─☼☼☼─
"𝙃𝙊𝙒 𝙇𝙊𝙉𝙂 𝘿𝙊𝙀𝙎 it take to go two miles and back in a car?" Pope wondered in exasperation, his eyes desperately scanning the swamp for any sign of their two missing members. "I feel like they're takin' a minute. Should I go look for them?"
John B shook his head, biting down on the bandana that sat around his neck as he thought for a moment. "I don't─I don't know just give me a sec."
"Damnit! Every time!" Pope exclaimed, throwing his arms up. "Why do we gotta send Kiara and JJ, the slowest people on Earth?"
"They'll be here." Charlotte assured from where she sat atop the Twinkie, Sarah seated next to her. "They'll take ten years but they'll show up eventually, I'm sure."
"You and I should have gone." Pope argued, letting out a deep breath. "We woulda been at the damn church by now."
Charlotte rose her brows, watching as he turned and waded through the water, still cursing their luck. "Okay, here's something I think we can do." He let out a laboured breath, leaning against the Twinkie once he reached them. "We can find something to leverage the Twinkie, and then you can drive it out."
John B contemplated for a moment before nodding. "Let's do driftwood."
"Driftwood will work." Pope confirmed before the two of them engaged in their little handshake, telling one another to be safe.
"You guys want some help?" Charlotte wondered from the dry spot she currently resided in.
"Nah." John B dismissed with the wave of a hand, "You two stay up there, keep an eye out for danger."
A snort came from Sarah as she shook her head, "That's all we're good for apparently."
Charlotte gave her a look, "You wanna get down and dirty in that swamp? 'Cause I sure don't."
"Fair point." Sarah agreed, a grin coming to her face as she leaned back on her hands, watching as John B waded further away from them in search of driftwood. Pope had gone in the other direction, leaving the two girls alone.
With her eyes darting between the once-couple, Charlotte addressed the tension that hung in the air between them. She was certain they had broken up, but she had yet to receive any actual confirmation of that. "You two over?" She wondered, nodding toward John B slightly.
Sarah pursed her lips, letting a deep sigh out through her nose before nodding. "Yeah...and he's kinda being an ass about it."
Call it the older sister instinct, but Charlotte could tell that Sarah had been dying to speak to someone about everything that had happened.
"What happened?" Charlotte asked softly, her eyes studying Sarah's expression.
The two had always had a close bond. Since Charlotte and Rafe had started dating five years ago, Charlotte had become the older sister Sarah had always wanted. She was kind to her when Rafe wasn't, included her when he didn't want to. In Sarah's mind, she truly did have an older sister, and in Charlotte's she had another two younger sisters in the form of the Cameron girls. They didn't replace Kiara, not at all, but there was always room for them in Charlotte's heart.
And so, Sarah told her everything.
From the fall-out that occurred after Ward's death, to her re-connection with Topper, to the bonfire, the fight, and finally the awkward stage they were currently in.
Charlotte listened attentively, the two of them pausing every so often to ensure that Pope and John B were still okay as they sifted through the murky water.
Once Sarah had finished, Charlotte let out a breath. "I know you're not gonna believe me when I say this, but it does get better."
A pointed look covered Sarah's face, "You're right, I don't believe you."
"Listen," Charlotte smiled, "When your brother and I first broke up, I couldn't even look at a picture of him without crying, or wanting to punch something. I never thought I'd be able to look at him again...but here we are six months later, and we're friends...sorta."
Sarah was silent for a moment. "My brother's a complete ass, you deserve so much better than him."
A laugh flew from Charlotte's lips, "Right. So if I can manage to put up with him, you and John B will find your way back to each other no problem. Trust me when I say I've never seen him happier than when he was with you."
"You know what the worst part is?" Sarah spoke softly, as if reminicsing on everything her and John B had been through. "Even after everything with my dad, the way John B reacted, the things he said to me...I still love him."
Something squeezed at Charlotte's heart, the own plague of her love life, the strife she faced every day because of it. "Yeah." She whispered, pushing down the lump in her throat. "I know what you mean."
And she did, completely.
No matter what, a large part of her heart would always love Rafe Cameron. No matter what he did, she loved him. No matter how hard she tried not to, she loved him. Completely.
Sarah noted the shift in Charlotte's face, and instantly she knew. "You were the best thing that ever happened to Rafe." She said softly, a sad smile on her face. "He's a fucked up person...but you saved him."
"Yeah." Charlotte whispered, throat constricting. "And then I ruined him...turned him into whatever the hell he is now."
"No." Sarah asserted. "None of that was you. Most people would have left him long before you did...he did this to himself, all of it."
Not all of it, Charlotte wanted to argue. Ward did this to him, made Rafe who he was. But she wasn't going to say that, not to his grieving daughter.
"Doesn't matter." Charlotte dismissed, "We're not talking about me. We're talking about you and John B."
Sarah shrugged, "There's not much left to say, I mean..." She trailed off, her eyes darting across the swamp where they had last seen John B.
"What's wrong?" Charlotte demanded, her heart plummeting as she pushed herself onto her feet, standing atop the Twinkie to get a better view.
Scrambling up, Sarah gripped onto Charlotte's arm, "Where did he go?"
A splash came from said direction, but there was still no sign of John B.
"John B!?" Sarah called, her voice tilting in worry.
"HELP!"
His scream was mangled, drowned out by water as it seemed that he was pulled under. Panic surged through Charlotte as she caught sight of him struggling against something in the water.
"Pope!" His name tumbled from her lips as Sarah let out a terrified gasp, already jumping from the Twinkie into the water. "Pope, we need help!" Charlotte called again, following after Sarah who had grabbed a knife from inside the vehicle.
"Hurry!" Sarah cried, the two girls already attempting to make their way through the thick, dirty water.
"Charley, what's happening?" Pope yelled from across the swamp, doing his best to get to them in a hurry.
Charlotte's heart was hammering against her ribcage as she and Sarah approached the scene where John B was struggling for his life. "The gator has him!"
"John B, hold on!" Sarah screamed, pausing with wide eyes as the water fell still around them. The two girls pressed their backs together, turning in slow circles for any sign of their friend.
"John B─"
He emerged from the water with a large gasp, the gator still latched onto him as the two struggled against one another.
Charlotte let out a startled gasp as Sarah lunged forward, driving the blade into the first sign of the gator.
She drew blood, but it didn't relent, still clamped down on John B.
Again, Sarah stabbed at it, and then again, and again.
Finally, it let go of John B, allowing him to haphazardly crawl toward the girls. Sarah still stood on guard, prepared to stabbed at the creature again, while Charlotte grabbed onto John B, pulling him toward her.
"Shit! Are you okay?" Pope exclaimed, finally reaching the three of them.
John B let out a sputtered cough, leaning into Charlotte. "We gotta go."
Charlotte nodded, pulling him along with her. "Everybody back to the Twinkie, now." She passed John B off to Pope, reaching out to pull Sarah toward her. "Come on, Sarah. We gotta get out of here."
The younger girl looked to her with wide eyes, still in shock as to what just happened. When her eyes met Charlotte's, she gave a small nod, her shaky hand locking with the Carrera girls.
"Fucking JJ was right." Charlotte muttered as they quickly made their way back to the safety of the vehicle. "Why did he have to be right?"
─☼☼☼─
"Alright, be careful. I'm pretty sure that thing will get infected." Pope warned as Charlotte attempted to analyze John B's wound.
"Well, the swamp water certainly didn't help the cleanliness of this thing." She muttered, gently moving his leg so she could get a better look.
John B let out a grunt of pain, clamping his eyes shut for a moment. "Are Pat Womack and I gonna be twins?"
Sarah rolled her eyes, "Pat Womack was in a hiking accident."
"Car accident." Charlotte corrected, "And no, you got lucky. It didn't cut into the muscle too much."
Through small breaths of pain, John B spoke. "Lucky─that─I got─bit by─an alligator─and─ my car─is underwater?"
"Touché." Charlotte muttered, lifting his leg off of her. "Sit tight, I have some Advil in my bag, it'll help with the pain at least a bit."
Carefully, she lowered herself into the open window of the Twinkie, reaching for he backpack that sat in the back of the vehicle. From up above, she could hear Sarah and John B conversing about what they could use to wrap the wound.
"Make sure it's clean, whatever it is!" She called, riffling through her bag for the pill bottle.
Just as she had located it, the sound of a car horn filled the damp air.
Finally.
"Look who it is," Pope retorted as Charlotte pulled herself back onto the top of the van, passing two pills to John B who gratefully accepted them. "The tortoise and the tortoise. Just a couple of hours later. Where the hell were you guys!?"
Kiara awkwardly scratched at the back of her neck as she nodded to JJ who had hopped out of the driver's seat of Mike Carrera's truck. "Paternal complications."
Charlotte gave her a look, "Dad caught you?"
"No." Kiara declined, "Not our dad."
JJ didn't seem too thrilled to talk about what had happened in the hours they had been gone. "Luke was at the Chateau." he explained in a dismissive tone, grabbing the supplies from the bed of the truck.
"Oh, great!" Pope exclaimed. "While you were having family time with your pops, John B was getting attacked by a freaking gator!"
JJ's face paled, "Wait, for real?"
"Yes for real!"
"Does it look like we're joking?"
"No, the blood just magically appeared here."
Pope, Sarah, and Charlotte retorted simultaneously, all of them with deadpanned expressions on their faces.
Kiara walked toward them, a look on her face as if somehow they were the ones who had fucked this all up. "Okay, what the hell happened?"
"What happened? I got bit by a gator!" John B fired back.
"Okay, I don't know why I'm being yelled at, because I put my ass on the line─"
Kiara was cut off a flurry of voices. Pope and Sarah were yelling at her about how long they took, John B was yelling about the fact that he wasn't really blaming her, and Charlotte was yelling about the fact that she had offered to go.
For once, JJ was completely silent, watching in frustration as they all went for each other's throats, pointing fingers and placing blame.
"SHUT UP!"
His order cut through their arguing, all of them falling silent as they looked toward him with mixtures of defeat and embarrassment.
"Seriously, guys." He exclaimed, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "I can't take it anymore, alright? Everyone, just cut it out for a second."
A humourless laugh fell from his lips as he shook his head, "Look, I just helped my dad leave this island for good. Like, he's not ever coming back. He's straight up like the Spanish, like 'Bon Voyage.'"
Everyone faltered for a moment, cocking their heads in false contemplation. "That's not the right language." Sarah whispered, as the rest of them nodded, however none of them willing to cut him off.
JJ continued, ignoring the confused looks he had just received. "And I know for a fact that all I've got is you guys, okay? You're it."
Charlotte's heart clenched as she watched him with sad eyes, envisioning the pain he was feeling in that moment.
"And I've come too close to losing you, all of you." JJ declared, looking to Kiara and Charlotte first. "I mean like shit, Charls and Kie, you two almost drowned. Pope, you were kidnapped. Sarah you were shot. And John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro." He lowered his voice slightly, shaking his head. "So this blaming each other is some Kook-ass bullshit, alright ? We don't do that, okay? We're Pogues."
He finished, leaving everyone sitting in stunned silence as they digested what he had said.
"Sorry." He muttered, putting his hands up in surrender. "That was a lot right now."
First Kiara and Charlotte looked at one another, trying to hide their smile, and then the three girls shared a look, before all five of them engaged in proud smiles.
Slowly, they all began clapping their hands together, giving JJ the applause he deserved.
"Well done." Pope praised.
John B let out a low whistle. "I gotta be honest, that was the best freaking speak you've even given."
"Very moving." Charlotte agreed, giving him a genuine smile.
"Also, you should think about, like, a Rosetta Stone because your Spanish and French and flip-flopped." John B suggested.
"I thought I tutored you in Spanish? I know I'm a better teacher than that." Charlotte questioned, both her and John B's comments earning them two middle fingers.
Sarah threw her arms up, "We should Bon Voyage out of here."
Eventually, the did Bon Voyage out of that God forbidden swamp.
Next stop, Freedman's Church.
─☼☼☼─
"Okay, you're tellin' me Denmark Tanny decided to hide the cross here?"
Upon inspection of the structure in front of them, Charlotte kind of had to agree with JJ's statement.
Freedman's church was about as run-down as it could get, on the brink of full collapse. It was evident that it had lay abandon for years at this point.
Swatting at a cobweb, Charlotte stepped further into the church, the floorboards creaking beneath her.
"I'm sure it didn't always look like this." She reasoned, trying to connect the dots in her head. This place held significance, that's why Denmark chose it."
Kiara nodded, poking at an old floorboard with her foot. "Let's spread out."
"Okay, well if I were a cross and I wanted to be hidden in an old church, where would I hide?" John B pondered as the six of them spread out, looking under pews, behind columns, anywhere they could think of.
"Are you sure it's here?" JJ questioned. "Like, Pope, are you sure this is the right church?"
Pope, who stood up at the podium, wore a determined look. "It's gotta be here guys."
Charlotte dusted off her jeans as she stood from where she had been examining one of the floorboard. "The spy glass said the freedman's alter...this has to be the place."
"What if we have to push a secret button...or, like, play a...a certain cord?" JJ suggested, hovering his hands over the old pipe organ. "And then all of a sudden the ground opens up beneath us to reveal the catacombs or something on which we stand."
This earned him an eye roll from everyone in the room.
"This isn't C.H.U.D." Charlotte chastised, brushing another cobweb from her hair.
"Or an escape room." Kiara added, shaking her head in disapproval.
"It's gotta be in here!" Pope exclaimed, marching toward the centre of the church before turning in a slow circle.
John B levelled him with the unfortunate reality that might be laid in front of them. "Look, I can't see where they would hide a giant cross in here."
"No." Pope argued frantically. "No. There's no way he would set us up to send us on a freaking goose chase that would lead us to a church that has nothing in it!"
"Yes, I get it." John B assured. "But I don't know what to tell you, man."
Pausing his frenzied pacing, Pope lowered himself onto one of the pews. "The clues led us here like Charley said. The cross is here."
"Pope, it'll be alright." John B assured softly. "We've had setbacks in the past, and we figured it out. We're gonna find it."
As John B continued, Pope pulled out the spyglass, aiming it upward as he looked around the church, searching for any unseen clues.
Slowly, Pope paused, pulling the spyglass away from his face meanwhile keeping his focus on the beams up above. The other five paused, each of them noting his expression with urgent curiosity.
"What?" JJ questioned.
Pope didn't answer with words, but instead stood and pointed a shaky finger upward. All of their eyes followed his finger and a ripple of shock spread across the group.
A shocked expression came to Charlotte's face as her eyes landed on what appeared to be a giant cross in the woodwork...it was here.
"Oh my God," Kie breathed. "Look at that."
Not wasting any time, Pope hurried toward the side of the room, bracing himself on the wooden boards before beginning to pull himself up.
"Pope." Charlotte warned, knowing that this could end very badly. "Pope, just wait."
"Hey, no!" JJ called, as if chastising a child who was doing something it wasn't supposed to.
John B let out a deep exhale. "And now Pope's climbing the walls."
"Pope, this church is really old." Kiara exclaimed. "This isn't safe!"
Pope ignored all of them, continuing to climb up the battered walls and toward the beams up above.
JJ winced as old pieces of wood flaked away at Pope's feet. "Yo, this church gots to be like two hundred years old."
"He's right." Charlotte agreed, her voice wavering slightly. Pope, can you please get down! This is like, extremely dangerous."
"Listen man," JJ levelled, "Imma be real, you're not the most coordinated person. You hear me?"
If Pope did hear them, he didn't show it.
Finally at the top, he straddled the beams, hitting his fist against one of the cross-shaped sections. "This one's solid...I'm gonna try the other one."
"Dude, that wood's rotten as shit." JJ warned. "Pope, I hate to break it to you, but that's wood."
"It has to be here." Pope muttered, more to himself than anything.
Slowly shimmying around the support beam, Pope made for the other section.
"Pope, watch out for the giant ass wasp nest that's above your head right now!" Charlotte called, her nervous eyes locked on the huge next that was right above the section Pope was headed toward.
John B let out a quiet curse from next to her. "Just take it nice and slow!"
Pope paused for a minute, regarding the nest before carefully reaching out and kicking at the cross-shaped wood.
A piece fell away, plummeting toward the others who let out a cry of protest as they quickly moved out of the way.
"Watch where you're flinging that stuff!" Sarah demanded.
Pope's eyes had widened up above as he looked down at all of them. "Get me a crowbar!"
Sarah was quick to adhere to his demand. "I'll be right back!"
"Look man, do you know what you're doing? I just don't want this whole church to fall down on us, do you know what I'm sayin'?" JJ wondered, which earned mutters of agreement from Kiara, John B and Charlotte.
"Here!" Sarah called, running back into the church with a crowbar in hand.
Pope steadied himself on the beam, "Okay, throw it up!"
Sarah hesitated for a moment. "Oh, you're serious. Alright."
"Watch your heads." John B muttered, pulling Charlotte back slightly as Sarah readied herself for the throw.
She tossed it up in one try, Pope easily catching it. An accomplished smile spread across Sarah's face.
"Nice throw." Charlotte applauded, giving her a quick grin.
"Okay, Pope, there's the wasp nest overhead, remember? So just take it nice and slow." John B instructed.
Pope nodded, letting out a shaky breath before slowly beginning to chip away at the rotten wood.
Pieces of wood began to fall down in front of the group, each of them taking a small step back as the watched Pope work.
Slowly, as the wood was broken away, something could be seen within the working of it. At first, Charlotte wasn't sure she believed what she was seeing, but then it caught a beam of sun, and she could easily see the gold gleaming beneath the wood.
"Oh my God." She whispered, her hand flying to her heart.
"It's here." Kiara said in shock, looking to her sister with an awe-struck smile.
JJ and John B were staring on with wide eyes. "You did it, buddy." JJ whispered.
And then, once the shock had subsided slightly, all of them let out excited laughs. The girls grabbing onto one another in glee as John B and JJ wrapped their arms around one another.
"WE DID IT!" JJ yelled. "WE FREAKING DID IT!"
And they did. They really did it.
As Pope chipped away at the final piece of wood, the full cross came into view, and it was a beautiful, beautiful sight.
"I thought you were crazy!" Kiara exclaimed.
"We did it!" Pope screamed, looking down at his friends in pure glee. "We did it!"
But their excitement was short lived, as always it seemed. Because within seconds, Pope was being overwhelmed by the wasps up above.
"They're stinging now!" He yelled, trying to swat them away. In his efforts, the crowbar came tumbling down, almost hitting Charlotte in the head.
Seconds later, Pope teetered off balance, falling from his position on the beam. He managed the secure one hand, leaving him dangling twenty feet in the air.
"Shit!"
Everyone jumped into overdrive, panic setting in amongst them as they scrambled to find a secure landing for Pope.
"Move the pews!" Sarah ordered.
"Grab all the cushions!" Charlotte added, already in the process of grabbing as many as she could carry.
"Pope, hold on!" Kie screamed, desperation seeping into her voice.
Pope let out a scream of pain. "I can't hold on!"
Within seconds, his hand had slipped and Pope came barrelling down toward the ground. Luckily, he landed on the pile of cushions they had arranged.
No one wasted anytime in dropping down next to Pope, all of them examining him for any sign of injury.
"Pope, you good?" John B wondered. "Any broken bones."
"You didn't tuck and roll, that's for sure." JJ muttered.
Pope let out a few quick breaths, wincing as he moved. His eyes were closed for a few seconds, and when they reopened, they quickly widened in complete terror.
There was no time to ask what had him so terrified, as within the blink of an eye, the cross they had searched so hard for fell at their feet, literally.
Pope had just managed to roll out of the way, altering the others to do the same, by the time the cross lodged itself into the floor of the church.
Laboured breaths could be heard all around as everyone stared at the thing that had just almost crushed all of them.
"Well," Charlotte breathed, her heart beating in her ears. "Guess we don't have to figure out how to get it down."
─☼☼☼─