"It looks like a boxer's fracture."

Owen grimaced as a dull pain shot up his arm when the doctor poked at his swollen hand.

"You'll need to immobilize it if you want it to heal right." Dr. English pulled away from the trainer's hand. Picking up his clipboard the doctor began writing quickly, speaking as he worked. "I'm prescribing you some medicine for the pain, the swelling should go down in a couple of days if you remember to ice it frequently, but you will need to wear a brace for the next couple months. I don't want you using this hand for anything other than the occasional signature."

"Doc, I have animals to care for. My job is already hard enough with two hands."

"Then get some help." The snort that came out of Owen's mouth was not intentional, but the doctor turned, a baleful gaze fixed onto the injured man. "Do what you have to do Mr. Grady, but if you want full use of that hand further down the road, then you will follow my instructions."

Owen swallowed nervously, breaking eye contact from the balding doctor's strong glare. Dr. English turned away with his own snort. Walking to the cabinets, he pulled out a heavy looking black brace. Tearing it out of the plastic bag that contained it, he walked back to Owen and began gently fixing it to the man's wrist.

When it was done and the brace was tight, he pulled back.

"You're all done Mr. Grady. Mr. Sy please drive your co-worker home, he shouldn't be operating any vehicles with the medicine in his system."

"Will do Dr. English."

As the two trainers stood to leave, Dr. Gary English reached out and grabbed Owen's arm lightly.

"Tell me, should I be expecting a visit from whoever you did this to?"

"No sir. She's resting back at the paddock."

"She?"

"This crazy bastard decided to punch one of our Velociraptors in the head." Barry helpfully chimed in.

The doctor's eyebrow shot up and he turned to the injured handler.

Owen groaned "I didn't just decide to punch her for the giggles. I was just trying to keep her distracted while the vet team did their job; she decided to play the game unfairly."

"Don't let him be modest Dr. English, he was sick of her mouthing off to him, decided raptor mauling was the best way to do it."

Owen grumbled at that, not wanting to get involved with his friends storytelling. He only hoped that Delta would be alright. And that the pain meds wouldn't wear off anytime soon.

After the impromptu boxing lesson, it had taken them thirty more minutes to get Delta to the onsite vet clinic across the island. The large building was tucked away behind the ridge line that housed the park's control center. It was a central location to most of the attractions, but the roads from the research paddocks didn't go straight to the clinic. Instead it had forced them to take a longer route around much of the island's edge.

He had helped unload Delta as best as he could, but his help was limited with a quickly swelling hand. Owen and Barry had spent the next two hours assisting the veterinarians as they worked to stabilize the fevered Velociraptor. Owen had held her head down as the vets began drawing blood and taking readings. He hated how helpless he felt, but with one usable hand, all he could do was keep her head down and talk to her as if she understood his words.

A sour pit in his stomach reminded him that the vets weren't immediately sure what had caused this.

The two trainers had been eventually pushed out the door. Delta was safely sedated, resting peacefully in a large indoor observation room. They assured him that he would receive a call the moment that her blood work came back from the lab. He had only agreed to leave the clinic because Barry insisted that they get his hand looked at.

Another hour and a half later and the two men were walking out of Dr. English's office. Owen rubbed the heavy brace absently, trying to find a comfortable way to hold his arm. While he checked himself out at the front desk, Barry left to pull the car around.

Checked out, Owen played with his phone absently, willing one of the vets to call him and dreading it at the same time. When the SUV pulled around Owen climbed in, tapping the car door with his brace gingerly eliciting a wince from the man. They pulled out of the small parking lot and Barry turned left towards the staff apartments.

"No, turn around, we need to go check on the raptors."

"I will do that later, when you are home resting."

"Barry, Delta is sick and we don't know why. I can't simply rest without at least knowing our other girls are okay. We have no idea if whatever Delta has is contagious or if whatever made her sick is still in the paddock."

"You're right Owen, but a drugged up trainer is no use in the paddock and I do not want to drag your ass back to the hospital because hurt again immediately after Dr. English told you not too."

"Barry please, I won't do anything, I just need to examine the paddock and make sure the pack is alright."

The car slowed before Barry groaned in defeat, pulling a quick U-turn.

"Fine, but you are only looking, I will handle the feeding tonight."

"Fine."

"And no going into the enclosure Owen, you can look, but I can do a thorough inspection myself. The girls won't like being rounded up, but once they are away, I'll go find out if there's anything making them sick."

"Yes dad." Owen replied sarcastically before leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

It was early evening when the two trainers finally parked next to the paddock outbuilding.

Owen made his way tiredly up the staircase to the catwalks. Barry followed. When they reached the top, Owen took his usual place on the railing and Barry moved towards the stairs at the back of the paddock that lead to the large storage freezer and prep room.

The trainer let out a sharp yell.

"Hey!"

As the word faded on the wind, he watched the paddock. It had quickly become his pack call, and Blue knew it meant that he was looking for them. Whether she responded depended entirely on her mood, but he knew that she understood the call. Charlie and Echo plodded out of the foliage, both of them moving slowly and keeping their heads down. Their tails swayed erratically and Owen felt sympathetic for the headache they likely had.

Tranquilizing pills were rough on the animals. Because the tranquilizer had to activate in the stomach, it needed to be strong enough to resist the animal's digestive system. They worked slowly, but they hit harder than their dart counterparts and because of the concentrated doses, tended to last longer.

They were still a better option than the darts in his opinion. The darts worked faster and tended to wear off with little lasting effect to the animal, but they had their drawbacks. He and Barry both agreed that the visible aggression of firing on any of the raptors would easily become a wedge between the trust the two trainers had worked so hard to build.

Both raptors ignored him, instead moving to sniff the last place they had seen Delta. Charlie's heavy snorts kicked up small dust clouds she inspected the disturbed earth. The two raptors sniffed and nosed at almost every inch of ground that their sister had touched. There was no emotion to it, just the search for their missing pack mate.

When Charlie was satisfied with her investigation, her head raised to look at the man stood above her. She stared at Owen. Her eyes locked onto his and the two watched each other. Again there was no emotion as she watched the trainer, no aggression, or fear, or concern, just the hardened stare of a predator. A predator that expected him to act.

Owen found himself softly voicing apologies and promises that he would do what he could for their pack mate. He would bring Delta home.

With a soft snort and a shake of the head, Charlie turned and joined Echo who had begun sniffing at the tracks left by the vets from earlier that day.

Movement from the corner of his eye drew his attention. Blue stood several meters away, partially concealed by the foliage in the paddock. She watched him, but when he looked at her, she turned her head away and lowered her neck.

"Blue."

The blue streaked raptor turned her head back to him and took two steps out of the foliage and into the afternoon sun.

A sharp aggressive hiss escaped her throat and her stance lowered into a defensive posture. Her eyes fixed on him. Pupils dilating and contracting rapidly.

"Blue."

She ignored his words, her hiss reaching a crescendo before she turned quickly and ducked back into the shaded cover of leaves. As she left, Owen could just barely hear the soft, pained bark that she made as she retreated away from the trainer.

He continued staring into the dark foliage for several minutes. His gut churned uncomfortably at the thought of Blue's behavior. The air was still and thick, pushing in on him with muggy oppression. He final turned away with a small shake of his head. He could hear Barry coming up beside him. The echoing clank of his boots resounding throughout the paddock.

Owen needed some rest. His hand hurt, his head felt dizzy, he would have a bad bruise on his shoulder, and he didn't want to deal with whatever had just gone on below him.

"I'm going to go crash on the couch. Call me if you need me."

"I thought you wanted to check on the girls?"

"I did and they're fine."

He was not.

The injured trainer turned and walked down the stairs, making his way to the dusty couch sitting in the paddock's outbuilding.

xxxxxxxxxx

The call came early the next morning. Thirty minutes later, Owen pulled into the veterinary center parking lot, speed limits ignored, his SUV caked in island dust.

The clinician met him at the door and ushered him toward the back of the building where they had left Delta the day before. When he walked into the veterinary ward, he found the Barry had beaten him. The dark man was talking quietly with the head veterinarian. She greeted Owen with a strong handshake when he approached.

"Mr. Grady, I don't think we had the chance to be properly introduced yet. My name is Dr. Vanessa Kirby. I am the head veterinarian for the Carnivore Ward. I am in charge of overseeing Jurassic World's more predatory residents."

Owen took her hand firmly with his good one, greeting the person he hoped would help Delta recover.

"Is she doing alright?"

"Yes, Delta's condition has not worsened overnight. We have her stabilized, but her symptoms are troubling. She has only woken once since you brought her in. She is not showing signs of visual stimulation and she will not eat for us."

"Well what do the lab reports say?"

The red haired veterinarian's face fell. "The reports have cleared her of any toxicity in her blood, but she is showing a very high white count. We can rule out anything poisonous, but beyond that, we just don't know yet."

"So we really don't know anything?"

Dr. Kirby gave Owen a sympathetic look and put a hand on his shoulder. "Right now, no. I'm sorry Owen, but I just don't have enough to give you a better answer. The animals on this island are unique. These aren't just reptiles I can compare with previous cases. We are learning as we go here.

We've learned what illnesses most of the herding animals are susceptible to because we've had enough of them over the years to gather the needed data, but your raptors are different. All the carnivores are. The park just doesn't have the numbers for adequate disease research to be gathered. Delta is one of only twelve Velociraptors on this island, and she's the first on record to get sick. All we can do right now is provide supportive care until her blood work comes back again."

Owen rubbed his eyes with his good hand, letting out a stressed sigh. "Can't you take a look at her genetics, and you know, at least narrow it down?"

"If we had access to them sure. But InGen won't release that information to us. We aren't even allowed to do our own blood work. All of our samples are sent to InGen's labs for analysis. I'm sorry, my hands are tied."

Another sigh escaped his lips even as an idea formed. "It's alright. If you had that information, could you narrow down the problem?"

"Well sure, though InGen has been very tight lipped about their work so I-"

"I think I may be able to help you there." Owen turned to the door, his mind racing as he began to think about what he needed to do to get his hands on the Velociraptor's genetic information. "Just take care of her! I'll be back in a couple of hours."

Dr. Henry Wu's genetics lab was as clean as he remembered it being the first time he had visited nearly a year ago. However, instead of it being almost empty as it had been the day Blue had hatched, it was currently buzzing with coated workers as they darted to and fro filling forms and checking on charts.

Stepping inside, the injured trainer pulled one of the lab assistants aside.

"Excuse me, Is Dr. Wu here? I need to speak with him."

"He's very busy, you'll need to make an appointment."

Owen rolled his eyes and pulled his park badge from the cargo pocket he kept it in. "This is important, I need to speak to him about one of his animals that has become sick."

"I'm sorry, but wouldn't that be better suited for the clinic down the road? If you want to speak with Dr. Wu, you'll need to make a-"

"This could be a result of genetic traits chosen in this lab. I'm sure Dr. Wu would want to isolate it so future animals will not suffer a similar fate." The white lie rolled off his tongue and the young lab assistant paled.

"O-of course, let me take you to him right away."

The lab worker darted away, Owen began to follow, weaving around workers and ducking under examination lamps. The assistant led him to a small, open walled office at the end of the laboratory. Dr. Wu was seated with his head down, filling out some kind of report.

"E-excuse me Dr. Wu? Someone is here to see you, he says it is urgent."

The geneticist looked up and flashed a smile when he saw Owen. "To what do I owe the pleasure Mr. Grady? Thank you Ms. Reina." The young lab assistant nodded her head before rushing back into the bustling workspace behind her.

"Dr. Wu, I need to talk to you about the genetics in my Velociraptors."

Henry's smile faded but he let the trainer continue.

"One of them has fallen sick. The vets are doing what they can, but they've hit a brick wall. They just don't know what my girls are made of and they can't rule anything out until the blood work comes back from the lab. Is there any way you can help me out, even to just narrow down the possibilities?"

"Take a seat Mr. Grady." Owen slipped into the chair next to him, his full attention on the genetic researcher before him. "I would love to help you, but I am not at liberty to discuss the genetic traits used in the animals at this park."

"But, it could save her life."

"And I'm sure the vets will as well, if you are just patient with them."

"She's showing neurological problems doctor."

"I'm sorry Owen. InGen does not discuss any of its trade secrets."

"But I work for you! For InGen! Surely that means something!"

"I wish it did Mr. Grady but this is a trade secret and I am simply not at liberty to discuss this topic."

Owen stood, his good hand gripping the desk tightly. "Henry, this raptor could die! I don't even know if this is contagious! It could spread to all of them!"

Dr. Wu let out a heavy sigh. Leaning forward, he pulled a drawer out from his desk and flicked his fingers through a myriad of color coded folders. "I told you, I cannot discuss this with you. I am not at liberty to divulge InGen's secrets. That said, I do have something that may help you. It is by no means scientific, but it is something I can release to you."

"Thank you! Anything that can help."

Pulling a folder out of the filing drawer, he handed it to Owen. "This is the project portfolio detailing your pack of Velociraptors. We used this to garner the interest of Masrani Global executives and various other interested investors. It was written well before we began this experiment. I cannot confirm or deny if anything in these pages actually hold true, but they may provide some avenues of insight into the genetic diversity that makes your Velociraptor what she is."

"Thank you Dr. Wu!" Owen snatched the manila folder and flipped it open. It only had one page in it. Each Velociraptor had a paragraph vaguely detailing the benefits of their design and an artist rendering of what the proposed animal would look like. The man quickly began to scan each paragraph for any useful information but paused when he noticed something odd. "Why are there only three profiles? Where's Blue?"

"The proposed beta of your pack was a special project of mine Mr Grady. She is not in that list because she was not originally in the proposed experiment. She was added to the experiment at a much later date when a trainer like you was considered for caretaker. Her file is elsewhere; and unfortunately, I am unable to discuss any more on this matter."

The trainer opened his mouth to respond but a line of text caught his eye. "Wait, I think this might be it! It's not much, but it's something! Thank you Dr. Wu!" Owen excitedly stood and turned from the desk.

"Anytime Owen. Stop by if you have any more questions"

The handler was already down the hall.

xxxxxxxxxx

Delta had avian genetics. It was vague and so very little to go on, but it was something! Owen set the document on the front seat of the company SUV. Straining to reach the ignition with his left hand, he started the car and sat in the driver seat. He pulled out his phone and began to dial the vet clinic's number.

His phone buzzed before he could finish dialing. Barry was calling him.

"Hey Barry, I think I just found something that could help Delta."

"That's great Owen, but you need to get down to the paddock. Blue is behaving strangely and she hasn't eaten all day. She actually refused food."

"Wait, really?"

Blue was voracious. She had never refused food before. The blue raptor might be full to bursting and she would still scarf down a rat if it was offered to her.

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

He hung up and nudged the car into drive with his right elbow. He would dial the vet on the way to the paddock.

He pulled up to the paddock and slammed the car into park, a trail of dust billowing past the stationary vehicle. He threw the door open and rushed over to the stairs. Flying up the stairs he found Barry leaning against the catwalk railing with a pair of binoculars in his hands and a frown on his face.

"What is she doing? Where is she?"

"She's sitting right now. She's tucked back into the leaves pretty good, but you can see her if you look close enough. She's just sitting there staring." Barry lowered the binoculars and handed them over to the injured trainer.

Taking them from his friend, he pulled them up to his face. At first, all he could see were leaves and shadows. He began to scan the area for anything shaped more like an animal.

It took him some time, but he finally spotted her. The cobalt streaks reflected dimly in the shaded area, but she was there, tucked in her own little nest of dried leaves and dirt. At first glance, she appeared to be fine, he could see her back well enough and her breathing seemed stable.

Then his eyes drifted to her head and neck. The raptor's neck was coiled back on itself, tucking her head close to her body, like she sometimes did when she slept. Her head though wasn't tucked against her back. It sat pointed straight up at the sky, her mouth slightly agape. He watched as Blue's snout would tremble occasionally and her neck would wobble as if it couldn't fully support the weight. Her head however remained straight up.

She was stargazing.

The symptoms suddenly clicked in his mind.

He had a lead before, now he knew what was going on.