The Home We've Built

Chapter 6

Meanwhile one the boat with the pogues, "I wonder what's taking so long." JJ complains. "Yeah I've got a bad feeling." John B adds holding Alaia who's crying because she can't find Sarah, "She could just be catching up with her sister you guys. They haven't been apart like this in a very long time. Not only that, but Wheezy thought her sister was dead. Let's give them a little bit before we go check on them." Kie reasoned, "I guess you're right." John B agreed. A little while later they are still waiting when they hear someone running, quickly John B passes Alaia to Kie and gets out of the boat. When he gets out he sees Wheezy running with tears falling down her face. "Wheezy are you alright? Where's Sarah?" John B asks worriedly, hugging the crying girl. "I had met up with her and we were heading here when Rafe showed up. It was so scary John B, he was yelling at her telling her that this was all her fault. She told me to run and not to stop until I found you and that you would go get her and I would stay here. John B she was right behind me I swear, and then when I looked back she wasn't, then I heard her yell and I ran faster. I'm so sorry John B, I'm so sorry." She cried into his shirt. "Hey, hey, shhh. It's ok, it's not your fault ok. I'll leave you here with Kie and you can cuddle with our dog Alaia. Okay? I'll go and bring Sarah back safely, that's ok with you?" When he felt her nod he pulled back and helped her to the boat and settled with Kie. Then he ran as fast as he could to find Sarah.
    Back with Sarah and Rafe, he had her still underwater and she was trying to push her off as best as she could. But she had no such luck. She was screaming trying to get him to pull her up, but nothing was working. She grabbed onto the edge of the bin to give her strength to help pull her up, but he just pushed her down even more. Soon she wasn't able to do it anymore, she was out of breath. She just hoped that Wheezy found John B and that John B would make sure Wheezy was kept out of harm. And with that final thought, she lost consciousness.
    When John B went around one of the corners, he saw Rafe standing there over a bin, he could just barely see Sarah's legs hanging out. He quickly found something to hit his head to get him off of her. "Sarah!" He yelled as soon as Rafe was down, he ran over to her and pulled her out as fast as he could. He had seen that she was unconscious and wasn't breathing, all he could think about was the fact that he couldn't lose her, he had already almost lost her once. "Sarah!" He yelled again, "Come on, baby. Wake up please!" He said as he started CPR. Soon after he started the CPR she started coughing up the water, gasping for air. "Oh Sarah, are you okay? Come here, come here." He said, pulling her into a hug. When she shook her head yes, still coughing he looked at Rafe who was still on the ground. "Rafe." He said moving over to him. "If you ever touch her again," He started, still panting from the adrenaline, "if you ever touch her again, I'm going to kill you. You got that? You got that Rafe?" He yelled as he punched him. Then he stands up and goes over to Sarah, who's trying to stand up, still trying to catch her breath. "Sarah, are you okay? Can you breathe?" He asks her, making sure she's still alright. She nods in response and pulls him into a hug crying into his shoulder. "I knew you would save me." She cried. "Is Wheezy okay?" "She's a little freaked out, which is to be expected, but yeah Sarah, she's alright thanks to you." He told her. "And of course I would come, your wife legally or not and I can't imagine my life without you." He whispered into her ear, kissing her cheek. "Let's go to the boat and wrap you in a towel, let everyone know you're alright now. Then you can cuddle your dog all the way to our beach and we can let her run around and get you changed out of your wet clothes. Does that sound alright?" "Yeah that sounds amazing." She said, and with that they walked to the boat.
    When they get to the boat, Wheezy is curled into Kie side with Alaia on her lap. JJ and Pope are sitting across from them talking to Kie, when the boys see Sarah and John B they look really worried and hope up. Kie keeps sitting because Wheezy is passed out from crying. JJ got up and walked over to Sarah while Pope grabbed a towel for her before walking over. "Sarah, are you ok?" JJ asks her as he pulls her in for a hug, "Mmhmm." She said shivering, that's when Pope had wrapped the towel and gave her a hug before going and setting up blankets for her. "Thanks for the towel Pope." She told him as her teeth chattered, then she looked at John B "Can I have some painkillers for my stomach, it was already bothering me until some psychopathic lunatic tried to drown me." She told him, "Yeah sweetheart, let's go get it." He replied, helping her onto the boat and sitting her down near Kie and Wheezy and wrapped her in the blankets. Once he made sure she was comfortable he went over to grab her the medicine and a bottle of water, handing it to her and making sure she didn't need anything else before he went and started the boat to head to the island. When she finished taking her medicine she started to rub Wheezy's back, something she did when comforting Wheez in the past. Noticing her sister's touch she had woken up, she was excited and concerned. With that she climbed into her sister's lap causing Alaia to fall out of her lap, when Alaia realized that her mom was back she quickly jumped onto the seat trying to climb into her lap. When she couldn't get into Sarah's lap she opted to lie beside her as close as she could. "Are you okay?" Wheezy asked her, "Yah. I'm alright, as long as you are." Sarah told her rubbing her back. "You just go to sleep for now, I'll wake you up later ok?" "Okay, but Sarah?" "Yah honey?" "Could you sing some lullabies till I fall asleep?" She asked, "Yah of course." And with that Sarah sang to her quietly till she fell asleep.
A little while later they had arrived at their island and parked the boat, "Hey, Wheez. Time to wake up sweety." She said waking her up. When Wheezy got up, John B helped Sarah up and off the boat handing her her change of clothes. When she was finished changing she grabbed her blanket wrapping it around herself before sitting on John B's lap hiding her head in his shoulder. About 5 minutes later she was sleeping. Meanwhile John B was talking with Pope, Kie, and JJ and Wheezy was playing with Alaia. "Is she ok?" Pope asked him, "I don't know, I think she's going to be traumatized though. But I'll help her as much as she needs." He said, "You know," Wheezy started after she threw a stick for Alaia, "Sarah is really lucky to have someone like you to help her with all of this. And I am really thankful for all of your help earlier." She told them all. "I'm as lucky as she is. And of course we would help you out, if you ever have an issue and can't get your sister for whatever reason just phone one of us. I recommend using JJ as a last resort though." He whispered the last part to her while hugging her from the side as best as he could while holding Sarah. "Thanks John B, and all you pogues." She said. After a while they decided to head to the boat so instead of waking Sarah up, John B carried her and placed her on the seat with her head resting in Kie's lap to help ensure that she wouldn't fall off.
They had agreed to head to the chateau that night so they could sleep on an actual mattress of some sort. "So Kie and JJ you can sleep in my room, don't worry the sheets have been changed and no one has slept there recently. Pope you can sleep on the futon and Wheezy you can sleep in my dad's room with us." John B told them all then got off the boat with Sarah, carrying her in with Wheezy and Alaia right behind him. When he entered the room he got Wheezy to pull the covers back so he could place Sarah under the covers in the middle of the bed, tucking her in until they joined her. "Ok Wheezy, you climb into whichever side you want and I'll place Alaia in between you and Sarah. If that's alright?" He asked. "Yeah totally. You know Sarah and I've always wanted a dog and it's so amazing that you guys have her." She had told him climbing into bed, "Yeah. Are you comfy?" He asked her while tucking her in. "Yeah. Thanks again for all of this." She told him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "No problem at all. And to be honest, if all goes according to plan, you'll be able to live with us. So consider each other family?" John B asked. "Of course!" She told him, "Even if I wasn't going to possibly be moving in with you, I would consider you family. She really loves you John B, and I can see that you love her too. Plus I know you guys are made for each other, so there is no getting rid of you anyway." She told him with a giggle. "Okay well, goodnight. if you need anything and don't want to wake Sarah up just wake me up." He said, giving her a kiss on the cheek, heading to his side crawling under the cover. "Okay, goodnight John B." She said and curled into Sarah as much as she could with the puppy in between, as John B curled into Sarah as well.
    The next morning Sarah woke up with her husband on her one side and her puppy and sister on her other side, with that she smiled and snuggled further into John B's arms. "Good morning!" He whispered, giving her a kiss. "Hmm good morning." She whispered back, "How are you feeling?" "I'm doing alright, I'll need  some medicine soon though." She replied truthfully. "Okay, when you need it let me know and I'll get it for you." "Okay. Thank you for everything, especially taking care of Wheezy when I couldn't. I heard a little bit of what you guys had said last night, and she really needed someone like you to talk to because both the male role models in her life are douches. I know she tends to feel like it's just me and her, and to be honest for the longest time it felt like that for me as well." Sarah rambled on, "Hey, hey, don't worry about it. Like I told her, even if you guys weren't living with me, we are still family." He reassured her. "I love you." She said, "I love you too."
    After lying in bed for a little bit, they decided to get up so that Sarah can get her medicine and they can make breakfast for everyone. Making breakfast felt like something you would see in a movie, with how easily and loving they flowed throughout the kitchen. If JJ would have been there he would have been commenting on how cheesy they were being. It was a little difficult trying to cook quietly enough not to wake Pope up but they did it successfully. When Sarah finished plating the last of the food she went to wake everyone up, she stopped at the futon to wake Pope up then moving to knock on JJ and Kie's door to which she refused to leave until they answered, lastly she went into her room to wake Wheezy up. "Hey Wheez. Time to get up, John B and I made some pancakes, bacon, and eggs for you guys." She told her rubbing her back. "Hmm really?" "Yah, Wheez." "Ok." Wheezy said getting up, that's when Alaia got up too. "Come on Alaia, let's get you fed too." Sarah said standing up, "Come out soon please." And with that her and Alaia left the room passing Kie and JJ's on the way, "If you guys aren't out here by the time Alaia is done eating, I'll send her in to get you guys." She yelled as she passed, when she got to the kitchen Pope and John B were sitting at the table laughing at her as she walked in. "Are you really going to send Alaia into their room?" Pope asked, "Yeah only because we need to talk about what we are going to do about the gold as well as the whole key thing and Pope almost getting kidnapped." She told them, "I guess that makes sense."
A couple minutes later JJ, Kie, and Wheezy walked into the kitchen, they spent the morning eating and talking about the plan for getting the gold back. "Hey Agent Bratcher just texted me." Kie started looking at her phone, "He said that if we wanted to, we could head to the house to watch the arrests being made." "Well you guys can go if you want, but if Sarah and Wheezy don't I'm staying with them." John B said, looking at Sarah. "Wheezy, what would you like to do?" Sarah asked her. "I'm okay with going," Wheezy says, "plus you can let them know what Rafe did last night." "Okay." Sarah said, "We can go, but if things start getting out of hand Wheez, you'll have to stay in the van, got it?" "Understood." Wheezy said with a salute making everyone laugh.
When they got there they had seen that the SBI along with Shoupe and some other cops were already there. John B parked the van and got out as well as everyone else, they walked over to the wall and saw that Rose was in handcuffs with two officers while the others were heading for the docs. "Wheezy stay here and keep yourself hidden with Alaia until we come back, okay?" Sarah told her, "Fine." Wheezy replied with a little attitude but complied because she knew now wasn't a good time to argue. After Wheezy and Alaia had gotten back in the van and situated, they headed over to the docks. They put their hands up to show their innocence as they all walked along the dock. "Come on Ward!" Sarah heard Shoupe call out to him, that's when she had seen her dad on the Druthers. "Dad!" Sarah called, as much as she hated her dad for all that he had done, she didn't want anything bad to happen because he was still her dad. "Don't do this dad!" She yelled out as Shoupe yelled, "You don't want Sarah to see this. "Sarah, get out of here." Ward called back. All the SBI boats were cornering him, he looked at Sarah one last time then walked down the stairs. That's when it happened. All Sarah could see was the fire, she felt the dock shift, she couldn't hear anything though. All that was registering in her mind was that her only parent left was now gone. Her mom was gone, and now, so was her dad. That's when she had seen that everything started to move up and then she felt comforting arms around her, then she cried. She realized that she was being selfish though. Come on Sarah, she thought, That was the man who pinned the murder of Sherrif Peterkin on an innocent boy so his son wouldn't go to jail, that was the man who defended his son who shot his daughter, that is the man who tried to kill John B, that is the man who stole the gold from the pogues. He deserves to be dead. "You're okay Sarah." She heard, "It's okay." That's when she looked up and saw John B holding her and comforting her. "I'm sorry." She sobbed, "Hey, hey, hey. You don't need to be sorry." He told her with a calm voice. "Yes I do. He has caused you so much trouble and here I am crying about him being dead." She sobbed into his shirt. "No, no, no. Hey I understand. That's still your dad. He may be a horrible person, but you have memories of him being a kind and gentle person who was there for you. There is nothing to apologize for Sarah." He reassured her. "Come on, they've got Rafe and Rose in custody now and we will go to the trial, but for now let's head back to the van and head to the chateau so we can rest for the night alright?" When he felt Sarah nod he helped her stand up, when she was standing they headed to the van where they saw Wheezy standing looking confused and worried. "Are you guys okay? What happened? I felt the ground move and I heard a bang, did something explode?" She asked really fast, that's when Sarah broke down again. She did not know how to tell her that their father decided to blow himself up so he would not have to face his consequences. "Hey it is ok Sarah, we can tell her. Come on, let's get in the van." Kie told her, leading her to the back door of the van. When she opened the door she helped Sarah inside, leading her to the bench, she sat down letting Sarah rest her head on Kie's lap Alaia jumping up onto Sarah trying to comfort her. Sarah smiled at her puppy through the tears. While Sarah cried and petted Alaia, Kie ran a comforting hand throughout Sarah's hair. "Shh, it's alright." She whispered to her.