DON'T ACT LIKE YOU WEREN'T ALL ABOUT THAT 'CASH MONEY' TOO.

RIO'S LACES WEREN'T EVEN FULLY TIED AS BOONE DRAGGED HER OUT OF THE MOTEL ROOM. Instantly, the strong winds hit them, and they could hear the chaos from the rodeo arena across the street as people screamed and ran, desperate to get away or seek shelter.

"What about Kate and Tyler?" Rio shouted over the wind, spotting the tornado in the distance. She nearly froze but managed to keep going as Boone kept a hand on her lower back.

"They know what to do in this situation. Now come on. Best bet for a basement is the front desk," he told her.

Both of them ran, keeping their heads down to try and not let debris hit them that was flying. When they reached the entrance to the front desk, Rio looked back, seeing cars honking as they tried to drive away. And she didn't know much about tornados, but she knew a car was the last place those people needed to be.

Well, maybe an overpass was worse, but still.

They rushed into the motel, seeing a young guy yelling at the manager about the shit AC in the rooms, all too unaware of what was going on outside. And his girlfriend was leaning against the wall, ignoring the sirens as she fanned herself.

"We need a basement!" Boone exclaimed, his words getting lost as the guy continued to complain.

Then the bell over the door rang again, and Kate and Tyler were running in. Seeing them play was a huge relief to Rio. Tyler was guiding a mother and little girl in as well

"Do you have a storm shelter?" Kate asked him over the yelling man. She again was ignored, shooting an annoyed look at Rio.

"Or like a basement," Tyler said, coming up as well, relieved to see Boone and Rio as well. "You got a basement?"

"No—"

"There's a line here, buddy," the guy said, annoyed with them all.

"We need to all get underground right now," Rio said, raising her voice, all of them hearing how nervous she was. She was shaking, and Boone instantly reached for her hand, which she appreciated as she squeezed him back.

The girl against the wall just rolled her eyes. "Okay, there's no tornado. Nine times out of ten, it's a false alarm."

Rio glanced out the window, watching as the entire rodeo stadium was torn up, disappearing into the sky. And a moment later, the sirens cut off. That was a bad sign — it meant they hadn't survived.

"You hear that?" the snarky girl asked, smiling smugly at them as the power shut off.

The boy with her groaned. "And now the power's out."

"No tornado," the girl said matter-of-factly.

Kate just ignored her. "We've gotta find shelter. Fast." She moved fast, running to the back room without permission to try and find something.

"Hey!" the manager yelled without stopping her.

There were no windows, which was good. But it wasn't good enough. Seeing a door and hoping it led to a hallway or storage room, she opened it up. Only for the wind to tear the doors open, revealing the mess outside.

She struggled to peer through the darkness but saw a gate leading to an empty pool, which would be her best bet. So, Kate ran back to them all. "Everyone, come with me," Kate said, coming back to the lobby.

"Alright, follow her. Follow her!" Tyler told the mother and daughter, making sure they were moving.

Making sure he was still holding her hand, Boone ran. And it was just in time as the speakers of the siren horn crashed through the window, nearly taking them all out. And that was enough to freak the girl out.

"There's a tornado. There's a tornado!"

"Oh, really?" Rio asked sarcastically while running with Boone to the back of the office.

The winds were insane as they got outside, even worse than the one earlier that day. Kate reached the gate to the pool first and pulled it open, letting the mother, and the daughter through. Then Rio went, and Boone took the gate from Kate, letting her go as well

"Go, go, go!" Rio yelled as she helped the mother and daughter climb down into the pool.

Tyler reached them with the manager, pushing both Boone and the manager past the gate. As Kate climbed down the ladder, Rio just sat on the ledge and slid off of it, her feet hitting the bottom of the pool hard.

Then she heard Kate screaming, "No, stop!" so she looked over the lip of the pool. She saw that the girl and boy from before hadn't followed. They got in their truck and were trying to drive away. Kate's protesting was too late as the truck flipped, crushing them in the cab. "No!"

"We gotta go! We gotta go!" Tyler said, pushing her down the ladder.

Boone jumped in just like Rio had and ushered her to the low wall that had pipes attached to it. Kate led the mother and daughter that way to.

"Okay, hold on. You gotta stay low," Kate instructed.

"Cover her eyes," Boone added while making sure Rio crouched down and held onto the pipes.

"Hold on tight. Hold on tight! Okay, you're gonna be okay," Kate promised.

It was then that Kate, Rio, and Boone realized Tyler wasn't behind them. Rio whipped around, terrified that it would be Praveen all over again — that he just wouldn't be there, already taken by the storm. But he was jumping into the pool with the manager.

He made his way toward them, only for the motel sign to drop down, narrowly missing him and cutting off the manager from getting to them. So, Tyler went back for him, and Boone moved to follow.

"No!" Rio shouted, holding him back. Tears were in her eyes. "Please, don't go."

"I gotta help him, baby," he said, pulling out of her hold.

Kate held onto Rio to keep her from going after Boone, who got low and crawled to Tyler. The manager was crying out for them, reaching for them both desperately.

"Help me!"

Tyler reached him first, and Boone held onto his friend to keep him grounded, but then the manager raised his head, getting too high. The wind began picking him up.

"Stay down!" Tyler ordered.

But it was too late as the draft got underneath him and pulled him up right into the swirling vortex that was impossibly close to them now. Boone cursed and turned back to Rio, only for her to scream.

The truck from before came flying right out of the tornado, headed right for Tyler and Boone. And when it almost crushed him, Rio ripped herself out of Kate's hold and went after them — she couldn't lose another person to a storm. She wouldn't ever survive it if so.

"Boone!" she shouted, staying low as she reached for his hand as Tyler got ahead of him, his legs a little longer.

And when Boone's fingertips grazed hers, Rio was back on that overpass five years ago. And it wasn't Boone reaching for her desperately. No, it was Addy, fear in her wide and terrified brown eyes.

Her horrified memory was cut off by searing pain in her side as something metallic and sharp grazed her, making her cry out. Her hand retreated from Boone for a second as she shut her eyes, but then she opened them and reached out again, refusing to let this happen again.

Finally, Boone got a proper grip on her hand and pulled himself closer just as the truck began to tip over, very close to falling onto him and Tyler, which terrified her almost as much as the tornado.

"Boone!"

Rio reached back and held onto the pipes with one hand, using all her strength to pull Boone up, and they reached the wall just a second after Kate and Tyler did before the truck tipped over, stopped by the lip of the pool above them. It was inadvertently blocking them from some of the debris.

Kate and Rio held onto the pipes as Tyler and Boone held onto them, shielding them from what was flying around. And Rio couldn't help but scream loudly, wishing it was all over, wishing that this was just another nightmare.

"It's almost over!" Boone shouted over the wind in her ear, one arm wrapped tight around her while the other covered her head. "I've got you."

Didn't he know she didn't want to hear that? Didn't he know those were the last words Jeb said to Kate before being ripped away?

But then suddenly it was over, the winds dropping in speed and the rain letting up. And Rio could still feel Boone's body heat behind her, letting her know he'd survived. Kate was beside her, and so was Tyler. They'd all made it in spite of everything.

She peeled her eyes open and tried to catch her breath. "Boone," she said weakly, turning in his hold.

He breathed heavily and pulled her into a hug, letting her hide her head in his chest. "It's over. It's over."

☆︎

Rio was tired as she sat on the edge of the pool, Boone next to her, letting her lean against him. Kate was standing to the side with Tyler, and the rest of the Tornado Wrangler team had just gotten there, glad to see everyone was okay.

Well, Rio wasn't okay. She was bleeding from her side a little bit, but there were people with worse injuries that the EMTs had to attend to before reaching her — she wouldn't even need stitches. Just a good cleaning and bandage.

"Javi," Kate suddenly breathed out, spotting their friend and catching Rio's attention.

As Kate went toward him, Boone helped Rio stand. Then she was running toward Javi, him going right to her as Kate stopped. Javi wrapped his arms protectively around Rio, lifting her off the ground a bit as she burrowed her face in his chest a bit, more tears welling in her eyes.

Once he pulled away, he looked her over, frowning when he saw the blood on her shirt. "When I saw the size of it and where it was headed, all I could think was—"

"Javi. We're alright," Kaye said softly before looking back at Tyler, who was talking to Boone and Ben.

He stepped back from Rio, growing a bit tense. "You been with Owens the whole time?" Javi asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Boone too," Rio said softly.

It was clear Javi wasn't impressed by her choice of company. But before he could comment on it, they were joined by Scott.

"Javi. Apparently, this place was family-owned. So, I'm gonna start working up some numbers. Riggs is gonna want those first thing," Scott said, making Rio frown.

Javi just nodded, him not even caring about the owners and their wellbeing. "Okay, man. I'll catch up with you."

"Yeah," Scott said before walking off.

Kate huffed and watched him leave. "Javi, what is Riggs getting out of all your data collection?"

"What's - What's the matter?" he asked nervously. He knew where this was going.

"Is profiting off of people's tragedy part of your business plan? Why are you doing this?" she asked.

"Our Javi would never do this," Rio added, her shoulders sagging.

"Wait, hold on," he said, getting defensive. "Riggs has offered these people a way to move on with their lives."

But Kate wasn't buying it. "He's swooping in and taking advantage of people who have just lost everything. Y - You have no idea what that's like," she said, unable to believe Javi was defending him.

Javi looked at her sharply. "I don't know what that's like? How about losing three of my friends while you were trying to land a big fat grant for your science project?"

Rio flinched, and in an instant, he regretted it, seeing the hurt flash across Kate's face, who quickly turned away. "Kate. Kate, I didn't—"

Kate stormed off, running to the truck, leaving Javi and Rio alone, who was looking at her feet. With a slam of the door, she drove off, Javi chasing after her.

"Kate! Kate! Where you going? Kate!"

But she wasn't stopping — not for him. So, Javi returned to Rio's side with his head down in shame. She just glanced at him sadly.

"Don't act like you weren't all about that 'cash money' too, Javi," she said. "That wasn't fair of you and you know it."

Then, with her arms wrapped around herself in a hug, she headed back over to where Boone and his crew were waiting, not wanting to be around Javi at the moment. She didn't think she'd want to be around him for a while.