chapter 26.
bring me to the edge of the ocean / they never had no dreams like these.

୨୧

"We're here!" chandler calls, stalling his (stolen) yacht in the middle of the ocean. "this is it!"

"huh?" jo stitches her eyebrows together. "i thought you said we were going back." jj looks between his sister and their father. "yeah, what the hell are we doing out here?"

"come around back." chandler gestures from the hold. "i wanna talk to you both."

"okay, but first can i see my phone?" jj calls up. "i gotta let my friends know when we're coming back, and that we found the little lens thing."

"yeah, sure thing." chandler doesn't sound very sure. "here, catch!" he tosses the phone down and jj lunges to grab it, but groff had tossed it straight out into the ocean. it lands in the water with a plop! and jj deflates. "sorry, my bad." groff apologizes, but he doesn't look very sincere. "i'll get you a new one. a better one—the upgrade. you too, posie. you ever had a phone before?" jo shakes her head. she'd never owned anything but clothing and too-small sneakers. "in fact, i'm going to replace everything you kids own. from now on, everything you have is going to be better. now come on!"

"okay, well, how long is this gonna take?" jj shoots josephine a look as the siblings round the boat, meeting up with chandler. "we gotta beat the tide to get back up the channel."

"okay, but first, hear me out." chandler retrieves a duffle bag from the cabin, setting it down atop a center table. "this crown is very valuable and there's a lot of pretty important people who will pay a lot of money for it."

josephine presses her tongue against sharpened front teeth. "i like the sound of that."

"i thought you might." groff chuckles. "i thought i was gonna need the corsairs to get it, but i think the three of us could get it on our own." he leans forward and jo smiles proudly. her father wanted to be around, to include her. she misses jj's wary look as chandler unzips his duffle bag. "but first things first...the moment of truth."

he removes the scroll from the rat-infested crypt and jo blanches. "uh, when'd you get that?"

"kiara gave it to me." chandler answers without skipping a beat. he's rehearsed this. "so we could check it with the lens."

josephine slowly looks to her brother, who is just as unconvinced. he shakes his head. told you so.

"it works!" chandler holds the lens over the map, gasping with pride. "i knew it." he waves at the siblings. "come look at this!"

jj steps in front of his sister. "let me see it, let me see it." he takes the necklace, peering through its glass lens. "mogador?"

"yes, that's essaouria." chandler explains. jo elbows jj, snatching the lens from his grip. "move, lemme see!" she holds it to her eye, peering through the glass. "it really does work, holy shit!"

"i have the location of the crown from murad himself." chandler wheezes, beside himself with  excitement. he steps back, pouring two glass of wine; one for jj, the other for himself.

the blonde boy takes one look at his excited sister and grows angry. how dare chandler get her hopes up, all so he could get his paws on her dead mothers necklace. "so this is why you really came back, huh? it was never about us." joeys gaze snaps to her father. she can never escape
greedy, cruel men.

"no, listen to me, son." groff interrupts, closing the gap between the siblings and himself. "the three of us together, we are unstoppable." he clinks his glass against jj's. "but we gotta hop to
it; we'll head east, to bermuda, and gas up."

josephine falters. "wait, like right now?"

"it's a long way to morocco." chandler shrugs. "we gotta get going, kid."

"we gotta pick up my friends." jj presses, glancing at jo and back to their father. "that's what we gotta do first. i mean, the map, the lens, they put in the work to get those too."

josephine adds on to her brother, understanding his worry. "wait, we're just gonna take it? we can't do that."

"of course we can!" groff promises with a light chuckle. "listen, once we find the crown, we'll give them what they deserve. don't worry about it."

"no, i can't do that. i can't steal from my friends." jj shakes his head and josephine watches their fathers face change. he doesn't look friendly anymore. "and also, i don't think kiara gave you the scroll. she wouldn't do that. so, what did happen?"

"you know, why would you let me tell you my plan if you weren't gonna come with me?" chandler scowls and his face grows dark.

jo steps closer to her brother. "he didn't let you tell 'em anything. you just did. that's on you."

"ah, there it is." chandler scoffs, kisses his teeth. "you're just like your mother, posie. actin' all innocent, like you're on my side, just to box me in in the end. i won't have it."

josephine takes a moment, staring into his dark eyes. she feels it, then: a settling feeling in her stomach, confirming the hunch she's had since the mausoleum. the hunch she guesses her brother had felt this whole time, but hadn't revealed for her sake. her protector, ever since jo was a little girl cowering in the corner, scared of her own father. but this time, she's no longer afraid.

joey mirrors chandlers dark eyes. she steps forward. "you killed her, didn't you?" she recalls her mothers corpse, laying still in her coffin all zombie-like. decade long dried blood lingering on her forehead; a connection reaching out for jo, whispering in her ear. he did it. he did it. "larissa, my mom. you killed her."

chandler draws his eyebrows together, stepping closer to josephine until they are toe to toe. if he's trying to scare her, it won't work. joey has met men far worse than chandler groff. "what?" he chuckles softly as though this was the most absurd thing he had ever heard.

that was all the confirmation josephine needed. she leans forward, away from her brothers touch lingering on her sleeve. middle of july and she's covered like it's november. protect,guard,defend. "i said you killed my mother, but i think you heard me loud and clear."

"larissa drowned." groff frowns. he steps forward, closing whatever remaining gap between himself and the girl. they are nose to nose, now. joeys heart still beats steadily; chandlers is pounding. "it was a terrible, terrible tragedy."

jj watches this exchange with a dreadful feeling in his stomach. he follows his fathers every move, gaze landing on a familiar tattoo inside the man's left wrist. "jo..."

"my girl." chandler cradles josephine's face in his hands. "my beautiful, beautiful girl." he grips her upper arms tightly.

"dad?" jj calls, watching with horror as chandler effortlessly scoops his sister up into his arms. "dad, put her down!"

jo barely has time to register the panicked look on her brothers face before she's tossed in the ocean below, shrieking as she falls. "no!"

jj lunges for the man on instinct, but chandler's ready. he latches onto the teens shoulders and shoves him backwards, tumbling off the boat after his sister. on his way down his arm is sliced by a fishing spear, blood staining the deck and pooling in the water around him.

chandler rushes inside the cabin, gunning the engine. jj ignores the throbbing pain in his shoulder, desperately searching for his sister. "jo! joey!"

vibrio vulnificus is a flesh-eating bacteria that thrives in warm coastal waters and can lead to infection and death within just two days. this bacteria is easily transmitted through open wounds; one in every five infected persons will die, and josephine fears she will be this one. she could feel the salt water enter her open wound; the bandaid had slipped off when chandler threw her into the air.

she pops to the surface, flailing her arms wildly. she can't swim, and she can't stop thinking about the flesh-eating bacteria she must've just contracted. "jj! jj!" she's screaming at the top her lungs and her brother hears the panic in her tone, ignoring his injured arm as he swims to her side. "i got you, jo, i got you."

"no, you don't understand!" she jabs her pointer finger towards his face. "the bandaids gone. i'm gonna get vibrio vulnificus and go into septic shock and lose my finger or hand or arm and die!" she bobs back under the water, struggling to remain afloat. when she reappears, jo begins violently coughing, spitting up ocean water she had inhaled. "and now i'm ingesting it!"

using his good arm jj grabs his panicking sister just as she dips back under, holding her up with all his strength. "jo, you need to take a deep breath. you're gonna make yourself sick."

"i can't!" the distraught child shrieks. she hadn't even noticed the tears streaming down her face; it was all the same. salt and salt. josephine can't breathe. the bacteria is in her throat, under her skin, clinging to her soaking clothes. it would become her. "j-i can't!"

"motherfucker." jj curses under his breath. he needed her to calm down. "jo, look at me." teary blue eyes briefly focus on his own before darting back to the water and her wounded finger. jj reaches for it, folding it into his palm and squeezing. "deep breaths, jo. c'mon, you got it."

josephine's focusing too hard on breathing to notice his injured arm supporting her body weight or the blood swimming with them. she copies her brothers breathing, closing her eyes as she exhales.

when she's calm, jj looks trains his gaze on his sisters eyes. "jo, i promised nothing bad would happen to you, all right? you're—we're gonna be fine. the pogues are gonna find us."

"you don't know that." josephine's voice breaks. "every time you promise something, bad things do happen."

"i know. i wasn't there to protect you." jj inhales sharply. he knew he was to blame for whatever happened during her four years away. "but i'm here now, okay? as long as i'm here, nothing bad will ever happen again." he reaches out, brushing away her falling tears.

josephine takes a shaky breath. "promise?"

"promise." the older boy smiles softly. "you know, if you ever wanna talk about whatever happened in charleston, you can. with me, i mean."

"i kicked a man in the nuts once." jo admits. she can't talk about the why, but this part made her proud. "and set a bitches mattress on fire."

jj laughs in surprise. "you what?"

"they deserved it." there's a smug smile on her face and if she wasn't his sister, jj may have been afraid. "they were shitty."

"good." jj can't hide his pride. "you know, you're kinda scary."

"learnt it from you."

"if we weren't about to, like, literally, i'd drown you right now."

"jj! joey!" the siblings perk up at the calls of their names ringing out from a fast approaching boat.

josephine in the first to recognize its occupants. "kie! sarah! over here!"

"we're coming!" the teens reach the stranded siblings, quickly helping them aboard. john b pulls an injured jj up while kiara reaches a hand out to josephine, who is unable to swim to the boats ladder on her own. the brunette tightly holds onto the child, leading her closer to the vessel until she can grasp it to pull herself on board.

almost as if he could read her mind, pope silently tosses josephine the boats first aid kit. he watches her tear into it, ripping open a box of bandaids like a normal thirteen year old would a box of chocolate. and as the others tend to jj's wound, he pulls an unopened box hand sanitizer from his back pocket and tosses that to jo, too.

pope heyward is officially josephine's favorite.

(for now, at least.)