Normal Living
3 years later…
"Jessica, I don't got all day here, sweetheart." Punk shook his head, sitting outside the dressing room in a sports outlet, rubbing his hands over his face.
"Dad, none of these fit." Jessica told him.
"Well let me see." Punk said as Jessica violently ripped open the curtain and folded her arms, unimpressed, "They do fit. What-What's wrong with them?" He asked her.
"The shorts are too big, look." She expanded her running shorts out, "I need a smaller size."
"What about the t-shirts? They good?" Punk asked her.
"I like the black ones but the pink and orange are disgusting." She told him as Punk rolled his eyes, "Don't roll your eyes." She warned him, "If I get into trouble for it then you should too." She said as Punk just nodded.
"Mhm." Punk said, "Mom said you should wear brighter colours though, you're always wearing black." He said.
"Because it looks nice." Jessica shrugged, "I wear white sometimes too." She said.
"Ok. So you think those shorts in a smaller size will be fine?" He asked her.
"Yeah." Jessica nodded.
"Ok, and that's it? You don't need any more?" He asked her.
"Well I need a new bookbag and pencil case." She told him.
"Why can't you use last years?" Punk asked her.
"Are you kidding?" Jessica asked, "No. Everyone gets a new bag."
"Who cares about everyone?" He shook his head.
"Me." Jessica shrugged, "Mom says you've to take me for new everything."
"I know but I don't get it when you have a perfectly good bag at home." He said, "You don't need a new one every year. You'd like a new one. There's a difference."
"You're so annoying." Jessica shook her head as Punk looked at her.
"If I'm that annoying I guess you won't wanna go for lunch with me then?" Punk eyed her as she stared back at him. They had endless staring competitions to see who would get the last word.
"I'm hungry. It's important I eat." Jessica said with a smirk.
"Yeah, ok." Punk smiled sarcastically.
"How do I look?!" The three year old exclaimed, opening up her curtain in the stall beside Jessica's. Jo had on a pair of sweats with a dress over it, a cap on, flip flops and a scarf, "Daddy, is this a good outfit?" She asked as Punk looked in horror whilst Jessica looked at her sister.
"Jo, you're an idiot." Jessica rolled her eyes and laughed as Jo gasped.
"No, you look beautiful, baby." Punk nodded as Jo smiled to herself. She could always count on her daddy to make her feel special, "But... you can only choose one thing because daddy's credit card is sore today." He told them.
"Oh." Jo frowned as she turned around and looked in the mirror, "What do I have?" She wondered to herself as Punk smiled, "I like the cap." She nodded.
"Oh, good." Punk smiled as he realised that was probably the cheapest item, "I would have chosen that one too." He nodded, "But you gotta go take all that off and put your clothes back on." He said, "I'll take the cap." He said as Jo walked over and gave him the cap.
"Why did she have to come?" Jessica asked her father once Jo disappeared back into the stall to get changed.
"Hey, leave her alone. Mom was working and she's not hurting anybody." Punk said, "Be nicer to her. She's always nice to you." He reminded her as Jessica just nodded, knowing that to be true, her little sister was a very kind and gentle person who rarely stepped on anyone's toes.
"Ok." Jessica shrugged.
"Go get changed. I'm turning to skin and bone here." He said as Jessica walked back into her own stall to get changed back into her own clothes.
Back to school shopping was one of the most difficult things Punk had to do as a parent. It was chaotic and stressful and somehow he always ended up doing it.
Jessica, who was 9, was no longer his little angel side-kick. She was still his side-kick, but only with a little more challenge and attitude in her. She was still the same little girl who was sensitive and shy and affectionate, but she'd definitely grown up in the past few years. Jo had only turned three and was pretty much a mirror of how Jessica was at her age. She too was shy and sensitive, but also very soft and kind to everyone. Her favourite thing was to help people, and Punk and AJ wasn't sure where she got that loving, gentle, patient trait from.
"We definitely got everything today, right?" Punk said, opening the car door once they pulled up outside their home which they still lived in Iowa and had never looked back since moving.
"I think so." Jessica said, closing her car door whilst Punk helped Jo down and grabbed the bags, "Wait, did you take back mom's cardigan?" She asked.
"Shit." Punk groaned.
"Bad word." Jo mumbled as she held the arms of her stuffed monkey in her hands, spinning it around.
"Don't tell her. I'll-I'll do it tomorrow." Punk said, taking the rest of the bags out and closing the door over as they headed into the house.
As time had gone by, their house had become a home. They'd decorated and refurbished everything they had to, and the most important thing was it felt like a home more than anything else. Punk even spent the summer building a tree house for the girls in the back garden which they played in every day it seemed.
"What's for dinner?" Jo asked as Punk looked down at her.
"We just had lunch." Punk said.
"I know but I just wanna know." Jo shrugged innocently.
"I'm not sure." Punk said, dumping the bags down and sighing with relief once he realised he was home and done with the shopping hell for another year.
"Why?" Jo asked him. She questioned everything. She was at an age where 'why' was her absolute favourite word to use, even when it wasn't necessary.
"Mommy will decide when she gets home." Punk told her, "She'll think of something nice to make later." He said as Jo nodded.
"Can I take my things upstairs into my room?" Jessica asked him.
"Yeah, mom will probably want to see what you got so don't put it away or anything." He said as she was already running upstairs with the bags and into her room whilst Punk headed into the kitchen where Jo followed him.
"Daddy." Jo hummed.
"What, baby?" Punk said.
"When do I go to big girl school?" She asked him.
"Well when you're a big girl. You're a little girl right now." Punk told her as Jo frowned, "Next year." He nodded.
"Oh." Jo said, putting her stuffed monkey on the kitchen table and climbing up onto it, "When is mommy home?" She asked as Punk turned around to the clock.
"Few hours." Punk said, "You want your colouring books over?" He asked her.
"Um no, can I go play in my tree house?" She asked him.
"Sure." Punk nodded, "Just be careful, yeah? No… no hanging upside down from the top." He said as Jo shrugged and ran out of the back door to go play in the garden. She was energetic and excitable just like Jessica was. They were very similar, but their age gap was starting to show changes of course.
Punk dumped some things he'd got at the store in the kitchen and headed on upstairs with other things he'd gotten.
"Dad!" Jessica called from her room as Punk wandered across the hallway and into her room.
"Mhm?" Punk said.
"Can you help me with this homework?" She asked him, kneeling down on the floor, using her bed as her table.
"You told me you didn't have any this morning." Punk said.
"I forgot." Jessica said, "It's math. I don't like math." She shook her head as Punk nodded.
"I'm not a fan of it either." He said, crouching down beside her and looking at the notebook, "Ok, the fastest way to do this is this way." He said, proceeding to show her as she looked on at what he was doing.
He was very present in their lives and he wouldn't have had it any other way. He knew what it felt like to be shut off from his family, to feel like he'd lost it all, so he gloved onto them so much tighter.
"So she comes out the dressing room with sweats, a dress, a scarf, a cap, flip flops and I'm pretty sure she had gloves on as well." Punk said as AJ fixed the leftovers from dinner into a container whilst they cleared up after dinner later on.
"She's the greatest." AJ laughed with a smile, "Jess got all her school stuff she needed to get, right? Her running shorts?"
"Yeah, she got it." Punk nodded, "I gained some extra grey hairs but… we managed to get everything." He said as she smiled.
"You'd look sexy with grey hair." She nodded.
"Oh, don't." Punk groaned as she laughed, "How was work?" He asked her.
"Yeah, fine." AJ said, "I just… I just can't get used to working in a firm." She shook her head, "It's so weird." She said.
"What's weird about it?" Punk asked her, putting things back in the fridge.
"I don't know just… not being out in the court, not really working with clients anymore. I'm just… not used to it, even after two years." She shook her head.
"So you miss court?" He smiled.
"I do actually, yeah." AJ laughed to herself, "I know, sounds ridiculous." She said.
She'd picked up a job at a local law firm where she no longer was out in court representing clients but handled a lot of prep and reports. She never wanted to have an office job but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, it was just taking a while to get used to it all.
"No, you were a defence attorney for a long time. It's a big change." He shrugged.
"I know, I just thought I'd have gotten used to it by now." She shrugged, "And my boss, Lee, she keeps saying to me, Oh April you should be out there in the court, your record is too good, and I have to lie and be like, oh I'm just not into it anymore." She rolled her eyes as Punk nodded.
"I hate that you can't do it." Punk said, "But… for a cop like Jamie, he'd be able to find out your activity on cases, and then location and then… well, you know where that gets us." He said.
"I know." AJ nodded, "Hey, I'm not like depressed and wanna claw my eyes out. I like the job. It's a lot calmer than what I was ever used to it, and it's shifts too so… I'm not coming in late or missing anything for the girls. It's actually a good move for me." She nodded.
"As long as you're happy, baby. It's all I care about." He said as she smiled.
"Of course I'm happy." AJ smiled. And it was just that, they were extremely happy and hadn't looked back since they moved away from Chicago. They missed the friends and family that they had in Chicago, but things seemed so much easier after they moved.
"Is it time for ice-cream?" Jo asked as she crept into the kitchen. She was small for her age, both girls were, and that wasn't a trait they took from their father of course. They looked very alike. Jo had lighter hair than Jessica but they both had the same golden skin like their mothers and the same small nose and adorable smile.
"You're always hungry." Punk laughed as Jo shrugged.
"I know there's ice-cream here." She said as AJ smiled. Raising Jo had been different from raising Jessica, mainly because was actually here with her. They got to experience things like her first steps and first words together as parents, whereas with Jessica, Punk was in prison throughout the years.
"There is but who said you were getting some?" AJ placed her hands on her hips as Jo put her hands on her small hips and mirrored her.
"I always have a little ice-cream after my dinner." She said strictly as AJ smiled and nodded.
"Mhm." AJ said, "Ok. I'll bring some in for you and Jessica." She nodded as Jo smiled and skipped away back into the living room, "She's way too cute." AJ groaned, digging into the freezer to get the ice-cream out as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, it's annoying. I can't say no to either of them." He said as AJ smiled.
"You gotta start getting used to it." She said, scooping the ice-cream into the bowls, grabbing spoons and heading into the living room, "Ok, no spilling on the couch, please." AJ said, handing them both bowls of ice-cream, "What are you watching?" She asked them, looking on at the TV.
"I don't know." Jo shrugged, "Jess picked."
"It's about the polar bears disappearing. Soon there won't be any." Jessica said as AJ looked on at the TV and raised her eyebrows.
"It's kinda boring." Jo mumbled, more focused on her ice-cream.
"No it's not." Jessica said.
"It is." Jo said calmly.
"Ok ok." AJ said, "Jo, you're going for a bath soon anyway, and you're going next." She nodded to Jessica, "Be nice to one another." She said, leaving the living room and back into the kitchen, "They're starting to get on each other's nerves more." AJ sighed as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, I noticed as I was dragging them about the mall today whilst they fought with each other." Punk said, "They're just at weird ages. They're fine most the time." Punk said.
"They were best friends a year ago." AJ said.
"Jessica is getting older. It's not cool to be friends with her little sister apparently." Punk said.
"But Jo loves spending time with her." AJ sighed.
"They'll be fine. It's not like they're beating on each other." Punk laughed.
"Don't speak so soon." AJ groaned as Punk just laughed a little, "You back at work tomorrow?" She asked him, hugging him from the side and kissing his arm as he nodded.
"Yeah, I am." Punk said. He was still working at the centre for young offenders who had been released from prison. It was a hard going job but at times it was very rewarding. He wanted to help people who had been in the same position he was in. Some of them were only kids at age 16. It was tough but he enjoyed it.
"Remind me to text Monica later, to see if she can watch Jo tomorrow and pick Jess up from school." AJ said. Monica was a mom friend that AJ had. She was kind enough to babysit Jo whenever AJ and Punk were working, as well as picking Jessica up from school with her own daughter. It was helpful and AJ had grown really close to her, and Punk had also grown close to her husband too.
"I will try and remember." Punk said, "Didn't you say to her the other day?"
"I did but I like to just confirm with her." AJ shrugged as Punk nodded, "Who is taking them for a bath?" She asked him.
"Rock, paper, scissors." Punk said as AJ rolled her eyes, "It's the fairest way." He said as AJ just nodded.
"Ok ok." AJ said, "Rock, paper scissors." She said, making a rock whilst Punk had his hand out flat to make paper.
"Ah ha!" Punk laughed, wrapping his hand around her fist as she rolled her eyes, "Hey, it's only fair." He shrugged as she just nodded, "I'll give you lots of loving tonight." He said, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing in at her neck as she smiled and giggled.
"You better." AJ said, "How is that fair? I do bath time and you still get some?" She turned to him as he shrugged.
"You can sit on my face for as long as you want to." He rephrased as she nodded.
"Mhm, that's more like it." She said as he smiled, "Now I'm gonna go watch a documentary on the extinction of polar bears." She said as Punk nodded and smiled as she walked out of the kitchen to go join the girls in the living room.
