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He’s out getting ice when he hears the voices of his team pick up from across the motel parking lot.
They’re staying at another nameless motel in Oklahoma, their little caravan of cars tucked away in the far end of the lot, bordering a 24/hour gas station. An ideal spot for their crew at the end of a long day of cells that never produced. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t frustrated with himself for not calling the right storms, but Dexter knew with certainty that his crew would never blame him for it. They’re a team; responsibility is shared equally.
He’s still musing over what he might have missed as he walks back with his full ice cooler that he’s not paying much attention to what they’re saying. It's noise, but it's a good kind of noise. Full of love and mischievousness, sprinkled with real, genuine belly laughs. The wrangler team is seated in a loose circle of tattered camping chairs, framed by their vehicles. They’re bigger now, having recently welcomed Peter, and shockingly Andy, to the team. Javi, who is riding high on the victory of having just successfully poached them from the remnants of StormPAR, drops two fresh beers in their hands before taking a heavy “oof” seat with his own beer in hand.
“Earth to Dex!” Dani shouts as Dex leans over the larger cooler full of beer and melting ice, pouring the fresh ice in. He straightens up.
“What was the question?” he asks, as his curiosity gets the better of him and he tunes back into the conversation. Boone responds before Dani can answer.
“Hey, I got a question!” There’s a chorus of loving groans from the group and more than a few crisp snaps heard as fresh cans opened and folks settled in for what they knew would be a long answer. Dexter takes a seat in his camp chair with his own beverage in hand while Boone continues.
“Are tornadoes wet?” He asks the question with so much innocence that Dexter almost believes his intentions to be earnest. He can hear Dani hiding a choked laugh as they hold their beer up to hide their face. Dexter pauses for a few moments, and he can hear others struggling to hide their laughter.
He genuinely considers the question, it’s an interesting one. Interesting enough to disregard where such a random question might have originated.
“Well,” he begins, and his mind chews happily over it while he takes a sip, “do you want the long answer or the short one?”
“Oh no, we woke Met” Boone groans good-naturedly, referencing the nickname they had given him for when he goes full science. He tends to go full science a lot.
“Oh see now he’s about to give us a full length lecture on whether tornadoes are wet!” Dani explains to the newcomers and flings their arm in the air. Meanwhile Lily grins a wild grin at him, eyes bright with the tears that only come from laughter.
“We just wanna know if tornadoes are wet, that’s all” she assures him before adding unconvincingly, “it’s a normal question.”
Dani, failing now to hide their own laughter, shouts “just a yes or no!” while Boone gets a conspicuous look in his eyes.
“I kinda want the long one” He says with a raised eyebrow, and around them soft giggling and a quiet “ayy yoo” from Lily is heard.
Kate suddenly speaks up from where she’s been lounging in Tyler’s lap, “it’s an important question, so we really need all the details.”
Dexter’s eyebrows twitch as understanding crosses his face. He knows Kate could have already answered this question herself, so clearly something else is going on. He nods, playing along, and clears his throat. He can feel the group’s attention turning fully toward him now, and he feels a flutter of anxiety after today’s bad storm calls. But it's too late to turn back, his genuine interest has been piqued, and he decides to work the question out loud with the group. He starts with the basics.
“So, tornadoes need warm moist air at the surface and cool air aloft to form, right?” he looks around to gauge everyone’s reactions, and there’s a flurry of quiet giggling.
“Mhm, moist.” Kate repeats, trying and failing to look innocent while Tyler whispers an urgent “ stop ” under his breath, not quite low enough to escape the notice of the group, who break out in a fresh new wave of barely concealed giggles and chokes.
“Yep!” Boone says confidently, his tone urging Dexter to continue. Dex grins, his mind spinning out into the physics behind his answer. He’s certain, now, that the group is clearly laughing about something else, and feels something in him settle a little in the comfort of being at home with the people who love him for the science nerd he can’t help himself to be.
“And we know warm air holds a lot of water vapor, so it's humid at the surface, but not necessarily precipitating out yet.” He continues on, working his way around to an answer as he tries to think through it himself. He’s never 100% certain, but as he pokes around to the basic principles of the phenomenon, he can feel a clear answer beginning to appear.
“Yeah, precipitating out, got it.” Boone nods along innocently, even as a few snorts are heard.
“But because the main physical dynamic of a tornado is the violent vertical updraft” (he hears Dani quietly repeat to a giggling Lily: “violent. vertical. updraft.”) “A parcel of warm moist air doesn’t stay at the surface for very long.”
Dexter pauses to take a drink, his own mischievous smile becoming evident to the group. “As air rises it expands, and as it expands, it cools. As it cools, its state of matter changes from water vapor back in to liquid. But most of the time it’s just so cold up there it freezes.”
Kate’s eyes are locked with Boone now, and though Boone has his back to him, he can see his shoulders clearly shaking with laughter. Kate is giving him an intense, reprimanding look, but her shoulders shake too with swallowed laughter. Tyler’s arms slip around her waist as he pulls her closer into his lap. She goes easily, but gives Boone another playful warning look.
“Dex is trying to give us a perfectly reasonable answer and you two are acting like the old men from the Muppets!” Lily shouts from across the circle.
“That’s okay,” Dexter reassures warmly, he’s just happy to see the team together and enjoying each other’s company. All too often they see the horror of what nature can do in its most violent form, and it feels good to laugh about it now.
“Yes,” he continues, “it is wet, I suppose, but not for very long. And it’s moving so fast it would be difficult to measure it the same way we usually measure rain. Plus it’s getting buffeted around with so much other stuff, that you wouldn’t really consider it condensation anymore.”
Dani gives up trying to remain quiet and turns to Lily saying, “doesn’t seem like Tyler has too much trouble making it wet” as the group fully erupts into riotous laughter now. Even Andy and Peter have joined in, mouths open and heads thrown back in surprise and delight at the boldness of Dani’s comment.
He thinks he hears Tyler say “need it to precipitate out more” before Kate’s face flames red and she turns to bury herself in his chest. Dexter can’t help himself, he’s laughing as hard as they are as he continues on.
“To answer your original question, Boone, yes, I would say a tornado is wet–” the group roars again with laughter, Dani is nearly screaming now.
“Keep it down!” can be heard distantly from the direction of the motel, but the group is too lost in their own laughter to be quiet now, Dexter along with them.
“But I wouldn’t say it’s rain, I guess it’s more of a mud, after colliding with all the dirt and debris at the surface.” he finally finishes. The group takes a long time to settle after that. The overlapping sounds of side jokes and side conversations reach Dexter, but he takes a moment to bask in the glow of it. These are his people, and he’s just grateful to be sharing in their joy tonight.
As the group slowly begins to quiet back down again, Boone turns to Dexter, again wearing his “innocent question” face.
“So would you say grass gets wet in a tornado or nah?” He’s laughing before he can finish the question, and this time Dexter doesn’t even attempt to answer. He knows they’re laughing about some kind of inside joke, and he’s content to sit back and sip his beer, watching while Boone unsuccessfully dodges the empty cans thrown at him from Kate and Dani.
It’s good to be among family.