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The next morning, Callie got up and got ready rather quickly. After she was dressed and had shoes on, she pocketed her phone before walking out of her room.
Moving down the hall quietly so that she wouldn't wake her family, she went to her mother's art studio. She knocked lightly on the door before opening it.
While they had been out yesterday, Callie's parents had moved the pull-out bed into the studio, just like they said they would. Jennifer Merrick had yet to remove all of her supplies, so there were easels and paint supplies in the corner but besides that, the room now contained a bed and a bedside table - they had actually made it into a bedroom for him.
Walking further in, she fell down on the bed beside JJ as the boy rubbed his eyes. "Good morning," she smiled, speaking softly.
The boy turned to her, a content look on his face, "Mornin'."
"Time to get up," she informed him. "We have a cross to get back."
"Roger that," JJ grinned, sitting up. His eyes scanned the room before he shook his head. "I still can't believe that your parents actually did this for me."
Callie reached over to put an arm around him. It hurt her that he ever thought he didn't deserve the sort of love they were willing to give him. "Of course they did. They love you," she reassured him.
The boy smiled at her before standing up and getting dressed. Once he had a shirt on, he turned to look at the girl, "Y'know, I still need my hat back."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Callie shrugged as she walked out of the room. "Be ready in five minutes."
⋙⋘
"When I went back to Tannyhill, Rafe was on the phone with Ward, and he just kept saying, 'my thing, this is my thing,'" Sarah Cameron explained to Callie, JJ, Pope, Kiara and Florence.
Still, they had no luck getting ahold of John B. While they weren't fans of the idea, they knew that they would have to go on without him for now.
"He had to be talking about the cross," she deduced.
Pope nodded, hanging on her every word, "Absolutely."
"And he's coming into Wilmington tonight at eight o'cock. It's being shipped by train to Raleigh from there, but this is our chance to get it back."
Mischievous grins were shared around the circle. No one even had to bother asking whether or not anyone was going to sit this one out. As far as any of them were concerned, they were in it until the end.
"You get any other information?" Pope asked.
Florence reached into her pocket and removed a slip of paper, holding it out to him. "Sarah managed to get the cargo number."
