'There is 

some good 

in this

world, and it's 

worth 

fighting for.'

- J. R. R. Tolkein

. . .

Rip passed Noah one of the toy bricks, bouncing her knee up and down.

She hated hospitals. Always had. When she was a kid they'd always felt too restricting, too closed in. With all the injuries she used to have she was a frequent visitor but for an active kid like Rip, sitting still was nothing short of torture. Then as she grew older, she began to despise them for a different reason.

Either way Rip was on edge, and Finn and Gloria had been gone for a while. Noah seemed oblivious, playing with the blocks and kids toys in the waiting area to take his mind off Finn. Gloria had taken Finn to get his stitches, in fact as soon as they arrived the nurses all but swarmed her. Rip had been slightly surprised that she was so popular. She knew that Gloria had spent her entire career in this hospital but she just didn't strike Rip as such a people person.

"Rip, Baby girl." Gloria's voice came from the doorway. Finn let go of her hand and immediately ran over to, climbing in her lap. Relief flushed through her and she gave him a squeeze. Pulling from the hug, Finn showed her the bandage that had been wrapped around his arm just in case the stitches were to tear.

"You were a brave boy, weren't you?" Rip smiled, lightly taking Finn's arm between her fingers. Finn nodded as Gloria came closer.

"That he was and I think that's deservin' of an ice cream. Don't you?" Gloria smiled.

At the mention of ice cream, Noah pushed his tower of blocks over and jumped over to them. "Yeah, ice cream!"

Rip let out a laugh and nodded. "Sure, I think we can get some ice cream today."

Turns out that going for ice cream was a terrible idea. The ice cream tasted great of course, they had to thank their lucky stars that the parlour had a backup generator to save the ice cream. No, the ice cream was great. But the docks were swarming with people, the coastguard pulling someone off a boat on a gurney. Unease creeped up Rip's spine. It was the first time in a long time that she and her brothers had been out together in public. Usually if her brothers were to end up visiting the big wide world it would be with Gloria, on the rare occasion that she left the house.

But to make matters worse, she spotted the Pogues hanging out on the docks, their eyes trained on the person strapped to the gurney.

"Baby girl, you look like you're bein' swarmed by sharks." Gloria pointed out as she held Finn's hand in hers. Noah running and jumping off of things ahead of them.

Rip winced slightly, her eyes glancing every so often to the Pogues. "There's just a lot of people here."

She was beginning to get a headache from all the stress she'd been experiencing. JJ would always joke that when she was stressed she always looked like she was either about to vomit or bolt. She could imagine that she was looking that way in that moment, as much as she'd argue with him otherwise.

Gloria's eyes must've tracked the Pogues making her chuckle. "You don't wanna go say hi?"

"No," Rip sighed, the Pogues didn't know about her brothers, plus she'd spent quite a lot of time with them lately, her brothers needed some attention too. "I was with them all morning and my brothers need me here. I can see them later."

Gloria raised her eyebrows at her unimpressed, "Mmhmm."

Rip couldn't help but feel the pang that hit her heart as they walked away from the docks but that was quickly followed by guilt. Guilt because she knew her brothers needed her and yeah she would do anything for them, she shouldn't be feeling bad for having to spend time with them. Rip didn't know when she was going to be off work like this again, she needed to make the most of it and spend some time with her family.

"Noah, be careful, please." Rip called as he climbed up onto a bench and jumped off.

. . .

Rip grumbled under her breath as she strode through the trees. After Gloria had kicked Rip out the house after she reached her wits end from all her fussing over Finn, she began making her way over to the Chateaux. After all she wanted to see what they'd decided to do after she left them at the coastguards hut. That and she didn't want to go back to David's anytime soon. Not on her own, at least.

When she broke through the trees, the Chateaux looked quiet. The kind of quiet where you just knew that there was nobody home. Still Rip strode up the porch steps and pushed the door open.

"John B?" She called, entering the house. "JJ?"

All she got in response was the whisper of the slight wind outside.

"Anybody home?"

She let out a sigh of annoyance when she came to the conclusion that Chateaux was empty and she had no idea where anybody was.

Collapsing onto the bed in the middle of the living room, Rip groaned against the stress that was making her head thump dully. She didn't know if she could be bothered to go looking for them. Knowing the Pogues they could be anywhere on the island and as much as she loved them, she'd only scour the entire island for them if she knew they were in mortal peril. After all why waste all that energy otherwise?

She'd began dozing for a while until she heard footsteps jump up the porch steps and shove the door open making it swing with a bang. Startling awake, she pushed herself up into sitting position to see John B jump a mile when he saw her sat there.

"Jesus Christ, Rip! Don't scare me like that."

Rip raised an eyebrow, "Scare you? I was the one rudely awoken from my doze by the elephant that charged into the room." John B rolled his eyes as he strode over to the kitchen cabinets, opening several of them. "What're you looking for anyway?"

"Some more solo cups. We've havin' a kegger at the Boneyard and more people turned up than we thought." His head was nearly all the way in one cabinet as he shuffled things around, throwing the odd thing out. "How come you're here anyways? Thought you had things to do."

"Yeah I finished up, plus I wanted to see if anything happened after I left you all at the Coastguards hut?"

John B let out a noise of triumph as he pulled out a clear bag of solo cups. "Knew I had some somewhere."

He headed back to the door of the Chateaux and Rip thought for a second he was going to leave her there, her question unanswered. After all the Pogues knew that parties weren't exactly her scene. She only very rarely agreed to go to one and that was only if she'd had a particularly bad night at David's and wanted to drink her troubles away. Still the thought of getting left behind stung a little, making her remember that there was a barrier between her and her friends.

"You comin'?" John B asked, breaking Rip from her thoughts, pausing at the open door.

. . .

         In the time it took for them to reach the Boneyard, John B had managed to fill Rip in on everything that had happened. She had smacked him upside the head for letting him and JJ nearly get caught by the cops. The whole breaking and entering thing? Well, she didn't really expect anything less from the Pogues. The only one that tried to follow the law to the letter most of the time was Pope and that was just because of his scholarship.

John B had also told her that it was Scooter Grubbs' Grady White they'd found and Rip had immediately pulled a face. There was no way Grubbs could afford something like a Grady White, which was when John B explained his theory that he'd been smuggling something and that it was still on the boat they'd found. Which could also explain why Scooter Grubbs had turned up dead.

If Rip had a headache before, she definitely had one now.

The Boneyard was already bustling with people by the time they'd arrived. Teenagers laughing and egging each other on to chug drinks under the setting sun.

Rip had found, upon her first visit to the Boneyard, that she never really understood Outer Banks until she understood the spot for all the prime parties. She remembered the way John B had tried to explain it to her in his words of it being like a 'three-layered burrito'. It was only after he'd finished that she'd found it rather fitting.

There were the Pogues and their friends, the working-class derelicts from the Cut. Followed by the Kooks, the rich second-homers, mostly from snobby uptight boarding schools and in John B's words, just trustafarian posers. Aka the Pogues natural enemies. And finally the Tourons. Completely clueless and are only ever at the Banks for no more than a week vacation with their families. In other words chum for the sharks. Meaning John B and JJ, mostly. And that's the Boneyard. The one place that the different breeds of sharks come together to swim in the same waters.

In Rip's experience, at least one fight would break out at some point in the night. Which was why she was never too fond of coming out here. Fights meant trouble and trouble she could do without.

John B heading straight for the kegger, taking over from Kie who was offering everyone drinks.

Kie flashed her a surprised smile. "Hey, you came!"

"Yeah I managed to find some free time." Rip returned her smile, taking the drink that John B offered her. She downed it instantly, ignoring the burning down her throat and welcoming the warm fuzz that took the edge off her headache.

"Damn girl, pace yourself." John B grinned giving her a refill.

"I wanna have some fun." In reality, Rip just wanted to get that feeling of being a normal sixteen year old girl back. She wanted to forget about all of her worries and stress and just chill. She'd likely be back at work in a couple of days and when that happened she'd have no time for herself or her friends. She wanted to make the most of it.

"Ey! That's my girl! True Pogue style!" JJ hollered, appearing out of nowhere and slinging an arm around Rip's neck. Someone was already intoxicated it seemed.

Rip couldn't help but laugh as her hands found his sides and began tickling him to get him off her. JJ immediately squirmed laughing as he tried to get away from her. He darted out of her reach and danced away. "I'll get you back for that Riptide!"

With that JJ disappeared into the crowd, likely to find a girl to spend the night with. Rip couldn't help but shake her head at his antics, not regarding the smile that was pulling at her mouth.

She turned to the other two, "Let's go have some fun."

Kiara caught sight of something and immediately grimaced. "What is she doing here?

Rip turned to follow her gaze as she sipped her drink, only to find Sarah Cameron perched at the top of a washed up buoy.

Sarah Cameron could only be described as the Kook princess of Outer Banks. Her dad might as well run the island, his picture perfect family at his side. John B worked on her dad's boats and Kie and Sarah used to be friends way back when before they'd turned into mortal enemies seemingly overnight. Rip never pried, after all she and Cameron shared a mutual distaste for each other. They'd never spoken to each other but ever since Rip had punched her brother they'd made an unspoken agreement that they didn't like each other.

Rip couldn't really care less. Their paths never crossed unless they turned up at the Wreck and that wasn't all too often.

She watched as Cameron's boyfriend, Topper, warned her to be careful. She had to admit, he looked like a stressed mother running on the verge of a breakdown because of her overactive child. The thought made her chuckle.

Topper was just as much of an ass as Rafe, so Rip couldn't help but find it amusing that he was struggling.

. . .

The night wore on, the sun sinking beneath the waves and the full moon taking its place. Someone had lit a bonfire and most people were huddled around it talking and laughing. Rip was lying on a washed up log, lazily staring up at the stars that glittered against a cobalt sky. She couldn't quite grasp the fact that these were the same stars she gazed up at after David had painted her purple. She was in two completely different circumstances, polar opposites, and yet the stars were the same.

A commotion broke her from her reverie, making her brace herself on her forearms to see what was going on. Only to see John B and Topper pushing and shoving each other.

Shit, Rip cursed jumping down off the log.

They had been doing so well, so, so well. Of course it was too good to be true.

She ran up to Kie who was stood by Pope who was pushing JJ away. Chants began to grow around them. "Kie, what the hell happened?"

Topper threw a nasty punch that sent John B sprawling into the shallow waves and Sarah Cameron shouting, pleading for them to stop.

"Hey John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right!" Topper warned, sending a kick to his gut. Anger sparked in Rip's blood. Kook bastards.

John B tackled Topper into the waves and the pair began throwing punches at each other.

Rip turned her furious eyes on Pope and JJ, "Aren't you going to do stop him?"

Pope gave her an uneasy glance and carried on shouting at John B to get him to stop, whilst JJ just carried on egging him on. Useless. They were both bloody useless.

Topper flipped John B into the water and began holding him down. Panic and rage lit a fire through Rip's blood. She'd only felt such a thing the day she'd punched Rafe. She knew that she wasn't with the Pogues all too often and that she kept a lot from them, but no one hurt her friends.

She was already running before she could process what was happening. Kie and Pope too slow to stop her, she slammed herself into Topper, making him release John B, sending them both into the waves. Topper drove his elbow into her stomach and the pain that erupted made white hot pain flash in her eyes. He blindly threw another punch, cracking her across the face and everything in Rip froze.

Instead of Topper she saw the hulking looming figure of David bearing down on her and she couldn't move. The only thought travelling through her mind at the sight of him being, protect her brothers. So she did what she usually did when David started hitting her, she took the hits. Because as long as he was hitting her, he wasn't hitting her brothers and that was all that mattered. That her brothers were safe.

Something slammed into David's figure, and Rip broke free of the paralysing fear that had gripped her. John B and Topper rolled around in the waves before Topper began shoving John B's face under the waves once again.

Rip tried pushing herself to her feet, coughing up the water that had entered her system. Pain blossomed with every jerk of her body, the pounding of her head had her stumbling to her feet.

She could vaguely see JJ standing over Topper with something in his hand, the shouting from Kie, Sarah and Pope turned more frantic but with the ringing in her ears she couldn't place what they were saying.

Two loud bangs sent people screaming. On instinct, Rip jerked back, away from the sound. Her feet seemed to lag behind the rest of her body and the world tilted. What little breath she'd managed to get in her lungs was snatched from her as she landed in the wet sand, the stars spinning overhead, dragging her into the darkness.