It wasn't as awkward as what Punk thought it would be the next morning. In fact, it was pretty awesome waking up with AJ in his arms. He felt like he could relax knowing she was safe with him now. Not that she couldn't handle herself.

He woke up to her cuddled into his body, barely using her own space of the bed, her brown eyes opened and staring at him.

"Morning." She smiled, having been watching him sleep for the past half hour, waiting on him to wake up.

"Morning." He smiled to her. His normal slicked hair do had turned into a mop on his head, some hair going over his eyebrows, coming round the sides, waiting to be slicked back by him.

"How'd you sleep?" AJ said, watching him sit up against the headboard, clicking his neck from side to side. Over the years of doing the job he did, he did have some stiff bones, one of them being his neck, it always seemed to lock during the night and it was a pain in the neck. No pun intended.

"Good." Punk smiled, watching her sit up against the headboard, leaning in against him holding the covers to her body.

His body felt so warm and cuddly, she just wanted to hold on to it all day.

"What about you?" He asked her, leaning down and kissing in at her neck. He couldn't stop thinking about last night and how amazing everything was, from start to finish. It was everything he'd been dreaming about for nine years and everything was just perfect.

"I slept great." She smiled, feeling him kiss her neck lovingly, shutting her eyes and smiling with pleasure.

This was the life she wanted. Waking up in a warm city with the one person she longed to be with for the rest of her life, naked and not hiding anything from him. It was great. Hearing the people outside from their balcony, down at the beach, loud music playing through the city, the sun shining brightly in their room. It was perfect and she wanted to hold on to this moment forever.

"You know the guys are going to go nuts when we tell them." Punk said, pulling back from her neck, pulling the sheets up and wrapping his arm around her shoulder as they sat up in bed happily awoken to their new life with each other.

"I know." AJ nodded, "But they need to know. They'll just be happy I can remember things." AJ said, having not told the boys about her memory coming back or her and Punk for that matter.

"They'll be a pain in my ass." Punk rolled his eyes but with a smile. It almost felt surreal that AJ was here, lying with him naked and hugging into him. He was so excited to spend the rest of his life with her, to treasure each moment and create new memories, not just as friends but as a couple. He couldn't wait to love her the way she deserved to be loved.

"You know… I'm really glad we're giving this a go." AJ said, looking up at him as he smiled.

"Me too." Punk smiled, "I love you. So much." He looked into her eyes, "I don't ever want to lose you." He said.

"I love you too." She nodded, "You're never going to lose me." She raised her hand cupped his cheek, "I promise." She smiled, leaning up and kissing him softly, feeling him caress her arm up and down as he pulled her around by the hips, the sheet falling from her as she straddled his hips, smiling against the kiss as she felt his fingertips lightly feather up and down her back.

Everything about the way he loved her made her ecstatic. It excited her but also was enough to create so much nerves. He drove her crazy, made her feel wild and out of control. She couldn't have been happier.

Later on…

Punk and AJ had gone on downstairs to the lobby in the hotel, sitting at the bar waiting for Dean, Roman and Seth. They small chatted back and forth until they arrived. AJ mostly told Punk about the crash and what actually happened before it, how she hit the grenade off the helicopter and never thought about it coming crashing down.

Dean crutched his way with his broken leg, hopping over to Punk and AJ with Seth and Roman tagging behind. They all looked tired and extremely hungover, which they obviously were.

"Where'd you get off to last night?" Dean asked Punk, taking a seat beside AJ around the table. throwing his crutches down beside him and rubbing his hands over his face agressively.

"Yeah, you said you'd come back down into town after you dropped AJ off." Roman said, all of them now sitting down around the circular table.

"Well… AJ actually has something to tell you guys." Punk turned to AJ with a smile.

"I remember." AJ smiled, putting her hands out in celebration as they all smiled in complete shock but happiness.

"Really?" Seth said, "How… when did it all come back to you?" He asked, all three of them sitting up on their seats, leaning forward. They were ever so happy their friend could remember them and all the good times they shared. It was so horrible to know she couldn't at one point.

"Last night. It just came flooding back to me. Everything up until the seconds before the crash. Hit me like a tidal wave." She smiled with joy, extremely fond of the look on all three of their faces. They looked so happy and relieved.

"That's great." Dean smiled, "I think this calls for a celebration." He announced.

"Well actually… we're not done." AJ said, turning to Punk and nodding to him.

"We also have something to tell you, together." Punk said, watching them all look confused, "Me and AJ are dating." He said, watching all of them drop their jaws in shock.

AJ looked at them, shock on their faces, extreme surprisement. None of them said anything, they just stared at Punk and AJ in awe. Dean finally came out of his shocked phase and spoke up.

"About time." Dean smiled to them both, looking to Punk and nodding to him, remembering their chat in the hospital that he had obviously taken into consideration.

"I think this calls for a double celebration." Roman said standing up with a smile as AJ leaned into Punk with a smile, glad their friends had taken well to both news.

"Yeah, what you all having?" Seth asked, standing up, joining Roman to the bar after everyone gave their orders of drinks.

They all chatted back and forth with one another for a while, talking about how AJ suddenly remembered everything, discussing Kevin and going over everything that happened that night since they had never really brought up because of AJ's memory loss.

AJ had nipped to the bathroom for a minute, giving all three of the boys opportunities to prey on Punk like lions.

"You and AJ huh?" Seth raised his eyebrows up and down with a smile.

"Yeah?" Punk looked at Seth, knowing his friends would have eventually questioned him, he was surprised they'd kept their cool for this long.

"So go on… tell us what happened." Roman said as they all listened closely.

"It was simple. We kissed, she remembered everything, we went into her room, we talked about our feelings and how we couldn't keep pretending like nothing was going on. We slept together and then…"

"Woah woah woah…" Dean waved his hand back and forth, "Wait a minute… you fucked Mendez?" He raised his eyebrows as they all leaned forward.

"First of all, she isn't Mendez anymore, ok… she's AJ, my girlfriend to me, second of all, don't use the term 'fucked' and…"

"Well what do you want me to say?" Dean said, "Did you stick your dick inside her? How's that? Better?" He smiled obnoxiously.

"Oh yeah, much better." Punk nodded sarcastically, "Yeah. We slept together. What's the big deal?"

"I don't know… I didn't expect you to jump into things so quickly." Seth admitted.

"Dude, I've been waiting nine years for this. There's nothing quick about it." Punk said, "I'm in love with her, ok. I really love her, she loves me too. Maybe you should all start looking for women instead of going home with a different one every night." He backfired at them, making an arrogant smile to them as they just laughed it off, ending their conversation just in time for AJ to come back.

"What are we doing for dinner tonight?" Roman asked them all.

"I was going to take AJ out." Punk turned to AJ as she sat back down on her seat, smiling to him with a nod.

"Oh, ok. I see how it is." Seth nodded, "You two think you can just ditch us now that your lovers." Seth fluttered his eyelashes to both his friends.

"Oh, come on." AJ laughed, "We could never ditch you." AJ laughed.

"As much as we'd love to." Punk looked at them all.

"Alright, you two go have fun. We'll just hit that strip club from last night again, you see Brooks… no strip clubs for you anymore." Dean smiled, poking his crutches on Punks stomach, chuckling as Punk snapped it away.

"Dude, stop touching people with those crutches. It's weird." Punk warned his friend who went in an immediate huff.

Even though they were mad on some level that AJ and Punk were going off to do their own thing now, and would be for the future, they were happy that their two friends had finally admitted their feelings and done something about them. It took them long enough. They did enjoy making jokes and getting to Punk, it was extremely fun.

Later that night…

Punk had taken AJ out for dinner, finishing their night off with a walk on the beach, listening to the tide come in and out. The whole beach was silent and quiet and it was perfect and romantic.

She loved the feeling of their hands interlocked, leaning in against his body as they followed the beach around the shore. It was peaceful and quiet. Just them.

"When do you think we'll be back on the job?" AJ asked him.

"Whenever the job finds us. Could be any time. Few weeks, few days… few minutes." He smiled as she chuckled, her chuckle fading out quickly as she was biting her tongue to say something all night, scared of how he would react.

"Can I ask you something… without you getting mad?" She asked.

"Yeah." He nodded, wanting her to be able to talk to him about anything.

"How did you… how did you get the scars on your back?" AJ asked bravely, knowing it was a touchy subject, hoping he would just open up to her about it and not pretend he was all tough for once. If they were going to date and be intimate like she wanted, she wanted no secrets between them. She wanted the truth and nothing but the truth.

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