He ran into Gregory outside the new fast food place. There were a lot of crowds, a mix of young and old, male and female, customers, all waiting patiently for their food. Owen's former intern had a huge paper bag in one hand, balancing milkshakes and soft drinks on a tray in the other.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Grady!" he greeted him with a smile.

"Gregory. How are you doing?"

"Great! We're all doing great. Thanks to you."

Owen saved the milkshakes from crashing and gestured at Gregory to lead the way to wherever he was going with the food.

"Me? What did I do?"

They were weaving through the early afternoon crowds, dodging balloons, trying not to step on small children or get run over by excited families. Owen nearly tripped over one of the dinosaur-shaped baby-carts.

"Ms. Dearing told us that we'd be responsible for the babies rescued from the poachers' ship. All of us are now working shifts at quarantine, even in the hatchery!" Gregory's eyes glowed with enthusiasm. "It's amazing! We can learn so much! They are dinosaurs we know from here, but then again they're different because they're from Sorna. And we know you recommended us. Thank you, Mr. Grady! Thank you so very much! It's the best that ever happened to us!"

Owen chuckled. "Glad you're enjoying it."

They had arrived at one of the round tables a little off Main Street. The table was in the shade of a large tree. A group of interns were waiting there, waving excitedly at them and smiling widely. Owen laughed as they gushed at him for giving them another chance to prove themselves. All were in love with their work at Quarantine, were invested in taking care of the eggs and newly hatched babies, and they were learning so much more every day. Especially how not to imprint the wild dinosaurs on them, to prepare them for getting back home to their own island when they were strong and big enough.

"You never did anything wrong, guys," Owen told them. "Just because there was one idiot among you it shouldn't fall back one everyone. You all checked out fine and you have promising careers ahead of you."

There was a chorus of smiles and thanks. Owen declined an invitation for food.

"Still working. See you around. And raise those babies right."

"We will," Gregory promised, his words echoed by everyone either verbally or by vigorous nodding.

Owen chuckled as he continued on a parallel path to Main Street and finally passed a Personnel Only sign to the back roads.

He was happy to hear his idea had worked out so well for everyone involved. Like he had told Claire before, there were some promising talents among those young men and woman. Not just preternaturally speaking. He was looking forward to seeing who would stay and work at Jurassic World.

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It wasn't often that she saw Owen Grady in the Bamboo Forest, on his own, not a single raptor around. Serena had let him use her precious forest for one of his hide-and-seek exercises, after closing hours, just before nightfall, for the pack a few times already. She hadn't been there personally, though.

Now, there was only Owen.

Standing between the tall bamboo stalks, she looked at him, noting the tired expression, the fine lines of past pain and stress.

Had it only been a little over two weeks since Grady had accidentally run into the poachers? She had thought it had been more.

Time flies, she mused. And she hadn't really had had fun in that time.

They had all been worried about their friend and colleague. It had been their main topic most of the times the small group had met after work.

Serena had heard about what had happened with the poachers through Reggie. Then all hell had broken lose with the animal, the uproar waking everyone who lived on the premises, getting the keepers scrambling, Laurel had come by later, pale and scared looking, worried like all of them. She had told Serena about the t-rex paddock incident.T

hen the rumors had started to fly. Right down to killer raptors and Owen's possible death.

But he was alive and well. Yes, the raptors had killed, but Serena couldn't feel any horror at what they had done.

She had been told about the dead dinosaurs on Isla Sorna, had seen a few images that had leaked through – she suspected Lowery – and she had been as sick as all of them.

Nancy had looked downright ready to throw up at the sight of such senseless slaughter and violence.

No, none of Owen's friends felt any pity at their fate.

Now Owen himself was sitting in the Bamboo Forest, looking almost contemplative. He wasn't the meditating kind, even though Nancy had tried to get him to do it. Maybe this, sitting by himself in a quiet place, was as close as he got to it.

He had a to-go cup at his side, a wrapped panini, and an apple.

Checking the time, Serena figured it had be his late lunch.

"Are you going to stand there all day?"

She almost jumped at his voice.

"You really are part raptor," she muttered and walked over to the man.

Owen was a great guy and handsome to boot. Serena was a married woman, she loved her husband, but she appreciated human nature. She really appreciated Owen's. He was also talented, and not just in a preternatural way, and rather easy-going, though she had found that there was a serious core underneath.

And he was their chief researcher when it came to velociraptors, the alpha of the pack, and the most talented preternatural she had ever had the honor of meeting.

"Hey," Serena now said. "I didn't want to interrupt your lunch break."

He lifted a corner of his mouth. "You are not. I know some corners of the forest are usually tourist free this time of the day."

"Ah," she said knowingly. "Seeking solitude. A man after my own heart. It gets really busy some days."

Owen gestured for her to sit if she wanted. "More like needing a quiet moment."

Serena sat down. "Deep thoughts?"

Her eyes were drawn to the pale red scar on Owen's arm, visible evidence of what the poachers had done to him. The cut above his eye was smaller.

He shrugged. "Not that deep. Not contemplating the fate of the world and the weight of it on my shoulders."

"Are your girls okay?"

Owen's smile was warm, a smile that was reserved only for the four raptors of his pack. She had seen him work with the dinosaurs and she had seen the way they looked at him, the way he looked at them.

"They're fine. They deal with it all their own way. A reptilian way, if you will. I know what they did. I can accept it. It's in their nature. I'm more worried about Isla Sorna."

"I heard InGen upped security and there are a lot more patrols. I know that security checks on Nublar have close to tripled. Every employee has been listed to be checked again." She shrugged. "I don't mind, but some it makes even more nervous."

"We had two traitors," Owen said softly. "They made it possible for animal smugglers to get to Sorna, kill the dinosaurs there, take eggs and babies. It can't happen again."

"No, it can't," she agreed.

There was a chatter of tourists and suddenly a group came along the winding paths, laughing, talking, taking pictures. They passed by the bench, not even really looking at the two people who were partially kept from direct view through the cleverly arranged plants.

"If you want a quiet place, how about one of the greenhouses?" she offered. "If you don't mind sitting between planting utensils and a lot of potting compost."

Owen chuckled. "I'm usually up to my knees in wood chips and mud, so I don't mind."

Serena rose and made an inviting gesture. "Follow me then."

x XX JW XX x

It was a nice, quiet afternoon. Serena was planting seedlings, putting saplings into new pots, cutting small trees into shape, and checking on the status of a few rare orchid species she had received a few days ago. The other employees were busy replanting an area of the botanical garden after a horde of kids had turned it into a nightmare. Their mother had protested wildly when they had to be removed by security, threatening to sue, but she had been thrown out anyway. The bill would be addressed to her, too.

Serena nodded at one of the workers who had collected new grasses of various colors that she was happy with the selection. He started to cart them all off to be used in the arrangement. They also had to refresh the area around the petting zoo after one of the trices had gotten out and two stegosaurs had followed, eating half of the plants.

Owen ate his lunch, a rather tasty looking feta cheese style bagel, something new at Winston's, worked on his tablet, or just watched her work. He asked a few questions about the plants and Serena asked about the scent hunting exercises, whether or not the different dried and fresh samples had worked.

It was a nice afternoon, two friends spending time together.

Serena kept an eye on him, noticed him relaxing, the tension easing, and she nodded to herself as she made quick notes about the latest collection of seed pods from one of the cross-breed plants. She also sent off an email about the rise in weeds in one of the exhibits. While vermin was taken care of by using compies, the weeds were another problem.

"You break so many hearts, Owen Grady," she told him with a warm voice.

He looked at her, a startled expression in his eyes. Serena laughed a little.

"You don't even notice." At his pole-axed look she added, "Not me. I'm not crushing on you, Owen. Don't worry. You had some of the new employees swooning over you, and a few interns and students. Really bad crushes. Not to mention the dinosaurs in the park."

"Say what?"

"You touch them, Owen. Gently. With your mind. Now even more than ever, right?"

"I…"

"I was there right after Rexy Sue flipped a switch and went from indifferent to murderously angry. You should have heard her roar. She would have broken out if not for the implant. That was the only thing that kept her from going at whatever she perceived as a threat."

Owen was silent.

"She might not want an alpha, but she recognized your call. She would listen to you. You would be about the only creature who could walk into that enclosure and come out on the other side without a scratch on him."

"She's not mine," he finally said. "And I doubt I could go in there and out again. She's highly dangerous, extremely territorial and she has eaten humans before. She would do so again without a second of remorse."

"She's not yours. She's not pack. Just by extension." Serena watched him, noticed the fine lines of stress. "I'm not saying you should adopt the whole park. You got your hands full with those four ladies already."

"And I don't intend to break any hearts."

"That's what the good guys always say," she teased.

Not that any woman would be able to compete. Serena wasn't the only one to think like that. She had mentioned it to her friends once and they had agreed. Whoever Owen might be interested in, they would have to be able to be part of the pack, maybe even become part of the bond. No preternatural she knew would be able to remain sane and human in a pack bond like that.

Owen was unique.

If he wanted to be or not.

x XX JW XX x

Owen said his good-byes two hours later.

"Thank you for the brief vacation," he said, a fine smile around his lips.

"Anytime. Take care. Get a real vacation, Owen. You need some time away from this."

The smile turned thin. "We all need one." Then left.

Serena knew he would never leave the island for something as simple as a vacation. She hadn't meant for him to either. Owen just needed to be away from his duties, from well-meaning people.

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Annika almost did a double take when she saw who had walked into her office. Owen Grady, their very own raptor whisperer. He looked rather good for a man who had had his brain scrambled so badly that any other preternatural would have ended up a vegetable in a waking coma. Of course, she knew who he had to thank for that, who they all had to thank for it.

Four lethal killers.

Four velociraptors who had killed to protect their alpha, leaving nothing but blood and death behind. She had seen the bodies and she knew they had been more than pissed. It had been cold, planned murder.

But they had saved this man. His body and, most importantly, his mind. Annika doubted Owen would have made it on his own. It had needed all of them, working together, and all four had had a part. Even without results from various brain scans, Annika had long since realized that it wasn't just Blue who helped Owen. It were all four minds.

"Mr. Grady, what a surprise," she now greeted him. "What brings you here?"

The color had returned to his face, he looked healthy and whole, with fading scars showing of his ordeal. The rapid healing was just another mystery of this man.

"I'd like to ask you a favor," he said slowly.

Annika frowned slightly. Grady looked far from comfortable, but the determination she had seen in him every single day was bright and sharp. It was a resolution she had admired in him, had seen in how he worked, acted, interacted. It was a trait that was both human and not so human. Owen might not realize it, but he showed a lot of raptor in his daily behavior, just like the raptors were more human than any other animal in the park could ever be.

"What do you need?" she asked carefully.

He pushed his hands into the pockets of his khakis, shoulders hunching a little. Then he blew out a breath.

"You said you did a brain scan when they brought me in, right?"

Annika nodded.

"I want you to do another one."

Annika blinked, feeling slightly pole-axed. Owen was the last person she would expect to come here, on his own, voluntarily, without any blackmail involved, and ask something like that. He was a private man and he didn't want his records to show just what he was capable of, what his brain was like.

"Why?" she asked.

"I think I need to know what's happening to me."

Annika frowned. "Care to explain? You're almost phobic of getting scanned."

Grady tensed for a second, then relaxed himself almost by force. "You said I lit up like a Christmas Tree, right?"

She nodded.

"I think I broke the barrier and blew right past it, right into everything there is on this island, every mind of every dinosaur, and I went through them like a tidal wave. I didn't plan on doing it, didn't want it, but it was the only way to keep the Sornas from tearing me apart."

Okay.

Annika felt her mind whirl with the cold facts delivered in such a no-nonsense manner.

Oh-kay…

Well, damn!

"I shattered, Annika, completely. Into all minds. Not like a fracture, when I just ride along the pack's minds. It was… all of it. I was… It felt like I had become just small pieces, everywhere and nowhere at all. I passed all barriers, used fear and pain to push back into minds I couldn't touch like my own pack's. And I broke apart."

Her hands clenched into fists as the realization as to what Grady had done settled in.

Not just that.

What he had done and survived! Sanity intact! Annika didn't need a book to know that this was unheard of. Preternaturals weren't very open in their abilities to non-preternatural people. They didn't volunteer for research purposes and they didn't do lengthy interviews about what they could do.

But she had been around and she had gotten to know those who worked at Jurassic World. Annika Svensson understood what Owen was telling her only too well.

"Owen," she heard herself say, voice alien to her own ears. "That's… how…?" She was really searching for words.

"Blue brought me back. She's my anchor. She and the pack are my safety net."

She had never heard him talk so openly, so honestly, about his most intimate connection to the raptors.

"Without them I'd be a vegetable, pieces of me in every dinosaur on Nublar."

"And you can still… touch all?" she whispered.

"No. Well, yes and no. they were always in the back of my mind, a hum, with a few standing out. I was completely open for a few days and without the girls I'd probably be a gibbering wreck in one of your rooms. But I'm good. Like before."

But the threshold had been pushed back. Way back. The barriers were gone, and while Owen's shields protected him, and he had four guardians, reaching past the barriers would be so much easier now.

"I want you to scan my brain, Annika. I want to know."

"There are no references for this," she said, shaking her head. "The few preternaturals on file are nowhere near your abilities!"

"You scanned me before. You have those reference materials. You said before I'm not scanning like a regular talented. I want to know, Annika."

She drummed her fingers onto her desk. This was something she had wanted to do ever since realizing what this man had done. Now he was offering, voluntarily, and she felt apprehensive.

"Okay," Svensson finally said. "And I promise it won't be on the general server. Like everything concerning you and the pack, it'll be kept separately."

"Thank you." He smiled thinly.

"Don't thank me just yet. I'll set up an appointment and we'll have a closer look at that brain of yours."

Owen nodded. He looked rather relived.

"And one day it might even be interesting to see what your pack's fMRIs would look like."

Grady laughed, sounding truly amused. "Good luck on keeping all your fingers."

She smiled and watched him leave. When the door closed after him, Annika Svensson blew out a breath.

"Jävla helvete," she whispered, shaking her head.

tbc...