A/N: This story picks up in that after building the house, Wes Genrette never approached the kids at the party (in real life, anyway). Kie and Pope go to college, and Sarah and John B go to live on the road, Cleo is on the road to getting naturalized, and the government compensated everyone with twenty million a piece upon excavating the cave.
In other words, the JJ redemption arc we deserved and never got. Loosely based on a fanfiction I already read on A03.
Also, promise me not to hate Kie because she got some unresolved shit to work through as well, and everyone will love the ending.
PART ONE
Chapter One- Everything That Shines Ain't Always Gonna Be Golden.
one year ago, Poguelandia, OBX
As JJ had lived and breathed, one thing was for certain. Or he thought, was going to be for certain. He loved Kie, and Kie loved him.
The morning of November third had started off with a chill that hung loose in the air. Not too cold to be in the Carolinas, not too warm for autumn, it was perfect. The leaves were at peak season, the sun was casting golden hues over the backyard, and as he raked the leaves, he smiled softly to himself. He had finally gotten everything he'd wanted. A home, his Kie, his friends were going to school. They finally all had some sort of peace. What else could he have asked for?
This was the moment that everything turned sideways for him. Some of it for the better. Some of it for the worse. Some of it was simply just a product of his nature, some of it could be changed. He was unaware of this. Or any of it.
The first thing that tipped him to the change was the quiet that had settled into the house. The lack of involvement. The lack of speech. The lack of touch. The lack of sex, even, although he'd never complain about that as long as he lived to see her face. Her sudden, quiet appearance had made him jump. And it was even more apparent that something was up when he went to pull her in for a kiss, and she shoved a piece of paper to his chest.
He grinned at her. "What's this?" He opened it, scanning it, and lighting up. "Kie! You're going to school for environmental science in January? This is huge!" He beamed at her. "This is incredible. Where are you..." He trailed off when he read the location. "Los Angeles."
"Yeah."
"So, that's why you've been so..." He trailed off. "Don't take it the wrong way, withdrawn." As soon as the words left his mouth he grimaced inwardly, biting his tongue.
"I have not been withdrawn." She guffawed, stepping back from him slightly. This seemed to be the dynamic lately between the two of them. If they weren't having sex, they were fighting. And, JJ, who had been working hard within himself to not let his anger get the best of him, bit his tongue and swallowed his original sharp response.
"Okay, fine, you haven't been withdrawn. I think it's great." He told her, brushing the snide remark off. "I mean, it's what you've always wanted."
A look of hurt flashed through her eyes, and she swallowed thickly. "Yeah, but, uh..." She scratched the back of her neck. "Is it what you want?"
He furrowed his brows. "Are you even asking that? Of course it's what I want, Kie, it's your dream school." He stepped forward, cupping her cheeks. "The distance is gonna suck, but hey, we're gonna make it work." He reassured her.
"So... So you aren't gonna come?" Her lip began quivering, and alarm bells went off in his head.
Uh oh. "Uh, Kie-"
"No, JJ, forget it." She grumbled, walking away.
"Kiara!" He called, but he didn't chase. He picked up the rake, and chucked it as far as he could across the yard.
"Woah, there Killa Man." Cleo teased, on her way out to feed the live bait. "What happened? Lovers quarrel?"
JJ snorted, walking toward the shack with her, pursing his lips. "Something like that." He grumbled.
Since Pope had left for school back in August, Cleo and JJ had become remarkably close. And it wasn't planned, either. John B had Sarah, and Kie had Sarah. And Sarah had Kie and John B. So naturally, the two picked up more of a bond on their friendship than what had previously existed. They'd bonded over growing up parentless, over growing up in poverty, and finally, over what it's like to hate where you come from.
"Oh, c'mon Rude Boy, don't go and run away from me!" She scolded him, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "I know who you are in ya bones, you blonde menace." She stepped closer, looking him in the eyes. "What happened?"
He sighed in frustration, flopping down onto the ratty couch in the bait shop. He lit a blunt he'd had rolled in the end table drawer.
"Kiara is going to school in LA." He shrugged. She raised an eyebrow, urging for him to continue. "I'm happy for her, C, I really truly am. I love her, and I want what's best for her." He explained.
"I sense a second part of the story coming, yeah?"
"Yeah, the problem. I didn't immediately tell her I'd go with her." He answered, handing over the smoking apparatus. "I finally have a life, C, a home. I need to experience it for a second. And I love her, and I'll love her whether we're thousands of miles away from each other or not. But, maybe her going to LA is a good thing." He spoke, not noticing that the topic of conversation was creeping in the shadows and listening. "I mean, you've seen us lately."
"Hard not to, you're either screaming or fucking on the kitchen counter." She rolled her eyes, but a smile played on her lips.
"That was one time and we never did it again!" He pointed at her, defensively. "And yeah, maybe some distance will do us good. She can focus on something other than fighting with me and worrying about me. And I can stay here and look after the house because everyone is leaving. And I can get to know myself better."
Cleo scoffed. "Excuse you."
"Well, you can't have working papers and no boss." JJ grinned. Cleo smiled back, but hers was less enthusiastic. "I need to figure out myself, Cleo, I'm fucked up.
"I miss my Grey Pipe." She huffed. "I wish I could have gone with him, but the damn government here thinks we're all terrorists." She sighed. "Go make it up to your Kiara. Maybe she's mad, but... She loves you. I have faith."
two hours later
"Kie!" He called out, moseying up the stairs. "Kiara!" He called, a bouquet of daisies and sunflowers- her favorite, dangled from his hand. "Kie!" He opened the door to his room, to their room, to be met with a gut- wrenching sight. His jaw fell open.
Her stuff was gone. All of her stuff was gone. Out of the drawers, off of the walls. Like she was never there.
"Kie!" He called into the house, dragging his flowers with him. "Kiara!"
"JJ." John B's voice had startled him. "Come here."
"Where the hell is Kie?"
"JJ, sit down please." Cleo spoke, calling him by his actual name for once. His head spun. "We tried to stop her."
"Stop her from what? I was gone for like an hour." He paced, ignoring the order to sit. "Where is she?"
"JJ, look at me." John B grabbed him by the shoulders. "Kiara... JJ, Kiara left."
"Kiara left to where, Bree?" He asked, fighting off the quiver in his lip. "She just... left?" His voice cracked, his tears spilled over and onto his cheeks, and he took the bouquet, ripping the flowers off the top. "Fuck!"
And so he called her twelve times, straight to voicemail, before he swallowed his pride and wound up at the Carrera's. John B had reluctantly agreed to drive him. His face was red, eyes swollen from crying, and he was trying to get his breathing under control. "Her car isn't here, JJ."
"Well, maybe she is, Bree. I have to try. If it was Sarah, you'd be trying too." He told his friend. He took the new bouquet they stopped to buy, and trudged up their front stairs.
He paused at the door, praying to everything that Mike didn't answer the door, and was delighted to see Anna. Until she crossed her arms, and went to yell for her husband.
"Wait, please don't. I don't want a scene." He spoke quietly. "I..."
"Land your plane, kid." She told him, voice holding little emotion.
"Have you seen Kie?" He asked her. "Her and I had a fight over school earlier, and she just kind packed up... I was hoping she had come here?"
"Ah, nice. She left again, because you're holding her back." Mike's voice floated through the door, before he made an appearance. JJ took a deep breath, as he had been reading in a book he'd gotten after he told Topper he was going to kill all the kooks on video. He never would, but they had upset Kie, killed a turtle, and he was getting too lax with his mouth. Once he finally stepped into view, JJ smiled tightly at him, and his voice took on it's sickeningly-sweet tone.
"Oh, pleasure seeing you Mr Carrera, as always. Actually, she's mad because I didn't immediately agree to uprooting my life again to go to freakin California, because I finally have my shit together." JJ told him, putting the bouquet in his hands. "You changed, didn't you Mike? A last name isn't a trait or a good way to judge someone. I'm just trying to find your daughter because I care about her."
He turned on his heels, and Anna came to meet him on the porch. "JJ, wait."
He stopped, but didnt turn around. Anna came around, and put a hand on his shoulder. "One thing that I have always known about you, is how much you love my daughter." She told him, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You have a rough past-"
"Yeah, happens when you're a human punching bag, and your parents leave you for dead. You turn into a shithead when nobody helps you out of a shitty childhood." He fired off, before flinching. "Sorry. Sorry. You were trying to be sweet."
"If I see her, I'll tell her you were here." She told him. "Promise."
The blonde looked her in the eye again, nodding, and swallowing the lump coming up in his throat. "So, she really isn't here?" He asked, voice barely above a whisper. Anna frowned slightly and shook her head. "I'm sorry." She whispered. JJ shrugged.
"Thanks for not calling the cops on me." He turned to Mike, and gave him a nod, which was ignored.
"You get home safe, JJ." She told him, running a thumb over his swollen cheeks. "Did you drive here?"
"JB's at the end of the driveway. I appreciate it, Anna." He told her, voice cracking. He looked down at his feet. "I gotta go."
"That kid has been nothing but a problem since he spawned into our lives." Mike grumbled, making Anna roll her eyes.
"Mike, he's putting in an honest effort to be a better guy. Give him a chance." Anna sighed. "Because I'm finally gonna give him a chance, whether you're with me or not." She told him, bumping forcefully into his shoulder on the way in. "And, if you can't see why, then maybe you should think about it on the couch later."
the next morning, Baltimore MD
Pope woke abruptly to a banging on his door. He groaned, looking at the clock. Too early for visitors, only five am. Could it be an RA? Someone after his money? He moved quietly to the door, grabbed a baseball bat, and peered out the peephole.
"What the hell?" He muttered, swinging the door open. "Kie, what the hell are you doing here?" He asked her. She said nothing, throwing herself into his arms and sobbing into his chest.
"JJ said no." She wailed, and he grimaced.
Kiara and him had been debating for weeks about her going to school in California, and while he assured his good friend that JJ would be supportive, he had gently laid the foundation that the chances of JJ leaving the OBX anytime soon was far fetched, because as he had put it, JJ was in his healing era. He had the girl, the gold, the friends, a home, and a stable income. A sense of family was present for the first time in his life. It was too much good to give up so fast, when there was a logical way of adjusting to their new way of life.
In other words, they could visit each other however often they wanted because they were rich as hell.
He sighed, rubbing a hand on her back awkwardly.
"Kiara, I hate to tell you this, but you and I kinda already knew it was coming." He told her, yawning and pulling away. "Why don't you go lay on the couch or something? You look exhausted."
"I need you to take me to the airport." She told him, without skipping a beat.
"Huh? Kiara, you're acting super irrational about this, did you even talk to him?" He asked her.
"Of course I tried to talk to him." She replied flippantly. Pope gave her a pointed look, but dropped the conversation. "Kind of."
"Listen, maybe the long distance thing will be good for you and him. All you've been doing is fighting. It will be like a small break." He suggested, watching a mug fill up under his Keurig. "You'll have some time to think about what the other wants. JJ will have time to discover himself."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Jeez, Kie. Will you stop being so defensive for two seconds?" Pope asked, handing her a mug. "You didn't sleep last night because you drove here, why don't you take a nap and-" He was cut off by the sound of the phone. "Speak of the devil." He flashed JJ's smiling contact card in her face.
"I'm not here." She shook her head. Pope rolled his eyes.
"You better have a damn good reason calling me at six am on a Saturday, JJ."
"Well, you're awake already, asshole." The remark was abrupt and full of humor, but his voice was hoarse and trembling. Kie grimaced, bringing her knees to her chest.
"I was." Pope nodded, giving her some side-eye. "Hey, man, are you crying?"
The shaky sigh that came had no words following it. There was shuffling in the background. "Kie just took off yesterday." This time, the voice was John B's, and it sounded tired.
Pope pursed his lips, and glared at the girl sitting on his couch. "Now, why would she go and do a thing like that for?"
"Fucking beats me." JJ mumbled, followed by a thump. "Ow! What the fuck was that for, Bree?" John B could be heard whispering in the background, before JJ laughed. "Here's exactly how it happened. I was in the backyard raking the leaves to leave them nice under the trees to save the bees, at her request. And then Kie came outside with an acceptance letter from a school that she didn't even tell me about. And when I didn't immediately say 'lemme pack my bags and leave my home AGAIN, for the twentieth time in my fucking life' after I told her I was game to figure shit out with distance, she-" He heard the blonde take a deep breath in and exhale. "I came back with flowers and to tell her if it was what she really, truly wanted, I would never hold her back. That I would go see her whenever she wanted. And she just packed her shit and disappeared. I even went to go see her parents. Nobody knows where she went."
Pope eyed Kiara. "And that's everything?"
"Yup. Guess she finally saw me for what I am."
"JJ, you know that's not true." This time, it was Sarah's voice. And then, she heard him let out a choked cry.
"Yo, Pope. Sarah and I are gonna go try and get him to get some rest. Let me know if you hear from Kiara." John B told his friend.
Pope didn't break eye contact with her. "Yeah, I will. Love you guys."
"P4L"
"So, are you gonna go back?" He asked. She blinked. Once. Twice.
"Take me to the airport."