3 years later...
It had become a normal nightly routine, to be sitting on her couch, a blanket wrapped around her body while she looked on at the TV. It was the only live and living colour, moving image of him she had. The smile on his face, his hands being raised at the end of each surpassing fight. It seemed like such a happier time. His two fights with Remen were included in the DVD. The first one, being reminded that she had just told him about being pregnant with the twins, who were a few weeks from turning four years old.
She felt old. Like she'd wasted away and aged over night suddenly. Nothing had ever felt the same. She was still cold and alone. All she had of him were photographs and home DVD's of his fights. Nothing more. She hadn't heard his voice in three long years, nor seen him live in person. It felt incredibly wrong, and his image seemed like such a blur to her now.
She leaned forward for the TV remote, switching off the TV and standing up from the couch, walking over to the dogs in their basket, both seven years old now, little grey beards forming under their chins. If anything, they had aged the most. They could barely manage their walks through the back woods anymore.
"Goodnight, boys." She patted them both on their head, standing up straight and heading for her stairs. They missed Punk, she could tell. Sometimes they'd sit at the front door. Or sit and watch at the window, only to be disappointed by no income of their owner. She guessed, just like her, the dogs had given up on waiting.
She got to the top of the stairs, creeping on by the few spare bedrooms, soon coming to a half opened door leading into her son's room. As soon as the twins were both old enough to sleep in beds, she moved them into their own rooms. Decorating them both took her mind off things.
She crept into the room quietly, looking around at the blue walls, the trucks scattered along the floor, the near four year old boy lay just like his father. Covers kicked off, hands up above his head, neck crooked into the side.
It terrified her how much Dylan was like Punk. His actions, his words, his facial expressions and reactions to things. Even just at four. It was impossible not to think of Punk when looking at him.
She brushed his soft, mop like hair out of his face, placing a kiss on his head as he grumbled, turning around in his bed. She smiled. Wether he reminded her of Punk, he kept her going. They both did. She didn't know where she'd be without them these past three years.
She tucked the covers over his body after being wriggled off by him, walking back out of the room and closing the door over, moving onto the next room which was a much different setting.
Everything was pink. So pink it hurt AJ's nerdified soul. Unlike Dylan, Heidi slept with the covers perfectly around her, no doubt still in the same position she put her to bed in. They were twins. But they were so different.
Dolls, stuffed toys and other toys lay scattered on her room. She supposed tomorrow would be a tidying day.
She crouched down at Heidi's bedside, brushing her fair brown hair from her face, admiring how beautiful she was. She was an angel. She done everything with grace while Dylan was a little bit of a clutz. She took pride in her pigtails she normally had, and the pink clothes she wore. But she would happily tuck into a pizza and watch an action movie with her mother and brother too. She was her little ray of sunshine. They both were. She felt incredibly lucky to have them.
She crept out of Heidi's room eventually, shutting the door over and heading on to the last bedroom, her bedroom, although hadn't quite felt like her bedroom in three years. It felt cold and unsafe. Nothing was here anymore to protect her.
She unwrapped the blanket that had been stuck around her shoulders, dropping it to the floor and sliding into her own bed which no longer felt like home anymore. To her, it was just a place she slept now.
She turned on her side, staring over at the framed picture on her bedside cabinet, looking into his eyes in the picture. Those eyes didn't feel alive anymore. She'd lost those eyes. These past three years had been a complete nightmare. And she had no one but her children and Punks family that were all the way in Chicago. Dean and Seth made their feelings perfectly clear to Punks face, it didn't take long for Kaitlyn to slowly neglect her, leaving her by herself in this scary town, raising two infant children by herself. She thought about what her husband had been doing these past three years. If he was ok? No... of course he wouldn't be ok. He'd be a complete mess. She'd been spending these past three years biting her nails to see him, but now she was terrified to see him. What he'd become.
"Dylan... Heidi. Come on in, guys." AJ yelled from the kitchen, hearing little feet soon enough skid into the kitchen, scampering after one another. If there was one thing she learned about having twins, everything had to be a competition. Wether it was running into the house, or the first to get their pyjamas on, or even the first to wake up in the morning. She didn't know if it was a twin thing, or a Phil Brooks thing that had been passed down to them. Their father was a competitive man when he wanted to be.
"You guys hungry?" She asked them as they both took a seat at the kitchen table. They had the same boring routine every day, but for the kids, it wasn't boring. They loved their routine and had got used to it. They had also got used to no one else but their mother being around, and that worried AJ a lot.
"Yeah." Dylan piped up as Heidi agreed, "What we havin' mommy?" He asked, sitting on the kitchen chair on his knees.
"Your favourite sandwiches." AJ smiled, placing down two plates in front of them with a sandwich each for them, as well as a bowl of chips in the middle to share. If there was one time they were silent, it was when they were tucking into breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Their routine was rather simple. They'd wake around 8, sometimes 9 if they had a late night before. She'd make them breakfast and then help them get ready, sometimes takiing them for a bath, or leaving it for later on in the night. She'd either take them out to the park, or they'd play in the back garden, which was practically a park in their own mind. Then they'd curl on the sofa after dinner and talk about Punk who she promised, she wouldn't let them forget. They believed what she was seeing, and they had been shown photographs of their 'father' but, he wasn't here, and they couldn't remember anything about him.
"I love sammiches." Heidi smiled to herself as AJ chuckled while cleaning up some of the dishes.
"I know you do, baby." AJ said as they botch tucked into their lunch.
She got a glimpse of the callendar on the wall of the kitchen, looking at the date just a few days away that she had hilighted.
It felt longer than three years, but it was finally time now. She could stop dreaming now. He was coming home soon. She thought she'd be more relieved to say that, but in an odd way, she'd gotten used to him not being around.
"Hey, guys... how would you like to go stay with aunt Chaleen in a few days, in Chicago?" AJ smiled, drying her hands on the dish towel, taking a seat at the top of the table in between them.
The twins knew Chicago, and only because it was home of thanksgiving and Christmas to them. Punk's mom always invited them round and she always tried to make it a holiday for them. She took them around the city and showed them as much as she could. They were still only three years old.
"With you, mommy?" Heidi asked curiously. Although very bubbly and outgoing, Heidi was very sensitive and shy, wary of strangers and uncomfortable around people when her mother wasn't in sight.
"Well... no." AJ said, "Mommy has to go sort some things out. I eh..." She scratched the back of her neck, "I'm going to go see daddy, and... take him home." She said, never thinking she'd live to hear the day she spoke those words.
"Can't I come?" Dylan asked with a frown.
"And me." Heidi added as AJ smiled.
"I wish you could. But... daddy has been away for a long time, and we have to get used to him being back, slowly. Don't we?" She said as they both nodded, "Aunt Chaleen will bring you back over and you can... you can finally see him." She told them, hoping that after three years of photographs, videos and stories from her lips, that they'd be eager to meet their father.
"What if I don't like him?" Dylan questioned with curiosity.
"Oh, baby. You will." She sighed at the question, "You'll love him, just like you did before." AJ nodded.
"Will he be nice?" Heidi asked, brushing her small hand over her face to get rid of the wispy bits of her hair, having fallen out of her pigtails.
"Yeah. He'll be nice, sweetheart. Remember what I tell you... he loves you both very much." She said.
"I'm scared, mommy." Heidi admitted. Now that this 'daddy' they always talked about and looked at pictures of was finally going to be home, she was a little scared, and she wasn't afraid to tell her mother that.
"You don't have to be, pet. You'll love him... I promise." AJ said. She hated this. She hated hearing them question such strange questions in her opinion. They had no idea how wonderful their father was, and that was all down to the prison, for keeping her husband away from her and their children for these long, horrible years.
She planned to drop the kids off to Chaleen in Chicago, and then fly back over to Vegas to the prison Punk had been held in for three years now. She didn't want the kids around Punk for the first few days he was home. She figured it was wise to ease him into their lives. After all... they'd built a life and routine without him, just like he asked her too when he called her to tell her he wouldn't be calling or accepting visits from her anymore.
She hadn't even thought about how she was going to feel when she seen him walk out of those prison gates. How he'd look or act. How awkward the long car journey home would be. She was so sure she was ready to see him, and have him back, but sometimes she couldn't hide the fact that she was also terrified of seeing what prison life had turned him into.
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