ix. praying the floor won't fall through

"Well, what now?"

Nova looked at them with raised eyebrows. She could feel her blood pressure rising. She'd told them their plan wasn't a good one. But no one listened. And now they were stranded and standing knee-deep in brown, swampy water. Well, not Nova. She refused to step out of the van as soon as she noticed the color of the water. She'd already spent her time in sewer water.

The only responses offered were a few clueless looks and head scratches, making her roll her eyes.

"Maybe we could walk from here?" Pope's suggestion sounded more like a question, and Nova knew even he didn't think that was a probable solution.

"And leave the Twinkie?" John B. turned to Pope, offended. "The tide's coming in."

Sarah groaned, throwing her head back, "So what are we supposed to do?"

Listen to me for once, Nova wanted to say but didn't. 

"Not stay here,"

JJ looked ahead with squinted eyes, Nova followed his gaze. John B. was right, the tide was coming in. There was no way they could just stand here and wait for it.

"I'm calling Nolan," said Nova as she began reaching for the cell phone in her back pocket. 

"What?" Kiara turned to look at her, hands on her hips, a distressed look on her face. "Why are you calling Nolan?"

Nova shrugged, scrolling through her contacts, "Uhm, because his jeep can make it through this sinking island..." she said, as if obvious. "But there won't be much space, so--"

"What if we don't need Nolan?"

Nova looked up, her thumb hovering just above her brother's number, she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Kiara sucked in a sharp breath, nodding at Nova before turning to look at everybody else who'd stopped what they were doing to listen to her. 

"I can just take my dad's truck," she shrugged, but the shaking in her breath was noticeable to everyone. 

"Kie, are you sure?" John B's eyebrows raised high onto his forehead. 

"How much worse can it get?" She shrugged, letting out a short, breathy laugh. "Besides, the truck bed will give us more room for everyone than the jeep would... right?"

She turned again to look at Nova. Nova nodded because technically Kiara was right. They'd be packed like sardines in Nolan's truck. But that didn't stop her from being confused about why Kiara would want to risk stealing her dad's truck just for them to have more room.

"We'll need something to pull her out with," JJ said, making Nova roll her eyes. She hated when they talked about the van as if it were a sentient being. "There's the wench at the Chateau."

"That's only, like, two miles," Nova said. 

John B. nodded, "If you're gonna do it, let's go, okay?" he looked between Kiara and JJ, the two who volunteered to go. "The tide's coming in. Twinkie's going underwater."

Nova looked down, over the open window, the water had passed the van's wheels already. And if the tide were taking the Twinkie, it'd take them all with it. 

"Wait!" 

Pulling off her shoes, Nova forced the van door open, cringing as she stepped into the cold murky water below her. "I've already almost drowned in sewer water," she informed everyone as they turned their heads to watch her high-step through the water. "I'm not about to stay here and drown in swamp water next."

"Alright, hurry up then," JJ said, rushing her through the almost knee-deep waters. "We've gotta get a move on!"

As Nova followed after Kiara and JJ, she tried not to think about the feeling of the mud squishing up between her toes with every step. She tried not to gag as she felt grass and weeds tangle around her feet and ankles. She only thought about dry land and that soon she'd be on it again.

She sat on the ground. Her back against the wooden, white picket fence that kept the Carrera home hidden from prying eyes and she picked at the loose skin around her thumbnail. Nova still didn't know why she was here, waiting for Kiara to steal the keys to her dad's truck so that they could steal that too. If she could have just called her brother when she wanted to they all might have been on their way out of there by now. Instead, she sat outside, hiding behind a picket fence in a nice neighborhood, waiting to steal a car like it was Grand Theft Auto or something.

"C'mon, Kiara," JJ grumbled from beside her. He was peering over the fence, but he must've felt her turn to look at him because he turned his head just then. "What's taking her so long?"

"It hasn't even been a minute, JJ," Nova shook her head at him, before turning back to look at the time on her phone. The minute switched just then, now sixty seconds had passed. 

JJ, tired of watching turned away from the house and fell onto the ground. She did her best not to notice the brush of his arm against hers as he moved back against the fence to sit beside her. But even with the sleeves covering her arms, acting as a barrier, she still felt that electric heat she always did when he touched her. 

"We should talk."

Nova's heart stopped. 

She turned, looking at him, "About what?"

"Last night," he was looking back at her.

Instinctively, Nova reached for the sensitive spot just under her ear. A weight lifted from her shoulders as she finally let herself think about what happened last night. The places on her body where he had been sparked back to life and kickstarted her heart it seemed, as it started thumping in her chest. The pieces of himself he'd left on her had turned to gold. She could feel everything she'd felt then, and it was overwhelmingly beautiful. Every kiss, every touch, every word had somehow been ingrained into her. Everything they'd done was now tied to the very fabric of her being. 

The closing door was so clear in her memory, that she could hear it. Except she couldn't have heard the door closing. He never closed the door. So why was she hearing it now?

Nova blinked and suddenly Kiara was running through the picket fence door, her hands closed tightly around a set of car keys. JJ had already stood up, catching the keys that Kiara tossed his way. Her eyebrows furrowed as she stood up, dusting her pants off, trying to bring herself back into reality and lock her thoughts back up in that safe she kept at the very back of her mind. 

"Where to now?" asked Kiara

Nova closed the door to the truck just as the engine roared to life and the truck tires spun the gravel below them. JJ had slammed his foot on the gas, getting them away from Kiara's house as quickly as he could.

"Gotta get the wench," said JJ, his eyes trained on the road and glistening with adrenaline.

Nova, in silence, gazed out the back window. She watched the scenery change from picket fence houses and backyard pools to houses with holes in their roof and backyards filled with junk and collected scrap metal. The change was jarring. It was like an entirely different planet. There was no gradual change. They'd gone from designer shops to squatters outside an abandoned gas station.

When the truck did stop, it did so in the middle of a yard. There was no driveway or gravel lot. It's just a backyard with brown, dying grass. 

"This'll only take a sec," JJ looked between Nova and Kiara before opening the driver-side door. "I think it's in the surf shack."

"You think?" Nova asked, eyebrows raised. 

After jumping out of the truck, he turned back to look at her, hands on either side of the doorframe, "Yeah, it is in the surf shack," though his words sounded as if he was trying to convince himself more than Nova. "I'll be right back," he told them before closing the truck door.

Through the windshield she watched him take off running through the barren yard, he turned and dodged different pieces of random junk, only for a bush pile to catch his foot, making him fall face-first into the ground.

Before either girl had time to react though, JJ was up again, "I'm okay," he said, giving them a thumbs up. "I'll only be a second."

Disappearing into the dilapidated building he called the surf shack, Nova found that hard to believe.

With a sigh, she sat back in her seat, "Think it's in the surf shack?"

"Not a chance," Kiara shook her head. 

A moment of silence passed between the two girls. The only sound from either of them came from Kiara tapping her knee. Her knees had been pulled up near her chest, her feet resting on the truck's dashboard. Nova had a habit of sitting that very same way. Her brother hated it. Not because it was dangerous, but because he didn't want his interior ruined or scuffed by her shoes. 

"So, what's the deal with this truck?" Nova asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

Kiara didn't turn to look at Nova in the backseat, but she could see her eyebrows furrow through the rear-view mirror, "What do you mean?"

"Why'd you take it?" Nova pressed. "I mean, aren't your parents already super pissed off at you?"

She heard Kiara sigh. But she didn't say anything, for a moment, Nova thought she wasn't going to say anything at all. 

"We needed it," Kiara sounded defeated. 

Nova shrugged, "Yeah, I mean, I guess," at this point she was practically taunting Kiara. "But we had other options."

"The truck was the best option," and by her clipped tone, Nova knew the conversation was over.

Nova didn't know why she kept insisting there was more to Kiara's wanting to steal her dad's truck. Maybe Kiara was telling her the truth and she thought it was the best option for them and there was nothing more to it. Maybe Nova was trying to find things to cling to to keep her mind from wandering elsewhere. No matter what it was, Nova decided to let it go, at least for the time being. There were bigger things she should be worrying about. 

Like, why were they still sitting in a motionless car when Pope, John B, and Sarah were probably close to drowning right now? 

"What is taking JJ so long," Kiara grumbled, and she slammed her hand down on the horn.

More time had passed than the second JJ had promised them this would take. But Nova felt that maybe Kiara noticing his absence was more about her not wanting to be alone in the car with her than how long JJ was taking.

No matter the reason though it worked. JJ finally reappeared, rounding the corner of the surf shack, his arms full of junk that looked like it had been pulled from a junk pile. 

Nova's eyebrows furrowed as she looked out the window. No one had gone inside with JJ, so why was someone walking out with him? A someone who looked to be an older, and drunker version of him.

"Is that—"

"No," Nova didn't even get to ask before Kiara opened the passenger side door, storming out of the truck, which pretty much answered Nova's question, "Immediately no, JJ!"

The muffled argument happening between Kiara and JJ outside the truck was briefly brought to clarity as the door beside her opened, their voices now carrying to her, and the older, and very filthy, version of JJ that had followed him outside slid in beside her. He shut the door with a grunt, silencing the voices outside again.

He looked over at Nova, his eyes wide and as round as quarters, as if he were looking at a ghost. She raised her eyebrows at him just as one corner of his mouth raised into the very same shit-eating grin that JJ would wear so well. 

"Jesus Christ..."

He kept looking at her with that grin she hated to see on his face. It didn't belong there — it didn't belong to him. 

"You're a spittin' image of your momma, little girl," he chuckled, shaking his head. "Almost thought I had gone back in time lookin' at you."

"You knew my mom?"

Nova's mouth was moving and the question was asked before she could stop. 

JJ's dad scoffed, "Grew up right down the road from each other half our lives. Went to school together too," he didn't offer her much, but it was more than enough to have her listening. She knew her mom had grown up on the cut and they never had much money, but that was about it. She didn't talk about anything else, and neither did her grandparents. "Pretty little thing like you. Wasn't a shock she was gonna be married right outta high school."

"My mom didn't meet my dad until after she graduated high school," Nova corrected him, shaking her head, sure he'd made a mistake. 

"I wasn't talking about your daddy," he said with that damn shit-eating grin, and she wanted to slap it off of him, because what was he trying to say? That her mom had been engaged before meeting her dad? "Everyone knew when she met him and managed to dig herself out of the rat's nest she'd been born into — that we'd all been born into here."

Nova looked at him, mouth agape but with nothing to say. This couldn't be right. He had to be mistaken, or just lying because there's no way her mom was engaged before meeting her dad. That couldn't have been true.

"I was real sorry to hear when she passed," his expression softened, and she could see so much off JJ in his features. 

She nodded, used to that comment by now, it's what everyone said every time they talked about her mom. I was so sad to hear of her passing. I was shocked when I heard she'd passed. I'm so sorry for your loss. Nova's heard every variation, and yet, never did she learn how to respond. She didn't like thanking them, because what was she thanking them for? Their sympathy? She didn't want their sympathy, she wanted her mom back. 

But Nova didn't have to think of a way to respond this time. Before she could say something, Kiara and JJ were getting back into the truck. Neither of them was happy to have a stowaway sitting in the backseat. 

"Would the two of you lighten up?" JJ's dad scoffed, shaking his head before turning back to Nova. "Miss Scott and I are trying to get to one another a little bit back here..." he shrugged, his voice lowering to a whisper, "They don't like me too much."

JJ turned around in his seat, his face looking to be made of stone as debilitating anger shone in the eyes that locked on his father, "Don't talk to her!" he pointed a shaking finger at his dad as he looked between him and Nova. "Don't talk at all..."

JJ's dad threw up his hands in mock surrender before pretending to zip his lips closed. 

With a sigh, Nova sat back in her seat, turned her head, and watched the trees pass her by in a blur as the truck sped down the road again.

The tide was not waiting for them. As they drove down the narrow streets the marshes began to disappear beneath the rising saltwater. Nova watched as every minute or so blades of grass would be swept beneath the water's surface. And with each disappearing blade of grass, she became increasingly nervous. For all she knew, Sarah, John B, and Pope could be underwater like the grass. The Twinkie, lost forever, which to her wouldn't be a huge loss, but still. 

And yet, here they were, driving JJ's deadbeat and alcohol-reeking dad all around the island. Now, having to make another stop to get him snacks. 

"Crackers and baked beans, and tuna, all right?" he yelled out the window at JJ, who promised to be only a second, once again, as he ran into the store. "And some salt and pepper. Five days worth!"

"Yeah..." JJ said, without even looking back over his shoulder. "I know."

Kiara stepped out of the truck too, after JJ disappeared behind the store's door, claiming to need air. Except Nova knew it was to keep herself from strangling the man sitting in the backseat with her, now beating on the leather seats like a set of drums. And he grinned from ear to ear while doing so, like a little kid. 

"Could you maybe stop doing that... please?" 

Nova looked at him suddenly, smiling sweetly, nodding at the hands he used to pound on the backs of the front seats. 

"Well pardon me, sweetheart," he said, slowly moving his hands away from the seats and back over to rest in his lap, except for the one he used to bring up to his mouth to mess around with the toothpick between his teeth. "Only trying to have some fun."

She scoffed, "Fun?" Nova shook her head, "You're about to run away and leave your son behind because you're a fugitive who can't handle jail," her tone was flat as she spoke to him and she didn't even spare him a glance. "What fun could you possibly make for yourself right now?"

"JJ can look after himself," Luke Maybank said, "Made sure of that myself."

"Because you're a wasted local salt who never did shit but get messed up and swindle people," said Nova, this time turning to look at him, only to him grinning and nodding along with her. "Not really a father a son could count on. Not someone that anyone could count on."

Luke Maybank snickered, shaking his head, "Not only do you look like her, but you act just like your mama too. She acted just like that in high school. Always trying to save everybody." He didn't take his eyes off her, but Nova didn't move. "So righteous," he said, his tone condescending. 

He let out a breathy laugh, leaning closer to Nova, "You know, I bet that's what you're doing with son, ain't it?" Nova could smell the alcohol and tobacco on his breath, she wanted to puke, but she still didn't make a move to back down. "Trying to save him. Convincing him that he's better than all of this... than me," his eyebrows rose as if he knew that he was right. "Hate to break it to ya, princess, but that's all a crock of shit... His future is already set in stone, and you're staring at it right now," Lucas sat back in his seat and cleared his throat, "But you'll come to see that. Like your mama, you're probably smart too. She knew when to get the hell out, and I'm sure you will too..."

Lucas Maybank merely offered her shrug after leaving Nova near speechless. Her eyebrows furrowed and she searched for something to say because she knew she had to say something. 

"Just promise me one thing, will ya?" He turned back to face her again. "Don't make him fall in love with ya before you leave. Seen how that turned out with your mom."

Nova turned away from him, her arms crossed and side pressed against the door, sitting as far away from him as possible. She was angry that he thought he knew her and that he could just say all that to her as if he knew it to be fact. And she was confused. How did he know all this stuff about her mom that she didn't? 

"Should've asked for toothpaste and deodorant," she told him, blood pooling in her mouth as she bit down on the inside of her cheek, trying to quiet the screaming inside her head. "You smell like booze and body odor."

He chuckled but had no time to say anything else to her before the car door opened again. JJ jumped inside, tossing the bag of supplies he'd bought back to his dad. Kiara followed shortly after, getting in with a long, agitated sigh. 

JJ looked at Nova, his eyebrows raised, "You okay?"

"Yeah," she shrugged, trying to sound nonchalantly, maybe even a little annoyed, which wasn't difficult. "I'm fine."

Clearly, he didn't believe her, but he also didn't press her on the issue, chalking up to being worried about their friends, still stuck in rising water. And with that reminder, JJ restarted the truck, and they were again speeding down the road. 

The tide only continued to come in during their pitstop, covering more of the marsh. 

No one sailed after September. Which would explain why the yacht club was so empty. Usually bustling in the summer months, now, quiet and empty. Minus a few hobbyists who you could find on their yachts all through the year. 

JJ quickly pulled the truck around, cutting the ignition and slamming the door shut as he got out, "Let's go."

Lucas Maybank sighed a long sigh as he made a show of slowly gathering the grocery store bags, acting as if doing so was the most troublesome thing in the world. 

"Hey," he slid to the end of his seat and bent toward Kiara before letting himself out, "Why don't you tell your mom I said hi?"

He grinned, obviously proud of his little comment, and JJ pulled him the rest of the way out of the truck by the collar of his tattered shirt. 

"Make it quick," Kiara said, but instead of looking at JJ her glare went over his shoulder and shot daggers at his dad. 

JJ nodded though, shoving his dad to get him walking, mumbling for him to hurry up and go. 

"Oh, and hey Luke..." Kiara said innocently, just as they were about to disappear around the entrance of the club. He turned around, arms full of filled grocery bags, but Kiara had nothing else to say to him, instead, she lifted her middle finger and grinned right back at him. 

Nova snorted out a laugh, quickly ducking her head and watching through her peripheral as Luke lunged to move back toward the truck but was quickly caught by JJ, who gripped onto his shoulder and forcibly turned him back around. He looked back at Kiara, sighed, and then turned to follow his dad through the bushes that would take them behind the club and to the docks. 

"So what's the story there?" Nova asked after only a moment of silence passed over them. 

She heard Kiara sigh from the seat in front of her and watched as she shook her head, "I know that he's a shit father, and never let him forget it," Nova watched Kiara through the rear-view mirror. "And I guess he and my mom had a thing like a million years ago..."

Nova's eyes widened. Anna Carrera slumming it with someone like Luke Maybank. She never would have guessed it. Kook princess and the biggest pogue of them all. The familiarity of it all made Nova feel sick. A continuous cycle that she'd now be part of. Was that all it was? A cycle that she was destined to fall into?

"I need some air."

She needed space. Space that wasn't the inside of the truck. 

Nova sucked in a deep breath when she rounded the corner of the yacht club. Her back fell to rest against the side of the building and her head tilted back as she continued to suck in air as if she'd been deprived of it. 

Fate isn't real. No life is pre-determined. The cycle doesn't exist. Every choice she has made has been her own. Her destiny belongs to her. She repeated this to herself repeatedly until it started to feel like the truth. 

The weight on her chest finally began to ease. Nova closed her eyes in relief, slowing her breaths, thankful that the burning sensation was gone. 

Nova never liked the idea of fate or destiny. It made her feel trapped. Held down by the invisible chains of fate with only the illusion of choice. And if fate was real then it was an evil thing. Because why did she have to have so much heartbreak? Why does she have to be so messed up? And why did she have to lose her mom?

She pushed all the swirling thoughts of fate and destiny out of her head, along with all the questions of 'why me?' because she knew it would do her no good to dwell. 

Standing up off the side of the building, Nova tucked her hair behind her ears, squared her shoulders, and took one last deep breath. She was fine. It was fine.

She would be okay.

"You okay?"

JJ's voice startled her out of her thoughts as she turned around to meet him. His eyes were bloodshot and his flexed hands shaking at his sides. But he was asking if she was okay.

"I just needed some air," said Nova. "And to stretch my legs."

He nodded, looking over his shoulder, watching as the small boat in the distance began to disappear into the horizon, and the sound of its engine disappeared. 

"Are you okay?" Nova asked him.

She knew it was a stupid question, but she didn't know what else to say to him. 

JJ turned back around, meeting her gaze, "It's probably for the best y'know," he told her, but it sounded more like those words were meant for himself. "Besides, not like he was around much to begin with."

"Sure," she whispered. 

Nova didn't know what to say, or know if there was anything to say to him right now.

"I didn't want to leave you last night."

JJ ran a hand through his hair and took a step toward her. Nova gulped, looking up at him, her heart was beating at an unhealthy rhythm. 

Nova shrugged, "So why did you?" 

Her voice came out as barely a whisper. 

"Because I —" 

JJ stopped mid-sentence, sucking in a sharp breath. He pressed the heels of his hands hard into his eyes before running them to hold the back of his neck as he stretched it back to look at the sky. He stayed like that for a second. Quiet with Nova watching him. Watching his chest rise and fall, wondering if his heart beat nearly as hard as hers when she was near him. 

It was quiet. Birds chirped in the sky above, waves crashed against the dock, and the slight breeze wrung through the leaves still on the trees and the overgrown weeds in the grass. But all she could hear was him. His breathing. 

JJ's head fell back again to look at her, his hands falling back down to his sides. Nova watched him flex his hands as his fingers twitched, before looking back up to meet his gaze. 

"I left because—" 

The blaring of the truck's horn drowned him out. Nova jumped back, her head turning to face the front of the building where the truck still sat with Kiara inside.

Nova cursed. She'd completely forgotten that Kiara was waiting for them in the truck. She'd forgotten about John B, Sarah, and Pope, who were still waiting for them in rising waters. How could she have allowed all of that to slip her mind? How could just being near JJ have been enough to cloud her thinking this much? It was as if he occupied every thought in her head. 

"We should go," she turned away from him, returning to the truck, leaving him standing there, watching her walk away.

JJ sighed, rolling his eyes, "Great timing, Kiara," he grumbled, stomping behind Nova. "Always appreciated..."

No one said anything when they got back in the truck. Not even Kiara, who looked between JJ and Nova curiously when they reappeared from behind the club together. Despite the questions on the tip of her tongue, she didn't ask anything. Mostly because she's been evading questions herself.

"Look who it is, the three tortoises, just a couple hours late..." 

Pope sat on the roof of the van, arms raised as he yelled at them, "Where the hell were you guys?"

Nova got out of the truck, jutting a thumb back at JJ, "Ask him."

"Paternal complications," Kiara shrugged.

JJ sighed, getting the supplies he'd thrown in the truck's bed, "Luke was at the Chateau."

"Oh great!" Pope let out a sarcastic laugh, shaking his head. "While you were having family time with your pops, John B. got bit by a gator!"

Nova stopped, looking over at them. 

JJ stopped dead in his tracks, turning around to look at John B, "Wait," he said slowly. "Like for real?"

"Jesus, JJ, does it look like we're joking?" Sarah pointed to the blood that was still visible on the side of the van. 

Nova's gaze went to the blood soaking through the leg of John B's jeans, her stomach dropping.

Nova's stomach dropped when her gaze snagged on the blood soaking through the leg of John B's jeans. She looked up at him, his eyes meeting hers in an instant. 

"Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

She knew they were stupid questions when she heard Pope and John B. sigh in unison. 

"He got bit by a gator—"

"—I got bit by a gator!"

"Okay, I don't know why you're all yelling at me!" Nova threw her hands up, yelling back at them. "We could have been outta here hours ago if you all had gone with my plan."

"We're yelling because we've been waiting for over an hour!" 

"I wasn't the one driving Pope, so don't look at me when you're yelling about—"

"SHUT UP!"

Everyone stopped. The arguing dissolved into silence as they all turned to look at JJ. His hands had tangled up in his hair and his jaw was clenched so tight that Nova feared his teeth might break. 

"Seriously, guys I can't take it anymore..." JJ's face was red and his hands curled into fists at his sides. "Everyone just cut it out for a second."

They were all too ashamed to even try to say anything. They'd let the stress and tension get to them, letting it tear them apart and fall into all this arguing and accusing. 

JJ let out a shaky laugh as he fell back to rest against the trunk of a tall tree, "Look, I just helped my dad leave this island for good. Like, he's not coming back. He's straight-up like the Spanish. Just, Bon voyage..."

Nova, dropping her head, let out a long sigh, "Jesus, he's an idiot."

"Yeah, that's not the right language," Sarah whispered from above her, sitting on top of the sinking van. 

She held her lips tightly shut, knowing now was the time to laugh.

"All we got... I know for a fact all I got is you guys, okay? You're it," JJ shrugged as he looked between all of them, meaning every word he said. "And I've come too close to losing all of you...." he scoffed, pointing back at Nova and Kiara, "I mean, shit like you two almost drowned. Pope, you were kidnapped. Sarah, you've been shot. John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro..." They all looked at each other, realizing just how lucky they all were to still be here, even if standing among the sinking marshes. They were all still here together. "So, this blaming each other is some Kook-ass bullshit, all right? We don't do that. Okay? We're Pogues."

"I'm still not a fish..."

Everyone looked over at Nova, judgment and slight amusement in their gazes. 

Rolling her eyes, Nova dropped her crossed arms to her sides, relenting, "Fine, not the right time, I'm sorry..." she sighed, looking at JJ, who was only grinning at her. "The sentiment was nice. You know, we're all in this together, yada-yada..."

JJ chuckled, shaking his head.

"But you should really consider downloading the Duo Lingo app or something..." she added quickly.

"No yeah, great freakin' speech," John B. clapped. "But Duo Lingo or Rosetta Stone, or something... because uh... you're Spanish and French are flip-flopped.

"All right," JJ rolled his eyes, shrugging them off with a wave of his hand. "Lets get this damn damn twinkie outta here."

John B. had told her he loved her here. It was like an eternity had passed since the last time she'd visited this place. Nova looked up at the church as if living in a distant memory. The stained-glass windows glittered beneath the sun and smelled of rotting wood and cobwebs. Everything was the same as before, but also, everything was different now. Nova hadn't been able to tell him that she loved him here when he told her. She wanted to be sure about her feelings for him. 

But the thing was, Nova knew she was in love with John B. since their first real conversation.

"Okay, you're telling me Denmark Tanny chose to hide the cross here?" the church doors squeaked open as JJ stood at the entrance with John B. and Pope, his arms crossed and a look of skepticism.

"We should've been looking here this entire time," Nova murmured as she stepped between John B. and JJ, letting herself be the first to walk inside. "I mean, a cross in a church... it's right on the nose."

It was humid and reeked of mildew inside the church. The wood rotted and chipped away, and as the others walked inside behind the floor beneath her feet cracked and creaked as if it were seconds away from collapsing under her. 

"Lets spread out," Kiara suggested.

"Okay, well, if I was a cross and wanted to be hidden in an old church, where would I hide?" John B. asked himself aloud as they all began to disperse in the dusty church to look for this damn cross. 

Nova moved around the old, smelly building. Her nose crinkled when a cloud of dust enveloped her when she popped a loose floorboard away, trying to look under the wooden beams they stood on. She muffled a sneeze, sure that she'd be cleaning out the allergy medicines in her cabinet tonight. 

"Are you sure that Denmark hid the cross here, Pope?" JJ asked, still standing beside the doors, having not moved to help them at all. "Like, are we even at the right church?"

Pope looked up, from checking under a broken pew, his jacket covered in dust and dirt, "Its gotta be here somewhere, guys."

And he sounded sure enough in himself for Nova to trust him. 

"What if we have to push a secret button or, like, play a... a certain chord, and all of a sudden the ground beneath us reveals the catacombs or something on which we stand?"

JJ looked at them as if he'd just had some kind of great revelation.

"Have you ever been medicated?" 

Nova stood up from her spot on the ground, having not found the cross under the loose or missing floorboards. And it dawned on her just then about how she and JJ both thought to look under the floor. Though, she didn't think they were living in some kind of science fiction fantasy world.

"How about we try to find obvious clues?" John B. suggested, clapping his best friend on the shoulder for encouragement.

"Yeah, JJ, it's not an escape room," Kiara rolled her eyes. 

Pope paced back and forth through the pews, not paying attention to their arguments. 

"The cross is here guys..." he said, knocking on the walls, trying to find a hollow spot, except all the spots were hollow. "I know it is."

Nova walked up to him, took his hand into her, and gave it to squeeze to pull him out of the trance he'd worked himself into, "We believe you," she told him, able to feel the stress of all this weighing on him like a thousand-pound weight. "And we're gonna find it."

"I just can't see where they'd hide a giant cross here," a defeated sigh sounded from John B. 

Pope turned on him, shaking his head, still moving and still looking, "No, no..." he shook his head, refusing to hear the defeat in his friend's voice. "There's no way he would set us up on a freaking goose chase that would lead us to a church that has nothing."

"Yes, I get it," John B. tried to reason with him. "I don't know what to tell you, man."

"The clues led us here," said Nova, trying to find a reason for Pope to be right. "The cross has to be in this church."

"Look, it'll be alright," John B's tone softened. "We've had setbacks in the past, and we figured it out. We're gonna find it."

He fell into a pew, Kiara sitting quietly beside him. Nova bit the inside of her lip, turning in a circle, trying to take in every piece of the church to figure out where in the world a huge, golden cross could be hidden where no one would find it.

"We've just gotta think about this logically, all right?" Nova turned back to John B, her shoulders sagging as they continued to fail Pope. "Where else would you hide a seven-foot-tall cross made of gold?"

"In a museum, probably," Sarah scoffed. 

"There's a hundred crosses in a church," said Nova. "If you could make it blend in, no one would know that they're looking at it."

Pope pushed himself off the pew. 

"What is it?" JJ asked.

He turned to Nova, eyes wide and manic.

"Nova, you're a genius."

Nova furrowed her eyebrows, "I am?"

Pope stood behind her, holding her shoulders and moving her body around, "Look up," he told her, and she did as he said, the others following his instruction as well. Her stomach fell where her eyes landed on the spot he'd told her to look at, and a slight gasp escaped from her parted lips. "Blending right in."

"Oh my God," Kiara whispered, her gaze transfixed on the wooden beam in the ceiling. "There's no way..."

She felt his hands slide from her shoulders and he stepped out in front of her, eyes trained on the ceiling beams above them. Nova watched him walk toward the wall feeling around it like he'd been doing when he was looking for the cross. 

"Pope..." said Sarah, a hint of warning in her tone, as if she already knew what he was thinking of doing.

And she had known. Pope stepped up, resting his one foot on a part of the wall with a small hole, and hoisted himself up. Nova's eyes widened in fear. There was no way this wall was going to hold him long enough for him to be able to climb it.

"Yo, don't do that, man," JJ chimed in, standing up from the pew he'd sat in during John B's speech. 

"Pope, this is crazy," Nova shook her head, moving to stand behind him as if she could do anything to help him if the wall chose to collapse. "That wall isn't going to hold you."

The others agreed as they moved with Nova to stand under Pope, yelling up at him and pleading with him to come back down as they heard the wall creaking and groaning under his weight. 

"Yo! This church gots to be at least 200 years old..." JJ yelled up at him. 

"He's right!" John B. agreed. "It's too dangerous!"

But it was no use. Pope had already made it up to the beams in the roof, and he was not listening to the ongoing protests below him. He was getting the cross. Come hell or high water. Or a crumbling church. 

"Pope, I'm being real, you aren't the most coordinated person on planet Earth," JJ continued to scold his friend who showed no interest in listening to him. "Are you even hearing me? What are you doing?"

"This is solid wood," he called down to the peanut crew after banging the side of his fist on the beams. "I'm gonna try the other beam!"

There was a collective sigh among all of them watching Pope from below. 

"Pope, that's rotten as shit right there, okay?" JJ warned him. 

He sat down on one of the beams, trusting it, for whatever reason. He pounded on the beam in front of him, over and over, beating it, putting his ear up to it, hoping for some kind of revelation. 

"I hate to break it to you buddy, but that's just wood..." said JJ. 

Pope shook his head, "No, it has to be here," he repeated the words he'd been saying since they'd gotten here, refusing to listen to the warnings and teasing from the others. "I know it."

"Okay," JJ nodded, moving to stand directly beneath JJ, watching as he stood up, attempting to cross over to where the cross would — or should be. "Just look out for that giant ass wasps nest above your head..."

Nova and Pope turned their heads at the same time. And holy shit was that a big wasps nest. She gulped, glad she hadn't been impulsive enough to follow him up there. She didn't do wasps... or anything with a stinger.

"Hey just... just move slow all right?" John B. tried to walk him through it, to keep Pope calm. "Nice and easy, all right."

Pope didn't say anything. He stretched his foot out a little farther, trying to find a secure place to rest it, but all the wood on the other side of him was rotten and falling off, hitting them below. If he stepped over there, he'd go right through the beam. 

"Go get me a crowbar!" He finally acknowledged the existence of them below him. 

Nova furrowed her eyebrows as Sarah and Kiara ran for the van outside. 

"What are you going to do Pope?" she called up to him, nervous. 

"I really don't want this entire church to collapse on top of us," JJ told him, using his hands as an exaggerated gesture. 

Except, it was already falling in on them. 

"Pope, I got it," 

Sarah ran back inside, Kiara close behind. She stood beneath him, holding the crowbar up to him, stretching up to the tips of her toes. But it was no use, she wasn't tall enough, and one wrong move from Pope meant he was falling on them, with the roof following. 

"Just throw it," he told her. 

"Uhm, I don't if—"

"Everyone just watch your heads..." Nova warned, taking a large step back, and pulling Kiara with her. 

She'd been there when Sarah decided she wanted to play softball. It hadn't gone too well. 

Sarah positioned herself under Pope and tossed the crowbar up to him. Nova watched it fly in the air, praying it wouldn't hit the wasp nest just a foot away from Pope. Luckily, the crowbar fell into Pope's hands and Nova breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Not bad," Kiara nodded approvingly.

"Yeah, you get lessons or something?" Nova asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I sported a black eye for a month in middle school because of you."

Sarah only laughed, shoving Nova lightly as she stepped back to stand with her and Kiara. 

"Hey Pope, watch out for that wasp nest beside you, okay?" John B. warned him, pointing toward the large nest with wasps flying around it, guarding their home. "Just take it slow."

Pope nodded, took a deep breath, and began beating at the wooden beam beside him. Nova flinches each time he takes a swing at the rotten wood, backing up even more as shards of the wood fall to the floor where they stand. But they all stood there, looking up and watching Pope with a gleam of hope in their eyes. 

Wait..." Sarah stepped forward, a piece of chopped wood missing her by just a few inches as it fell on the floor beside her feet. "What is that?"

"Are you guys seeing this?" John B. followed her. 

Pope began ripping at the dry-rotted wood, bigger and bigger pieces slung back behind them and dangerously close to those of them left standing below him. But as he ripped and tore at the old wood, they all began to see what John B. and Sarah had seen before them. 

"Holy shit..."

The shine of it hit the sun, sending a cascade of golden light through the church. If there was ever a moment in her life to make her turn to religion, it'd be this moment right now. Nova looked up at the rotted wood and what had been hidden inside all this time. 

"You did it, buddy," she heard JJ rasp from beside her. 

She spared him a glance, noticing the red around his eyes as tears burned through. He breathed out a long breath as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders. Nova smiled, watching him for a second longer before turning her attention back to Pope, still not fully believing that her eyes were being truthful. 

"I thought you were fucking crazy!" Kiara yelled up at him, laughing as she gripped onto Sarah's arm, jumping up and down excitedly. 

"We did it!" Pope looked down at them, arms raised triumphantly. "We really fucking did it!"

Nova yelled up at him as pride coursed through her entire being. Sarah and Kiara were clinging onto one another, whooping and hollering, John B. and JJ were close to sobbing as they stared up at the gold cross in complete awe and disbelief. And Nova raised her arms high, giving Pope two proud thumbs up. Because there was nothing else she could say, no amount of words to describe the pride she felt for Pope in that moment. 

"Okay, wow, wait..." 

The excitement in Pope's voice was cut short as a swarm of wasps began to envelop him. His arms swung out in defense, trying to swat them away. 

"Pope, stop swatting at them, it'll only make it worse," Nova tried yelling up at him. 

But his arms continued to flail and his body leaned left and right as he tried to dodge the insects, "Yeah, they're stinging now!"

"Pope, take it easy, man," JJ yelled at him, swatting at a wasp that broke from the swarm and flew near him. "You gotta get down from there!"

Instead of finding a safe way down, Pope fell forward from flailing, hitting the cross before losing his balance completely and dropping off the beam. 

"Shit! Pope, just hold on, okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm trying to!" he managed to be sarcastic even when he was dangling from a rafter beam. 

Kiara yelled at them to move the beams which sat right under where Pope dangled. Nova pushed on the old, wooden bench, listening to it scrape against the floor as it slid to the side. Everyone else did the same, JJ helping John B. since the gator bite had seemed to claim some of his strength. 

"Cushions... we need cushions!" Nova yelled, knowing that the result would have to be him giving in and falling. 

It didn't matter how filthy, dusty, or torn the old pew cushions were, they could still be used. Everyone grabbed what they could find, tossing it into a pile under Pope. 

"I can't hold on anymore!" 

Pope screamed as one hand fell from the old wood, probably splintered or stung. It dangled uselessly at his side as everyone scrambled in a panic under him, not at all helping him remain calm. 

"I'm slipping guys!"

JJ looked up, "Just hang on, Pope! Hang on!"

It wasn't a second later that he fell. 

A small thump sounded when he hit the center of the pile of cushions they had made for him. After taking a moment to be terrified, Nova let out a sigh of relief when she watched Pope turn to the side, groaning. 

At least he wasn't dead. 

"Pope, are you okay?" Kiara was the first of them to move toward him, the rest of them finding their footing after her.

"Anything broken?" JJ asked, falling beside him.

Pope didn't answer. Only gritted his teeth as he held the elbow he fell on as they continued to bombard him with questions of 'Are you okay?' or 'Are you hurt?' when the answer was clear... no and no. But his gaze remained fixed on the ceiling above, and in a second, Nova watched as pure panic filled his expression. She followed his gaze up...

She had been thrown across the room. No. Tackled. She'd been tackled. Before she had the chance to warn anyone of their doom. Her eyes closed tight as the crashing sound of impact shook the entire church, the walls threatening to fall in on them next. 

Dust swam around them and the new, gaping hole in the center of the church. Her eyes moved around the room and a sigh escaped her lips when she saw Pope laying on his side, breathing, and away from where the cross had pierced through the ground. 

"You okay?" 

She looked at JJ was stared at her worriedly. His gaze swept her up and down, snagging on her knee. Nova looked down and noticed a small scrape on her knee that she couldn't even feel yet, adrenaline still coursing strongly through her body. 

"Could've been worse," she assured him with a relieved grin. 

JJ let out a breathy laugh in agreement before wrapping his arm around her waist and helping her up from the ground. She hobbled toward Pope, looking down at him.

"I'm good... I'm good," he assured all of them, his body shaking from the shock of nearly being crushed to death. "Just give me like one second to catch my breath."

They nodded, all taking a step back from him to give him that second to recatch the breath that had been stolen from him. Instead, moving toward the ton of gold that now stood before them, so new, so shiny that Nova could see her reflection. She reached out to touch it, but stopped herself, as if this could be some kind of trick... Things like this weren't real. These things didn't exist outside of fantasy novels. 

"Pope," JJ breathed, a smile on his face as his palm fell to rest against the arm of the cross. "She's... she's beautiful."

Sarah shook her head, standing beside Nova as if afraid to get too close, "I can't believe it's real."

"There's so much detailing..." JJ was a second away from foaming at the mouth. 

Studying the cross closer than any of them, John B. crouched, pointing to a place on the cross, "Well, here's why Limbrey wanted that key so bad..."

Moving to stand beside him, John B. looked up to show Nova the keyhole in the cross. 

Her eyebrows rose in amazement, "Wow, good find, Jack Sparrow."

John B. grinned, shaking his head, keeping his gaze fixed upon the keyhole. 

"How much do you think she's worth?" JJ asked, looking around the others for an answer. "Like, if we melted her old bones down, dude, I'm talking high billions."

Nova looked at it, her head tilting to the side, "About as much me," she said, nothing funny about her tone. "More than half a billion..."

JJ ran a hand through his hair, "Dude..." he laughed, hitting John B. on the shoulder. "Can you imagine what—"

"No!" John B's tone was strong... stern, as he turned to look at JJ. "This belongs in a museum."

Groaning, JJ rolled his eyes, continuing to caress the golden cross before him.

Nova furrowed her eyebrows looking at it. Her gaze quickly fell to where Pope had managed to pull himself up into a sitting position as he stared at the magnificent sight before him. She couldn't help but let out a little laugh, not being able to believe it herself. 

"It belongs to Pope..." and everyone turned to look at her as if she'd grown a second head or something. But she was right. She knew that she was right. "The cross belongs to Pope."

Family heirloom or not, he found it. He believed in it. He knew it was here. The cross was Pope's.

"Congratulations Pope," she turned to him with a shrug. "You just came into half a billion dollars. Don't spend it all in one place."

Shaking his head, Pope stood up, "This is bigger than money... the whole world has gotta know the truth."

"Yes," John B. agreed with his friend. "And if we don't get this shit outta here before Limbrey gets here, nobody gonna know. So saddle up."

"You want us to lift that thing?" Nova asked, her eyebrows raised. 

"How else are we gonna be able to get it outta here?" John B. shrugged. 

Nova rolled her eyes, "It weighs like a thousand pounds or something, we aren't moving that thing anywhere."

Pope walked between John B. and Nova, ending any future arguments that might've spurred between the two, "There's no harm in us trying to move it. So, let's just try," he turned to look at Nova, "Okay?"

"No harm except breaking a wrist or a foot, but sure," she smiled sarcastically as she walked past him. "I'll help you try and move the thing."

Nova stood on the other side of Sarah, grabbing ahold of the arm that stuck out of the ground. She sighed as she dropped down beside it, knowing this wasn't about to work. She's watched heavy pieces of art being moved before, and it wasn't done like this. 

"Thanks," said John B, catching her gaze. 

She gave him a tight-lipped smile, "Thank me if we manage to get this thing outta here."

Nova couldn't understand why John B. was so hellbent on them carrying the cross outta there themselves. He was normally the more rational of all of them, and now, he had JJ agreeing to his schemes. 

"Okay, John B, you're gonna pull down," JJ told them, as they all found their positions and took hold of the hundred-some ton of gold before them. 

"Right. I'm gonna pull down. You guys pull up," he agreed, but Nova had no idea what any of that meant, or what she was supposed to do. "One... two... three."

Nova lifted her side of the cross sure that her fingers were going to break off her hand. Her mouth opened wide as she looked to Sarah, whose face had gone beat red, and mouthed 'Oh my God!' when the cross began to slowly rise from the ground.

They were all complaining and yelling at each other, accusing each other of not pulling their weight, or lifting at all, JJ asked Nova if she was even lifting, which she was... she thought. 

"Guys, move forward!" JJ yelled at them. 

"Where else is there to move?" Sarah yelled back at him. 

"Guys...okay, guys..." Pope grumbled, his face contorted in pain. "I can't... I'm sorry, I can't."

Kiara looked at him, her eyes wide as she shook her head, "No!" she told him, knowing what he was about to do. "No, no, no, no!"

The cross was lowering closer to the ground and Pope threatened to let go of it, and they were all screaming at him to wait, to hold it out, but he just continued to shake his head, lowering the cross even more as the screams of protest got louder. 

He fell back into the pew, holding his hand close to his chest. The cross hit the ground with a loud thud, nearly putting another hole through the wood. Nova released her own hold on the cross, letting her side hit the ground as well, seeing no reason to keep ahold of it and hurting herself any further. 

"Dammit!" JJ yelled, jumping back and away from the cross. "You guys, this thing nearly just smashed my foot!"

"I told you guys..." Nova shrugged.

"We could've had it if we would've just kept going," Kiara tried to encourage them, but it wasn't working as Sarah and JJ broke into an argument over who had carried more of the weight and Nova had turned to Pope, telling him he should've just listened to her. 

"Okay, okay, okay," John B. said enough times to make them stop arguing with each other. "Listen, we'll make like a sling... like a little—"

"Yeah... yeah..." JJ nodded along with his idea. "And then put it on the tail hitch."

Nova snorted, "Great idea," she applauded them. "You couldn't have thought of that like two minutes ago!"

"Okay, well you weren't exactly—"

"I wasn't exactly what, JJ?" she stepped toward him.

He smirked, taking a step toward her, nearly closing the distance between them. But before he could come up with any other smart remarks, Pope yelled out in pain, claiming their attention. 

"Guys, I'm not okay..." he shook his head, falling over onto his side in the pew. "I'm not okay."

"Yeah, you're eye, it's like all puffy..." Sarah turned her head looking down at him, a look of slight disgust on her face. 

"You good? You don't look too good bro?" JJ moved past Nova to get to Pope, where he nearly sat on his lap to get a good look at him. 

"Really?" Kiara looked at him. "He just said he wasn't good."

Pope shook his head, "I can't—"

He gasped, taking in a short, shaky breath. 

"It looks like he's—" Nova cut herself off when she moved to stand beside everyone else who crowded around Pope. "Oh my God... he's allergic to wasps!"

Sarah looked up, her eyes wide with fear, "He got stung a lot up there!"

As if on cue, Pope's body went limp, falling off the pew. 

"We gotta get him out of here," Nova said, trying to make sure he was still breathing. 

John B. lifted Pope from under the arm, Kiara on the other side as they began trying to drag him toward the car. 

"Guys... what about the cross?"

"Try and hide it, or something," John B. told him. 

And JJ took off for the cross as they all began to lift Pope and drag him out of the church. 

Except Nova, who stood there, watching them pull Pope away, promising him that he'd be okay, and JJ, covering the cross with the mountain of cushions they'd laid out for Pope.

And she thought that if there was any time to say prayer, now would be the time.

· ☼ ·

𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆:

I mean... it took me long enough, didn't it?

Some small amount of angst. How do we feel? Also, yes, this chapter is split in half, it was just going to be so long! Like 10,000 words and I still have half an episode to get through, wow! I promise faster updates from now on. I miss you guys too much to stay gone!

I know this chapter wasn't all that exciting, but, it was vital... at least to me. And I didn't really think it'd turn out this long, but here we are, unable to escape long chapters. Only two more chapters before I finish season two and I'm determined to get them both finished before November.

And, as always, tell me your thoughts. Did you notice anything in this chapter? Did anything stand out to you? I want to know everything. All of your thoughts and opinions while reading this chapter. What do you guys think of the direction the story is going in so far? What do you think is in the making with this little love triangle? What about Kiara, what secrets is she keeping? Comment, comment, comment!

Also, a little heads up, next chapter will stray slightly from the show canon. But it needs to so it will make sense. So, bear with me, okay?

𝐱𝐨𝐱𝐨