DISCLAIMER: the sign language sequence in this story is loosely based off of the story by SkullsandDuggery's story "It's not the Raptor DNA".

Four years ago

"How intelligent do you think they are," Maria asked Barry as the two of them watched Owen do his training. Below them, the four raptors were paying close attention to his words, and trying their best to follow his orders. She watched as Echo strayed far in the back, the scar on her newly reformed jaw vibrant.

"Hard to say," Barry said after a moment of thought. "They know voice commands, but so do dogs."

"My brother said that they can communicate with each other," Maria added. "Most animals can do that."

Barry nodded. "The ones from the original park could open doors," he said. "They tested the fences all the time."

Maria eyed the fences below, they were reinforced steel, only able to open from one side. "It seems they've learned from last time," she commented. Below them, Blue let out a bark when the other three started to stray away from each other. The three stopped and kept their heads down low as Blue barked again. The three gave out low caws and croons as they filed back into formation, responding to their betas bark by looking back up to Owen.

"She's communicating with them," Barry said softly.

"She's reprimanding them," Maria corrected as she leaned forward. "She put them back into the training exercises," she said as they all looked up at their alpha. "You know, my brother made the resonating chamber, the thing they use to vocalize," she said absentmindedly.

"Does he still have it?" Barry asked.

Maria shrugged. "I don't think so, last I heard about it, he'd given it to Dr. Grant."

Barry nodded as they refocused on the girls below. The chirps, the snaps, and the body language was all observed. It was a rare session, normally Hoskins would be here with them. But today, today he was out of the park. It was heaven.

"There," Maria suddenly pointed. "Blue's sickle claws," she clarified as Barry leaned over to see what she saw. They watched as Blue took the lead, her claws digging into the ground just seconds before the other three followed.

"Silent communication," Barry realized.

"We need to do more tests," Maria said shaking her head. "If Blue can tap her claws and get them to follow, then they can train themselves to follow specific cues."

Barry nodded. "I'll call Vic," he said. "Tell him the new development. He'll set something up for us."

As much as she didn't like the man, she did have to admit that he was good when it came to accommodating them with their research. He listened for the most part, and was a huge part of setting up the girls paddock. When they had concerns, he'd fix them. She knew without a doubt, he'd get them whatever they needed.

"I wonder if they ever talk about us to each other," she mused as Owen finished up his session. "Delta probably sings tales of her love for you," she teased.

Barry laughed softly. "Charlie no doubt talks about you all the time," he said as he joined in on her wayward thought. "Probably calls you mom."

"What would they call Owen?"

"The Lesser Mom, possibly," Barry said snickering.

Maria smacked his arm as she too snickered, watching as Owen looked over at them with a frown. "That's mean," she said in defense for her friend.

"You were very late in saying that," Barry huffed as he looked at her with a smirk. "Come on, you know they think that whenever he gets mama bear over them. He's definitely a mom to them."

She nodded, refusing to give him a verbal confirmation. She watched as Owen made his way over, and ducked behind Barry who started snickering at his joke again. "You're a bad influence," she said as Owen hit their side of the catwalk.

"Chicken," Barry teased as he turned to face their curious friend.


Maria sat on the kitchen floor looking at Ripper, their eyes locking. She was determined to test just how intelligent he was. He had stopped turning invisible in the house, only really doing it when he wanted to play. He had shown many, many times that he understood the human language, and his opposable thumbs still skeeved her out.

"Ripper, eyes on me," she said in her commanding voice. Ripper looked at her, albeit a bit confused. She generally used that tone only in the cage, never in the home. But she didn't want anyone knowing that she was doing this kind of test. "I'm going to teach you some hand gestures and new commands," she said. "Are you ready?"

Ripper chirped as he looked at her.

She held up her fist and let him sniff it before holding it up. "Watch," she said before knocking on the air like she would a door. "This means 'yes'," she informed him. She did the sign several more times. "Can you copy that?"

Ripper regarded her fist a moment and looked at her. Finally, after she knocked once more, he lifted his hand and clenched it. He brought the fist down into the air once before dropping his hand.

"Did you understand what that means?"

He knocked on the air.

Maria cracked a smile, excitement and horror spreading throughout her body. So far, the only animals who could communicate with sign language were apes. Koko the gorilla being the most famous. And now Ripper, her golden boy. "Want to learn more?"

Another air knock.

She straightened her back and raised her hand upwards. Her hand was in a loose fist as she raised it up close to her head, her fingers tucked into the palm. She pointed her index finger upwards. "That means 'I understand'." She repeated that several more times. "Can you do that?"

Ripper waited to see it once more before knocking on the air, bringing his fist up higher and flexing his equivalent of an index finger upwards. Yes, I understand.

She paused now, unsure as to how to continue with this. As of right now, those two phrases were more than enough to communicate. She could stop now, she already proved that he was able to learn and communicate using sign language. And yet…

"Do you want to learn more?"

A knock on the air, an excited chirp. He wanted to learn more, he wanted to communicate with her.

"Do you want to know… what to call me?" She remembered Barry's joke, years ago, that Charlie would have called her mom. A small part of her wondered if that was true, and if so, would Ripper call her the same?

Ripper chirped this time instead of using sign language, his tail raising up with a wave. She smiled at him, trying to think of how to go about it. "I'll show you a couple different words, okay? You can choose from those. Understand?"

A knock and then a finger flex upwards.

She held her hand up, like she was going to give a high five, and turned her hand to the side with the palm facing the wall. Her thumb was out facing towards herself. She moved her hand back and forth slightly, her thumb hitting her chin twice. "That means 'mom'."

Her next sign required both hands. She held them up, all of her fingers drawn in aside from her index fingers. She crossed them twice, her hands twisting. "That means 'friend'."

She repeated both signs several times, taking the time to label each one. Once she was satisfied that he knew, and understood, which was which. She gave him a smile. "What do you want to call me?"

Ripper lowered his tail as he thought over the signs and their meanings. She could practically see the gears turning in his head. Finally, he looked up at her and splayed out his hand, bringing it up to his jaw and poking his thumb's claw against his chin. Mom.

She felt her breath catch in her throat. He wanted to call her mom, he thought of her as his mother. She smiled fondly as she looked at him. "You want to know what I call you?"

An excited fist knocked the air.

She held out her arms, like she was cradling a baby, and rocked them back and forth twice. "'Baby'," she said. "Because you are my baby boy."

Ripper lashed his tail out as he chirped, his body bending forwards as he inched closer to her. He was remarkably smart, being able to pick up a whole new language and command with very few problems.

"You want a hug?" She questioned knowingly. He always made that pose whenever he really wanted a hug, cuddle, and even belly rubs.

A hasty knock hit the air before he scrambled over to her open lap. He was heavy, well over three hundred pounds. But he still thought he was able to lay on her lap, and she didn't have to heart to stop that at this point in time. Especially after a session like this. Her arms wrapped around him as he positioned himself like a cat onto her lap. She slowly moved herself backwards until her back was to the cabinet.


The lights were bright in Wu's lab, the lights glinting through her glasses. She tried to focus on Wu's words, she was here for a reason after all. He had called her up for an update with Ripper, and for a formal apology from the incident from two days ago. Apparently he wasn't apart of that, another scientist, who has since been fired, had issued for the blood sample.

"How is he doing?" Wu asked as he walked over to his computer. He looked up at her through his glasses.

"Good, I believe," Maria said after a moment of thought. "I haven't noticed any trauma, or behavior changes. I think he was scared initially, but moved past it once he was back inside."

Wu nodded. "Good," he said sincerely. "It'd be a shame for him to become fearful of other people." She pursed her lips, she highly doubted he'd be fearful.

"He tore off a man's arm," Maria said softly. "He's nine months old, that takes a lot of force."

Wu nodded. "Yes, that is alarming. But he does have tyrannosaur DNA, and their bite force is unparalleled, save for the modern day crocodile. No doubt he used that strength in his jaws when he bit the man."

She nodded. "That reminds me, do you think I could see his genome papers?"

Wu looked at her in alarm. "Why?"

"I was just curious," she said as she immediately cursed herself for being so bold. "It's not important, forget about it."

Wu regarded her for a minute. "One day," he began slowly, "I'll let you have them. But that'll be a day when we're ready to create the final Indoraptor."

She nodded. "I understand," she said softly.

Wu sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder, something that shocked her into looking at him. He never touched people. "I mean it, one day," he said firmly. "Right now, I'm not ready to share that with anyone. Even you."

She nodded. If he wasn't ready for something, she wasn't going to push it. She respected him too much to do so. "I understand," she said more firmly. "I appreciate it."

He nodded and let her go. "Is there any updates on him?" He was moving back into his professional stance.

"Well, I got him to finally stop turning invisible all the time," she said. "Now he just does it whenever I wake up and forget to put on my glasses."

Wu cracked a smile as he placed the new information into his records. "That's good, that shows a wide range of intelligence."

Oh, he had no idea what Ripper was capable of. A part of her wanted to tell him about the sign language, just to see if he'd freak out. But she knew, deep down, that she had stumbled over something dark when she tested Ripper earlier. She had proved that he either had primate DNA, or worse, human. "Yeah, he picks things up," she said instead.

"And his training?"

"We've moved onto rabbits," she said. "I finally got him to stop chasing the light and to stand still when I move to train it."

"Good, good," Wu said nodding. "Do you think he's ready to progress?"

She was silent. "Not yet," she said finally. "He's a fast learner, but I'm… I'm scared as to what he'd do if we let him loose onto bigger prey. He'd have to be in a bigger enclosure, which means he'd have to leave. Which risks getting caught with him, or him getting loose."

"You think it'd be unwise to take him to a secondary location," Wu clarified.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Right now, he's easy to transport, but he's also not ready to take down larger prey. He's still working on rabbits and small pigs."

Wu nodded. "I'll pass that along to Mills, maybe we can set something up down here. Use the bottom floor for training, have all personel up on the catwalks to avoid becoming prey ourselves."

Maria thought that over and nodded. "It'd be easier to recage him afterwards," she added. "I can go down and lead him back in, or just stay down there the entire time."

"If you feel like you'd be safe," Wu mused. "Otherwise, we could just wait for him to return on his own. That is his home, after all." Maria nodded, she did have to admit that could work out better. Though, in the back of her mind, she knew that Ripper would wait for her regardless. "Another thing," Wu seemed a bit cautious now. "He's getting to be a year old in the upcoming months. And he'll be too big to keep in your apartment. Have you been trying to adjust him to the cage?"

Maria nodded. "Yes, sometimes I keep the door open so he can roam around it. Just the other day he was sleeping in it. But he won't let me shut the door, not unless I'm in there with him." He had nearly broke her heart when he started screaming that day, like she was abandoning him instead of trying to preserve her privacy.

Wu nodded. "I take it that you might have some suggestions."

"Correct, my good sir," Maria said, immediately regretting the choice of words as Wu merely looked at her expectantly. "Well, I think he'd be able to adjust better if we change the door, and add a window that he can poke his head into," she admitted. "He needs to see me, if he can't have direct physical contact, then he needs to be able to see me when he's in the cage. And the window, if he gets too big, I doubt you guys would just let me go into the cage willy nilly. So the window is good for when I want to love on him, or him me."

Wu nodded again. "I think we can do that," he said finally. "The door would be weaker, he'd be able to break into it."

"Yes, but he'll feel better being in the cage," Maria shrugged. "I know the door I have is good for security and privacy, but I don't want to loose any and all progress we've made on the Indoraptor."

"I agree," Wu said standing to his full height. "I'll take that to Mills as well." He stepped around the desk and walked with her back through the lab. "Between you and me," he leaned towards her, his voice lowered, "I think Mills bit off more than he can chew with this project."

"What do you mean?" Maria asked softly as well. If Wu was whispering, then that wasn't a good sign. There could be ears listening in.

"He's expecting so much, wanting so much. He's upset with the slow progression, not your fault. He's upset that he's having to pay so much money, your new couch, the man's medical bills and hush money." Wu shook his head. "I think he's starting to realize just how dangerous this is. You and I both know what dinosaurs are capable of, I was in charge of the first park, I saw how smart and bloodthirsty some of those dinosaurs were. You know men and women who were on both islands, who barely escaped. Mills hasn't had anybody to knock that reality into his mind, he's still idealistic."

"It took my girls a full year to be able to learn just the simplest commands," Maria pointed out. "They catch on fast, but they weren't able to really focus and follow till later. Ripper is an odd case, he's able to really pick things up with only a few examples to guide him."

"Exactly," Wu said, pleased that she was agreeing with him. "Jurassic World wasn't built in a day. It took us years prior to ensure that the DNA structure would hold, and even then it was an issue of if the infant would survive the first few months."

"We had twelve baby raptors at the beginning, only four survived," Maria nodded. She still felt sad for those eight, they didn't have much time in the world. But she had loved them with everything she had when they were around, and she was positive that when they left the world, they left it knowing what a loving hand felt like.

"The Indoraptor surviving this long was a miracle," Wu said as they reached the front of the lab. "Even the Indominus Rex had problems in the beginning. But he's been growing big, and he's been growing strong."

"And fast," Maria said. "It's almost hard to believe that he was barely the size of a rabbit just nine months ago."

"Tyrannosaur," Wu said nodding. "Faster growth rate due to the threats posed onto infants. Velociraptors were also fast growers, but considerably slower when compared to the tyrannosaurus."

Maria nodded, that was true. Her girls did grow fast, but not nearly as fast as Ripper was. By then end of their first year, they were only at Owen's knees. It had taken them three and a half years to reach Maria's height, and five to be able to look Owen in the eye. By the rate of Ripper's growth he'd be looking her in the eyes in the next few months. And then she'd have to look up to him in the months after that.

Wu suddenly shook her hand, a genuine smile on his face. "Thank you for coming up," he said at a normal tone. "I really do enjoy the talks we have," he added. "If you have any information, or concerns about Ripper, feel free to come on up," he said before letting her hand go.

"I will," Maria promised as she gave the slightly taller man a smile. She turned and walked out of the labs, taking a left and going down the spiral staircase. She was glad that someone else was seeing the flaw in Mills character. He was still, for the majority, the same man that she met and liked all those months ago. But as Ripper grew bigger, it seemed that Mills was beginning to crack and show some true colors.

And Maria wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Walking back into her home, she was greeted by Ripper, his long tail sweeping over the coffee table and just barely avoiding knocking over the cup she had left there. He curled around her legs as she walked further in, caws and barks sounding to let her know that he was hungry.

"Yes, yes," she said as she walked into the kitchen. One of the many advantages to him being to big now was that she didn't have to cut up the meat any longer. She could just pull out the slab and let him go to town.

She walked over to the meat freezer and opened it, hip checking Ripper whenever he tried to climb in. She held it up high to tease him, laughing when he began to prepare himself for the jump. Just before she could, she dropped the meat slab onto the ground, taking a step back as he began to tear into it. He was growling as he chewed, but she knew that it wasn't towards anyone in particular. He growled just to growl it seemed.

When he began to slow down, she tapped on the floor with her nails to let him know that she wanted his attention. He was almost done eating, maybe two bites left and he tended to savor those bites in the night as a snack. He licked his jaws as he looked up at her.

"I need you to promise me something," she said softly, but sternly. "Can you do that for me?" An air knock. "Good. I need you to pretend that you don't know how to use sign language, the thing I taught you earlier this morning," she said. When he cocked his head in confusion, she sighed. "It's dangerous for you to show other people that, they won't understand. So, if you want to use it, use it only when we're alone. Okay?"

A knock and then a finger flicking up. Yes, I understand.

"Good, you're my good boy," she cooed as she scratched under his chin, a purr emitting. She leaned back and watched him as he yawned, golden eyes drooping. He must be tired, doing absolutely nothing all day. "Go on, get some rest."

With that, Ripper stood and made his way into her room, scrambling up onto the sheets. She watched his coal black body curl up, the golden stripe shining bright in the darkness. She leaned against the door frame as she watched him nap, a fond smile on her face as worry crept in. Mills wasn't up to anything good, she couldn't prove it, but somewhere deep inside, she knew it was true.

I'm glad people are enjoying this story, too be honest I'm in love with it. This story is progressing, and I hope that I'm not aging him up too fast. By next chapter, we should start to see Ripper grow into his movie self. I can't say when we'll hit the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom arc, but it's coming so be prepared ;D

But, as always, let me know what you think! Did you like the sign language idea? What signs do you want him to learn? Is there headcanons you saw that you think would fit into the story? Let me know! :)