The Home We've Built

Chapter 5

         When they get there Pope jumps out and does a quick check around to make sure the coast is clear, once it is John B and Sarah jump out leaving Alaia with Kie so they can knock on Lana's door. When she opens the door she is surprised to see the two kids that have been the talk of the town and were supposedly dead, standing on her doorstep. "What are you two doing here, John B you're a fugitive. We all thought you guys had died. Does anyone know you are here?" She rambled on. "Um.. is it ok if we come in so no one spots us?" John B asks, "We can explain everything when we get in." Sarah tells her, "Oh yes, of course. Come in, come in." She told them to let them in. "Do you guys want anything to drink?" she asks them, "Just water please." They say. She smiles and quickly grabs the water, "Here you guys go. So tell me, what brings you guys here?" She asks. "Well as you know, I'm wanted for killing sheriff Peterkin, but what most people don't know is that I didn't kill her." John B started. "Who did?" Lana asked, "Rafe did. But I need evidence to prove that it wasn't me and we were wondering if you could help us with it." He asked her. "Oh wow that really doesn't surprise me that Rafe would do that. Of course I would help you guys, I don't have any evidence right now but I can certainly help with that. I will contact you guys as soon as I have some and we can all go in and turn it in so I can advocate for you guys." She tells them, "Thank you so much Lana! We really appreciate this all." Sarah told her, "If you could, can you call Kie when you have the evidence, we just don't have phones and are trying to stay off the grid as much as possible." She tells Lana. "Oh yes of course. I completely understand. You two just lay low until Kie tells you." She says hugging the couple. "Thank you so much." John B says "We owe you big time." "No John B. Taking down Ward and Rafe is payment enough." She told them, walking with them out the door. "You two be safe ok." "Will do Lana. See you later." And with that they head to the boat and they all drive back to the middle of nowhere.
    For the next few days they had the same routine, they made sure to stay away from the chateau in fear of possible having swat swarming the place. The same day they had met up with Lana, Kie went to the store and bought some clothes for Sarah and John B while also grabbing her clothes from home, as well as buy some puppy food for Alaia. She hadn't seen her parents luckily but had texted them a few times to let them know she was alright and to not worry. While she was getting clothes for her, John B, and Sarah, Pope and JJ were both getting themselves some clothes as well. When the went to the abandoned island for some food and to let Alaia do her business in the morning and evening, they would go and change behind a tree. They figured it was easier that way then trying to change in privacy on the boat. They had made an arrangement with Lana to use her bathroom when needed as well. One morning while they were all relaxing on the abandoned island playing with Alaia when Kie gets a text from Lana saying that she has the evidence. "Look at that John B," JJ starts, "pretty soon you'll be a free man." "Thank god." John B said as he started driving towards Lana's place, "No offence you guys but I don't know how much longer we could all spend cooped up on a boat together." "Yeah, now once your name is clear we can all stay in the chateau together." JJ said. "That's a good idea and all, but I don't think there's enough room." Kie told him. "Well with the gold, we can renovate the chateau and clean it up. Plus I can put my dad's stuff into storage and turn that into another bedroom." John B said, "That doesn't sound too bad actually." Pope stated. "Oh that means Sarah and I can put all our HGTV watching to use." Kie said excitedly to which Sarah agreed. "Ok so it's settled, once we clear my name and get the gold we will renovate the chateau and make it our own." John B said as he stopped the boat at Lana's.
    Once they had gotten to Lana's they had been shown the video tape she had of Ward talking to the pilot incriminating him and Rafe. They had all agreed that they should go to the SBI instead of Shoupe because they didn't want to take the chance of the fact that Ward could be paying him off. Lana had phoned the SBI tip line that they had set up telling them that she had key evidence so they had agreed to meet at her house. 5 minutes later there was a knock on the door, Sarah and John B had gone into the back room until the evidence was shone and they realized they had been going after the wrong person, when Lana opened the door Agent Bratcher and another agent were there. When they walked in they immediately saw the boy's three friends sitting on the couch, little did they know that the supposedly dead couple were sitting on the bed in the room 15 steps away from them. "Nice to see you three again, sorry the first time meeting had brought a lot of pain for you guys." Agent Bratcher had told them while shaking their hands. "This is Agent Larret, he is here accompanying me today." They all shook hands and introduced themselves to him before getting started. "Okay so you guys said you have evidence for this case, so could you show us this evidence?" Agent Bratcher said getting straight to the point, "So we decided to go to you guys because we don't want to risk the possibility of our sheriff's department possibly being corrupted, and the way it was all handled showed us how it could be along with how we've always been treated." Pope had started as Lara had got the tape ready to play for them. The tape consisted of Ward talking to the pilot about keeping his mouth shut about what had happened that day along with hiding the gun. After the tape finished playing Agent Larrethad grabbed an evidence bag and put the tape in it. "Thank you guys for bringing this to our attention, we are deeply sorry for all that we have put you guys and your friends. We will go and bring Rafe in for the murder of sheriff Peterkin as well as charging Ward and Rose with obstruction of justice, it will be up to the judge to decide on what the sentence time is for them but it's looking like a high possibility of jail time for them." Agent Bratcher told them, "So does that mean the warrant for John B's arrest is no longer?" JJ asked curiously, "If it does turn out that he is alive, yes there is no warrant for him." He told them, just then John B and Sarah had come out of the room with Alaia following them. "That's really great because now I don't have to keep hiding, I am sorry for all the trouble I cost you and your men but I couldn't go to jail for something I didn't do." John B said as he walked into the room, "Um.. yes now you are free to go, and don't be sorry about it although it was extremely frustrating for me and my men I do understand why you did it." Agent Bratcher told him once his shock wore off then he shook their hands. "What happened to you young lady?" Agent Larret had asked Sarah when he saw the bandage, "Oh yah. Um when our boat crashed during the storm, we were rescued by this crew and anyway they had taken us to Nassau and my dad and brother happened to be there. Long story short they had found us and Rafe started shooting at us and ended up shooting me." Sarah had told the SBI agents, "Would you like me to add that to his charges?" Agent Bratcher asked her, "Yes please." She told them. "Ok I will make sure that happens." "One more question." Sarah quickly said. "Yah?" "What's going to happen to my sister and I? Like is there any way I can be emancipated and take care of her, I've been doing it all her life already?" "Well that's not completely up to us but we will be sure to let the judge and Social Services know, which would give you a higher chance of it happening." Agent Bratcher said. "Thank you so much for all of this." Sarah told him, "Don't worry about it, consider this a sorry for all the trouble we've caused you guys." And with that the two agents left with the evidence to get a warrant for the arrests. "Do you think it would be alright if I phone Wheezy to get her before they swarm the house, just to make sure she's safe." "Yah you can meet her somewhere and we can pick her up and stay with us for as long as possible." John B agreed, the others nodding in reply. "Thank you." She hugged them all and gave John B a quick kiss before stepping out to phone her.
    When Sarah had stepped out of the house she quickly dialed Wheezy's number hoping that she would pick up and not be in the shower because she knew that it was getting late. Just before the phone went to voicemail Wheezy had picked up. "Hello?" Sarah heard her say hesitantly because she hadn't recognized the phone number but knew that there could be a small chance that it could be Sarah after the phone call from when she was in the Bahamas. "Oh my god, hi Wheezy it's so good to hear your voice again." She said excitedly, "OMG! Hi Sarah, how are you? I heard about what happened with Rafe. Are you ok, are you hurt?" She rambled on quickly. "Whoa calm down a little Wheez, I'm ok right now and I'll explain everything soon but first I need you to pack a small bag with your necessities and meet me at the wreck ok?" "Yah, you'll explain why when we see each other?" "Yah Wheezy, but I need you to hurry ok? I'll meet you in a half hour." "Okay see you then." And with that they hung up.
    Meanwhile when Sarah was outside, JJ was curious as to why Sarah had such an attachment to Wheezy and decided to ask Kie. "Hey so what's the deal with Sarah and Wheezy's relationship because what I've seen between the two is nowhere similar to any other siblings I've seen?" He asked. "To be honest I'm not 100% sure how it all started, all that I know is that Wheezy sees Sarah as the one mother figure in her life instead of Rose. When Sarah and I were friends we had always dropped what we were doing because Sarah needed to go watch one of Wheezy's sports or drive her to a friend's house, she even went to all her parent teacher meetings and signed all the forms for school. Each year she would take Wheezy back to school shopping to get everything that she needed. Although there is a huge age difference between them, Sarah always makes sure Wheezy is taken care of. The amount of times Sarah was late to school because Wheezy was having a difficult time with some of her classmates and was too scared to go was uncountable. Sarah missed two weeks of school once, the first week of school was because Wheezy was ill and she would stay up all night laying on Wheezy's bed comforting her while she was puking every few minutes. It had gotten really bad the second night to the point that she had told Rose that Wheezy really wasn't doing well and Rose said that Wheezy could suck it up. Wheezy had a fever of 110° C and couldn't keep anything down. So Sarah had taken it upon herself to rush to her car, put a sick bucket in it along with some trash bags to cover the seat so she could take Wheezy into emergency, and it turned out Wheezy had the case of the flu along with appendicitis. When Wheezy was rushed into surgery to remove the appendix, she phoned Rose and tore into her about not taking care of her child. This all happened while her dad was out of town on business. The second week she missed, she was taking care of Wheezy who had just got over the flu but was still recovering from the surgery while she had come down with the flu. As much as I didn't like her when we got into that fight, I always admired her for how well she treated her sister." Kie told them, they were all shocked to hear it. That's when Sarah walked in and told them that she was meeting wheezy in 30 minutes at the wreck. "Ok we can drive the boat over there and you can get her and bring her to the boat." John B told her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
    A half hour later, Sarah had climbed out of the boat. At that time her wound was really starting to bother her and she knew that she had to take some meds soon. "Wheezy?" She called out looking for her. "Wheez?" It had already gotten dark so it was a bit sketchy for Sarah's liking. "Wheezy is that you?" Sarah asked when she heard a noise. "Yeah it's me." Wheezy said, coming around a corner. "Oh thank god. It's so good to see you." Sarah told her after she pulled her into a hug. "Ok lets head to the boat, John B and the others are on there right now." Sarah said as they started walking in the direction of the boat. "Why are you limping Sarah? Are you ok?" Wheezy asked with concern. "Yeah, I'm alright, it's just my wound. Once I take my pain medicine I'll be much better, I promise." Sarah told her. "Hey!" They heard from behind them, "Not so fast. Where do you guys think you're going?" Sarah had turned around to see Rafe, gently pushing Wheezy behind her to shield her from Rafe. "What the hell are you doing here?" Sarah asked him, putting on a brave face for Wheezy. "Listen- whoa." He told her, "It's all good. I.. I just.. I just needed to talk to you, like, a little bit." He told her, moving closer to them as they moved further back. "Is that ok?" He asked. "Don't come near us." She said angrily. "'Cause... 'cause what you do, Sarah, affects me, okay?" He said as he pointed his hands to his head. "You don't.. you don't think of that, do you?" "You shot me Rafe." Sarah told him, "Sarah I'm scared." Wheezy whispered, "It's ok." She told her, turning to face her. "It's all going to be ok." She said then hugged her, "when I say to, I want you to run as fast as you can to your right and don't stop until you get to John B and when you do tell him what's going on and get on the boat ok." She whispered to Wheezy so Rafe couldn't hear. Wheezy then nodded so Sarah stood up and faced Rafe again. "That's it, right? It's... always my fault, right? You've even got Wheezy scared of me, her own brother. Like, uh... you know, I... I wanna keep what's mine, that I got by my work, and I'm the bad guy for trying to... to hold onto it?" He said getting worked up, "It's not yours." Sarah said starting to get nervous, "Like I'm wrong to protect what's mine, huh?" He states then realizes that Sarah's freaking out so he calms his tone, "Listen to me, okay? The cops are probably going to want to talk to you once I tell them you're alive, and..." He starts as he moves closer to them, to which Sarah responds by pushing Wheezy back more, "and I need to make sure the story's straight because-" "You killed Peterkin." She says confidently, "My story's straight. Listen to me, this would go so much better for you if you would just-" She tries to reason with him but he isn't having any of it. "Who are you trying to protect here, huh?" He asks while getting in her face. "I'm trying to do the right thing." She cries, "You're trying to do the right thing?" "I can't-" "You doing the right thing-" "Are you even hearing yourself." "No, you're not listening to me. You doing the right thing is the reason that you got shot. Because you were following John B." "John B almost got arrested and could have gotten the death penalty because of you!" She yelled at him. She had finally snapped, she couldn't deal with it anymore. "That!" He yelled back pointing in her face after he stood up, "That right there. That's exactly what I'm talking about, Sarah. You know?" He sits down. "You've always been against me." Sarah shakes her head at that one because it isn't true, she used to always look up to her big brother before he started acting weird and getting hooked on drugs. "No I haven't." "Don't shake your head. And you still are. No, no, no, no. You're not just against me. You're against us. We're your family, and you're against us and you're taking Wheezy with. You know, dad always takes your side right? 'Cause you're going to cry in front of him like you cried in front of me. But you listen to me. I'm a proactive type of person, Sarah. And we have a problem, and I gotta solve that problem tonight. Do you both understand?" He asks and gives her a second, when he sees her passing Wheezy farther away from him he gets mad. "Do you guys understand?" He yells at them. That's when Sarah had enough, "Go Wheezy!" She yelled pushing Wheezy in front of her, running behind her. "Whoa, whoa, Wheezy, Sarah! Where are you guys going, Sarah?" Rafe yells following them. When Wheezy is almost out of Sarah's sight, she decides to run the other way so Rafe can't follow Wheezy. She figures that if Rafe catches up to her then John B will save her, while keeping Wheezy safe in the process. Eventually Rafe catches up to her and grabs her. "I'll worry about Wheezy after I deal with you." He tells her. "No! Rafe! Stop!" She yells panicked, he holds her up against a blue bin full of water and she has an idea of what he's going to do. "Rafe! Rafe! Stop! Please!" She pleads with him, "It's... it's Sarah." She says in gasps starting to hyperventilate herself, "It's your sister. Please.. please don't." "What about me?" He asks her, the look on his face is scaring her because she's never seen that look before. "You'd have me fry." She starts shaking her head as he lifts her up a bit. "No!" She yells as he throws her down into the water. After about 30 seconds in the water, she lifts her up. "You brought this on yourself." "Rafe! Rafe!" She yells as he says "This is on you! Your decision." And pushes her back underwater.