I am having way too much fun writing this story XD Thanks for the reviews and support! And now I've added Tom Hardy. I wonder if I am allowed to do that in a fanfiction. Probably not. I also just remembered I never put down a disclaimer so I'll do it now -
I don't own Jurassic World, Chris Pratt, or Tom Hardy.
PS Apologies for the porny-sounding chapter title but this story is rated T (for now).
A NIGHT WITH OWEN
After the ordeal, Owen drove Lindy to her accommodation only for her to find that the electricity was not working and there was a leak in her ceiling, covering her floor in a thin layer of water. Whilst she panicked inwardly, Owen hastily called Claire only to get through to her assistant, Zara.
"Hello? Oh, it's you. How may I help you, Mr Grady?"
"I need to talk to Ms Dearing."
"I'm afraid she's in a meeting."
He quickly explained what had happened to the raptor paddock and the state of Lindy's room. "I just need to talk to her for five minutes; do you think Ms Dearing can rearrange for my intern to stay at another place – "
"I'm sorry, Mr Grady, but Ms Dearing is very busy at the moment. The storm hasn't just affected the raptor paddock; other areas of the park have been affected too which requires her attention. I'll send someone to look at the accommodation but that's all I can do."
"When?"
"Soon."
"Argh, come on!" He yelled in frustration, only for Zara to hang up on him. He never did like her assistant much, either.
Lindy turned to him, carrying a soaked cardigan in hands. "...What should I do?"
His eye twitched slightly in response to the disheartened expression on her face; it was making him feel bad, too. Owen glanced around the rest of her damp room then jerked his head towards the humvee parked outside. "Stay with me for the time being."
Her eyes widened. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I mean...you can't stay here; you'll be sitting in the dark for the entire night. Not to mention it's damp and cold in here. I'll try and get a new room for you to stay in tomorrow."
"What if people say things?"
He shrugged.
"Would it be appropriate? I mean, you're my superior - "
He scoffed. "Really? You're asking someone who tried to ask their boss out if this is 'appropriate'."
"Fair point."
"Lindy. It'll be fine."
"...Alright."
They left the roadside motel/employee accommodation and were on their way to Owen's bungalow. Lindy had salvaged her camera, laptop and a few clean clothes, stuffing them into a bag. Once they arrived, the storm was getting worse and he quickly helped Lindy out of the vehicle then they hurried to the front door. He let her inside, flipping on the switch only for nothing to happen. "Looks like the power's out here too." He muttered; he kicked off his muddy boots and wandered into his lounge, removing his brown waistcoat before tearing his soaked shirt off himself and throwing it carelessly to the floor; Lindy watched wide-eyed as he wandered half-naked before her without a care in the world. Jabbing his thumb behind his shoulder, he said casually, "Make yourself at home. Bathroom's to the left."
Lindy glanced around his house; Owen's bungalow was very cozy indeed. The floor was wood and the walls were a light mahogany. To her left was a small but messy kitchen and to the right was the lounge with a dull and old, sunken russet-colored sofa facing the door with two matching patchwork cushions. A floor lamp stood beside it and a coffee table was stationed in front of it, covered with remote controls, magazines and empty beer bottles and cans. His TV stood on its own in the corner, the screen glossy and blank. An ironing board was propped against the wall as well as a mountain bike and some potted plants that didn't seem to look too well considering their yellowing leaves. She then saw the hallway in the back that only led to two doors facing opposite each other – she assumed they would lead to the bathroom and Owen's bedroom respectively. Clutching her bag tightly to herself, she side-stepped around Owen's discarded shirt on the floor.
"Thanks." She said, making her way past him and towards the small hallway. She opened the door of the bathroom only to see that a mess was waiting for her; his bathroom floor was covered with unfolded, dirty laundry and men's toiletries scattered in all sorts of areas – over the sink, on the windowpane. Considering the state of Owen's home, she wasn't surprised.
She shrugged inwardly and stepped inside without further ado, locking the door. In the main area of the bungalow, he heard the shower running inside the bathroom and he plopped himself on his grubby sofa with a beer in hand which he had nabbed from the fridge. With no electricity, there was no access to his microwave or his TV. All of a sudden he realized how boring and inconvenient it was. He plucked off the cap of his beer and downed a few gulps, staring at the window for a few minutes and watching the rain outside before the taps in the bathroom could be heard squeaking to a close. He then heard the door open and light footsteps approached him; turning round, he stared at her from head to toe as she wandered over to the couch and seated herself down; she was wearing a light gray nightdress with short sleeves that went to mid-thigh, her hair slightly damp and resting over one shoulder.
His mouth fell open somewhat. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... ... ... ..."
"It's your turn." She said, in response to his droning.
He quickly dropped his gaze, coughing lightly into his fist in a somewhat awkward manner before he hastily got up to stand and wandered towards the direction of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He stripped himself out of his muddy clothes, showered quickly, wrapped a clean towel around his waist and went up to his foggy mirror before quickly wiping away the mist. Goddammit, what the hell is wrong with me. He thought to himself with a frown as he stared at his reflection; he thought about her exposed legs and the way her hair sat on her shoulder. Then he thought about the time when he held her hand and how tightly she was holding onto him, when Echo had cornered them in the paddock. Had Lindy always had this effect on him?
No, I don't think so, he thought, This is...new. Hmm, interesting...
He inspected himself thoroughly to see a few nicks and grazes on his chin and one particular long cut on the side of his face which he hadn't noticed before; it didn't hurt too much but it stung when he ran his fingertips over it. He went to find a band-aid from his emergency first aid kit only for his brow to crease as he plucked one out and scrutinized the pattern.
Barney...
There didn't seem to be anything else so he unwrapped it carefully and slapped it over the cut, inspecting himself.
They really weren't kidding when they said everything here was dinosaur-related.
Owen quickly redressed in a clean t-shirt and shorts and shoved his feet into his pair of flip flops, exiting the bathroom with a towel in hands; he was surprised to see that she had committed herself to sit on the sofa, rifling through an old magazine and once she heard him approaching, she glanced up, noticing the band-aid before quickly averting her gaze to the side.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, just a graze. Nothing serious." He spotted that she too, had a reddish cut on the side of her neck. It looked sore. "You want something for your that?"
She blinked blankly at him as he gestured to his own neck. "Hm? Oh." It seemed she wasn't even aware of the cut until he had pointed it out, and he returned to the bathroom without waiting for her reply.
"Hang on, I got just what you need..." She could hear him call from over his shoulder. When Owen re-emerged with a Barney band-aid in hand and antiseptic cream, she eyed the two in his hands as he plopped himself down on his sofa. "Stay still." Lindy remained unmoving as he neared her; he dabbed at the graze with his fingertips lathered in pink ointment before pausing, his gaze fixed on her. It dawned to him that they were very close, and he could see how smooth and blemish-free her skin was. Her skin had a pleasing softness to it...Her jaw was also very lithe, her eyelashes long and her lips light pink and delicate-looking...
He swallowed down heavily and quickly stuck the band-aid over her cut, wiping his hands clean. "All done."
She ran her fingertips over the band-aid. "Thanks."
"I uh...I got some leftover meatloaf if you're hungry," He uttered, sauntering to the fridge again and pulling out said meatloaf. Noticing that she hadn't helped herself to anything in his house except from the magazine, he added, "Do you drink?"
She nodded, and he tossed a cool bottle of beer at her direction which she caught it effortlessly. After she thanked him, she flipped off the lid and sipped silently. Owen returned to the couch and sat beside her with the meatloaf, two plates, napkins and two sets of cutlery. He was making more of an effort (since he had a guest), but usually he would just eat anything from its packaging using a fork or even his hands if he was too tired. He settled a plate in front of her before setting out a napkin and the knife and fork, then looked up to see that she was smiling. "What?"
"Nothing."
"Is it the meatloaf?"
"No, I'm good with the meatloaf."
He proceeded to cut out a rather large slice for her, slipping it onto her plate and then one slice onto his own. Just as she picked up her fork, he got up from the sofa and dashed to the kitchen – she watched him curiously – and he rummaged around the cupboard before returning with some thick, chalky-white candles and a lighter. She stared as he pressed down on the lighter and lit some of the candles up, creating a nice, tawny orange glow inside the room that kept the darkness at bay and also made the room a lot warmer. He settled them carefully on the coffee table before them, letting them stand proudly. Once that was done, she glanced around herself, glancing at the dinner, at the candlelight. It all seemed to add up to something.
Turning to Owen, she raised a brow and he grinned. "Pretty neat, huh?" He said.
She laughed, tucking a strand of damp hair behind her ear. "This is nice." She replied, before she lowered her gaze to the beer bottle cradled in her hands.
"Cheers." He held up his beer bottle in hand; she copied his action, lifting it up, and they clinked the bottles together before taking a sip each.
They ate silently although he would occasionally avert his gaze over at her, watching her eat. She ate politely and quietly, which he found interesting to observe since he was far too used to watching Barry or any other employee chomping loudly on burgers and pizzas. When she would look up, he would immediately throw his glance to his meatloaf, or his lap. When she glanced away, he would look at her once more.
The silence and the observing continued until he said, "Are you enjoying it here? Feeling homesick at all?"
"Kinda. I do miss my mom. I'm guessing the people who work here permanently can't get time off to see their families and friends. They must find it even tougher than I do."
"People keep forgetting that they were allowed a choice whether they wanted to work here or anywhere else on this planet."
She pursed her lips in thought, then said, "Is it true that it took you years to form a relationship with the raptors?"
He stopped eating for a second, swallowed and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Yeah. I imprinted on them but I worked hard to gain their trust. And now that's gone... with Echo at least."
She slid her gaze glumly to the side, "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault. We'll need to speak with the park's maintenance workers to suss out what happened to the electricity generator. It can't afford to happen again."
"What about that man called Bates?"
"He's in charge of security at the paddock; he's a good guy but we don't often agree on some stuff."
She nodded to herself. "There are some people out there who are against the park's existence."
He took a messy sip from his beer. "Yeah."
"They say it's not right to bring dinosaurs back to life, and with the Isla Nublar incident, the San Diego incident and Isla Sorna...it's a pretty strong argument. Where do you stand with all this?"
"You're asking a lot of interesting questions, Miss Lindy."
She shrugged. "Just curious about what you think about all this."
He scratched at his chin. "...I was asked to train raptors. Those are my thoughts."
Lindy blinked blankly at him, before he thought he saw her fist clinch slightly. However, as soon as that had happened, her lips spread into a thin smile. "I see. You're passive. If only everyone was like you, Owen. Not a lot of people can do what you do."
"Exactly. Name another Raptor Trainer aside from me. Aha, see? You can't think of another one, because there isn't. It's just me."
She grinned. "Hehe, that's true."
He held his hands up, knife and fork in his clutch. "Whoa, don't get me wrong here. I still love my girls, and alluding to a conversation we had earlier, I don't want them to fall into the wrong hands."
They simmered into another silence; this time, it was neither uncomfortable nor comfortable. Lindy concentrated on eating the meatloaf provided and Owen gulped down some beer. A while later and she muttered, "Thank you for saving my life today."
Owen glanced up and she slowly met his gaze; they stared at each other for what seemed to be a long time, just studying each other intently until...
BZZ BZZ BZZ.
She threw her gaze to her phone which was vibrating. A text message from an unknown number. Lindy quickly swiped the device into her hands, ensuring he could not see. Her eyebrows furrowed as she read the text. It said:
I was thinking of visiting the park when the weather gets better.
Her thoughts ran amok. What? He's going to actually come to the park? But why?
"You're lookin' rather intense." Owen remarked, and she quickly looked up to see him staring at her, "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, i-it's just my mom... she wanted to see how I was getting on." She replied; there was a slight pang in her gut as she contemplated the lie she had just told, and to Owen nonetheless. "I'm just gonna text her back. I'm...okay...mom...Miss...you...too...L...O...L. Smiley face, X, X, X."
He chuckled as he watched her shove the phone to the side, sipping his beer with a grin.
Trying to pick up where they left off before the text, she said with a smile, "This meatloaf is good by the way. Did you make it?"
"No, actually, it's er...it's from Claire. She made it for me and Zara to try; if it was good, she was going to make some for her nephews if they ever come to the park."
Immediately, her smile dropped. "Oh, right." She murmured, and she emptied another spoonful of meatloaf into her mouth. It was then she remembered something what Barry had told her a while ago, something about Owen and Ms Dearing...
Owen's fancied her since day one, but he's too stubborn to admit it...
Somehow the realization made her rather despondent.
Note:
So with all the shit Owen goes through I wondered what Lindy should do to thank him for him saving her life earlier on. Should it be A) Thank You card, B) Thank You flowers, C) Box of chocolates, D) handshake or E) One night stand or F) kiss on the cheek. F was in the original version of this chapter since the rest of the options were awful and they were supposed to try and kiss until Lindy's phone went off but I decided to drop that too in the end because I felt it would be too early for any touchy feely stuff for the time being :'(
Also, before Hoskins, there was Bates XD
If you are wondering about the scene and why there are spaces in the part when Owen goes "Uhhhhhhhh' it's to pay homage to Chris Pratt's role in The Lego Movie when his character meets Wyldstyle for the first time. I had to add the spaces due to editing problems here lol