"JJ?" Sarah dropped her bike in the yard and went to look around. She had never been here before, only knew the way because Kiara had told her where to find it, and asked her to come check on JJ when she couldn't. Of course, Sarah had agreed. But that's not why she was here today.

"JJ?" As she stepped up to the door, she saw the weathered eviction notice hanging there. Of course. She wandered around the house on the screened porch, which was no longer very screened. Around the corner of the porch, she found an old couch with messy bedding on it, just clean enough to tell her it had been recently used. He's been sleeping outside? She wondered if he was even able to get into his own house, and then realized that was stupid. Of course he could, he was JJ. So sleeping out here…that was a decision.

She went back to the porch door and pounded on it. "JJ!"

Nothing.

Sarah walked down to a level spot on the lawn and sat down in the grass, staring off into space, trying to decide where on earth she could go next.

"Screw Guffy," JJ muttered to himself as he walked himself back to his shitty little house on the Cut. Walked . Because he had crashed his bike for a fake of the Cross, while the real one was being melted down. And now Pope was going rogue and Cleo was going after him and there was nowhere for JJ to be but some piece of shit rental that he was being kicked out of anyway. "Dammit!"

"J?"

What the hell? Sarah Cameron was sitting on the lawn of the aforementioned piece of shit rental. She was sitting on the lawn and… crying ? "Sarah?" JJ broke into a run as Sarah stood to meet him. Yep. She was definitely crying. "Sarah what happened? What's going on?"

"Um…" Sarah swiped at her eyes. "John B and I…we kinda got into it? I couldn't stay there. And Kie's family is being Kie's family right now and Rafe is at Tanny Hill and I…" She took a shaky breath and looked up at him. "I just, I don't have anywhere else to go, right now."

Well shit. "Yeah. Yeah alright. Look, I only got the place for a couple more weeks, but you can crash for now."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Um." He ran his hand through his hair. "Lemme…lemme get a room set for you okay? K." He answered his own question and walked up to the house. Instead of going through the front or back doors, he walked around to a window he had been leaving cracked, slid it open, and shimmied inside. With Sarah here, he should probably unlock the door…

"Sorry about the uh…everything." JJ opened the back door for Sarah, who was still waiting on the porch, and waved her inside. She walked into a house that looked like the last thing JJ had done was throw a rager. "I um. Well it's just been like…look I…I didn't have time to pick up before you…"

"It's fine, J," Sarah reassured him. She scanned the living room, full of beat up furniture and covered in garbage, half of which was just empty bottles and cans. This was way too much for it to be just from them coming back. It had to have been like this when they left.

JJ moved quickly through the living room and opened a door in the small back hallway. "This was my room." Sarah didn't miss his use of the word was . She wondered if he had even been inside more than once since they got back. "You can stay here. I got fresh sheets. Well, fresh as they come round here but I tried. It's no five star."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "JJ, we all lived on the same beach for a month, I don't need a resort. Just a bed would be nice." She stepped into the room and dropped her duffle on the floor.

"Bathroom is, uh, straight across." He gestured to the door opposite his own in the hallway. "I put a fresh-ish towel in there for you. No promises on soap. I've been showering at the Chateau, and Casa Luke was never big on hygiene."

Casa Luke. Sarah knew about his dad. They talked about it on the island while she was trying to process half her family trying to kill her while the other half aided in her kidnapping. John B said JJ never liked to talk about his dad, but with her, on the island, he was starting to open up a little bit more.

"Speaking of," JJ waved to the door at the end of the hallway, "that one's my dad's. Don't go in there, probably. I haven't been in and I don't know how he left it." He shrugged. "Anyway, this is it." He stood there for a second, looking dazed, like he was seeing everything for the first time in ages. After a moment he seemed to come back to himself and shook his head. "Let me know if you need anything else." Without turning back as he walked away, he added, "I'll be on the porch."

Sarah surveyed the room. The walls were covered in maps and tattered surf posters and surprisingly good charcoal drawings. Is JJ an artist? Do any of the Pogues know? Would he have even told them? The bedding was worn and a little mis-matched, but the bed itself had been made like a hotel bed, complete with hospital corners that she could only make out because the comforter wasn't quite big enough for the mattress. Several dresser drawers had been left open and empty, waiting for the pitiful amount of clothing from her duffel. The room was actually pretty clean compared to the rest of the house. The carpet was a normal color, if an ugly one. There was no garbage anywhere so he had very clearly done some picking up in here, but the room itself looked like he might have actually taken care of it. When he lived in it, anyway.

She lay down on the bed and considered putting her clothes in the empty drawers, but she was suddenly so thirsty. JJ was sitting out on the porch on his makeshift bed, watching the sun setting over the trees and drinking what had to be a very warm beer considering this house clearly didn't have running electricity. "JJ?"

"Need somethin?" Anyone else would have thought he was being dismissive, but a month together on a deserted island will have you well-practiced in reading each other. His tone was soft, not irritated, just exhausted.

"Um, yeah. You got another one of those?" She pointed to the can in his hand.

JJ smirked and got up, walking to a beat up drink cooler and cracking it open to reveal about 20 cans of definitely warm beer. "I present to you," he waved his hands like he was presenting a prize, "my whole inheritance. Everything my father left me." Wry smile plastered on, he tossed Sarah a can and closed the cooler, then walked back to sit on his makeshift bed. Sarah found an old plastic chair to sit in. They drank in silence for a while as the sun disappeared.

It wasn't until his stomach growling interrupted their silence that JJ remembered one very important thing. "Hey, Sarah?"

"Hey, JJ?"

"Um…" okay this was embarrassing as hell. "Okay so here's the deal. I don't actually have any food here."

He saw Sarah turn toward him in the dark. "Like, at all?"

He shook his head. "Like at all."

"JJ!"

"I'm sorry, okay? We'll figure it out, or something, I dunno."

But Sarah was staring him down now. "JJ, what have you been doing the past few days?" He grimaced and raised his nearly empty beer can in response. "JJ what the hell?? All you've had to eat since we got back has been warm beer??"

He felt his face getting hot from embarrassment. "Well, princess, I know you're new to this whole thing, but the deal is usually, no parents, no money, no eat."

Sarah stood up suddenly, nearly knocking the cheap plastic chair over, and walked over to where he was lounging. "First of all, JJ, do not talk to me like that. Don't treat me like some poor little kook who can't handle her shit, because you know damn well I can. And second of all," she turned and looked out at the marshy waters beyond the brush, "we had no parents and no money in Poguelandia. And we ate plenty." She turned back to look at him pointedly. "I'm not expecting you to provide for me or some shit like that, J. But holy shit, are you really going to just let yourself waste away here until your dad's shitty beer runs out and they come repo all your shit?"

As a matter of fact, that had been exactly the plan. Poguelandia had been paradise, a place where all the pogues were on a level playing field. No parents, no money. Just the land and each other. He had never felt like that before, like he was actually happy. And ironically, he had never felt less like he was fighting for his life. But here, in the OBX, JJ had never quite had his footing. He knew the playing field wasn't level, he was just never quite sure how uneven it was. Now he was alone, nearly homeless, and had even less of a future than when he had gotten dragged on this wild goose chase all those months ago. Kiara wasn't even allowed to see him, Pope was but only barely, and John B didn't seem to want to. And so JJ watched the field tilt wildly up and away from him. He didn't know exactly where he stood, he just knew it was at the bottom, so did it really matter? He didn't care. Nobody cared. So yeah, he was going to drink himself into oblivion and welcome starvation with open arms. So what?

But now Sarah was here and she was pissed and it wasn't because of anything he did to her (except maybe speak to her with his poor little kook princess voice, which was admittedly uncalled for), it was because she was furious that he would just let himself go like that.

"Okay, okay, look, Sarah," he got up from the couch, "fine. Yeah. Maybe I hit a little slump. Felt a little sorry for myself." Glancing out into the night, he shrugged. "It's been weird, you know, since we all came back. And I just…" I don't wanna be here . "Whatever. I'm sorry."

She sighed. "JJ, we will figure this out, just like we always do. Besides," she elbowed him gently, "not like we haven't ever utilized a little 5 finger discount." He let out a breathy laugh, mind immediately going to Mike Carrera's money clip.

"Yeah well," he laid back down, "I'm beat. Night, Sarah."

Sarah looked like she wanted to continue the conversation, but JJ turned toward the wall and feigned sleep, and finally he heard her footsteps retreat into the house. If he knew Sarah, and he did, this conversation was far from over. She was probably plotting how to drag his ass back from rock bottom right now. He rolled his eyes, but felt himself smile a little despite himself.

End of chapter!