Chapter 18

Owen almost ran right past Charlie.

His instinct had been to aim for the stairs and to head up to the catwalk. But as he neared the paddock, he'd realized that the screeching sounded close by and he'd chanced a look into the holding pen, expecting to find Charlie standing at the inner gate.

What he hadn't expected was to find Charlie strapped into her harness, looking exhausted, but still screeching mightily and struggling to get out.

He skidded to a halt in shock. Who would've put Charlie in the harness? Had Barry left her there earlier? No, Owen immediately dismissed that thought. There's no way Barry would've forgotten about that — he would've said something.

Owen immediately entered the holding pen and hurried over to Charlie's side. Her cries quieted for a moment when he reached out, gently placing his hand on her neck, as if she was surprised that she'd finally got someone's attention. But it lasted barely a moment, before she screeched again, continuing to struggle against the harness.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he soothed, bringing his other hand up and resting it on her snout. "You gotta calm down, Charlie." The raptor continued to screech. "C'mon, girl. Work with me here." He started to gently stroke her neck, keeping his other hand resting heavy against her snout, letting her feel his presence.

"Is she hurt?"

Owen almost jumped, startled. He hadn't realized that Barry had followed him into the holding pen. Actually, he hadn't realized that anyone had followed his sprint across the field.

"She looks injured."

He swung his head to the left to find Zia standing on his other side. He then looked around wildly, suddenly expecting the holding pen to be full of people, but no one else was in there. He did, however, discover that Claire and Austin were standing on the outside of the pen, looking in.

"We need to calm her down," Zia said. "It looks like she's rubbed her skin raw from fighting against the harness. It's hard to tell."

"I'm trying," Owen said, turning his attention back to Charlie. The raptor wasn't any calmer than before. "Charlie!" He tried raising his voice, barking out her name like a command, hoping to snap the raptor out of it, but it didn't work. Letting out a sigh, he slowly trailed his fingers down her snout, lowering his voice, "It's okay, Charlie." Charlie stopped fighting, instead bumping her head up against his hand. "I bet you want out of this harness, right?" he asked. At the word 'harness' Charlie finally paused in her screeching, cocking her head to the side, as much as she could. "Is that it? You want out?" Owen asked again, feeling relieved that she seemed a bit calmer. He stepped back from the raptor, heading over to the controls.

"Wait, I need to check her over," Zia said, but Owen ignored her.

"We don't know how long she's been cooped up in here. She's not going to calm down while she's still restrained," he said, pressing the button to open the harness. "Once she's calm, you can check her over."

The moment the harness let her free, Charlie darted back into the paddock before racing out of sight.

"Where do you think she's going?" Barry asked.

"Wait a second…" Owen paused, staring through the inner gate as a new realization came over him. "Where are Blue and Echo?"

He didn't wait for anyone to answer before he bolted out of the holding pen and up the stairs.

As he ran along the catwalk, his thoughts were racing. What did Charlie know? Were Blue and Echo injured somewhere in the paddock? He wished it wasn't so dark. While the perimeter fencing around the whole encampment had lights on the top of each post, they weren't enough to flood the area. Not even close. Instead, Owen found himself staring into the paddock below as he ran, trying desperately to separate out shadows from what he thought might be raptors.

Owen called out for Charlie. He could hear her. She was crashing through the forested area and calling out for her siblings. He could feel his own heart pounding, his blood feeling like ice in his veins, as he realized that Charlie's voice was still the only one he heard.

He was so focused on trying to follow the sounds from Charlie that he almost barreled straight into Barry, who had apparently followed him up to the catwalk before circling the paddock in the opposite direction.

"Where is she?" Barry asked, still scanning the paddock.

"Where are any of them?" Owen replied, the panic setting in.

o-o-o

Claire watched as Owen raced out of the paddock and up the stairs to the catwalk above, her mind whirling. When Lowery had first said there was something wrong on Sorna, Claire had assumed it was going to be that someone had ended up hurt. That maybe the baby raptors had attacked someone else. When Lowey had said they'd lost contact with the island, she'd figured they'd rush over here just to find out that a storm had blown through and knocked out power or something. That whatever it was would be pretty minor.

And even when they'd arrived and confirmed that the boat at the docks wasn't one of theirs she'd still been able to convince herself that it was probably just that the boat had taken a wrong turn. Finding everyone tied up had forced her to finally grasp the severity of what was going on.

However, even as Zia had brought up the possibility of people stealing embryos or the baby dinosaurs, it had never crossed Claire's mind that someone would attempt to do the same with the raptors. Not the fully grown ones, anyway. But the absolute panic that had been on Owen's face as he'd ran first, out of the building and now, up the stairs to the catwalk, had sent a chill down her spine. She wasn't sure what he was going to find — his girls dead or missing — and she wasn't sure which would be the worse outcome.

Austin's radio crackled to life and Claire watched as he pulled it out. She couldn't make out what was being said, but she knew it had to do with her when he replied: "I'll let her know." He turned to her as he clipped the radio back onto his belt. "Dr. Wu is insisting on getting over to the lab. My men have already checked it out and have said it's in pretty bad shape. They wanted to know if they should let Dr. Wu go over or…?" He left the question hanging.

Claire looked back through the holding pen into the paddock but there was nothing to see. She could hear Charlie screeching from within and Owen calling out Charlie's name from above. She wanted to stay there. What if Blue or Echo were injured or worse? What if Owen needed her?

"Go," Zia told her, and Claire realized she'd forgotten that the other woman was there. "I'm going to be hanging out here until I can get a look at Charlie's injuries. I'll come get you if–" Zia looked away, unable to meet Claire's gaze, but Claire knew that the two women were on the same wavelength.

"Thanks," Claire said gratefully. She turned back to Austin. "Tell them I'll meet them at the lab, but to not let him go in until I get there."

"I'll take you over," Austin said, just as his radio crackled to life again. She waited as he answered, again trying to make out what was being said. She caught the word raptor and docks. "Be right there," Austin replied into his radio before looking back at her, apologetically. "I can't take you. They've found a raptor at the docks."

"Alive?" Claire asked, fearing the worst. And then, also fearing that if it was alive, that whoever had found it was hurt.

"Alive," he confirmed. "Drugged, we think."

Well, that explained why she wasn't currently hearing screaming, or another raptor screeching in response to Charlie's calls. She knew she should feel concerned for the raptors for being drugged, but she mostly just felt relief. Relief that they'd found them, and relief that it didn't seem like someone was about to get hurt.

"What kind of drugs?" Zia interrupted.

"Don't know yet," Austin said, before pointing up at the catwalk. "I need to get Owen or Barry."

"Go," Claire said. "I'll be fine. I'm just heading straight across the field. I don't need an escort." She pointed at the lab. The building, like the others the ACU had already gone through, was easy to see, now that all the lights had been turned on.

"Actually, I'll go with you," Zia said before Austin could reply. "I need to grab supplies for Charlie. And if we've got drugged raptors…"

"Raptor," Austin corrected, and both looked over at him. "They said raptor, not raptors."

"Then where's…?" Claire asked, trailing off as her gaze darted about the area before looking back into the paddock. Did that mean there could be a loose raptor on the island? Suddenly she wasn't feeling quite so safe standing out there.

Austin seemed to be thinking the same thing. "You need to get inside. Until we've finished our sweep, I don't want anyone roaming around." He looked over at Zia. "That goes for you, too."

"Sure," Claire agreed, looking tentatively over at the lab and feeling a bit concerned about walking across the field.

Austin looked between the two of them and then over at the lab. "I need to get to the docks, but…"

"We'll be fine," Zia reassured him. "We'll go straight there. I work with all the animals here, they know me." Austin looked unconvinced. "And I was in the marines. Straight there and inside. Promise."

"Okay," Austin finally nodded. "I'll tell them you're on your way."

Claire could hear Austin speaking into the radio as he headed up the paddock steps, but she didn't wait around to hear what he said. She glanced through the inner gate again, but she still couldn't see either Charlie or Owen. Fighting her instinct to follow after Austin, to be at Owen's side for the latest news, she turned away from the paddock and started across the field with Zia. She wasn't sure the ACU would be able to keep Henry from entering so she wanted to get there first.

"I guess you had good timing," Zia said as they hurried across the field.

"Huh?" Claire looked over at Zia. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if the raptor down at the dock is drugged, that means whoever was here was probably trying to steal it. So you guys must have interrupted them before they could load it."

"Do you think–?" Claire asked, her gaze darting in the direction of the docks, worry creasing her brow.

"I…" Zia sighed. "I hope not. And, until they've done a complete sweep, let's assume the third one is still here."

"Yeah," Claire agreed, not feeling all that reassured, especially when she noted that Zia didn't look or sound all that confident in what she was saying.

The raptors weren't very small, after all. It seemed unlikely that one would be out and just roaming around, not with Charlie having been locked up and another one drugged. Claire hoped Lowery had managed to get the coast guard out and that they'd be able to intercept the boat.

As she and Zia approached the lab, Claire could see Henry waiting impatiently, two ACU standing in front of the door, preventing him from entering. Claire took a deep breath. She'd deal with the lab first, and then worry about the raptors once they knew for sure if one was gone.

o-o-o

"Owen."

Owen and Barry turned to see who was calling them, and Owen was surprised to see Austin on the catwalk, jogging towards them. When Aust realized he had their attention, he stopped, and waved for them to follow him.

"What is it?" Owen asked, turning back to look into the paddock without waiting for a reply. Where were the raptors?

"Apparently there's a raptor down at the docks," Austin shouted back. "I need one of you to come with me. They're not sure what to do."

Austin's words got Owen's attention and he looked back at the ACU Commander. "Alive?" He almost choked on the word, not sure he actually wanted to know the answer.

"Yes, but they think it's drug–" Austin started to reply when a screech from below interrupted him.

All three of them looked down into the paddock to see that Charlie was now standing below, staring up at them. Owen's heart dropped when he realized that she was still alone.

Fuck.

He looked between Charlie and Austin, unsure what to do.

"Go," Barry told him. "I'll stay with Charlie."

"Are you sure?" Owen asked, still looking down at the raptor, who had started chittering up at them, as though she knew that something was up.

Barry nodded, shooing him away, saying, "Can you ask Zia to bring me some rats?"

Owen hesitated for barely a second more, before turning back towards Austin and starting to run along the catwalk again. Was this night ever going to end?

As they flew down the stairs, he looked for Zia to pass along Barry's request, but he couldn't see her. Or Claire, for that matter. Frowning, he was about to stop, to try to search for them, but he realized that Austin hadn't even paused and was already jogging towards the docks. Owen decided that if Austin wasn't concerned by Claire and Zia's disappearance, then Austin must know where they'd gone. Probably over to one of the buildings, he assumed, as he jogged after the ACU Commander, the thought actually relaxing him slightly. If Claire was inside, she'd be safe.

As they approached the docks, Owen could see the two ACU men who'd been sent out to do recon standing with their guns drawn about 10 yards back from one of the ATVs he remembered spotting from the helicopter. If he hadn't been told that they'd found a raptor, he'd have wondered what they were doing, as it looked like they were just aiming at the ATV.

Slowing to a stop beside the two men, he realized that the raptor they'd found was lying on the trailer hitched to the back of the ATV, still mostly covered by a tarp. The only part visible was part of the snout sticking out. Owen was surprised they'd been able to identify it as a raptor, before realizing that they'd probably just assumed it was, the raptors being the only large dinosaurs currently on Sorna (well, at least in the contained area, as far as they knew).

Inching past the men, intent on getting closer to the trailer, Owen strained to make out which raptor it was. As he slowly approached the trailer, he could feel the ACU men's stances stiffening, their concern rising as they tightened their grips on their guns.

"Careful," Austin said softly from behind him.

Nearing the trailer, Owen was relieved that he could hear the raptor breathing. He reached out, pulling back the tarp. Echo. Well, at least that made two raptors accounted for. Although, if Echo was all the way here at the docks, and Charlie was apparently alone in the paddock…

Owen stood up, his gaze swinging in a wide arc. He was pretty sure there had been another ATV at the dock. Spotting it, he took a step in its direction, but one of the men spoke up.

"We already checked, it's empty."

At that, Owen let his gaze wander the area again, wondering if there was somewhere else Blue could be, but he kept coming up empty. He finally stopped, looking out towards the end of the docks at the ocean beyond. Did that mean…?

o-o-o

The moment they'd stepped into the lab building, Claire had realized that Austin's comment that it was in "bad shape" was a huge understatement. There was broken glass everywhere. Glass, and various liquids spilled about that she didn't know what they were from and that made her immediately nervous. There was a sharp, chemical scent in the air, that had made Claire wonder what she might be breathing in, and if she should be wearing some sort of protection. However, neither Henry nor Zia had seemed concerned by the smell, and so she'd taken her cue from them. As they had crunched their way gingerly into the building, Claire had meant to watch Henry as she had been interested in what his reaction would be, but she had been too flabbergasted to even glance at him. Instead, her gaze had swung from side to side.

"Holy shit," Zia had commented from behind her, and Claire had found herself just nodding in agreement.

They had barely begun to take stock of the damage when the ACU had gotten a request from Austin for Zia to head to the docks first, instead of back to the paddock. Zia had had to cobble together supplies, as her normal med kit had been opened and turned upside down. Eventually, she and one of the ACU had left, leaving the other ACU — Matt — behind.

"We should probably approach this room by room," Claire had suggested and Henry had agreed.

They had decided to cycle through the rooms clockwise and had started with one of the more generic lab rooms. Equipment had been turned over, vials smashed and paper strewn about, but it was hard to get a good idea of what was actually damaged, versus just… disrupted. The next room had been the one with the incubators, and Henry had immediately noted that eggs were missing. There were also at least two that were lying on the floor, cracked. One looked to be mostly sitting in a puddle of goo and Henry had indicated it was from their most recent batch. At the other, Claire had been able to see that there was evidence of… well, life. It looked kind of alien, not that she'd looked for long, not once she'd realized what it was.

"I don't know why they took eggs," Henry had said, shaking his head as he looked around the room. "They're hard enough to keep alive in here, in the controlled environment. They're just going to be dead weight."

Matt had snickered at the comment, and Claire had looked over at him in surprise, the man having mostly stayed silent, hovering behind them as they moved about the rooms.

"Sorry," Matt said, although he wasn't looking all that apologetic. "It's just… dead weights. Considering they'll be actually, you know, dead."

Henry had rolled his eyes, but Claire had bit back her own laugh. Sometimes gallows humour was the only way to get through stuff.

From the incubator room, they had checked out Henry's office (trashed, but nothing apparently missing), the cold storage room with the embryos (there was a lot smashed on the ground and Henry had said he couldn't tell if anything had been taken, or if it was just destroyed) and the conference room (which didn't looked disturbed, but, then again, there wasn't really anything to the room). They had skipped Zia's vet room, as they'd already been in when she'd grabbed her supplies and were now in the final room, which was a more specialized lab with a lot of the larger equipment and some fume hoods. Like the first room, the floor and countertops were covered in shards of glass from broken test tubes and beakers and who knew what else.

"What a disaster," Henry said, standing in the middle of the room, looking around. "This is going to take forever to clean up."

"Do you think it's salvageable?" Claire asked.

"Salvageable?" Henry repeated pensvely, glancing at her. "Hmm, I think so. Until we really start to clean up, it's hard to know what's missing, what's repairable, and what's destroyed. And based on the mess in here… that's going to take a few days, at least."

"You've got a catalogue of what should be here, right?" she asked, thinking back to the meticulous records he had kept at the lab on Nublar. "A list we can check against?"

"Everything's tracked," he nodded. "But I don't know how helpful that is. We'll be able to tell you what's not here, but I don't know that we're going to be able to necessarily identify whether it's been taken versus it has just been destroyed."

Claire looked down at all the glass shards covering the floor. "I just don't get why anyone would come all the way here to destroy samples. How does that help them?"

"Maybe it's some environmental group," Henry offered up. "Wanting to free the animals or something. Maybe they were just trying to disrupt our research and thought this was the best way to do so."

"If that was the case, you'd think they'd have just opened the doors to the raptor paddock. Not tried to take them or put Charlie in her harness," Claire said, wandering slowly about the room. "Seems more likely it's someone who wants the research."

"If they want the research, doesn't destroying it seem like an odd choice?" Matt asked. "Like you said, how does this help them?"

"Maybe they think it'll delay us," Henry answered. "But, there's nothing here that we don't have copies of elsewhere. So while it'll work, sort of, it won't keep us back for long. It's going to be cleaning up the lab and getting everything recalibrated that will take the most time. Even still… taking the samples, while it'd be a great leg up to some of our competitors, it's not enough on its own. It's not just the genetic material that matters, but our whole process."

While Claire didn't normally think of Henry as someone who would offer reassurances or comfort — in fact, she was pretty sure those concepts wouldn't even cross his mind — just hearing that the lab would be able to get back up and running with only a slight delay was comforting. It was also a relief to know that it wasn't enough for the research to get out there, as it was only a piece of the solution.

"You always think corporate espionage and stuff are things that only happen in books," Matt said. "Guess they're not."

o-o-o

Getting Echo back into the cage had been tougher than Owen had expected. He'd kind of thought it'd be easy, since she was already loaded onto the trailer and all they needed to do was drive it back. But, when they'd got back to the paddock Charlie had immediately come sprinting over to the inside gate, staring out at them and chirping and chittering loudly.

They had wanted to place Echo inside the small paddock area to wake up, but to do that, they needed Charlie to move out of the way. First, they had tried to get her into her harness, but she'd just given them a "what the hell?" look and refused to even budge in that direction. Then they had tried to convince her to go into the larger paddock section, so they could close off the smaller one. But no matter how many rats and other treats they had tried as lures, she had refused to move more than a few steps, always keeping an eye on Echo through the gates.

There had been a long discussion as to whether they could just move Echo into the holding pen and have her wake up there instead. However, they'd had to rule that out when Zia had logically pointed out that someone had to be in the holding pen in order to open the inner gate, which meant someone would have to be in there, with the gate open, while both the raptors were awake, and that was immediately a no-go.

It was Hoskins who had suggested that they just tranq Charlie. After all, it would give Zia a chance to look over Charlie's injuries. With Charlie refusing to go near the harnesses, Hoskins had pointed out that it was the only way Zia would be able to examine her anyway. Owen had hated the logic behind Hoskins's suggestion. And, after everything that had happened that night, he really hadn't wanted to tranq Charlie, fearing it would traumatize her even more. Out of all the raptors, she was the one who reacted the worst whenever it happened.

Of course, if they didn't tranq Charlie, that left them with only one option — going into the paddock with her. And not just one of them, but a few of them. Because it would take at least four guys to lift Echo into the paddock.

If it had been Blue, and not Charlie, Owen knew he would've thought the idea was possible and given it actual consideration. But, Charlie wasn't Blue, and she was already worked up and anxious. He didn't trust her to listen to him in that state.

In the end, he'd reluctantly agreed to having her tranqed. Owen probably would've spent more time trying to come up with another option, or even trying to lure Charlie to the other paddock area, but they didn't know what Echo had been given, and they didn't know when she'd wake up. Everyone had been operating under a sense of urgency.

While Zia had dosed a rat for Charlie, Owen, Barry and a couple of the ACU men had lifted Echo into the holding pen, so that she was at least contained in case she woke up before Charlie was out. Owen knew Barry was concerned that Charlie wouldn't take the rat (he'd already given her a few), but she seemed to be enjoying the extra attention and snacks, and she happily gobbled it down.

She started swaying almost immediately from the effects, and the moment she hit the ground, Owen hit the button to get the paddock door open. Zia had given Charlie the smallest dose she felt comfortable doing, and so they needed to be fast. They had lifted Echo a few feet into the area, and then Owen and Barry had helped Zia check over Charlie's wounds while the two ACU men stood on guard. Zia had put some salve on some of the abrasions but said that overall Charlie looked fine, and probably wouldn't need any additional treatment, much to Owen's relief.

Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when they'd finally closed the inner paddock gate. Owen actually closed the one to the larger area as well while he was at it, wanting to keep both the raptors nearby so they could observe them once they woke.

Now that it was over though, he turned back to Austin, who had remained outside, alternating between chatting with Hoskins and on his radio with the rest of his team.

"Have they found Blue?" Owen asked, although he knew what the answer was going to be. If they had, there's no way that Austin would be holding back.

"No, sorry," Austin shook his head. "We've completed our sweep. Any chance she could've got out?" He pointed past the paddock in the direction of the perimeter fence.

"Only if someone opened the gates," Barry answered, having joined them. "But I checked earlier, and they were closed. So, if they did, someone took the time to only let Blue out."

"Which doesn't make sense, considering we found Echo down at the dock," Austin said, and the rest of them nodded their agreement, their faces grim as everyone knew where he was going with that.

"Odd that they were only trying to take the fully grown raptors when there's a whole nursery of babies they could've taken," Zia said. "And not all those are carnivores, so less teeth to deal with." She shrugged, before looking briefly back into the paddock behind her. "I should go check to see how they're doing. Now's probably the best time while Echo and Charlie are still out." She looked over at Austin. "Am I good to go on my own now? Or do I need an escort?"

Owen could tell she was holding in an eye roll as she asked about the escort, but he didn't wait to hear Austin's answer, instead turning back to the raptors. He leaned against the gate, his gaze moving back and forth between his two sleeping girls, while his mind whirled over where Blue could be and what could be happening to her.

"Guess it's a good thing we've got the new batch," Hoskins suddenly commented from beside him. "I mean, now that you're down to only two."

Owen felt his jaw drop, as he looked over at Hoskins in shock. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"It could be worse," Hoskins shrugged.

"How the hell are you this calm? Blue is missing. Do you get that? She's been kidnapped. Charlie's injured and traumatized. And who knows what condition Echo will be in when she wakes up. And all you can say is 'good thing we've got another batch?' "

It was taking all of Owen's strength to not punch the guy. How could he be so relaxed over everything? Nothing about this was good or okay.

"What do you want me to do?" Hoskins asked defensively.

"Find her!" Owen demanded. "Why aren't you on the phone or calling in choppers or something?"

"Who am I supposed to call? The coast guard's already been notified. Who else is there?"

"Aren't you concerned at all? I don't understand why you're not as mad as I am," Owen fumed. "Why aren't you pissed off?"

"What does it help if I get mad?" Hoskins countered. "There's nothing I can do right now. At the moment, all we can do is wait. Wait for these two to wake up. And wait for news from the coast guard."

Owen knew that Hoskins was right. He knew that. But it didn't make him any less angry over everything. And it never seemed to help the situation when Hoskins was the voice of reason. Unsure how to react to Hoskins and certain that if he continued to stand next to the man he was probably going to lose it, Owen just pointed vaguely up at the catwalk. "I'm just going to…"

He didn't wait for Hoskins to reply before he headed for the stairs. Owen did hope that the man would be smart enough not to follow.

o-o-o

Claire turned her phone off and let out a long sigh. This night was not going anywhere close to her plans. So much for all that time she'd spent preparing. Fuck. Could nothing ever go her way?

She knew she was overexaggerating. It was not like her life was all that bad. And she'd had plenty of good moments over the past few years, even if the Indominus and Indoraptors and now this were all particularly bad ones. Still, it was hard to focus on the balance at times like this, especially after having just hung up with Simon who wanted her back ASAP.

God, every time something happened, it felt like the fallout got bigger and bigger. While InGen's move to Sorna was not exactly a secret, it was also not widely shared information. Whoever had been to the island had been well-prepared for what was there. Too well-prepared, really. To be able to take out the security that quickly and easily? To have had the time to pretty methodically destroy the labs? To have attempted to kidnap the raptors (and, it seemed, succeeded with one)?

As she had filled Simon in, she had shared her biggest concern, which was one he had, unfortunately, agreed with her on. It seemed more and more likely that this was an inside job. That whoever had been there had to have been supplied some information, at the very least, by someone working on the island.

However, that didn't really narrow their pool of suspects. It wasn't just those who had moved more permanently to the island who would be in a position to share. There were also the boat operators, the helicopter pilots, and almost the entire ACU and security force, since they had started rotating them between the two islands. And then there were all the contractors they'd temporarily hired (and therefore hadn't been put through the same rigorous background checks as their full time employees), like the construction workers for all the building that had been done over the past year. Just the thought of having to comb through everyone who had ever worked on (or visited) Sorna to try to narrow down the possibilities was exhausting.

While she hadn't expected today to be exactly easy (grand openings and the such never were when you were part of the group making it happen, not just someone getting to celebrate it), she had been looking forward to having Owen back home for a couple of days. So much for that.

Turning around, Claire looked for Matt, who was still hanging out in the lab building with her and Henry.

"Matt," she said, approaching him. He looked up at her, a silent question in his eyes. "Can you let Austin know that I need to head back to Nublar ASAP? I have one last thing to do, but then I can meet him and whoever else needs to go back at the helicopter."

"Sure," Matt nodded, unhooking his radio. He stopped her before she could leave the building. "Let me just double check that the area's considered clear now."

Claire held back her eye roll, but she allowed him to go through required protocols. It didn't take long before he waved her to go ahead. She looked back briefly at Henry, but he was busy muttering to himself as he sorted through the piles of paper that were on a desk and she decided to not bother him. It would be more helpful to her if he stayed focused on trying to catalogue what was missing versus destroyed.

Once she left the building, she headed straight across the field towards the raptor paddock. She was pretty confident Owen would still be over there. On her way, she passed Zia who was headed in the opposite direction, back towards the lab. She gave her a quick wave of acknowledgement, but neither of them stopped, both intent on their destinations.

As she neared the paddock, Claire could see Hoskins was chatting with Barry, but she couldn't immediately see Owen. Barry looked over at her as she approached and pointed up at the catwalk before she could even ask. She nodded her thanks as she switched direction.

Owen wasn't hard to find as he hadn't moved far. The raptors, after all, were both close to the inner gate which was near the top of the stairs. Owen was standing by the railing, staring down at the two. Claire couldn't make out his expression between the low light and his position.

She approached him cautiously, feeling a bit like she was approaching a wild animal. As she got closer, she could see that he had a white-knuckled grip on the railing and she could feel the tension radiating off of him. It just made what she was about to do feel that much worse.

"Owen?" she asked softly, reaching out and gently resting a hand against his arm when he didn't react at first. She felt him tense even further for a second, before he glanced in her direction. She caught the almost hint of a smile when he saw her, the most he seemed capable of in the moment, before his face immediately fell back into a frown. He let go of the railing and turned towards her.

"Hey," he said, his voice equally soft.

"I'm so sorry," Claire said, stepping forward and immediately wrapping her arms around him. "I heard that there's no sign of Blue."

"She's probably on that goddamn boat," Owen replied, his voice a bit muffled as he rested his head on her shoulder, face turned in towards her neck. She just pulled him closer, running her hands soothingly up and down his back. They stood there for a long moment before he sighed and pulled back a bit, standing up a bit straighter so he could look back down into the paddock. "I know I should be grateful that they only got one, but… it's Blue, Claire. She's my…"

"I know." She pulled him back towards her. "I know."

This time it was Claire who drew back first, even though she hated to do it. But she knew she didn't have a lot of time. "I talked with Simon. The coast guard is out searching, but they haven't been able to find the boat yet. And… well, with it being dark, they aren't particularly hopeful. Not overnight, anyway. They'll keep searching, of course. And Simon's going to sort out pilots so we can send out some planes to help at first light, but…" She winced before looking away, really wishing she had better news to offer him.

"But the ocean's huge," Owen finished off her sentence. "And we don't know where they were headed. They could be going anywhere, in any direction."

"Yeah," she nodded. "But we're not giving up. Even if we can't find the boat, it'll be hard to keep a raptor of Blue's size hidden. Someone's bound to say something. There'll be chatter. We're going to find her, Owen. I promise."

"Don't!" His reply was sharp and he took a step away from her as he spoke. "Don't say that. Don't make promises you can't keep."

"I–"

"I know you want to," he told her. "And I know you mean it when you say you're going to keep searching but, Claire…" His voice broke and he looked away, looking again down at Charlie and Echo's unconscious forms. "I hope we find her. I just… I need to try to stay realistic about this. Animal traffickers are good. And whoever was here? They seemed to know exactly what they were doing. I don't think they were amateurs."

"Me either," she agreed. Claire debated telling him about her and Simon's suspicions that someone from Sorna had to be involved before deciding not to. She didn't want to add to his worries and making him suspicious of everyone around him was not going to help. He had enough to think about already. Instead, she focused on what she'd actually gone there to tell him. "I have to head back."

"Now?" The resignation in Owen's voice almost broke her. She felt like she was the straw that was about to break the camel's back.

Claire's expression turned apologetic.

"Simon wants me back to take over the coordination there. Henry's cataloguing the damage to the lab, and, well, there's really not much else I can do from here."

"Do you have to?" He wasn't looking at her when he said it, his voice almost childlike in tone. And in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to stay on Sorna and never leave.

There was a cough from the top of the stairs and Claire turned to see Barry standing there. He looked at her apologetically. "Austin said the helicopter will be ready to leave in about five minutes. Hoskins is already heading over to it."

"Thanks, Barry," Claire said. She glanced over at Owen who hadn't even turned around at the interruption before looking back at Barry. He gave her a sympathetic smile before turning and heading back down the steps. She turned back to Owen, choosing to stand beside him looking down at the raptors. She wasn't really sure what she could say, nothing felt adequate, given the circumstances, so she stayed silent.

She was surprised when he eventually broke it. "You know, I had been really looking forward to getting you out of that dress tonight."

Claire startled at the words. She wasn't sure what she'd expected him to say, but that wasn't it. She glanced over at him and saw that he was looking at her now, his gaze slightly suggestive as he gave her a once over, even though she had quickly changed into slacks and a blouse earlier. She knew he was trying to distract himself from everything that had happened, and she was happy to play along.

"Trust me, I was looking forward to that," she said, turning to face him. She let her hand trail down his arm briefly as he turned fully towards her, before reaching for his tie, and tugging on it, pulling him to her. As if everything wasn't upside down enough, he was still (mostly) dressed up for their night out, although the tie had been tugged loose and at some point he'd lost his jacket somewhere. "I was looking forward to getting you out of this suit, too."

"The world really doesn't want us to be together, does it?" Owen asked, as he reached up, tucking a strand of hair that had come loose from her updo back behind her ear, before resting his hand on the back of her neck.

"It really doesn't," she agreed. Claire let go of his tie, resting her hand on top of it, over his heart. She could feel it pounding below her palm. She stared at her hand for a long moment. "God, what a mess this all is. All I wanted was a couple of days with you."

"Same," he said. His hand moved forward, cupping her cheek and tilting her head up. He leaned down, brushing his lips lightly against hers. She surged forward, grabbing his shirt to pull him towards her as she did, deepening the kiss. When they finally pulled back, Owen pressed a kiss to her temple. "We need to get you to the helicopter. It's been more than five minutes."

"They won't leave without me," Claire said. She knew she was right, but she also knew she needed to get going. She looked back down into the paddock at the raptors and Owen followed her gaze.

"C'mon, I'll walk you over," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and leading her away. "I've got a few minutes."

At the bottom of the stairs, Claire broke away from Owen briefly to give Barry a hug, before returning back to Owen's side. They had barely taken a few steps away from the paddock when they saw Zia running across the field towards them, looking frantic.

"Oh no, what now?" Claire said, already worried. What other bad news could there possibly be?

"They're gone," Zia said the moment she was in earshot.

"Who's gone?" Claire asked. She could still see the helicopter.

"The baby dinosaurs," Zia said hurriedly. "Well, not all of them. I guess that's why the security guys who did the check earlier didn't say anything. They didn't know how many were supposed to be in there. They saw some and thought everything was good."

"What ones are gone?" Owen asked and Claire reached for his hand. She really hoped that it wasn't going to be the ones she thought, but she also just knew she was going to be wrong.

"Some of the Compys, both Apatosauruses, and all of the raptors."


Poor Charlie. And Owen. And Blue. And all the babies. :(

Next few chapters are some of my favourite because they're my favourite type of writing. :P Any guesses?

I wish I had some encouraging words on how to get this bizarre timeline we seem stuck in, but... I'm just so tired. So... just please stay home, stay away from others, wash your hands and don't touch your face. And if you can figure out a trick to doing the last one, let me know.