The sun hung low and golden over Pougelandia, painting the water in shades of orange and pink. The waves rolled in soft and steady, hissing against the sand before pulling back again. It was the kind of evening that almost made you forget you were stranded; that you'd escaped a madman's boat with your life, barely.

Y/n sat on the beach with her broken foot propped up on a bundle of folded palm fronds, her back against a smooth piece of driftwood. The cast was gone—they'd had to improvise with strips of cloth and two sturdy branches when the real one got ruined—and the ache was a constant, dull throb that she'd learned to live with.

Down by the water's edge, JJ and John B were wading through the shallows, homemade spears raised, eyes scanning the clear water for fish. JJ's back was sunburned and peeling, his blonde hair sweaty and sticking up in all directions. He kept glancing over his shoulder at Y/n, checking. Always checking.

Further up the beach, Pope was on his knees, carefully arranging driftwood into a teepee shape, blowing gently on a small curl of smoke. His face was smudged with ash, and he was muttering something under his breath—probably a prayer to the fire gods, or a physics equation, or both.

The tree line at the edge of the beach rustled. Kie and Sarah emerged from the jungle, arms full of green bananas and what looked like wild taro root. Sarah's hair was tied back with a strip of fabric, her face flushed from the heat. She spotted Y/n and smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. None of their smiles did these days.

Kie laughed, dumping her armload of taro onto the sand near where Pope was working. She dropped down next to him and leaned over to kiss his temple. He didn't look up, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

Y/n shifted on the sand, trying to ease the pressure in her lower back. The pain had started a while ago, a tight, squeezing sensation that came and went. She'd thought it was just the baby moving, or the awkward way she'd been sitting all day. But now...

It came again. A long, slow wave of pressure that started low in her belly and spread upward, tightening everything. She sucked in a breath and pressed her hand to the side of her stomach. The skin was hard, drawn tight.

JJ noticed. Of course he did.