What? It's over? Noooooo! It's really sad to post this. I'm going to miss this story. I hope this epilogue satisfies any lingering questions you had.
Epilogue
It was almost seven weeks to the day before Claire stepped foot back on Nublar.
While Sorna may have been used the most recently, the majority of the dinosaurs had remained on Nublar, making it the leading contender for where to set up base to deal with the latest fallout. It hadn't actually taken all that much work to set up a secure area for personnel there, as many of the old fences were still in place and most of the bunkers were in good condition. They had been able to get the rest of the systems back online pretty easily. Not that they were running at full capacity, but the park had been designed to handle over twenty-five thousand individuals per day and now there were only about twenty.
The past seven weeks had been a whirlwind that centered primarily on a lot of press events. While Lowery's video of Claire's confrontation with Wu had gone viral, it paled in comparison to the number of views and retweets of her video showing the dinosaurs in their small paddocks on Sorna. Claire had been right – the events were just what the DPG needed to get the funds pouring in again. And this time, it wasn't just small money individual donors. They had multiple companies coming forward with large donations, wanting to get in on the free press. Add in the investors who were now clamoring for her time, wanting to see how they could make the DPG successful and financially sound, and Claire had barely had a moment to breathe.
She'd made it a point (although it was also a necessity) to keep on top of what was happening on Sorna and Nublar, checking in every day with Zia and Owen. She'd sent them care packages, as neither had headed to the island with any thoughts of still being there seven weeks later.
So far, they'd moved all the dinosaurs back to Nublar, including capturing the loose Baryonyx. They had also set up some motion-sensitive cameras across Sorna, hoping to detect if there were any other loose dinosaurs on the island. The Baryonyx, they'd found out, had actually been one of the first dinosaurs Wheatley and his crew had transported from Nublar. They hadn't perfected their method yet, and it had woken up and gotten loose between the dock and the compound. After a couple of days of unsuccessfully tracking it down, they had decided a loose dinosaur on the island would probably work in their favour if they ended up with any unsuspecting visitors.
Zia, Claire knew, was generally having the time of her life, happily capturing selfies with every dinosaur she treated. She was checking off every square on her bingo card and making sure Lowery knew it. Claire knew it wasn't all fun and games, as Blue was not the only dinosaur who was malnourished, and there had been a few that had to be put down for their own well-being. Those days had been hard on Zia.
Wheatley and his crew were in jail waiting for their trial date to be set, all up on charges of illegal animal trafficking and animal cruelty. Wheatley was also being charged with attempted murder for shooting Owen with the tranq on Nublar. Even though all documents and laptops had been seized, authorities were having trouble tracking down what, if any, communication had already occurred between Wheatley and any potential trophy hunters. It meant that everyone on Nublar was constantly on alert.
Authorities were still trying to decide what to do with InGen, Wu and his scientists. The Gene Guard Act, which had been originally relaxed for Jurassic World, had been put back in place after the Jurassic World incident. The latest experiments that had been occuring on Sorna were found to be in violation of the act. It gave authorities a starting point, and they were trying to figure out just how many charges they could lay. They had been waiting for the eggs on Sorna to hatch, to determine if any of those would qualify as violations.
Claire felt a little bad for Benjamin Lockwood, as the more details were unravelled around Mills involvement, the more clear it became that Mills had made some seriously bad investments over the years. Lockwood was now hovering around the edge of bankruptcy and Mills had been placing all his eggs in the Sorna-Wu basket. She only felt a little bad though, because she believed Lockwood should've had more oversight on Mills operation, especially since it was coming out that Mills had been in contact with Hoskins about the IBRIS project. This had all been building for a long time.
She had no sympathy for Mills, or Lockwood's little flunky as she now called him – although only in her head or with Owen. She knew it was going to be a struggle to pin much of the illegal operations on Mills, as he'd managed to put some distance between himself and his actual contributions, but she hoped they would be able to lock him away for a while. At the very least, his reputation was in ruins.
Trying to capitalize on their viral videos and direct the enthusiasm in productive ways, Lowery had been very busy leading the media strategy, running the social media accounts, and coming up with creative ways for people to feel like they were part of the process, not just blindly handing over money. Once the operation on Nublar had picked up and they'd got the internet connection re-established (Verizon had been all over being a part of that), he had set up various livestreams. Then, along with a couple of the interns, he worked to pull out the most interesting clips they could use to highlight what was happening on the island. He'd tried (and failed) to get Owen to narrate some videos about the various dinosaurs, especially one on Blue.
Owen. She definitely hadn't expected that when they'd finally start exchanging I love you's, that most of them would be happening via text message. One of the first things she'd managed to get to him was a phone. He'd been surprisingly willing to keep it on him, this time. But, maybe that had to do with the fact that there were less than ten people who knew his new number. And she knew he was trying to make sure things went differently this time. That they communicated. She was, too. He'd send her pictures from his day, and updates on how things were going, including requests for her to get rid of a couple of the people who had been sent to the island that he didn't like. She'd vent about the meetings she'd gone to, and the various people she'd had to shake hands and pretend to be happy to interact with. In the evenings, they'd try to touch base with video calls, but those were short, both exhausted from their days.
As she climbed out of the helicopter, she was surprised to realize there were butterflies in her stomach. Since when did meeting up with Owen make her so nervous? Their conversations had been going well, and they both were eager to be back in the same place again. As much as she'd have prefered they'd both been in the same place these past seven weeks, she actually thought it had probably done them both good to not be. They were actually talking. Maybe that's why she was nervous – not sure if or how things would change now that they would be together again. Not that she wanted to only talk…
Stepping away from the whirling blades, she was greeted with a fierce hug by Zia. She hugged her back tightly, before pulling back, her gaze sweeping across the area.
"He's not here," Zia confirmed, as she came up empty, Owen nowhere in sight.
"I'm not–" Claire blushed, cutting herself off.
"Of course you are," Zia laughed and hugged her friend again, before moving beside her directing her away from the helicopter. "He wanted to be. But some of the eggs are hatching."
"Wait, then why are you here?" Claire looked at her friend. "You can't tell me that you don't want to be watching the eggs hatch. And, aren't you the lead vet? Shouldn't you be there?"
"I do and I should," Zia agreed, approaching a park Jeep and climbing into the drivers side. "We're going right there. I told Owen they wouldn't hatch before you got here. That he had time to come meet you. He disagreed."
Claire held on tight to the door, watching the scenery almost fly by. "Considering our speed, I'm guessing you're not 100% confident you were right."
"I was right. I am right," Zia gave her a quick glance. "I just… I really don't want to be wrong."
It was only a couple of minutes later that they pulled up at main lab building, Zia screeching the jeep to a halt before leaping out of it. Not wanting to hold her friend up, Claire was barely a half step behind, as they tore up the stairs and into the building. As they got close to the lab, Zia slowed to a normal pace, and put on a relaxed smile as she entered the room.
"Told you we'd be back in time," Zia stated proudly, coming to a stop beside the egg nest, happily noting that all four eggs were still intact, one of them just starting to show cracks.
"Yeah? And how fast did you drive?" Owen raised an eyebrow at her, before looking past her to see Claire. "Claire!" He moved away from the eggs, not stopping until he had enveloped her in a hug. She tilted her head up just as he dropped his down, both having eagerly awaited this moment. Claire moved to deepen the kiss, only to be interrupted by Zia's exclamation.
"Oh, I see a claw!"
Owen immediately shifted, arms still around Claire, but gaze now over on the eggs. Claire gave him another quick hug, before gently shoving him away. "Go watch."
Owen turned back to her, hopeful expression warring with regret on his face. "Are you sure…? I don't have to be here."
"We've got time," Claire pushed him lightly again.
"Yeah?" Owen said, a grin spreading across his face. "How long are you here for?"
"To be determined," Claire shrugged. "I can do a lot of my work from here now. Lowery's holding down the fort at HQ."
Owen couldn't help himself, arms wrapping around her again, as he met her for a quick kiss. "Best news ever," he claimed, before pulling her with him back to the eggs.
They stood beside Zia, arms wrapped around each other, watching the baby dinosaur arm fight the egg shell in its attempt to break through, getting a glimpse of a small eye within.
"Hey, does that look like a raptor?"
Well... that's all folks. :)
If you made it this far, please let me know what you thought of it.
Once you've done that, go check out The Missing Years - what really happened between JW and FK? The prologue will be posted soon (once ffn lets us!), but you need to look for our new author account - EliseCollier-akaJB. FFN really doesn't make it easy to collaborate with others. :( Make sure you follow that account/story to get updates.
Oh - and a new angst heavy snapshot coming soon too. :)