─☼☼☼─

𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚, her first trip home since their venture to Charleston, it had taken Charlotte twenty minutes to convince her mother that Kiara was alive and well.

She had received quite the tongue-lashing herself, Anna Carrera livid over the fact that she had spent half the night looking for her daughters when they really just across the island for most of it (Charlotte didn't tell her that part).

But Charlotte was old enough to know not to argue with her mother when she was in this state. She had sat quietly, nodding along and apologizing when she had to. It was a pretty shitty thing they had done.

But, fast forward to that evening, Kiara wasn't old enough to know not to argue. In fact, she knew how to push all of her mother's buttons.

Charlotte sat silently in the kitchen, buttering the same piece of toast she had been for the past five minutes, covertly listening In on the disaster unfolding on the porch.

So far, there had been tears, pleas, accusations and now...they had moved onto yelling. 

Craning her neck, Charlotte watched as he father rounded the corner of the porch, carrying bags of groceries and a stunned look on his face at the scene unfolding in front of him. 

"God!" Kiara snapped, causing Charlotte to pause from inside the house, the intensity of her tone worrying the eldest of the two. "You are so worried I'm going to sleep with a Pogue." Silence followed for a moment before Kiara spoke again. "Well guess what? I already did."

The knife literally clattered from Charlotte's hand, her jaw falling open. I mean she was pretty positive Kie and Pope had slept together, but she hadn't expected her sister to confess that to their mother, much less both their parents. 

The time, the silence that struck was almost painful. Charlotte literally had to force a breath from her lungs as she awaited her mother's response to the bombshell that had just been dropped. 

"Let me handle this." It was Mike Carrera who spoke, and Charlotte could see as he tried to step in between the feuding mother and daughter. 

"No." Anna snapped, moving away from him. "No. No, I'm done!" She threw up her hands before bending down and grabbing a pile of clothes the laundry basket that had been sitting at her feet. 

Silently, Charlotte stepped toward the door, trying to garner a better view of what was happening. 

"I don't think you have any idea how hard we have worked to try to give you and your sister opportunities that other kids do not have!" Anna's voice was wavering, her emotions seeping through. 

Kiara sounded like she wanted to cry as she spoke. "How many times do I have to tell you guys that I don't care about those things?"

"Yeah, well you should!" Anna snapped back.

Kiara threw her head back for a moment. "Well I'm sorry, I don't! Look, I'm a Pogue and I always will be!"

Again, silence. 

Charlotte could feel her heartbeat in her throat as she remained hidden from view, legitimately worried as to where this was going to end up. 

Motioning toward the house, Kiara shook her head. "This is why I hate coming back here!"

Mike spoke instead of Anna this time, his tone incredulous. "You hate coming back here?"

Stepping forward, Anna gave a small nod. "Baby, you wanna live like a Pogue? Let me show you what that's like."

She then picked up the basket of Kiara's clothes, silently moving toward the edge of the porch before launching the contents of the basket over the edge, the pieces of fabric fluttering onto the lawn below. 

A lump lodged in Charlotte's throat as she watched her sister's shoulders sink. 

Kiara and their parents had fought before, but never had Anna ever reacted like this. 

"Go live like a freaking Pogue! Get your butt out of my house!" Anna's voice caused Charlotte to wince, protectiveness for her sister clawing to come out. 

But she stayed put. She watched as her little sister left the porch without another word to either of their parents. Watched as she bent down and picked up her clothes before walking off.

Charlotte wanted to go after her more than anything, but she couldn't ice out her parents. They were going to need support to get John B out, and maybe, just maybe their parents would come around.

"Charlotte."

The calling of her own name caused the girl to freeze, unsure of whether she should reveal herself or pretend that she wasn't there. She was leaning toward the latter when her father spoke again. 

"We know you're right there. Come out here, please."

With a sheepish look covering her face, Charlotte slowly stepped out onto the porch, facing her parents. Her mother stood with her arms crossed against her chest, still seething with anger. Her father looked upset in his own right. 

"Why did you do that?" Charlotte was the first to speak, and when she did, her voice sounded like she was ten years old. Like she couldn't believe her parents could have done something such as this. "You didn't have to kick her out. You─"

"Don't you dare." Anna interrupted, angry eyes locking on her eldest child. "I have dealt with so much shit from your sister this summer, something like this was bound to happen. And if you don't smarter the hell up you're next."

Charlotte bit down on her tongue, trying to resist from snapping back in the way she wanted to. 

"This is bigger than us, mom." Her voice teetered slightly, giving way to her frustration. "I know we've put you through hell these past few weeks, but we had our reasons, okay?"

A humourless laugh flew from Mike's lips. "And are either of you ever going to tell us these reasons?"

Charlotte sighed. "We can't."

"You can't?" Anna balked. 

"Not right now."

With an incredulous expression, Mike stared back at his daughter. "Not right now? Well then, when, Charlotte? When are you going to come to your damn senses and let us help you and your sister with whatever the hell all of this is."

"You can't!" Charlotte cried, exasperation overtaking her voice. "I know you want to fix it, to take away all of our problems, but you can't this time, dad. Okay?" Her voice had dropped its intensity, instead it was now full of sadness. 

She wished it didn't have to be like this with her parents. That she didn't have to hide all of this from them.

Mike studied his eldest daughter as Anna spoke again, voice cracking. "We just don't wanna get a call that the two of you are hurt...or dead. Every time you leave the house, I'm just waitin' for one of those calls."

Charlotte's heart pinched as she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I know, mom." She said softly, giving her mother an understanding look. "I'm sorry."

Anna didn't speak right away, just pulled Charlotte into a hug as it seemed that they had met somewhat of a mutual agreement, their conversation ending up much better than the one previously had with Kiara. 

"This isn't permission for you to go off and do whatever the hell you want." Anna warned. "And I still stand by what I said to Kiara. She needs to separate herself from those boys."

As much as she wanted to argue, Charlotte knew that the best thing to do was to keep her mouth shut. 

So, all she did was nod...and hug her mother just a bit tighter. 

─☼☼☼─

Charlotte Carrera had done a lot of stupid things in her life. 

For instance, there was that one time she allowed Rafe to launch the two of them into a pool from the second-story balcony of Kelce's pool house. 

Or that time her and Rafe ran off to the Bahamas without telling her parents when they were in senior year. 

There's also that time her and her friends tried to sneak into their high school to pull off the best senior prank known to said school (it worked so maybe it wasn't that stupid). 

Oh, and there was that time she decided to partake in a fun little treasure hunt that ended up resulting in murders, lie, and a whole lot of drama. 

But of all the fucking stupid things she had done, this might have been the worst. 

Given the conversation her and her parents had not hours earlier, you'd think that Charlotte would have smartened up at least a little bit. 

However, here she was, sneaking out of her house and booking it down the street toward where her getaway car was waiting. 

You're probably wondering what this so-called stupid thing that she was currently about to dive head-first into is. 

Well, when JJ had called her with a proposition on how to get John B out of jail, she felt too bad to say no. Mostly, she worried that he would get himself caught if he tried to pull this off alone. 

Pope and Kie were inevitably out of this plan, and she could not, in good conscious, allow the Maybank boy to take on this ploy alone. 

So, here she was, about to take part in a jail break that would probably result in her getting arrested. 

Yeah...stupidest thing she had ever done. 

"Jesus, Charley!" JJ declared as she scrambled into the ambulance, accidentally slamming the door a bit too loudly. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry." She huffed, leaning back in the seat. "My parents were watching me like a hawk...they kicked Kie out today, did you know that?"

JJ's face fell for a moment. "They wh─" He cut himself off, shaking his head. "You know what, we'll discuss that later. We gotta go."

He paused again, raking his eyes up Charlotte's body. "What are you wearing?"

She furrowed her brows, looking down at her hoodie and leggings. "What are you talking about?"

"You look like you're going to a bonfire, not working an ambo." JJ declared. 

"Are you serious right now, JJ? Sorry, my uniform must have been in the wash." The sarcasm was dripping from her every word. 

Rolling his eyes, JJ reached behind him and pulled out a white jumpsuit that matched his own. "Put this on."

Groaning, Charlotte threw back her head. "Fine." she grumbled, turning to look at him. "Close your eyes."

JJ glared at her for a moment before dipping his head, closing his eyes with emphasis. 

Still grumbling about her annoyance, Charlotte pulled of her sweatshirt, preparing to pull the jumpsuit on when she could feel eyes on her. 

Not turning, she continued on. "I can tell you're looking at me right now, JJ."

He let out an awkward cough, purposely turning his head. "No, I was just─"

Charlotte snorted, doing up the jumpsuit, "You were staring at my boobs."

With his face burning red, JJ fired up the ambulance. "No, I wasn't, Charlotte. I was making sure you knew how that thing went on."

She grinned, pulling her hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. "Sure, JJ."

He shot her a look as he pulled out of her neighbourhood, his face still red. "Whatever, Charley. Don't believe me."

Charlotte couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, whatever, JJ. Just tell me this plan again."

And so he did. He told her how he had already spoken to John B earlier, how they had crafted a plan. He had called it perfect but Charlotte wasn't willing to go that far. 

At ten o'clock, John B was to fake an appendicitis. He would be taken out of the jail for transport, right to the waiting ambulance currently occupied by JJ and Charlotte. 

"Pretty good, right?" JJ wondered, an excited smile on his face as he pulled up to a stoplight. 

Charlotte gave him a mock look of agreement. "We're so gonna get arrested."

"Ah, come on, Charls! Have a little─"

He cut himself off, eyes straying to the left of him as his face went deathly pale. Charlotte felt her heart lurch at his expression.

"JJ." She whispered. "What's wrong?"

His head whipped back toward her, eyes wide as he tried to shield his face from the left hand side. All he did was mouth one word. "Cop."

Of fucking course. 

Charlotte was right...they were going to get arrested. 

"Oh my God." The words flew from her mouth in a breath as she leaned further into the seat, trying to obscure herself from view. 

The intersection was empty, but the God damn light would not change!

"Come on." JJ muttered, slumping further in his seat. "Come on."

Suddenly, a voice came from outside of the ambo. "I hate when it's slow like this, you know?"

Charlotte felt like she couldn't breathe as JJ turned toward the officer, giving a small nod. "Tell me about it, man."

There was a pause for a moment before the officer spoke again. "Hey, what happened to Ricky? He bang out?"

JJ exhaled. "Something like that."

The officer leaned forward, far enough that he could see Charlotte in the passenger seat. Plastering on her best fake smile, she gave him a small nod. 

"New partner too?"

"I'm new." Charlotte answered, her voice coming out more as a squeak which resulted in JJ turned to her with a warning look. 

She cleared her throat, trying to keep her voice steady. "My second shift."

The officer nodded, not looking fully convinced. "You two look kinda young to be out on your own? Don't you need a PIC or something?"

JJ was definitely in the process of making up a lie when a voice came across the radio. "One three Eddie. We've got an unknown at KC Detention Center."

That was their cue. 

In a hurried manner, JJ reached forward and grabbed the radio. "Uh, yeah, ten-four. We'll be right over. Thank you so much. Over."

Charlotte winced at his choice of words, as did JJ. He shot her a sheepish look as he shifted the ambo back into drive. 

The officer was still staring at the two of them as JJ spoke. "Duty calls. We'll see you later, officer. Uh, you have a good night though, okay?"

"Hold up." 

Those two words made Charlotte want to throw up. In fact, she was pretty sure she almost did. 

But just as she was sure they were busted, the officer spoke again. "I've got nothin' to do. I'll pace you."

JJ let out a small laugh as he nodded. "A-alright. Great."

As the officer pulled away with his lights and sirens on, Charlotte collapsed back into the seat. "JJ, I think you need to get the defibrillator from the back. I think I'm having a heart attack."

Reaching across, JJ gave her knee a quick squeeze. "We're okay, Charls. We've got this."

Shaking her head, Charlotte closed her eyes as the followed after the officer. 

"Stupidest thing I have ever done."

─☼☼☼─