Claire Dearing doesn’t know a lot about dinosaurs. 

She really doesn’t, despite her involvement in the DPG and her work at Jurassic World she knows startlingly little about the prehistoric creatures. 

But she knows this: Dinosaurs can smell blood, they sniff it out in search of their next meal. 

And Claire is covered in blood. 

Despite being attacked by pteranodons on her way down Claire’s landing had been relatively easy. She’d been able to untangle herself from the straps of the eject seat easily and fell ungracefully to the jungle floor. 

That’s when the pain hits her. 

She has a large gash across her left arm and both of her legs are shredded. She can’t walk, she knows that much, not until she gets bandaged up. 

Despite this Claire begins to hobble between the trees, her body lighting up with pain. She has no idea where she’s going but knows that she needs to move fast. 

And then she hears it. The unmistakable sound of a dinosaur tromping through the forest. 

She drops to her stomach before she can process it, crawling slowly through the wooded area in hopes to stay out of sight.

Claire suddenly remembers Owen explaining why Zach and Gray had made a good choice when they jumped into the waterfall on Isla Nublar. She decides to follow the sound of water in front of her, slowly lowering herself into the river when she gets close enough. 

The water stings every inch of her body and once she lowers her head underneath it she lets a silent scream out. 

The dinosaur passes and Claire barely drags herself up onto the bank of the river. Her body is aching and the cuts on her legs have begun to bleed again. 

She thinks of Owen and Maisie as her eyes slide shut, her body falling limp against the ground. 

+

When Owen finds the eject seat he knows something is deeply wrong. 

The chair is covered in blood, too much blood. 

The ground is covered in blood splatters, a dull red trail that snakes down into the forest. The splatters quickly morph into drag marks and his heart speeds up, his feet moving faster as he scans the perimeter for any sign of Claire. 

He almost yells her name, dinosaurs be damned, but knows that he’ll be of no help to her or to Maisie if he’s dead.

“Owen…”

Kayla’s solemnly pointing to the riverbed across from them and before he can think about it he’s running through the shallow waters and kneeling at Claire’s side.

“Claire? Hey, you gotta get up. Come on baby get up. Claire?”

“She’s banged up, we have to move her.”

“Claire wake up please, come on.”

“Owen we have to move her.”

“Please Claire, I can’t do this without you. You can’t leave me.”

“Owen.”

Kayla’s hand is on his shoulder and he realizes with a start that he’s crying. Claire has been injured before, hell she’s almost been eaten by dinosaurs before, but something about this feels different.

There’s so much more on the line now. 

There’s a moment. When Blue is looking between her and Owen, there’s a moment.

She’s not used to this, sharing stolen glances with a fucking dinosaur, but she clocks the moment Blue’s eyes go from her face to her stomach.

Before she can truly process it the raptor is gone again and Claire has only herself to carry her secret now.

+

She has a plan to tell him around the fire pit after Maisie has gone to bed. She’ll make him a s’more, snuggle in close, and whisper the words to him.

The thought is cliche, a little cheesy, but she figures some normalcy is needed.

She does not get normalcy.

(When has she ever?)

When Owen comes back and tells her that Maisie is gone she almost throws up.

Instead she swallows back the bile rising in her throat, lets Owen run out the front door, and takes a moment for herself. Her eyes shut and she places one hand against her still taught stomach.

“It’s going to be okay, everything will be okay.”

+

Everything is not okay.

Maisie is gone and they’re on a plane to France for some god forsaken reason.

As she sits, stomach churning with the minor turbulence and anxiety and what she assumes is the beginnings of morning sickness, she’s overcome with the want to tell Owen.

They don’t keep secrets, not anymore.

Not after what they’ve been through.

But this?

Claire’s eyes watch the clouds passing by and she feels Owen’s hand cover hers.

They’re crossing international borders to rescue their pseudo daughter. There will be peril and injuries and near death incidents and…

And dinosaurs.

There will definitely be dinosaurs.

She’s throwing up into the motion sickness bag as visions of a humid junglescape and her nephews and fire cloud her vision.

Owen’s hand is immediately on her back, rubbing small circles as she continues to hurl the meager breakfast she had this morning into the bag.

“It’s okay, we’re gonna find her.”

Claire is thankful, if just for a moment, that Owen doesn’t see through her.

+

The black market scares her.

It’s not the people that scare her, it’s the dinosaurs.

(It’s just the beginning, she will later realize.)

Each time one of them looks at her, turns their head sideways or stares at her a moment too long, she has to fight the urge to jump behind Owen. To whisper to him her secret, to beg him to protect her.

Now is not the time for her to be selfish though, not when Maisie is on the line.

Not when her daughter, very real and larger than a poppy seed, is on the line.

(She makes a deal with herself then. If she is going to bargain her children's lives, Maisie is her first priority.)

She doesn’t vomit until Owen has left with Barry and she has a moment to herself.

She will make it through this trip.

Owen will make it through this trip.

Maisie will make it through this trip.

Her hand splays across her stomach.

You too. You’ll make it too.

+

In the back of the pickup truck, as Kayla navigates them through the city, she prays.

Claire Dearing has never prayed before.

+

She watches Owen drive the motorcycle down the runway and she hopes against all hope that he will be there.

She hopes he will once again hold Maisie to his chest as they laugh around the fire pit.

She hopes he will be there to critique her cooking skills, as he usually does.

She hopes that he will hold their child and rock them to sleep.

When she’s in his arms again, she can’t help

the tears that wet his shirt as he holds them both upright, his lips pressing against her hair.

+

“You have to be the one to get her. You’re her mom.”

The words still Claire, her tears stopping if only for a moment.

Tell him.

She meets Owen's eyes and she almost does it, almost pushes the words out.

I’m pregnant.

She doesn’t know if the words will stop him or push him harder to let her go. Blue against green, the way he looks at her tells her everything she needs to know.

Three years ago he would’ve left it at that. But this was not three years ago.

“I’ll see you again. I love ya.”

He steps back.

She closes her eyes.

Say it!

She opens her eyes, meeting his. He’s confused, waiting for her to go.

Claire isn’t sure if they’ll both survive this, so she takes her chance.

“Owen, I’m pregnant.”

She presses the button.

His blank expression is the last thing she sees.

+

She thinks of Blue as she crawls across the ground, quick and quiet breaths leaving her as she tries not to attract the attention of the dinosaur above her.

Outside the cabin Blue had a look in her eyes that Claire had never seen before. While she wasn’t as in tune with the raptor as Owen, she knew the look meant something, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Now, she knew she wore the same expression.

Fear. Love. Protectiveness.

She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the baby in her womb would not have anything to worry about.

She wouldn’t let them.

Owen wouldn’t let them.

She thinks of Owen as she sinks beneath the water, one hand pressed to her stomach as she wishes for his presence.

+

She’s going to die.

These damn giant lizards are going to kill her.

Her mind flashes back to Simon Masrani and the day she accepted his job offer to help open a brand new theme park.

While she knows that she wouldn’t take it back, her family having haphazardly been pieced together because of her job at Jurassic World, she wonders if she would feel at peace had she not accepted.

She wonders how many times she would’ve feared for her life had she not accepted.

(It’s a low number, much lower than her current count.)

There’s a squeal and she can no longer feel the hot breath of the dinosaur above her.

She doesn’t think she even opens her eyes as she throws herself into Owens arms, sobs escaping her.

“It’s okay, I got you.”

His hand slips to her stomach and she lets out another sob as he supports her full weight.

“I got you.”

The words are heavier now.

+

They don’t have time to talk, they’re still in a forest full of fucking dinosaurs and their daughter is still missing.

She fights back the urge to vomit.

+

Her and Owen watch the car, a sense of dread and urgency floating between them. They don’t know if the occupants are friends or foes.

Then she hears the screams.

The screams she hears past midnight that tell her that Maisie has woken up from another nightmare.

(She wonders if hers sound the same, but never dates to ask Owen.)

She’s running towards the vehicle before Owen can stop her, his protests sounding out behind her.

And then Maisie is in her arms.

Claire can’t tell you the last time she cried this much.

(Isla Nublar, 2015)

She holds Maisie to her chest as Owen wraps both of them in his arms. For a second she can forget about the dinosaurs and the fire and the anxiety coursing through her chest.

For a second, things are normal.

+

She can see the panic in Owen's eyes as she gets dragged out the broken window.

She’s seen a variety of scared, worried, and shocked expressions on his face through the years.

Not this.

This is terrified.

This is survival mode.

She lets him hold her close when he finally frees her.

+

He barely lets her leave his sight. In fact his eyes haven’t left her since they reunited.

They haven’t had a chance to talk but his eyes say everything.

He doesn’t want her to go alone, not when there are so many threats looming above them.

Not when she carries their secret beneath her trembling hands.

It’s only when Doctor Sattler volunteers to come with her that his shoulders relax.

Before she leaves he pulls her in, lips pressed to her forehead. He takes a deep breath and she knows their embrace is more for his benefit than hers.

“Come back.”

We won’t survive if you don’t.

He meets her eyes.

“I always come back.”

I’m not leaving you. Either of you. All three of you. Ever.

+

She doesn’t mean to tell Ellie.

And, she reasons, she never did actually tell her.

As soon as the locusts begin to swarm Claire’s hand falls to her stomach and she drops to the floor. She watches Ellie fight off the locusts and is thankful to her.

They get the ADS online and exit the room.

Claire vomits in the hallway.

“You’ve got nerves of steel.”

Claire’s eyes dart up to Ellie from her bent over position.

“I don’t think my heart could take being in your position. Not here.”

Not in this hell scape.

+

The door to the helicopter closes shut and Claire feels herself breathe, well and truly breathe, for the first time in almost three days.

Maisie is in front of her and Owen is to her left.

Her family is safe.

Owen’s arm wraps around her shoulders and he pulls her against his chest.

His hand wanders down, pressing against where their child lay completely unaware of the chaos they’d just survived.

+

“Claire, what in the damn hell were you thinking?”

They’ve been home for two hours, Maisie collapsing into bed from exhaustion not even ten minutes earlier. Her snores echo through the small cabin as Claire sets about making a cup of tea.

“Owen please-“

“You could’ve died! You went out there, knowing you were-“

“I did what I had to do!”

“You put yourself at risk and that baby and-“

“I had to save our daughter! I couldn’t not save her!”

They stand across from each other, both with watery eyes. Claire’s chest is heaving and Owen is trying his best to keep his tears from falling.

“I couldn’t let you go alone, I couldn’t just… I couldn’t just sit here. So I’m sorry but-“

He doesn’t let her finish, his arms around her shoulders as she sobs. She thinks he knows that this was harder on her than him, knows that the past few days have worn her down.

So while his heart might be hurting, he pushes it aside to hold her and help her own bleeding heart.

“You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

+

Liam James Grady’s first breath entails a scream that would envy any velociraptor late the next spring.

Claire could almost laugh if Owen wasn’t clicking his tongue and moving his hands to attract the newborns attention.

“C’mon Claire, how different is a baby and a velociraptor anyways?”

Something is off.

Blue stares at Claire too long, Claire stares at Blue like she knows why.

And as much as he wants to figure it out, Owen can’t tell what the woman he loves and the raptor were telling each other.

+

Claire looks terrified of the dinosaurs in the black market.

Well, more terrified than she usually would be of them.

She’s done so many search and rescue missions and helped so many of these creatures in the past few years that Owen was half expecting her to run through the black market and open all the cages.

Instead she walks slightly behind him and watches the world around her with trepidation.

He does not look at the dinosaurs, and try as he might he does not keep his eyes on Barry.

Owen’s eyes are on Claire trying to piece together what the hell is happening with her.

+

When he and Barry trap the atrociraptors he thinks he has it all figured out.

The look in Barry’s eyes, the terror at the thought that one of these monsters could kill him if moved too slow, is clear on his face.

Claire is simply scared.

And she has every right to be.

They’re up against prehistoric animals once again and now Maisie is missing.

(It doesn’t help either that she’ll still wake up screaming every once in awhile, Isla Nublar still haunting her.)

So, Owen figures, it makes perfect sense that Claire is scared.

Because he’s scared too.

+

Owen has done a lot of stupid shit in his life.

Like a lot.

But driving down an airport tarmac on a glorified dirt bike while genetically fucked up velociraptors chase him feels pretty high up there.

He barely makes it onto the plane, his footing shaky as Claire holds onto him for dear life. He takes a stilted breath, his hands holding her tight to his chest.

She’s scared. And so is he.

They can be scared together. For survival, right?

+

She needs to go. She needs to go and save Maisie, even if he won’t follow.

“You have to be the one to get her. You’re her mom.”

He tries to convince himself that that’s why he’s sending her. Not because he’s not sure he’ll make it out of this plane alive.

If Claire doesn’t make it, he and Maisie would both crumble. But Claire? She could handle life with her and Maisie.

Claire nods, barely. Her cheeks are stained with tears as he leans down and kisses her. It’s shorter than he wants, but it’s all he can spare.

“I’ll see you again.”

He prays he’s right.

And then, the words he was so scared to say for the longest time.

The ones he’d whispered to her under the dark of night when the world seemed to be caving in around them.

The ones he said before she did.

“I love you.”

The assurance that they meant something.

She closes her eyes and he waits.

She opens her eyes and he’s confused.

“Owen.”

There’s one breath between his name and the moment his life changes.

“I’m pregnant.”

Before he can say anything, before he can react, before he can stop her or urge her on or anything she’s gone.

Claire has flown out of a plane from a fucking eject seat with their baby growing in her belly.

“Watts, you get us out of this alive.”

+

When he falls through the ice he sees everything.

His mom and dad, his childhood best friend Patrick, his eight grade ice hockey team, the girl he made out with in the back of his pickup truck junior year, his mothers funeral, his fathers funeral, his Navy buddy O’Reilly, the open sea, O’Reilly’s funeral, Simon Masrani, that prick Hoskins, Blue and her pack, Gray and Zach, Claire.

Claire tying her shirt up, Claire running with a flare in hand through Jurassic World, Claire in an airport hanger holding his hand, Claire showing up and dragging him to a bar, Claire’s perfect skin, Claire and Maisie.

Maisie flashes through a few more times and while he loves the girl his mind keeps taking him back to Claire.

Claire, who loves him.

Claire, who’s raising a moody teenager with him.

Claire, who’s pregnant with his baby.

Watts pulls him up and it’s not until they’re in the service elevator that he breathes steadily again.

+

When Owen pulls the Dilophosaurus off of Claire he wonders for a moment how his life has gotten to this point.

Instead of pondering the thought he pulls Claire into him and breathes a sigh of relief.

“It’s okay, I got you.”

At least for the moment he can rest knowing Claire is okay, that their baby is okay, and that he had them in his arms.

“I got you.”

He’s not sure what compels him to place his hand over Claire’s belly, sending her into full fledged sobs, but he can’t resist the comfort that the action brings him.

+

He wants to talk to her, to ask a million questions and give her reassurances, but they need to find Maisie.

Find Maisie, then talk.

+

Maisie finds them.

It’s not lost on Owen how Claire knows their daughters screams before they can see her.

He wraps both of his girls up in his arms and holds them longer than he usually does.

They’re okay, at least for now.

+

He can’t breathe.

He watches as Claire is pulled across the floor and out the window and he can’t fucking breathe.

His body works on auto pilot, grabbing the rope and pulling Claire back to him.

He doesn’t care that there’s a room full of people around them, he holds her until his lungs inflate again and he’s sure she’s real and there and against his chest.

+

If he closes his eyes for a moment too long all he sees is Maisie trapped on the ladder and Claire falling out the window.

He doesn’t think he’ll sleep ever again.

+

“You’re acting weird.”

Maisie doesn’t say anything until her and Grant and him are heading back to the control room.

“Well kid we’re in a prehistoric playground and you were M.I.A. for the better part of two days and your mom almost got eaten by a dinosaur so cut me some slack.”

Alan chuckles as Owen lets out a breath.

Fucking teenagers.

+

He almost loses it in the rain. He almost pushes Claire and Maisie into the helicopter and lets the t-rex eat him if it means they’re safe.

But everyone is safely inside and everyone is going home.

He breathes out easily, one arm wrapping around Claire while he brings his hand down to press against their baby.

Holy shit. Their kid just survived Jurassic Park 3.0.

+

“Claire, what in the damn hell were you thinking?”

He means for it to come out softer, but the further away they’ve gotten from Biosyn the more he can’t figure out what the hell she was thinking.

“Owen please-“

“You could’ve died! You went out there, knowing you were-“

And it’s true. Claire clearly knew before they left that she was pregnant and still went.

Owen stutters, remembering Blue’s curious look at Claire.

Blue knew too.

“I did what I had to do!”

“You put yourself at risk and that baby and-“

“I had to save our daughter! I couldn’t not save her!”

He knows she’s right, the same maternal instinct coursed through both her and Blue telling them to protect their babies.

Raptors and humans aren’t all that different.

“I couldn’t let you go alone, I couldn’t just… I couldn’t just sit here. So I’m sorry but-“

He knows she couldn’t let him go alone. She couldn’t sit at home wondering if Maisie was okay, if he was okay.

“You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

He tries to convince himself and Claire of the matter. She’s here and he’s here and Maisie is here and their child stills rests in Claire’s belly and they’re going to be okay.

+

His son sounds like a velociraptor.