The pogues woke the next morning to a John B-shaped lump on the dock. They'd looked for him all night, only for him to sneak home right under their noses.

JJ nudged him awake with the toe of his boot, and the Routledge boy stirred, lifting his head from the life jacket he was using as a pillow.

"We were looking for you all night," Kiara said, stifling a yawn. They couldn't have gotten more than four hours of sleep, and Slater felt like she'd been steamrolled. There was no coffee to be found in the chateau's bare cupboards, and she was running on empty.

"We must have just missed each other," Slater said, taking a seat beside John B as the boy sat up, stretching out his limbs, stiff from a night sleeping on the hard wooden planks of the deck.

He shrugged. "I guess I just wanted to spend the night out under the stars," John B said, staring out across the water. Also, the chateau was full of reminders of Big John, and it was probably too painful for him to sleep under its roof after learning of his father's fate. "Where's Pope?" John B asked, glancing between JJ, Slater, and Kiara.

"Scholarship interview," Kiara replied, her lips pressed together in a thin line.

"Oh," John B said, his shoulders slumping. "Well, I have some news."

"Please tell me you didn't shoot Ward Cameron," JJ joked, a failed attempt to lighten the mood.

If John B noticed the joke, he didn't acknowledge it. "The gold is gone."

The words sent Slater's stomach to her throat. "The gold is gone?" she echoed.

John B nodded. "Ward got to it before we did."

"How?" JJ asked, angrily slamming his hand down on the dock railing. "We just found it. How the hell did Ward find it?"

"When I talked to him yesterday, he let it slip that he knew about it. I ... I don't know how he figured it out, but he did," John B said, sighing.

"Was it Sarah?" Slater asked in a quiet voice, asking the question no one wanted to say aloud.

John B shook his head fiercely. "No."

"What the hell does a man like Ward Cameron need with the gold?" JJ asked. "Doesn't he have enough already?"

"There's never 'enough' with a man like Ward," Kiara said.

"I can't believe this," Slater said, watching John B sympathetically. "We ... we did all this work. We were so close."

Slater's stomach dropped, and she felt like someone had knocked the wind out of her. All of this? All of this, for nothing? She'd stolen evidence from the police station. She'd lied to her family numerous times. Hell, her parents probably hated her. She'd told herself it would all be okay, once they had the gold.

And now ...

Ward Cameron had the gold.

There'd be no reconciliation with her father. There'd be no getting out of Kildare. There'd be no world trip with JJ. Hell, would there even be a future with JJ? Or would her father actually send her away, never to see any of the pogues again?

"Isn't that how it always goes, though?" JJ said, slumping against the railing. "People like Ward keep on winning. People like us never even have a chance."

"He got everything?" Kiara asked.

"Every bar," John B said, defeated. "The whole enchilada."

John B had been playing with his cast, and before Slater could even tell him to be careful, the cast slid off, and John B's arm was free. She didn't figure it was a good time to tell him he should see a doctor. None of the pogues ever seemed particularly concerned for their own well being.

"Guys!"

A loud voice boomed down the dock, accompanied by hurried footsteps. Slater turned to see Pope running towards them, wearing what was likely his interview clothes, soaked in sweat.

"Oh God, I ran all the way here," he gasped, doubling over as he caught his breath.

"How was the interview?" JJ asked.

"Don't ask," Pope snapped, turning to John B. "JB, look, I'm sorry dude."

"It's fine."

"Look, I have information that is tactically relevant. Before my interview, my dad said he was going down to the airstrip to cut palms for the Camerons' big plane. It was too heavy, and it needed more space to take off. So I'm sitting there, during my interview, thinking about why the plane would be too heavy ..."

"The gold!" John B exclaimed, sitting up quickly.

"This is our chance. It leaves tonight."

"We can't give up now," Kiara said, an excited smile filling her face.

"How are we going to stop a plane?" Slater questioned in an attempt to stop the hope that was rising in her chest. They couldn't get their hopes up. They couldn't let their dreams be crushed again.

"What's the plan?" JJ asked, turning to John B.

Slater was excited, and scared, to see the familiar twinkle back behind John B's eyes. "We're going to steal that shit back."

The pogues beamed at each other, but Slater found it hard to put a smile on her face. What the hell were a group of kids going to do to stop Ward Cameron?

She said as much.

"How are the five of us going to stop Ward Cameron?"

"Ye of little faith, Cambry," JJ said, slinging an arm around the girl's shoulder.

"Yeah, this is still going to take me some getting used to," John B joked, gesturing between JJ and Slater. "The two of you not arguing with each other every fifteen seconds."

"Don't worry John B, we still do that," Slater said, laughing.

"Amongst other things," JJ said, grinning suggestively.

"Shut up, JJ," Slater groaned, hoping to God that JJ would never tell his best friend what exactly they'd gotten up to in John B's room.

"Can we get back to the gold, or do you two need more time exploring this enemies to lovers romance novel idea?" Pope quipped, a smirk on his face.

Slater's cheeks flushed and she resisted the urge to nosedive into the marsh and hide underwater. She knew there'd be teasing from the pogues, but that didn't make her cheeks any less prone to blushing.

"We managed to find the gold, didn't we?" JJ said, redirecting the conversation. "Stealing it back should be no problem."

"Yeah, no problem, J," Slater repeated. "Except for the fact that Ward Cameron is obviously a dangerous man, a rich one, at that, with a huge ass airplane. What do we have, besides the Twinkie?"

JJ stilled beside her, and she glanced over, noticing his blue eyes were clouded over. Her stomach twisted nervously, as she recognized that face. There was a plan formulating in his brain somewhere, and JJ's plans always made her nervous.

"Well, first things first, we have to get to the airstrip," John B said. "Once the plane is in the air, there is absolutely nothing we can do. We've gotta keep it on the ground."

The pogues piled into the Twinkie and headed towards the outskirts of the island, where the small airstrip was. Slater had never been there, and she guessed the same for the others. It was pretty much reserved for people that had things they wanted to get off or bring to the island without drawing too much attention. Even most of the kooks that were rich enough for private planes opted to fly out of the airport on the mainland, probably for safety concerns.

She wasn't sure what exactly John B and JJ had in mind, but however the pogues were going to try and stop the Cameron plane from taking off was likely to be a risky move. If Ward was as vicious as John B said he was, they were in danger.

She reached nervously for JJ's hand, the calluses and rings comforting to her now. "Please tell me you won't do anything reckless with the gun," she whispered.

His blue eyes refused to meet hers.

"JJ," she urged, squeezing his hand gently. "Promise me."

She knew the boy was prone to careless spontaneity. That was just who he was. But Slater cared far too much about JJ to watch him get hurt.

"I won't do anything unless necessary," he finally replied, doing nothing to settle Slater's nerves. Finally, his eyes locked on her. "And I won't let anything happen to you."

She believed that he wouldn't let anything happen to her -- but she knew he wouldn't place the same attention on his own well-being, and perhaps that was what scared her the most.

"Yeah, it's what you're willing to let happen to you that I'm worried about."

The pogues arrived at the airport, which was gated off from the road. John B parked the Twinkie in front of the fence, and they peered through the windshield at the landing strip. Sure enough, a private plane sat on the runway. There was no indication that it belonged to the Camerons, but they knew it was.

And the gold was on it.

"What's the plan?" Kiara asked as the pogues hopped out of the van and made their way to the fence that surrounded the airport.

A team of men loaded boxes into the plane -- the gold. An SUV appeared, and Ward Cameron hopped out. He spoke to one of the men for a minute, before shaking his hand and heading towards the plane.

"Is Ward going to fly the plane himself?" Slater wondered aloud.

The passenger door on the Camerons' Range Rover opened, revealing a familiar blonde girl. Slater heard John B's breath hitch behind her.

"Sarah."

They watched as Ward and Sarah argued, both of their voices raising. Ward grabbed Sarah and shoved her onto the plane.

"He's hurting her," John B muttered as he ran back to the Twinkie.

"What are you doing, man?" Pope asked as the Routledge boy started the van. He brought it up to speed, ramming through the airport fence. Slater and the others jumped back, narrowly avoiding a collision with the van. He pulled the van out onto the runway, driving it towards the plane.

"What the hell is he doing?" JJ asked as they all stood there, helpless as John B drove towards the plane, which was taking off.

"Oh my God, he's going to get himself killed," Slater said, watching in fear as he pulled the van in front of the plane's take-off space. The plane lurched to a stop, narrowly missing the Twinkie by a few feet.

Sirens sounded in the distance, bringing Slater out of her fear-stricken state.

"We have to go," Kie said, turning back towards the road. "It's no good if we're all in jail."

Pope nodded in agreement, but JJ stood still, silently facing the runway.

"Come on, J," Slater said, setting a hand on his arm.

A frown on his face, JJ nodded and grabbed his backpack, before following the others away from the runway, leaving John B to face the Camerons alone. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ author's note ✫・゜・。.

we're really getting close to the end of season one, and i'm trying to figure out how slater's story fits in with the rest of the season! 

i don't really have much to say here, so i guess i'll just say thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought!

xx,

madi