to hold on to Claire's breast as if she knew Claire would take it away from her at some point. When she did, Aiden cried and fussed for thirty minutes nonstop until Owen finally came in and took over. "Go lay down. I'll try to get her back to sleep." Claire was feeling frustrated and sad that her baby was not feeling well and for some reason despite singing to her, rocking her, and nursing her, she couldn't get her to calm down. She let Owen take the reigns as she walked back to their bedroom and climbed into bed. She laid on her back looking up at the ceiling and listening to her child cry from the other side of their bedroom wall. About five minutes later the crying came to a stop. She laid there for five more minutes waiting for the crying to start over again but it didn't. She got up and walked back into the nursery to find Owen rocking Aiden and letting her suck on his finger. "I promise my hands are clean. I haven't touched anything since I came to bed. But look!" He was rubbing her gums with his finger and she was drifting off to sleep. Claire, in all her tricks, knew this one, but for some reason hadn't thought to try it yet. "Babe, I don't know where my head is. Why didn't I think of that?" He leaned his head back in the rocking chair and glanced up at her. "Claire, you've been working so hard lately at work and at home, you can't think of everything, it's okay." She walked over and ran her fingers through his hair as he rocked their baby to sleep. "I think the medicine is helping her cough. Her gums were itching tonight. That's all." "Thank you," Claire whispered back. She kissed Owen on the head and walked back to their bedroom, leaving him to finish rocking their little one back to sleep. He could tell something was bothering her.

When Owen came back to bed Claire was lying on her side curled up in her pillow staring off into space. Owen climbed in bed next to her and extended his arm out so he could hold her. She scooted in closer and rested her head and hand on his chest. "Hey, what's wrong, babe?" Claire was silent for a few seconds before answering. "Nothing. I'm fine." He knew better. "No you're not. Talk to me." Without looking up at him she said, "Owen, why didn't I think to rub her gums?" He laughed it off, knowing how busy she'd been at work and how tired they both were after the night before of not getting any sleep. "Babe, seriously? It's no big deal." Claire finally turned to look up at him. "Yes it is a big deal, Owen. I'm her mother. I should think of things like that. I should have thought to do that. What is wrong with me?" He started running his thumb over the back of her shoulder, something he knew she enjoyed when they laid together in bed. "Claire, it's not your job as a mother to think of everything. You don't have to have the answers to everything all the time. You're human. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. No one is. Really, it's okay. Rubbing her gums is just something I thought of on a whim. It's not like I knew in advance that there was some trick to it." Claire laid her head back down and stayed silent for a few minutes. "Owen, sometimes I wonder if I'm doing anything right by those two children. Sometimes I think I know what I'm doing and sometimes I have this feeling of hopelessness where I don't have a clue. I feel like I'm letting them down. Sometimes I feel like they deserve better, that I don't deserve them. They are the greatest thing that ever happened to me, yet I don't feel worthy of them or their love sometimes. What if I really am letting them down? All those years of thinking I wasn't cut out to be a mother and sometimes I think I was right." Owen could feel her voice cracking and looked down to see tears coming out of her eyes. "Is Claire Dearing really having a moment of weakness right now? I can't believe what I'm hearing. Claire, babe, seriously, are you kidding me? You are the greatest mother in the world to those two children. You've been an amazing mother since the day Maisie came into our lives. From Day One you gave her everything she needed to feel safe and loved and you know it. And the way you held our baby girl in your arms and sang her to sleep for the first time in the hospital? My God, do you know what it took for me to fight back the tears as I watched you sing to her that night? Claire, as parents we're not always going to have all the right answers. We're learning as we go along. But you have done nothing but love and care for those two children in all the right ways since they came into our lives, and I can't wait to watch you continue that going forward. You're a great mom, Claire and you will continue to be a great mom. I have no doubts about that." Claire laid on his chest and continued to sob. Owen finally placed his hand under her chin to make her look up at him. He kissed her gently on the lips. She didn't fight it and let him linger there as long as possible. When he finally pulled away from her he wiped a tear from the corner of her eye with his thumb. "And hey, I thought I was the greatest thing that ever happened to you." He winked at her, hoping to cheer her up. She gave him a slight smirk back. "You are too. Even though I still want to strangle you some days, you and those two children have changed my life in more ways than I can count." She brought her hand up to cup his cheek and kissed him, this time holding her kiss longer than he held his. "I love you, Owen. I'm sorry." He ran his hands through her hair again and then went back to rubbing the back of her shoulder. "You have nothing to apologize for. But you don't have to worry about being a good mom, okay? You've got this." Claire smiled into his chest and said, "That's the best compliment you could ever give me." Owen cut his eyes at her. "I thought telling you you're gorgeous every day was the best compliment I could give you. You mean, I've had it wrong this whole time?" Claire chuckled. "I don't mind that compliment either, but telling me I'm a good mom means the world to me, Owen. It means I'm doing something right." "Well, I mean both with all my heart." They soon drifted off to sleep, but only for an hour before their baby woke up again. Another long night was ahead of them.