Sink or Swim || Outer Banks || JJ Maybank

Chapter 22

JJ and Madison found Pope sitting out back a couple hours later after she had fallen asleep wrapped in JJ's arms. Pope had a book in his hand but it was clear he wasn't reading it as he stared out at the water. Madison gave JJ's hand a gentle squeeze, "Give me a minute."

He nodded and kissed her temple as he turned to go into the shop in search of something to snack on, knowing she hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning.

"You know, your bed is hard as shit. How do you sleep on that thing?" She sat down next to Pope, trying to lighten the mood but he only gave her half of a smile.

He couldn't even look at her, afraid he would see the terror that swam in her eyes when he first opened his door. "You scared the shit out of me."

"I'm sorry," she put her hand on his arm, trying to snap him out of whatever thoughts were running through his mind.

"Shit, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm the one that should be sorry. I had no idea what to do. Are you sure you're okay now?" He asked, the concern in his voice making her smile as he finally looked at her, scanning her face to see for himself that she was back to the Madison he knew.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully with a little shrug. "It's been a day to say the least but hey, I can breathe again so that's something, right?"

Pope let out a laugh that was anything but humorous. "How are you making jokes about this right now?"

Madison rested her head on his shoulder, watching as the water rippled from a boat that had passed. "Because if I don't I'm going to go completely insane. Have you heard from John B?"

He didn't miss the fact that she hadn't called him 'JB' like she had when she was panicking. "Not yet." He felt her sigh and he put an arm around her. "But that doesn't mean anything, you didn't have your phone either."

"Yeah," she let out a deep breath. There was a lot for her to work out with her brother, probably a lifetime's worth of issues, but she couldn't help but worry. If he got picked up there wouldn't be a chance to even try to reconcile with him.

"I know this probably isn't the right time," Pope started as he shifted on the bench and glanced behind him to make sure it was still just the two of them. Madison lifted her head from his shoulder, giving him her full attention unsure of where he was going to go with that statement. "Maddie, are you really giving up on finding the gold?"

She hesitated, not really knowing the answer herself anymore, because while John B had broken his promise and tore her down to the point of a mental breakdown it was still what she had spent half her life trying to find. But it was more than that, on that damn tape recorder her father left for them, he had told her to finish what he started and if she let that go she would be letting him down. "I can't trust him right now, Pope. And I wish I could, I do but after everything..."

"We all know that he was out of line, way out of line," He rested a hand on her knee. It pained him to watch the fight on the boat. Madison was basically screaming at her brother to just notice her, to make her feel like she was enough, and all he could see was another clue to find the gold. "Don't hate me for saying this, but I think you're going to regret it if this actually pans out and you're not there with us. We want you with us."

"Pope, I could never hate you but I-"

"No," he sharply cut her off, surprising her to the point she had no choice but to listen, "I know he doesn't see it right now but we wouldn't have gotten this far without you. You were the one who spent hours trying to figure out what Redfield was, you were the one who got us to the package your dad left, and now we have proof the gold is on the island. I'm not excusing what he did, and I'm pretty sure you're going to want to keep an eye on JJ for a while before he kicks John B's ass, but I really do think this letter from Denmark Tanny has merit to it."