Abstraction ➳ Owen Grady

ѕevenтeen

ALLY TURNED THE page in one of her student's field notebooks and marked through the improperly formatted measurements taken at one of the outcrops. For some reason, she couldn't grasp what was so hard to understand about strike and dip. She had recently taken her small paleoecology class on a weekend field trip to several fossiliferous outcrops within the Niobrara formation. Now she had a milk crate with a stack of yellow and red field notebooks to grade.

On the nightstand, her phone buzzed and a picture of her and Owen popped up. Leaning over, she grabbed the phone and pressed the green button, accepting his request to FaceTime.

He was sprawled out in a ratty recliner, an arm folded beneath his head. His cheeks were bordering on sunburnt. "That my shirt?" Owen asked, squinting.

It was a thin, faded, green and blue plaid shirt with the top three buttons undone. A really comfortable nightshirt in Ally's opinion. "Yep," she announced, putting emphasis on the 'p', "but it's mine now." Since he had left, she had commandeered a handful of his shirts.

"Looks better on you anyway," he told her, amused.

She bit down on her lip to hide the wide grin threatening to form and looked at the letter laying on top of her laptop. It was the last piece she needed to fully accept that, soon, she'd be living in a mountain cabin. "I got an offer from Montana Tech." She'd been offered a position in the geological engineering department to replace one of the professors that would be retiring.

Owen gave her a toothy grin, knowing that she had been worried about finding a job, but now it looked like everything was going to work out just fine. "That's great, baby."

She glanced down at the open field book in her lap and marked the page with her pen. Grading could wait for now. "How's it going?" Ally asked in reference to the cabin. He'd been there for a solid month and now that the lot was cleared off, he could start building.

"Foundation is done and the trusses are up," Owen informed, proud of how much he had accomplished. Though now the process would go slower. "The roof is next," he added, having ordered the red tin roofing material just two days ago. It was all coming together, piece by piece.

Owen wore a small frown at the hazy and distant look in her pale blue eyes. He had seen it before, especially on late nights when she was torn between writing a paper or preparing for her next lecture. "You look tired."

"So do you," Ally countered. Neither of them had the restraint to stop working when they weren't together. Owen yawned, and she followed suit a few seconds later.

She glanced over at the clock. It was already bordering on midnight and they would both have early mornings. "Talk to you later, alligator," Ally said, blowing a kiss.

Owen pretended to catch the kiss. "Bye, bye butterfly."

✹✹✹

As of late, the news had been nothing else but the impending eruption of Mt. Sibo and the battle within the U.S. government that would determine the fate of the dinosaurs left on the island. For a time, Ally had stopped watching it completely.

Then, after one of her lectures, her phone began to ring. "Ally!" It was Claire and the moment she had been dreading. She unlocked the door to her office and immediately slumped down into her desk chair. This was not a conversation she wanted to have. "You've been up close with these animals. You know them the best," Claire told her. No one else at Jurassic World had interacted with as many species as she had or had spent as much time observing them.

"We're the only voices they have," the redhead's voice cracked over the line. Ally almost wished Claire could've remained apathetic towards them. "Won't you come talk to them?" She asked, meaning the government and private investors that could fund and lead an extraction mission.

"Claire-" Ally butted in, vexed but didn't have the chance to say anything. "Think about it! What will happen to Pat and Sue? To Blue?" She had been trying not to think of what would happen, had convinced herself that it was time to sever any ties that remained with the park. Owen had tried to do the same.

"Look, I'll try to rearrange my schedule." That answer seemed to pacify the redhead for now. Ally sighed, tossed her phone down on the cluttered desk, and leaned back in her chair, pressing her face into her hands.

✹✹✹

Dr. Alysanne Sattler looked down at the selected contact on her phone. Beneath the name, Ellie Sattler was a picture of her and her aunt at a dig site in the Nevada desert from over ten years ago. Her thumb hovered over the little phone icon for a brief second before the line began to ring.

Given that the hot topic on the news was about Isla Nublar, Dr. Ellie Sattler had a pretty good idea as to why her niece was calling. "Elle?" Ally ran her fingers through her hair, catching several knots. "What do you think we should do? What does Alan think?"

There was a brief repose before Ellie gave her answer. "We both agree that it's time. These animals were never natural, never meant to be here in this time period." Ellie frowned on her end at her niece's silence.

She had read the papers and articles published about working with the theropods at Jurassic World. Knew that Ally had imprinted and helped raise two Apatosauruses and had to leave behind a young stygimoloch after the incident. "Alysanne...jellybean," her aunt solaced.

"It's just-" Ally swallowed the lump in her throat "-I knew them, Elle. I knew the Apatosauruses and Velociraptors and..." she bit down on her lip. She knew them as living creatures with their own distinct personalities.

Ellie took the opportunity to tell her niece something that she hoped would help her make the decision. She and Alan had their opinions, but it was Alysanne and her children that would inherit the world. It was up to them to decide if dinosaurs were going to be a part of it. "Sometimes nothing is the hardest thing one can do."

✹✹✹

She had the data. The seismographs and local readings of water and air quality that showed elevated concentrations of volcanic gases. Isla Nublar was a ticking time bomb. It could erupt in a matter of days or weeks and that wasn't enough time to plan any type of rescue operation. "The island is too dangerous!" Alysanne reiterated. "It could blow at any time. We might get there and it be too late!" We might get there and die alongside them.

"Then at least we know we tried." Ally looked at Claire Dearing and knew that she would not like her decision on the matter. The redhead still had a glimmer of hope that Dr. Alysanne Sattler would agree to help save the dinosaurs from extinction. But dinosaurs were extinct. The theme park attractions were a far cry from what their predecessors looked like.

She folded her hands on top of the conference table and leaned forward. "I'm sorry, Claire," Ally started, ignoring the way her friend's face fell and the expression that spoke of betrayal and hurt. She couldn't get caught up in this mess again. "But it's not our place to intervene."

Alysanne rose from her chair and picked her black tote up off the floor, not bothering to collect the data for her argument. Claire remained quiet as her friend pushed open the door of the conference room, leaving.

The redhead stepped out into the main office, hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You told me you'd help!" Claire said, crestfallen, but there was ire in her voice too. The entire office went silent. The Dinosaur Protection Group knew that Alysanne Sattler would be one of the best allies in the fight.

Ally turned around at the elevator, having already pressed the down button. "I never said that Claire. All I said is that I'd rearrange my schedule to come." And that was what she had done. She had come to San Francisco and presented irrefutable evidence that Isla Nublar was unsafe even for the most qualified persons. It just so happened that her final say on whether the dinosaurs should be rescued didn't agree with Claire's views.

"I have to go. I have a flight to catch." The elevator doors slid closed.