WANNA BET, GRANDPA?

Finally, they were packing up and leaving Sapulpa. Dakota was leaning against the side of the truck as Kate said goodbye to her mother, and Tyler called Lily, filling her in. Dakota was excited to work with Tyler's team, assuming they'd get on board — but something told Dakota that not a one of them would have any issues with their insane plan.

"Hey, Lily. Yeah, I couldn't get Boone. — No, we're gonna meet you guys for something. — No, no, we'll come to you. —Alright."

As he hung up, Kathy hugged Kate tightly. "Is this it? Or you gonna come back before you go home?"

"You know I will," she said softly.

"Love you," she said, letting Kate go.

"Love you."

"And you, Dakota Mae," Kathy said, making the girl smile as she came close. Dakota hugged the woman tightly while Kathy whispered in her ear. "Give that boy hell."

Dakota snickered as they pulled back. "Oh, you know I will."

"And you come back too before you head back to California," she instructed.

"I'm not... really sure about Santa Monica anymore," she admitted, feeling a bit shy. She couldn't believe she was considering staying for a boy. Even though Tyler was an amazing, perfect for her boy.

"Well, you know I'd never complain about having more of you around."

With that, Dakota headed to the truck, glad that she was once again getting to ride in the front while Kate was sentenced to the back. As they put their bags in the car, Tyler walked over to Kathy with a folded up t-shirt.

"This is for you," he said, sounding almost proud.

As Kathy began to unfold it, she nodded to Dakota, who was helping Kate move some of the filming junk in the back seat around so she'd have more room. "You have any idea what you're getting yourself into?"

He smiled down at the ground before nodding. "I'm beginning to."

Then Kathy actually looked at the shirt that said 'Not My First Tornado.' She really didn't know what to say about it. "Huh. Thanks."

He just grinned, thinking Kathy really was Kate's mother, who wasn't impressed by the shirts either. "Okay."

"Thank you," Kathy managed to say as Tyler went around to the driver's side. Then she flashed the shirt at an amused Kate and Dakota.

"Don't make fun," Dakota said with a smirk on her face. "He designed that all by himself."

"I can tell," Kathy said flatly.

✵︎

They ended up meeting the rest of Tyler's crew — was it their crew now? — at a repair shop closer to the area where the storms kept hitting. Everyone was there, even Ben, who'd seemed like he was ready to quit after the last storm.

"Ben," Tyler said, grinning proudly, "you stuck around."

"Turns out, there's more to this story than I thought," he shrugged, shaking Tyler's hand.

"We got a new ending for ya."

Then Kate and Dakota walked up, making everyone smile. Dexter chuckled a bit, not expecting her — Tyler had only mentioned Dakota. "Look who it is. City girl."

"Okay," Lily said, nodding her head in approval.

"Finally decided to ditch all those squares, huh? Right on," Dexter told her.

"Mhm, yup. Y'all missed a big one," Lily said, showing the girl's her tablet which had a video of the latest storm from her drone. "Look. And Kota was right. Connecting those wires made this twice as fast."

"Wow," Kate mumbled, watching the crystal clear visuals. "Hey, can you - can you rig that drone to collect data?"

She thought for a moment before sharing a look with Dakota. "I can do that."

"Yeah, she can do that," Dexter assured her.

"Can I help?" Dakota asked hopefully.

"Oh, you know it," Lily said with a grin.

After that, Tyler wandered over to Boone, who had been out-of-characterly silent. Tyler spoke softly, putting his arm around his childhood friend. "Hey, buddy. I'm sorry. I will make it up to you."

"Man, you abandoned me," he muttered. "I don't know about no make up—"

"How about we launch the new rockets?" he cut him off, a smirk on his face, knowing it would do the trick. Boone and Dakota had that in common — they couldn't wait to launch some rockets.

Boone perked up instantly. "You said rockets?"

"Hey!" Dani then called, having got the owner of the shop. She waved them all over.

As they walked through the lot of used trailers, Tyler wrapped his arm around Dakota, who leaned into his side. And his whole team had little smirks on their faces, knowing they'd be making fun of him later when Dakota wasn't at his side.

Dakota leaned up to Tyler, whispering in his ear. "Bet he's gone say aluminum."

"Nah," Tyler said, shaking his head. "Steel all the way."

"Wanna bet, Grandpa?"

"You're on, Young Sheldon," he said, making her grin. "You gotta do whatever I want when I win."

It made her grin, knowing that wouldn't be such a bad punishment. "Fine. Same if I win."

"We need a forty-foot trailer that's light enough for a pick up and heavy enough the anchor barrels at a hundred mile and hour winds," Dani explained to the owner.

Dani's words confused the owner, as it was a very specific and odd request. "Why the hell would you want that?"

Dani paused before looking at Kate. "Why the hell do we want that?"

Kate shifted all her weight onto one leg, crossing her arms. "Well, 'cause when we drive into a tornado, we want whatever's on the trailer to get sucked into it but not us."

Though he was confused, he thought for a moment. "You're gonna want aluminum."

"Okay."

Tyler swore under his breath, and Dakota snickered up at him. "Told you, Cowboy."

He rolled his eyes, ever the sore loser. "Laugh it up."

"I will be when I make you my servant."

✵︎

The team was in a field, getting all the equipment ready. As Boone was filming, Kate and Dakota were up on the roof of the truck, calibrating the antennas and receivers. The sensors were similar to Dorothy, which made Kate sad, thinking of Javi.

"Kota, welcome to your first video. Talk to me. What's going on?" Boone asked.

She put her screwdriver down and stared into the camera, thinking it was so much like Jeb documenting their project five years ago. "We're testing Goldilock's principle of a tornado by modifying the variables, hopefully, disrupting the process."

As she explained, Dani handed the rockets full of iodide up to Kate.

"Dani," Boone said, moving the camera to her, "what does that mean?"

"Taming the tornado," she simplified, making Kate and Dakota smile as she used their term.

"T, tell us what's going on," Boone asked as Kate loaded the rockets.

"Alright, we're gonna shoot the clouds with rockets of silver iodide," he explained.

"Yeah, this is rain, right?" he asked to clarify for the viewers.

"Yup. Rain is what we need in the updraft. And then we're gonna take the sodium polyacrilate and we're gonna deliver it in the vortex—"

Dakota cut him off, seeing Ben mess with the clasps on the barrels. She couldn't risk him messing them up. "Don't touch that!"

Maybe Javi wasn't so uptight for telling them to stay away from Dorothy.

After Ben pulled his hand back, Tyler went on with a smile on his face. "—increasing the cold pool."

"And that does what to the tornado?" Ben asked, still not quite the expert on tornados.

"It cuts the fuel, Ben," Tyler told him.

Finally, Boone went to Lily. "Lily! Oh, look at Cairo looking all cute and whatnot. Hey, buddy," he said, patting the drone that Dakota had already looked at thoroughly.

A few minutes later, the storm in the distance got a little bigger. So, Kate grabbed her camera and went to take pictures. Dakota followed after her.

"Think this'll be it?" Dakota asked her.

Kate just smiled and glanced back at the crew before looking at her friend. "It feels like it's right. Like... we're closer than we've ever been. What about you? Think it'll work?"

"Oh, no doubt, dandelion-whisperer," she said, bumping her shoulder.

"Okay, Tornado Wrangler-whisperer," Kate joked, making Dakota throw her head back and laugh hard. "I'm just saying that it seems serious between y'all. Real, you know?"

"I know," she said, smiling down at the grass. "At least I hope it is. I still keep thinking he's gone get tired of me, though. I mean, what's a guy like him see in a nerd like me?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "You are not a nerd. You used to be a nerd. Then I fixed you."

That lightened the mood and made her laugh again, which was just what Kate wanted.

"He likes you a lot, Kota," she assured her. "I mean, he let you wear his cowboy hat. It's serious if he did that."

Dakota's face heated up, still a bit shy about that. "Okay, enough Tyler talk. Let's just focus on what matters. Tornado talk."

"C'mon. Let me get a picture of you with the storm. They'll put it in textbooks one day."

Back at the truck, Ben was taking pictures of his own, his lens focused on Kate and Dakota as they goofed around, taking pictures with the storm behind them. Tyler couldn't take his eyes off Dakota as she posed with her arms out, grinning brightly.

"They're your story, Ben," Tyler told him softly. Then he nodded to Ben's camera. "Get me a copy of that."

"And here's Ty, stalking his future wife again," Boone appeared, shoving the camera in Tyler's face.

Tyler just rolled his eyes and covered the camera with his hand. "I'm not stalking her."

Boone pushed past his hand and focused on Tyler's face. "Folks, look at that hickey on his neck! Whoo, doggy! Kota's been busy!"

The tips of Tyler's ears turned red as he rolled his eyes, trying to appear unaffected. "Hey, Boone?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up," he said flatly. Then he looked back at the crew, all of whom were snickering as they eavesdropped. "Let's get out of here."

"Um, no offense," Ben said to Tyler as he opened up the door, "but I'm gonna get a ride with someone else."

A few minutes later, all of them were buckled up and driving toward the storm. So that Kate could see and better track the storm, Dakota let her ride in the front. They all watched as a funnel slowly began descending.

"Okay, ground speeds at twenty two, intercept it north east. Look for Asylum Road," Kate instructed, studying the maps of the area.

"Asylum Road," Tyler repeated.

Suddenly, a familiar truck cut in front of them, nearly running them off the road. Javi's Storm PAR truck. It just made Tyler chuckle, not intimidated by them. Behind them, the caravan honked at another car in annoyance.

"Hey, these Storm buttheads are cutting us off, man," Boone complained over the radio.

"Alright, let's not get distracted. Let's get these babies in the air," Tyle said, still behind Javi as the rain started coming down heavy.

"Pass 'em, baby," Dakota said, leaning forward a bit.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, stepping on the gas and getting around them.

Debris was beginning to hit their truck as Javi got in front of them again, making it a bit hard to see. And suddenly, the Doppler cut off, much to Kate's annoyance.

"Doppler went dark," she complained.

"It's probably a dead cell zone," Tyler guessed.

So, Kate grabbed the radio. "Lily, are you above us?"

"It's getting completely rain-wrapped. I can't see a thing," she told them.

And a moment later, they heard Lily cuss over the radio. "Hey, we lost visual," Boone filled them in.

Dakota looked out the window, squinting through the heavy rain. She watched a wobbling stop sign and then rubbed her right shoulder, remembering being impaled by a similar piece of metal. But that was in the past, and she was moving on

Suddenly, as they passed some kind of huge refinery, Javi slammed on the brakes of his truck, and Tyler did the same. The huge tornado, which was so not an EF 1, was right in front of them.

"Javi!" both girls yelled, worried for their friend.

Dakota watched in horror as the wind flipped their truck, it landing on its side. She began unbuckling, and when he heard it, Tyler whipped around and glared at her.

"Don't you dare," he said in a firm voice.

"Tyler, we gotta do something!" Kate argued.

"Hey, on your left!" Boone shouted over the radio. "Guys, it's hitting something big!"

All of them watched as it hit the refinery, tearing up the large structure.

"Oh, my god," Dakota breathed out when she saw the red blaze.

The refinery was catching on fire, shooting right up into the tornado. And it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the fireworks from earlier that week. No, it was just plain terrifying.