EDEN was woken up at the crack of dawn by her friends. 

Her eyes slowly opened to be met with the sight of John B. and JJ in her face and the sunlight against her skin. It was almost nostalgic, waking up on the Chateau couch—she was reminded of early summer once more, before they got involved in the gold. When they were simply teenagers trying to soak in summer rather than teenagers on the run from the world around them.  She wishes things could be normal.

However, despite the nostalgia, Eden is less than happy to see her two friends. A small groan leaves her lips at the fact that they had abruptly woken her up from—if she can say, a rather great—rest. She tries to turn over to ignore them, but her body is quick to remind her that she was freshly injured, and sent a jolt of pain shooting through her arm.

"Wakey, wakey." John B. says. Eden doesn't have to open her eyes to know he's wearing a shit-eating grin.

Eyes closed, the Bexley mutters. "I got shot last night. Let me live."  She pauses a moment before adding, "And by live, I mean go away and let me sleep."

"Good morning to you too, your majesty." JJ sighs before looking over at the Routledge boy."Go put some of that pain reliever shit in my back pack so she doesn't get cranky when we're away from the Chat." 

His words peak her interest. They were leaving.

"We're leaving?" She sleepily mutters, words muffled by her face pressed against the cushion. 

"Uh, yeah?" the Maybank looks at her as if she'd grown a second head. Did she not remember anything that went down the previous night? Rafe knew they were here, and it wouldn't be surprising if he came back again—without anyone to hold him back. "Do you want to be shot by Rafe again?"

"......No."

"Then let's get a move on." JJ states, lightly shoves her uninjured shoulder and gets off the floor to go join the Routledge in the kitchen.

Eden groans again before forcing herself up. Truly, her arm ached and she didn't feel like doing anything but she knew it was better if they evacuated the premise before Rafe decided to come back—one bullet graze was enough for the Pogues. She'd rather have to sit and complain about her arm than risk her friends getting hurt.

Getting on her feet, the Bexley makes her way into the kitchen. Her arm is like a metronome, a constant throbbing of pain working through her body. She looks the length of the wound and notices it's been bandaged up—Sarah or John B. must have done it after she fell asleep.

"There's the Sleeping Beauty." JJ chimes once the girl enters the room. 

Keeping her lips sealed, Eden outstretched her uninjured arm towards John B.—she was clearly going to be using one arm for most of the day.  

The Routledge boy gets the message and hands over the two pills, letting her take them before handing over a glass of water. Bluntly, he states, "You look like shit." 

"Thank you." Eden replies dryly before swallowing down the pain relievers she'd been given.

She's sure she does indeed look like shit. Her hair was probably ratty, her cover up—John B.'s shirt—had a giant blood stain upon the shoulder, her makeup was probably a disaster due to her tears and the fact that she'd been running around in it for a few days now. 

"They're back!" Sarah Cameron's voice echoes from the porch.

 The Maybank boy runs towards the porch, slinging his backpack—which had previously been beside the couch—around his arm. "Let's roll." 

Eden doesn't even have time to question if she needs anything from the Chateau before the Routledge boy is dragging her outside. He shoves her out the door, walking back to wrap an arm around Sarah's waist since she was still limping due to her stitches. 

Eden trudges after JJ, still rather tired from her abrupt awakening. 

"Finally. Hey!" The Maybank calls out to the dock, watching as Kiara and Pope stopped in front of the Chateau. They begin to tie up the boat before the blonde halts, "Guys, don't tie up! Stop it!"

Kiara furrowed her brows as the Maybank and Bexley came towards the boat, "What?"

"We're dipping."

At the silence that followed the boy's words, Pope asked, "Wait, why?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Kiara questions, confused on why they were suddenly running away from the Chateau—they'd been partying freely the night before. What had happened? 

Eden takes JJ's hand—which he'd offered to help her on to the boat—and looks at the two confused teens, "Where did you two end up last night?"

"We slept on the break." Pope admits, still confused as he eyes all four teens joining him and the Carrera, "What's up?"

"Slept, right. Yeah." the Maybank scoffed, patting Pope on the shoulder—the Heyward sent him a look, but noticed how much teasing the sentence lacked compared to most digs sent from JJ.  "We were up all night."

John B. breathed, "We gotta get the hell out of here."

Sarah, slightly out of breath, begins, "Rafe know's we're here and he shot Eden—"

"What?" Kiara cuts the Cameron off, looking at Eden with wide and concerned eyes. "He shot you?" 

Pope stayed quiet, but stared directly at the new found bandage covering most of Eden's arm and the blood stain upon her button down. 

"Grazed me. I'm fine." the Bexley corrects. She doesn't want them to worry about her when they have other problems—like getting away from the Chateau before Rafe returns guns-a-blazing—and quickly gets the conversation back on track. "We can discuss it later. But right now we need to find somewhere else to lay low."

Kiara pauses a moment before bending down to retrieve the rope, "Okay."

"Come on." Pope nods, helping the Carrera untie the bowline. He makes eye contact with the Bexley as she situates herself on the HMS Pogue. "You sure you're okay, Eden? Did you make sure everything was disinfected? Who stitched you up?"

"Yes, yes, and John B." 

"I'm going to trust his stitching skills and just remind you to not use that arm heavily." 

Eden smiles wearily, "Yes, Dr. Pope." 

After searching to find an abandoned spot to hide, the Pogues take refuge on a small stretch of land near the marsh. It was covered with lots of trees, which not only provided cover, but shade too.

 They were all positioned around a giant tree—Sarah was hunched over on a wooden bench, Kie was sitting on a stump, to which John B. aimlessly stood behind her. JJ was pacing by the tree, Pope was squatted down in the grass and Eden was lying down in the center of the group, blankly staring at the sky as she listened to Kiara Carrera speak.

Kiara starts, "Look, if Rafe and Barry know, it's only a matter of time..." 

"Before everyone knows." Pope pessimistically finishes.

"I told you." JJ scoffs,  pacing around the group in utter frustration, "We should've just gone South, man."

John B. sighs, "Just stop it—"

"Why does no one ever listen—"

"I get it. I get it. I understand."

"Can we not argue, for once in our lives, please?" Eden announces from the grass. She really wasn't in the mood to listen to her friends bicker about stupid shit—her arm throbbed and she was starting to get a headache.

"I have an idea." Sarah looks up from the grass and at her friends—her expression seems unsure and her voice wavers, knowing her words would be met with resistance and criticism, "With me back, my dad's going to have to choose between me and Rafe."

Eden slowly sits up and looks at the Cameron girl, already unsure of the idea. 

Evidently enough, John B. didn't seem too keen on it either, "Sarah, Sarah—"

"He's gonna choose me." Sarah protests firmly. Ever since she was born, Sarah Cameron had been the golden girl of her family, outshining her siblings in every way. Ward had favored her other Rafe and Wheezie, and she knew that no matter how much he had to protect Rafe, her dad would always have a soft spot for his little girl. He would choose her every time.

"I wouldn't take him up on that, Sarah." Eden states softly. After finding out her mother had known about everything back to Big John's 'disappearance', that she'd been Ward's right hand man, the Bexley knew that family didn't matter in the long run, especially now that things were so far deep. Ward could easily choose his son over his prized daughter for the sake of protecting himself. "My mother chose Ward and the gold over me and my dad. I wouldn't be surprised if Ward chose Rafe over you for the sake of protecting himself."

"Well, Eden, you don't have a relationship with Isla like I do with my dad." the Cameron says, causing the Bexley to slightly frown. "He's gonna choose me, I know it—"

"Eden's right. Just please listen." the Routledge boy looks at his girlfriend with a soft gaze, trying to get her to listen to their words. "Ward keeps lying to you, Sarah." 

Kiara shook her head, "Sarah, he's not going to agree after everything that's happened."

"No, I-I know it sounds crazy—"

"Yeah, it does!" 

"I know!" the Cameron girl exclaims, getting slightly worked up. Her voice breaks as she speaks, and she seems on the verge of tears—the past month had taken a toll on her, not just physically but mentally, too. "But he's my dad. And I know him, and I know he loves me." Her hands run over her thighs nervously as she practically pleaded for her friends to agree, "I'm just asking for two hours."

No one says anything in response. JJ throws his hands in the air in exasperation, Pope and Kie look down at the grass, John B. messes with the straps on his backpacks as he contemplates whether or not to let his girlfriend go, and Eden stares at the Kook with a knowing expression. 

Whether or not she'd ever like to admit it, she knew her and Sarah Cameron were similar in ways. And if their parents were too, Eden didn't want the girl to get hurt because of this decision—hurt because Ward chose Rafe over her, the same way Isla chose the gold and Ward over her own daughter's pain because of the result. 

Everyone was tense as they waited for Sarah Cameron to return.

Eden sat on the sandy shore of the small patch of land they'd seen, staring out towards the ocean in silence. Next to her was John B., doing the exact same thing—he was staring into the distance, lips drawn in a straight line as he tried to spot the familiar blonde on his boat. 

The sky had turned gloomy and the air had a rainy chill to it, but that didn't stop the Pogues. They continued to wait for the girl to return—not like they really had anywhere else to go, anyway. 

"The tape, you heard it?" John B. speaks up quietly, eyes unwavering from the ocean.  The rest of the group were out collecting sticks and conversing about happier subjects, but the Routledge hadn't wanted to participate. Eden wasn't going to leave him alone.

"A few seconds, but it was definitely Gavin." Eden nods, knowing he was talking about the tape Limbrey had presented, holding evidence from Gavin. She lets out a small sigh before continuing, "I think Ward and my mom betrayed Limbrey, which is why she was willing to give the tape out in the first place. To get some kind of revenge. I don't know what they did, but I have a feeling it was a betrayal just like they did to your dad." 

She feels sick when she says her mother was a part of Big John's death. Sick that she'd spent the whole summer trying to help John B. find the gold, spent the past nine months comforting the Routledge because of his father's disappearance only to find out her own blood was apart of it, was keeping the secret.

"I wish things weren't this way." Eden sighs, a small frown etching on her lips. She wishes they could go back to being teenagers, go back to when her worst fear was breaking a bracelet or getting JJ's beer in her hair rather than seeing her best friend get imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. "I wish my mom was a good person, that she'd chosen me and told Peterkin the second she found out Ward killed Big John. I wish I wasn't her daughter. Shit would be so much easier if I wasn't Eden Bexley."

"You're not gonna be like her, you know." the Routledge spares a glance at his best friend. The girl's hair blows in the wind, but he focuses on the frown on her face. Eden Bexley has never stated it out loud, but John B. knows it's always been a fear that she'd end up like her mother when she's older—the same way JJ feared he'd end up like his father. "You care about everything too much, sometimes. You're a comforter, you find the fact that you have us richer than the fact that you could have anything on this island, you're the most reliable person I know...." He pauses, "Your kids will be lucky to have you as a mother, Eden.  You'll be everything she isn't—which is everything."

Eden feels a weak smile grow on her face. "Thanks."

"And your comment on being her daughter? You might be Bexley by blood, but you're a Pogue by choice." John B. slightly smiles. While being one of the most respected girls on the island, Eden decided to spend her time as a Pogue, and that's what mattered. She was Eden Bexley, but she was also his best friend. His family. "And that's all that matters."

"Who taught you how to use words? This isn't the same boy who claimed that love just walked in." the Bexley remarks, taking his words to heart. He was right—while she hadn't been able to choose her mother, she had been able to choose her friends. She was a part of a more loving family by choice. 

John B. sighs, "You're never going to let me down on that one, are you?" 

"Think before speaking next time." Eden smiles warmly. Her eyes then catch the incoming boat in the distance, the HMS Pogue speeding towards the patch of land with Sarah Cameron wearily driving. The girl is wearing a crestfallen expression and the Bexley can't help but feel as if things went wrong. "She's back."

Kiara runs over towards the beach, waving her hands in the air, "Sarah!"

"You made it." JJ hums as the HMS Pogue comes to a halt.

"What happened?" Pope asked.

The Pogues all run towards the girl, curious and concerned on whether or not Ward had chosen Sarah, whether or not they were one step closer to safety or still forced to run away from their problems.

Once over to her, John B. is the first to ask, "So, how'd it go?"

"You guys were right." Sarah sniffles, lips pursing in disappointment. She makes eye contact with Eden, and the Bexley knows that Ward chose Rafe, protected Rafe and himself, over Sarah." "It didn't work. I'm sorry."

"Well, then that settles it, guys." the Maybank boy states, jabbing his thumb back towards the HMS Pogue where the group was walking away from. "Now, ya'll need to load up in the paddy wagon and get the heck out of Dodge right now."

"Right." Pope settles his hands on his hips as she speaks, "You guys are gonna need supplies and you'll have to split as soon as possible." 

Kiara's expression suddenly falters as her eyes catch hold of something in the near distance. Eyes slightly widening, she blankly states, "Guys, I think it's too late."

At the waver in her voice, Eden senses that something was wrong and it doesn't take her too long to hear the familiar wailing of police sirens and catch the multiple SBI treading the water towards the deserted area. 

Her heart falls in her chest.

"Fuck. They followed you here, Sarah." Eden managed to get out, breath hitching in her chest. Ward had betrayed Sarah—he'd called the cops knowing John B. was with her, knowing he'd get arrested, to protect himself and Rafe. "Ward had to have called them."

Pope looks between his friends, "We're gonna have to find another way out of here."

"Stay on the beach with your hands in the air! "

The Pogues do the exact opposite; they begin to back up before breaking into a run—when had they ever listened to directions given by the law?

"Go, now! Go!"

"Run! Come on! Come on!"

"Go, guys! Run!"

The six teens fell into step with one another, panting as they pushed themselves across the stretch of the beach. Eden's converse pressed against the sand with as must speed as she could muster, face contorting as the exerted movement caused her arm to throb even more—she would probably end up bursting her stitches, but that was the least of her problems. 

"Come on!" 

"Come on! Let's go! Let's go!"

"We've gotta out run them!"

"Go!"

Eden looked back to see the Routledge boy slightly haltering in his steps to help Sarah travel faster—her wound wasn't doing her any justice when it came to outrunning the cops—and the Bexley paused for a moment to wrap her arm around the girls waist, shouldering the remainder of Sarah's weight which while causing her some discomfort, helped them out in the long run. 

"Let's go! Let's go!"

"Go!"

"Go!"

The six travel into the tree-covered part of the land to provide cover. The sand previously hitting her shoes turned into damp leaves and dirt and the view of the ocean turned into leafy greenery as Eden practically dragged Sarah—the girl could barely limp, and was beginning to cry not just from having to experience the stinging of her healing wound, but the guilt she had from getting her friends into this position in the first place. She should have listened.

Eden heard the shuffling of other feet and looked back to see the cops behind them. With how slow Sarah was going and with how severely outnumbered they were, this was practically a loose/loose situation. The Pogues were heading straight into an ambush they couldn't win.

"You're okay, you're okay." John B. spoke through gritted teeth as he heard Sarah struggle to breath from the pain.

Kiara hears this and turns to look back at the two brunettes carrying the blonde through the marshland, "Sarah, you good?"

"We're fine." Eden breathes as the teens stumble through the tall grass of the marshland. They end up in front of a small murky, brown, lake but no one complains as they all start to file into the water. The Bexley takes JJ's hand into the waters, ignoring the way it soaked through her jean shorts, causing more feeling of discomfort.

The Maybank takes over for the Bexley and helps Sarah into the water, John B. not hesitating before diving in as well. 

Eden watches as Pope and Kiara began to swim through the water and slightly hesitates at the thought of doing so with her graze and stitches. Her stitches would more than likely burst and she'd be in hell stroking her way towards the shore—so much for not using her arm heavily.

However, the Bexley doesn't allow herself a second more of hesitation before beginning to swim, trying to ignore the tears prickling in her eyes as she feels her arm burn the moment she uses it to stoke. Small sounds of pain manage to escape her throat but she pushes herself—for her friends, for John B.

"You got this, Eden." She can hear JJ reassuring her—it wasn't that hard to tell that swimming was causing her more than enough discomfort. He proceeded to encourage her that she was going fast enough, that the pain was worth it, "Just swim. You're doing good."

"Freeze!" 

"Stop!"

"Stay where you are!"

She hears splashing and knows the cops are beginning to swim as well. 

The Pogues manage to get to the other bank and climb out, clothes and bodies drenched. Kiara was first out of the water and stumbles other to the closest tree with Pope and JJ yelling from behind her.

"Go! Get up! Get up!"

"Go, go, go!"

Sarah is next, hand pressed against her bandage. John B. and Pope chase after the girls with JJ and Eden in the back. 

"Behind the tree! Let's go!" John B. gruffly yells, all teens doing as he said and crowding behind their tree, chests rising and falling unevenly. Their heads peer above the branches at the SBI agents treading water with their guns raised. Eden hears more sirens and watches as the familiar cop cruisers of Kildare County swerve into the scene—everyone was surrounding them.

Eden leans against the tree, hand rubbing across her chest as she tries to control her breathing before her whirling mind takes control of the situation and starts a full on panic attack. Her lip trembles as her arm throbs, and as she looks down at the bandage, she notices blood seeping through it—she'd certainly burst her stitches.

Looking at the others, it's clear to see they're in no better condition. Kiara is crouched down, panting, Pope's face contorts as his chest rises and falls harshly, Sarah has her back to the bark, holding tightly on to her wound as she tries to focus on anything but the pain she's in. 

Eden knows this is it. She certainly can't run anymore and neither can her friends. They were trapped—for once, they couldn't run away from their problems. She makes eye contact with the Routledge, "We can't—we can't run anymore. I can't, John B."

JJ looks outwards, "We're trapped."

"They surrounded us." Pope pants. "What do we do?"

"There's no getting out of this, we gotta make a stand." the Maybank boy rushes, squeezing the water out of his bandanna. He quickly pulls the gun out of his pocket and starts to dry it off with shaky hands.

Eden's heart cinches in her chest at the thought of the blonde boy shooting, and through an unsteady breath she manages to say his name, "JJ."

For as long as she's known him, JJ Maybank has had a martyr complex. He'd throw himself under the bus for the Pogues if it meant they didn't get the blame—taking the blame for Pope so he could still get his scholarship interview. He'd willingly take a gun to the head if it meant his friends got away unscathed.  In simple words, JJ Maybank had always sacrificed himself for the sake of others. 

"I'm gonna be fine, Eden." JJ thickly says, gripping the gun tightly with shaking hands. He pulls out the barrel and blows, trying to dry everything off. "Everything's gonna be okay." 

John B. made eye contact with the Maybank as he continued to dry off the gun. His gaze scanned across his friends, whom he'd dragged through the mud for his mess. Ever since this gold mission started, he'd been dragging the Pogues through his messes, making them pick them up and he was done.

His gaze halters on Sarah for a moment—her eyes are filled with tears, wide and petrified—before it eventually lands on Eden. 

Her back is pressed against the tree and her eyes are squeezed shut in pain. She breathes in small gasps, chest rising and falling in uneven bursts, the hand rubbing against her chest for comfort met with no avail. Tears trail down her cheeks and he can see the blood staining her bandage, a clear sign that her wound was open.

 Looking at her now, all John B. saw was an innocent sixteen year old girl—a girl who didn't deserve to be grazed by a bullet, to have to run away from the cops, to have to deal with everyone else' problems when she was clearly struggling with her own. 

This had to stop. 

John B. would rather turn himself in than allow JJ to become a murderer for him, than have to watch Eden struggle to calm herself down or in pain because of his actions, than have to risk seeing her or Sarah get shot once again from a bullet aimed for him.

Him. Everything within the past month had been because of him and it was unfair that he was dragging his friends through it, too. Sooner or later, John B. Routledge knew he had to stop running, and fate seemed to be telling him now was it. Enough was enough.

JJ cocked the gun and stepped forward to face the cops.

It's almost as if time slowed for the Routledge boy as he stepped forward, pulling the Maybank back behind the tree. He grabbed a hold of JJ's wrist with a firm grasp. The blonde tries to turn around the tree again, but is stopped as John B. pulls him back yet again with the most serious look in his eyes.

The two boys hold eye contact for a brief moment before John B. takes the gun from JJ's grasp by the barrel.

A few months ago, JJ would have reprimanded his friend for holding the gun by the barrel the way he was. But in the moment, he let John B. grip his hand and take the weapon from his grasp by the barrel. He let John B throw it in the grass.

"Get those hands up, now!"

John B. manages to muster a soft yet sad smile on his face as he whispers, "It's gonna be alright." 

There's a skidding and Eden looks to the side to see a cruiser halting beside the tree. 

John B. brushes past the Maybank and looks at the Bexley instead. Eden meets his eyes with her own tear filled ones—she knew what he was doing. The two stare at one another for a brief second before embracing tightly. Sister and brother separated again. 

They hold on to one another for a few seconds before John B. moves his head to press a kiss to her forehead, Eden savoring the show of familial love before pulling away from her best friend to let him walk away. 

John B. nods at her reassuringly before returning to JJ, cupping his face for a moment before stepping away from the tree. "Here we go."

JJ kicks dirt and leaves over the gun as Eden let's out a small sob.

"Go around now! Nice and easy!"

"John B.!" Shoupe steps out of his cruiser, standing behind the door and holding his gun through the window, aiming it at his culprit. The Routledge boy slowly walks away from his friends, hands rising in the air as SBI agents and police crowd around, guns raised. "Step out into the clearing! Get down—do not move!"

John B. hoarsely yells, "I'm surrendering!" 

"Don't move!"  Deputy Plumb yells out.

Deputy Thomas is next to yell, "Hands up, John B.!"

Shoupe eyes the rest of the teens, who are slowly raising their hands as well. Eden only raises one of her arms and prays that they see her bleeding bandage and don't force her to lift her other.

"The rest of ya'll stay right where you are!" the Sheriff calls out, cautiously. "Keep your hands where we can see them!"

John B. steps forward causing Plumb to warn, "Don't move!"

"Hey, listen, Shoupe, I wanna testify." the Routledge boy states, stepping forward to try and get the sheriff to listen to him.

Shoupe is walking towards the boy with his gun raised, deputies behind him pointing their weapons at the Pogues. "It's about time. Get down. Do not move a muscle." He glances at the other Pogues who watch, "Everybody else, don't move."

 John B. does as he's asked and gets down on his knees, placing his hands behind his head.

The rest of the cops circle around the tree and Eden starts to feel overwhelmed with the amount of guns pointed at her and her friends—she can't even help the fact that she's struggling to breath anymore when she has weapons pointed at her, threatening to take away her life entirely if she makes the wrong move. 

JJ looks to his side and notices this—he'd been friends with Eden long enough to know that she was becoming overwhelmed and could endure a panic attack—and slowly moves a hand down from the air to try and grab her's, wanting to show the Bexley some kind of comfort even though nothing about this situation was okay.

He barely manages to skim his hand against Eden's when he's caught doing so and is reprimanded by Plumb. The officer moves her gun at him as she yells, "Hands up! Don't touch her! Hands in the air, Maybank!"

"She can't breathe!" JJ roars back defensively. He can't believe she's screaming at him about trying to hold Eden's hand when she was visibly struggling. "She can't breathe! Let me help her!"

"Hands in the air!"

Eden puts her hand over her mouth to stop from crying. She just wanted this all to be over. 

Deputy Thomas storms over to John B., and grabs one of his arms rather harshly, twisting it behind the boys back. However, instead of cuffing him, the burly deputy hooked his other arm around the seventeen year old's neck, yanking him upwards in a choke hold.

JJ's eyes widened, "Are you serious? Come on!" 

Thomas throws John B. on the ground with force.

Shoupe's expression faltered, "Hey, Thomas!"

As if it wasn't already a mess, chaos ensued even more. 

Sarah's scream was utterly raw, "No!"

"Stop! Stop!" Pope calls out with panicked eyes. A deputy rushes over to him and holds him down.

"Stop!" Kiara hoarsely yelled, "Let him go!"

Eden's eyes are wide in absolute shock and fear as she watches the deputy start to kick John B. Her throat is raw and she manages to summon enough air into her lungs to start screaming for Shoupe to stop Thomas. "Don't fucking touch him! Get off! Shoupe, stop him! Stop him! He can't do that!" 

"Sheriff, what is that?!" JJ yells, nothing but anger in his voice as he gestures to the scene ahead, "You're gonna let that happen!"

All aspects of protectiveness take over Eden, and her mind is in defense mode as she suddenly pushes away from the tree. Her arm might have an injury, but she can't just watch her best friend get beat up by Thomas. She won't.  "Get the fuck off of him! Shoupe! Don't touch him or I swear—"

JJ is quick to yank her back, holding his arms around the girl so she didn't end up with another bullet in her skin. He knows how Eden gets when she's angry, and as much as he'd love for her to stop Thomas, he can't. 

"Don't move!" Plumb jabs her gun directly at the Bexley. 

The girl tries to break out of JJ's hold—if she could punch the deputy, she would—but is unable too as he tries to hold her back. She'd end up in jail and he can't afford to lose his two best friends in one fell swoop.  

JJ holds her back but still manages to call out to the deputies, "Don't point that at her!"

"Hands above your head, now!" Plumb yells.

As more guns direct their aim at Eden, she has no choice but to give in. She raises her uninjured arm at head level, allowing the blonde boy behind her to do the same thing with each of his arms.

Shoupe finally seems to realize that Thomas was taking this all too far, and intervenes. He runs up and grabs the man by the collar, "Thomas! Stand down!"

Thomas merely shoves the sheriff away, still grasping John B. by the collar of his shirt. "Get off!"

The Routledge boy looks tired of fighting, but when Thomas holds him even higher by his shirt, his eyes widen in fear, teeth gritted together.  

It's silent for mere seconds before Thomas stares directly into John B.'s eyes, "This is for Peterkin."

He raises his fist and punches the Routledge boy in the face.

John B. is thrown to the ground at the impact. He stays down. 

The rest of what happens is an absolute blur to Eden Bexley. Her mind was so overwhelmed and her eyes were so tear filled that she slightly blanked. 

She remembers hearing Sarah scream, hearing herself start crying. She remembers feeling JJ try to hug her, remembers hearing Plumb yell at them for physical contact, remembers having more guns jabbed in her direction which only worsened the problem.

She remembers watching as John B.'s unconscious body was cuffed and thrown into the back of a cop cruiser, remembers the other officers and agents finally removing their rifles from the teenagers faces once Shoupe had cleared out. 

Remembers feeling utterly empty as her and her friends are left in silence.

mara's misc!

uh....yeah!

okay but the arrest scene is literally so depressing. the pates weren't playing at all. i got a little teary eyed rewatching the episode to write this tbh so.....

also rip to eden's stitches. miss girl was like "swimming? ur kidding bro" 

sad shit aside, this chapter was actually pretty fun to write? sad/depressing stuff is actually really fun to write—call me crazy who cares. like writing them in depth sad paragraphs comes easy but somehow it takes me years to write essays??? writer math.

this chapter is like 5000 words for no reason. i actually had to split it in two bc it was gonna hit like 8500 mark and that's too long for my liking—my goal is literally 2000-3000 words per chapter idk how we got there. my bad.

next chapter ain't gonna be prettier—i've said that a lot the past chapters, haven't i?—lots of sad stuff with eden but i also added some jjeden content for my girl kensie bc she won't let go on them.

anyways that's all i got

hope you enjoyed! see you back with chapter 42 <3