•adeline• || o. grady

7~

Adeline wanted to throw something across the room. "A poacher? In the park? How is that possible? How did he get a gun?"

"We think he may have taken it from a member of staff. We have plenty of guns around the park, for security." A member of InGen security, one of the doctors that was present in the Gyrosphere Valley, and Claire Dearing were all sitting in her office.

"But they're never unattended. At least they shouldn't be. There's a thing called a holster for a reason. Besides, I didn't see any gunshot wounds when I inspected the animal." Adeline sat back down, attempting to remain professional. Claire was so good at it, it was unfair.

"The wound is on the underside of her stomach, near her left back leg, it would've been hidden at the time," The doctor spoke up.

"The good news is, we have security cameras in the trees, as you know, and the tapes from that time have already been sent to you." Claire gestured to Adeline's computer.

Adeline opened her email and displayed the videos onto a bigger screen behind her, turning to see. Just as expected, a man was sitting in one of the trees with a gun raised. Adeline flinched as he squeezed the trigger and the dinosaur staggered. Two Gyrospheres were close by. One was too close, and the dinosaur fell right onto it. The man panicked and dropped from the tree. He started bolting away, and the other Gyrosphere was already heading back to the gate to notify the staff of the incident.

"We tracked him through the whole Valley, but lost him somewhere on the north side of it. We haven't been able to find him on any other tapes."

Adeline stood immediately. "The Triceratops Territory is north of the Gyrosphere Valley. I need to look at those cameras. Claire, can you come with me to the control room, please?"

The other woman nodded, rising from her chair and following Adeline to the elevators. The control room was on the top floor of the office building. The elevator was moving far too  slow for Adeline's liking. She was tapping her foot with urgency. The poacher didn't get to collect whatever he wanted from the first dinosaur he killed, so he was going to go looking for more somewhere else. Somewhere there were no guests as witnesses.

Claire opened the door to the control room and Adeline rushed past her. "Lowery!"

Her brother yelled in surprise, and turned around. "Addie! Hey, what's—"

Adeline pushed his rolling chair aside, sending her brother flying across the room, and started searching through every camera feed in the Triceratops Territory. She glued her eyes to the screen, not wanting to miss anything. The poacher wouldn't be too hard to spot, there weren't ever any humans in the enclosure. She didn't see anything, so she switched to cameras in between the Valley and the Territory. She gasped. "Got him! Get me InGen Security men and send the coordinates of that camera to my phone. Thank you, Claire." She ran out of the control room and down the stairs (the elevator wasn't fast enough) to the parking lot.

She spotted Owen leaning on her Jeep. "Hey, I figured you might want some company after the meeting." She grabbed his shirt and dragged him to the passenger seat.

"It's a poacher, he's near the Triceratopses. We're going there now and I'm gonna shoot the motherfucker."

"You're, um, actually not supposed to..." He dropped it after the glare she sent his way. She was speeding to no end, flying down the back roads and through the Gyrosphere Valley until they got closer to the coordinates she'd brought. Somewhere along the way, some InGen security members and ACU people had caught up to her maniacal driving speeds. The man wasn't in the same spot, but Lowery called. Owen picked up. "He's heading east, he's nearing the dinosaurs."

Owen lowered the phone. "Addie, once we find this guy, remember that he does have a real gun. You can't jump him."

"You say that like you wouldn't jump someone who tried to hurt your girls."

"Let security get to him first, then you can talk to him all you want once he is unarmed."

She must have seen something, because they took a sharp turn right and somehow managed to go even faster. She skidded to a halt about twenty feet from the poacher. Owen grabbed her arms before she ran at the man, waiting for InGen to tackle him down and get him in handcuffs.

Once the gun was safe in the hands of one of the security guards, Owen let Adeline go towards the poacher. She did some yelling that included somewhat inappropriate language, maybe slapped the man, then he was put into the back of an InGen car and drove away.

Owen slowly approached Adeline. She turned to him, still somewhat seething. He placed his hands on her shoulders gently. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen."

She laughed quietly. "You work one-on-one with dinosaurs daily."

"Oh, believe me, dinosaurs are cool. But you're amazing."

Adeline drove at a non-life-threatening pace back to the main building to speak again with Claire. Lowery was proud of her hit, but some higher-ups were less impressed. Apparently for someone of her rank in the company it was 'unprofessional' and she shouldn't have 'lost control'. If anyone knew what a good hit looked like, they would see that she had a very good amount of control.

Adeline apologized and everything, but she was quite happy with how the situation turned out. She got to hit the guy who killed one of her herbivores, no Triceratopses were dead, the poacher was in custody, and she was enjoying a lovely self-care girl's night at Vivian's apartment with some of Vivian's friends. They were all relatively new, so Adeline didn't know them that well.

Her phone rang, and she excused herself. She walked to the kitchen and answered it. "Hi, Owen."

"Hey. How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine. Better, that I got to hit him. I probably would've gotten shot if you hadn't held me back that long, though. So, thank you."

They talked for another ten minutes before they said goodnight and Adeline walked back to Vivian's bedroom.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Vivian smiled.

"Not you, too, Viv." Adeline groaned. "We are best friends, and that is it."

"You're always acting so flirty, that can't just be it. What's so hard about just admitting you like each other?"

"We talk like that as a joke, we tried it once and we're better suited as friends."

"Wait," Vivian sat up. "You did? When?"

Adeline's face dropped. Of course Vivian didn't know. Why would she? "Like a year ago, really, it's nothing."

"If you're really just friends, then can I ask something?" Lia, one of the control room interns asked, and Adeline prompted her to continue. "Is it big? I mean, it must be, right?"

All three girls looked at Adeline, who sat perfectly still for a whole minute, before nodding and dropping her head into her hands.

•

brain fog <3
anyway fuck covid but owen grady bde!!