Who are you, Owen Grady?

by Ghostly Presence

Owen and Claire are sent to Masrani Global's headquarters in Manhattan to deal with press after the Indominus rex disaster. In the midst of all the interviews and meetings, Claire and Owen find the time to get to know each other better little by little. There's laughter, tears, joy and pain; will they overcome it all? *edited version in AO3*

20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

"One week. She needs to stay a week so I can make sure there are no infections and the skin graft takes, then she's free to go home."

"That's great!", I say.

"Will she need to be in bed rest?", Karen asks.

"No. Actually she's going to need to do her daily activities, being in bed rest will only increase her chances of having her lung collapse again. I'll give you further instructions the day she's released."

Karen laughs softly. "I think Claire will be glad to hear that. She's never been one to stay put."

Dr. Fukunaga's pager beeps. "Okay, guys. I'll leave you with Claire. I'll be coming tomorrow morning to check the skin graft."

"Okay. Thanks, doc.", I say.

Karen pulls out her cell phone. "I have to get my bag ready. My flight leaves in 2 hours."

"I thought you were leaving at night?"

"I was, but Scott called to tell me Gray had food poisoning. The poor kid has been throwing up his guts out. I have to go take care of my baby."

"Oh, poor kid. Okay, I'll take you home so you can get your bags ready."

She shakes her head. "No. It's okay. I'll take a cab. There are still a couple of hours until the visitor's time is up. Stay with Claire."

"Are you sure?"

She nods. "Yeah. I'll just say goodbye to her."

I nod and she walks inside Claire's room.

One week. She'll be able to come home with me in a week. I'm kinda getting nervous now. Claire is going to meet my family and she's going to stay at my family's home. Now that's the ultimate test. I know my family will love Claire and vice versa, but you never know.

Karen comes out of the room and says goodbye to me.

"Thank you so much for everything, Owen. I'll call the lawyers as soon as I am home. Will your parents and Isabella be home? I want to thank them too."

"Yes, they are. Are you going to be coming next week?"

"Yeah. I already told Claire I'll be coming next Friday night and stay until Sunday night, maybe."

"That's perfect. See you next Friday then." I hug her. "Bring the kids next time. There's room for them too."

She laughs. "Okay, I will. See you, Owen."

"See you, Karen."

She walks away and I go into Claire's room again.

"Did she leave?", Claire asks.

"Yeah, I told her to bring the kids when she comes back and she said she would."

"Really? That's good. I already missed too much time with them, I don't want to miss more."

"You won't."

We talked for about an hour before the visitor's time was over. I kissed her goodbye and told her that I would see her tomorrow. The doctor came in the next day and removed the bandages to see if the skin graft had taken. At first it was shocking, for Claire and myself. It was an angry red and you could clearly see that the piece of skin on her arm didn't belong there. Claire was mortified, she even said she felt like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, but Dr. Fukunaga assured her it wouldn't look like that forever.

Unfortunately though, it would take about 6 months for her body to fade out the edges of the skin graft. But, if she was consistent with the treatment, then it should fade out a lot. You would still be able to tell because that section of the skin will be darker no matter what, but it could've been worse.

I set up a routine for the next week. I wake up at around 8am, I have breakfast and then I go see Claire until the visitor's time is up. As the days go by, I see Claire get better. She talks without wincing as much, though she can't still talk for too long, the bruises on her face have started to fade and she smiles more now. She seems less burdened, and so do I.

The day of her release arrives and I couldn't be more ecstatic. Mum had the maids clean the pool house at least twice, nonna came to the house this morning to leave some desserts she had baked the night before and dad had been busy talking to the police to coordinate our exit from the hospital to our house. Isabella left quickly after breakfast. I have no idea where she went. I open Claire's suitcases and look for the clothes she told me to bring her. I put it all in a duffle bag and I go out the door.

I throw the duffle bag in the trunk of Isa's car and I drive to the hospital. It's almost as if the media knew Claire was leaving the hospital today. I swear I can see double the amount of people that I've been seeing throughout the whole week. It takes me a while to park the car, but once I do I walk quickly inside and walk to Claire's room.

I knock on the door and walk in.

"Good morning, babe." I lean forward and kiss her. "Ready to get out of here?"

She smiles. "So ready. I cannot express to you how boring it is to be lying down on a bed without being able to move for an entire week. I'm ready to get up."

"Well let me tell you. The whole house has been in an uproar, people running around, phone calls being made. Everyone is making sure everything is ready for you."

"Aww, they're so sweet. I hope they like me. Wouldn't that be a bummer? If they didn't."

I shake my head. "Don't worry about that. They'll love you. Just like I do."

She smiles. "Are you trying to make points with me?"

"Is it working?"

"Yes."

There's a knock on the door and Dr. Fukunaga and Yolanda come in.

"Good morning. How's everyone today?", Dr. Fukunaga asks.

"Good, actually. I'm pretty happy that I get to leave today.", Claire says.

"Well, before you do that, I need to tell you about the exercises you'll need to do and the precautions you should take."

Claire and I nod. "First, right now you feel pain in your ribs but you feel like it's a manageable pain, that's why you can talk more now, correct?"

"Correct."

"You are going to need to stand up in a few minutes, but when you do that you are going to feel a lot of pain. You've been in the same position for a week, which means your muscles are sore, but because of the pain medication, you haven't really felt it. When you try to sit up, the natural movement of the action will press the muscles against your ribs, which will hurt and add the sore muscles to that… it won't be pleasant."

Claire deflates a little. "And I woke up so happy."

"How long will she be in that kind of pain?", I ask.

"2, maybe 3 days. Once she gets moving she will feel better."

Claire perks up again. "I won't be bed ridden?"

"No. Like I told your sister and Owen before, being in bed rest won't help you heal. Actually you run the risk of your lung collapsing again and you already had that happen, so let's take all the measures to avoid that. But please, don't over do it. Basically, don't stand for too long and don't lie down for too long. Which takes me to the next part; you'll need to do some coughing exercises."

She frowns. "Won't that hurt?"

"Unfortunately, it will a little. The exercise is for your lungs. You are not breathing properly because it hurts when you do, so these exercises will help your lungs from collapsing. Yolanda will tell you how to do them."

She nods again.

"You should also start getting used to the idea of having your cast, because you were unlucky enough to break both your radius and your ulna and that will take anywhere between 2 and 6 months to heal."

Her eyes widen. "6 months?! That's ridiculous! I'm right handed, what am I supposed to do for 6 months without my right arm?!"

"Those are bones that take a long time to heal. There's nothing I can do for you there. Now your burn, y-"

She rolls her eyes. "What?! Is that arm going to be out of commission too?"

I put my hand on Claire's shoulder. "I can't even imagine how frustrated you must feel, but just hear him out. This is what you have to do to get better, and I will be with you every step of the way."

Her expression softens and she looks up at me. "You're right. Sorry. Please continue, doctor."

"The section of your arm that was burnt has to be completely covered all the time, for at least a year. If you don't, you will have horrible scaring. The sun shouldn't touch that part of your arm at all. You'll have to wear sunblock and a sleeve to cover up the area."

"Okay.", she says.

"I'll go and get your release papers ready. The path to recovery won't be easy, Claire. But trust me when I tell you it could've been a lot worse. You have people who love you and who will help you through this. Besides, this can't be more difficult than running away from dinosaurs, right?"

She smiles. "Well, nothing's chasing me or trying to eat me so…"

Dr. Fukunaga laughs and leaves the room.

"Okay, Claire. You ready to get up?", Yolanda asks.

She scratches her forehead with her right arm. "I was."

"I'll walk you through it, don't worry. Owen, come and help her out. You need to learn the proper way to help her up."

"Yes." I walk around the bed to Claire's left side and stand next to Yolanda.

"Okay, so what you want to do Claire is keep your back as straight as you can. Normally, when you're lying down and you want to sit up you bend forward, so to minimize the pain, try not to do that. Owen, what you should do is hold her above the elbows and pull her forward gently. Let her guide you, when she stops, you stop. Got it?"

We both nod. "Got it."

Yolanda pulls the sheets off of her and she presses a button to move Claire to a sitting position. She winces and closes her eyes.

"That hurt?", I ask.

"Yep. I'm really not going to enjoy the next part."

Yolanda pulls out from under the bed a step stool that's attached to the bed. "Okay. Stand up, Claire. Take all the time you need. No one's rushing you."

I step closer to the bed and stretch out my arms. She looks at me and lifts her left arm first. I hold her above the elbow like Yolanda told me. She starts moving her left leg out of the bed, which she does pretty well. But it's her right side that's hurt, so she hesitates a little.

"Take your time. I'm right here.", I tell her.

She starts moving her right leg and she tries to sit up, but she gasps and stops.

"That really hurt."

"I got you. Do you want me to hold your right arm?"

She nods and lifts her arm up. I hold her and she closes her eyes.

"Ready to try again?"

"I think so."

She manages to sit up, both her feet on the step stool. She's breathing hard, which is only causing her more pain, but she wants to do it all in one fluent motion so she can get this over with.

Yolanda steps next to me. "When you try to stand up, use your legs to push upwards. Remember not to bend too much and Owen, the minute she's lifted herself from the bed pull her towards you, again, gently."

"Okay. Whenever you're ready, Claire."

She looks down, that fiery determination that I love shining through. She raises her head and nods. "One fluid movement and don't let me sit back down."

"Okay."

She breathes in and out and looks at me. I squeeze her arms gently so she knows I've got her. She pushes herself up and I pull her forward. She steps off the step stool and directly into my arms. She hugs me with her left arm, her right arm by her side and her head on my chest.

"And I thought the leg cramp I had last week was painful. I'm never sitting down again." She looks up at me. "How the hell am I going to get changed?! I'm never going to be able to put pants on."

I smirk. "I wouldn't mind."

She shakes her head. "Keep dreaming, buddy."

"Actually, you'll need help, Claire. You can't bend down. Putting a shirt on is going to be very painful, the motion of lifting your arms up is going to be borderline unbearable."

A murderous look crosses her eyes. It's scaring me a little. "You should've broken his ribs, not his jaw."

Wow. She's scary. "Well, he won't be able to talk or eat for a while, anyway so…"

She greets her teeth. "And I won't be able to do anything by myself for months, so…"

A puff out my cheeks a little and think of a way to calm her down. "I can look for him, break all of his ribs and then I can tickle him to death."

She gives me a deadpan look and she gives me a barely there smile.

"I'll help you get dressed, Claire.", says Yolanda.

I kiss her on the cheek and leave the room to give Claire some privacy. I wait outside and start thinking of ways to help her out. It took her 10 minutes to stand up. I'm not even thinking about tomorrow, I'm thinking of right now. In a few minutes she'll have to get in and out of the car. How will she manage that? I definitely didn't think this part through. Maybe there were things I could've bought to make her more comfortable, things I could've bought to put around the house in order to help her move without me having to be there at all times. Claire is a very independent woman, the fact that she will need to depend on someone to help her do, basically everything, is going to hit her hard.

As soon as we get home, I'm going to figure out ways to help her out. Now though, I have to figure out how to get her home. The door opens and Yolanda tells me to come in. I push myself of the wall and walk inside. Claire is standing next to the bed, her left arm holding her right side.

"How it'd go?"

A little frustrated she says, "It was painful and very uncomfortable."

I wince. "We'll figure out something. I promise."

Her expression softens, "I know."

"Okay. So, the coughing exercises are simple. Every 2 hours you'll need to do 10 minutes of gentle coughing and slow deep breathing. I recommend putting a pillow over your broken ribs, to control the movement of your chest a little. That will help reduce the pain. Do you guys have a pool?"

Claire looks at me. "Yes, we have a pool."

"That's perfect. You could get in and walk the length of the pool. It will help your muscles recover from being in the same position for a week and the cool water will be soothing for your ribs. Of course, don't get in alone. It's a precaution."

"What about the burn and the cast?"

"We'll give you 2 sleeves. One is for your daily activities and the other one is a waterproof one. You'll have to use it when you shower too, remember nothing hot can touch the surface of your skin, so wear that sleeve when you're in the pool and you should be okay. The cast is acrylic so don't worry about it. We're also giving you waterproof tape to cover up the stitches from the surgery."

We both nod. Dr. Fukunaga knocks and steps in with a couple of papers.

"You're ready to go, Claire. I'll give this to you, Owen. Give them to the security guard at the exit. " He hands me a bag. "All the things you'll need are right here. I'll see you in a week Claire. Take it easy, okay?"

"Okay."

"Thanks, doctor. For everything.", I shake hands with him.

"No problem. See you, guys." He walks out of the room.

"It is protocol to take the patient in a wheelchair to the exit, but I don't think you would like that very much, Claire. So we'll just ignore it for today." Yolanda says.

Claire smiles. "Thank you, Yolanda. For taking such good care of me, and being so patient." She stretches out her left hand and Yolanda takes it.

"It was my pleasure. Take care, Claire."

Yolanda shakes my hand and leaves the room.

"Well, let's get out of here.", I tell Claire.

"Let's."

We start walking slowly to the elevator and then I remember something I haven't told Claire.

"Shit. I forgot to tell you."

"What?", she frowns.

"There are a ridiculous amount of reporters outside the hospital. They've been here basically since you were brought in."

She just looks at me. "Of course there are. Nothing is ever simple. Did you bring my sunglasses?"

I open the duffle bag and pull out her Chanel sunglasses and give them to her. "At least it'll cover up some of the bruises. Not that it matters anyway, my whole right side is just a mess."

"They'll find someone else to bother. They always do. We'll have a normal life. You'll see."

I'm not talking just about now and I hope she knows that. She looks at me and smiles. "A normal life. That sounds very nice."

The elevator doors open and we are greeted by a couple of policemen. "Ms. Dearing. Mr. Grady, good morning. We've been assigned to escort you home. You'll be exiting the hospital through a back door. Would you please give us your car keys, Mr. Grady? We'll bring the car over so Ms. Dearing doesn't have to walk all the way to the parking lot."

I take the keys out of my pocket and hand them to him. "Thanks, man."

"Of course. I'll be right back. I'll leave you with my partner, so he can walk you through the plan."

He nods to his partner and leaves to get Isa's car.

"The plan is simple. I'll ride at the front, my partner at the back. We'll drive through main avenues to get you home fast. We've been tracking the reporters' movements and usually, they stop chasing you after 5 to 7 blocks. So we're expecting either the amount of reporters to increase or for them to follow you longer. For either case, we're prepared and we have confidence we'll get you home safely and quickly. Do you have any questions?"

"No, I don't. You Claire?"

"No. It was pretty clear."

The policeman nods. "Okay, then. I'll contact the station to let them know we're almost ready to go. Excuse me."

He walks away and Claire turns towards me. "You've been pretty busy."

"It wasn't me. That was all my dad. He told me he would take care of it and he did."

She looks at me. "Your parents have done a lot for me and they haven't even met me."

I shrug. "I think they just saw the way I talked about you. They must've figured out how special you are."

She shakes her head. "Sometimes you say things that I just don't know how to answer to."

"You don't have to give me any answers. I'm just telling you how I feel."

She gets closer to me. "Well let me tell you this. I love you and I will be thankful that you came into my life until the day that I die."

"I love you too. More than you can imagine."

We hear the steps of the policeman approaching. "We're ready for you folks. Please follow me." I put my hand behind Claire's back and we walk to the backdoor. We see the car and I see Claire hesitate a little.

"This is not going to be embarrassing at all."

"Give me a second." I put the duffle bag on the trunk. "Guys, could you give us a minute?"

"Of course." They each head to their cars.

"The good thing about my sister's fancy car is that it can do this." I press a button on the key and the step that's right under the door lowers itself until it's almost touching the floor. "Step on it, there we go and…" I press the button again and the step starts going up with Claire on it. "I know this is the difficult part, but we can lower the sit, so you don't have to bend forward." I push a button on the side of the sit and it lowers itself. I grab Claire by the elbows like Yolanda told me and she gets in the car without much pain. "Not bad, huh?"

She looks impressed. "Not bad at all. Now let's get out of here. If I have to be in this hospital one more second, I swear..."

"Okay, okay. Let's get out of here." I close Claire's door and I signal the guys that we're ready to go. I get inside the car and text everyone at home and Karen that we're leaving the hospital.

"Here we go." I start the car and we go. The moment we drive off the parking lot, the clicks of the cameras can be heard. The screams of everyone yelling my name and Claire's can be heard from all directions. It's mayhem.

"Oh my God. You had to walk through this everyday to come see me?"

I drive slowly just in case some idiot decides to walk in front of the car. "Yeah, but it was more controlled than this. There were barricades, so I could walk without someone shoving a camera or a microphone in my face. When we first came see you, Karen and I had to walk through that entire crowd. She couldn't believe it, and neither did I to be honest."

She shakes her head. "All of this because I was in a car crash? I would've expected them to care for a couple of days, but a whole week?"

I turn a corner. "Well, they found out who I was the son of. That's when all hell broke loose. Add that to us running away from dinosaurs… you get this."

She doesn't say anything. She turns her head towards me. "Should we have some fun with this?"

I turn and look at her for a second, then look back at the road. "What do you mean?"

"There's definitely going to be a story about this in the news, what if we give them a closing shot of sorts?"

I think it over. "Like a thumbs up from you or something like that?"

"Yeah. What do you think?"

I nod. "Yeah. Look around and wait for a group of photographers to gather around. I'll roll down the window about a fourth of the way down, so they can see your hand."

"Okay.", she smiles.

We are forced to slow down because of traffic, that's when the photographer's get a chance to catch up.

"Let's wait for us to start moving again and then I'll roll the window down."

She nods. When the traffic start moving again, I roll the window and Claire gives them a thumbs up. I thought before the clicks of the cameras were loud; know they sound like the magnified clicks of insects, a million of them. I start driving again, picking up speed a little. I roll the window up.

"For some reason that was really fun and it was the stupidest thing." She laughs.

"That's what happens when you're in a hospital bed for a week."

We come to a red light and we're forced to stop again. "Hey. You want to really have fun with this?"

"What do you have in m-"

I lean forward all the way so she doesn't have to and I kiss her mid sentence like the good old times. She gasps the same way she did when I first kissed her in the park. I hear the shouts of the photographers.

"I knew they were together!"

"Keep kissing her!"

"That's the money shot!"

I pull back and smile at her.

"You love doing that, don't you?", she asks.

"You have no idea." I laugh.

She looks a little like a sore loser. "Just wait until I get better. I swear I will get you back."

My spidey senses start tingling. "Oh, I can't wait."

She gives me that seductress look and turns her head to look forward. "I know just the thing that will drive you crazy."

"What do you mean?" Not again with this game! This is the third time she's done it. First in the hotel room with the 'I will change my shirt right here', then in the car with the 'I'll look for your phone there' and now this?!

"What do you think I mean?" her voice a seductive whisper.

I look at her for probably 5 seconds without saying a word.

"Close your mouth, Owen. You're going to catch flies."

She won, she definitely won and she knows it.

I look forward just in time for the light to change to green. I start driving and we leave the mob behind. They got what they wanted.

We drive without further problem. The photographers stopped chasing us and the police escort makes way for us to get home faster.

"Less than 5 minutes and we're there." I tell Claire.

"I'm nervous."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? I'm about to meet your family and I look like I was beat up by Ronda Rousey!"

I laugh. "Come on! You don't have an eye swelled shut or a bust up lip. They'll love you. Don't worry about how you look. You were just in a car crash and you still look insanely hot. Trust me."

"You showering me with compliments is not going to make me less nervous."

I slow down and pull up into the driveway. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway, 'cause we're here."

I take off my sit belt and turn to look at her. "Everything is going to be fine. They loved Karen and I don't see why they wouldn't love you. Give me sec to thank the guys and then I'll help you out, okay?"

She nods. "Okay."

I get out of the car and walk over to the policemen. "Thank you guys for the help."

"Of course, Mr. Grady. Have a nice day."

"You too." I raise my hand to say goodbye and walk back to the car. I open Claire's door.

"Okay, come on."

She puts her right leg on the step and I pull her forward until she's standing on it with both feet. I lower the step and she steps off of it. I walk to the trunk and pull out the duffle bag.

"Ready?"

"Yeah, I think I am."

"Okay. Come on."

We walk to the front door. I pull out my keys and open it. I hold Claire's hand to help her up the step and close the door.

"We're home!"

I hear the familiar click clack of heels of my mum. She's coming down the stairs and when she sees us, she smiles.

"Claire. It's so nice to finally meet you. I would hug you, but I don't want to cause you pain."

Claire smiles. "It's nice to meet you too. I'm having a little trouble doing the small things you usually don't think about. Hopefully it'll pass soon."

"It will, don't worry. In the mean time, I hope you make yourself at home. Everyone is very excited to have you here. Even my mother is, and let me tell you, she despised every single girl Owen brought home. She hasn't even met you and she already baked two different desserts for you."

I nod. "That's very true. She would give them all the stink eye. It's actually quite funny, now anyway, back then not so much."

Claire smile widens. "Thank you so much. For everything."

Mum touches Claire's arm lightly. "You don't need to thank me, you're family now."

I look at Claire and see that all the nervousness has floated away. I hold her left hand carefully, making sure I don't touch her burn.

"Speaking of family…", mum continues. "Have you seen Isabella? I've been calling her all morning and she hasn't picked up the phone."

I frown. "That's weird. Let me give it a try." I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Isa. The phone rings and rings and when I'm about to hang up, she answers the call.

"Owen."

"Isa where are you? Mum has been calling you for a while now."

"I know, I know. I was just about to call her. I'm almost home. Could you send Augusta to the garage please? I need super strength right now."

"Why do you need Augusta?" I look at mum and shrug.

"I went shopping."

"You went shopping?" Mum looks at me confused. Isabella is not one to go shopping, especially in the morning. "Okay, I'll send Augusta."

"Great! See you in literally a minute."

She hangs up and I look at my phone. "That wasn't random at all. I'll go tell Augusta. Claire, are you okay to stay here or you want to go rest?"

She looks at me like I just asked the dumbest question. "I've been resting for a week. Lying down is the last thing I need right now. I'm good here. Go."

I squeeze her shoulder and go look for Augusta.

As I walk towards the kitchen I realise that I just left Claire alone with my mother. She told me to go, so… I'll ask her later. I step into the kitchen and look around. There's no one here. I step into the dining room and see Teresa and Augusta cleaning the silverware.

"Hey guys."

"Good morning, Owen.", Augusta says.

"Good morning."

"Augusta, Isabella needs your superpower. She asked for you in the garage."

She laughs. "I'll go right away." She stands up and goes to the garage.

"Is Ms. Dearing here?", Teresa asks.

"Yes, she is. I'll introduce you in a minute." She nods. "I'll leave you to it."

I go to the garage to see what Isa bought. I open the door and see Augusta lifting a huge box and a smaller one.

Wow, she really is She-Hulk.

"Isa?"

I walk around the car to see Isa with at least 10 bags. She closes the trunk.

"Hey, bro. Is Claire here?"

"Yeah, she's with mum. Why so many bags? And what are in those boxes?"

"Umm, a little help maybe?"

I take half of her bags. "Oh, sorry. There we go. So?" I point to the bags.

She huffs. "I'll tell you in a minute. These are kinda heavy. Can we go inside first? Plus, I want to meet Claire."

I smile and nod towards the door. "Okay, let's go."

I close the garage door and we walk to the living room to drop the bags off. We walk to the entrance where I left mum and Claire. I am surprised to find Claire talking to my mum and dad. He must've come down when I was looking for Augusta. She's talking to them like she's known them forever.

Isabella whispers. "They seem to have hit it off."

"Yeah, I guess they did. Come on, now's your turn." I hold her hand and pull her forward. "Hey, dad. I see you've met Claire."

"There you are. She's much lovelier than I thought she would be."

Claire smiles and I smile at her. "That she is. Claire, this Isabella. Isa, meet Claire."

Isa's smile broadens. "It so nice to finally meet you, Claire. Owen's been talking non-stop about you. I kinda feel like I know you already."

Claire looks at me. "Has he?"

"He has. How are you feeling? 'Cause you look pretty good."

"Thanks. My ribs are not collaborating with me right now. Everything else is manageable. For the moment, at least."

"Cucciola, where were you? You've been gone almost all morning.", mum asks.

"Well, last night I was talking to Alexander and I told him Claire was staying with us and he reminded me, 'cause I completely forgot, that his mum is the head of ortho at Mass General. So, he gave me her phone number and I asked her what kind of things someone with broken ribs needed to have around the house to make their lives easier, and she gave me a list of things. So, I've been getting everything she told me. It took me longer than expected because some of it was just plain ugly. I never knew that buying pillows could be so difficult. So yeah, that's were I was."

We all look at her. I have the best sister in the world.

"Ah, Isa! You are the best. Come here!", I give her a couple of loud, wet kisses on the cheek and hug her.

"Ew! Too much love, Owen. Too. Much.", she says.

"Isabella, you didn't have to that. You guys are doing more than enough by letting stay here.", Claire says.

Isa shrugs it off. "It's no trouble. We would've gotten all those things eventually. Diane also gave me some tips to help you sleep more comfortably. We'll have you feeling better in no time."

Claire looks overwhelmed. "Thank you."

"Sure thing."

Dad looks at his watch. "Well kids, we'll leave you. We have a meeting to attend to. We'll be back for dinner. Claire, it's a pleasure having you here."

"Pleasure's mine."

"Okay children, behave. Claire, feel free to smack on the head with your cast if they misbehave."

"Will do.", Claire smiles.

"Mum! That's child abuse!", Isabella tells mum.

"Whatever you say, cucciola."

Isabella, Claire and I spend the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon checking out the things that Isa bought for Claire. To help Claire sleep better, she bought her a bed rest pillow. Diane, Alexander's mother, told Isa that she would need to sleep kinda sitting down, but not completely. The pillow will help keeping her from lying down. She bought a stool that will go in the shower, so she can shower safely. That was the small box, the big box was one of those mainstays cart, so when Claire is in bed she has somewhere to put her laptop and she can even use it as a tray if she wants to eat. Isa also bought protein shakes. Diane told her protein was vital to have a good recovery, but that eating chicken and meat everyday can get boring, so she could drink protein shakes. She bought vanilla, chocolate and caramel flavours since she didn't know what Claire liked. Turns out Claire loves caramel. I'll drink the chocolate one and Isa the vanilla one.

"Diane told me that aside from the pain of course, not being able to do things by yourself could be one of the worst things about having broken ribs. So she told me of a way to get your pants on by yourself at least. She said that a t-shirt was more complicated, but wearing blouses was easier to handle."

"Oh God, please tell me how to put my own pants on. I cannot tell you how embarrassing it was to have someone dress me. I don't think I've ever been more embarrassed."

"Okay, I'll show you. Just let me bring my pyjama pants, so I can show you." Isabella stands up and climbs the stairs to her room.

"Your sister is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met, Owen."

I smile at her. "Yeah. She's pretty special."

Isabella comes down a moment after and proceeds to show Claire how to put her pants on.

That didn't sound weird.

We stay there talking until mid-afternoon when Claire yawns. Which was painful for her.

"Okay, come on. You need to rest. I'll show you the pool house."

She dismisses me. "I'm fine. It was just a yawn."

"You're taking pretty strong medication right now, I'm surprised you've lasted this long. Come on." I stand up from the couch and stretch out my hand.

She looks up at me. "So bossy."

"When it comes to your well-being, yes I am." I keep my hand stretched out so she knows I'm not letting her have her way.

"Don't take it personal. He's always been like that. You should've seen him when I got chicken pox. Not my favourite memory.", Isabella says to Claire.

"Fine."

She takes my hand and stands up a little easier since it's a couch and not a bed.

"Patricia and Augusta must've set up everything in your room already. I hope the things I got you help."

"I'm sure they will. Thanks again, Isabella.", Claire says.

"You're welcome."

I slide the door open and help Claire down the one step. I slide the door close and we walk slowly through the yard. We walk past the pool, which is just a few steps from the pool house. I open the door and we step in.

"This is completely different.", I say.

"What's changed?"

"We basically used this as our storage space for our toys and the like. Now it actually looks liveable. As kids we would have to dive to find the toys we wanted. It was filled to the brim. Okay, let me show you around."

When you open the door, the first thing you see is a small living room of sorts. There's a couch, a coffee table and a TV. The bedroom door is a few steps away, at the far end of the pool house. The bedroom is big. There's a king size bed and a complete bathroom. There are French doors in front of the bed, which open right to the pool. Lots of light comes in. It really is perfect. The whole pool house interior is painted in a milky white colour, like the white house.

"I just realized something."

"What?"

"The pool house is bigger than my bungalow was."

"Everything was bigger than your bungalow, Owen."

"Hey!"

She smiles teasingly at me. "I don't even know why you chose that dump. I know Masrani Global offered you an apartment."

"For your information, I wanted to be closer to nature. Being in a big fancy apartment didn't feel right. Working with velociraptors is not a glamorous job, so having a glamorous apartment didn't fit well. Okay, princess?" I tap her on the nose.

"Don't ever call me princess again."

I bow. "What ever you say… princess."

She squints her eyes at me. "Don't test me, Grady."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Dearing." I offer her my arm and she takes it after staring me down for a moment.

She had slip-ons on, so she doesn't have trouble taking her shoes off. Indeed, everything has already been set up. I walk Claire to the left side of the bed, where they've put the bed rest pillow. I help her sit on the bed and she slowly lifts her legs up, eyes closed as if waiting for the pain to hit her. When she's settled herself on the bed, she opens her eyes.

"It worked! I barely felt anything. Thank you, Isabella."

"Good, hopefully you'll be able to sleep well too."

I close the drapes, walk around the bed and lie down next to her.

"It's nice to lie down next to you again. I missed this.", I say.

"I missed this too. Thanks for taking care of me. It seems that's the only thing you've been doing for me these past 3 weeks."

"I'll probably get sick at some point. You'll take care of me then."

"Yes, I will."

I sit up and kiss her. Longer this time. Slower. "I'll take a nap with you. I could use one."

"Okay."

I lie back down and close my eyes. I feel Claire take my hand. I fall asleep.