LIFE AS THEY KNEW IT had changed permanently. The amount of truths and lies uncovered during the hunt for the gold had made the Pogues question everything. Their fight hadn't just been against what they didn't have, it had been against what was taken from them. The gold didn't even matter anymore either because of what else had been taken from them. It was something that they could never get back.

Carson could hardly watch as Pope hacked away at the tree, but she also couldn't get herself to look away either. It just became harder when JJ began branding the tree in memory of their friend.

"To John B," he said as he held his flask up towards the tree.

"And Sarah," Kiara added softly. JJ lifted the flask to his lips. The second it fell, Carson reached over and grabbed it to drink from it too. The warmth of the strong liquor burned her throat but there was also a sort of comfort to it. She imagined that JJ had been feeling the same by the way he carried the flask around like it was his lifeline recently. It's why Carson kept an extra close eye on him as they finished burying what belonged to John B before they decided it was enough to handle for one day. If they sat and thought about everything for too long, it started to feel suffocating.

"I don't think your boss is gonna appreciate you showing up like that," Carson commented. She was sat on the couch as she watched JJ pull his work shirt over his head. His eyes were bloodshot from crying and she could smell his breath from across the room. She obviously didn't blame him or judge him for that, but she wasn't the one that he had to look presentable for.

"Do you think I really care?" he pointed out. She let out a laugh and shook her head.

"No, I know you don't care," she said. "And I don't care either. I'm just letting you know you look like a hot mess right now." As harsh and blunt as her words might have seemed, he knew she was just teasing and didn't actually mean it. That's why he didn't take it to heart. Just because they were in a relationship, it didn't mean their banter from their friendship went away. They were still friends first anyway.

"But I do look hot?"

"Always," she said with a smile. She stood up and straightened out his collar. "Hot enough that the Kooks might not even notice that your breath smells like the back of a bar."

"Ha ha, very funny," he said. She laughed before becoming a bit serious again.

"Please don't do anything stupid," she said. She worried about him, especially in the state that he was in. Going into Kook territory was bound to cause trouble, and trouble was what JJ was good at.

"When do I ever do anything stupid?" he said.

"Always," she said.

"I'm going to just pretend like that's not true," he said. "So, what are you doing today?"

"Oh, nothing." Just something stupid.

✰

None of them were really thinking about what they were doing. They were just acting on their emotions and their emotions were not good at the moment. It's why when Carson found herself at the police station where she knew Ward would be, she didn't care to think logically.

"You can't go in there," one of the officers tried stopping her as she barged through the front door. When she just kept walking, the officer seemed to realize that she had no intent to listen to him. "Hey, stop!" Carson began banging her hand on the glass, which made all of the men in the interrogation room turn to look at her.

"Whatever he's telling you is a lie!" she screamed. "Rafe shot Peterkin and he's just covering for him!" She tried to continue to bang on the glass, but before she could, she was being shoved against it by the officer. He grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her back to slap a pair of handcuffs on her wrists to restrain her. But once again, she didn't care. "Ward Cameron is a liar!"

"Carson, come on, calm down," Shoupe tried to tell her as the men rushed out of the room to stop the girl from continuing to cause a scene. "Don't do this."

"Don't do what? Tell the truth?" she asked. "I'm the only one in this room that will recognize the truth!"

"Get yourself arrested," he said, motioning to the metal that was digging into her wrists as she tried to thrash out of the officer's grip to get to Ward.

"I don't care, Shoupe! Don't you get that? Arrest me, throw me in jail, but it'd be a hell of a lot more than you're doing to him!" she screamed.

"She's just overwhelmed," Ward began to say. "She recently found out that I'm her father, and she's upset. She has every right to be. That's why she's lashing out and making up reasons to get me in trouble." Carson narrowed her eyes at him and felt sick listening to him try to gaslight her. She tried to lunge at him but she didn't get very far considering she was still being held back by the officer as she was handcuffed. "If you just let her go, I'll take care of it and make sure she gets home okay."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," she said.

"Shoupe, she's just a teenager. Make your officer take off the cuffs," Ward continued. "She's mourning her friend and her sister and she doesn't know what she's saying. You don't need to arrest her for grieving." Shoupe looked over at Carson who had tears in her eyes, which were mostly out of pure frustration and anger. Her wrists were raw and red from the sharp metal of the handcuffs digging within her skin. He nodded his head.

"Take 'em off," he ordered. He stepped closer to Carson and gave her a sympathetic yet warning look. "Go home and we can pretend like you didn't just try to break into the police station." The second the officer took off the handcuffs, Ward grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the station.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled as she tried to rip her arm of his tight grip. It wasn't until they were finally outside that he let her go.

"I know you're upset and angry, but it's not safe for you to get involved," Ward told her. Carson let out a humorless laugh as he stood there trying to tell her that she had no right to try to fight for her friend when they all knew the truth.

"Are you really trying to parent me right now?" she asked. "Because that's the funniest shit I've ever heard."

"Well, I am your father," he said. "And you may not believe this, but I don't want to see you get hurt." Carson rolled her eyes as he continued to try to prove a point but it wasn't a point worth trying to prove. He had no right to try to enter her life now when he had 17 years to do that. "You better tell your friends to be careful."

"Is that a threat?" she asked.

"No, a piece of advice," he said. She was so done with the conversation and couldn't stand to hear whatever bullshit he had left to say so she just turned around to leave. Shoupe wasn't going to take the time to listen to her anyway so maybe she was just wasting her time. "Don't say I didn't warn you, Carson."

"Trust me, I won't."