Heart of Gold
CONNIE WALKED OVER to the barstool tables, setting her beer down. Across from her, Aiden sat thumbing his bottle. She furrowed her brows seeing his grim expression. They had been at the bar for at least an hour, mostly the wranglers dancing.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Connie spoke up. He chuckled weakly at her comment, "Are you okay? what's on your mind?" She asks. He inhaled deeply.
"Do you think it's going to work? This experiment?" Aiden asked, she sighed. "I don't know, why?" Connie answered.
"I just keep thinking about them, what they would think of us doing this." He admits. Connie tapped the table with her nails, "Well I think that...Frankie would be all for it and Liv." She hesitates.
"She would talk about the stats of how much it might work and Sam, we know she would have been just happy to be filming." Connie chuckled, licking her lips.
"I really miss them you know," Aiden tells her, and she nods. "Like I don't think they would ever imagine you in a bar with the tornado wrangler of all people."
"I honestly didn't think of it myself." She laughs softly, he looks down at his phone. "I have to tell you something." He says. She raised a brow as he scrolled through it.
He slid it across the wood top, a photo of a little girl wearing jeans, a fluffy pink jacket, and boots. Her hair was in two braids, a little feather pinned to the top. Connie furrowed her brows confused.
"Do you remember that tornado in Pawhuska five years ago?" He asked her, and she nodded. Aiden inhaled. "Well turns out I wasn't as careful as I thought I was." He alludes.
"Wait is she?" Connie wonders. He nodded slowly. "Her name is Coco." He tells her, her heart skipped a beat.
"Her mom reached out to me for her to get benefits," Aiden recalls sitting up. "A tornado had ripped through her farm, and she needed my help." He explained.
"That's why I joined Storm Parr, just a chance my kid could grow up in a world where these things are understood." He admits, she nodded. "Why didn't you tell me before?" Connie wondered.
"You have so much going on, and She is my responsibility." He wiped his face, looking at his bottle. "I don't want to be a no-show shitass like my dad, I won't make her go through that." He declared.
"You're nothing like your dad, and you won't ever be, okay," Connie tells him. He pushed his black hair back over his ear. His hair used to touch his shoulders, it was big for him to have short hair now.
The music shifted on the dancefloor, a slow country song. She recognized the voice of the singer, Tennesse Whiskey. She looked across the people, his eyes on a blonde woman, Kate. She mouthed along to the music.
"For starters." She spoke up. Aiden crossed his hands looking back at her. "You know how to ballroom dance," Connie smirked.
"What? come on that was years ago." He mumbled. She scoffed. "And your auntie forced you to take those classes."
"Put them to use, push your tits up and go ask to dance," Connie orders him, he raised a brow. "Get your ass on the dance floor before I shove you." She tells him, smiling cheeky.
"Nice to see you still have some spitfire." Aiden teased her, drinking a bit of his beer. He shook his shoulders, tucking in his denim shirt. Pushing his belt closer together for his buckle of the thunderbird to be noticed.
"How do I look?" He wonders. She looked him up and down. "Fine as hell, get out there." She encouraged. Aiden sauntered across the floor, she watched him closely.
A shadow stood next to her, she didn't have to look to know who. Aiden kept to the sides, his hands in his pockets as he anxiously stood in front of the blonde.
"What is he doing?" Tyler asked her. She held her hand up for him to stop talking. "Come on, stick the landing," Connie whispers.
"Is he-"Shush" Connie ordered. Tyler chuckled shaking his head. "Bossy." He mumbled.
She watches Kate laugh with a smile, taking his hand. Connie pumped her fist excited for him, she looked to Tyler next to her.
"You were saying?" She laughed with a smile. Tyler shook his head, the corner of his eyes crinkling with his grin.
"I didn't that see coming," Tyler tells her, and she shrugs. "Ooo so you don't catch everything." Connie teased him, licking her lips.
"Finally the tornado wrangler isn't good at something." She remarked. He shook his head crossing his arms "I'm kidding." Connie tells him.
"You want to dance?" He asks her. She shook her head. "I'm alright." She says.
Tyler walked around, taking the barstool across from her. Connie glanced back and forth between him and the floor. She looked at her bottle, he watched her anxiously tap her hands on the tabletop.
"You know I've been thinking about something," Tyler spoke up, she furrowed her brows. "That's scary." She teased. His green eyes softened a seriousness to them. Her smile fell.
"What were you thinking?" She asks him, crossing her arms. "How things will be when this is over." He says.
"I didn't even think about it." She says a wave of sadness washing over her. After everything she had almost forgotten about her desk job, how much it truly made her feel trapped.
"Well you know if you're ever in Arkansas, come find me." He offers her. Her lips turned into a soft grin, "How about." She raised a brow.
"You find me, I have a feeling you might," Connie tells him. His eyes narrowed glancing to her lips, she smirked at his reaction. The music changed to another soft slow song,
"I'll take that dance now." She tells him. Tyler watched her as she stood up, his face beet red. The dim lighting of the bar and ballroom hid him. She waved him with her fingers, he brushed his pants off following her.
The music played from the speakers. Connie took his hand, placing it on her waist, she didn't need a lead this time. He didn't mind her leading him, her hands on his shoulders. Swaying to the music, heart racing gazing up at him, his green eyes never leaving.
HE WALKED NEXT to her on the outside. Connie crossed her arms holding her shirt close to herself. She appreciated him sticking to her side till she got back to her motel, she didn't get that in the city. Or anyone that would walk her home in the dead of night.
"You went over the chart right?" Connie asked him, and he nodded. "It looks like the conditions are gonna be just right, keeping it at an EF2 or 1 should make things easier." She summarized.
"Since when did you think storm chasing was gonna be easy?" He teased her, she shook her head. "I never did." She says.
"I mean what are we measuring here cowboy." Connie chuckled, watching him perk up at her nickname. "It ain't the size of the tornado that counts." She laughs softly. She mentally facepalmed.
"See you're talking like an Okie now." He pointed out. She shook her head. "I've always talked like this, you just bring it out." She tells him. He smirked.
"I bring it out huh?" He says. Connie rolled her eyes playfully.
"Dont let it go to your head." She tells him. Connie dug into her pocket, looking for her red and white bag. She groaned irritated, she left it in her room. Tyler raised a brow, she tapped her jeans.
"I left my dum dum in my car." She tells him. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a blue pack of gum, holding up the silver foil gumwork. "This work?" he asks.
"Yeah, thanks." She tells him. They stopped in front of her door, the orange light illuminating his shadow to the torque brick. Connie looked up at him, heart racing. He was taller than her, almost like he could tower.
"What time did the radar show?" Tyler wonders, his voice husky. She rubbed the of her neck, goosebumps of anxiety. "Sometime in the afternoon." She says.
"If we get out before then we can catch early enough," Connie explained, her eyes glancing to his lips. Darting back to his stare, he stepped closer. In her ear, her heart pounded with the knots in her stomach twisting.
"That's the idea," Tyler says, a soft smile ghosting his lips. His voice was low, leaning closer to her.
His free hand held the wall above her, his heart racing to see her stare up at him. Connie's breath hitched in her throat and heat rose to her arms. He was close enough she could smell his cologne, a soft mix of leather and tobacco.
Tyler blinked slowly, glancing between her deep brown eyes and her lips. The proximity between them grew smaller. Her hand's shaking, holding onto his shoulder. Connie closed her eyes.
A slamming of a door brought her back, gasping as housekeeping left one of the rooms. Tyler took a step back, her heart whipped around. Trying to compose herself, taking out her room keycard.
"See you in the morning." Connie deadpanned, he nodded running through his hair. n"Night." He says, she opens the door closing it behind her.
She waited for a moment, listening to his footsteps. When he was gone, groaned frustrated. She shook her head, running to the sink in front of the mirror. Splashing cold water onto her face, and wiped her eyes.
"What the sweet hell was that?" She asked herself. Not wanting to admit the facts, denying what she could tell was right in front of her.
"It's the alcohol, overconfidence." She thought out loud. Connie ran her hand through her hair, tiredness rolling over her suddenly. Walking to the plaid comforter, letting herself flop down, staring at the popcorn ceiling.
₱₱₱
CONNIE TAPED over the backside of the control system of the RC car, walking over to Ryan who helped Aiden with the mixture on the barrels. She cleared her throat making the intern look at her.
"Okay basic steps to THOR." Connie starts, pointing at the two sticks on top. "Push both of these forward to go, backward to break, the keys go red which means trouble, green you are in the clear." She explained.
"He like's to lean to his left so do try and keep him in between cars." She tells him, giving him the control. "I have driven an RC car before," Ryan says to her, and she crosses her arms.
"THOR isn't a toy, he is a weather instrument." She corrects him, he looks at it. "But it's literally a toy." He deadpanned, and she rolled her eyes.
"Crash him I break you." Conne huffed turning around on her feet. He chuckled nervously. Tyler looked over to the boy.
"I think she is being serious," Tyler tells him. Ryan coughed clearing his throat, walking around the trailer. She grunted, climbing onto the truck, and helping Kate load the rockets.
"Alright Dexter talk to me, what are you doing?" Boone asks him. The older man poured a mixture into a funnel. "Testing the goldie locks principle of a tornado." He answers.
"By modifying the variables, hopefully disrupting the process." He explained. Boone furrowed his brows looking to the woman on the roof of the truck.
"Dani, what does that mean?" He asks her. Connie and Kate looked down at the camera, waving at him. Continuing to load the rockets.
"Taming the storm." She says. He panned the camera to Tyler and Ben, walking over to them. "Hey tell us what's going on?" He asked him.
"Alright, we are gonna shoot the clouds with rockets of silver iodide," Tyler explains to him, looking at the equipment. "For the rain right?" Boone wonders.
"Yup rain is what we need in the updraft, then we are going to take the sodium polyacrylate and we are gonna deliver that into the vortex -"Dont touch that." He ordered Ben, who held his hands up.
"Increasing the cold pull." Tyler finished. "And that does what to the tornado?" The posh man wonders.
"Cuts the fuel, Ben," Tyler tells him. Boone looked at the two men, working on the trailer.
"What about y'all what are you doing?" He wonders.
"We are setting up fuses for the barrels, a fail-safe of sorts if the metal doesn't release the lids," Aiden tells him. Boone panned the camera to Ryan with the small car.
"What is this?" Boone asks him. Ryan smiled, excited that he asked. "This THOR." He says.
"The panel on top of him acts like a doppler reading the surroundings as he travels, and get this." Ryan stopped looking up at Connie.
"Can I tell him?" He asks him, she holds her thumb up in response. "Go for it!" She shouts back.
"He is made from the same tech as the Dorothy sensors from 1996, only it doesn't have to be in the storm." Ryan grinned with glee.
"He still my design though!" Connie says. Boone panned over to Lilly with her drone. "Lilly! Oh, look at Cario." He says looking at the table.
"Looking all slick and whatnot, hey buddy." He says running his hand over the wings of the drone.
Connie slid down, looking to the land and then the sky. Across the rolling hills, a dark cloud formed in the distance, spinning. She smirked, glancing at her wrist. Running her thumb over the ink.
You can't pay for a view like that, she thinks. A faint clink behind her, Connie smiled softly, felt like she was a long way from home but she felt close enough just being under the sky.
"What are you thinking?" A voice spoke up, a shadow casting next to her. "Perfect conditions, like you said," Connie tells him. He smirked.
"Dont think I said perfect," Tyler says, she shrugs. "You didn't have to," Connie stated. He looked at her arm.
"You got a little." He pointed, to a small spot of grease smeared in a line. Connie went to clean it, he took his thumb gently wiping it off. Her eyes stayed on him the whole time, meeting her stares when he finished.
"Are you with me this time?" Tyler wonders. The edges of her mouth turned to a smile, heart racing. "Of course." She says, he nodded turning around.
Connie licked her lips, brushing off her grey Metallica tank top, and her denim jeans. She looked up seeing Kate looking out the sky, it was something else being able to witness the storm from afar, another to chasing it. She sighed, walking away.
A/N HOLD YOUR HORSES and have some faith in me because I'm getting to a very difficult scene. How did you all like it now, good. I know it's getting a bit repetitive but don't worry I got this.