Summary:

Owen's raptors get into a fight, leaving Charlie injured. Alise is done with training and Charlie is her first patient, Owen doesn't take too kindly to a rookie taking care of his raptor and has some choice words for her. She holds her own and proves him wrong, so Owen offers to buy her a drink as an apology.

It's been 2 months since I've been on the island and training went really well. My last day training was yesterday, so I am officially the head paleo-veterinary assistant. No more 'trainee' attached to it. This meant being on the field as much as possible, with the occasional "grunt work" (as Owen would put it) here and there, but that comes along with every job for the most part.

Speaking of Owen, I've seen him in the bar a total of 7 times since I've been at the island. We talked every time, for no more than 20 minutes because he'd always come right before closing.

Each time we talked, the more relaxed he got. I barely remember the rigid, uptight man that walked into the bar 6 weeks ago. We talked about loads of things, random things for the most part. Nothing too personal. We talked about all the grunt work and the daily grind.

Lachlan said a few weeks ago that Owen was definitely going to ask me out. Lucy even agreed with him (they've also been getting closer as well, but that's another story). I thought they were crazy at first. Owen and I were just having casual conversations. Then I started to think about it. Sure, I like him. He's attractive, but he needs to let loose a little bit, but that's something that can be worked on.

So after that I'd been waiting for it. We talked 3 times after that and I'd been waiting for it. He didn't though and I even tried to initiate it like "oh, I'm not going to be working tomorrow night, what are you up to?" And he'd say "nothin' much" and change the subject. I gave up after that.

Maybe he didn't feel the same way, maybe he didn't want to go out. He was just looking for a conversation and a friend. He came to the right place because I'm all ears and not just because I'm a bartender. I just care about people, sometimes a little too much.

Anyway, I pushed all of that aside and tried not to think about it. I was starting in the field and needed no distractions. My head needed to be in the game.

It was 8 am when I got called into work early. I met Dr. Collier at the dinosaur infirmary and saw a young Apatosaurus on the table. She was crying out and moving her long neck around and I noticed the large gash on the side of it. She was being held down by 2 assistants and Dr. Collier.

"What happened?" I asked, scrubbing in.

"Her neck got caught in a metal sign and some kids tried to get it off, causing further injury." He then told me the sign grazed her artery and what we had to do. That meant cleaning it out and stitching it up. I saw that they were sedating her and soon she stopped kicking and crying.

I was prepping the tools while the other assistants, Olivia and Mark, cleaned out the wound. I was about to start helping Dr. Collier with the stitches when another assistant came into the room.

"Dr. Collier, there was an incident at the Velociraptor enclosure. Two of them got into a fight and one of them needs medical attention immediately." My thoughts immediately went to Owen - those were his girls.

"Can Dr. Sanchez handle it?"

"He's off the island today."

"Okay, uhm…" Dr. Collier paused, giving himself a second to clear his thoughts. "Okay, Dr. Cruthers, you go to the enclosure and assess the patient. Mark will go with you to assist. Do not examine her until she is fully sedated, we'll send a member of ACU with you for safety. If it can be treated on-site, do that. If she needs stitches or anything further, we'll have transport bring her here. Got it?" He asked. I was a little surprised to hear him say my name, but then again, I was the head assistant and I was also a doctor. It was also my first case alone, so I was a little nervous.

"Yes, I got it." I nodded, Mark and I scrubbed out and went to the raptor enclosure.

We got there 15 minutes later and first saw that Lachlan's friend, Trent, who I met once before, was the guy ACU sent. He was at the top of the enclosure with a gun pointed down into the enclosure, I assume he was trying to sedate the raptor.

"What are you doing up there like that?!" I heard Owen's familiar voice as he walked up the stairs and towards Trent. A dark-skinned man tried to hold Owen back.

"You're scaring her, she's not going to come out with a gun pointed at her!" Owen sounded upset and annoyed. Angry even.

"Maybe you could help me out a little bit then, bro?" Trent asked, looking over at Owen. Trent was from California and the accent was really standing out right now. He sounded super relaxed and not bothered at all by Owen's outburst.

Owen pulled something out of his pocket and pressed it 3 times, it was a clicker. He then whistled and called out the name "Charlie!"

I was wondering how they'd get just one raptor out without the other ones getting involved, but I noticed the other three were being held in individual areas.

Then I saw her through the bars, limping out of the bushes. She let out a noise towards Owen - a noise that sounded like a cry. Trent pulled the trigger and Charlie made a screeching noise as the dart penetrated her skin, then fell to the ground with a thud.

"Dr. Cruthers, I presume?" The dark-skinned man asked from beside me, I didn't even notice he walked over to us, so I did jump slightly. Then I nodded, pretending like I didn't just jump out of my skin.

"Yes, and this is my assistant, Mark." I said, nodding my head towards him.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Barry." He nodded his head, his accent thick. I couldn't make out what type of accent it was though.

"So, what happened?" I asked, following him to the gates.

I felt nervous all of a sudden, I've never worked with a raptor before. I've never worked with a carnivore before either. One wrong move and you could be the one that needed stitches. I reasoned with myself, she was fully sedated. I had nothing to worry about.

"Charlie and Delta were rough-housing and one thing led to another, Charlie got cut open pretty bad."

"Do they fight often?" I asked.

"They have their tiffs here and there, nothing serious though." Barry answered.

"They're sisters," I heard Owen's voice from the top of the stairs. "They fight like siblings. It's not a behavioral issue." He said seriously and he still sounded angry as he walked over to me. I tried not to take it personally, figuring that he's going through a lot today.

"I'm sorry, Owen, I wasn't trying to say it was behavioral. I just need to know." I said, Owen just looked at me.

"Where's Dr. Collier or Dr. Sanchez? Shouldn't they be handling this?"

Okay, I took that personally.

"Dr. Collier gave me the go-ahead, so I will be taking care of her medical needs." I said, unsure of why he was so hostile with me.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" He asked as if he were squaring up to me. Now that hurt.

"Owen," Barry warned, grabbing onto Owen's arm and pulling him back.

"No," Owen pulled his arm away. "Aren't you a trainee?"

"Not anymore, I'm not. Dr. Collier entrusted me to take care of Charlie, so that's what I'm going to do. Unless if you'd prefer to wait until he gets out of surgery in an hour while Charlie lays there in pain and possibly bleeds out, then I suggest you trust me too." I don't know where it came from, but it just came out. I was pretty satisfied with myself too.

Owen just looked at me for a moment. I could see Mark and Barry both looking at Owen with a look of worry, but Owen stood down. He took a step back and nodded his head towards the gate.

Barry didn't hesitate to let me in and Mark followed along. I glanced at Owen as I walked in, he was just watching us suspiciously with his arms crossed over his chest. Like he wasn't happy about the situation.

I couldn't believe that he really just spoke to me that way, after all the talks we've had. He talked to me like I didn't matter, like he didn't care about me. Like he didn't know me. This certainly changed how I felt about him. I pushed that in the back of my mind and focused on Charlie.

Charlie wasn't in too bad of condition. She had claw marks that were deep on her left leg, but not deep enough that she'd need stitches. I cleaned out the wound and flushed it with antibiotics and wrapped it up pretty tight. Secure enough so that a raptor scratching or biting at it wouldn't tear it open. It'll be either me or one of the doctors that have to come back once a day for the next 2 weeks to keep the wound clean and wrapped up to prevent further infection or damage.

That's exactly what I told Barry, who was in the cage with Mark and I the whole time. Owen decided to watch from outside, which I didn't mind. I'm sure he would have had something to say about every little thing I was doing.

"So, she's all set. Maybe try to keep them separated for the rest of the day to prevent further injury." I said to Barry, taking off my gloves and throwing them out.

"You did pretty good," Owen said, standing in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest. I gave him a half smile, ready to be like 'I wasn't looking for your approval', but I bit my tongue. I walked past him and to the car, where Mark was loading all the supplies in. "How about I buy you a drink?"

I stopped in my tracks and raised my brow as I pivoted on my foot to face him. Did he really just ask me that?

"After the way you just spoke to me?"

He smirked, "Come on, I'll make it up to ya." He had a sly smile placed on his lips, like he knew he did something wrong, he just wasn't going to admit it.

I raised my brows, "How?" He'd have to have a pretty good case to get me out after all of that.

"Just let me buy you a beer and I'll show ya." He said. I gave him a hesitant look and he just looked at me expectantly. "Three Horns at 8 o'clock?"

I couldn't say no to that face… maybe he has a good reason. "Fine."

Later that day, I met up with Lucy and Lachlan in the dining area at Three Horns at 6:30 pm, leaving me enough time to meet Owen at 8 pm. We finished eating and Lachlan got distracted by a few of his ACU buddies by the bar. Lucy and I were talking, but then my best friend Aspen from back in Colorado texted me to check in. She's been worried about me working with dinosaurs and needed her check-ins every day to make sure I "didn't get eaten or something" - which is exactly what she texted me today. I laughed to myself and looked up at Lucy.

She was watching Lachlan over at the bar. If hearts could beat out of her eyes, they would have.

"You should tell him…" I smiled.

"Tell who what?" Lucy asked, shaking her head and looking at me, confused.

"Lachlan that you like him." I said, a little lower because I knew she wouldn't want that to be public information. I couldn't help but smirk at the end of it.

Her cheeks turned a noticeable shade of red, "I don't…" she tried to play it off, but I saw right through her.

I shrugged. "Alright, well, he's too oblivious to realize you like him, so if you ever want anything to happen you'll have to tell him. I'm pretty sure he likes you too."

"How do you know?" Lucy sat up, interested.

"Just a feeling." I smiled, taking a bite of a french fry.

"What are you two talking about?" Lachlan said, he was now standing in front of us with a bottle of beer in his hand.

"Just that Alise has a date with Owen later-" Lucy began.

"Lucy!" I snapped at her, for multiple reasons. One, it was not a date. Two, I specifically told her not to say anything to Lachlan because he would think it's a date.

"You gonna ride that D-" Lachlan said, grinding his hips.

And he would say something like that.

"God, no. Far from it. He is a dick." I said.

"Oh shit, trouble in paradise." Lachlan sat down.

"What did he do?" Lucy asked. I didn't get a chance to tell her about it yet.

"It's a long story," I said, taking a breath to start, but I saw Owen walking into the bar. I groaned, looking at the time. 8:07. He couldn't even show up on time. "And it's a story for another day. Gotta go." I said, excusing myself to walk over to Owen.

"Good luck gettin' that D!" Lachlan called out in a deep voice, cupping his hand around his mouth to amplify his voice.

"Lachlan!" Lucy quickly grabbed his arm and tried to hush him.

Everything goes over that damn boy's head.

Luckily, Owen didn't hear a thing. He was standing at the bar, talking to Colin, the bartender on duty.

"Hey Owen…" I said, giving him a small, half smile.

"You made it. Didn't think you'd come." he said honestly.

"I thought about not, but I'm not a liar, so…" I trailed off.

I have to admit, I was being a little childish, but he better have a damn good excuse for talking to me the way he did earlier. I might be easy to forgive, but I never forget.

Colin brought over two beers and greeted me with a nod before making a drink for someone else. It was pretty busy tonight, as it usually was around 8 pm.

Owen handed me one of the beers, "Before you get even angrier, I just want you to know nothing that happened today was personal. I had just woken up when Barry texted me about Charlie and when I got there, my boss Hoskins was up my ass about damn paperwork and then I saw that ACU guy with the gun pointed at Charlie and I lost it. He clearly didn't know how to tame her or what he was doing. He was just scaring the shit out of her. Also, Dr. Collier and Dr. Sanchez are the only two people who've worked on my raptors before and I still thought you were a trainee."

"Okay, so I understand. I'm glad you feel better now, but that didn't even sound halfway like an apology." I said bluntly.

"That was my apology." Owen said. I raised my brows. There was no way that was an apology, nor was I accepting it.

"That was an explanation, not an apology." I said, looking at him, showing him that I wasn't going to back off until he either apologized or just left, whichever came first.

"Alright. I'm sorry." He finally said, giving in. Even though it was forced, it still sounded genuine.

I smirked, "Now, was that so hard?"

Owen rolled his eyes and drank his beer in response. I scanned the bar, hearing a group of cheers coming over from the pool tables. There was a group of people surrounding one and a group had just left the other one, so it was now free.

"You any good at pool?" I asked. Owen raised his brows.

"I play from time to time."

"Come on!" I said, getting him off his feet. He was reluctant, but I pulled him along with me anyway. "So, I win you have to wear a blow-up dinosaur costume to work one day…"

"Where are you gonna get one of those?" he asked curiously.

"Lachlan has one." I laughed, he nodded hesitantly.

"Alright. Fine. What do I get if I win?"

"Well, do you have any ideas?" I asked, leaning on the pool stick.

"I get to take you out again." he proposed. I thought about it for a second and smiled.

"Sounds good to me, you're goin' down Owen!"

"We'll see about that," he chuckled.

I won the first game, so of course he said it was just a warm-up game and that it "didn't count". I gave it to him and we played another game.

So there I was, one ball left away from winning the game. We were having so much fun, part of me actually wanted to lose so I'd be able to see him again… but my competitive side kicked in. I got the ball in and won the game.

"I guess you really don't play pool that much, huh?" I smirked.

"You just got lucky!" Owen laughed. There it was, that laugh. I didn't get it very often, but when I did, it was hard to miss it.

I laughed and looked at the clock on the wall - it was almost 11. "Jeez, is it really that late? I'm going to be on call starting at 3 in the morning, so I have to turn in. We'll do this again sometime?"

"Yeah, we'll see," Owen said, taking a sip of his beer. "Have a good night."

Even though he said "we'll see", I didn't take it personally. He was probably trying to act all cool since he lost twice and his ego was burned a little.

"Don't think you're off the hook about the dino costume, I'll give it to you tomorrow when I see you!" I called on my way out, leaving Owen shaking his head, trying to hide the small smile on his lips, but he wasn't fooling me.