"JJ! Wakey wakey eggs and…actually just eggs." Sarah's voice rose too loud above the typical morning chitter of birds and lapping of water. JJ covered his face with a pillow and rolled over, groaning at being dragged to the surface of sleep this early. But the former kook princess was not relenting. "JJ, come on," she yanked the single sheet off of him, "it's time to get up and face the day."

"Too early," he muttered from under his pillow. Sarah grabbed that away too. The sudden sunlight was blinding. "Jesus!"

"Nope, just me. Come on, get up. I got us breakfast, but you'll have to pull your weight for lunch." JJ's eyes were squeezed shut against the light, but he heard her footsteps retreat back into the yard. Finally . Draping his arm over his eyes to replace the pillow, JJ had just started drifting back to sleep when her words fully registered.

"Breakfast?" JJ sat up and blinked into the sunlight to find Sarah starting a fire in his yard. That got him up and moving. He all but ran down to where she was. "Woah woah, Sarah, what are you doing?"

"Relax, Smokey." She laughed a little too easily. How long had she been awake? "I cleared the perimeter and dug a pit, see?" It was true, there was no brush for a few feet, and she had taken the time to dig a pretty large pit, and even found rocks somewhere to line it. Definitely wasn't up to any official codes, but island code? Poguelandia code? She had it covered. As long as the Kildare County fire marshal didn't wander back here, they should be good.

"Impressive. When the hell did you get this done?"

"Couldn't sleep." She pursed her lips, but shrugged it off quickly, turning to pick up an old pasta strainer he recognized from his own kitchen. In it were a bunch of eggs. "Found these too."

JJ laughed and took the strainer from her hands. "Where the hell did you find eggs?"

"Wandered the neighborhood until I found a coop."

"You were wandering the cut at the ass crack of dawn trolling for eggs to steal?" He couldn't decide if he was annoyed, amazed, or deeply concerned. "Sarah, I mean this is amazing, but you're gonna get your ass jumped doing that. People round here are serious as shit about their chickens."

"Whatever dude." She took the eggs back from him and set them down, and then nodded back at the house. "Think you have a clean pan in there somewhere?"

"Yeah, my dad's got a cast iron somewhere. I'll find it."

It felt amazing to finally have some food in his stomach. JJ couldn't remember the last time he had anything to eat, at least anything fresh.

"So for lunch," Sarah started in, "I mean we'll probably have to spear-fish right? Unless you can get the Pogue…"

"Sarah…"

"I mean like, I don't think John B would care if you took the boat, but I'm not talking to him right now…"

"Sarah –"

"I don't even actually want to go over there so maybe just spearfishing? Would that–"

"Sarah!" She startled, like she had forgotten she was even talking to him. And maybe she had. "Look, Sarah, I can't fish today. I gotta meet John B."

"...what?"

"Yeah look I know he's been an asshole, but he came by last night after you went to bed…"

"I knew I heard the Twinkie last night, what the hell JJ…"

"...and Big John is missing…"

"What?"

"...and I gotta help him figure out where they took him…"

"Wait took? Is he missing or did he get kidnapped?"

"...and I told him I'd help with recon today. You don't have to come." He paused and looked at her. "You can just like, hang here. I mean, if you want."

Sarah looked like she was still trying to puzzle everything together. Fair enough. So was JJ. "Wait, so John B's dad got kidnapped? While they were, what, just walking around?"

"They've been looking for El Dorado."

"I knew it!" Sarah jumped up from her spot on the grass. "I knew it. They were lying to us."

"Yeah Sarah," JJ slowly rose to meet her, "they lied. Look, I love Big John. He's a better father than Luke ever was, that's for damn sure." He shrugged and looked down. "But he ain't winnin any father of the year awards. And John B…well you know how he is. Pretty, dumb, easily manipulated." JJ plastered on his signature shit-eating grin to try and soften the words, but they still burned coming up. Big John had so easily split John B off from the rest of the group, so easily convinced him to just leave them be. And JJ did love Big John, but he also knew how he could be, and it had always hurt when John B's idolization of his father got between the two of them. It showed in Sarah's face, too, probably fresher than in his own. He had years to get used to it, and while it stung worse to see it happen after everything that went down after Big John went missing, after a month surviving as a unit on a deserted island, it wasn't the first time he had been pushed out. But Sarah had never seen this side of John B, had never experienced hitting the walls his father put up around the two of them. And honestly? It hurt worse to watch her crash into that wall for the first time.

"I just…I can't believe he would lie like that."

"He lied to all of us, Sarah, but he's sorry."

"Well he hasn't said sorry to me!"

"Give him a chance to!" Sarah's face crumpled. JJ was not the most emotionally intelligent man on the island, he would admit. But he wasn't too stupid to recognize this wasn't just about El Dorado. So when Sarah sunk back into the grass in tears, he joined her on the ground. "Sarah…what happened yesterday? Actually."

She took a few shuddering breaths, face in her hands, and JJ just waited. He learned from all his years of being friends with Kiara that sometimes you just had to let the silence sit long enough for it to draw the words out. Actually, he learned it from Kiara using it on him. She would ask a question that he didn't want to answer, and then just sit without a word until the truth came out. He had used it back on her a couple times and it always worked, so he figured it might work with Sarah too.

He didn't have to wait long. "I asked him. What was going on, what was different. Because something was, right?" She looked at JJ, pleading, and he nodded back. "So I asked what happened. And he said…" She looked up, blinking back tears. "He said that what happened was that his dad came back and I still didn't know how to deal with the fact that mine tried to kill me."

JJ knew he probably looked way too taken aback right now. He couldn't help it. "What the fuck John B."

"Yeah."

He leaned his head back and sighed. He needed to help his best friend rescue his dad. But he might kill him first, honestly. "Okay look. I still gotta help him. I promised." He slung his arm comfortably around her shoulders, and she leaned her head into him. "But you do not have to come. And I will definitely be kicking his ass for that line." That earned a laugh from her, and JJ beamed despite himself.

"I still really don't feel like seeing him. I'm gonna hang here. Or maybe go see if Kie is free yet. But," she pulled away and looked up at him, "if you guys are gonna do something monumentally stupid, can you at least run it by me first? I'm getting kind of tired of you almost dying. So is Kie."

He grimaced. Kiara's face from the other night when he crashed his bike replayed in his head. As did her face when she found her father's money clip. God, he was really screwing this up royally. "Hey." Sarah's voice pulled him back to the present. "Dude."

"Yeah, sorry. Yeah that's fine. But, uh, I don't think Kie wants to talk to me a whole lot right now so…"

"Why?"

"Um…" He could tell Sarah, right? Kie would definitely be telling Sarah, so no harm in him saying something. "Okay, so, we maybe, a little bit…um…well we might have kind of, almost kissed? A couple times? And then I flipped out. And then her dad was being an asshole so I stole his money clip. And then she found out on the cross heist. And then I got a little self-sacrificial on the heist which I get was stupid and I am," he looked at Sarah pointedly now, because he knew Kiara wasn't the only one he had freaked out that night, "I am really sorry, by the way. For freaking you guys out like that. But anyway I think she's pissed and I can't deal so…" He shrugged. That would have to sum it all up.

"You almost kissed??"

"Yeah, yeah, but we didn't. I didn't."

Sarah scrunched her face up in confusion. "Don't you, like, have it super bad for her?"

"Fuck off." He elbowed her. "It doesn't matter if I do or if I don't. It shouldn't happen." Sarah got that look where he could tell she was about to dive head first into this topic, and JJ could absolutely not handle that right now. "Look," he jumped back up, "I'm late to meet John B at the Chat. So, I'll catch you later. Call me if you need me."

"JJ."

"Sarah I do not have time for—"

"How are you getting there?"

Valid question. "I am gonna take a little stroll through the cut." He gestured to the clear blue sky as cartoonishly as he could manage. "Lovely day for it."

End of chapter