All That Glitters

Damage Control

Tw: implied self harm

Pope pulled John B outside the room to talk.

"Are we gonna tell him?"

"What? Topper?"

" No , not Topper. JJ. He doesn't remember what happened last time, John B. I think we should tell him so that he doesn't go off again like this. He needs supervision since you can't give him the ring back yet."

"I already made up my mind. He can have it back when I get back from Ward's fishing thing. We don't have to tell him shit if he's okay."

Pope stared at him. "John B, it's not protecting him if we don't tell him what's going on. He deserves to know what happened. He deserves the option to make that decision himself. We can't protect him from himself."

"I know, Pope. I know. I just... I don't wanna see him go down that road. He doesn't talk about what happened to his mom. But from what I gathered, she got sent away. I don't want him to think we're gonna do the same." John B bit at his lip. Eyes still wet from past tears. "He fucking gave me his ring even though he knew something bad could happen to him."

"You know him. Reckless selflessness." Pope said. "He's not gonna think about his mom after all this time if you don't bring it up. All we should do is tell him about junior high, maybe put him in containment for a bit just until it's safe for you to give him the ring back, because let's be honest here, you're not even close to being okay after that fall and the ring is the only thing keeping you from the hospital right now. And then we can move on from this chapter to work on figuring out a way to break the curse."

"Is that even an option now?" John B ran his fingers through his hair.

"We know where an obscene amount of gold is. We can use it to bring this whole nightmare to an end. I'm betting that amount of gold would be enough to wipe the fucking planet of all the curses and shit that people have been cooking up for ages." Pope crossed his arms. "Besides. We only want it for the money. That's a whole lot better than wanting it for the power to corrupt the world in my book."

John B tried his best to keep his voice low so as to not have Topper overhear from the other side of the room. He was conversing with Sarah but there was still a chance he could pick up on something. "You wanna use it to take away all the magic? Do you know how devastating that could be? Think about it. We've seen it do some crazy shit. It made you paranoid to hell at the Crain house. It fucking made JJ the Wolfman. If it can do all that, what's to say it's not literally holding our fucking planet together. Who's to say magic is only conducted through gold because all other conduits had the same shit happen so people did damage control. It's too dangerous to keep around but I'm betting it's even more dangerous to get rid of completely."

Pope hung his head for a moment. Glancing back into the room at JJ.

"We gotta tell Kie about JJ. She's the only one that doesn't know he's hurt." Pope changed the subject.

"Yeah, do that." John B huffed before joining Topper and Sarah. Leaving Pope outside the room for a moment. Clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Is he alright?" Sarah asked. Her face scrunched with worry.

John B stayed quiet. Sighing loudly and plopping his head into his hands as he sat on the couch.

"Sarah, I'm telling you, he should be dead from—"

"Topper!" John B shouted. "Please, for fucks sake. He's my best friend. I can't— It's so bad . I don't wanna think about it."

Topper nodded, drawing his eyes to the floor. Realizing he overstepped.