Ahh, I realize I've been so completely remiss in acknowledging all the support I've been receiving in writing this fic. Elise-Collier and Nadin have both been along for the whole journey from when I started with a "hey, so I was thinking" comment through me sketching out the plan, and then beta reading and providing a lot of helpful suggestions and edits. They're also the ones to thank for a lot of the ideas behind the Clawen content - they're constantly pushing me on that side. Both are amazing writers with great JW collections of stories, so if you haven't yet go check them out, you won't regret it.

Note - This chapter is really close to the movie, but is necessary for building up relationships. I didn't want to skip over the content completely. And I did tweak some of tehe dialogue and hopefully added enough other details to keep it interesting.

Chapter 3

When Claire finally left the control room she allowed herself a chance to chuckle over Lowery's comments. "Pepsi-saurus or Tostito-don." She had to admit, they were clever. And, she knew if the companies had their way, that's exactly what these new hybrids would end up being named. She may not be a fan of the name "Indominus rex" but at least it wasn't named after junk food. It would be a brand that Jurassic World would own from the very start; something that the PR people had been practically jumping with glee about.

As she approached the door to the helipad, she paused briefly to regain her composure. Even though Claire had been working at Jurassic world for almost a decade now, and had climbed her way steadily up the ladder, she still felt inadequate around Mr. Masrani. She knew she was good at her job, that she had more than proved her worth, but she didn't always get the feeling that Mr. Masrani saw or acknowledged that.

Climbing into the helicopter, she was surprised that she didn't see Mr. Masrani at first. Not until she heard her name.

"Claire," Masrani said, turning from the pilot seat to look back at her.

Oh god. He was going to fly her there? How necessary was it to take the helicopter? She pasted on a smile. "Mr. Masrani. You're flying. That's… new."

"I got my license," Mr. Masrani said cheerfully, turning back towards the controls.

"Ahem."

The second voice had Claire's gaze jumping over to the co-pilot seat, where she was relieved to see that another man was sitting there.

"Sorry, two more days," Masrani corrected.

Great. That was even better. He wasn't even a certified pilot and he was going to be flying her. She took some comfort in the presence of the flight instructor. At least she wasn't alone. Someone in the helicopter knew what they were doing.

As the door to the helicopter was shut, Claire quickly pulled on her seatbelt, desperate to follow all safety recommendations, and hoped that they'd make it to the paddock in one piece. She should've told him that she'd meet him there.

"So, how's my park?"

Claire's gaze darted back to the front of the helicopter at the question. At least it was a distraction from the very turbulent take off they were currently undergoing. She generally didn't associate helicopters with bumpy rides. This one was definitely promising to be different, unfortunately.

"Great," Claire nodded, even though she wished he'd stop looking back at her and keep his eyes focused out the front. "We're up 2.5% over last year, although that is a little bit below our expectations. Some of that is likely because of the delay with opening the Indominus paddock."

"I can read all the numbers in the reports," Masrani shook his head. "How's the park actually doing? Are the guests having fun? Are the animals enjoying life?"

"Guest satisfaction continues to remain in the 90s," Claire confirmed. "As for the dinosaurs, we don't have a way of measuring their emotional experience."

"Sure you do. You can see it in their eyes."

Claire barely managed to suppress her groan. Like she had time to be looking each dinosaur in the eyes. Did he not realize how many lived on the island? And how many of them would not be happy to stare her in the eye?

Before she could say anything, Masrani had already moved on, talking about his excitement at visiting the Indominus. Again, she suppressed her gut reaction. For all the excitement he claimed to have, the dinosaur had been born almost 10 months earlier, and this was his first visit. It wasn't like they had been hiding it from him, he just hadn't shown this excitement previously. Not until now, when they were finalizing investors and the opening date was inching ever so much closer.

Not soon enough, in Claire's opinion, they were landing, a bit unsteadily, onto the packed gravel area outside the paddock. She watched in sympathy as the flight instructor stumbled out, heading straight for the bushes. Claire was thankful for her iron stomach. She may be feeling off from the ride, but at least she was unlikely to throw up from it.

Moving steadily away from the helicopter, she led Masrani up the stairs to the viewing area that looked down into the paddock. She knew he was taking in all the construction work that was still on-going. Considering they had wanted to be open already, she was sure it didn't look like a good sign. And it wasn't, not really.

"Asset containment insisted that we build the walls higher," Claire informed him. "It's bigger than we expected."

As they entered the viewing room, she continued. "There have been some… speed bumps. It began to anticipate where the food was coming from and one handler almost lost an arm. That wasn't the only incident, and we had to double the handler salaries after they threatened to quit if I couldn't guarantee their safety."

"She's intelligent then?" Masrani walked closer to the window, looking into the paddock.

"For a dinosaur," Claire nodded, moving towards one of the tablets set up near the windows. She tapped on the screen, trying to use the interface to locate the dinosaur.

"And that?"

Claire looked up to see Masrani pointing to the cracked glass in front of her. "It tried to break the glass."

"I like her spirit."

A rustling sound drew their attention, and they looked back into the paddock, watching as some of the trees swayed back and forth, feeling the ground vibrate from the Indominus' footsteps. Soon enough, they could see the Indominus peeking through the leaves in their direction. She listened as Mr. Masrani gasped in surprise.

"I didn't know it was white."

Well, there was confirmation that he hadn't looked at any of the pictures or documents that had been sent along with the monthly updates.

"Can she see us?" Masrani continued.

"They say it can sense thermal radiation. Like snakes."

"I thought there was a sibling?"

"We bred two, in case one didn't survive infancy." The fact that both had survived was still surprising to Claire. Their success rate was still generally less than 50%, even with all the leaps and bounds they had made over the years. It was still much better than the less than 1% success rate she knew the original Jurassic Park had dealt with.

"Where's the sibling?"

"She ate it." Claire turned, catching Mr. Masrani's startled expression at the comment. Cannibalism was not something they had dealt with at Jurassic World before. And, to be honest, Claire still didn't quite understand the handler's explanation for what had happened that day. While she knew it had been caught on camera, so far, she'd managed to avoid having to actually watch it.

"So," Masrani started, taking a couple of steps back from the glass, and looking around the viewing room cautiously. "The paddock's quite safe, right?"

"We have the best structural engineers in the world," Claire nodded.

"Yeah, so did Hammond."

Claire watched as Mr. Masrani continued to stare into the paddock, although she wasn't sure what he was looking at now, as the Indominus had retreated farther back into the trees.

"There's an American Navy man here. Part of a research program one of my companies is running."

"IBRIS."

"Yes," Masrani nodded, looking over at her in surprise. Claire turned away so he wouldn't see her eye roll. Did he really think she didn't know what was happening at her park? "Maybe you know him. Owen Grady."

"I do," Claire replied tightly, trying not to give anything away. She couldn't very well admit that she wished she didn't.

"His animals often try to escape. They are smart. He has to be smarter."

Claire pretended that she didn't hear the pride that flowed through Mr. Masrani's voice, as she muttered under her breath, "He only thinks he's smarter."

"I want you to bring him in. Let him inspect the paddock."

"We have brought in all our top engineers as well as the handlers who work with the Indominus," Claire protested. "I don't think that Mr. Grady can add anything."

"Maybe he sees something we can't," Masrani shrugs. "It never hurts to get another opinion."

"I'm not sure we can afford more delays," Claire added.

"As John Hammond always said, 'spare no expense,'" Masrani brushed aside her concerns.

"I appreciate that," Claire nodded, "but the realities of operating a theme park–"

"Don't forget why we built this place, Claire," Masrani interrupted. "Jurassic World exists to remind us how very small we are."

Feeling small was definitely something that Claire could relate to. Although it wasn't because of the dinosaurs.

o-o-o

Standing on the catwalk, Owen leaned on the railing, staring into the jungle below. Every time they did this drill, he got his hopes up, and so far, every time the raptors had failed. Although, there was a part of him that was starting to think they were doing it on purpose. That they were messing with him. But when he spent too much time contemplating that, he would find himself going in circles, questioning both his own methods and the raptors' intelligence.

He could hear the pig squealing in fear, and knew that it would be bursting out of the bushes soon. At least this pig was still alive – the last one had barely lasted a couple of minutes, having frozen in fear, and the raptors getting an easy kill. That was another factor he couldn't control – they never knew if the pig would actually race for the exit or if the pig would even find it. Owen didn't like putting pigs through the same drill more than once. Even knowing they were just pigs, there was a part of him that felt like it was cruel in the first place to stick them through this. And to do it a second time, when they would already know what was coming? Not that the pigs ended up any better off – they were on the island to be used for training and, eventually, as food for the dinosaurs.

As the pig burst out into the clearing, Owen stood up, one hand raised, ready for the first appearance of the raptors. As expected, Blue jumped from the bushes first, and Owen quickly called down, "Hold!" To his relief, today Blue decided to listen, skidding to a halt. As her sisters appeared behind her, they followed her lead.

He knew not to let his surprise and relief show, and he kept his expression neutral. "Hey!" he called down again, gaining their attention, as they all looked up towards him. He forced down the grin that wanted to appear. So far, two for two. Things were looking up.

Owen raised his other hand, holding tightly to his clicker. Clicking it once, he commanded, "Eyes on me." Three heads raised in his direction, but he watched as Blue pawed at the ground, looking away. "Blue!" He clicked the clicker again, finally gaining her attention. It took a few more commands to get them to stay still, with their gaze focused on him. But once he was sure he had their attention, he clicked again, and started moving along the catwalk. "And… we're moving!"

He kept the clicker raised in a tight fist, while his gaze watched the raptors, internally grinning as they followed, their gazes locked on him. He reached the center of the catwalk and turned, moving towards the food bucket that was waiting for him. Stopping in front of it, he called down, "Hold!" Owen counted silently to three, before saying, "That's good. That is damn good." He finally allowed the grin to cross his face as he reached into the bucket, pulling out a dead rat.

As he raised the rat, he clicked and said, 'See, Charlie, that's what you get!" And then tossed the rat to the raptor, who leapt up to catch it. He followed up quickly with rats for Echo and Delta. Holding up the last one, he paused, looking down at his beta. "Blue? This one's for you." He tossed it high in the air, watching as Blue snatched it and swallowed it whole.

"Hold!" he commanded again, once they were all done. "Eyes up!" He waited for them all to focus on him, silently counting out a small delay again before releasing them with, "Go!" He lowered the clicker, and watched as the four raptors raced off. Dimly, he could hear cheering coming from around him, and the sound of high fives.

"You finally did it, man."

Owen looked up to see that Barry had joined him on the catwalk. He exchanged grins with his friend. Now that it was done, he could barely believe that they had made it through the whole sequence without any major deflections.

"Owen."

He groaned when he heard Hoskins' voice calling out. He'd forgotten that Hoskins was visiting the paddock today, having managed to put it to the back of his mind. Looking off to the side, he watched Hoskins clapping others on the back as he passed, before approaching them.

"I was starting to think I hired the wrong guys, but damn, you got them eating out of your palm." Hoskins couldn't contain his glee.

Owen tried to brush it off. "You came on a good day. It's not usually a happy ending."

"Is that why you're not sending in your reports?"

"We've been busy," Barry dismissed Hoskins' question.

Owen managed to contain his groan at Hoskins' next line of "Not too busy to cash your paychecks." It was harder to avoid a reaction when Hoskins feinted a punch towards Barry, acting like he was just 'one of the guys.'

"What do you want?" Owen asked.

"A field test," Hoskins went straight to the point.

Owen couldn't prevent his eye roll, so he quickly turned away, moving back along the catwalk. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Barry moving off in the opposite direction.

"Hey, I've just seen they can respond to commands. We need to take the research and get it on its feet," Hoskins insisted, following after Owen.

"These are wild animals, Hoskins. Trust me, you don't want them in the field." Owen continued along the catwalk.

"I just saw a bond. A real bond. Between man and beast," Hoskins said, shifting until he was standing in front of Owen.

"You're in my way," Owen stated.

"Come on. We're the same. We're dogs of war. We know that the military needs to reduce casualties. Some people think that robots are the future," Hoskins said as Owen moved to push past him. It didn't stop Hoskins from continuing. "Look, nature gave us the most effective killing machines 75 million years ago. And now we know they can take orders."

They were finally off the central area of the catwalk, and as they crossed paths with Barry again, Owen passed over the empty rat bucket he was holding.

"Finally we make progress and that's the first thing you say? Make a weapon?" Barry rolled his eyes.

"Shit," Hoskins groaned at the two of them. "Drones can't search tunnels and caves and they're hackable. The minute a real war breaks out, all that fancy tech is going to go dark."

"At least it won't eat them if they forget to feed it," Owen quipped.

"Look. Look at these creatures. They've got millions of years of instinct in their cells. Instinct that we can program. Their loyalty cannot be bought. These guys are gonna run straight into the enemy's teeth and eat them, belt buckle and all."

"And what if they decide they want to be in control?" Barry inquired.

"Well, then we remind them who is. We terminate the rogues. Promote only loyal bloodlines," Hoskins stated matter-of-factly. Owen watched as Barry scoffed, before Barry pushed past them, shaking his head as he walked away. Hoskins turned to Owen, looking confused. "What?"

"You don't get it. You come here and you still don't learn anything about these animals except what you want to know. You made them and now you think you own them," Owen told Hoskins, moving towards the staircase and heading down.

"We do own them. Extinct animals have no rights."

Owen sighed, "They're not extinct anymore." As he reached the bottom of the steps, he picked up his pace, opening the gate to the holding pen between the outside and the interior of the raptor paddock. He quickly shut the gate behind him, locking Hoskins out, trying to get away from him.

"You know this is gonna happen. With or without you boys. Progress always wins," Hoskins called after him.

"Yeah, well maybe progress should lose for once," Owen replied over his shoulder, not bothering to look at Hoskins, as he fiddled with the raptor harnesses, trying to look occupied. He was realizing now he'd just penned himself in, trapped for Hoskins to continue to blather at him.

The sound of a pig squealing barely caught his attention, as it wasn't an unusual sound around the raptor paddock. But the immediate shouts of "Pig loose! Pig loose!" had Owen spinning around, looking into the paddock. He watched as a pig sprinted across the clearing, just in time to see one of the new techs run onto the catwalk to try and catch it. Before he could shout out "No" and stop the guy, Echo had grabbed the pig, causing the man on the catwalk to flip over the railing and fall in. Owen froze for a second, watching as the guy fell and hit the ground with a loud smack. Thankfully, the tech was quickly pushing himself up, scrambling backwards towards Owen and the gate.

Owen sprung for the release button, opening the gate. He scrambled through as soon as there was enough space, throwing himself between the tech and the raptors, eyes darting from the raptors up to the ACU men storming the catwalk, guns held at the ready. He barely heard Barry calling out to him, too focused on raising his fist and stopping the raptors. "Hold!"

He looked up at the ACU men, before repeating the call for them. "Hold your fire. Do not fire. If you put 12 amps in them, they're never gonna trust me again."

Owen switched his gaze back to the raptors. He could feel his senses tunneling, all his energy and focus directed at the raptors, everything else fading away.

He stared directly at Blue, trying to look confident and sure, even if it was only just now sinking in what he'd done. He hadn't been in the same physical space as the raptors in over a year and a half. Once they'd reached his waist, it had been clear that their combined strength was too much for him to safely interact with them face-to-face, and he had transitioned to the catwalk. It had been a decision he had agonized over, knowing that the move was going to interrupt their training, and set them back a few steps. It still felt like he'd never gained the same level of respect he had had when he was in the cage with them. Like they understood the move had been done for his safety, and it just emphasized their own strength.

"Blue, stand down. Stand down. Hey! Hey! What did I just say?" Blue was in the center, which worked out well, as she was the one Owen knew he needed to get under control first. He knew the others would follow Blue's lead. She was the one he had bonded with the most. The only one of them, who as a baby had been concerned for him when he would appear hurt, instead of using the opportunity to attack. He was relying on that empathy now.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Delta snarl, and lifted up his other hand towards her, turning his head briefly to state firmly, "Delta, I see you. Back up!" He knew he couldn't focus on Delta for long, not with Blue still unsettled, and after giving Delta a menacing stare which she took a half step back from, he quickly shifted his gaze back to Blue. He could feel his hands going sweaty, and was grateful there was nothing he was expected to hold on to.

Remembering Charlie, he quickly darted his gaze to the right, only to find that Charlie was closing in. He did not have enough hands for this. "Charlie? Stay right there…" He tried to keep his tone strong and commanding, hoping that the pleading he could hear wasn't apparent to the raptors. When Charlie paused, he quickly said "Good," trusting that she'd recognize and remember the word of praise. What he wouldn't give for a bucket of rats right now.

He hadn't been able to check on the tech's movements as he'd been so focused on the raptors, and had ceased to recognize anything else. Now, tuning back into the world as a whole, Owen realized he could hear Barry calling to him, telling him he needed to get out and he knew that the tech must be safe. It was Owen's turn to try and get out in one piece. He started shifting slightly in the direction of the gate. The moment he moved backwards even an inch, he saw the three raptors creep forward. He was going to have to do this fast. And he was only going to get one shot at it. He really hoped the ACU team would continue to hold off. He hadn't heard the gate close, which meant it must still be almost fully open behind him, and that meant it was more than wide enough for the raptors to also escape. He called over his shoulder. "Close the gate."

"Are you crazy?" Barry shouted.

"Just trust me!" Owen didn't have time for this. Until the gate was low enough to prevent the raptors from escaping, there was nowhere safe for him to move. He listened for the gate, and was just about to ask Barry to close it again, when he finally heard the sound of it. He backed up a few more steps, gaze still focused on the raptors, hands up trying to hold them back, as they continued to move forward with him. He paused, trying to estimate how low the gate was. He couldn't risk looking, which meant he wasn't going to be able to actually know. And if it got too low… he really didn't want to die this way.

Owen took a deep breath and then leapt backwards, rolling through the gate. His timing couldn't have been any better, considering he felt the edges of the gate graze the back of his vest as he tumbled through. He was barely aware that he was inside when there were three loud clangs as the raptors crashed into the gate behind him. He really hopped this wasn't going to end up undoing all the progress they had made earlier.

He could feel something tugging on him, and looked up to see Barry pulling on his arm, and he let Barry help him to his feet. "I'm okay," Owen reassured him. He listened as Barry said something in French, just nodding along, getting the gist of it, even if he didn't understand the phrase. "Yeah," Owen said in agreement.

After a moment, Owen turned towards the young tech. "You're the new guy, right?"

"Yeah."

"You ever wonder why there was a job opening?" Owen watched as the guy paled further. But he wasn't done. What the guy had done was stupid. And it had almost got him and Owen killed. "Hey!" Owen called out sharply, getting the tech's attention again. "Don't ever turn your back to the cage." Owen nodded behind the guy, who looked over his shoulder to see Blue pressed up against the cage, snarling at him.

Owen moved towards the outer gate, letting himself back out, ignoring Hoskins who was still staring in awe. Owen just knew this was not going to help his case that these raptors were not ready for a field test. It would be too easy for Hoskins to spin this as a success.

Next up - the infamous bungalow scene! That was interesting to write because, on reflection, it's not a scene that shows Owen at his best.