I will warn you, I have taken great liberties with the University of Oklahoma's meteorology program, for which I apologize. This information comes from the Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel, and the movie Twister. Look forward to some human interaction with Bella (yay!), and the emergence of an old/new friend. These characters are property of Stephenie Meyer.

Internship

I have never driven a vehicle this fast in my life. The hot Oklahoma wind gusts through the open window, blowing my ponytail all around my face and blocking my vision as the speedometer on my borrowed Tahoe crept toward 100 mph.

I yanked my errant hair out of the way and grabbed my Red Bull from the cup-holder. Before my move from Forks, one of these babies would have had me running on full for about two days, now it takes at least five to get me through the day. I gulped down the remaining caffeine juice and threw the empty can into the back of the Tahoe.

My team usually speeds everywhere we go, trying to head off a storm system. The OU decals and masses of antennae keep us from tickets. The cops know we are researchers and that speed is crucial.

The radio is blaring my favorite college rock station:

"She woke in the morning / she knew that her life had passed her by / and she called out a warning. Don't ever let life pass you by."

Oddly fitting, thank you, Incubus.

I was flying over the vast, flat expanse of the Great Plaines chasing the most magnificent sight in nature.

A fully formed tornado.

One just like the tornado that nearly wiped out my existence back in February. It leveled my part of town, just barely missing my side of the complex. I was luckier than most. A very casual acquaintance that lived two doors down lost everything she owned except for her phone and the clothes on her back.

The fear I dealt with while that beast roared by me showed me that I can't sit around waiting for my life to change. I had to change it.

So I looked online for meteorology internships that didn't require any prerequisites and ended up in the OU meteorology internship as a "all-purpose" tech. That means that I drive a lot, get coffee, plug in readings, and be the graduate students' bitch.

Its not that bad. I drive almost constantly and Dr. Tom trusts me to get close to the prize. I can judge a storm, I can just feel which way it will go, if it will develop or not.

I wanted to do something that would help other people avoid the fear I felt in that bathroom as I thought I was living the last moments of my life. So I am gathering information about the monster itself. Another reason I chose chasing was because not even Edward could protect me from the unstoppable power of nature. I ride a strange kind of high when close to a tornado and know that destruction close, and not even a vampire, for all their strength and speed, could slow its progress.

With miles of pavement flying away under the tires, I can enjoy being free. The feeling of driving this fast with Edward, as he pushed the Volvo to its limits (or the one time he took me out in the Vanquish) is at the back of my mind, but it is still there.

I have come to the realization that he will always be a part of me.

Even if I am no longer a part of his life, he will always be a part of mine. I have accepted that. I can live with it. Remembering him still causes me pain, even now, over a year after he left. Almost every night, as I lay in my bed alone, I wonder where he is now, what he is doing. I love him enough to wish him well. I hope he is happy.

"Bella!"

"What?" I'm having an epiphany over here.

"Well, I know you're into self-examination and having mind battles with yourself, but we just missed our exit."

"Oh. I'll turn around at the next town. "

"There isn't another town until Bartlesville. I think we're going to have to slow down and cut through the median."

"Who says we have to slow down, Jacob?"

While I answer my colleague and sort of newfound friend, Jacob Black, I slam on the breaks of the Tahoe, whip the wheel to the left, and skid across the grassy median punching the gas and rocketing back the way we had come down the deserted interstate.

Jacob is yelling now about me possibly killing us and how I have a death wish and how I always get too close to the tornadoes and blah, blah, blah. Risk taking is a new part of my life, one I never enjoyed with Edward. I find it rather fun.

Jacob does not find most of my risks fun. He is a responsible graduate student, but he has a steely personality. He was a rough and ready kind of guy, raised on an Indian reservation in Kansas. Dr. Tom, his advisor and head of meteorology, stuck us together as chase partners because Jacob does a good job of introducing newbies to the chase.

And he does. Jacob is very patient with me, in all my gloominess and hopelessness. He makes me laugh, but I don't completely trust him. He has quickly introduced me to the life of the chase. This is his third summer of storm chasing, and it's a life he loves.

Jacob is my navigator, my map man. He keeps us on the right roads, or finds short cuts to get us to the storms faster. He is very efficient when we solo a storm, just me and him chasing.

During our hours in the Tahoe together, I have learned a lot about my partner.

He is a child of a single parent home, his dad raising him and his sisters after their mom died in a car accident when he was seven. His dad, Billy, is a cool dude, he rebuilds cars in their garage. His sisters are older and all have families far away from Kansas. Jacob misses his dad, but is glad he can go to college on scholarship, unlike most of his high school friends back on the rez. He loves storms; he sees the beauty in them, as I do. He can hold a good conversation, but he can also sit in silence for hours, which I appreciate when I am thinking about my lost future, or remembering the way Edward's arms felt wrapped around my body.

Jacob is essentially good. He is friendly on my good days and he deals with me on the bad ones. He knows about losing someone because he lost his mother. We are a good team.

I haven't told him very much about my past. He only knows I moved from Washington and that I have some personal demons. I know he hears me screaming at night, Dr. Tom always sticks us in adjacent rooms. He buys my alcohol, when he's in a drinking mood, although we always end up drinking together alone in one of our rooms playing cards. He tells me about his mom and about the reservation. His friends sound lively and fun, foolhardy. I sit there and listen, drinking myself numb. Those are the nights I don't scream, the alcohol making me dream of times that Edward and I were happy.

Last night was one of those nights, I awoke expecting to find Edward waiting, my dream was so real and he had never left. I woke happier than I had been in a year, only to remember that I had dreamt his return and I could help the involuntary shout of despair and the torrent of tears that followed the pain of realization. The shout brought Jacob running and as he barged through the door, he caught sight of my face and stopped. He had asked me if I was okay, and I said I was. He then told me to be ready to roll out at seven, an hour from then. As he was leaving, he told me he knew what it was like to lose someone. His face was somber as he shut my door.

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With the late afternoon sun in my eyes, I nearly miss the driveway of the team's hotel for the night. Everyone else is already gathered outside waiting for orders. Jacob takes our stuff inside and gets our room keys while I join the team and get our instructions for the night.

The sun is beginning to move behind a large thunderhead, its anvil spreading to cover several miles, the underside covered in Mammatus formations, pocket clouds denoting a strong updraft. This storm feels promising.

Dr. Tom is razzing one of the grad students, Jess, about her lack of grit in the face of a storm. Last night she wanted to pull out early because of the severity of the storm and her close proximity. Everyone turns to face me as I join the group.

"Well, here's Lightning, where's Grease?" roars Dr. Tom as I approach.

Grease and Lightning are Jacob and mine's nicknames provided by Dr. Tom, everyone has one.

"I was unsure if Bella could keep up with the team; she is such a slow driver," said Socrates, the slightly older graduate student that just transferred to the program from Italy a few weeks ago. I don't know Socrates' real name, but he looks of Greek descent, but has a very cultured, Italian voice. He scares me slightly, he watches me like I'm something to eat and his very dark brown eyes are unnerving.

"I thought ya'll were lost for minute, did you miss your turn?" said fellow low-life tech and all-around bitch, Lauren.

"Yeah", I said, "We missed our exit because Grease was slacking on his navigation."

Jacob laughed as he joined our circle, "Whatever you say Bella."

Dr. Tom yells for attention and we all circle close to receive our night's orders.

"The system is moving due east, it should pass over here in about two-and-a-half hours. Sundance, I want you and Millie running point. Set up east of the storm with a good viewpoint and film the formations. RC and Mojo, I want both of ya'll on computers keeping an eye on the Doppler in the van with Socrates driving. Stay with the storm and track it, but stay out of the damage path. Grease and Lightning will be in the fray tonight. Ya'll are going to run all the way into the system, getting as close to a tornado as you can manage. Lightning, this is your ballgame – I'll be on the radio if you need advice, but I'm relying on your instincts, you can judge a storm better than all of us. Get some good footage and make your readings. Everyone else, you're with me doing recon. Don't grumble, it makes my acid-reflux flare!"

With that little speech, everyone peels off to their respective vehicles and roars out of the hotel parking lot in search of very dangerous weather.

The song at the beginning of this chapter is "Warning" by Incubus, the song that inspired this story. Please keep reviewing! It helps so much to hear your advice. =] Next few chapters – the shiz hits the fan!