Beyond the Sun: Prologue
Full Summary
19 years after the incident that shocked the globe at Jurassic World, Owen and Claire are blindsided when their 18-year-old daughter goes to Isla Nublar to study the dinosaurs up-close and personal. Of course, she lies about it and told them she's doing a summer internship abroad and they buy into it… for now.
After being there for a couple of weeks, she goes on an excursion to Site B for research purposes, but when their boat breaks down and communication is cut, she's thrown out into the jungles of Isla Sorna and she uncovers more than she bargained for.
It doesn't take long before Claire and Owen find out where she really is and they stop at nothing to bring her back. Even if that means stepping foot on the island they vowed never to go to again.
AU where Claire and Owen were younger, 24 and 26, when Jurassic World took place and had a daughter named Charlie right after the incident. Fallen Kingdom never took place.
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Charlie Dearing-Grady only ever wanted one thing in life and that was to see and study a dinosaur in person. Her father, Owen Grady, was in animal behaviors and trained raptors. Her mother, Claire Dearing, oversaw park operations and once saved thousands of lives by using a simple flare to lure a T-Rex into fighting the Indominus, which ultimately became the fall of Jurassic World.
Charlie was always curious about everything growing up, especially dinosaurs. Stories of the dinosaurs her parents once worked with were the bedtime stories that lulled her to sleep. Even the scariest of dinosaurs never scared her, she had both her mother and father's courage. She'd always ask about the dinosaurs whenever she had the chance, specifically the Velociraptors her dad trained. One would think Blue would be her favorite, but she liked Echo the most. Echo was rebellious, challenging authority (Blue) and Charlie always had a rebellious streak in her, something her parents noticed from her from a young age.
She wasn't a bad child, per se. But she's been to the principal's office a handful of times in elementary school. Whenever she would walk into the office with her hands behind her back, sucking on the inside of her cheek, she'd give the principal an innocent look and all he'd do was sigh and say: "What happened this time, Charlie?".
It was all innocent. Talking too much in class, (mostly about dinosaurs, she was dubbed as the 'Dinosaur Geek'), being fidgety because really, who cared about how many chocolate bars you gave your friend and how many you had left. She'd look outside the window each class, getting carried away by thoughts of being in the jungles of Jurassic World and meeting all sorts of dinosaurs (the nice ones, of course. She's even talked to them in her dreams). Instead of imaginary human friends, she had 4 imaginary pets when she was younger: Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. Claire blamed Owen for that, but Owen found it adorable that her imaginary friends were the raptors he once considered his own daughters.
Middle school was the worst time for her. Middle school is the worst for anyone in general. She begged her parents to homeschool her on multiple occasions, but they weren't having it. No one would be home to help her anyway. They were both working parents, Claire had her own job working as the Regional Director of the Parks and Recreation Department for San Francisco, while Owen worked animal behaviors in the San Francisco Zoo. And there was absolutely no room for them to be homeschooling a child.
Being dubbed as the 'Dinosaur Geek' turned into the 'Dinosaur Freak' in middle school. She was made fun of constantly and it wasn't a secret what her parents did at Jurassic World, so somehow the bullies would find a way to bring that into it. They'd even go as far as to say Charlie's parents should have been eaten up by the dinosaur, then Charlie would never have been born and the world would be a better place without her. Charlie knew that wasn't true, but she still suddenly stopped talking about dinosaurs for a year, which puzzled her parents, who figured she just grew out of it. Until one day, in 7th grade, she met the new girl, Ella Conley, who was bullied just as much as she was, just for being the "new girl". Charlie and Ella became inseparable after that.
In 8th grade, Charlie got summer suspension. It was the last day of school and one of the bullies, Louise McKinney, threatened to hurt Ella and went as far as to break the necklace her father gave her (who passed away just a year before), so Charlie punched that little brat in the face. At first, Claire was the furious one. Owen was secretly proud of his little girl for sticking up for herself, or even better - a friend. When Charlie explained to the situation to them and they got a better handle on it, knowing that this girl was bullying their daughter and her friend, they let up a bit on her. For the whole 3 years of being in middle school, Charlie kept the bullying a secret, up until that day.
High school was different. High school was bigger, Charlie and her bulliers barely crossed paths again, and even when they did, they were all too self-conscious about themselves because Charlie grew 2 cup sizes, while they were still in their training bras. It's crazy how something that little effects a teenager so much.
So while in high school, the big question is 'What are you going to do after high school? What are you going to go to college for?', Charlie always knew what she would do. If Jurassic World still existed, she'd be a Paleo-veterinarian, hands down. But since that wasn't the case, she wanted to do Paleontology, with animal behaviors or animal biology as a minor, similar to what her dad does now. She figured that it'd be a good plan if dinosaurs did ever pop up again (which she was sure they would, eventually), she clung onto that hope - secretly, of course, her parents would be the first to shatter her dreams because they prayed it would never happen again.
Charlie didn't go through what they did and even though she's heard the stories, she's still naive. She's only 18-years-old after all, everyone's a bit naive at that age. Even if they don't want to admit it.
That's why when she saw a paper on her cousin, Gray's desk at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he was a professor and she was a first-year student. The paper was an official letter from InGen about a program called 'InGen Student Scholars' where Gray had to select 2 students to go to the island of Isla Nublar and help study dinosaurs, up-close and in person. The reason they selected Gray was that he started working at UW - Madison 5 years ago and 3 years ago he created the major Paleontology, which was one of his double majors (along with Anthropology) and he got his degrees at University of Michigan 7 years ago. He was approached about this a week ago and had another month to select his students. It seemed dodgy to Gray, which is why he thought he buried it under a bunch of papers on his desk, especially after knowing Charlie would be visiting his office and he had to hide it from her prying eyes.
Charlie wasn't snooping, per se. She arrived at Gray's office and he texted her, telling her he was running late in a meeting and that he'd be there in 10 minutes, so she sat at his comfy office chair and made herself comfortable. She slouched down in it and looked around, whistling to herself, just like her father always does. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a paper that was sticking out of order under a neat pile of other papers waiting to be graded. Gray was so precise and organized, so a paper sticking out of place like that sparked her attention. She slipped it out, careful not to disturb the pile on top of it and skimmed it.
Her eyes widened as she read the words 'experiential learning opportunity for gifted scholars interested in dinosaurs from the Triassic, Cretaceous and Jurassic period through the InGen Student Scholars program'. She couldn't believe what she was reading. She never heard anything about this program before and she wondered why Gray had been sitting on this and for how long? How could he not tell her something like this?
Quickly, she logged into Gray's computer, using his fish's name and the date he got him as the password, he was too predictable. She typed in the 'InGen Student Scholars program' and was wowed by the results. She skimmed everything quickly.
'InGen Student Scholars' was a program that was launched 2 years ago. It's an opportunity for college students to go to Isla Nublar and study the dinosaurs in their habitats and up-close and personal. The program is still in it's beginning stages, but they have already had over 80 students come to the island from all over the world to study. It's an all-expense paid program and the students will stay on the island for a month to do research for InGen. The only catch is that they have to give all of their findings to InGen researchers and there's a waiver students need to sign about the information they're not allowed to write about or talk about afterward. That last bit seemed weird to her, but she didn't think much about it because she heard the door open and she quickly exited out of the page and closed Gray's laptop, looking up at him with an innocent smile as he walked in.
"What were you doing?" Gray asked, a little hesitant. He knew by her innocent smile that something was up. Charlie thought of ways she could approach it, but she was far too impulsive and went with the easiest way.
"How did you not tell me about this?" she asked, holding the paper up to his face.
Gray sighed, taking it from her. "I couldn't." his head was down. He should have known she'd found out and he felt terrible that he didn't tell her, but as he said - he couldn't.
"Why?" Charlie asked.
"Because of what you're thinking right now. Your parents - they'd kill me. It might be dangerous. There's always a possibility of…" he trailed off, just thinking about what happened in Jurassic World gave him the chills. It was an emotional scar that'll stick with him for the rest of his life.
"Yeah and there's also a possibility of a lion getting out of a local zoo and delimbing someone. Animals are unpredictable, Gray. So are humans." Charlie said, wishing she hadn't used that analogy because her father was currently working with the big cats at the Zoo back home in SanFran. Regardless, Charlie knows how bad the incident at Jurassic World was and she wasn't taking it lightly. She was just saying this to justify her wanting to go, even if her judgment is blind at the moment. Once she gets something into her head, she can't get it out. You can thank Owen Grady for that trait.
Gray was silent, unsure of what to say. She was right and he knew it. There were so many thoughts racing through Charlie's mind, ones that would convince Gray to say 'yes', she just had to pick the right one.
"Are there hybrids on the island?" she asked, that was one of her concerns. She always wondered if maybe the Indominus wasn't made, Jurassic World would still be standing today.
Gray looked at her, wondering how she would know whether or not he knew that.
"Come on, I know you've done your research. They must have given you a pamphlet, or you asked someone. I know you'd never consider sending a student out there without knowing your facts."
"There's not," Gray was still quiet, his head down. He was never good with confrontation, especially with someone as straightforward and confrontational as Charlie. She was a perfect mix of both her parents and that was a lethal mix of stubbornness and confidence that helped her win almost every confrontation. That's usually why fights in the Dearing-Grady household were never quiet or short.
"Then I want in. What do I have to do?"
"What? Charlie - you can't-" Gray said, only to be cut off by her.
"-because my parents will kill me? If I lived a life worrying about whether or not my parents would approve of my actions, I wouldn't be living my best life. Besides, I'm 18, Gray. I don't need their permission to do anything. I'm an adult now." she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Yeah, because that'll work on your father," Gray scoffed. "They'll kill me if I let you go."
"Gray, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is what I've dreamt about since I was a kid. And it's safe. It has to be, they've gotten smarter since the last time, I would hope. As you said, there's no hybrids." she said, even though she knew the fact that there weren't any hybrids on the island wasn't the only worry Gray had.
"You're hell-bent on this, aren't you?" Gray asked, she nodded firmly and then he sighed. "Fine."
"Yes! Gray! I love you so much, you were always my favorite cousin!" Charlie said, giving him a hug. Flattery is key.
"Yeah, yeah," Gray laughed, patting her back. "What are you going to tell your parents? You'll have to be pretty convincing…"
"I've got a month to figure it out…" Charlie said, confident in herself. Gray gave her a worried look. "Don't worry about it, Gray. I'm a master of coming up with stuff like this. How do you think I went to college parties when I was in high school? Or dated boys because dad told me I couldn't 'til I was 18? Or got a tattoo?"
"You have a tattoo?" Gray's eyes widened in disbelief.
Charlie shook her head, "Shhh, it'll be fine. I got this."