LVII.   a love I'd cross oceans for

Dylan always said she wanted to die in the ocean. That if death was her fate, she wanted to go in her safe place. She wanted the ocean to sweep her away, for the salt water to encase her body, and she wanted to feel nothing but peace. The ocean was her safe place. All of her memories were scattered across the rippling waves. Her childhood was nestled on the ocean floor. Her heart belonged with everlasting currents that stretched for miles and miles. They were one, her and the sea. If she was to die the water, she would be okay with it.

But Dylan didn't want to die. There was so much she wanted to do with her life, so many things she had yet to see. Her dreams were still big, they were lively. Dylan always thought the ocean was her safe place when in fact, it was the people around her. It was Pope, it was John B, it was her family. They kept her alive. They kept her at peace. They kept her from sinking.

There was too much on the line for her to give up now. When she resurfaced in the water, Dylan shook her head and sucked in air. "Are you guys okay?" She asked Pope and Cleo.

"We're good!" She responded with.

"C'mon, we gotta find John B and Sarah!" Pope declared until he saw the gold cross start to lift from the water. "No, no, no, no, no."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Dylan released in anger. She considered drowning herself in that moment.

"Pope! DJ!" John B called out their names and he drive the boat in their direction.

"Hey! We're over here!"

"John B!"

"We're over here!"

Dylan swam with all her might to the boat. No matter how tired she was, the adrenaline inside of her kept pumping. "Sarah!"

Sarah leaned over and held out her hands. "Dylan, grab onto me!" She yelled back.

"Pope!" John B exclaimed and reached out for Pope.

Dylan swam to the edge of the boat and she gripped onto Sarah's hands. With tired breaths, she used her muscles to help Sarah pull her in. It was a struggle but with determination, Sarah yanked her into the lifeboat and Dylan fell in. "Hi." She said with a shaky breath and cupped her face.

Seeing her safe, Dylan's eyes welled with tears. "You're okay. I'm so sorry, Sarah." She weeped and clutched her wrists.

"Don't be sorry. It's okay. Everything's okay."

"Help us get her in." She heard John B say as he and Pope tried helping Cleo into the boat.

"Cleo, holy shit." Said Sarah and they collectively grabbed onto Cleo and pulled her inside.

"Long time no see girl." She laughed upon seeing Sarah.

The two of them embraced. "What are you doing here?"

Pope tried catching his breath until he looked at Dylan, and all of the air got caught in his chest. "D. . ."

Sadness and relief overtook the adrenaline, and Dylan released a cry. She crawled over to him and when she got to him, she pressed her trembling hands to his face. "Oh, my baby." She sobbed.

Pope's eyes filled with tears and he moved her wet hair out of her face. "I thought I lost you." He quietly said and scanned her face.

She shook her head. "That's impossible." She kissed his lips forcefully, powerfully. A kind of kiss that said she'd love him forever and that she was so scared of the idea of never seeing him again. Dylan pulled away but she leaned her forehead against his, the tears on her face mixing with water.

"Where's JJ and Kie?" John B voiced when he saw who was missing.

"I thought they were with you." Pope stated.

"No." Sarah denied.

"Shit. We gotta find em, all right?"

"They we're going to find you and the lifeboat. They gotta be on the other side of the ship." Dylan declared and her breathing quickened at the stressful situation.

"Go, go, go!" Sarah urged him.

John B started the boat again and started driving it across the water. When they got towards the end of the ship, Kiara's cries for help became more clear. "That's Kie." Said Sarah.

John B jerked the boat and they circled around the front of the ship. They saw Kiara floating in the water while holding JJ. When it became clear that he was unconscious, Dylan started to freak out. "Kiara!"

"JJ!"

"JJ!"

"No, no, no, no!" John B panicked.

"We gotta get him in the boat!"

They all leaned against the side of the lifeboat, yelling on top of each other. John B managed to grab JJ under his armpits and haul his dead weight into the boat. Then, Dylan helped Pope grab Kiara and help her in, her exhaustion making it hard but they all managed to get inside.

"Okay, John B, go!" Dylan ordered.

"I'm going! I'm going!"

Kiara leaned JJ against the side of the boat. His head was bleeding like he'd been hit in the head, and she shook him while repeatedly trying to get him to wake up.

Suddenly, the engine began to sputter. "Oh, not now." Dylan groaned.

"What's going on?"

"What's happening?"

"We're stalling out." John B said through his teeth and yanked on the cord, but it only made a noise.

"Seriously? We're sitting ducks here." Pope hissed.

"We gotta go!" Yelled Kiara.

When Dylan looked up, she saw Rafe standing at the edge of the ship with a rifle in his hold, and he was pointing it at them. "G-Guys, he has a gun." She got their attention.

"He's pointing it at us. Hurry!" Pope yelled at John B.

Finally, after a lot more yelling, the engine started to work again. "We gotta go! We gotta go!"

"Go!"

"JJ, wake up!"

The boat started again and they took off on the water. "J! Please! Please!" Kiara cried out and continued to tap his chest.

"Here. Move. He might have water in his lungs!" Dylan stated and moved to the other side of the boat. She took John B's place and locked her hands together. She startled doing chest compressions. "C'mon, JJ. There's a lot of ways you can go out. This can't be one of them." She tried keeping her panic at bay. Dylan then titled his head back as best she could and put her mouth over his, blowing two deep breaths of air into his lungs.

"It's not working." Kiara cried again.

"It's gonna work." Dylan declared and started doing compressions again. "JJ, you son a bitch, breathe!" She yelled and started doing them more forcefully.

Water and spit came out of his mouth and JJ started to breath. They all exhaled deep sighs of relief. "Good job, bubba." Dylan sighed and rubbed his head.

"There you go. Yeah, yeah. Cough it out. Cough it out, baby." John B encouraged him.

She held him lean up so he could cough up the water. "That's it, J. You're okay." She told him and rubbed his back.

"You saved him, DJ." Sarah said with a happy smile.

"Yeah, well, I knew it would happen one of these days." She joked and laughed.

"Welcome to the land of the living, dude." Pope laughed as he continued to cough.

"I knew that CPR would come in handy one day."

JJ coughed and he looked down at Kiara's hand that was pressed to his shoulder. He then looked up at her with a look that none of them had seen before.

"Hi." She let out with a look of relief on her face.

"Sup?"

They all bursted into laughter.

Kiara hugged his head and Dylan exhaled another breath. "Who knew I'd get mouth to mouth from Dylan Jennings?" He joked and sent her a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes. "If I didn't just save your life, I'd throw up off the boat." She joked and hit his shoulder.

"Just always looking for attention, huh?" Said John B with another laugh.

"Whatever it takes, right?" They laughed again. "What the hell happened?" He asked groggily.

"The blunt end of a machete." Kiara told him and pressed a cloth to his bleeding head.

"A machete?"

"The blunt end."

"Next time, duck." Said Cleo.

"I'll try to remember that next time. Thanks."

"DJ, this is Cleo." John B said and he glanced between them. "She's, uh, practicing the only reason Sarah and I got out alive."

"Yeah, and she helped us not get caught." Kiara added.

Dylan looked at her. Cleo sent her a two fingered salute. "Nice to meet ya, Miss DJ. Your name is pretty famous."

She laughed at that. "Thank you so much. I owe you so much for all of this."

Cleo waved her hand. "Nah, nah, none of that. Just happy to be alive, y'know?"

Dylan smiled at her.

"Dylan, what the hell happened?" Sarah asked her, her brain going back to the beginning.

All eyes went to her. "I-uh. . ." She started to say. "It was Rafe and Rose. When they knocked us out, Rafe took me to his room and Rose drugged me to get me on the ship."

"What?" Sarah exclaimed.

Pope's face contorted into anger. "Are you serious?"

Dylan nodded, looking at both of them. "They kept me locked in a room on the ship. I thought they were going to kill me."

"Well, they didn't. You're here with us." John B spoke and he put his hand on the back of her head. "You're not going anywhere anytime soon."

Dylan slipped out a teary laugh. "Pogues are immortal, after all."

"Hell yeah we are." JJ declared, and they chuckled.

"This shit ain't over." Said Pope, and they saw what he was looking at. Rafe and the crew members had managed to lift the cross back onto the ship.

They were back to square one. "No, it ain't." John B confirmed.

Dylan was so exhausted. She shivered from the wet clothes on her body, and she trembled from the adrenaline high coming down. She had time to think of the picture around her. They were floating in the middle of the ocean, having survived more than any group of teenagers she knew. But they lost the gold. They lost the cross. Everything they were fighting for, they lost all over again.

Dylan couldn't help but think that she was right all along. If they had just stopped while they were at it, they'd be home where they belonged. She'd be with her family. Oh, her family. An immense amount of guilt hit her at the thought of them. She moved in the boat to Pope's side and he wrapped his arms around her. She hugged his neck and put her face into his neck, breathing him in. "We left them, P." She spoke only for him to hear.

He hugged her waist and closed his eyes. "I know." Pope whispered back. But he knew that he had her, that he had his friends. Wherever they ended up, as long as they had each other, it would all be okay.

Dylan sat close to Sarah as the boys dragged the boat on to shore of an island they found. "I'm so happy you're okay."

"I'm so sorry, DJ. For all of it. I never meant for you to get hurt." Sarah expressed with guilt.

She shook her head. "I don't blame you, I promise. I'm just glad we made it out alive."

"Come on, boys." John B grunted.

"That's good. That's good." Said JJ.

"Good job, guys."

"Good job."

"Look at those strong men." Dylan teased and smiled.

"JJ, you all right there, buddy?" John B asked when JJ stumbled.

"Yeah. Still a little dizzy. Okay, anybody know where we're at?"

"Deserted beach. Unknown island." Pope answered shortly.

"We're basically on island Lord of the Flies." Dylan said after him.

"All right, I'll take that as a no."

Pope sat beside her and she laid her head on his bare shoulder. She rubbed his bicep with her hand.

"Plan A, huh, Pope?" JJ continued. "That went well."

"This is the lowest we can go."

Dylan shook her head. "No, the lowest we could go would be death." She said bluntly.

"Well, yeah, but, we literally have nothing else to lose." He expressed and she lifted her head. "The cross, gone."

"The gold, gone." Sarah added somberly.

Pope dramatically laid back on the grass. Dylan patted him on the chest, trying to relieve him of his stress.

"Seriously, if we had a nickel for every time we got beat up, I'd say we're at a dollar fifty."

"That's more than I got on me." Said Kiara.

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better."

"Yeah, you're right." Said John B. "But, I mean, we've. . .we've had some good stuff happen, right?" He tried to look on the bright side.

"Like what? You almost losing your leg to an alligator and me getting drugged?" Dylan said sarcastically.

He gave her a look. "No, DJ."

She hummed, also sarcastic.

"Name something." Said Pope.

"Um. . .uh, the boiler room." He brought up and looked at Cleo, making her tilt her head. "What? If the boiler room didn't explode, I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe." He explained. "I couldn't have gotten the Zodiac and gotten us out of here."

"That wasn't luck. That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it." Cleo laughed.

"Stealing my thunder, Cleo." John B pointed between her and Dylan. "You two will get along nicely."

Dylan smiled and looked at her, nodding her head. Cleo laughed again. "Sorry."

"Okay. Pope. You're related to Denmark Tanny. That's crazy—"

"And I lost all his inheritance."

"You know what?" John B stood from where he was sitting. "Guys, this is it. This is the Pogue life." He lifted his arms. "We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of paradise. With my best friends, with my family."

The looks on their faces indicted that they still weren't sure.

"I don't know. I wouldn't want to sit with anyone else. And while you guys were complaining about every little thing. . .JJ?"

JJ hummed and stopped carving the tree.

He pointed at the water. "I was looking at throat burly lefts." He smirked. John B looked over his shoulder. "What do you think, Waterbug?"

Dylan inhaled an annoyed breath, but then she looked at the ocean, at the waves crashing on the shore. She felt her skin itch at the sight. "Well. . .they do look nice."

"Come over here." He waved her over.

"There's some slabs out there." JJ agreed with a half smirk.

"Just a few." Said John B and he put his arm around Dylan's shoulder when she came and stood with them. "Kie, I know you wanna get out there."

"No boards." She stated.

"Well, we can bodysurf till we make some boards." He suggested.

"Lame." Said Sarah.

"I, myself, can swim all the way to Mexico." Dylan declared and stepped away from John B.

Pope nodded. "Oh, we know."

"Come on, baby. What do you think?" She smiled and motioned to the ocean.

"They do look pretty tasty."

John B nodded. "Oh, yes, they do."

Pope stood up. "There's nobody around. We could squat here for a bit." His arms wrapped around Dylan's shoulders and her hands ran up and down his bare back. "Kind of belongs to us now, huh?"

"You got a point."

"Six-way split?" He said and he and John B did the handshake.

"Poguelandia." JJ said in a posh accent. "I claim thee Poguelandia." He declared. "I like the ring of it. I'm gonna make a flag. It's gonna have a chicken on it. With a coconut bra, smoking a J. . .in crocs." He said in his normal voice.

They laughed that his randomness. "So basically just your alter ego?" Asked Dylan and she laughed.

Everyone else laughed with her. "I could use a j." Said Kiara.

"Can we vote on this?" Asked Sarah.

Pope looked over Dylan's head. "Shall we get to work?" He asked John B.

"Let's get to work. Let's start working on provisions. Set up shop." John B went and crouched in front of Sarah. "Sarah," he said with a dimpled smile. "Till death do us part?"

Sarah smiled at him. "Till death do us part?" She repeated with no hesitation.

"Welcome back to the Pogue life."

"Full Pogue."

Pope looked down at Dylan. "What do you say?" He asked her and cupped the sides of her face.

Dylan tried taking it all in. Everything was happening so fast. They were just kids. Teenagers. Their lives were changing so quickly that it felt hard to breath. But one thing that was certain was they'd always have each other to fall back on. Smiling, Dylan titled her head to the side and kissed him.

The others smiled at them.

"It's you and me, right?" She asked him when their lips parted.

Pope was uncertain about a lot of things. His anxiety often made it hard for him to make decisions. He was always thinking about what could go wrong instead of focusing on the good. But he was always certain when it came to Dylan. She was the one thing he never doubted, the one thing he knew in his heart that was right. He loved her with all of him. She was a love he'd cross oceans for. "It's you and me, baby."

Logan stood in Dylan's bedroom, looking around at her tidy space. It was like nothing had been touched, not even her bed slept in. She always kept it so clean. The decorations were her mother's idea. The colors and the placement of her desk and bookcase and bed. He didn't know about that kind of stuff, but Logan remembered helping Dylan put her dresser right beside her bedroom window. She loved it there, so she never moved it. There was a picture frame of the two of them on that dresser, of when she was a little girl and they were on the beach. It was took by Ainsley. Dylan was on his lap in her lady bug bathing suit. His swim trunks matched it because she always loved to match with him.

Logan sat on her bed with the picture in his hands and he didn't realize he was crying until a tear drop fell on her little face, and he started sobbing. He didn't know where she was, or if she was safe, or if she was even with the Pogues. All Logan knew was that she was gone, dead or alive. He held the picture to his chest as if he was hugging her, and it hurt so bad that he couldn't.

Ainsley walked by and saw him crying, and her heart split in two. "Sweetheart." She uttered but his heart broke cries only got louder. She went inside the room and sat beside him on her bed, and she cried with him.

Dylan always came home. Even if it was a few days, or late in the night, she always came home. But she wasn't home this time, and Ainsley automatically thought the worst. That her daughter was dead and it was an unbearable pain. The kind of pain only a parent understood.

The family hung missing persons flyers all around the island, along with Mike and Anna. Logan was trembling with every poster that went up. He stood with reporters and the cops and Kildare residents in front of the court house. Ainsley held Braxton close to her as Logan stood in front of the mic. "You all know my daughter. Dylan's a good girl. She's always been." His voice was so shaky that he was surprised they could understand him. His eyes were rimmed red and baggy. "She's never been in trouble. She gets good grades. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about her. My DJ's a good girl." His voice wobbled and Logan held his chest. "I just want her home. If anyone can help bring her home, please do it. Dylan baby, if you're watching, please come home."

Dylan's life was forever changed by a simple compass that found at the bottom of the marsh. She went from a good girl who never did anything bad to a girl caught in the middle of a treasure hunt, a girl who finally found her voice while trying to clear her brother's name, and a girl who would do anything for her her friends, including defying the laws. She was a good girl, that would always be true. But she was stronger now. She went through hardships to become who she was now at that point.

She leaned into Pope and he kissed the top of her head. She was surrounded by everything she loved. Him, her friends, the ocean, and a new life she always wanted to discover. She spent so many endless hot summer nights wondering what life was like outside of Kildare. What she could become if she was away from her home.

It was scary to think about. She was only seventeen. But she wasn't alone. She had the Pogue. She was a Pogue for life. She laughed with them, belly laughter as JJ shouted a loud Poguelandia into the air, and they ate fish that caught from the ocean. They would have each other. They were a family. Dylan stared at the glowing fire, Pope's love showering her, and she took in the moment she was in with a group of golden eyed teenagers.