Almost Out

"Morning, mam. Could we please trouble you in searching through your CCTV footage from the past couple of days?" Dean asked, standing beside Punk in the store which he and AJ regularly shopped in for groceries.

"And where are your credentials?" The woman folded her arms with attitude as Punk raised his eyebrows. It was way too early for people to test them.

"Sally." Punk looked at her name tag, "Can I call you Sally?" He wondered as she nodded, "Will this do?" He raised his badge.

"And yours?" Sally nodded to Dean, who also raised his badge, "And why are you wanting to look through the footage?"

"That really does not concern you." Punk said, "Could you just show us to the controls room please? Thank you." Punk nodded in the one go as Sally tutted and started to walk down an aisle.

"If anyone is stealing shit that ain't on us." Sally put her hands up as Punk rolled his eyes, turning to Dean who just shook his head.

"Not quite why we're here." Punk assured her, following her into the small room in the back where they kept the footage, "Thank you."

"Don't break anything." She warned them, leaving them to it as Punk sat down at the desk.

"Nice woman." Dean nodded sarcastically as Punk just shook his head.

"Ok, Tuesday around 2pm, let's go." Punk nodded, working the CCTV monitor whilst Dean looked on, "Hopefully we can get a clear enough picture."

"And if not?" Dean wondered.

"Let's not think about that." Punk shook his head. For now, this was the only hope they had at getting pictured evidence of this man who Marty had seen twice. And Punk so desperately wanted to stare at his face and find him.

"Wait wait… there's April." Dean noticed on one of the cameras as Punk played the footage and kept his eyes on AJ who was strolling around the store with Marty sitting in the shopping cart.

"You got eyes on anyone following?" Punk asked Dean, keeping their eyes pierced on all of the monitors.

"Uh… not yet." Dean said, looking closely.

"Wait hold up." Punk paused the footage, looking on at the frame where AJ had her back to the camera, with a visible man standing a few metres away, looking directly at her, "This is gotta be it, right?"

"Yeah… yeah, that's the same type of build." Dean nodded, "Play it and see if we get a shot of his face." He said as Punk nodded. He found it difficult watching this man leer across at his wife and daughter like he was preying on them. It made his blood boil.

He paused it immediately when the man turned around, looking closely at his face, leaning forward and staring at him.

"That's him." Dean identified as being the same guy who he saw in the streets, "Recognise him? I… I just… I've saw his face before." He said as Punk looked at him closely with narrowed eyes.

"I have no idea who that is." Punk said truthfully.

"Have you packed a bag?" AJ asked, sitting with Nadine in the kitchen who had come over to visit. Kaia was at school whilst Marty was in the living room playing and watching TV.

"It's not for another few days." Nadine reminded her.

"I know but… it's good to be organised and ready." AJ said.

"I just want it over." Nadine sighed, "It's just this huge weight I'm carrying around. Once I get the surgery done with I… I'll feel like a new person." She said as AJ nodded.

"Well I'm working next week when you're in for surgery so I'll be there. I can move down to ICU for the day-"

"Oh, no… don't rearrange everything for me. I'll be fine." Nadine said.

"And you're coming here to stay after the surgery." AJ nodded.

"I'll be fine in my own house." Nadine tutted.

"No, you're coming here." AJ said, "And you aren't getting out of it. You'll be really tired and sore, you need people there to help you, so take the help." She warned as Nadine just rolled her eyes back, "Phil is gonna take a couple days off work and then I'll take the next few days off so we can both be here-"

"I don't want you both stopping your lives for me-"

"Just take the help." AJ said. She could see where her husband got his stubbornness from, "You're having brain surgery. This isn't something minor you can shake off in a day or two." AJ reminded her, "Phil wants you here for a couple of weeks until you feel good on your feet." She said, "It's the safest way for you to recover." She said as Nadine nodded, of course she knew that.

"I suppose it might be." Nadine nodded to herself, "How was your weekend away? Enough talking about this silly surgery." She shook her head.

"It was really nice." AJ smiled, "We needed it." She nodded, "Although, when we came back Dean told us…" She paused. She realised this woman was worrying about enough right now, to add things to her plate wasn't fair and AJ realised that, "Dean told us the girls loved staying with him." She smiled.

"And that's a bad thing?" Nadine laughed.

"Well, have you met Dean?" AJ smiled as Nadine chuckled to herself, "Has Seth been in contact with you?"

"Yeah, off and on. I've saw more of Becky actually." She smiled, "I don't know, I feel like he's avoiding me." Nadine nodded as AJ frowned.

"I… I can speak to him if-"

"No, no don't make him feel like he has to say anything to me. I know he's just worried, bless him." Nadine sighed, "I expected Phil to react that way and Seth to react the way Phil has… they've switched completely-"

"Phil has done a lot of growing up in the past couple of years." AJ nodded.

"He has. Thanks to you." Nadine smiled, "Seth will come around in his own time. I just want him to know that it's gonna be fine. I'm gonna be fine." She said, "They've caught this early, I'm getting surgery really quickly and then chemo… it's all positive things-"

"Of course it is." AJ nodded, "I think people just hear cancer and… well, you just expect the worse." AJ said.

"Yeah, of course you do." Nadine nodded.

"I know that if they remove the tumour and I get chemo… I know one day it will come back but… that's one day that I'm not gonna think about." Nadine shook her head.

"No, you couldn't do that to yourself." AJ said, "Let me talk to Seth." She said, "He might… He might not know the right things to say and… well he can't avoid you forever."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be great." Nadine nodded, "So Phil is back at work?" She asked.

"Yeah." AJ nodded, "He was up at like 5am this morning." AJ sighed, "And he probably won't be home until later. We had a big argument about it last week."

"About him working too late?" Nadine asked as AJ nodded.

"Yeah. And I know it's his job and I would never try and interfere with it or tell him not do certain things but… when he's missing breakfast with the girls, dinner, bath time and bed time… I mean, I just… I lost it." AJ admitted, "And of course he has to get his point across and get the last word-"

"Oh, he's always been like that." Nadine nodded, "But you're both ok now?"

"Oh, we're fine." AJ assured her, "I know that sometimes he can't do anything about it. It's his job and he's needed, but when it starts affecting the girls and they're not getting to see him in an entire day… I gotta say something."

"Yeah, quite right." Nadine agreed, "I'm glad you can both air your opinions to each other. I… I could never do that with the boys' father. I'd end up in hospital." She nodded to herself as AJ frowned. It was hard to imagine what that would be like. Having the husband she had, who she knew would never hurt her, especially not physically, it was hard to imagine the pain of what that would feel like.

"Why did you stay with him?" AJ shook her head.

"Because I loved him." Nadine shrugged, "And I was stupid mostly." She nodded, "He's getting out in a few weeks."

"He is?" AJ raised her eyebrows as Nadine nodded.

"Yeah. The boys don't know. I'd appreciate it if you just didn't tell them-"

"Wait… how… how do you know he's getting out?" AJ shook her head as Nadine looked down, "Oh, you didn't… Nadine-"

"I wrote to him and told him about me being ill." Nadine nodded, "And he wrote back and told me he was getting out soon-"

"Why would you do that?" AJ shook her head, "Nadine, he doesn't care. If he hurt you like he did, if he hurt your son… there's no way he really loved you or cared about you. If he did, he'd never have hurt you or… or tried to kill your for Christ sake." AJ said.

"I know all of this." Nadine nodded tiredly, "But I still had children with him and I still had a relationship with him-"

"An awful, awful relationship." AJ reminded her. She couldn't understand why this man still played a part in her mind. She supposed it wasn't her place to understand something like that, but she just knew that if any man had hurt her like that, or hurt her children, she'd never think about them ever again.

"I just felt like he should have known-"

"He tried to kill you." AJ said, "He hurt Phil for so long. Your son. You cannot let this man back into your life. It will backfire and you know it-"

"I'm not letting him in. I just told him about my illness-"

"Yeah and he told you he was getting out of prison soon, what do you think that means? Where do you think he's gonna go?" AJ asked, "He's gonna show up on your doorstep and you're gonna let him in."

"No I won't." Nadine scoffed.

"If Phil and Seth get word about this, I don't know what they'll do to that man." AJ sighed worriedly, "Phil is a cop, he can't get caught up in that-"

"I'm not asking him to. April you're the one blowing this out of proportion here." Nadine nodded.

"No, I'm really not." AJ said, "I don't want this man in my life and… and I haven't even met him yet. I don't want him near Phil, or my girls, or Seth or you." AJ shook her head, "And you shouldn't either."

"I don't." Nadine insisted, "I was just telling him about the illness, nothing else. There was no asking him to come stay with me again. He just wrote back saying he was really sorry and that he was getting out soon and he hoped that everything with my surgery went well. That was literally it-"

"He will show up at your door and you know it." AJ looked across at her as Nadine ran her hand through her hair, "Phil and Seth have to know-"

"No, they don't. Please don't tell them. They're already worrying about me and the surgery, they don't need this too-"

"I think they do." AJ said, "Because God forbid that man gets out and he gets back into your life… they should know."

"Do you think he would be that dumb to hurt me or do anything horrible when he knows that our sons are grown men that would kill him?" Nadine asked.

"He shouldn't be hurting you anyway, regardless of Phil and Seth being older." AJ said, "There's no excuses." She shook her head as Nadine looked across at her, "Which prison is he in?"

"Cook County." Nadine said as AJ rolled her eyes.

"Of course he is." AJ said.

"Why?" Nadine asked with concern.

"No reason." AJ looked across at her.

"April." Nadine said in an angry tone.

"What?" AJ shook her head, "I just wanted to know." She defended, "I want you to forget about this man, forget he exists and just… focus on you, right now more than ever you need to focus on you." AJ said as Nadine nodded.

"Please just don't tell the boys." Nadine shook her head, "It was just one letter, that's all." She said as AJ looked across at her and nodded slowly.

"I won't say anything." AJ nodded, "We're doing dinner tomorrow night remember." She said as Nadine nodded.

"When will I come?" Nadine asked.

"Whenever you like." AJ said, "Hopefully it takes your mind off things." She said as Nadine nodded.