#rainbow socks comin out my converse

[harrylights]

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[romvnova]

Owen Grady Collection: PTA Dad

“I think Mais fell asleep.” Owen stage whispers to Claire from where the three of them sat on the couch, watching Maisie’s favorite before bedtime cartoons. Claire leans forward with a soft noise to pluck a dill pickle from the glass jar sitting on the coffee table before she dunks it in the container of mayonnaise. Owen makes a face as he watches her eat it.

“What?” She asks as she crunches away on the pickle. She goes to lean forward again but Owen stops her with a touch of his hand to her shoulder. He shifts, careful not to disturb Maisie whom had, indeed, fallen asleep against his shoulder, and hands Claire the jar of mayo and then the pickles.

“That’s disgusting.” He laughs because he’d heard that women crazed crazy combination of foods during their pregnancies but admittedly, he’d kind of thought it was a myth. She laughs as opposed to being offended and rubs her belly bump, pressing her sock covered feet against his thigh.

“Just remember it’s your baby making me crave these weird food combinations.” Claire teases him and he shakes his head and tries to keep his laugh quiet. His shoulders shake with it nevertheless.

“Pretty sure it’s our baby …and anyway I thought you were only giving me ten percent credit.” He teases her watching as Claire fishes for another pickle spear.

“Are you going to put poor Maisie to bed?” Claire changes the subject as she dips her umpteenth pickle into the mayo. Owen smirks knowing that the subject change meant he’d won their play argument.

“Yep.” Owen shifts on the couch, tightening his arm around Maisie’s small shoulders and hooking his free arm beneath her legs, lifting her effortlessly. “You comin’?” Maisie stirs slightly as Owen looks back at Claire over his shoulder and he feels her nuzzle her head against his chest.

“I’ll be there in a second,” She waves him on and Owen carries Maisie to her room, nudging her door open the rest of the way with his boot. He lays her gingerly on her bed, and pulls her covers up, tucking them around her shoulders. He smoothes her hair back from her face, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead.

“Sweet dreams, Maisie.”

Owen makes way for Claire, heading to the doorway as Claire smooths the covers and tucks Maisie’s stuffed t-rex beneath them for her, kissing the girl’s cheek. She murmurs something to Maisie that Owen doesn’t catch and he turns his back to the pair and heads back to the couch where he collapses unceremoniously upon it, grabbing the remote and turning off the tv.

“Hey,” Claire protests as she joins him on the couch, using him as a body rest instead of a foot rest this time. “I wanted to see who the villain was.”

“It’s Scooby-Doo, Claire. The villain is always the first person they meet.”

“Is it really?” She asks, genuine surprise in her tone as a deep belly laugh overtakes her. Owen can’t help but join in the laughter as Claire draws his arm around her, twining her fingers with his as she snuggles closer to him.

“So, I was thinkin’,” Owen broaches when things quiet down, thinking that now is as good a time as any. Maisie’s asleep, Claire’s awake and the night is quiet. For a second, Owen focuses on the symphony of crickets outside and bizarrely it reminds him of Isla Nublar. In a way, he misses it. He misses his bungalow, he misses his raptors and Barry whom he hasn’t made contact with since the Incident. “You know how Maisie’s therapist suggested we find ways to keep her busy?” Owen asks. She’d been a big help with the baby preparations and she helped him with the tree house …sometimes. She still wondered off to climb the trees — not that he’s going to be the one to tell Claire that Maisie’s already broken her promise — not being one to sit still for too long.

Claire gives his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Well, what if she volunteered at DPG? Not all the time, of course. I know you’ve got a lot going on but it’ll keep her busy plus let her help the dinosaurs.”

“That’s a great idea!” Claire’s enthusiasm makes Owen grin down at her as she looks up at him from his shoulder. “But,” Claire broaches, a little hesitant. “What do we do when she starts school?” It’s a good question. Maisie’s passion for the dinosaurs is important and Owen knows as parents they have to nurture her passions. He doesn’t want to curb any ounce of her potential.

“Running off the assumption that she accepts, of course.” Claire amends quickly.

“Her education’s the priority, obviously.” Owen goes off what his Pops always told him. “My old man used the old ‘you can wrestle and play football as long as your grades stay up’ and it worked pretty well because I hated school.” Never mind that he used his time in the Navy to his advantage and went to college with his G.I. bill. Regardless, Owen wasn’t a classroom guy. He wanted to be out in the field.

“We don’t have to worry about Maisie’s grades,” Claire assures him, stifling a yawn against his shoulder. “Iris gave me her transcripts for her years homeschooled since the school needed them in order to enroll her. She was taking advanced classes and excelling in them. Did she tell you she tested at genius level?”

Owen peeks over his opposite shoulder to where he can see the edge of Maisie’s bed from her room.

“No …but I believe it.” Owen knew she was incredibly gifted and intelligent.

“It’s no wonder her and Gray get along so well.” Claire deduces and Owen’s reminded that Maisie isn’t the only genius in the family.

“So I enrolled her in advanced classes for her fifth grade year.” Claire concludes and Owen nods his head.

“So, basically, we agree that when school starts Maisie knocks back DPG to after school.”

“After her homework’s done.” Claire interjects.

“Right. Of course,” Owen agrees and presses his lips to the top of Claire’s head. “Look at us bein’ parents.” He nudges her gently and she makes a contended noise.

“Oh!” Claire sits up and winces slightly, shifting against him. “Don’t forget to take her tomorrow to get her cast removed. I marked it on the calendar.”

The ‘calendar’ was one of those giant office calendars hung up on the wall in by the fridge, filled with Claire’s neat handwriting, color coded with a pack of multi-color pens she’d bought and organized neatly by the time of day. Some of the events listed were her’s but most of them were his and Maisie’s. Claire kept her own monthly planner in her bag whose white pages were also filled with varying colors of the rainbow in small, neat handwriting. “And you’ve got that pre-first day of school PTA meeting tomorrow night.”

“PTA meeting?” School hadn’t even started yet …and what made Claire think he wanted to go to it?

“Yes. We talked about it. You said you’d go so I can focus on DPG.”

“Did I?” Owen doesn’t remember the conversation …until he does. Crap. He did tell her that; but he didn’t think she’d actually volunteer him for it. Admittedly, he’d said he’d go to them to keep her from stressing about when she’d fit them into her schedule. He cringes just thinking about it. She knows he’s not a people person.

“I’ll attend the ones with you that I can. But you never know Owen…you might make Dad friends.”

“I made you a list of questions I had for the teacher…”

“Claire —” Owen complains.

“Please, Owen. I want us to be involved in Maisie’s education. I don’t want to mess up.”

“Mess up what?”

“Being a mom.”

“Claire that is…that’s not going to happen. You’re a natural.” He feels extremely guilty now and quickly soothes it away by adding: “Ok. I’ll ask your questions. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ve got this.” Owen attempts to reassure her. She snuggles closer to him and closes her eyes. Their conversation over and her worries settled Claire drifted off to sleep quickly and before Owen knew it, he was fighting sleep and drifted off to sleep not soon after.