Work Text:
“Ma’am, I’m sorry but you can’t go back there. Mr. Owens is in surgery. Someone will be out to give you an update when they can.”
“Kate!”
She spun around from the information desk at the sound of her name.
“Javi,” she ran towards the haggard looking wrangler. “What happened?”
“I don’t know what hit him but we were setting up the new radars to test. Next thing I know he’s down.”
“Where’s everyone else?” Kate is led to a waiting area away from the information desk.
“Helping the people in the town.”
Kate nodded, that was the best place for them. They could make a difference instead of pacing uselessly in a hospital. Besides, Tyler wouldn’t want them here crying over him anyways. Kate was still dressed for work and the NOAA ID tag on her belt jingled as she sat down. She sat her work tote on the ground and pulled out her water bottle.
“How are you, Javi?” she asked after nearly draining half her bottle.
“Don’t worry about me, Kate,” Javi set a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You were watching the system right?”
“Yeah, we had it on in the command center.”
Javi knew this, she had been feeding them the latest intel from the powerful, maybe not quite public, NWS radars all day as they chased the storm cell. The memory of Kate standing in front of the projector screen with the storm’s radar sweeps taking up the entirety of the wall while answering the call from Javi that Tyler had been hurt was going to take a while to burn from her brain.
“How bad was he?” Kate asked quietly.
“He wouldn’t shut up about the data when I got him in the truck,” Javi chose to leave out a lot of the details like the ones of Tyler struggling to breathe and losing consciousness as they screeched to a halt next to an ambulance.
Kate wanted to strangle Tyler, he had been more worried about the data she’d asked them to collect instead.
“Ms. Carter?” someone in scrubs called out from the double doors she hadn’t been allowed to access.
“Yes,” Kate knocked over her bag standing up so quickly.
The person quickly crossed to her, “Hi Ms. Carter—“
“Doctor Carter,” Kate ignored the slap from Javi.
“Apologies, Dr. Carter. I’m one of the nurses on the team and they asked me to bring you an update. Let’s sit down.”
Kate swallowed, being asked to sit was never a good sign. She felt Javi latch onto her arm.
“How is he?” her voice sounded weak.
“They’ve started and have begun stabilizing the damage to his chest. He was struck along the side here which broke quite a few ribs, which managed to puncture his lung. Once they’ve stabilized the more serious injuries then they can work on the broken bones in his arm.”
The color drained from Kate’s face.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s in very serious condition, Dr. Carter. It’s still very early on to have a full picture and prognosis. We should have a much better idea in a couple of hours.”
Kate nodded, the news was it was too early to know anything, “Thank you.”
The nurse departed and the pair of them loudly exhaled.
“Christ,” Javi ran a nervous hand through his short hair.
“Yeah,” Kate clenched her toes in her black loafers, trying to stay grounded to the moment.
“Do you need me to call your mom?”
“No, I called her on the way here and have been texting her.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“I’m good, Javi. Thanks for being here,” Kate covered his hand with her own.
Several updates with news ‘still working and he’s holding his own’ came and went. The small table had begun to fill up with their discarded coffee cups and candy wrappers from the vending machines. Kate had brought out her work laptop to distract herself while Javi slept awkwardly in the chair next to her.
“Dr. Carter?” a different person in scrubs called her name.
“Yes?” Kate slammed her laptop closed and smacked Javi awake.
“I’m Michael Hayworth, the surgeon that operated on Mr. Owens,” the surgeon took a chair and placed it in front of them.
“How is he?”
“Doing as well as we can expect. Most importantly we have the lung repaired and the ribs pinned back together with some plates and screws. Same with his radius, we’ve plated and screwed the break back together. Everything looked good when we closed. There was some significant internal bleeding so we’ve been giving him blood and other products and, while his tank isn’t full yet, it’s definitely improving.”
“Can I see him?” she needed to see Tyler.
“We have him in the PACU right now and will be for a little while longer. This is just to make sure folks come out of surgery without any major issues. You can see him after they get him moved.”
“He’s awake?”
“No, Dr. Carter. Actually we’re going to keep him sedated and intubated for at least twenty four more hours.”
“He can’t breathe on his own?”
“No, he can breathe by himself, but it’s not as good as we’d like right now. It’s not uncommon to need some help breathing for a little bit after this kind of chest injury coupled with the surgery. We’ll keep him in the ICU while all this is going on.”
Kate nodded, processing the information but not really processing the information. She saw the surgeon’s lips move but no words followed.
“What?” Kate shook herself out of the daze.
“Apologies, I was asking what your specialty was, Dr. Carter.”
“Tornadoes.”
“Ah. Well someone will come by to let you have a brief visit after we get Mr. Owens transferred.”
Kate nodded. She wasn’t aware of how long the wait was or how she even got to his room when she blinked back into awareness.
“It’s well past visiting hours for this floor but we’ll let you have a few minutes with him.”
The words were there but the comprehension was missing. Her world narrowed to the pale figure tethered to the bed by what looked like every tube and wire imaginable. She could feel the fear gnaw at itself inside her stomach.
“Can I touch him?” her feet inched closer
“Of course, dear. Just don’t pull at any of the lines.”
Kate felt Javi breathe in sharply next to her, “I uh I will wait outside.”
She was suddenly alone with Tyler. A sound of a ventilator whooshing replaced his usual boisterous voice and tape around the tube down his throat kept his signature smile sealed shut.
“Tyler?” Kate called softly as she approached his uninjured side.
There were a few inches of free space above his wrist that she could latch onto and not disrupt some line or wire. The skin under her fingers was warm. She pressed into it and felt a reassuring pulse beating steadily along. Her eyes scanned the hand under hers, some kind of sensor clipped to a lax finger, a tube carrying blood disappearing into the top of his hand, a plastic bracelet with his name printed in a utilitarian font, her own hand, another IV line in his forearm, a cuff around his bicep partially hidden by the sleeve of his hospital gown, colored wires leading out of the neck of the gown, stubble cascading down his neck, two butterfly strips closing a cut on his cheek, dark eyelashes, pale closed lids, and hair so messy he wouldn’t be caught dead with if he’d known. Kate used her free hand to comb the disarrayed hair back into some semblance of order.
“Ma’am?”
Kate broke her gaze to look at the voice in the door.
“I’m sorry but we can only let you see him for a little bit this late.”
Kate knew in her brain that he was too far down to know she was with him, but her heart was telling her that he needed to know he wasn’t alone. She wanted him to feel the kiss she left him on his temple, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“We’ll call you if anything changes,” the nurse traded places at Tyler’s bedside with her.
“Kate?” Javi was dutifully waiting for her outside the door where he said he would be.
“I’m okay, Javi.”
“Do you want me to take you home?”
“I have my SUV here,” Kate took one last look inside and at the nurse caring for Tyler.
“I know it sounded like a question, but it really wasn’t,” Javi held out his hand for her keys.
Too drained to resist, she fished out the keys from her tote bag.
###
“Kate?” followed a knock at the closed bathroom door.
She hugged her knees closer to herself. The water in the tub had long since gone cold. The door was cracked open and Javi’s head, with closed eyes, poked through the opening.
“Are you alright in there?”
“You can open your eyes.”
“I know it was less weird when we were in college and shared motel rooms, but you’re a grown up now and this is yours and Tyler’s place.”
Kate’s eyes were drawn to the shelf with Tyler’s ridiculous number of hair products compared to her utilitarian two in one shampoo and conditioner.
“It’s fine, Javi.”
“That water can’t even be warm anymore.”
The goosebumps along her arm were obvious.
“Alright, you’ve had enough time to wallow,” Javi pulled a towel from the rack. “The rest of the group arrived about twenty minutes ago. They’re at the cabin.”
Kate grabbed the towel, “They’re welcome to come to the house.”
Javi turned around, “Yeah I think they’re worried about upsetting you.”
“That’s never stopped them before,” Kate stepped from the tub.
Javi didn’t want to point out that it was because it was the first time Tyler had been seriously hurt since they’d had gotten together after she moved back. It was terrible but she didn’t feel like entertaining a large group of people. Kate toweled off before stepping into a pair of well worn pajama bottoms and one of Tyler’s Arkansas hoodies.
“Javi?” Kate pulled the stopper in the tub.
“Yeah?”
“Did the radars work? Did they get data?”
Javi looked at his watch, “Kate, it’s late. Time to eat and go to bed.”
“Javi—“
“Wait until tomorrow is all I’m asking.”
“Fine,” Kate followed him into the kitchen.
“Grilled cheese okay?”
“You don’t have to do this—“
Javi didn’t stop pulling stuff from the fridge. This was really weird behavior from him. The realization hit her like a lightning bolt. Tyler . Javi’s behavior had Tyler’s words all over him.
“Javi, what did he say to you?”
“What do you mean?” Javi lit a stove burner and purposefully did not turn to face her.
“You know what I mean.”
Butter hit the hot pan, “What kind of cheese do you want?”
“What did Tyler say to you?”
“He asked me to make sure you were taken care of,” the bread sizzled when it hit the hot butter.
“When was this?”
“After I got him back to the truck.”
Kate was angry but also not surprised Tyler spent his last moments conscious ensuring her welfare. She picked through the bag of his belongings from the hospital that had been discarded on the kitchen table. It contained his boots, phone, wallet, the obnoxious tornado belt buckle she hated, and the watch she’d gifted him. She had offered him a smart watch but he chose the rugged monstrosity with a built-in barometer in her hands.
A plate was set down in front of her, “Because of course he did.”
Javi sat across from her with his own plate. Kate stretched backwards to the fridge and pulled them each a beer. She twisted off the cap and took a long pull. The weight of the day seemed to drag her bones to the floor. Her sandwich felt like a lead bringing it up to eat. She knew Javi’s grilled cheeses were good but this one crumbled to ash in her mouth.
The dam holding back her heartache burst before she had a chance to try and contain it. Sobs wracked her body. Javi scooted his chair next to hers and put an arm around her shoulder. Kate turned into him, and he turned to pull her into him. Their sandwiches sat forgotten on the plates. Kate’s sobs eventually turned into hiccups.
“Do you want to go to bed?”
Kate only nodded. Javi pulled her upright, steering them towards her bedroom but Kate led them to their guest room.
“I don’t want to sleep in there right now.”
“I understand,” Javi tucked the blanket around her.
“Tyler changed the sheets this morning if you want that room.”
“I’ll be okay with the couch, Kate.”
“Thank you, Javi.”
“Get some sleep.”
###
Kate was wide awake, having not slept at all, when Javi knocked on the door to see if she was up yet.
“Did you get any sleep?” Javi saw the dark circles under her eyes.
“A little,” she lied.
“I made pancakes. We’re not leaving until you eat at least three of them.”
She ate four.
“Everyone else?” Kate said over the rim of her coffee mug.
“They said Tyler doesn’t like them fawning over him so they went back to help with recovery. Actually Boone said ‘Kate’s the only one he’ll want a sponge bath from’.”
Kate honestly wasn’t upset at the idea.
“Oh ew, Kate,” Javi saw her face and laughed.
“What?”
“Go get dressed and scrub those thoughts from your brain.”
Kate threw her napkin at Javi before rising from the table. Javi drove them in her SUV even though the Wranglers had brought back both of the trucks they’d left at the chase. They stopped at a coffee drive through before continuing on to the hospital.
“You can go see him,” Kate stuck the printed visitor sticker to her shirt.
“I’ll wait here for you.”
“Javi—“
“I promise it’s okay. I know you don’t get that much time with him.”
Kate left her computer bag with Javi in the waiting area. The sliding door to his bay was open when she arrived and didn’t think twice before entering.
Someone in scrubs was bent over him, “Oh I’m sorry, the door was open—“
“Almost done, Dr. Carter,” a nurse had Tyler’s wire riddled chest bared and was doing something to the tubing that entered the side of his chest next to the bright white bandage. “You can come in.”
Kate approached warily, “H-how is he today?”
“Actually quite well. Shift notes said he woke up briefly, albeit unexpected, and we’ve been able to begin weaning him off the vent and sedatives a little earlier than we anticipated.”
Kate grabbed the free spot on his arm again, focusing on his face instead of what the nurse was working on, “He woke up? I thought they’d call if something happened?”
He’d woken up and she hadn’t been there for him. She hated herself for letting him wake up alone.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it was more than his eyes opening.”
That didn’t really make Kate feel better.
The nurse finished whatever she was doing and snapped the gown closed at the shoulders, “He’s all yours.”
“Tyler? I’m here,” Kate spoke softly into his ear as she left a kiss on his temple. “I’m not sure what you need from me, but I’m here.”
It only took two visits of ten minutes on the hour before his nurse was breaking the rules for her and Javi. They were given chairs shoved all the way to the wall and instructions to not attract the attention of the floor managers. Javi was uneasy about the arrangement but ultimately relented.
“Here,” Javi held out a hard drive.
“What’s this?”
“Data feeds from the radars.”
Kate immediately had her laptop booted up. She pushed the data to their modeling software.
“Javi, this is amazing,” she tried not to yell.
“I know right? Look at how deep the radar scan penetrates.”
They spent the next hours readjusting the models with their new data. She had just glanced down back at her screen when movement out of the corner of her eye grabbed her attention. It didn’t seem like much but she could’ve sworn one of Tyler’s fingers moved. She studied the digits harder, it was getting late and it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that her brain was playing tricks on her. The movement was barely perceptible but they definitely moved again.
“Tyler?” she tossed her laptop into Javi’s lap to take Tyler’s hand.
The fingers in hers moved with more force. She tightened her grip, willing him to come back to her through her touch alone.
“Tyler?”
One of the monitors chirped and she saw one of the traces spike. Tyler’s brow furrowed.
“I’m right here.”
There was movement under his eyelids.
“Come back to me, Tyler.”
The hand in hers weakly gripped her fingers in return. She brought up her other hand and stroked his stubbled cheek with her knuckles. The movement under the eyelids quickened before they stopped completely.
“Tyler?”
Kate thought he had drifted back under but there was the faintest opening in his lashes. Her heart quickened. The eyelids opened a bit more, just enough so that she could see green.
“Hey,” Kate kept stroking his cheek, waiting for his eyes to clear with lucidity.
Glassy orbs shifted ever so slightly to her direction. Pale lips twitched under the tape and the monitor chirped again.
“You’ve been hurt, but you’re going to be okay.”
The monitor chirped again, this time continuing its shrill noise. Kate could sense his heartbeat picking up the pace even without the machine broadcasting it aloud.
“Shhhh,” Kate tried to soothe him.
His nurse was quick to arrive after the alarm changed its tone. She could hardly contain her own excitement seeing her patient awake.
“Keep talking to him,” the nurse instructed as she checked the multitude of IV solutions and lines.
“Tyler?” Kate felt his hand twitch in response.
“Mr. Owens, hi there, can you see me?” the nurse moved into his view. “Can you give me thumbs up or down?”
Kate freed his hand so he could move it; a thumb was quasi raised.
“Do you know where you are?”
His head bucked as he tried to speak but found he couldn’t.
“Mr. Owens, there is a tube down your throat to help you breathe,” the nurse explained. “I know it’s hard but just try to relax. Remember, thumbs up or down for now.”
A tear welled up in the corner of Tyler’s eye and rolled down his temple and into his hair.
“Oh, Tyler,” tears of Kate’s own were forming.
“Mr. Owens? Are you in pain?”
Tyler’s thumb rose.
“Okay, I’ll get that taken care of. Just hang in there for me.”
The nurse reached for the room phone. Tyler’s hand tired out and fell back to the surface of the bed. Some kind of spasm rippled through his body and his muscles coiled tighter than a spring.
“Tyler?” her voice was panicked.
Tyler’s eyes reopened and she could see his struggle. It broke her heart to see him hurting. She grabbed onto his clenched fingers, trying to send him her strength.
“Alright, Mr. Owens, let’s get this pain taken care of,” she twisted a syringe into an IV port and pressed the plunger.
“I will be right here when you wake up,” she spoke as calmly as she could when Tyler’s fingers twisted to tighten around hers.
She stayed in his sight the entire time it took for the boost from the drugs to catch up to his brain. His eyes drifted close, releasing one last tear. Kate wiped it away with her thumb. His fingers slowly uncoiled themselves from around hers.
“His attending is calling Respiratory right now to see if we can’t go ahead and accelerate getting him extubated.”
“Will he be awake again tonight?”
“Probably in and out at best until he’s fully off the sedatives.”
“Can I stay with him?”
The nurse looked empathetic, “I’m sorry but we only let family stay past visiting hours when saying goodbye.”
“You’ll call if something happens?”
“Of course, we’ll take good care of him tonight.”
“C’mon, Kate,” Javi had to practically tear her away.
###
Javi managed to force her to eat before she took over the kitchen table with the model’s latest results.
“I still can’t get over how good these scans are,” Kate was practically aglow.
“We should put the radar on Lily’s drone. We could have it circling the entire time.”
“Look at the water levels here in this area, we should try a more hydrophilic polymer,” Kate pointed to the screen.
“Anything a bit more biodegradable too? I’m starting to feel bad dropping the polyacrylate all over these people’s fields.”
“Let me see what’s out there,” Kate opened a new tab on her browser.
The page to her notebook stuck to her cheek when she eventually woke up. She wiped the drool from her face and cautiously rose. Her back protested the unnatural sleeping position she had subjected it to after falling asleep while working.
“Javi,” she slapped the arm he was using as a pillow on the table’s surface.
“Huh?”
“We fell asleep,” Kate tried to decipher her tired handwriting.
“Yeah, let's go back to sleep.”
“Javi,” she smacked his arm again. “Wake up.”
“I am awake,” Javi said with closed eyes.
“Seriously.”
“Christ woman,” Javi pushed himself upright, his hair plastered to the side of his face.
“I think I figured it out.”
“And?”
“Polysaccharides.”
“You want to shoot a tornado full of carbs?” Javi wasn’t sure he was awake.
“We need to have the supercomputer run it, but yeah.”
“Can you shoot me full of carbs first?”
Kate rolled her eyes, “Bodega bagel?”
“Uh sure?”
“Towels are in the hall closet,” Kate was in the freezer pulling from her stash of New York bagels.
Javi was still yawning when he sat down, freshly showered, to some monstrosity she called a BEC. Kate held hers with one hand while pecking at the laptop with the other.
“I Slacked my boss, I can ‘work from hospital’. Also he’s scheduled us for a time slot with the JET supercomputer at NOAA in Boulder.”
Javi just nodded, he was too busy devouring his breakfast.
“I’m gonna need a real coffee on the way, none of this cowboy shit you and Tyler drink,” Javi grimaced into the coffee mug.
“I’ll ask Dexter to put an espresso machine in the RV for you,” Kate packed up her work into her laptop bag.
They closed up the house and Kate slid into the driver's seat. She did stop at a Starbucks so Javi could get some ridiculous frothy concoction.
“Tyler secretly likes these things too,” Kate rubbed the excess whipped cream off on her jeans.
###
“How is he?” Kate asked the nurse at the desk once they arrived.
“They pulled the vent late yesterday night, and he’s been in and out most of the night where we’ve been titrating his pain meds now that he’s off the sedatives. He started running a low grade fever, but we’re waiting for the labs to come back to see if anything’s brewing or just a trauma response. We need him more alert today so RT can whip that lung back into shape to head off anything serious like pneumonia.”
“Is he awake?”
The nurse looked at her screen, “Cycling back up by the looks of it.”
Even Javi had to admit Tyler looked remarkably better, granted the bar was pretty low. Kate was just elated to see his face free from the breathing tube. The head of the bed was raised and Tyler propped up on multiple pillows.
“Tyler?” she took her spot at his side.
The monitor trace changed ever so slightly.
“I’m here,” she spoke as his eyes started to flutter.
His hand moved as if searching for hers. They connected and his eyes cracked open.
“Hey there,” she beamed once his green eyes locked onto hers. “You with me?”
Her heart nearly burst when she saw his lips move in the familiar pattern.
“Kate,” it was barely a whisper, the breathing tube had only recently been removed. Tyler licked his painfully chapped lips.
“Hey man, good to see you too,” Javi handed Kate a styrofoam cup with a straw that had been on the bedside table.
She let Tyler have a few sips before pulling the cup back, “I’m not sure how much you can have.”
“I uh will find somewhere else to be for a bit,” Javi suddenly felt very much the third wheel.
“Thanks for picking me up,” Tyler’s voice sounded terrible.
Javi nodded and made his escape as Kate leaned down to kiss his finally free mouth.
“That wasn’t cool,” she kissed his warmer than usual brow as well. “How do you feel?”
“Did you get the data?”
“Tyler, don’t worry about that. How do you feel?”
“Like I should’ve ducked; did you get it?”
Kate hated how he had zero sense of self regard, “I can’t wait to show it to you. It’s gorgeous.”
“I bet it is,” Tyler beamed at her.
The sight of him finally smiling back at her caused a lump to form in her throat. She had come within inches and seconds of losing this. Kate perched on the side of the bed. Tyler reached up with his IV encumbered hand and pulled her hand to his chest. Kate stilled with her hand sandwiched to Tyler’s moving chest. She closed her eyes, taking in the feel of Tyler’s life that hummed under her fingertips.
She leaned so that her forehead connected to his, “I-I can’t lose you.”
“I’m here.”
There was a moment of quiet before Tyler heard the faintest sniffle.
“Oh, Kate,” he pulled her into the crook of his neck.
She tried to contain her sobs to not jostle the injured body under her, but she knew she was failing. Bless that man for sitting there bearing the pain as his body shook from her sobs.
Tyler caught the eyes of his nurse coming through the doorway, no doubt to check on him after changes from the countless monitors transmitting everything. The woman looked like she was about to interrupt but a shake of his head stopped her from advancing any further. She motioned to her watch and held up five fingers. He nodded and the nurse backed out to give them their moment.
“I’m here,” he murmured into her hair.
###
“C’mon,” Tyler whined as Kate steered him to the bedroom.
“What on earth are you whining about?” Kate eased him down to their bed.
“I’m tired of beds. I want to go to the couch.”
Kate rolled her eyes as she bent down to pull off his shoes. He obeyed when she motioned for his sweatpants. Tyler groaned in pleasure as he slipped into the cool sheets in his shorts and t-shirt.
“Finally sheets that no one has died in.”
“Tyler,” Kate scoffed at him.
“ Did someone die in our bed?”
“Someone will if he doesn’t stop whining.”
Tyler gingerly pushed himself up against the headboard, “I’m not tired.”
“Resting in bed doesn’t mean you have to sleep,” Kate tossed the TV remote next to him.
“Bring me my laptop so I can keep working on finding what molecular weight polysaccharide you’ll need or I can run radar ops for Boone and the team. Also I need to finish editing the next batch of episodes.”
“Tyler, you’re supposed to be resting.”
“You literally just said that resting in bed didn’t mean sleeping.”
In the end she relented to his whining. She came back after a virtual work meeting to find the wrangler asleep, his hand resting on the laptop keys, and Dexter on speaker phone either not knowing or caring that Tyler fell asleep on him.
“Hey, Dex,” Kate pulled the phone from his lax hand.
She surveyed the arm that still bore the bruises from the IV lines and other needle sticks.
“Hey, Kate!”
She took it off the speaker, “Sorry, Tyler fell asleep on ya.”
“Yeah I figured.”
“How did it go?”
“Fizzled out before Boone and Lily could get anchored.”
“Does Tyler know Boone is driving his truck?”
“I’m not telling if you are.”
“Are y’all headed back?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Please come in the house this time.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“We can pick up food. What do y’all want?”
“Whatever is fine, Dex. His appetite is still off.”
“See ya in a bit, Kate.”
“Bye, Dex.”
The noise of the Wranglers barreling into the house managed to wake up Tyler, who demanded his pants be returned, before shuffling to the living room.
“Hey man!” Boone had to be slowed down on approach to Tyler.
“Sorry about your chase today.”
“We got a bunch of B-roll so not a total loss. Your fans kept asking about you in the chat.”
Tyler waved them off and reached for the extra large sweet tea from Dani’s hand that he knew was his.
“You need something solid to go with that,” Kate whispered in his ear as she passed a sandwich into his hand.
He took a few bites of the sandwich to appease her before turning back to his tea, “Kate, why don’t you share with the class what you’ve been working on?”
“You were the one running all the models while we had JET time and I was at work,” Kate used an HDMI cable to connect her laptop to their big screen TV.
Kate squeezed onto the sofa next to Tyler so they could both run the screen.
“So Javi’s radar upgrades gave us these new numbers,” Kate pulled up the data.
“You’ll want to pay close attention to those water numbers about two thirds of the way up the column,” Tyler pointed with his tea still in his hand.
“There’s a lot more water here than expected, especially given the maximum absorption rate of the polyacrylate we’ve been using. We should try something more hydrophilic—.”
“Soak up more water.”
“Yeah, soak up more water. But then Javi pointed out how bad it is to be dumping this stuff on crop fields. It’s still got a long half life even though it’s somewhat degradable.”
“We need something that soaks up more water and isn’t as bad for the environment.”
“I’m guessing you found one?” Lily asked.
“Polysaccharides,” they said together.
The group of wranglers seemed unsure.
“Here,” Tyler pulled up the model runs he’d worked on while stuck in bed recovering.
“I had him run models with a list of these biopolymers in various molecular weights and narrowed it down to these three candidates to try.”
“Where do we find this stuff?” Boone popped a handful of fries in his mouth.
“We have nothing but the utmost faith in you, Boone,” Kate knew his ego needed the occasional stroke.
“And Lily, I drew up these ideas for the drones,” Tyler emailed her his file of sketches.
“How are we paying for this?” Dexter asked.
“We could finally put Kate on the shirt?” Dani suggested.
“Oh please,T! You promised us ages ago we could put her on the shirt,” Boone begged.
“I never said that. I’m sure we can find a NOAA grant or something.”
“Kate, please?! What if you get your own shirt?”
“Boone,” Tyler put an end to that idea.
Kate rolled her eyes, “There’s no guarantee I would boost sales.”
The entire group stared at her.
“Let me think about it,” she told them to divert their focus off of her..
The group continued debating the next shirt design, but dispersed when they noticed Tyler had dropped off into sleep mid conversation. They all quietly left, leaving Kate alone to wrangle the wrangler back to bed.
“Where are you going,” Tyler called out sleepily when he felt Kate’s weight lift from the side of the bed after he’d been tucked under the covers.
“I don’t want to bump you during the night.”
“Nonsense, get back here.”
“Tyler—“
“Please?”
“You know I can’t say no to that tone,” Kate was already reversing her steps.
“Why do you think I used it?”
Kate gingerly crawled into the bed next to Tyler after changing into her pajamas. She moved to her side to face him.
“See, was that so hard?” Tyler rolled to his uninjured side to face her. “I missed you.”
Kate reached over to run her thumb across his check and longer than usual facial hair, “Tyler, I’ve seen you everyday.”
“You know what I mean, I’m sorry I put you through this.”
Kate couldn’t believe her ears, “Why are you apologizing? I’m the one who—“
Tyler saw her eyes fill with water, “Shhh, it’s okay.”
“I don’t want to see you hurt. I can’t lose you, not that I’ve finally acc—.”
“I know my memory is a little fuzzy from that day, but I distinctly don’t remember you out there in that field throwing debris at us.”
“But—“
“The only butt you’re allowed to mention is mine.”
Kate scoffed, “I’m trying to be serious.”
“And so am I.”
Kate’s lip quivered thinking again about how close she came to losing all of this.
Tyler placed his hand over the one rubbing his cheek, “I’m always coming back to you, Kate.”
“You don’t—“
Tyler caught an escaping tear with his thumb, “I mean it when I say that I’m always coming back to you. Do you understand?”
Kate nodded.
“I need words,” Tyler leveled his gaze into her watery one.
“You’re always coming back to me,”
Tyler closed the distance and sealed his promise with a kiss. Kate returned with a deep, practically desperate one. It pained him to have to pull back for air.
“Tyler?”
“S’okay, needed air. You literally take my breath away.”
“I’m so—“
“Rain check?”
“Plus interest.”
“Interest? You’re a loan shark, Dr. Carter.”
“I’m just chasing it,” Kate gave him a quick kiss.
“You know, if this chasin’ thing doesn’t work out you’d make a half decent nurse,” Tyler yawned.
“You are absolutely not telling Boone I gave you a sponge bath.”
“M’lips are sealed,” his words drifted off.
Kate watched as Tyler slipped into slumber with a sloppy grin on his face. She gave him one last kiss to his brow before settling down for the night.