Chapter 5

"I told you, I told you, not to go in there!" Claire worked hard to keep her voice calm. To not let herself start yelling, even though she really wanted to. From the way Owen flinched backwards at her words, she was actually starting to think that her steady tone was more impactful. That he'd be able to brush aside her words if she was yelling. "And look what happened."

"We needed confirmation she was in there," Owen shot back, standing up straighter.

Claire refused to be intimidated by him. He could try to tower over her all he wanted, but she was not going to let him hold any power over her. "And we had it. The tracker placed her in the paddock. She would've moved, eventually. We could've waited."

"No. We couldn't," Owen disagreed. "Until we saw her, we had no idea if she was not moving because she was hiding or if she was injured. We didn't know what was going on."

"And what did we learn that was worth an injured veterinarian? What was worth that?" Claire demanded. "I take the safety of my employees very seriously, Mr. Grady. I don't make decisions lightly."

"Well, Ms. Dearing, we learned a lot," Owen replied, although the force behind his tone was dropping, and he settled back on his heels. "Did your people know that she could camouflage? Did they? Because if they had, that information would've made all the difference. The only reason that Molly got injured was because we couldn't see her. We were looking for a white dinosaur."

Claire deflated too, her anger having run its course. The camouflaging was something they hadn't known. "No, but–"

"But nothing," Owen shook his head forcefully. "I'm not happy Molly got hurt. I'm pissed she's hurt. But that information? I don't know how else you were ever going to discover it. That dinosaur… she's intelligent. Very intelligent. And I want to know what the fuck they made her from."

"Her base genome–" Claire started tiredly.

"Screw her base genome. T. rex's can't camouflage. T. rex's can't hide from thermal detection. It's everything else that matters."

"Claire." A new voice entered the mix.

Claire turned, grateful for the interruption, as Masrani entered her office.

"Oh, Mr. Grady, I didn't know you were here," Masrani looked surprised at Owen's presence and Claire was glad that she hadn't been yelling. That her boss hadn't walked in on her and Owen in the midst of a screaming match. Masrani turned back to Claire. "Claire, I was just coming by because I heard there was an incident with the Indominus."

"Yes," Claire nodded, refusing to look in Owen's direction as she responded. "Mr. Grady and a few others decided to disregard my order that no one was to enter the paddock. Molly Holt, a veterinarian, was injured in the resulting… encounter. She's been flown over to San Jose for treatment."

"I see," Masrani nodded, looking thoughtful.

"I need to know what that dinosaur is made of," Owen stated, before Claire could continue. "That… thing is displaying very unusual behaviour. Behaviour that I've never heard of or seen in a dinosaur."

"Oh?" Masrani looked delighted at the comment, even though it was making Claire's stomach churn. "What kind of behaviour?"

"Her ability to hide from thermal detection and to camouflage, to start. Her ability to do strategic thinking is surprising. All of this is going to make it very difficult to secure that paddock," Owen informed him. "And I still haven't had a good look at her agility and movement. I've started a list of fixes that will need to be made if you want to be able to ever consider opening it to guests."

"Excellent," Masrani clapped his hands. "We will get right on that list, won't we, Claire?"

Claire had to restrain the eye roll that wanted to escape and she nodded her agreement. "Of course, Mr. Masrani. Right away."

"However," Owen continued, "that list is only the start. Like I said, we need to know what she's made of. We need additional observations as to her behaviour."

"Well, you're definitely welcome to make additional observations. In fact, I'd like to request that you do," Masrani said. "But I will have to see about releasing information on her genetic makeup. It's proprietary for a reason. She's going to be the crown jewel of this place. I just know it."

"I can spend a bit more time there," Owen agreed, "but that's not going to be enough. For her intelligence level? She needs more than just a couple of handlers. She's going to need her own behaviourist. Someone who can focus all their time on her. Her behaviour–the aggression that she displays? That's not normal. And that's not going to make for a successful exhibit."

"This was just one incident," Masrani tried to dismiss it. "You can't write her off from one incident."

"This wasn't the first," Claire interrupted, trying to remind Masrani that she had listed out these concerns earlier. That Owen wasn't the first to raise them. "I've been telling you about the reports I've received. This wasn't even the first injury." Claire tried to ignore the surprised look that crossed Owen's face at that news, followed almost immediately by a scowl. It's not that she had been trying to hide the information from him. She just hadn't wanted to pre-bias him before he gave his own opinion. At least, that was her justification.

"Yes, yes," Masrani flicked his hand, as if brushing her comments off. "There's always hurdles to overcome whenever we introduce a new asset. And we wanted this one to be bigger. Most of this was inevitable."

"She needs a behaviourist," Owen repeated, looking between the two, before settling his gaze on Claire. Claire didn't really know what he expected her to do. There was only so much power she had, and Mr. Masrani was able to override her decisions anyway.

"I will look into it," Claire agreed, meeting Owen's gaze head on.

After a moment, Owen nodded, before moving towards the door. He paused in the doorway to look back, sending one final comment in their direction. "This incident? It's not going to be the last. It's going to happen again. And if she's as smart as I think she is? It's only going to get worse."

o-o-o

He didn't need to go back to the paddock. Not after he'd left earlier that day. But Owen found himself asking for a lift out there instead of home. In all of the chaos of the day, he kept forgetting that he'd left his motorcycle at his lot, leaving him at the mercy of others to get around the island. He was relying on Barry to be a good friend and drive him home later.

Owen was starting to think there must be a full moon or something going on. How could it possibly be that it had only been a few hours ago that he'd been thrilled by the fact that the raptors had finally followed his instructions? From that high to the new trainee falling into the paddock, and then the second high of the day, escaping that encounter uninjured. In hindsight, it probably had been tempting fate to enter the Indominus paddock after everything. And that experience, while leading to another adrenaline rush, had not finished with a high.

He had mainly decided to go back to the raptors paddock because he didn't want to be home alone with his thoughts. Owen didn't want to keep hearing Molly's screams or seeing all the blood. He wanted a distraction. And, after interacting with the Indominus, something was tugging him towards the raptors. Maybe it was wanting to be reminded that not all the carnivorous dinosaurs on the island were just biding their time to take a chunk out of him.

He'd forgotten about Hoskins. He realized that mistake the moment he got dropped off and saw Hoskins beelining towards him, walking with his odd swagger. Owen was never sure if Hoskins' walk was something he'd adopted or if he was hiding pain and trying to cover up a limp. While curious, he'd never cared enough to actually ask.

"Well?" Hoskins asked, as soon he was within a few feet.

"Well what?" Owen replied, continuing past him, heading for the staircase to the catwalk. He could see Barry up above.

"What happened?" Hoskins hurried to keep up with him and Owen just increased his pace. When he didn't answer, Hoskins followed up. "At Paddock 11?"

"How do you know where I was?" Owen paused, momentarily confused. He'd been picked up by Claire at his bungalow. Was Hoskins keeping tabs on him? His pause gave Hoskins a chance to catch up, and the two headed up the stairs in tandem.

"Are you kidding? Someone gets injured enough at a paddock to require a medevac? It was all over the radios."

"I wasn't injured," Owen was still confused. Reaching the top of the stairs, he headed around the outside edge, Hoskins still trailing beside him.

"Your name got mentioned."

Owen looked over at him, and Hoskins just shrugged.

"Owen!"

He looked up to see that Barry had spotted him and was heading towards them.

"I'm glad you weren't hurt," Barry said, clapping him on the back, before looking at him critically. "You weren't, right?"

"I'm fine," Owen shrugged his friend's concern away. Actually, now that he thought about it, he was feeling kind of tired. A heavy exhaustion that seemed to be creeping out of nowhere. Maybe he should have got dropped off at home.

"How's Molly?" Barry asked, his concern genuine.

"She'll be okay," Owen said.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So?" Hoskins interrupted, his lack of concern for Molly apparent. "What happened?"

"A dinosaur attacked," Owen just replied dryly. What did it matter? It had nothing to do with IBRIS and what they were doing there.

"Why were you there?" Hoskins persisted.

"Ms. Dearing asked me to check out the paddock and provide an assessment," Owen just said tiredly.

"Really?" Hoskins surprised tone had Owen looking over at him and rolling his eyes.

"Yes, really."

"I've heard she's a mean son of a bitch," Hoskins told them, his eyes darting about like he was sharing a secret.

"Yeah, well," Owen shrugged, not entirely sure if Hoskins was referring to Claire or the Indominus. He decided to assume, or hope, that it was the Indominus, and it's not like he could argue against that, not after it had attacked them. Besides, he had no allegiance to that dinosaur, or whatever it was. And, thinking over its actions that afternoon, he was starting to really wonder if the label "dinosaur" fit. He turned to Barry, wanting to change the subject. "How have they been this afternoon?"

"You're really not going to say anything else?" Hoskins asked, interrupting again.

"What else is there to say?" Owen replied. "It's not like the Indominus is my concern. However," he looked down into the paddock, spying Charlie half hidden at the edge of the jungle, "these raptors are."

"They've been mostly staying out of sight," Barry informed Owen, also looking into the paddock. "Well, Charlie and Delta have. Blue spent some time pacing around near the gate looking pissed off. And then Echo came over with the pig looking all proud and Blue pounced. She wasn't about to let Echo have that pig to herself. The other two joined in and we had to give them a bunch of rats to back off and calm down."

"Hm," Owen hummed, not entirely surprised, scanning the paddock looking for the others.

"We need to talk about this morning," Hoskins butted back in. "About what happened."

"I'll write up a report," Owen said, although not without frustration.

"I'm not concerned about the report," Hoskins waved it off, "but we need to capitalize on these results."

"We already talked about this," Owen reminded him.

"These animals can replace thousands of boots on the ground," Hoskins insisted. "Just think, how many lives would that save? War is a part of nature. Look around, Owen," Hoskins was leaning on the railing, looking into the paddock below. "Every living thing in this jungle is trying to murder the other. Mother Nature's way of testing her creations. Refining the pecking order. War is a struggle. Struggle breeds greatness."

"Do you hear yourself when you talk?" Owen asked, moving away from Hoskins.

"We're sitting on a goldmine here, and Masrani is using it to stock a petting zoo."

"He doesn't make weapons," Owen called over his shoulder, making his way back down the stairs. Coming here was a mistake.

"You think that the eighth richest man in the world is only into oil, telecom, and family fun parks? He's so diversified, he doesn't even know what he owns."

"How long has InGen been practicing this pitch?" Owen paused, turning to look at Hoskins who had followed him.

"Since the day we hired you out of the Navy. You knew the endgame."

There was some truth to that, and Owen couldn't deny it. He'd known that they weren't hiring him just for his animal behaviour knowledge. He'd never worked with dinosaurs. Hell, he'd only worked with marine animals before this. He knew that meant there was something else he had that they wanted. And the only thing that made sense, the only thing that seemed to connect the dots, was his knowledge of training animals for military use. That didn't mean he liked it. Or wanted to participate in it.

For a while now, he'd been able to push the thoughts aside. It was hard to look at baby dinosaurs playing with rubber balls and tripping over their own feet and think of them as a potential army. And even as they got bigger, as he was forced out of the cage by their own size and strength, he still didn't want to acknowledge that piece. He stayed focused on the goal of just assessing their intelligence, pretending that it had no connection to anything military. When Hoskins wasn't around, it was pretty easy to push it aside.

"They're not ready," Owen stated. "I know what you think you saw today, but that was a fluke. That was the first time they've ever completed that task."

"We need to test them," Hoskins prodded. "Find out what they're capable of. That's the whole goal of the research, isn't it?"

"One step at a time," Owen sighed. "I'm not even sure I can repeat today's success."

"They're smart," Hoskins nodded, like he was in on a secret. "They're working to outsmart you. They don't like these toy games. They're ready for something bigger."

"Oh?"

"A field test. Put them through a real scent drill. No pig trapped in a cage they know well."

"You want to let them loose?" Owen wasn't sure if he was more surprised or more irritated with Hoskins suggestion. "Are you crazy?"

"We'll never really know their intelligence while we keep them caged," Hoskins replied, looking over his shoulder at the paddock behind him. "Don't tell me you never did field tests with your other animals."

"Never this soon," Owen said. He had done field tests. And he knew there was going to be a day where they'd have to actually consider it for the raptors. There was only ever going to be so much they could learn with them in the paddock. But today wasn't that day.

"It's going to happen," Hoskins told him. "Maybe not today. But it's going to."

Owen didn't say anything, and just watched as Hoskins finally turned on his heel, strutting off. Once Hoskins was a few steps away, Owen looked around for Barry. Coming here had definitely been a bad idea.

o-o-o

Owen had gone back and forth over his idea all morning. Dealing with the Indominus wasn't his responsibility, after all. He'd given them his feedback. He'd said what he wanted to say. But Owen couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. How had the dinosaur outsmarted them all?

It was affecting his work. He couldn't concentrate, and the raptors were taking advantage of his distracted state to ignore everything he asked of them, looking up at him innocently whenever he clued back in. It was making the previous day's success feel even more like a fluke. Which was just putting him more on edge. A vicious cycle.

"Maybe you need some more time off," Barry had suggested, coming to stand beside him on the catwalk, the two observing the raptors milling about below.

"I wasn't even here for most of yesterday," Owen had protested. But Barry had reminded him that it was not like his afternoon had been spent relaxing at home. He'd dealt with the Indominus.

And so, Owen had found himself agreeing with Barry that he should maybe take a bit more time. Get himself together so he could actually pay attention. Barry could easily take over the raptor training for the rest of the day.

He'd left the paddock intent on going home and hanging out in his hammock, but when he'd reached the crossroads, he'd found himself turning left instead of right, and heading towards the control building.

Which was why he was now walking into the main control room only to be stopped by a security guard.

"I need to see a badge," the guard said, moving to stand in front of him.

Owen looked over the guard's shoulder to see who was in the room. He should've known he wouldn't be able to just waltz right in. However, when the elevator had taken him down to the control room level without requiring him to swipe his ID, he'd thought he might be in the clear.

"Claire," Owen called out, spotting the redhead. She was standing with what looked like two… kids? That was unexpected. But she turned towards him when she heard her name, and he could almost see her eye roll even from the distance. His own eyes widened briefly when, with a quick scan, he realized she was dressed casually. He quickly hid his reaction, but filed away the mental image.

"Mr. Grady. What are you doing here?" Claire asked, tight-lipped as she walked over. Owen wasn't surprised that she appeared unimpressed by his arrival. It's not like he'd given her a heads up, and he was betting she wasn't fond of surprises, not with how tight a reign she liked to keep on everything.

"I was hoping to look over the security footage from yesterday," Owen stated, as he let his gaze roam the room. He'd never been down there before and was taking it all in.

"It's fine," Claire told the guard, who stepped back, and Owen followed after her, when she immediately moved away, heading back to where she had been.

"So, can I see it?" Owen asked.

"Just give me a moment," Claire told him, coming to a stop by the two kids. Owen watched, interested, as she turned towards them. "Zach, Gray, I've got to help Mr. Grady here with something. It'll just take a few minutes, and then I'm all yours for the rest of the day. I thought we could maybe go by the labs next."

"Sure, Aunt Claire," the younger one nodded, while the older just looked bored. Aunt Claire. That was… surprising. Owen didn't even know that she had a sibling.

"Did something happen with the raptors?"

Owen turned from the kids to see a guy he recognized, Lowery, sitting at the screens beside them. They'd run into each other at Dave and Busters before. Lowery had turned towards them and was looking at Owen curiously, having never seen him in the control room before.

"No," Owen shook his head. "I'm hoping to view the footage–"

"Raptors? I didn't know there were raptors here," the younger kid latched onto the word, his gaze darting between his aunt and Owen. "I only read about the T. rex, Apatosaurus, Triceratops, Gallimimus, Compy's, Ankylosaur–"

"Oh shut up," the older one nudged him, interrupting the spiel, and almost causing his brother to fall. Owen watched, a bit surprised when Claire didn't do anything, and he realized she looked completely out of her element.

"Hey," the younger brother cried out.

"Zach," Claire finally said, turning to the older one. "Leave Gray alone." She then tossed a glare at Lowery before turning to Gray. "The raptors are not public information. They're a research project."

"A secret?" For the first time, Zach looked interested in the conversation.

Owen hid his grin as he watched Claire cringe. He was feeling for her, a bit. The project was a secret, and now her nephews knew about it.

"Confidential," Claire tried to redirect Zach away from the word secret.

"Also known as a secret," Zach replied, grinning at his aunt.

"Yeah," Claire sighed. "You're not suppose to know about it."

"Can we see them?" Gray asked, butting back into the conversation. Owen was surprised to see that Gray was directing the question at him, and not Claire.

"Uh," Owen looked over at Claire, not sure what he was supposed to say. He was pretty sure the answer was probably 'no,' which, of course, made him want to say 'yes.' When she didn't reply immediately, he decided to answer for her. "Sure."

"What?" Owen looked over to find Claire glaring at him. "Mr. Grady, can I have a minute?" Claire grabbed his arm, tugging him away from the others before he could say anything. Owen caught Lowery and Zach trying to cover their laughs as Claire dragged him away.

"The boys can't go see the raptors," Claire hissed, once they were a few feet away.

"Why not?"

"Aren't you the one always telling everyone they're not an attraction?"

Owen winced, because she had a point. He'd had that argument with Hoskins and others numerous times. "If you didn't want them to go, why didn't you say anything?"

"Because–" Claire huffed, looking back over at the others for a moment before bringing her gaze back to him. Owen watched as her shoulders sagged, and he was surprised by the honesty of her next words. "Because I didn't want to have to be the uncool aunt. I wanted you to say no for me."

"Oh." He was feeling a little ashamed by his response now, because he'd known he was supposed to say no. Not for that reason, but because, after all, the raptors were not an attraction and the project was confidential.

"You're not even going to apologize?" Claire looked a little put out by his response, or lack of a response.

"Nope," Owen shrugged, going all in. "If you want to be the cool aunt, bring them by. It's not like they're going to forget the raptors exist."

"You want kids to come out to your paddock?" Claire was looking at him skeptically now, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Want?" Owen looked over at the kids, taking in Gray's eager expression. "I can't promise the raptors will follow orders and do what I ask. But," he shrugged again. "It's been a weird couple of days. Maybe a change to their routine would be good."

"Oh-kay," Claire drew the word out slowly. She straightened her shoulders, turning back to her nephews and putting on a smile. As they headed back towards the boys, Owen barely caught her mumbled words, "Karen is going to kill me."

o-o-o

Claire was anxiously drumming her fingers against the steering wheel as she drove the boys out to the raptor paddock a couple of hours later. They had wanted to go right away, but it was almost lunch time, and Owen had gone to the control room with a specific task in mind. Claire didn't think it was appropriate for Zach and Gray to see the footage, and she knew that Owen and Lowery understood what she was getting at, when she had talked her way around what footage, without ever naming the Indominus or what had actually happened. Lowery had agreed to help Owen, and Claire had insisted to Zach and Gray that they should go eat lunch first.

Owen had helped her convince the boys by telling them the paddock wasn't near any of the main Jurassic World attractions and so if they didn't eat now, it'd be a while before they could. After they had reluctantly nodded, he'd agreed with Claire to meet them out there at 1:30.

Which was why Claire was now listening as Gray chatted on and on about everything he knew about raptors, which, considering he'd been doing so for over twenty minutes now, turned out to be a lot. Over lunch, she'd attempted to stress just how important it was that they understood that what they were about to see was confidential. That they couldn't tell anyone. And no pictures. She'd wanted to tell them they couldn't even tell their parents, but she knew that wouldn't go over well. Well, Zach would probably go for it. From what she'd been able to figure out from her morning with the two (and she hadn't figured out much), he was well within the midst of his "I hate my parents" teenage rebellion phase. But Gray was definitely too honest of a kid to hide the visit from his parents. Which did mean that she was going to have to make sure she talked to Karen first. Not something she was looking forward to.

At least they seemed excited about the raptors.

The morning hadn't gone well. It wasn't that it had gone badly, it was just that nothing she had thought to do with them seemed interesting or cool enough. The visit to the control room had flopped until Owen showed up and the raptors got mentioned. So much for behind the scenes access being "cool." Instead, she had been getting the distinct feeling that, even though her sister wanted her to be spending time with them, Zach and Gray would've been happier exploring the park on their own.

As it was, she was kind of hoping that the raptor visit was going to give her cover to do some work. That she could just pawn the boys off on Owen for a while and check her email. It was making her antsy to not know what was going on. When she'd been in the control room, her eyes had kept straying to the large screen, trying to absorb all the information and pick up on any problems that might have been happening. She'd had questions she wanted to ask Lowery and Vivian but had been forced to hold back. Claire was sure she was supposed to feel a bit ashamed about her behaviour. Like it was supposed to be one of those eye-opening moments where you realize how you need to change. But she didn't. She already knew she was a workaholic and she didn't care.

Entering the raptor paddock area, Claire pulled her car off to the side and killed the engine. Before she could even get a word out, Zach and Gray were tumbling out of the car, and she quickly followed after them.

"Zach, Gray," Claire called them back. "Hold up. This place is not meant for visitors. You can't just go wandering off. Let's find Mr. Grady and see if he's ready."

Obediently, the two boys followed after her as she headed towards the paddock. She could see a few people up on the catwalk, but she couldn't see Owen anywhere. She was just about to stop someone to ask, when she heard the sound of a motorcycle, and the three turned, watching Owen as he parked the motorcycle near Claire's car, before gracefully hoping off and heading in their direction.

"Claire, Zach, Gray," Owen greeted them as he came to a stop, hands resting casually on his hips.

"Mr. Grady," Claire nodded back.

"Owen," he reminded her.

She knew that. In fact, she found herself calling him that in her head, but she couldn't bring herself to call him that to his face. It was too… familiar. Like they were friends. Or a reminder of their horrible, terrible, no good, very bad date. It was easier to push that aside if she thought of him as Mr. Grady and focused on their professional relationship.

"Can we see them now?" Gray interrupted, his eagerness coming through in his inability to stand still, craning his neck as he looked around them and all over.

"Let me grab some food for them first," Owen laughed at the boys eagerness. "And then we'll head up. Wait here." Owen quickly hurried over to the small building off to the side, calling over his shoulder. "Two minutes."

Claire stood with her nephews, trying to resist the urge to pull out her phone. She knew they were getting some odd looks. Or, more accurately, that she was getting some odd looks. It wasn't common for her to be out visiting the paddock. But, she knew it was more about the fact that she was there with the boys. This was going to start another round of rumours.

Less than two minutes later, Owen was on his way back, waving for them to follow him. He was carrying a metal bucket, that, when Claire got close, she realized was full of dead rats. For once her iron stomach threatened to fail her, she could feel her face going green.

"Are those rats?" Zach asked, peering into the bucket.

"Yup," Owen held the bucket out so they could all get a better look. Claire couldn't help the involuntary step back she took, not wanting to get closer to the dead creatures. She knew Owen noticed, because he immediately looked in her direction, a bit of a smirk crossing his face.

"Cool," Zach seemed impressed.

"That doesn't look like much food," Gray said, looking from the bucket to Owen. "I thought raptors were big. Don't they need more than that?"

"They do," Owen agreed. "These are just treats. We use them as rewards for training exercises. They get a bigger meal at the end of the day."

"Can we feed them?" Zach asked, as they approached the metal staircase that led up to the catwalk.

"Raptors are pack animals. Everything they do and how they respond has to do with the pack hierarchy. Only myself and Barry," Owen pointed up the catwalk, where Claire saw Barry looking down at them, "are allowed to feed them. We need to maintain our positions of dominance."

"Oh," Zach looked a little disappointed, but Gray was hanging onto every word. Claire could see he'd already developed a clear case of hero worship.

"Okay, ground rules," Owen said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. "At the top of the stairs is a catwalk system. It runs around the outer edge of the paddock and also crosses over the center in an 'x.' You are to stay on the outer edges. No hanging over the railings. No leaning on the railings. No jumping. No running. No screaming." Owen paused, looking carefully at them, and Claire nodded her agreement, watching the boys do the same. "The raptors are smart. Really smart. Sometimes they feel like playing along, sometimes they don't. It's been a busy couple of days out here, so I'm just going to use the treats to help lure them out. They often like to hide in the jungle, out of sight."

"No tricks?" Claire goaded, raising an eyebrow when he looked over at her.

"They don't do 'tricks,'" Owen looked offended. "They're not circus monkeys."

"What are you training them to do?" Gray asked. "Are they as smart as dolphins? How fast can they run?"

Owen laughed, before motioning them towards the stairs. "Let's see. I'd say smarter than dolphins. They can run at least 40 miles per hour..."

Claire tuned out the rest of the conversation, following sedately behind the others up the steps. Looking down at the grated stairs and catwalk, she was glad she'd chosen a simple pair of Converse instead of her normal heels. She'd been trying to go for a more "touristy" look, with her jeans and t-shirt. But it was just making her feel more out of place. So much for trying to fit in. She'd found herself feeling self-conscious in the control room, and knew it was only her glare that had stopped a comment from Lowery, having seen how his eyes had widened in surprise when he'd caught a glimpse of her outfit. She couldn't wait for the day to be over.

At the top of the stairs, she hung back at the edge of the catwalk, surreptitiously pulling out her phone as Owen engaged with the boys, the three looking down into the paddock, watching for the raptors. She barely heard Owen describing the four raptors, or paid any attention to the chatter when he tossed the rats in. Dinosaurs were dinosaurs. They came in different shapes and sizes, just like people.

Eventually, Owen led the way back down the stairs, saying they were going to put the raptors in their harnesses for a quick check up, and they'd be able to get a better look at them. She slid the phone back into her pocket, and was startled when Owen sidled up next to her, saying in a low voice, "You know, if you want to be the 'cool' aunt, it would help if you actually participated."

"I think that ship has sailed," Claire sighed. "They're happier just hanging out with you."

"That's not true," Owen said, resting a hand on her arm, stopping her. "If you had been paying attention, you would've seen the number of times they looked over at you. If you want to get to know them, you actually have to interact with them."

"How did you–" Claire cut herself off, annoyed that he seemed to already understand her relationship with her nephews better than she did.

"It's all about mutual respect, remember?" Owen said, before backing away quickly as Claire glared at him.

She did try to do what he said, keeping her phone in her pocket as she stood with her nephews on the outside of the cage, looking in at the raptors in their harnesses. She listened as Gray asked question after question and Owen patiently answered them all. She shared a groan with Zach over some of Owen's less than funny quips. After a while, she cut off Gray's question, insisting that they'd taken up enough of Mr. Grady's time, and that they should head back to main Jurassic World area, so that he could get back to work.

They left Owen with the raptors and headed back towards her car. Claire was shocked when Zach turned to her and said, "Your boyfriend is a badass."

She didn't know what to say. And before she could come up with anything, Gray was already going off about everything he'd learned and all the new questions he had. As she climbed into her car, she looked back towards the paddock and saw Owen looking over at her. He gave her a wave, and she responded quickly in kind, before shutting the door.

Well, Owen was lucky and survived his first encounter with the Indominus. Poor Molly though. Never a good idea to enter Paddock 11. :) And Claire got to spend some time with her nephews, although she didn't get the benefit of a dinosaur chase to bond them.