Finding the gold called for celebration. And getting drunk and high, because every single one of their problems would vanish once they'll pull the five hundred mil up from the well. Crain was a minor issue, sure, but they'd done it once, and didn't die.

They should be discouraged, but they're really not, because they're drunk and high idiots eating so many pancakes that they're not going to be able to stand in the morning, but who cares? Six stupid teens found the long lost treasure. That's sure as hell going to make the history books.

"He said it looked something like this," Kathryn says, putting her pen down.

She drew a plan according to John B's very scarce and incomplete information – but basically, they'd have to lower a bucket in the well and put the gold in it, pull it back up, take it to the Château, and back and forth until they had everything.

It's not her greatest piece of art, but considering she drew it all cramped up in the Twinkie parked outside of the Château, it's good enough.

"That's fifty feet down," Kie says. "And they're using a hundred feet rope."

"Yeah, to make sure it goes all the way into the little gold chamber," Sarah says, pointing to the small John B drawn next to a wheat symbol. "Very cute."

Kathryn adds a bee on his t-shirt. "He'd hate it, which pleases me." She smirks. "Which makes me think..."

She adds a tail and horns to her little drawing of JJ. He arrives next to them at the same time, the gold in his hands. Telling him to part from it would be stupid. She's pretty sure he slept with it.

"Kie! This better work. We can't pawn this if there's a giant wheat symbol on it – wait is that me?"

He points to the drawing of him. "What makes you think it is?" Kathryn asks, arching an eyebrow.

"The giant blunt in my mouth. Love the attention to the details."

"It's... pretty accurate," Sarah agrees.

Kie snorts as she picks up her blow torch. If they want to pawn the bar of gold and get an idea of how much they're going to have and get some funds for the extraction and pay in advance for JJ's restitution, they need to. And he's right, they won't be able to do that if the symbol is still visible on it.

They get out of the Twinkie, and walk to the small barbecue Pope borrowed from his dad. There's a little pot on it, and JJ sets the god inside. Kathryn is pretty sure she saw him visibly wince at it.

Kie flames it for long minutes, the others watching and celebrating around her. Pope inspects the plan Kathryn drew with an appreciative nod, and she feels a sense of pride swell in her chest. She can't wait to get to the Palace and draw everything that's happened. She could make a cartoon out of it.

"Are you going to Art School after highschool? You could definitely get in," he tells her.

She blushes, but shakes her head. This is all just a hobby. Kathryn wants to be renowned for something else. "Nope. History. At Yale." That's where her dad went. That's where she wants to go.

Pope snorts. "Casual."

"And then maybe a research paper on myths turning out to be true." She smirks. "Like the Merchant. You? Any idea where you want to study forensics?"

"Close to home," he answers, and even if she doesn't choose her studies according to that, she understands.

"Call me when you get your degree, doc."

He smiles, genuinely happy to have someone to talk about things like that with. College has never been on anyone's radar, lately. But Pope and Kathryn love studying.

"Hey, nerds, come check this out."

She pouts as she gets closer to JJ. "Are you jealous? You want me to tutor you?"

He smirks. "Tutor, like, the fun kind of tutoring or..."

She just rolls her eyes. "Gross, JJ."

He laughs, before leaning towards her, suddenly serious. Uh oh. "If you want, once we're done with all this shit–"

"The gold?"

"Yeah, that, we can bring the drain and the journal to Max. It's got to mean something."

Kathryn almost forgot about that. In fact, she willingly did, fully consciously. She doesn't want to think about the fact that, maybe, by some insane trick of fate, Edward didn't die naturally. She always figured he must have been distracted or something stupid like that, but she never ever thought that it was murder.

And she doesn't want to know. She'd rather it being this idiotic accident, then anything else.

"No," she tells him. "Let's just leave it at that – he forgot his gear, he died, end of story." She nervously runs a hand on her forehead. "God, it feels like we're always having the same conversation."

JJ frowns at her. "Okay, sorry I care, I guess."

She turns to him, sending him a questioning glare, but before she can ask him anything, Kie stops the blowtorch, and shows off her work. Kathryn takes a look at the melted gold, brushing her conversation with JJ away.

"Uh," she lets out. "Looks like golden vomit."

Kie scoffs a little. "You know I'm not hearing a 'thanks Kie' for allowing us to be able to pawn this off."

She pats her arm. "Thanks Kie, for the golden vomit." She makes a face at her, which only makes her laugh.

John B stands up from where he was sitting next to Sarah, against the huge tree behind the Château. "What are we waiting for?"

Pope turns to him, confused. "The gold to cool down."

"That's not – okay."

After about thirty minutes of talking and reminding the others of what they would do with the gold, they got in the Twinkie to the pawnshop on the Cut. Going to Figure Eight would be too suspicious, not to mention that they are six underage teens pawning off actual gold.

But, to be fair, after last night, they're practically invincible.

A feeling that they're going to need, if they want to have a shot at pawning off the gold.

"Hell of a job melting it down, doctor Frankenstein," JJ complains as they get out of the Twinkie, parked in front of the pawnshop.

"Like you could've done better," Kie fires back.

"I could have," he maintains. "I took a welding class."

"You – When?"

"Whoa, whoa. Hey. Shh!" stops John B. "Chill out okay."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has to pawn this piece of shit off," JJ whines.

"How did we get this job anyway?" Kathryn asks, rubbing her face.

"Because you're the best liars," Pope answers her.

"Lovely," she ironises. He's right of course, but still.

Without any more discussions, they walk inside the pawnshop. It's small, a bit cramped and the AC blows a cold breeze on them, wafting the scent of dust. The woman at the counter stares at them, as the other four go further into the shop, pretending to check it out.

"Afternoon ma'am," JJ lets out as they approach the counter.

"Afternoon," she answers, hesitant.

Clearly, she's not exactly at ease with a bunch of teens showing up at her shop, and it's always plausible that she knows Luke Maybank and therefore JJ, and his reputation. They might as well have robbers written all over their faces.

JJ glances at Kathryn. "We saw you buy gold," she says with a huge smile.

It's so fake, it feels like she's a doll with a painted grin plastered on her face.

The lady doesn't seem impressed. "That's what the sign say, don't it?" Well, this is going well.

"Well, I sure hope you buy a lot of it, because we're about to blow your mind," JJ says, opening his bag.

"I ain't got much mind left to blow, so have at it."

He takes the melted vomit out. "How about them gold apples?"

She glances at it, and snorts. "That ain't real."

Kathryn scoffs, and raises her sunglasses on top of her head. "Excuse me, ma'am, for a second there I thought you were calling us liars."

She said it with the force of any rich-woman trying to get her way, and with that same sickly sweet smile. It makes the woman frown, and second-guess her first instinct.

"It can't be."

"Feel how heavy it is," JJ says.

She takes it and her hands slightly drop from how heavy it is. She weighs it, still dubious.

"Let's put some light on that," JJ adds, handing her the magnifying glass, equipped with a small light.

She eyes it, before sighing. "Spray-painted tungsten."

Kathryn chuckles. "See, we should've gone on Figure Eight," she purrs, slapping JJ's bicep softly. "Don't you feel how soft it is? Really?"

She checks, and frowns even more. "Would you look at that?" JJ ironises.

She holds up a hand. "Hold your horses. We ain't got to the acid test yet."

"Oh the acid test!" He looks at Kathryn. "My favorite, baby."

She sends him a bewildered and slightly confused look, but he just sends one back, clearly not thinking before he speaks. Then again, he never really does.

The woman puts a few drops of acid on it. Nothing happens. "Well, it ain't plated, and it ain't painted."

"So, in a nutshell, it's real," Kathryn says, sarcastic.

She sends her a glare. "It looks like somebody tried to melt it down."

Okay, no panic, they just have to make up a lie on the spot. "That's because we melted my jewellery to get that."

The woman puts the gold on a scale. "Seven pounds? That's a lot of earrings."

"What can I say, I love accessorising." She's losing her trust, she can see it.

JJ puts an arm around her shoulders. "Okay, to be honest, ma'am, we really need the money. See, her parents don't really approve of me, and we're trying to elope."

Kathryn slowly turns to JJ, eyes wide. She hopes the lady mistakes it for surprise that he'd confess their secret, and not because she's thinking 'what the fuck are you doing?' Luckily enough for them, it seems to work.

"Give me a minute," the woman says before leaving.

"Take your time ma'am."

Kathryn takes JJ's arm off her shoulders. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to sell the gold!" he answers, defensive. She doesn't know why he is. Hell, she doesn't know why she is.

"That's all that was?" she asks, equal parts venomous and hopeful.

His stomach tightens, and for a second, he fears that she's onto him. For whatever reason, even if he has nothing to hide. "Yeah, of course."

She looks at him, still suspicious. "Yeah, right."

"What?"

She didn't realise she let that slip. "Nothing."

"KD, what?"

"I said nothing."

"Guys, shut up she's coming back," Pope hisses at them.

It is nothing, she tells herself. She doesn't care that JJ said that. She doesn't care about the implications, or what it means for him, or even what it means for her. They've got to stay focused on the gold. Eyes on the prize. Before anything else.

The lady goes back behind the counter. "So, I, uh... I talked to my boss. And, uh, this is what I can do."

Taking a deep breath, Kathryn looks at the check. She arches an eyebrow. "Fifty thousand? Do you think we walked in here not knowing the spot price? I know for a fact this is worth a hundred and forty, at least."

She smiles at them. "Well, sweetie, you in a pawnshop. This ain't Zurich. Do I look Swiss to you?"

Kathryn purses her lips. "Ninety, or we walk."

The lady doesn't move. "I doubt you need that much for your wedding, sweetheart."

She hates being patronised, especially with how irritable JJ just made her. She grabs his arm. "Come on baby, we're gonna go somewhere else."

"Seventy," the woman caves. "Half price... and, um... I don't ask questions about where you got this."

JJ and Kathryn look at each other, before glancing at John B. He makes finger guns at Kathryn. She takes it as a sign that he's okay with that price.

"We're gonna need that in large denominations, please," she asks.

"Well, here's the snag," the lady tells them. "I don't have that much denominated, not here anyway. I can write you a cashier's check."

"Cash – No, ma'am," says JJ. "We want the cold hard. That's what that sign says," he adds, pointing to it. "'Cash for gold.' And that's what we expect. We're gonna get it cold hard."

She sighs. "Well, I have to send you to the warehouse. I have the money there. Is that all right?"

Kathryn bites the inside of her cheek. It's not, it feels shady, but they don't have a choice if they want their money. "Where's this warehouse?"

Author's Note: I'm,,, I feel like I'm going to get killed after this chapter and JJ and KD's relationship evolution

Editor's Note: Dear past me you were, in fact, yelled at