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Courageous and Gentle

Summary:

Owen Grady has a soft spot for raptors. E, a female raptor, just happens to hit all those spots. E faces a terminal illness that leaves her unable to vocally communicate with others of her kind. Wu is unwilling to provide treatment to a living failure that mars his perfection of evolution. Owen chooses to be her advocate, and her sole companion, much to the ire of Blue.

Notes:

I wanted to do a work regarding Owen for some time. It turned into this.

So far, I only own E.

E is originally from a work called Broken Raptors, which is an AU where the Indoraptor survives.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Hey, girl. You miss me?" The trickle of her Alpha's voice wafted through the confines of her exhibit-through the thick metal bars that kept her separate from others of her own kind.

Away from everything, despite having the comforts of her own territory.

Her exhibit was small, sporting a small pond stocked with fish, thick jungle foliage for hiding, and fields with an open area.

For E, it was the same thing, everyday.

It was the same well trodden paths she traveled to-grasses broken from her walking to and fro from her sleeping area, to the pond.

It was the same trees, the same little field with worn grasses, the same little patch of dirt for clearing, and the same little pond with fish that was occasionally stocked.

The only thing that changed in E's little world, was the days into nights, and nights into days. Whether it rained, whether it was sunny, whether is was cloudy and grey, and whether it stormed.

That, and whatever her Alpha brought to her.

Her Alpha was always bringing her special treats and toys.

It was the sanguine female's favorite part of the day.

And upon seeing her Alpha with treats and toys, E sprung forth in a series of shrill, high pitched chirps and whistles, arms flailing as if she were an excited chick again.

E's scaled head bonked against the thick steel bars, body sliding and rubbing against the cold metal akin to a feline. An audible purr rivetted from her throat, whistled and broken.

Owen's lips molded into a smile, stubble adorning his features, his person the scent of a masculine musk, sweat, and the natural scent of Sorna's jungles. A bucket of dead rats were dropped, and a calloused hand rose to brush against her scarlet hide-however limited by the bars, "You singing for me, Ep?" The man laughed, producing a whistled song of his own-however brief and limited.

For an instant, Owen's smile dropped, and molded into a faint frown.

Whistling.

Yeah.

Singing.

Yeah.

Blanket terms he used to try and mask what he knew.

Epsilon was sick.

She had cancer of the throat.

Owen didn't remember what stage it was.

He just remembered the vets diagnosing, and Dr. Wu suggesting euthanasia.

'To minimize the animal's suffering in the diagnosis of an inoperable illness,' were his exact words.

'It is our responsibility to advocate for the well being of these animals, even if the choices we make go against our own morality. We don't chose by what we feel. We chose by what is right by the animal,' Henry said.

Wu didn't even seem to want to try to cure E.

And Simon Masrani didn't want to put a dying animal on display at Jurassic World.

Wu spoke about advocating for these animals.

Owen didn't understand. There were ways to help people-Why not try on a raptor-even experimentally?

As far as anyone was concerned, Epsilon of Project Beta was a failure.

And no one wanted to advocate for a failed project-Or, at least-they were not advocating to Owen's standards.

This animal failed the program by no fault of her own.

And thus, Owen fought tooth and nail for this raptor.

Owen fought against Wu's euthanasia plan.

Who was Wu to play God and deem an animal unfit to live?

Owen fought against E living in a medical bay-indoors and in a box of metal to be monitored.

Who were they to deny an animal sunlight and fresh air?

Owen fought against E living in a pen made of concrete like the Raptor Squad.

Raptors were social animals.

Who were they to deny an animal sight and touch?

Yes.

Owen fought, and argued, and raised hell for a failed member of a project-because no one else would.

E was special.

But Owen couldn't figure out why.

Perhaps it was just because his soft spot for raptors was hit even harder by this specimen?

His brown eyes looked upon the scars and ruined scales upon her scalp and flanks-evidence of bullying from her former pack.

Because she was different.

Vulnerable.

A weak link.

Yes, the raptors of Raptor Squad Beta were different from Raptor Squad Alpha.

Squad Beta was created-and intended to be all male.

They were not all male.

It was a project to test obedience between sexes.

It was a project to test aggression between sexes.

Epsilon was an unplanned variable.

Because Epsilon-was female.

And with the mixing of sexes-came the risk of breeding.

Thus, E was put on birth control, rather than putting her in with Raptor Squad Alpha.

The higher ups didn't want the project ruined by introducing another female into the pack and upsetting the hierarchy.

In hindsight, that may have been better.

E gained weight due to hormone imbalances, and became less active than a typical raptor.

On the plus side, breeding was controlled.

On the down side, E appeared to be negatively effected.

And then there was a change in her vocalizations.

That seemed to be the catalyst to E's bullying.

Vets assessed her, tests were done.

E was diagnosed, taken off the birth control, and isolated.

Owen couldn't entirely tell if E was happier alone, or with her old pack.

She had others to bond with, and socialize.

Here, she didn't have to worry about getting attacked or hurt.

But she was alone most of the time.

And Owen could tell she was lonely.

He could tell in the way she attempted to rub against him-but the bars prevented it.

He could tell in the way she breathed-breath in whistles and trills.

He could tell in the way her muscles went lax at his touch.

He could tell in the way her eyes closed.

E was lonely, and Owen knew that.

He also knew social animals didn't do well alone.

The last thing Grady wanted was one of his raptors falling into a depression.

Owen's hand slipped from E's scales, and reached for a targeting stick, "Alright, E, gotta focus a bit, girl. Think you can do that?" The man asked. E's sapphire eyes focused intently upon her Alpha, pupils widening in excitement, weight shifting from foot to foot. Her killing claws flexed, clawed hands clenching and unclenching. Her eyes went from Alpha-Owen, to the bright colored ball upon the black stick.

"'Aight, girl. Paw. C'mon, E. Paw." Owen tapped the targeting ball upon the metal bar, his free hand slipping into the food bucket to pull out a dead rat.

The sound of a clawed hand being slapped against the metal was heard, scaled fingers seeking to grip upon a thick bar.

"'Atta girl, Ep. 'Atta girl." Owen flung a rat through the bars, bones crunching and saliva spraying as E's jaws clamped shut. Her head swung back, throat muscles bobbing as she swallowed the prey whole.

E's clawed hand began to slide down the bars-and a firm warning from Alpha-Owen brought her scaled fingers to grip upon the bar, "Hey-No, no. Stay."

His tone was firm, and authoritative.

While E didn't like not being able to move her arm, it usually meant more treats if she did what Alpha wanted.

And more treats were always good!

"Good. E, paw." Owen then moved the target to indicate he wanted her other hand raised.

After a few seconds, E's other clawed hand rose, and were held against the bars. Her jaws opened, excited squeaks escaping her as she awaited for food.

"Sorry, girl, not yet. Target." Owen then pointed the bright orange ball above E's head.

E produced a gargled noise, though extended her neck in order to try and boop the pointer with her snout, legs stretching.

Owen took the moment to inspect the white under scales of the female-more importantly-the symmetry of her throat. Looking for any evidence of a mass.

A deep exhale, followed by a brief brush of the chin and throat, "Good girl, Ep."

Another rat was given, and it was another morsel of prey that E was swift to devour.

E, upon seeing the pointy thingy put away, kept her rapt attention upon her Alpha despite mustering a more lax posture.

Her tongue lapped at her scaled lips, nares flaring and seeking any more treats she could find.

Rather than pull out another treat, Owen would pull out something from his trousers.

It was a strange object that E did not see before, nor recognize.

She watched with curious blue eyes as Owen fiddled with the object within his hands, and her nares flared, attempting to discern if the item was a treat.

It certainly didn't smell like food.

"You know what this is, E?" Owen asked, holding up the object. It was a raptor's larynx, reconstructed from a 3D printer, "This will help me call like you." The tanned man's brown eyes looked down at the reconstruction, calloused fingers fidgeting and tracing over the structure.

It was stupid.

Grady knew it was stupid, talking to an animal as if she'd understand.

He knew it was stupid, because while he knew E was sick-she was oblivious.

She didn't know.

To E, everything was okay, and normal.

"Just figured-" Once more, he motioned to the larynx, raising it up, "In case you get lonely. You might not have any other raptors to try and talk to, but-well, you got me, girl. Just hope I don't raptor talk asking you out on a date or anything." Once more, Owen laughed, canines showing.

Humor.

An attempt at humor.

If only to mask his own emotions.

Because he knew, sure as shit, that Epsilon had no idea what he was talking about.

E would be oblivious about her illness so long as she felt well.

And Owen was determined to help E, no matter how little.

Thus, the ex marine put his lips to the larynx, and blew.

Owen didn't know what it was that he exactly said, but he did something he was sure no one else accomplished.

He held a conversation with a raptor.

No matter how socially inept his pathetic calls were and were probably raptor nonsense, and how twisted and hoarse and off pitch E's calls were.

It was at least something.

Notes:

I'm honestly not sure what this work will become. Would it be something that Owen sees E as a pet (or, at least, as close as she can become?), or would it be something deeper, either as a platonic relationship (or a platonic romance?), or a more physical romance?

Or would Owen magically become a raptor? Does that make any sense? No. Would it be fun? Yes.

I was also thinking of adding Ellen into this story, since I haven't really used her since Error: Code Catholicon, and I'm too lazy to update that work. They had good chemistry, and I would like to more deeply explore their relationship.

Either way, Blue would more than likely be quite upset and jealous about another raptor taking away her position as Beta, from her point of view.

Thank you for reading.

Please feel free to give your thoughts.