"I mean it's obvious, right?, A family heirloom, what better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?" John B's voice filled with excitement

"Yeah, it's possible." Kiara said, her face unsure of telling John B the truth for a moment, but looking back her eyes set on Elena, she was shaking her head, Elena knew that Kie was really thinking about telling John B something.

"You know what, what your father did John B, was a very creative, I mean he didn't choose a message in a bottle, nothing cliché you know." Elena chuckled at her comment, leaning back her head towards the window

"It can also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help," Pope didn't dare to look up "you know, deal with your sad feels."

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels, dank nugs, and the stickiest of ickiest, that's how I do it." JJ said looking away and to no one, his eyes stared out to the abyss.

"I'm not concocting, okay? My dad's trying to give me a message." John B had a rush of inpatient by the comments his friends were starting to give him, the car was silent and no one dared to speak up again, be on the opposite side of their friend.

"If it helps you believe John B." Kiara was the first to speak up, and her comment seemed to make John B a little bit madder.

"Look, I, I don't need a therapy session, okay? Look, I'm not tripping out." Elena knew what John B was doing, she knew the process of mourning, he was in denial, but she wouldn't tell him that, it wasn't the place or the time to do such a thing.

"It's okay to trip, bro, but." JJ was interrupted by John B, it seemed that everything that the pogues said made John B explore.

"Look, my dad, my das is missing, okay?" John B's head turned to look back at JJ for a moment, his eyes looking at each of his other friends before turning his attention back on the road "Missing." He repeated as if the word he just said needed to convince everyone in the car, even himself. "You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish, and then have no idea what happened." He was right, maybe they didn't know, maybe they did too but they weren't going to argue. JJ with his mother and Elena was losing her mother too, slowly but she was vanishing. "Just wake up every morning wondering." John B looked at Kiara as he said those words.

"It's been almost a year." Kiara said she was trying to get John B to get some sense into the whole situation.

"Hey, uh, he could have been kidnapped, that's definitely a possibility." JJ tried to lighten up the mood by putting out a possibility even if it was still dark, but it was better than the death idea.

"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere." Pope joined JJ in this, Elena just looked at them and nodded her head.

"Maybe your father is working undercover, imagine how cool working as a spy." Elena joined and stared out her own idea, Pope nudged her arm and nodded his head.

"Absolutely, or Atlantis." Kiara called him out, now that idea was a little bit too far from what they wanted.

"Look, what do you think the message is?" The attention went back to John B, he just said the name of Redfield again, Elena was confused by such thing, it could be anything that was until John B spike again.

"Redfield Lighthouse, that's my dad's favorite place." A lighthouse, what could they even find there, but for now, it meant a new adventure for the Pogues.

Even though it was closed to the hurricane and it had mess from branches and mud, the lighthouse looked amazing, Elena looked up at the place and wowed at the sight of it, she had never seen a lighthouse before - besides the ones in the movies - and this one was pretty, it was extremely tall and Elena knew that if she came during a sunset, it would be magical.

"Right, so you're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?" John B walked over to JJ, he looked at him confused about this but John B needed someone down here.

"Wait, why me?"

"Because, you're not coming." Pope looked at JJ, he asked again why, Elena just looked at Kie and rolled her eyes, Pope just tried to explain to the blonde the reasons why.

"You're independent, we don't know what you'll do." Pope stated out but it was such a terrible explanation that even JJ started to get annoyed by it, screaming at him to shut up and pointing his finger at him.

"Just listen yo me for a second." John B's voice raised over the screaming duo, their attention went back to the leader "Pope, you stand look out with JJ, okay? Id we get split up, we meet back at JJ's or Elena's house."

"I'll stay down here with them, heights? Not a big fan of them." Elena walked over next to Pope and looked between him and John B. Kiara agreed on the idea and walked away from the group.

The trio behind looked at each other for a moment, Pope was gonn work on his merit scholarship essay and well JJ was just annoyed by him still. Elena headed over to the van, the door was kept open just in case of anything, she sat down and looked at her sneakers, she noticed how dirty they were getting and how her right one was starting to unravel, she sighed and tried her best to break the string without pulling to much of the material. Pope sat down beside her, he placed his elbows against his legs and pressed his chin in his hands, he was in deep thought and Elena knew he wasn't going to distract him for anything, but it was Pope the one who started the conversation.

"How's things back home?" She knew what he meant, he meant how are they handling without their mother and her mother being sick, Elena wanted to avoid such question but she knew that Pope had good intentions about such question.

"I mean, they could be better, we could be better, but we're okay, I mean we do have roughs nights, specially my dad, thankfully he has gotten better and has managed to get into his "normal" life. But, its hard for him, that's why I got the job thanks to JJ so I could bring money and well, help out." Elena explained and smiled at the thought of doing something for her family, Pope leaned back and placed his hand on her knee, he patted a few times and gave her a smile before standing up.

"We are glad to hear that El, if you need us for anything, we're here, JJ's closer though so he's the first to answer your calls." Pope pulled JJ onto him with his arm around his shoulder, JJ looked at them confused but quickly caught up with what was going on.

"Oh yeah, if you need me, need us, I'm just a few steps away." JJ looked at Elena with a grin "Wanna play a little soccer?" He asked showing the small pocket ball in his hand, Elena shook her head but Pope immediately took it away from his hand. The boys turned around to start their game of passing the tiny ball to each other, for Elena it was funny to watch their faces, everytime they had to focus and not let the ball touch the ground. The boys kept their game going and exchanged words of motivation and to get into each others nerves for a moment, Elena even joined them by cheering, doing this made both guys strengthened their egos, there competition became stronger and funnier for the girl. There was a faint sound coming toward them, JJ and Elena turned back to look what it was, the blue and white lights appeared, Elena cursed and hurried over to the van, Pope and JJ behind her, panic started building up on the girl when she saw that neither John B or Kiara where near on coming out the lighthouse, they had to leave them behind, they can't be seen, not get into trouble, all of them had too much to loose.

"Drive, go go go." Elena shouted out closing the door of the vehicle, she lowered her head just in case a cop kept their eyes open ready to search anyone, if they saw them from the front window of the van. JJ cursed under his breathe leaving their place and heading home.

"I really hope they had found something, if not we waited for nothing." Pope said looking out the window and back at his friends, desperation started building up in them, having their friends back in JJ's or Elena's place was a priority, if they got caught they had to act fast and go to the sheriff's department, Elena's dad could be helpful on getting them out without a problem, hopefully.

Elena's house was their choice, JJ knew his home wouldn't be the greatest option and who knew if his father was there, and he just wanted to avoid him, Elena opened the door of her home, music was heard from the kitchen and the teen already knew that her father was either cooking or Melissa was cleaning, the voice of Michael Jackson became louder as the trio took closer steps towards the kitchen area, Melissa had the broom in her hands, she danced and sang using the cleaning tool as a microphone.

"Who's your audience Mel?" Elena shouted out, her little sister jumped in her place turning around, she let out a gasp, her expressions made her sister laugh, she was so embarrassed and Elena knew that in this moment Melissa hated her guts "I'm sorry for not saying anything, we need to come by urgently."

"Hi Mel." Pope waved at her, the younger Herrera just looked down trying to hide her red face "We can wait outside, don't worry." Pope and JJ waved her goodbye and headed outside, Melissa just looked at her older sister with a death gaze.

"You did this on purpose didn't you Lena?" Melissa gripped the broom and started poking her sister with the wood area of it.

"I did not do such thing Mel, believe me, if I knew I wouldn't have left them see you like that, I would've had given you a heads up or something" Elena chuckled and took steps back to stop getting poked by her sister.

"I just saw the boys outside, are they staying for dinner?" Ernesto Herrera appeared from the back door, a screwdriver was on his hand and paint covered on his other one.

"No, we just came by, we are waiting for John B and Kie, they are gonna leave soon," Elena greeted her father and looked down at his hands "What are your doing outside?"

"I'm fixing a bench and giving it a new color, give our backyard more life, so we can make some burgers this week, you can invite them over to eat." Ernesto headed to the fridge pulling out a bottle of water and went back outside shouting out a think about it to his daughter.

Elena shook her head with a smile turning back to look at his younger sister, she shrugged her shoulders and went back to do her chores, the oldest sister joined her friends outside, they both talked about John B's father and how he this whole idea was too risky.

"We are his friends and we should get him to know that what he is doing is dangerous, maybe the compass was just a coincidence but we are risking our lives here." Pope took off his cap to scratch his head, he hadn't noticed the appearance of Elena yet until his elbow hit the head of hers "Shit El, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you or see you come." Elena massaged the area where his elbow had hit her and she just chuckled.

"No need to worry, it was an accident," She looked up at Pope who apologized again "So we're talking about John B, huh?" JJ threw his cigarette to the floor and stepped on hit, he nodded his head "I know we have to tell John B the truth of his father but what if we are wrong? I mean what if he is actually in trouble and that's why he hasn't contacted his son?"

"It could be a possibility but still, this whole looking for answers is too dangerous El, we almost got shot twice in the space of two days, if those guys find us they might kill us and our families they don't need that." Pope had a point and Elena had no answer for him.

"Guys?" a voice made them turn around, John B was walking towards them, Elena jogged over to him and hugged him "Woah, nice to see you too El." he chuckled hugging her back.

"Thank god you're alive, what happened?" Elena asked pulling him away but keeping her hands on his arms.

"I'll give you the details later, I need the van, I can drop you two off somewhere." John B looked behind the girl, both of his friends agreed on this and were ready to walk away, it wasn't until Elena grabbed JJ's wrist.

"JJ, I will stay here but if you guys need me you know what to do, just don't honk and turn the lights off just in case it's nighttime, got it?" JJ smiles and nodded his head in agreement.

"Just don't fall asleep, I don't want to sneak in and get punched in the gut again." Elena chuckled at the memory from a few months ago, JJ winked at the girl and walked away joining his friend and leaving her.

The afternoon turned darker and for the Herrera's their evening became family time, they had pulled out a board game, putting their competitive side out, Elena had moments when she headed to her room just in cass she would find JJ outside her window or she would stand up and check outside if she saw the van, but she had no sight of either, so maybe they had no clues yet. Ernesto was the first to leave his daughters and call it a night, Melissa had picked out the board game and headed to her room, the only sound that was heard was the guitar strings being played, for Elena it was the perfect time to rest, have a time for herself, she pulled out he sketchbook and colored pencils, she wanted to finish her sunset drawing, a work that had been put off for months due to lost inspiration, it seemed it would be another night with no a hint of wanting to continue her drawing, she sighed and closed the sketchbook, Elena sat down on her bedroom floor and looked around, she wanted to do something, she just didn't know what exactly. Stargazing was an option, but she didn't even feel like heading outside to the hot weather and stare at the sky, she didn't even know if the sky had stars tonight, it did look pretty dark just by looking from her window.

The knock on her window got her excited, Elena quickly stood up from her floor and opened the frame JJ smiled at her from outside and looked back, Elena followed his gaze and saw the van just in front of her house.

"We got a clue." Elena smiled at the words of JJ, she turned off the lights of her room, carefully she hoped out with the help of the blonde and both ran towards the van.

"What did you guys find?" Elena asked the moment she was inside the vehicle, Kiara showed her the package and smiled.

"We went to the cemetery, apparently Redfield wasn't the lighthouse, it was an old family member of John B, this was hidden and well now we're going to check it out." Kie got Elena all caught up and she felt sad that she had missed this, but also she was glad, she hated cemetery's, it spooked her out.

The moment they reached John B's house they all gathered in the living room, they hadn't noticed how clean his place was now, but it didn't matter at the moment, all they wanted to know was what was hidden in the package. Elena and Kie stood behind John B, their nerves seemed to be activated just by thinking of the interior of their clue, what could be so important it had to be hidden in a cemetery.

"You made yourself a sandwich?" Elena asked JJ when he appeared beside her, the bread looked awful with specks of mold, he just said he was hungry, but the first bite he took, he regretted immediately. "Gross JJ"

John B ripped open the package and pulled out a piece of paper, all eyes were in him as he started to unfold it, a map was all over it and scrabbles of writing were all over it. John B cursed at the sight of it but the rest of his friends were a bit confused by it, well most of them.

"Oh, X marks the spot." Pope pointed at the mark on the paper, the rest leaned over with tilted heads and looked at the spot, slowly things started to make sense to them.

"Wait there something else in there." John B grabbed the package again and turned it upside down, a small tape recorded fell down directly to his hand.

"What's that?" JJ asked, both Kie and Elena looked at him surprised by the question.

"It's a tape recorder, dumbass." Kie answered shaking her head in disbelief of what her friend just said.

"Push play, maybe your dad has something important there." Elena looks down at John B, he looked back at her and back to the reorder, pushing the button.

"Dear Bird." it started, the voice of Big John was heard and for the first time Elena knew a bit more about John B's dad.

"Who's bird?" JJ asked looking at his friend.

"That's what my dad called me." John B responded at him.

"I hate to say I told you so, but, I told you so. And you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight, but don't kill you self just yet, kid. I didn't expect to find the Merchant either. You were probably right to call me out, wasn't exactly father of the decade. What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn. And, hopefully we're listening to this in our brand new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, living off passive investments and pulling on permits. If not, and you find for less than optimal reasons, well, that's what the map is for. There she is, the wreck of the Merchant. If something happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid. I love you bird, even if I didn't always act like it. I'll see you on the other side."

Elena looked at John B, what they just heard meant too many things but something was clear, something had happened to Big John and it was the thing he had feared the most, Big John had passed away. John B immediately stood up and leaned against the frame of the living room.

"Holy shit, he did it." JJ's voice was a bit too excited, yes he did find the wreck but it had its downfall, Elena ignored him, she stood in front of John B and hugged him, he hid his face on her neck and let out the cries of the revelation they all heard Kie joined their hug placing her arm on his shoulder.

They had given him a moment alone to take his time and feel a little bit better, the group headed outside towards the deck and waited for John B to be ready and join them. Kie pulled out her ukulele, strumming the strings as the sound of music started. Minutes passed when John B appeared, silence didn't take long to vanish when JJ talked.

"How much was it again?"

"Four hundred mil." Pope reminded them the amount of money the wreck Merchant had lost.

"All right lets talk the split." JJ sat to look at his friends.

"Is it necessary to do this right now?" Elena asked and looked at him, he didn't say anything to her, he knew that maybe it wasn't the time but it could be necessary to keep things off the mind of John B.

"Now, before we say "evenly" may I remind you that I am the only one that can properly defend us from the groupers that are after us." JJ pulled out the gun and showed it off.

"Why the hell you have that right now and right here." Elena leaned back and far away from JJ, her heart beating fast by the sight of the weapon, she moved her sitting position as stood next to John B, leaning her head on his shoulder, doing this to avoid the proximity of the weapon and ignore the bickering of JJ and Pope.

"What are you going to do with eighty mil, Pope?" Kiara asked, Elena turned to look at her friend and listen to his answer.

"Pay for college in advanced, and also, textbooks, those are expensive." Elena smiled at his response, it was a good answer, to be responsible.

"What about you Kie?" JJ now asked the brunette, she smiled and thought of her answer.

"Yeah, what does a socialist do when she's rich?" Pope jokingly asked turning to look at the girl as well.

"Just want to make a double album, about OBX, the pogues." Kie looked at all with her widened grin "You know, the way Catch a Fire, is about Kingston. Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing."

"Peter Tosh is dead." Pope said a bit confused by that..

"Peter Tosh is dead. I know., Spirit of Peter Tosh will never die."

"Actually I know what I'll do." JJ said after Kie, their eyes now on him "I'm gonna get a big ass house in Figure Eight and go full kook."

"You're gonna go Full Kook?" Pope asked, as if the idea was too crazy but JJ said yes, he was serious about it as he described the things he would get as a Full Kook.

"What about you El? What would you do?" Kie looked at her taking a sip of her beer.

"Pay back Dr, Cameron everything, and if I end up with something, probably buy myself something nice." Elena said, she looked down at her hands and sighed.

"What are you gonna do JB?" Pope now turned the attention to John B, he was quiet but they understood why.

"To going Full Kook." he said looking back at his friends, they all smiled and looked at each other.

"To going full kook." All of them said in unison, laughter then filled the place. To going Full Kook.

a/n

i'm sure i already used that gif before but idc... i couldn't find another gif of episode three , also it's two am and i don't have my glasses on so forgive me for any misspells, i can't see anything.