TWO MONTHS AGO

            "This is a splendid remake, Richard," Ms. Carla Limbrey complimented, leaning on her crutches while looking through the glass at the miniature Royal Merchant on the pillar. "Where'd you find it?"

            "My beautiful daughter made it, Carla," Richard ushered Magnolia to stand beside him. He swung his arm around her shoulder, bringing her in for a side hug. "She's brilliant, my best student. You need to know anything about ships, she's your guy. Edward Teach, the Titanic, the Black Swan. The Royal Merchant."

            Magnolia's cheeks flushed of embarrassment as Carla raised her eyebrows. "I might just take you up on that," She laughed to herself momentarily. "Now I understand your comment. You were just bored."

            The door slammed open. With heavy thumping of his boots, Daniel Berger entered the room. Magnolia tensed up at the sight of him, Richard went towards him, shaking his hand.

            "Carla, this is Daniel Berger, the trainer of our girls," Richard introduced. "Dan, this is Carla Limbrey, our new sponsor."

            "Richard promised me the healing shroud when we find the Royal Merchant," Carla added with a smile. "And the cross."

            Daniel stared at her a moment and then nodded formally. "I look forward to working with you, Ms. Limbrey."

            "I'll show you the harbour." Richard told Ms. Limbrey. He opened the door for Carla and waited for her to limp through the door.

            Daniel moved closer to Magnolia. "So... another partner, huh?" He acknowledged, his thick German accent flowing through his voice.

            "And why do I have the idea she'll be staying?" Magnolia replied as formal as she could. If it were her, she wouldn't talk to the man at all, but that wasn't realistic.

            Daniel placed his hand on Magnolia's lower back — she flinched the slightest bit — and led her to the training room. She could be happy if their business remained in the training room.

            After patching their buddies up, the four Pogues were helping Heyward in his shop. They were talking about the night before. "Don't let it get in your head, brother. There's three of them and two of us. That's typical Kook shit right there." JJ told Pope.

            "Hell, yeah," Kie agreed, "Luckily we had Maggie with us, right?" She turned to Maggie, a bit of a suspecting tone in her voice. "Wherever she got that from."

            JJ continued asking Pope about his fight with Topper. "What was your thought process, using your head?"

            "I don't know, man," Pope admitted. "I just kind of acted off instinct. All right? I was a cornered animal."

            The Pogues looked up to Heyward as he spoke to them from in the doorframe. "Hey, Pope. someone here to see you."

            Heyward walked in and behind him came deputy Shoupe. Pope's eyes widened as he greeted him. Shoupe explained why he was there. "I have an arrest warrant for felony destruction of property," He walked towards Pope. "Your hands on the counter where I can see 'em," Maggie went to stand in front of her friend, blocking his way. "Young lady, out of my way."

            "Wait, wait, wait," Heyward said. "Shoupe, what'd he do?" Shoupe only told him to look at the warrant. "You're just arresting my boy?"

            It was chaos in the small shop. Everyone was talking at the same time, meanwhile Maggie stayed silent. She looked at JJ, who was desperately trying to hide his guilty face, but Maggie knew him well enough. Besides, Rafe told her what happened and she knew it wasn't Pope's idea.

            Shoupe handcuffed Pope and led him outside. The teenagers followed them. Pope was about to step into the police car when JJ yelled. "It wasn't him! It was me!" He walked closer to the car. "He tried to talk me out of it, but I was mad because he'd just been beaten up. I was so sick of those assholes from Figure Eight that I lost my shit," He looked at Pope. "I can't let you take the blame for somethin' I did. You've got too much to lose."

            "JJ, what are you doing?"

            "I'm tellin' the truth," He responded. "For once in my goddamn life, I'm gonna tell the truth. I took his old man's boat, too."

            "What the hell?"

            Pope tried to talk him out of it. JJ's voice raised. "Just shut up, Pope! Just shut up. He's a good kid. You know where I'm from."

            The sadness in JJ's voice destroyed Maggie from the inside. She wanted to step forward, but Kie held her back by her arm. Shoupe looked at the blond with what Maggie thought was pity, as if he knew where he was from. "Yeah."

            JJ bit the inside of his lip, nodding. "This was all me."

            Shoupe turned to Pope, looking for confirmation. "That's the whole truth?"

            "Whole truth, swear to God." JJ replied instead.

            "I know what you think, damn it, I'm asking Pope."

            Pope looked at his friend, wanting to know if he was absolutely sure he wanted this. Then, he nodded slowly. "Yeah, that about covers it."

            Shoupe loosened the handcuffs on Pope before putting them on JJ. He got inside the car. Maggie looked at him, seeing JJ mouth some words at her. She sucked at reading lips, so she couldn't understand what he said. Shoupe drove away from the driveway. Maggie ran after the car, but soon stopped running when she was out of breath. Nevertheless, she'd managed to sprint full speed for about a mile.

            That evening, Maggie laid in one of the hammocks at John B's house. There was no one there yet, so she put her earbuds in. Taylor Swift blasted through her arm, Maggie closed her eyes. She knew JJ would come back here when he did.

            Out of nowhere, another body joined her in the hammock. His arms wrapped around Maggie tight, and he buried his head in her neck. Maggie recognised him just by his touch alone. JJ.

            "You know when you talked about your not–so–peaceful home life?" JJ sniffed. "Yeah, well, mine's no better either."

            Maggie turned around in the hammock, taking his face in her hands to see what he was talking about. On his face were fresh bruises. Maggie understood immediately that JJ meant his dad, she'd guessed it before.

            "Oh, duck, what did he do to you?" She softly caressed his bruised cheek. Maggie then pulled away to lighten the mood. "Want me to beat his arse? You know I can." She joked.

            JJ shook his head, burying it back in her neck. "No. This is enough right now." He grabbed one of Maggie's earbuds and put it in his ear, This is me trying by Taylor Swift playing. "I love folklore."

            Maggie laid her head on top of his, her hand messing with his hair. JJ never allowed anyone to touch his hair, but Maggie was a different case. "Me too, J," Maggie replied. "Me too."

            A silent smile was on her face from JJ saying he loved folklore. In Maggie's eyes that was almost the same as saying he loved Taylor. Saying you loved Taylor was a straight, one way ticket to her heart.

            But if she thought about it, JJ had already made his way to her heart.

            He'd pushed his way through all the obstacles to get inside her heart and hold his place there. If only he knew who he'd been dealing with all along. Maggie knew for sure if JJ knew who she was that he wouldn't love her like that anymore.

            Wait— Did she just say the L–word or did she imagine that?

i've been wanting to write the hammock scene for so long, i just didn't know in which context. at first i wanted to write it when all the pogues were like together and it was just sudden kinda, but then i was like nehh this makes more sense

jj and maggie are the definition of "actions say more than words" tbh

also how are we already in episode 5?? thats crazy

ALSO THE CONFESSION‼️ they're still in the denial/confused stage but at least they know the feelings aren't exactly friendly. but don't get too excited bc i think it'll take awhile before they actually get together

me loves slow burns