AN: Project K, Project K, Project K

"Hunt is in the park?" asked Owen furiously. He was sitting against one of the damp walls in the pit, eating some dried cherries. His condition had improved somewhat over the past two days, with Claire changing his bandages at regular intervals. The skin was starting to heal now, and there was still no sign of infection. He was still very pale, with dark circles under his eyes from blood loss, and Claire doubted he'd be able to walk for long without passing out, but he was slowly getting better.

Claire had gone above ground again to check in with Lowery, who had shared the disturbing information that the guy who signed off on the Project K file, Patrick Hunt, was in Jurassic World with a tech-savvy assistant.

"Yeah," said Claire, glancing up at him from the Project K paper she was reading. Over the past day and a half, Project K had become somewhat of an obsession for her and Owen. They had been speculating for hours, throwing theories back and forth until they ran out of ideas and were simply trying to decipher the equations covering some of the pages. "Lowery had to relocate to the control room above Paddock Nine."

"They were talking about using raptors to hunt Lowery?"

Claire laid the papers down on her lap. "That's the part I don't get. Lowery said they were picking what dinosaurs to use as some sort of experiment. They said something about controlling the raptors, but how could they do that? Blue is the only one left, and she only trusts you."

Owen exhaled. "If InGen had a clone of the Indominus, Jurassic World's most guarded secret, then couldn't they have clones of raptors, too?"

Claire shivered at the thought. How many unknown dinosaurs were running on the grounds? And how could InGen control them? Owen had already established the fact that he never had control over his raptors, and he'd been working with them for years. There was no sure way for InGen to have complete control over any dinosaur, was there?

The most frustrating thing about all of this was the fact that Claire knew the answer was so close, maybe on the very notes they were studying, but there was just one small thing missing, a linchpin that held the whole thing together. If they could uncover that one thing, maybe they could figure out what Project K was, and how to stop InGen from carrying it out.

…

Claire and Owen moved the next morning. They had been in the pit too long, especially if InGen had access to the security cameras placed throughout the park; they could be watching them the second they stepped out of the pit.

As a matter of fact, Patrick and Bridgette did watch Claire and Owen from the moment they emerged from the pit, Owen leaning on Claire for support. Patrick took note of Owen's weak state and told Bridgette, who was sitting cross-legged in a desk chair, fingers hovering over a small but intricate remote control, to leave the Indominus Rex where it was. She frowned. Bridgette hated missing a chance to play her favorite game: hunt the people. But Patrick had a plan. Lull them into a false sense of security; make them think they were safe. Then go in for the kill.

"Are you sure you don't want to at least wrap a blanket around your shoulders?" Claire was asking. She didn't like Owen going around without a shirt in his condition. What if a tree branch hit one of the stitches or they were attacked again?

"I'm fine," Owen insisted. "Besides. It's ninety degrees out here. Too hot for a blanket."

Claire bit the inside of her cheek, wrapping Owen's arm around her shoulders to help him walk to Paddock Nine. The little color in his face had faded to white the moment he had stood up, but there wasn't anything she could do about it until they got to Lowery. And if her father wouldn't help her, Claire had no idea what she'd do. It was literally a life or death situation.

She was beginning to have symptoms of PTSD: nightmares, depression, flashbacks. Owen was too, but he hid it much better than she did. Claire supposed that was from his time in the Navy; Owen was no stranger to post-traumatic stress disorder.

He had woken her the night before, saying she had been screaming his name and crying in her sleep. She had curled into him, her body shaking, and he had simply said, "I know. I feel it too."

It was like her senses were on overdrive. Any sound made in the woods, any chirp of a bird or snap of a twig had her heart beating so rapidly that she could almost hear it. More than once on their walk across the park, Owen had tightened his arm around her when he felt her get tense, a silent way of telling her that everything was okay.

But how long before something smelled them? How long before the Indominus showed up again, ready to finish off the both of them? How long before InGen's people appeared? They couldn't keep running forever.

"Claire," Owen said. They were entering the Gyrosphere field, staying out in the open so they could see anything that approached them. "Shut the gate behind you. There's a heard of Pachys in here."

Claire almost asked why before remembering that the only reason they had stayed in the park was to contain the smaller dinosaurs to distract the Indominus. She almost laughed at how naïve they had been, thinking that nobody else would be interested in Jurassic World after the big escape fiasco. Of course people wanted to take over. It was the perfect opportunity. And it was obvious that InGen had been planning this for a while. They just hadn't been counting on one determined businesswoman, a lovable computer geek, and an unstoppable raptor trainer to get in their way.

She shut the gate with a loud slam, startling the small herd of grazing Pachys into a small stampede before they all started head butting one another. Owen snickered at them, the first sound of happiness she'd heard in days, since they escaped the T-Rex and laughed themselves into tears.

Claire smiled, a genuine one, and it felt very unnatural, like she was stretching unused muscles. Owen saw her smiling and he flashed her a grin, flipping a piece of her hair behind her ear with his thumb. His fingers just barely brushed her jawline, sending shivers down her back.

"You have a great smile, Claire," he said. They stepped into a particularly high patch of grass; the brownish yellow plant stretched all the way up to Claire's knees. "I hope I get to see it more, after all this crap is over with."

Claire's smile widened. "So long as I get to see yours, Mr. Grady."

Owen winked at her and they continued on, momentarily forgetting that they were alone with the fiercest predators in the world. For a short while, they were nothing more than two people falling in love.

…

They reached Paddock Nine in good spirits, proud of themselves for shutting the Pachys in. At least that was one species they no longer had to worry about. Claire was thankful, though, when they got up to the control room where Lowery sat waiting with the bag of blood in the small fridge typically used for employee lunches.

Owen was clearly exhausted, all his energy spent from the walk. Claire had informed him of her tentative plan, to transfuse the blood, and he had only nodded, too tired to say anything. Claire refused to let herself worry about him. He was going to be okay.

She was, however, worrying immensely about calling her father for help. It had been five years since she'd last talked to him, to inform him that she had gotten a job at Jurassic World. He had disapproved, wanting her to find a job with more stability, less futuristic. They had argued, and Claire had been afraid to call him back ever since. She had wanted to, though, and now his number was committed to her memory from the times that she'd stared at it, debating whether or not to call. Now she had no choice if Owen was to recover.

Claire took a deep breath and ignored Lowery's questions about what had happened in the raptor paddock, instead asking him to get the blood and IV kit ready. Lowery, who was looking very disheveled, like he had ran a long way, was oblivious the nervous energy that surrounded Claire. Owen, however, was not.

He talked to her in a soothing tone, telling her she could do this, joking that he had pretty good veins, so she shouldn't have too much trouble with the IV. Some of Claire's worry vanished, knowing he had confidence in her medical abilities.

Finally, when she could push it off no longer, Claire grabbed the old landline phone attached to the wall and dialed the number, praying her father would pick up. He did pick up, and suddenly Claire knew what to say, like she'd rehearsed it for years.

"Daddy? It's Claire. I-," her voice broke when she heard him gasp, like he had been waiting for this for a long time. She paused, giving her voice a chance to recover. Her dad was stammering on the line, not sure what to say. "I need your help."

…

Claire supposed that, all in all, it had gone well. Her father had taken a while to respond at first, and when he did speak, he sounded very much like he was extremely uncomfortable. Claire had put him on speakerphone while he walked her through what needed to be done, while Lowery sat in the background, fiddling with some papers in his bag, muttering to himself. Owen was the perfect patient, not even wincing when it took Claire nine tries with the IV needle to get it in a vein. The transfusing process took forever and was made very complicated by lack of materials, but eventually it was finished. Owen's face was a bit flushed now, his skin beginning to turn its normal tan hue. He was still a bit pale, and the circles under his eyes were a testimony to his exhaustion, but he no longer looked sickly. Claire would've cried with relief, but the tears wouldn't come. She suspected that she was dehydrated; drinking water just hadn't been her prime concern the past few days.

She had hung up with her father once she was sure Owen was going to be okay. He hadn't asked her why she needed his help, or even if she was okay, and no mention of the recent events at Jurassic World came up in their conversation. He simply asked her to call him when she was out of the park, so he would know she was okay.

"You're still my little girl, Claire," he had said.

"Can I tell you what I've found now, or do you need to perform any more medical procedures?" burst out Lowery. "I could've gotten killed getting this stuff for you guys. You know that, right?"

Claire looked at Lowery wearily. "Go for it."

"Sh!" Owen said, looking out the window in front of him. He reached out a hand to Claire, who helped him up, thankful that his strength was returning enough for him to stand without support. He tilted his head, going as close to the window as he dared. Their view was a picturesque one; the T-Rex paddock was filled with tall trees and a small creek ran right through the center. But Owen wasn't admiring the plant life. He was staring at the small dinosaur standing right in the middle of the paddock.

It was a velociraptor, with blue streaks running down each side of its body, staring intently at Owen.

AN: Bluuuuuuue! Or is it?