JURASSIC DEAD CHAPTER 15: Recombinant

"Claire!" Captain Grady shouted as she ran off. "Wait!"

"Dad?" Owen saw his father in the doorway, looking torn between running after the redhead and staying to see him.

"Captain, please go after her." Sam asked, "I'll try to figure out what's going on here." he said as he texted Barry and Karen quickly with an update.

"I'll be right back. Call me if anything changes." the captain said as he stepped back out to go after Claire.

"Sam, what the hell is going on?" Owen asked, finding himself looking back at the door.

"Doc? Please tell me what to do here." Sam asked.

Henry sighed, "Owen? Any idea who I am?" Owen shook his head negative, not taking his eyes off the door. "I'll run some tests and check some samples. Try not to overwhelm him with too much information." he warned. "Let me go check on what I have and I'll come back with an update."

"Thanks, Doc." Sam groaned, rubbing his hand down his face. When he looked at Owen, he was still watching the door. "Owen." When he didn't get an immediate response, he snapped his fingers in front of his friend's face. "Dude. We need to figure out what's going on. You're missing a bunch of important information."

"Who was that?"

"Henry Wu. You worked with him for a while and he's been taking care of you with the military docs since we got on the carrier." Sam answered simply.

"Not him. The redhead." he responded almost softly, looking at the door again, hoping she'd come back.

"Are you remembering her?" Sam inquired, hopefully.

Owen paused for a moment, "No. Nothing yet." he said, shaking his head, "But she was beautiful..."

Sam stared at him, dumbfounded. "Are you fucking kidding me? Un-fucking-believable!" he exclaimed before he started laughing.

Owen looked even more confused and now he felt like he was missing out on some joke directed at him. "What the hell, man? None of this shit is funny."

Sam got himself under control, "I'm sorry..." he took a breath and got some last chuckles out, "It's just...only you would lose your memory and end up falling for Claire at first sight a second time."

"That's Claire?" he asked, again looking at the door and hoping to see her. "Wait...what do you mean a second time? Am I with her?"

"Let's try and start from the beginning. It'll make some sense then. I don't have all the information, but I can give you some of the basics."

"Sam, how much time am I missing right now?" Owen asked, sensing he was missing a lot as he looked down at his leg again.

"About four years." he answered simply.

"Ugh..." Owen groaned.

"We'll start with your last year with the Navy and finding yourself with a new job..."

Captain Grady didn't follow Claire immediately. He knew she'd need some space and she hated any attention on her. He was beginning to get a good understanding of his future daughter in law. After about a half an hour, he finally went to look for her. He checked the gym first, thinking she'd want to blow off some steam, but found it empty. There was only one other place they had all known she'd frequent regularly. And that's where he found her, quietly standing and talking to the two dinosaurs held on his ship.

"Claire."

"Hi Tom." she replied distantly as the raptors chirped. "Have you met the girls yet?"

"I was waiting for Owen..." he started to say, but hesitated.

"You were waiting for him to introduce you to them." she finished for him before turning back to Echo's cage and rubbing her snout through the opening. It seemed to calm them and Claire had been down with them every day since her first visit, so it had become a regular occurrence. "Gonna be difficult to do when he doesn't know who they are." she sighed.

"Claire..." he said, approaching the cage.

"This is Echo." she continued as if he hadn't spoken, "She's the sweetest of the bunch. She always listens and rarely gets into trouble like the others." she smiled. She walked over to Blue's cage and Captain Grady followed. "And this lady, is Blue. She's Owen's beta. She's been the crankier of the two. But my god, she's smart. I talk to her a lot. Both of them really, but I can really tell sometimes that Blue is listening." she shrugged, "Maybe she just smells Owen on me."

"He's going to remember." Thomas said with certainty.

"And what if he doesn't, Tom? What if he's forgotten us?" she said, rubbing Blue's nose. "I can't honestly blame him..." she laughed, but with no humor in it. "If I could forget most of the last week, I'd do it!" Blue screeched as Claire's voice got higher. "Sorry." She went back to quietly rubbing her nose. "I love your son more than anything in the world besides my own family. And I want to spend the rest of my life with him. But if forgetting everything makes this whole thing easier for him, than who am I to demand for him to remember?"

Captain Grady stood there watching her as she interacted with the raptors. "You three are the best parts of his life. He won't forget you for long."

Barry joined Sam soon after Claire had come down to the holding area. He knew she could be down there for a while and decided to check in on Owen finally. Sam had covered up until his arrival at the park and Barry started filling in the rest.

After getting over the initial shock of seeing his old friend on the carrier, Owen listened intently as Barry explained the entire raptor project and "the girls", as he himself apparently nicknamed them.

"We were finally making progress when the shit hit the fan." Barry said, frustrated.

"What happened?" Owen asked again, "Come on, guys. You've all been hesitating telling me what happened this week. How bad is it? And what's going on with this...Claire?"

"Okay, which would you prefer to start with?"

"Which is going to be the easiest to take?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Claire." Both Sam and Barry said simultaneously.

"Okay, hit me."

"I'll just give you the Cliff's Notes version. You need to figure the rest out for yourself." Barry grinned. "I'd say you were infatuated with her the moment you met her." Barry began, "But she was the director of operations for the park. The highest up other than Masrani, himself."

"That sounds like a challenge to me." Owen smirked.

"You actually chased her for a while before finally asking her out." Barry snickered, "By a while, I mean it took you three years to get over your nerves. You two bickered and flirted for a while before you got your heads out of your asses. It took her almost being assaulted by an investor for you to get the balls."

"Hang on, I've never been nervous." he argued, "I've dropped one woman off and picked up a new one in the same night before."

"Let's not tell Claire about that particular adventure." Sam said.

"It's the truth, my friend. You told me once how you picked fights with her on purpose because you thought it made her face even cuter when she yelled at you." Barry smirked.

Owen knew what they were saying was likely true, but he had never been one to consider settling down. He liked his freedom. "So what changed? You said she was almost assaulted.."

"I saw you after that incident. I had never seen you so mad. I fully believe if given the opportunity, you would have killed the man." Barry answered.

Owen just stared at Barry, furrowing his eyebrows, "What did he do?" he almost whispered.

"I don't think anything actually happened. You got her out before it did. But you told me you had never seen her scared and in that moment she looked terrified. You said you didn't even think about it. You just stepped and got her out. You started spending more time with her after that. The fighting stopped almost entirely and the two of you were just flirting constantly. It wasn't long before you were together. That was six months ago."

"But I'm still with her?" he asked, needing confirmation.

"Engaged, actually." Sam replied plainly.

"Wow." he breathed out, "Really?...Me?" he asked Sam.

"I know, I thought the same thing when you told me you had a girlfriend. But I think you've told just about everyone you've come in contact with recently that she was gonna marry you. So yeah." Sam chuckled.

"But you guys are solid. She loves you, my friend." Barry added

"And trust me, if you decide you don't want to be with her, every available guy from our team would happily take your place." Sam laughed when he saw the look that crossed Owen's face. He was already protective of her and he'd only heard about her after a glimpse of her in the doorway. Sam threw his hands up, defensively, "Hey! I'm just saying..."

Owen gave Sam one last look before deciding to move on, "So Claire, who I really need to go have a conversation with when we're done here, is apparently my fiancee. Cool. Much more on that later." he sighed, "Now please tell me what happened to my leg..." he pleaded.

"Band-aid fast or slow?" Sam asked.

"Fast." Owen answered.

"In short, they accidentally made a virus in the park lab that killed a bunch of people and brought them back to life."

"Zombies. They made zombies." Barry interjected. Owen just looked at him like he'd lost his mind. Then he turned to Sam, who just nodded.

"We all were there on vacation, visiting you for our reunion. I was bitten while fighting and Claire had to chop my forearm off before the infection took over and you were bitten so she had to take your lower leg. You passed out from the shock and Claire gave you an antiviral shot that helped fight any infection that had gotten through. You've been out ever since. The remaining survivors escaped the island and we're all on your dad's ship under strict quarantine by order of every major government. That about sum it up in short?" Sam asked Barry.

"Pretty much."

"She saved my life.." he said

"Yeah. She did." Sam confirmed. "She tried to save as many as she could. Including your raptors."

"Okay...that's...a lot..." Owen said, trying to process everything. "Zombies?" he raised and eyebrow, "I was just wrapping my brain around me working with dinosaurs..."

"Just take your time. But, unfortunately, it's the truth. And today, you woke up with no memory of any of it. So here we are." Sam finished. "There's a whole bunch of shit that's happened, but I don't think you can handle all of it. Some stuff is either best left to come back on its own or be lost forever."

"No, no! Your right. That's good for now..." Owen replied, rubbing his head and face, "I really want to talk to Claire, though."

"She's down with the girls, so I'll send her back up." Barry said.

"She's down there alone?" Owen asked, feeling a tinge of worry.

"She's been doing that for days. The girls seem to like it too." Barry responded.

"I feel like that should make me nervous somehow." he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Only in the sense that your three girls have had a lot of bonding time without you." he laughed.

A short while later, there was a soft knock on the door. Both Sam and Owen looked up and saw Claire, nervously standing there. "Hi." she said softly.

"Hi." Owen replied, just as quietly. He was just looking at her and realized she was looking anywhere but him. "Come in." he offered. "Please."

"I'm gonna go find Karen and my dad and update them." Sam said, getting up to leave.

"Check back later?" Owen asked.

"You know it." he promised before turning to Claire. "You call us if you need anything." She just nodded as she stood near the end of the bed.

She looked at the chair she had been basically living in for the last week, suddenly not feeling so welcome there.

"Do you want to sit?" he encouraged her.

She nodded and went to sit in the chair. She was holding her hands nervously between her knees as she looked around or down, but never right at him.

"Claire, why won't you look at me?" he finally asked.

She looked down while she spoke, "Because the last time I looked at you, I could tell you didn't know who I was. I don't think I can handle seeing that look again right now. Not after everything..."

Owen reached over and lifted her chin until he could see her face and his heart stopped. He was immediately drawn into her deep green eyes which were showing signs of tears beginning to pool. One had begun to fall and he moved his hand to catch it with his thumb. He couldn't believe how soft her skin was as he continued to rub his thumb on her cheek, "How could I forget you?" he practically whispered.

"Wait till you meet the raptors." she smirked and he couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm gonna get it back, Claire." he promised. "I'm gonna get it all back."

"Don't push yourself. It's okay." she said, reaching out and taking his hand. Owen looked down as the contact sent shivers through him. Something about this woman had every part of him on fire.

"But I want to remember. I want to remember you. And the raptors. I feel like I'm missing the most important pieces of the puzzle. The parts that make it all make sense."

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I don't care if you don't remember, I'm really glad you're awake, and you, and not...something else."

"Me too, apparently." he chuckled. "I hear I have you to thank for that." he said, leaning in closer to catch her eyes as she looked down again. "Hey." he said as he grabbed her chin again, "You don't need to hide from me, Claire. For starters...you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and I can't stop looking at you." he chuckled. He could see the blush appear on her cheeks, almost matching the color of her hair. "And secondly, you saved my life. That's nothing you ever have to be shy about. Ever." She nodded, still looking at him. "And lastly, even if I don't get it all back, I'd just ask you out again." he grinned and she couldn't help but smile. "I want to get to know you all over again. If your up for it."

"I think I can handle that." she laughed.

"Good. Now, seeing as you already know more than I do about me except for the classified stuff..."

"No, I know that too." she interrupted. When he gave her a questioning look, she answered, "Your dad told me." she shrugged.

"Wow. I'd say he really likes you." he laughed. "Okay. Unfair advantage." he said, raising his eyebrow, "So then I get to hear all about you." he grinned boyishly.

"No, you are going to get some rest. You shouldn't overdo it and you've been through a lot today." she smiled softly as she pushed the button for the nurse.

"I beg to differ. I've had plenty of sleep for the last week." he argued.

"Mr. Grady!" the nurse said as she walked in, "Time for some meds and maybe some sleep. Per Dr. Wu."

"Read my mind." Claire smiled at her.

"I feel somehow ganged up on." Owen said.

"We're trying to get your brain to rest, Owen. Henry thinks its the best way to help get your memory back." Claire pleaded.

He huffed in response, like a child, "Fine." He looked at Claire, "Will you come back to see me?"

"Chances are pretty good. That's my bed over there." she chuckled.

"Sweet!" he grinned.

"You are ridiculous. I'm gonna go for a walk while you get some rest." she said while standing up. He grabbed her hand and pulled her back before she could get far.

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckle. "I don't know why. I just needed to do that." he smiled. She leaned down and kissed the top of his head.

"I'll be back. Get some rest."

A couple hours later, Claire had wandered down one of the hallways and found Henry in an office looking over documents. She knocked on the door, "Can I come in?"

"Hey Claire. Come on in." Henry said, tiredly.

"How's it going?"

"Oh, you know...as well as it can be when you're responsible for thousands of deaths and a potential global catastrophe."

"So nothing major." she smirked and he couldn't help but chuckle. "Henry, as much as this was a fuck up of epic proportions, you couldn't have known this is what would happen. None of us could have." she said honestly.

"Tell that to Simon." he sighed, rubbing his hands tiredly down his face. "I'm gonna make this right, Claire."

"Henry...do you really think this will spread wider?"

"Viruses are funny things. Especially new ones. Their goal is survival and they evolve rapidly to keep themselves reproducing. I don't think it's possible to contain the spread just to the island. All it could take would be an infected bird flying to the mainland before we have global spread. The virus could even evolve and pass through the air. We don't know until it does."

Claire shivered at that thought. "So what do we do?"

"I've managed to make the antiviral stronger with better results, but we won't know for sure until we need to test it in a live subject."

"What about the raptors?" she asked, knowing their immunity could be a key to their survival if this thing spreads.

"I can confirm through our testing that Blue and Echo are immune to the virus, at least in its current state. I actually used some of their samples to beef up the antiviral."

"Could it be made into a vaccine?" she asked, hopefully.

"Maybe, eventually. But I'm not willing to test a human subject by putting any of this virus in their system right now if they don't already have it, however small the amount. I can't do it, Claire."

"We'll just cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose." she sighed.

"How's Owen? I haven't been able to check on him in a couple hours." he asked.

"No change. Still missing about four years. I got him to rest for a while." she replied, slightly dejected.

"Give it some time. It hasn't even been an entire day since he woke up." Henry pointed out.

"I know and I will." she said. "I just..." she paused, collecting her thoughts, "I was prepared for him to wake up and turn. Not really prepared, I guess, but I knew it was possible I could still lose him. To have him wake up fine, but not remember me? I wasn't ready for that." she said sadly.

"Hi son."

"Dad." he nodded, "I'd stand to greet you, but they'll need to bring me my leg first."

"Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor." he chuckled as he walked over and sat down, "How are you feeling?"

"Other than the leg and the whole missing four years, I'm great!" he said sarcastically.

"Go easy on yourself. You've been out for a week. Give yourself the time to recover."

"That's just it. I feel like I could run a marathon right now. I'd like to at least get out of bed and get some air." he argued.

"Well, we might have a prosthetic here for you in a bit. Sam just got his a little while ago. Luckily, you've been out for a while and we wanted to be prepared, so the guys in engineering got the designs sent to us and they started them a few days ago. We thought we might have it done before you woke up. We can probably get you some crutches or a chair if you want."

"Let's wait a little bit longer..." he said, looking off at the door.

"You're waiting for Claire to come back." the captain chuckled.

"Pretty much. How'd you guess?" he smirked

"I've seen you two together. Easy guess." he laughed.

Owen's smirk quickly turned down to a frown, "I need to remember her, dad."

"Just spend time with her, Owen. If it comes, it comes. But take the time you have now and get to know her all over again."

Owen looked at him confused, "That sounded almost poetic. Who are you and what have you done with my father?"

Thomas just laughed, "The events of the last week made me re-evaluate a lot of things. Some I had already started to look at before I almost lost you. Multiple times, by the way..."

"And here I was preparing for our latest disagreement." he snorted.

Thomas sighed, "Look, son, I can't lie to you. Your memory seems to have stopped before the repercussions of your team's rescue. This week was the first time you've spoken to me in four years."

Owen again found himself straining to remember anything. He knew he had been angry at his father for leaving him as a child, but his time in the Navy had mended them, though they still butted heads about his life choices. "What happened?" he asked, hesitantly.

"They brought the hammer down over the incident with the dolphin and I didn't back you up." Thomas frowned, "I chose to protect my career and I've regretted it ever since. I should have stood by and defended your decisions because you made the right ones. You were made into a pawn for some hack politician who wanted to end the marine mammal projects in favor of more drones." he finished angrily.

"Where are my dolphins now?" Owen asked. He had spent years with Luna and the other marine mammals in the program, but he was closest to the dolphins. He couldn't believe the Navy would just throw away years of training and millions of dollars.

"Simon had them placed with a rescue group in exchange for your contract on the raptor project. The Navy was just going to release them after they shut the program down."

"Are you fucking serious?" he asked, angrily, "All because some asshole had an itchy trigger finger and shot my dolphin by mistake? She didn't do anything wrong, dad!"

"I know, son. She was just the victim of an someone's personal agenda." Thomas sighed.

"That's fucked up." Owen was quiet for a few minutes. "So I've basically lost the memories of the best and worst period of my life at the same time."

"That's one way to look at it. But if I were you, I'd let the Navy stuff go. It's not worth it. As soon as I know you guys are safe, I'm submitting my papers."

"Seriously?" Owen never thought his dad would voluntarily retire. He always assumed he'd age out of service.

"As much as the Navy has given me, it has taken a lot away. And I let it. But at least it allowed me to be there to help you this time. And your family." Thomas replied.

"My family?"

"That's how you referred to Claire and the raptors. You asked me to keep them safe. I'm keeping that promise. You stay here until there's someplace safe for you all to go."

"How bad was it, dad? The island? Everyone keeps giving me the bare bones information to protect me. But I need to know. I can tell everyone around me is traumatized. And Claire..." he said, looking down, "We've been through so much according to what I've been told and I feel like I've left her alone to fend for herself. I barely know her and I need to protect her. It's crazy!" he laughed humorlessly.

"I think you just realized from day one that she was your other half. Your partner. And she is, son. You two are one of the best teams I've seen. I joked with her that I'd recruit her if I thought you'd let me. She's brilliant. And she's the only person I've ever seen first hand keep you grounded. Can't really say that about Sam." he chuckled.

"No, Sam's my partner in crime. Big difference." he grinned, before getting serious again, "How bad was it, dad?"

Thomas sighed and rubbed his face tiredly, "Over fifteen thousand dead out of twenty in about three or four days."

Owen froze. "Fuck." He fell back on his pillow. They were silent until there was a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" Claire asked quietly. Owen's look of shock softened to a small smile.

"Please."

She walked over to the open chair on the other side of the bed and sat down. "Henry's on his way down with the engineers with your prosthetic. I wanted to make sure you were awake." she smiled.

"Ready as I'll ever be." he sighed, "I can't believe..." he said distantly.

"What?"

"I told him a little more about the recent events." Thomas replied, putting his hand on Owen's shoulder and patting him.

"Oh." she said, looking down.

"There's nothing that can be done now. We all need to focus ahead." Thomas pushed.

"Knock knock." Henry announced as he entered the room. "We've got your prosthetic to try on. The guys here are going to check the fit and see if you need any adjustments. They were pretty spot on with Sam's measurements, so I'm confident you won't need much."

Owen nodded as he sat himself on the edge of the bed. Claire walked over and sat next to him, grabbing his hand. She just knew what he needed without him voicing it. He turned to her, "I need to see the raptors when we're done here." he said, as his mind drifted to seeing real dinosaurs. And ones he'd trained himself. He'd heard so much about them and he was determined to see them in person.

"One thing at a time." She smirked.

"Let's see how it fits." Henry said as they slid the new prosthetic over his knee.

Once it felt secure, he shifted further, putting his weight on both his legs. Claire stood next to him with her arm out if he needed it. He looked up and smiled at her before moving to stand. He went slightly off balance before grabbing Claire's arm and steadying himself. Thomas had jumped up to balance him from behind.

"Don't push it, Owen. You've been unconscious, so your muscles may be weak anyway." Henry warned.

He stood there for a moment before slowly bending his knees.

"Ow! Okay! Too soon on that!" he cried out as the knee and muscles on the amputated side still had a lot of healing to go. "Won't be doing calisthenics any time soon." He chuckled.

"How's it feel otherwise?" Thomas asked.

"Height wise it feels fine. Good call guys." He nodded at the sailors.

"You might want a cane for a bit, until you can get comfortable walking fully again." Henry added, nodding at the nurse, who stepped out to locate one. "Captain, if you can get on his other side." he asked. Thomas stepped over so that he was opposite Claire. "Now Owen, I want you to take a few steps. You can either hold on or have them there just in case."

"Let's try 'just in case' first." he asked, looking at Claire, who smiled at him. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.

"You got this."

He grinned as he stiffly attempted to take a step, lifting his new leg first. He hesitantly shifted his weight to his new leg. He was able to briefly put weight on it, almost making the shift to his good leg, before stumbling. Both Claire and Thomas reached to grab him.

"Good. It's a start. You made forward progress." Henry said, "Let's try it with the cane, here." The nurse walked in and handed it to Owen. He took a breath before trying to step again. He lifted the new leg again, this time shifting the weight to his cane. It allowed him to quickly shift back to his good leg with less struggle. It was still difficult, but he knew it would get easier with practice. "I think this'll work." he smiled.

"Fantastic. Let's get you down to get some scans. Nothing too invasive. I want to make sure you are completely clear of the infection and the antiviral. It'll keep you walking too. It's not far and we'll have a chair if we need it. Deal?"

Owen nodded as they all began to slowly walk with him down to the labs. He leaned over to Claire who was walking next to him, "I hate needles. Stick with me for a little while?" he asked, almost nervously.

"No matter what." she smiled. And she meant it. No matter what.