Whiplash
JJ awoke with the sun. She found herself wrapped in John B's arms and felt her throat tie itself in knots when she saw the bruise that marred his left eye. Events from the night before flashed through her, and she was racked with guilt. She carefully removed herself from John B's arms, deciding she needs some air and decides to take a walk.
John B was startled out of his sleep a couple hours later by the opening and closing of his front door. He blinks away the images of a bad dream he'd just escaped from, and noticed JJ was no longer next to him.
He heard footsteps coming closer to the room and assumed it was JJ so imagine his surprise when Sheriff Peterkin walked through his doorway instead. How did she even get inside? And where was JJ?
"Get decent sweetie. We need to talk," she ordered firmly. He doesn't like it, but he does as she says and meets her in the living room.
"Sorry to break in like this, but DCS called. They wanted me to check in on you. See how you're doing." Shit.
"So how are you, besides the-" she refers to his black eye.
"Oh no.. no I'm great. Yeah fantastic.. Uh.." He tries to sound convincing, but is stumbling over his words trying to think of what he could say. "Thanks for coming by." He says, hoping that was enough and she'd just leave now.
She didn't bite. "I'm so glad to hear you say that, John B, but I heard a few things that worried me. Let me see if I can remember." She pretends to think about it, while John B decides to clean up a little. "Oh yeah, one of the things I heard was that your Uncle Teddy, your guardian, hasn't been in the state for three months."
Fuck. "That's false," he interjects.
"You don't have to say anything. I know it's true, I called the school. They said you used to be a good student but now you're failing all your classes."
"No, no I'm only failing one and it's history. He's a dick. He's out for me," he tried to defend himself, desperate for her to believe him.
"I heard there was a fight on the beach yesterday and a gun was involved," she said, accusingly.
"Okay. Gun? No." He denied, walking past her nonchalantly and briefly put a hand on her shoulder, not wanting her to look too closely at his face as he wasn't the best liar. "Did I get in a dustup? Yes, but was there a gun? No. No way." He scoffed for extra effect.
"That's okay. I know who it was, I'll get to her. All I'm worried about right now is making sure you're in a safe home."
He feels a bone deep anger at that, thinking of how nobody ever lifted a finger to help JJ when anybody with eyes should be able to see clearly something wasn't right and ask questions. But no one ever did. So why would they all of a sudden care about John B? No, there's something else going on if Sheriff Peterkin is here personally instead of letting the social workers handle things.
"Yeah, super safe," John B replies, wondering what her real angle is. "Super sound, sturdy.. And Uncle T's coming back."
"That what he told you?" She asked, definitely not believing him. "Well if he really is coming home, I think you should be allowed to stay."
"Thank you," he says surprised. Maybe she actually does believe him?
"But if I stick my neck out for you, you have to help me. Tit for tat." Ah, and there it is. Knew it was too good to be true.
"What— what does tat mean?" He asked.
"Let me see , how can you help me? Oh, I know. So a body was found in the marsh yesterday. Were you in the marsh yesterday?" She asks, looking like she already knew the answer. His heart drops. What is she after here?
"Yeah we were fishing for some drum," he says. Technically that is what they had gone out there for, before their run in with the sunken Grady White, so it's not a complete lie.
"You catch anything?" She asks, suspiciously.
"Nah, we were skunked," he said, trying to sound disappointed.
"Strange. Fishing's usually good after a storm. All sorts of things get stirred up. You come across a wreck yesterday?" She asks, still on her interrogation.
A brief pause. Then, "No," he denies.
She sighs, changing tactics. "You're skimming just above the surface, John B. Now down here is foster care, Juvie." One of her hands is leveled at her abdomen with a finger raised and twirling it. "Pretty good drop for a smart kid like you." She raises her hand to level with his face. "Up here is you and your little friends doing whatever you want. Outer banks.." she brings her hand down low again, "or foster care on the mainland."
John B sits as he tries to consider his options.
"You're one inch above the surface, John B. If I was you, I'd start flapping my wings." She adds, thinking she was getting somewhere. "Now you sure you didn't come across a wreck yesterday?" She asks again.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure," he answers, not sure he can trust her. He wants to talk to the other pogues.
"It's better if you didn't, you understand?" She says seriously, and now he realizes he had her all wrong. "I'm gonna look the other way as long as you stay out of the marsh."
She turns to leave, but on her way out she turns again looking around at the messy living room. "I got dogs living better than this, John B. You might want to think about cleaning up."
With that, she was gone leaving John B to contemplate what just happened and where the hell did JJ go?
He throws a nearby empty can at the wall in frustration and puts his head in his hands. If DCS is really closing in, then he needed to talk to JJ.
He started typing out a text for her to come home but after a minute he added Pope and Kie, turning it into group chat telling them all to meet at his place in 2 hours.
There was a lot to discuss.
Two hours later the four Pogues were gathered out front of the chateau, JJ throwing rocks as she wondered what John B called up the meeting for. She had arrived last, sporting some new bruises on her torso which were hidden under her t-shirt. She had gone home during her walk for fresh air, for once glad for the punishment her father dealt out when she stepped inside the house. The physical pain helped to make her forget the image of John B laying unmoving on the sand and thoughts of Your Fault! raking through her brain. Her feet had dragged as she joined the group on the porch and John B had looked at her, worried. John B eyed her slight limp with suspicion, but decided he'd ask her about it later.
JJ stopped throwing rocks when John B finally spoke. "Look, I'm calling it off, alright? Peterkin said if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS."
When did he talk to Sheriff Peterkin, JJ wonders, and since when do they trust cops?
"And you believe her?" JJ asks doubtfully.
"Yes I believe her JJ" John B says and JJ wants to smack him upside the head.
"An actual cop John B. You believed a cop." She responds incredulously. Is he high?!
"All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days and she'll help me out," he explains, irritation building at JJ's attitude. He's doing this for both of them. If Peterkin can get DCS off his case, then they won't have to run. Not that he's talked to her bout his backup plan yet. "It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun." He cringes at JJ's flinch, wishing he could take back the last part, not even realizing when the thought had formed.
JJ felt like she'd been punched in the gut, though she much preferred the ones her father gave her a few hours earlier. Your fault! Once again rang loudly in her mind. But despite JJ knowing he was right, she did what she always does when she's hurt. She lashes out.
"You know what I should've done? Just let Topper drown your ass," she says coldly, not meaning a single word, but she wanted him to hate her as much as she hates herself at the moment. She doesn't deserve the worried look he gave her earlier. She's poison and he'd be better off without her bringing him down with her. Everyone knew she was going nowhere in life.
"Topper was gonna drown me?" John B says doubtfully, wholly believing Topper would have let go eventually before he actually drowned. Topper was a bully but he wasn't a killer.
"Sure looked like it," JJ said. And John B could see the walls that had crashed down the night before rebuilding around her heart and it tore at his gut. His fingers twitched with the desire to shake her out of it and tell her to stop, feeling like she was shutting him out. He didn't like it one bit.
"Funny," John B said dryly, at a loss of how to talk to this JJ. She had never been this way with him and he could feel the hurt clawing at his chest. Pope and Kie stayed silent, watching the exchange with worry, unsure what was happening, having never seen them so at odds.
"Have you looked at a mirror?" JJ asked harshly. Your fault! Rang again through JJ's mind.
That's when John B saw something flash in JJ's eyes that gave her away. It all made sense now and he mentally smacks himself for not realizing sooner because it's JJ, the most self-sabotaging person he's ever known in his life so of course she is blaming herself for everything. Probably has been all morning if her disappearance says anything. And then to his horror as the pieces fit together in his head, he realizes in order to punish herself, she went back home, which is why she arrived back at his house for the meeting looking like she'd just been hit by a truck. Or in her case Luke Maybank. Now he really feels stupid for missing it and he really just wants to shake JJ for being such an idiot. He knows he can't confront her yet with Kie and Pope sitting right there, though, and instead tries to communicate through his eyes that he's not gonna let her push him away.
"Tell me some more. Come on," he invites her, making eye contact. She falters slightly when she sees that her attempts to make him hate her failed miserably and instead his soft brown eyes are burning intensely into hers as if he can see into her very soul. She shivered slightly.
"They always win, don't they man?" She can feel her anger ebb and is replaced by a desperate need for him to understand. "Kooks versus Pogues. They always win! goddamn!" Her anger returns but this time at the truth of her words and she punches a buoyant attached to a rope tied to the porch. Her knuckle stung, but it feels good. Years of pent of anger at being looked down at by the kooks roll through her and she can feel her eyes well up with unshed tears, refusing to let them fall. She just wants to win for once in her life. She needs it.
"It's okay!" Kie says, trying to comfort her friend. JJ had forgotten Kie and Pope were even there, if she was honest.
"No it's not okay!" She cried out bitterly, "It is not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there and you know it." She looks back at John B, "I know you do. She looks at Pope. "And I understand why you don't want to go. You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk. And you-" she looks at Kie now, "I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother?" And then she turns back to John B who is still looking at her softly as he listened. "But you and me JB, we got nothin to lose. We really don't alright?" She feels like she's begging now.
"JJ-" John B starts, wanting to tell her he could lose her but she interrupts.
"And I know it didn't use to be that way for you-"
Oof. Nope. Wrong words.
Now John B interrupts angry that JJ broke the unspoken rule that that subject was off limits. "I don't to talk about this. I don't want talk about it." He stands up and moves to walk past JJ.
"So that's it?" JJ moves into his way stubbornly.
"Move out of the way JJ," he says, not meeting her eyes.
"John B, listen to me, I have a plan," she pleads with him, dropping her last train of thought and pulling out her last card. "You got the key to Cameron's big boat, right?"
John B still doesn't meet her eyes, but she can tell he's listening and she allows a sliver of hope to take hold.
"There's scuba gear. We just borrow that and then we go down to the wreck this afternoon and that is what's gonna save you. You don't see rich kids going into foster care, do you?"
John B finally meets her eyes and damn, her blue eyes are sparkling with hope and her plan isn't actually a bad one. It could work and if not well, they could still run. He finds himself actually considering it.
He really didn't stand a chance, not when she looked at him like that, as if he held the answers to all of life's mysteries and could hand her the moon and stars on a silver plate. He notices that her face is so close he could feel her breath on his lips. When did they get so close? He murmurs his agreement softly, "Okay."
She smiles from ear to ear and hell that's all the reward he needed. She threw herself at him in a hug and he rested his head on hers as he lets himself smile slightly.
Pope and Kie watched the whole exchange, looking between each other and then at the two now hugging friends, feeling whiplash.
"I think we missed something," Kie whispered to Pope, having gotten lost somewhere in the whirlwind of emotions being tossed out and not knowing when one changed into the other.
"Definitely," he agreed, "I've been telling you, they're telepathic."
"You're a nerd," Kie laughed, fondly. Secretly, she thought there must be some truth to that statement. Kie will never understand it, but the way John B and JJ seem to be able to communicate without words and how in tune they are to each other is a whole other level that Kie isn't entirely convinced is healthy. It's like they gravitate around each other; where one is, the other is never far behind. Sometimes Kie is jealous, but she's not sure she could stand being that dependent on someone else so she just watches her friends with interest. Sometimes her and Pope even try to push the two together, it's obvious they belong together even if they're both too stubborn to see it themselves.
She leans her head on Pope's shoulder, glad to have another friend in their group that was just as clueless as she was at the insanity that is John B and JJ.
John B and JJ rejoined them after a minute and explained the plan. John B would get the scuba gear from Ward Cameron's boat then return to the chateau to pick them up and return to the site of the wreck.
With that, John B left on the HMS Pogue while the remaining pogues laid around to wait for his return, lost in their own thoughts of what kind of contraband they might find aboard the Grady White.