Author's Note
Response to this story has exploded lately. I knew it would, what with the movie coming out this past week, but seriously, you guys are awesome.
There's a bit of a time lapse this chapter, which is fairly common in this fic. I have to get through two years, after all, before the movie can happen. Anyway, this chapter our raptors get names! I hope I matched up the right names with the right raptors. I wrote this entire fic before the movie came out so trying to match up names with their colors was kind of hard.
Alright, go onward and enjoy!
Beta
During the following weeks, Liv looks forward to returning to the island every time she is sent back to her mom again. Often during class or when she's home alone she finds herself daydreaming about being on the catwalk above the paddock, watching the raptors as they grow and explore their new home, by now having been let out of the stables and into the actual enclosure, or spending the day with Owen in the Research Center, telling jokes as he helps her with her homework. She misses them, and during those moments she pulls out her tiger necklace from where it rests safely beneath her shirt, reminding herself that all of it is real.
She has to keep the necklace hidden whenever she wears it, which is practically all the time. If her mom saw it, she would force Liv to get rid of it, saying it's disgusting and ugly. If Vic saw it, he would demand answers as to where she got it. And that can never happen. If he finds out about her growing bond with Owen, something that is becoming more like father and daughter every time they're together, Vic will punish her until she sincerely promises never to see Owen again. Then, whenever she visits, she will be forbidden from going anywhere other than her room, keeping her from seeing the raptors as well.
But it may not matter. Even now, she can feel her father's eyes on her.
Liv has integrated herself among the trainers, helping out with the more menial tasks that she can do safely away from the raptors so as not to get hurt. They're trying to get more workers at the paddock but they're still in the hiring process, so she's just trying to do what she can. Right now she is helping to clean the paddock, in the stables specifically, shovel in hand as she scrapes out manure into a wheelbarrow. Sweat trickles down her face and back, saturating her tank top and shorts, and manure sticks to her boots. It's hot, even in the shade of the stables, but the barn doors are open wide to let the blazing sunlight in and let some of the smell out. The smell inside the stables is foul, she never thought four little creatures who are only the size of a Chihuahua could produce such...filth. But they do. They really, really do.
All the while, she feels those eyes on her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. Vic is standing on the catwalk, leaning his forearms against the railing, watching her through the doorway. She tries to push it to the back of her mind, but she can guess what he's thinking right now. Never has she been interested in the dinosaurs beyond what's natural to any other park visitor. She's visited their enclosures during park hours, she's been to the petting zoo and feeding areas, but she's never gotten herself directly involved with any of them.
So why now?
Why is she now interested in the raising and training of the Velociraptors? It's not like they've never had Velociraptors before, because they have. They have a separate exhibit for the ones park visitors are allowed to see. But why is she interested in the ones in the Research Center? Is it because they are trying to teach them to obey commands?
Or is it something else?
She's afraid to get close to Owen with those eyes watching her but after her birthday they've both opened up to each other.
He's told her about being the son of a couple of carnies, his mother being a trapeze artist. They weren't married at the time, but when they found out she was pregnant they both decided to be in the baby's life, together, so they picked a city along the circus's route and vanished with whatever savings they had. It wasn't much, they basically lived in poverty, but Owen's dad found work at a stable in Kentucky that paid fairly well, at least better than the circus. The day he got the job he proposed to Owen's mom, vowing to give both her and the baby the best life he could provide. Owen was born a few months later. He never had much growing up, but he's never needed a whole lot in order to be happy. When he was eighteen, Owen joined the Navy and through them went to school to train and get certified as a professional animal trainer. He made quite the name for himself, using the tricks his father taught him and a few of his own, until, one day, InGen gave him a call.
Liv has told him a bit about her life, too, though there's not much to tell. Vic and her mom met through work. InGen is a security company, and the company her mom works for hired InGen to handle their security for their main building in Miami. Vic oversaw everything getting set up and the security measures in place. Her mom and Vic met and dated for a while. Then Vic got her mom pregnant by accident. Neither of them were thrilled, but they didn't want to abort and tried to make things work, even got married two months before she was born. They drifted apart after a few years and got divorced, though, Liv's mom getting the majority custody since she has the more stable job that allows her to stay in the same city, unlike Vic who was traveling a lot for InGen at the time. Liv's life has always been mostly schoolwork, no friends, no extracurricular activities, per the ruling of her parents. But she's always wanted friends, people to actually talk to, and there are many things she's always wanted to try.
Owen says he'll help her do some of those things.
She couldn't tell him about Vic's "discipline" though. Or her being a mutant. She's afraid of how he'll react, if he'll look at her or treat her any differently.
Still, it's too late to go back now, it's too late to push Owen away now that they're drawing so close. And she doesn't want to. Thankfully, Vic never sticks around for long, but when he is there the weight of his stare is almost constant.
When Liv gets the last of the manure in the wheelbarrow she props herself up with her shovel and lets out a heavy sigh. Careful to avoid touching herself with the heavy work gloves covering her hands, she wipes at her face with the back of an arm. An ice-cold shower sounds excellent right now. She smells like crap, literally, her hair is slick with the strands that have escaped her ponytail sticking to her skin, and she's really hot with the possibility of a sunburn. But getting a shower means leaving and she doesn't want to do that yet, even though it's Saturday and she has plenty of time to come back.
Someone calls out her name and she turns to see Owen running up to her. "Hey, you just about done?" he asks.
"Yep," she says, moving to grab the handles of the wheelbarrow while still holding the shovel. "Just got to dump this at the compost."
"Here, let me get that." He takes the wheelbarrow and quickly walks out of the stables and towards the massive door of the paddock.
"Why in such a hurry?" she asks, jogging to keep up.
"We're letting the raptors back out soon and it's lunchtime."
The raptors are in the caged area connected to the paddock, getting a checkup. They had to be gassed with an anesthetic vapor, knocking them out, and then moved to the cage so the park vets can take a look at them, making sure they are healthy and growing properly, while limiting the amount of danger to others as much as possible. A clear mask is attached to each of the raptor's muzzles with elastic, giving them a continuous supply of anesthetic to make sure they stay out.
It's not like the vets will just wake them up and release them back into the enclosure when there are still people inside, though, so she doesn't understand Owen's rush. "Is something going on?"
Owen dumps the contents of the wheelbarrow into the compost and then puts her shovel in the storage shed. "We're giving them pigs today."
"Okay, but we always feed them pigs."
"Not dead ones," he says pointedly as he leads her up the catwalk.
Her brow arches. "We're giving them live pigs?"
"Yep. These animals are hunters. It's instinct. If we just keep feeding them dead animals and they never have the chance to develop those skills, they could grow aggressive. Towards us. That's one of the things they did wrong with the original park. We have to give the raptors a chance to hunt as much as we can or they'll never be happy here and they'll never listen to us."
Liv is about to ask something but closes her mouth when she sees Vic still on the catwalk, watching them. Owen stops a little ways away, leans against the railing, and nods to him, not really wanting to join him but trying not to be obvious about it. While, reluctantly, she goes to stand next to her father. She wishes she could stay by Owen but she can't let her fondness for Owen show, not to Vic. She shoots Owen a little smile by way of apology. She doesn't expect him to do anything, or even to understand, but after a moment Owen joins them, standing next to Liv.
Owen doesn't like her father, she knows that for certain, but he seems willing to put up with Vic's company for her.
"So, we're going to see them hunt for the first time," Vic says, sounding way too excited to see a pig get slaughtered.
"Yep," Owen says shortly.
"Can they really hunt and kill this pig all on their own so young?"
Owen sighs through his nose and looks out at the cage where the vets are just wrapping things up. "Velociraptors are some of the best hunters in the animal kingdom. They'll be fine."
The vets remove the anesthetic and then step out of the cage as quickly as possible. It only takes the raptors a few minutes to rouse, snapping and snarling as they wake from the forced sleep. It almost makes Liv laugh. Just like any kids, they need their checkups, and just like any kids, they complain about it.
A grin that makes Liv's stomach uneasy spreads across Vic's face. "How vicious are they going to be?"
Owen doesn't even look at him but Liv can see his jaw clench. "We're about to find out."
A slot opens up in the side of the paddock, like a doggy door, that leads to the pig pen. One trainer stands on the catwalk, catch pole in hand, and another is on the ground in the paddock, taking one of the pigs out of the pen. Together they get the pig on the catch pole and the trainer on the catwalk walks the pig over in front of the cage while the other trainer leaves the paddock and closes the large doors behind him.
The paddock is empty of everyone except for the pig. The pig is calm at the end of the pole, unknowing of the danger that stalks just yards away.
As soon as the raptors see the pig they perk up, their slitted eyes locking on to the pink form not much smaller than them. They've seen pigs before, though dead ones, so Liv was wondering if they would recognize one that is alive. By the way they zero in on it, heads shifting minutely every time the pig moves, they easily recognize the pig as food. The raptors start charging at the gate, ramming into the bars, wanting to get at their prey.
"Hey!" Owen yells, walking quickly to the aisle of catwalk right in front of the gate so the raptors can easily see him. "Hey! Eyes up!"
The raptors stop, perking their heads up at him.
Liv bites her lip to suppress a smile. It looks like they recognize his voice, just like Owen said they would when he imprinted on them, but she doesn't want to get her hopes up. They still probably have a long road ahead of them before they make any real progress.
"Alright!" Owen calls out, slowly moving back to stand next to Liv again. "Open it up!"
One of the trainers on the outside of the paddock pushes the button to open the gate and the trainer on the catwalk releases the pig. The pig finally seems to realize it's in danger and scurries off into the underbrush. As soon as there's enough clearance, the raptors chase after it with a screeching cry, like they're going off into battle.
It's over in under a minute.
Two raptors chase after the pig while two others race off to the left and right. Together, they corner the pig, surrounding it from all sides. One of the raptors, the sandy one, pounces on it and digs the claws on her feet into its stomach, killing it.
The blue raptor lets out an angry hiss at the sandy one and takes a snap at her. The sandy one backs off of the dead pig with a low growl vibrating in the back of her throat. The two raptors face off, moving in a slow circle around each other, while the other two look on with interest.
"What's happening?" Liv asks, afraid to talk above a whisper. The two raptors look about ready to tear into each other like they were the pig a moment ago.
Owen grips the railing with both hands, his shoulders tensing as he looks down at the raptors. "We've been waiting for this. They're both trying to assert themselves as the beta of the pack, but there can only be one. They're challenging each other."
The raptors continue to circle, bodies low to the ground, as they chitter at each other, talking in their own animal language. What are they saying? Are they trying to decide who's going to be the beta? Are they talking peacefully or is this the raptor version of an argument?
The sandy one suddenly screeches, like a hawk about to attack, and then launches herself at the blue one. They tumble to the ground, rolling around in the dirt, jaws snapping and claws swiping. Liv covers her mouth with her hand to smother a gasp, unable to tell if they're actually hurting each other, but then there is a slash of red that is unmistakable.
The sandy one lets out a pained squawk and falls to the ground, the blue one standing over her with an air of triumph. And blood dripping from her claws.
The sandy raptor has a deep gash at the end of her snout. Still, she tries to get up and fight.
Owen moves to intervene but Vic grabs his arm and says, "Wait."
Owen looks at him in shock. "What do you mean, 'wait'? If we wait she might kill her."
"Just let it play out," Vic insists but Owen shakes his head.
"You're insane. Do you want to have one less raptor?"
The blue one spins in a quick circle, slapping the other raptor across the face with her tail. The raptor falls back down again and this time her jaw looks...wrong. Crooked. Like it's dislocated.
Liv's vision goes blurry as she meets the raptor's eyes and she can see pain there, her aura is brimming with it. "Please, dad," she says, tugging at Vic's sleeve.
Vic shoots her a glare but for once she doesn't care if he gets mad at her, she just wants this to stop. He can't seriously want the raptor to die, right? She looks up at him pleadingly until he bites out, "Fine," and lets go of Owen's arm.
Owen runs down the catwalk until he is as close to the raptors as he can get. "Hey!" he shouts at them, waving his arms in the air. "Hey! Up here!"
The raptors pause and look around for the noise, all except for the sandy one who is lying very still on the ground, but her chest is moving and her eyes are open.
"Up here! Eyes on me."
The three look up, their gazes heavy, like a bird of prey watching a potential meal. Owen maintains steady eye contact with them, never wavering. The blue one snaps at him, jumping a little as if to try and grab him with her teeth, though there's no way she can jump that high. Liv's breath hitches in her throat. Is the raptor going to challenge him to be alpha?
"Hey!" Owen yells even louder, voice authoritative. "Don't you give me that. I am still your alpha." The raptor chitters at him. "That's right. I'm still your alpha. And you're going to back up." They don't move. "Back up!"
The blue raptor chitters again but then backs up a few steps, still staring up at Owen. The other two raptors share a brief look. The light green one joins the other raptor first, and then the dark green one. The beta is accepting the alpha and the other raptors are accepting the beta and the decision to obey the alpha. It's working. The pack dynamics they need in order for this project to succeed are falling in place.
"That's it," Owen says calmly. "Good." He then calls out over his shoulder to the other trainers gathered on the catwalk, eyes still never leaving the raptors, "Alright. I need three of you to hold 'em back so we can get to the other one. Barry, call the vets and have them turn around. She's going to need medical attention asap."
It's a flurry of activity after that. The raptors are caught with catch poles from above. They hiss and bite, not at all happy with being held back, not only from their sister, but from their hard-won food as well, but then Owen goes down into the paddock with the rest of the guys and tells them to be quiet. It works, sort of. They're not quiet, exactly, just less noisy about their displeasure. The vets arrive and give the injured raptor a thorough examination. Two of the trainers stay with them, hands on the raptor just in case she struggles, but she seems pretty out of it from the pain and then one of the vets give her something for that until she's probably too high to do anything other than just lay there and let the vets do their thing. Turns out, she has a couple of small cuts and some bruising from the tumble, a deep laceration on her snout that needs several stitches, and a dislocated jaw, just like Liv guessed. Putting her jaw back in place makes a sickening pop echo throughout the paddock that even Liv can hear from where she still stands up on the catwalk.
She winces, already knowing the pain that goes along with a pop like that.
That familiar noise reminds her that Vic is still standing right next to her and she gulps, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
He's glaring at her disapprovingly, the way he does when she does something he wishes he could punish her for his way, the hard way, but can't because there's too many people around. His cold, dark eyes echo with promises of later though.
She looks out on the raptors again and knows that, whatever happens, it was worth it. She doesn't know if their new beta would have killed the other raptor or not. Either way, she certainly doesn't hate the beta for it, that wouldn't be fair to any of them, especially since the sandy raptor kind of started it and the whole thing was instinct to them in the first place. Anyway, she's glad they're all alive and that she had pushed Vic to allow Owen to step in, no matter what the outcome would have been.
Admittedly, she's tired of him holding her back, something she won't dare say out loud, yet, but just to admit it to herself, it feels like something inside her is clicking into place.
Without asking for permission, without saying a word at all, she turns and goes down the catwalk, climbing down the stairs and going into the paddock without giving even a backwards glance to her father. It might be digging her grave just a little deeper tonight but it feels good.
As soon as she steps through the gate the auras flare in her mind and she wishes and longs to reach out to the bright orange glow of the sandy raptor and help her heal. But she can't, not with all of these people watching, not with Vic watching, probably not even later. She wouldn't be able to explain how a raptor suddenly healed like that. Maybe she can do a little at a time, help the process along, and nobody will notice, at least not enough to consider the possibility of outside help.
She stops beside Owen, who is off to the side and looking on with worry. "Is she going to be okay?" Liv asks.
He jumps slightly, more than he'd probably ever admit because military training, but he totally didn't notice her approach. She smirks at him teasingly and he narrows his eyes at her but his lips are twitching in a semblance of a smile so she calls it a win. "Yeah," he says, "she's gonna be okay. It'll take a couple of weeks for her to heal but she'll be fine."
They both watch as the vets and trainers prep a stretcher so they can safely carry the wounded raptor into the Research Center where they'll watch over her as she gets better. "Will things be weird for her, once she comes back to the pack? They're not going to try to attack her again or anything, are they?"
"No, no, not unless she acts out again. So long as she accepts the new pack dynamics everything will be okay."
"What if she doesn't?"
"I don't know. Maybe we'll try to integrate her into the other raptor pack out in the park, but that could go just as bad, if not worse. They could see it as an invasion of territory. I don't want to just let them kill her, though. I want to save her, if I can."
Liv nods. She wants to save the raptor, too, but she knows that Owen will do whatever it takes so she isn't too worried. He's gotten the raptors to listen to him for the first time as their alpha. Whatever happens, she knows he'll make it work, so she asks him something she's been wondering about. "Since we know the pack dynamics now can we name them?"
"Uh…." He scratches the back of his neck, looking from her then back to the raptors. "Yeah, I guess we can. Have anything in mind?"
She shrugs a shoulder uncertainly. "Not really. I've never had any pets so I have no experience with the whole naming thing and I'm pretty sure we can't pick any generic pet names like Spot."
He snorts. "No, probably not. Although they did call a giant, three-headed dog Fluffy in that one Harry Potter movie so, you know, stranger things."
"True, but I don't think the raptors would appreciate that very much."
"No, probably not." Owen looks between the four raptors, contemplating. "What if we played off of the whole alpha thing?"
She tilts her head at him curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Well, in the Navy I learned the NATO phonetic alphabet. You know, alfa, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, and so on."
Liv nods, seeing where he's going. "Okay, so obviously you're the alpha. That would make the blue one's name Bravo because she's the beta, and then the other three are Charlie, Delta, and Echo?"
"Yeah," he says, but with a slight frown, looking at the beta. "Though I don't think Bravo really fits as a girl's name."
"Yeah, you're right. And we can't just call her Beta either." Liv hums to herself thoughtfully, biting her bottom lip. What can they call her? It should start with a "B" so they still keep with the pattern, but what could they use? Betsy? Beth? Betty? Dozens of names pour through her head but none of them sound right. Then she looks over the beta's coloring, especially at the long, blue stripes running down the raptor's length, and thinks of how she already thinks of her as the blue one in her head. "Why not just call her Blue?"
"Blue? Like the color?"
"Yeah. It's one of the primary colors, and she's kind of like the primary raptor since she's the beta, and in my English class I learned it usually symbolizes "calm" and "serenity", which are aspects every good leader needs. And, you know, she's blue."
And blue is her favorite color but she's not going to say that. She's already stretching it more than a little.
Owen thinks it over for a minute, rubbing at his chin absentmindedly, but then shrugs. "Sure. Why not? I'm not coming up with anything better anyway and it kind of has a nice ring to it."
Liv beams. She's just named a raptor. Awesome. "What about the others?"
He looks between the other three and then points at the injured raptor being strapped to the stretcher. "She challenged the beta but lost, so I think she should have the last name, Echo."
"Alright." She points to the light green one. "She sided with Blue first, so I think she should have the second name, Charlie."
"Sounds good. That makes the other one Delta." He nods to the dark green raptor.
Liv looks over their raptor pack, at Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. Her heart flutters in her chest with happiness. "Looks like our raptors have names."
Owen flings an arm around her shoulders and pulls her into a side hug. She tenses at first but then relaxes, realizing she doesn't feel the eyes on the back of her neck anymore. "Yeah," he says happily. "Our raptors. Our raptor squad."
Aurhtor's Note
I've seen a lot of different explanations for how the raptors got their names, but this is what I always kind of figured. The military uses a phonetic alphabet for communications and things like that, and, since Owen was in the Navy, he would have learned it. I know there are several different alphabets but I think I got the right one? If not, then I blame Hollywood.
And I know it wasn't in the movie or anything, but my headcannon is that Owen's raptors aren't the only ones Jurassic World has. I mean, raptors were some of the first dinosaurs InGen created. They've been around since the first park, so why wouldn't they use them in this park as an actual attraction? It's not like they just wouldn't have any more raptors until they start this research project. I don't know, it makes sense in my head.
Alright, next chapter we get some fun Liv/raptors bonding time! Next update will be Tuesday.
Hope you enjoy, PLEASE REVIEW, and see you all next time!