Chapter Text
🎶SONG OF THE CHAPTER: "Here With Me" by Dido🎶
"Great to be back in the OBX...again." JJ says sarcastically while stepping off the Cameron's private jet.
"Home sweet home." John B says tiredly, following behind JJ.
Pope, who was the first off the plane, is already planning the next move for the pogues. "We better get somewhere before everyone finds out we're back and all hell breaks loose." he says.
"Where can we even go?" Kiara says sadly, remembering that they don't have the Chateau to go back to. She sure as hell isn't going back to her parent's house, not after what they did, basically having her taken against her will and sent to wilderness cuckoo's nest where she was going to have to take prescribed drugs that she didn't even need or want to take. Kiara felt a feeling of emptiness when she thought of her parents.
"Beats me man, I ain't from here." says Cleo.
Sarah, who's the last off the plane chimes in with an idea. "My family's condo is available, no one's clearly living or staying there." she says with a sorrowful tone.
"It's small though, only one bedroom upstairs and a couch downstairs." she says.
"Cleo and I probably have to go back to my mom and pop's, they'll want to know that I made it back, and that I'm safe." Pope states and Cleo shakes her head in agreement.
"I think I'll probably just go back to the shack, since it's still mine for another week." JJ says.
"I can come with you man." John B offers.
"Nah bro, you and Sarah need each other right now." JJ says patting John B's heart.
John B nods in agreement.
"Kie, you can stay on the couch if you want to, since I kinda doubt you want to go home right now." Sarah says.
Kiara panning her eyes over to JJ to give him a quick look of longing, ultimately accepts Sarah's offer. "Yeah, I definitely don't want to go to my parent's house right now, so you're condo it is Sarah." she says thankfully but unenthusiastically.
As the rest of the Pogues are saying bye to each other and planning where they're all going to meet up tomorrow, JJ grabs Kiara's hand and leads her behind the plane. "JJ, what are you do-?" she says in a very giddy tone, until she's cut off by JJ as he places his hands on her hips and brings her closer to him, while bringing his lips to hers for a quick but passionate kiss.
JJ breaks the kiss, "I just didn't want to say goodnight to you in front of everyone." he says holding her hands.
Kiara pulls him in for a tight hug and whispers in his ear, "night Jayj." "Night Kie." JJ says as she breaks the hug.
Kiara makes her way back to the group only to make eye contact with Sarah, who has a very suspicious but knowing look on her face. John B turns around and asks Kiara where JJ is.
"Um, I'm pretty sure he went ahead and left, he yelled bye to you though." she says.
"Really? Huh...didn't hear him." John B says, while Kiara's eyes dart back to Sarah, who's standing there with a smirk on her face.
"Ready to roll?" John B asks Sarah.
"Yep, sure am. Kie you ready?" Sarah asks.
"Yeah, let's go." Kiara says.
The three of them hop into the Twinkie, and are off to Sarah's family's condo.
(CAMERON FAMILY CONDO)
"Oh my god I feel disgusting" Sarah says walking through the door of her family's condo.
"Me too." Kiara and John B and Kiara say at the same time.
"Alright who's showering first?" John B asks.
"Kie, you go ahead, you're the guest, bathroom is upstairs to the right." Sarah says.
"Don't have to tell me twice." Kiara says as she heads up the stairs.
Kiara gets out of the shower, and is hit with the realization that the only clean-ish clothes she has is her Kitty Hawk tshirt and shorts. She holds up the shirt and looks at the logo and is hit with a pang of hurt in her heart, as she thinks about her parents. She'll never hate them, but at the current moment, she feels betrayed, and despises them for making her feel that way.
She has no choice but to put the shirt and shorts on, so she does and heads out of the bathroom and back down stairs.
John B let's Sarah take the next shower. As she's heading upstairs she yells down at John B to get blankets and pillows out of the closet for Kiara to sleep with.
John B does as he's told and then heads upstairs to await his turn for the shower.
Kiara lays on the couch and flips through the channels on the TV. She lands on "Full House", and decides on that.
About an hour later, Sarah comes back downstairs to get a glass of water.
"You comfortable Kiara?" she asks.
"Yeah, thanks for letting me stay Sarah."
"No problem Kie. Goodnight." Sarah says smiling as best she can right now.
"Night." Kie says.
(JJ'S HOUSE)
Walking into his childhood home, JJ did not expect there to still be running water. He took the opportunity and went straight to the shower to clean up as best he could with what he had.
The water was cold the entire time, but a shower was a shower.
JJ walks back to his old room and actually tries to think back at the last time he even slept in this room. Years, if he's being honest.
The house still wreaks of cigarettes and booze, but this is as calm and peaceful as JJ has ever seen his home, that he remembers of anyway.
JJ gets settled into bed and listens to the crickets and frogs chirp outside.
JJ looks up to the ceiling of his room and wishes he had just went to Sarah's condo with them. The silence in this house is defeaning, it's almost eerie to him.
He wishes Kiara, or someone was here with him to share and enjoy the silence. He truly does hate being without his family, even if he is going to see them all in the morning.
JJ decides to turn to his side and face the wall and try to get some sleep. The first true sleep he's had in 3 days.
(CAMERON FAMILY CONDO)
Kiara decides around 1 a.m. that she should probably turn off the TV and try to get some sleep.
As she lays in the darkness in the living room of Sarah's condo, hearing nothing but the waves from the ocean and John B's distant snoring, she feels that emptiness in her chest again.
Not for her parents this time though, but because of JJ. She missed his presence already.
As she tries to fall asleep though, she thinks back to their last kiss from a few hours ago. She can still feel that kiss in her bones, and the butterflies that followed. God, how she loved him.
She's never felt a love like this before, not with anyone. JJ is her first and hopefully last love. Now that they are "together", she thinks back and realizes that a part of her always knew that it was going to be them. JJ and Kiara.
She tosses and turns and tries to get some sleep, but the emptiness that she was feeling has turned into a dull ache in her heart, and it will not let her sleep. She huffs out in frustration, and puts her hands on her head and pushes her hair back.
There is only one way that she is going to get some sleep tonight.
Kiara gets up off the couch and tries to find a pen and some kind of paper.
Once she finds a sticky note pad she writes a note to John B and Sarah, and sticks it on her pillow.
She grabs her backpack and heads out the door quietly.
She travels down the dark streets of Kildare, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't apprehensive to walk alone at night in The Cut. She made sure before she left the Cameron's Condo that she put a kitchen knife in her backpack.
She finally reaches JJ's house and walks up to the side door, cause she knows JJ never uses the front door. She knocks many times and finally hears footsteps shuffling inside.
JJ opens the door, and is awestruck at who he sees.
"Kie?" JJ says wondering if he's dreaming or not.
"Hey Jayj." Kiara says breathlessly as she crashes into JJ.
JJ holds her in his arms, and God he didn't realize how much you can miss a person, even if they are only just a few miles away.
They tighten their grips around each other and just breathe in each other's presence.
"Can I stay here tonight?" Kiara asks with her head buried in the crook of his neck.
"I was hoping you would say that." he says with a smile on his face.
She giggles and then breaks the hug. She puts her hands on the the side of his head and looks into those sky blue eyes of his, and just smiles.
"Ready to go to bed?" Kiara asks him.
"Whoa Kie, moving kind of fast aren't we?" He flirts with her, as she playfully hits him on the arm.
"Down boy" she teases back.
"Come on, in here" JJ motions towards his room. Kiara follows.
She's never been in JJ's room before, it's different than she imagined. There was a mixture of trees, fish, and sailboat pictures on the wall. She thought for sure he would have pictures of models wearing skimpy clothes or bikinis, or cars, or motorcycles. I guess he wasn't home very much to really decorate it, she thinks to herself.
JJ crawls into bed, and I don't know if she was caught up in all the emotions from seeing him at the door, but she just now realizes that he's shirtless. She's seen him shirtless hundreds of times, but this was the first time she's seen him shirtless, as her "boyfriend", and she could definitely feel the shift.
JJ looks up to where she's still standing and realizes that she's back in her Kitty Hawk gear. He hates seeing her in that outfit, knowing how much trauma it caused her. "Do you want a shirt to sleep in?" he asks her.
She looks down at him, smiles and nods.
He gets back up and shuffles through his messy dresser drawers. "Here you go." he says as he tosses her a t-shirt.
She turns around and opens the shirt and recognizes it immediately, his grey Jeep shirt. He hasn't worn this since they went to Charleston so Pope could talk to Limbrey. She shakes her head and smiles at the memory of them talking at the service station.
She puts the shirt on and looks back to the bed where JJ is once again. He looks up at her and playfully pulls the covers so that she could get in.
She crawls into bed with him and he puts the covers over them.
He notices they are kind of in an awkward spot being shoulder to shoulder, so he lifts his left arm up and she scoots down and lays her head down on the left side of his bare chest.
He rests his hand on her upper arm, and traces his fingers up and down her arm.
"You comfortable Kie?" he asks.
"Never been more", she says softly.
He smiles and closes his eyes at the words.
"Goodnight Kie."
"Goodnight Jayj."
"I love you" he says softly but breathlessly.
Kiara closes her eyes tight, and exhales audibly, but quietly. She knows that she's probably not going to hear that a lot from JJ, considering how he is and the upbringing he's had, so she's taking this one in with her whole being.
"I love you too."
He closes his eyes tight and furrows his eyebrows. After almost 9 years of being in love with this girl who he never thought in a million years would ever love him back, here she is, in his arms laying on his chest, listening to his heart beat.
A heart that only beats for her.
🎶SONG OF THE CHAPTER: "Here With Me" by Dido🎶