Jurassic Pollen And Modern Noses (Jurassic World, story trade with zakandsara)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

So, I hope this is something along the lines of what you‘re looking for... I tried to write something following the movie events at first, but Claire was hellishly stubborn and I had to abandon that attempt. This is my second attempt with another storyline, which worked better. I hope it’s worth the while, and, well… that is one pretty nose, that’s one thing for sure.

***

Claire’s nostrils twitched and flared as the usual, persistent allergic tickle turned into a deep, burning itch. The urge to sneeze was impossible to fight, but although she knew that, she was going to fight it anyway. She pinched her nose and felt it quivering against her fingertips, begging her to let the trapped sneeze out. She fought it back, but the itch was too overpowering to be conquered.

“Heh-nngtt!”

Her head bobbed forward ever so slightly just seconds before the elevator doors opened. When she stepped into the room, nobody could guess that she had just sneezed. Or that she still struggled not to sneeze again. Or even that she suffered from allergies in the first place. Claire did not allow herself to show any form of weakness in front of others, a mindset that was getting increasingly more difficult to obtain over the years as her allergies only seemed to get worse.

Part of the reason was simply Costa Rica’s natural flora. The same plants that made it a paradise on Earth also had the potential of turning it into hell, at least for allergy sufferers like Claire. There was always something in full, fragrant, pollen-spreading bloom, no matter what time of year it was. She had never had a formal allergy test to pinpoint exactly what she was allergic to, and it probably would have been useless anyway. She suspected that it wasn’t just the plants that were native to Central America that brought this torturous and embarrassing lack of control upon her, but also plants that had been cloned along with the dinosaurs. Plants that hadn’t grown on the planet for millions of years were bound to cause some kind of reaction to a sensitive modern species and their sensitive modern noses.

Even as she spent most of her time indoors - in laboratories, conference rooms and high-tech supervision halls - there was no way of escaping pollen. It could get in everywhere, hitchhiking with equipment, clothes, hair, even skin. Just the thought of being surrounded by grains of torture made her sinuses itch even worse, and she quickly ran a hand under her nose to remind it of who was in charge.

“Gentlemen,” she greeted the future investors, and her voice betrayed nothing of the battle going on inside her nasal passages. The mornings were always worst, from the moment she woke up and for at least an hour ahead she would sneeze almost constantly. After her medication kicked in she would still sneeze several times over the day, but in singles and doubles rather than drawn-out fits. A single sneeze could be waved off as nothing. A fit was bound to cause questions. Concern. Pity, even. Not exactly what you were looking for when you were supposed to be the boss lady.

Masrani lit up when he saw her, and stepped forward.

“Claire, hello. We have just decided that instead of discussing investment inside the boring conference room, we should go out there and see what the investments are really about. Mr Johnson here is particularly curious about the raptors.”

Claire’s businesslike smile slowly died on her lips and her eyes filled with dread. A tour around the park meant going outdoors, and the pollen count was beyond high. It was skyrocketing. She felt her nose begin to itch again, as if warning her that it wouldn’t behave at all if she exposed it to even more pollen today.

“Claire?” Masrani’s voice was low and somewhat concerned.

“Oh, yes. Yes, of course we can do that,” she replied and forced herself to smile again. “This way, gentlemen. I don’t think Owen Grady has started training the raptors for today, so let’s save that for last. I think you will find it rather interesting,” she said, though she mentally rolled her eyes when she spoke of Owen Grady. She knew Masrani thought highly of him, but to her, he was just a filthy, rude, unpleasant…

…attractive…

Yeah, okay, so he was somewhat attractive. But he was still rude. And she was terrified of the prospect of losing control in front of him.

“You okay, Claire?” Masrani asked her as they stepped into the elevator. She gave him a flashing smile.

“Of course I am,” she lied without a moment’s hesitation.

***

Going outside turned out to be every bit as torturous as she had imagined. What had been a feathery tickle earlier was after only thirty minutes in the pollen-infested outdoors a powerful tingle that threatened to become a sneeze any second. Fighting it took all the willpower she had, and she had trouble focusing on anything else; speaking, walking, even thinking was getting more and more difficult. The only thing she could think about was not to sneeze.

Luckily the only one who seemed to notice that anything was off, was Masrani, who kept giving her confused glances whenever she trailed off in the middle of a sentence or forgot what she was going to say next. Claire knew it was unlike her; Masrani was used to seeing her very businesslike, razor-sharp self and not this unfocused version of it, but as long as he didn’t say anything about it, she was not going to admit to it. The investors had barely given her a second glance, they gaped at everything around them, wide-eyed like children. When she showed them the baby dinosaurs, they were completely absorbed. That was a good thing, but she honestly wouldn’t have been able to hold out a moment longer even if a thousand people had been looking straight at her. Willpower could only last so long against the building of an allergic sneeze. She turned away from her company and rubbed her nose furiously with the back of her hand, hoping against hope that it would be enough to rid her of the imminent need to sneeze, but it was useless. She pinched her nose shut and stifled two quick sneezes.

“Nngkt! Nnkt!”

She sniffed and was just about to turn back to the others when the urge to sneeze took hold of her again. This time she was unable to stifle it completely, and a light spray rained down onto her wrist.

“NktSCHoo!”

Damn it! They must have heard that one, which meant that she could not afford to sneeze again. Not unless she wanted to attract unwanted attention and questions. She sniffed again and pinched her poor nose hard enough for it to hurt.

“Bless you,” Masrani said, frowning a little. Before he could say anything more, Claire nodded briskly and said;

“Thank you. Now, if we leave for the raptors we’ll make it just in time for Owen Grady’s training session. It will impress you, I’m sure.”

She relaxed a little when she heard her own voice and noticed that she didn’t sound too congested. At least not yet. If Masrani hadn’t been with this particular group, she could have left them for a few minutes at a particularly interesting attraction and pretended to be on the phone with him, buying herself a couple of minutes to blow her nose and let out a couple of sneezes to appease the worst itch, but…

Oh, they’re businessmen, they won’t have a lot of time to spend on this anyway, they just want a glimpse of the raptors and then they want to sign the contract and get back to their hotel. It won’t be long, she told herself, but she knew that it would be too long. Five more minutes would be too long; she already felt another sneeze building in the back of her nose. It was no longer like being tickled by tiny feathers, it was more like being stung with hot needles.

No, I have to… just this one. Then I have to fight it back. But I need to sneeze just once.

She got her arm up in front of her face and aimed the sneeze into her sleeve.

“EEIISCHEW!”

It was much more forceful than she had planned, and her entire body jerked forward as it overtook her completely. Her eyes watered, and she blinked a couple of times.

“Bless you again. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine.” But her nose wasn’t finished. Her breath hitched a couple of times and then she had to get her arm up in front of her face to catch another, body-bending, spraying sneeze.

“EESCCHHOO!”

She sniffled wetly and felt her cheeks flush.

“I’m so sorry. I got something in my nose, that’s all. I’m perfectly alright,” she tried to assure them. Thankfully the two unstifled sneezes seemed to have done something to relieve the worst irritation, if only for the time being. Maybe she was going to get through this without making a fool out of herself again, after all.

***

“I don’t want an audience,” Owen said as Claire explained to him that the future investors wanted to have a look at the raptors.

“I understand, but you don’t have a say in these matters. Without investors you won’t have any raptors to train, got that?”

She had to sniffle once while speaking, and that undermined much of her authority, she knew that, but she simply couldn’t help it. Allowing your nose to run wasn’t exactly a display of in-control authority either. Owen gave her a strange glance and she knew he could see that her eyes were bloodshot and watery. Also, the tip of her nose was probably pinkish by now.

“Have you been crying or something?” he asked.

“No,” Claire snapped. “I suggest you shift focus to the raptors, which is your job,” she added and wished not for the first time today that she had a tissue. What kind of allergy sufferer didn’t have tissues with her anyway? She could apparently plan ahead for everything but the very thing she knew was going to happen.

Oh, her nose was itching so much. Claire took a few steps away from the rest of the group and ran both hands up and down the sides of her nose, almost massaging it. It felt so good she feared she wouldn’t be able to stop, but she had to. If she could only get some privacy so she could sneeze and rid herself of all the allergy-provoking pollen that filled her nose with each and every breath she took.

She vaguely heard Owen explain to the rest of the men what he was doing and how it worked, and she suspected that he wasn’t at all displeased with having an audience. It was just acting, most likely to annoy her.

She rubbed her nose again, sniffling wetly. Her allergies were definitely about to go haywire now, and she had no idea what caused it. There must be something growing out here that she was insanely allergic to. She simply couldn’t hold back the sneezes any longer.

The first sneeze was a messy half-stifle that made her wince with disgust. The second was a high-pitched, spraying scream.

“Stop that,” Owen said, sounding irritated. “You’re scaring the animals.”

Claire tried to deliver a snarky response, but before she could even take a breath, another sneeze snuck out.

“EempTSCHHoo!

“Are you coming down with something? You’ve been sneezing and sniffling all day,” Masrani said. “There is no shame in taking a sick day if you need it, you know.”

“It’s, it’s not… huhhh… huh-iSSCHOO! ISCCHOO! Not a cold,” Claire objected. “I’b fide. EIISCCHEW! Heh-ESCHHiew! It’s just ah… hah-ahh…. AISCCHoo! AH-ESSCHHO! ISSCCHEW! Allergies,” she added, sniffling desperately to keep her nose from dripping. She was mortified, and when she pinched her nose in an attempt to stifle the next fit, it was feverishly hot and she knew it must have taken on a furious red shade by now. She groaned. As horrible as she must look right now, it couldn’t possibly match how she felt. Her eyes burned and streamed with tears, her throat prickled and her nose… well, it felt like a burning inferno. Like flames of fire whipped its tender insides, forcing her to sneeze again and again, one helpless fit after another. It felt so good to finally let them out, but she had no idea how she was ever going to look any of these people in the eyes again once it had subsided. It was beyond embarrassing.

Someone put a strong arm around her shoulders and took her aside. It was Owen, and he no longer sounded annoyed.

“I had no idea you were so allergic,” he said close to her ear. “You really shouldn’t be out here right now.”

She tried to respond, but she was sneezing so much and so hard she couldn’t get a complete word out, let alone a whole sentence. Her sleeve was soaked, but she kept it firmly pressed against her nose and mouth, partly to keep the sneezes from spraying everybody and everything, partly to keep her messy, allergic, miserable appearance from being seen.

“Here you go,” he said and pushed a bunch of napkins into her hands. “You need to get inside before you sneeze yourself to death,” he added as she took the napkins and blew her nose into them, immediately sneezing again.

“I’b… I’b sorry, I… huhh… aISCCHH! ESCCHHO! AtSSCCHiew!”

“No need to apologise,” he muttered. “Holy shit, that’s the worst allergy attack I’ve ever seen. Do you have any pills?”

She shook her head, almost laughing at her own stupidity. No pills, no tissues. Only a miserably allergic nose at war with the Jurassic plant life.

“I’ll see if I have some,” Owen said and guided her to a Jeep where she could sit down. She blushed and turned away from him, pressing the wet napkins against her trembling, flaring nostrils.

“Hey,” he said and handed her some Claritin. “I know, okay? I get it too, but not as bad as this…”

She groaned.

“I must look awful.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Actually, it’s kind of interesting, to see mighty Claire lose control for once.”

She blushed even more at this, but Owen smiled at her.

“I meant interesting in a good way. Why don’t you stay here until the pill kicks in, get some privacy. Unless you want either of us to take you back right away, of course.”

“No,” she coughed out and sneezed again. “I’ll be okay, I can wait. Go and show them the raptors.”

“These guys are quite important for the finances, aren’t they?”

She nodded.

“Alright. I’ll go and give them a show.”

Claire sighed as he left.

I already gave them one, she thought and rubbed her itchy eyes with the heels of both hands, messing up what little of her makeup that was still in place. But she couldn’t focus on self-pity either; she was still at the mercy of her allergies and she began to sneeze again, one violent, messy sneeze after another.

One thing was for sure, next time the pollen count went off the charts, she was definitely going to take that sick day.

[TaurielRiver]

Yes! I have been *fingers crossed* for a Jurassic World fic since the film came out, and this was delightful!

And oh no, Claire having to show a moment (or several ) of weakness...! I loved it. (And the title too! )

[Chanel_no5]

Yes! I have been *fingers crossed* for a Jurassic World fic since the film came out, and this was delightful!

And oh no, Claire having to show a moment (or several ) of weakness...! I loved it. (And the title too! )

I'm glad you enjoyed! Hehe, she was actually only meant to lose control in front of anyone towards the end, but she was so ridiculously stubborn to write so I decided to make it worse on her than I had planned from the start.

[Sharpie]

Omg, Claire. I absolutely loved every second of this. Seriously though, that allergy attack.

[beatlelover22]

OH my gosh. I loved this so much! Claire's so pretty and honestly you captured her character perfectly. I'd go ballistic if you'd write an Owen one, but I totally get it if you're too busy Thanks!!!

[Evilduckling108]

AH YES! I've been hoping for a Jurassic World fic since it came out and this was just perfect! Claire is my favorite thank you so much for writing this.

[zakandsara]

GAHHHHH HI! Sorry, things have been crazy lately and I haven't responded but this was SO amazing and, as always, your writing is some of my very very very favorite and it was everything I dreamed and more! (Yours is coming along, by the way. As I said. Crazy times in my head. But not to worry.) <3

[Chanel_no5]

OH my gosh. I loved this so much! Claire's so pretty and honestly you captured her character perfectly. I'd go ballistic if you'd write an Owen one, but I totally get it if you're too busy Thanks!!!

Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! Unfortunately I'm unable to take on more fics at the moment; I have once again managed to get too many fics in progress. I'm also quite uncomfortable writing male stuff. But I'm very glad you liked this one, at least.

Omg, Claire. I absolutely loved every second of this. Seriously though, that allergy attack.

Thank you! That nose...!

AH YES! I've been hoping for a Jurassic World fic since it came out and this was just perfect! Claire is my favorite thank you so much for writing this.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it!

GAHHHHH HI! Sorry, things have been crazy lately and I haven't responded but this was SO amazing and, as always, your writing is some of my very very very favorite and it was everything I dreamed and more! (Yours is coming along, by the way. As I said. Crazy times in my head. But not to worry.) <3

Hi. Hehe, don't worry, take your time. And I am very, very glad and very relieved that you liked this. Damn, her character was hard to pin down, she was certainly feisty.