I'm baaaccckkk! :) Did you miss me? I've missed all of you. I spent most of April heads down working on this, and then have been very slowly editing my way through it. First draft is *almost* complete, but I've decided to start sharing to keep up my motivation.

As always, I owe a ton of gratitude to Nadin and Elise for being my never-ending cheerleaders through this process.

Prologue

Claire stared at the Triceratops, wondering why every time it opened its mouth, it would vibrate and make a sound like her phone. She knew that was wrong. Triceratops don't vibrate. And they definitely don't sound like phones.

As she was trying to figure out what was going on, suddenly she felt a nudge against her side, and she looked down to see that a baby Apatosaurus had wandered over and was head-butting her. When it saw it had her attention, it opened its mouth to speak. However, unlike the Triceratops, it didn't buzz or ring. Instead it spoke. In English. "Aren't you going to get that?" it asked.

Claire blinked. And then blinked rapidly a few more times. What was going on?

The Apatosaurus head-butted her again. "If you don't answer it, I will…"

She glanced back over at the Triceratops, just as it let out another ring.

"Seriously, Claire. I know you don't want me answering your phone, but if you don't make it shut up…" The comment was attached to a more vicious headbutt, one that finally made Claire gasp awake.

Taking in the dark bedroom around, so different from what she'd been looking at moments earlier, it hit her: she'd been dreaming. She wasn't standing next to a Triceratops and it wasn't actually ringing or buzzing. Nor was an Apatasaurus headbutting her. Or talking. It was just a dream.

"C'mon, Claire, it's too early for all that noise," the voice from her dream spoke again, although it sounded a lot more muffled and gruff now, and it was followed by another nudge into her side.

But this time, as she rolled over, she realized that it was Owen she had heard, and the "headbutting" had been him nudging her with his elbow, trying to get her to wake up and do something about her ringing phone. He had buried his head under his pillow as he tried to drown the sound out, muffling his comments.

It took another ring of her phone before she fully got her bearings and was able to roll back over and grab it off the nightstand.

"Hello?" she answered, as she sat up, already pushing the covers down. A quick glance at the clock on the nightstand showed that it was 3:27 am. Whoever was phoning, and whatever they were phoning about, was definitely not going to be good news. Claire slipped out of bed, already hunting for her clothes, trying to remember what she still had out at Owen's trailer.

"Uh huh… they did what?" she almost screeched out the question in response to the information she was receiving. "No, no. No, don't wake him. I'm on my way. I'll be there in 20... no, make that 10 minutes." She had the phone squeezed between her shoulder and her ear as she searched through the drawer Owen had given her a week ago, the one that she'd barely started to store stuff in, thankfully finding a pair of clean underwear and pulling them out and slipping them on. "Just… don't do anything. Wait for me."

As soon as she got an affirmative answer, she hung up her phone so she could concentrate on finishing getting dressed. She pulled on her pants and a blouse before hunting around for socks, annoyed to realize that there weren't any clean ones in her drawer.

"Here."

When she looked up, she saw Owen had got out of bed and was now standing beside her, holding out a pair of socks.

"I did some laundry earlier but hadn't gotten around to folding things yet," he said, pointing to the filled laundry basket in the corner. "Sorry."

"Thanks," she said, accepting the socks and giving him a quick kiss.

"What happened this time?" he asked, following as she left the small bedroom area to find her shoes.

"They thought one of the Indominus was sick and called out a vet. And when the vet went in…" Claire trailed off, heaving a heavy sigh. "Well, let's just say the only thing I'm happy about is that it doesn't sound like we need to use the helicopter."

"You should really end that project," Owen said, standing by the door, watching as she got her stuff together. "And you know I don't say that lightly. I never want to suggest putting any of these dinosaurs down. But those two…"

Claire glanced towards him. "You've never even seen them," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but I've heard enough from you," he countered.

"Which I shouldn't even be telling you," she grumbled back. "You're not even supposed to know what they are."

"I should get at least some perks to being your boyfriend," he replied, stepping forward and swooping down to give her a kiss when she looked up at him.

"Dating me just so you can get early access to some of the new attractions? That seems low, even for you," she teased as she kissed him back. "Besides, I'm pretty sure there are some other benefits that you do get." She trailed her hand down his bare chest, grinning as she felt his abdominal muscles flex in response.

"I don't count being woken up at 3:30 in the morning one of them," he said, his hands gripping her waist and pulling her closer to him.

"You didn't have to get up," Claire reminded him. "You could've stayed in bed." She looked around, wondering where she'd left her car keys.

"And miss the chance to say goodbye?" he asked.

She was distracted from her key hunt when he kissed her again, this time deeper than before. Claire leaned into the kiss, letting herself get temporarily swept up in it. But the moment she felt him shift, stepping forward, she pulled back.

"I really do have to go," she apologized.

"Yeah, I know," he sighed. "And I should go back to bed."

"I just need…" Claire looked around for her keys again.

"Here." Once again, Owen was holding what she needed, and she accepted them. He held tight until she gave him another peck, before finally letting go.

Opening the door, Claire took a deep breath of the fresh air. There were definitely many benefits to spending the night out at Owen's lot instead of her place, and him being there was only one of them.

The lot itself was a bigger benefit than she'd initially realized when she'd first gone out there. But, most of all, considering how many middle of the night calls she seemed to be getting these days about the Indominuses, the location really couldn't be beat for convenience of getting to Paddock 11.

"Will I see you in a bit?" Owen asked from behind her.

"Probably not," she admitted, glancing down at the time on her phone. She really needed to get going to make her 10 minute deadline. "I doubt it'll be over that quickly."

"It never is," he grumbled.

"Dinner, tonight?" she offered as a peace offering.

"Yeah, sure. Where do you want to eat?"

"I could bring something out here?" she suggested. Claire watched as he looked away from her for a long moment, before meeting her gaze again. She found herself involuntarily tensing, unsure what he was about to say.

"Seven?" Owen asked.

"That should work," she nodded, her shoulders relaxing. "I'll see you later."

Claire stepped forward to give him a final kiss before she started down the few porch steps and across his lot towards her car. Even though they'd been dating for a few months now, she found she still could barely resist kissing him, touching him, when given the opportunity.

"Thanks for doing laundry," she called back over her shoulder as she reached her car and climbed in. As she was pulling the door shut behind her, she could hear him chuckling.

Thanks for reading. Prologue was short (I know) but rest of the chapters will be much closer to my normal length. There's 12 chapters (not including this) and possibly an epilogue.

I can still hardly believe it's been over a year that we've been dealing with covid now. Really thought life would be back to mostly normal by now. :( Canada's 3rd wave was definitely our worst, but we're steadily improving (finally). I got my first vaccine dose this past weekend, and am feeling just the slightest bit more relaxed over it all. Hope everyone is still hanging in there.

Don't forget to subscribe to get notified of updates (going to follow my Thursday evening posting schedule). And drop me a comment with any guesses about what's going to happen and how you're doing. :)