after the kegger, blair walked herself home. she managed to avoid her dad because he was on a late shift, funnily enough her and james got home at the same time, he was drunk, obviously. he had been at the same party he was surprised he didn't see her, blair left out the part were she was with rafe cameron basically the whole time.

blair was still pretty pissed at jj, she couldn't understand what she did wrong, he was the one who brought the gun and threatened topper with it. 

the girl sat in her living room as usual, a book in her hands. she slightly jumped when she heard a knock at the door, she tried to look out the window to see who it was but blair couldn't see anyone.

she stood up and headed over to the door to see jj waiting for her.

"oh, hey." she smiled at the boy.

"hi, blair. i'm sorry for last night i was really drunk and pissed at topper, forgive me?" jj smiled at her.

blair pursed her lips slightly. "hm, if i must." she shrugged, hiding her smile.

"we're all going to john b's, you comin'?" he asked.

blair had no plans for the day. "sure, just let me grab my stuff real quick." she told him as she walked back to the living room to grab her bag, she quickly shoved a book inside it as well, just in case she got a little bored.

...

as expected the pogues didn't do much except talk about last night. john b had been talking about the boat they had found and the stuff they found in the motel. he was stressed due to dcs on his trail about him living alone without an adult. 

"look, i'm callin' it off. all right?" he told the pogues.

blair briefly looked up from her book to listen to him talk.

"peterkin said, if i stay out of the marsh she'll help me with dcs." the boy added on. 

"and you believed her?" jj questioned.

"yes, i believe her, jj."

blair looked between the two boys, giving kiara an awkward glance.

"an actual cop, john b, you believe a cop?" jj asked, giving blair a quick look.

"hey, my dad's a cop, i believe everything he says." blair chimed in, slightly offended.

"blair, you believe what everyone says." 

she rolled her eyes. "touché." she nodded.

"all i gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out." john b continued his and jj's conversation. "it doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun."

"true, my dad questioned the shit out of me about that." she pointed at jj in annoyance. "i swear i almost threw up i was that nervous."

kiara let out a quiet giggle, making blair nudge her shoulder gently. 

"you know what i should have done?" jj asked rhetorically. "just let topper drown your ass."

"yeah, topper was gonna drown me?" john b scoffed. 

"sure looked like it." jj snapped back.

the two boys carried on bickering so blair continued her book, blanking them both.

her head shot up when jj hit the hanging ball from the porch. "goddamn!"

"look, it's okay!" kiara yelled slightly.

"no it's not okay! they don't want us to go down into the marsh. that means there's something valuable down there, and you know it." jj ranted. "i know you do. and i understand why you don't wanna go." he pointed at pope. "you're the golden boy. you got way too much to risk. and you-" he looked at kiara. "i mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. why would you bother."

kiara rolled her eyes, pulling a face at jj.

the boy looked at blair and john b. "but us three? we got nothin' to lose!"

"you know? i don't know if i should be offended by that or not." blair tilted her head at the blond boy.

"we really don't. alright?"

john b shook his head. "jj."

"and i know it didn't use to be that way for you." jj told john b. "the same goes for you blair." he looked at her sadly.

jj was the only person who knew the full story about blair's life and why her mom left. she was too scared to tell anyone else.

"i don't wanna talk about this. i don't want to talk about it." john b sighed at his best friend. 

"so that's it?" jj asked standing in john b's way.

"just get out of my way, bro." john b shoved his friend. 

"john b, listen to me, i have a plan." jj shouted after him. 

blair, kiara and pope all looked at each other, a look of knowing that jj's plans never work and never have. 

...

when john b got back from taking some scuba gear of off ward cameron's boat they all got in the hms pogue and headed out into the marsh where they had found the sunken boat a day prior.

they stopped the boat and kiara looked at the tanks. "this is empty. you took empty tanks?" she asked, then looking at the other tank. "okay, this one's a quarter full. it's enough for one of us."

"why would you take basically empty tanks?" blair asked, from beside jj.

"why would you bring a book knowing it could get wet?" john b sassily replied back, looking at her book that was on top of her bag.

blair looked at him in confusion. "i worry for you sometimes." she told him.

"does anybody know how to dive?" kiara asked.

the pogues stayed silent. "anybody?"

"it's kind of a kook sport." jj told them.

"i... read about it." pope spoke up.

"great, pope read about it, so someone's gonna die."  kiara sighed.

"look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. how hard could it be?" jj asked, glancing at blair.

"i think there's more to it than that, j." she looked up at him with a smile.

"yeah, if you come up too fast nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends." pope quickly explained.

"bends like-" jj grabbed blair by the hips and basically put her ass on his groin.

"jj!" she slapped the boys chest.

"the bends kill you." 

"right." the blonde boy nodded slowly.

"i can- i can dive." john b quietly said.

"you can dive. i'm cool with that." jj nodded, his gaze always going back to blair.

"since when can you dive?" kiara asked.

"i'll do it, it's fine." 

"let me do some calculations real quick." pope sat up from the chair and grabbed some paper and a pen. "the boat's about thirty feet down. so it'll take twenty-five minutes at that depth. which means you need to make your safety stop at about... ten feet. all right? for two minutes."

kiara stood up and took her shirt off then jumped into the water. 

"uh..." john b looked at the three.

"what was that all about?" pope asked.

"i don't know." jj shrugged, looking at blair who sat reading her book. "yeah. uh, when you-" he snapped out of the trance blair unknowingly put him in. "uh, when you're down there, you look for the cargo hold." he pulled out some sort of key. "you stick this thing inside and twist and pull, okay?"

"stick in, twist, pull." john b repeated.

"my dad moved some weight back in the day." jj told them.

"who didn't."

"hey! i tied my t-shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down. it's where you need to do your safety stop." kiara spoke from the water. 

"john b, if you die i'm moving into the chateau." blair told him from the floor of the boat. "but, don't die."

john b shook his head. "i'll try blair bear."

she narrowed her eyes at the boy sticking up her middle finger with a sarcastic smile. blair then just went back to her book, only looking up when john b dropped into the water.

john b hadn't even been down for five minutes and blair looked up to hear a police siren.

"shit, jj." pope gained his attention.

"guys, that's the police." jj informed them.

"oh, you gotta be kidding me." pope groaned. 

"amazing." blair sighed. "just act normal." she added as she continued to read her book.

"evening, officers." pope said sweetly.

blair looked up to see her dad on the boat along with deputy shoupe. she looked at jj in a panic, her dad could always tell when she was lying. 

"evening." shoupe replied, passing pope some rope to tie the boat off. 

"here, tie this off." pope told jj.

"how you kids doing? you know the marsh is closed?" shoupe questioned them. 

"no."

"no. wow."

blair made eye contact with her dad and she just sent him a smile.

"i didn't know that." jj told them. 

"why- why is it closed?" pope asked. 

"well, we're conducting a search out here. boat went down." noah marley replied. "seen anything?"

kiara and blair stayed quiet and let pope and jj talk, which probably wasn't a good idea.

"no boats. no."

"where's your friend you always hang with? he here?" shoupe asked them all.

"he's working." kiara spoke up.

shoupe hummed. "i'm gonna check your little boat out." he stepped onto the hms pogue.

"yeah, hop aboard." pope told him.

shoupe wandered around the boat sending a smile to blair. 

"uh... you got another one?" he asked, holding up the life jacket.

"yeah, yeah." pope said.

"of course. it's, uh... it's in the hold." jj told him.

jj lifted the panel, showing him the other life jacket.

"all right." as shoupe stepped back onto his boat he decided to walk across to the front of the boat.

"be careful." jj told him.

blair felt like she was going to be sick. john b needs to come back up, but shoupe needs to leave first.

"be careful right there you don't wanna slip." pope mentioned.

shoupe looked over the edge of the boat and into the water, the pogues nervously glanced at each other. the man stood there for a few moments, blair anxiously looked at jj and pope.

"all right." shoupe spoke after what felt like hours. "beautiful day isn't it?" 

"sure is." jj replied.

"let us know if you see anything on your way out." he told them as he un did the rope holding the boats together.

"will. do. will do." pope repeated.

the engine to the officers boat turned on.

"we'll be gone soon, sir." jj told him.

"yes, you will." noah marley replied, glancing at his daughter.

they both left and blair quickly moved to the front of the boat to see if john b was coming up. she couldn't see anything just yet.

the others joined her. "he's definitely out of air." pope told them.

john b came up to the surface and blair let out a sigh of relief.