LXV.   my kind of woman

      Both Dylan and JJ were feeling the exact same way but they articulated it differently. John B was important to both of them but they had different levels of emotions. Dylan became vulnerable while JJ became angry. And right now he was going absolutely haywire. "So this is what we're gonna do, huh? We're just sailing out? We're just gonna forget about John B?" He blurted out sharply while pacing back and forth.

All of them had been silent for the duration of time they left the marina. None of them knew what to say. Dylan was still curled into a ball, her arms were still wrapped around her legs,and she spaced out, staring at the water with a miserable expression on her face.

"We should never have left him. We're turning back around—"

"No!" Cleo yelled before he could do anything. "We all gonna get caught. What type of plan is that?"

"It's a plan to stick together, Cleo." JJ snapped.

"Then we are dead together."

He spun around and jerked his arm in Dylan's direction. "DJ, you agree with me, right?" He almost demanded.

Pope watched her break in front of him and he stood up from where he was seating, casting JJ a glare. "No, stop. You're gonna make it worse!" He almost yelled.

"How much worse can it get, Pope?" JJ yelled back.

"Okay, look, she's right. We had to leave, or we'd all be zip-tied in the back of a pickup. We did the right thing." Kiara spoke, trying to be the voice of reason while recalling her own trauma.

Sarah stood still in front of the boat's wheel, her eyes glossed over with tears and her shoulders heavy with guilt because what choice did she have? They would all be dead if they stayed. She had to get them out. But now the regret swirled around her head, casting a black above her. You did this. You left him.

Dylan shook her head, still in disbelief, and she wiped her watery eyes. She turned her head and caught Pope's eye, seeing his solemn expression as he watched her break, her sweet eyes dull and gloomy, a look that made him sick to see. He'd seen it before. He'd seen it when they first thought John B was dead. He'd seen it when Rafe and Topper jumped them on the golf course. Hell, he even saw it when they were kids in middle school and a group of girls stole her lunch box and hid it in the trash can. Dylan always had the most expressive eyes and a face that couldn't hide how she was feeling. Over time it was like whatever what they were feeling, the other one could feel as well, and Pope felt every bit of the dread that she was feeling.

He gave her a look that silently read that he was sorry. Dylan just shook her head, saying that there was nothing they could do now.

Suddenly the phone Kiara still had started to ring and all eyes fell on her. She read the caller ID.

"Who is that?" JJ was the first to ask.

". . .Portis."

Dylan's head quickly looked her way and she unraveled herself from the ball she was in. "Portis?" She was stunned at the name.

"Portis," JJ matched her tone. "That's John B. That's definitely John B."

"Answer it. Answer it!"

He took the phone from Kiara and immediately answered it, holding it up to his ear. "Yo! Yo, dude, is this you?"

"Speaker," both Kiara and Dylan urge him.

"What–Do you need us to turn around?"

"Speaker, JJ! Please!"

Listening to them, JJ put John B on speaker. "Yo, say it again. Say it again." He spoke rapidly.

"It's me. It's me." Dylan sighed heavily with relief when she heard his voice. "I said don't worry about me, okay? Look, it's way too hot here. You guys gotta get out of here. Go back to OBX."

The signal was breaking and JJ shook his head. "We do not copy. Can you—"

"Oh my gosh," Dylan sighed impatiently and snatched the phone from him. "John B, hey, it's me. Are you okay?"

"DJ, yeah, it's me. I'm okay. I'm okay."

She brought her shaking hand into her hair. "You dickwad. What the hell took you so long?"

"Dylan, I found him. I found my dad," she heard him say but the signal was so bad that his voice was distorted.

Dylan furrowed her brows. "JB, you're breaking up. What did you say?"

"DJ—"

She looked up at the others. "I-I can't understand him," she panicked again.

"Get out of there. I'll meet you on Kildare, okay?" His voice distorted again.

She managed to hear the word Kildare. "Kildare?" Dylan repeated. "Wha–When are you coming back?" The signal was cut. "John B? John B!"

"Shit." Sarah cursed when she heard the phone beep.

"What the hell?" Dylan cursed and tossed the phone onto the seat.

"You guys think he found his father?" Cleo questioned.

"He's been missing for almost a year," Pope chimed in, not looking convinced.

Kiara looked between Sarah and Dylan. "You guys are the ones he talked to before he left. What do you think?" She asked for their opinions.

"Sarah–We'ee sitting ducks right now. So we need to make a decision," JJ pressured her.

Dylan glanced her way. Sarah met her eyes, her hair blowing in her face. "I didn't mean to leave him, DJ. I swear," she spoke vulnerable.

She moved her hair from her face. "I know. I know." Dylan said quietly. "I don't blame you. You did the right thing. It's your call right now."

"Are we turning back around or are we gonna keep going." JJ continued.

Dylan lifted her hand in his direction. "J, please." She pleaded and looked back at Sarah. "Don't listen to any us. Do what you think is right."

It was one of the many things Sarah loved about Dylan. She never pressured her. She was understanding in situations where she didn't have to be. John B was her closest friend and any of them knew that if given the chance, she would jump in the water and swim all the way back to John B because that's just who she was as a person.

After a minute of contemplating, no thanks to JJ, Sarah made her decision. "He said go."

That didn't set right with him. "Wait, Sarah."

Go."

"Sarah–"

"Go!" She said with a cracked voice and walked away to go sit down.

The tension was high. Dylan felt every bit of it creeping on her skin, making her uncomfortable. She watched JJ's face change and he started the boat back up. His jaw clenched. Dylan walked over to him and placed her hands on his back. "Hey, I understand, okay?" She spoke only so they could hear each other. "More than anyone. But you heard him. He's okay. This is John B. He can get through anything. We just have to believe in him."

JJ, his jaw still clenched, looked down at her, meeting her wide and hopeful eyes. Since they were kids, she was always the voice of reason when it came to the trio. She was the moral compass.

"It's okay to be upset but just be kind to her," Dylan added, referring to Sarah.

The blonde nodded slightly, though he clearly was still upset by the decision to keep going. "Yeah." He whispered back. Nothing more than that.

She rubbed his back for a second and walked away. Dylan passed Kiara, both of them smiling gently and she sat next to Sarah. "Don't be upset," she whispered when she saw her crying.

"I'm scared." Sarah admitted, her voice breaking, and she shut her eyes.

Dylan wrapped her arm around her and allowed her to lean against her. "It's okay. It's going to be okay." She whispered soothingly. "Whatever happens, we have each other. But trust me, I know John B. He'll pull a rabbit out of the hat. He's done it ever since we were kids."

She heard Sarah chuckle a little through her cries. She tucked her hair behind her ear but it was no use with the wind still blowing. "I love you, DJ." She whispered.

"I love you too, Sare."

There was no telling how long it would take them to sail back to Kildare. The longer she was on the boat, the more tired Dylan felt. She moved to the lower level of the boat and she sat down leaned against the seat with her head on her arm, and her eyes trained on the water all around her. It was so beautiful, she thought. Everything about it to the color and the rippling waves was gorgeous. But Dylan didn't feel at ease like she normally did when she watched the water. She was still very much on edge.

She felt somebody sit behind her and then a hand was placed on her arm. The touch was so familiar. She didn't even have to turn around. "Is this okay?" He asked her gently.

Dylan looked over her shoulder. "Of course it's okay." She responded softly.

Pope adjusted himself on the seat and watched her lay against his chest. He wrapped her arms around her protectively. "Are you—"

"I'm sorry," she interrupted him without meaning to. "For being angry at you earlier. Of course I know you'd never want me to go out there alone."

He shook his head. "It was only because I was scared. I mean, we've been in the situation with John B before. The thought of you going out there and getting hurt is physically painful to think about."

Dylan turned herself slightly so that she could see him. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry." Pope grabbed one of her hands and intertwined their fingers. "How are you feeling?"

She sighed and turned her head back to the ocean. "I'm just thinking about what's gonna happen once we're back. What are our families gonna say? What are they gonna do? What's the entire island going to say about us?"

"I thought you didn't care what they said about us?"

"I don't," she replied. "Well, I didn't, but, what if I do now?" His silence made her guess that he was confused by what she meant. "I used to say that I was done with the good girl act, that I was ready to break free from the island and do what's right by all of you guys. But what if I'm ready for things to be normal again?"

Pope cracked a tiny smile. "I don't think things are ever going to be normal again, D."

Dylan sighed. "Yeah, I know." She rested her head back on his chest, her forehead just under his chin.

He used his other hand to rub her thigh. "Y'know, it's okay to feel how you feel, Dylan. You always try to make us feel better but you have to take care of yourself, too."

She furrowed her brows. "I do—"

"No, you don't," Pope laughed a little and he looked down at her slightly. "You're the most worried out of all of us, are you not?"

"I'm not the most worried—"

"You've known John B longer than any of us. You two grew up together. You have the most memories together. I get it. We all get it, baby. You're terrified but you're trying to hold it together for all of us. You don't have to do that."

Dylan's lips tugged downward and she stared at their intertwined hands.

"If you want to scream. If you want to cry. If you want to jump in the ocean and swim for as long as you want because I know it's makes you feel better, if you want to curse in the wind, do it. None of us will judge you. I won't ever judge you."

His speech tugged at her heart strings. The way he spoke, the words he chose, everything he did was perfect. Pope knew her like a book, front to back and everything in between. "You always know what I'm thinking, how I'm feeling," she muttered and suddenly felt like she was in a hot summer day with the sun beaming on her, his arms around her like their bodies were meant to mold into one. "How do you do that?"

"I just know you," Pope answered honestly, it was as simply a fundamental truth of the universe.

It made her chest ache in ways she could never adequately articulate because she loved him so much that it was hard to put into words, so Dylan turned the upper half of her body and buried herself deeper into him, her face in his neck like she was trying to hide from the world, and like two statues, they were molded into one.

Dylan didn't realize she had fallen asleep until she was being shaken awake. "Hey, sweetheart," Pope's sweet voice whispered to her. "Cleo says we should stop for gas."

She stirred against his body and rubbed her tired eyes. "Yeah, that's a good idea." Dylan sat up and stretched her muscles. "Go tell JJ and Kie."

He nodded and stood up from the seat. He went and climbed up the ladder to the upper deck. Dylan sighed and went to sit with Sarah and Cleo. "How you feeling, Sare?" She asked the girl.

Sarah half smiled. "Better now. Your talks are like magic." She teased.

She giggled quietly.

"Can I ask how the two of you met?" Cleo asked her, pointing to the upper level where Pope was.

Her smile grew and Sarah oohed out loud. "Now that's an interesting story." She said and chuckled.

"Ha, ha," Dylan said sarcastically while still smiling. "Um, Pope and I met in middle school. He was, uh, the dorkiest person I ever met."

"That's not hard to believe," Cleo said, making the two of them laugh.

"Yeah. Uhh, we've always been really good friends." She smiled even more as explained the story. "I'd be lying if I said I never thought he was cute."

"Usually those kind of things disgust me, but, you two are cute." Cleo told her, smiling herself. "Never much room for dating where I grew up."

"Oh, come on. You never thought any guy was cute?" Sarah asked her, it being the first time she ever heard Cleo talk about relationships.

She shook her head. "No, no, no. Partly because I ain't ever been attracted to guys." She admitted.

Her and Dylan looked at each other with matching wide eyes. "Oh,"

Cleo shrugged. "Yeah. I'll admit, Miss Cameron, I thought you was pretty the first time I saw you. Then I saw you with John B."

"Everybody does," Dylan chimed in and smiled at Sarah, giving her a wink.

Sarah rolled her eyes and laughed. "Oh, thanks."

"I was bicurious for a while," she admitted as well. "The first girl I ever kissed was Kiara."

Cleo looked shocked. "No way."

"Way. Sarah, didn't we kiss?"

Sarah hummed and narrowed her eyes. "We might have been really drunk."

They laughed again. "Yeah, probably." Dylan giggled and wrapped her arms around herself. "I think all of us are a little gay, I won't lie."

Pope came down the ladder and saw them giggling. "What are you guys laughing about?" He asked with a smile.

"Just girl things," Dylan told him and stood up. She bounced on her toes towards him and wrapped her around his neck. "Did you tell JJ and Kiara?"

"Oh yeah. You're never gonna believe what I saw, either," he told her with an excited grin.

She furrowed her brows. "What?"

"I'm pretty sure I walked in on them about to kiss."

Dylan gasped and she removed her arms from his neck to cover her mouth. "Are you serious?" She asked with a giddy smile. He nodded and Dylan squealed. "Oh my gosh, I was right!"

Pope furrowed his brows. "Right? Hang on—"

JJ and Kiara came down the ladder. She looked away from Pope and smirked at them. "Why are you looking at us like that?" Kiara asked her weirdly

"Oh, no reason." Dylan said knowingly with another big smile on her face. Catching JJ's eye, she winked and gave him a thumbs up to which he just rolled his eyes.

"I'm gonna go, uh, take over up there." Pope pointed to the upper deck.

"Yeahhh. Imma go with him." JJ said quickly and turned back around, following Pope up the ladder.

Dylan smiled at Kiara again. "Alright, come on," she said and grabbed her arm. "Spill."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Since when have you ever been able to lie to me?"

Kiara's mouth clamped shut. Her eyes flickered to the side for a second.

Dylan smirked. "It's okay, y'know?"

"I don't think it is." She muttered, a small sigh escaping her lips.

She was sure that Pope was talking to JJ about the exact same thing. Dylan took another sell closer to Kiara and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. "Y'know, for as long as I've known JJ, and I've known him for a long time, I have never seen that boy so scared like he was when you got taken."

Kiara looked her way.

"Like, he was going out of his damn mind," she laughed a little. "And I knew why. Sure, if it was any one of us that got taken, he'd be fighting tooth and nail to get us back. But you're different, Kie."

She shook her head. "No, I'm not. It's not possible, DJ. We're best friends." Kiara said with a frown.

Dylan wasn't fazed. "So are Pope and I."

Again, Kiara's mouth clamped shut.

"What's better than falling in love with somebody who already knows how to love you?"

Soon, they arrived in St. Kitts. From not too far ahead, Dylan saw the city lights and the port. "Finally, my stomach is eating itself."

"Let's go, girlie." Cleo urged her.

She stood up from her seat and looked up towards the upper deck. "P, come with us!" She called out to the captain.

"Roger that!" Pope yelled back.

"Oh my gosh, what a dork." She heard Cleo say and she laughed.

He climbed down the ladder and the three of them made their way off the boat. Dylan grabbed his hand and swung their arms back and forth.

"Let's go find a corner shop. Gotta be one near by." Said Cleo.

"Any ideas on how we're going to pay for any of this stuff?" Dylan questioned as none of them had any money on hand.

"Uhhh," Pope stammered. "No clue, if I'm being honest."

Coming across a corner store, the three paused where they stood. "Time to gain some provisions, yeah?"

"So you're just gonna walk in there and shoplift?"

"You got a pocketful of cash? Cause like DJ said, ain't no way of us paying for anything." Cleo responded sassily.

Dylan looked his way and shrugged. "Ain't no other way, hot stuff." She sided with her.

Pope looked between the two of them. He laughed. "You've never shop lifted a day in your life," he said to Dylan. "Remember when JJ put that pocket of gum in your jacket pocket that one time in the store and you got caught and cried?"

Cleo snorted a laugh and Dylan's jaw dropped. "I thought we said to never bring that up again." She smacked his bare arm.

He held up his hands and laughed. "I'm just sayin'. You break easily. I don't see you being a shop lifter."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Whatever. Cleo?" She directed.

Cleo winked at her. "No worries, girlie. I got this. Just watch my back, yeah?"

She walked towards the corner store. Dylan turned to Pope and gave him a look. "You're lucky I like you or else I'd be really offended that you think I can't pull off a heist."

Pope just smirked. "Aww, sorry baby." He leaned down and kissed her on the nose. He grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of the store.

"Ay, bey, what's going on?" Cleo said to the guy stocking the shelves.

"Hey, sis," he greeted her back, his Barbadian accent thick.

"I looking for the pepper sauce. The Jamaican one."

"Man, I love that accent." Dylan whispered to herself while trying to act normal.

"Yeah. Got a pepper sauce there. Everyone you want."

Cleo sneakily pointed her finger down the aisle. "Hey. All right."

Dylan's hand brushed again Pope's back as she passed by. She walked down the aisle, eyeing everything on the shelves around her. Cleo motioned for the two of them to stand by the freezer while she walked around to the other isle. Dylan stood behind Pope, running her nails up and down his back nonchalantly and she flinched when she heard a crashing sound.

"The fuck. . .what going on being here man?" The man from before raised his voice and he passed by them. "Excuse there, dudes. Hey! Watch your step, friend."

Dylan quickly looked down the isle in front of her and saw Cleo start to quickly shove things into her satchel. She looked up at Pope and quickly smacked his arm. "Do something," she mouthed.

Pope quickly looked between her, Cleo, and the upset man. He stopped Cleo when he saw her walk by. "Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey! Hold it there, girl!"

Shit.

"What you got inside this bag here, sis? Excuse me?"

"What bag?" Cleo played. "This thing?"

Dylan watched Pope grab a mango from the customer's basket. "Yo, man, you trying to sell my man bad mangoes?" He said in a Barbadian accent.

Her jaw dropped.

"This mango was just picked, man!" The man argued.

"Man, you know that got the blight on it. I've been picking mangoes since I was a youth, and you know that'll kill my man. You eat this mango, it eat you."

Dylan's eyes nearly fell out of her head by how wide they got. She snapped out of it when Pope grabbed her hand and dragged her away. "Go! Let's go!" He urged and the three of them split.

"Come back here! Hey, hey! Where do you think you're going!" The man yelled while he chased after them.

Dylan looked over her shoulder, seeing him hot on their trails, and she swiped everything on the shelves onto the floor, blocking his way. She snatched a large bag of chips from another shelf before they ran out the front door.

"Hey! Come back here! Little thieving rat!"

"You know, I don't know what's worse. The sick hamster or that accent!" Cleo hollered.

"That was the hottest thing I've ever experienced in my life!"

Pope smiled widely, not being able to control the laughter he felt coming. "Holy shit, that felt great!"

She turned around and smiled at them. "Imma go make sure Sarah ain't alone on the boat." Cleo told them and ran back to the boat. "Have fun, lovebirds!"

Dylan blew a stand of hair out of her face. She glanced at Pope and smiled again, holding up the bag of chips which she discovered were cheese curls. "Shall we dine, my love?"

Pope smiled again. "We shall." He accepted and the two of them grabbed hands again, running to find a place to sit down.

She pointed toward the dock. "C'mon, let's sit by the water." She said and pulled him with her.

"I swear you were a mermaid in your past life."

Dylan chuckled. "I wouldn't doubt it. Aquamarine used to be one of my favorite movies."

"Yeah, I know. You begged your mom to let you dye your hair blue for like a month straight." Pope recalled.

"Oh yeah. I remember that," she laughed again, remembering when she would cry and beg her parents to let her have blue extensions. They sat down on the dock and opened the bag of chips. She held the bag up. "For you, my love." She said in a British accent.

"Why thank you, darling." He matched the accent and reached inside the grab one. Pope grew a smirk. "So, you thought that was hot back there?"

Dylan narrowed her eyes then rolled them. "Well, I've always thought you were hot but that might've put you a little higher on my radar." She teased him and ate one of the chips.

"Oh, is that right?" He said sarcastically and she giggled. "Is that true though? When I was a kid, I always thought that you thought I was too dorky to be cute."

She hummed. "Well, I did think you were dorky." She laughed at his face. "But you were a cute dorky. Like the time you rambled to me in my tree house about what the human body goes through during the process of embalming . I was like, huh, odd, but cute."

Pope scoffed a laugh. "Yeah, you're one to talk. You used to tell me about how you dreamed of marrying Spencer Reid and the two of you would investigate murder scenes together." He brought up with a half smile.

Dylan smiled at the memory. "Oh yeah. Good times, right?"

"Good times, baby." He agreed and held up his chip. She held up hers and they gently clinked them together.

reminder that dylan's just a teenage a girl who thinks pope is the hottest person ever (she's just like me)