So, I was looking through a few of my documents and was reminded that I had mostly written another scene for Swipe Right. Since it didn't take much to finish it, and since I do really like this story (even if it's never been one of my "popular" ones), I figured I'd share it.

This takes place the same say of the bonus scene I posted in chapter 2, and is just a conversation with Karen, Claire and Owen.

Another Bonus Scene

Later that evening, Owen, Claire and Karen were sitting in the living room chatting away, Karen and Claire both sipping from wine glasses, while Owen nursed a bottle of beer.

Claire wasn't normally one who was okay with PDA, having spent her entire professional career hypervigilant over how every action she took was seen. She had worked hard to counter and rise above all the preconceived notions and biases her coworkers and employees had of a woman with ambition and in power.

Owen, though, was the complete opposite. She hadn't expected it. Maybe she should've, but, to be honest, she hadn't had a lot of information to work from. And during the entire Jurassic World incident, the most he'd ever done was reach a hand out towards her, when they were running out of the old park, and then help pull her to the ground away from the Pteranodons and Dimorphodons. And the kiss, but that had been a spur of the moment "I'm so glad I'm alive" thing, and so she hadn't thought it was a good judge of everyday actions. It had been her, that day, who had been constantly touching him, reaching for him and the sliver of comfort and security he had provided when everything else had been falling apart around her.

However, ever since they had made their agreement of sticking together, he seemed to have taken it literally. She couldn't recall a time she was in a room with him, where they were not touching, in some way. An arm draped over her shoulders or wrapped around her waist. A hand resting on her knee or the small of her back or holding hers. In the first few weeks after the incident, she hadn't even noticed it, reaching for him as often as he reached for her, wanting that physical reassurance that he was still there. She woke up sometimes, expecting him to have disappeared, to find that it was all a dream, both the incident and everything since — but, really, mainly everything since. Somehow, it was easier to believe the incident was real, than it was to believe that she and Owen were actually together.

It was one thing getting used to the constant touches (and it was actually easier than she had expected), but she still squirmed over the more blatant PDA. The way he'd nuzzle into her hair, when he was tuning out the conversation around them. Or the way he'd drop kisses onto her hair, her temple or her forehead. How he seemed to always be right there, if she turned to look at him when he'd do so, ready to brush his lips against hers, eager for any access that she'd grant him. And it felt like the more aware she'd become of his actions, the more often they took place. She found herself constantly having to remind herself to relax and not pull away. She had, once, startled by his affection, and he'd looked like she'd kicked his puppy. She'd brushed it off, not wanting to start a discussion then and there about PDA, and then had never found a convenient time since to bring it up (and hadn't really wanted to).

She'd seen Karen glance at her a couple of times, eyebrows raised, and she knew Karen had definitely noticed and was waiting for their next moment alone to comment. Claire wondered if she could convince Owen to stick by her side for the rest of the trip.

"So," Karen said, leaning forward in her chair towards Claire and Owen who were sitting on the couch. Owen's arm, no surprise, was wrapped tightly around Claire, pulling her in close to his side.

"So?" Claire asked back hesitantly, not sure where her sister was going.

"Tinder," Karen stated, looking between them meaningfully. When neither said anything right away, she expanded. "What's the story? I'm still shocked to know that Claire was ever on it, but I'm even more shocked to know she actually swiped right."

"You and me both," Owen laughed. "I almost fell out of my hammock when I saw her photo. Really cute candid one too," he added, looking down at Claire adoringly. Claire couldn't help but blush at the look he gave her. No matter how often he complimented her, or looked at her similarly, she still found it set her off-balance. Six months later, she still wasn't used to it.

"I'm surprised she had one," Karen said. "I'm not sure I've seen a photo that wasn't part of a marketing campaign in, well, years."

"I've still got it," Owen admitted, shifting slightly to pull his phone out.

"You what?" Claire sat up, turning to look at him.

"I'd never seen you in jeans and a t-shirt before," Owen shrugged, unlocking his phone and searching out the photo, before leaning forward and passing his phone over to Karen. "Wasn't sure I'd ever get the chance again."

"That is a good photo," Karen agreed, looking at it critically. "When was this taken?"

"Zara took it," Claire admitted, her voice cracking on her former assistants name. She swallowed hard, feeling Owen's hand settle low on her back, rubbing soothingly. "We had to give a tour to a VIP and his family one day. It wasn't the right place for a suit."

"Who swiped first?" Karen asked, handing Owen his phone back.

"Claire," Owen said immediately.

"Nope, you did," Claire shook her head, settling back against Owen's side.

"You'd already swiped when I did," he reminded her.

"Not true," she grinned up at him. "I never swiped."

"Right," he rolled his eyes jokingly at her, "You 'fumbled.'" He prevented the retort she was about to give, by dipping his head down quickly to kiss her.

"'Fumbled'?" Karen questioned.

"Supposedly," Owen drawled, "Claire accidentally tapped yes on me."

"It was an accident," Claire protested. "I dropped my phone."

"Couldn't handle my hotness," Owen teased, laughing with Karen.

"More embarrassed for you," Claire replied.

"I'm not ashamed of using it," he shrugged. "Definitely beats having to hang out at a bar and approach people that way." He looked over at Karen. "Claire, however, is ashamed."

"It's not shame, exactly," Claire disagreed. "I just… It's not like I had a great experience with it."

"Wait," Karen paused them. "I thought that's how you two connected. What happened?"

"After she… 'accidentally' tapped yes, and I swiped right, I…" Here, Owen actually looked a little embarrassed. "I couldn't figure out what to say." He looked over at Claire for a moment, before his gaze moved back to Karen. "She's intimidating. I barely got up the courage to swipe right and I didn't want to say the wrong thing and end it before it started."

At that, Claire snorted, "And so you ended it before it started."

Owen sighed. "Yeah." He looked over at Karen and gave a loose shrug. "I guess I was sort of hoping she'd message me."

Karen frowned. "Wait, so how did you two actually end up together?"

"It's a bit of a story," Owen replied.

"I've got time" Karen said, leaning back in her chair and taking a large sip of wine.

"We ran into each other a week or so after at a safety seminar," Owen started. "It didn't… go well." He winced at the memory. "Both of us making assumptions and misinterpreting the other. Barry, my friend who was there at the time, didn't buy my excuse of not replying to a work email. He was pretty good about it, not prying too much. Although, he did tell me that I should fix whatever it was that I had done and apologize." He paused, and Claire could tell he was briefly lost in a memory. She knew he'd remained in touch with Barry — they had seen him the previous month, actually — but she also knew that occasional meetups were not the same after working with someone day in and day out. "He did not have anything good to say to me after our first date."

"I'm sure you deserved every word and more," Claire shrugged, before squealing when Owen's hand shifted, slipping under the hem of her shirt to tickle her side.

"Back up — how did you end up on a date?" Karen appeared confused. "If it wasn't through Tinder…"

"Well, after the seminar, I tried to reach out to her on Tinder," Owen confessed. "But she'd deleted her account. I assumed that meant she didn't want to talk to me anymore." Claire could feel him stiffen slightly as he talked and she started rubbing his leg soothingly, letting her hand continue to rest there once she felt him relax again. She knew, now, that he'd been shocked and disappointed when he'd discovered that. And that he'd taken it as a sign that she wanted nothing to do with him. He'd said the only silver lining of it all, was that Barry had stopped teasing him, having seemed to understand that something bigger had happened between the two. "And then, to my utter disbelief, I stumbled upon her visiting my favourite lookout point on the island." He paused, looking down at Claire and dropping a fond kiss on the top of her head. Turning back to Karen, he added, "And so I asked her out."

"Hmm, if I recall, it wasn't that simple," Claire looked up at him. "You weren't even going to say hi."

"I didn't think you'd want to see me," Owen protested. "I was going to give you space. I was being a good guy."

"If you'd left…" She let the thought trail off.

"I don't know," he teased, "I don't think you have any positive feelings about that date. We might've been better off without it."

"Maybe," she agreed, "But, I don't know… If that hadn't happened — the conversation on the cliff — I don't know if I would've gone to you for help." She looked away, worried. "Who knows what would've happened then?"

"You didn't need me," Owen told her, shifting until he was looking her in the eye. "Seriously, Claire. The boys found their way back on their own. If I hadn't been there, if you hadn't been with me, you would've met up with them and got off the island in the initial evacuation. You three would never have had to deal with Hoskins, or my—the raptors, or anything."

"What about you?" Claire inquired.

"What about me?"

"What would've happened to you?"

"Maybe… maybe I would've been able to prevent Hoskins from using the raptors. If I had been there earlier, when the discussion was happening, I could've pushed harder. I may have had a chance."

Claire reached for his hand, squeezing it lightly, before rubbing her thumb soothingly over his knuckles. She could tell he'd thought this over before. That it was something he'd wondered, flipping it around in his head, trying to figure out how he could've made things end differently.

"What happens without the raptors?" Karen asked, her interruption reminding the two they weren't alone.

Owen pulled back, settling back against the couch cushions, and Claire tucked herself back into his side, letting one of her hands rest just above his knee.

"They'd be alive," Owen replied. "The only thing the raptors did was maybe delay the Indominus by a few minutes. I don't think it would've made a difference towards the evacuation. If only the Indominus was loose, if everyone was evacuated—"

"—Could've sent a team back with the right weapons," Claire finished, following his train of thought. Even though it had been six months, and even with all the meetings and lawyers and everything else they'd dealt with after the incident, as she sat there she realized that the two of them had never had a conversation like this before. Neither of them had ever really explored many of the what ifs. At first, it was probably because there wasn't time, too exhausted from constant meetings. And then later, probably because they both just wanted to put it behind them. However, she wasn't surprised to find out that they had similar reflections over it all.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I mean, I don't think it'd be easy. But the Indominus wasn't small. It wouldn't have been hard to find her. Hoskins would still be alive. The raptors would be alive. Most of the dinosaurs, probably. I mean, the biggest issue would've been dealing with the Pteranodons and Dimorphodons, and a lot of that had already been done on Main Street." He fell silent, looking down, ignoring both Claire and Karen's gazes.

"And maybe it would've reopened," Claire added after a moment. Post-incident, there had been a brief period of time where she thought that might still be a possibility, but it had been dashed pretty quickly as the lawsuits piled up and it became clear that Masrani Corp was unlikely to survive the fallout financially sound.

"Maybe," Owen shrugged, looking up at Claire. "That's your area, not mine."

"Well, the important thing is that all four of you survived." Karen said after a long moment of silence, before adding, trying to lighten the mood, "And you still haven't told me about this date. What was so bad?"

"It wasn't bad, exactly," Claire said slowly.

It was Owen's turn to laugh. "Says the person who said she didn't want a second date."

"Yeah, well, neither did you," Claire shot back. " 'Well, I guess we tried,' isn't that what you said that night?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Owen was defensive. "You shot down everything I suggested."

"You refused to even glance at the itinerary I'd made," Claire argued back.

"Oh no, tell me you didn't," Karen interrupted.

"She did," Owen confirmed, looking over at Karen for a moment, before his gaze went back to Claire. "Like I said, when you came to my bungalow that day, it was a lack of mutual respect."

Claire's jaw dropped. "I wasn't trying to disrespect you." It was her turn to be defensive.

"I know," he sighed. "Like I said, a lack of mutual respect. Neither of us were in the right."

"Okay, so Claire brought an itinerary," Karen summarized. "What did you do, Owen?"

"Boardshorts," Claire replied. "I got all dressed up, and he showed up on his motorcycle wearing boardshorts."

"Hey, don't forget that you refused to drink tequila," Owen argued, as he tried to defend himself.

"How is that at all the same?" Claire asked, pulling away from him slightly, her head cocked to the side.

"I had a fun night planned," he protested. "You just didn't want to give up even an ounce of control."

Before Claire could say anything, Karen interrupted again. "Wait, how did you go from that to, well… this?" She gestured vaguely at them.

There was a long pause as Claire and Owen looked at each, before turning back to Karen. "He suggested we stick together," Claire finally said. "In the hangar, after you showed up. I asked what we should do next and…"

"As they say, the rest is history," Owen agreed.

"So when Zach introduced him as your boyfriend…?" Karen's jaw dropped, her gaze bouncing between the two. "You mean you had just gotten together? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Wasn't really expecting to hear that label so soon," Owen laughed. "But, what was there to say?"

"That you weren't dating!" Karen said, exasperated, and rolled her eyes.

"But we were, sort of," Claire hedged. "I mean, maybe we hadn't fully discussed it at the time, but, like I said, we'd agreed to stick together."

Owen nodded his agreement. "And we have."

Karen stared at them suspiciously for a long moment, before taking another sip of her wine and then shaking her head. "It's just really not fair."

"What?" Claire asked.

"Bad Tinder experience, bad date, and then just… an escaped homicidal dino and you end up with… this? Everything works out for you, doesn't it?"

The words could've been cruel, but Karen's tone came out a cross between resigned and a laugh, and Claire knew her sister wasn't being mean spirited. And she also knew that Karen understood that things hadn't been easy over the past six months.

"We were lucky," Claire agreed, turning to look up at Owen. He smiled down at her, dipping down for another kiss, and this time Claire let herself enjoy it, leaning into it.

"Ugh, too much," Karen interrupted, her hand partially covering her eyes as she laughed. "Although, I'm surprised by this side of you," she directed the comment at Claire. "Who knew you'd be so open to PDA."

"I guess it just takes the right person," Claire said, leaning back into Owen's side. "And a change of perspective."

While it's always really nice to hear anything you'd like to share, I'm mostly just happy to know that someone has read it. And I hope it helped brighten your day.