You waded frantically through the crowd of people on the beach; it was hard for you to see much, you weren't the tallest woman in the world. Everyone was scattering; it seemed the fight pretty much shut the party down, although something was tingling in the back of your mind. In the chaos of the fight and getting elbowed in the face, some part of you remembered hearing something about a gun. You hoped one of your friends weren't dumb enough to bring that gun you found today to the party, let alone dumb enough to wave it around and scare everyone. Then again, that'd explain the panic around the beach right now.

You stop and take a deep breath, panicking and rushing around in circles won't help you right now. As you exhale, you hear a voice you're getting to know well. It's JJ, and he's yelling, from what you can tell, the other loud voices are Pope and Kie, so you quickly head in that direction. When you finally push through the last round of people separating you, your heart drops. There they were, and JJ still had the offending gun in his hand, defending his actions. It wasn't for another few seconds that you realized John B wasn't up there fighting with them, so you started to look around frantically.

You see him still in the water, thankfully moving around, so at least you know he's still conscious. You ran over to him, not minding your shoes and clothes getting soaked, and quickly wrapped your arms around him, just trying to get his mouth above water. When you finally manage, he looked at you with glassy, almost unseeing eyes.

You shook him lightly, "John B? Are you alright?"

"What the fuck is she doing here?" You heard Kie yell but couldn't be bothered to respond, keeping all your attention on John B.

You shook him again when he didn't answer, "Answer me!"

"What the fuck are you talking about, Kie, why wouldn't she be here?" JJ asked.

"She came with those assholes that almost drowned John B, she's clearly one of them!"

John B blinked at you, once, twice, three times, before taking a deep breath and sitting up on his own, shaking his hair out in a way you couldn't help but equate to a dog, it made you smile.

"Well, she's here with us now, it seems she's made her choice," Pope said in your defense.

"Yeah, for now," Kie grumbled, but you only partly took her words in, all your attention still focused on the guy in your arms.

"John B?" You asked one more time since he still hasn't said anything.

"I'm good," He finally said, standing up out of your arms. You worked hard not to take it personally, some guys weren't good at taking help from people.

You waded your way out of the water, John B right behind you, "I thought you said this was the one place both sides of town got along."

"Yeah, we normally do, until you came around, at least," JJ said jokingly.

"Hey! That wasn't on me!" You defended yourself.

"Yeah? It seemed to be centered around you when all hell broke loose." Kie snarled.

"I knew Rafe gave me weird vibes, but I didn't know he was such an asshole." You said.

Pope scoffed, "I call that the understatement of the century."

You couldn't help but feel a little bad; the fight did kind of start around you. Still, you weren't the one to throw the first punch or insult, that was all Rafe with JJ and John B egging him on, along with all his kook friends. The more you got to know that side of town, the less you liked them.

"Come on, let's get out of here. The cops for sure got a call or two about guns going off," John B finally spoke, giving JJ a dirty look.

"What was I supposed to do, man? He was going to kill you!"

"Whatever, let's just go." John B said, walking back towards his side of town.

You stood there, unsure what to do, you told Sarah you'd find your own way back to Tannyhill, but really, that was the last place you wanted to be, there were too many people there you didn't want to run into. Plus, you weren't even sure if you could get back there on your own, you were barely learning the streets in the daylight, the sun had long since set, and the only lights were the streetlights, few and far between as they were. So you stood there, trying to figure out your options. You supposed you could sleep on the beach, you've done it before, plenty of times. Then again, John B was right, cops would surely be there soon. You sighed.

"Hey, you coming?" You looked up to see John B behind the rest of his friends, waiting for you.

You didn't bother to hide your smile at his invitation as you took the steps to close the distance between you two. "Thanks, I had no idea where I was going to go."

"Why didn't you leave with the people you came with?"

It was your turn to scoff, "Yeah, like I was going to be in close quarters with someone who literally just almost drowned you. Plus," you added a little more shyly, "I had to make sure you were okay."

You noticed the slight upturn of his lips at your words, but he didn't reply. Instead, he walked with you back to the Twinkie, where everyone else was already waiting for you. You were surprised when John B. dropped everyone off, one by one, at their respective houses. For some reason, you thought you'd all pile back to John B's and crash there. So, to say it was a little awkward when Kie was the last one to get dropped off as she gave you two strange, untrusting looks would be an understatement. The awkwardness only diminished slightly as you two walked into the chateau by yourselves. At least, you felt awkward; he was completely at ease, or he was pretending to be, anyway.

You decided if he could act completely unaffected, so could you. So you did what you do best: you took control of the situation. He was really beaten up from the fight, cuts and scrapes everywhere, bruises already forming. You went right over to the fridge, grabbed him a beer, and put some ice in a washcloth. You grabbed his hand and walked him over to the couch, sitting him down as he just stared at you speculatively. You opened the beer and handed it to him before kneeling in front of him and softly putting the ice on the most prominent bruises.

"First aid kit?" You asked, it was the first sound either of you made since you entered the house.

John B seemed to almost be in shock as if he wasn't used to people taking care of him. You smiled softly at him, hoping to make him more comfortable with the situation. Kie might have been bitchy and exaggerating, but you did feel somewhat responsible for this whole mess. He eventually pointed to the closed door down the hall, "Bathroom."

You nodded, "Okay, I'll be right back."

"I don't need it, though, I'll be fine, just a few more of these," He said, wiggling the beer in the air, "And a full night's sleep, and I'll be good as new."

You ignored his weak protest, walking over to the bathroom. It took you a few moments to find his meager first aid supplies, but you decided you could make do with it. You walked back into the living room, now less silent since he turned on the radio. Kneeling back in front of him, you took out the alcohol and used toilet paper to dab it onto his deepest cuts; you couldn't help but feel bad when he hissed. You quickly covered them with bandaids, deciding that you'd have to do it even if one or two of the cuts looked like they needed stitches. As you were working, it was easy to ignore, but once you finished, you saw how intently he was staring at you. You looked at him, for some reason, it didn't feel wrong or unusual to just stare at each other, inches apart. Slowly, he moved his hand that was holding the ice on his face over to the spot under your eye that was hurting; you flinched when the ice touched you.

"Someone got you good. When did you get hit?" He sounded both angry and worried on your behalf.

"Uh, when I jumped on Garrett's back, trying to get him off you. Somehow, I got elbowed in the face."

"He hit you?!" He almost snarled

You shrugged, "I'm not sure, someone sure did, though. I was too focused on getting you out of the water to pay too much attention."

There was anger simmering in his eyes, "That dick head deserves a lot worse than he got."

You shrugged again, "I'm fine. Really, I'm just glad it's over, I'm not a fan of fighting." He smiled as if he knew something you didn't; you couldn't help but ask a little snarkily, defensively, "What?!"

"Oh, nothing." He said in a sing-song voice, standing up, finally breaking the almost magnetic staring contest you two were having. He dropped his now empty beer in the trash and went to the fridge for more, coming back in the living room with one for you, too.

"No, tell me." You demanded, taking the beer he was offering.

"For someone who's not a fan of violence, you sure jumped in fast."

"Yeah, well…" You trailed off, not sure what to say.

"You were worried about me," The sing-song voice was back.

You scoffed, "It was instinctual."

"You just met me and already had no choice but to help me? You've got it bad." He looked at you with a cheeky smile.

You rolled your eyes as you stood up and turned away from him, hoping you weren't blushing, but you doubted you were that lucky; you felt like your cheeks were on fire. With as much confidence as you could muster, you said, "I'm pretty sure we've already had this conversation, John B, you're way too full of yourself."

You gasped when you felt his hands wrap around your hips, turning you around. You noticed he let his hands rest there instead of taking them back. If you thought you two were close while you were giving him first aid, it was nothing compared to now, each breath of his moved your flyaway hairs. You couldn't look away from him and could tell he felt the same. His voice was quiet, raspy, when he spoke next, "Peaches…."

"Hmm?"

You noticed slowly that he started to lean into you, his eyes flicking from your eyes to your lips and back again. You decided almost immediately that you weren't going to stop him from kissing you, you were looking forward to it, actually. Unfortunately, a loud bang of his front door opening broke the moment, and you each took a step back.

"John B, I'm gonna crash here, okay? My dad is being a dick again." You knew that voice well enough by now to know it was JJ before he even turned the corner into the living room.

"O-"John B had to clear his throat before continuing, "Okay, no problem."

JJ's eyes opened wide when he saw you standing there like he forgot you were crashing. He quickly looked between you two, figuring out he interrupted something. "Oh, are you sure? I'm sure he'll be blacked out and asleep on the couch by the time I make it back home, anyway."

You smiled at him, "No, it's good you're here." You ignore John B's quick disagreeing look at you, "He could have a concussion. I saw at least two good hits to his head, and I'm going to need help keeping him awake. I have to leave at first light, and you'll have to keep him awake for a few more hours just to be safe."

John B rolled his eyes, "I told you, I'm fine."

"You probably are, but we're going to keep you up just to make sure." You ordered. The guys looked at each other, having a silent conversation before John B eventually looked at you with his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Fine, what are we going to do for the next few hours then?"

Quite a few things crossed your mind that you wanted to do earlier, but none were appropriate now that JJ was here. So, eventually, you shrugged, "Got any cards?"

The next few hours were fun, albeit subdued, especially once it hit like three in the morning and you had long since run out of beer, everyone was tired. You only knew so many card games and eventually turned on the TV, choosing whatever off Netflix.

The next thing you knew, you were waking up. It took a few moments to remember where you were and how you ended up there, you were comfortable, you knew that at least, and there was a warm arm around your waist. You lifted your head up and saw JJ, his head slumped to the side, asleep on the recliner, and turned to look behind you. At some point, you and John B must have moved horizontally because you two were lying on the couch, his arm holding you close, spooning you. You sat up lightning quick when you remembered what you were trying to do the night before, and you quickly shook John B, worried that his concussion might have gotten worse.

He groaned before opening his eyes slightly. He pulled you closer with the arm still draped around you, "Too early, more sleep."

You chuckled, happy that he was okay. You saw from a wall clock that it was 5:30 and knew you had to leave. You leaned in and kissed his cheek, his one eye-popping back open, a small smile on his face, "Sorry, I have to get going, I'm glad you're okay, though. Text me."

You didn't wait for his reply before standing up and gathering what little you had on you; you weren't sure he was going to say anything anyway, he was already back to sleep. So you left. It was easier than you thought it'd be to find your way home once the sun was up. For the first time since you left Sarah, you checked your phone as you were walking back. Your eyes widened at the amount of missed texts and calls from Sarah, Rose, Garrett, and even Ward. So much for making it back in the house without them noticing. Still, you were going to attempt to sneak in anyway; the calls stopped at midnight, maybe you could pull it off by saying you got home around one. It was worth the shot, anyway. Thankfully, everyone was still asleep when you made it home a half hour later. So you snuck into your room before stripping down and crawling into bed for a few more hours of sleep.

When you woke up, you checked your clock to see it was ten, a much more reasonable time to wake up during summer vacation. You sat up, rubbing your hands over your face before doing everything in your power to hold in a scream when you saw Sarah sitting there at the end of your bed with her arms crossed, looking at you as if you were a child who needed to be scolded.

"Have you just been watching me sleep?" You ask as unaffectedly as possible.

Her lips ticked up, but she showed no other sign of amusement. "No, I just got here five minutes ago, and it was clear you were waking up. Anyway, I'm not the one that needs to be answering questions. Where were you? You just ran back off to the beach where someone was waving a gun around and didn't answer any of my texts; I was so worried!"

You felt terrible, that wasn't cool of you at all, "Sorry, Sarah. I didn't mean to worry you."

"You're still not doing much question answering. You're lucky I like you, I covered for you with Rose and Ward."

You smiled at her but decided you owed it to her to tell her the truth when she didn't look appeased at all. So you opened your mouth, and the night came spilling out. By the time you were done, she looked more worried, not less like you hoped. "Hey, you have to be careful with them, they're not trustworthy at all, you'll end up getting hurt."

"Sarah, your brother singlehandedly started a beachside brawl last night. And the 'great guy' you set me up with was very close to murdering someone. I don't think it's that side of town I have to be worried about."

Sarah huffed but couldn't argue, "Just be careful, okay? And if you're in over your head, or just need help, call me. We're family now, and that's what family does."

You smiled. You're not usually one to initiate a hug, but you couldn't stop yourself this time. She froze for a moment before hugging you back. The next few hours were spent hanging out with Sarah, eating with the family, and listening to Topper beg Sarah for her forgiveness over the phone, you found out she was just as pissed at her friends and boyfriend as you were. You weren't quite sure how to react when Rose handed you a credit card with your name on it, you tried to give it back to her, but neither she nor Ward would hear of it. It felt wrong, they weren't your parents, you had parents, even if you never met one, and the other had been missing for a while. You decided to take the card and act grateful but stuff it away and never use it.

You were lying by the pool with Sarah when your phone pinged with a text. You felt a rush of something when you saw John B's number pop up on your phone, reminding you that you still haven't saved it. You open the phone to see he wrote a simple 'hey.'

John B and JJ both breathed a sigh of relief as Sheriff Perkin left. John B felt like something was going on when she told him to stay away from the whole boat sinking thing, and even if he agreed to because she promised to keep him out of foster care, he knew something bigger was happening. JJ seemed to think the same thing, he, however, wasn't ready to give up like John B was.

He wasn't sure how JJ always did it, but it seemed like JJ had a superpower that made him able to always convince you that doing something crazy was a great idea, and before he knew it, he agreed to go see what was in that boat even if it meant possibly losing his freedom.

"Yeah, but how are we going to stay down there long enough to really get in there and search?" Kie asked, picking up a necklace from the couch, it was yours that you must have left without noticing. She quirked her eyebrows and held it up higher so the rest of the group, including John B, could see. He reached over and took it from her, not planning to explain why it was there, even if he could clearly see she wanted to know.

JJ had no such problem talking about it, though, he reached over and snatched the necklace from John B before he quickly snatched it back, "Speaking of Peach, she's living at the Camerons, we'll get her to get some of their scuba gear."

"Since when were we talking about her?" Pope and Kie asked at the same time. JJ, pointedly looking at the necklace John B was quickly stuffing in his back pocket, answered the question with the look alone.

"Do we really want to get her involved in this? We don't know her, how do we know we can trust her?" Kie asked.

"We can trust her," John B said with certainty, pointedly, not wanting to hear any more about it. "I'll see if she's willing to help out."

He took out his phone to text you, not noticing the eye contact everyone else made, there was a mixture of worry, surprise, and happiness for John B and the potential goldmine they could find on the boat.

He put his phone down after texting you, and their conversation continued, a few minutes later, his phone rang with your reply. 'What's up?'

'I need a favor,' He sent off, trying to keep it all business.

'And here I thought you were missing me already. If you don't watch out, you're going to hurt my feelings. How can I help?' John B couldn't help but smile at your reply, everyone else noticing. JJ might have talked to him the day before and knew he was interested in you, but none of them were used to seeing John B like this. He kept his phone in his hand so he wouldn't miss texts, smiling at those texts, seeming genuinely interested in someone.

JJ opened his mouth to say something, something probably stupid, something making fun of his friend, but Pope slapped him, stopping his words in their tracks, instead only an 'Ow!' Leaving his mouth.

You opened your phone when it buzzed again, now in your room alone. You just needed some time to yourself, and this was the only place to get it, especially because the AC still wasn't on and mostly everyone was hanging where they could get some fresh air, Sarah was even in their yacht, which still had working AC. You were starting to really come to care for this family you were shoved into, but you've always been an only child. An only child who didn't have a father and whose mother was flaky at best, so you were used to being alone most of the time. Having so many people around so often, even in a house so big, had a way of becoming suffocating for you, so you took the alone time wherever you could get it.

You smiled seeing John B's number pop up on your phone, even if you knew he was texting you because he wanted something. You figured this could possibly lead to another fun adventure, foolhardy as you thought the last one to be.

'Do you have access to the Cameron's scuba gear? Feel like finding out what's in that boat?'

You stare at the text longer than necessary, once you told Ward you knew how to dive, he did say you could use the gear whenever you wanted as long as you had people with you and proper supervision. If you squinted your eyes really hard and tilted your head to the side 45 degrees, perhaps your friends could be considered proper supervision. You knew, at the very least, they weren't going to let anyone die or get hurt if they could help it. You shrugged. Fuck it, you decided.

'Sounds fun, give me an hour?'

His simple response was a thumbs-up emoji, which made you roll your eyes before sitting up off your bed, deciding it was time to plot. You weren't sure how to get the scuba gear, even if you knew you weren't doing anything wrong, you knew if the family found out, there'd be a bunch of questions you had no good answer for. You had a thought, and you didn't know if it was a good idea or not. Sarah, you trusted her, but you didn't think it was a particularly good idea to get her involved. There was a problem, though; she'd been camped in the yacht, where the scuba gear was since the sun hit its apex, and you weren't sure you could convince her to leave, especially if you were planning on staying behind. Perhaps you could say you were planning on going diving, but you were sure she'd want to go with you.

After a few more minutes, you shrugged, you were just going to wing it and hope for the best. So you got dressed, as you were stripped down to your underwear to cool down, and then made your way downstairs, outside, and up the pier. You breathed a sigh of relief when, as you were walking, Topper pulled up the driveway. You ignored him but figured it'd be the perfect excuse for Sarah to leave.

You smiled at her as you stepped into the yacht, "There you are, I've been looking for you."

"Really? Thank god, please tell me you have something fun to do because I'm bored out of my mind."

"I wish. Seems to me you're going to be busy for the rest of the day, Topper just pulled up."

You didn't feel filled with confidence when she simply sighed and got even more comfortable, not looking like she was planning on going anywhere anytime soon. "Oh."

"I'm guessing you're still pissed at him for last night?"

"That's an understatement. Why do they have to be such dicks?"

"That's guys for you."

"Yeah, but specifically Topper, I mean, I don't know what happened to change him so much over the last year. I used to think we were going to get married."

"According to what 'what's his face' was saying last night, you've both changed a lot over the last year, maybe you two just grew apart," you say, you might be in the middle of something, but she was still your friend, and you didn't want to see her hurting.

She snorted a laugh, "His name is Garrett, but yeah, maybe that's it."

"Plus, he wasn't the instigator last night, that was Rafe and Garrett. Maybe you should go talk to him." You felt a little bad for trying to convince her to talk to him just so she'd leave, but on the other hand, from what you heard, they'd be fine in a day or two anyway, so there wasn't anything wrong with pushing that timetable forward a little, right?

She sat forward, "Yeah, that's true. Yeah, maybe I will."

You smiled encouragingly at her as she stood but had to hold in a sigh when John B. came into the room at the exact wrong moment. For a second, you were freaking out, wondering how on earth you could explain to Sarah why he was there, but then you remembered that JJ told you John B worked for Ward, and you were able to breathe a sigh of relief with an idea.

You turned to him, "Thank you for getting here so quickly; they're over there."

His eyes were wide for a moment before playing along and grabbing the gear you were pointing at. "Sure."
"What are you two doing?" Sarah asked as she stopped gathering her things to leave.

"Oh, I wanted to go diving, and I was told that making sure the gear was ready is kinda in John B's job description, so I texted him and asked for him to come over to help. I didn't wanna bother Ward or anyone. He's already being so nice, offering me the gear whenever I want."

She sat up and pouted at you, "I thought you said you had nothing fun planned."

"No, I said Topper was here, so I figured your day was already busy."

"Oh, right," She said, almost forlornly. "I guess I better go see what he wants. I shouldn't be long. Do you feel like waiting for me?" No one could ignore the hope in her voice.

You quickly look over at John B, but he seemed at a loss for words as you were. "Sure," You eventually manage, "John B can take me and show me where to fill everything up, and hopefully, you'll be done by the time we get back."

"Okay, yeah, that works. I'll see you in a few!" She said with a huge smile before leaving the yacht.

You yell after her, "Text me if your plans change!"

You hoped that she and Topper would make up enough that she wouldn't want to leave him. You turn to John B to see that he is already watching you. You smiled at him and shrugged as if to say, 'I did what I could.' His returning smile was enough to let you know you did your part.

"Alright, come on, it seems like our time just got even shorter."

You nodded at him as you helped, grabbing everything you could think of that you might have needed. Unfortunately, you'd only gone diving a handful of times in your life, so you were by no means an expert. It became obvious as he was grabbing things that he was just as in the dark as you were. You grabbed him by the shoulder to spin him so that he was looking at you. "Please tell me you know what you're doing with all this."

His eyes widened, "You don't?!"

"I mean, in the vaguest of terms, sure. But I don't trust myself to set things up, to turn on the tank and have people relying on me to breathe!" You started to panic, all of a sudden, this felt like a terrible idea. What were you doing? Why? What was the point of all this? Just cause some cute guy asked you to, and it might be another fun adventure? Scuba diving can be fucking dangerous if you don't know what you were doing. You should just cut your losses there; you didn't cause any damage yet, you could just walk away and forget this ever happened. Yeah, that was what you were going to do. What could possibly be in that boat anyway?

You were brought out of your spiral when he was the one to grab you by the shoulders this time, turning you to him, "Hey, look at me. It's fine; we'll figure it out. I'm sure with your knowledge and mine, we'll get it under control." He rubbed your shoulders calmingly, and you felt yourself relax a little.

You looked at him somewhat disbelievingly. "This isn't like trying to make chicken parmesan for the first time on our own, this could literally be life and death, if we don't do this right, we could suffocate. I don't know about you, but I'm quite fond of breathing and the living that goes hand in hand with it."

He laughed, which might have pissed you off a little, but the way he looked at you made you know he wasn't laughing at you. "Okay, okay, you have a point there, but I know we can do this."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, and we don't have that much time to worry about it, we have to get going."

You sighed by nodding your head, taking his point. So you worked together to quickly load everything on the HMS Pogue, making your way to the gas station or air station, you supposed. Your panic came back with a vengeance when neither of you knew how to add air to the tank. "We should go back, John B, we have no idea what we're doing, and I really don't want to go to jail for manslaughter. And I don't want you to die. Yeah, we should go put these ba—"

You were cut off by John B spinning you around and smashing his lips against yours. You held on to your worry for another moment or two before letting yourself forget it all and getting lost in the kiss. Especially when his arms wrapped around your waist and his tongue prodded your lips for entrance, with a sigh, you opened your mouth and let yourself get lost in the kiss.