Tit For Tat

John B and Kie exited the lighthouse and saw the Twinkie pulling away.

"Seriously?" Kie mumbled, irritatedly. The police sirens were so close now. "This way, this way," she ushered them hurriedly through a yard, over a white picket fence, and into a treeline. They made their way towards the beach so as not to get lost, but remained in the treeline.

Once they'd made a decent amount of distance from the lighthouse, they slowed to a walk and caught their breaths. "Hey, look. You've got to admit, that was kind of promising," John B said to Kie, "I mean my dad, the Royal Merchant, the keeper, the Royal Merchant. I mean, coincidence? I don't, I don't think so."

"It's his job to know about shipwrecks," Kie replied, still not convinced. Again, he wishes JJ were with him right now.

"Okay, but the Royal Merchant?!" He tried to reason with her.

"That's like most famous shipwreck of all time!" Kie said, exasperated and wishing John an would listen to her. " Redfield's one of the most common names in the Outer Banks. That could mean anything. Look, as wild goose chases go, this was a really good one."

John B would not accept that. He stopped snd turned toward Kie, "Look, I don't know. Maybe we missed something at the lighthouse. We- we should go back." Kie looked at him with sympathy or pity, he couldn't tell. "You believe me, right?" JJ would believe me. Kie looks down and he already knows she doesn't, but he needs to hear it. "Right?"

She looks up again. "I think there might be some light to moderate concocting going on at this point."

John B groaned, feeling alone snd hurt that his friend wouldn't believe him. He brought a hand to the brim of his cap behind him, as was his habit when he was trying to rein in his emotions. "Kie,come on," he mumbled, hoping she'd change her mind and believe him.

"Look uh.. I get it. You miss your dad. I know. I just don't understand why he would put a clue on a compass," she said, softly.

"Cuz he knew it would come back to me," he tried to explain. She didn't reply and instead pulled him into a hug, trying to comfort him. He let her, and for a second he let himself imagine it was JJ he had in his arms and he felt himself hugging back.

"You're losing it. You gotta pull yourself together," she mumbled in his ear, reminding him that she was definitely not JJ. He pulled away, but Kie didn't immediately step back and he saw her eyes look down at his lips for a second. He cleared his throat and stepped back, putting distance between them awkwardly. Kie was being oddly intimate and he started to wonder if JJ was right.

"What was that?" He asked her.

"What was what?" She asked, trying to hide her embarrassment at her slip in control.

"You. Um.. I" John B stumbled for words, not knowing if he should talk to her about it or not. Perhaps he was seeing things.

"Uh.. " She also didn't know what to say. Her awkward silence confirmed it to John B and he felt terrible. He didn't know she felt that way and he could never return those feelings.

"I'm.. shit. I'm.. I'm sorry," he apologized, "I- I.."

"It's okay," she said softly when she realized she wouldn't be able to talk her way out of it. She never meant for him to find out about her feelings.

"Oh god, I'm an idiot," John B muttered, wondering how he could've been so oblivious to his friend's feelings.

"No it's okay, it's okay," Kie reassured. She'd already known John B would never like her that way.

"It's just that I'm freaking out about my dad and the DCS stuff-" John B tried to come up with reasons, feeling terrible. He really does care about Kie, just not.. that way.

"Stop. It's okay. I get it. I know. Look, I don't even mind," she smiled at him, trying to show him that she was okay and he doesn't need to worry about her. He stared at her as if looking for any sign that she was lying snd she was going to break down. She'd come to terms with it for a long time now, though even if she did slip up for a moment.

"It's the uh rules you know?" She said teasingly, trying to lighten the mood even though her heart stung with his rejection. It still hurt to be rejected even if she'd already accepted it a long time ago.

"Yeah," John B nodded, going along with it.

"No pogue-on-Pogue macking," she smiled, then winked with a 'I know something you don't know' glint in her eyes.

"Right, rules," he mumbled. He thinks he does know what she was hinting at with the wink, but he doesn't say anything more on the matter.

Just then a siren blared in front of them. Shit, they shouldn't have stopped.

"Routledge. I got you, son," rang out the deputy from the hotel's voice. "Now, why don't you just be chill and not make me chase you."

He secretly slipped his dad's compass to Kie while the deputy walked towards them. "Hands where I can see them. He raised his hands up.

John B was silent the whole way back to the police station. Kie sat to his left staring out the window. Upon arrival, Kie was left to wait at the deputy's desk while John B was taken straight to Sheriff Peterkin's office where he sat in a chair and waited for her to speak.

"I feel for you, kid, I really do. I know since they never found your dad, a part of you thinks he might walk through that door someday. I don't blame you." Sheriff Peterkin started, pacing around the room. "But going on fandangos ain't gonna bring him back. He's been missing at sea for nine months. You're father's dead."

"You don't know that," John B said quietly. He's exhausted and tired of everybody saying the same thing.

"Yeah I do. And as hard as it is, it'd be best for you to accept it and move on," Sheriff Peterkin said, firmly. "You've been running around getting caught up in things that do not involve you. Snd now you are in a heap of trouble. It's not just foster care we're talking about, it's assault, battery, JD time."

John B stayed quiet.

"I can still help you out, but we gotta do a little tit for tat. And this time, you gotta tat a whole lot better," she continued, then sat next to John B. "I know you've gotten hold of a compass."

"I don't know what you're talking about," John B denied. Sheriff Peterkin's interest in the compass only confirmed that there is something going on.

"I know you took it off the wreck. There ain't much that happens in the OBX that I don't hear about eventually," Sheriff Peterkin said.

"Okay, what do you want with this compass?" John B inquired.

"It's evidence in an investigation," she replied, " I'm gonna need it, son. Otherwise I'm charging you."

John B wasn't about to give up the only clue he had to his father's disappearance. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said stubbornly. "I don't have a compass."

Knowing she wasn't going to get anything out of him, Sheriff Peterkin stood up and left the room.

20 minutes later, Kie's dad showed up and Kie convinced him to pay John B's bail. He was angry, but he agreed. He walked speedily out of the police station, Kie and John B following after.

"If you skip out on your bail and I lose my money, I'm gonna hunt you down and skin you," Kie's dad said angrily, so much judgement in his eyes as he looked back at John B.

"Dad!" Kie interjected.

"Cut it," Her father looked at her, eyes narrowed and she fell silent.

"Thank you, Mr C," John B tanked him gratefullly.

"Don't thank me," Mr. C snapped back and continued on towards his car.

"Yeah," John B grumbled, feeling like gum beneath the man's shoe. He walked Kie to the passenger side of Mr. C's car.

"Get in," Mr. C demanded his daughter.

"Give me a sec," Kie complained back, then turned towards John B and pulled out the compass for him to take.

"Thank you," he muttered.

"Good. You're gonna be good," Kie assured him.

"Kiara," Her dad's stern voice rang out again.

"Sorry," Kie mumbled apologetically, then entered the car.

Her window was down so John B could hear her dad's voice clearly from where he stood. "I told you. When you hang out with trash, you get dirty."

John B watched the car drive away. Kie looking back at him until they were out of view.

He started to head home, sending a quick text to Pope and JJ about what happened and that he wouldn't be meeting them at JJ's. Pope replied okay and that he was going to drop off the Twinkie and head home. It had been a long day, John B sighed.

He arrived back at the chateau an hour later to see the Twinkie in the driveway, so he assumed JJ would be inside.

"JJ?" He called out when he entered. Nothing. Maybe she was sleeping. He walked to his room, but she wasn't there.

He sent a text to Pope asking if he knew where JJ went. JJ's phone went straight to voicemail when he tried to call it, so he assumed it had died. With the power out, she wouldn't be able to charge it.

Pope texted back and he felt his heart drop at the answer. Home. She didn't leave with Pope.

He dropped onto his bed miserably, letting the exhaustion take over. He was out in seconds.