Angel Oak is the last in what seems to be a Denmark Tanny tour – they passed Freedman Church, which Denmark built for all the enslaved people he freed, along with Parcel Nine, that they had to drive through. It would be a cute little escapade filled with history and other nerdy shit if as they came up to Goat Island, the path hadn't turned muddy, soggy.

"Oh, shit!" John B grumbles. "Tide's coming in."

From the backseat, Kathryn frowns at him. "No one checked the tides?"

"Well, did you?"

"No, but I pointed it out, so it cancels out."

He slows the Twinkie down, sighing loudly. Pope nearly shoves her aside trying to see in the front, putting his head between John B and JJ's seats. "Hey, look. They already came through here." There are two very distinct car tracks in the mud. "Those have to be Limbrey's tire tracks. Guys, we gotta go."

JJ hums, leaning his head back to catch a glimpse of his girlfriend. "What do you think, chief?"

She shoves Pope back, and takes his place, hands planted on John B's seat and JJ's thigh. JJ's eyes zero in on her, more precisely the part of her that just so happens to be right in front of his face and is only half-covered by an, admittedly, very pretty tank top, before he reminds himself that he is in fact not alone and John B would definitely gouge his eyes out and also if Kathryn catches him he'll never hear the end of it.

Luckily for him, she's too focused on the task at hand. The mud tracks are pretty deep and already filled with water, but they're on a slight hill that could give them some momentum...

"I'm thinking this is do or get stuck in the middle of the road for hours."

John B stares at her. "I'm thinking this is my van."

"Your van that I fixed up an honestly embarrassing amount of times. Pipe down, grown-ups are talking."

JJ nods. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with that statement."

"Oh I hate this, I hate this–"

"Okay," Kie chimes in, willing to squash the argument down before it starts. "Clearly, they made it. No?"

Kathryn winces. "Yeah, but not in a busted up mini-van."

Sarah snorts. "Why are y'all acting like you're not gonna do it anyways?" She shrugs. "Like when have y'all ever done the safe thing?"

The Darcy girl purses her lips. They did lower John B down in a sketchy well... and went into a closed marsh... and broke into someone's house... also went on the run... one of the was almost on death row–

It takes all of two seconds for everyone in the car to turn to her. "Kat you're up!"

"Go crazy driver, go."

She narrows her eyes at John B who steps out of the van, and opens the door for her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you have no love for the Twinkie so you won't be scared to make the hard decision like the very strong-minded person you are."

Her eyes narrow even more. "And the less flattering version?"

JJ pokes his head behind his seat. "Means you drive like demons are at your ass."

She hears a few hums of agreement and after cursing under her breath, climbs out of the backseat and into the front seat.

From the rearview mirror, she can see everyone bracing themselves as she adjusts the seat, which almost makes her laugh.

"Speed is your friend here, okay?" JJ tells her. "So, put her down in second and hammer down, babe."

She side-eyes him. "I know how to drive, JJ."

Then comes Pope, who sticks his head between them. "Stick to the ground in the middle."

"Nah, I'm gunning for the huge ponds so that we can all drown in them." She cranks up the handbrake. "All right, ready, everyone? Here we go."

The van starts in a roar, but too slow – they're too heavy, she's too old. There is very little chance they're making it out of the sludge.

"Come on, KD, punch it. Speed is your friend – you're not going fast enough."

The wheels are barely adhering to what isn't a road at all. "My foot is literally touching the floor, I can't go any faster!"

"It's gonna slide," Kie calls out.

"It's not."

"You're fishtailing already!"

"JJ, I'm going to throw you out the window."

"Not to put any more pressure on you, but if you don't make it through, we'll be stuck here forever."

John B grabs Pope's jacket and tugs him back. "Put your head back, okay?"

The tires squeak as Kathryn forces the van down the road, until the car settles and she can slow down and finally shift to third gear, the Twinkie sounding less like a dying rocketship in a second.

She can't help the soft laugh that escapes her. "See? No problems."

"That's my girl."

"I don't know if you're talking about the van or me."

"You don't wanna know."

Kathryn stops the Twinkie a bit further down the road to Angel Oak, not wanting their busted up Mystery Machine to be seen by Limbrey and her lap dog. It's already creaky enough that they probably know they're here by now, but they can still hope.

"All right, so word to the wise, definitely know that gators nest back here, so keep your eyes peeled, okay? You don't wanna step on a mama gator. That's the last thing you want."

She makes a face at JJ. "Is this coming from the same reliable source as the snakes from John B's grandma's vault?"

"Do gators have nests?" Kie wonders as they make their way to the tree.

"Seems like a good place to park," Sarah remarks.

"You don't wanna be a Pat Womack," JJ goes on, ignoring their protests. "She had her calf chewed off by a gator, right?" He turns to Kathryn. "You know that, right?"

She hums. "I know that she was injured in a car accident, but points for trying."

"Okay, just live in ignorance." She scoffs. "But like, she had her calf chewed off by a mama gator. I know that for a fact."

"I don't know how verifiable are your facts..."

He picks up a lengthy branch. "They like the brackish water." He leans to the side, staring at a body of water that the tide brought with it. "Wait, hold on. I see something."

"What are you doing?"

He hammers the branch down into the water. Sarah gives him a thumbs up. "Right. Wake them up. That's smart."

"I was just making sure it wasn't a gator, that's all, all right?"

Kathryn resists the urge to smack the back of his head. "By hitting it?"

They start walking forward again, following Pope. "I would have knocked it out," JJ maintains.

She purses her lips. "You're knocking me out right now with your logic – knocking a gator out?"

"I would've!"

"You would've died, and won a Darwin Award."

"Guys, shh."

Before JJ can think of arguing back, a loud voice rings out over the noise of the construction worker. "You sure this is the right spot?"

Kathryn gulps, blindly reaching for JJ, who's already lurching forward to peak over a bush and confirm what she already knows – Rafe is there. The others slowly gather behind the leaves, and Kathryn, who still has her eyes shut, feels hot fingers thread against her own and doesn't have to open her eyes to know it's JJ.

She doesn't know why she didn't think he'd be with them. She hasn't run into Rafe in so long that she occulted him completely from her mind. She wished it'd stay that way.

"It's there," Limbrey tells Rafe. "The garment will be in the cross, and the cross will be at the foot of the tree."

"All right well, whatever we find, I get my cut."

Fucking money hungry cunt, she seethes internally. He doesn't deserve to see even a glimpse of Pope's inheritance, yet alone get a cut of it. Only cut he deserves is an anesthetic-less vasectomy.

Limbrey's lap dog pulls out a chair for her as she goes on and on about miracles and Kathryn would feel pity for her if she wasn't a raging bitch.

The small excavator digs a hole at the foot of the tree until Limbrey shrieks at them to stop and do it by hand. Kathryn herself almost went insane seeing them conduct archeological researches with an excavator, wondering why they're hunting treasure in the first place if it's to destroy it the moment they find it.

But she's entirely too entranced by the casket they dig out.

"They got the Cross?" JJ cries out. "What do we do? What do we do?"

Kathryn shakes her head. "That ain't the Cross. Have you seen the drawings? It was taller than a man, it wouldn't fit in there."

"And if it is?"

"What can we do?" John B counters, shushing him once and for all.

They open the casket with a crowbar – she wants to die – and bare hands – oh, she wants to die – and silence ensues. Not the stunned kind. The kind where things don't go as planned, like getting a bad grade for something you worked hard on.

"It's just a corpse," Limbrey's lap dog says loud enough for them to hear.

She pitifully stands up, and clambers back to her car, before screaming at everyone that they were going back. She's got to hand it to her, Limbrey doesn't quit.

In a matter of minutes, they evacuate the scene, and Pope presses forward, Kathryn on his heels.

The corpse inside the casket is badly decomposed, most of it is already dust, if not for the skull that takes an ash tint from being underground for so long. A name is engraved at the top. Cecilia.

Pope stands in front of it, wracked by a sea of confusing emotions. "This is Cecilia Tanny, Denmark's wife," he says. His grandmother, in some way. "He wasn't talking about the cross. He buried her at the foot of the angel."

The air seems to change, casting a gloomy light on them. Kathryn doesn't think about what her father would say if he knew they'd find Cecilia Tanny's grave. She only thinks about how Denmark Tanny didn't care about gold, he used what he needed and stashed the rest for his children. It makes sense that it was his wife's body they found. They desecrated.

Kathryn bites the inside of her cheek. "The real treasure was his wife."

It's corny, she knows this, it's disgustingly sickly sweet, but she brings her arms around herself, heart hammering in her chest at the thought that the corpse in front of her had been held and kissed and loved. It's hard, to see a corpse and think of a life.

Pope crouches down. There are tears in his eyes. His grandmother, he thinks again, as Kat puts a hand on his shoulder, and squeezes. "Denmark was hung for burying his wife," he tells them, and if they already know, they don't say anything. "And now they defiled her grave."

Hesitantly, he reaches forward and picks up something in the dirt. It's the size of a coin, and has Cecilia's name written on it.

Sarah does the same. It's a golden band. "This must have been from Denmark. Her wedding ring." She exchanges a look with John B, who holds and kisses and loves her now, as Cecilia had been.

They put the artefacts back down. It's not theirs to take.

Pope looks up at Kathryn. "We can't leave her like this."

"We're not going to," she assures him.

The six teenagers get to work. John B carefully places the wooden plank back on the casket, hammering it back down shut. Pope picks up flowers to set down on it. Kathryn thinks back to some prayers Max sometimes tells her, and whispers them under her breath, until Sarah asks her to repeat them so she can join in. She's not sure it'll help Cecilia in the least bit, but she can hope. Kathryn, who had never understood funerals, bites down her tongue for all the anger she held towards them.

Then, Kie drives the Twinkie closer so that Pope has a place to sit down. JJ buries the casket back in the dirt where it was kept safe. Not every treasure was meant to be found. Or at the very least, only Pope should have. His grandmother, he says again, to himself. He wonders what she had been like. He wonders if he was like her.

And then, he gets to thinking. Denmark Tanny wanted his legacy to find this, didn't he? So why did the trail end here? He wanted his family to get the gold, they know this for a fact. And now that Cecilia was resting again, he could ponder.

"I just don't get it," he says. "I mean, you guys saw the map." Half-hearted nods answer him. "He hides his gold so no one finds it for a hundred and seventy years." JJ walks past Kathryn to get his jacket from the Twinkie, putting his hand on her shoulder in passing. "And then he sends a message to his son Robert to come here to his mother's grave, but the message never gets to him. Denmark wanted him to find the cross. I know we're in the right spot. It just feels like–"

"Like we missed something?"

They turn to JJ, who's not looking at them, but rather the bark of the tree, right over the Twinkie. He climbs on it, and then beckons Kathryn over – if anyone has any historiographical knowledge, it's her – helping her up and forcing her not to look down and puke all over their friends.

"Fuck me that's high."

JJ holds her jaw up towards a hole in the trunk. "That looks like–"

"That painting in the Island Room," she nods immediately.

With his arm tightly cinched around her waist, she gets closer to inspect it. There are carvings inside, old enough that some bark has grown over them, but too jagged to be natural.

"It's definitely man-made," she says.

"It's worth a shot, right?" Then, he holds her steady. "Go for it."

She blinks back at him. "I'm sorry? I'm not putting my arm in the tree's hole."

"You do it," Sarah enthuses.

Kie nods. "She went in the storm drain, so..." She forgets to mention that it wasn't to get the gun, but that wouldn't exactly help her point.

"She did go in the storm drain," Pope immediately backs up.

Kathryn sees the twitch in JJ's eye and almost smirks. She would if she wasn't so high up. "Yeah, no, I'm gonna do it. It's just..."

"You're a pussy," she completes.

"I'm not a pussy, dude."

"You're whining like one."

They carefully exchange places, Kathryn holding onto JJ's jacket. Slowly, he sneaks his arm inside the hole, looking around until he finds something hard to hold onto.

"There's something in here," he confirms.

He pats around some more, then chuckles to himself.

And then he starts to scream, and jerk his arm back, as if it was stuck.

Kathryn screams and shouts and shrieks at the same time as everyone suddenly reaching forward, grabbing his waist and pulling with everything she has.

"Get it out! Get it out!"

"JJ!"

"JJ get it out!"

"Come here!"

"Don't die, don't die, don't die–"

He bursts out laughing. Kathryn blinks at him, as he fucking giggles, out of breath. He wiggles his arm for emphasis.

"Oh you fucking bitch."

"Oh man, I got all of you on that one."

"Yeah, real original," Pope lets out, dry.

Kathryn shoves him away when he tries to kiss her cheek, scowling, and his free arm reaches for her back. "No, no wait, KD, sorry – but seriously, there's something in there."

He gets out a coppery cylinder, inspecting it for half a second before Pope asks for it. He jumps down on the ground, helping Kathryn down by holding her waist, and then steadying her and silently asking to kiss her cheek for real this time, which she happily obliges, if not for the deep frown still on her face.

Pope dusts off the object. "'HMS Royal Merchant,'" he reads.

Kathryn looks above his shoulder. "Can I see? It looks like a spyglass."

He hands it to her, and she carefully unfolds it.

"There's something on the ends," Kie remarks.

John B takes a look at it. "An inscription right there. Look at that shit."

She hands it back to Pope. "What does it say?" JJ asks, ever impatient.

"'You've come this far, do not falter, the Cross is on Freedman's altar.'"

Kathryn's eyes widen. "The Church we just passed?"

The group becomes a mess of shouts and shoves to get to the Twinkie, fresh with new hope and destination close by. Pope spares Cecilia's grave a last look before leaving her to her well-deserved resting place.

His grandmother, he thinks proudly.

Author's Note: Pope's storyline vs not being ignored challenge