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All Kate could feel, when it was all over, was delirium.
Her vision was a little blurry, strands of hair - too dirty and bloodstained to be mistaken for blonde, anymore - sticking to her face, and every inhale made her chest ache, but all she could think was, it worked.
Her theories worked.
She knew other storm chasers were probably speaking, but she ignored their murky, muffled conversation, reaching out to tug on the sleeve of Tyler’s soaked flannel with insistent excitement.
“Ty, did you see it?” She ignored the tang of metal in her mouth and the uncooperative sluggishness of her tongue, dark eyes wide with elation. “Did you see? It worked.“
“Sure as hell did, darlin’.” He smiled down at her, something strange in the unfamiliar pinch of his handsome features as the calloused hand at the back of her neck shifted, guiding her head to rest on his collarbone before finally tearing his gaze away. Kate didn’t mind, nosing a little closer to the warmth of his damp skin. His chest was nice. “Dani, check if the truck has something warm still in it. If the rest of y’all could look for a decent leg splint -“
Kate stayed still while everyone else rushed around, blinking sluggishly and watching the trail of hazy figures, the strong, comforting curl of an arm around her waist and the thump, thump, thump of a heartbeat against her ear distracting her wayward mind from the fact that she should probably be helping with… whatever they were doing. Cleaning up?
It took a moment for her to register that Tyler had called her name.
A hum, and a blink up at him, had him letting out a relieved breath and a wan smile. His smile was so nice. Even if there was blood and dirt on his face and his hair had long lost its style. His whole face was very nice.
“Hey, there, Kate. You with us?”
She blinked again, and answered with, “‘S there another tornado?” which made someone in the background snort out a laugh, and made Tyler’s expression soften from tense to bemused.
“At least we know the important parts of you are intact. Hold out your arms for me, honey.”
She obeyed, and found herself bundled up in an oversized corduroy jacket, idly curling her fingers into the fuzzy brown lining at the ends of the sleeves while Lily and Javi wrapped something around her left leg with shredded white fabric, and leaning her head against Tyler’s shoulder when he hoisted her up into his arms, carrying her behind the rest of the group as they trekked back to the remnants of civilization.
“Hey, Tyler,” Kate mused, ignoring the pulsing headache thrumming through her temples with each step. “D’you think adding dry ice to the silver iodide would speed up the dissipation of the mesocyclone?”
“Dunno.” His response was absent-minded, a tiny furrow between his brows as he navigated the uneven, grassy ground filled with debris around them. “You’d have to find out a way to keep it from melting - infrared pulses might be a better option -“
“Whoa, wait, you actually know about this stuff?” Javi interrupted, and Tyler clammed up instantly, shooting the other man a dirty look as he shifted his grip on Kate’s back to hold her a little closer.
“Not all of us need fancy college degrees to learn something, Storm PAR,” he tossed back, forcing nonchalance into his tone that didn’t match the expression on his face.
“Sorry, sorry, I just -“
“Don’t listen to him, Javi,” Kate mumbled out, giving Tyler a reprimanding pat on the chest and as much of a squint-eyed glare as she could. “He’s got a Master’s in meteorology. Built a model of atmospheric convection for his thesis. Smart as hell.”
A huff of a sigh.
“You’re gonna ruin my reputation, darlin’.”
“‘S already ruined.” She offered a lazy grin.
He shook his head, helpless to do anything but smile back and agree, “It sure is.”
~
By the time they reached the crushed remains of the town, whatever adrenaline that had been keeping Kate from feeling the extent of her trip through the tornado had faded.
Her stomach churned, and her head spun, to the point where it was painful, the emerging sunlight and the raucous noise of everyone rushing to clear away debris and assist the injured only helped to increase the pressure of a pulsating headache against her skull. She couldn’t even cover her ears, because, quite literally, her muscles ached so fiercely that they refused to cooperate.
Someone must have said something, because soon she found herself and Tyler lowered to the ground, propped up in his lap while he stretched out his injured leg with a sharp hiss.
The lack of movement helped stem the nausea, but, still, she couldn’t stop the pained whimper as she curled up against him, scrunching her eyes shut in a futile attempt to stabilize the incessant spin of her head.
A hand gently covered the ear not pressed into his chest, and the sounds of the world around them dulled, her eyelids fluttering open to blink up at him, confused as to how he’d known that the noise hurt.
His mouth quirked up, and he tapped the side of his head with two fingers.
Right. Bull rider.
With that information confirmed (along with the faint thought that she probably had a concussion), Kate settled back down, her eyes falling shut to the absent rub of a thumb against her knee and the thump, thump, thump, of his heartbeat.
“Think you might be stuck with me for a while, honey.” She couldn’t hear much, but she could hear him, his chest rumbling beneath her cheek. “Doesn’t look like anything’s makin’ it through ‘til the roads are cleared.”
“‘Kay.” A stifled yawn, and a sweet, if slightly mischievous, smile, squinting up at him in an attempt to block out most of the light. “I guess if I can survive a tornado I can survive a little longer with you.”
“Hey, I will have you know, I’m way more fun than a tornado,” Tyler retorted over her giggles, matching her smile with a cheeky one of his own. “You ever played twenty questions while in the middle of a half-destroyed town? Didn’t think so.”
The two of them proceeded to initiate the most combative game of twenty questions Kate had ever experienced, and, beneath the blue sky and surrounded by buildings crushed to matchsticks, she didn’t think she’d ever been happier.