Storm Chaser // JJ Maybank

69

"Who is it? Who's there?" Groff shouts.

"It's JJ Maybank. Can I just talk to you?" JJ asks. "I need to talk to you."

The door opens slowly and Groff is standing there. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah," JJ says.

"Hi," I greet.

"Come in. Come... come in." Groff laughs as we walk through the door. "Look at you. What a night, huh? Let's, uh... let's get you both towels."

JJ and I follow Groff into another room.

"Is there news?" Groff asks.

"Wh... What?" JJ asks.

"They found the amulet, I assume?" Groff asks. "Too late for Wes, I'm afraid."

JJ shakes his head. "No, it's actually not about that. It's..." JJ trails off as he sees the portrait of Larissa on the wall. I grab his hand and squeeze it. "It's actually about you."

"Me?" Groff asks.

"Yeah." JJ is struggling to get his words out. "Okay. I just... Yeah. I frickin'... I... Okay, I don't know how to ask this, really, but... Am I, um... Are you my father?"

Groff looks surprised. "Your father? Uh... What a thing to ask."

"Yeah. I guess you're right. It is odd," JJ admits.

"Okay but, uh, JJ got a letter from Wes Genrette," I explain.

Groff looks surprised. "Wes wrote you a letter? Wow, he really..." He scoffs. "He really wasn't there in the end, was he?" I squeeze JJ's hand. "Look, JJ, you seem like a fine young man. I'd be... I'd be lucky." Groff chuckles. "But... don't you already have a father?"

"Luke." JJ takes a breath. "Except he was the one that told me... After I got the letter from Wes, he told me that you gave me to him after Larissa died."

"Luke told you that?" Groff asks. "Extraordinary. Forgive me, but he's got kind of a checkered past, hasn't he? Fugitive, I believe. Drugs?"

JJ scoffs. "Yeah. No, I guess you're right."

"Okay but can you just tell us what happened to that baby, then?" I ask.

"My baby. He drowned," Groff tells us. "They never found the body. Imagine that. Not being able to bury your own child."

"If you couldn't find him, do you think that baby might have survived?" I ask. "That that baby is JJ?"

"JJ, I don't know what Luke told you. And if I... If I had someone like Luke for a father, I guess I'd want to swap him out too," Groff offers as he puts his hand on JJ's shoulder. "But I... Look, JJ. We all draw certain cards in life. I mean, I wish it weren't so. I really do. But..."

I hear an air horn somewhere nearby.

"Oh no," Groff says.

"What?" JJ asks. "What was that?"

"That's a warning... from Demp," Groff explains.

"A warning?" I ask. "A warning for what?"

"Trouble. Come on, follow me," Groff tells us.

"What do you mean, "trouble"?" JJ asks. "What's happening?"

I look out the window. "Tell us what's going on."

"Stay away from the window!" Groff tells me.

JJ grabs my hand and pulls me towards Groff.

Groff holds a shotgun out to JJ. "I assume you know how to use one of these?"