The Home We've Built

Chapter 3

Meanwhile with the guys, "So what's up with this Kiera stuff there man?" John B asked JJ. "Uh, honestly, I don't know right now, man. I mean I like her." "Okay..." John B said trying to get more. "And I think she likes me." He continues. "Seems like it." "Right now there's a lot going on with us and everything else. And as Pope would say, I'm trying to gather information, but I'm not Pope and my brain doesn't work that way." "Yeah, understandable." "But like women, all right, like they just aren't consistent." JJ starts, "Okay JJ, you definitely need advice, but I think I can hear Alaia so let's change the subject." "Okay." "So Pope, what's with this Limbrey chick? You think she knew my pops?" John B asks Pope, "I don't know. But I do think she has the information that could exonerate you." He replies, "That would be ideal." "Not to throw a monkey wrench in the entire thing," JJ starts, "but she did just try to kidnap you. How many times do I gotta do this?" "Here we go" "Why are we going back, huh? Why don't we go south? Why don't we go to Yucatán? Coast of Broken Dreams, baby!" "No, no, dude! I'm not running anymore. Look, OBX is my home." John B tells them, trying to get it in JJ's head that they are here to stay and win. "And besides, if I go back, I get another shot at Ward." For a split second they are all quiet, until a little fur ball jumps into the boat followed by the sounds of Sarah and Kie laughing. "Hi." Sarah says seeing and feeling the tension, "What y'all talking about?" She asks as they reach the side of the boat, handing the watermelon off to John B. "Uh... Fishing." JJ quickly says "Dropping lures." Pope adds in. "No you guys relax, we are talking about going after Ward and Rafe." John B says, "Yah you guys don't have to hide that from me, I wanna go after them just as badly." Sarah tells them all. "Okay." They respond. "Glad that's all cleared up, now can someone help me because you didn't know I have a GSW and pain to balance ratio doesn't work well together." Sarah said as everyone scrambles to help her while she laughs at their panicked state.
Once everyone was in the boat and situated John B started driving the rest of the way with the guys sitting near him talking, while Sarah and Kie are at the front playing with Alaia who's on the floor. John B starts to drive around the last corner while everyone is talking and laughing, radio blasting. "There she is." John B says, "Bet it's good to see her old bones." JJ says, "Welcome home guys." Patting John B on the back. Once they line up the boat to the dock and secure it, they get off John B helps Sarah out then grabs Alaia lifting her out who runs up the dock as soon as she's put done to explore while still being able to see Sarah. "You know, I gotta be honest. Not exactly looking forward to a check-in at home." Kie states. "My parents probably already arranged my funeral." "I predict unpleasantries at the Heyward household after I left the truck in Charleston." Pope says. "No one knows we are here right." JJ begins, "And you two aren't gonna get into anymore trouble for showing up 12 hours later. Am I right or am I right?" "You're not wrong." Pope hesitantly says. "So that means we have 12 hours to do whatever we want. Huh? A little pogue fellowship, introduce Alaia to pouge life. How does that sound?" "Let the shit hit the fan tomorrow." John B says, "Yah, now we are talking." That's when Sarah speaks up, "The cops could be looking for us. It could be really stupid." "Mrs. Sarah Cameron Routledge, hey that has a nice ring to it." JJ says as everyone laughs. "You've heard my philosophy, right?" He asks. "Mmm, nope, I don't think I have." She responds with a smile. "Stupid things have good out comes all the time." Everyone says laughing, that's when Alaia barks wanting to join in, "See even your dog wants to participate." Kie laughs. "Okay fine, but if anything goes wrong it's all your fault JJ." Sarah says sternly. "Yes mom." JJ replies with a salute. "Let's get some beer." JJ hollers as he goes to climb back into the boat. "Wait!" Sarah says. "Awe come on, we came to an agreement." JJ whines. "I know but I wanna get changed first, I've been in these clothes for a while now and these shorts got a bullet hole and a whack load of blood in them." Sarah says cheekily. "Ok, but make it quick, I wanna get drunk." JJ says with a smile.
Quickly Sarah and John B go in and change. Sarah changed into a fresh pair of ripped jean shorts, a bikini top, and one of John B's button up Hawaiian shirts. John B changed into a red top and a new pair of shorts quickly kissing Sarah before heading out meeting everyone in the boat. "It's about time you guys, your dog Sarah cried from the time she couldn't see till she could." JJ said, handing Sarah her dog. "Awe, did you miss me that much." She asked the puppy in a babyish voice resulting in the dog giving her kisses while wagging her tail. "Hey hold up Alaia," John B started as he turned the boat on, "she's mine, I'm the one who gets to kiss her." Which resulted in everyone laughing at him and the dog licking his face. "Okay you're forgiven I guess." He told the puppy.
"Okay Kie and JJ, you two go in and get the beer we will wait for you guys." John B told them as he turned the boat off. "But I wanted to play with the puppy." JJ whined. "You can play with the puppy when you get back, now go get the beer." John B said sternly. "Yes dad." JJ told him, getting off the boat heading to the store. While JJ and Kie were in the store the other three relaxed while playing with Alaia. Once JJ and Kie returned the headed back to the Chateau. By the time they get back and set everything up it's already dark. They all climb into the Cat's Ass except for Sarah who just has her feet dipped in, Alaia laying beside the Cat's Ass as close to Sarah as possible. They were all shot gunning, smoking weed and hollering while goofing around, just glad to be back with each other. Eventually they got out and the guys started having wrestling matches. At some point Kie gets up and heads over to JJ, they walk away together. "Really." Sarah says with Alaia on her lap sleeping, "Way to be discreet." Pope yells at them, earning a finger from both of them. "I leave and this is what happens." John B says, "You're blaming me?" Pope asks "Just a little bit," John B responds. "Uh oh, your boys out. Beer time." John B says getting up after placing a quick kiss on Sarah's cheek. "You guys are the ones that died, okay?" Pope starts at Sarah, "That was-" "Literally one job, Pope." Sarah interrupts him. "Okay" he responds sarcastically, "No pogue-on-pogue macking." "One job?" "One job." The sounds of Sarah and Pope playfully bickering start drowning out when John B notices the memorial sign carved into the tree for him, he's quickly brought out of his thoughts when JJ touches his shoulder.
John B looks back to see Kie joining the other two, "It's a cute art project." John B tells him, "Killed the tree though." JJ chuckled at that "Probably. Yeah. Opps." He then looks at John B and pulls him into a bro hug, "I frigging missed you man." He tells the brunette. They are like that for a bit before they pull away, John B sees out of the corner of his eye Sarah's concerned look to which he responds with a slight nod and she smiles at him. "So what did you two do while y'all were away?" He asked JJ, "Oh you know, the basic gossiping, braiding each others hair." John B and JJ laugh, "nah we legit just made out for a bit." "Nice." He said giving the blonde a high five. They were heading to the group when John B heard a car door shut. "Bro did you hear that?" He asked JJ, "What your chicken." "No man I heard a car door." He said as JJ starts clucking like a chicken, in which Pope quickly silences him with his hand, "Yeah I heard it too." "Quick you guys put the fire out, I'll get Sarah and Alaia up in the tree because they'll take the longest. Go quick." John B said and they all got going. "I'll place Alaia on the ground and she'll stay while you help me up then you pass her to me ok?" Sarah asked. "Yeah go." Sarah quickly placed Alaia down who looked at her confused while yawning, John B set his leg up for Sarah to use as a step to help hoist her into the tree. Once Sarah got up into the tree she found a safe spot for her to sit and safely hold the dog without being seen, "Ok pass her up." John B picked Alaia up who gave him a big lick on the cheek and passed her to Sarah, once she was in Sarah's arms she snuggled in and fell back to sleep. By the time they got up the fire had been put out and the other pogues had started climbing up the tree. They had all just gotten in the tree when they saw Rafe come over by the fire and heard the door to the chateau close. "Where the hell are they?" They heard Rafe ask himself. Sarah just held onto their puppy a little tighter.
All of a sudden they hear glass break from inside and see Barry come out the door, "Yo! Anything?" Rafe asks him, "No, ain't shit in there, bro." Barry responds and they can all hear Rafe's breath start to pick up! "No? Nothing?" "No. Nothing, Rafe." His voice starts to speed up, "They were obviously just here based off the smoke." Rafe said pointing to the fire pit, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great observation, Boy Scout." "Then they're not far, you know?" Rafe tells him, "Smokey the Bear! Look at you, bro!" Barry responds sarcastically obviously pissing Rafe off. "They gotta be around here somewhere." Rafe states looking around, it visible to everyone in the tree that Sarah is absolutely mortified which is understandable considering he was the one who shot her. "P4L" Barry laughs looking at the carving as Rafe points his gun towards it, "Well, shit. So your sister's a pogue for life, huh, Rafe? Now who would've thought?" Then all of a sudden Rafe yells and Sarah jumps startling the puppy in her lap as she tries to keep quiet, visibly shaking in her spot. "All right, chill." Barry tells him, out of nowhere Rafe starts firing his gun everywhere and anywhere at the tree. "Hey! Whoa! Hey, chill, bro! Rafe!" Barry pushes him away, "Chill your shit! Chill out! You're gonna get our asses busted, dawg! Let's bounce." He says leading Rafe to the car. "Let's bounce. Let's go!"
They then leave and everyone checks themselves for any wounds. They all get out of the tree and Sarah is so shaken up she can't stand so John B sits in a chair pulling her onto his lap, to comfort her. "Shh, your ok. He's gone now, we are all fine." He reassures her as the others stand around shocked, Alaia comes over to the couple and whines making Sarah chuckle and pick her up placing her in her lap. "Is she ok?" Kie asks as Sarah starts to calm down, he slightly nods his head. "Ok guys, give me about an hour and I'll get some ammo-" JJ starts before John B interrupts shaking his head. "No. I'm not risking it, not with Sarah." He told him. Well I'm not gonna stand around like a pussy and wait for them to come back," the blonde argues. "We almost got shot! What am I supposed to fuckin' do, man?" "You don't think I know that JJ?" John B yelled, startling everyone. "Incase you forgot, Sarah's had a bandage on her side ever since we got back because her psychotic brother shot her while we were in the Bahamas trying to get the gold back! She was dead on the table, JJ!" He said, ur praising the pogues because the couple hadn't mentioned that. "Her heart stopped right in front of me and I'd never felt more helpless than I did then! So I'm sorry if I'm not as thrilled up about getting revenge on Rafe right now as you are, but Sarah's more than likely traumatized from getting shot at twice by her brother, so she needs me a lot more now than I need to get revenge on him." He finishes, causing Sarah to hug him closer to her and Alaia, and the pogues stand there speechless. "Alright, forget that was even mentioned, what's plan B?" Pope asks. "We get onto the boat, drive out into the water a bit so we aren't seen and crash there for the night. We'll reassess in the morning." John B replied. "Hey Kie can you get Sarah and I am extra set of clothing as a back up while we get everything on the boat set up?" "Yeah no problem." She said heading inside. "Pope can you go in and get some food to put in a cooler to go on the boat, and fry up a plain chicken for Alaia to eat?" "On it!" "JJ, grab al, the spare blankets from my room and bring it onto the boat." "Yes dad!" JJ said cheeky like. "Hey John B?" "Yeah?" "Take care of the wife why don't yah?" JJ said with a laugh making the couple lightly laugh too. "Will do, JJ."