Deep End

That night during dinner, Zach brought up the wedding, "So about the wedding?"

His dad almost choked on the piece of chicken he was chewing and Zach had to hide his smile behind his hand. "Wedding!" Scott said. Karen and Gray laughed at the devastated slash horrified look on Scott's face. "What wedding!?"

Karen cut into her chicken and smiled, taking pity on her husband, "Zach and Gray were invited to a wedding today."

Scott let out a relieved breath and then scowled at his eldest son and pointed at him with his fork. "That wasn't funny."

Gray giggled and Zach smirked, "It was a little."

"Whose wedding? Do we know them?"

"The boys do. That woman they saved from the-what were they again Zach?"

"Big flying dinosaurs." He made the flappy motion again and his mother smiled at his miming.

Scott took a drink of his wine and asked, "When is it? Where is it? and do you want to go?"

"In a few months. Beginning of November, I think the invitation said. In Baltimore. I think it'd be fun." Zach said.

"I don't know if I do. Maybe...I mean there'll be free food and cake, but weddings are so boring and long. It said I could bring a guest too. Who would I even take?" Gray let out a put upon sigh and Zach rolled his eyes, "Dorkbrain, you don't even have to go if you don't want too and if you do then you don't have to take anyone or if you want, you can always bring mom."

Karen's eyes lit up and Zach smirked at the face Gray made.

"Does this mean if you decide to go Owen's going to come down?" Scott asked. This time Gray's eyes lit up, "If Owen goes I'll go! I'll even take mom!"

Zach laughed before taking a bite. "How in love with him are you?"

Gray took a green bean from his plate and tossed it at his brother, hitting the Omega in the forehead, "I'm not in love with Owen! He's just really cool."

"Don't throw food at your brother." Scott scolded.

"Well, you have about a month before you have to RSVP to decide. Will you be able to get out of classes for it?"

Zach got up and grabbed the invite from the cork board near the fridge, sitting back down as he looked over the specifics. "Yeah. I only have Psychology on the Friday before and no classes for two days after that, so we can all drive to up together. It will only take a few hours. I have Child Development and Economics on that Monday though. I'll have to get any reading assignments before I leave and let my Professors know, but it should be alright." He took a drink of his water as he sat back down, "Besides if Claire told Owen anything about her leaving for a wedding he might come down anyways."

"Any chance he gets he comes down. That man is ridiculously in love with you."

Scott jabbed at his potatoes and green beans and grumbled at his wife's statement, still sulking about his son's mate who was old enough to be his Uncle or Cousin or something. "Still surprised you two haven't called it quits. You hardly see each other."

"They talk all the time though." Gray supplied.

"Scott it's almost been a year. You should just accept it already."

"Yeah, dad. Zach's even been looking at apartments for them." Gray said, thinking he was helping his older brother, but really he was just tying him to the post for the firing squad.

"Gray! I knew you were going through my things you little-"

"Apartments!" Forks clattered onto plates and Zach winced at the sound. He looked at his parents sheepishly. Scott wiped his mouth with his napkin, took an even bigger drink of his wine and pegged Zach with a look that gave the Omega goosebumps. "Explain."

The tone told Zach that he probably wasn't going to get out of this conversation alive and he laughed awkwardly while he rubbed at the back of his neck, "Well, it's just research. I have to save up a bit of money still before I can do anything but yeah. I was thinking about moving out. Getting my own place. Owen probably wouldn't even be able to live with me cause he still hasn't found his Raptors yet, but he'd stay with me when he came to town. It's no big deal really." Zach shrugged his shoulders.

"It is a big deal Zach." Scott said.

"No, its not. If this is about Owen--"

"No. Zach...it's not that." The older Beta let out a sigh and ran a hand over his face before looking over at his wife, his worry reflected in her own eyes. "Have you seen the news lately?"

Zach gave him a questioning look, "No but what does that have to do with me getting an apartment?"

Karen spoke up, "Everything." She looked over at Zach, "Zach...there's someone who's...they've been...they're targeting unmated Omegas. Omegas who live alone. There have been six attacks already."

"So far."

Karen gave her husband a sharp look.

Zach's eyes widened slightly, "But no one in any of my classes have said anything. Not the teachers or the students."

"They've been happening all around the state. The police just confirmed that they're all random Omega victims, but connected and done by the same person."

"Wait. If you guys are so worried why didn't you say anything before?"

"The attacks were nowhere near here Zach. They were all in cities more north but now there's a chance they could be on the way here. The police made a formal statement on the news and in the paper. They said any unmated Omegas that live alone should be very cautious of who they trust and be more aware of their surroundings. They even suggested them staying with family. This...person is attacking Omegas in every city the go to and then leaving. If we're lucky they'll catch them before they come here, but I don't think it'd be a good idea for you to live alone until then."

Zach moved his food around his plate listlessly, "What if they're never caught though?" He looked up, his eyes catching those of his parents. "I can't just live here for forever."

Gray, who had been quietly eating his food said, "What if Owen could live with Zach? Owen wouldn't let anything happen to him."

Karen and Scott looked at each other, "I'd still worry about you. I'm your mother, it's my official job to worry, but I think we'd both feel better about you moving out if Owen was with you or at least a roommate."

His dad looked like he still wanted to protest the very idea of Owen even living in the same state as his son. "You and Owen living together isn't something I want to think about, but he did keep you safe on the Island and it'd be a more ideal situation than you living alone while this is going on. Or like your mother said, a roommate, so at least there's someone else there in case something happened. It's either those or you're staying here."

Zach scowled and mumbled at his plate, "It's not right."

"What?"

"It's not right and it's not fair. Just because I'm an Omega and some pervert--"

"Don't fight me on this Zach! I'm your father and I say that you are NOT getting an apartment while this lunatic is going around raping Omegas. Understood?" Scott Mitchell took a deep breath and stabbed a piece of his chicken violently and shoved it in his mouth. The air in the room grew awkward and tense at the outburst from the normally laid-back Beta Father.

"No." Nobody moved.

"What did you say?" Scott said.

"I said no." His eyes now on his fathers, Zach practically shouted, "It is not understood!"

Gray's eyes were wide and round in disbelief and Karen was just as surprised. Her eldest son never having truly ever spoken back like this.

"You two were perfectly okay with sending Gray and I to an Island inhabited by giant meat-eating dinosaurs that used to be extinct expecting that nothing bad could happen! I saw people die! We almost died!...I didn't have an Alpha then and you must have forgotten when Gray told you, but we made it out of that jungle without any help. Without an Alpha there to protect us. Yeah, Owen was there for the rest of it and yes, he did an amazing job of making sure we were all safe then, but it was Gray and I who saved our own skins."

"And Zara's!" Gray piped up.

Zach gave his brother a small smile, "That's right, we saved Zara, a Beta, might I add. A Beta who, according to you and the rest of the world, should have been the one saving us." Zach added sarcastically, "Another Beta to young for much of anything and a poor weak frail Omega." He leveled a look at both of his parents. "If there was ever a time to be an over-protective parent it would have been then. Even though I met Owen through that...through what happened it was still a lousy call on your part to let us go to that Island."

Zach got up and tossed his napkin over his plate. His eyes stared unflinchingly into his fathers, "If this guy sees me and decides to come after me then let him because I was done being scared of monsters when I left Jurassic World. I'm not going to roll over anymore. I'm done with that and if I want to move into my own apartment, by myself, then I will."

With that Zach turned and walked out of the room, leaving his plate half full and his chair empty. They heard him run upstairs and his door close. His mother, expecting him to slam it, was gratefully surprised when he didn't.

Scott let out a frustrated breath and tossed his own napkin onto the table. He leaned back in his chair for a minute before grabbing up his plate and dumping the rest of his food in the trash. His plate clattered in the sink as he tossed it carelessly, any more force and it would have broken to pieces.

"Gray...honey, why don't you go and eat the rest of your dinner in the living room?"

Gray shook his head, "No. I'm not hungry anymore anyways."

"Okay baby." Karen smiled at him and he gave her a little tilt of his own lips before clearing both his and Zach's dish before retreating upstairs to his room.

The red-headed Beta looked over to her husband and saw him leaning against the kitchen-island, arms crossed and face turned down in bitterness at what had just happened.

"Scott."

At his wife's soft call of his name he moved from his place in the kitchen and took up Gray's seat across from her. She reached her hand out across the table and he took it in his own, his thumb rubbing over her knuckles.

"He's not wrong." Karen said.

Scott nodded his head, but didn't look at his wife. His eyes staying focused on their hands and he sighed, "I know, but I can't just...Karen, he can't be by himself out there. Not now."

"I know. I feel the same way. I don't want him to go, but he'll do it anyways regardless of what we want. He pretty much just said so. So as I see it we have two ways to approach this."

He looked up then at his wife, "What's that?"

"We go to Home Depot and buy tons of chains and locks and lock him away in the basement until this guy is caught." Scott smiled and chuckled, "Or?"

"...or we trust our son to be able to look after himself like we did when we sent them away. We give him our blessing to go and live on his own and hope that no one else is attacked. That he isn't attacked."

Scott dropped his head onto their hands, "I still don't want to let him do it."

"Me either, but can you think of any other way we can?"

Scott shook his head and they sat at the kitchen table for about ten minutes in silence before Karen perked up slightly. "Oh! Wait! I think I just thought of something. A way to give us some peace of mind and let Zach have some independence. I can't believe I didn't realize it before!" She squeezed Scott's hand and he looked up at his wife's excited face and smiled, "Lay it on me beautiful."

Zach was laying on his bed, phone to his ear as he ranted to Owen about everything that had happened down-stairs, "I'm not weak. I'm not! Not anymore." He ran his hand over his eyes, anger and frustration making him start to cry a bit.

"I know that and they know that, they're just letting worry take over babe. I can't say I wouldn't be the same with our kids."

Zach smiled and he turned onto his side, "Yeah, but at least you would talk it out and not just forbid them from whatever it was."

"I might, but who can really say...Zach, I can see where your parents are coming from and I'm not going to lie, it worries me too. The thought of you possibly getting jumped by some dick-hole just..." Owen let out a deep breathe over the line, "I ever tell you about how I felt during the whole Jurassic World incident?"

"During?"

"Yeah. About how I felt while looking for you?"

Zach shook his head, "No. When I saw you with Aunt Claire I just thought you two had met up on Main Street. You were looking for us?"

"Yeah. Claire, she came to me when you guys went missing on the Gyrospheres. Told me her nephews had gone missing and told me your names and I lost it inside. I grabbed Claire and dragged her off to search for you two. My heart never stopped pounding and when I saw the Gyrosphere you guys were in...shattered and bloodied, I felt useless and terrified and angry. I thought eventually I would be walking around looking for body parts and then I tracked you to the waterfall. When I realized that you guys had jumped off and when I heard that old jeep pull away I knew that you were different. Strong. Zach, we had only met a couple hours before, there was no way I could know you would be like that. So resourceful that you could get away from a dinosaur of that much power unscathed. I knew you weren't a stereotypical Omega then, but I was still scared for you Zach."

Zach closed his eyes at that because it was one of the many thoughts he had had when they were being chased. The I-Rex ripping them to shreds because he failed and wasn't quick enough.

"In those moments looking for you I was the basest part of an Alpha. The part that believed you wouldn't survive without me there because you were an Omega. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was wrong, but I couldn't stop myself from thinking it. Just like your parents right now. They're at that place where I was and it's probably a bigger feeling for them because you're theirs. You came from them and if anything happened to you while they could've prevented it it would eat away at them with guilt and self-hate. I know that because that's how I would've felt if anything had happened to you on that Island."

"What am I supposed to do then? I can't just not do anything because you guys are afraid for me. I don't want to be one of those people Owen. I don't want to be that kind of Omega."

Before Owen could answer there was a knock on Zach's door, "Hold on Owen. Come in."

Zach sat up against the headboard, his hand tightening on his phone briefly as his parents walked in. They were holding hands, a united front, Zach let his head fall back against the headboard and sighed. This probably wasn't going to go any better than earlier.

"Can you talk?" His father nodded his head at Zach's cell phone.

"I'm talking to Owen and we only get--" His father interrupted, "We'll only be a few minutes. Your Mother and I have come up with a way where we're all happy if you're willing to consider it."

"What is it?"

"We'll let you live on your own if you you'd be willing to take some self-defense classes. They've started up some classes designed specifically for Omegas at this gym downtown. We think that if you had some training to better defend yourself we'd feel better about you staying by yourself, but you have to finish the class before you can move out. It's that or you stay here until we feel it's safer out there for you."

Zach didn't know what he was expecting but it wasn't that and he looked at his parents, "Really? That's it?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Yeah. Yes, I'll do it." Zach said with a smile.

"Good. You and I will go and sign you up for the classes tomorrow. " His mother chirped, smile on her face. "We'll let you get back to lover-boy."

"Wait. I...I was talking to Owen and he said...well, anyways I'm sorry for earlier." He cast his eyes down and rubbed his thumb over the back of his cell. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry when you guys were just trying to do what you thought was right for me."

Karen walked over to the bed and sat down, taking her son's hand, "I'm sorry too. You were completely right with everything you said. We shouldn't have sent you both to that Island and we shouldn't have treated you like you were fragile because you're far from it. It's just...it's hard not to worry. After everything."

"I know."

She smiled, leaned forward and kissed his forehead, "You have an afternoon class tomorrow right?"

He nodded. "Then we'll go bright and early in the morning to get you squared away okay?"

"Okay."

"Good."

She kissed him on the forehead again and moved back over to the door, "Night. Say hi to Owen for us."

"From your mother." Karen elbowed her husband in the side. "From both of us then."

Zach laughed as his parents walked out of his room and brought his cell back up to his ear, "Still there?"

"Yup and I heard everything. Your parents are pretty smart."

"Yeah, I guess."

"So what's your excuse?"

"Hey!"

Owen laughed over the line. "Claire's already booked her ticket for the wedding. She's just going to fly in directly. I'll talk to Masrani Jr. see if I can't come down a few days before that. I'll call you when I know for sure what days I'll be in town."

"Sounds good." Sigh. "I can't wait to see you again. It's been months."

"65 days and about...13 hours actually."

"Liar. You're not counting."

"Are you doubting me?"

"Yes. Yes I am because you're ridiculous and no one ever really counts the days."

"That may be but you'll find that if you go back and count from the last day we saw each other, I am in fact doing precisely that."

Zach rolled his eyes and got up to go look at his calendar. "Do I get a prize for calling you out in your lie?" He flipped back and found the date Owen arrived with a circle around it and moved his finger down a few days to the one x-ed out. Tucking his cell between his ear and shoulder he counted until he hit today's date and a slow smile spread over his face. "Unreal. I can't believe you are actually counting the days."

"Boom! Told you."

Zach's heart thumped quicker in his chest and he leaned his head against the wall, "Owen..."

"I know. Me too, Zach."

He smiled and moved back from the wall, wiping at his eyes with his free hand before any more tears decided to fall.

"How much longer till I have to give you over to the sandman?"

The Omega moved back to his bed and sat down. "I can stay up for another few hours."

"Good. So...what are you wearing?"

Zach laughed and fell back onto his bed in happiness.