I'll Come Running

Chapter 41

"You guys ready to go?" Sarah asked as she walked into the bedroom. Jessie and Rafe peeled their eyes away from each other as they both nodded frantically at Sarah.

The three of them made their way downstairs and out into the front yard of Tanneyhill, where they did not find the pogues they had left there minutes earlier.

"Where'd they go?" Sarah asked as she shielded her eyes from the sun to get a better look around the yard. Sarah stated the question rather calmly, thinking the pogues might have just been playing hide and seek with the three year old they were charged with keeping an eye on. Rafe and Jessie, however, were immediately concerned. The two of them suddenly forgot about their argument and looked back and forth at each other with a concerned urgency.

"Where's Charley?" Rafe asked darkly as he darted his eyes around the yard. Before the two parents could actually jut off in different directions to look for their precious daughter, they heard a familiar voice behind them from the entry way of the house.

"Guys! You've gotta come see this!" JJ yelled from the door way with some panic in his voice.

"JJ, what the hell? Where's Charley?" Jessie asked frantically as all three of the Cameron's made their way back into the house.

"S-She's here with us in the dining room but... we found something. You're not gonna believe it." JJ replied as he led them through the house. Rafe and Jessie both felt better knowing their daughter was accounted for, but now they were tasked with a new fear: whatever the pogues had dug up.

They entered the room to find Pope with a map in his hand, looking frenziedly at the wallpaper in front of him. Jessie noticed first that the sage green wallpaper that she had been pushed up against the wall not too long ago was now ripped off the walls, only to be replaced with what seemed like an old time mural... or a treasure map.

"What is all this?" Rafe asked, not even caring about the wallpaper on the floor, and quickly scooping up his beloved daughter in his arms. He knew he shouldn't have left her uncle and his dumbass friends in charge of her.

"I-I think I may have found another clue to finding the cross. Look at all these drawings, these have to have been left for a reason. I think this is the island room that my granny's key was talking about! Look, there's the big tree! The angel oak on the other side of the island!" Pope exclaimed as he wildly pointed all around the room with a beaming smile.

"That's gotta be it!" Kie resounded.

"That's where he hid the cross... in the tree!" Pope replied as he looked around the room with a hopeful smile.

"Well what're we waiting for, dude, let's go!" JJ demanded as he ran out of the room, everyone soon following after him.

Everyone piled into the twinkie and John B drove away. In all their haste there obviously was no assigned seating. Rafe inevitably sat in the back of the twinkie with Charley in between his legs and Jessie was sitting with her back against the driver seat, JJ sitting right next to her. Considering the ride was more than a few minutes, JJ eventually sunk deep in thought as he played with the skin on his fingernails. Jessie noticed, but attributed the racing thoughts to the newly found clue of their treasure hunt and therefore didn't ask any questions.

"I need to ask you something." JJ finally spoke up in a dark, hushed tone, not even bothering to look from his fingers. He looked somewhat angry.

"Okay..." Jessie trailed off as she looked over at her brother with furrowed brows.

"And I don't want you to bullshit me." JJ replied, this time shooting his head up to look at Jessie with sincere eyes.

"Okay..." Jessie responded once again with the same hesitation. She truly didn't know where this was going.