"B-Team?" Kathryn cries out as silently as she can, making her way through the corridors with JJ. "They called us B-Team?"

JJ nods, as outraged as her. "I know! Apparently, I was too 'unstable' to even come get you in the first place, like, that's some bullshit."

"Well..." She opens and then pinches her mouth. "I mean, I kind of expected you to come in here with a gun, so..."

He makes a face. "Kie confiscated it."

"Makes sense." He seems to disagree.

She's not sure where JJ is leading her, she kind of expected it to be outside to get out of the boat, but they keep going down metal stairs in red dim light.

"So what's B-Team doing? Actually, what even is the plan?"

"Well, we're going to trap the crew and get the Cross."

She smirks a little, because of course there was no way in hell they were going to leave without the Cross. "If we're getting the Cross, what's A-Team doing? Blowing the place up?"

"Close. Pope, Kie and Cleo–"

"Who's Cleo?"

"That girl that helped JB and Sarah back in the Bahamas. She's badass if not sorta unhinged."

She tugs at JJ's hand, forcing him to stop. She doesn't know who Cleo is and that's not the most important thing right now, as long as she was helping them and still is now. What's more important is the name he just mentioned.

"Sarah," she hurriedly breathes out. "JJ, Sarah's here."

He nods. "No, I know. John B went to get her."

They start walking again, before Kathryn realises another crucial detail and stops them again.

"Babe, we really have to haul ass–"

"Ward's alive," she whispers.

JJ stares at her. She expected more shouting. "I know. John B went out first and saw him. I've never had to uncross anyone from my hitlist."

She frowns. "You have a hitlist? Who's number one?"

He starts walking again. "You."

Kathryn opens her mouth to disagree, realises that they're suddenly talking about a very different type of 'hit', blushes, and shuts her mouth.

Then, because she is still Kathryn Darcy, "Ward does it for you? You sure you wanna hit that?"

He sighs exaggeratedly. "Can never flirt in peace with you."

She laughs a little. "If it makes you feel better, I heard more absurd today. Ward told me you accepted money and the Cross in exchange for me."

This time, JJ is the one to stop dead in his tracks, holding her back as she presses on forward. "Wait, now, hol' on a second. He said what?"

"I genuinely started laughing in his face."

"Everytime I think they can't get worse, it's like they take it as a personal challenge, you know?" He starts walking again. "At least I'm glad you didn't believe that crap."

She hums. "As if you'd be seen willingly in the presence of a Cameron without TNT in your hand."

"Now that's a good idea."

Kathryn rolls her eyes, resisting the urge to remind him that it's illegal in every single country she can think of. She doesn't want to say all countries, because who is she to judge if it's legal somewhere?

"Once we get the Cross, what do we do?"

"Sarah and John B should be getting a lifeboat."

She stops him again. "How is a seven foot gold Cross going to not make that lifeboat sink?"

"I don't know, do you know how much it weighs?"

She hums. "Well, if it's seven feet and about one foot large with a thickness of let's say, another foot large it should be around two thousand kilograms so... I'm gathering that it's only plated otherwise no way in hell we'd have been able to carry it. Maybe around three hundred kilograms? Still pretty fucking heavy."

His stare is priceless. She's said too many numbers for him to follow – he knows she's smart. She's technically already done with highschool and only stuck around because she didn't want to be alone after John B's death. Also because she wanted the 'full experience' after boarding school and all that, shit JJ really didn't understand. She fucking applied for Yale in advance. He's clueless.

"And how much can a lifeboat take...?" he throws in the dark, wondering if she'd even know that.

She gets to thinking again. "After I watched Titanic with Sarah, I got really into lifeboats, for some reason. So an average lifeboat for a ship of this size... SOLAS says that you have twenty-five percent of the crew per lifeboat, and we're what, fifty?... So, like twelve people. Thirteen if we round it up. Let's say eighty kilos per person, so that's nine hundred and sixty."

He nods, for the sake of it. "With the Cross?"

"Take out the three hundred from the Cross, six hundred and sixty. That's eight people. We're six – seven, if Cleo joins." She nods once. "We might just do it. If I calculated the Cross' weight correctly–"

"I'm gonna say you did, keep our spirits up."

She scowls. "None of you thought about this before?"

"I feel like you think enough for the six of us."

"A terrifying thought. Wait – I know the boring stuff, but you know the speed thingies. How far can we go with a lifeboat? How far are we from the OBX now?"

He meets her eyes. He rarely has to talk for her to understand, so he doesn't, and she just nods once. He doesn't know. He's not sure they'll make it back to the Outer Banks, so they have to hope that they find an island or something, which should be easy considering they're still close to the mainland. Just... not close enough.

Kathryn hadn't thought about that, not in depth. She was too busy getting thrown from one Cameron to the other, telling them that her uncle will absolutely rip them to shreds. He would.

If he knew where she was. If he knew where she was going. If she hadn't just disappeared.

If she wasn't lost at sea like her dad.

Kathryn so much as frowns a bit deeper, and it's enough for JJ to know that she's panicking. He tugs her forward by the hand, putting her arms around him and kissing her forehead.

"Hey, it's okay. I don't know when, but we'll make it back." She seems unconvinced. "Or Henry will show up in a helicopter, that's a possibility."

She pouts. "He's definitely going to kill me this time."

JJ brushes some hair out of her face. "Nah. You know he wouldn't."

She hums, resting her forehead against his chin. "Didn't we need to haul ass?"

"I dunno. The first step was getting you. I sorta lost interest after that."

"You're an idiot, you know that." Not a question, so he won't answer.

Even if the clock is ticking, Kathryn stays like this a while longer, convincing herself that JJ is right. The main plan right now is to get the Cross and themselves out of this hellhole. They'll adjust later. She'll have a panic attack later. Delaying it, knowing it'll happen, helps to control it.

"Attention all passengers and crew." Kathryn and JJ raise their heads, as if the speaker was talking directly to them. "Report to the tween forward hull. Attention, all passengers, all crew, report to the tween forward hull."

She looks back at him. "What's this?"

"That's phase two baby. C'mon."

She follows JJ again, wondering how he knows where he's going, and then settling on 'if I know the weight of the Cross and how many people a lifeboat can hold, JJ definitely knows his way around a boat.'

They arrive in the lower decks, and JJ gestures for her to hold herself still against the wall, each on a side of an open door. She doesn't question it – out loud – and does as she's told, listening in on people piling up inside the room, which must be the tween forward hull.

"Psst." She turns to JJ, eyes narrowed. "How many?"

She holds up three fingers. The men are close enough for them to hear their talk about stowaways and the Cross, so talking out loud is sort of out of the question.

They count for a handful of minutes, rounding up around forty, way less than what Kathryn had thought. The Camerons – Rafe, Rose and Wheezie – are the last to walk in. No Ward in sight. When she catches a glimpse of the former, she presses herself even further against the metal, screwing her eyes shut, stopping to breathe as if he could hear her through the walls.

They wait for a couple more minutes, staring at each other from time to time, silently asking if they should shut the door now.

"I'm pretty sure we got them all," Kathryn whispers at him.

"Except Ward," he corrects immediately. "We need Ward." JJ is not letting the guy who killed Big John and traumatised his girlfriend out in the open, especially if it isn't to shoot him in the ass.

Kathryn agrees whole-heartedly, but as far as she's concerned, now that she has JJ with her, she feels like she could tie Ward's dick around his own neck if they run into him. Besides, they've waited long enough. If they want to do this, they have to do it now, before the crew starts to suspect that something is wrong.

"We can't wait, JJ."

He purses his lips, debating for half a second, before gesturing for her to grab the door.

Kathryn lunges forward, running through the small corridor, and slamming herself against the door to push it shut. The men inside are quicker than she thought, and hold the door off as she pushes, JJ coming up behind her, arms on each side of her and pushing with her.

"Lock it! Lock it!"

JJ, with one hand on the door, locks it as soon as the metal shuts.

They hear screams inside, undecipherable unless if, like Kathryn, you're squished between iron and a teenage boy.

"There's another door," she repeats. "There's another door!"

They rush to their left and, this time, reach it before the crew and lock it without too much effort.

She pants, hands still against the door.

"That all the doors?" JJ asks, breathing as heavily as her.

"Do I look like a boat architect?"

"No, you look like a history nerd." He flicks her glasses. "Let's get that Cross now."

She nods, following him as he tells her that it should be in the hold, where the other containers are, and Kathryn can only nod because she has no idea how he knows this but she trusts him.

They finally reach a ladder, and JJ starts hollering. "Time to jack this loot!"

"Love the energy, would prefer it once I'm not in the air."

He helps her down, and takes her hand to lead her towards the Cross.

It's still sitting inside that wooden box Rafe boasted about. A sheet is thrown over it, and Kathryn carefully removes it, JJ breathing down her neck as she does so.

"I didn't properly look at it in the truck, for obvious reasons." His breathing becomes the tiniest bit uneven. "But oh, my god."

The details on the part where the two lines cross are insane. As of right now, she can't imagine more refined, so for the time? Whoever did this was a master at his job. Her fingers trail the rocks encrusted, blinking.

"Those are diamonds. Actually, uncut, pure diamonds. You could sell one of those and never work ever again."

JJ's face splits into a grin. "Surf trip that never ends."

She smiles back, entranced for a second at the thought of a peaceful future, ignoring everything that they have to do to get there. "I'd watch you from the beach, reading some historian's work on myths turned true..."

"I could teach you to surf."

She purses her lips. "Only if I get to paint your board."

His eyes widen slightly. "Please, please paint my board, KD."

"We'll see..." She kisses him chastely. "We have to get out of here first."

Just as she says that, there's a loud metallic clang and the roof of the hold opens to the sky, revealing Pope, standing over them like some prophet, and, to be fair, he is a Tanny. He can look badass if he wants to, for a hot second. Kathryn will give him that right.

Kie walks up next to him, excitedly waving at Kathryn, pushing Pope's shoulder slightly. "Told you JJ'd get her."

"The time where people do shit to us and we just sit back and take it is over!" Pope cries out, holding his fist up.

They whoop and holler back at him, smiles as big as they can. The hard part has got to be over, right? Kathryn was kidnapped, they're miles away from home, the Cross still needs to fit in a lifeboat and hold them. They have enough setbacks to last them three lifetimes. Bubt this just might work.

The crew is trapped. They have a sound enough plan. The Cross is at their literal feet. Henry would be angry, but he'd forgive her, she's sure of it, it's only been two days. A future of paint and waves. This just might work!

Might.

Author's Note: Well I'm never playing Trivial Pursuit with Kat she's insane

Last chapter will be out later today, I just need to write the end and then reread and LAS2 will be over! That with the Epilogue either even later tonight or tomorrow, depending on my dying sleep schedule. And the death wishes I'll get when I remind everyone of Henry cooking burgers for his niece waiting for her to come home 

(Also we need to talk about Ward and Big John coming back from the dead. I dislike this trope you'll never catch me bringing a dead character back please...)