Chapter Text
However briefly, as Kie cried for him, as the blood ran from his crimson wound into the Moroccan soil... JJ found himself thinking of his asshole father back in Kildare... Because as much as a toxic disaster Luke Maybank was... He wouldn't do this. JJ knew that... He was sure... Nah, Chandler Groff was something else, a different kind of beast...
JJ had been abandoned by the same monster who killed his true mother, left to be raised by a man who became an alcoholic criminal who beat him, and yet... This was somehow a 'good' outcome comparatively. JJ could almost laugh at his 'luck'... Almost being a key word. The Pogue was in too much pain, too afraid, and too busy trying to hold it together for Kie to laugh at that dark irony...
The only good thing Groff had ever done for his son was abandon him, and it hadn't been done for JJ's sake, that much was for certain.
"Stay with me, please." Kiara Carrera sobbed, snapping him out of that Greek tragedy excuse of a paternal loop.
JJ Genrette Maybank could only watch his soulmate... He remembered when they first met as innocent children, on the beach... Saving the dolphin...
'She's so beautiful' the frightened Pogue, ironically born Kook, thought.
"Take care of the others." He charged loyally, knowing she would. They'd be alright...
Kie kept crying whilst begging her soulmate to hang on, but for all he wanted her pain to stop JJ didn't see a way out, not this time... He just wanted her and the others to be okay...
He hoped his 'godkid' would know who he'd been... JJ wanted Kiara Carrera to know his heart... He wanted to say it, one last time...
"I love you, Kie." JJ exhaled.
Kie's voice broke. "I love you too."
JJ's eyes closed with a tired sigh, he heard Kie continue begging him to hang on as she sobbed, as darkness closed in. He thought he began to hear the others arriving as well... Little by little.
Their voices muffling... To nothing.
The silence came.
*
His life flashed... Surfing... Waves... Freedom... Some good moments with Luke... Bad ones next... But then better ones of his true family came faster... Much more moments... Meeting John B in the third grade... Meeting Pope in fourth... Meeting Kie on the beach... Dinner at John B's, with Big John... Shoplifting as a kid... Kie seeing him... The Pogues' formation... John B becoming his brother... Pope becoming his brother... Being hugged by Kie, by Pope in the jacuzzi... Causing trouble with his boys... Playing messenger with Sarah for John B... Spinning his girl at Midsummers before she was his... The Pogues running away together... The Heywards hugging him too... Running with Kie, with Pope in Charleston... Finding John B... Finding Sarah... Joy... Danger... Meeting Cleo... Sarah becoming his sister... Cleo becoming the newest Pogue... The missing piece... His first kiss with Kie... Their unthinkable adventures... Celebrating as one... Poguelandia the island... The utopia... Poguelandia at Kildare... Becoming someone's godfather... John B saying 'brothers for life'... Kiara smiling unburdened...
So many memories... JJ didn't want them to end... He needed more...
More moments... More time... More...
Darkness came back...
'It's really over...' JJ thought.
Then...
"Jackson..." An angelic voice reached out. "Don't be scared..." Who was she? "Open your eyes..."
JJ sluggishly obeyed. His eyes opened. The darkness disappeared.
He wasn't in Morocco anymore. He wasn't bleeding... No pain.
There was soft warm breeze...
The Pogue was on an incredibly endless boardwalk back home, smack in the middle of it... Half way from land, then from sea.
JJ frowned, confounded, before looked around. No one around. It was an overcast 'day', misty. But remarkably bright.
"Kie!" He called out. "John B!" JJ's head turned. "Guys?"
JJ realised he...
He was dressed in a Kooky white blouse, Kookier white trousers? Not his style... Barefoot. More his style...
"Jackson..." The voice said again.
JJ turned around quickly, startled. He wasn't alone. It wasn't Kie he saw on the boardwalk with him though, not even Sarah, or Cleo. It was...
"Larissa Genrette?" JJ breathed slowly.
The beautiful Kook princess wasn't frozen at the age she'd perished, she looked older than in the timeless painting of her, but still so... Herself... She looked like time had passed for her somehow.
Larissa was barefoot as well... A white dress. Her blonde hair in a elegantly unkempt bun.
She smiled ethereally when his narrowing eyes met her sparkling ones.
"My beautiful boy!" Larissa chuckled disbelievingly through tears and ran to close the distance between them, she wrapped her arms around him with a ferocity JJ remembered always wanting as a boy... Still JJ Maybanks didn't react, not at first, he processed as the embrace grew tighter. "My perfect baby..."
JJ exhaled. "...Mom?"
He felt her nodding intensely.
"Yes it's me..." Larissa chuckled again. JJ felt her tears falling on his shoulder, wetting his blouse. "I missed you..." she cried.
JJ's face twisted as he accepted the impossibility, hugged her back. He cried with her now. "Mom!"
"Hey, you're alright." His mother consoled. Her hand rubbing his back in soothing motions.
They stayed like that for a while, then the embrace ended... JJ met her eyes again.
"Hi..." the young man said, at a loss.
Larissa chuckled. Her hands cupped his face with tenderness. "Hello..."
"But you..." JJ frowned. "He killed you?" The young son's voice cracked. "That..."
Larissa's smile evaporated. She sighed, "Long time ago..."
JJ gasped, processing. "Then your dad..."
"Yes..." Larissa nodded.
JJ inhaled. "Why?"
"There's darkness in Chandler's heart..." Larissa explained. "A void, it can't be understood, not by us..." The mother exhaled. "We were obstacles to him, my father and I, he wanted what we had..."
JJ recalled his 'father' holding that blade at Kie's throat for the Blue Crown, then his blow. He felt the blinding pain. The blood loss...
"Yeah, sounds familiar," JJ scoffed tearfully. "This..." he exhaled, looking around, understanding. "I'm dead..."
"No..." Larissa shook her head. "Jackson..."
JJ nodded. " No, I..." He found the words somehow. "I was in Morocco, Mom..." The words failed. "And he..."
"I know, baby..." Larissa grimaced.
JJ frowned, "How?"
"I'm with you, everyday..." Larissa vowed desperately. "I've been watching over you, sweetheart." She cried silently. "I'm so sorry..."
"What?" JJ sighed.
"Everything that happened..." Larissa inhaled.
"No..." JJ's head shook. "No, don't do that..." His voice pleading. "It's not your fault."
"I didn't protect you..." she cried.
JJ sighed, defeated. "Who protected you?"
"My father tried..." Larissa nodded.
"He left a..." JJ exhaled. "Letter I didn't... Understand..."
"I know, honey."
JJ started looking around again. "Where is he?"
"Your grandfather's here with me..." Larissa revealed.
But JJ didn't see him. No one else... "Is he coming?"
"He didn't want to overwhelm you," she said carefully, "but he..." JJ met his mother's eyes. "He also couldn't face you right now, even more than he can face me... He's sorry too."
JJ scoffed. "It's not his..."
"I told him..." Larissa said.
"Groff killed the three of us..." JJ darkly snorted. The Genrettes weren't cursed like people thought, his 'father' was the darkness...
"No..." Larissa wiped her son's tears. "Just us... You're not dead..."
JJ frowned. "No... He..." The boy recalled getting hurt, words not forming. "I died in front of Kie."
Larissa smiled serenely. "No, baby..."
"Mom..." JJ began, unfamiliar with saying the word, but finding he was loving having her to claim. "I know what happened to me..." he exhaled unsteadily. "It's okay..."
"Jackson..." Larissa moved one hand away from his face, putting it on her son's chest gently. "Your big heart stopped for a bit, but it started again, it's still beating..." She nodded slowly. "I promise..."
JJ frowned, prepared to protest, but then... He felt it. Slow, steady beats.
"I don't understand..." JJ exhaled.
"You're a fighter," Larissa reminded pridefully. "And your friends... They found a doctor..."
"What?" JJ scoffed.
"A local man..." Larissa explained. As she did JJ saw brief, unfocused flashes proving his mother's words. "He stabilised you... He saved you..."
JJ 'saw' a foreign man, who'd been around as the shit hit many fans, cracking orders no one comprehended as John B and Rafe set his unconscious bleeding self on a creaky wooden table inside. A sobbing Kie being held and consoled by Cleo and Sarah closeby. Pope was rapidly organising the doctor's instruments.
"Your friends are saving you..."
JJ exhaled. "But..."
"Time works differently over here..."
"I don't... Mom?"
"Kiara barely stopped holding your hand..."
JJ 'saw' Kie kissing his slack hand as she held it painfully tight in both of hers, her messy tears mixing sweatily. He heard her distant pleas. The overwhelmed doctor worked on keeping JJ alive.
"Sarah and Pope stayed as well..."
JJ 'saw' his godkid's mother kneeling, praying? Tears falling quietly. Pope pacing around, desperate.
"What?" JJ exhaled.
"That boy Rafe..." Larissa inhaled. "He stood guard..." The mother explained. "In case Chandler..."
JJ 'saw' Rafe. Outside. Ready.
"John B went with Cleo to find a car..."
JJ 'saw' Cleo breaking into a rusty van. Then the rapid flash changed, John B drove like a bat out of hell as Cleo called Pope on her burner.
"Car?" JJ watched his mother.
"They got you to a hospital, baby..." Larissa's smile grew.
JJ 'saw' Rafe giving money to the doctor as Cleo helped Pope take JJ into the van, Kie holding on, Sarah behind them. John B telling them to hurry. The door slamming, they were moving.
"You're in surgery right now... You just have to hang on a little longer..." Larissa gently informed. "Then wake up..."
"But..." JJ sighed. "I just... I can't leave you..."
"It's not your time, love." Larissa sighed.
"It wasn't yours!" JJ argued.
Larissa exhaled. "I didn't have friends like yours, son..."
JJ heard Kie shouting muffled. 'John B, please drive faster!'
'We're almost there!' JJ heard his best friend.
JJ felt Sarah's hand on his shoulder. 'Hang in there...'
'Please,' Pope said.
'JJ...' Cleo sighed.
"I can't leave them, Mom..." JJ cried.
Larissa nodded softly. "I know... I don't want you to... You deserve everything..."
"Mom..." JJ cried.
"You deserve life... To be happy... Know peace, son..."
"I..." JJ inhaled.
"I'm so proud of you..." she chuckled. "You're so special... So brave..."
JJ heard Pope. 'Help!'
JJ 'saw' how Pope held the doors open for them. Rafe carrying him with John B, from 'their' van, into a Moroccan hospital. The girls behind.
JJ 'saw' hospital staff swarm, put him on a gurney... He heard Kie cry out as John B and Sarah held her back from following, Rafe watching speechless, Cleo holding Pope... Then his surgery...
"I won't leave you either..." JJ exhaled.
"It's okay, son..."
"No, it's... Come with me." JJ begged.
"Wish I could..." Larissa vowed.
JJ snorted. "Who's gonna stop you?"
"Baby..." Larissa calmed.
JJ cried. "Please."
"I'm sorry I gave you such a horrible father." She said breathlessly. As though she'd waited so long for a chance to say it.
JJ inhaled. "That's..."
"Chandler was different..." Larissa tried explaining. "Before getting married... His perfect mask..."
"No... Don't... Mom..." JJ struggled to get anything out.
"I fell for his trap..." Larissa exhaled. "But I got you Jackson... I wouldn't ever change that..."
"You..." JJ sighed.
"I don't know what happened to Luke though..." Larissa cried now. "He was so good with you... As a baby..."
JJ's eyes closed. "Don't do that..." His head shook. "Keep their bullshit off your shoulders." JJ ordered unhesitant. "Don't you carry that ever..."
"You're nothing like them." Larissa smiled.
"Mom..."
Larissa held her son's hands. She chuckled. "You're perfect JJ."
"No."
"Yes... You're everything I ever wanted... Don't doubt this..."
"I need you." JJ sobbed.
"I'm right here..." Larissa tapped her son's heart.
"Don't stay here..." JJ begged.
Larissa kissed his temple tenderly, then softly pressed foreheads together. "I love you so much... "
JJ froze briefly... He wasn't used to this... But wanted intensely...
"I..." he began shakily, "love you too..."
Then he hugged her fiercely.
"My boy..." Larissa smiled joyfully. "You've never wasted a single moment..." She held him. "Keep it up... "
One second he was there, in his mother's arms, then...
*
JJ felt a jolt. More than once... He felt tubes in his nose, cables on his chest, IV in arm.
The Pogue woke up with a gasp. "Mom!"
But he didn't see Larissa. All he saw was darkness focusing into bright dizzying blurs. He felt someone's hand holding his...
"JJ!" A familiar voice called. Kiara...
Then John B. "Buddy!"
"Jaitch!" Pope said.
Sarah cried. "Are you okay?"
"You're back blondie!" Cleo chuckled.
Their figures focused above him.
"Idiots, give him damn space!" Rafe said from... An area. Close...
Pope, Sarah and Cleo's figures backed away concerned.
JJ tried moving, then groaned. He felt the secure bandages. Stitches...
"Don't move JJ!" Kie exclaimed.
JJ felt John B's firm hands on shoulders now, softly keeping him still. On the bed... Decent pillow.
JJ heard Rafe's footsteps run out. "I'll get him a doctor!"
His vision focused into clearness. His patient's room was snug, there was a small window, evening outside now... The room was comfortingly dim.
JJ saw Kie at his right, both her hands holding his. John B at his left, his hands on both his shoulders.
"Kie..." JJ exhaled, blinking. "John B..." His voice low.
"Yeah," Kie chuckled.
John B nodded. "We're right with you, brother..."
JJ looked at the foot of his bed, Sarah standing on John B's side. Pope with an arm around Cleo by his feet.
"Hey guys..." He exhaled tiredly.
They chuckled briefly.
"You're alright," John B smiled.
JJ tried laughing... He coughed.
"Water..." Voice hoarse.
Everyone reacted. Pope moved fastest.
He went to the backpack and pulled out a water bottle then opening it, coming close again, passing it to Kie. "Here..."
"Thanks," Kie took it then John B moved one hand away so Kie could reach, gently putting their bottle to JJ's lips, she smoothly raised it to help JJ drink, slow while steady.
Before long, he finished it all.
"Better?" John B asked.
"Mmm..." JJ nodded, or weakly attempted, Kie set the empty bottle aside.
"You scared us pal," Pope inhaled.
"My bad," JJ deadpanned morosely.
"JJ, need anything else?" Cleo asked.
Sarah exhaled. "We'll get it for you."
"Could get used to this..." he chuckled. "All y'all doting on me..." JJ briefly smiled. "Like the King."
The Pogues laughed.
"King of friendship..." John B crowned.
The Pogue looked around smiling. He remembered his life's flashes... With his family.
"We should've stayed on our island..." JJ chuckled.
The Pogues chuckled through tears.
"Understatement," Sarah nodded.
JJ sighed. "I love y'all..."
They smiled joyfully. Eyes watering.
"We love you too." John B cried.
Kie kissed JJ's hand tenderly.
JJ looked to his brother, then back to his soulmate, tired voice's volume lowering vastly. "I saw her..."
"JJ?" Kie frowned. Getting closer. Putting her ear near his lips.
"I saw my mom, Kie..." JJ chuckled tearfully. Kiara froze, her grip on his hand squeezed. "Saw my..."
JJ saw Rafe arriving with the doctor as his eyes closed, he passed out, going back to darkness. Heart still beating. Body overwhelming tired...