SMOKE SIGNALS / OUTERBANKS
ੈ✩‧₊˚ written by catie . . . © vqnillascented
chapter fifteen ━━  ' betrayed by blood ''

THE FIRST ONE or two miles were trekked in silence, both teens holding their breath, listening for any sounds of police sirens or approaching tires.

Once the third mile had started, Alex felt the need to break up the sounds of their panting and huffing.

"I spy with my little eye..." She glanced around at the landscape. "Something blue."

JJ snorted. "The fucking sky? I don't know, are you seriously playing a kids game right now?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I couldn't listen to another second of your huffing, so, yes, I was desperate."

"My huffing?" He said, looking offended.

"It's okay, though." She reassured him, sarcasm oozing from her tone. "Walking four miles is really hard for some people."

"You've got some nerve." He scoffed. "I am in excellent shape, I'll have you know."

"Uh-huh."

"You don't believe me?"

"Well, your literal heaving tells me otherwise, so..."

"Alright fine," He roughly shoved up the sleeve of his shirt, exposing his bicep. "Feel that."

"Absolutely not." Alex screwed up her nose. "And besides, what do your arms have to do with walking?"

He readjusted his sleeve, mumbling quietly, "You got me there."

Silence ruled over them for another moment, and then Alex asked, voice a bit more serious,

"Why'd you come with me? You could've just stayed with the others, where it was safe."

He shrugged casually. "Because I wanted to."

"JJ..." Alex stopped walking, her skin cooling slightly as the hot sun was blocked out by the tree she had planted herself under.

Slowly, he came to a stop as well, turning to look at her. He sighed, defeated, before saying, "What if something happened to you, and you had gone by yourself?"

Alex was taken aback by his concern. "Why do you care so much? You barely know me."

Without missing a beat, he goes, "You're right. But I know that you're stubborn, protective, strong, and kind of a badass."

"Well, that pretty much covers it." Alex mumbled, suddenly aware that a flush had come over her cheeks.

"Nah," JJ braced his arm against the tree and tilted his head. "There's a lot more underneath that tough exterior, you just haven't shown it to me yet."

"Yet?" She quirked an eyebrow at him. "What makes you think I ever will?"

A laugh escaped him, and he dropped his chin, grinning at the ground.

"What?" Alex watched him, trying to read his expression.

"You said that before." He met her eyes again. "At the boneyard. I asked what your name was and you said–"

"What makes you think you deserve to know?" Alex mused, the memory hitting her.

He nodded, the movement slight, almost unnoticeable.

She couldn't read him, and that made her feel a bit antsy. "You remember that?"

"How could I forget?"

Before she could ask what he meant, the air was filled with the ear-splitting sound of squealing tires.

A white sedan with POLICE scrawled out on the side came to a hard stop just a few feet up the road from them, tossing up dust as the tires skidded against the dirt. Alex's chest constricted when an officer got out of the front seat, hand on his gun, and headed straight for them.

But if she thought that was terrifying, she was in for an even worse surprise. Her heart nearly dropped out of her ass when she saw who was climbing out of the passenger side.

"Alex," Her mother greeted her with a cold smile that didn't reach her eyes. Her approach was slow, the gravel crunching underneath her clean, white heels. "What a surprise seeing you here."

"Mom?" Alex's voice wobbled. "What's going on?"

"You took something that wasn't yours." Her mom's smile didn't waver.

Alex felt JJ's eyes on her, but she couldn't find the strength to move. The officer took a pair of handcuffs from his belt and started to unfasten them.

"Alexandria Thornbury," He said, the handcuffs clicking as he opened them. "You are under arrest for stealing and tampering with official court records."

"What the hell?" Alex exclaimed, jerking away when he attempted to slip the cuffs around her wrists. "Mom! Tell him to stop, I didn't do anything!"

"Honey," Katherine gave her a pitiful look. "I'm the one who ordered the arrest."

"Mom!" Alex yelled, getting more desperate. "Please, we can talk about this! This is a big misunderstanding!" She struggled in the officer's grip, but he was stronger than her, and she felt the cold metel of the handcuffs tightening around her wrists.

"Alex!" JJ called, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice.

Alex didn't reply, but as she was dragged towards the car, she locked eyes with him, nodded in the direction that they had just came from, and mouthed, "Go back."

He shook his head at this silent command, but she didn't have any time to argue before the officer placed his large hand on the top of her head and shoved her into the backseat.

He slammed the door hard on her, and it took her a minute to right herself without use of her hands, but as soon as she did, she turned around to look out the back window. JJ still stood under the tree, unmoving, staring right back at her. She pressed her mouth into a thin line, hoping that he could read her face and know that she wanted him to go back to the others.

They could form a new plan without her, and she could figure out how to turn this arrest around on her mom. The documents were forged after all, which was definitely a worse crime than taking the papers, right? She hoped so.

Her mother joined her in the car, and Alex slowly faced forward, a strange feeling twisting in her gut.

"I'll give the papers back." She whispered. "You tell him to let me go, and I'll never mention any of this again."

Katherine didn't even look at her. "That's nice, Alex. But you shouldn't have taken them in the first place."

It was then that Alex realized what the eerie feeling in her stomach was.

Betrayal.

The officer's grip was painfully tight on Alex's wrists as he pulled her out of the car and started towards the Kildare County Sheriff's Office, Katherine right on their heels.

Alex didn't have the strength to fight him as he yanked her through the front door, nor could she make herself glance back at her mother. She just let the burly man toss her into a holding cell near the entrance, only half listening as he went on about lawyers and other legal jargon.

Finally, he left her alone, and she kept her eyes on the dirty concrete floor, the hard wooden bench pressing into her tailbone.

She knew that her mother was in the room with her, she could feel her stare without even lifting her chin.

"Are you going to rub it in? That you won?" Alex had to grit her teeth to keep her voice at a cordial volume.

Katherine let out a sharp breath. "See, Alex, this is exactly why I couldn't tell you about it in the first place, or tell you about your father and I's split; you're so immature. To think that there is any winning here." She laughed dryly.

Alex's jaw worked as she lifted her eyes to meet her mother's. "Dad found the papers too, didn't he? So, you sent Ward after him? To attack him?"

She caught the ever-so-slight twitch in Katherine's brow.

"You don't know about the attack?" She dug her nails into her knees, leaning forward, closer to the bars. "You don't know that Ward went after Dad and tried to fucking kill him?"

Katherine blinked as her daughter's voice grew harsher. "What Ward does is none of my business anymore." She crossed her arms over her chest and averted her gaze.

Unable to stop herself, Alex jumped to her feet. "He attacked Dad, Mom. He stabbed him five or six times all over his arms with a fucking fishing hook!"

Continuing to hug herself, Katherine didn't bat an eye. "Alex, you are messing with things that you don't understand. That you will never understand, not for a long time." She took a quick sweep of the room before continuing, her voice dropping into a whisper, "I did things, I can't hide that anymore, but I did it for us, for our family. You don't get it."

"No, Mom, I don't get it." Every word was rougher, more grating than the last. Alex took slow strides closer to her mother until she could wrap her fingers around the cold metal bars. "What about Big John? What about John B? How could you be so selfish to take that justice, that closure from him? He's just a kid, and you chose to ruin his whole life. He was going to spend forever wondering what had happened, just because you were too scared of Ward Cameron to do the right thing. But, hey, the money didn't hurt either."

Katherine shoved a finger at her. "You do not get to judge me, Alex. You think you know everything, but you don't."

"I think I know plenty." Alex pressed her forehead against the bars, showing her mom that she was not backing down.

Katherine straightened, her mouth forming a thin line.

"How do you expect me to get out of this?" Alex flung her hands in the air, motioning to the cell. "Are you really going to ruin my life too, just to prove your point? I already told you, I would give the papers back and I will forget about this. I won't forget what you did, I'll leave town with Dad as soon as possible, and never speak to you again, but I will let you keep on going with this delusion of peace. I won't bring any more proof to the cops, even though I could."

A chuckle slipped out of Katherine's lips. "You and I are so similar, Alexandria."

This made Alex's blood turn cold. "I am nothing like you." She snarled.

A small smirk ghosted over Katherine's face. "We're both liars." She nodded, like she was receding facts. "And we'll say anything to get what we want."

Alex couldn't speak. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. Her knuckles were turning white against the cell bars, and Katherine caught a glimpse of her daughter's irritation.

Katherine uncrossed her arms, feeling her confidence growing once again. "If you know enough, get yourself out of this. Goodbye, Alex."

And then, she left the room.

Alex stood there, completely still, in utter disbelief that her own mother, the woman that had raised her, would leave her in a cell to rot. She truly had no idea who her mom was, or ever had been, for that matter. Everything was a lie. Her father was in the hospital because of what Katherine had done, and now Alex was locked up, for God knows how long, because of her too.

Katherine had won.

Again.

Alex reared back her arm and let her fist collide with the bars, letting out a pained, "Fuck!"

She clutched her injured hand as she crumpled to the floor, feeling her cheeks dampen as the tears started to come, a harrowing sensation of hopelessness washing over her.

Alex cried for what felt like hours, and when her tears had been used up, she returned to the wooden bench, tucking herself into the corner and just staring at the wall, emotional exhaustion overtaking her.

The station was still empty, and she knew it was because of what happened to Peterkin, they were surely still scrambling to get everything in order, and find John B.

Nobody was coming for her. She wasn't getting out of this.

Three quick knocks against metal made her jump, nearly hitting her head on the concrete wall she had been leaning against.

"Alex? We've got to hurry, I dunno when someone will be getting back."

The figure standing at the bars talking to her was blurry in her glassy eyes, but the more she blinked the clearer the image got.

She pushed herself to her feet, surprise sending a new wave of energy through her. "JJ?"

"Yeah, it's me." He flashed a smile. "Now, let's go."

He reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out a ring of keys, dangling them in the air to show her. "I swiped these from the desk, they're all a mess right now, just leaving shit out."

Alex couldn't stop the smile that was taking over her face. "I really hope I'm not dreaming."

JJ started to fidget with the lock, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards. "Is dreaming of me a regular occurrence?"

She could almost laugh. "You wish."

The sound of the lock coming undone and the cell door sliding open cut off whatever JJ was about to say, but there was no time to waste, or to wonder. Alex slipped out of the door, grabbing the keys from JJ with a quick, "We can't leave these, they've got your fingerprints."

He nodded and let her pocket them, then the two of them rushed for the front door, towards freedom.

The warm air hit Alex's bare arms and face and she almost took a pause to soak it in, but JJ's fingers were around her wrist, pulling her to the right.

"Everybody else is at Tanneyhill, we're trying to get Sarah, since she was also there on the tarmac, she's our other witness. I'm assuming you lost your proof?"

"Yeah," Alex huffed, keeping pace with JJ, as he took a hard left through some alley. "My mom found everything, and she's probably burned it by now."

"I can't believe your mom would do this." JJ scoffed.

"I can't either." Alex's running faltered, and she almost lost her balance.

JJ stopped abruptly, turning towards her. "You gonna be okay?" His hands found her shoulders and he steadied her.

Alex chewed on the inside of her cheek, fighting the urge to cry as the memory of what her mother had done, and that all of this was really happening hit her once again. She forced herself to nod. "I'm okay. This isn't done yet."

JJ beamed at her. "That's the Alex that I know." He patted her bicep before starting down the alley again. Alex summoned all of her strength to follow him.

Alex thought her lungs were about to burst by the time she and JJ reached Tanneyhill. They both ducked behind a tree to catch their breath and get their bearings.

"Where's John B?" Alex whispered.

"The cops found Kie's car and so we split from him, he's hiding out on his own for now," JJ explained. "My dad's got an old boat in storage, and I'm gonna get the keys from him and John B is going to take the boat far away from here until all of this blows over or we clear his name or whatever. That is if we can't get Sarah to help us with proving he's innocent."

Alex leaned her head against the tree. "Whoa." She breathed. "I can't believe this is really happening."

"Yeah, me neither." JJ sighed, frustration lining his voice.

"Thank God you guys are here." Kiara's voice made both of them nearly jump out of their skin.

"Jesus," JJ clutched at his chest.

"Alex, you need to come with me." Kiara ignored his dramatics.

"What's the plan?" Alex rose to her feet.

"Sarah is locked in her bedroom, and we're gonna try to get her out or pass on a message or something," Kiara said, her tone filled with uncertainty. "And you should do it." She swallowed. "You're her best friend. She'll be glad to see you and you two can come up with something."

Alex nodded, determination squeezing in her chest. She knew what she had to do. She just gave a quick nod to Kiara, and then another to JJ, before taking off through the yard, crouching slightly to remain out of sight.

Once she had made it to the house, she pressed her back against the siding, slowly making her way towards the drainpipe that was attached to the second floor of the home.

Figuring she had not much else to lose, Alex put both feet around the bottom of the pipe and squeezed, hoisting herself up onto it. Inch by strenuous inch, she made her way up the drainpipe, her arms sore by the time she reached the small balcony that jutted out from her best friend's bedroom window.

She flung herself over the edge, landing flat on her stomach, gritting her teeth against her groans. Ignoring her searing muscles and sore abdomen, she crawled over to the window, pressing her cheek against it to look inside.

Sarah was inside, sitting on the edge of her bed. Alex's heart lurched and she gave a quick, quiet knock to the glass. Sarah flinched towards the noise, but her whole face softened when she saw who it was.

They shared a smile through the window, before Alex tapped on the bottom of the frame, where the latch was on Sarah's side. The blonde's face lit up when she realized what to do, but her expression fell when she tugged on the bolt and it didn't budge.

Alex's heart was in her stomach. "Your parents locked you up to keep you out of things too, huh?"

Sarah's brows pinched. "What?" Her voice was muffled by the glass.

"We have a lot to catch up on." Alex sighed.

Another muffled voice came from inside, this one deep and assertive. Ward. Alex's breath caught and Sarah quickly waved for her to hide. Alex dove to the side, out of the line of sight out the window, just as she heard the bedroom door open inside.

She bit down on her lip, trying to keep her rapid breathing under control. Sarah and her dad exchanged a few words, but Alex couldn't make out what they were saying. She let a few moments go by in complete silence before she returned to the window. Sarah was already waiting.

"There's a warrant out for John B's arrest." Alex swallowed.

Sarah's face cracked.

"But you were there. On the tarmac." Alex went on, desperate to get that look off of her best friend's face. "I was too, but the cops won't believe me anymore. Like I said, we have a lot to catch up on." She let out a breath, frustrated by their lack of time. "You're the one person that can clear his name. You have to get out of there, Sarah, and you can help him."

Sarah nodded slowly, her eyes glassy. "Where is he?"

"He's hiding." Alex answered. "But JJ has a boat and he's gonna help John B get off the island for now, and then you can help clear his name, and he can come back, okay? That's the plan. Do you understand?"

"I need to see him." She squeaked, her chin quivering.

"Sarah, do you understand?" Alex placed her palm flat against the glass.

With a hard gulp, Sarah pressed her hand right over Alex's, the window separating the touch. "I understand."

"Okay," Alex panted. "I'm staying with the Pogues, I'll see you soon."

Sarah slowly lowered her hand from the glass. "See you soon."

With one last nod, not really wanting to go, Alex slipped away from the window.

catie speaks!

....hi 🙃

sorry that this update has taken so long, i've been dealing with some health issues, but i finally had some time and energy to write!!!

please let me know your thoughts on this chapters, or any theories that you have! 🤭 tehe THE PLOT IS THICKENING NOWWWW

please vote and comment if you enjoyed, follow to be notified when i update! & i hope you have a really great day!!!

virtual hugs,
catie