Late update, I know! Everything had gone down, internet, phone, TV. We just got everything back, so here, have some fic!
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Neither Blue nor any of the others had alerted him to the visitor. Alan was at the park, probably talking to Claire, and no one else had clearance to approach the raptor paddock, unless it was either Barry or Peter. And those two would call ahead. They only came if the raptors needed feeding or anything else raptor-related.
Blue?
She just gave him the raptor-equivalent of a shrug. Dan Carter was a pack ally. She hadn't seen the necessity to alert her alpha.
Right.
"We gotta stop meeting like this. People will talk."
Carter raised an eyebrow. He was sprawled in one of Owen's deck chairs, dressed in civvies. Jeans, gray t-shirt, white button-down that wasn't buttoned-up, hiking boots. Somehow he still looked on duty.
"They already do," he remarked.
Owen frowned.
"About what happened with the poachers."
"Rumors."
"Yep." He popped the 'p'. "And now: the truth, Owen."
He lowered himself into the second deck chair. The stitches on his thigh pulled a little.
"I didn't go looking for trouble, if that's what you want to know."
"Not the question. And I think you have enough braincells to leave the smuggler ring busting to the professionals."
"Hey, I called."
Dan nodded. "I will give you that. The question is, what happened then?"
"Got thrown into a raptor cage after they used a knife on me? Nearly got eaten?"
"Told the pack to get you out?"
Owen stared at the other man. Hard. He felt something inside of him lock up, shields snapping into place, and his expression froze.
Not far away the raptors hissed loudly and four pairs of eyes were actively staring at the porch.
Carter didn't so much as glance in their direction. He was holding Owen's gaze easily.
"I did not ask them to kill the smugglers," Grady said, voice absolutely even.
"Then what happened?"
"You already have the official version."
"I want the unofficial one. The one that goes into the same file as the i-rex, the death of dozens of ACU and security troopers who were mauled, killed or eaten by that hybrid creature, and the fact that Owen Grady isn't just the alpha of a raptor pack because they imprinted on him from birth."
Carter's voice was matter-of-fact, cold, with a military air to it.
"What happened out there, Owen?" he repeated.
"We ran into the poachers, I got captured, nearly fed to raptors. End of story. Oh, and you and your team saved the day."
"Goddamnit, Grady!" Dan exploded in a rare display of anger. "Don't fuck with me on this one!" He had gotten up and was pacing along the porch.
"You know what to write in your reports, so do that!" Owen snapped back.
Carter rounded on him. "I don't care what's on paper! I want to know what happened and I want the truth!"
Owen hissed, raptor-like, emotions cascading through him. He felt the pack push forward, protective, snarling and growling at the threat.
Not a threat, ladies. Stand down. Easy, okay?
There was a bark from the enclosure, then short yowls. Carter nodded to himself.
"They sound pissed off," he said harshly. "I know the feeling. Don't you realize that I have your back, Grady? I'm not Vic Hoskins! I'm not going to take them from you!" He gestured sharply at the paddock area. "I spent the last year training a special unit to work with you and your vicious little guard dogs! I wanted those men and women to understand what they were dealing with! I got them to look past the lethal predator that can tear their throats out! Those people trust in you, the alpha! I trust you, Owen Grady, and don't you fucking lie to me now!"
Owen stared at the other man, taken slightly aback by the outbreak, the harshness, and the truth.
Nothing but the truth.
He had taught those select troopers about raptors, about his girls, about respect and not to shoot first. And he knew that his rescue had shown just how much of a success it had been.
He let his head fall back, staring at the porch roof. "I did not ask them, or order them, to take out the poachers, Dan."
"Then why did they do it?"
"It's… complicated."
Carter finally sat down and picked up a beer from the cooler resting next to the deck chair. "I've got time."
"It's a pack thing."
Carter was silent, just giving him the 'go on' eyebrow.
Owen blew out a breath and held out a hand. "Beer."
"Soda. Doctor's orders."
He took the can and grumbled slightly to himself. "You're worse than Alan."
His remark was ignored. "Pack thing?"
"Dog with a bone. Okay. Pack thing. A Me thing. You know I'm connected to all four, right?"
Carter nodded.
"And it's a two-way road. Back and forth."
Another nod.
"I can pick up the other dinosaurs to a degree," Owen said slowly. "Not just mine. The others are a background noise, like a murmur, and some stand out. Others are a unanimous mass. When the Sornas tried to eat me, since I was their first real meal offer since their capture, I… pushed them back."
"Preternatural push?"
"Yeah. It's like throwing out your mind, trying to get into theirs. It was… painful. It's hard to describe. Like jumping off a cliff into nothingness. You know there's the sky and the ground, but you're in the middle and you see nothing. You're lost."
Carter leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, hands gripping the bottle. "So your pack reacted to the loss of their alpha?"
"No. They reacted to the capture and torture of their alpha, then the backlash from me trying to hold off the other raptors. It hit Blue the hardest. She's my anchor. She tried to reach me. She also gave the order to take out what had hurt me."
Dan was silent, contemplating the bottle, what he had heard, everything.
"You once told me that you don't control them," he finally said, voice neutral. "That they aren't tame. That they're dangerous. The raptors did what their nature told them to do."
"In a way."
"And they opened a key-code door."
Owen rubbed his eyes with a thumb and middle-finger.
"I know raptors can open doors by pushing down a handle or turning a knob" Carter went on almost conversationally. "It's in Dr. Grant's books, in the briefing I got from Masrani global, and it was in at least one file I managed to find on the old Jurassic Park."
Owen was silent, waiting.
"Those four not only took out a group of armed men and women, one of them punched in a key code on a number pad, Owen. And before you ask, we didn't take finger prints. We didn't need to. There wasn't a trace of blood on those keys and the guy to die last was pretty much covered in blood. I won't go into the details of what kind of injuries he had, but let me tell you, I've seen some stuff. Torture stuff. He didn't die immediately and his injuries were inflicted to be painful, not lethal. He was the one who opened the first lock. She remembered and opened the second."
Owen blew out a breath, closing his eyes.
"They are highly intelligent, with a human alpha," Carter went on. "Genetically engineered to connect with a powerful preternatural. You. Dr. Grant told me that Blue learned to read early on."
"Kinda."
"She is the star pupil."
"She saved my life, Dan!" Owen exploded. "They all did! Without them I'd be in little pieces and you could mop up my remains. You could also hunt and put down four very pissed off, feral raptors who lost their alpha."
"I know. I'm glad they saved you. Really."
Owen exhaled sharply. There wasn't a chuff or chitter coming from the paddock. The tension in the air was hard to miss.
"They aren't human."
Carter's expression grew a little sour. "No. They are raptors. Dinosaurs. Predators. They can kill a man without remorse in no time flat."
"So can special ops troopers."
The sour look grew even worse.
"Unarmed," Owen pushed his point. "I know some of your guys. I wouldn't want to be on their bad side either. They can take a life with what's available, even with just their hands, and be gone."
Carter refused to comment.
"So can you," Grady added.
Dan seemed to silently count to ten. "Not the point. In a comparison of human to raptor, we tend to side with the human."
"Logical."
"In your case… the lines are blurring, Owen. They are animals, but they did what they had to to protect you. What gives me nightmares is the fact that they understand such complex workings."
"All raptors do." Owen played with the soda can, running his fingers along the cool sides, condensation drops running over his skin. "Did I ever tell you about Dot?"
Carter raised his eyebrows. "Dot?"
"Before your time. She and her pack were the first I studied on Nublar."
And Owen told him about watching those raptors, a different sub-species from his own pack, about their intelligence, about everything. Even about their death.
"She understood, Dan. More than I ever thought possible. It's one reason why the velociraptors never became part of the theme park. Unlike all the other dinosaurs, even the t-rex, they are too intelligent."
"And after Wu and Keller gave them to you, knowing it would form a bond, things escalated in that regard. They grew exponentially."
Owen nodded slowly. "Are we okay?"
Dan met Owen's eyes. "We were always okay. I just needed to understand a few things. They're exceptional."
Yes, they were. Owen knew that. And he understood that what had happened aboard the cargo ship had been huge.
"And what they did is terrifying for most of us to understand. They are animals and they did something that drives home the point that the velociraptors can never be part of the theme park."
"They're not malevolent, Dan."
"No. I know that. The men know it, too. They were there, saw what the poachers had done, especially to you. They were trained to handle this, handle them. We know what happened wasn't cold-blooded, planned murder. It wasn't The Incident all over again. They're not sociopaths."
"No. They're not."
"Are they still okay with me?" Carter wanted to know, gesturing at the paddock.
Owen laughed soft, the change of topic lightening the mood. "Yeah. No hard feelings."
Carter rose and put the empty bottle into the plastic tub Owen used to collect his glass. Recycling and green techniques were a big issue on Isla Nublar.
"I'll tell your friends you're alive, all limbs attached and that you'll get back to them the moment the doctor lets you move around."
Owen chuckled. "Okay. Thanks. And Dan, thanks for keeping this under wraps."
"Claire should know about the full extent of things."
"She will."
"Good."
"Dan?"
The other man stopped, giving him a quizzical look.
"How did those guys run under everyone's radar? They got onto the island. InGen detects the slightest blip and they didn't register. They had to have been there for more than a day to collect all those different eggs and then the three adults. If not for the weather, they'd have pulled it off and been gone."
"We're looking into it."
Owen gave him an expectant look, but Carter didn't say more.
"Huh. Will I get more than a lame one-liner when you have something?"
Carter smirked. "We'll see."
And with that he was gone.
Owen watched the SUV disappear, then limped over to the paddock where four anxious velociraptors greeted him.
"He's a good guy, ladies," he told. "Not the enemy. It's just his job."
Blue snorted, talons clanging against the metal bars.
We did what had to be done.
"Yeah, you did. All of you. But we're back to normal and that means you don't hurt humans, understood?"
Yes, they understood. The poachers had been the enemy. They had severely hurt and tried to kill Owen.
He opened the gate and entered the paddock, the four raptors moving toward him with soft hums and curious rumbles. Owen smiled as they herded him toward the shade.
"Yeah, yeah. Cuddles."
Blue gave the raptor-equivalent of a laugh inside his head. Charlie inspected the sand, found it up to her standards, and chuffed.
Owen was soon surrounded by his pack, listening to purrs and hums, the occasional snuffle, and he relaxed against the warm skin.
"Yeah, I love you all, too."
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He accessed and reviewed the recordings that night.
Then erased them from the server after storing every last pixel on a portable hard drive. He would make it never fell into anyone's hands.
At all.
Owen sat on his porch, eyes on the fiery sunset behind his house. Shades of pale blue and pink had turned orange and purple, too. It was dramatic, as well as calming in one.
His pack had killed. They had tracked down his kidnappers, had singled them out, had laid traps and executed complex maneuvers, following a preplanned strategy.
Blue had been the lead, calm and decisive, and the others had followed.
He had seen death in those recordings, fast kills, swift revenge.
And he had seen the demonstration of near-human intelligence as Blue had remembered the access code and typed it in.
All that he had known already, but now it had been recorded from a different angle, from a camera mounted on Delta and Charlie. Owen wondered if he should feel afraid; terrified even.
He didn't.
He sipped at the hot tea in his hands.
Too much had happened, too much that should serious unsettle him, but the least of that had been the pack's maneuver at the beach. Maybe the whole matter with his broken barriers was overshadowing the real life implications of the attack
Maybe.
Blue curled closer in his mind, still protective, still circling him like the others, surrounding him, keeping him from harm.
He loved them. No exceptions.
You did what you had to. You acted on pack instinct.
No one had programmed them. He hadn't given an order. They had done what pack did, though neither Owen nor any of the other experts could say if this was normal raptor behavior. Sornas were family packs. They would pursue an egg thief, as Alan had found out the hard way.
But his girls… they were all made from different DNA mixtures and they had become his.
Owen smiled slightly over the rim of his mug as the sun turned the brilliant, fiery colors into deep, dark purple and blue, until it was finally just blackish blue. He finally got up and walked back into the house.
There he pulled out a hammer and destroyed the hard drive.
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He slept very well that night, his four guardians making sure his mind was well-protected.
And there were no nightmares.
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"Hey, man!"
Owen smiled as Barry pulled up on his ATV. "Hey, Barry."
"How're you doing?"
"Everybody keeps asking. I'm fine."
"You look like Sue stepped on you," the other man commented, looking him up and down. "And not in a good way."
Yeah, he had thought the same this morning while trying to wash his face and shave without ending up with even worse bruises. He was in a very colorful stage eight now, heading toward the healing brown-yellow one. Taking a shower with two bandages had been even more of an adventure and Owen was glad Annika hadn't seen him soaking half his bandaged arm.
"Here for dinner?" Grady now asked.
"Theirs, not yours," Barry replied with a grin. "But if you need something, let me know."
"I'm good in that regard, too."
Claire had been by earlier, handing over a big bag full of ready-to-eat meals, freshly made by Winston's and for his fridge and freezer.
It had been a nice gesture.
"C'mon. You keep them happy, I get their meals," Barry said, gesturing at him to come with him.
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Devoe checked out the meat locker and decided on a mixture of complete beef ribs and pork legs.
"Crunchy with a side of juicy," he commented as he pulled the huge ribs out of the meat locker. "Whoa, man, stop." He held up a hand as Owen stepped forward. "Don't need help," Barry added. "You're on sick leave or downtime or whatever you call it. I'm here to help."
He set to work with a large knife and a lot of enthusiasm. Owen just leaned back, not even arguing. His leg ached and he wouldn't really be a lot of help with his cut-up arm.
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The pack was, of course, happy to see him. The gates had been open until half an hour before Owen had expected someone to show up.
Barry used the feeding time to train, mostly to train himself, see if the pack responded to him. He used the pork slices first, then added the crunchier bits with bone.
Owen watched, nodded to himself as Barry caught the raptors' attention and sent them into different corners. None made it easy for him, but they responded to the correct commands.
Good girls, he told them.
When the training was over, Barry hauled in the ribs with the help of a crane and dropped them in the enclosure.
Both men watched as the four raptors went for their evening meal, tearing into the flesh attached to the bone, leaving teeth and claw marks on it.
"You good?" Barry asked, wiping his hands.
"Fine. Thanks for the assist."
"Hey, that's what I'm here for."
They locked down for the night and Barry walked over to the ATV again.
"See you tomorrow morning. Be good."
"I'm not a child."
Barry just grinned good-naturedly, then he was off.
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Dr. Svensson came by on official business two hours later, just after nightfall. She checked Owen from head to toe, changed the bandages and poked at the stitched wounds. Alan hovered close by, worried.
"Good. No infection. You have a very good immune system."
Owen hadn't come down with so much as a cold ever since starting work at the park.
"Any double vision? Dizziness? Loss of consciousness? Tremors?"
"No to all of it. Like I said, I'm fine."
Her eyebrows drew down. "You were beaten up and then attacked by raptors, Owen. You are not fine."
"Annika, believe me, I know what happened and I feel okay."
She sighed and shook her head. "I wish I understood what's going on with your brain," she said. "You're not the first to bond with an animal, just the only one I ever heard of coming out on the other side with all his faculties still there. It changed something inside you."
"I don't feel different."
Liar liar liar…
Her expression told him so, too. She wrapped fresh bandages around his arm and leg, then inspected the punctures left from Blue.
"Good healing, too." She taped the bandage in place. "You're a fast healer. Okay," Svensson said and straightened. "Reduce the painkillers to the minimum you need to handle the pain. If you have no need, leave them."
"Will do."
"And the order still stands: no strenuous activities."
"Yes, ma'am."
She gave him a hard look, then just closed her bag with a snap. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll still be fine tomorrow."
"Three o'clock."
"I'll make sure he behaves, Dr. Svensson," Alan promised from where he sat, reading.
Owen pulled on his shirt, wincing only a little as his bruises complained.
"I'll be fine, mother-hens," he muttered.
Svensson exchanged an exasperated look with Alan, then left.
Owen got himself something to drink. His eyes were drawn to the window, the raptor paddock visible from here even through the twilight. The surrounding area had been lit up, leaving most of the enclosure in the dark.
In the back of his mind was the hum of the four raptors, still strong and positioned in defense positions around him.
Ease up a little, he told Blue.
Just to test how bad the situation still was.
She moved reluctantly away from him, as did the pack, and Owen waited for the tidal wave.
It was… there… in the back… as always. But it stayed there, mostly. There were tiny ebbs and flows, like a teasing tendril of what could be. A hum, a murmur of voices he couldn't understand, of individuals and the anonymous herds. There were also three pinpoints, tiny lights in the dark.
The Sorna raptors.
He could sense them, was very much aware of them, just like Sue and M were there. Skittish, in a way. Familiar and yet not family or pack. If Owen took a step toward them, left his comfort zone, he would be overwhelmed again.
Blue shifted nervously, reaching for her alpha, and Owen let her come closer, taking up her guardian position. Echo, Delta and Charlie followed.
His own, natural shields were coming back one fragment at a time. He had shattered them, but still they were knitting themselves back together. He needed his first line of defense, his girls, but he wouldn't immediately drown if they eased up a little now and then.
Healing, Blue only said, sounding smug.
Yes, he was healing.
Pack is stronger. You heal through us.
He probably wouldn't mention that to Annika. Or anyone else. Nor would he tell anyone who had clawed up his hip. It would open up a whole new can of worms.
"Earth to Owen."
He blinked.
Alan stood behind him, holding a candy bar, which he offered him.
"Uh, thanks. Just… testing… something."
"Ah." Alan sipped at his hot tea. "Testing... what?" he probed.
"The bond. My shields. Looks like I'll be getting back to normal."
"Open for debate, but hey," his friend teased. "Now get over to the couch, sit down, feet up, and rest."
"Yes, sir."
"Shuddup, kid."
tbc...