Author's Note

It's Friday! And update day! Yay!

Lol, I'm a bit excited today. Just bought myself a PS4. It's my first big purchase that I saved up for all on my own without any help. I'm waiting for Uncharted to download so I thought I'd do this now.

This chapter was fun. I like writing the raptors. *sigh* I wish most of them didn't die in the movie. Anyway, this chapter is a direct continuation of the previous chapter, same day and everything.

Okay, enough blab. Go onward and enjoy!

Hide-and-Seek

Liv parks her ATV outside the Research Center, excitement and fear warring inside her small frame. Excited that she's going to be working here. Frightened about what Owen thinks about it. Claire told her that Owen already knows, he was one of the first people to find out about the internship program and that Liv will be assigned to the Research Center, but she neglected to mention whether or not Owen is actually okay with the entire situation. It worries her, because she still doesn't know how he feels after their last conversation. Will there be anger? Understanding? Will he continue to push or back off like she wants him to?

She finds him waiting for her outside the paddock cage, arms crossed in front of his chest. He doesn't look angry as she approaches. But he's not smiling either, his face a carefully composed mask, like the raptors' naturally expressionless faces. She stands in front of him, head slightly bowed and looking up at him from under her lashes. She feels oddly...chastised. Like she's done something wrong and she's waiting for the punishment. Except, for once, she knows there isn't a beating, but she feels like she's disappointed Owen somehow, which is almost worse.

She wishes she could tell him, but she can't. She just can't. It echoes inside her head, over and over again, a reminder, a comfort letting her know that she didn't really do anything wrong.

But why does it still feel like she did?

"I'm sorry, Owen," she mumbles softly, repeating the last thing she said to him. The words still taste like lead on her tongue. "I'm sorry that I, um...hung up on you."

It's not what she's really sorry for, they both know that. But it's as close as she's going to get.

Owen stares at her, gaze so intense that she has to look away, like he's trying to will the truth out of her just by looking at her. She's stronger than that though. She has to be, with this secret. The secret of her mutation.

No one can ever know. And if Owen hates her for not telling him, then so be it.

Instead, he reaches out and drags her towards him in a tight hug, a lot like the first time when he found out no one knew about her birthday. And she's just as stunned, unable to do anything besides stand unmoving.

"It's okay, Liv," Owen whispers against the top of her head. "It's okay. You don't need to apologize. You don't have to say anything. You don't...you don't have to tell me. And I'm sorry if I pushed you, it's just...I want you to know that if you do ever want to talk, I'm here. I will always be here for you and I will do whatever it takes to help you. But only when you're ready, okay?"

Hearing those words, it should be a relief. It should be a huge weight off her shoulders, to not have to worry about Owen asking questions anymore and needing to skirt around him and the issue.

Instead, her chest grows tight with tears. And they're not tears of relief. She's sad, for some weird reason. Sad that he's not going to be bugging her about it anymore, and she doesn't understand why. So she wraps her arms around his chest and just hangs on, burying her face in his shirt. His hold tightens, and they just stay there like that for a long moment, because even in her uncertainty and confusion, she is enormously grateful that he is still with her. That he didn't decide to leave her or hate her like she feared.

"Are we good?" she asks, needing to hear it. "We're good now?"

"We'll always be good, Liv," he says, leaning back so he can wipe her tears away. He smiles down at her, small and genuine. "No matter what, we will always be good."

She smiles back. Looks like things will be going back to normal and she worried for nothing. She gets to keep her secret with no bad feelings left between them. Things like this are never this easy with Vic. He doesn't know how to forgive and forget, while Owen does it so easily, like it's common sense.

Is this how it's supposed to be?

"So," Liv says, stepping back and wiping at her face to make sure all of the tears are gone, "you up for this whole internship thing?"

Owen grins. "Absolutely. When do you start?"

"School starts this week so I'll start the next time I'm here. I figured I'd work about ten hours every weekend I'm on the island. Should get me done in plenty of time. I'll save Friday for finishing homework, then split the time between Saturday and Sunday."

"Sounds like a plan." He slings an arm around her shoulders and they head towards the Research Center. "Now, let's go talk about your duties."

Turns out, her duties aren't all that different from what she was already doing, at least, not for the first weekend. She mucks out the stables, helps prep the raptors' food, both live and dead. She cleans equipment and keeps the Research Center tidy and neat.

Then, for the second weekend, they start adding to her workload.

It's nothing much at first. Kind of boring, really. She helps fill out reports. The researchers each have notes that they take every day on their observations of the Velociraptors, things that the raptors are doing they deem interesting, how they react to commands, are they starting to respond or reject the training techniques, things like that. They give Liv the job of summarizing their notes for the weekly reports.

Yeah, boring.

But she is learning. Like how to take care of such dangerous animals. How to raise and nurture them. How the mixture of DNA affects how the raptors act. She's learning how they've adapted the methods of training from a bunch of different animals, from lions to shepherd dogs. Some of the adaptations work really well, like the clicker Owen uses. And then others, not so much.

The raptors hate that metal whistle. With a passion. Every time they even see it they start hissing and biting.

All in all, she enjoys the internship. She's not sure how the other students are doing with it, she's the only one assigned to the Research Center and hardly ever goes anywhere else when on the island so she never sees any of the others, but she likes the work, even the boring stuff, and it's never too much to where it interferes with her school work.

It makes her look forward to college, just so that she can do the full internship.

What makes the entire internship...remarkable...is when they get her involved with the actual training.

Saturday morning on her third weekend working the internship she gets to the Research Center bright and early. The night before, Owen asked her to arrive at eight because they have a long day ahead of them. She doesn't know what they're doing, but by the ecstatic grin he was wearing, it's going to be good.

Opening herself up to the world, she quickly finds the bright red aura she knows as Owen, standing on the catwalk. A quick search shows Vic nowhere in sight and she sighs in relief, heading for the paddock stairs. Vic still isn't happy she's interning with Owen and he comes out to the Research Center sometimes to watch the training sessions. She knows it doesn't only have to do with her but whatever plans he has for the raptors. Still, his presence always makes her nervous, no matter that she has every right to be around Owen right now.

She finds Owen sitting in her chair in the corner, drinking from a cup of coffee and leafing through a leather-bound notebook that he writes his research notes in. The sound of her boots clunking on the metal catwalk makes him look up and he smiles when he sees her.

"Hey, Liv," he says cheerfully, too cheerful for eight o' clock in the morning. He's such a morning person and she is…not. "Sleep well?"

A yawn pulls from her mouth as if to answer for her, making her jaw stretch big and wide. He laughs and she glares at him out of one eye while she tries to rub the sleepiness out of the other with the back of a knuckle. "I slept fine," she mumbles tiredly. "Wish I could have gotten more of it though. Why'd you drag me out here so early? It better be good or else I'm going back to bed."

"Aw, come on, Liv, eight isn't early. This is prime time to get things done."

"This is prime time for sleep."

He rolls his eyes. "I swear, you'd sleep the entire day away if you could."

She smiles brightly, completely unashamed. "Yep. I would. So, seriously, what are we doing today? You sounded excited last night."

His smile spreads to a lazy grin and he knocks back the rest of his coffee before answering. "We're doing more training today."

"O-kay," she says, drawing out the word, not understanding. They've done training before during her internship. Usually she just sits in her chair and watches, jotting down her own observations in a spiral-bound notebook. So what makes this time any different?

Owen stands, stretching his arms above his head, and then casually walks towards the stairs, calling over his shoulder, "You're helping."

It takes a moment for the words to really register and then she's racing after him, taking the stairs down two at a time as her questions come out rapid-fire, "What am I helping with? What are we doing? Am I helping you teach them a new command? Tossing them rats? Using the clicker?"

"Slow down, slow down," Owen chuckles, pushing the doors to the Research Center open. He motions for her to take the seat in front of his desk and she sits, him sitting across from her. He riffles through his notebook until he finds the page he's looking for and shows it to her. It outlines the plans for a training exercise entitled "Hide-and-Seek". "You're right, I want you to help out with a new training exercise we're trying today."

"Hide-and-seek? What do you want me to do, hide in the bushes until they find me? Cause I know they like me and all but they still might like a taste."

"No, of course not. It's a scent exercise that'll play off of their hunting instincts. We're going to put them in their stalls and then I want you to hold up something for them to sniff. They'll take in the thing's scent and then you'll hide it in the paddock."

She nods in understanding. "So the thing is the hider and the raptors are the seekers, using their noses to find it. Do you think they'll really go after it after just one sniff? What if they decide not to bother or don't understand that you want them to find it?"

"That's why we're starting out with food, different meats and things like that. It'll be stuff that they'll actually want to find once they realize it's in their paddock somewhere. We make sure we give them praise each time, let them know they did good, and then we can start branching out to other things for them to find."

"Sounds like fun. What am I hiding?"

Barry comes out from the back carrying two buckets, plopping them down on Owen's desk with heavy thumps. A foul odor wafts up from them, making Liv's nose wrinkle in disgust. "What are in those?" she asks.

"Oh, just a healthy sampling of meat," Barry answers, shrugging a shoulder casually. "Rats, lizards, pig, bird, one of the men even caught a monkey. Everything a growing raptor needs. Delicious, no?"

"If you say so. But please tell me I get to wear gloves. Last time I touched something dead, my hands smelled like rat for the rest of the day."

Barry rolls his eyes, a smile tugging at his mouth, and reaches into his back pocket, pulling out his heavy work gloves and tossing them to her.

"Thanks," she says appreciatively, tugging them on. They're really big for her, about twice as big as her hands, but she makes it work.

Owen clap his hands together excitedly. "Alright, let's get started."

They head back out to the paddock again, Barry falling in behind them with the buckets. The other handlers are using catch polls to herd the raptors into the stables, the raptors complaining the entire way. Once they're inside, someone pushes the button to lock them in, each of the raptors in their individual stalls at the back of the stables along the outer wall so they have nowhere to go. Owen leads them around to the side of the paddock where the outer doors for the stables are in the side wall, sort of like where racing horses begin before they're released out on the track except these raptors are definitely not getting out. They want to though. They're banging against the side of the metal walls, agitated and obviously not happy with being trapped. Owen goes to each stall, whispering to his squad and they calm down a little but they still don't like this

"Alright, let's be quick about this," Owen says, loud enough for everyone to hear him. "They stay in there too long they're just going to be mad at us and not want to train."

He reaches into a bucket and hands her one of the slices of meat, a piece of rat that will be fairly familiar to the raptors. Liv goes to each of the stall doors, holding the meat up against the holed grate. The first one is Charlie, wiggling around in her stall, wanting out. Liv smiles at her, hoping Charlie understands that she doesn't need to be afraid. She holds the meat closer and Charlie snorts, sounding a lot like a horse, and takes a big whiff. Liv then goes from raptor to raptor, allowing them each to scent their "prey".

"Okay," Owen says, "that should do it. Hopefully. Go on into the paddock, Liv. Hide it wherever you want and don't be afraid of being too hard. Bury it, put it up in a tree, stick it in a bush, whatever you want. Remember, they're supposed to work for their treat."

She nods and circles back around again to the big paddock doors already open and ready for her. She steps inside, apprehensive, but the raptors are locked up tight right now. They're not going to leap out of the bushes coming after her, though a part of her is still convinced that they would never intentionally hurt her.

Moving through the foliage, she tries to find a good place to hide the meat. After careful consideration, she tosses it into a clump of tall grass, the meat plopping between the blades like a stone in a river, completely obscuring it from view. She then quickly exits the paddock, the doors closing behind her, and goes up to the catwalk in order to watch beside Owen.

"Alright!" he calls out. "Let 'em out!"

The stall doors open and the raptors burst out with loud screeches. They aggressively snap at each other, obviously still really agitated that they were forced into their stalls, but then Blue's nostril's flare and her head swivels up to look at them, looking first at Owen and then at Liv. The other three, following their beta's gaze, look up at her as well.

"Crap," Liv whispers, keeping her voice low so the raptors won't hear her even though it doesn't really matter. "They scented me, too. Do you think it'll mess up the training exercise?"

"I don't know," Owen says, just as quietly. "Let's just wait and see for now."

Delta's head perks up and she scents the air. She chitters at the others, Blue chitters back, and then they all let out screeches as they dart off into the trees. The trainers are all spread out along the catwalk so they can keep an eye on the raptors and make sure they actually find the hidden meat, and after a few minutes one of them calls out that Delta found it and ate it. Liv shares a grin with Owen and then he lets out a loud whistle, calling the raptors to him. They gather below him immediately, shifting around on their feet like overly-excited dogs.

Owen depresses the clicker several times, the sound letting the raptors know they did something right. "Good. Very good, ladies." He then reaches into the bucket at his feet and throws each of the raptors a piece of rat as a reward.

Liv tugs at her gloves, pulling them back up from where they slipped. "So, which one should we try next?"

Once the raptors catch on that they're hiding food in the paddock for them to find, things start to go faster and a lot more smoothly. The raptors actually start to work together trying to find the hidden meat, splitting up in the paddock and calling to the others once it's found. The trainers didn't expect such teamwork and all around the catwalk Liv can see them furiously jotting down notes. They know raptors are pack animals, but they figured considering their still relatively young age that they'd be fighting over the food, each one trying to get it before the others, like they've done with other exercises in the past.

The raptors are learning and growing, far faster than anticipated.

By the time they're finished it's five in the afternoon. Everyone's tired, even the raptors since they just quietly slink off into the jungle instead of running, but it's a good kind of tired, accomplished. They did a lot of work today and it went well.

"We should celebrate," Owen says as they're putting away the leftover meat in the freezer at the back of the Research Center. "You know, go out to The Watering Hole. What do you say?"

"That, my friend, sounds like an excellent idea," Barry says and several of the other trainers agree as well.

Owen then slings an arm around her shoulders. "How about you, Liv? Care to join us?"

Liv bites anxiously on her lip. The Watering Hole is a restaurant out in the park. It has good food, hamburgers, wings, ribs, and the like, but it is very expensive. "No, I don't think I will. I don't have any money."

"Nonsense, it's on me."

She shakes her head rapidly, trying to refuse. "N-No! I can't do that."

"Sure you can. I'll let you gorge on overpriced burgers and fries while you let me tell you my woes."

"You're woes?"

Owen just sighs deeply, hanging his head. She thinks he's being a little dramatic but then she sees real sadness when his eyes lift to hers.

Before she can asks what's wrong Barry says bluntly, "Claire broke up with him."

"She did not!" Owen squawks defensively. "If anything, I broke up with her. And can you even call it breaking up when we just had one date?"

"Yes, you can."

"You went out with Ms. Dearing?" Liv asks in surprise. She...can't really see Owen and Claire...together. They don't seem compatible at all, although they do say opposites attract.

Well, they were attracted, but it apparently didn't last very long.

Still, Owen and Claire.

"Alright, you win. This I've got to hear."

The Watering Hole is a cozy combination of a big-chain restaurant and corner bar, all decorated to look like they're sitting in the middle of the forest. All of the walls are painted jungle murals with dinosaur heads peering out from between the branches and the tables look like there are fossils embedded in the glass tabletop. The raptor trainers head to the back of the restaurant straight away, pushing together three tables so they all have a place to sit.

Liv looks at the arrangement a little nervously but Owen just pulls out a chair for her, gesturing for her to sit, and when she does he sits to her right and Barry sits on her left. She gives them a grateful nod and then sinks back into her chair, allowing the conversation to envelope her as she eats her food.

She remains the quiet observer throughout most of the meal, content to just listen to the others talk. Despite being a common presence at the Research Center, especially now what with the internship, she still doesn't know many of them besides Owen and Barry. But being quite is something she's used to and doesn't mind.

That is, until Owen starts to tell them about his date.

"So, I asked Claire out, I think it was eight weeks ago now? It was right before the internships started. I gave her my number and told her to call me to let me know when would be good for her. Instead, I get this professional email looking just like any other email I get from her saying the next Friday will do. But then, Thursday night, she cancels, through email, saying she had some business dinner she had to go to or something."

Barry shakes his head, taking another sip of his soda. "That's cold."

"I know! And that's not the only time she does it. She cancels on me three times, all through email. Finally, we got together last night. We met here, at The Watering Hole, and she looked really good." Liv rolls her eyes at the grin on his face as he remembers. "But when she sees what I'm wearing she just gets this pinched look on her face."

"What were you wearing?" Liv asks.

He shrugs. "T-shirt and board shorts."

She arches a bemused brow at him. "Board shorts? Really?"

"What, it's Central America! It's hot! I'm not about to wear a suit or something out here."

Liv plops several fries in her mouth to suppress her laughter.

Men.

"Anyway," Owen continues, "so we sit down, look through the menu, and then she pulls out this itinerary. She planned out our entire evening, how long it was going to last, what we were going to do, down to the exact minute, like she had to squeeze me into her schedule in order to have time for a date."

Liv snorts. "That definitely sounds like Ms. Dearing. She's so organized it's scary. Good for running a theme park but I have to admit, using it for a date is a little weird."

"I know, right? But I let it go and we order our food and things are good for a while, you know? The conversation is good, we're both having a good time, at least I thought we were, and when we're done I don't quite want it to end yet so I invite her back to my place for some tequila. You know what she says? She refuses because tequila isn't allowed in her diet!"

Owen falls back in his chair with a petulant huff as the others lament on the bad turnout of the date. Meanwhile, Liv has to bite her lip in order not to break out in peals of laughter. He looks so much like a child right now! And, really, alcohol isn't good for any diet. They call it beer belly for a reason.

"What happened after that?" Barry asks.

Owen sighs. "We parted ways without planning a second date or anything. We could both read between the lines; the night kind of failed and we're not going out again."

It may have been mutual but he still looks really bummed about it. He must have really liked her, and Liv can't help but wonder if he wouldn't still like to try again.

A hand drops heavily on her shoulder and she tenses, staring straight ahead at the wall. There's a painting of a Velociraptor, teeth bared, and all of a sudden she wishes Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo were here.

"Olivia," Vic says behind her, his hand squeezing her shoulder tighter, "what are you doing here?"

"We had a good day training today, sir," she says, clearly and politely. "The trainers invited me out for dinner in order to celebrate."

His hand tightens even more. "It's late. You should be getting back to your room. And the rest of you," he says, addressing the others, "don't you have reports you should be working on if you had such a good day?"

"Relax, Vic," Owen says, leaning back in his chair casually. But by the way his crossed arms bulge and his jaw tics, he's anything but relaxed himself. "Our weekly reports aren't due for another two days. There's nothing wrong with taking a night off. And it's only six. Liv's curfew is for eight. That's two hours, plenty of time for her to get back to the hotel."

It's silent behind her, but not the comfortable kind. She wishes she could turn around and look at her father's face but she's afraid to move. Instead, she branches out with her mutant abilities, sensing the auras that are behind her. There are five others standing with Vic, auras she recognizes as members of the Asset Containment Unit. The guys from the ACU are the only ones who actually like her father. They must be here to have a night out as well. They like to all get together, sometimes even going out to the mainland to find an actual bar that's opened until the early morning hours. Which means he most likely won't drag her out of here right now to discipline her back in their suite. But a night out for him usually involves alcohol at one point.

And Vic can be a pretty mean drunk.

One of the ACU team members whispers something in Vic's ear and he grunts in response. The five of them go off to sit at a table while Vic's grip on her loosens a little.

"I want you to head back to the suite, now, Olivia," Vic orders. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," she replies, trying to keep the relief out of her voice. If he stays out relatively late tonight and she can avoid him in the morning, good chances are that she can avoid his belt.

"Good." He lets go, going to join his "buddies" and Liv sinks in her chair a little.

That could have just as easily gone another way, especially since he caught her out hanging with Owen when it has nothing to do with the internship.

Owen leans close to her, keeping his eyes on Vic who is no longer paying attention to them, and whispers, "Hey, Liv."

"I'm sorry, Owen," she whispers back. "I'm going to have to go."

"No, no, that's fine. I understand. I just wanted to remind you that I'm only a call away, alright? No matter what, I'll come if you need me."

She glances over her shoulder at Vic, sees that he's still not looking anywhere near her, and gives Owen a quick hug. "Thanks, Owen."

She doesn't know if she'll ever take him up on that offer, but it's nice to know she has the option all the same.

Author's Note

My headcannon is that Owen and Claire, at least for a moment, actually enjoyed the date, that's why he invited her back to his bungalow, but ultimately they were both too stubborn in their differences to keep trying. I don't know, that's how I saw it. Because in the movie they still like each other, even if they're in denial up until Owen finally kisses her.

And then there's fun raptor times. I liked doing the hide-and-seek, taking what I know from the movie and trying to come up with the actual training exercise. It was fun.

Next chapter, another one of my favorites. It directly follows this one and we get some fluff, a little bit of angst, some mutant abilities, and...

Something awakens...

We are getting closer and closer to the movie, my friends.

Alright, hope you enjoyed, PLEASE REVIEW, and see you all next time!