CHERRY SLUSHY IN HAND, Karolina walked happily alongside Kie and Sarah as they waited for Pope to finish talking to his great-grandmother.

"Of course I thanked Topper," Sarah sighed, as they made their way back to the van. "He saved my life, and I'd already put him through so much already— and you'd think that that is the crime of the century..." She rolled her eyes.

Kie laughed scornfully. "Tell me about it... All of this crazy shit's happening, and Pope's giving me the silent treatment for not being in love with him."

Sarah grinned at her. "And we're the dramatic ones."

Karolina lowered her slushy, opening her mouth to speak, but Sarah hushed her. "No, nope. Those in happy relationships get no input," she said, with a smile.

Kie shook her head. "I can't believe Karolina and JJ are the happiest relationship in this group..."

Karolina smiled at the thought. "Well, it was not without trial—"

"No! No! No input!" Kie and Sarah laughed as they squished Karolina between them with their hips. She rolled her eyes playfully as they all climbed back into the van.

A few minutes later, they picked up Pope in the same place they dropped him off. He sighed as he clambered in, the key wrapped tightly in his hands. He shut the door and sat down.

John B stared at him. "So... How'd it go?"

Pope sighed again.

"Shit just got way more personal."

｡･:*:･ﾟ★ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE RELATED TO DENMARK TANNY."

Later in the day, they lounged around on the docks, drinking soda (and not beer, for once) after Pope told them what his Mee-Maw said.

JJ giggled (because he was drinking from a flask, not a soda can). "Uh-huh!"

John B stopped and grinned, gasping fauxly. "Are we in the presence of a royal?"

The girls started to cheer, and JJ whooped. "A king!" He mimed dubbing Pope, lowering an invisible crown on his head. "We shall crown him," he said, in a decent British accent, "All hail the lord of Tannyhill!"

"We're not worthy!" John B cried, as Pope tried to settle them. Everyone laughed and bowed to Pope, until he laughed too.

"Everybody relax, can we relax, please?" he shook his head.

Sarah twirled her fingers at them. "Relocate to Cat's Ass, question mark?"

Karolina swung her feet and hopped off the railing. "I am so down for that."

Pope grew somber, suddenly, looking at his feet. "I just... I keep thinking about the letter, the one Limbrey sent." He looked at John B. "It had the wheat symbol on it. That must mean it has something to do with the Royal Merchant..."

JJ nodded, leaning on the railing. "Yeah... something seems fishy."

"But," Pope said, smiling again, "If we find that cross, we can split it like we were gonna split the gold—"

"And live happily ever after?" said a new voice.

Everyone sprung to their feet, turning to gape at Carla, who stood under an umbrella with Renfield and Karolina's father at her side.

Pope grit his teeth. "You assaulted my father—" He set towards the lady and her stooges, but Renfield pushed him back.

"Oh, I didn't assault anybody," Carla said innocently.

Kie raised an eyebrow. "He can identify the psycho from a mile away." She stared at Renfield.

Carla looked fauxly confused. "Oh, w-why would my employee assault your father?"

Jason smiled at Karolina, who balled her fists at her sides. "I know Mr. Heyward very well. That's absurd."

Limbrey settled forward, looking at Pope. "Listen, we can keep on negotiating but the fact is that I want the key."

Renfield pushed forward to grab Pope by his collar, but Karolina was faster, slipping between them and shoving him back, hard. It was almost comical, a 5'2" teenage girl putting herself in front of her 6' tall friend to protect him from a man just as large— but that was Karolina.

She would bleed, kill, and die for any one of them.

Carla ignored her, though, with a gentle laugh. "I won't stop until I have it. I don't have a choice, which means you don't either."

Karolina glared daggers through her father, who stood behind Limbrey, looking poised and unbothered. She gritted her teeth and looked at Limbrey again. "Call off your guard dog, and we can talk, bitch," she ordered.

Jason smiled. "That's not happening, sweetheart."

Renfield shoved Karolina into Pope by her shoulder, just when—

"It's Limbrey, right?" John B wiggled the key between his fingertips, smiling, as Limbrey and Renfield turned to look at him. "Is that right?"

"Yes," Carla cried, moving toward him.

"Is this what you're looking for?" he asked, tilting his head at the key in his hand.

Carla took a breath. "Yes, it is."

Renfield's grip on Karolina's shirt loosened, as John B continued. "Looking at the tide right now, I'd say it's about 20 feet deep out there. So, if I just threw it in the channel... the probability of you finding it again is slim to none."

Renfield drew toward him, and Karolina looked back at Pope as he pulled the real key out of his pocket.

She met his eyes, as they both realized what John B was doing.

"You wanna give it a shot?"he asked Limbrey, reeling back his hand to throw it in the water.

"No!" she cried, starting toward him. "No!"

John B faked the throw, dangling the key between his fingertips, as Limbrey gasped.

He turned back to her with a smug look. He looked down at the key, then gestured to Renfield. "Get him to back the hell up."

Carla nodded at him. "Of course..."

It was funny what she'd do for that key. She would probably spin around on her head singing Backstreet Boys if they told her to. "Back up," she told Renfiled sweetly. He huffed and crossed to the other side of the dock.

Karolina felt a bit relieved, but only slightly. Man, it was so good to have John B back...

Carla turned to Pope once more. "As I have told you from the beginning, I am willing to be reasonable."

Pope's gaze slid to John B, before he nodded, going along. "Okay."

Even Carla was shocked. "Okay?"

"I'll give you the key... But I want the tape." Pope stood his ground, but it didn't take much for Limbrey to agree.

"Of course, of course..." She looked so happy. Karolina almost felt bad that it was all a farce and the key they were going to give her is fake.

John B made his way over, shaking his head. "Hey, hey, hey..." He took Pope in close, muttering, "You don't have to do this, okay?"

Pope shook his head. "No, it's okay."

"Dude, this is your family—"

"It's fine. It's okay." Pope took the key from him. "It's about your dad."

Carla smiled. "Oh, you're such a good friend."

Renfield made a move to take it from them, but Karolina's arm shot out, pushing him back again. "The tape," Pope said, urgently.

Carla nodded. "Yes, give him the tape."

Karolina watched Renfield carefully. He raised his hands in mock surrender, before digging into his coat pocket and producing the tape recorder. Karolina let him through, and he and Pope carefully switched items at the same time.

Carla sighed once the key was in her hand. "You know, I wish that you'd come to this decision earlier," she said, her sweet and polite facade falling. "We could have avoided all this unpleasantness..." She turned and Karolina's father helped her away.

Renfield opened his umbrella, turning around to say, "See you around, Pope."

He turned his back, but still Karolina yelled, "Bye, bitch!" She rolled her eyes and moved back to her friends.

Pope peered around the corner and waited until they were out of sight to sigh.

JJ grinned at John B. "How long do you think we have until she realizes she has your father's old key?"

John B shrugged, but looked pleased. "Ten minutes."

Pope looked at them, bewildered. "Whose idea was the fake key?"

Shrugging, Kie looked at them too. "Shockingly, not mine."

Karolina shook her head. "Obviously not mine. I was ready to beat a bitch up," she said.

They looked at John B, who put his arm around a stretching, grinning JJ. "Hmm... I don't know. Should we tell them?"

Kie laughed, her jaw dropped. "Wow. I'm impressed. Maybe you are good for something!"

Pope looked surprised too. "Did hell freeze over?!" He jostled JJ as the other boy laughed.

"Even a blind pig can find an acorn at times!" JJ cheered. "I actually don't know what that means, I saw it on Reddit."

Karolina shook her head, grinning from ear to ear. She was ashamed to say she was surprised JJ had come up with a decent plan all on his own— pleasantly surprised, of course. She loved it when JJ came up with things.

John B caught her dreamy look before she could wipe it away.

"Uh oh," he said, grinning. "Lina's got a lady boner."

She blushed a dark red. But she knew that if lady-boners were real, she had one. She elbowed John B in the side. "Shut up."

Kiara and Sarah started to laugh. "Oh, yeah, she loves it when JJ talks logic to her," teased Kie, hopping up from her spot.

Turning her back to them to hide her red cheeks, Karolina gave them all the middle finger, which spurred on their laughter further.

"I bet she gets him to repeat the quadratic formula in bed," said John B.

Pope tilted his head back, an arm over JJ's shoulder still. "Oh, negative B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus four A C!" he said in a dramatic, breathy moan. "All over two A!"

They fell into a fit of laughter again and Karolina rolled her eyes, though laughing herself.

JJ just grinned. "Jokes on you guys, I have no idea what you just said."

They laughed again and Karolina squirmed her way between John B and JJ, throwing her arms over both their shoulders as they started off toward the van. She smiled up at John B.

"I am so glad that you're back," she said, with a cheesy grin.

He gave one back. "Aw, me too. Speaking of, we gotta get this tape to Shoupe— ow!" John B squealed and twisted away, when Karolina pinched his ear. "Ow!"

Smiling innocently to herself, Karolina leaned onto JJ as they carried on toward the Twinkie.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

JOHN B TOOK THE TAPE TO SHOUPE, Shoupe promised them Ward would go down, and they returned to the porch of the Chateau, where JJ had them celebratory drinks.

The boys whooped and hollered around the table inside about "King Cameron going down," while Karolina, Kie, and Sarah took up a coach, chatting quietly. Sarah was extra quiet, and Karolina noticed.

When Kie went to the bathroom, Karolina scooted closer to the other blonde girl. "Hey," she smiled, looking up at her. "I know this can't be super easy on you.. You okay?"

Sarah turned her down-cast head and smiled softly. "You know... you're the first person to ask me that?"

Karolina glanced over to where John B and Pope poured two separate beers into JJ's mouth. He sputtered when it ran into his nose. "They mean well..." she mumured, cringing and looking back at Sarah. "They're just a little insensitive... You need anything?"

"A father who isn't evil."

Karolina snorted, taking a sip of her Mai Tai. "Yeah, tell me about it..."

Sarah tried to smile. "I mean, I know he deserves to go to jail for all the things he's done... But he's still my dad. It's not... easy."

Placing a hand on her arm, Karolina rubbed softly, trying to comfort her. "I can't even imagine, Sarah... Look," she sat forward, holding her hand, "If you want to, maybe we could go get Wheezie? Before it all happens?"

Sarah looked up with her pretty eyes tear-filled. "Yeah, that would be... Thank you, Lina." She pulled the other blonde into an embrace, and Karolina smiled into her hair. God, she loved Sarah Cameron.

Just then, Sarah's phone rang, and Karolina tried not to make a face when she saw it was Topper calling. "Go ahead," she said softly, and Sarah stood to answer the call outside.

Karolina marched over to the boys table, stopping in front of them with her hands on her hips. She cleared her throat causing them to all sit up straight in their seats and fall silent instantly.

"Hey, assholes," she hissed at them. Fed up, she pointed to where Sarah stood outside. "I know Ward is an ugly son of a bitch, and I know he's put us through a lot, but could we tone it down in front of Sarah?"

The boys blinked up at her and she sighed, feeling bad for yelling. "Look, she hates him, too, but... He's still her dad. She still remembers him when he was good, and she has a sweet little sister in the middle of it still. So have some class!"

"Damn, okay..." muttered JJ. Pope looked at his lap and John B gave her an overexaggerated bow. "Yes, Mother, sorry, Mother."

Karolina rolled her eyes. Idiots...

"Karolina!" called Sarah, suddenly panicked. The blonde turned toward her, and her eyes read the same. "They're about to arrest him."

Kiara emerged from the bathroom at about that moment and they all rose to their feet. "Come on, please..." Sarah grabbed Karolina's hand, running out to the van with her, as the rest of them followed.

The ride was short, but the sirens could be heard before they ever even reached Tannyhill. Sarah sat in the passenger seat next to John B, who drove them, and tensed when she heard the sirens. "Hurry, I need to be there for Wheezie," she urged John B, even though they were not on speaking terms at the moment.

John B barely spared her a glance. "You think I'd miss this?"

Sarah turned to him with a horrified expression when he wasn't looking, her heart breaking.

John B slammed on the brakes, the Twinkie screeching to a stop. Karolina followed Kie and Pope as they jumped out, JJ behind her, and they peered over the top of the Cameron's guard wall. Sarah's hands were shaking. "Holy shit..."

Karolina stood on her tiptoes to see as many cop cars as were in the county surrounding Tannyhill, and Shoupe leading his officers down to the docks.

"I can't see, bro," JJ muttered, pushing Pope out of his way. The other boy jostled him. "Now I can't see..."

Dozens and dozens of officers raced after Shoupe, along with some SWAT members, their guns ready.

Suddenly, John B placed his hands on the wall. "Screw it. I'm going over."

He hopped the fence with ease and JJ was quick to press his back to the wall, making a basket with his hands to help Karolina and Kie over. Pope helped Sarah, and Karolina waited for them before taking off after John B.

She realized she'd never actually been to the Cameron's house as she ran towards the dock, where a huge white boat awaited them. Karolina could see him from the yard, where they stopped to let Sarah talk to Wheezie.

Ward Cameron, dressed in his nicest clothes.

A cold feeling settled in Karolina's stomach. This was not going to be good.

"Wheezie! Wheezie!" Sarah cried, running toward her younger sister with her arms outstretched.

"What's going on?" Wheezie asked, as Sarah wrapped her in an embrace. "Why are the police here again?"

Karolina, standing next to JJ, could barely hear Sarah's shaking voice as she talked to her sister. "Go inside. Don't come out."

Wheezie nodded and turned, allowing Rose to usher her inside.

Within seconds, Sarah had tossed her shoes into the yard and sprinted towards the dock. The Pogues had no choice but to follow her, John B and Karolina the first to move.

"Dad!" Sarah cried, fighting through the officers lining the dock. John B fought them, too. "Hey, hey. You gotta let us through—" No one argued as he shouldered his way past. No one argued when Karolina or JJ or Pope or Kie did, either.

In fact, Shoupe encouraged it. "That's Sarah Cameron, let her through!"

"What are you doing here, Sarah?" Ward called, his voice panicked and raw. "Vic, you gotta get her out of here! She can't be here right now!"

Sarah looked helplessly to Shoupe. "Just come on in, and you... you..." Shoupe struggled for what to say. "You can talk to her!"

Ward messed with the controls on the boat, crying, "Sarah, I'm so sorry, baby. I can't!" The anchor started to rise.

"What are you doing! Dad, no, no, no!" Sarah hollered, tears lining her eyes.

The SBI agent murmured into his radio. "All right, move. Move."

"Ward, this ain't gonna end the way you want it to!"

The sirens of police and SBI boats wailed through the air, cutting through the water toward Cameron's boat. "You don't need her seeing this!" Shoupe called.

Ward wasn't listening, clambering down the ladder to the lower level of his boat.

"Dad! Don't leave, where are you going!" Sarah cried.

"I love you!" was his only response.

"Hey- Damn it, Ward! Turn around and get back here—"

"Please don't leave!"

The wailing of the boat sirens and the screaming sheriff and daughter pounded into Karolina's ears so loud she couldn't think.

But everything went silent for a long moment.

Then something happened. And not even the Pogues, who expected anything and everything— not even they saw this coming.

BOOM.

The bow of Ward's boat exploded first, in a glorious wave of heat and orange light. Then the rest went, and every head on the dock finally gathered what was happening and ducked as the My Druthers burst into flames, Ward Cameron and all.

Karolina barely felt JJ's hand as she stumbled backward, almost falling off of the dock and into the water, as debris rained over them.

The world went silent, numb, except for the crying of Sarah Cameron.

"No. No."

Karolina's ears wrang and her heart raced. She wanted to check on her friends, to make sure none of them were hit by the debris, to try and comfort Sarah, but her eyes were glued to the wreckage, unable to believe what just happened.

"Dad! Dad!"

Karolina's chest burned in anger. He never even had to deal with the consequences of his actions, that son of a bitch.

But her anger didn't matter, not at the moment. She finally snapped from the horror induced trance when Topper bounded down the dock, calling for Sarah.

He caught her as she collapsed into sobs. Karolina wised up and looked at John B, hoping he would too— but the golden boy just stared into the flames.

Karolina moved to go to Sarah. JJ grabbed her arm, but she went anyway, on instinct. Her knees gave out and she fell next to Sarah and Topper. The blonde girl curled into her friend, sobbing into her shoulder, and Karolina wrapped her arms around her. Sarah's shoulders shook as she cried.

Feeling a warm hand on her back, Karolina hated Topper Thornton a little less in that moment.

Ward Cameron,  the Lord of Tannyhill, was gone. Dead.

And what are they supposed to do, now?

a/n:

I felt bad for sarah in this moment but ESPECIALLY SAD for wheezie. the poor baby had no clue what was going on, she didn't know any of it. my heart breaks everytime I see her crying watching the video of ward in the next episode its so sad :(

anyway some happy some sad in this episode. karolina is a good friend, I think, and would definitely be there for sarah.