June walked up the steps of her front porch, her head spinning and pounding as she tried to recover from what had happened at Barrys. Rafes vendettas were the last thing she wanted to be the subject of, her thoughts swirling heavily around the fact that  he had spilled on a very big secret between the two of them to Barry,  someone she didn't trust to keep it.

She pushed the front door of her house open, it was the middle of the day, no one was home. She was looking forwards to laying in her bed, going on the internet and browsing many different possible solutions to her problems.  However when she headed up the stairs she heard a faint noise from her bedroom, all kinds of paranoia filling her at the sound of it. Her heart began to thump painfully in her chest and she considered grabbing  a weapon and proceeding but she figured she was overreacting, and there was a perfectly logical explanation for it. However her reasoning didn't stop her hand from shaking as she reached for the doorknob to her bedroom, and it didn't stop her from gripping her phone so hard in her hand that it felt like it was going break.

When she pushed the door open she let out a breath, seeing that it was JJ standing in the middle of the room, his back turned to her as he looked down at something. Her fingers dropped from the doorknob and she shook her head, trying to calm her heart rate.

"JJ...hey." She said in a low tone, a relieved one, the boy not seeming to register that she had spoken, but knowing she was there.

"I thought you were done with all of this..." His words confused her until he turned around, the map in his hands. Her lips parted and she looked at him with a caught look, her stomach dropping as he held the piece of paper between his fingers. Her eyes darted towards where she had hidden it, and she felt her lip curl when she realized he had snooped through her room. She took a few steps forwards, pulling the paper from his hands and shaking her head.

"Why were you going through my stuff?" She said in an agitated tone, finding it strange that he thought it necessary to do so. He disregarded her question though, quick to start with his questioning.

"This is the map to that stuff that you made us dig through the monument for isn't it?" June folded the map back up, shaking her head as she turned away from him, putting the map into the top drawer of her dresser and leaning against it. She weighed her options; explain herself or don't. She wanted to pause this conversation, she had had enough of the never ending dramatics today and now with the new threats from Rafe...she just wanted to rest and think. She just wanted to plan. It was all she could think to do. "June...I asked you if—"

"Yes." She said, looking down at the wood of her dresser and realizing this was the best path to follow. JJ was almost surprised by her honesty, her mouth closing and his eyes narrowing for only a moment before he ran a hand over his face. There was silence and she realized he wanted her to explain, to tell him why  she had continued even after they had given up. Why she couldn't let the past go.  Unfortunately she knew she couldn't explain it all, not quite sure if confessing to another major crime—one that she had  commissioned Rafes help in cleaning up—to anyone. "Yes...I got the map. And I tried to find it. Well...I tried to get Barry to find it."

"Barry? Are you serious?" He asked and he sounded hurt. June shook her head slightly and then finally turned around, the disappointment in his eyes making her embarrassed. But if she had learned anything in the last year...it was that you couldn't take things like this back. The best thing you can do for yourself is own up to it.

"You want to know why I did it? I needed closure. This map felt like the last piece to a giant puzzle and I wanted to finish it. That's why. And if that upsets you then I'm sorry. But I'm done—I give up on all of this shit. I cant afford to do it anymore...I have too much to lose." Junes honesty was a shock to JJ, the boy just looking at her with a slightly stunned expression. She just looked back at him, her eyes earnest and genuine and her expression blank. JJ believed her, of course he did.

"What do you have to lose?" He said, and June could tell he was baiting her. He wanted her to say it,  and for a moment she forgot about everything that she had done at Barry's. Her lip quirked up only slightly and then she maintained a straight face, the girl taking a step away from the dresser and in the general direction of him.

"You. And it's not worth the risk." She said honestly, JJ feeling his confusion and disappointment fully melt away. It was different this time around, things were clearly changed. They were honest, they were serious, and they felt healthier...even he could tell. June stepped past him and took a seat on the edge of her bed, her eyes on her shoes as she let out a breath. He turned and was quick to sit beside her, his arm wrapping around her back and her head falling into his shoulder.

"I just don't want you getting mixed up in these kinds of things anymore...we're past all of that—aren't we?" JJ said after a few moments, his voice low and considerate. June nodded, looking down at his thigh as she considered his question. Were they past all of it? In the grand scheme of things we're they really no longer in the trouble they had been in? Rafe hating them was nothing new—his wrath also being something they were prepared for. They had gotten the money, they were living the high life. Ward was gone, Singh was gone, Hardy was gone...they really did seem to be past it.  But would their tumultuous year really be something they could ever really be past?

"We are." The words felt like a fallacy when she said them, they didn't feel true. She didn't think she could ever get over everything that happened. The fact that she was ripped apart as a person and out back together again and ripped apart and still picking up the pieces. It was a big deal...and she struggled the same way that John B still did. That Sarah still did. That Pope did. Kie. JJ was a liar if he acted like it didn't change him. Like it wasn't hard to cope with the fact that it was time to move on.

"I love you." He whispered to her, and he sounded like he was pleading for a moment, his  head turning and his lips pressing into the side of her head. She closed her eyes at the contact and she knew that he was genuinely worried, and she understood why. The last time he hadn't paid attention she had been kidnapped...he promised himself he'd never make that mistake again. "That never changed."

His words filled her chest with a warmth and she knew he was telling the truth. He had always loved her. He had made mistakes and they had done bad things to each other, but he had never stopped loving her...he had just gotten lost along the way.

June dropped her hand to his leg and squeezed, JJ feeling better that she reciprocated through physical expression.  They sat there in silence for a few moments, Junes eyes still closed and the sound of JJs breaths soothing her. She thought she could stay in this spot forever and be okay, the warmth of him embrace making her feel the safest she ever had. She never doubted her choice when she was being held by him, and she never doubted her choice anymore anyways.

JJs mind was elsewhere, the boy feeling an overwhelming outpouring of love for her. He wanted to scream from rooftops and sprint down an empty street telling the world of how lucky he was... he wanted to express to her just how much she really meant to him. His impulsivity made his lips part and the first words he thought of sprouted from his lips, striking the air.

"Do you want to get married?" He asked, and June didn't seem to falter.  She hummed and then shrugged, her head lifting from his shoulder and angling up to look at him.

"Well of course...one day." She said, but JJ didn't mean it the way that she had thought he had. His face contorted into one of utter assurance and he shook his head, leaning forwards and pressing a kiss to her lips before proceeding.

"No like...right now. Me and you go—we go tomorrow to the court house and get married." June realized then what he was talking about, her stomach turning and her cheeks flushing as the pit in her stomach dropped. She searched over his face for the joke but there wasn't one, the girl letting out a disbelieving chuckle and then speaking.

"We're both minors...we can't just get married."

"You ask your dad to sign a document without telling him what it is. I'm technically emancipated...we could get married tomorrow." He said, and June felt a flutter in her heart that she only recognized as the worst of nerves. He looked down at her with decisive eyes and she still looked stunned, her stomach in knots as he spoke again. "I'm serious."

June searched over his face for only a moment more, her lips parted still in shock before she finally nodded, thinking this was about the best idea he had ever had. Thoughts if Barry and Rafes threats were long gone and for good reason, she was too in love to worry about things like that.

"Okay."

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if this chapter randomly disappears bc I got a better idea then jsut ignore that it ever happened