Contraband?
While John B made his descent 30 feet under the sea and into the Grady White, the other three Pogues sat silently in the HMS Pogue, anxiously counting the minutes until John B would return.
About 27 minutes in, Pope heard a siren that cut out as quickly as he heard it, alerting him and Kie to an incoming boat.
"Shit, JJ" Pope looked at JJ who had been lost in her thoughts. She looked up.
"Guys, that's the police," she said, recognizing the make and model as one the police use.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Pope groaned.
"Yep that's the police," she said again as it came closer, now more sure.
"Just act frickin' normal," Kie told them. The police blared their siren again as they turned their engine off and let their boat pull up beside theirs. It was a male and female officer.
"Good evening officers," Pope greeted as he caught the end of a rope thrown to him by the female officer.
"Evening," the male officer greeted back.
"JJ, tie it off," Pope handed the rope to JJ, which she quickly did as he asked. She recognized the cops as the same ones from the motel.
She saw a deputy badge resting on his breast. Not just any cop then.
"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" The deputy asks them. They all shook their heads innocently.
"No," Pope spoke, sounding surprised.
"No. Wow," JJ copied, putting on her sincerest face. "I didn't know that. Why is it closed?"
The cops didn't seem to suspect anything which was a good sign. "Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down," he explained.
"Oh," JJ and Pope exclaimed at the same time. Kie just sat quietly at the front of the boat.
"Seen anything?" The deputy asked.
"No," JJ replied sweetly.
"No boats. No," Pope agreed with her.
"Where's your friend you always hang with. He here?" The deputy inquired, looking around. He must have talked to Sheriff Peterkin, JJ realizes.
"He's working," Kie says, also having come to the same realization.
"Hm," the deputy hummed, now starting to display suspicion as he glanced around. "I'm gonna check your little boat out."
"Yeah," JJ says even though the deputy is already hopping into their boat.
"Yeah, hop aboard," Pope agreed.
"You wanna check uh, check her out," JJ said, urging the deputy on so he could be done faster.
"Thank you," the cop nodded, already looking around. JJ looked down at her phone to check the time. It's getting close to the time that John B should be back, she swallows nervously.
The deputy digs through one of the compartments and pulls out a life jacket. "Uh.. you got another one?"
"Yeah," JJ answers, trying to keep the impatience from her tone. "Of course. It's uh in the hold." She points at the cargo hold Kie is sitting on.
"Show him," Kie says as she stands up and moves away. JJ opens the cargo hold and pulls out another life jacket. "Here we go."
"Alright," the cop muttered. What's this guys deal? JJ wonders as she closes the cargo hold. The deputy seems to be done with his search as he makes his way back to his boat.
"Uh be careful. You don't want to slip," Pope told him. The deputy slipped on his shades and looked down at the water. JJ froze and held her breath. The pogues traded glances, tension heavy in the air as they waited for the deputy to make a move.
John B should be almost out of air if not already, JJ chew her lip.
"Alright," the deputy stepped away from the edge.
"Alright," Pope and JJ repeated willing the cops to leave quickly. Right now.
"Beautiful day," the deputy remarked, and JJ wants to pull her hair out.
"Sure is," she agreed impatiently.
"Very," Pop agrees.
"Let us know if you see anything on your way out," the deputy tells them, turning on the engine.
"Will do. Will do," Pope assures him.
"We'll be gone soon sir," JJ adds, heart racing. No way John B has air left.
"Yes you will," the deputy asserts.
The police boat drives away, and JJ feels sick as they rush to the side of the boat, looking for any sign of John B.
"He's definitely out of air," Pope states.
And then John B is breaking the surface and tearing off his mask.
"There he is!" JJ breaths, relief flooding through her.
"Oh God! Jesus Christ don't scare us like that!" Pope calls down to him. And they're laughing now, high off of the insanity that was the last hour.
"How'd it go down there?" JJ asks excited.
John B mutters unintelligibly as he swims towards the boat.
"Did you find anything?" She asks hopefully as she grabs the mask from his outstretched hand.
"Did I find anything?" He asks sullenly, making eye contact. She feels her heart sink in disappointment, but then he grinned widely at her and held up a black backpack that he had purposefully held under the water, out of sight.
She grinned back at him and cheered as she took the bag from him so he could climb up the ladder into the boat.
He panted, catching his breath in the water first.
"You okay?" Kie asked him.
"Yeah I ran out of air," John B replied.
"You scared the shit out of me," Kie scolded, playfully.
"Yeah the cops were up here, but uh… we took care of em," Pope said proudly as John B finally ascended the ladder into the boat.
"Yeah you kind of missed the show," JJ added giddily.
"Hey guys? Bogey, two o'clock," Kie informs them warily.
"What?" JJ asks, looking in the direction Kie was. Sure enough another boat was headed straight towards them like it knew exactly where it was headed.
"Do you recognize that Boat?" Pope asked them.
"I've never seen it," Kie voiced, "What are they doing here? The marsh is closed."
Good point, JJ thinks. It's definitely not a police boat so it shouldn't be here. "Let's not stick around and find out."
"JJ get the bowline?" John B asks her as he moves toward the steering wheel. He has a bad feeling about these guys.
"Yeah," she moves to follow his instructions.
"Should we wait on them?" Pope asks.
"No we're not. Go get the stern," John B orders, taking charge.
"Are you joking? JJ hurry up," Kie says stressed. JJ is still working on pulling up the bowline.
Guys don't wait for me. Go." JJ tells them pulling the bowline up faster.
"Let's go!" Kie tells John B.
"I don't like this," he says aloud as the boat keeps coming closer still pointing straight at them. He turns on the ignition.
"Are they coming for us?" JJ asks him from where she's stood at the front of the boat, seeing how tense John B is.
"Maybe they're fishing," Pope suggests stupidly. No one even bothers to respond to that.
The boat is getting too close now. "Go go go go!" JJ says, heart pumping. John B presses on the gas.
"Go into the marsh," Pope directs.
"Let's go!" Kie presses.
"I'm going. Act natural," John B ordered them.
The boat behind them sped up and they could see that there were two large scary looking men aboard. No question they were coming for them now.
"Hey guys, they're following us," Kie says anxiously. Only about 40 feet separated them now.
"Oh this can't be good," Pope stressed, fear seeping into his voice.
"You gotta go faster!" JJ spoke at John B who is already stepping harder on the gas.
"I'm going!"
"Gun it!" She eggs him on. John B gets the boat going at top speed.
The boat chase continues on, Pope standing to John B's right, Kie still in the back, and JJ moved to stand in the middle of the boat to John B's left, hand on edge of the dash window leading up to the front of the boat to keep her balance.
All of a sudden a shot was fired and a bullet grazed by JJ's head. Her eyes flew wide and they all ducked down, John B's foot still pressed on the gas.
"Holy shit!" Kie screams from where she's huddled on the floor. John B raises himself back up a much as he has to so he can see where he's driving. He wants to check on JJ and his friends to make sure they're good, but he knows he has to stay focused on driving right now. "John B get down!" JJ screams to him from her place on the floor, blood rushing through her veins as fear courses through her at John B's vulnerable position.
Another shot fires, bullet flying past their boat.
"We're gonna die," Pope calls out dramatically. So not helping anyone, right now.
Another shot fired, this one flying over John B's head. JJ can't move as she watched John B flinch, but determinedly remains at the wheel.
"Shit. Pope, move," Kie bravely gets up, staying low as she makes her way to the fishing nets.
Another shot fires and the bullet flew by Kie into the marsh.
She yelled out, spooked.
"Get down Kie!" John B yells from the wheel.
She quickly grabs the fishing nets and hurriedly returns to the rear of the boat, determined. Another shot fired.
She throws the fishing net into the water into the path of the other boat and crosses her fingers. Another shot.
Then the sound of an engine sputtering is heard and the the other boat comes to a stop, fishing net caught in their propeller.
One last gun shot rings out, but the HMS Pogue is out of range and soon they are no longer in sight.
The Pogues stood up, now in the clear and looked at each other, grins slowly growing as they looked each other over and realized no one was hurt. They cheered, just happy to be alive and together.
After the cheers died down, Pope took over driving the boat, and John B let himself collapse next to JJ where she had made herself cozy for the remainder of the trip.
"You okay?" He asked. She smiled and bumped her shoulder against his.
"Yeah," she sighed softly, letting herself relax after the day's activities and decided to lay her head on his shoulder. "You?"
"Yeah. I'm good," he murmured, resting his head on top of hers.
The rest of ride back, they just enjoyed each other's company in a comfortable silence while listening to Pope go back and forth between lecturing Kiara for risking her life and worshipping her for being such a badass.
If JJ had any doubts before, she was now 100% with out a doubt sure that Pope wanted to be more than friends with the girl. She's pretty sure it's one-sided though. Poor Pope, she thinks. She has a theory about who Kie likes, but she isn't in the mood to think about that right now.
As they came to a stop alongside the small pier of the chateau, John B grabbed the backpack that he pulled from the wreck and they all piled out onto the deck.
It was forgotten during the chaos of being shot at, but now it's remembered and they're too impatient to wait any longer so they crowd around John B who starts to unzip it.
"What do you guys think it is?" Kie asks them.
"Gotta be money right?" John B replies.
"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low to mid mils," JJ says excitedly, squatting beside John B. John B paused unzipping the bag to hype up JJ's comment, and they grinned at the possibilities.
"Can we please just open the bag," Pope demanded loudly when John B was distracted by his and JJ's excited ramblings.
"Wow Pope," John B looked away from JJ to stare at Pope, eyes bright with humor, "That's a rare outburst of emotion."
"Okay you guys are literally killing me with anticipation," Pope complained. "Open the bag."
"Jeez," JJ muttered.
"We almost died over this," Pope defended.
John B dug around in the bag and pulled out a metal canister. Something was inside it. The lid was tight but John B was able to twist it open and dump out its content into his hand.
A golden compass.
John B froze. He recognized this golden compass as it was one his father's most treasured possessions. He opened it and just stared, so many emotions and thoughts running through his mind.
"Oh wow, yup. That's about right. Good job everybody. We found a compass," Pope complained sarcastically.
JJ noticed John B was too still and too silent and his eyes hadn't steered from the compass in his hand since he pulled it out. "JB, what is it?"
"This is my father's," John B revealed. A chuckle escaped his lips. JJ feels her jaw drop in shock.
She watches as renewed hope enters John B's eyes and feels dread gnaw at her heart.
Don't get her wrong, she wants Big John to come home and reunite John B with his father, but they don't know anything and she's afraid John B is only getting his hopes up to have them crushed. She's not sure what the appearance of the compass means, but she gets a feeling it's nothing good.
One day denial isn't gonna protect John B and he is going to fall hard. JJ can only pray she's there to help him through it. For now she decides she needs to stay close and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid without her.
Kie and Pope headed home after a while, while John B laid in the hammock to watch the stars and sort through his thoughts. JJ went inside to clean up a bit. Her left side was throbbing from one of the bruises her dad had left there that morning. She grabs an ice pack and some Tylenol, and lets herself sink into the couch exhausted.
She gasped as the cold ice pack made contact with his side. She doesn't remember falling asleep.
After a few hours, John B finally made his way inside. He saw JJ passed out on the couch in what looked like a pretty uncomfortable position. He didn't want to leave her like that so he grabbed a nearby throw blanket and made his way to where JJ sat.
He noticed the ice pack that must have fallen in her sleep and frowned. He'd forgotten about his earlier revelations. A lot had happened.
He gently moved JJ into a laying down position, head on a couch pillow and settled the blanket over her. She stirred, but didn't wake up.
He silently made his way to his bedroom and laid down, despite knowing he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. He stared up at the ceiling letting himself return to his thoughts.
It was another hour, he still lay awake, when JJ half asleep stumbled in and without a word curled up beside him, falling back asleep if she was even awake during that. John B isn't sure.
He watched her sleep, listening to her soft even breaths. He moved a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear, hand lingering. He let a thumb brush the corner of her cheekbone, marveling at how peaceful she looked in her sleep, even after the long day they'd had. He longed to join her.
She sighed, content in her dreams. He withdrew his hand and turned onto his back as he stared at the ceiling again, settling himself for a restless night.