Sweet Hurricane

Chapter 7

Lisa grips Jennie's hand again as they wait by the arrivals door. Jennie has never seen her this visibly nervous about anything ever, not even the first night they talked out their issues.

"It's not any different from meeting Chahee," Jennie soothes her.

"I met Chahee before I met you," Lisa says, thumb stroking a worn path across the back of Jennie's hand. She cuts her eyes to the side, where Dennis's hand is sneaking towards his still fresh arm. "Don't scratch."

His hand goes back in his jeans pocket, but his face has a mutinous look on it that tells Jennie they'll both need to keep on him about it.

"Jisoo is gonna love you," Jennie says. She squeezes once, and then lets go when she sees the doors open, allowing passengers to trickle into the waiting area. Jennie bobs her head, looking for Jisoo, who emerges with the first wave, roller bag in tow, cane in hand.

"Jisoo!" Jennie says, waving to catch her eye. Jisoo smiles and changes directions to meet Jennie halfway. Jennie practically bounds the last few steps and grabs Jisoo in a hug. "Good job with the rocket science."

"Technically I'm in charge of the probe," Jisoo says, "But I am happy to take any and all credit." She pulls free and looks over Jennie's shoulder, where Lisa is standing with her hands folded behind her back, legs about shoulder-width apart and neck a little too straight not to look incredibly tense. Dennis is slightly behind her, his usual spot when meeting new people.

Jennie holds out her hand, wiggling her fingers a few times to get them both to join her. "Jisoo, this is Lisa and Dennis. Guys, this is Jisoo."

They shake, Jisoo very obviously sizing up Lisa, who to her credit doesn't flinch the least bit, the nerves from earlier hidden under a face she undoubtedly developed dealing with high-ranking officers.

"You're not as tall as I thought you'd be," Jisoo says neutrally. But she tilts her head to the side and offers Dennis a big smile. "But you're exactly as tall as Jennie said you are, which is good, because I brought you this." And she holds out a t-shirt emblazoned with the NASA logo on the front.

Dennis's eyes widen slightly as Jisoo coaxes him out into the open with the shirt. He finally takes it in his hand and holds it up to look at it, then folds the shirt into his chest, looking shyly at Jisoo's feet.

Lisa nudges him. "Dennis."

"Thank you, Ms. Kim," he says.

Jisoo nearly chokes. "Oh my god, call me Jisoo. I'll give you twenty bucks to never call me Ms. Kim again."

"Really?" Dennis says.

"Shit," says Jisoo, digging in her back pocket for her wallet.

Lisa is suddenly much less awkward, eyes narrowing at Jisoo, who shows no signs of apology for swearing. Instead she pulls a crisp twenty from her wallet and hands it over.

"Don't spend it all in once place, kid," she says.

Dennis glances up at Lisa, who just sighs. "Yes, you can keep it."

Jennie rolls her eyes; trust Jisoo Kim to flip what was supposed to be a simple airport pickup on its head. "Okay, you must be tired after a week in Florida. Let's get you to Chahee's," she says.

"I just had four days of vacation after launch and it's Chahee's birthday, so I'm all fueled up and ready for max burn," Jisoo says, but she starts walking towards the exit anyway.

Dennis perks up even further at the mention of Chahee, knowing that a meeting with the twins is not far off. He asks Jisoo a few questions in the car, cautiously at first, but with growing enthusiasm as Jisoo answers like she's talking to one of her grad students and not a small child.