"Shit." Pope mumbles.
"Alright, that's the police." JJ calls out, looking around at the others.
"Shit, guys if that's Peterkins we're fucked! I was asked specifically to stay out of the marsh.." Melia mumbles, rubbing her forehead.
"Just act frickin' normal." Kiara says, pushing her hair back and sitting up straight.
The siren of the police patrol boat blares as it parks up beside them. It's Shoupe and another one of the deputies.
"Evening, officers." Pope says with a fake, warm smile.
"Evening." Shoupe replies, throwing a rope over to the HMS Pogue, so that they could tie it off.
Emilia can already feel herself freaking out, it's been way too long already and John B is gonna need to come up for air soon.
Did she seriously need to have a weird encounter with JJ right before something stressful happens?
Shoupe pulls off his sunglasses, leaning on the siren post on his boat. "How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows at them.
"No-" JJ says, scratching his head slightly.
"No. Wow." Melia says, acting surprised.
"We didn't know that." Pope says, probably the most believable out of the bunch. "Why- why is it closed?"
"Well, we're conducting a search out here. A boat went down." Shoupe says, glancing around the water all around them.
Melia is starting to feel really sick.
"Oh." JJ says.
"You four seen anything?" He asks, glancing suspiciously between them.
"No. No boats, no." JJ states, sighing slightly.
Emilia glances in the water to see if she can see John B's figure anywhere. Nothing.
"Where's your friend you always hang with? Your brother right?" He says, pointing over at Melia. "He here?"
She gulps quietly. "Uhm, no, he's working sir." She says, looking down at her hands.
She was getting really worried now. This was taking too long.
Shoupe nods, humming slightly. He claps his hands before hoisting himself onto the HMS.
"I'm gonna check your little boat out." He says.
"Yeah, hop aboard." JJ says, making room for him to look around. "Uh, check her out."
The 25 minutes had got to almost have been up now.
JJ and Shoupe were talking about some kind of safety thing he needed to check, yet Melia couldn't focus on what they were saying. Her eyes were glued to the water, she felt herself going to pick her skin, but she stopped the second she felt the bandaids.
They remind her of her talk with JJ, before things got weird earlier that day. She couldn't break a promise that fast.
They show him something from the hold as Melia goes to stand beside Kie.
"All right." Shoupe says, nodding. He gets up and walks across the front board.
"Uhm, be careful up there. You don't wanna slip." Emilia says, nodding at him.
She remembers when JJ flung off the front the day before and smiles softly to herself.
He places his sunglasses back on and peers around the water, making sure nothing was nearby.
JJ glances around at the other 3, slightly nervous. He mouths something to Pope that Emilia couldn't pick up.
Time was ticking.
After a long while, Shoupe finally sighs and turns back around. "All right." He says, moving to step back onto his own boat.
"All right." Pope replies through a sigh.
"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Shoupe says, smiling at them all.
"Sure is." Melia replies with a petty smile.
"You let us know if you see anything on your way out." Shoupe enforces, nodding at each of them and pulling his rope back from their boat. He sits down at his steering wheel.
"Will do, will do." Pope calls out, watching as they drive off.
Once they are far enough away, Melia shakes her head nervously.
"It's been way too long." She says, biting her lip as they all run to the front of the boat, inspecting the water. And right on queue-
Gasp!
"There he is!" JJ says excitedly.
"Oh, God! Jesus Christ!" Pope says, sighing in relief. "Don't scare us like that!"
"How'd it go down there?" Kiara asks.
"Did you find anything?" JJ asks as he helps John B climb back up onto the boat.
"Did I find anything?" John B replies with a breathless laugh, pulling a large bag up and throwing it onto the boat.
"Yeah, there we go! That's my boy!" JJ yells, dapping him up.
Melia just grins, her older brother wrapping an arm around her and pulling her closer excitedly.
"Jeez dude!" Pope says, a wide grin slapped onto his face.
"You okay?" Kie asks, walking over to him.
"Yeah, I ran out of air." He says, still catching his breath slightly.
"You scared the shit out of me." Kiara says firmly, though she was still smiling stupidly.
"Yeah, the cops were up here, but, we took care of 'em." JJ says with a small smirk.
"Oh shit, not Peterkin right?" John B asks, looking down at his sister with wide eyes, rubbing her shoulder with his thumb. She just shakes her head with a small grin.
"Yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother." JJ says, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Hey, guys? Guys, bogey, two o'clock." Kiara says, squinting and looking out into the sea.
"What?"
"Do you recognise that boat?" Pope asks, squinting his eyes at it.
"I've never seen it.." Melia notes quietly, she knows most of the boats around here from working on them. "What are they doing here? The marsh is closed."
"I don't know... Let's not stick around and find out." JJ says, getting the bowline as John B starts up the boat. Melia sits back down with Kie.
"Should we wait on 'em?" Pope asks.
"No, we're not gonna wait on them." John B says, shaking his head as he turns the boats direction so their going away from the approaching boat.
As the boat was getting closer JJ yells, "Guys don't wait for me, go, I'm pulling it out as fast as I can." He says, biting his lip.
"I don't like the look of this.." Kiara says quietly.
"Are they coming for us?" JJ says.
"Maybe they're fishing..?" Pope suggests, not really believing it himself.
"Go, go, go, go!" JJ yells as he pulls the rest of the bowline out. Throwing it back down into the hold.
"Go into the marsh!" Pope says, the unknown boat getting closer and closer.
That's exactly what they do.
"Let's go!" Melia yells, sitting forward in her seat slightly.
"I'm going! Act natural, act natural!" John B shouts firmly.
The boat that was following behind them revs their engine, speeding up and turning to go through the marsh along right behind them.
"Hey, guys..? They're following us.." Kiara calls out uneasily, standing up to look at them better.
"Oh, this can't be good.." Pope says, shaking his head.
"Shit!" John B mumbles, revving the engine and trying to speed up as much as he could.
"Dude, you gotta go faster!" JJ says, looking at the boat that was catching up scarily fast behind them.
"I'm going!" He yells shakily.
They drive throughout the marsh, everybody's hearts pounding. They do a harsh left turn through the marsh and that's when they hear it.
Bang!
"Woah!"
"What the..?"
"Holy shit!" They all yell.
Kiara, Pope and John B duck instinctively. JJ quickly wraps his arm around Melia and pulls her down with him, keeping her beside him.
No matter how awkward things have been in the past few hours, it was all just forgotten about.
One of the men fires another shot at them, which just skims past their boat. Melia jumps slightly, JJ rubs circles on her waist comfortingly.
"Oh my god, we're gonna die.." Pope mutters, shaking his head.
Another shot was fired, and that's when apparently both Kiara and Emilia got an idea. They looked at one another and nodded.
Melia pulls JJ's arms off her waist and whispers a small, "Trust me." Even though she wasn't sure she actually trusted herself.
Her and Kiara crawl to the back of the boat, standing up slowly as they get hold of the fishing net.
Another shot was fired and Emilia yelps, jumping out of the way.
"Get down, guys!" John B yells, shaking his head anxiously.
Another gunshot was fired as the two girls throw the fishing line into the water with a groan, quickly getting down and crawling back over to where they were originally.
One of the men reloads their gun, but suddenly, something catches in the motor of their boat, making a spluttering noise as they slow to a halt.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Pope yells, standing up and gripping the back of his head with his hands.
They manage to drive off out of sight just as another gunshot was fired.
Melia and JJ stand up together, trying to catch their breath. Everybody looks at each other and laughs out of pure shock.
"Oh, my god! Whew!" Kiara says, wiping her forehead.
"Pogue gods, man!" JJ yells, smiling widely. Him and Melia have separated slightly again, but there was a mutual feeling between them that they were ok.
"That was insane!" Melia says, shaking her head in disbelief.
They all laugh as they drive off in the direction that goes back to the dock outside of the Château.
By the time they all step off of the boat it's dark out.
—————————————————
JJ and Melia were sat next to each other. Now was the best time to talk whilst everybody else was distracted with bringing the equipment in so that they could open the bag.
"I'm really sorry-" Melia starts.
"I'm sorry." JJ says at the same time.
The both laugh slightly, shaking their heads. Emilia decides to talk first.
"I'm genuinely sorry, it was really hot in my room and- and I was stressed. I didn't really know what I was doing." She explains, picking at her nails as she does so.
"Yeah no, agreed." JJ says, clearing his throat.
"So, can we just both mutually agree that it was a mistake and move on? I've really missed making fun of you and it's only been about three hours." He jokes with a wink.
"Rude? But, yeah." She says with a soft smile. "A mistake."
They both agreed that it was a mistake, and that it wasn't anything special. So why did it hurt so bad when they said that?
—————————————————
They had finally sat down on the dock all together, JB was quickly trying to unzip the bag.
"So, what do you guys think is inside?" Kiara asks, leaning against one of the back posts.
"Gotta be money, right?" John B says, "It's either that or nothing."
"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low-to-mid mills man!" JJ says with a grin, rubbing John B's shoulder excitedly as he holds Melia close to him by her waist.
"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope says urgently, rubbing his forehead.
Melia chuckles slightly, "Wow, Pope. That's a rare outburst of emotion from you." She jokes with a grin plastered onto her face, gaining a laugh from those around her.
"Okay, you guys are literally killing me with anticipation!" He pleads. "Just open the bag."
"Jeez.." JJ mumbles with a quiet laugh.
John B finishes unzipping it, reaching his hand in to grab whatever was inside.
"We almost died over this!" Pope says, a hint of excitement laced into his tone.
John B pulls out a small, metal canister from the bag, looking around excitedly before opening the top up.
The canister lid clangs as he places it on the ground, tipping the actual tin upside down into his hand. Something slides out.
A compass?
He stares at it for a few minutes, opening it up and looking at it in pure shock. Nobody knows what to say.
"Oh wow, yup. That's about right." Pope scoffs, backing up a bit. "Good job, everybody. We found a compass!"
JJ's arm unwraps from Melia's waist as she slides down to the floor. He pulls his cap off. He watches as Melia kneels down beside her brother.
"Guys, what? It's not worth anything..?" JJ says, sounding slightly disappointed.
A smile starts to grow on Melia's face, as she looks up at her brother.
"This was our father's." They say in unison with a disbelieved laugh.
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A NOTE FROM EMI: ahhh! and that's the first episode of obx complete! (only took me nine chapters.)
i'm so excited to carry this on! the next few chapters are gonna be so fun to write!
i'm really sorry that i just blew over their almost kiss but i needed that to happen for something i have planned for a future chapter😋
hope ur enjoying so far !! (if anybody is actually reading it other than my gf)