Riptide - An Outer Banks Fanfiction

Chapter 30

'Luck always seems 

to be against 

the man

who depends 

on it.' 

- Unknown

. . .

"So what are you gonna do with your share?" JJ asked as he ran the gold bars under the kitchen tap, cleaning them up. "You said you weren't sure the other night but somethin' tells me you weren't being entirely honest."

Rip glanced at him from her place on the kitchen counter, shrugging slightly.

"I hadn't told anyone that I have younger brothers," she picked at the hem of her shirt, "whatever I get goes to them – him, I mean." Rip frowned, willing that numbness that was helping her through her grief, or rather shielding her from it to settle back in her chest. "Whatever I get goes to Noah."

JJ watched in thought as the mud slid off the gold bars into the sink. "Noah and Finn? That's their names?"

Rip nodded slightly.

"Why did you never say anything about them before? Why didn't you tell us about them?"

She shrugged again, lapsing into silence for a moment. "I figured if you guys knew about them, you'd start asking questions about them and you'd want to meet them or whatever. Then you'd find out that I was looking after them, then you'd find out about David and what he had the tendency to do and I . . ." She shook her head. "I don't know. You would've looked at me different if you knew. Everyone would. I just wanted something that wasn't apart of all that. I wanted someplace where I could just forget about everything, even if it was just for a moment."

He glanced at her sidelong saying quietly. "We wouldn't have judged you, y'know."

"I know." Rip sighed deeply, rocking back slightly. "But you would've treated me differently. Whether you meant to or not. I'm the provider for my brothers, for Noah, and I do have help but still just knowing that would make you all act differently with me. Let me ask you, if you'd have known that I had two five year olds relying on me would you have encouraged me to come and do everything that we've done this past week?"

His silence was her answer.

"That's why I backed out after we got arrested because if anything like that happened again, I'd be sent away and Noah and Finn would be left alone to deal with David and I couldn't let that happen." Rip explained. "So I backed out and tried to get back to doing what I've done for five years, which is work and provide for my brothers, but then despite that, despite everything that I'd done, Finn died. Then I figured, I've tried the whole keep my head down, be responsible thing at I'd lost one of my brothers because of it. But then John B said he knew where the gold was and I saw I different future. One where I'd be able to spend more time with Noah, where I'd be able to be the parent that he needed. So if you want to know why I changed my mind, why I'm here, what I'm going to do with the gold when we get it, it's that."