Chapter Text
Kate doesn’t remember deciding to leave the theater. She just knows that eventually she’s running for the truck and then driving into the storm. When the truck starts to roll, she thinks that’s it. She makes peace with it. It feels like her time. She lifts her hands from the wheel and waits for the end to come. So when the wind stops screaming around her, she isn’t fully sure she’s actually survived until Javi and Tyler are there pulling her from the wreckage.
“Is everyone okay?” she asks as gentle hands help her sit up.
“Easy,” Tyler says, hand cupping the back of her head and easing it back against the truck. “Easy.”
“Is it okay?” Kate looks around, her eyes struggling to focus. “Did it help?”
“You did it, Kate. You did it.”
She looks at Tyler, and she swears she sees tears glinting in the corners of his eyes.
“Kate, it worked,” Javi says, his smile a little tremulous.
“You okay?” Tyler asks, voice quiet in her ear, just as the Wranglers swarm them, all chattering at once about the storm they just survived.
Kate can’t follow the conversation; her head feels like it’s floating over her body like a balloon. The only things anchoring her to the ground are Tyler’s hands on the back of her neck and leg. Eventually, someone, Kate can’t tell who, raises concern over her sitting in broken glass from the driver’s window at some point, and then she’s being directed to move.
It’s a mistake. With Tyler and Javi’s help, she manages to get her feet under her to stand, but she’s overtaken by an intense wave of vertigo as she tries to straighten. Her stomach lurches and empties its contents at their feet.
“Oh shit.” Javi grimaces, jumping back.
“Sapulpa?” Tyler’s hand tightens around her arm, and she glances in his direction. Something about the way his eyes widen as he looks sets off the warning bells in her head. “Hey… Hey, hey hey… Try to focus on me, darlin’.”
Kate tries to listen. Tries to focus on his face, on the feel of his fingers wrapped around her bicep. But the world goes black anyway.
She’s only out a few seconds, coming to as she’s carefully lowered back to the ground by gentle hands under her arms.
“Boonie, get the van,” Tyler says.
There’s no point in arguing. Not that she’s fine. Not that she doesn’t need to go to the hospital. It’s happening. The Wranglers are in motion around them, and it’s not long before she’s being guided into the back of the van and settled on a cracked leather seat.
Tyler stands there once she’s inside, eyes appraising her as Boone moves to take the driver’s seat. She knows he probably needs to stay here and see to his truck. Probably wants to help with the clean-up efforts too. But, as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she doesn’t want to be alone at the hospital. The last time she’d been in an ER, it was what will probably always be the worst day of her life. She still has nightmares about sitting there alone for hours waiting for her mom to arrive, drowning under the weight of what she’d just lived through, and she just doesn’t think she can face it alone. He must sense some of her turmoil, because he reaches in, hand coming toward her face like he’s going to brush back her hair, but she catches it in her own and gives it a little tug.
“Come with me?” Kate asks, quiet enough for only him to hear. “Please?”
Tyler nods, a soft smile curling up the corners of his mouth, and instantly her entire body relaxes. She expects him to move up front, but instead, he climbs in after her. As the van starts to move, he settles one arm along the back of the bench and asks her common knowledge questions as he tries to get her eyes to follow his finger, brow furrowed with concern. Eventually, her headache grows too intense, and she closes her eyes and tilts her head back to rest against his forearm.
“You doing okay, Sapulpa?” he asks, shifting to wrap his arm around her shoulders so her head comes to rest against his shoulder instead.
“Mmhmm.” She nods. “Just dizzy.”
Tyler lets out a little ‘hmm’ sound but doesn’t make her talk after that, just softly rubs her upper arm as a blast of air conditioning makes her shiver in her damp clothes.
The ER is already overrun with others impacted by the storm by the time they arrive. Boone pulls the van up to the entrance, and Tyler’s hand wraps around hers as he guides her out into the gray afternoon. His steps are confident and easy to follow as he leads her into the building. But her head is still a little woozy as they weave through the crowded waiting room to a couple of empty seats along the wall.
“You good?” he asks, wincing as he kneels down before her. “Don’t need to ask for a trash can or anything for you?”
“No.” She starts to shake her head and winces at the throbbing pain the motion sets off somewhere behind her eyes.
Tyler’s lips press together in a thin line, and he appraises her for a moment. He reaches up a hand to ghost over her tangled hair, then winces again as he straightens.
“Let me get your intake paperwork.”
“Tyler, your leg…”
“Is fine,” he insists. “Be right back.”
Kate watches him walk to the check-in desk, noticing the obvious hitch in his stride as he favors the leg that was pinned by the trolley car. He leans heavily against the gray counter as the nurse on duty prepares a clipboard and pen. She thinks he should probably be getting a second set for himself. It’s a miracle he’s walking at all after that. But he comes back with just the one clipboard, his jaw set as he walks like he‘s determined to ignore the pain.
“All right, Sapulpa,” Tyler says, taking a seat in the black plastic chair next to hers. “Full name.”
“I can fill them out.” She reaches to take the clipboard from him.
“ You have a concussion,” he replies, moving it to rest on his other thigh further away from her. “That means no reading. Gotta protect that brain of yours. Now full name.”
“Katherine Elizabeth Carter.”
They get through the first couple of pages with little issue. Kate hands over her little zippered wallet that was mercifully still in the pocket of her cargo pants so he can copy down her insurance information, and they run through her short list of allergies and prescriptions with little issue. She has to applaud the way he gets through asking the date of her last menstrual cycle without stuttering over his words. But when he flips to the third page, he pauses and licks his lips, and she swears the tips of his ears are pink.
“What is it?” she asks, frowning as a blast of cold air from the vent overhead sends a shiver down her spine. It feels entirely unfair that their clothes are still damp. The water tower’s collapse feels like days ago instead of a little over an hour in the aftermath of all that’s occurred.
Tyler’s eyes don’t leave the form, but he drapes an arm along the back of her chair, and she leans into him for warmth.
“What’s the next question?”
“I’m just gonna fill this one out…”
“No, tell me.”
“Are you…” He swallows hard, eyes still locked on the paper. “Sexually active?”
“Oh…” Kate feels heat creep up the back of her neck. “I guess you do already know the answer to that.”
Their eyes meet, and she swallows hard, wondering exactly what he’s remembering. That night in the barn after their first chase? Or maybe the night before in her motel room? They haven’t talked about it. What exactly it is that they’re doing here. What it means. If it means anything at all. And the more time that passes, the more difficult it feels to bring it up. She thinks she wants it to… She’s just not entirely sure what he wants.
“Right,” Tyler nods. “And uh… Any chance you’re pregnant?”
“No,” she shakes her head, flush deepening. “I… uh… I have an IUD. So… no.”
“Well.” He reaches up to scratch the back of his neck. “That takes care of the next question. Okay, what do we have left…? You… uh… interested in an STD panel?”
“Do I have a reason to be?”
She glances up at his face, now nearly as red as his shirt, and grins.
“Gonna take that as a no.” His tone is exasperated, but he presses his lips to her forehead before moving on to the next question.
They get through the rest of the form without issue, most of the remaining questions generic yeses or nos about her general health and family history, and Tyler returns it to the desk. This time there’s no pretense of stretching his arm along the back of her chair. He just wraps his arm around her shoulder to tuck her back into his side, and she’s grateful for the warmth as she lets herself lean into him. Her head is still pounding, and she closes her eyes as her cheek comes to rest against his shoulder.
She doesn’t mean to fall asleep. But between her headache and the crash of all the adrenaline leaving her body after the day’s events, she can’t fight off the wave of weariness that washes over her. Her eyes close entirely on their own, and she lets the darkness wash over her like a warm blanket.
“Katherine Carter,” a nurse calls out a little over an hour later into the still-packed ER, startling Kate to wakefulness.
“She’s over here,” Tyler calls, fingers stroking her arm. He kisses the side of her head. “Time to wake up, Sapulpa.”
Kate frowns, nose wrinkling as she fights waking up. Then her eyes flutter open and blink up at him sleepily. His mouth is so close to hers, she gets the urge to kiss him. But she’s not really sure if they do that… Not where other people can see, at least. It’s been… a confusing couple of days.
“I hear someone might have a concussion,” the nurse says, pushing a wheelchair to a stop in front of Kate’s chair. “Let’s get you back and have the doctor check you out, okay?”
“This isn’t necessary…” Kate shakes her head and then winces at the pain.
“Afraid it’s protocol, hun,” the nurse replies.
Kate sighs and pushes herself up to pivot into the wheelchair, annoyance written all over her face. But when the nurse kicks up the brake, she feels a spike of anxiety in her chest. She swallows hard, trying to tamp down the memory of sitting alone for hours in another overrun ER.
“Are you coming?” Her voice comes out smaller than she intends as her eyes meet Tyler’s, and his eyes soften as he reaches out to give her hand a squeeze where it rests on the arm of the chair.
“Best your boyfriend stays out here,” the nurse says. “Not a lot of space back there right now thanks to that storm. We’ll let him know if you get settled in a room.”
They both look away at the word boyfriend. Kate’s not really sure what they are these days. Colleagues? Friends with benefits? Fuck buddies? She just knows that somehow over the course of the last four days, he’s become important to her. In some way she’s not fully ready to examine yet.
“I’ll see you later, I guess?” Her words come out part statement, part question, as her eyes study his face.
“I’ll be here.” Tyler nods, shooting her a soft smile.
The nurse kicks up the brake on the wheelchair and starts to push her through the waiting room. Kate swallows hard and turns her head to shoot Tyler the best smile she can muster through the anxiety spiking in her chest and the pounding in her head. His lips immediately quirk up to return it, and something in her relaxes at the steadiness she finds in his gaze. This isn’t like last time. She’s not alone. Not anymore.
…
“Thanks, Boonie,” Tyler says a couple of hours later as his best friend hands over his leather duffle, rescued out of the back of the truck before it was towed.
“Sapulpa’s bag’s in the van when she needs it.” Boone takes a seat in the chair next to him and unfurls the top of a white paper bag. “Got you two dinner too. Figured you were hungry after all that.”
Tyler nearly groans in appreciation when he catches a whiff of the greasy french fries in the bag on Boone’s lap. The last time he’d eaten was the motel’s continental breakfast. It’s been a few hours since the nurse wheeled Kate back, and the waiting room has mostly emptied out. But he imagines it’s still a zoo in the back. He’d lost his phone somewhere in the chaos of the day, so he’s not sure if Kate’s tried to update him at all on what the doctors have said. He tried asking at the desk, but they wouldn’t give him any information since he’s not next of kin. Even if he was the one to fill out her damn intake forms.
It’s been agony sitting there waiting for news. He knows the place is busy. Knows that the wait time isn’t unexpected. He’s been in enough ERs for potential concussions to know that the wait for an MRI machine can be long and tedious. Kate hadn’t been showing any abnormal symptoms. She’d known who and where she was. But the longer she’s gone, the more he can’t help but worry. He’ll never forget the pain that ripped through his chest when he realized she wasn’t in that theatre, and then again when he’d watched the tornado engulf his truck, knowing she was inside. The fact that she’s even fucking alive is a miracle, but god does he want her to be okay.
So he’s been sitting with no news of Kate or his team beyond a handful of texts he’d exchanged with Dex, whose phone number they’d all agreed to memorize in case of emergency, on a phone he’d borrowed from an older woman whose grandson needed stitches. Tyler’s truck hadn’t been the only flipped vehicle in need of towing, and it had taken the Wranglers longer than he’d expected to get it on its way to a garage.
“You’re a lifesaver, man,” Tyler says. “I’m gonna go change. Don’t eat all the fries.”
“Better hurry up, then.”
Tyler shakes his head as he makes his way out of the waiting room to find a bathroom. Once inside, he locks himself in the handicap stall to change and check out his leg. There’s a long scratch along his thigh and some bruising, but it doesn’t seem like there’s any lasting damage. He swipes over the cut with an alcohol wipe from the first aid kit in his bag and then pulls out dry clothes to change into. The air conditioning in the waiting room had been too cold for his clothes to ever fully dry, and shrugging on a warm, dry t-shirt is heavenly after hours in his clammy button-down.
Back in the waiting room, Boone hands him the paper bag so Tyler can fish out his burger. He’s just peeled back the foil when Boone reaches into his pocket and pulls out Tyler’s phone and wallet.
“Found this in the truck, too,” Boone says. “Phone’s a little worse for wear. Think it took a bit of a tumble along with the truck.”
“Shit.” Tyler examines the cracked black screen. So much for the case being indestructible. Although most things can’t withstand a tornado of that magnitude. He should probably just be grateful that the thing is still mostly in one piece. The black screen is troubling though. He can’t remember just how much charge the device had when he’d left it in the truck earlier. It could be that the battery is just dead.
Reaching for the duffle at his feet, he fishes around inside the main compartment for his charger. There’s thankfully an outlet just behind his chair, and he sighs in relief when the screen flickers to life with the dead battery sign. As he takes a couple bites of his burger, he keeps one eye on the screen, waiting for it to come back to life.
It feels like an eternity before the Apple logo lights up, and then it’s another never-ending minute before the phone reconnects and the notifications start pouring in. Most of them are from Instagram. Someone in town had recognized his truck and posted a pic of it upside down in that field, and he’s got a torrent of DMs asking if he’s okay. He swipes them and a few other notifications away before the texts start coming in.
The first few are status updates from Boone, clearly before he’d located Tyler’s phone. Then Kate’s texts start rolling in.
4:37: Doctor is making me get a CT scan. They’re backed up, so it might be a while
5:20: Scan is done. Sitting in a hallway waiting for a bed
6:30: Doctor came back. It’s a grade 2 concussion. Should be released soon.
That was 30 minutes ago. Tyler looks up from his phone just in time to see her coming back through the doors holding a sheaf of papers. He’s instantly on his feet, eyes scanning her face, and Boone has to rescue the to-go bag he hastily tossed his burger back into as it almost tumbles to the ground at their feet.
“All done?” Tyler asks, eyes scanning her face.
“All done,” Kate echoes, holding up her release paperwork as she approaches.
“You’re not leaving against medical advice or anything, right?” Tyler takes the proffered forms to scan over her care instructions.
“No.” Kate huffs a laugh and shakes her head. “It’s just a concussion. And I’ll rest better back at the motel than I will here… Did… Did you leave?”
Her eyes look him up and down, a concerned little crease wrinkling her forehead.
“No.” Tyler leans down to grab the duffle at his feet. “Boonie brought my bag. Yours is in the van. You want us to grab it so you can change before we hit the road?”
Kate looks down at her clothes appraisingly for a moment and then shakes her head. “No, I’m fine. Think I want a shower first.”
“Okay,” he nods and adjusts the strap of his bag on his shoulder. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Tyler gestures for Kate to pass in front in the narrow space between rows of chairs and turns to follow, his free hand finding the small of her back. Boone makes a startled little noise in his throat at the casual touch that has Tyler shooting him a warning glare over his shoulder, and they make their way out of the ER. His feelings for Kate have probably been all too obvious to his friends over the last week, but she’s been careful to keep her distance when the others are around.
The sun is just starting to set as they make their way to the van, the buzz of the cicadas loud in the early evening air. Kate’s been insisting she’s fine since he pulled her from the truck, but her steps are slower than the quick gait he’s grown used to keeping pace with over the last few days. He rubs her back as they walk across the hot asphalt parking lot and can’t contain the smile that curls up the corners of his lips when she steps a little closer into his side. When they finally make it down the long row of cars to the van, he once again follows her into the back seat.
“What am I?” Boone asks, climbing into the driver’s seat. “An Uber driver now?”
“Hand us our food,” Tyler says as he reaches for the to-go bag. “We gotta share the french fries.”
“Oh, I ate all those 10 minutes ago.”
“Boone…”
“I’m kidding.” Boone holds up his hands, palms outward like he’s being robbed. “Jesus T, you think I don’t know better than to eat your fries after all these years?”
Tyler rolls his eyes as he pulls his half-eaten burger from the bag and sets it on his thigh. He’s not a big snack person and never touches Boone’s collection of candy bars and potato chips. But he does have a weakness for french fries that Boone never lets him forget.
“You hungry?” he asks Kate, his voice quiet as he rummages through the bag for the other burger.
“I could eat,” she nods and shoots him a grateful look as he hands over the other burger. “Thank you.”
They’re about an hour from the motel the Wranglers are staying in, leaving the closer ones for people displaced by the storm, and Kate valiantly tries to mask the fact that her head still hurts. She winces as they’re jostled by a large pothole, and Tyler wraps his arm around her to tug her close. It’s probably against the ‘rules’ for whatever it is exactly that they’re doing here, but when her head settles against his shoulder and her eyes close, he lets his fingers trail up and down her arm. Boone’s half watching them in the rearview mirror, a bemused frown wrinkling his forehead. But when their eyes meet in the reflective glass, he makes a little gesture like he’s zipping his lips and tossing the key.
Tyler’s not sure who reached for who first that night in the barn, but he knows he’d never felt anything quite like the jolt that had shot through him as his lips touched Kate’s for the first time. He’d been attracted to her from the moment he’d spotted for the first time across the parking lot. Had known he wanted to get to know her better after that second chase when she’d picked the correct twin, leaving him in her dust. But he’d been an absolute goner when they’d survived that tornado together at the bottom of the motel pool. After witnessing her fight with Javi, he couldn’t help but follow her home and make sure she was okay.
He’s been all in on her for days. But Kate… She’s a hard one to read. He’d understood her being a little standoffish after their first night together at the farm in front of her mom. And even when they’re just around his crew, she tends to hold herself apart. Until today, they haven’t really touched, even casually, where others can see, but then she’s invited him back to her bed every night… So, he’s not entirely sure what it is they’re doing, if this is casual to her, or something more. Tyler’s been more than content to just go at whatever pace she sets for them for the most part, but confronted with the idea of losing her today… He can’t deny that he wants more. He just hopes she feels the same.
Kate’s half asleep by the time they finally pull into the motel parking lot, but she rouses as the van comes to a stop. She blinks at him sleepily, her brown eyes luminous in the vehicle’s dark interior, and his gut burns with the desire to kiss her. But the van’s distinctive engine rattle has the Wranglers all spilling out of their rooms to check on Kate and see for themselves that she’s okay, even though Tyler had texted everyone with an update as they were leaving the hospital.
“Let’s give the lady some room to breathe,” he says after a minute or so of Dani and Lily chattering over each other, just as another door opens and a man steps out into the yellow glow of the porch lights that line the front of the motel.
He’s not sure who’s more surprised to see Javi there, him or Kate. But Tyler gets a sense of déjà vu as Kate lays a hand on his arm before stepping away from him and into the other man’s arms for a long hug. Tyler keeps an eye on them as he moves to the back of the van to retrieve their bags, but it doesn’t seem like they’re fighting this time. Their voices are too low for him to hear, but he thinks he sees the glint of tears in the other man’s eyes as Javi pulls Kate in tight again for another hug.
“We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” Kate says as they pull apart, and Javi nods as she steps back.
Soon everyone is back in their respective rooms, and it’s just the two of them standing on the cracked sidewalk outside of what is supposed to be her room. Boone handed Tyler two keycards while Kate and Javi were talking, one for Kate’s room and the other for the room next door. The weight of them in his hand feels like so much more than just plastic, whether he’ll be using one or both is yet to be determined.
“Let’s get you to bed, Sapulpa,” he says, swiping the card through the slot by the handle of her door.
When the little light flashes green, he ushers her inside, wheeling in her suitcase behind them. Kate takes a few steps into the room, wrapping her arms around herself as she appraises the king-sized bed with the burgundy comforter and the old hunter-green carpet. Then she turns around to face him, eyes finding his.
“Stay with me?” she asks. “Please?”
“Of course I will,” Tyler says, exhaling a sigh of relief as he drops his bag on the table by the door and moves to pull her into his arms.
It’s the first time he’s had the chance to hold her as close as he wants since pulling her free from the truck, burying his face in the skin of her neck and he’s immensely gratified when she wraps her arms around his waist in return, cheek pressed to the fabric of his t-shirt. They stand there for a long moment, his hand stroking up and down her back as he presses a lingering kiss to the top of her head.
“Go get your shower, okay?” he says as they pull apart. “I’ll get your clothes and stuff for you.”
She nods and shoots him a grateful little smile as she heads to the bathroom. And he tries not to read too much into the fact that she’s letting him take care of like this. Like it means something. Even if he desperately hopes it does.
Kate leaves the bathroom door slightly ajar, and he can hear the creak of old pipes as she starts up the shower while he grabs the luggage rack from the closet and hoists her suitcase up onto it at the foot of the bed the way he knows she likes it. Unzipping it, he sifts through her neatly packed luggage cubes for the one with her toiletries and then the one with the butter-soft leggings he knows she loves. Grabbing one of his t-shirts from his duffle to add to the stack, he makes his way back to the bathroom and pushes open the door.
“Katie, I’ve got your shampoo and stuff,” he says, setting the bundle down on top of the closed toilet. “You want me to hand it to you?”
“Yes, please,” she replies, her arm reaching out from behind the curtain.
He hands over the little travel-sized bottles and then leaves her alone to get cleaned up, leaving the door ajar though, to listen in case she needs him. The room is a little warm, so he turns down the thermostat a couple of degrees before making his way over to the bed to turn back the covers. He’s just started sorting through his bag for his own shower kit when he hears the water cut off.
Kate emerges a few minutes later, and his mouth goes a little dry at the way his t-shirt hangs off her slender frame. She stands there shifting her weight from foot to foot as she wrings the water from her hair.
“Feel better?” he asks.
“Yeah.” She nods, setting the towel on the edge of the vanity. “Thank you.”
She stands there, arms wrapped around herself, like she’s not quite sure how to proceed, and he gets it. This will be the first time they’ve slept together without… sleeping together first. It feels important.
“Let’s get you into bed, okay?” Tyler says, walking over to take her hands in his and guiding her back toward the bed.
He pulls back the covers so she can slide between the sheets and then takes a step back to make his way over to his bag.
“Where are you going?” Kate asks, concern naked in her tone.
“Just gonna get a shower real quick too. That okay?”
She nods and closes her eyes as she snuggles in beneath the comforter. He rushes through his shower, staying in just long enough to scrub away the layer of sweat and grim that coats his skin, and tugs on a clean pair of sweatpants before making his way back toward the bed.
Kate’s eyes are still closed, her breathing deep and even. He moves around the room, flipping off the lights before carefully settling into the bed next to her. She surprises him by immediately rolling in his direction to settle with her head on his chest and her arm draped across his torso, wincing a little at the bruises he’s sure cover her body from the tumble she’d taken. He wraps his arms around her carefully in return, gently rubbing her back in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. Really, he just wants to feel her breathe beneath his palm to help his tired brain to remember she’s here and safe.
“I tamed a tornado today,” she says softly.
“You did,” Tyler replies, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “You did a good thing, Kate. Do me a favor next time, though?”
“Next time?” she asks.
He can feel the way she tilts her face up to try to catch a glimpse of his face in the dark as his fingers work at the tension he feels at the base of her neck.
“Don’t you want to see it happen?” he says. “You gotta do it again.”
“I guess I do,” Kate says, smiling against his chest. “What was that favor you wanted?”
“Next time…” Tyler runs his fingers through her damp hair. “Could you take me with you… Please? I didn’t much care for being left behind.”
“I didn’t mean to run off and wreck your truck without you…”
“I know.” He kisses the top of her head again. “Just want to make sure you know you don’t have to do it alone.”
“I know.” She nods and yawns. “Next time, we’ll do it together.”
“Good,” Tyler says, giving the base of her neck a gentle squeeze. “Let’s get some sleep, okay?”
Kate nods again, and he smiles as she snuggles into the skin of his chest. It’s not long before her breathing evens out and she’s fast asleep in his arms. For Tyler, it takes a little longer, his thoughts ricocheting between the day’s events and what’s supposed to happen next. He’s not sure how much more time Kate’s planning on spending in Oklahoma, but he’s got a promise that there will be a ‘next time.’ It’s enough for now. But Kate thinks he’ll let her get away after this, she’s got another thing coming. He’s almost lost her once. He won’t let it happen again.