Carson Keller used to think her biggest problem was their rivalry against the Kooks, but that was until buried secrets rose to the surface. Now her biggest problems included a dangerous treasure hunt and a hot-headed teenage boy.
✰ season 1-3 ✰
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"CARSON?" JJ said. "Car, hey. We gotta go. We gotta go, baby." He stepped in front of her and gently rested his hands on her face. "Big John is hurt." When he said this, she remembered the blood and snapped out of the daze that she was in about Ward. "We gotta go." She swallowed the lump in her throat and hastily wiped away the tears from her cheeks before turning to walk away. JJ quickly followed after her, the two of them catching up with the rest of the group. John B and Pope were supporting Big John as they made the trek back to the boat to try to get him out of there to get some help.
By the time that they got him to the boat, he was barely able to stand on his own so they laid him down gently and hurried in. John B allowed him to rest his head in his lap as he closed his eyes, his breathing shallowed and labored.
"Hey, hey, Pop. Hey, hang in there, okay?" John B said. Deep down they all knew he wasn't going to make it, but no one had the heart to say that out loud.
"We did it together, my boy," Big John said quietly.
"Yeah. Yeah we did."
"Where's Carson?" he asked.
"I'm right here," she said. She leaned forward from where she was sat next to JJ, and she forced a smile at Big John as she reached over to grab his hand.
"You're gonna be okay," he told her. She was so exhausted that she could barely fight to keep the tears out of her eyes, and at this point, she wasn't sure she even wanted to.
"So are you," she said. He gave her one last smile, knowing that she didn't mean in the sense that he would live but in the way that he would still be okay in the end. He then shifted his gaze over to Sarah.
"Bird, you got to hang on to this one," Big John said. Sarah gave John B a tearful smile and squeezed Big John's hand. "I know that I wasn't any great shakes as a father."
"Stop, Dad," John B said.
"But you... you were the best son any man could hope for," Big John said. "I want you to know that."
"You can tell me when we get home, okay? Almost there," John B said. "Hold up, Dad. Look. We did it." He rested a piece of the gold on his chest and Big John reached up to wrap his hand around it.
"I'll see you. I'll see you at home, kid." As soon as he eyes fell shut, Carson squeezed her own shut too and leaned her body into JJ. He immediately wrapped his arm around her, seeming to need to hold onto her as much as she needed him to hold onto her. After everything, they all just needed each other. It was the only thing that would get them through it.
✰
All of the death served as a harsh reminder of their mortality. They went on wild adventures and put themselves in harm's way more times than anyone probably ever should, but it wasn't until moments like this that they realized how quickly it could all end.
Carson stood close next to JJ as they all stared at the makeshift headstone that they carved for Big John. Even though they had gone so long thinking that he had been dead that it shouldn't have felt so hard to process, but this time it was definite and they had been there to see it for themselves. There was no wondering where he was or what had happened to him. He was just gone.
So was Ward.
Carson folded her arms across her chest as she approached where Sarah was kneeling down next to a cross she made out of sticks. She unfolded a picture of their family and placed it at the base.
"Maybe- maybe he wasn't all bad," Carson said, surprised that it was her own voice that was saying those words. Sarah looked over her shoulder back at Carson. Her eyes were glossed over with tears and were filled with a look of conflicted pain.
"Yeah, maybe he wasn't," Sarah said. Carson reached her hand out to the blonde and helped her to her feet. She reached forward and pulled Sarah in for a hug. The two girls were mourning the same man, but for Carson it was for a father that she never had and for Sarah it was for a father that became one she didn't recognize. Somehow it managed to hurt all the same.
They slowly broke apart when they heard someone else walking up. When they turned they saw it was both John B and JJ. Sarah gave Carson one last sad smile before she walked off with John B, leaving Carson with JJ. He walked forward until he was standing next to her over Ward's cross.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said honestly. Both Big John, who was the closest thing she had to a father, and Ward, her actual father, were both dead in the same day. It was a lot to understand how to feel. "But I will be."
"You know, as much as I hated Ward, I have to give him credit for what he did," JJ said. "I mean, when I saw you step in front of Sarah, in front of the gun, I realized that if he didn't do that then I was going to." Carson couldn't help her eyes burn with tears again at the thought of JJ running in front of the bullets to save her, but it was because she knew it was the truth. If there was one thing about the two of them, it was their unconditional sense of loyalty. Neither of them would hesitate to save one another, or any of the others.
