SMOKE SIGNALS / OUTERBANKS
ੈ✩‧₊˚ written by catie . . . © vqnillascented
chapter one ━━ ' family secrets '

CHARLESTON, SC
2 months earlier...

IF THERE was anything that Katherine Thornbury was good at ━━ it was running from the mess that she had made.

She thought of this as a very valuable talent, and used it to her advantage as often as she could. She had managed to convince her husband to move her whole family away from the Outerbanks seemingly out of nowhere, without ever sharing any details of her true intentions.

To be fair, George Thornbury was a very gullible man, but Katherine still liked to think of the move as a personal victory.

Sitting in her home office now, she thumbed through some old paperwork. She used to be an attorney when they lived in Outerbanks, but, along with the new location, she wanted a fresh start in her career as well.

Opening a local bakery seemed only natural for her ━━ her love of baked goods and sweets one of the most prominent parts of her personality. So, she pulled some strings, mostly using her dark eyes and dazzling smile, able to open up her shop on the corner of Burch and Maple street.

Finishing looking through her old cases and reminiscing on her old life, Katherine shut and locked the drawer. She turned to the flower pot that sat atop the sturdy oak desk, reaching for the small watering can that she kept beside it.

The floorboards creaked and she looked up, seeing that her husband had entered the room.

"Hello, my love." She smiled softly at him, letting a small stream of water leak into the dirt surrounding the tulips. "Do you feel okay? You look a bit flushed."

George scoffed, approaching the desk, pulling out a chair to sit down. "Katherine," he placed his hands on the desk, allowing a moment for his wife to stop what she was doing and give him her full attention.

Then, he went on, saying, "I have gone to every construction business in the whole city, nobody is looking for workers right now. I haven't had a gig in months."

Katherine hid the way her breath caught by keeping a bright smile on her face. "I'm so sorry, darling." She spoke sweetly. "I'm sure you'll find something soon."

She slid her rolling chair across the room, back over to the corner where she kept her file cabinet. Checking to make sure the top was still locked, she moved down to the final drawer at the bottom, tugging it open.

"No. I won't." George sighed heavily. "Not here anyway."

Her husband's words made Katherine pause, slowly rising back up to look over at him. "What are you talking about?" she left the drawer open to move back over to her desk. She grabbed her husband's hands and gave them a squeeze.

"Everyone here has their crew all sorted out, they don't need any new workers." He explained, looking into Katherine's dark eyes with earnest. He paused, inhaling sharply, as if he were preparing himself for what he was to say next. "I want to move back to Outer Banks."

This time Katherine couldn't hide her feelings, and her smile dropped. She shook her head quickly, saying, "I just opened my business, George, I don't want to leave it."

"Katherine, we're running out of money. And we'll have no more if we continue to live in this nice house and I don't get any work." He urged, desperately trying to get his wife to understand.

Katherine bit down on her lip, letting her eyes drop down to the floor for a moment as she thought. After a long pause and a heavy silence, she finally raised her gaze back up to her husband. "Okay."

"Okay?" His eyes lit up.

"Yes." Katherine said, despite the fact that she was shaking her head. "Now, get it all arranged before I change my mind."

"Of course." George nodded. "Don't worry about a thing, Kath. I'll take care of everything."

Katherine smiled when he took her hands and kissed them. "I know you will." she told him. The couple exchanged a smile before George moved swiftly out of the room.

Letting her elbows rest on the table, Katherine held her head in her hands. For the first time in her life, she had no idea how she was going to get herself out of this one.

OUTERBANKS, NC
present day...

"ALLLYYY..." Alex opened her eyes slowly, having been woken up by the pestering, sing-song voice of her twelve year old sister, Jenna.

"Don't call me that, you brat." Alex mumbled, her back aching from the airplane seat. She was exhausted, despite having slept on and off for the entire flight, finding it nearly impossible to get comfortable.

"Don't speak to your sister like that." Their mother hissed, peeking out from under her velvet sleeping mask to scold her children.

Jenna merely giggled, which made Alex roll her eyes. Unable to sleep anymore, the dark haired teen turned to look out the small airplane window, peering down at the familiar marshes below.

"The plane will be landing in few minutes girls, won't you just be nice to each other until then?" Their tired father rubbed his forehead, already fed up with his daughters' antics.

"Sorry, dad." Alex was quick to reply, feeling her chest twist with sympathy for her stressed father.

"That's alright sweetie." He offered a small smile to his eldest before dropping his head down to his chest, dozing off after only a few seconds.

George was right; the plane did land after no more than ten minutes, and Alex finally got her space from her annoying younger sister after spending several hours trapped next to her in the tightly packed airplane seating.

The drive to their new house was a relatively short one. Ward Cameron, the head of the development company that George was returning to work for, had set them up in a modern home in Figure Eight. Ward had seemed excited to get George back, eagerly using his own money for the first down payment.

The uber driver wasn't too chatty, which Alex was grateful for. She pressed her forehead against the glass and turned her music all the way up, drowning out the world ━━ mostly her annoying sister.

As soon as the car stopped and was put into park, Alex yanked out her earbuds and blurted, "Mom, when can I go see Sarah?"

Sarah Cameron was Ward's oldest daughter, who was Alex's same age. The two girls had grown close when Alex had lived in Outerbanks before, becoming good friends due to their parents always working together. Alex was over the moon to be able to see Sarah again.

"Chill out, okay?" Her mother inhaled sharply, eyeing her daughter warily. "We just got here, why don't you unpack first?"

Quickly, Alex shook her head. "I want to see her, Mom. Come on, it's been so long!"

"Ask your father." Was the last thing that her mother said before walking off towards the large front entrace of the beach house.

Chewing on her lip for a moment, Alex tried to force back an outburst of anger. She had never been close with her mom, but over the past year the tensions between them had only increased. Her mother became more isolated and reserved the more time that went by, basically leaving Alex to fend for herself when her father was away, which was quite often.

Finally able to push down her negative emotions, Alex began to look around for her dad, and when she eventually spotted him, she hurried over to his side.

"Dad, are you going to the Cameron's soon?" She asked, putting on an innocent face to try and get her way, which usually worked on her dad. He was always willing to do anything to make his little girl happy.

He scratched his head, thinking for a moment. "I was going to go over there tonight, to check in with Ward and let him know that we're ━━ "

"Can I come?" She cut him off, the excitement to see her childhood best friend almost too much to handle.

Her dad smiled down at her, chuckling to himself. "Yeah, of course you can."

The hours until her dad was ready to go couldn't have gone by any slower for Alex, but finally, her father knocked on her bedroom door. He had interrupting her unpacking, but she didn't mind, and she was running for the car before any words had even left his mouth.

The Camerons didn't live too far from their new place, only about a twelve minute drive in her dad's pickup truck. Alex rolled down the window and stuck her head out, earning a belly laugh from her dad.

She let the wind whip through her hair, the salty smell that lingered in the air fill her nostrils. For the first time in the last few months, she felt truly happy.

Alex climbed out of the car before it was fully stopped, her sandals colliding with the driveway in front of Tanneyhill, the Cameron's residence.

She waited for her dad to get out, but was already bouncing on her toes in anticipation. The two of them approached the house and her father gave a strong knock on the door.

Rose Cameron was the one that greeted them, a smile taking over her face at the sight of them. "George! It's so nice to see you, it's been forever." She turned to Alex. "And Alex, you just keep growing into such a beautiful young woman."

Alex smiled back at her. "Thanks."

She tightened her grip on the half empty wine glass in her palm. "Right, well, let me guess, you're here for Ward," she pointed to George, then to Alex. "And you're here for Sarah."

Alex and her dad both nodded, one eager and one tired. Rose stepped to the side, making room for her guests to enter. "Well then, come on inside. Ward is ━━ "

"Alex?"

The excitement that was oozing from Sarah Cameron's voice couldn't be mistaken as she came around the bend of the staircase, freezing when she laid eyes on her friend.

"Oh my God!" She gasped, almost tripping as she ran down the rest of the steps. Alex grinned ear to ear, and in a blur, the girls collided in a tight hug.

"I've missed you so much!" Sarah breathed, voice muffled from her face being pressed into Alex's shoulder.

"I've missed you too." Alex replied, pulling out of the embrace.

"Let's go to my room." Sarah took Alex's hand, pulling her in that direction. "We've got so much to catch up on!"

Alex looked to her dad, who nodded in approval. "I want to leave before six to be home for dinner, so be down here before then. I will leave without you!"

"You would never." Alex smiled softly at him.

"You're right." He sighed, dropping his head down as if disappointed in himself for his lack of discipline he enforced on his daughter. "Now go have fun."

And with that, Sarah took the lead, dragging Alex up the stairs after her. "I wish that we could've moved back sooner." Alex murmered.

"Honestly," Sarah opened the door to her bedroom, which was in the same place in the hallway as Alex remembered. "You're lucky that you weren't here these past couple of days. The hurricane did some serious damage."

Stepping into the room, Alex peered out the large window, looking at all the fallen trees and debris thrown across the usually tidy yard. "Yeah, I can see that."

Sarah approached the large window, looking out over the backyard while Alex took in the interior surroundings. The room was practically the same as when Alex had last seen it, with only a few small changes, such as updated bedding and some new posters on the walls.

Moving away from the window, Sarah flopped down onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Rafe's coming home in a couple of days."

Alex joined her on the mattress, laying down right beside her. "Oh, is he on break or something?"

Sarah scoffed, sitting up and rolling her eyes. "No, the son of a bitch dropped out."

Alex snorted, remaining on her back even as Sarah slid off the bed and went back over to the window. A soft gasp escaped Sarah's lips, which actually grabbed Alex's attention this time. "What is it?" She stared concerningly at her.

"I think those birds are trying to kill the baby mice!" Sarah said it like it were a war crime, and the next thing that Alex knew, a blur of blond hair was flying out of the room and down the stairs.

Alex jumped off of the bed, hurrying to follow a frenzied Sarah down the stairwell and out the front door. "Sarah, the birds are just trying to survive, leave them alone!" She called, finally able to catch up with her.

Sarah stopped at one of the many garages to grab two tennis rackets, holding one out to Alex impatiently. "Yeah, well, the mice are too."

Then, she was running off again, Alex right on her heels, almost laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. The girls reached the marsh and Sarah quickly started to swat at the large, swooping, black birds that were praying on the innocent mice.

Alex stood back, watching her friend jump all around in a frantic attempt to save the tiny creatures, giggling to herself. "Sarah, stop it."

"Hey girls," A voice rang out and Alex turned to face an approaching Ward, but Sarah just kept flinging the racket through the air, trying to scare the birds away.

"Hi Mr. Cameron." Alex smiled politely, earning a quick nod from the man, but most of his attention was on his daughter.

There was a woman beside Ward, somebody that Alex didn't recognize. Worry stained the woman's dark eyes, her eyebrows stitched together in obvious concern.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" Ward asked.

"The burrows!" Sarah called, running a bit further down the bank. "The birds are having a field day!"

"Birds have to eat too, Sarah." Her father shook his head warily at her.

"No!" She protested. "It's a mouse genocide out here!"

"It's the circle of life, sweetheart. Now come on."

"I can't be apart of it." Sarah finally stopped jumping all around, starting to make her way over to the others. "First they came for the mice, Daddy ━━ "

"Well, I have an actual human being." Ward motioned to the stressed woman, and Sarah immediately hurried the rest of the way over.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She apologized to the woman, tucking her racket under her arm.

"This is Lana Grubbs, Scooter's wife." Ward introduced her. "Now, you were storm prepping with him, right?"

Sarah nodded, her own face growing anxious as she took Lana's expression. "Yeah," she answered, her voice sweet. "He helped me latch the cabin on the Druthers."

"Last night?"

She grew more confused. "Yeah."

"Did he go out after that?"

"No, are you crazy?" She exhaled sharply, as if laughing at the notion. "There was a hurricane."

"Did he say where he was going?" Lana finally spoke up, and Alex felt an uneasy feeling settle into her stomach, and she shifted on her feet, looking to Sarah warily.

"He didn't say anything to me." Sarah shook her head. "I'm so sorry. Is he okay?"

Lana turned to Ward, looking like she was on the verge of tears. He stuck out his hand, motioning for her to remain calm. "He's absolutely okay." He said, moving his arm to Lana's back, starting to guide her away from the two teen girls. "He's just hunkered down somewhere. We'll find him."

Alex watched them walk away, her eyebrows furrowed, and Sarah gave them one last apology. Once the adults had walked out of earshot, the girls faced each other.

"What was that all about?" Alex kept her voice down.

"I have no idea." Sarah looked equally as worried. "I hope he's okay."

Alex nodded. "Yeah." She turned her head, taking one last glance at Ward and Lana until they disappeared around the side of the house. "Yeah, me too."

catie speaks!

hii guys! i really hoped you enjoyed reading, i'm very excited for the things that i have planned for alex and her plot, along with being super excited for obx season three to come out!

i am putting out two chapters today, so one more update should shortly follow this one, and i hope you all like that one as well!

if you'd like you can follow my tiktok, @vqnillascented
i post edits and teasers for all my fics, including this one. i work really hard on the videos so i'd really appreciate if you checked it out! 🫶

thank you so much to everyone who voted and commented on the synopsis, it means so much to me and gives me the motivation to continue!

enjoy the next chapter,
catie!