PRINCESS [Sarah Cameron] ON HOLD

Seven

"It's okay. It's also not your fault, so you shouldn't be apologizing for him. I can think of a way that you can make it up to me, though." Parker nods enthusiastically. "Let me have a chip and your phone." 

The Maybank girl opens the back of chips and holds it out to Sarah, who takes it so that Parker can fish her phone out of her pocket. She unlocks it and hands it over, very confused. Sarah just smiles to herself and puts her number into the contacts before giving it back. 

"Text me!" Sarah yells over her shoulder as she walks away, leaving Parker standing there, dumbstruck. She wanders back over to John B, who is grinning to himself. 

"What the fuck are you smiling at, dipshit?" John B glances at his best friend with a teasing look. "Nothin'," He doesn't say anything for a second, and then he pounces on Parker, pretending to lay kisses all over her face and making his voice higher as he says, "Oh, text me, Parker! Please, thank you for defending me against the big bad John B!" 

Parker shoves him away, muttering, "Fucking idiot." John B continues to laugh to himself, leaving his best friend to her thoughts of the Kook Princess.

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The rest of the Pogues join up with the duo later that day, Pope sporting some nasty injuries from some Kooks that he was jumped by on his delivery. 

They finished out the day lounging around in some hammocks, with JJ and Parker leaning on each other and sharing a vape. Pope sits up slightly, glancing over at John B.

"You really think it's out there? Like, no bullshit?" John B nods vigorously. "My father thought it was." 

Pope looks at him for a second longer, trying to dig deeper. "But do you?" John B has to think about it for a second. "After hearing his voice on that tape... I think I do."

Pope shrugs, leaning back. "Only one way to find out." He sticks his hand out so that they can do the Pogue handshake. 

Kiara sits up slightly and looks around at her friends. "Look, we're gonna find it, you know? Even JJ believes." Parker looks over at her brother with faux shock, sarcastically saying, "Oh my god, Jayje, do you really believe?"

JJ nods seriously. "Totally." He then pauses, thinking about something. "Wait. Are we talking about five mil?" All of the Pogues chime in immediately, correcting, "Five hundred mil." 

Parker lays back, JJ following closely behind. "I'm gonna dream about shipwrecks." Kiara chuckles at that, and there is silence for a second before JJ calls out, "Good night, Bird!" Parker can practically feel John B's eye roll, and he responds, "Good night, bird shit!"

She laughs, and JJ elbows her in the stomach making her double over slightly. They shove each other for a bit before finally settling down. Parker shuts her eyes and falls asleep almost immediately, dreaming of treasure and Sarah Cameron.

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The next day, the Pogues get on a boat and make their way towards the coordinates. The weather continues to pick up as they try to stay over the exact spot.

"All right, JJ. Pin it here." John B yells over the wind towards the blonde manning the wheel. "Roger that! X marks the spot. All right, ladies and gentlemen. To going full Kook." Parker lets out a whoop from where she is standing and trying to help Pope with the controls.

"All right, JJ, we're right over it. Ten seconds northwest." JJ repeats back the instructions, turning the helm in that direction. Parker looks at the screen, relaying the information to her friends. "One hundred feet." Pope suddenly gasps, which makes Kiara, John B, and Parker crowd around him trying to see the screen. "What? What, what, what, what, what, what?"

A large fish swims past the camera, making Pope shrug and say, "It's nothing." The group groans, each of them speaking their frustrations towards the raven-haired boy. He tries to apologize, but none of them are having it. 

After a short while, Pope begins to lower the ROV deeper. "And to quote the Hobbit, 'Down, down, to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go my lad.'" Parker laughs slightly, shoving his head and muttering good naturedly, "Nerd." Kiara continues to watch the line, calling out the depth as Parker had moved to assist Pope more thoroughly. 

The sky rumbles, and Parker looks nervously at the water. "The tide's turning." The monitor beeps, making John B send course corrections to JJ. The boat keeps getting pushed further and further off-course, making John B have to relay new directions constantly.

Pope snaps something at Kiara, and the tensions in the boat continue to rise. The tether gets past 700 feet, 800 feet, 900...

The boat starts to rock violently, and JJ tries to keep them as in place as he can. "JJ, we'll turtle in this storm." Kiara continues to watch the tether nervously, "920!" John B frantically yells even more instructions to his best friend, but Kiara begins to get nervous. "There's too much current! We're gonna lose it!"

John B gives one last ditch attempt at getting them in the right spot, and JJ cranks the wheel hard. The monitor whirs and beeps, letting them know that they should be right above it. They look at the screen, but they can't see any sign of anything, let alone a shipwreck. 

Kiara continues to let out the tether, until they finally reach the bottom. John B calls for JJ to hold it steady at quarter speed, before turning to Pope. "You should be seeing something, man." Pope and Parker exasperatedly hit keys on the monitor, and Pope exclaims, "I know, I know!" He then spots something, which makes him take a step back.

"Wait, wait. Oh, good God." Parker stares at the screen in shock before crying out, "Oh, holy shit!" JJ tries to see the screen from where he is, asking, "See anything?" John B runs his hands through his hair, elated and disbelieving. "It's the Royal Merchant."

They begin to celebrate, but their happiness is cut down as soon as Pope moves the ROV throughout the boat, and nothing is there. John B sighs, "It's not there. Look, just-- just pull the drone up." Parker pats him on the back, and the sky rumbles once again. 

Pope tries to come up with a solution, saying, "Look, we can do another pass. Recharge the battery. We can-- we can go back down." JJ just shakes his head, beginning to move the boat. "We've done it three times. There's nothing there." Kiara suddenly explodes, yelling, "Shut up!" 

JJ shrugs, muttering, "What? It's true!" Kiara shakes her head trying to come up with another explanation. "The gold could be buried. We don't know." John B just sighs, turning away from the monitor. "If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay? Somebody beat us to it. Or it was never there."

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A/N: Alright, alright, alright! Hope y'all like this chapter, and hope y'all are ready for some Sarker! It's gonna happen super soon, guys! I swear. John B gonna be hardcore third wheeling, but happily so.

Don't forget to vote and comment what you thought!