Stick Together for Survival (Jurassic World: Book 2)

Chapter 7: An unexpected turn of events

Aspen held her wrist in her palm, and glanced down, as the helicopter rocked unsteadily, she reached for Owen's hand, her short-sleeved shirt had a mixtape on it, with the words Awesome mixtape vol.1 and then below it, the cord wrapped down to form the words "Music Got weird" and ended in a large pair of headphones. The shirt was one of many that Owen had bought for her.

"What?" He asked, "You scared of heights?

"Ha- pfft. No."

"Yes you are, just admit it."

"But I'm not."

"It's okay, everyone's scared of something."

"You aren't." Aspen said quietly.

Owen paused, startled by what she'd said.

"Yes, I am."

"What is it then?"

"I want you to figure it out on your own."

Aspen sighed, and then nodded.

"Okay."

Owen seemed shocked, his iconic outfit swiveling with his form as he faced her.

"Something wrong?" He asked, the sound of the helicopter starting to cut off.

Aspen climbed out of the helicopter, her lightly-colored boot-cut jeans falling down past some sturdy leather boots.

"I'm just nervous that what happened last time might happen again, you know?" She sighed, quietly.

"It may, it may not but we did just fine the last time, for the most part." He rubbed her back, feeling her spinal cord through her skin, and she purred lightly, then cut off the sound.

"No rubbing when we're in public, it makes me make noises, you know that." Aspen leaned into Owen's side.

"Oh but I did not." He contradicted.

"Owen not now, I'm tired and trying very hard to supress the pain in my muscles and bone from not having shifted for a very long time, okay? it's very hard to supress for this long, much less while trying to get my lysine dependency down, and then the stress, oh my god the stress." She sighed lightly, and he rubbed her shoulder, and she started to purr, and then hissed, biting at his hand.

"Ey! Aspa, lock it up." He commanded, walking her around.

"Blue."

"What?"

"I... Look! Blue, it's Blue! Oh my god, Blue!" Aspen yowled, running toward the opening of the new-and improved- raptor cage, a giant fence surrounding the perimeter, which had a heli-pad on the outside.

"It's really her, huh?" He gasped, and entered the cage, carefully, Blue growled, and opened her jaws.

"Owen, she's threatened.. I think you should-"

"Aspen, I'm not going to shift."

"Owen-"

Owen sighed, and shook his head.

"I told you, I'm only going to shift if there's no other option."

"Owen she can smell that you're different now, she can smell the raptor."

Owen sighed, and nodded, shifting, and Blue greeted him with a chirp, seeing that it was, in fact, Owen, and he shifted back, growling as he did.

"It still hurts?"

"It's more of a... dizzying thing, less than a...painful... my eyes hurt a bit, and it's hard to focus immediately after." He shrugged.

"But that's not why you dislike it-"