Surprise! I've finally updated this again after letting it fall to the way side. I'm so sorry for probably making you think this story was abandoned. It's not. Life happened and it's taken me a while to get back in to writing.

I'm still not fond of the title, so I'm open to suggestions for a new title for this story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter!

October 2008

Storm clouds loomed on the horizon as Owen walked down Main Street. It was one of his rare days off, but Owen lived on the island so he chose to take in the sights as a tourist. Some of his coworkers thought he was crazy for not leaving the island on his days off. The rest of them took the first ferry to the mainland whenever they had any free time. Owen would never outright admit it, but he didn't really like leaving the island. In the short time since he had moved into his bungalow on the outskirts of the park, Owen considered the island his home. Just like many of the other employees, he had been offered his own condominium in the heart of the park, but Owen had declined. He much preferred his own little home along the lakeside.

Owen had no major reason to ever leave the island unless it was a quick day trip to the mainland for supplies he couldn't already find on Isla Nublar. He didn't have any family to visit – just a few estranged relatives he hadn't seen since before he joined the Navy when he was nineteen.

His father, who spent twenty-five years in the Navy, died a few days after Owen's fifteenth birthday. His father's stories about the Navy inspired Owen to give it a shot once he was old enough. His mother, heartbroken by her husband's death, fell into a deep depression and passed a few months after Owen's nineteenth birthday. Owen always swore his mother died from a broken heart.

His mother's younger sister offered to let him live with her, but Owen knew she didn't need someone else to take care of on top of her three children. Legally an adult but with no one to guide him through his early adult life, Owen joined the Navy and never looked back once he graduated high school.

Sometimes he got lonely thinking about the family he no longer had, but he knew his ACU comrades were his family now. Plus, he still had some of his Navy buddies he kept in contact with.

He shook his head to clear the thoughts about his family and turned his attention to the ones hurrying down the path toward the Mosasaurus Lagoon for the next scheduled feeding. The only other spectacle that could draw a large crowd was the tyrannosaurus rex feeding.

Even with the storm threatening to ruin an otherwise perfect day, thousands of people still entered the park. Owen knew from experience just how bad storms could get on the island. Though he hoped he never had to ride out a hurricane on the island, especially after what happened in 1993.

He kept a close eye on the clouds, knowing that if the storm produced as much lightning as meteorologists had predicted he would potentially have to help out with ensuring the guests made it to safety. He continued on down the street toward the creation lab. His curiosity about the man from InGen who had been seen talking to Dr. Wu piqued earlier that morning when Dylan called to tell him he had seen the InGen employee getting off a helicopter with Simon Masrani. Owen knew if the man was there, he would be in the lab at some point. He stepped through the large doors to find park visitors already checking out the sights within the building.

He almost laughed out loud at the number of people trying to get a look at the cutting edge science happening on the other side of large glass windows. Guests pressed their faces against the glass to watch the scientists work. Four hatchling triceratops, less than twenty minutes old, were looking up at a scientist as she wrote notes down on the clipboard in her hand. More eggs lay on two other incubators. Owen walked past the crowds to the doors to the lab. He swiped his ID badge and entered the main area of the laboratory. A young scientist looked up quickly in Owen's direction then immediately turned his attention back to the microscope on the table.

"Hello, Mr. Grady," a voice greeted from his left side.

"Dr. Wu," Owen looked at the senior geneticist. "Please, call me Owen."

"Noted," Dr. Wu chuckled as he lay down some paperwork on a desk and faced Owen. "I'm assuming you're off the clock since you're not wearing your ACU gear. So, what brings you in here today?"

"Just wanted to see if I could get a glance at the newest additions to the park," Owen glanced around. "How are the apatosaurs doing?"

"The latest clutch is doing really well," he answered. Then nodded toward a middle-aged dark-haired woman sitting at a computer on the other side of the room. "Eliza can show you where they are if you want to see them. All of them are thriving."

"What about the ones I helped move out into the larger nursery paddock last month?"

"They were introduced to the herd a few days ago," Dr. Wu answered. "According to Dr. Harding, the juveniles integrated into the herd without any issues."

"That's good to hear," Owen grinned. He switched tactics, trying to see if he could get Dr. Wu to confirm or deny the rumor about the velociraptors that kept swirling around. "So, what's the latest on any predators for the park? I mean, Rexy is getting old, and the only other predator we have is the mosasaurus."

"You forgot the baryonyx along the river," Dr. Wu corrected. "We're still deciding on whether or not we want to add any more predators into the park. Claire has talked about us creating another tyrannosaurus due to the one we have now being older, but we'll do that when the time comes for the older one to go."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to do it before something happens to Rexy? I mean, she has a routine and she ignores visitors in the viewing area most of the time. If you created one before she's gone, it could learn from her what to do so maybe it wouldn't end up being a big handful."

"You raise an excellent point," Dr. Wu nodded. "Too bad you weren't here when the first park was built. You've had ideas that could've helped that park thrive."

"I'm pretty sure that if you all had listened to Muldoon, the first park would've done a bit better. I mean, it wasn't so much Rexy was the problem as it was the raptors who were too smart for anyone to handle. One had already killed someone long before the night of the hurricane."

"Ah, yes," Dr. Wu confirmed. "The raptors did take us all by surprise in their intelligence. It's a shame we couldn't bring them back for this park."

"Did anyone ever want to?"

"Mr. Grady, I know what you're getting at," Dr. Wu looked him in the eyes. "I know the rumors that have been going around. Yes, there was talk of raptors in the park, but that'll never happen. They're too dangerous to have on display."

"You're sure about that?"

"Did you suddenly forget that I was here the first time?" Dr. Wu asked, visibly irritated. "Look, I've got some important work to finish up today for an upcoming project so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop pestering me over the rumors."

"But that paddock in the northern—"

"It's a research paddock for scientists to come observe some animals without being disturbed by thousands of people every day."

"Oh, well, that makes sense," Owen accepted Dr. Wu's answer even if he still suspected the geneticist wasn't telling him everything. "Sorry for being pushy, Dr. Wu. It's just…. I was curious, you know?"

Dr. Wu's irritation seemed to vanish. "A lot of people have been ever since that rumor got started. Now, if you don't mind, I have some work I really need to get to."

Owen nodded. "Right. Well, I'll let you get back to work."

He decided to skip seeing the baby apatosaurs since he could always come back later in the evening to see them. Plus, he knew they were more active in the evenings.

As he stepped out of the lab, he looked up at the darkening sky and frowned. He didn't mind storms, but storms on the island seemed to always have a way of causing some sort of trouble.

The last thing he wanted to do on his day off was be called in to wrangle in some escaped pachycephalosaurus like the first time a storm hit after he began working on the island. A phantom ache always pulsed in his ribs whenever he thought about having to be anywhere near a pachy. Mistakenly approaching an angry juvenile pachy during his first month had resulted in three broken ribs when the animal charged him and rammed its armored head into Owen's side before he could dodge it.

Owen weaved his way through the crowd of visitors on Main Street and headed for Paddock Nine. He remembered the paddocks by their numbers, but all of them had formal names for the visitors. Paddock Nine just happened to be the Tyrannosaurus Rex Kingdom. Rexy liked to patrol the boundaries of her territory early in the afternoon before her scheduled feeding. Owen slipped by the crowds, entering through the 'Employees Only' gate that led to a catwalk along the edge of the territory just past the log-shaped viewing area.

He looked out over the expansive area where the old tyrannosaurus lived. The exhibit covered from the edge of Main Street to a clearing down by the river. Owen chuckled as Rexy growled softly as she peered at him from just behind some trees. She had always regarded him curiously ever since the first time he had walked up on the catwalk.

Of course, she might have also learned she would get treats from Owen. She stepped out of the trees to approach Owen. The platform was fifteen feet above her head so there was no chance of her actually getting to him.

The tyrannosaurus stopped just below the platform, ignoring the park visitors a few yards away in the viewing area. Her dark brown scaly skin covered in scars made her look even more formidable than she already did as she turned her focus to Owen above her.

"Hey, old girl," Owen grinned as she studied him. "I bet I know what you're looking for."

He reached into the pocket on the left side of the brown vest he was wearing over a light gray t-shirt. Rexy immediately rumbled a soft growl when she spotted the plastic bag in Owen's hand. He merely laughed, taking a piece of his homemade beef jerky out of the bag.

During a break a few months before, Owen went to the walkway to watch Rexy one evening. He'd been snacking on the beef jerky when Rexy began staring at him. She eventually grew curious and walked over to stand by the walkway. Owen, curious to see her reaction, dropped a piece of the jerky down. It had been comical to watch the large predatory dinosaur try to get the tiny piece of jerky off the ground and into her mouth. Owen then spent the last half of his break dropping pieces of jerky down to Rexy as she practically inhaled the miniscule treat. He still wondered how she even managed to taste any of it that day. He vowed then to make jerky again, but make the pieces larger for Rexy.

Owen laughed as Rexy huffed at him. "Impatient much?"

The dinosaur gave him a look that Owen knew had to mean 'I'll find a way to eat you if you don't give me any jerky within the next five seconds.'. He tossed a piece down to her. He had actually made the pieces larger this time around just for her, but even pieces of jerky the size of his hand were still miniscule to such a large animal.

"You're going to ruin her appetite," a voice stated behind him. "The visitors will be disappointed when she doesn't want to eat that goat."

"Hey, Jess," Owen greeted the park's lead veterinarian Jess Harding. "If a little bit of jerky can fill her up and leave her without an appetite, then I'll have to patent this recipe for a new diet fad."

Jess rolled her eyes. "At least she likes you. She absolutely hates me."

"I doubt that," Owen replied and tossed Rexy another piece of jerky.

"Oh, she does," she brushed a few strands of brunette hair from her face and leaned over the rail to look down at the tyrannosaurus. "Owen doesn't believe you hate me."

In an almost comical move, the large dinosaur stopped chewing on the piece of jerky-to which amused Owen because he couldn't wrap his head around the fact she actually chewed the jerky instead of swallowing it whole like she did with the goat-and growled in Jess's direction.

"I think she's still mad she didn't get the chance to eat me back in ninety three," Jess explained. "She almost did a few times."

"I'll bet that was terrifying as a kid," Owen commented. "I've never really asked you before... What did happen to you and your dad when that hurricane hit?"

Owen had heard part of the story about how Jess and her father, a veterinarian for the original park, had survived being stranded on the island in 1993 when catastrophe struck. Despite the numerous times he had talked to her, Owen still hadn't asked her about that night. From what little bit he did know, Jess and her father barely escaped the island alive.

"Well, let's just say that as a teenager, it made me appreciate life a lot more," Jess laughed. "I don't know what was worse. Running from Rexy. Trying to keep from being velociraptor chow. Or trying not to become a victim to the troodons and their insane venom."

"I heard about the troodons," Owen recalled the stories he'd heard of the species that Dr. Hammond himself wanted exterminated after their creation. "Is it true their venom only paralyzed people and they'd eat them while they were still alive?"

"Yes," Jess shivered. "They were small, but they ran in packs. Almost like miniature velociraptors. Except the raptors were actually terrified of them. My dad said that nobody expected them to be so dangerous. Their venom caused extreme hallucinations and resulted in full paralysis and eventually death if the person who got bitten wasn't treated. The scientists on the island actually had to develop an anti-venom specifically for that after a handler died from a bite."

Rexy grumbled her discontent about the lack of attention she was getting. Owen looked down at the tyrannosaurus as she watched them. He tossed her the last three pieces of jerky. Rexy easily caught the tiny treats in her mouth. She gave another glance at the two people above her territory before retreating back into the trees.

"It's crazy how much she has changed since they put her in this new enclosure," Jess shook her head sadly. "It actually makes me sad seeing her so... tame. Especially when I know how magnificent she can be."

"After all the stories I heard about her, I kept waiting for the day she went on a rampage," Owen sighed. "But she's old, right? Maybe it's just a sign of her age that she's not like she used to be."

"She's definitely old," Jess agreed. "She'd been favoring her left knee for a few months now so we've been injecting supplements into the cow she gets fed every weekend. She's not limping today, so that's a good sign. That's actually why I came by. I needed to check on her, and of course see that you weren't up here ruining her apetite."

Owen playfully nudged Jess in the ribs. "Even if she ate me, her appetite wouldn't be ruined."

A dark expression crossed Jess' face. "I wouldn't be so sure. You've never actually seen her eat someone.

Owen shuddered at the thought. "Yeah, and I hope it stays that way."

"You and me both," Jess sighed. "I still think about the people I saw her kill. Those kinds of things stay with you, and yeah, I hope you never have to see any of the dinosaurs eat someone."'

"I hope this isn't too personal, but it just seems odd that after something so traumatic-"

"You're wondering why I'd become a veterinarian and then care for an animal that nearly killed me," she cut him off and shrugged. "I wasn't in the best place at that time. I was a troubled kid, and barely escaping death with my dad? It changed me. I finally saw in the animals what my dad always saw, so I straightened up my act and followed in his footsteps. My older sister Sarah actually studied the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna and she was with Dr. Malcom when that T-Rex got loose in San Diego."

"Sounds like your family just invites trouble wherever they go, huh?" Owen grinned.

"You'd be surprised," she sighed. "Technically, Sarah is my half sister, and we still don't talk much, but we've tried to stay in contact more since dad died. She's back in Africa, doing another study on African lions. But hey, that's enough about me, huh? What about you? I don't think I've ever heard you talk about your family."

"I don't exactly have much of a family left," Owen looked out over Rexy's habitat. "Dad died when I was fifteen. Mom died a few years later, and I joined the Navy out of high school. I pretty much left everything and everyone behind."

"So, how'd you end up here?"

"I needed a change of senery, and this place was as close to paradise as I was ever going to get," Owen turned to look at her. "Oh, don't give me that sad look. I'm not moping around all alone in my bungalow, you know? I do enjoy it here."

Jess smiled. "I just never see you hanging out with anyone other than Dylan, and to be honest, I think some of the women around here are beginning to think you two have something going on."

Owen couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Oh, well, now there's a rumor that I'm surprised hasn't spread like wildfire. Besides, he and Abigail are seeing each other. I'm just terrible with women, that's all. I didn't exactly have much time to date while I was in the Navy, you know."

"If you left the island more often, I'd be inclined to believe you had a girl on the mainland," she raised a brow at him. "You do know you're pretty much the most eligible bachelor on the island, right?"

"I honestly would've thought that title went to Lowery."

Jess snorted to suppress a laugh. "You're terrible."

"And you've been standing here confirming I'm single," he leaned against the platform railing and gave her a wide smile. "Were you trying to figure that out for someone else or yourself, Dr. Harding?"

Her cheeks turned a faint shade of red. "'I'm going to go now."

"Jess, wait," he caught her arm as she turned away. "You think I don't know you've been talking to Dylan about me? He's tried for a couple weeks now to get me to talk to you."

"Remind me to punch him in the face next time I see him," Jess groaned. Owen let go of her arm. "I knew I shouldn't have said anything to him."

"I think I'd pay to see that," Owen chuckled. "Look, if you'd like to go out on a date, I'm off today. Pick somewhere on the island to eat this evening, and I'll meet you there."

" You're serious?"

"Of course. What kind of man would I be if I wasn't?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Jess replied, looking more relaxed and less embarrassed about the conversation. "Meet me at Winston's at six."

"It's a date."