Depths

Cat's Ass

Hours had passed during Harli's shift and as she's lost in her thoughts she doesn't even notice the angry, dirty-blonde Kook approaching her. He roughly grabs her arm and drags her to the side of the restaurant where no one can see, pulling her from her thoughts. She groans at his rough grasp and tries to pull away from him, causing him to hold on to her tighter.

"What the hell, Rafe?!" Harli yells at the boy in front of her.

"Where the hell are they?" Rafe all but spits out at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Do I look stupid to you? I know what y'all did. Where are they?"

"Rafe, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I've been at work for the last five hours!"

"You're little friends and my little sister robbed a drug dealer!"

"What?! What are you talking about?"

"Barry, he showed up outside the course demanding I get him his money back that they stole. Now, where are they?" His voice rises and his grip on her arm clenches tighter. Harli closes her eyes and pulls in on herself trying to protect herself from his wrath.

"Rafe! Yo, dude chill! Stop! Let her go, man." Topper's voice sounds as he approaches the two that are standing off to the side of the restaurant. Rafe roughly lets go of her, giving her a slight shove before he takes off. "Are you okay?"

Harli looks up at Topper who's examining her arm, redness where fingerprints lie on the surface. She slowly shakes her head as he looks into her eyes. "I can talk to Suzy, see if she'll let you have the rest of the day off." Topper tries to help.

"No, it's okay. I'll be fine." Harli shrugs it off.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You should probably go stop Rafe, though, before he blows a gasket." Topper gives her a slight nod before racing off in search of his friend.

Harli takes a moment to herself before walking back into the restaurant and finishing out her shift. But, instead of daydreaming about golden bars and surfing trips all Harli can think about is her friends and what kind of trouble they've gotten themselves into this time.

*****

The Pogues make their way to The Wreck, where they sit outside at a table on the deck thinking about their next move. All are worried about JJ and wonder where he's run off to. And all are wondering about how Harli is going to react to everything that happened today. Maybe if she had been there JJ wouldn't have went so off the rails, or maybe it would've been worse because he would've been trying to protect her.

"Look, he'll come around, all right? It's..." John B pauses to think of his words. "He's doing a JJ thing."

"You think he'll go home?" Kie questions.

"There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home." Pope voices.

John B glances over to Sarah to see the somber look on her face. After dropping Pope and Kie off earlier the two were ambushed by Rafe and Topper, and the encounter still had her a little rattled. "You okay?" He asks her.

"Yeah." She nods with a small smile. "Are you?"

"I mean, I'm in one piece, so..."

"Okay." Pope sighs, cutting John B off. "It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So our best bet is to go down there and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in... in a safe or a vault or something. I... I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off." Pope lets out a heavy sigh. "I can figure it out tonight, get it done, and we can be out there tomorrow morning."