𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 ▸ Lowery Cruthers [1]

014

The way Owen fireman lifted Claire over his shoulder and carried her across the river did her dignity absolutely no favours, but it served to be quite entertaining for her nephews and Ellis, who stood on their side of the river bank and watched as she thrashed about slung over Owen's shoulder like she didn't weigh a thing. When he finally placed her back down on solid ground she took a moment to steady herself before standing up straight and flattening out her now very off-white skirt with a huff.

"Mr Grady..." She began and Ellis rolled her eyes.

"O-wen." Owen cut in, correcting her on his name for perhaps the millionth time since the pair had met.

The redhead opened her mouth to snap something back at him and Ellis braced herself for an onslaught of another one of Claire Dearing's speeches. To her surprise, and to Owen's, the speech never came. It was as though a light switch had been flicked on inside Claire's head and after a brief moment of silence she lunged forward towards her two unsuspecting nephews. She dropped to her knees and pulled them into a tight hug. Zach yelped in alarm whilst Gray more or less squeaked and Ellis took an awkward step away from the family reunion, partly because she was uncomfortable with such obvious displays of affection but mostly because whatever it was Claire had smeared all over her smelt absolutely vile and Ellis didn't want to add vomiting to her long list of unsavoury things that had already happened to her today.

"Where did you go?" Claire breathed into the boy's hair, placing a kiss on either one's head individually before pulling away from them. She looked at them seriously, a frown causing a crease to form between her brows. "Why didn't you come back?" She asked, her voice a little more stern than it had been in her previous question. "I told you to stay with Zara."

Zach pulled away from his aunts vice like grip and ran a hand through his hair in a half-hearted attempt to style it – though his efforts were completely in vain given that his dark locks were completely matted with mud and whatever debris he'd walked through whilst exploring the visitors centre. "Hanging out with Zara was boring; she only took us to the kid's exhibits." He grumbled with a frown.

Ellis scoffed quietly, earning herself a glance from everyone. "What?" She asked defensively, before shaking her head when Claire raised her brows. "I'm just saying if they were bored at the petting zoo they certainly aren't bored out here." At her comment Owen smirked before quickly folding his arms tight against his chest and shifting his gaze to stare intensely at the ground the moment the fiery redhead threw a glare in his direction.

"Well..." Claire began as she clambered back to her feet. "You're both very lucky that Ellis found you. I don't know what I would've done if anything had happened to you, or what your mother would have done to me for that matter." With that Claire glanced over her shoulder towards Ellis and offered the brunette a small smile. Ellis nodded her head curtly, despite the fact that on the inside she was losing her mind – did Claire Dearing, known around the park as Satan in a kitten heel, actually just acknowledge that Ellis Grant had done a good thing this afternoon, was that smile a silent thanks? If they hadn't had been in such a life or death situation Ellis didn't doubt that she would have made some sort of comment, but given that they were very much in a life or death situation she decided against it.

"Okay," Owen cleared his throat gruffly, and the rest of them turned their attention to him. "As much as I hate to break up this family reunion, we should probably be getting back to the control room and try to figure out a way to fix this mess." He jerked his head as though signalling a direction, despite the fact that he didn't really know where they were or where they should really be headed – he hoped his false confidence wasn't as transparent as it felt.

Ellis nodded in agreement, glancing towards the two young boys who were both staring intently at her, waiting for her to tell them what to do. Owen Grady outranked Ellis in many ways, but to the Mitchell brothers whom she'd haphazardly stumbled upon earlier that afternoon; Ellis Grant was the one to watch. "Did you boys manage to get the battery out of the buggy?"