Claire pulled on her hiking boots and waited for Owen by the door. Even though they'd removed all the bugs from the trailer, Claire still hated talking in there. They had found thirteen bugs in the tiny space. Thirteen! Knowing InGen had listened to every word said in the trailer made Claire's skin crawl. She hoped they listened in on the intimate stuff, too, because at least that would be uncomfortable for them to monitor.

She also wondered how long the bugs had been there. When did InGen install them? She guessed they'd snuck in at some point while she and Owen were with their lawyer fighting for Maisie. That was the only time Claire could think of when InGen would know they were out. Unless they were doing more than listening in.

Claire couldn't stand the thought.

Owen climbed out of the small bathroom and took in Claire's outfit. She put her hands on her hips as his eyes raked her body. When he started to chuckle, she covered herself with her arms. She thought she looked good in the tank top and work-out shorts, but maybe she was wrong?

"Sorry," Owen said. "I'm not laughing at you."

"Really, because it sure feels like you are."

Owen put his hands on Claire's waist. "I was actually just thinking about the moment I fell in love with you."

Claire flushed. "What?" she gasped.

"Do you remember when we got to that cliff on the island and figured out the boys jumped?"

Claire nodded. She couldn't forget anything about Jurassic World, no matter how hard she tried.

"I was set to go on without you, but you insisted on coming along. You tied up your shirt in the front and stood kind of like you were standing before, only in heels."

"Well, when I went in to work that morning, I didn't exactly plan to be chasing a dinosaur across the island."

"True. But you worked with it. You're adaptable. And that was when I realized I loved you."

Claire wasn't sure what to say. They'd shared 'I love you's' a lot over the last month, but she hadn't stopped to consider what it meant. Had Owen really loved her for that long?

"I thought it was when I hit the Pteranodon," she said.

Owen laughed. "That was a close second."

Claire lifted herself up onto the toes of her boots and kissed Owen hard. "For me, it was that day in the van. You remember which one?"

He kissed her lips, then her cheek. "I know exactly what you're talking about."

Owen took Claire's hand and led her to the still unfinished cabin. They hadn't come up with a concrete plan yet, but they knew they had to keep InGen in the loop. The bugs were now placed throughout the cabin. Owen and Claire figured they would go a few times a day to talk about trivial things, and their plans to find Blue, so that InGen didn't know they'd found the bugs. It wasn't exactly a foolproof plan, but it was all they had.

"What do you want for breakfast?" Claire asked.

Owen shrugged. "Cereal is fine."

Cereal is what they brought to the cabin. They poured two bowls of Special K and topped them off with milk.

Owen pushed the freeze-dried strawberries around. "Who puts fruit in cereal?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "It's good, just eat it."

Sighing, Owen took a bite of his cereal and was surprised to find he actually liked the taste. Who knew the 'healthier' cereal options could actually taste good?

Claire smirked. "I knew you'd like it."

He laughed. "You hoped I would."

Grocery shopping was hard when living in a trailer with a microscopic refrigerator. Their breakfast options would increase as soon as the cabin was finished – if it was ever finished – but for now, they had to settle for simple things like cereal.

Their earlier conversation weighed heavy on Claire's chest as she ate. "Owen?"

"Yeah?" he responded, his mouth full.

"Would we be together if it weren't for Maisie?"

Owen dropped his spoon into the milk-filled bowl, causing a spill. "How could you even ask me that?"

She sighed. "It's a valid question."

"I loved you before Maisie was in the picture. She's an added bonus, but she's not the only thing holding us together. Is she?"

"No, she's not. Not for me."

Owen stood and wrapped his arms around Claire's neck. "We keep having these same conversations over and over."

"I know, I'm sorry. I just… I need the reassurance."

He kissed the top of her head. "I'll keep reassuring you for as long as it takes."

Claire nodded and leaned back into Owen's hard chest. If someone had asked her after the disastrous first date with Owen, if she thought the two of them would be living together someday, she'd have laughed in their faces. And yet, that was exactly how things turned out.

"We should start tracking Blue today," Owen said after a few moments of silence. This was a part of their planned conversation. "InGen said they thought she was in the Southern California area. They gave me coordinates for the last time she was spotted. I figure we should start there."

"She won't be there anymore," Claire pointed out. "Especially if she was being followed. She'd have known they were onto her."

"True, but we might be able to track her movements from there."

"Pick up her scent?" Claire joked.

Owen nudged her shoulder. "Something like that. Are you ready to go?"

Owen's bowl sat unfinished and her own was mostly filled with soggy flakes and rehydrated strawberries. Neither of them had much of an appetite so long as Maisie was missing.

"Do you think Maisie is okay?" Claire asked, standing from the table.

"I have to believe she is," Owen said. "Without a ransom or any other threats, the only option is that Maisie is being held for science. They'll need her alive to run tests."

The thought of their sweet girl being tested made Owen and Claire angry, but it was reassuring at the same time. As long as whomever took Maisie still needed her, she would be alive. They just had to rescue her before her usefulness ran out.

Owen found two bugs in each of their cars, but they decided to leave them in place. Their strategy was vastly underdeveloped, but the most important thing was that InGen didn't know that Owen and Claire were onto them.

While they drove, Claire and Owen sang quietly along with the spotty radio and made small talk. It took less than thirty minutes for their GPS to bring them to a State Park entrance. They would have to go the rest of the way on foot.

"Up here," Owen said. "The last sighting was at the edge of the clearing."

Claire followed Owen through the grass. It was a Summer weekday, but the field was free of visitors. The new wildlife kept people away from open areas.

Owen spotted Blue's prints quickly, but the trail ended at a stream. There was no sign of tracks on the other shore.

"She's a good swimmer," Owen said, watching the flow of the slow-moving water. "I'd guess she jumped in and swam until it was safe to come out."

"Owen," Claire gasped.

He looked around. "What? Do you see her?"

Claire shuddered and struggle to calm her breathing. "Look," she whispered. She pointed to a space between trees to her right.

Owen followed Claire's finger right to a giant footprint in the mud. One far too big for a raptor.

"Is that what I think it is?" Claire asked. She grabbed Owen's shirt in fear.

"If you think it's a T-Rex print, then yeah, it's what you think it is."

They stood quietly and listened. The only sounds were rushing water and a steady breeze rustling the trees.

"I don't think she's here," Owen said.

Then, of course, they heard the roar.

"Or maybe she is."

Footsteps rushed towards them. Owen pulled Claire with him behind a bush, hoping it would hide them from the predator. Unlike Blue, the queen of the dinosaurs was behaving badly after her wild release. Unfortunately, no one had been able to catch her.

Owen carefully lifted his phone from his jeans pocket and scrolled through the contacts. Thankfully, he'd added Dr. Grant's number from the therapist's business card.

Dr. Grant answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Alan, it's Owen," he whispered. "We're kind of in a situation and we need your help. Can you meet at this location? And bring tranquilizers."

Dr. Grant didn't bother to ask what the situation was. He took down the coordinates and promised to be there as soon as possible.

The steps got closer until Owen and Claire felt the dirt beneath their feet vibrating. Their hearts raced as they each considered their options. They could try to make a run for it, but the T-Rex could run faster than them. Hiding behind a bush didn't seem any better. They couldn't stay still forever.

"We have to move," Owen concluded.

"Why would we move? She can't see us if we don't move?"

"She'll smell us."

Claire sniffed her shirt. "I don't smell! You might smell, but I don't!"

Owen rolled his eyes. "You smell like that vanilla lotion!"

"I thought you liked it?"

"I do, but it's very pungent. That's not ideal when we're running away from Tyrannosaurs."

"Fine, I'll stop wearing it," Claire said.

"I didn't say that!" he responded. "We can talk about this later. Right now, we need to move."

Claire didn't argue this time. When Owen gave the signal to follow him, she crawled behind him through the dirt. It amazed her how comfortable she'd gotten with getting dirty ever since Jurassic World. Before that day, she wouldn't be caught dead crawling through the forest. After, it became a regular part of her life. When she founded the Dinosaur Protection Group she found herself getting dirty fairly often. The people who hated what she stood for weren't afraid to let her know. Usually, they did it by throwing mud, food, or other disgusting things at the protesters.

Owen settled against the trunk of a wide tree. He looked carefully around it, but the T-Rex was nowhere in sight. She'd stopped moving, too.

"Are we safe here?"

"Probably not, but we can't move too far. Dr. Grant won't be able to find us."

"What will we do when he gets here?" Claire asked. "Kill her?"

"You know I wouldn't do that. I can't believe you even asked."

She bit her lip. "Well, what other option do we have? Tranq her long enough to get away? Then what? She continues to terrorize the country?"

Owen shushed her. "We'll figure the rest out after, but our first priority is to subdue her. Alan should be here any minute," he whispered.

"Oh, you're on a first name basis now?"

"Yes, we are. We bonded yesterday. I'm sure he'll insist you call him Alan, too."

"I met him before, remember?" Claire pointed out. She had visited his dig site in Montana a year after the park opened. She wanted him to consult with her on Jurassic World, but he refused. He said he wasn't as bad as after the Jurassic Park incident, but he wasn't ready to be face to face with dinosaurs. She wondered how he was handling the new world. Was he doing better than she was? Claire hadn't slept much in the weeks following the Lockwood incident. Even the five years after Jurassic World were spent mostly tossing and turning until sleep dragged her under. When she did fall asleep, she was plagued by nightmares.

She was just glad she hadn't woken Owen up with her thrashing around in bed. The man slept like a rock, which was good for her. One of them had to get some sleep.

"Did he tell you to call him Alan?"

Claire couldn't remember. "I don't think so."

"Well, things are different now. Shared experiences change people."

"Changed us," she responded.

Owen didn't have a chance to say anything back because the footsteps returned, this time closer. Too close for comfort.

The T-Rex was close enough that Owen and Claire could hear her breathing. She would sniff them out soon, and they'd be in trouble. She may have saved their lives on the island, but he doubted she would be so lenient this time around. Not when she was probably struggling to find sufficient meals. Owen and Claire would have been a tasty snack.

The dinosaur sniffed the air. She must have liked – or strongly disliked – what she smelled, because she charged forward again.

Her head appeared beside the tree where Claire and Owen hid. They stood absolutely still, watching the T-Rex's eye blink close enough that Claire could hear the lid slide against her slimy eye.

Then she roared.

"Run!" Owen called. Claire took off through the forest. The trees were dense enough that they got a head start on the dinosaur.

Claire dodged behind a tree and expected to hear the thundering footsteps following her, but the woods were silent. "Did we lose her?" Claire asked.

"That's not possible," Owen said. "Where did she go?"

"You look like you could use a hand," a voice called from a few hundred feet back. Owen sighed, relieved. The T-Rex was going to find them, but now they had weapons to fend her off.

"Your timing is excellent, Dr. Grant."

Alan ran to their tree and handed Owen and Claire each a tranquilizer gun. "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. My weapons were hidden away. Haven't had much use for them."

"You're here now, and that's what matters," Claire said.

"Claire Dearing, right?" Dr. Grant said, shaking her hand. "It's nice to see you again."

"You, too, Dr. Grant."

"Please, call me Alan," he said. Owen gave her a look which she ignored.

Owen checked around the tree again. He spotted the T-Rex a few trees away. Why wasn't she following them? "What's the plan?" he asked.

"Our only hope is to catch her off guard. We all open fire. It'll take a few of these babies to knock her out. I've got some friends coming in to help us after she's subdued."

Claire and Owen were relieved that Alan had made a plan. They were tired of coming up with things on their own. Maisie took up so much of their brains that they weren't sure they had it in them to evade the Tyrannosaur.

"Do we have a clear shot from here, Owen?" Alan asked.

Owen peeked around the tree again, expecting to see the T-Rex in her same hiding place. Instead, he came face to face with a Tyrannosaur only a few feet taller than him.

"What the hell?" he shouted. He immediately opened fire, knowing it would anger the mother. He had no choice, though. The young dinosaur was too close for comfort.

Alan and Claire took Owen's firing as their cue and were both shocked to find the baby instead of the mother.

"How is there a baby?" Claire screamed. The T-Rex fell to the ground after a few shots landed in her thick skin. "There's only one T-Rex!"

"On Sorna, they learned to breed on their own, but here… Wait a second, do you see that?"

Owen and Claire looked where Alan was pointing. The baby wore a collar with a B logo.

"That's Biosyn," Owen said. "I saw their logo when we were researching them yesterday. Dammit, they made a T-Rex! And released him!"

"How do you know it's a boy?"

Owen pointed, and Claire nodded. Definitely a boy.

A boy whose mother was very, very angry with them.

She charged from her position, giving the group only seconds to open fire. They shot as many rounds as they could get off. Luckily, they managed to hit the T-Rex enough times to knock her out. She landed beside the young T-Rex with a thud.

"She was protecting her baby," Claire marveled. "Not even her baby, really. They likely share no DNA. She recognized the species and… well, adopted him." The T-Rex had stopped chasing them because they were far enough away from her son. She only started her pursuit again because the baby got curious and they shot him down.

Owen was amazed that the giant creature showed such compassion for the young one. She was like a mother bear protecting her cub even though, like Claire pointed out, they weren't related.

It reminded Owen of what Claire was willing to do to get Maisie back. What he was willing to do to get her back. Owen never thought he would identify with a tyrannosaur, but they had a surprising lot in common, apparently.

Alan pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "We're going to need two cages," he told the person on the other end. "There's a baby."

"What are you going to do with them? We can't send the baby back to the lab. Why would they release him in the first place?"

"I'd guess they heard there was a female out in the wild and they wanted to see if she would protect the baby or attack it. They're probably monitoring him."

Claire teared up. "How could they do this? What if she'd killed him?"

Owen rubbed her back. "They're safe now."

"What are you going to do with them?" she asked again.

Alan holstered his gun. "It's too dangerous for her to be here. The others, even the raptor, they're okay, but the T-Rex? She can't stay around all these people. I've arranged for her, and now the baby, to be transported to the island."

"But the island was destroyed by the Volcano. They won't survive."

"Not that island," Alan told her. "Sorna. Not all of the dinosaurs were removed for placement in the new park, and like I said, they learned to procreate. They'll survive there."

Claire didn't bother wiping at her tears. "Really? They'll be okay?"

"I promise, Claire."

She'd been promised the dinosaurs' safety before, but Eli Mills wanted to sell them. Somehow, she knew she could trust Alan, though. He wouldn't lie to them, and he wouldn't traffic the dinosaurs.

"How will they get there?" Claire asked.

Alan smiled. "A friend of mine, her son is in the Navy now. He owes me a favor or twenty. He promised the dinosaurs safe travels to Sorna."

"Thank you," she said. She couldn't help herself – she pulled Alan into a hug.

"These dinosaurs didn't ask to be brought back. The least we can do is protect them now that they're here."

Claire still truly believed that the de-extinction of the dinosaurs was a miracle, but more and more she bought into Dr. Malcolm's ideology. Just because they could do it didn't mean they should have.

The dinosaurs slept soundly until the Navy arrived with iron cages and transport vehicles. Claire dared to pet the baby before they loaded him up. His skin was smooth and cool, just like his adoptive mother's. She shuddered to remember the night she took blood from the T-Rex. Was that really only a month earlier? It felt like a lifetime ago. Claire unlatched the Biosyn tracker from the baby's head. He would truly be free now.

Owen, Claire, and Alan watched as the Navy towed the two dinosaurs away.

"Not exactly like their usual missions, but Charlie Degler will take good care of those animals. Don't you worry, Claire."

"Charlie Degler? Why does that name sound familiar?" Claire asked, trying to place it in her brain.

"He's Ellie Degler's son."

Claire's eyes widened. "Ellie Degler. Dr. Sattler?"

"The one and only."

Claire hadn't met Dr. Sattler, but she'd read all about her. She'd been at the original Park with Alan, but after the incident, she put some distance between herself and the dinosaurs. Claire wondered how she did it. Would Claire ever be able to do the same? She didn't think so.

"That's incredible," Owen said. "Thank her, and Charlie, for us. Please."

Alan smiled. "Will do. I'm glad you called me, Owen."

"I'm glad you showed up," he said. He shook Alan's hand and laughed. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"You have my number if you need me again," Alan told them. He shook Claire's hand as well. "For dinosaurs, for Maisie, or just to talk."

"Thank you again," Owen called. The man disappeared through the woods, leaving Owen and Claire to catch their breath.

"That was close," Owen said. Claire only nodded.

How many more times could she be almost eaten by a dinosaur before the giant creatures finally won? She knew she had to fight back and get Maisie, but how much more could she take?

Claire wasn't sure, and she hoped that after they found Blue, she could final get some peace and quiet.

At the very least, not have a dinosaur try to eat her in real life, or her dreams, for a while.