Jurassic Love

Chapter 4

"Are you sure you're going to be alright? I can send Claire to come check on you anyway but-"

"Lowrey, honestly I'm fine, I've been doing this for years now." I said with a smile, squeezing him on the arm. His cheeks turned a little red and he looked at the floor between our matching red converse sneakers.

"Hey we have the same shoes!" He said and I laughed.

"They look way better on you." I said.

"Oh please! You could be a... a foot model!" He replied, making us both splutter with laughter.

"I'll see you and Vivian at lunch, right? 1:30?" I said, trying to get him to leave so I could actually get on with my job now.

"Yes, definitely, see you later Rosie!" he said with a smile and made his way out of the raptor paddock. I turned to get started on taking the raptors vitals with Barry, but a voice from behind me stopped me.

"So you and Lowrey huh? Was he the early morning booty call?" a voice I recognised as Owen's said.

"We're just friends. I only just met him." I said, before going down into the main paddock, luckily the raptors were still in their sleeping area, "where have you been anyway? Weren't you meant to be here ages ago?"

"I um... slept in." he lied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh yeah? Pretty sure I saw you earlier up at the crack of dawn." I had caught him out and he knew it.

"Whatever smartass, it's only your first day, why don't you focus on at least trying not to screw up." he said playfully and I found myself rolling my eyes at him again.

"GRADY!" Hoskins suddenly shouted causing Owen to curse under his breath loudly.

"What do you want now? To talk about how nuclear weapons are a good idea?" he said sarcastically up to the catwalk where Hoskins was standing.

"I need to see you in my office as soon as you're done letting them out." he said before walking off and slamming a door behind him. I didn't say anything, I just carried on writing things on my clipboard about the surroundings of the paddock.

"God I hate that jerk." Owen said as he keyed in his code to the raptor's sleeping quarters.

"Why do you guys argue so much?" I asked absent-mindedly as I carried on writing.

"We don't argue, we more have... disagreements. Like you and I for example." he said and I looked up.

"We have hardly spoken, you literally told me not to talk to you yesterday." I replied with a laugh of spite.

"Whatever Rosie, now you might want to get out of there as I'm about to set free some very hungry raptors. Unless you want to be eaten?" he told me, "it would sure make my life a hell of a lot easier." he muttered under his breath before I turned to glare at him.

I made my way up to the catwalk to observe Owen feeding the raptors.

"Charlie! Blue! Echo! Delta!" Owen said before releasing the gates and letting them sprint into the paddock where he was standing with a bucket of food behind his back. He waved his arms to assemble them in order.

"Blue stand down. Don't give me that shit Delta!" Owen said firmly and I was captivated as he seemed to have full control over them. After he had done a few more basic training exercises, he handed the food out evenly, something I recorded on the sheet Claire had given me that she wanted filling out everyday for the next two months at least before we went on to changing it up and seeing their reactions. InGen basically wanted to see the effects of human training on the raptors and seeing whether it could be possible to do it on any of the other dinosaurs.

"Hey! Rosie, wanna meet the raptors?" Owen shouted up to me. I gulped as I watched them each eat their pile of food with force and thought that could be me.

"I don't know..." I said, unsure.

"Oh come on, you can stay that side of the gate. You need to at least become familiar with the animals you're analysing." He mocked.

"Fine." I said with a huff and made my way back down after Owen had shut the gate. Owen kept his eyes on me as I stood trembling slightly a few feet away from the gate where Owen and the raptors were on the other side.

"Don't tell me you're scared." Owen said, raising one eyebrow at me.

"Well they are dinosaurs Owen! I think I have every right to be scared!" I retorted.

"Whatever. Now come on, they'll let you pet them, but be very gentle, you are a stranger to them." he warned me and I made my way forward slightly. Owen got them to line up by the gate, confusion etched clearly onto their faces.

"Are you sure I should-"

"Slowly Rosie, just don't think too much about it." Owen interrupted, getting a little impatient with me. I bravely put my hand out, the animals staring inquisitively at me as I backed away.

"I can't they're going to bite me!" I said, being pathetic, but I didn't care, this was my first encounter with a real life dinosaur. Sure I had studied them and been interested in them for years, but I never thought I would actually meet one in the flesh.

"Hey hey hey! Eyes on me!" Owen said, making me turn to face him and look into his eyes, "now, slowly put your hand through the bars and stroke them softly." My hand seemed to be moving on it's own and then I realised Owen had grabbed my hand and was guiding me along.

"Rosie, didn't I just say eyes on me goddammit!" Owen said and I moved my eyes away from his grip on my hand to his eyes again. Before I knew it I was touching Charlie's head which was calloused and warm from the sun.

"Charlie," Owen said I stroked Charlie. We then moved along and I stroked Blue, Delta and Echo, Owen reading their names to be until I could distinguish them all myself.

"Whoa." I said after, not sure whether because I had just touched a dinosaur, or whether it was because Owen's hand was still on top of mine and sending tingles right down my spine. Owen suddenly became aware of it too and dropped my hand like it was hurting him.

"Okay, back to work." He said quietly.

"But wait, who's the alpha?" I asked him quickly.

"You're looking at him." Owen said simply, looking at me once before going back and playing with the raptors. I stood back, dumbfounded at what had just happened. Was Owen actually just nice to me?