Good In People
"Any luck with anything?" Ian asked later that night as Punk and Dean arrived back in at the station.
"Well we found out he'd been going to a shooting range for six months." Punk said, "He comes from a broken home. Dad isn't in the picture and mom, we can't locate her, he said that she comes and goes in their apartment." Punk said.
"We also went to his school, his guidance councillor said he hasn't shown up at school in three weeks." Dean said as Ian nodded.
"No word yet on where he got the gun." Punk said, "We're still trying to figure out where it's registered." He said as Ian nodded.
"Ok, guys." Ian said.
"We'll keep looking into it." Punk said.
"Thank you." Ian said, "You guys get home now. It's been a busy few days. Get some rest." He said, walking on down to his office as the guys collected their things from their desk to head home after a long day.
"I swear if I go home and Eva is crying I'm just turning straight back out the door and coming to your place." Dean shook his head as Punk laughed a little.
"Isn't she like… 6 or 7 months now, don't they stop the crying at some point before then?" Punk asked, walking out from the back offices and into the main reception area.
"Yeah, I guess. She's just really clingy with Lia, so whenever we try put her down in her crib, she just cries cause she wants lifted up." Dean said, "Nightmare. Don't have kids." He said as Punk laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, you've convinced me not to." Punk nodded truthfully, "I know I'm gonna go home and one or two things will have happened. Cami will have left, gone back to her boyfriend. Or she'll be there and will have ate everything in my kitchen, possibly threw up if she's been drinking or smoking, and I'm just gonna go crazy." Punk concluded as Dean smiled.
"Wasn't she like a straight A student in high school?" Dean asked, "Not that I'm saying smart people can't fall off the wagon but… where did it all go wrong?"
"Mom not being here, that's where it all went wrong." Punk said, "And her boyfriend, the friends she hung around with." Punk said, "She got so many scholarship offers and she turned every single one of them down." He shook his head.
"Damn." Dean sighed.
"I've gave her help. A lot of it. She either completely ignores it or throws it back in my face." Punk said.
"Why do you still give into her then?" Dean asked.
"Because she's my little sister." Punk shrugged, "I mean, I'd do anything for her but I can't… fix her life. I've had plenty of conversations with her about it." He said.
"She needs to face reality before she ends up dead before 21." Dean shook his head as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, and the thing is, she's had friends who have died, overdosed on like heroine. And somehow… it still doesn't scare her." Punk said.
"Wasn't her dad like that?" Dean asked.
"Yeah he was a piece of shit just like mine. Mom had a type." Punk said.
"Well of course." Dean said, "Well hey man, you're doing your bit, there's only so much you can do like you said." He said, walking out of the station.
"Yeah, I know." Punk sighed, "You're off tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah. I think we're going to the zoo or some shit." Dean shook his head, "Even though Eva doesn't know what the fuck animals are." He rolled his eyes.
"Hey, the zoo is fun." Punk smiled as Dean just nodded back and forth, "Well have fun. Think of me here, slaving away by myself all day."
"I will." Dean smiled, patting him on the back as they went into their separate cars and drove home.
"I can propose to the court to give you six months probation in a rehabilitation program." AJ said, sitting in the visiting room in the station with her newest client Jeff, "It's your first dealing offence so I could go hard on that." She nodded, looking through her files as the very thin and pale man watched her with shaking hands.
"You gotta get me something." Jeff shook his head as AJ looked across at him, "I can't take it in here."
"I'm not bringing you drugs." AJ said, "You're going through withdrawal. That's normal. You'll have the cold sweats, headaches, vomiting, but it'll pass, and it means you'll be a lot more prepared for court." She nodded, "The worst thing for me to do right now is give you anything." She said.
"You sound like someone who has been through a withdrawal in her life." He looked across at her as she just looked down at her papers.
"We should go to trial in a few weeks. It should only last a day for proposal to probation. In the case that's denied then we have to rest, go back to square one for a sentencing trial."
"How long could I do?" Jeff asked her.
"Well given that you've not harmed anyone, no one OD'd or anything like that, they'd probably give you two years with probation, from my experience." AJ nodded, "Maybe even less if they see the state you're in right now." She said.
"But you think they'll just give me probation?" Jeff asked her.
"I hope they do. But it means you gotta comply or else they will just put you in prison. You need to attend your program. Get better." She nodded.
"You're the first person who has… spoken nicely to me since I was arrested." He admitted, "Thank you." He said as AJ looked across at him and nodded.
"Well I don't think you're issues should be determined within a justice system. It should be determined in a clinic, a hospital… somewhere you can get help and not punishment." She said, "And if the cops are giving you any issues here just ignore them. They're all idiots." She scoffed as Jeff nodded in agreement, "Look, this is all the information I have for you right now, so just take care of yourself, I'll be back to speak with you." She told him.
AJ eventually left the station after her meeting with Jeff, figuring out which way was the best to go in getting him the best deal. She took a lot of pride in her work. It was the only constant thing she had in her life at this point. The only thing which kept her getting up in the mornings. She knew being a defence lawyer sometimes came with its flaws, and she knew how all the cops felt about her, but she always tried to see good in people.
She drove home and on her way, stopped at a bar. Sometimes work got too much, just like all jobs, and she needed to take a minute, even though she didn't drink, she didn't go to the bar for a drink anyway.
She walked on in and made her way to the bar, ordering a water and sitting on a stool. Another concern in her life was that she refused to have a boyfriend, but that didn't mean she refused to have a night to let her hair down with some stranger she didn't know. Her mother would tell her that was the bipolar in her coming out.
The funny thing to her, was that she never even had to initiate the first word, which was great on her end.
"Can I… buy you a drink?" A man appeared beside her as AJ turned to him and smiled.
"Well it wouldn't be worth it." AJ said, "It's water." She shrugged.
"Well that's rare." He laughed a little, taking a seat beside her, "Why are you in the bar then?"
"I like the atmosphere." AJ said, turning around to face him a little better, "I like to unwind after work."
"With a water?" He smiled.
"With a water." AJ nodded, "I'm AJ."
"Tony." Tony extended his hand as AJ shook it and smiled. She never dragged things out, she made herself very clear from the get go, just like she did with the security guard from the court, just like she did with others.
"Listen." AJ said, "Unless there is something really keeping you here, my place is just five minutes away." She said as he raised his eyebrows and smiled a little.
"Not what I was expecting." Tony laughed a little, sitting his beer down as AJ shrugged.
"Because what? You were expecting me to play hard to get, ask for your number only to never call it? No, I'm really only after one thing." She said, "And it's not to get to know you." She told him bluntly as Tony laughed a little.
She watched as he picked his beer back up and drank the rest of it, sitting it back down on the bar, "After you then." He said as AJ smiled, stepping off the stool and walking out of the place and over to her car.
They got into the car and as AJ started the engine, she thought what was the point in messing her bed up at home. She turned him, leaning forward and pressing her lips against his as he immediately kissed back, feeling him pull her across the sets onto him as she smirked.
"Oh, yeah." She smiled as he kissed her neck, pulling her own dress up whilst he undone his belt and jeans, pushing them down enough for her to settle onto his length, not caring that all she really knew was his name.
"Oh, you're still here." Punk nodded, walking into his house where he saw Cami lying on the couch watching TV.
"You expected me not to be?" Cami asked him.
"Well normally you disappear after one night." Punk said, "I see you… helped yourself to the fridge." He said, noticing all the food lying around.
"Yeah, I had the munchies." She admitted.
"I can see." Punk nodded, "You seeing mom at any point?" He asked her.
"She's here." Cami said casually.
"What?" Punk shook his head with confusion.
"In the kitchen." Cami pointed casually.
"What'd I fucking tell you?" Punk spat, walking on through the living room and into the kitchen where he saw his mom sitting at the kitchen table.
"Phillip." Rianne, his mother smiled, "Nice to put your little sister up. She said her flat mate is out of town and she got lonely. Sweet, she wants to spend time with her brother." She smiled as Punk turned into the living room where Cami was pretending to pray to him, in order to hope he went along with the story.
"Yeah, well I don't mind helping out." Punk gritted his teeth at Cami a little as she just blew a kiss to him and fell back down onto the couch, "How long are you in town for?"
"Oh just a few days." Rianne told him.
"Ok, well you know… me and you don't get along, ok I don't know why you would come here. Are you stupid?" He asked as she stood up.
"Well Camila told me to come." Rianne said innocently, which was always Punk's breaking point when it came to her. She always acted so oblivious and innocent to what was going on around her. She did his entire upbringing and she barely even took care of Cami when she grew up, "Why can't we just get along, Phil?"
"Because. Because of this, right here. You pretending that everything is ok. That you can just come in and out of our lives like you always have. Leaving us with strange guys whenever you couldn't face being a mom, or… or having us get taken in by the social." Punk said, "You moved away when Cami was fifteen. You didn't see her graduate. You didn't fucking care actually."
"I did care." Rianne said.
"Bullshit." Punk said, "You don't care about anyone but yourself. It's always been that way."
"You're just as hard work as your father was." Rianne scoffed and folded her arms.
"Oh don't give me that." Punk shook his head, "Look, I am tired. And I can't be bothered arguing with you-"
"You're the one who has come in arguing with me, Phil." Rianne said.
"Because I don't want you here and you know I don't, so why come? If you wanna see Cami, then you both go out, don't come to my house and pretend that you give a damn, because you don't." Punk nodded, "Just get out of my house. Please." Punk asked her seriously as Rianne folded her arms.
"Fine." Rianne put her hands up, "You know you make it really hard to be your mother, Phil." She shook her head.
"You were never a mother." Punk shook his head, watching as she walked by him and out of the house, "What'd I fucking say?!" Punk yelled as he walked back into the living room where Cami was.
"She wanted to come see me." Cami shrugged.
"And why do you want to see her anyway? She practically abandoned you. Both of us. She doesn't care about us." Punk reminded her.
"Well it's nice just to have someone show a little interest sometimes." Cami said.
"Keyword, sometimes. She just floats in and out like she's the world's most loving mother." Punk said, "If you wanna keep seeing her, go out and see her, don't bring her into my house, and you can fucking replace all of this food."
"Oh my God!" Cami yelled, sitting up, "Ok, fine. Why are you so fucking angry all of the time? Is that just what cops are like?" She asked him.
"Oh, shut up." Punk said.
"Why don't you get a girlfriend or something?" Cami shook her head.
"If I wanted a girlfriend I'd have one." Punk told her.
"Yeah, ok." Cami scoffed.
"So you're staying another night?" He asked her.
"Can I stay?" Cami wondered.
"Just… don't bring mom here again." Punk said.
"She left me too, you know." Cami said, "But she's our mom."
"I don't… I don't care." Punk told her honestly, "I'm going to bed."
