By the time the sky was light, they were cruising down a small river, getting closer and closer to the Orinoco. Tyler had set the boat into autopilot for the time being, which allowed him to come and sit next to Elle, who was staring off into the distance, her expression vacant.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He asked her with a sigh, coming and sitting next to her.

Elle didn't turn to look at him, letting out a breath as she muttered. "I'm broke."

Tyler laughed, he couldn't help it. This girl was the funniest, most beautiful person he'd ever met, and he had been an idiot for letting her go.

"Okay, what about you don't pay me anything, and you just tell me how you're feeling?" Tyler asked her, looking at her and just praying she turned to look at him. "Are you alright?"

Elora sighed, biting her lip and slowly turning her pounding head to face him, biting her lip.

"I feel like I've been dragged through a hedge and ran over by a bus," she replied boredly, finally looking at him. "But I'll be fine."

But fuck, those eyes. She needed to do something to stop herself from jerking her body forwards and kissing him, because the blue in those eyes-

"Well... I was going to try and explain what's been happening with me over the past couple weeks," Tyler shrugged with a small smile on his face. "But if you're feeling like that, then I might hold off."

Elora looked at him, raising her eyebrows. "Depends on what you're going to tell me," she told him. "I mean, the other night it seemed like you were building up to something, but I thought that that was how you wanted to say goodbye before running off with Ruthie."

Tyler shook his head, smiling slightly. "Ruthie?" He raised his eyebrows. "Ruthie Gordon has nothing on you, Elora Easton. Not one thing."

Elora looked at him, confusion and awe flickering in her eyes. Their faces were so close together, and she could see the honesty and truth of what he was saying in his face. She could see that he meant it.

But it just made her want answers.

"It didn't seem that way at The Wreck that night," she replied, keeping her voice even.

"Well," Tyler sighed. "It's a long story."

Elora cocked her head. "I'm listening."

Tyler took a deep breath, and then everything spilled out.

Everything. How he had been bribed with the foster family in Kansas to become a Kook again, and how he'd made the difficult choice. How breaking up with her had been more painful than breaking every single bone in his body, and how he knew it had been hurtful but he didn't have a choice.

He told her how Ruthie had been shoved upon him, and how he'd been forced to like her to not blow his cover. He told her he'd been angrier than her at some of the stuff the girl had said, and that she deserved every single punch Elle had given her.

He told her how he'd convinced Ruthie to suspend the charges and how when he saw her outside that station he was the happiest he'd ever been.

He told her how he loved her. How all he wanted to do was hold her and kiss her and be with her again, because that was what made his life his life. How he wanted to be hers again, and how he wanted her to be his. Not his property, because Elle could never be anyone's property, but his happiness, his emotional support, his whole life.

And she listened. She watched him talk, her eyes going wide, then soft.

Everything made sense now. Tyler hadn't stopped loving her, and she hadn't made him bored. He'd simply been bribed.

That had never crossed her mind before.

"I'm so sorry," were the first three words she could think to say after he finished explaining, his expression desperate.

"What?" Tyler just frowned, looking down at her.

"I'm sorry," Elora repeated. "That sounds... so, so horrible, Ty. And I'm sorry I added to your troubles by being an absolute bitch to you."

Tyler looked at her, his eyes widening.

She was blaming... herself? What the fuck? If there was anyone who had no part in this whole mess, it was Elora. And there she was, sat blaming herself, when really it was her that pulled him through.

"Elle," he said, his hands coming up to cup her cheeks. "Listen to me. None of this is your fault, and you aren't to blame for any of it."

"Come on, Tyler," Elora scoffed slightly, rolling her eyes. "You have to admit, I am partly responsible, otherwise your piece of shit mom would never have-"

To shut her up, he leant forward and crashed his lips onto hers, kissing her long and hard. Elora reciprocated immediately, making a small noise against his lips that drove him straight up crazy. He moved one of his hands from her cheek to the back of her neck, and her hands came up to rake through his hair, which didn't feel right with all the gel in it.

When they pulled apart, they just looked at each other, Tyler whispering. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

Elora shook her head, smiling slightly and saying. "Idiot."

"Well, at least it got your mind off everything," shrugged Tyler, before looking at her, his smile now vanished and a meaningful look taking over his face. "You have to believe me when I tell you that none of this is your fault."

Elora bit her lip, looking into his eyes. They could go back and forth on this for ages trying to argue, but she knew better than to try to, so she just nodded.

"Okay," she mumbled.

Tyler smiled slightly, nodding. "Oh, and, uh... you know how you said at the party, that... that you weren't the love of my life?"

He knew he needed to address this with her. He needed to tell her the truth.

Elle nodded again, saying. "Sorry, I know how much that must've-"

"No, I deserved that, it's just..." Tyler looked straight at her, his cheeks burning. "It's just that's not true. You're still the love of my life, Elle, and you always will be."

Elora felt like her heart was about to burst. When Tyler broke up with her, she'd thought that was the end, but it never was. And looking at him right now, she knew she'd never take him for granted again ever, because she knew how blessed she was to have him with her.

"Well, you're still the love of my life too, Tyler, so I'm glad," she replied, tears pricking her eyes as a smile ghosted her face.

But it was when their lips met for the second time, both of their hearts beating in sync, that he knew he'd been forgiven.

This time, no mistakes.

𔓘𔓘𔓘

When the plane landed, the four Pogues inside it had assumed they would get off, and Ward and Elizabeth would stay on it and go on to Guadeloupe.

But no. Because as they began to walk across the airstrip, the redhead and the man with the bandaged leg followed.

"Sarah!" Ward called out to the girl as he limped down the steps with Elizabeth's help.

Sarah took a double take, demanding sharply. "Dad, what are you doing?"

"We're coming," Ward answered.

"No, you're not," Sarah snapped. "You got us here like you said you would, now you two need to go on to Guadeloupe!"

"You're in over your head, Sarah," Elizabeth told the girl. "If I could protect you like I did my daughter, I w-"

"You didn't protect her!" Sarah yelled. "You drugged her, so no, you are not coming! Get back in the plane."

They stood facing each other, Ward's eyes soft, Elizabeth's dark and Sarah's angry.

Then Ward nodded. "Okay."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Ward-"

"Okay, Sarah," Ward repeated, beginning to retreat up the steps. "Alright."

Elizabeth looked at him incredulously, her eyes widening as she helped him back up into the plane, the Pogues marching off.

"Well done," she snapped at Ward, crossing her arms. "You've just given up everythi-"

"I didn't promise anything," Ward told her, looking at her suggestively. "This isn't over yet."

𔓘𔓘𔓘

"Okay, so we're going to need to sail up to about here, to Tres Rocas," Elora said, pointing to the map on Tyler's phone as they neared the Orinoco after a long night. "From there, we need to find the rest of the Pogues, and if we can't do that then we need a river guide called Jose. He'll lead us to the Solana, which is this stone circle thing, where you need the idol to find El Dorado."

"Jesus," Tyler muttered, shaking his head. "Whilst I was playing Kook families you were off finding this out?"

"Yup," Elora nodded, turning to him. "Had to do something to take my mind off everything."

Tyler bit his lip, looking at her.

It had been a pretty rough ride down to South America. They were lucky they hadn't had a lot of waves or turbulence. However, now they were nearing Tres Rocas, it was definitely a risk both of them were glad of taking.

Anyways, it had given them a lot of time to talk about what had happened, and how they were going to avoid stuff like that in the future.

Elora hadn't brought up her mom. It was a subject she wasn't interested in talking about yet, and a betrayal she didn't want to touch. And Tyler understood that, and didn't press her.

"You alright? You still sleepy?" He asked her, watching out the corner of his eye as she abandoned her blankets and walked over to him, sitting down next to him.

"I'm fine," Elora replied, biting her lip. "I mean, if we find El Dorado, it'll be worth it, right?"

Tyler shrugged. "Not if I lose you."

Elora just stared at him, her eyes a mixture of awe and love and pure adoration.

"Well," she smiled up at him. "I don't exactly wanna lose you either. Not after I've just got you back."

"Well, I'm glad we're on the same page then," Tyler joked, his eyes flitting once again down to her lips.

And when they kissed, she swore she felt sparks fly between them. She had to admit that she'd missed this, and liked to have it back.

It was a relief to know that Tyler thought the same.

𔓘𔓘𔓘

They got to Tres Rocas at about ten, and reckoned they wouldn't be able to find the others. They didn't know what they were going to do or how they were going to find them, but they knew they needed to.

"We need to find a dock," Tyler said, biting his lip as he slowed the boat down.

"Yeah, and we also need to keep a low profile, cause if Singh and his men are here then they know what I look like," Elora said, sinking lower into the boat and covering her red hair.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Tyler sighed as he continued to drive the boat down, looking around somewhere, anywhere, for a dock.

However, what Elora didn't expect was his wide eyes a few seconds later, and his mouth falling open.

She instantly turned, fear instilled within her as she saw what he was looking at.

They were approaching a dock, thank god. But what wasn't good was that on that dock was her mother.

She wasn't alone, of course. Ward was stood next to her, shouting at Big John, who had apparently been freed. And trying to disengage this was John B and Sarah, each as hopeless as the other.

But Elle's gaze was locked on her mother.

Seeing her made the girl lock up in fear, because hell, her mother had organised her kidnap and watched as she lost consciousness from the drugs that she fed her with.

But it was too late to say anything, because when John B's gaze snagged on them he yelled out in happiness. "Elle! Tyler!"

Ward, Elizabeth and Big John stopped talking. Elizabeth watched in anger and shock as her daughter and her boyfriend rode up to them on the Thornton family boat, Tyler stopping the engine and throwing John B the bowline.

"Thank god you're here, listen, Singh's men are after us and we got split up from Pope and Cleo," said John B as he tied up the boat. "But if we get on the right boat now, we can still-"

"John B, why the hell is she here?"

Elora's voice was full of hurt, anger and betrayal as she stared daggers at her supposed mother.

John B sighed, shaking his head. "We tried, Elle. We tried to stop her but it's Ward's plane, and he told us she could come on."

Elora chuckled slightly, shaking her head. "Yeah, I should've known."

Sarah then came rushing down to the dock, gesturing to the fight their parents were having and asking. "I don't know what to do, what do we do?"

"Have you seen four Americans?!"

At the sound of that voice, Elora froze, turning to see Carlos Singh on the dock, asking random people if they'd seen them.

"Singh," she said urgently. "Guys, Singh is here."

"Oh, oh, time to go, time to go-"

The four teens ran down the dock towards where Big John was trying to throttle Ward, John B hissing. "Hey, hey! Shut up! Singh is in the market right now, get in the damn boat!"

And Sarah, Tyler and Elora had already jumped in, so as Big John and John B entered, Tyler tried to shove the boat away from the dock as fast as possible.

But he was unsuccessful, and Ward and Elizabeth climbed in.

"No, dad, what are you-? No!" Sarah instantly objected.

"Get the hell out of this boat!" Tyler yelled at both of them.

"We're going," Elizabeth said surely.

"No, you are fucking not!" Elora screamed.

"Singh is dangerous, you're in over your head here-"

"Fuck you!" Elora screamed, tears in her eyes. "Fuck y-"

"Elora, get down!"

The redhead girl ducked at the last second, evading Singh as he looked out at the water, all of them now heading up the Orinoco, together.

"I guess it's just us," Sarah said.

"Yeah," Tyler nodded, giving Ward and Elizabeth a pointed look. "Just us."

𔓘𔓘𔓘

The boat ride was tense and awkward, and Elora hated every second of it.

When they got to El Tesoro, they parked up, and got off the boat.

"Well, welcome to El Tesoro, bird," said Big John to John B. "We'll park up here for the night, and move out at first light."

Elora sighed, gripping Tyler's hand as they continued along the dock and off into a small site they could rest at, amongst carefully woven shelters and chairs that they could rest in.

"Elora! Elora, please, I need to speak to you-"

At the sound of her mother's voice saying her name, Elora spun round, her eyes fiery, her whole entity angry.

"If you ever come near me again, I'll do something worse to you than put sleeping pills in your drink," she snarled, ignoring Tyler's attempts to sheild her and stepping out fully in front of him.

"I know, I-I'm sorry," Elizabeth was inconsolable, looking at her daughter with teary eyes and a desperate expression.

"You're not fucking sorry," Elora snapped. "You're sorry you got busted. You just shipped me away like I was some problem you needed to get rid of!"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I just wanted to keep you safe, I'm your mothe-"

"No," Elora snapped. "No, you're fucking not. You lost your title as my mother when you killed my father, and you've just been a fucking let down ever since."

She knew she was saying harsh words, but she didn't care. She'd waited a long time for this.

"And that means you don't have any right to dictate where I go or what I do, and you certainly don't have any right to drug me and organise my kidnap!"

She was crying herself now, hot tears running down her cheeks as she stared at her mother, shaking her head.

"So now I'm going to go and find El Dorado, with my real family," she snapped. "And if you try and follow me, or lay a single hand on me, I promise you there will be no coming back from that."

She felt no regrets as she and Tyler marched away from her, she just felt anger and betrayal coursing through her veins.

"I'm so sorry, Elle," the blonde next to her whispered.

"It's fine," Elora said, swallowing and inhaling a shaky breath. "She's not worth it, anyway."

They headed over to where Sarah and John B were, at the edge of the dock, sitting down next to them.

"Saw you talking to your dad," John B said to Sarah.

The girl nodded. "He says he's just here to help, but... I don't trust him."

"Join the club," Elora said miserably, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry," Sarah looked at the redhead. "We tried to stop her getting on the plane but my dad let her and... it's his. I couldn't stop him."

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," Elora said with a small smile that was only half real.

"Yeah, well... my dad doesn't necessarily trust you, or you, Ty, either," sighed John B, shaking his head.

"Yeah," sighed Tyler. "There's a lot of that going around at the moment."

And it was true. Everyone in their current group of seven had at least one person they hated with all their being, and one person they trusted more than anything.

Elora wished more than anything that their group was just Big John and the Pogues right now.

But she wasn't that lucky.

And all she could hope for was that they found El Dorado.

And that her mother finally left her alone.