Disclaimer: I do not own the Jurassic Park franchise or any of it's characters; I only own the characters and plots of my own mind.
7. Safe, Calm, Collected
Gwyn's head rested on the back of her small loveseat, having fallen asleep with her laptop open on her lap. Her fingers were limply curled on the keys and the screen had long since gone dark. The paleontologist had fallen asleep while transcribing her reports on the suchomimus. Her second week of being consulting paleontologist was coming to a close, and she was beyond exhausted. Most of her days were spent traversing the jungle, standing in the hot sun, or being crowded and bumped into by tourists. She had found her eyelids getting heavy somewhere into the first half-hour of tedious typing, and had passed out shortly thereafter. The cool evening breeze swept through an open window and through the room, carrying with it the lulling combination of chirping and buzzing jungle insects. There were two lakes on the north of Isla Nublar, and Gwyn's bungalow was located on the shore of the northern most point of the northern most lake. She had a lovely view of the island's dormant volcano and got a nice breeze off the lake on windy days. All in all, the four room bungalow wasn't as bad as she might have expected it to be.
A musical chirping cut into the relaxing silence, seeming out of place amongst the ambiance she was typically surrounded by. The paleontologist stirred and groaned, sleepily lifting her head and opening her eyes. Her cell phone, which sat on the cushion beside her, was lit up and ringing, proclaiming that she had a call. With a yawn, she shut her laptop and grabbed her phone, not bothering to see who was calling before she answered.
"Hello?" she yawned, rubbing her eyes.
"Gwyn Fiona Grant, what on earth were you thinking!?" exclaimed a familiar voice. Gwyn's brows inched up her forehead and her hand slipped down to rest on her cheek.
"Oh, Ellie. Hi. I… I'm guessing that, uh, my dad told you about my new job?" Gwyn rocked herself backwards before throwing her weight forward, which propelled her forward and to her feet. Ellie Sattler, her mother figure and father's former girlfriend, laughed with a hint of hysteria on the other end of the line.
"It might have come up in conversation, yes!" Gwyn moved into her tiny kitchenette and tugged the fridge open, grabbing for a bottle of lemon flavored seltzer. She glanced at the clock propped up in the window and narrowed her eyes to see the positioning of the hands.
"What time is it where you are? 'Cause it's really late here," Gwyn murmured as she struggled to open the bottle of seltzer with one hand. On the other end, Ellie sighed.
"Sorry, I… I forgot that there would be a time difference," Ellie apologized, dropping off her panicked excitement.
"No, it's fine, I'm just giving you a hard time," Gwyn said with a smile, tone light hearted. "But I would appreciate it if you didn't reprimand me, dad already did that." She placed the seltzer bottle between both her knees and twisted at the cap, face screwed up in concentration.
"I won't I'm just… I'm just worried about you––for you, I should say…" Ellie trailed off.
"I've been doing pretty well so far," Gwyn replied with unconvincing reassurance, which she blamed on her sleepiness. She finally managed to get the cap off, only to spill some of the drink down her leg. "Aw, shit…"
"What's wrong?" Ellie sounded slightly panicked and Gwyn winced in regret.
"Sorry, sorry, nothing's wrong––just spilled some seltzer."
"Oh, god, you nearly gave me a heart-attack… I'm just… Gwyn, I don't want you to go through everything that happened again. I–I know that it's highly unlikely and that we were the 'one' in the 'one in one thousand' statistic that something would go wrong that day, but… but with your family's track record of getting pulled into this sort of thing…" Ellie trailed off, a worried lilt to her tone. Gwyn smiled sadly and made for the bungalow door, stepping out onto the porch that faced the lake. The moonlight glittered across the surface and the tree branches swayed in the gentle, cool breeze. Ellie was like a mother to her, and Ellie had admitted years ago that Gwyn was like a daughter to her. So when she'd heard that Gwyn was back on Isla Nublar, she nearly fainted.
"I know. If there's anyone who could find trouble involving dinosaurs, it's the Grants. But everything's gone smoothly… so far…" Gwyn murmured, leaning her elbows on the porch railing. There was quiet on the other end of the line, telephone static hissing into her right ear. During that silence, Gwyn took a sip of her drink and then rubbed at her eyes, longing for her bed in the other room.
"Are you frightened?" Ellie finally asked. It was Gwyn's turn to be silent, gnawing at her bottom lip for a moment.
"Less so than when I got here, but, yeah. Every day I remember some specific detail that I'd forgotten about… I'm always looking over my shoulder… but, I'd lived with that paranoia for so long that it's return isn't really all that blind-siding," Gwyn mentioned flatly, staring out across the glittering lake. A cool breeze swept through her hair, which fluttered loosely around her shoulders. Silence filled the line as they both contemplated their previous experiences with dinosaurs.
"Have the nightmares come back?" Ellie asked with quiet concern. Gwyn scratched at the back of her neck and looked down at the ground beneath the porch. "Gwyn?"
"Just the one… the one about Rexy, the uh… raptor nightmares haven't come back yet. And they haven't come back in force, it's just, uh, been a couple dream resurgences." For a good number of years following the original events on Isla Nublar, Gwyn had been subject to a number of horrible nightmares. Most of them had to do with raptors, but a handful of them had to do with Rexy and the chase through the jungle she'd been subjected to. That one had returned sometime during the first week she'd arrived and earned her a a handful of sleepless nights.
"Oh, sweetie…"
"I'll be fine, I promise," Gwyn assured, taking the seltzer bottle to swirl around its contents. Ellie tutted on the other end of the line, a sound shortly followed by a quiet laugh.
"You remind me of your father so much sometimes," Ellie said with a fondness in her voice. Gwyn's lips quirked sideways into half of a smile.
"Sometimes that's a compliment, sometimes that's a curse," responded Gwyn, yawning halfway through the sentence.
"You are being cautious, though? I can't pretend to say that I know exactly what your job entails, but… that island surprises you in the worst ways possible and regularly exercised caution would do you good," Ellie forewarned. Gwyn pinched the leaf of a flower resting on the porch railing, gently rubbing the piece of foliage. It was some jurassic era flower she couldn't put a name to, but she knew that Ellie would know if she could see it. She'd name it in a second and spout off a number of facts that Gwyn would greedily listen to and then store away for later.
"I am, I promise. Like I said, I've been constantly looking over my shoulder, I'm being vigilant with knowing the security protocols so I can call the park out when they're breached. And, let me tell you, that protocol list is long," Gwyn tiredly chuckled, thinking of the hundred-something page long booklet of rules.
"And I know that you'll call them out if you have to; you always do. Like that time one of your father's students improperly identified an apatosaurus and you corrected her quick as a whip––and you were only nine. Well, I won't keep you up longer than I already have… I just… panicked when I found out and sat through a couple hours of harsh debate whether or not to call you."
"Don't worry about it, it's nice to know you're still looking out for me, Ellie. Call any time you like, lord knows dad does. It's nice to hear familiar voices," Gwyn admitted. "I love you, Ellie."
"Love you too, Gwyn. Stay safe."
OOOO
Gwyn sat parked in her jeep for a good five or so minutes. It was seven thirty in the morning, she had a cup of iced coffee sitting in her cup holder, and she was staring at the raptor paddock as though it was a living being in itself. Her heart was pounding and her head was starting to spin as she recalled memories of hiding in a darkly lit kitchen, of searing pain cutting through her chest, of hot, rancid breath against her face. Her head fell back against the headrest and her eyes slipped shut, hoping to calm herself by taking deep breaths, steeling herself for the long day to come. After Ellie had called, Gwyn stayed up to finish transcribing her notes, finally going to bed sometime around half-past midnight. Her early start hadn't been warmly welcomed, especially since she'd headed into the resort to grab coffee and breakfast; as she sat in her air conditioned jeep, eyes closed and head reclined, she began to drift off. In that partial dream world, she could've sworn she'd heard something… a distant roaring. Her brows pulled together and her fingers twitched. It was a rumbling and a screeching, one that, if heard too close to the source, would make one's ears hurt. It was the cry of a tyrannosaur. Her brows puckered together and, slowly, the roaring got louder.
Bang, bang.
Gwyn jumped and squealed, knee slamming up into the steering wheel. Placing a hand over her racing heart, she turned her head to see Barry standing outside her window, fist poised over the glass. She reached out and clicked a button, unrolling the window to she could talk to the man on the other side of her door.
"Sorry, Dr. Grant, I didn't mean to frighten you," Barry apologized. Gwyn smiled, albeit a tad shakily, and shook her head.
"I was, uh, just dozing off, it's no big deal. And, please, call me Gwyn. I insist," she told him. Barry smiled and propped both arms in the space where the window had been.
"Alright then, Gwyn. Owen's in the office when you're ready to come up. I wouldn't blame you for just sitting here and enjoying the last bit of air conditioning you're going to get today; it's gonna be a hot one," Barry informed charmingly. Gwyn smiled and rolled up the window as he walked away, letting out a slow breath as her heart began to calm down. Popping the door and gulping down the last of her coffee, Gwyn grabbed her bag and slung it across her torso. She then snagged her hat and placed it atop her head, her father's voice echoing in the back of her head 'paleontologists never work in the shade.' Taking in a few more deep breaths, she started walking forward and towards the large cage that was installed just in front of the paddock office.
Owen was sitting at his desk, piling files into the crook of his right elbow. He was sifting through the stacks of papers and folders on his desk, searching for something as Gwyn stepped in. She watched him place a folder between his teeth and tuck a pen behind his ear; when he looked up and spotted her, he raised a hand in greeting, unable to speak with the paper between his teeth. Gwyn returned the gesture and approached the desk, sitting down in a chair that faced Owen from across the desk. He held up a finger and pulled out another file and placed it in the crook of his arm. Removing the folder from his mouth, he smiled at her, one of his bright and charming smiles.
"How are you this morning?" he asked.
"A bit tired; had a late night call from a friend and woke up early to grab breakfast at the resort," she explained, removing her fedora.
"Legit reason to be tired," Owen said, shifting the pile of files into both his hands. "Alright. I figured you'd probably want what reports and observations we've already made on the girls. There are probably more, but these were the ones I could find."
"Those would be lovely. Would you mind if I took them home with me at the end of the day?" she asked, taking the files from his hands. Owen gestured to her before clasping his hands and resting them atop his desk.
"By all means. We've got electronic copies if we direly need them. So, what is it you're going to do today?"
Gwyn shrugged as she began to skim through the folders to see what information she was being given. "Just observe. You can go about your daily business, I won't interfere on purpose––can't promise I won't accidentally stand in the way, though."
"Well, uh, we've got some training exercises planned for today. That should probably yield some interesting information… they've just had breakfast, but we feed them again around noon… pretty typical day. Feel free to stick with me if you like; or you can wander around on your own discretion, I won't, uh, dictate what you should do, you've probably got a way you like to do things," Owen told her. Gwyn sat back in her chair with a nod, fingers picking at a stray thread that was coming free from the strap of her bag. Her apprehension was kicking into full gear now that she had to completely consider a plan of action for the day's events. And, despite what she might've liked to believe, it was quite plain on her face. "You're perfectly safe here, I promise, Gwyn."
"Hm… I've heard that before…" Gwyn murmured under her breath. Owen chuckled and tilted his head to the side, watching his co-worker distractedly play with with whatever she could get her fingers on.
"You're a bit of a pessimist when you're tired, aren't you?" he chuckled. Gwyn smirked and rubbed her eye with the heel of her right palm. She wasn't always the most pleasant person when she was tired, but she highly doubted that was why her pessimism was showing.
"Sometimes. I don't mean to sound that way, though… it's just…" Gwyn looked towards the window just next to Owen's desk, and tapped her her fingers against the desktop. With a sigh, she shut her eyes and shook her head, deflating almost completely. All of the bravery she'd conjured that morning left her person in that sigh, and she felt about eleven years old again. Gwyn ducked her head as to hide her face from her co-worker. Owen was a good guy; the two of them had casually met up for dinner and drinks a couple of times in the last few weeks. It was often a case of them running into one another at the resort as they both headed one place or another for the aforementioned evening meal; but Gwyn wasn't quite sure if they'd breached friendship level yet. She assumed her sudden loss of confidence and her spike of pessimism was likely off-putting, both to herself and to Owen. "Sorry… this isn't very professional of me, is it?"
Owen didn't answer her immediately. The hum of the air-con filled the room, and somewhere a couple of papers rustled. A chair creaked and then Gwyn felt someone's hand cover the back of her own. Lifting her head with her blue eyes open again, she found that Owen had stretched an arm across his desk, and his hand was comfortingly placed over her own. His face was composed in a soft look, but it wasn't a look of pity like she might've expected. It was an empathetic look that both slightly pinched and raised his brows and one that softened his eyes.
"I don't care if it isn't professional. I understand why you'd be apprehensive to come here, to this paddock, and have to spend a day or two observing a species of animal that hurt you. No one here is going to judge you for that, especially not me. We're working with dangerous creatures, and I'm saying that you're going to be okay because you are; mostly because you're not even setting foot in the paddock. But if you end up jumping or screaming, that's okay. Lord knows I jumped seven feet in the air the first time I was scared by one of the girls," Owen said with a warm laugh and a smile. Gwyn's lips twitched at the corners, hinting at a smile; she patted Owen's hand with the one that wasn't encapsulated by his own, her smile finally making an appearance.
"Thanks. It's good to know I've got friends here," she said, glancing up at him to see how he would react to the statement. Owen's lips quirked to the side in a crooked smile, a charming gleam reappearing in his eyes.
"'Course you do," he agreed, withdrawing his hand. He leaned his forearms on the desk and nodded in the direction of the paddock. "Want me to tell you about the girls?"
"Sounds like a good place to start," Gwyn agreed, removing her notebook and pen before she put the files in her bag. Once she uncapped her pen and set the notebook against her knee, Owen began to speak.
"As I mentioned before we've got Blue, Echo, Charlie, and Delta. Delta's got a darker green hue to her skin, and she's a bit of a feisty one; bit of an attitude when she feels like having it. Charlie's got a paler green skin tone, but she's easy to identify from the stripes that curve over the back her neck, spine and tail. She's a bit more mellow, but she's also quick. Echo's the one with a more brown hue, and she's got a, uh, scar running across her nose from a fight she'd gotten into with one of her sisters––I think you can deduce what you like from that fact. And then there's Blue. She's the beta. Probably the easiest of the four to set apart from the rest since she's got a blue stripe running along either side of her body, from her eye to the tip of her tail," Owen explained, watching as Gwyn took down initial notes. She was hunched over her knee, scribbling down words quickly yet neatly in looped handwriting.
Gwyn was writing down the word 'beta' when she decided to ask, "So, who's the alpha of this little raptor pack?" She heard Owen chuckle and, glancing upwards, she saw that he was smirking and had crossed his arms over his chest. "What?"
"You're looking at him," he told her. She arched an eyebrow and snickered a bit, straightening up. She pointed at the man who sat across from her and her other eyebrow joined its match in rising.
"You?"
"That's right."
"You're the alpha of a raptor pack?" Gwyn reiterated, looking caught between being amused and confused. Owen nodded and smiled widely. He spread his arms out and nodded with a proud air about him.
"I am. Is it so hard to believe? I am their handler," Owen pointed out. Gwyn blinked at him as her incredulous smile fell. She leaned forward and placed her notebook and pen on the top of the desk.
"Because you're a human, Owen. They aren't. From my experience, their leader is one of them, not the man or woman who's looking after them. Alpha suggests that you lead them in whatever it is they do, such as… hunting and… and… whatever else it is they do when they're not attacking whatever that moves," Gwyn said, voice becoming flat towards the end. Owen cleared his throat with a serious look overcoming his face.
"I… obviously don't lead them on hunting missions, since we don't let them roam the jungle freely. But I am there when they're fed, and I… I… it's hard to explain. It's probably best that I just show you," Owen said as he rose to his feet, glancing at the watch on his wrist. "We're about to put them through one of their daily training exercises, why don't you come watch? We'll be up on the catwalks, and it's perfectly safe. I promise."
Gwyn and Owen left the office and made for the stairs that led up to the catwalks. Gwyn had donned her hat again and as they walked, she repeated a sort of mantra in her head: I'm safe, I'm calm, I'm collected. It was keeping her in some semblance of calm, even though her mind was raging against her decision to agree to watch the training exercise. To further distract herself, she continued to do what she was there to do––her job.
"So, how do you go about feeding them?" she asked. "I don't see any sort of… food delivering mechanism that some of the other paddocks have."
"That's 'cause we don't have one," Owen said, smiling over his shoulder. "It's like we agreed on the first day you were here––we can't suppress their natural instinct. We let their meals run loose through the paddock; we mostly give them pigs and let a couple loose at a time. I also give them dead mice and rats as treats when they're good. That way, they're not just receiving food from god knows where. I'm establishing a relationship. They understand that if they do as I say, I give them food."
Gwyn jotted down notes in her notebook as they climbed the stairs. She supposed that could play into the raptors viewing him as their alpha––that is, if that was indeed the truth. She was still doubtful of that little supposed fact. How could four vicious creatures view a human as their leader? They were more apt to view Owen as their evening meal than as a respected leader. She'd have to see it to believe it, an attitude she had towards a lot of things. As they crested the stairs, Owen grabbed a bucket that was sitting on the landing. Inside were a couple of dead, white-furred mice that Owen had mentioned earlier. She followed him onto one of the catwalks that crossed over the paddock and stopped beside him as he hung the tin bucket on a hook attached to the railing. Owen withdrew a cylindrical object from his pocket and peered down into the paddock below. I am safe, I am calm, I'm collected…
"Barry!" Owen called out, gaining the attention of the man on the outer edge of the paddock. "You ready to release the pig?"
"Ready whenever you are, Owen!" he called back. He was stood in front of a small panel of buttons, which likely controlled the small handful of doors installed within the paddock's inner walls. Owen looked to Gwyn, who stood beside him, and nodded to the habitat below them.
"We're doing a hide-and-seek exercise. It's like a hunting simulation for them; but, typically, we pull the pig back in before they get it. It lets them utilize their speed and their sense of smell and all that jazz," he explained, for the purpose of her notes. As she jotted a couple of things down, he cleared his throat to gain her attention again. This time, his face was more serious. "They're gonna come out of the foliage pretty damn quick."
Gwyn nodded and tapped the end of her pen against her notebook, considering the prospect that she would soon see a velociraptor again. I'm safe, I'm calm, I'm collected. "Thanks for warning." Owen nodded to her and then turned towards Barry.
"Let the pig loose!"
There was a brief buzzing sound, likely signalling that one of the small hatches in the paddock had been opened. Gwyn's shoulders stiffened and she swallowed thickly. Somewhere, a tiny piglet squealed. She heard ferns and leaves begin to rustle and shake, she heard an all too familiar screech; and, in that moment, she was no longer able to focus on taking notes. The beating of her heart picked up and thrummed heavily in all her veins. She watched as ferns and bushes bowed and bend as something wove between them. Then, from the foliage, burst a small pink pig. It's small legs were pink blurs as it rushed away from its would-be attackers. Then, shortly after, something else appeared from the thicket of jungle. It was a creature about the height of a human, it was bipedal, and it was devilishly quick. It let out an excitable screech, one that sent a chill down Gwyn's spine while her body tensed up. Three more velociraptors popped out of the jungle and just as they were approaching the catwalk, Owen pressed the top of the cylindrical device he held, which emitted a clicking sound. He threw his right hand up in a 'stop' motion, standing confident and strong. The four velociraptors below skittered to a stop as Owen loudly called out,
"Eyes on me!"
The raptors, with mouths hanging slightly open to just barely bare their teeth, turned their amber-eyed attention on the man above them. But as he opened his mouth to give another command, their attention became snagged on something else––someone else.
The pen Gwyn had been pinching between her fingers fell to the catwalk with a dull clatter as four sets of eyes were turned on her. One of the raptors made a clicking, growling sound and shuffled a step or two to its left, so it was standing directly in Gwyn's line of sight. The others followed suit, opening their mouths wider to reveal razor sharp teeth, their pupils narrowing to pencil-thin slits. Gwyn stood perfectly still because she couldn't bring herself to move. She was staring directly at the first raptor who had moved towards her; in its molten gold eyes, she recalled everything that she'd feared as a child and a teenager. She saw herself as a little eleven year-old, screaming in terror and pain as she thought she was going to die. That fear appeared in the pit of her stomach again, sending a flush of cold through her body despite the fact she was sweating in the god-awful heat. The raptor, with its mouth widening, ducked into a position that was poised for attack; in response, Gwyn's own body tensed. Just as her muscles coiled to the tightest they could tense, Owen pushed himself in front of her, face sternly––almost angrily––composed.
"Hey!" he shouted down at the group of raptors. Their attentions all returned to Owen, heads weaving this-way-and-that in attempts to see around him. "Hey!" He gave a sharp whistle, which drew his girls' attention directly to him. Gwyn snapped out of her own fear-filled trance and stumbled back and into the back railing of the catwalk. "Delta, don't you give me that attitude! Eyes on me." He stressed, raising his right hand slightly higher. He waited a moment, watching to see if their attention deviated from him at all. When he determined they were focused only on him, he clicked the clicker and began to side step to the right. "We're moving… we're moving…" The girls began to follow but one of them––Echo, Gwyn would later figure––was still distracted by the new presence on the catwalk with their alpha. She began to strafe back in Gwyn's direction with stalking steps. "Echo…" Owen's voice didn't seem to register to the raptor, who was watching Gwyn with calculating eyes. "Echo!" With Owen's attention diverted, the other three raptors began squabble amongst themselves, bumping into one another with sharp, impatient cries. Owen used the clicker again, regaining their attentions long enough for him to swipe his hand downward, signalling them to run free again. Two of the four ran off, leaving the other two to linger. "Charlie, don't you think you're getting a treat for bad behavior!" He clicked the clicker and made a sweeping motion with his hand. "Get moving." Charlie screeched once and darted after her sisters. Echo, with a drawn out screech, trotted off slowly, casting Gwyn curious looks as she left.
Gwyn offered Owen an apologetic look as he pocketed the clicker and placed both hands on his hips. She whipped her fedora off and held it in both hands, staring down at her mud streaked boots, a self-reprimanding look etching itself into each of her features. "I'm… sorry for messing that up," she murmured in apology. Owen shook his head and let one corner of his mouth tug downwards in polite dismissal.
"Don't apologise. I should've realized that the girls would notice an unfamiliar presence and get distracted by it. Especially once that's so frightened," Owen admitted, freezing when he realized what he'd said. His eyes fell shut and he pursed his lips. When he opened his eyes again, he looked to Gwyn, taking his turn to look apologetic. "Sorry. I didn't mean––"
"No, you're right," Gwyn sighed, waving him off with her hat. "I… should've tried to handle myself better." Before she gave him the chance to say anything else, she vaguely gestured to him with the fedora. "But, um… you weren't kidding about the alpha thing were you?"
Owen leaned up against the railing across from her, arms crossed over his chest. She watched his eyes flick over her head-to-toe, likely taking note of how her hands were shaking and her leg was bouncing. His eyes lingered on her lips, which she was gently gnawing on. The expression on his face told her he wanted to talk about something pertaining to their earlier conversation, wanted to tell her she had a right to feel as scared as she was, but decided to continue on with the track of conversation she'd chosen, much to her relief. She knew she had a right to be scared––in fact, she'd argue that to anyone who told her she didn't have the right. But that didn't mean she had to like the fact she had a right to be scared.
"Not really," he agreed. She flipped her notebook back open and turned it around so he could see the pages.
"Well, congratulations, Mr. Owen Grady, you're the first human to be noteworthy enough to make it into my work notebook," she told him. And, just as she said, at the bottom of the page was Owen's name with the word 'alpha' written just below it. He chuckled and placed a hand over his heart.
"I am absolutely honored, Dr. Gwyn Grant."
A cheeky smile, albeit a small one, appeared on her face as she tucked the notebook into her back with fingers that continued to tremble. She bent at the waist to pick up her fallen writing utensil and simultaneously slipped her father's fedora back onto her head, the item of sun protection giving her some sense of comfort she hadn't previously had. The paleontologist and the raptor handler then stood there in silence, a companionable silence as the raptors continued to run rampant in the paddock below. Inhaling slowly, Gwyn pulled up what was left of her shattered courage and asked,
"What's next?"
Afterword: And there we have it. I have to admit, I'm not quite sure how this chapter turned out, because it was really hard to write. I had to toy around with different ways to introduce the raptor training scene, had to toy with different ways for her to react, and her going catatonic seemed like a good first reaction to go with. But, regardless, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Review replies!
blue-lily295: I'm glad that Gwyn's apprehensiveness/bitterness/fears of being around dinosaurs is coming off well and realistic. And I'm also very glad you're enjoying the chapters thus far! I hope that you enjoyed the chapter; thanks again!
katy1986: I figured that Owen probably gets shy from time to time about one thing or another; and I thought that was a good moment to propose that concept. Also, Gwyn and Lowery are gonna be amazing friends––they're gonna have nerdy movie nights and, who knows, later on, Owen might start to get a little jealous. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again!
Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967: I'm glad you loved the last chapter and hope you enjoyed this one just as much! Thanks again!
NicoleR85: I'm glad you've been enjoying reading Gwyn and Owen interacting so far, especially since we haven't had a lot of it; but we're going to get more of that in here soon enough. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again!
The girl with no life: I had such a blast writing Lowery last time and I can't wait to write him again. The keymaster line just popped into my head in his voice and I went 'yup, yup, he'd definitely say that.' I hope you enjoyed the chapter; thanks again!
lilnightmare17: Here we are, another chapter done! I hope that you enjoyed reading it; thanks again!
heroherondaletotherescue: I'm glad that the little dino details I've been fitting in there have been making it more realistic; also happy that you enjoyed the Lowery scene, I had so much fun writing him! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as the last! Thanks again!
CarlyJo: Oh, there are definitely characters I can't write perfectly, we just haven't gotten to them yet––actually, I don't think I write Masrani all that well. And I've yet to attempt Dr. Wu, so we'll see how that goes, ahaha! But I'm very, very glad that Lowery came off as in character; he's bound to be one of my favorites––I mean, I dressed up as him for Comic-Con so… :) Very happy that Gwyn and Owen's chemistry seems realistic and not forced. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again!
InfinityMars: I plan on getting Lowery in here more often––next to Owen, I think that Lowery will probably be one of Gwyn's truest friends on Isla Nublar, and they're totally going to have movie nights together. I love writing Gwyn's sense of humor because it's a pretty dry sense of humor, which I think works well against Owen's sense of humor. Just wait until Claire encounters them making jokes together, she'll have a heart attack, ahaha! I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again!
Guest: I'm very happy you are enjoying the chapters thus far, including the way that I've been introducing the characters. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter; thanks again!
MidnightPenguin: Yeah, she's definitely gonna know good portions of the jungle pretty well by the time the movie events roll up and into play! I'm debating on whether or not she'll find the remains of the first park before the events of Jurassic World or not. 'Cause I could definitely do some cool memory stuff with that scene, 'cause I really love the concept of Gwyn getting to go back there. Alan will definitely make nervous panic calls like Ellie did at the beginning of this one. He'll also probably end up contacting her via letter and stuff to, just to make sure contact is always constant and in play. I do have plans for Gwyn and Owen to, like, take a picture at one point or another and Alan sees it and is just like 'who the hell is that?' I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again!
oXxgeorgiaxXo: I hope that you enjoyed the new chapter, just as you've been enjoying the other ones––thanks again!
fr33fangirl: I'm glad that you've been enjoying the story thus far! If you're at all interested, I've also been writing a prequel to this story, detailing the whole of Gwyn's adventures at Jurassic Park. I hope you enjoyed the chapter; thanks again!
RJNorth: She'll run into Claire pretty soon, since she's gotta turn stuff into the higher-ups, and all that jazz. I'd say it's probably somewhere close to a year before the events of Jurassic World; it gives time for Gwyn and Owen to let a relationship develop, gives time for Gwyn to work herself into the world of Jurassic World and get lulled into a false sense of security before it all goes to shit again. I hope that you've enjoyed the new chapter! Thanks again!
And thank you to those who have added this to their favorites/follows; it means a lot!
I hope to get the next chapter up pretty soon, since I've got an idea of what I want to happen next time. I again thank you all for taking time to read this story, which I never thought would be as liked as it is! Thank you all so much!
~Mary
