[ claire does not look like someone who, two hours before, an hour before, had received just about all of the bad news she could. she looks every inch flush with success — and why shouldn’t she? despite every setback, everything went off without a hitch. wherever charlie may be now, she owes him. so armed with a flute of champagne and a winning smile, claire does what she does best: push everything irrelevant to this moment aside, and play the role assigned.

to that end, she strolls through the hall, occasionally reaching out, but more often sought out herself. she greets everyone with a welcoming smile — ] How are you? Enjoying yourselves? [ — shaking hands with the guests, and answering questions or graciously accepting congratulations.

a table is set up with information about the non-profit benefitting from the gala. despite it being constantly manned, claire makes a point to stop by it with a friendly, ] Hi. Curious about the organization?

[ for a little over forty minutes, she oversees a photograph opportunity with ripley. with two guards and two helpers on top of the , it’s probably overkill, but claire isn’t taking chances anymore. claire fed ripley until the little dinosaur could hardly move, but she still has a wicked bite when startled. so each guest is warned: no sudden movements, do not taunt the dinosaur, and absolutely no flash photography. one guest was escorted from the grounds for breaking the second of those rules.

smoothing over her expression, she smiles at the next person in line. ] Next!