It's always a little unnerving, when Kathryn stops talking. She usually would never pass up an occasion to open her big fat mouth and spew whatever venom she has stored. And that's whether they like it or not... But she always has something to say. Anything.

JJ's been watching her since Shoupe showed up and asked them to show him and the other cops the scene. She hasn't said a single word. Not one. He likes to think that in any case, if Shoupe says something she doesn't like, she will bite his head off, no matter what kind of history she has with the new Sheriff.

For now, he mirrors her, silent, standing next to her with his hands in his pockets while she has her arms crossed. His jaw is set and her eyebrows are in one of the deepest frowns he's ever seen on her. He thinks that maybe she can't see shit and that she doesn't even recognize Shoupe. It's funny, for like half a second.

"Look, it was right here, and this is where that maniac claimed his next victim," Kie explains for the hundredth time.

And, once again, Shoupe sighs and nods, probably writing in his notepad that the Pogues are just in a silly goofy mood. Yeah, guess what, the kids aren't alright. Shocker.

"Uh-uh," he muses. "His next victim?" She nods. "Right. How long ago did you say it happened?"

Kathryn watches as JJ crouches down and inspects the scene himself, as if he knew how. "Forty-five minutes ago, Shoupe."

"Okay. And so, Ward Cameron just popped one off and shot him." They nod. "Execution style, and then cleaned it all up in forty-five minutes?"

JJ notices the twitch in Kathryn's lip before anything else, and knows she's about to snap. Is he that dumb? Up until the cops arrived, it was raining cats and dogs, did he genuinely think Ward hosed the place down?

"Yes," Pope maintains. "Obviously."

"We filmed the entire thing," Kie tells him.

He perks up, interested. "You filmed it?" Kathryn decides that maybe he isn't as bored as he makes it look like. Maybe he genuinely believed that something happened, and is just waiting to get Ward and Rafe behind bars, just like the rest of them.

"Yes, but we can't show it to you because I stepped on Kat's hand, and then she made JJ fall, and then he kicked Pope and then Pope dropped the camera, and it broke."

"This is a telephoto," Pope corrects, "and we needed to get a long-distance image, and... and... and I fell and it broke, so the video is basically unusable." Shoupe shakes his head. "But... but we were there, and we're wit–"

Kathryn is proven wrong. "So the dog ate your homework?" Shoupe resumes.

"No, Shoupe," Kie sighs. "I know it sounds–"

"Look, I don't know what you kids expect me to do with this..."

"How about your job? Is that too much to ask?" Kathryn lets out, arching an eyebrow. JJ winces. She'd been quiet for too long, this was a longtime coming. "No, because, we called you in the middle of the night, panicked out of our goddamned minds, and you took forty-five minutes to get there. And now it's our fault if the crime-scene got washed away with the rain? Be serious."

Shoupe opens and closes his mouth for a few seconds, wondering what he could even tell her to make her feel better. "Look, you kids have every right to go after the Camerons, I get that..."

"Oh my god, Shoupe!" she cries out, flailing her arms around. "This isn't the point. Gavin was killed tonight, don't turn this into some sort of private vendetta. Especially when you're the reason it's still there in the first place."

Nothing else needs to be added to that, the others figure. Kie sends Kathryn a look to make sure she's okay, but she's too busy staring Shoupe down with a raised eyebrow and a snare. He wants to discredit them? Fine. He wants to use what happened with Rafe? Be her fucking guest. Kathryn is done cowering in fear every time his name is mentioned. She's done being weak.

"My point still stands," Shoupe goes on. "You called me here for a whole bunch of nothing–"

"No, it's not nothing!" Kie cries out.

"Except for some crazy stories about how Ward Cameron is on a random killing spree."

The Pogues all scoff and start gesturing around, clearly panicking at the thought that they're losing their credibility and Shoupe will walk away without doing anything. Kathryn expected no less, somehow.

"We're not making this up!"

"Why would we even make it up, it makes no sense!"

"We're telling the truth!"

"It's not a random killing spree," Kathryn's voice rings out louder than the others'. "It's very calculated, actually."

"Gavin was Ward's pilot, that day, on the tarmac," Pope says.

"Ward gave him hush money, but Gavin didn't think that it was enough and he was blackmailing Ward with the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin, and shoot Max," Kie goes on.

"He called him here and tried to pay him off," JJ ends, almost screaming. "But it wasn't enough, and then so he shot him. With the murder weapon."

Shoupe frowns, before narrowing his eyes at them, suspicious. "How do you know that?"

Kathryn bites down her tongue, praying that no one says anything, but Kie answers. "Pope did this thing with his phone. He like, put it in his car and–"

"I heard their whole conversation," Pope tells him.

Shoupe blinks at him. "You wiretapped him?"

Kie frowns. "Is that bad?"

Kathryn clears her throat. "I think that's kind of illegal, yeah."

"Stop," Shoupe cries out. "Just stop. I've had enough."

He starts to leave, turning his back on the teenagers, once again. Kathryn won't let him. She's had her fair share of seeing him walk away from a dire situation.

"You owe me, Shoupe!" she cries out after him, the others following after her. "You owe me to listen to what I have to say, and deep down, you know it!"

He does. There's nothing he can do for the kid who showed up covered in blood at the precinct, and he swore he would help the teen who looks like the whole world rests on her shoulder, but he can't help that nagging voice from telling him that if they want to catch Ward, they need actual proof.

"You ever heard about the girl who cried wolf?" he counters.

"We're literal eye-witnesses, you–" She takes a deep breath before he takes her in for insulting an officer of the law. "You really want to do this dance again? We've been here before, Shoupe, and in case you haven't noticed, only one of us was wrong, and it wasn't me."

As they get out of the construction site, Shoupe turns back to her, guilt written all over his face. "Look, Kat, I'm sorry. I let your mom get into my head, and I knew something was wrong – I should've helped. But even then, there was nothing to be done." She just stares at him. "Rafe's not four years older than you, he was fourteen, the statutory rape laws don't even apply here." Kathryn gapes a little, taken aback, voice robbed from her.

"Seriously?" Kie screams, irate. "What are you doing, Shoupe? Trying to trigger a panic attack to get us off your back?"

"That's not it at all!" he retorts. "I'm trying to explain..."

"Keep it to yourself." She steps between Kathryn and him. "If you want forgiveness, that's really not the way to go."

Kathryn closes her eyes tightly, letting the words wash over her. She wasn't going to prosecute anyway, she wanted that memory far, far away from her, as much as she could. But Shoupe telling her that she wouldn't even be able to if she wanted... That's different. It is, because that means that there wasn't anything to be done in the first place. Rafe would have gotten away with it. Whatever she does, he wins.

Shoupe tells his team to go home, Kie immediately screaming the opposite. He looks back at Kathryn, who still isn't opening her eyes, refusing to face him or the situation. She feels JJ's hand on her arm, but she shakes him away.

"Hey," Shoupe says as softly as he can. "I... I know..."

"No you don't," she says, scoffing, opening her eyes back up. "You literally could not have the faintest."

He nods. "You're upset."

"I'm frustrated," she corrects. "This isn't... Look, this has everything to do with John B and nothing to do with my history with the Camerons."

He sighs. "I know you think your friend was innocent, and I know how hard you're trying to clear his name–"

"He is innocent for fuck's sake! Max doesn't even believe he did it, how could you–"

"Every other witnesses say the exact opposite, all right?" She scowls when he interrupts her. "And they have a hell of a lot more credibility than any of you right now." He turns to Kie. "I saw your little art project on Ward's wall. Do not do that again."

"Oh come on!" she cries out.

"Gonna make things a lot harder for the both of us."

Kathryn watches, frustrated but helpless, as Shoupe gets back in his car and tells everyone to go home. Kie is still screaming after him to look for Gavin, saying that he died tonight, but no one cares.

They never do, do they? They just stare you down and tell you that nothing was to be done, with nothing but pity in their eyes for things they don't understand.

JJ gets closer to Kathryn. "You good?"

"I'm fine," she answers, more harsh than she wants to. "I didn't want to..."  She licks her lips when she hears her voice shake. Get a grip. "I didn't even want to press charges against him. I never – I just thought I at least had the choice."

He tries to touch her shoulder again, but she hums and walks away. She doesn't need this right now. She doesn't need anyone and anything but herself right now. That's the way it has to be if she really wants to get rid of the anger bubbling under her skin. There's no point in yelling, she tries to hammer in her brain, to go against her best instincts.

But there's no point in pretending like she's okay either. It's a weird feeling lodged in her throat, blocking out her voice. The choice has been taken from her again – taken for her. And she can't scream and get angry because it's not fair, but it's the only way people hear her. At least that's how she feels.

Not JJ, though. He always seemed to listen more when she was calm and collected. Always tried to rationalise her fiery thoughts. Maybe that's why she clears her throat and forces the words out.

"I don't like it," she says, and it sounds choked up. "Whatever I do, whoever I am, it's like it doesn't matter. I don't like feeling like he won again."

JJ blinks, taken aback at how truthful she's being. She usually reserves that to John B. Especially when it's about Rafe – maybe he made it so that she didn't feel like she could talk to him about it without him leaving to kill Rafe. And it's not like he doesn't want to right now... She comes first.

"He didn't," he tells her firmly. "He never did." When she looks back at him, he risks a smile. "C'mon, KD. You're Kat freaking Darcy. JB kept saying you were a myth around here. Rafe literally had nothing to do with that."

She rolls her lips into her mouth and resists the urge to tell him that he had everything to do with that. She wouldn't have been angry. She would have been soft, like Henry wanted for her.

"Besides, it's not over yet," Pope tells her. "We can still go get the gun."

They face the same direction as him, and their eyes fall on the drains to the ocean. She stares at it, and back at Pope. Anger subsides for shock.

"The drains. We're going to go down the drains?"

"We're not letting him win," he says. "We're going to get the gun back, and clear John B's name."

Kie hums. "So we're going down the drains. In sewage."

"Don't have to say it like that..."

Kathryn sighs through her nose, but nods. It seems much more doable when it's to make sure that Rafe doesn't win... That's the kind of thing she can get behind.

Author's Note: Shoupe hate space yes yes, fuck the police very much <3

Editor's Note: Shoupe is literally so clueless atp it's kinda funny