I awoke to the sounds of machines beeping, and the smell of antiseptic. I blinked, looking around. I was in a hospital room, and judging from the light streaming in from the open window, it was mid afternoon. JJ was lying half asleep in the chair beside the cot, looking exhausted.

Once he realized I was awake, he jolted out from sleep. He quickly explained how they were blaming John B on the murder of Sheriff Peterkin and how I'd gotten shot, instead of Rafe.

"And why not you?" I asked curiously after swearing vehicularly at Ward.

"Dunno," JJ said, shrugging. "Guess Ward has something personal after John B."

By "Something personal" meant Sarah Cameron as his girlfriend, I'd bet. I asked where the others were, and JJ said they were out hiding John B in Kiara's mom's car. Sarah was trapped in the Cameron house with her dad, and of course, he and I were here in the hospital.

"We still have the plane though, right?" I said hopefully.

JJ looked away, "It took off. With the gold to the Bahamas."

"Fuck," I swore, angrily clenching the hospital sheets. "What a minute," I said brightly, sitting up. "We still have my Dad! He'll believe me, for sure," I said confidently.

"I dunno, Mercedes ..." JJ said, weirdly distant with me. "Weren't you guys having—"

"—Beef?—"

"—Yeah, and like, weren't you on probation, and ran off a ton and shit?"

"No one fucking asked you, JJ!"

"Just sayin'," JJ raised his hands in surrender.

"He will believe me. I'm his daughter!" I said.

"If you say so."

"Would you stop being so serious already?! Okay, fine, we lost the gold! John B's out for 'attempted murder'! But at least I'm still alive, huh?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, 'at least'," JJ rolled his eyes.

"What about at the tarmac, huh?!" I rounded on him. "I was bleeding out and you were all 'Oh, no, don't die Mercedes," I mimicked JJ's deep tone.

"Whatever," JJ shoved his hands in his pockets, looking away.

"No, not whatever! I don't get you, why're you being so normal around me?"

"I'm not—" JJ argued, but someone interrupted him.

My Dad entered the hospital room through the door, worriedly, and JJ had to dive under the cot to hide. He gave his usual worried greeting, asking how I was feeling, but then I got to the point.

"Dad," I suddenly sat up straighter. "You know Ward was lying about John B, right?"

"Honey, I think you've had a very rough couple of hours, and you should take it down a notch," Dad said cautiously.

"Oh come on! It wasn't John B who shot Peterkin or me, it was Rafe."

"Mercedes," Dad said, skeptical.

"I'm the fucking one who got shot, and lived! I was there at the tarmac too! Don't tell me you're listening to Ward over me?!"

"Ward said you were out for most of it, sweetie ..."

"What the fuck Dad?! Are you actually serious right now? Listen to yourself!"

"I didn't know what to think, alright? And you've been on probation, running off all the time, I—I can't trust you anymore!"

"You—you can't trust me anymore?" My voice broke.

"No, Mercedes. And I'm sorry, alright? But missing these shifts, running around with the Pogues, it just isn't going to cut it. And so when Ward says that John B's been shooting off at everyone, honey, he's a lot older, a lot more experienced so—"

"Get out!" I screamed at him. "If you won't listen to your own fucking daughter, then I never want to see you again! Get out!"

"I—alright," he left.

I stood up, grabbed the bag of IV off the hook, and JJ popped out of the closet. "Let's get out of this fucking hell hole."

"Um—you sure?" JJ was weirdly cautious.

"I can't deal with him anymore," I said. JJ unlatched the hospital window, and we both climbed out, escaping the bubble wrap prison I'd always been a part of, but officially leaving it forever.

↬——✾——↫

As JJ helped me limp along to the road to meet up with the Pogues (I'd still had my recent bullet shot and it was a bit sore), I carried the still dripping IV stream in one hand, and my phone in the other.

Dad must've realized I was missing from the hospital and had bolted, and wouldn't stop spamming my phone with phone calls and texts. In response, I just threw the phone down on the asphalt, so it cracked and broke into a dozen tiny pieces. JJ just stared at me for a second, before shrugging and continuing on.

"Hang on one sec," I made him stop by the local convenience store so I could pick up something.

"Seriously?! A polaroid camera?" JJ peeked over my shoulder as I grabbed it from the shelf.

"I need to take pics, and at least Dad can't track this," I said, paying for the camera. "Say cheese!" I snapped it at him, and JJ posed. "You look high," I snickered over the picture.

"I am high!"

↬——✾——↫

We met up with John B, Kiara, and Pope hidden under a garage. We quickly formed a plan to help John B escape from the OBX, since cops were after him as a suspected murderer. JJ and I would be getting The Phantom, an old boat of his dad's, Pope the gas, and Kiara food, while John B would split up from us to hide. We knew Sarah was still locked up at the Cameron's, and decided we'd get to her later.

JJ and I took off in Kiara's mom's car, driving down the cut to Luke's place. As I drove the car onto the front yard, I kept looking around. I'd never been to JJ's house before, and I didn't think he was here often, or brought people over at all.

JJ started to get out of the car, but I stopped him. "You okay?"

"Yeah. This'll only take a second," he said, opened the car door and left.

I sat there for a second, thinking to myself that maybe I should've gone into the house. But then again, who was I kidding? JJ hated me, I had said I'd hated him ... but from what I remembered from the tarmac, he'd been all over me!

Not "all over me". He'd acted like he actually cared!

But then he and John B had run off, leaving me bleeding out on the pavement. I got why, of course, Ward and Rafe shooting after both of them, but it still kind of sucked.

I didn't know what was going on inside me, I was just so confused about everything, my feelings and thoughts just kept swirling round and around. JJ, on the other hand, wasn't being a complete asshole to me like he usually was. I mean, yeah, I guess I usually was a little bitchy around him too, but after the whole incident where Peterkin died, everything sort of died down. (Pun not intended).

I guess I decided that being completely evil to JJ was a little childish. For god sake, Peterkin had died. I had almost died. But that whole stupid feud with JJ over little small dumb things just didn't seem that big as they had before.

I just hoped JJ thought that way too.

↬——✾——↫

JJ got back into the car, his eyes a little red. When I asked how it all went, he went a little quiet, but said he'd gotten the keys. Usually, he would've snapped back at me all "none of your beeswax!", but this time, he was a lot more civil. A lot more polite.

We drove all the way to where The Phantom was being stored. Pope and JJ were supposed to meet us there to bring the boat to John B, where he would eventually escape out with Sarah down the Mexico, hopefully.

The garage was darkly lit, and when JJ flicked on the lights, he gave a dramatic entrance for The Phantom. He explained how 'She' was this ancient athlete or something, I wasn't sure.

I went around the boat to the other side, when suddenly two motorcycles pulled up into the garage. At first, I thought it was Kiara and Pope and went to greet them. But once their helmets were removed, I jerked back. It was Barry and Rafe, and judging by the murderous looks on their faces, they were not happy.

"Where the fuck is John B?!" Rafe roared.

I stumbled backwards, running back to where JJ was. "I don't know."

"I know what he did! That bitch is gonna pay," Rafe roared, and he and Barry advanced on both JJ and I.

"Get the hell away!" I said, my voice strangely high-pitched. Rafe had shot me afterall, and admittedly, I was terrified of him.

Barry tackled JJ, throwing punch after punch to JJ's face. I advanced after the drug dealer, but Rafe stopped me, kicking me to the ground. He continued to ask for John B, screaming his head off like a psycho.

"I know what you did," I snarled up at him, spitting out a bit of blood. "So don't think you can run."

For a second, Rafe looked a little terrified, but then this calm, scary look took over his face. "I should've killed you when I had the chance."

Suddenly, Rafe was knocked to the ground, and I leaned against the boat, gasping. Kiara stood over Rafe, a murderous look on her face as she clutched a crowbar. "Stay away from us, you hear me?!" Kiara screamed, hitting Rafe again with the crowbar. "You stay the fuck away!"

Pope knocked Barry off JJ, and the three of us cornered Barry and Rafe. "Go." They ran, scampering off.

We hooked The Phantom up to the back of Kiara's mom's car, and drove it out to the dock, where John B met us. It was late evening, and the sun was setting a pretty array of orange and red across the ocean. Pope had gotten the gas, so he rigged that up to the boat, and Kiara had three week's worth of food stored up for John B and Sarah.

John B showed up, and after a quick goodbye, he took off on The Phantom where he would be picking up Sarah.

JJ and I continued to wave goodbye from the dock, when suddenly I heard the sound of smooching. Both JJ and I spun around to see Pope and Kiara full on making out. I stared at JJ, mouthing What the fuck?!

"Uh—guys, cops!" JJ ignored me and pointed to the whole squad of police and FBI cars pulling up beside the dock to us, and Pope and Kiara broke apart, blushing.

I guess they were a thing now?

"Where's John B?! He was just here!" A Deputy ran out, bellowing at us.

"We're too late," another one swore.

"He just left," an FBI agent agreed.

"You! Kids—where was he heading?!" Suddenly, my father appeared.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I said coldly, stepping away from him.

Dad seemed to realize it was me, "Mercedes!" He ran towards me, but I stepped away from him, and instead to the Pogues.

"You're too late," I told him.

"Mercedes, you need to come back to the hospital—you're injured, and it's not safe," Dad stressed.

"No," I said. "You don't even trust me anymore," I spat.

"Honey—not here," Dad darted his eyes around to his fellow coworkers.

"Yeah, that's right!" I yelled, ignoring Kiara and Pope's hushes to quiet me. "Rafe Cameron was the one who killed Peterkin and shot me. Yeah," I snarled at Dad. "You seem to have forgotten that. I was there at the tarmac. Not fucking you! Me. So believe me or don't, because you know I'm right!" I tried to advance at Dad to kick him but JJ held me back.

"Come back to the hospital. Come home," Dad said softly.

"No."

Dad got an ugly look on his face. "All of you will get in the police cab! Now!" He bellowed, and we were thrown into the back of a police cab, unwillingly, and brought to the edge of the island instead. Apparently, Sarah had met up with John B and both of them were in The Phantom, zooming through the OBX's waters. The police and FBI were patrolling the waters, trying to look for them to arrest, while we were being kept in order to interview us for relative information.

As the night grew on, we kept hearing the yelling of fellow officers. Apparently, they had found The Phantom, and there was a crazy storm outside. Rain and wind, and in the dark, it was dangerous to have boats out in the waters. Priorities increased to get John B and Sarah back to the mainland, but John B had told me that "he'd rather die than be in jail".

So JJ, Kiara, Pope, and I sat in chairs nearby, twiddling our thumbs, and worrying, hoping that John B and Sarah would make it out alive.

"They'll be fine," I convinced myself, as the rain howled outside and lightning flashed.

"Yeah," JJ nodded.

"They'll be fine," Kiara repeated.

Pope didn't say anything.

Finally, when it was nearly 12PM, Dad walked up to us with a couple other officers, somber faces as they took off the hood's of their raincoats in respect.

We all stood up, and JJ asked, "Did you catch them?"

Dad just shook his head, and JJ started to cheer. But I just stared at his expression. "What is it?"

"We ... uh, we lost 'em." Dad said.

"What do you mean, you lost them?!" Kiara screamed.

"I'm sorry," the other officer said.

John B and Sarah had been lost at sea. They had drowned.

"It's your fault, Dad! You—" I cried, starting to cry.

"You chased them out! You made them die," JJ yelled, and Pope had to restrain him from attacking Shoupe.

Kiara just burst into tears, and eventually, her and Pope's parents appeared. Kiara's parents enveloped her into a hug, and she sobbed, "They're dead! They're dead."

Pope's parents hugged him, and I could see his shoulders shake with his huge, heaving, sobs.

I just turned to look at my own father, my own eyes filled with tears, and he only opened his arms. "I'm sorry, Mercedes," he said emotionally.

I turned away, and instead, wrapped my own arms around JJ. "I can't b—b—believe it," I sobbed. JJ only cried, heavily, tears soaking into my shirt, as we both clutched each other, embracing each other.

Kiara and Pope's parents were hugging their own children, and JJ and I were ... alone. My own father was an asshole, JJ even worse, and especially at times like this I needed someone. We both needed someone, and we were there for each other.