The DNA Inside - Owen Grady x Reader

Tears

The gun clattered to the ground, nearly firing another round as it fell from your hands. Your knees lost all strength, and you fell into the waiting arms of Owen. He lowered himself to the ground, keeping you in his arms but letting you sit at the same time. He had a look of disbelief on his face, his eyes moving from the worker's body to the raptor's body and then back to you. The tears were flooding from your face.

"I am so sorry."

That was all he could say. You could hear his voice, thick with emotion, crack a little as he spoke. He picked you up and carried you away from the scene, unwilling to let you look at it anymore.

A few corridors away, he sat on the ground and let you sink down a little and rest your head on his knees. He shook his head and muttered something to himself over and over, one of his hands absent-mindedly stroking your hair in an attempt to comfort you. You didn't stop crying for hours. The two remaining raptors even came over to see what was wrong. The scene had been cleaned up by this point, so they were oblivious to what had happened. Flame and Indigo didn't leave your side after that. The two stayed with you both, occasionally quietly making noises to each other. Your eyes were red and puffy by the time the tears stopped. You stayed there motionless for a little longer, Owen still stroking your hair after all that time.

Finally, you slowly pushed yourself up, propping your back up against the wall next to Owen. Your throat was dry and raw from the sobbing.

"I-I", You started to say.

Owen placed his finger on your lips in an instant.

"Don't strain yourself." He whispered gently, "You're going to need to rest your throat, or you'll lose your voice."

His finger lingered on your lips for a moment longer, making sure you were going to stay quiet. You averted your eyes for a moment. Suddenly there were a pair of strong arms around you; you turned into them and pressed your face against Owen's shoulder, rocking as a few more sobs escaped you before they stopped altogether. Owen's hand rubbed your back in another attempt to comfort you. It did help a little.

You didn't work the rest of your shift. Instead, Owen sat with you in your bedroom until dark. Your throat was feeling better by then, and Owen had allowed you to speak again.

"It's getting late. You should go get some sleep." You sniffed.

Owen shook his head.

"Oh, no. I'm not leaving you while you're like this. If you're going to make me sleep, I'll sleep here." He said firmly.

You felt happy that he cared so much, but you were worried. Often you spoke in your sleep after a bad event; you didn't want Owen to hear anything like that. You often had night terrors, but since you had dreamt of Owen so frequently recently, you certainly didn't want him to hear about that. No matter how hard you persisted, Owen wouldn't take no for an answer. By the time you were both feeling tired, he'd ordered you to change, and whilst you were in the bathroom changing, he went to fetch a pair of pyjama pants and changed into them. You left the bathroom and noticed his change in attire.

"Don't you own a shirt?" You joked half-heartedly.

He gave a quiet laugh.

"Why should I, when it stops me showing off all of this?" He joked back, gesturing to himself.

He did honestly make you feel better. You clambered into bed and pressed yourself against the wall. It was a tight squeeze, seeing as you only had a single bed in your room.

"We should have slept in your room." You complained quietly, knowing his room was a newer build and had a double bed in it.

He shushed you and rolled his eyes.

"If you feel you don't have enough bed, then stop squashing against the wall and come here." He mumbled sleepily.

You felt too embarrassed, but when you shivered from the cold he took matters into his own hands and pulled you closer to him.

"You're going to catch your death." He muttered, making sure you had enough of the duvet to cover you.

Then he wrapped his arms around you to help warm you up and promptly fell asleep. You stayed awake feeling awkward for a while until, eventually, you were too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

When you woke up, Owen was still sleeping beside you. Sometime during the night, you must have rolled over in his arms to face his chest because his sleeping face was the first thing you saw when you opened your eyes. Your heart thumped a little faster. He looked so peaceful. You didn't want to disturb him, but you should resist placing a small kiss on the tip of his nose before falling back asleep. The next time you awoke, Owen was in the middle of getting dressed, buttoning his shirt up and slipping on his vest. He noticed you stir and smiled a little.

"Where are you going?" You asked, your voice laced with fatigue.

"Work." He told you, "I wasn't going to wake you, you looked like you needed to sleep longer."

 You slowly got up and groaned. There was a slight smirk on Owen's lips, and you tilted your head curiously.

"You seem smug about something." You yawned.

"Oh, nothing." He said, his smirk widening a little, "I just didn't know you talk in your sleep."

Your eyes snapped open, and suddenly every bit of fatigue left your body. You jumped up.

"Wh-what?!" You gasped.

Owen winked at you, making your entire face turn red. You grabbed some clean clothes and stormed into the bathroom to wash and change. You could hear Owen humming to himself lightly and rustling cloth. It sounded like he was making the bed for you. You were thankful that he was so thoughtful. Once you were clean and changed, hair tamed at last, you both headed to find Indigo and Flame.

You found the raptors lurking by the interns room again, a pang of pain and guilt hit you as you looked at the two of them and realised they'd never see Sapphire again, and they'd never know what happened. You had to stop yourself from crying. You had to be strong. You had to be. Owen patted your shoulder lightly. This time you took the raptors into the outside training pen. It was bigger, and the fresh air was a welcome relief. You knew the two raptors already had a bond, but you wanted to strengthen it further, so you and Owen began teaching them simple 'tricks' to help do just that. From balancing a ball between their noses, to setting up a little obstacle that they had to work together on to get the food waiting for them. They did very well. You could see how close the two were.

You felt awful as you thought how Sapphire never seemed interested in Flame, and you half wondered if it was your fault she was dead. You almost convinced yourself that she had killed for attention. But you remembered the look in her eyes, defiant and dangerous. As if she was rebelling and trying to declare dominance over you. There was nothing you could have done to save her. She had killed. If you hadn't done it, someone else would have, but not before she had taken out a few more people. You were shaken from your thoughts by Owen, shaking your shoulders.

"(Y/N)?" He asked worriedly.

"O-oh, sorry. I kind of zoned out." You apologised sheepishly.

"It's alright. I know you have a lot on your mind." He said softly.

"I was just asking if you wanted a lunch break?".

You nodded.

"Yeah. Lunch would be nice.".