Chapter 22

Summary:

Alise and Owen are butting heads a little bit now that they've moved in together, but it's nothing they can't work through. They talk about something they've never talked about before: marriage and kids. Alise hopes her five-year plan is going to change and that Owen will be a part of it, while Owen makes his own five-year plan, which surprises Alise.

"You used all the damn hot water again," I groaned as I walked out onto the deck wearing a towel wrapped around my body and one wrapped around my hair. "It's like showering in ice water - no, that's exactly what it is. Showering in ice water," I said, looking at where he was sitting near his bike, tinkering with it. "I swear, you take longer showers than me." The warm breeze on my cold, wet skin caused a shiver down my spine.

"You look sexy in just a towel." He smirked.

I groaned, "Owen, I'm being serious. You need to fix the water heater or take less time showering." It has already been a month and a half of living with this. I hated when my shower was cold, it just disrupted my whole day.

"I'll get to it," He shrugged, seeming detached like every other time I've told him about this. I've complained to him about it for the past couple of weeks. I let it go for a month, but I couldn't handle it anymore.

I rolled my eyes. "You keep saying that."

"You're pretty sexy when you're angry," he smirked. I looked at him and groaned, rolling my eyes again. I could never win a damn argument because he'd pull that out and we'd most likely end up in bed 5 minutes later. Not this time. I won't let it. "Alright, I'll fix it." He said after realizing I was not messing around anymore. I just stared at him. "Right now." He smiled.

"Good boy." I smiled, turning around to walk into the bungalow.

"You still look sexy in that towel!" he called after me. I smirked, letting it fall by my feet. I glanced back at him as I walked towards the bedroom. I smirked again when I heard footsteps walking up the porch steps and the door close behind him.

Don't get this confused. This isn't him winning the argument. The second we're done he's fixing that damn water heater.

x x x

The rest of that day we spent relaxing around the bungalow (and by relaxing I mean he brought me to pound town multiple times). Of course, he fixed the water heater too, so I won that argument. The next day we had to go back to real life and back to work.

My eyes fluttered open the next morning when I felt little circles being traced on my bare shoulder. The sound of Owen's heartbeat filled my ears as I glanced at the time: 6:08 am. No doubt Owen was awake and the sun was peeking through the horizon. I turned my head to look at him.

"Morning," I said groggily, kissing his chin.

"Mornin' sleepy head," He kissed my forehead and I smiled, looking at the sunrise. I was looking for a few minutes before remembering that Aspen was supposed to send me her ultrasound pictures for her baby and she just told me last night that she was pregnant.

I grabbed my phone and looked at them. "Awww look at it!" I said, showing Owen the pictures. He just smiled and nodded. "I can't believe Aspen is pregnant. When we were kids we always thought I'd be the one having the baby first." I laughed.

"Why's that?" Owen asked softly.

"She hates kids. Or at least she did. She's gonna love her baby, more than anything."

He chuckled, "I would hope so."

I smiled and looked at him as the thought popped in my head. We never really talked about kids, just that we wanted to have them. We never talked specifics. Maybe now would be the right time to mention it, I mean I could easily slip it in and we are pretty serious.

"How many kids do you want?" I asked.

"Two." He said firmly and quickly.

I laughed, "You're pretty firm on that."

"Two seems like a good number. Three is off balance and four would be a lot to handle. But obviously, I could do it, if the situation presented itself." He said.

"You know how to handle four raptors, but kids are a completely different ball game." I laughed.

"Yeah, but at least our baby wouldn't eat me if I forget to feed it." He said. I couldn't help but smile like an idiot when he said 'our', I'm sure it was a slip-up, but still.

I bit my lip so he wouldn't notice my idiotic grin. "No, but there would be lots of crying, especially if you forget to feed it." I pointed out.

"I wouldn't let that happen. I'll train it not to cry." He said.

"Good luck with that," I laughed, then thought. "You better not even think about using that damn clicker."

Owen chuckled, "We'll see." He said under his breath.

"No, not "we'll see", it's a no." I couldn't help but laugh. Owen chuckled and looked back at the sunrise and so did I. It was so peaceful.

"What about you? How many kids do you want?" he asked after a few moments.

"Two seems like a nice number. They'll watch each other's backs and annoy the shit out of each other, it'd be good for them." I said, thinking about Lowery and me.

"So, you have your five-year plan to be out of here because you want to have kids, but where does marriage fall in with that?" He asked. We've never talked about marriage either, and we might not have been dating for that long, but if he asked me, I'd say yes in a heartbeat.

"Well, I definitely want to be married before I have children. I don't really know where it falls in, I guess I know when the time is right, you know?" Owen nodded and I decided to push, maybe this was him wondering if I'd marry him? "What about you? When does marriage fall into "Owen Grady's five-year plan"?" I said, putting it in air quotes because I know he doesn't have one.

"I'll know," he said confidently as he nodded. "When the time's right."

I just smiled at him and looked back at the sun that was coming over the horizon, hoping that he thought the time would be right with me… soon.

x x x

I didn't go back to sleep after that. I was too excited about Aspen's baby and the conversation Owen and I just had, plus I had to be at work at 9 am and it was currently 7 and I needed to leave the bungalow by 8:40 the latest to be there on time. After the sun was up, we still kept talking, or I did rather. I was in the middle of telling him about how Lowery still won't ask Vivian out, even though he talks about her like every day.

"I mean, I don't know what more I can do. He just needs to ask her out already." I sighed, waiting to see if he'd have any input on it, except he was quiet. Like he has been for as long as I've been rambling. "Owen, are you even listening to me?" I asked after a long pause. I looked up at him, his eyes were closed and his mouth was hung open and his breathing was heavier and louder.

He opened his eyes, raising his brows as he looked down at me. "Sorry," he mumbled, clearly half asleep. "You kept me up pretty late last night," he smirked.

"Hey, you're the one that asked if I was ready to go again, so it's your fault," I laughed. Owen shrugged, closing his eyes again. "Fine, you sleep. I'm gonna take a shower and make breakfast." I said, getting out of bed. He mumbled something inaudible as he rolled over on his side. I laughed, shaking my head as I headed for the bathroom.

x x x

I made it into the office at 9 am on the dot with coffee in hand. Dr. Collier was sitting at his desk, shuffling through papers when I walked in.

"Ah, Alise. Just the person I wanted to talk to," he said, dropping the papers on his desk. He seemed overwhelmed with all of them and like he just gave up. He hated paperwork, which is why I was there to help him with it.

"Need me to do some paperwork?" I asked, my brow raised.

"No, no. We hired a new assistant for that," he said. I gulped, did that mean they didn't need me to be an assistant anymore? My mind immediately went to the possibility of me being fired. But I didn't do anything wrong? "Sit down," he said, pointing to the seat in front of his desk. I hesitantly did so. "With the growing number of dinosaurs on the island, Dr. Sanchez and I want to make our team bigger, bring another doctor and assistants on board. I immediately thought of you for the role of doctor and you've been showing me through your work that you are more than capable to take on that role. Is that a role you'd be interested in?" he asked.

I immediately let out a sigh of relief and my face lit up. "Of course, that would be great. Thank you so much."

"Of course, Dr. Cruthers. I have a new schedule for you, the doctor's schedule. Your position starts today, I hope that's not a problem." he smiled.

"Not at all. This is going to be great!" I couldn't hold back my excitement as I smiled. Dr. Collier laughed and smiled, handing me my schedule.

"You're on your own today. If you need anything, Dr. Sanchez and I are here as always. Here's also a list of to dos now that you're a doctor." he handed me another sheet of paper.

"Great, I'll look it over and get started." I smiled, glancing it over. I knew the job description of the doctor, heck, I was doing almost all of this stuff before, way more than any other assistant was allowed to do. I was just happy and excited that I was finally going to be referred to as a doctor (aside from Dr. Collier, who always referred to me as a doctor in a professional environment).

This was amazing. I can't wait to tell Owen or Lucy… or Lowery, or Lachlan or Aspen and my mom. Hell, I couldn't wait to tell everyone.

x x x

A couple of weeks later, on October 23rd, it was our 8 month anniversary and Owen said he had a surprise for me and to be ready by 6 pm. He told me to dress up in one of those cocktail dresses that he really likes, so I went with dark blue lace at the top and fit and flare skirt that I got specifically for this occasion, so he's never seen it before and I know he'll love it.

"Babe, are you ready?" I heard Owen's voice call from the living room, just as I was finishing putting on my black heels.

"Yes, coming!" I said, grabbing my clutch and walking out. He stood in the living room with his mouth hung open. "Earth to Owen, pretty sure you're drooling," I said, waving my hand in front of his face and laughing.

"You just look beautiful…" he said, smiling at me.

"You don't look too bad yourself," I said, folding the collar of his light blue dress shirt. I leaned up and pecked his lips, not having to do much reaching because of the small heel I was wearing. I'd most definitely end up carrying them by the end of the night, but they go with the dress so well. No pain, no gain.

"You have a jacket? It might get a little chilly," he said.

"Ooo, still no hints of where you're taking me?" I asked as I went back into the closet, which he made bigger using the van that's attached to the bungalow. I couldn't fit any of my stuff in there, so he made it bigger for me, which was sweet of him.

"Nope, my lips are sealed," he said as I walked back out.

I hummed, "Hmm, too bad, I was really hoping they'd be open," I said, biting my lip as I stood in front of him. It was lame, I know. But I couldn't help it.

"Very funny, but we have a boat to catch so there's no time for that," he said, then he cringed.

"Ah, so there's a hint! We're going to the mainland!" I exclaimed, smiling.

"I dunno, we'll see. Let's go," he said, grabbing his leather jacket and pulling me out of the bungalow and to his bike before I could get any more hints out of him.

x x x

"Wow, you really outdid yourself, Owen. This is amazing," I said, looking around at the setup. There was a secluded table set up on the beach with firefly lights surrounding the perimeter and it was lit up beautifully. There was a path leading up to the restaurant where a waiter would pop by here and there, but other than that it was fairly cut off from the rest of the world and very private.

"Sorry it wasn't much of a surprise and that it took 2 months for it to happen," he laughed lightly.

"It was a bit of a surprise, I forgot about it to be honest," I said. Although on the boat ride here I remembered what he said he had planned and wondered if this was going to be what our 6 month was supposed to be.

"Are you sure about that? You remember everything?"

"I don't remember everything…" I said, taking a sip of the white wine they served, which I didn't mind. I liked white wine, just not as much as I like tequila. Owen had a whiskey on the rocks, he usually doesn't do wine unless if he's forced. Obviously we'd both prefer tequila, but this was a fancy restaurant and we wanted to at least act classy. "But no, you're right. I remembered." I laughed.

Owen chuckled, "I thought so."

"Although, our 6 month anniversary was the day I kicked Kira out and the day you asked me to move in with you, so that's still good in my book." I smiled.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I also remember having incredible sex that night, too," he smirked.

I raised my brows, "Well if you keep all of this up, it's gonna be even better tonight. I still have a present to give you later, too." I winked.

"Careful with that mouth, I might need to punish you for it later," he said sternly.

"Punish me with what? Your cock?" I asked, smirking. My voice hushed even though there was no one around.

Owen thought, "Tempting, but I was thinking you need a little spanking. And I won't give you anything until you beg for it." he said. I bit my lip, drawing in a breath. All of the heat rushed between my thighs. He was always so good a dirty talk, especially in public places, it was a real turn on.

"I'm about to flip this table over and have you fuck me right here," I started, but then my stomach growled. "But I'm really looking forward to the swordfish, so that'll have to wait 'til we get home," I said, mentally cursing my stomach for always getting in the way. Owen laughed, then I thought about what he said. "And we'll really see who's begging for it. I know you can't resist my p-"

"-here you are," the waiter said, cutting me off. He put each of our dishes in front of us and I could see that he was trying his best not to laugh and that his cheeks were flushed. "Can I get you anything else?"

"No, we're good, thanks," Owen said, the waiter nodded and rushed off.

"He totally heard all of that," I said, my cheeks flushing. Owen just laughed and nodded, agreeing with me. "Don't laugh at me, you dick." I said.

"Why don't you try your swordfish? It looks really good." he said, cutting into his steak. I could tell he was trying to get me to shut up and I could have totally argued with him, but my stomach growled again and I gave in because the swordfish looked amazing.

x x x

After dinner and dessert, we decided to walk on the beach. I loved the smell of the salt water and the sand between my toes. As predicted, I gave up on walking in my heels and they were now in my hand.

"Tonight was amazing Owen. I know it's not really your style, but thank you," I said, looking over at him. Fancy dinners aren't one of his favorite things, it's probably his least favorite thing, but I didn't mind being spoiled here and there and it was nice that he could do that for me.

"I'm glad you liked it. I have one more surprise for you," he said, stopping.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" I asked, looking back at him.

Owen looked behind me and up at the sky. "Do you see how big the moon is tonight?" he said. I was a little confused, but I looked up and behind me anyway.

"Wow, it is," I smiled, turning back around to look at him. Now he was kneeling on the ground on one knee. "What are you- Oh my god," I said, realizing exactly what he was doing as he opened the black velvet box.

"Shit. I'm terrible at these things, but before I met you, I was stuck and I wasn't living my life. I was stuck doing the same thing over and over again. You taught me how to live my life and have fun. I love you more than anything in this world and you make me a better man and I can't thank you enough. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So, Alise Grace Cruthers, will you marry me?" he asked, looking up at me with hope in his eyes.

"Yes, of course!" I said, tears filling up my eyes as he slid the ring on my finger. At this point, I had already dropped my shoes in the sand. I grabbed his face lightly and pulled him up, kissing his lips. "I love you so much."

Owen smiled, pressing our foreheads together. "I love you too, more than anything." he kissed me again. When we pulled away, I smiled and looked at the ring. It was a simple rose gold band with a circular diamond in the middle, with other little diamonds surrounding it.

"It's beautiful. Did Claire help you pick it out?" I joked.

"Nope. This one was all me," he said.

"Well, I love it. It's perfect," I said, admiring it, then I looked up at Owen and kissed him again. I was so incredibly happy with this man, in this moment in time and with my life. Nothing could ever get better than this.