Lost At Sea 2 ⋆ JJ Maybank

𝕰pilogue

September 4th, 2020

Kathryn stands on a deserted beach.

The island they found is bountiful. Coconuts as far as the eye can see, fish not shy enough to swim away. The rainforest behind them can provide them shelter if it rains, if it storms.

JJ staggers as they tug the boat on land. Kathryn holds out her arms behind him, a frown on her face. "Take it easy, sunshine."

He blinks, nodding. "Yeah. Still a little dizzy."

She bites down her lower lip, worry pooling in her veins. "You could have a concussion. If you have a concussion on a deserted island, I'm going to be so pissed."

He pats her shoulder. "I know, KD. Okay, anybody know where we're at?"

They sit down in a circle, on the sand. Kathryn's low cut jeans are less than ideal, especially now that they're soaked.

"Deserted beach," Pope says, taking his shirt off. "Unknown island."

"All right, I'll take that as a no." He shakes his head, staying up as his girlfriend sits down. "Plan A, huh, Pope? That went well."

Pope scoffs. "Well, you could've helped if you weren't out the window the second I said you could go get Kat." Kathryn blushes slightly, sighing.

"This is, officially, the lowest we can go," she says, stabbing a stick into the sand. "Stranded. Jeans sticking to my skin like latex. Sand all the way up my buttcrack, oh this is bad. Give me ten minutes to overthink and the panic attack is on."

"We literally have nothing else to lose," Pope agrees. "The Cross? Gone."

"The gold," Sarah goes on. "Gone."

"Houses, beds, showers, gone." Kathryn nods. "The overthinking is on, guys, get ready to hold my hair when I throw up."

"Seriously, if we had a nickel for every time we got beat up, I'd say we're at a dollar fifty," JJ ironises, carving something on the palm tree next to him, with his swiss knife.

Kie shrugs. "That's more than I got on me."

"That somehow doesn't make me feel better," Sarah tells her.

"Yeah, you're right," John B lets out. "But I mean, we've... we've had some good stuff happen, right?"

Kathryn whistles. "Can't name a thing off the top of my head."

"Uh... Uh, the boiler room." He turns to Cleo. She stares back at him. "What? If the boiler didn't explode, I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe. I couldn't have gotten the Zodiac and gotten us out of here."

She shakes her head, laughing. "That wasn't luck," she says in a thick Bajan accent. "That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it."

"Stealing my thunder, Cleo."

"Sorry." She doesn't sound like it. Kathryn likes her.

"Okay. Pope." Pope looks like someone stole his lunch. Or, you know, someone who's stranded on a deserted island. "You're related to Denmak Tanny."

"And I lost all his inheritance."

"You know what?" He stands up, ready to give a speech, Kathryn can tell. "Guys, this is it. This is the Pogue life. We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of paradise. With my best friends, with my family. I don't know. I wouldn't wanna do it with anyone else."

The Darcy girl purses her lips. "Wouldn't wanna do it all, to be honest."

"Yeah, well, while you guys were complaining about every little thing... JJ?" His best friend hums. John B points at the sea. "I was looking at those burly lefts."