December 24th, 2020

Christmas on the OBX always went one way. On the twenty-fourth, the Pogues celebrated with their families. It often meant that JJ would go to the Château, with Big John and John B. On the twenty-fifth, they'd all regroup there. No presents allowed, only a fun hangout. That rule was heavily directed at Kat, most of the time.

This was her first Christmas back. She wasn't sure how it was going to go, considering the last time she celebrated it. Well, celebrated wasn't exactly the word, but she was willing to erase the memory entirely from her mind. Eager to, really.

"Chess is for old people," Henry calls out, walking into the living room with a red sweater on. "Can't you kids be normal, for once?"

Kat barely hums, moving the pieces across the board. "I can once I've won."

"Sorry?" Billy giggles in front of her, wearing one of Kat's cardigans. "More like prepare to lose, Darcy."

Billy hasn't won a single chess game against Kat. Not once. Maybe she's waiting for some Christmas miracle? It wasn't going to come, but who was she to crush her dreams...

"Why do you do that to yourself?" Max asks, carrying a plate of potatoes for the table.

His sister narrows her eyes at him after her turn. "Because no one else will play with Kitty, because you're all a bunch of wuss."

Kat snorts. "Yeah, what she said. Checkmate, by the way, babe."

She blinks at the board, a few times, to make sure Kat didn't cheat. "Frick you."

She laughs so loud she barely hears the doorbell. Then, she nearly falls on her face, getting up in a hurry and rushing for the door before either one of her uncles – but mostly Henry – gets a chance to open it before her.

The twenty-fourth was family night. Which is exactly why Kat opens the door for JJ.

For a handful of seconds, they just stare at each other. Kat, because she isn't sure she's ever seen him in actual jeans that reach his feet. A dress shirt, yes, at Midsummers. Oh, she remembers that well.

JJ, because he always needs a few seconds whenever he sees Kat dressed up... Or whenever he sees her, really. Especially since she's currently wearing black jeans and the simplest red shirt.

She arches a brow, grinning at him. "You clean up nice, Maybank."

He splutters. "You're pretty clean too." She rolls her lips in her mouth, trying not to laugh. He goes beet red. "I mean, yeah same. You're pretty."

She learns against the doorframe. "Thanks." Then, Kat juts her chin to the box in his hands. "I thought there was a clear no gifts rule?"

"Well, it ain't Christmas yet," he tells her, shrugging a shoulder. "Besides, it's not exactly a gift."

She narrows her eyes at him, stepping forward. "Cool. Mine isn't really a gift either."

He grins back. "We're not exactly good at this following rules thing are we?"

"Tell that to 'No Pogue on Pogue macking.'"

She pushes herself up on her toes and cups the back of his neck to kiss him softly. Her heart swells in her chest when his hand finds her cheek, stroking her cheekbone.

She didn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

"My eyes! My eyes!" Henry cries out behind them. "Guys please stop I'm going to kill myself I swear."

JJ looks less scared than he did, four months ago, whenever he was in the same room as Henry. But there is still an uneasiness to him that has his cheeks grow even redder than they did a second ago.

Max swats at his fiancé. "Come in, kid. Ignore him."

Kat takes JJ's hand and tugs him inside. She lets him put his gift under the tree, before holding onto his arm tightly. Billy, though, is still staring at the chessboard when he comes in.

"Hi John John."

"Hi Willy."

South America really had a weird way of bringing people together...

Dinner goes well. JJ dunks half of the potatoes on his plate which prompts Max to hurriedly get another plate from the kitchen, and Henry to burst out laughing, because he takes the other half.

JJ doesn't move his hand off of Kat's knee the whole entire time, and her cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

When dinner ends and they move to sit in the living room, Max and Billy are firmly against opening presents on the twenty-fourth. Henry does whatever his fiancé says. Which explains why the three are in a corner, talking amongst themselves, and Kat and JJ are seated in front of the tree. Kat is much too intrigued to not want to open JJ's present as soon as she can.

But she's more excited for him to open his.

She hands him what seems to be a huge square. Canvas shaped. Kat licks her lips nervously. "Before you ask, yeah, it's from memory."

The shape was enough to bring his heartrate up, but this was confirmation of what her gift was. He'd nearly lost his mind the first time around, so...

He shreds the wrappings in three seconds flat.

Kat had been wanting to do a stained glass study since forever. She loved to see how the light ricocheted, on the surface, loved to see it mix with the subject. The subject was JJ.

He thinks he can pinpoint some memories based on the background – the blue lighting was on her porch, just outside, when they opened her letter for Yale. The pink one was that picture of them, at the Château, right after John B got out of jail. The yellow one had her studio in the background, and he knew it was their first kiss. It was every moment Kat had fallen for JJ, again, and again, and again.

The fragmentation of an emotion in a dozen little poems.

"You can hang it at your house," she says. "If you want to."

He doesn't trust himself to speak, not for a few seconds, at least.

"Yeah I'm actually going to make it into a wallpaper? Plaster it everywhere. Or send it to some fancy museum, you'll just have to tell me which one."

She snorts, and pushes him away. She's aware that he's deflecting with a joke because he doesn't know how to react, but she doesn't mind. Instead, she dives straight for her own box.

She narrows her eyes at him. "Can I shake it or is it a puppy?"

He stares at her. "KD, why would I put a puppy in a box?"

She doesn't answer, simply sticking her tongue out at him. She opens the box, and realises exactly what it was in the first place. A shoe box.

Her pair of favourites Mary-Janes are sitting inside. The ones she threw at him, when they broke up. He kept them. For two months. But he didn't just keep them, no.

"I asked Billy to ask you what kinda paint to use for leather and shit? I thought it'd be obvious but you know, desperate times."

Yellow tulips. JJ drew yellow tulips all over the black shoes. And he varnished them, too, so that they'd stay, and Kat's heart is nearly leaping out of her chest as she kicks off her Christmas socks to put them on. They're not accurate, and the lines are squiggly, but she loves them so much it hurts.

They still fit. JJ took something broken and made it beautiful, and Kat is convinced this isn't the first time.

She bats the tears away with a blink. "You know what. I love them even more. And that's hard considering they were my favourite pair." She brushes some strand of blonde hair out of his eyes. "I love you."

He smiles. JJ has a hard time saying he loves her in public, showing emotion in public for that matter, but it's okay. His smile holds everything she needs, leaning her forehead against his.

He plays with the ring on her thumb. Everything that's happened has been worth it.

"Hey, kid." JJ looks at Henry, sitting a little more upright next to Kat. "Nice bike you got. Mind showing it to me?"

The last time JJ talked to one of Kat's father figures one-on-one, it didn't end well. But this was Henry, and he was lightyears away to who Edward had been. And Kat is smiling reassuringly, so he isn't all that nervous.

Just a healthy bit.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure."

She kisses the corner of his lips before he stands up, and watches as he leaves. Then, she turns to Max.

"He wouldn't just shoot him, right?"

Max makes a face. "I guess we'll find out."

Billy hits her brother. "Don't say stuff like that. You'll be proven right and I can't have that."

JJ thinks it's exactly what's going to happen, as he steps outside with Henry. They walk towards his bike, and he can see him inspect it with actual care.

Maybe he did want to see his bike?

Well, whatever, it's kind of freezing outside, and JJ wants to go back in and stare at the painting Kat offered him until it's burned into his retinas. Not that he particularly liked staring at himself. More like it floored him to see himself through her eyes.

It reminded him that he deserved everything good. That he deserved Kat.

"Kat told me what Edward..." He trails off, shaking his head. "What he said to you. About you."

His back is turned to the teenager, who blinks a few times to make sure he heard right, which makes no sense, but neither does the conversation, not right now. Not after two months. Not when Edward's makeshift grave is so close to them.

It already took him so long to get over it. Kat helped, of course, but sometimes, it was hard to remind himself that Edward had been wrong. If Henry agreed, he was going to do something idiotic, he could feel it.

"I think... I think you need to hear this, kid. And maybe I'm talking out of my ass, because I know Kat already says it to you everyday, going by how dramatic she is– but you need to hear it from me, and I need to make sure you understand."

JJ nearly backtracks when Henry turns to him, hands clasping his shoulders. "Mister H, I'm sorta–"

"You're a good kid." The words die out in his throat. "You're a great kid, and you love Kat. You treat her well. That's all we ever needed to know about you. I don't give a fuck who your dad is as long as you make her smile. And you do. Jesus, kid, I never see her smile more than when she's with you."

It takes him a moment to find his words. When he does, they're all chopped up. "Uh... thanks, I... Thanks." He hopes to god Henry can't see the tears in the darkness.

"C'mere." He tugs him into a hug. "You're family, JJ. You're a part of this family." He laughs a little. "And, frankly, that's whether you like it or not."

JJ blinks tears away. He likes it. He likes it very much.

🍓

June 15th, 2021

Henry and Max get married on a Spring night. The party goes on and on, and the two husbands can't seem to let go of each other for a single second. All the Pogues are invited – Sarah keeps making eyes at John B each time a speech is said, each time marriage is mentioned, which, as we can guess, is a lot. Kie doesn't miss a single eye contact, but each time Kat catches her, she nudges her, and takes her by the elbow to dance, Cleo and Pope dancing with her. Billy watches, wiping her tears every so often. Max is her big brother, and he's finally happy.

Kat dances with JJ. The music swirls around them, carrying the words from Henry's speech with them. It's in every glance they share, every brush of a hand, every smile.

'If you're like me and you have no fucking idea how to do this shit, here's something I've learned. Whoever told you love doesn't wait was a liar. All love does is wait.'

Kat agrees, whole heartedly, when she says to JJ, "Wanna get out of there?"

"Lead the way," he says, taking her hand.

She thinks she hears John B whistle at them as they leave, but she doesn't pay it much attention.

They walk back in silence towards the Palace, in the dead of night. They don't say a word, but she figures they don't have to. They both know each other enough to hear every little word in the silence.

And every little question and worry hidden behind jokes.

"It was wild seeing mister H actually cry," JJ says, swinging their hands together.

Kat snorts. "As if you won't cry when you get married."

He flexes his bicep. "Can't cry. I'm a dude."

She pinches it. "You better cry."

His smile turns cheeky. "Oh? 'Cause you'll be there?"

"Are we sure we want to play that game?" she smirks back at him.

He blinks. "...No."

"Good boy." Kat kisses the corner of his mouth. "I think I'll be there exclusively to see you cry."

He clears his throat. "I don't think I mind as long as you're here."

Her smile dims. When she kisses him, it's soft, and loving, and full of promises to keep.

JJ leans away for a second. "We're not pulling a JB and Sarah, though."

"Um?" She holds up their hands. "But you've already given me a ring?"

She laughs at the face he makes, until he starts to laugh, too.

'It waits for the right person to show up, for the right moment to appear, until you're in it, and the only thing you're left with is the damning realization that there was no other way for it to happen, no other person.'

Kat and JJ are silent again, when she leads them up to her studio.

She kisses him, not so soft, but passionately, fearlessly, with all her might. He kisses back like he wants to learn every crevice of her, every single detail, by heart. His hands explore her body with excruciating delicacy, reverently.

Kat's hands are in his hair, on his cheeks, trailing under his dress shirt, leaving blazing trails wherever they touch. Her heart is in her throat, nearly bursting everytime he groans in her mouth, and she thinks she might combust.

'If you're lucky enough, someone will love you. And if you're brave, you can allow yourself to love them too. You'll find that love really is all around if you're courageous enough to see it. To wait for it. '

She takes one of JJ's hands, and carefully lifts it, towards her heart. He thumbs at her ring when she looks up at him through her lashes. She keeps staring at him as she brings his fingers under the sleeve of her golden dress.

She watches the way his throat bobs, the way his eyes darken, the uncertainty there, and love. So much love.

"Are you sure?" he breathes out.

Kat swallows thickly, and nods. "Yes. I want... I want it to be you. I want you."

JJ kisses her, softly, making her retreat until her legs hit the sofa. Kat never looks away, as she lowers herself down onto the furniture, tugging JJ with her. He braces his arms on each side of her face, hovering over her.

Kat almost has to squint, from how bright he looks. Like the sun. His eyes are sparkling. Hers are full of stars, and he decides, as he kisses her again, that Kat looked like the moon. Light in the dark.

"I love you," he whispers against her lips.

She kisses back. Kat had never felt so sure of anything else in her life.

She had never felt so loved, either, as when JJ held her against him, skin to skin, his hair falling onto her forehead, peppering kisses on her lips, her nose, her cheeks, her temples, anywhere he could touch.

Kat gives as much as she gets, shaking fingers trailing up his arms, down his back, and up to his hair. She kisses the spot between his brows, and nearly drowns in the adoration written in his eyes.

Even then, even in his embrace, he smiles, kisses the column of her throat and nuzzles it to make her laugh, the sound heavenly to his ears. He makes her laugh, actually laugh, and he makes her comfortable, and Kat had never pictured herself smiling in that moment. With a deep, concentrated smile, maybe. Terrified, that was a given.

She grins. And exhales breath chuckles. She wasn't scared. Not in the slightest. Kat feels safe, and at ease. JJ makes her feel like that.

And then, he makes her feel everything at once.

'Love will wait, if you're willing to wait for it too.'

🍓

August 31st, 2021

"Kat, where do I put this?" Cleo asks, carrying her easel.

Kat pokes her head around the corner of her living room. "Just put it wherever Bee chose to put the coffee table."

"... In the middle of the living room?" Sarah wonders aloud.

Kie sighs. "Yeah, that's what we get for letting him choose where to set it down."

JJ shrugs, carrying a cardboard box of Kat's yellow trinkets. She has a whole bunch of them. Most of them are just things he picked up – ... legally ... – and hid for her to find. He can see some of them are missing, but he'll have time to bring them back to her. Yale is only a ten hour car drive away.

"I don't know," he says. "It's Art Deco and shit."

"Not what it means," Pope and Kat call out at the same time.

"Whatever. Babe, where do I put this?"

"Uh..." She vaguely gestures to her room. "Just put it on my bed. I'll sort it out later."

John B slams down onto her couch dramatically. Billy winces. "Dude, downstairs neighbors..."

"I don't care. Let them hear. Kat's killing me."

She sits down next to him on her green sofa, pushing his legs to have some room. "I knew I should have let Henry and Max help me move. You're all useless." She gets a handful of looks. "Okay, John B's useless."

He holds his thumb up. "I'm useless 'cause I'm dead." Then he abruptly stands up, shaking her. "Please feed me. Please. Inaugurate this place with pancakes."

She giggles, pushing him away. "Yeah, as soon as the box with the kitchen stuff actually makes it to the kitchen."

Kie walks around the living room, staring out the window. Kat's flat is mainly composed of her huge living room, the windows running all over the walls, letting the light in. It wasn't decorated yet, but Kat already knew she wanted to paint some of that glass.

"It's a cute place," Kie says. "You could have gotten something bigger, though."

Kat shrugs. "Too big would have just felt empty."

Billy nodded. She knew that feeling. "Besides, it also means more space to clean!"

"I think it's cool," Pope says.

"So do I," Sarah easily agrees.

JJ shrugs. "Could use a fountain."

Cleo stares at him. "A– where would we put it, idiot?"

He doesn't answer, but then again, there wasn't really an answer needed there.

Moving Kat in took the whole day. She decides to call it quits when John B just falls asleep on the couch, everybody working around him, and getting berated the second they made too much noise for him.

Kat's new flat is nowhere near big enough to house them all for the night. JJ stays, but they all got a hotel in the city. That's thanks to the El Dorado money.

It was all so weird. Even if she knew that they were going to be okay, she couldn't shake that feeling from her bones. Kat had come back to the OBX after four years away, and she was leaving again, and it all left a weird taste in her mouth.

Of course, it was going to be different. She'd come back, on her breaks. For Christmas, and reading weeks. March next year, they had that ceremony the OBX held for them, to commemorate their expedition. The Outer Banks would still be her home.

Maybe that was what made her so... bittersweet.

"What's going to happen now?" she asks JJ, who's resting on her stomach, playing with the chords of her pyjama shorts. "I mean. Realistically, I know. Classes start soon, so, that."

He hums, the sound reverberating through her body, as he's thrown over her lazily. "You excited for classes?"

Her whole face lights up. "Yeah."

He snorts. "Nerd." She shakes him in retaliation. "Wait, so, sorry, what'd you mean? About what's going to happen?"

She brushes his hair away from his face. "For us, I guess. Last time I left it wasn't–"

"It's not like last time," he interjects.

Kat makes a face at him, tilting it to the side. "For me, no. For you?"

He stares at her, maybe for longer than he should, before burying his face in her stomach. "Dunno what you mean. You're coming back."

"I am," she confirms.

"And I know it."

"You did back then, too."

He did. He remembers how awful it'd felt, to keep waiting for Kat over and over again, only for her to show up as a twisted version of herself. And then, he'd loved that version, too.

He doesn't think there's a version of her he doesn't love.

"If you're trying to break up with me, I'm gonna be the one to kidnap you."

She bursts out laughing, forcing him to lay down next to her. They turn to their sides, facing each other. Kat is smiling, so he guesses he got the wrong idea. Or she's cruel. Or she wants revenge, and you know, he could understand that.

"No," she says as he traces her face with the tips of his fingers. "I'm just... let's have an agreement, okay?"

He puts his hand on her mouth. "Dude, this keeps getting worse for me."

She licks his palm. He yelps.

"Jay, let me finish my sentence," she asks, voice light and filled with laughter. "Let's just agree that if with the distance you fall out of love–"

"Have you, like, actually met me? That's never going to happen." He pouts. "So what I'm hearing right now is that you don't love me anymore."

She chuckles, pushing his pouting face away. "I do love you. That's why I'm giving you an out."

He frowns. "I don't want an out. Actually, could you be the one to kidnap me? You could tie me up here, I'll be good."

She nearly pulls a lung. "JJ! Just – I'm telling you that you don't have to wait for me to get back home every few months, and if at any moment you want to, I won't be a bitch if you need a break."

JJ wants to argue again, because frankly, this is preposterous, but instead he smirks. "Okay. Sure. Same for you."

She opens and closes her mouth. "Fine."

And then, as if that conversation never happened, they kiss, and she feels him smile against her lips. Worst part is, she knows exactly why that idiot is grinning. She'd just told him to wait, if he wanted to. Poor choice of word, really, but at least a bit funny.

Because JJ always knew how to play the waiting game.

🍓

December 25th, 2021

"Never have I ever..." John B starts, tapping on his chin, deep in thought. "Had a crush on Kat!"

Kat snorts. "Bee, I'm pretty sure that's cheating. We both know you're not going to drink."

"No, but I'm curious."

JJ nearly finishes his entire glass in one go. Pope takes a careful sip. Cleo tries to hide that she does, really. Sarah takes one. Kie chokes on hers.

John B and Billy look at each other from across the table. "This was a mistake," she tells him, shivering in disgust.

"Well, now I just wish I was drunk."

JJ points a furious finger at the other blonde. "Hold up, Sarah Cameron. When did you have a crush on KD?"

She laughs at his tone, frankly outraged, because if anyone was going to be Kat's type, it was a blonde with big doe eyes. "Early last summer," she says, and Kat stares at her, shocked. "What, you really didn't notice?"

She snorts. "Well, no. You were actively with Frosted Tip?"

"Don't think he compares."

JJ has to agree with her there. But that's not going to happen – she'd had a crush on his girlfriend! Instead, he turns to Cleo. "What about you, you traitor?"

Cleo stares at him. "Poguelandia. She picked up some nasty lookin' bug. It was hot."

Kat opens and closes her mouth. "I didn't know me liking bugs could be hot?"

John B shivers. "Yeah, it can't."

"It so can," JJ disagrees.

"I'm going to end it all," Billy whines, hiding her face in a cushion.

Christmas evening is spent just drinking and laughing at one another. Kat has been back for a week by now, and it was all so surreal, how nothing had changed. It all just clicked back, normally, like she never left. Sure, it had only been three months, but she had missed the OBX so much, and she had been so scared that it would have just moved on without her.

But it didn't. They'd missed her. And Kat realised that being missed didn't have to be a death sentence.

Things were a little weird, with JJ. She didn't know why, because they spoke everyday for the past months, so, really, it made no sense. Maybe she was thinking about this too much. She definitely was.

Early in the morning, when she can't sleep, she's alone in the living room of John B's new house, cleaning everything, because someone has to.

"KD?"

She nearly jumps out of her own skin when she hears JJ's voice, turning around quickly. He's just there, leaning against the door, and grinning at her with a familiar spark in his eyes.

"What?"

"Just come over here for a sec."

She arches a brow, but tentatively steps towards him until they're standing face to face. He keeps staring at her, grinning, and it makes her uneasy. The words spill out of her mouth before she can help them.

"God, I hope it's not weird between us."

He didn't expect that, that much is obvious from his face. "What?"

"I don't know, we haven't kissed, and I've missed you and I know we've talked everyday, but–"

"KD."

"But I can't help but feel like something's changed, and I swear, that whole agreement thing was a stupid joke because if you don't love me anymore, oh, I'm going to actually go insane and I don't care how that sounds, I'll be the hugest bitch ever–"

He laughs. Like, actually, laughs, before taking her face in his hands. "Kat." He tilts her chin up. "C'mon, trust a guy."

She looks up, and she thinks she might actually die of embarrassment.

Mistletoe is hanging above their heads. JJ has been waiting for a reason to kiss her all day. He just didn't know how to tell her that.

"I got too much in my head, too," he says. "Thought I needed a reason to kiss you."

Every worry flies right out the window, and she can't help but laugh, softly. The mistletoe is poorly taped to the doorframe, too, like it was done in a hurry. She wonders if he just did it when he saw her alone in the living room, in a hurry, because he couldn't wait to kiss her again.

She shakes her head at him, leaning her forehead against his chest. "Mistletoe?" she asks. "You're such a sap."

"You love it."

He kisses her, and Kat realises that no matter how long she's gone, this would always feel right. His lips against her, his hands on her cheeks, the way he whispers that he loves her between each kiss, and each kiss is her way to tell him that she loves him, too.

Everything changes around them. But not them. JJ loved Kat, and Kat loved JJ. This would never go away.

🍓

March 9th, 2022

A ceremony is held in their honour. The eight teenagers who somehow found El Dorado. The whole island seems to have come – nobody claps half as hard as Henry and Max. Even Caroline is there, too, nodding solemnly at her daughter. Kat nods back.

Edward James Darcy is not mentioned once.

"I just think it's insane how everyone expects actresses to fit their own idea of Helen," Kat is rambling over her drink, JJ, Kie, Billy and Pope staring at her. "Like, beauty is subjective? It changes through time and depends on the person, and it's impossible to find one universal Helen of Troy. She's like, mythically beautiful. You can't adapt that! Besides, the ugly Helen of one's going to be the goddess of another. It's all so dumb."

Cleo walks by, staring at the girl. "How long has she been going?"

"Like, ten minutes," Pope says. "Apparently, once she finished her thesis early, she picked up some classes about women in Ancient Greece."

Kie turns to JJ. "You're never letting her smoke again."

JJ blinks lazily. "I dunno, I like it. It's like an audio book."

"I've been bored!" Kat cries out. "Can't blame me for that. Oh, don't get me started on Cassandra's curse–"

"No, we won't," Billy hums. "Love you, but you've been over it. Twice."

"It's just so insane how her curse is actually misogyny! People don't believe her? Yeah, that's 'cause men discredit her–"

"Excuse me." They stop, and turn to an old, distinguished man, walking to them with a suitcase in hand. "I... I don't mean to interrupt."

John B and Sarah arrive at the same time, the former frowning. "Uh, can we help you?"

None of them has any idea who that guy is, but he looks like he's about to announce to them that an old aunt died and left them everything.

He stutters a little. "Yes. I wanted to tell you all, it's remarkable what you all did."

Kat snorts. "He says 'all' a lot." JJ rolls his lips into his mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Royal Merchant, El Dorado, Denmark Tanny. Impressive résumé, impressive." He turns to Kat, who's looking blearily at him. Sarah winces. "I've read your thesis, miss Darcy. Piracy, between myth and reality?"

Her eyes light up. Her work. Her own work. Whoever that man is, he just scored an incredible amount of points to her. "Yeah! Yeah, that's me. It was fun."

He nods. "I was wondering if you and your friend would all be so kind as to look at an item of mine."

Cleo narrows her eyes at him. "Oh yeah? What type of item is that?"

"It's a manuscript. I would investigate it myself, but I'm too long in the tooth."

Kat hums. "He's old," she mutters. Billy's laugh is high-pitched.

"I need partners, and you all were first on my list."

She holds out a hand. "Give me."

The man laughs a little. "I was hoping you would."

Kat takes the old book in her hands. "Shoot, I don't have gloves. Ah well." She flips through the yellowing pages. "1718? That's old as shit."

Pope reads above her shoulder. "Exhibition notes, dates."

"This is a captain's log," John B says. "This shows the exact position of the ship."

"The exact location where the ship sailed," the man corrects. "And where it stopped."

"Who is the captain?" JJ asks.

"Edward Teach."

Kat sobers right up. She clings to the captain's log for dear life, blinking past the haze. She knows that name – it'd be weird if she didn't, considering he occupied more than a half of her thesis.

"Blackbeard," she says. "This is Blackbeard's logbook?"

There's silence amidst the group, because could it really be that journal? The dates match, as far as she can tell. She's seen some of his handwriting during her research – it matches too.

When they realise that this might very well be true, Billy grins.

"This is the part where we woogity, right?"

Maybe Kat had been wrong this whole time. Sure, the gold hunt ended, but wasn't it life's whole thing? These past 18 months had proven that to her. It goes on. Nothing is ever truly over, is it?

Everything was meant to start again. 

Author's Note: John John is thanks to my gf who won't stop calling JJ that I fear