I do not own JP/JW by any means aside from my own story lines and characters.
THIS CHAPTER MAY FEEL LIKE IT MOVES TOO FAST, AND THAT IS PURPOSELY DONE TO REFLECT THE STATE OF AHURA'S MIND IN THIS.
"... Say what?" Ahura asked a few tense beats, her brain still trying to comprehend what had come out of his mouth. Owen's mouth tightened slightly, before he sighed and bit his top lip for a brief moment.
"You're the woman that I want to be with, but I couldn't tell you because I was positive you'd say no."
"Don't play with me." She raised her finger, flicking his forehead. She stood up, brushing off her clothes as Owen followed, looking exasperated.
"Why do you think I'm not serious?" He asked, Maybelle and Barry dying laughing at the inexplicit rejection. "Because I play too much?"
"Yes!" Ahura looked to the left when the girls suddenly got up, hell bent on fighting again. Barry and Maybelle both fell to the floor with very blank expressions. "Look, this is a lot to take in... Let me think on it."
"For how long?" Owen tilted his head, and Ahura understood why. This had taken a lot of courage, so he didn't really want to wait.
"Come find me tomorrow, and I'll tell you... Suspense." Ahura gave a shaky smile, before practically running away with her children hot on her heels. The quicker she got out of there, the better. She didn't turn back once and knew she wouldn't be followed, knowing they were better than that, but her children overtook her soon enough, blocking her way. They were concerned about her, so perhaps they could ease her. With a shake of her head, Ahura continued a slow walk until they reach the vehicle they'd arrived in, climbing in without a word and all her children somewhat resting on her. This was going to be extremely awkward...
They all got back to the enclosure in one piece, all just lying on the floor and basking in the sun. It stayed relatively silent for a good long while, until Ahura's sounded with a needed voice. "Hey, Cruthers."
"You need to go and see the Boss, Hammond. You've been summoned." When there was no response, Loweroy sighed. "It's just about a family emergency, Hammond. From all I know, you aren't in any trouble. But apparently, this emergency is something you need to attend."
Ahura got onto her feet, thoroughly petting her children and laughing as they rolled around on the floor. "I'll be right back, don't you worry. If I'm not back when the sun goes down, something's gone wrong, but everything will be just fine." After kissing each snout, she hopped into her car and headed to Masrani's office. Her usually jolly face was creased into a deep-set frown, wondering what this emergency could be, but her mind came up blank. Tim and Lex were doing fine from what she knew, so maybe it was one of the parents? Their parents weren't that old, really, going into their late 60's to early 70's at most, but then a lot could go wrong at any age. A lot could happen in the space of a year.
When she arrived, she ran up all the stairs and onto the top floor, stopping to breathe properly again. She spotted Claire talking with another executive, but the ginger haired beauty looked away when she spotted Ahura, her face suddenly sullen. Becoming concerned, Ahura straightened her clothes and knocked on the Boss' door. "Come in!"
"Sir, you asked for me?" Ahura poked her head around the door, the rest of her soon following.
"Miss. Hammond, come and sit down." He never called her Miss. Hammond when they were alone. This was bad. This was very bad... Still, she sat and began to wring her hands on her knees, trying not to show how afraid she was. "I have two pieces of information for you, neither of them good. Simon's face was sullen - very much like Claire's - and sorrowful. Ahura's hands moved to the armrests, shifting in her seat. "Alexis Murphy has passed away from cancer, she went last night. She fought for seven months." Ahura's heart stopped momentarily. How was this possible? Lex was perfectly healthy and happy... Why did no one tell her that her adoptive sister was dying? And now she was dead, without being able to say goodbye. "She demanded that you attended her funeral in Costa Rica, so she could see you one last time, even after death."
Her hands gripped the armrests, her eyes lowering to the floor, too shocked to cry as it began to sink in. She hadn't had a chance to process everything before Simon unveiled the other piece of news. "Miss. Dearing has filled me in on the adventure to the lake, Miss. Hammond." It took a few beats for Ahura to answer, trying to shove the death of Lex to the back of her mind.
"And?"
"We're concerned about them." Green eyes snapped up to lock with him, flaming slightly.
"Why? There's nothing wrong with my children. They're healthy, growing at a normal rate and mentally stable. So what are you accusing here?"
"We aren't accusing anything, Miss. Hammond. We're stating facts. But, you've said the problem, Miss. Hammond. Your 'children'." He made the quotation marks, his face stony and unreadable. There was the trained businessman. The side Ahura had never seen, and that only furthered her nervousness. "They are Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs who should be predominately independent by this point. They aren't human children and do not require so much emotional care. They are not your children."
"They are."
"They aren't."
"They are!" Ahura slammed her hand against the desk. "I took them in, fed them, cared for them, raised them, loved them... They are my children." She leaned closer, resting her forearms on her knees, eyes blazing with pain and anger. Simon had never seen such anger in any woman's eyes, much less this one. The one who was so calm, sometimes sarcastic, about everything life threw at her. 'A mother's love for her children is like nothing else in the world...' Simon thought, not letting his inner turmoil play out on his face. This was for the best. "Two of them have my blood flowing through their veins and the other is far too much of an emotional boy to be separated from his Mother. They are mine."
"They are babied, Miss. Hammond. All three will be taken from your care." It didn't show how it broke Simon's heart to see the tears start to fall from the woman's eyes. How he could only think of how disappointed John would be in him for breaking his beloved Ahura. "You're too maternal to raise carnivores they way we need. They will all be kept together until further notice, as they still need each other at this point in time, but they will be treated like every other carnivore here."
"You mean how you'll lock them in a concrete cell and never let them leave to roam around? You mean how you'll take away any human interaction that isn't people gawking and yelling at them? You mean how'll they'll be fed from a crane without hunting their own like their used to? You mean how all their favourite food will be taken away?" She raised an eyebrow through her tears. "How you'll strip them of everything they enjoy?"
"You make it sound so harsh, but yes. They're still Dinosaurs. Still carnivores. They were designed to frighten the public, not be sweet and cuddly." He took a long breath, refusing to let tears start to burn his eyes while she was present. It was better that she thought he was cruel. Uncaring. As much as it broke him inside to see her like this, he had to do this. "I understand that this must be very stressful for you, but-"
"What am I meant to do now? After the funeral, what then?!" Tears were just cascading down her face with no intention of stopping. He didn't want to do this... He didn't want to make her sob... He didn't want to come between a mother and her children, and that was their relationship. As much as he had denied it, he knew that bond. A bond he was about to shatter and have on his conscious for all his years left in this life.
"You have a choice. You can come back after the funeral and work with the young Herbivores, who actually need maternal people around them-"
"You know I can't do that." Her knuckled hand gone white on the armrests, muscles shaking under the pressure. She was furious, but that fury wouldn't be released yet. Not today. Not tomorrow. But it would rise, and he knew it. Right now, she was too distraught, but it would come, and he was sure he would be the first to feel it.
"Or you can be barred from Jurassic World for five years." Here it came. Here came the true breaking of a mother.
"Five years?!" She shot up from her chair, knocking it to the floor, while Simon slowly stood in following, not wanting to look intimidated by the raging woman. "Why five years?!"
"In that time, the assets-" He saw her eyes shatter at hearing the word come out of hid mouth... As if he hadn't punched her enough times in the gut today. "Would have forgotten their early upbringing. They will behave like the frightening beasts we intended. What we wanted."
"Frightening beasts..." Ahura backed away a few paces, shaking her head with tears flying as she did so. "You are not the man you were, Simon Masrani. You are not the man John Hammond trusted." He wanted to break down and tell her he was. He wanted to reach out and hold her like John would. Tell her that everything would be fine and that he was sorry... But he couldn't. But here it came. Here came the start of the storm that would brew for five long, painful years. "I will leave this place for five years, as you demanded." Her expression became harder than his, eyes burning. "Because I know them better than you ever will. They won't forget me, I know they won't, but I want to come back when they're 'older', 'larger'... 'Scarier'." She used the quotations, reigning him back to Dr. Wu's echoing words. "And when they're smarter too, because they will get smarter. Much smarter." She dropped her hands, her fiery eyes the only thing Simon could pay attention to, a voice much darker than he'd ever heard coming from her mouth. "I will watch as everything you have built up with them over these five years come down in flames."
"I'll make sure your things are packed by the time you get home." Simon momentarily lowered his eyes, not able to get over how dark her voice was. Just for that moment, the firmness in his eyes broke before he looked back at the woman he cared so much for. "I'll miss you, Ahura Hammond."
"The feeling won't be mutual, Simon Masrani." She turned and stormed out of the room, her retreating figure burned into his mind as the tears finally fell. All that trust she had in him was shattered like the finest glass. Gone in an instant. He would never forgive himself for this, and he knew it.
"Sir?" He looked up to see Claire in the doorway, looking at him with sadness in her own eyes.
"Heaven has no rage like a love to hatred turned. Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." Quoting William Congreve, he shook his head as Claire tilted her head.
"I don't understand, sir."
"They say that you have never seen anger until you meddle with the bond between mother and child." He sat down again, not able to stop thinking about the broken woman. "To quote Agatha Christie: A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushed them down remorselessly all that stands in its path." Simon turned, standing up and looking out of the window, Claire standing beside him as they watched Ahura climb back into her car and drive away. "There will be hell to pay for this, Miss. Dearing, from that vengeful woman... After five years, she will come back and a storm like no other will be released..."
She said goodbye to nothing but her home. She said goodbye to no one but Maybelle, who'd gone in a fury and was currently marching to Masrani. She said goodbye to no Dinosaur but Rexy and Amara. She couldn't bear the thought of facing her children and telling them she was leaving. It was better that they thought something bad had happened to her, at least then they couldn't continue on, but not forget her. She would rather let them think she had die than let them think she'd abandoned them. Things like this were a normal occurrence in the Age of Dinosaurs.
But this wasn't that Age, and none of her children were normal Dinosaurs. Two of them didn't even exist until a year ago and the other was a soft-hearted, emotional mummy's boy. At least they wouldn't be separated, but how long would that last? How old would they be before their sibling ship would be torn apart? Would Chiari and Xue get to stay together, but then where would Reider go? What would happen to him? Would he be left alone? Would he go in with Rexy and Amara while he grew to build up their pack? It wasn't old news that T-Rex's supposedly lived in packs, but Reider wasn't a T-Rex. a close relative, yes, but still not a T-Rex.
She was terrified for them, she couldn't lie about that. Their mother would be gone for five years with no way of protecting them yet. She would a find a way. Still, a lot could happen in five years... She was scared, grieving and furious over all that had happened within hours. None of it seemed really until she saw Costa Rica within her view, everything inside that hoped it was just a nightmare came crashing down on top of her, tears welling up again as she viewed the beauty of the island without really taking it in. The only thing on her mind was the life she had to wait five years to continue.
I hated writing this chapter so much! I was blubbering like a baby over characters I created!
Simon's doing what he feels is right in this chapter, and I wanted to show that he wasn't doing it to be cruel like Ahura believes. He's a businessman with a heart that he can't show here, otherwise he would change his mind and then the film would never happen.
I'm sorry ;u;
If you feel you see any spelling mistakes, do not hesitate to let me know :)
Waddup ma Unicorns!
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