Audacious//JJ Maybank (Outerbanks)

Chapter 105

{Aftermath}

After Big John took his last breath, everything that followed felt like a blur. The weight of what had happened pressed down on all of us, and even though we were surrounded by the gold—the treasure we had fought so hard to find—none of it mattered in that moment. We couldn't just leave his body in the boat. It didn't feel right. So we stayed in South America longer than we'd planned, finding a small, quiet patch of land near the river to bury him. The jungle was alive around us, and as we dug his grave, I couldn't help but think that maybe he would've wanted it this way—buried near El Dorado, the treasure he had spent his whole life chasing.

We dug a cross into the earth for Ward too. Even though we couldn't retrieve his body from the bottom of the cliff, it didn't feel right to leave him unmarked. I knew Sarah was still coming to terms with everything that had happened, but she'd made peace with her father in those final moments, and that deserved some kind of recognition.

Standing over Big John's grave, my mind was a mess. What now? I felt adrift, lost in a sea of uncertainty. We had spent so much time searching, fighting, running—always moving forward, chasing after something just out of reach. Now that it was over, I didn't know where to go from here. None of us did.

The answers came when we got home.

It was a quiet return, not at all the triumphant homecoming I'd imagined on those long, restless nights by the campfire. But once we made it back to the Outer Banks, it all became real. The treasure we'd found, the gold we brought back—it made us rich. Really rich. It was almost surreal. Everything we had joked about while lounging in hammocks, dreaming of what it'd be like to live without worrying about money—it had actually come true.

But wealth didn't fill the void left behind by everything we'd lost. It didn't erase the pain or the grief or the scars that ran deep from the battles we'd fought, the people we'd lost. Big John was gone. Ward was gone. Even though we had made it back alive, something had shifted in all of us. JJ, John B, Sarah, Pope, Kiara, Cleo—we were all trying to figure out what came next.

Six months later, everything changed again.

It was early in the morning when I woke up, a sharp pain radiating through my belly. At first, I thought it was just another one of those late-pregnancy aches, the kind that makes it impossible to get comfortable no matter how many pillows you stack around you. But this was different. It was deep, intense, and when I stood up, the pain only got worse.

I clutched my stomach, my breath coming out in shallow gasps as the realization hit me. "JJ," I called out, my voice tight. "It's time."

He shot up from his side of the bed, his eyes wide. "What? Now?"

"Now," I managed to say through gritted teeth as another wave of pain hit me.

The next few hours passed in a whirlwind. The hospital room was dimly lit, the soft glow of the overhead lights casting a gentle hue over everything. The rhythmic beeping of the monitor beside me created a steady soundtrack, blending with the soft murmur of voices from the nurses in the hallway.

I shifted uncomfortably in the bed, waves of pain crashing over me, each contraction feeling more intense than the last. My hands gripped the sides of the bed, knuckles turning white as I focused on breathing through the discomfort.

JJ was right beside me, his hand tightly holding mine, his thumb making small, reassuring circles over my palm. His face was a mix of worry and excitement, his blue eyes wide and focused, like he was trying to stay calm for me even though I could see the nervous energy coursing through him.

"You're doing amazing, Jackie," he whispered, leaning down to kiss my forehead, his voice soft but steady. "Just a little longer. We're almost there."

I nodded, trying to latch onto his words, to find strength in his presence. I was terrified, but JJ was my anchor. I could feel his support enveloping me, reminding me that I wasn't alone in this.