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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲

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After seeing John B drive off with the gun in his hand to most likely try to kill Ward Cameron, the remaining Pogues decided to take the Pogue to Tannyhill in order to make sure he hadn't. They were all worried, not sure if he would actually go through with murder but the way he had acted back at the Château...they wouldn't put it past him.

As JJ steered the HMS Pogue to Tannyhill, Cassie had been sitting behind him with her knees curled up to her chest. Her mind had been racing ever since John B's last words to them: "Ward knows about the gold! He killed my dad."

Cassie's father, Kevin Blake, had basically been business partners with Ward Cameron. Ward was the one who convinced them to move to the Outer Banks so they could work more closely for Cameron Development. They were basically best friends, which was why when her father had died, Ward had been there for them.

He constantly checked in on them, gifting them with food and money to try to make her and her mother feel better. It had worked a lot on Savannah, not so much on Cassie who shut herself out from the world for months.

So the fact that John B had told them that Ward had killed Big John...she was beginning to go in a downward spiral of mind numbing thoughts.

Was Ward after the gold this whole time? Was he truly capable of murder? Had he been dangerous this whole? What else has he done? Should she be worried for her mother?

Cassie didn't know what to think. All she wanted was answers.

Of course she had trusted John B. He had become one of her closest friends. But were his words actually true? Was someone so generous and kind to her family actually a...monster?

JJ looked over his shoulder as he steered the boat, noticing the way Cassie had all her focus down on her knees and how quiet she had been. He frowned a bit before he turned to Pope. "Hey, Pope. Wanna switch?" He asked, referring to manning the boat.

"Not really," Pope shrugged since he had other things on his mind, like the interview he had in six hours.

"Okay, well, we're switching," JJ said anyway as he moved away from the wheel and Pope groaned a bit, walking over to take control.

JJ carefully made his way over to the blonde girl, who hadn't noticed his presence since she had been so deep in thought. "Hey," he began.

Cassie snapped out of her thoughts, but didn't look up to see who had spoken to her. She already knew. "Hey."

"You okay?"

"Do I look okay?" She snapped.

"Well, you do got some eye bags there and your braid is kinda loose..." He trailed off when she slowly looked up to glare at him. "...And uh, never mind." She rolled her eyes at him and looked back down at her knees. He squinted his eyes a bit at her before he decided to sit next to her.

She slowly looked back over at him, her eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm sitting," he said like it was obvious.

"Sit somewhere else," she deadpanned, not in the mood for him to be bothering her right now.

JJ released a sigh, taking his cap off. "Okay, no, wait, look. You've just been really quiet and that's not like you, like, at all so I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he admitted. "You know, after what JB told us."

She sucked in a breath. "Why do you care?"

"Uh...because you seemed to care about me last night, remember?" He reminded her.

Fuck. Last night. She really didn't need to be reminded of that. She was already slowly losing her mind and adding the topic of last night into the mix wouldn't help her.

"Anyone else would have done it," she tried to argue, not wanting to make it into a bigger deal than it was. Because it shouldn't have been a big deal. So why did it seem like one?

"But not you," he pointed out and she pursed her lips, knowing he was right. "So, talk to me. You helped me, so I'll help you. You know, we always seem to be owing each other."

"Yeah," she agreed flatly. They did always seem to be owing each other, but Cassie wasn't sure if that had been a good or a bad thing.

"Okay, so...What's bothering you?"

She let out a sardonic laugh. "What's bothering me? What's not bothering me?" She retorted and JJ had to agree with her on that one. Everything had gotten fucked so fast. "It's just...I mean, Ward? Ward killed Big John? It doesn't make any sense."

"Honestly, I'm not that surprised. He made Rafe, so..."

Cassie glared at him. "Yeah, but you don't understand. Ward has helped me and my mom ever since..." She felt her throat start to hurt. "Ever since my dad died," she rasped.

JJ blinked at that. "Oh."

"Yeah, so sorry if I'm a little upset about the fact that the guy who's been helping us may actually be a murderer," she continued, shaking her head.

"Cassie, no one said we were ever mad at you for feeling that way," JJ tried to explain to her, not knowing why she was getting so defensive all of a sudden. "I mean, it's not like you don't believe John B." Cassie tensed at that and JJ had noticed. "You believe John B, right? Over Ward?"

Cassie didn't look at him. She couldn't. Not when she wasn't sure if she did believe the Routledge boy. She wanted to, she really did. But she was just in so much denial. She didn't want to believe that someone that was so close to her family, so close to her father, could do this.

"Cassie?" JJ questioned since she hadn't responded.

"I don't know, okay? I don't know," she finally replied before she shut her eyes, trying to fight back any tears that would form.

JJ's mouth parted in shock at that. She was really going to possibly believe Ward Cameron over John B Routledge, his best friend since the third grade? No way in hell was he going to let that slide.

"What the hell, Cassie? You don't believe your friend? Our friend? Someone who has done nothing but help us this whole time?" He interrogated her, growing angry.

She looked over at him, seeing the hurt look on his face. "What? No, that's not-that's not what I'm saying. I-I just don't know what to believe."

"Well, that kinda sounds like you don't believe John B," he pointed out a matter-of-factly before he got up and put his cap back on, shaking his head at her. "You know, you really fucking confuse me, Cassandra."

After last night, he would've expected things to be different. He had called her a Pogue for the first time ever and now she was doing this? He had no idea what had been wrong with her.

She looked up at him, her eyes watering. "Give me a break, JJ!" She shouted as she slowly got up, moving towards him. "You don't know what it was like for me, okay?! Of course I want to believe John B, I just don't want to believe that Ward could've done this!"

At this outburst, Kiara and Pope turned their heads toward the two. They hadn't even known they had been speaking to one another since they were also wrapped up in their own thoughts.

"Cece?" Kiara tried to cut into the conversation, seeing how upset she had gotten.

"Stay out of this, Kiara," Cassie growled and the girl blinked at her best friend, taken aback. "It's just, none of you understand. None of you do! I was alone for months. And yeah, Ward wasn't exactly my friend since his daughter cut me out of her life and he's a fucking fifty something year old, but he was still there. So cut me some goddamn slack." She turned her attention toward JJ. "Please."

JJ's lips pursed at that, seeing how she was so emotional about this. JJ was going to stand by John B no matter what had happened, so the fact that Cassie was on the edge about it really irked him. But at the same time, he could understand where she was coming from. He had to remember that not everything was just black and white. Things were always going to be gray.

And him and Cassie...he used to think they were just black and white, two different people. A Kook and a Pogue. But now, he was beginning to think they were both in that gray.

Pope and Kiara shared a glance with one another as Cassie sat back down, turning her body away from them so she could cry in peace. JJ shook his head at himself, regretting his angry reaction from before. Clearly she had been a lot more upset about this than anything else if she wasn't trying to beat him up.

He reached out to her to touch her shoulder, "Cassie."

"Don't touch me," she insisted as she waved his hand away, not even looking his way.

JJ released a sigh before he turned toward the others, seeing that Pope had pulled up to the dock where the My Druthers was stationed at. He looked between the two, seeing the way they had been staring at him but he elected to ignore it. "What now? We just go up to the front door and ask, 'Hey, have you seen John B?'" JJ sassed, changing the subject.

"Look, he lives at Tannyhill now. It's plausible. Look, we can play dumb," Kiara reasoned, glancing over at Cassie but knowing she couldn't bother her. Not when she was like this.

"Play dumb?" JJ laughed.

"It's pretty late," Pope pointed out.

"Look, I've never seen John B like that. We should honestly be going to the cops," Kiara squinted.

"The cop — Yeah, and say what, Kie? We're worried about our friend because he's going off on a rampage because Ward Cameron killed Big John? Like, they're not gonna believe us!" JJ exclaimed and Cassie swallowed hard, not daring to look over at them.

"Hey, I see Ward," Pope told them as he pressed the binoculars up to his face, peering through them to see Ward walking around his house.

"Let me see." Kiara took the binoculars from him, looking through them.

"Doesn't look dead to me. Let's go home," Pope swiftly said.

"Wait."

"What?!"

"Uh...Okay, obviously Mr. Cameron is fine, and even if John B was here, he isn't now, okay?" Pope explained. "Plus, I have the biggest, most important moment of my life in six hours."

"Yeah, well, our friend is in trouble," Kiara argued.

"I'm in trouble," Pope countered with a shrug. "Guys, I haven't been home in three days. My dad's probably put all my shit on the street by now."

"'Kay, so that's it?" Kiara asked and Pope looked up at her. "In a time of need, you're just gonna bail? You're just gonna walk away?"

"Okay, yo, guys, can we not do this right now?" JJ cut in as he took his cap off again, walking away from the two and sitting down. He and Cassie had already made the tension in the air even more thick, he didn't need his other two friends making it worse.

"Hey, I have a scholarship interview in the morning. I can't—"

"Okay, well, what about John B?" Kiara interrupted, tilting her head angrily.

"Why is it always about John B?" Pope shot back and JJ let out a sigh. Cassie turned her head to look over at the two, not knowing where this was coming from. Especially from Pope, who she had never seen look this angry before.

Kiara glanced over at Cassie and JJ before back at Pope, her face twisting. "It's not always about John B. You're so stupid! It would be any of you guys in this situation!" She shouted.

"Oh, bullshit!"

"Guys—"

"This is about friendship!" Kiara continued yelling.

"Bring it down," JJ tried again.

Kiara looked over at the blondes. "Look, this is about Pogues for life!"

"What about forensic pathology, huh?" Pope questioned.

"Forensic pathology? That's your—"

"It's my life! That's everything I've worked for!"

"That's your priority?!"

"Would you stop with the moral high ground bullshit?!" Pope demanded in her face.

"Pope, come on," JJ gently said.

"No!"

Kiara hissed, "Excuse me?"

"No, no. She has no room to talk," Pope pointed at JJ as the boy just looked down at his cap again. "Where were you when Big John went missing? You weren't there. You weren't there for John B. You weren't there for any of us. Remember your Kook year?"

"Dude..." JJ warned as Cassie's frowned even deeper at the mention of Kiara's Kook year. It reminded of her of that god awful lonely year she had for herself.

Pope kept going, "Yeah, you forgot about us. Now you feel guilty."

Kiara shoved Pope back, "Give me a break!"

They were starting to look like Cassie and JJ now.

"Hey!"

"Is that what you need?!"

"Hey, come on!"

Kiara kept shoving him away from her. "You need a break?! Move!"

JJ jumped up, trying to separate the two. "Hey! Yo, yo, yo, cut it out, all right? If I'm the one mediating, we've hit rock bottom," he sternly said before he looked at Pope. "Bow, now. Go!"

Pope gave JJ a look before he retreated to the bow where Cassie had been sitting. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "Sorry," she forced out as she tried to wipe some tears away. She meant it in a way to say sorry that they don't care about your interview, but she wasn't sure if Pope understood it.

Pope gave her a nod anyway. "Thanks."

Kiara sat on the other end of the boat, bring her knees up to her chest as she began to cry. All she wanted to do was help John B and it seemed like her ability to see what other people may have been feeling had become clouded.

So it was Cassie and Pope on one side, and JJ and Kiara on the other. They never thought that would ever happen.

"Pope, I'll drop you off," JJ said to the Heyward boy.

"Drop me off, too," Cassie croaked and JJ looked at her. "My mom thinks I'm missing. Don't need her calling the cops to make this worse," she reasoned.

JJ took her words in and nodded slowly, spinning the wheel to steer to the Blake household.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

JJ dropped Cassie off at Kiara's dock since Cassie's house had been down the street and she didn't have a dock behind her house. She had calmed down a bit since the ride to it had been silent between everyone, the tension still thick from all the arguments just before.

"Bye, Cece," Kiara spoke up, sniffling a bit. "Meet at the Château tomorrow, okay?"

Cassie looked over her shoulder as she got off the boat, stepping onto the dock. She nodded before she replied quietly, "Bye, Kiki." She then looked over at the two boys. "Bye, guys."

"Bye, Cassie," Pope waved.

JJ held his head up, not saying anything in response. Cassie turned around, frowning. She had expected him to at least say something, but she didn't know why she expected it. They had just gotten into an argument yet again.

It seemed like every time they were actually getting along, something had to come along and ruin it. Well, not something, but two someone's: Cassie and JJ themselves.

She stalked back to her house, trying to prepare for her mother's wrath since she hadn't been home in days. She didn't even check if her mother had responded to the message she had left back at The Wreck, so she wasn't sure what she would be coming back to.

When she reached her home, there had been no cop cars. That had been a good sign. Cassie trekked up to the door, seeing that it already been unlocked. Maybe her mother had thought she didn't have her key with her.

Cassie pushed open the door, stepping inside to see that the lights had been on the kitchen. That was her mother's usual spot.

"Mom?" Cassie called out and she immediately heard her mother gasp, the sound of a chair scraping on the floor followed right behind it. She watched as Savannah came running through the archway, her eyes widening at the sight of her daughter. "Mom."

"Oh, thank God," Savannah breathed out as she rushed forward, enveloping Cassie in a hug. Cassie hadn't been expecting that, especially when her mother's last texts had been anything but loving. "I thought you were hurt. I thought that—"

"Mom, it's-it's okay," Cassie tried to explain. "I'm fine."

Savannah pulled away, looking her daughter in the eyes. "I didn't know where you were. I thought you were-were hurt and that's why you hadn't come home."

"Why would I be hurt?" Cassie asked her, furrowing her brows.

Savannah frowned a bit. "John B. Ward told me that he had attacked him when they went fishing for no reason. I know you've been hanging out with him, so I thought...Maybe he went crazy."

Cassie slowly shook her head. "No. No, John B...He's-he's not crazy. And-and we don't even know if he actually hurt Ward," she tried to explain although she still wasn't sure if Ward killing Big John was the truth. She just knew that John B wouldn't have attacked the man if it hadn't been for a good reason. Or if he had even attacked him at all.

Savannah narrowed her eyes a bit before she took her daughter's hand. "Here, let's talk about this in your room. You look like you need your bed," she said, allowing Cassie to step in front of her to walk up the stairs. "What have you been doing with John B, Cassie?" She asked as they slowly walked up the steps.

Cassie swallowed hard. "Just...hanging out, that's all," she answered.

Savannah hummed behind her. "You haven't been...searching for lost treasure, have you?" She inquired.

Cassie stopped in her tracks once she reached the door to her room, slowly turning around. "What? How do you know about that?" She questioned her. She had never told her mother about the gold.

Savannah pursed her lips. "Ward told me. Said John B and his friends have been after the gold from the Royal Merchant."

Cassie blinked, thinking back to John B's words: "Ward knows about the gold! He killed my dad."

"Is Ward after the gold, too?" She interrogated carefully.

Savannah let out a breathless, almost nervous laugh, "What? No, of course not. He's just worried that you all are getting too caught up in all of this. You know, since Sarah is with John B and all that. He doesn't want John B becoming like his father who obsessed over it to his death."

Cassie paused. "How do you know he's dead?"

Savannah blinked at her. "What? Cassie, come on, everyone knows that Big John is dead."

"No. No, we don't know that. He just disappeared," she tried to explain. "That doesn't mean he's dead." She was starting to sound like John B and his concocting, but she didn't care. She didn't care when her mother was acting extremely suspicious.

Savannah was beginning to grow frustrated. "Of course he's dead, Cassandra. You don't take a boat out to sea and never fucking come back if you're alive."

"There's still a chance—"

"There was never a chance with millions worth of gold on the line!" Savannah spat before she realized what she had just said, her eyes widening.

Cassie tilted her head as she began to breath heavily. "I thought you said Ward didn't know about the gold."

Savannah sucked in a breath. "He doesn't."

"But you do?" Cassie narrowed her eyes and she watched her mother lick her lips and glance away nervously, causing her stomach to drop. "Oh, my God. No, there's no...There's no way."

Did they both know about the gold?

Had Savannah been working with Ward this whole time?

Did she know Ward had killed Big John?

"Cassie, honey—"

"Did Ward...did he kill John B's father?" She squeaked, her eyes becoming glossy once more. Her mother didn't answer as she just stared at her daughter's face, her eyes still wide as saucers. "Mom, did he?!"

Savannah nostrils flared and all of a sudden, she had her hands on her daughter. "Hey!" Cassie shrieked as her mother pushed her daughter into her room, causing her to fall back onto the floor. "MOM!"

The door had slammed shut and Cassie bounced up from the floor, going back over to it but she had heard the lock click. "No, wait, no!" Cassie shouted before she started twisting the knob but it wouldn't open. "Mom, please, no!" She banged on the door with her fist. She then heard something heavy scraping against the door and she realized that her mother was pushing the large standing cabinet they had out in the hallway in front of the door. "No, please!"

"I never want to hear you say those words again, do you hear me?" She heard her mother demand through the door, although it had been muffled because of the standing cabinet in front of it.

Cassie's felt the tears start to rush down her cheeks, going to pull out her phone to call someone but she realized it hadn't been there. Savannah must have swiped it when she was walking up the steps. "Fuck! No, Mom, please! Let me out!"

"I'm not letting you out until you calm down and realized that you're being delusional. Ward is innocent! John B attacked him for no reason," Savannah tried to calmly explain even though there was venom in her voice.

"No, that's not true!" Cassie barked.

"Well, then I guess you're not coming out any time soon." And with that, she heard her mother's footsteps walk away from the blocked door.

"NO, COME BACK! PLEASE!" Cassie sobbed as she continued to bang against the door. She quickly looked around the room, trying to find somewhere to escape. Her eyes locked on the doors to her balcony and she ran over it, trying to pull them open but they wouldn't budge. "FUCK!"

She had forgotten her mother had them locked from the outside after her father's passing, afraid that Cassie would do something stupid with the balcony in her time of grief.

Cassie let out a loud sob as she sank down onto the floor, rethinking everything that had ever occurred in her life now that her mother may have been a part of the death of Big John Routledge.

authors note!
kie in that scene actually pissed
me off and i do tend to defend her
but she was honestly being so mean
to pope it was insane. like i get they
wanted to make sure john b was ok
but like that doesn't mean pope cant
go to his interview?? u still got urself
and jj like...but anyway i was looking
forward to writing this chapter bc
of the ending heheh more will be explained
next chapter