Abstraction ➳ Owen Grady

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ALYSANNE SHIFTED, MOVING toward Owen. He was supposed to be asleep by now, but he couldn't stop looking at her, watching Ally's chest rise and fall in her sleep. Her mouth was parted, face turned towards him as her hand, draped over her stomach, moved with her breathing. In the dim light, he could make out the wide, silvery scars on her forearm.

He needed to watch her. It was the reassurance his mind needed. The confirmation she was still breathing and not stuck in that goddamn oversized hamster ball.

She's okay he had to repeat to himself. She's okay. She's okay. He never wanted to find themselves in that situation again. He never wanted to see Ally in front of him, dying while he struggled to save her. Thinking back to that day, Owen nearly stopped breathing himself. He'd panicked the whole way to the surface, kicking as hard as he could to get to shore.

In the Navy, he had to be good in stressful situations, and Owen always had been. But when it was her life on the line, he had struggled to keep his heart and mind in check. Neither were overlapping in the way he needed them too. He couldn't think straight because all he could think about was Ally's eerily calm expression when he'd realized she wasn't moving, wasn't breathing.

Ally rolled onto her side, pillowing her head on his shoulder. "Owen," she murmured, sensing he was thinking too much about something. He wrapped his arm around her waist, rough fingertips running up and down her spine.

"I almost lost you," he choked. He'd come so close to losing her on the beach and again while trying to reign in the Indoraptor. There'd been so much blood.

"I'm here, though," Alysanne Sattler whispered. Owen nodded and pulled her closer, tucking his face into the crown of her head.

✹✹✹

Spring finals had finished up and the last of the grades for her classes had been posted. Over the course of the semester, her office and lab had been cleaned out. Now for the past month, Owen and Ally had started packing their home into cardboard boxes and crates. The cabin was nearing completion, but Ally's new position at Montana Tech started in the fall.

He placed a silver picture frame holding an image of the two of them in the mountains into the box and taped it closed. "That's the last of it," Owen told her, adding it to the small stack to be moved into the mobile storage unit. The suburban house had been cleared of their possessions –stripped of what made it feel like home.

Ally gripped onto his hand and smiled. "We're really doing this," she mused as if convincing herself that it was all real. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pressed his nose into her temple, smiling. A new chapter of life was beginning.

✹✹✹

Owen took a step back and looked at the log cabin. He'd just nailed down the last board of the front porch. Ally came out of the camper with two mugs of hot chocolate, both with mini marshmallows melting on top with a dollop of whipped cream.

He slipped the hammer back into his tool belt and took one of the dark green tin mugs. "It's done," he said with a relieved sigh, arm draped across Ally's shoulders. The building and hard work were done. Ally would still need to put a few of her touches on decorating the rustic interior. She thought her rock and fossil collection would do a good job with that, though. "Our home," he breathed.

Both he and Alysanne sat on the top step of the covered porch. She leaned her head on his shoulder and took in the mountain lake view as the sun began setting. The reflection of the clouds and mountains in the water painted with fiery orange and soft pink was a sight that would never grow old.

Owen sat his mug of cocoa down and, after unhooking his tool belt, fished around in his pocket until he pulled something small and circular free. He held out the dark-colored ring in his palm and presented it to her.

Surprised, Ally picked up the ring, taking a closer look at it. There was no type of metal present, but the dark brown material had been shaped and polished with epoxy. It almost looked like it had been cut from an old bone. "Is this-" she started.

"It's made from a piece of raptor claw that I picked up as a kid in Hells Creek," he told her before she could ask. Ally spun it around and looked at the small fractures running through the dark material.

Owen took the ring from her and slid it on the middle finger of her right hand. Ally leaned against his shoulder again and slipped her hand into his. They were taking things one step at a time. For now, they'd both accept that the simple ring was just a promise of what was yet to come.

✹✹✹
to be continued with the release of Jurassic World 3
✹✹✹

apologies that it's a little short, just something to prepare us all for the wait. who's excited the original trio are coming back for the third movie?