Lights Are On | Scott x OC

The Original Tragedy

Savannah Harding was Kate Carter's best friend. As the daughter of famous storm chasers Bill and Jo Harding, Savannah's eye for weather rivaled Kate's. They met in college, and their little group was formed. It was Savannah, Kate, Praveen, Javi, Addy, and Jeb. Savannah and Addy were dating. Kate and Jeb were dating. They were all working on a massive project headed by Kate; disrupting a tornado.

Kate stood out in a field while the rest of her group slept, taking pictures of a forming cell. She smiled, this storm would give them something. She ran back to their cars and climbed in the back of the 4runner to wake up her boyfriend.

"Got to get up," she whispered with a grin. "I'm working on it," Jeb whispered back, his eyes still closed but a smile on his face. "Seriously, Jeb, it's time to go," Kate insisted. Jeb opened his eyes and looked at Kate. "You found one for us?" Kate nodded and kissed him before jumping out of the vehicle and bounding over to the van.

She reached into the driver's side through the open window and honked the horn. Savannah jolted from her sleep, knocking her head against Addy's, who she'd been cuddling with on the floor of the van. If the honking hadn't woken up Addy, the head hit certainly did.

Savannah rubbed her forehead and apologized to her girlfriend, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Praveen groaned from where he was laid out on the seat behind them.

"What the hell?" Javi groaned from where he was sleeping on the ground.

"Storm's here, guys! Let's go!" Kate announced.

Javi slowly sat up, spitting out grass. "Nah. Nah, it can't be." He groaned, rolling over. "God, I went way too hard last night." Javi laid back down and pulled his blanket up over his face.

"Javi, get up," Kate laughed, grabbing his blanket and yanking it over his head. "Come on!"

"Oh! Come on!" Javi grumped, pulling the blanket off his head.

Everyone got up, pulling themselves together as Jeb recorded Kate. "Jeb, are you sure you're recording? I don't see a red light."

"Oh," Jeb flipped the camera to look at it. "Yeah. Recording." He angled it back at Kate.

Addy picked up trash while Savannah watched Jeb record Kate with a smile on her face.

"Okay. Blah." Kate shook her arms and Jeb laughed. "Don't make me laugh, stop it," Kate giggled. "Okay." She cleared her throat. "Today, our science team from the Tornado Tamer Project is out in the field, about to chase a storm southwest of us." Kate gestured and Jeb panned to the storm before panning back to Kate.
"Our experiment is designed to decrease the moisture inside of a tornado to see if we can make it collapse."

"Tell the folks how you do that, Kate," Jeb said, looking at Kate with subtle admiration.

"Well, first we gotta find a tornado to suck up our superabsorbant polymers in these barrels–" "Diapers!" Addy whispered. Jeb panned the camera over to her. "Tell them it's the same stuff they use in diapers," Addy said excitedly. She looked at the camera and made a face "Hmm." Savannah laughed at her girlfriend. She was so cute.

"Oh yeah," Kate whispered. "It's nontoxic!" Addy explained, and she and Kate laughed, fist-bumping as Addy walked by to take her place at Savannah's side behind Jeb.

"Uh, the Doppler doesn't show a storm until the afternoon," Praveen said, coming around the back of the van with his laptop in his hands.

"The data doesn't see what Kate sees, remember?" Addy asked, picking up the trash bag. "How about Kate sees a few more hours of sleep?" Javi said, eating peanuts with his sunglasses on despite the sun being behind clouds. "That might work."