Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

June 17th, 2019

Sapulpa, Oklahoma

There’s really no feeling that compares to the one brought about by storm chasing, especially when chasing in good company.

That’s at least what Tyler Owens believes.

"How’re we lookin’ Boone?" Tyler said from the front seat of his truck, glancing up at the rear view mirror above his head

"We’re looking great Ty! Doppler’s showin’ some darn fantastic activity," Boone replied enthusiastically

"We’re in for a real ride!" Lily commented, mostly addressing their live audience

Just a few minutes after, Dani and Dexter chimed in on the radio

"I think we’re going to need to be turning around, things aren’t looking good on our end." Dexter said in a serious tone, cutting through their earlier excitement "This is no longer looking good for us."

And that’s when Tyler knew it was time to head back.

May 19th, 2024

Tulsa, Oklahoma

"Hey StormPAR! We’re live on Youtube, say somethin’!" Boone shouts as his head hangs out of the passenger window, teasing PAR geeks as usual

"Alright Boone, leave em be.." Tyler says with a chuckle, shaking his head before bringing the truck to a stop and stepping out.

As he begins to interact with fans as usual, he spots an unfamiliar face among StormPAR’s little group, and his breath briefly catches in his throat at the sight of her. He quickly regains focus and throws her a wink and a tip of his hat

She looks carefully put together and so not from around here, dressed in a white striped button-up and deep denim blue khakis. What draws him in most, however, is her closed-off demeanor. The intense urge to figure her out catches him off guard — though it’s not necessarily unwelcome.

He watches as she separates from her crew, standing in a field picking at dandelions and letting the wisps fly in the breeze around her. The picture is absolutely enticing and he just has to speak to her.

"You know, I used to do that too. Compare the wind direction to cloud movement, get you a feel for the shear," He starts as he approaches her position in the field, he’s so used to people being all over him that her indifference is a brief shock, but it only draws him in more "Yep, sometimes the old ways are better than the new"

His current attempt at striking up a conversation with this illusive StormPAR employee is clearly not working, a conclusion he comes to as she just silently stares at the sky as if he isn’t even there.

"So, where you comin’ in from?" He tries instead

"New york." She replies with slight reluctance, still not tearing her eyes away from the sky.

"Well you sure are a long way from home, aren’t ya city girl? You like workin’ for StormPAR?"

When she finally does turn to look at him, he feels all the air in his lungs leave the second her eyes meet his. He realizes now that he’s definitely been staring at her face wordlessly for more than is decent, but before he has a chance to break the silence a voice calls out from behind him.

"Tyler! Do we know which storm we’re going after yet?" Ben asks, and Tyler grabs at that opportunity like it’s a lifeline and turns his attention back to the woman at his side

"Well why don’t we ask…" Tyler trails off expectantly

"Kate."

Kate 

He can’t help but smile even brighter as he replies "Hi Kate, I’m Tyler."

They stare each other down for a few seconds before Ben chimes in "And I’m Ben, I’m a reporter doing a piece on American storm chasing. Tyler’s letting me ride along."

"Yeah, Ben just had to promise to write nothin’ but good stuff about me."

"Good luck with that." Kate replies, turning to walk away, but Tyler isn’t going to let her off so easy.

"Now hang on, you didn’t say which way we were goin’ yet. Now, from what I gather; west, we double our chances, east, well… it’s high risk high reward." He says with a smug grin that he’s sure has reached his ears by now

"Well, go for the reward, you wouldn’t want Ben to think you’re boring." She quips back, and he could almost be offended by her words if her teasing wasn’t so attractive.

"Now, boring is not usually a problem for me, Kate."

She ignores the flirtation, maybe she doesn’t catch it, but Tyler finds that highly unlikely by the way that she rolls her eyes.

"The two cells to the west are fighting over the same inflow, they’ll choke each other out. This one to the east has the sky all to herself.." She says it with such confidence that he’s inclined to follow along, even if her current hypothesis doesn’t fall in line with what he and his team were seeing "Moisture, wind shear, instability. All the things you need to give Ben a good show." She gives a small smile before turning to walk away, and Tyler’s so distracted with her that he almost forgets to form a reply

"City girl knows her stuff, Ben." Tyler says, and at no response, he tries again "I said city girl knows her stuff, Ben."

"Thanks! Maybe if I work real hard I could be a tornado wrangler too."

Oh?

Though she may have gotten the last word, she does at least know who he is, and that provides him all the satisfaction he needs.

A few moments later and the StormPAR vehicles begin rolling out, towards the West funnily enough.

"But I thought she told us east? Is she going the wrong way?"

Tyler chuckles "Nope."

Chapter Text

As Tyler drives towards the howling tornado he notices a familiar white truck and an angry StormPAR employee planted beside it, and he can’t help the shit-eating grin that forms on his face as he slows down, ready to rub in his current success.

His smile falters slightly at the sight of the pale, anxious-looking blonde in the front seat, and the look on her face alone is almost enough to make him stop and check in, but instead he simply mouths a hello to her and drives past and into the tornado to light it up

"Nice goggles, Javi!"

"Uh, Kate what?" Ben says quickly, holding a pen to the small notepad in his hand "Your surname, just in case I include you in my piece."

Kate’s expression flashes with something strangely close to that of worry but it quickly dissipates, so Tyler ignores it. "Oh um— Just ‘Kate’ is fine." She replies nervously

"She’s a tricky one."

"Actually, you made a good call earlier." Boone interjects into the conversation "The other cell, it looked stronger, but cap never broke."

Ben looks around with a puzzled expression, Tyler tries not to laugh "Eh, what’s a cap?"

"It’s a temperature inversion in the mid part of the lower atmosphere, it inhibits a storm from forming." Dexter answers back

"Right… okay. Great."

"Oh, uh," Kate says, drawing their attention back to her, though Tyler has to admit that his never actually left her "Where did you guys all meet? Did you, uh, did you study meteorology at the U of A?" As she finishes her question off the crew erupts into laughter

"All right, Kate, Me? I just flow with the wind. You know what I’m saying?" Boone replies with a small chuckle "Yeah, I-I never went to, like, school or nothin’. But Tyler, he studied meteorology."

Tyler notices the shock cross over her face as Boone finishes his sentence "Him?" She says in clear disbelief, and Tyler breathes a small laugh at the realization that she probably believed that he knew almost nothing about meteorology.

"You know, our crew’s not like your crew, Kate." He starts "We don’t need PhDs and fancy gadgets to do what we do, I guarantee you that these guys have seen more tornadoes than anyone else in this lot combined."

Her face falls slightly "Is that right?"

"Do you think there’s a chance we’ll see one tomorrow?" Ben asks

"Oh yeah, outbreak baby!"

"Ya know if you can keep up, we’ll put ya in the episode." Tyler says with a grin he knows is cheeky

"Wow." Kate gasps, exaggerating her ‘excitement’

Lily pipes in just as Tyler is about to reply "Where are you chasin’ tomorrow?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no," Tyler cuts in before Kate can get a word in "Not fallin’ for that again."

"Kate’s from New York, can’t trust a thing she says."

"Huh, well you can always trust a guy who puts his face on a T-shirt !" Kate replies quickly before continuing up the stairs, his team laughing around him as Tyler sits there dumbfounded

"Oh my god, look at his face!" Lily laughs, elbowing Dani

That small interaction just moments ago, it just might be when Tyler realizes that it’s going to be her.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Tyler’s met with the same face when he steps outside — only now her hair falls in light waves that frame her face and she wears a brown button-up over a white tank top.

She’s stunning.

"Well, nothin’s comin’ outta that one." He starts speaking as he stops at her side

"That one? No, no. No it’s clearly moving into a stable environment." She says evenly, gaze still trained on the sky

"Yeah, no low-level cape, not enough shear to keep it interesting."

"Yeah.. it’s gonna die out."

"Not enough moisture to grow," He snags a quick glance in her direction and sees her eyes still trained on the clouds, so he decides to step into her path to grab her attention.

"Where’d you say you learned how to track storms again?"

He feels a warmth creeping up the back of his neck as the corners of her mouth quirk up into a small smile "I didn’t."

"You know, we’re gonna be stuck here all day waitin’ for nothing to happen.. how about we try and get along?"

Kate tilts her head and squints in response, her smile from before becoming something almost mischievous. He swears he could stare at that expression all day.

"Yeah, you’re right… tell you what, I’ll get us a couple’a drinks, what would you like?"

He can feel his own smile growing as he replies

"Really?"

She nods "Really."

"Wouldn’t mind an iced tea, thank you."

"Comin’ up." He can almost hear the smirk in her voice as she turns to walk away

He looks away for a second, and by the time he turns his head back to the gas station, he spots her running to Javi and whispering something urgent in his ear. By then he gets the memo and hurries over to his team.

"Pack up the burrito’s, we got a winner!"

"Do we have to drive into it again?" Ben asks shakily, already white-knuckling his harness

Tyler simply chuckles "Nah Ben, it’s drivin’ into us!"

"Ain’t no other way!" Lily laughs

Boone leans out the window to load up the flares before sitting back down next to a green faced Ben

"Boone, I’m havin’ trouble with this trigger here."

"What’s goin’ on?"

Tyler groans as he digs heaps of chocolate from the gear shift

"Boone.. this is all chocolate, you gotta quit eatin’ chocolate in the damn truck."

"Sorry man.."

"Alright, we’re good to go."

Lily & Boone begin cheering as the tornado moves towards them

"Let’s go!" Tyler shouts, grin wide as he deploys the augers

And just then, the tornado dissipates as quick as it formed.

Turns out he was the one going the wrong way

Tyler sighs in disappointment as he spots the other twin thriving from afar

"Hey!" Dani shouts from the caravan "We should’ve went with her."

"Anyone checked for the StormPar crew?" Dani radioes as they’re driving back

"Why? They okay?" Tyler asks, his brows ticking together in concern

"Hope so, pretty sure Javi’s truck was right in the path of it." 

"Might wanna check on them when y’all get a chance, I don’t think city girl will be doin’ too hot."

"Cmere, buddy!" Tyler shouts as he kneels next to a mound of debris, scanning over every spot in hopes of spotting a muddy fur coat somewhere in there

"City girl okay?" Boone asks suddenly, causing Tyler to look up at the StormPAR truck that’s just pulled in to the destroyed neighbourhood. He spots a shaken looking Kate stepping out of the vehicle

He stands up as she walks by

"Nice play on the left twin."

Kate tears her eyes away from the ground and stops to look at him "Yeah, well, it didn’t help these people any…"

They both turn towards the group of StormPAR geeks as they try to swindle an older man

"Huh, didn’t know StormPAR was in the business of helpin’."

"Well, from what I see they’re trying to make a difference."

"That’s one way’of putin’ it."

"What?" She looks at him as if he’s crazy

"Do you even know who you’re chasin’ for?"

"What are you talking about?"

"How much more these people gotta lose? Before y’all done ‘making a difference’?" He raises his voice slightly in the pursuit of frustration, and the fact she seems to have no knowledge on who she’s been helping only adds to it.

"Sorry, says the guy setting up shop selling t-shirts and mugs after a storm’s hit."

He wants to say something in reply, but he just shakes his head and walks away. It could almost be laughable, how little she thinks of him, but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt a bit.

Ben approaches with hopes for an interview but Tyler waves him off as he returns to the task of the lost dog, he thinks he said something petty like "Talk to Kate, she seems to have all the answers."

He looks back in the direction of Javi’s StormPAR truck after a minute or so to see Lily offering a box of food and a water bottle to Kate

She walks away with the food in hand but a water short.

Chapter Text

Kate flees the Crystal Springs scene, leaving Tyler with the question that’s been gnawing at his brain since — Does she really not know? Or is she just as bad as the rest of them? — his demeanour clearly shifts, enough so that his team can’t help but pester him about what happened.

"What’s wrong with you?" Dani quipped, sipping her beer with a smirk

"He’s probably upset that Kate left!" Boone said with a laugh, clearly trying to tick Tyler off.

"That’s enough." Tyler replies firmly

"Come on! What is it? You mad that she’s hanging aroun’ with StormPAR?"

Tyler glances over at where the truck that Kate left in used to be parked before shaking his head and glancing down at his beer

"I don’t think she even knows what’s goin’ on with StormPAR, hell, she thinks we’re the ones in it for the money."

"Huh? But she knows that we’ve been using the money from the merch on resources for victims of the storms?" Lily chimes in, her response dancing around in his head

"Or maybe she figured out ." Dexter says, crossing his arms "I mean, we don’t go around promoting it, it’d be easy for someone to misjudge our actions."

Tyler nods along, fiddling with the cap of the bottle in his hands

Dani rose from her spot and stalked towards where Tyler was sitting on top of his truck, leaning against the door before speaking

"Ty, you should talk to her, it’s no use to sit her sulking over something that very well could be a misunderstanding."

"I.." Tyler was about to protest, but trailed off "Alright, anyone know where she coulda’ gone?"

"Try Stillwater, heard some of the StormPAR guys say that she was stayin’ out there." Boone replied

Tyler pulls into the parking lot, having grabbed a small box of pizza on his way there as a kind of peace-offering

It really doesn’t take long to wheedle Kates’s room number out of the woman at the front desk, which is frankly quite concerning, but he continues to her room

He hears a weather report echoing from inside of the dingy motel room that he stands outside, taking a few minutes to tame his hair down with his hand before actually knocking on her door.

She opens the door looking confused as her eyes flick down to the box in his hand and then up to his eyes

"Some of Javi’s crew said that you were stayin’ out by the rodeo.." he stares into her eyes for longer than he would consider acceptable before lowering his gaze to the pizza box in his hand as he stretches his arm out to hand it to her "Thought you might be hungry."

She squints at him briefly before taking the box from him and promptly shutting the door in his face, leaving him confused and slightly offended outside her room, though it doesn’t last long, as she opens the door back up not even a minute later.

"You find the dog?" She asks, voice quieter than usual

"Course I found the dog." He replies with a small smirk, leaning against the doorframe before he drops the smirk and lowers the volume of his voice to match hers "How’re you doin’ after all that?"

Her face falters as she glances at the ground, something sad flicking in her eyes, and something somber tugs at his heart after seeing her look so upset.

"It.." she sighs before looking him in the eyes "It doesn’t matter, it’s those people who’ve…" he thinks he sees her eyes gloss over, and he wants so badly to reach out to her

"Kate.."

"I’m fine."

He sighs but spares her, switching gears "Well, you know you’ve uh.. seen the worst of this place.. thought it’d be nice if you saw somethin’ good."

Her gaze changes to something indescribable, sad, but also soft and almost indulgent? Not quite agreeing to whatever his next offer may be but allowing him to go on.

"I wanna take you somewhere. I think it’ll help." He nods in her direction, and just when she looks like she’s about to decline her lips quirk up into a subtle smile as she lets out a small breathy chuckle

"Okay… just let me grab a coat."

Visiting the rodeo is something he’s deliberately avoided for a long while, but seeing that he’s there with Kate, he can’t find himself caring all that much about the past incidents that have been keeping him away.

"Ya ever see anythin’ like this city girl?"

She turns her head towards him with a sly smirk before replying "You keep callin’ me that," he swears that he can hear a subtle drawl in her voice as she speaks "You know that I grew up on a farm?"

His own smirk vanishes for a few seconds, being not quite surprised but just slightly taken aback at the information she’s offering him

She chuckles, in response to what he can only believe is seeing his expression shift. "Yeah, Sapulpa, couple hours from here."

"This ain’t my first rodeo."

"Look at that, comin’ out here helped me learn something about you." And god, is he grateful for that.

"So tell me this, what was your first tornado?" He tries

She hesitates for a moment before pinning the question on him, asking him about his first tornado, which he doesn’t quite mind.

"I was eight. Driving with my aunt, sirens were goin’. N’ all of a sudden this.. vortex, just lowers right down in the center of the road."

She turns her head more towards him, looking genuinely intrigued. And he hates to admit it, but the attention she’s currently giving him does make his ears heat up.

"I was just mesmerized," he continues "Then I look at my aunt, and she’s got this look on her face. I realized in that moment that I was supposed to be scared."

Her eyes flick from what he swears was his lips back up to his eyes before she asks "Were you scared?" a slight crack to her voice, her eyes soft

"Yeah," He nods quickly "Yeah, I was."

She smiles teasingly "Wow, the tornado wrangler is scared of tornados?"

He scoffs, not in annoyance but instead in fondness "Okay, Sapulpa."

He spots an old friend of his down in the ring, gesturing his classic wrangler salute to him.

"You know him?"

He hesitates on whether or not he should reveal so much of himself before deciding that he can trust Kate with this, which may sound crazy since they’ve known each other for such a short time, but Tyler has never felt like this with anyone.

"Eh, I used to compete." Tyler starts "Got my head stomped on by one too many bulls, had a few people who’d prefer if I stayed in one piece, so I decided that college would probably be better for my brain."

She laughs, an airy thing "So you’re scared of tornados but not of riding bulls?"

"Well, tornadoes, bulls, same thing. Fear’s the reason that you do it." he turns his head back to face her, smiling a little bigger when he notices that she was already watching him "You don’t face your fears, you ride em."

Despite the fun that they had been having, the moment is short-lived, as the wind picks up and sends a few curled leaves towards the stands

Kate gets paler in an instant "Were.. were you tracking cells out this way?" Tyler simply shakes his head, feeling his brows tick together

"Air feels heavy, this isn’t good…"

And as everyone’s phone lights up in unison, loud alarms blaring not even a second later, everything goes to shit in an instant.

There are cries of people and whinnies of horses as everyone scrambles to get to safety

Tyler grabs Kate’s wrist with more force than intended as he leads her away from the chaos "Keep moving, Kate. Come on, we’re okay, keep moving."

He feels the pulse in her wrist quicken under his hand and he can practically feel her begin to panic, but she keeps close beside him as they weave their way through the crowd, and they  narrowly miss being hit by multiple cars as they cross the street back over to the motel

Tyler spots a woman and her child anxiously getting into the car, and Kate stops them with a shaky yell "Hey! Get inside!"

They all enter the building in alarm, searching for just about anywhere that will keep them safe, unfortunately, not everyone is quick to listen to them.

The lady Tyler had charmed earlier had been replaced by a nervous looking man who can’t quite seem to quiet down the people in front of him

"Do you have a storm shelter?" Kate asks, Tyler following behind her with his own set of questions "Or maybe a basement? We have to get these people underground."

"You know that there’s not actually a tornado, right?" A woman quips back, and Tyler genuinely has to take a double take to see if he’s misheard her.

"Like, nine times out of ten it’s a false alarm."

Kate shakes her head before pushing through a stack of boxes into the back room beside the front desk, the clerk shouting after her

It only takes a few seconds for her to come back "Everybody come with me!"

"All right, follow her, follow her!"

It’s nightmare inducing, as Tyler stays crouched behind a shaking Kate, white-knuckling the pipes

"Ty.." Kate chokes out, reaching for his hand before turning back towards the mother and daughter in the corner

"Is it over?" The woman asks, Tyler stands up, expecting Kate to follow, but she stays attached to the pipes

"Kate?" He tries, she doesn’t answer, so he lightly touches her back, causing her to grip the pipes even harder "Hey, hey, hey.. it’s okay. Kate, it’s over, you can let go now."

She shakes her head, shivering

Tyler glances at the small family in the corner, but the mother simply nods and begins helping her daughter up and out of the pool

"Kate." He crouches back down, careful not to touch her. But to his surprise, she shoots to her feet, Tyler following her

"Kate?" He asks, she simply shakes her head "I.. I’m okay. I’m okay." He doesn’t quite believe her, and is about to press further but hears his crew calling for him from above the pool

"Cmon, Sapulpa." He takes her hand and helps her up the ladder of the pool, following after she’s out

"Kate!" A voice yells a few minutes later as a few familiar white cars roll in, Kate looks up at Tyler and gently taps his arm and whispers a thank you before quickly walking over to Javi

It shouldn’t bother him so much that she’s so quick to hug Javi after staying quite distant after they climbed out of the pool, but it does.

"Where did you stick it out?" Ben asks, pulling him out of his thoughts, Tyler gestures towards the pool "Right down here."

"Good call." Lily praises, but Tyler simply shakes his head and looks towards where Kate and Javi are talking

"It’s all Kate."

As Tyler is talking with his team, reassuring them that he’s fine, Javi’s voice suddenly gets a lot louder, drawing his attention

"I don’t know what that’s like? How about losing three of my best friends while you were trying to land a big fat grant for your science project?"

"Hey." Dani says quietly with a slight edge to her voice

Kate flinches back as if she’s been struck, shaking so much that even he can see it from all the way over here. She stumbles backwards, turning away to quickly walk towards Javi’s truck, leaving Javi to shout after her.

And just like that, she’s gone, driving lord only knows where.

"What the hell." He mutters under his breath, glaring to where Javi stands frozen

"Tyler." Dexter says from behind him, looking uncharacteristically worried, computer wedged underneath his arm.

"What’s up, Dex?" He tries to sound casual, he hopes he does, but from the way the rest of the team looks at him he knows that he definitely didn’t.

"I.. the team and I, we came across something while you were gone, and.." Dexter trails off, taking the computer out from under his arm and opening it to hand it to Tyler

What Tyler sees next is something he never could’ve expected

College Students Killed in Severe Oklahoma Tornado.

Missing persons

Storm chasers

Kate Carter

There’s a familiar face that catches his eye, a younger Kate, who looks happy, much unlike who he had met just a few days ago, and he’s taken aback as he reads further

Dexter starts up when Tyler just stares blankly at the screen "Kate, she was in that horrible EF5 just five years ago, losing three of her friends in the process. I knew that I recognized her from somewhere but.. I didn’t know that it was.."

Tyler isn’t even listening at this point, staring horrified at the screen

Tyler didn’t even know the clerk from earlier, but seeing him be taken away by the winds of a tornado was certainly going to give him nightmares, he can’t even imagine what Kate must’ve been dealing with during these past few days.

One thing’s for sure, Kate was definitely the strongest person he had ever met.

Chapter Text

"Is she in Sapulpa?" Tyler asked — well demanded — of Javi

"Are you serious?" Javi replied hoarsely, scrubbing his hands over his eyes "The sun isn’t even up."

Tyler remained stationary in his doorway, still awaiting an answer

Javi simply sighed and slipped back into his room, returning with a phone in his hand "If I ask her mom, will you leave me be?"

Tyler quickly nodded, holding back his urge to smile happily

Tyler obviously waited until at least a little later in the day to arrive at Kate’s mother’s house, he was raised right, after all.

He approached the front door and rang the doorbell, not even a minute passed before a brunette woman with a skeptical look in her eyes opened up the door

"I’m assuming you’re the ‘ Tyler Owens’ Javi called me about?"

" Ahem , yes ma’am." Tyler said quickly, trying to sound natural

Apparently, he had tried too hard, as her response came with a small laugh

"And what might you be here for?"

"Just to check on your daughter, Kate, she’s… had a rough couple days and I want to make sure she’s doing all right." Tyler tries not to remember the fearful look in her eyes when they had hid at the bottom of the pool in Stillwater

The woman nodded towards a barn across from the house "She’s out in the barn, maybe you can get through to her."

Just as promised, she’s standing in the barn, toying with some kind of homemade tornado model

"Build your own tornado, look at that!"

Kate turns to look at him, only surprised for a few seconds before she gives a small smile

"Middle school science fair project!"

"Well, you must’ve won."

Her earlier smiles morphs into something complacent as she shrugs, shutting off the machine and moving to face him

"How’d you find me?"

"Ah… Dexter pieced it together," He started, stopping to look up at her face, she wasn’t smiling anymore "He remembered your name from the news a few years back."

"I’m sorry about your friends."

Kate nodded in response, looking at the floor as she chewed her bottom lip. Just as he was about to break the silence, her mother entered the barn and walked up to the both of them

"I’m fixing some food, are y’all okay to eat outside?"

"Oh, I’m not gonna bother you Ms. Carter—"

"He’s not staying." Kate abruptly cut him off, shutting down her mother’s suggestion. He wondered why she was acting so dismissive with him again, after all, the rodeo had felt like such a milestone.

"He’s staying." Cathy told her daughter, before turning her attention to Tyler "And you can call me Cathy!"

"Kate, why don’t you set up the table?" She said quickly before turning to exit the barn

________________

"—But that only gets you so far, you know, every chaser has to make a guess, and the good ones have an instinct for it."

"Oh she had that early on," Cathy gestures to Kate with her fork before continuing "Always knew when weather was comin’, hell, she was even better than the cows."

"Hear that? You’re better than the cows ."

Kate scoffs in reply and looks as if she’s going to reply, but Cathy beats her to it "That’s a compliment! You’ve gotta have a feel for it."

"She always had a feel for it?"

"Mhm." Cathy nodded

"Oh! One time, I was giving her a bath—"

"Can we not?" Kate grumbled

"Maybe just a little?" Cathy replies, ans Kate scoffs and covers her face with her hands

"And we heard thunder, and she shot up out of the tub and ran out the house naked as the day she was born,"

" Oh my god… "

Tyler could see Kate’s face turning red, but he still couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his mouth

"I was terrified! But when I finally caught up with her, she was standing in the middle of the wheat field," Cathy looked to her daughter, smiling "staring at the sky."

The whole interaction, it feels so natural, it feels like Tyler’s known Kate forever. And he must say, he wishes he had.

"I gotta try that out."

"Will you stop encouraging her?" Kate says in mock embarrassment, but he can see her trying to fight the smile that’s bubbling up on her face

"Keep your clothes on Kate, let your mom finish!" He replies quickly, Kate simply scoffs and shakes her head before looking over at Cathy

"All I’m saying is that she’s always loved weather. Y’know, the worse the weather, the happier the girl."

"What about you Tyler?" Tyler quickly pulls his gaze away from Kate to look at Cathy "How’d you come to do this work?"

"Well when you love something," Tyler starts, "You’ll spend your whole life trying to understand it." He quickly glances back at Kate again, only to see her looking at him with the same look that he’s sure is on his face right now.

"Katie was studying for a PhD."

"Wow."

"I keep telling her to come back and finish it ."

"Mom.." Kate starts, warning in her tone

"She was setting up a big study with her friends, disrupting tornado dynamics ."

Kate abruptly rises from her chair, collecting her plate and cutlery "Does anyone need anything?"

Just a minute ago, everything had seemed so light, but now the air around them is tense all over again.

"Ah, no, I’m good. Thank you, Kate." Tyler forces out

"Okay… okay." Kate mumbles before turning to walk away, and Tyler glances over at Cathy, to see her anxiously watching her daughter as she leaves

Cathy sighs "All right..! I’ve gotta clean this, you go get yourself situated in the guest room. Upstairs, second door on the right."

"Oh that’s, not necessary Ms. Carter—"

" Cathy." She corrected " And I insist."

Tyler realizes now that there’s probably no way out of this, so he simply nods and heads to his truck to grab his stuff.

After Tyler has practically moved in , he decides to head out to the barn, hoping to find Kate.

He doesn’t find Kate, but what he does find is almost as interesting as she is.

Tornado ‘Tamer’ Project…

As Tyler’s reading through, he hears the barn door slide open, and Kate walks in, eyeing the table he’s standing at curiously

"You thought you could disrupt a tornado?" He starts

"Hey, don’t look at that." Her pace speeds up as she walks towards him

"Well, you’re the O.G  wrangler !"

"Tyler can you— Can you give that to me?"

"Using super-absorbent polymers to reduce the moisture in the updraft—"

"Tyler,"

He simply pushes her hand away and turns his focus back to the incredible writings inside the notebook

"Well, I mean you would have to drop a silo of it in a funnel for any real effect."

"Yeah, that’s why we were trying to use different reagents to enhance it. It’s a dumb idea.."

"Dumb? No, no. I mean yeah, some of your reactants are off, a few of these solubility rules skew.." Tyler’s about to speak further before he hears a loud sigh from behind him, he turns to see Kate looking upset as she rubs her temples

"What? I understand what you’re trying to do here, believe me, I’m not an idiot."

"No— I know, I don’t think you’re an idiot Tyler—"

"Hey, modelings gotten so much better—"

"Tyler—"

"I can upload this to my laptop, link up with a supercomputer, Kate, we could even get a new model running!" Tyler’s so excited about what he’s reading, he forgets entirely about the other presence across from him, about Kate .

"No, no, no…" Kate says, her voice shaking slightly, and that causes Tyler to look up

"Oh what? Come on, It’s a great, no — amazing — idea,"

"Please… can you just stop?"

"How did you not tell me about this before—"

"Because I got it wrong!" Kate yells, and that makes him stop.

"In the field, in the moment, when it mattered, I got it wrong !" Kate has tears running down her cheeks, and Tyler’s mood changes instantly.

"Okay? I underestimated what we were up against, and I pushed it too far." Kate lets out a humourless laugh as she wipes at her eyes "And for what? Some childish dream I had that I could actually make a difference?"

"It was never gonna work."

"Kate—" He starts, stepping closer to her

"And I— And I have to live with that… forever."

"You know, uh, EF1 or EF5 tornado rating…" Tyler starts as he glances over at an old photo of Kate and her old crew "It’s not based on size or wind speed,"

"the power we ascribe to it, It’s based on damage."

Kate looks up at him, her eyes glossy as she seems to be considering what he’s saying

"It’s only after that fact that we can really define it. What it destroys, and what it takes from us."

Tyler wants so badly to reach out and brush the tears from the corners of her eyes, but he knows he can’t. There are certain lines he can’t cross yet, as this thing that he has with her is very fragile, and new.

"I’m sorry for what happened, but how much more are you gonna let this thing take from you?"

Kate looks like she’s going to consider his words, but she doesn’t.

"You should get some sleep." She says instead, breaking eye contact and staring down at the floor

"You.. you wouldn’t want to miss any storms tomorrow."

Tyler realizes he hasn’t gotten through to her, and hands her back her notebook, walking away

He’s screwed up again, only this time, he isn’t sure he’ll be able to come back from this one.

Chapter Text

"Are you sure you’re good to leave in this weather?" Cathy inquired "There’s no harm in you stayin’ a little longer."

I sincerely doubt that, came the unhelpful thought. After what happened in the barn with Kate last night, he was sure she wouldn’t want to see him again so soon.

"I appreciate the hospitality, Ms. Cart— Ahem, Cathy , but I’ll be fine." He tried to force a warm smile, but Cathy just fixed him a skeptical look, one that said what aren’t you telling me?

She simply sighed and shook her head "Alright then. It was nice having you, Tyler." She gave him a small wave goodbye as he opened the door, waving back at her before stepping outside and into the rain.

He can tell that there’s a storm brewing, so at least he’ll have something to take his mind off of Kate.

Kate , amazing Kate. How could he have screwed up this bad? Just when he had thought that they were becoming friends, he just had to go and fuck it all up.

As he settles into his truck, he throws one last glance up at the house. It’s stupid, really — that a woman he’d only met just three days ago has him like this .

Whatever it is that he feels for Kate, it’s some high-school bullshit.

Just then, a knock on his window snaps him out of his thoughts, and he turns to find the very person he had just been thinking about.

She’s breathing heavily, like she had ran to get here. And damn it, he hates the way his heart speeds up at the thought.

"You said you could get a new model running?" Kate says once his window is rolled down, a small smirk on her lips

It takes him a few seconds to process her words, before he’s nodding with a bright smile that’s already beginning to hurt his face "Yes, ma’am."

As they enter the barn, he notices an empty coffee mug on the edge of the table, along with a pile of crumpled papers

"Have you been in here all morning?" He asks, trying not to let his tone come off as accusatory, Kate fixes him a bashful look before turning her head towards the table, nudging the cup away from the edge with the back of her hand "Something like that."

The silence stretches on until she abruptly clears her throat, stepping behind the desk before looking in his direction and beckoning him closer

After a few minutes, he gets his laptop set up and running, "Okay so this is an EF1, perfect conditions. Run your experiment, see if it works."

"Okay, so um.." Kate starts, leaning down to scab her notes and input them into the program "1,500 kilos of polymer, absorbing 300 times its weight."

"So, it’s, uh, 450,000 kilos of precipitation loaded into our water-filled polymer to load the updraft." He snags a quick glance in her direction, God she’s beautiful , he realizes that by now he’s been silent too long and quickly he tries to regain focus on the task at hand  "Ahem, let’s, let’s see how the model responds."

"Buoyancy of the rising air is reducing.."

"It’s reducing, slowing the updraft."

He can’t help but smile as the tornado on the screen vanishes into nothing "Kate, in theory, this should’ve worked."

Kate looks up at him with a wide smile, and he feels his own growing at the sight of her joy

"In theory." She nods "But it wasn’t an EF1 that day, I mean, we never had a chance."

He sees that bright joy that lights her up like a firecracker slowly simmering down, into something that’s too close to sadness, and he decides there and then that’s something he never wants to see on her face again.

"You want one?"

"Yeah, that’s my radio." Tyler says quickly, trying to focus on the road and the woman at his side that is currently digging through the back seat of his truck like it’s her own.

"What is all this for?"

"What’re you touchin’ back there? Stop." He tries to play up his annoyance, though in reality he actually couldn’t care less about whatever she’s moving around in his back seat, all that matters is that she’s here, with him.

"You’ve got a lot of stuff in here." She says, adjusting her seat belt before reaching up to open the mirror

"Yeah, that’s… that’s a mirror."

"Oh, god." He hears her exclaim, only to look over and see that she’s found all of the pictures he gives out to fans, and he has to try very hard to ignore the heat creeping up the back of his neck

"Have you ever been in a car before?"

She quickly turns her attention to the buttons surrounding the gear stick, flipping every single one "You got a lot of gadgets."

"Yeah, yeah, don’t touch. There’s, there’s guards there for a reason." He desperately tries to fight the smile threatening to break out on his face, not willing to expose just how endearing the interaction truly is.

"Oh, what do these do?"

"That’s a—"

His sentence is interrupted by the sound of fireworks setting off

"That’s a rocket."

"Sorry. Yep."

He couldn’t help but chuckle at her antics, causing her to look over at him with a puzzled expression on her face, which was rather cute if he’s honest.

"Alright, so, what about these two little ones? Just west of Enid."

She lightly shoved his hand away from the screen with her own as she spoke "Yeah, but this one to the east has the sky all to herself?"

He scoffed, trying — yet unsuccessfully— to bite back the smiling threatening to break out on his face "Yeah, I’m not falling for that again, Sapulpa."

She simply shrugged and leaned back against the carseat, and he had to rip his eyes away from her face.

"You serious?"

"Tell ya later."

"Dew point is steady, wind shear is good!" Kate said joyfully as she practically leaped out of the car, reaching for her camera like it was a life line

"Holy shit! Oh my God, the whole updraft is rotating!"

This was essentially the perfect storm for them to test her experiment on, and Tyler couldn’t be happier that she would actually get to do this, especially with him.

"I mean look at those striations! It’s low precip, you can see everything!"

"Awh, she’s perfect !"

"She’s gorgeous!" Kate shouted back, and Tyler had to agree, she was absolutely breathtaking. The tornado… and Kate.

She laughed as she snapped pictures of the sky, her hair whipping wildly in the wind, and Tyler swore he’d never seen anything so perfect in his life — no weather phenomenon could compare to Kate, not by a long shot.

Kate turns her gaze to him, grabbing his wrist and pulling him towards the truck "She’s gonna give us something, come on!"

And just like that, they’re back in the truck, chasing down the storm.

"Alright, let’s harness up."

"Uh, we’re just gonna drop the barrels in its path, right?" Kate asks skeptically, eyeing him as he tightens his harness.

He just smirks at her "Tell ya later."

"Oh, shit. " Kate mutters, fumbling for her own harness.

"We— we don’t have to drive into it, it’s really dangerous!" Kate adds, panic creeping into her voice

"Oh, that’s exactly why we have to drive into it!" Tyler grins "Can’t miss from in there."

"Oh, shit.."

He glances over and catches the nervous look on her face, and his grin softens into something more thoughtful "Kate, it’s fine. This thing’s rated for EF1s, okay?"

"Okay— shit."

"Look, we’ve got extra wait on the chassis, we got anchoring down two feet. Don’t worry, I’m a professional!"

"You’re an asshole."

"Hold on."

"Oh, Tyler, this is dumb! This is really dumb" She says, wide eyed as she grips the handle above the door "This is really, really dumb.."

"Uh-huh, all right, don’t worry. We got this, Kate!" He smiles at her, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"Alright, here comes the kick!"

"Oh god, oh god—"

"Okay, slowing down! Alright, anchoring, barrels." He says, quickly flipping switches

Kate’s looking at him with a bewildered expression, like she doesn’t know whether to be scared or annoyed at how calm he seems.

"Hold on…"

"Ohoho!" He laughs "Here she comes!"

"And… now!"

And in a matter of seconds, the wind surrounding the truck just disappears into nothing, and Tyler couldn’t be happier when he turns to see the biggest smile on Kate’s face.

She’s smiling, and laughing as she whips her head around to look at him, God , she’s beautiful like this. Alive. Happy. Looking right at him.

"Did you see that ?" she says between laughs

Tyler’s heart stutters. He’s always been the one to say that there’s nothing better than barreling down a road, chasing a tornado. But after seeing Kate like this, in her element, he thinks that he might’ve been wrong.

"Yeah," He says, breathless "Yeah I saw it."

Yep, he’s done for.

Tyler clears his throat, trying to get his thoughts back on track "Did it work?"

"Oh! Right!" Kate chuckles "So many— belts—" She mutters, trying to quickly undo her harness so she can get out and see for herself.

And as they exit the vehicle, there’s the tornado, still on the move.

Kate sighs, and he now notices that there’s no longer a smile on her face "It’s not working."

Tyler watches her for a moment, wishing he had something brilliant to say. But he doesn’t. So instead, he tries the next best thing.

"You hungry?"

"What if it’s the model that’s the problem?" Kate asks, setting her sandwich down her lap as they sit side by side atop the truck.

"Could be." Tyler says, biting into his sandwich thoughtfully "But, how do we create a better one?"

Kate sighs "You aren’t gonna like this."

"Okay, Javi’s on his way." Kate says as she comes down the stairs in a fresh outfit, tucking a hair behind her ear

Cathy, who’s elbow-deep in soapy water, raises an eyebrow. "Y’all are workin’ with Javi?"

"Not really." Tyler mutters, crossing his arms over his chest. he doesn’t hate Javi, he just wouldn’t ever want to permanently work with him!

"Well maybe , I mean, if he’ll even want to join us." Kate says as she flops down onto the couch.

A few minutes pass, and then a loud honk sounds from outside the house, Kate quickly rises to her feet "That’s probably Javi!"

Tyler follows her as she heads for the door, trailing her onto the porch. Obviously Tyler trusts Kate, but based on her and Javi’s last interaction, he doesn’t want to take any chances. He’s being cautious, not jealous.

For fucks sake , he thinks, why am I acting like this? I haven’t even known her for a full week.

Javi spots Tyler lingering on the porch, giving him a once-over with barely concealed skepticism. Kate glances back at Tyler, catching his eye and giving him a small nod — a silent you can relax .

Message received. He turns and heads back inside, not without one last look over his shoulder, though.

"Wow, these scans are impressive."

"I mean it’s a complete map of the chaos!" Kate leans closer to the screen, completely absorbed in this new model, eyes lighting up with her excitement.

Tyler nods, slow to answer, still watching her.

"Tyler, our moisture numbers are off. Currently, the polymer is only absorbing the existing raindrops, not the moisture from the humidity." Kate starts, she’s so smart , Tyler thinks, dumbly, getting distracted by Kate once again.

"I mean, we need it to precipitate out more."

"So we need to make it rain."

"They were cloud seeding in Lawton a few years ago," Cathy chimes in "For the farmers."

"Yeah. Yeah, silver iodide." Kate says, and Cathy takes a swig of her beer, ruffling Kate’s hair on her way out.

"We could shoot rockets of that." Tyler says, voice a little too eager "So, the silver iodide converts the moisture into rain, and then the sodium polyacrylate — we’d need a lot of it — would pull the water from the storm, increasing the cold pool."

Kate meets his gaze, her smile wide and full of that sharp, infectious energy that Tyler can’t seem to get enough of. "No faster way to choke a tornado."