Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Jurassic Park/World and all OCs belong to Macx except Kavita.
The next day Owen goes to meet his intern to pay up for the meal he owed her, in the evening. He heads into the park, checks his watch when he arrives and finds he is at least half an hour early. Since he had the time he decided he might as well walk around a bit and visit the others. Zack was in the petting zoo this week so Owen headed over there.
He comes in through the employee's' entrance and bumps into Peter.
"Hey," said Owen, "What're you doing here?"
"Some of the babies are coming down with something," Peter told him, "Looks like a flu of some sort. We're boosting them with vitamins and broad spectrum antibiotics for now while we get the blood work done. But some of the babies are skittish and they don't even want to go near anyone. The keepers think that it's because they're feeling vulnerable now that they're sick. Zack's in there. So's your new intern actually."
Owen blinked. "Kavita's in there?"
"Yeah," said Peter, "She apparently came to draw some of them but the babies had gotten sick. She'd helping with the corralling."
Owen nodded and walked into the little enclosure in the back of the petting corrals. The handlers greeted him and pointed over to where Zack and Kavita were. The two of them had a baby triceratops back against the bars of the enclosure but the poor thing was trembling and scared and both of them had stopped a little distance away for fear that their approaching might lead it to damaging itself in its fight to distance itself.
As Owen watched though, Zack dropped to his haunches and clearly concentrated. The baby calmed a little, but it was still terribly afraid and confused. Kavita dropped to her hands and knees, dropping her body even lower so that she was on the same level of the baby and slowly crawled forward.
The baby shrank back but Zack's brows knitted together and the baby stopped cringing so much. Kavita inched closer and then stopped. Even as Owen watched she began to breath slowly and deeply, letting the tension leak out of her frame. Soon she was radiating calm and gentle assurance.
I am not a threat. Her body language said. I am not a threat. I am here to help.
Zack frowned some more, clearly soothing the baby. And eventually Kavita reached out a hand slowly and left it hanging in the air, still breathing slowly and steadily.
I am not a threat.
Calm and peaceful thoughts flowed from Zack.
And slowly, slowly, the baby stopped cowering and eventually it moved away from the fence and ambled slowly, hesitatingly towards Kavita and finally came close enough for her to rest her hand of its beak like mouth. She moved slowly, letting it see everything she was doing and rested her hand gently on its muzzle.
After a few moments, she was patting it slowly and reassuringly and then Zack moved forward, also very slowly. Owen could now make out the low reassuring mumble of words he was saying. He knelt next to the baby and moving slowly and carefully retrieved the capped needle from his pocket.
He held it up for the baby to see, mumbled some more while Kavita patted it soothing-ly and then he uncapped the needle, found a vein and with steady, gentle hands injected the contents into the baby's veins.
The baby squealed a little but didn't move around so much and Kavita made little shushing noises. Zack withdrew the needle, recapped it with careful hands and then also began to pet the little triceratops.
Kavita carefully moved away and one of the handler took her place.
She saw Owen and moved over to him.
"Hey," she said softly brushing off her clothes.
"Hey," said Owen, "What are you doing in here?"
"Got permission to draw some of the babies but they got sick. When I came, they were trying to corral the babies so that the vets could give them their shots and get some blood. But some of the babies were already skittish and after they took blood from the first one, it screamed a lot and scared the others. So the babies refused to go near anyone but the handlers, and they still didn't want them either. Zack and some of the others were having some success and the vets and I were just using our bodies to get them to the handlers."
She shrugged here. "I helped Zack corral one and it turned out we were a good team."
"I see," said Owen. "Interns aren't usually allowed if they're not part of the area you know."
"I know," said Kavita, "I asked though and they said okay, provided that I leave if they tell me to." She picked at a few globs of what appeared to be dinosaur spit in her hair.
Owen raised an eyebrow.
"Baby brachiosaur liked my hair," she explained.
Owen looked around and saw that the last of the babies were already corralled and were having blood drawn.
"Dinner?" he asked.
"Sure," she said. "Just let me tell them I'm leaving and get my sketch pad." Owen nodded and she went off.
A few moments Zack came up next to him.
"Owen," he said.
"Hey Zack," said Owen. "What happened?"
"We don't know," said Zack. "The handlers say that the dinosaurs have immunities put unto a lot of the diseases in our modern world but flu viruses mutate so much, this may be one that they aren't immune to."
"Do they think it'll spread?"
"We're not sure," said Zack. "No adults show any sign of it so maybe it's just that the babies have a weaker immune system."
"Maybe," Owen murmured. He was worried and hoped dearly that it didn't spread.
"They might have to put a quarantine for the petting zoo," Zack said.
Owen nodded. It was a good idea. "How was my intern?"
"She was good," said Zack after a startled moment. "She really is aware of how to deal with them. Did you see her? She just makes herself calm and unthreatening so the babies trust her."
"I think you had something to do with that," Owen said raising an eyebrow. Zack flushed a little.
"Just a little bit," he said, "They're easier because they're so young. They're not really forceful and they don't need a lot of talent to guide either. They're," he flushed a little bit again, "They're pretty cute actually. Just little roly poly bundles of happiness or hunger or even anger sometimes. Other times they just sorta want to cuddle up to someone."
Owen grinned because Zack had described the babies perfectly. While some animal species, their young had forceful personalities of their own, the baby herbivores in the petting zoo, didn't have so much. There a few exceptions of course, Owen had felt them and they had amused him and Blue, to no end; forceful little things carving out their path in their world of over-eager kids with sticky fingers and sharp little heels.
At that moment Kavita returned.
"I've got to go," Owen told Zack, "I lost a bet."
Kavita laughed but held out her hand to him. "Nice working with you Zack!"
He shook her hand firmly and said, "Nice working with you too!"
They grinned at each other, Kavita waved to a baby brachiosaur and then she and Owen were heading out the petting zoo and over to Winston's.
The body language thing Kavita does with the baby, I actually did, (thought I didn't have to get down on the floor) with a poor pony that had been abused by its previous owners. It was still skittish around people due to that and the poor thing had even lost an eye. Animal abuse is bad, guys.
Review please! Hopefully we'll get to the exciting parts soon!