"Oh god." Nell muttered, pressing the heels of her palms to her forehead. After Owen had stomped away from her last night, Scarlett had taken her home, where she proceeded to angrily drink an entire bottle of wine, simmering like a steaming pot over the knowledge that Owen and Claire were probably knocking boots while she drank alone with her dog.
Tuck whined at her from his bed in her office. She had no idea how she was able to get herself up and to work this morning. Maybe she had been still a little drunk. Now, she reveled in the awfulness of her hangover.
"I know boy," she murmured, putting her head on her desk. "I'm disappointed in myself too." The pup crooned in agreement, laying his head over his paws and looking at her.
"Gooood MORNING! How're you sunshine?" Aries chirped, pushing through her office door with two mugs of coffee in her hands.
"I don't wanna talk about it." Nell muttered, gratefully taking a sip of the proffered coffee. The Asian woman pursed her lips, staring down at her boss.
"Hmm," Aries muttered, falling down into the chair opposite Nell's desk.
"Don't you "hmm" me, Aries. I know your games." Nell grumbled.
"I'm just "hmm"ing cause you usually don't get hangovers." She said matter-of-factly.
"Well I don't usually get hangovers 'cause I usually don't make an ass of myself." Nell whined.
"Rough night huh?"
"I don't wanna talk about it." She repeated her earlier words.
A soft tapping came at the door. "Come in." Nell muttered, breathing in the revitalizing fumes of her coffee. One of the interns, John, poked his head in.
"Hey Dr. Kirkwood, I was wondering if you could sign a few of these papers." Nell nodded, waving him forward. John seemed pretty nice, if forgettable. He was your average, well… John Doe. He shuffled awkwardly as he watched her sign the documents, eyes flitting about her office as well.
Nell rubbed her forehead, her eyes feeling heavy as she looked over the simple paperwork for John to get this internship for class credit. He, like many of the interns here, was a graduate student doing their own research at the park. Much like Nell had once been, so she always tried to take it light on the interns. Anyone else acting so weird around her office she would snap at because of her hangover but with him she shrugged it off to nerves. She could remember whenever she had to speak to the couple that owned the reservation she felt nervous and trashy. They were British socialites and she was just some kid from the Texan desert.
"Alrighty, here you go John." She said, mustering up some cheer as she handed over the documents. He looked relieved and scurried out of her office as quickly as he had come in.
"He's a weirdo." Aries affirmed, staring after the boy.
"Oh he's fine." Nell waved a hand at her, logging onto her computer. "Don't be so hard on the interns."
"Don't be so soft." Aries clucked before exiting the office.
x
It had been a week since Nell had drunkenly snapped at Owen and she had barely seen him except for the weekly meeting, and that was awkward as hell. She didn't blame him, she had acted like a petulant child. It just seemed that lately whenever she looked at the handsome, friendly man her brain got a little fuzzy. And seeing him with Claire well… still thinking about it made her bristle. She was beginning to see maybe she had gotten more attached to the man then she thought.
So, one day during her lunch break she figured she would do something about it.
Those thoughts brought her where she was at that moment – in her Jeep in front of the Raptor Pen. Tapping nervously on the wheel, she flipped down the driver mirror, feeling oddly self-conscious, something that didn't happen often with her. "Dammit." She muttered to herself. "I'm rusty."
In truth, she hadn't had much time for relationships since she left to complete the last two years of her doctorate on the reserve. She had dated frequently in college but had really never had much interest in dating someone she worked with. But Owen was… different. There was a magnetism to the man that she couldn't help but be drawn to.
"FUCK." She muttered again, gripping the steering wheel. Taking a deep breath she exited her car.
"Nell!" Barry said surprised to see her as he exited one of the sheds, carrying a slop bucket that held a few rats for the raptors. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey Barry," she smiled, frowning when she saw that it was just him there. "Where's Owen?"
"He's with Mr. Masrani and Claire, updating them on our progress." Barry chuckled humorlessly.
"And what is the progress?" Nell muttered, following him towards the pen. She kept an eye out for the velociraptors, however, as she still was not comfortable around them.
Barry rolled his eyes. "They want us to have the raptors ready for public visitation last I heard."
"But-" At this Nell's eyes widened. "Seriously?" Barry nodded, his lips pressed thin. She swore, shaking her head. "I can't tell if their heads are in the clouds or up their asses."
This time when he chuckled it sounded real.
"But yeah, I'm about to feed the girls, if you want to join." He continued, giving her a smile.
She felt her whole body stiffen. "In there or…" She trailed off, motioning towards the pen.
"Oh, no" Barry laughed. "Owen's the only one brave enough to do that in the cage with them." He pointed to the metal bridge that spanned the width of the pen. "I'll be up there."
"Ok…ay." She said slowly, figuring that she might as well try it.
The two climbed up to the bridge, and as Barry made a hand motion, Nell heard the loud beep that signaled the release of the raptors. The four moved quickly, shooting out like bullets. The girls gathered under the bridge, chattering at Barry for him to throw them a few rats. Nell stiffened as she watched the raptors fight over the rats, Blue snapping at all of them so that she could have the largest amount.
There was something rolling around the pit of her stomach that told her that today, of all days, was not a good day for Owen to be away. She tried to shake it off as strictly her nerves from being around the raptors.
"Here, you do one." Barry said gently, noticing her nervousness. She nodded slowly, taking the rat.
"Blue," She said softly before clearing her throat. "Blue." She stated a little louder this time. The beta looked up, chattering at her. "This one's for you, okay?" the raptor chirped in reply and she tossed it down to her.
Blue caught the rat with ease, but suddenly Echo leaped on her, trying to steal the rat.
"Oh, shit." Nell hissed, as Blue threw Echo off of her. The two raptors began circling each other, hissing and snapping their jaws. "Barry, call Owen." She said, and he nodded, running to get his phone.
Charlie and Delta stood to the side of the two raptors, looking nervously as to what was happening.
So far, it didn't seem too dangerous. They kept going around in their circle. They looked almost like bigger, more danger cats. Blue hissed at Echo one last time in warning: stand down. But Echo didn't listen. Her back legs tensed and she sprang at Blue with the intent to harm.
But she never got there.
"CHARLIE!" Nell screamed as the smallest of the raptors leaped in between the two battling raptors. Echo's outstretched claws, meant for Blue, sliced through Charlie's side. The small raptor fell, a large gash crossing her from her shoulder to her hind leg. "Shit." Nell whispered. She looked around for Barry, but couldn't see him. Her heart pounding with adrenaline, she clambered down the steps of the bridge. Her feet hitting the ground, she ran over to the gate, heart leaping to her throat as her hand hovered over the button to open it.
She could hear some of the guardsmen clambering into position to stun the raptors.
"DO NOT SHOOT." She said, "I repeat, DO NOT SHOOT."
Blue, after seeing her littlest pack member harmed, was pissed. She screeched at Echo, and you didn't need to study animal behavior to know what it meant: I am the beta. Not you. Her claws swiped at Echo's face, sending the raptor tumbling. A sickening crack was heard from her jaw, and Nell was certain it was broken.
She hit the buzzer to let herself in, chest heaving as she tried to breathe. Blue's face snapped to her, and she hissed again, a warning: Stay back bitch.
"It's okay." Nell said softly, holding both hands down and crouching to show her submission to Blue. "I just want to help Charlie." She said, pointing to the harmed raptor, who was now whimpering on the dirt of the pen.
Blue stared at her unblinkingly for what felt like hours, but was most likely seconds. Nell could feel her chest constrict as her panic set in at what she had done.
"JESUS NELL!" Barry shouted, and Blue jerked forward at his voice.
"Close the gate." Nell said quickly, leaning back from Blue as the raptor got ever closer. "Close it."
She heard the buzz of the gate going down part way. "All the way Barry. These girls can't be free on the island."
"But-"
"Now." She said through her teeth. She craned her exposed neck to Blue slowly, showing the raptor that once again, she was at her mercy. "I just want to help Charlie." She repeated herself gently, turning her outstretched palm out to the raptor.
Delta scampered closer to Nell, only for Blue to snap harmlessly at her to back off. The beta turned her head slowly back to Nell, and huffed out her nose in a pleased snort. Nell moved slowly over to the smallest raptor, getting on her knees when she reached her. She could feel Blue's eyes on her, and she gulped, knowing that if she made one wrong move she was dead.
"Hi baby." She whispered to Charlie, who whimpered in response. "You were so, so brave standing up for your beta like that. I'm sure she and Owen are so proud of you." Gently, she placed a hand on Charlie's neck, and the raptor's whimpers quieted slightly. She took off her over shirt, and tried to wipe up her wound, the blood staining the cream material. "It's okay Charlie," she whispered soothingly. "We'll get you fixed up." She looked up to Barry. "Call the vets. I don't think we can transport both of them." He nodded and made another call.
Nell looked up to Blue, who was watching her carefully. "Can I check out Echo?" She asked softly, pointing to the other raptor and getting up slightly. Blue snapped at her, and she sat back down where she was. "So that's a no." She chuckled humorlessly, the beta obviously pissed at Echo's actions.
"NELL." She heard Owen's clear rich tenor as he ran to the gate, a slower but still fast moving Claire and Simon Masrani following him.
"Don't. Yell." She stated clearly, her eyes catching his as he gripped the gate. "Blue is allowing me to look at Charlie but not Echo. I think Echo has a broken jaw and a wound. Can you look?"
Owen's eyes moved fast as he appraised the scene. Blue was watchful but calm as she kept an eye on the doctor. If she didn't make any sudden movements she wouldn't be attacked. Delta stood back, waiting for Blue's command but obviously less trustful of the woman than Blue was. Charlie was crumpled on the ground, a bloody wound slicing through her side and Owen winced at the appearance. Echo was off to the side, head up but not moving, her eyes trained on Blue. A fresh scratch crossed her eye and her lower jaw was slightly off.
And Nell.
Dear God, this had to be the sexiest Owen had ever seen her. She was in only a thin white undershirt as she used her top to clean Charlie's wound, and it clung to her as a thin sheen of sweat covered her body. Her brown hair had fallen out of its usual braid, wisps clinging to her face and mouth as she whispered to the youngest of the raptors.
"You were so brave, honey." He heard her say and his heart melted. She was so beautiful. He hit the button to let him into the pen, despite the protests of Barry and Claire.
"Shut up and let me think!" He said sharply, locking eyes with Mr. Masrani, who shrugged as if to say "it's your move".
He crouched under the half open gate. Blue and Delta swerved to him sharply, but calmed when they saw it was their alpha. He could fix this. He grabbed his clicker, holding it in his left hand.
"Blue." He said sharply. "I'm going to look at Echo, okay?" The beta hissed as she heard him say her least favorite pack member's name. "No, don't give me that shit. I'm going to check her out and you're going to let me." He said, aware of Nell's dark eyes on him. "Stand down." He clicked at her and she huffed but stood down. He went quickly over to Echo, never turning his back on Blue and Delta.
"What the hell did you do?" He muttered to Echo as he looked at her closer. "Finally realize you're not cut out to be beta, huh?" She chortled sadly, almost as if she were hanging her head in shame. "It's okay girl. Just don't do it again." He said sharply. "Now this is gonna hurt but I gotta do it. So don't get mad at me, okay?" He looked at the raptor, one of her eyes glazed over from blood but the other looking at him with implicit trust.
He grabbed both halves of her jaw and felt gently along the lower half. Yup, it was broken. Grimacing, he gripped the halves firmly again and pushed, hearing it pop back into place. He pulled his hands back quickly and leaped away as Echo cried out, snapping her jaws from the pain.
"Whoa, calm down Echo. Thatta girl." He said gently and she settled back down, realizing that she was in less pain than before. He stroked her head gently to let her know that he still loved her. "Just don't do it again, okay girl?" He repeated himself.
He looked up over at Barry. "Where the hell are the vets?" He shouted.
"Owen." Nell said and his eyes snapped to her. "Yelling is just going to aggravate them." He nodded, knowing she was right.
And they waited.
It took another thirty minutes before the veterinary team reached them. By then they had gotten Blue and Delta into their new holders, metal muzzles that held the raptor's jaws shut in a pen. Nell had gotten a lot of Charlie's bleeding to stop, and they commended her on it before gently loading the raptor up to take her to the hospital. Both raptors were administered tranquilizers, and Echo was also loaded up so that her eye could be cleaned and her jaw x-rayed.
Nell stood up shakily after they had left, her eyes meeting Owens. She knew he had been staring at her most of the time. She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding as she watched them leave.
"Do you want some water?" Owen said gently, and she laughed nervously.
"I need a beer." He laughed, his big, belly shaking laugh and lead her to his office. It was a small aluminum hut right outside the raptor pen that held two desks, a mini fridge, and a giant fan. He grabbed two beers from the mini fridge, handing one to Nell. She wedged the cap against one of the desks and gave it a good smack, the cap popping off easily.
He raised his eyebrows. "Nice trick."
She laughed, taking a long pull from the beer. His mouth dried as he realized she wasn't wearing a bra, the soft swell of her breasts pushing up against the thin tank material. "You have to have a way to open a beer in the middle of nowhere." Nell said, the corner of her mouth quirking up as she saw Owen checking her out.
Maybe she wasn't so rusty after all.
"Look, I really gotta thank you for what you did for Charlie." Owen said huskily, leaning back and sitting on his desk. He took a pull from his beer, keeping his eyes on her. "I don't know what Barry would've done without you."
"No problem." She replied, mimicking his actions on Barry's desk. "You've raised a good set of girls. In some way I'm glad Echo's finally been put in her place. She won't be fighting with Blue anymore."
He looked at her again. Really looked at her. And he liked what he saw, same as the first day they met. A woman who was proud of her work and loved what she did but could let her hair down and knock back a few shots of tequila when she wanted to.
He chuckled. "Y'know, when you're stressed, your accent comes out." He mimicked her Texan twang and she scoffed.
"What can I say. You can take the girl outta the country but you can't take the country out of the girl." Her voice took on more of her flirty "Southern Belle" twang, an accent that had once been overwhelmingly strong in her voice but had calmed down since she left Texas.
His eyebrows shot up again, and a small grin appeared on his face when he realized she was flirting back.
"You two did so well today." Mr. Masrani strolled in, Claire hot on his heels. "You've proved me right hiring you Nell." He said, shaking her hand strongly. Nell paused, startled by the sudden intrusion.
"Thanks, Mr. Masrani."
"Simon, of course. And Owen, please take your time with getting the velociraptors ready. I've seen today that they need a little more… time." He said warily, shaking the hand of the larger man.
Owen nodded stiffly. Masrani left, but Claire strolled up to Owen, one hand on her hip and the other on her cell phone. She was dressed impeccably again, Nell noted, a dark green skirt suit that fit her perfectly. And she sat covered in dirt and dino blood.
"Mr. Masrani may have given you leeway, but we do expect them to be ready eventually. This project can't just hemorrhage money. And please, for god sake's. File the paperwork on this incident." She said quickly, before turning on her heel and clipping out of the office.
And in ten seconds Nell went from feeling like she had never lost her groove to realizing that she never had it. She watched Claire clip away and took a large gulp of her beer, standing up to go.
"I should go." She said hurriedly. Owen stood as well, worried that he'd done something wrong.
"At least finish your beer." He said, but Nell couldn't. Her chest constricted and she felt like a cornered dog, willing to find any way to get out of the situation she was in. Her head screamed at her that she wasn't good enough for Owen, that anything they did would just be a disaster, and a million more things that she couldn't comprehend.
"I have to drive."
He snorted. "Please, Squirt. I know you can handle a beer."
She bristled. How dare he call her that when he was with Claire.
"Well maybe I just want to go." She sniped, her voice coming out nastier than she expected. Cutting all ties would be the fastest way to get out of the situation, her brain said logically. Her fight or flight instincts were kicking in and all she wanted to do was flee.
Owen looked taken aback. "What?"
Nell rolled her eyes, even though somewhere inside of her was yelling at her to not be so poorly behaved.
"If you wanted a drink why not just ask Claire?" She asked snottily.
"You shouldn't have to feel like you're in competition with her." Owen chuckled.
Nell scoffed. "How can I not? She looks like a model and I can't even be bothered to put a goddamn bra on in the morning." She shook her head, looking away from him. "I've never felt bad about where I came from or how I look and dress, yet all of a sudden she makes me feel bad. And I hate that. I'm never going to be like her or look like her and I hate that."
He paused for a moment before looking at her. She had to look away. "Is that what this is about? You're jealous of Claire? You shouldn't compare yourself to her. You're two totally different people. Nell, she's great and all but she's not really my type."
She spun around, cocking a hip and fixing him with a cold stare. "Did you sleep with her?" She said sharply. His silence was all the answer she needed. "Thought so." She whispered, something inside of her hurting at that realization.
She placed the beer on the desk before making to leave.
"You know, I don't get you." Usually, when Owen spoke, it was loud and boisterous and passionate. This time around it was cool and cutting, a response to her own nastiness. "One second we're flirting, everything is grooving and going well and in all of half a second you're shutting me out again. Suddenly I'm pissed and I don't even know why. You're so goddamn confusing." He articulated this by placing the beer on the table harder than he had expected. "You're the one who turned me down. You're the one who said you didn't want to date me. It's all been you, you, you. So you don't get to be mad if I go on a date with another girl. You don't get that right. You turned me down."
He punctuated every "you" with a small movement closer to her. The more he spoke the more heated his voice became. Nell was suddenly aware of how small the office was, and how close the two of them were.
"Maybe I've regretted that decision since the first damn time it came out of my mouth." She said sadly, not realizing what she had said until it was too late to take it back. Owen's eyes widened at her confession and he took a step closer to her.
Suddenly it became harder to breathe. She was almost pinned to the desk, the metal digging into her back as she looked up at Owen's large frame. His stormy eyes stared her down and she almost felt faint. His hands were on the desk behind her now, effectively surrounding her and yet this time, she didn't feel trapped.
"Can I… Can I kiss you?" He said softly, his eyes searching her face for God knows what.
"Yes." Nell breathed, her heart beating a mile a minute in her chest. His left hand trailed slowly up her arm and she shivered, suddenly cold in the island's heat. His hand cupped her cheek, brushing away a few pieces of her hair with his thumb. She tilted her face up to look at his and then, blissfully, they were kissing.
He was warm and gentle, smelling like the earth and sweat and dear Lord did she like that. Her hands skimmed up his chest, lying there as he moved her back to sitting on the desk.
Their kiss intensified as he moved in between her legs, something, anything so that they could be closer. His lips were perfect, knowing exactly what they were doing as he kissed her in a way that hadn't happened to her for a very long time. She could feel warmth in her lower belly, that familiar feeling that had so quickly returned to her.
Her hands moved up to cup his face and he smiled into their kiss, snaking his right hand behind her back and pulling them closer together. She gasped happily as their bodies molded together perfectly, and when he broke away, seeing her eyes glazed over and lips pouty from being properly kissed was all the reward he needed.
"Wow." She whispered, before immediately turning red at her breathy exclamation. Owen laughed, pressing his forehead to hers and pecking her sweetly on the lips.
"Yeah." He chuckled. "Wow."
x
Nell walked into her office not an hour later after retrieving a new shirt and feeding Tuck, still walking on clouds from her kiss with Owen. That's all it had been, a kiss, but if one kiss was enough to send her flying, well… she was in trouble, and she didn't give a damn.
She was immediately startled out of her daydream when she saw Winnie Price sitting at her desk.
"Winnie?" She said sharply, and the dark haired woman jolted. "What the hell are you doing?"
