Chapter Text
5 times JJ came home and 1 time he did not have to.
x.
When graduating high school, Kiara thought she would have at least two solid months with her friends before all splitting up to do their own things. Those plans went to complete shit weeks before graduation when JJ walked inside the Chateau.
His left hand holding back the thick of his hair as his right holds a wrinkled stack of papers. His eyes reaching his friends as he shook it at them, eyes wide.
“I got in.”
“Got in? Got in where?” John B repeats as Pope vaults himself off the counter to grab the packet from JJ’s hand reading it himself, Kie looks at JJ while JB reads the beginning sentence aloud.
“Dude, you got into the navy!” Pope interrupts the reading to snatch it into his own hands to read it on his own, to himself, and nearly dropped it out the still-open door when he pulled JJ into a hug.
Kie can remember that moment more vividly than she can remember their own graduation day.
Having JJ meet her eyes while Pope and then John B joining in from behind, both screaming in excitement for their friend, but Kie just stared. A genuine smile pulled on her face because she was happy for him, he had worked hard to get in.
This was good for him.
But damn, deep down she was going to miss the son of a bitch.
They all missed him, for all long 8 months he had been gone. Come to find out the navy needed eight weeks of boot camp, and once graduation was complete, they went straight to school.
A School is what they called it, or in JJ’s words, “A for the elite.”
To which even over the phone Ki could hear his smile just as loud as he heard her eyes roll.
“You’re ridiculous”
“Yeah, but you miss it.” She did, not speaking to him for eight weeks felt wrong, and then another six months without seeing him. Now that feeling was painfully weird.
For six months Pope had gone off to college and surprisingly so had John B, but Kie was convinced it was because Sarah had him convinced within five seconds of mentioning college together. It was cool for them both though, Kie couldn’t deny that. Sarah and JB had applied to a college right off the Florida/Georgia line, right in the heart of St. Augustine.
Kook school one hundred percent but John B stayed true to his roots, staying off-campus in a shack out of the mainstream, practically living on the beach.
Pope had gone off to a school in Virginia in a fraternity house that he had joined, while still managing to upkeep his scholarship and GPA.
Kie on the other hand had found herself having a buffer year.
A year to figure it all out… or at least a part of it.... or any of it.
“Let's get the hell out of here, you’ve only got my ass for a few weeks.” JJ waves her towards the door. “We gotta make the most of our time, starting with me drinking a whole damn keg... now let's go Kie. Time is precious.”
-----
Fifteen days and many Boneyard parties later they’re laid out in the hammocks behind the Chateau at almost three am after one of JJ’s last parties down at the yard until next time.
She wasn’t even sure when the next time all three of them would even be together in their place. Unpredictability seemed to be the new normal with them.
The group was quiet after their wild night at the Boneyard and while Kie wasn’t sure they were all passed out yet, she took advantage of listening to the peaceful sound of the water not so far from where they were laying.
She thinks of JJ first and how it’s him she’s most concerned about not knowing when she’d see him next, which is unusual considering just a year ago she was convinced it would be the two of them taking on the OBX without Pope and John B... and now it was just her.
He was still the same JJ, the sarcastic asshole who still squatted at a mosquito as if he was fighting off a bat. What was different though was his long surfer-like hair was buzzed down to a closer shave.
When they would ride the waves Kie would find herself staring longer at his thicker calves (oh and thighs) and taking notice to his fuller abdomen and not in a way that she’s even noticed before or had seen him fill out before. It was absolutely more muscular.
He looked healthier, almost happier but not lighter.
Both mentally and physically.
He was quieter than usual at points he used to be the life, but he was still his self, and it didn’t make any sense to Kie how that could all be at once but that’s the best way she could explain it in her mind.
“Beer for your thoughts?” Kie offered the cup plopping down on a log beside him. John B looks over to JJ as soon as the words come out of her mouth as does Pope.
So maybe she isn’t the only one who noticed.
“I miss the weed.” JJ bitterly takes the offered beer and nearly chugs it within seconds.
JB laughs, throwing an arm onto JJ’s shoulder shaking it a bit.
“Our dude is just fine.” He laughs taking JJ’s now empty cup. “I’ll go get you some more, bro.”
“It’s not so bad without it.” Pope shrugs but JJ didn’t quite agree with that statement.
“He’s wrong, it kind of sucks.” Kie smiles over at her best friend, he’d always been her smoking partner and now she realizes that it’s another thing that’s changed. Good to know that it’s unwanted change but nonetheless it’s... different.
Pope and JJ’s friendship shifted a bit, it was odd to explain. Nothing really changed, they were still best friends, but their conversations changed. Two days into being home they had all taken the Pogue out on the water that day and on their way out Kie just laid out to listen to their conversations.
The whole way out they chattered about the mechanics and structure of the boat.
About how the boat hadn’t had any updating since, “ who the hell knows when let's do it. Let’s give the son of a bitch a makeover.”
Just like that, the HMS Pogue had become their project the minute they got home from their trip out.
Pope, John B, and JJ all started planning the remodel of the Pogue because it’s what John B’s dad would have wanted... Kie tried to keep up but in all honesty, she just didn’t really care that much. Sarah thankfully joined her that day on the sidelines and it turned out that it wasn’t some silly little idea they had that they’d forget about in a day's time.
No.
The remodel ended up taking the majority of their weeks together and it didn’t bother Kie all that much not being involved. She and Sarah would join in helping with things they wanted to help with and other times they’d paddleboard out and around them to just lay in the sun listening to the boy's music at distance, talking.
It has been one of their best times together altogether, but it was dwindling down quickly.
Kie whispers JJ’s name from the other side of the hammock.
“Mmm?” He mumbles taking another sip from his now warm beer before throwing it into the yard.
Good, he’s awake.
She thinks about her words before speaking but JJ nudges her knee with his foot, impatient.
“Just spit it out Kie.”
“I’m really proud of you.”
It’s silent and there is a dim bit of regret in Kie when she just spits it out like that. But it’s true and something she’s been trying to find the words to say to him the past few weeks about how far he has come just in the span of less than a year away from home.
JJ still hadn’t acknowledged the words she had just given him and now it was her turn to nudge his knee.
“I mean it. I’m so proud of you and I can see how much you have grown since leaving. I want you to know that…” Kie shifts so she’s laying on her arm just barely having a better view of him under the moon. “You need to know that.”
He doesn’t fill the silence, so she continues.
“I’m actually a little envious of you.”
This makes him shift to match her form, so he is looking at her.
“Jealous, of me?” He mocks.
“I’m working doubles all week, literally wasting away at the Wreck while you are out doing all this cool shit. I mean… shit JJ soon enough you’re going to be able to build your own damn boat from scratch. Pope is out there getting his medical degree and even John B has been able to pull a Hail Mary to pull a decent first semester at college.” Kie sighs out of frustration, that she knows it’s every bit of her problem.
Kie reaches her spare hand down to grab JJ’s wrist, squeezing it.
“I’m just so fucking proud of you; I know that it’s not easy and that it’s not ideal to be gone so far in between but I’ve been watching you and this is only the beginning. You’re going to get out of this town JJ, I can feel it.”
He would be lying if he didn’t admit her words terrified him.
You’re going to get out of this town, JJ.
“What about you?” He speaks, and it’s this time that she is quiet waiting on him to explain. “Don’t you want to leave this place to try something new? I mean I didn’t expect to leave here ever, and I miss it every day, I miss you guys every day. But there’s something about knowing that I’ll come back that makes it a little easier.”
“It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, I just don’t know what I would want to do.”
“Yes, you do.” She couldn’t see his eyes roll but could hear it through the sigh of his voice. “You know what you want to do but you don’t know how to.”
“Oh yeah?” Kie challenges, “And what do you think I know I should be doing?”
“Oh, I don’t know, how about finally buying that damn tour that’s been saved to your desktop all summer.” JJ grabs Kie’s bare thigh, giving it a light shake. “That might be a start.”
“You’re annoying... so you were creeping on my desktop?”
“No Kie... you practically had it on display for everyone at Wreck to see.” He pulls her leg closer to his body and rests his head on her ankle while wrapping an arm around her leg so his hand resting on her knee. “All those shifts your working, wasting your life away must have earned you enough money to go... so why don’t you go?”
“I already booked it.” She whispers in a smile.
“About fucking time.” He squeezes her knee, and she swears that she could feel her stomach drop and not from admitting she was going. She’s one hundred percent possible that him touching her and his excitement did that.
“But...” Kie clears her throat a little to get her mind back on target,” That doesn’t mean much, who knows what I would even get out of the trip besides the experience.”
“That’s just it, you’ll get the experience of your fucking life with all the whales.”
“It’s going to be amazing.” Kie can’t help but get a little excited thinking about her trip to Alaska.
“Better get some warmer clothes.” JJ snorts pulling at the inside of her cut-up shorts, his fingers brushing the skin of her upper thigh.
Higher.
She bit her lip as soon as the thought came and went but a new one arises, wanting to clench her legs together keeping his fingers there but again as soon as that thought left his hand back on her thigh.
What the hell was that?
She tried distracting her brain by grabbing two beers from their cooler below opening one for him which he took with his empty hand and another for herself.
“So many new clothes... Sarah’s going to literally have a cow when she realizes the shopping to be had.”
“Eh...” JJ repulses “You have fun with that.”
----
She in fact did not have fun shopping but it was nice to not be out in the hot weather today watching them work on the boat again. Though it wasn’t also a complete bust because it was also fun to just hang out with Sarah away from the boys. They were all getting ready to go back to school for the next semester coming and Kie was now getting ready to go on her own adventure, then there was JJ who was going off to sea. Literally.
“Are you worried about JJ?” Kie asks Sarah as they’re making their way to another store to look for longer, warmer pants.
“I’m not sure what you mean, worried how?” Sarah asks linking her arm through Kie’s.
“I mean are you worried that he’s going to maybe get caught in a stupid situation that he can’t get himself out of? He’s joined the military for crying out loud, anything could happen.”
“I mean JJ does have his moments, but I mean I also think that maybe his history, our history of a few summers ago kinda... maybe helped shape him into having some common sense.” Sarah stops in front of the store. “Right?”
“God, I hope so.” Kie sighs looking up at the sign on the store before shaking her head. “Really Cameron?”
“What?” Her eyebrows shoot up in question.
“No way in hell I’m wearing anything from there.” She sneers at the name ‘Fauxy’s’ and pulls Sarah along to the next store. “I find it completely insulting for you to think that I would ever wear something like that, faux fur or not.”
“So dramatic Kiara...” Sarah huffs before finally falling into step to catch up.
----
Their last two days together flew by quicker than the time John B was thrown off a wave during Tropical Storm Helen. Before they knew it, Kie was shaving JJ’s hair in the front lawn from the grow-out that occurred during his leave. John B and Sarah were loading her car to get it ready for them to head back to college and Pope was to be here any minute to say goodbye.
Just like that, it was over, until the next time.
Kie brushed the extra hair out of his head and patted his shoulder to let him know she was done.
“Thank you.” He jumps up grabbing his t-shirt from the porch step, one with the arms cut out of it and she finds herself staring at his arms, and this time she was caught.
He winks at her just before pointing to the car pulling into the drive letting them know that Pope arrived.
“This is it for a while.” Sarah comes beside her grabbing her hand, resting her head on her friend's shoulder. They watch as JJ runs over to Pope’s car, slamming his hands on the hood of the car until it’s turned off and Pope’s out joining them. John B has his arm locked around his friend's neck bringing him down as JJ kisses his forehead.
“I’m going to miss this so much.”
“This summer is going to be amazing,” Sarah promises, but Kie doesn’t believe her because the one person who makes them complete more than likely isn’t going to be with them.
“Yeah...” Kie sighs letting go of Sarah to start with the goodbyes. She starts with John B who rocks her back and forth telling her to kiss the nose of a whale for her and not to do anything that he wouldn’t do before he moves on to tell JJ goodbye.
She then moves to Pope who she reminds him to have fun and to get out to see the world and to not study too hard. He laughs pulling back to give her a kiss on the side of her head, also reminding her to have fun but not too much fun.
She squeezes his wrist as they let go where Sarah reaches out to him next.
JJ is saying goodbye to JB still, so she waits for Sarah to finish before giving her another hug.
“Love you, Sarah, I’ll send you all of the pics,” Kie promises.
“And postcards.” They say simultaneously before Kie chuckles, nodding “Of course.”
Sarah squeezes her once more before letting go, to give JJ a hug, and before she knows it it’s her turn.
“Well until next time sailor.” Kie smiles stepping into JJ’s open arms returning the hug. His chin rests on her head so she takes the opportunity to talk in a low mumble. “Please be careful and don’t do anything irrational, this isn’t going to be boot camp or training... it’s the real thing now. You have to be careful.”
“I’m always careful.” She can feel his smirk against her head.
“Don’t lie to me JJ, I’m serious.” She pinches between his shoulder blades. “Promise me.”
“I promise.” She shouldn’t believe him, but she does. “Now you listen closely, don’t be venturing off on your own and get yourself kidnapped or murdered okay. I don’t want to have to come back to a funeral because you couldn’t stay out of trouble.”
“I promise.” She swears. “And no cell phone service at sea means that you’re going to get tons of snail mail, so you better watch for it.”
“Can’t wait.” JJ smiles letting her go just enough to look down at her. “I’ll even write back.”
“You better.” She narrows her eyes at him.
“Nothing better to do.” There’s a glimmer of playfulness in his eyes, “I mean besides working on my arms a bit more.”
“Okay...” Kie can’t help but chuckle, “Shut up, you know I looked one time okay.”
“Or a couple... if you’re counting down at the beach, on the couch, in the morning.”
“Wow okay, JJ, way to ruin the moment.” Kie drops her hands, now annoyed. Not really annoyed more some embarrassed that she had not only been caught but he was totally calling her out for it and he oddly didn't seem to mind it. In fact, he kind of encouraged it.
“I’m just playing, give me one last hug.” JJ squeezes her closer, “Come onnnn.”
She mocks annoyance through her facial features but gives him one last hug before he lets go squeezing her shoulders before they separate completely, keeping her there.
“See that wasn’t that hard, was it?” JJ winks and Kie’s annoyed again but just for a second as she watched everyone shut the last of their trunks and huddle together. She comes in closer to the small circle and wraps her arms around both Sarah and John B as they look up at one another.
“Until next time.” Pope promises
“Until next time.” They all promise and it’s JJ’s blue eyes who she reaches last and they’re staring directly at her.
Until next time.
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