I'll be posting only the prologue here until I've finished, then I'll update the rest. But weekly updates will be put on AO3 and Wattpad.
As always, not mine, posted for funsies, not making any money on this.
And thanks to all who are following!
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Lennie leaned back against the sofa in her office, turning the page in Dr. Sattler's new book on paleobotany in the modern age. It went through the potential negative impact of prehistoric plants on the modern environment versus the positive impact on the relatively newly released fauna. After the incident with Mantah Corp, it had become a global debate. Do they release ancient flora with potentially negative impacts on the world as we know it to save revived extinct creatures? One of Dr. Sattler's colleagues had even suggested ancient flora could be the answer to turning around climate change. Save the dinosaurs and save ourselves in one go.
Of course there were detractors, people who had no idea what they were talking about mostly. Some, mostly corporations looking to profit, had suggested that since the animals were extinct they had no rights, that they were property. Claire's Dinosaur Protection Group worked tirelessly to change that image in the public eye. They published photos of baby dinosaurs in the wild and showed the public the consequences of treating the animals like assets rather than living creatures. Some of these photos, taken by an environmentalist named Nick Van Owen, were included in Dr. Sattler's book.
Claire had been instrumental in creating new laws and protections for the dinosaurs. It seemed to have alleviated some of the guilt she had been feeling since Jurassic World. She and Michael were currently trapped in a bidding war with another genetics company, Biosyn, for a contract with the UN to find a way to let the dinosaurs live peacefully in the modern world without destroying it. They had a year to prove what they could do. That meant Claire barely had time to eat, let alone socialize. It had already been four months since the bidding war began, meaning they had been forced to postpone their annual get together. It was the one thing Lennie had to herself, the girls weekend with Claire. But now it would have to wait.
What she would not give to be out there, helping, rather than stuck in the middle of nowhere. Not that she did not love Owen, and not that she would trade their decision to take Catie in for anything. But it had been nearly four years with no job and barely any contact with the outside world. Claire sent messages when she could. But apart from that, Lennie was stuck. She had abandoned her friends and job at the university with little more than an email saying she needed personal leave. And given she was just shy of tenure, that meant she had effectively quit. Dinosaurs were out in the world now, roaming freely, and she was stuck in a cabin in Montana playing housewife to keep Catie safe. Not that she did not want to keep Catie safe. She just…it was difficult to put her finger on it.
With a frustrated sigh, she grabbed her bookmark and put the book down.
Maybe she just needed a nap. Or more coffee.
The door opened downstairs and Owen called out, "Len?"
"Upstairs."
Owen's footsteps hit her ears as he ran up the stairs. "Hey."
Smiling, she turned to face him but stayed on the sofa. "Hey."
He crouched down next to her, resting his forearms on the armrest and clasping his hands together. "You okay?"
Great, she was so out of sorts even Owen noticed. Pasting on a fake smile she replied, "I'm fine. What's up?"
He gave her a once over, sighed, then said, "Daniel messaged me. Wants to meet up in town about something. Figured I'd go, then pick up Catie from school?"
"Sounds good," she agreed.
"You wanna come? I can drop you off at the library or something while I'm meeting with him?" he offered, tugging gently on a lock of her hair.
She smiled warmly at him. "No, you go. I've got my book."
He glanced down at her book, then back up at her. "You sure, baby?"
Nodding, she said, "Yeah, you go. I'll be fine."
Pushing forward, he captured her lips with his. "I love you," he murmured.
Lennie worried her lower lip between her teeth. "Love you too," she said. And she really did. It made her feel guilty that she was so frustrated, so unsettled.
Owen kissed her again, teasing her lower lip as he pulled away. "I'll be back in a few hours."
"Have fun."
He tossed her a wink, then left.
Lennie did not get up to watch him pull away, just sat and waited for the sound of his truck to fade into the distance. Sighing, she picked up her book again and tried to focus on the chapters.
Whatever it was that was bothering Len, Owen hated it. He hated that he could not fix it, that he could not help her, and most of all that she was not talking to him. Hell, he knew he was not exactly emotionally…mature, he supposed was the word, but Len always confided in him. And he had thought that he was pretty good at giving comfort. He could not even count the nights he had spent just holding her through the nightmares. Her and Catie, both.
A small smile tugged at his lips, thinking of Catie. She was already thirteen years old! The other day he had come home and heard her talking to Len about boys. Boys already! When the hell had that happened? The kid would be starting high school in the fall, turning fourteen in November. Jesus. When the hell had he gotten so damned old?
Glancing in the rearview mirror, he winced at the wrinkles he saw starting to form. "Don't answer that," he told the picture he had of him and Len hanging from the mirror as he turned onto the road leading into town.
With a sigh, he pulled into the roadside diner parking lot. As he parked the car, he glanced again at the image of him and Len. She was smiling, happy. It was taken just a few months after they started the cabin. One of her friends from the university and Daniel had come by to help them build that day. Her friend had taken the picture while they were laughing around the fireplace that evening. His arm was slung around her shoulder and she was smiling up at him while he grinned down at her. The realization that it had been a while since he had seen that same smile on her face hit him hard upside the head. Maybe he could find something in town to cheer her up after he met with Daniel.
He hopped out of the truck and walked into the diner, spotting Daniel in the corner. When he dropped into the booth across from him, Daniel looked up and muttered, "You look like shit."
"Thanks, man." The waitress ran over and offered him a menu, which he declined. "Can I just get a coffee?"
"Sure thing, hot stuff," she replied. She opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped short when she seemed to notice the silver band on his ring finger. "Coming right up."
"Thanks," he muttered. "What's goin' on, Daniel?"
"I'm fine, Owen," his friend grumbled. "How are you?"
"Come on, man," Owen sighed. "You know I gotta go into town to pick up Catie from school in an hour."
"I think that's more than enough time to drive down the street," Daniel shot back.
"Daniel," he groused. "I don't got time for this shit." Not that his friend was wrong. From the diner, going into town was just a quick hop.
"Man, what crawled up your ass and died?"
Owen shook his head. "Just havin' a bad day." The waitress came back with his coffee and he thanked her. "I just wanna pick up Catie, then get back home to Len and relax."
Daniel shook his head. "Maybe this'll cheer you up," he muttered, sliding a folder across the table.
Owen took the folder and opened it. Inside was a pile of documents labelled 'classified'. The document on top mentioned the dinosaurs that got out nearly four years prior thanks to the infiltration of Mantah Corp and sanctuaries and something about a contract ending in April. The one positive was that nobody had identified him, Len and Barry from that incident. Even the damned document he was looking at referred to some broad infiltration by unknown people, mentioning it may have been one of the criminals present for the auction. If that was not pure dumb luck, he did not know what was. "The hell's this?"
"The UN is granting contracts to competing agencies to round up the dinosaurs, see who can safely take care of them," Daniel muttered around his coffee. "One of those companies is hiring locals to help out."
"And?"
"And I want you to help me out, dumbass," Daniel snorted. "How the hell does Lennie put up with someone so damned dense?"
Owen barely held back on wincing. Truth was, he was not sure Len was putting up with him anymore. "Why me?"
"You know anyone else here who trained velociraptors professionally?" Daniel shot back. When he did not reply, the man muttered, "Didn't think so." He sighed. "Look, you're one of the few people I trust with this shit. And no way in hell can I do it alone."
Owen huffed a laugh. "Not exactly like rustling cattle, is it."
"Not unless cows suddenly got a hell of a lot bigger when I wasn't looking."
Rubbing a hand across his chin, Owen grumbled something unintelligible and stared outside at the trees and mountains. Fuck. Now was hardly the time for him to go running off when Len was already in her head about something. But could he let his friend do this alone? "How much am I gonna be away from home for this shit?"
"Not much, I don't think. Just when we get wind of a pack of 'em nearby, we go, we round 'em up, and we take 'em in."
Pushing out a breath, he brought his eyes back to Daniel. "Can I at least think about it?"
Daniel shrugged. "Sure, for a bit. But I need an answer by tomorrow." He stood up and looked down at Owen. "I got the check today, big spender. Text me when you've decided."
Owen pushed out a breath and stared out the window for a minute before heading to the truck.
By the time she heard the truck pulling up again, Lennie had long since given up on trying to read and had moved out to the garden to check on the vegetables they had growing. She had just started pulling up the last batch - the carrots - when the sound of the truck hit her ears. She grabbed the basket of veg and headed back inside, figuring she could finish the carrots later.
Catie burst through the door first, headphones on, and headed straight to her room.
Owen walked in shortly after. "She even say hi?" he asked, staring at Catie's closed door.
Lennie snorted a laugh. "At least we know she's a normal teenager."
He grinned at her as he approached the sink, grabbing some of the vegetables to clean off. "You mean the first clue wasn't the boy band posters all over the place?"
"I can't judge," she laughed. "When I was her age my bedroom was floor to ceiling Jonathan Brandis posters."
"Isn't he that kid from the show with the talking dolphin?"
She smiled up at him, remembering he used to train dolphins. "I have a type - blond hair, blue eyes, dolphin trainer…."
"Bet he never trained velociraptors," he murmured, lowering his head to kiss her.
"No," she sighed against his lips. "You're very manly."
"Damn right," he murmured, going in for another kiss.
When he pulled back, she saw something behind his eyes that she could not pinpoint. "What's up?"
Though he tried to hide it, she caught his wince. "Daniel wants me to help him out with some contract thing."
"That's incredibly vague," she muttered, washing a head of lettuce and dropping it into the other sink to dry.
Owen reached around her and dropped a cucumber into the other sink. "He's got an offer to help round up the loose dinosaurs in the area."
Lennie stiffened. "Oh?" Her heart squeezed at the thought that he would get to work with dinosaurs again, while she was stuck at the cabin.
"Didn't take him up on it," he muttered.
"Yet?"
Owen did not answer her.
Dropping the pepper in her hands into the sink, she turned to face him. "You gonna?"
Owen sighed and put down the head of lettuce he was holding, then turned to face her. "I dunno."
"Do you want to?" she asked quietly, staring at a random spot on his chest.
"Honestly?"
She nodded.
"I don't know." He reached out and pulled her into his arms.
Her arms wrapped around his middle and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Yes you do," she muttered.
His chest rumbled with laughter. "Familiar," he murmured into her hair as he dropped a kiss on top of her head. "You're not gonna build me a house, are you?"
"Take it," she said, ignoring his remark. "You want to, I know you do." She pulled back and looked up into his eyes, holding back tears. "I'm gonna go have a quick shower. Been out in the garden for a while and I stink."
"I don't mind," he muttered, pulling her closer.
"I do," she said, pushing up on her toes to kiss him quickly. "When I come back out, make sure you've called Daniel and accepted. No point in delaying it when we both know you're going to." Without waiting for a reply, she pulled out of his arms and walked to the bathroom. "Len?"
She turned to face him.
"Love you."
Forcing a smile, she replied, "Love you, too, baby. Call Daniel." Then she went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She turned on the shower, stripping out of her clothing as she waited for the water to warm up. When it reached the right temperature, she stepped in and let the water run over her, crying silently into the drops.
Until that moment, she had not been able to put her finger on it, but now she knew that everything she had been feeling was because she had lost pieces of herself over the last few years. Every day that went by, she lost a tiny fraction of who she had been. She craved something she had on her own, something distinctly hers . And right now she had nothing. Her whole world centered around Owen and Catie and that was it. Who the hell was she anymore.
Her tears fell more freely for a few minutes until she pulled herself together and finished her shower.
Claire entered Lowery's office at InGen. She had no idea why he had called her in, only that he felt he could not tell her about it on the phone. He was sat at his desk, monitors everywhere.
"Hey, Claire," he greeted without looking up.
"Lowery." Approaching his desk, she tried to make sense of what she was looking at. It was all gibberish, but for the tiny text box in the bottom corner of one screen. "What's going on?"
"Been on the dark web searching for Mantah Corp's parent company," he muttered.
"Any luck?"
He shook his head. "No, but I found a lead."
"I…don't know what that means, Lowery," she muttered.
Turning to face her, he launched into it. "I found a hacker who's also looking into Mantah Corp. They think there might be a link to Biosyn, beyond Biosyn buying up the remnants after the incident in Sacramento."
That piqued her interest. "Like what?"
Lowery shrugged. "They're unsure yet, but if you're okay with us working together, I think we can have this solved a hell of a lot sooner."
Chewing on her lip, she stared at the screens. It was a big risk. If anyone traced any potential illegal activity back to her, Michael could lose Masrani Global. Could she approve this behind Michael's back? If he had even an inkling about what Lowery was doing, they were screwed. Then again, if she could invoke plausible deniability…. Sighing, she turned back to Lowery. "The less I know, the better. Just tell me if you get anything helpful."
"Yeah, of course," he muttered, returning to his keyboard. "No problem, boss lady!"
Rolling her eyes, she turned and walked back to her office. If Michael asked, she would just give the bare minimum to him. Maybe she would be willing to risk her own job to bring down the people ultimately responsible for everything that had happened, but she was not willing to risk an entire global corporation and the livelihoods of its employees.
