Jo looked up at the sky for a second, then turned back to her team members. "All right, let's go!" she ordered. The chasers began furiously packing up everything and getting into their vehicles to go find the latest storm and get Dorothy up and running.
Jo looked at her daughter. "You wanna come, Kassidy?"
Bill took Kassidy's arm. "No, thanks," he answered for her. "We gotta get back on the road."
I can answer for myself, Dad! Kassidy wanted to scream. She forced herself to stay silent.
"Well, it was good to see you both again."
"Come on, Jo!" one of the chasers called to their leader.
"I'm coming!" she yelled back.
"Come on, Kassidy," Bill said as he wrapped his arm around Melissa. The three of them started heading back to Bill's truck. "They can handle this," Bill said to his fiancée. "They know what they're doing. I mean, well, this is what they do, they live for this."
"Are you sure you don't want to go along?" Melissa asked.
"No. Oh, with them you mean?"
"Well, yeah."
"No, they'll be fine."
I want to, Kassidy thought to herself. But you never cared about what I thought.
"Did she sign the papers?"
"Oh, shoot!" Bill exclaimed, pulling out the divorce papers.
"She didn't?"
"Come on, if we hurry we can still catch them!"
Kassidy smiled, happy that she would get to spend more time with her old friends for at least a little while longer. It was better than going back home. Anything was better than that.
They all started running to the truck in order to keep up with the chasers.
"Hey, Bill!" Rabbit yelled from the passenger side of his camper. "Glad you're back!"
"I'm not back!" Bill insisted. They all got into the car and started speeding after the others. "Once we catch up with them, you and Kassidy take the truck and head home," Bill told Melissa. "I'll get the papers signed and see you tonight. Okay?"
"No!" Melissa smiled. "You know what, honey, I find this kind of interesting. I'm gonna tag along! Besides, Kassidy deserves a little more time with her mother."
Kassidy smirked in the backseat, but did not allow herself to be heard.
Suddenly, a big black van pulled up next to them.
"Jonas," Bill murmured.
Kassidy looked over and saw a man she loathed even more than her parents sitting in the passenger seat. She had met him back when she was in elementary school and right off the bat, she didn't like him. Especially since he kept hitting on her mother.
"Who is that, honey?" Melissa asked.
"Jonas Miller. He's a nightcrawler. We all started out in the same lab, but Jonas went out and got himself some corporate sponsors. He's in it for the money, not the science. He's got a lot of high-tech gadgets, but he's got no instincts. And he doesn't have Dorothy." Bill grabbed the radio in the truck and switched to Jo's channel. "Jo, come back!"
"Hey there, you change your mind?" Jo smiled.
"Yeah, what's Jonas doing here?"
"I'm not sure. But I bet he's asking himself the same question about you."
Another van pulled next to them and got too close to the truck, forcing Bill to go off the road. They bumped across several pipes, bouncing Kassidy all over the place.
Due to some tire problems, Bill was forced to pull over with the rest of the team and stop at an auto repair shop to get it fixed.
"How long do you think it'll take to fix?" Bill asked the repair man as he rolled a new tire out of the trunk.
"Oh, maybe 10 minutes, 15 tops," the man answered.
"Sounds good."
Kassidy leaned against the truck when she looked over and saw Jonas and some of his guys with what appeared to be some news reporters around him.
"What drives me is the unknown," the jerk explained. "What if we could predict a tornado's path? How many lives would be spared with the creation of an early warning system? And D.O.T. 3 is the answer! The first digital orthographic telemeter."
Kassidy watched in anger as he pulled out a nearly exact replica of the machine Bill had designed. She really didn't like that man.
"And inside, she holds hundreds of these little sensors," he continued with this stolen idea. "Which when released into the tornado, will transmit back data on wind speed, pressure, and dew point temperature."
"Bill?" Jo called, looking over at him
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Dad…" Kassidy said, knowing his temper was going to get him in trouble again.
She tried to stop him, but he wrenched himself out of her grasp and stormed over to the group. He flipped Jonas's hat off and grabbed him by the collar, pushing up against his stolen machine.
"You stole my design!" Bill yelled. "What'd you think, I wasn't gonna find out about this? "
"Hey, guys, can you get this loser off me?" Jonas said as if Bill was a gnat.
Jo's team along with Kassidy ran over and pried Bill off Jonas.
"What is the matter with you?" Jonas demanded.
"You stole my design!" Bill yelled again.
"What are you talking about?"
"Dorothy! You took her, you no-good thief!"
Jonas smiled smugly. "Oh, I get it. You want to take credit for my design. Is that it?"
"You're a liar. She was our idea and you know it."
"Unrealized idea. Unrealized."
Jo ran over to the group and got in between Bill and Jonas. "Hey, hey, hey, hey! All my guys, get a grip on yourselves. We both know he'll never get that thing up in the air."
"Well let me enlighten you people!" Jonas said, closing his machine. "This baby has satellite com-link. We've got on-board pulse Doppler, we've got NEXRAD real time. Today, we're gonna make history. So stick around. 'Cause the days of sniffing the dirt are over."
"Better than what you sniff," Rabbit muttered.
"We'll see who gets their first, pal," Bill growled, watching the team walk off.
Jonas turned around with a smug smile on his face. "Oh, and by the way, I really enjoy your weather reports!"
Bill tried to go after him again, but the team held him back once more. Kassidy had to admit that she was now resisting the urge to punch that guy in the face herself.
"Come on, Kassie," Dusty said, leading her inside. Kassidy walked into the shop with the rest of the guys to get something to drink.
She was leaning on the counter, listening with amusement to her mother tell off Jonas behind her, when Melissa came and sat down next to her.
"Two lemonades to go, please," she said to the waitress.
"Want anything, sweetie?" the waitress asked Kassidy.
"Just an ice water, please," Kassidy answered.
"Nothing changes," Jo muttered as she came and stood between Kassidy and Melissa.
"Pardon me?" Melissa said.
"He's gonna wait and see what Bill does." She turned to the waitress. "Can I have a coffee to go, please?"
"That man's waiting for Billy? Why?"
"Because Jonas doesn't know his foot from his butt, and couldn't get that machine working with a dumb brain like his," Kassidy answered.
Jo smiled a little at her daughter's response. She had taught her well. "Bill can tell when a storm is coming from miles and miles away. It's like an instinct."
"So you're telling me Billy knows what a storm is thinking?" Melissa asked.
"Something like that." She held out a pack of gum for her. "Gum?" Melissa shook her head. "My Aunt Meg used to call him a human barometer."
"Well he never really told me about all this."
"If you have to pee you should do it now, 'cause there's not many places to stop once we get on the road."
There was a few seconds of silence between them before Melissa asked, "You're still in love with him, aren't you?"
The silence that followed gave them their answer. Kassidy was almost in disbelief. Her mom really did still love her dad? She always assumed the feeling was mutual.
"Check please," Jo said, trying to get off the subject.
"Not that I blame you. I just hope this isn't some desperate attempt to keep him in your life."
Jo put some money on the counter with both of the receipts. "We're together." She tossed Melissa an awkward smile and left the counter.
Kassidy looked at Melissa. "Please don't talk to my mother like that."
Melissa eyed Kassidy a little. "I thought you didn't even like her."
"No, I'm angry with her. There's a difference. And no matter what, she's still my mom, and you're about to replace her, so just show her a little decency, please." Kassidy left the counter. Melissa hadn't been awful until that moment right there. She could invade in her life, and she could steal Bill away, but she drew the line at her being rude to her mother when it was clear she already got the guy.
Melissa headed back out, and it wasn't long until Kassidy followed. From the looks of it, the storm was starting up because everyone was once again packing up and driving off.
"Kassidy!" Bill yelled to his daughter. "Ride with Melissa! I gotta go with Jo!"
Kassidy groaned before running over to the truck and hopped into the passenger side. They drove off and Kassidy smiled as she heard Dusty's large camper belting out some rock song. She rolled down her window and listened to the various songs the chasers played in their vehicles. Kassidy stuck her head out the window and felt the wind rushing in her blonde hair. It was nice and exhilarating.
Melissa's phone rang next to her and she fumbled with it while trying to keep a hand on the steering wheel.
"Dr. Melissa Reeves here." She looked over at Kassidy. "Kassidy, will you roll up the window, please? I'm on an important phone call."
Kassidy bit her cheek and pulled herself back into the truck as she was forced to listen to Melissa give some kind of freakish advice to one of her patients. She looked over towards the field and saw a tornado touch down onto the ground. Her stomach flipped a little in excitement. She loved storms, always had. And it had been a long time since she was able to be this close to one. She blamed Bill for that.
Melissa finished her phone call and they both watched the tornado rip things apart before finally dissipating. They were just about to catch up the rest of the group when Jo's truck landed right in front of them. Melissa and Kassidy screamed as Melissa tried to avoid hitting the truck. Once she was out of harm's way, Kassidy just rolled her eyes as Melissa still sat there screaming and hyperventilating as she climbed out of Bill's truck.
She herself climbed out and started laughing as the rest of the members came over to her to make sure she was okay.
"Are you kidding?" she exclaimed. "I'm more than okay! That was awesome!"
Bill ran up and hugged Melissa tightly. "You alright?" he said, taking a brief glance at Kassidy.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. It was clear to her that he wasn't really listening, and was focused more on calming Melissa down.
Both of her parents were filthy and she guessed they must've gotten caught right in the middle of that tornado. She wondered what that must've been like, but could only imagine the adrenaline rush.
As she looked out at the sky, she thought back on all the times she wanted to help her mom and dad chase some storms, but they didn't allow her to come. Or more specifically, Bill didn't allow her to come.
She turned at the sound of cars approaching and saw Jonas's crew driving up. None of them bothered to stop.
"Fashionably late again, Jonas?" Dusty called to the black vans, following them as they drove. He dove into the car window. "Fashionably late! Gimme a kiss, baby!" He got shoved out of the car and yelled as the other vans passed, "Loser! Loser! Move on!"
Kassidy smiled a little at her old friend's actions. He was always there to perk everyone up at the end of the day. She had missed him the most.
"Come on, guys, let's get Dorothy 2 ready!" Haynes ordered.
Jo started pulling things out of her destroyed truck. "You got full coverage on that truck?" she asked Bill.
Bill smiled, knowing full well what she wanted. "Liability only."
"Liability only?" She grabbed some things then looked back at them. "It's a very pretty truck."
"Thank you," Melissa smiled, oblivious to the request Jo was implying.
Bill laughed nervously. "Don't even think about it. No way."