Billy has to admit, for someone she thought up until then seemed very... careless, it's admirable, the way JJ keeps focus to try and break Kat out of Kitty Hawk. One track mind, and it's solely focused on her. When is it not, really...

"Okay, when we get up to them, wave and just act nice, okay?"

She looks back at JJ, making a face at him. "I don't need to 'act' nice..."

He doesn't answer as he slows the Twinkie down, a man walking up to his window, with a Kitty Hawk logo on his chest. "How are y'all doing?" JJ greets with the biggest grin.

"Can I help you?" Well, that's not very nice.

"Hey there, uh, sir," he stutters a little in surprise. "Camp counselor Laura, I'm her... I'm her brother. I was actually just gonna drop off her girlfriend here, just to say hi, if that's okay."

He gestures at Billy. She can't help but do what JJ asked and grin madly too. They must look like they're on drugs, there's no other way. "We just wanna say hi! I miss her lots, I just uh... came in... from the Oxford. The university. Oxford University."

JJ grits his teeth. "It's real quick. I promise, just in and out. That all right?"

The man takes a deep breath. "Yeah. Go ahead."

He starts the van, waving at them with a grin, Billy behind him doing the same. Once they're out of earshot, she turns to him.

"Do I just look gay, or did you panic?"

He splutters. "Woah, okay, so like, that's not what I meant."

She narrows her eyes at him. "You'd be right, though."

They get out of the van, Billy looking around the place. Kitty Hawk looks... like the kind of place Kat would end up setting on fire, if she's going to be completely honest.

"What do we do now?" she asks JJ.

"Uh..." He looks left, then right, at stops in front of a cabin, guarded by an old man. This is like prison. "Hi there, sir, uh, we're looking for... we're looking for the office. Uh, is there a main lodge or something?" The man points to their right. "Right down there? Appreciate it."

She follows him around like a lost puppy. Billy went to law school, she could recite to him about all the laws they just ignored, not actually commit the crimes.

"JJ?" she calls out after him. "Do we have a plan?"

"Uh, yeah, duh." He doesn't look back at her. "Get Kat back."

"Is that all the plan?"

"... Kinda. I'm sure I'll figure somethin' out."

Billy tries very hard not to rip out her hair.

They walk to the main cabin and into the office of a woman that looks nice. Billy highlights that maybe she only looks so, because she's trying to break someone out of her camp where people are apparently doing manual labor to get better. Again, Kat is going to set the place on fire.

"Hiya!" Billy greets.

"How's it going, ma'am?" JJ immediately goes on after her. He tries to close the door behind them, but fails a couple times.

"Can I help you kids?"

"We have a message for one of your campers here. Um... Uh, her name is Kat– Kathryn, uh, Elizabeth. Darcy. That's a mouthful, uh? She's here, right?"

The woman shakes her head. "Unfortunately, we're not allowed to do that. You're not even supposed to be here on campus."

Billy's eyes bulge out of their sockets. "She's not allowed to have messages? That's mean–"

"Okay," JJ cuts in. "It's... it's just that it's very important... May we sit?" He doesn't wait for her answer to do so, dragging Billy down by her shoulder. "A very important matter, ma'am."

"Oh, I'm sure it is, sweetie, but we have a policy. No contact from the outside world for the first six weeks."

"Six weeks?" Billy parrots.

That... Well, this can be legal, but she wished it wouldn't, because it sounds like torture, especially to someone like Kat. She barely made it out of London, how can they expect her to just...

JJ stops her train of thoughts, eyes glued to the woman's cat photo, sitting on her desk. "Right... Ma'am. It's actually a family matter, and, uh... I'm... I'm related to her." Billy side-eyes him. Gross. "I'm her cousin, and Billy here is her, like, aunt."

She opens and closes her mouth. "Yeah, that's true." She is her uncle's sister through marriage, so. She's just not particularly fond of hearing it.

"So, look, I know you got a policy and all, but there's just been something that happened recently that..." His voice wavers, actual tears forming in his eyes. Billy stares in awe. "You know what? I'm getting a little emotional right now, so I think we should go. I'm sorry. We shouldn't even be here, like you said, so we'll leave you alone."

He stands up, his accomplice following, confused as ever. "Uh... bye, ma'am."

"But before we leave." She stops dead in her tracks. "Could you just let her know, um... just that, uh..." He chokes back a sob. Billy has to admit he is a good liar. If they don't find any gold, he can always become an actor. "...Fish didn't make it?"

The woman's face falls. "Who's Fish?"

"Fish is her best friend. A Siamese mix, and um, yeah, it was really sudden. And you know, uh, the fryer shouldn't have been there, and he just fell, so..." He snaps his fingers. "He's in a better place now. But, um, could you just let her know for me? I'd really appreciate that. Thank you, ma'am. You have a great one."

He leaves, Billy awkwardly waving at the woman as she follows. She has no idea what that was about, but she hopes he just did something very smart, because she just lost a whole lot of brain cells trying to decipher that.

"Fish got fried?" she asks him. "That's the message you want to give her?"

He smirks, all traces of sadness gone from his face. "Yeah, it is. Now, we hide and see from which cabin she gets Kat out, and that's the one we'll bust her out of tonight."

Billy stares at him. "Okay, that's not such a bad plan."

🍓

Kathryn lies in the bed of her little prison room, holding her Sharpie to her chest. She tries not to think about everything her mother dumped on her, tries not to let it weigh her down. For so long, she'd idolised her father, made him her god, worshipped the ground he walked on.

Where did that get her? Nowhere good, she can tell you that for sure.

The only thing that plays in her mind is the fact that he made JJ break up with her. This... Now, she could try to understand the rest of what her mother told her, she could try to pin some of it on her own interpretation of facts, she could even pretend that she was lying.

But going after JJ, that was too damn far.

If anything was going to knock her father down from his pedestal, it was this. It was the fact that it had been staring at her right in the face, and she didn't pay attention because she was too blinded by the sight of him. She should have remembered, really, that JJ was always the sun. Her father is just some faraway star burning brighter as it dies.

She even drew him drowning in the sea, on the wall to her left. She got bored.

"Kathryn Elizabeth? Sweetie?" Who the fuck? "Can you come out here?"

She stands up from her bed and walks to the door, wiping remnants of tears from her cheeks. "Yeah, as soon as you unlock the bolted door."

They do. Kathryn steps outside, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Even if the room has a window, it was still starting to get a little claustrophobic, in there.

She thinks the woman in front of her sounds and seems nice, but really, considering everything... "I'm sorry, sweetie, but at Kitty Hawk, we feel you have the strength to hear all the news, including bad news."

Kathryn stands there, staring the woman down, arms crossed on her chest. "You know what, considering the last two hours I just went through, I'm going to believe you."

"Right, well, your cousin was here a minute ago."

She blinks at her. "Who?" Either Henry and Max adopted someone the second she got out, or she's got some severe amnesia.

"A young man, blond." Oh. "With an asian girl, very nice." Oh. Is it stupid to hope it's JJ and Billy? Maybe. She's still gonna, considering she knows the former is coming for her.

"What did he say?"

"He asked me to tell you that Fish, well, he passed away."

Well, now you lost her. "Like, Albert Fish, 'cause..."

"No, your Siamese mix, Fish." Right, yeah. A cat she definitely has, considering Henry isn't allergic at all, mhm... "He was... He fell into a fryer."

She nearly snorts. What, so Fish got fried?

Oh, my god. Fried fish. His favourite fish to fry. That absolute sap of a boy.

But that means JJ and Billy are definitely here, they're coming for her, and, now, she just has to make it believable that her cat named Fish died, so that they wouldn't find them suspicious.

Kathryn quickly brings tears to her eyes, raises a hand to her mouth. "Oh, no. My Fish. When?"

"We got the news just after you arrived. We thought you should know," she says, clearly more affected about the whole ordeal than Kathryn herself. "Oh, come here."

"Oh, that's not–" The woman is already hugging her. "Okay. You know, I think I should stay alone a bit longer. It's just very hard right now."

The woman nods. "Oh, of course, sweetie."

She gently lets her go, and lets Kathryn walk back inside the cabin.

She sits on the bed. And smiles.

"Idiot."

🍓

Kathryn can't sleep. About four hours earlier, they tried to relocate her to some other cabin, to which she replied that if she has to sleep around other people, she'll harm herself. After seeing the drawings on the wall, mainly of her dad drowning, sometimes of a fish being fried, they figured that warranted her some more time off.

Does she hate being alone with her thoughts, especially right now? Yes, very much. Her anxiety however absolutely hated the idea of sharing a room, so that works better. She wished she had her phone, or just something to distract herself with, while she waits for Billy and JJ to enact whatever plan they have.

The plan being bickering right in front of her door.

"I'm not staying out!" Billy hisses at JJ.

"Billy, please, I just need five minutes alone with Kat, I want to say something to her–"

"Tell her on the plane!"

"It can't wait!"

Billy crosses her arms, leaning back to stare at him. "You're going to kiss her silly, aren't you?"

JJ's cheeks tinge pink. "... If I'm lucky."

"Ugh, fine. Gross, but fine."

Kathryn is still staring at the ceiling, still waiting. She should try to sleep, at least time will pass quicker. At least she won't think about all the horrible things Edward must have said to JJ. What kind of things he held against him.

It makes her sick. She loved her dad. He was the best man around.

That was always the problem.

The door creaks. Kathryn jumps up in bed, nearly hitting her head on the wall. Lights out was three hours ago. It's night outside. Prime time for a break out, if she was JJ Maybank.

Her heart hammers in her chest, her hands go a little clammy, and she curses that god awful shirt, and she curses herself for not seeing that JJ never wanted to break up with, and she curses–

JJ opens the door. There's nothing else to think, as he just stares at her with big, round blue eyes.

"KD," he breathes out.

Nothing else matters much, after all.

Kathryn flings herself at JJ, who catches her, running up to her. She feels him chuckle against her, holding her waist tight to him. The sound is drowned out, muffled by her hair. She parts, hurriedly, because if she doesn't do this now, she never will. She'll never have the courage to admit out loud that her father was the worst man alive, for what he did to him.

"JJ–"

"I know. I know, it's a long story. No time to explain though." She frowns. What's he on about? "Wait, there's one thing though. You know how you asked me what I was going to say last night, and, um, KD, I just... I wanted to say–"

She grabs his face in her hands. "Wait. I need you to hear me say this, first, before you say anything to me. I know what my dad did."

She feels his jaw unhinge. "Okay, look–"

"No, my mum explained everything. My dad's just a bastard who sold me off to Singh because he knew I could translate Kalinago."

His grip on her arms tightens. "He what?"

"Listen, JJ, please. I'm sorry that I didn't push more when I knew it was weird that you'd break up with me, and I'm sorry I didn't listen when you tried to warn me, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn't tell me, and I'm sorry for anything he's said–"

"KD."

"No, no, because I should've known, and if I hadn't been so hung up on him, I would have, and–"

"Kat."

"And I want to know what he said. Because none of it is true, and I swear, I'm going to find him, and–"

"I love you." Her voice dies out in her throat. "So just– will you stop apologising? I don't care what he said. Not anymore. I love you, KD."

Her gaze softens. She had been dead wrong, when she told him it wasn't worth much. Nothing would ever come close, really. Nothing mattered more, not right now, not ever. And oh, she should have known that sooner.

Kathryn always came back. And JJ was always waiting.

She smiles. Any trace of arguing is gone from her mind, utterly filled with sunshine, to the brim. "You're not saying it to break up with me again, are you?"

"God, no," he says. "Never again."

"Good, because I love you, too."

JJ kisses her, softly, a hand reaching up to cup her cheek. It's like being kissed by him for the first time, her stomach tightening, butterflies everywhere, the sun shining on her face in the middle of the night. She keeps her hands on his cheeks, keeping him close, never letting him go again.

She had missed this. The softness of it all, the feeling that everything would be okay, as long as she could hold his hand, and peck his lips. His company, him. Feeling him against her.

She thinks this is how it was always meant to be. Kathryn kissing JJ.

Even when they part, she keeps her hands where they are, her forehead resting against his. "You could be in South America getting some gold, right now, you absolute moron."

He shrugs. "Yeah, I stopped caring when you weren't there." Her cheeks burn at his words.

But if he manages to quiet her thoughts for a moment, they always end up coming back. "Jay... I need to know what he said, so I can make it right."

His lips ghost over her forehead. "You already did."

She frowns, leaning back. "How?"

JJ just kisses her again.

"Idiot," she breathes out against his lips.

"Thank you, I try." He swallows thickly, as if fighting against his instincts. "Look, I'll explain later, I promise. But right now, we have to go. Billy is going to kill me."

"Billy?" Kathryn immediately leans back. "Forget her, I'm going to kill you."

"You just said you loved me?"

"That was before I remembered that you brought Billy."

"Actually, she spontaneously joined me. So, like, not my fault, chief."

Not only do they know that they don't have time right now, Kathryn also knows that JJ doesn't want her to have more on her plate, not right now. He knows she's already trying to torture herself over what her father could have said, already grappling with the fact that the man is nowhere near the idea she had of him.

She needs more time before he tells her. She deserves that, at least. Just the tiniest of breaks.

Which is why Kathryn doesn't fight him, and lets him take her hand, dragging her out and away from Kitty Hawk.

Billy is over the moon, at the fact that their plan succeeded. Mostly because she was terrified of going to actual prison for what they did, but also for the dumb smile JJ and Kat share, holding hands as they run away.

She figures, things can go well for them, sometimes.

Sometimes.

John B had been right. Hell, Caroline had been right. Kitty Hawk was safe, for Kat. And from what she's been telling them about her dad, it was safe from him too, seeing as he was still pretending to be dead and hiding at the Palace.

Well, Kathryn was no longer in Kitty Hawk.

And, decidedly, Edward was no longer at the Palace.

"Kitten–"

The trio freezes. JJ's grip on Kathryn tightens, but it doesn't matter all that much, as Edward walks towards them, in the middle of the road, away from Kitty Hawk. His car is parked further down, unlocked.

She'd never hated anyone more than she did her father. For all the love she had for him. What was left of it festered. She wanted him gone, and away from JJ.

She puts herself in front of her boyfriend.

"Don't come any closer."

Realisation is obvious on his face. Kathryn knows something that he never told her. And that meant trouble for him. "I can explain."

She scoffs, JJ's eyes flying from one to the other. Their similar quiet anger made him sick.

"Yeah, I really do not want to hear it."

Kathryn didn't care for his reasons. She was past caring about reasons, the only thing that mattered was that her father did sell her off, that he did crumple JJ's confidence and that, above all else, he did betray the man she thought he was.

"I had to," he pleads like he did, when he came back from the dead. "I had to, Singh has been threatening me, and I don't know how to do the things you do. I had to find a way."

But she isn't listening anymore, and she never will again. "I can't believe I'm still hearing it."

"C'mon, KD," JJ mumbles next to her. "Let's just go."

Kathryn looks back at him. God, what did her father say to him? JJ never liked a fight, but this was different. This was him, scared that somehow, her father would change her mind again. As if this would ever happen.

Edward bristles. The grip JJ had on her made it hard to manipulate her. Maybe that was why he needed him gone in the first place. "Boy, if you know what's best for you, get away from my daughter."

When he stepped out of the shadows, Billy thought that JJ was going to go the slightest bit insane, for trying to keep him and Kat apart, for everything he had put her through. She figures she might, herself, yell at the man. He'd used Kat, for god's sake!

She didn't expect Kat to stomp forward, and slap him across the face.

He holds his cheek, as she points a menacing finger at him. "I don't care what you have to say. You're not my dad. My dad and the idea I had of him died at sea five years ago. You're just some pathetic bloke who can't do anything to save himself." Her lips tremble, before she presses them into a fine line. "And I wish you never came back."

And Kathryn means every word.

From up close, she watches the face of her fallen god, desolate, pleading, and feels nothing. She feels nothing for the man who'd used her, all her life, for his own little purpose. The man who took the one good thing she had away from her, because she got too comfortable. Nothing, but pity. How low did he have to sink, to use that kind of religious love against her? To taint it?

Her father wasn't a good one. And he wasn't a good person, either. But where Caroline's disinterest of Kathryn could be understood, her father's interest would never be pardoned.

He seems to realise, that he is past forgiveness, and explanations. He even understands that Kathryn will hate him forever solely for what he did to the boy who held her head, glowering at him, now a few steps behind her.

But Edward had known. He was calculated. He was smart. He knew that if he talked to JJ, Kathryn would get rash, she would get physical. Her anger was Darcy.

"I am your dad," he says, and she scoffs. "And I'm sorry that it was your mistake."

Kathryn smells ether before she feels the sheet on her face. Next thing she knows, she's falling to the ground, and her father throws her over his shoulder. The rest fades to black, JJ stepping forward is the last thing she sees.

"What did you do?"

"Kitty?!"

Edward raises a gun at the two. Billy has to hold JJ back. The world tilts off its axis. The father of the girl he loves is threatening him, and he isn't smart enough to back down.

"I need her. I need her to get to El Dorado, you don't understand," he says.

Billy gapes, mortified. There's not much else she can do, besides holding onto JJ's shirt for dear life. "You just knocked out your own daughter?" he cries out, jaw clenched.

"Nothing bad will happen to her. I'm taking her to South America, she'll translate the idol, and I'll bring her back here. Unharmed. She'll just be doing me a favor."

"A favor?" JJ repeats. "You goddamn knocked her out!"

Billy thinks she's going to be sick. "You can't do that," she lets out. "What's Henry going to say?"

But Henry was the first to know that his baby brother wasn't a nice person. He was the first person to warn Kathryn and, in a sense, he had been the first victim, when he found himself raising his niece. He would do it twice over, of course, but that wasn't the point.

The point was that both Henry and Edward knew what kind of man he was. And he wouldn't be ashamed of it.

"I think Henry will be happy when I come back home with a piece from El Dorado."

"Like hell he will," JJ seethes. "You're not leaving with Kat."

Edward shoots at JJ's feet. Billy yelps, and tugs him closer to her. No, no, no. If JJ gets shot, Kat is going to be so pissed. She feels his arm tremble between her fingers, the same way they shake around him.

"You're not stopping me, kid. Be happy that I won't go to the cops when I come back here. We both know I could have you thrown in jail. Living in a house illegally? Helping your dad flee the country? And you just had to steal from me, well, thank you for that one."

She watches JJ work his jaw, stepping back next to her. If he gets thrown in jail, he won't be able to help Kat. It suddenly becomes very clear that they won't be going to South America with her. They'll have to meet her there, then.

The worst part is the way they stay still. The gunshot is still in their ears, ringing. They are both locked away in memories they shouldn't have, giving room for Edward to speak, to do whatever he wants, to get away.

He readjusts his grip on his daughter, opening the door to the car. "That's what I thought. Thank you, also, for getting her out of that camp for me. Caroline can be a real hassle, don't you agree?"

"Fuck you."

"That's not very elaborate, but coming from you, I shouldn't be surprised."

He turns around, putting Kat in the backseat, closing the door. JJ is practically vibrating with anger.

"Next time I see you, I swear, you're dead."

He means it with everything he has. And JJ always hated to break his promises.

Edward hums. "Next time you see me, JJ, I'll be rich, and you'll still be that kid on the Cut who tried to drag my daughter down. Do not come after me."

The only sign of his words hitting JJ is the barest blink. Billy's eyes are filled with tears, next to him, even as she steps forward.

"I don't understand. Don't you love her?"

She tries. She tries to tug at his heartstrings, to get him to let go, to just give up on whatever this is, and see Kathryn as more than an object, as more than what she sees herself. To just see her for who she is and not what she could do for him.

He nods, once. "I do love her. She's just more useful to me than loved."

His car door slams, and he drives off, taking Kat with him.

JJ shouts, kicks the floor, anything he can find. Kat had said that four was an ugly number. She just had to make it five. She just had to, didn't she? And now she was going to South America, with Singh, and Big John, and she had been terrified the first time around and the thought of her crying in his arms when he got her back that time made him sick to his stomach.

When Billy realises that JJ is close to crying, too, she puts a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll get her back," she says.

"I know," he answers, because he won't stop until they do.

She tugs at his arms. "Come on. Barracuda Mike must be waiting for us." Us. That plane ride was meant for two.

Billy mentally apologises to her brother. But Kat was her sister, too. And she knew what it felt, to have parents who used you more than they loved you. She couldn't let Kat go through that, not alone. Not without her.

And she couldn't leave JJ alone, either. She saw the way she reacted. She felt him tense up and shake against her. Billy was scared of what she was about to do, but so was he.

It still needed to be done.

"I'm coming with you," she tells JJ.

He sniffles, then nods. "Yeah, you can help, I'm fine with that."

At least, Billy knew that they wouldn't stop until JJ could hold his girlfriend again. She could find solace in that. It's a shame it was the only thing.

Author's Note: 

JJKAT are officially back together there's nothing you can do Ed-- oh never mind.