birds of a feather, obx

035. reunion

It's Saturday and Rosie and Cora are occupying themselves by playing with Barbies up in their room.

"Ken does not get to sleep on the couch!" Cora protests. "He stepped on Lucy's tail!" She points to the toy dog.

"He apologized." Rosie shrugs.

"Barely." Cora rolls her eyes. "Ken sleeps outside."

"I hate playing Ken." Rosie grumbles, tossing the male doll back onto her bed. "He's gone. I'm only Fisher Barbie now."

"Okay." Cora says.

"Girls!" They hear Heyward yell up. "Girls, come on down here! Got somebody here for you to see!" The two girls share nervous looks.

"It's not DCS, is it?" Rosie nervously asks.

"But we didn't do anything." Cora pouts.

Rosie makes the first move, Cora trailing behind her best friend. They get downstairs and outside, both freezing when they see the familiar face.

"What happened to the midgets?" Pope teases when the first thing he notices is how they've both grown a few inches.

"Pope!" The two girls cheer, racing over to him. Pope quickly swoops them up before they crash into him.

"Ugh, I've never missed kids so much." Pope remarks, tightly hugging them.

"You're stinky." Rosie grimaces.

"Way to ruin the moment, Rosie." Pope clicks his tongue. He puts them down and, despite her nose hating it, Rosie hugs him again.

Cora looks around, Pope easily able to notice she's looking for the others, specifically JJ.

"Hey." Pope taps her on the head making her look up at him. "He went back home. They've got no idea you guys are here. I only just found out. So, two little Heywards in training, uh? Pops put you to work?"

"Barely." Cora says, smiling slightly when Pope gives his father an offended look.

"Boy, they can barely lift a bag of rice." Heyward comments.

"Who's she?" Cora points to the girl she doesn't recognize.

"Oh, uh, this is Cleo. We met her on the ship and she was on the stranded island with us." Pope says.

"Hi." Cleo greets the two young girls. "Mini Maybank and Mini Routledge, huh? Jeez."

"You guys got stranded on an island? Like Gilligan's Island?" Cora asks.

"Well, we didn't have nearly the same amount of resources, but, uh, basically." Pope says.

"Where's John B?" Rosie asks.

"He went back home, we dropped Sarah off there." Pope says.

+++

"So there I was at the top of this crane on a huge container ship in the middle of the ocean." Pope says. The six are sat around one of the tables outside and eating the food Mrs. Heyward made. "And what do I hear from down below but..." Pope mimics rapid gunfire making both of his parents exclaim and jump. "Gunshots shooting right back up at me."

"True story." Cleo nods.

"Mom, gunshots." Pope says. "That's when I knew there was no way we were getting off with the cross. So..."

"Boy." Heyward warns.

"Dropped it in the ocean." Pope says. Cora and Rosie's jaws drop.

"You did what?" Heyward asks.

"It was the best thing I could do." Pope reasons. "And get this, as soon as I'm jumping off the ship, we're swimming away, I look back. They're pulling it back out."