I hope you all are enjoying so far! Thanks to Jelsemium for talking about Claire's reaction cause I totally forgot about that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Jurassic Park/World. All OC's belong to Macx.
Claire called him to her office the next day. Owen supposed that she heard from Masrani and knew he was entirely correct when he came into her office and she gave him her corporate-frustrated face. Owen held out a cup of coffee as a peace offer and she sighed and took it from him.
"Please tell me you know what you're doing?" she said.
"I know what I'm doing," he dutifully said and then, grimaced, "I mayn't enjoy it much but it's still just one intern and only for two weeks. As a bonus, she screws up, I get to kick her out forever."
"Well I hope you do," said Claire, sternly, before softening wearily, "As amusing as some of it may have been, another Greene situation is not something I nor Masrani Global wants to deal with and I daresay Carter isn't going to pleased either."
"She tries anything like that and I'll tell Blue and the others to bite her this time," Owen fake- groused.
Claire gave him a severe look at his humour and said, "Don't. I can't possibly deal with the paperwork."
Owen laughed at what she worrying about, thought about pointing it out to her, but decided he'd like to get back to his job unmolested and promised her he wouldn't.
She sipped from her coffee, savored it and then shooed him out of her office. Owen left, but not before wiggling a promise from her to meet him for lunch and then went to meet Nancy for their weekly session.
Owen stood and watched as the hated security cameras were placed up again around the paddock. He'd forgotten about that one detail, he thought, when he had agreed to have another intern. He hated those things and had he remembered, he would have never said yes.
Finally they were finished and the workers bid him goodbye. Lorenzo called him a few minutes later and told him the system was up and running and going to his private server as per usual. He thanked him and then went over to the paddock and rubbed a comforting hand on Blue through the bars.
"Well, the show starts tomorrow," he murmured. "Let's hope this one's not an idiot."
She better not be. Blue returned coolly.
Before nine the next morning, Owen was down to meet his new intern in the briefing room where all the interns had to do their orientation training on the raptor paddock after their mandatory safety training. At exactly nine, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," Owen called.
The door opened and a young woman walked in. Owen gestured to the table where there was a tablet and stylus.
"Sign in there please, before we begin." She nodded and put down her little knapsack and signed her name on the tablet.
When she was finished she put it down and faced Owen attentively.
Owen took her in at glance. She was about 5'7, with long black hair braided back, almond-shaped brown eyes, and tanned skin as if she was used to working outdoors. She was obviously of Indian descent. She wore khaki cargo pants and a deep green polo t-shirt, and no makeup. A back hair band kept her rather long bangs off her face.
She at least got points for dressing appropriately.
"Good morning. My name is Owen Grady and I'll be your supervisor for the length of your internship at the raptor paddock. I'm the Chief Raptor behaviour analyst."
"Good morning," she returned smiling pleasantly at him, "I'm Kavita Ramdial. Pleased to meet you."
Owe nodded and said, "Well take a seat and let's get started. Pay attention because this is very important."
She nodded and they began. Owen saved most of his usual speech for when they were actually at the paddock. Right now was all about the instructive videos and recordings of raptors the first two sets of interns had gotten.
Kavita proved to be an interesting study. Fortunately she didn't turn green at any of the recordings. In fact the most reaction she showed was to wrinkle her nose at one of the kills.
At the end Owen reiterated some of the special safety training for the raptors and then motioned her to follow him.
"We're going to the paddock," he told her. She nodded and Owen was left wondering if he should be glad she wasn't very chatty or not.
The ride out the paddock was mostly in silence. Owen had borrowed a jeep since he was driving her there. He listened for the expected comments about the rather bumpy road, (he heard that some of the more 'posh' interns had complained about the road to the raptor paddock) but there was none. She simply braced herself and spent most of the time looking around her with interest. She seemed to be enjoying the open air. She yawned twice on the way though.
"Sleepy already?"Owen queried, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorry," she said, "Jet lag. It always hits me hard. I got a few hours sleep but," she made a face, "It didn't kill the effects completely."
"Ahh," he said in understanding. He could feel the eagerness of the pack as he got closer and gave them a wordless greeting.
Soon they pulled up in front of the paddock. They got out and then Owen got serious.
"Okay. There are four main rules you have to follow here. You don't follow them. I kick you out. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir," she said crisply.
"Rule one: Don't go into the paddock. Ever. You're an outsider and the pack will defend themselves. Two, don't try to feed them or touch them in anyway. Three, make sure the gate to the outsides is locked when you go into the stables. And four ask questions. I'm always available to answer. And no question is too stupid. I rather you ask me than act on presumptions."
She nodded again and said, "Yes sir."
"Repeat them back to me," Owen said, figuring that if they all remembered the rules like Peter it might help.
"Don't go into the paddock. Ask questions. Don't touch or try to feed. Make sure the gate to the outside is locked when you go into the stables," she rattled off.
"Good," said Owen and Delta blew out a harsh breath from the paddock. She succeeded in making Kavita jump. Owen had to give a little grin and then went on to explain about energy and how to approach the raptors. She listened intently and asked a few intelligent questions. He answered them and was generally pleased except for one thing which had bugged him over the course of their exchange.
"Are you deliberately trying to sound like me?" he asked frowning, because if she was that was just strange.
During the conversation her accent, which had been an interesting blend of Indian and American, with hints of British and a welsh sing song had slowly progressed to his own all American.
She blinked at him for a moment and then quick embarrassed grin flashed over her face before she covered her mouth with her hands and tried to smother her laughter.
"Sorry," she said, American accent still in place, "I can't help it. It just happens." She waved a hand dismissively in the air. "And it helps me to understand you when you talk." She gave a little shrug. "Sorry if it's offending you."
"Not offending," he said, "Just…a little strange."
"Ohh. Sorry again."
Owen shrugged and feeling Blue's curiosity said, "Well let's go meet the pack."
R&R Please!