Part XXIX: Prince Charming


Back in Chicago AJ was anxiously awaiting word on Corey and how his case was going, Punk on the other hand tried to push it out of his mind and tried to distract her as much as he possibly could. He dragged her out to nice dinners, hockey games and even shopping something that they both hated to do but it was enough to keep her busy.

"What do you think of this?" AJ asked Cookie as she purred next to AJ in the living room on the floor. She was holding up new food dishes for their new cat

"You're not like a crazy cat lady are you?" Punk questioned from the couch as he watched AJ try to hold a conversation with the animal "I thought you were more into dogs"

"I do I really need to explain my deep connection to the cat again?" AJ asked shooting him a glare "We're kindred spirits"

"All I know about this cat is that we agreed to keep her downstairs and then she moved upstairs and now she's everywhere" Punk said to her causing her to laugh "She was in the bed this morning AJ. You left the door open and she was sleeping on your pillow right next to me. Do you have any idea how scary it was when I thought I was waking up next to my beautiful woman and instead saw this hairy, ugly cat?"

"She is not ugly!" AJ scolded petting the cat "And I told you she's me! She's me but in a cat and she loves you and wants to be close to you. I think it's sweet"

"I don't want her in our room" Punk warned "What if she has fleas or something….no way"

"We took her to the vet and she got a clean bill of health and she doesn't go outside anymore so she can't get fleas" AJ said to him as she watched the catch jump on the couch and head towards Punk

"No" Punk scolded at Cookie, picking her up and placing her on the floor

"Who knew you were such an animal hater" AJ muttered

"I'm not. But I'm not really a cat person" Punk told her as he eyed the cat that he knew was preparing to jump right back up on the couch

"It's not about the animal it's about the personality" AJ said to him "How could you not love her?"

"She smells" Punk informed her and as soon as his eyes met AJ's Cookie jumped right back on the couch "Damn it" he muttered putting her back down on the floor

"It's ok Cookie you'll break him eventually" AJ soothed towards the cat "Just like I did"

"Honey, I'm the one that broke you" Punk reminded her "You turned me down every time I asked you out"

"You always asked me out when you had a girlfriend!" AJ reminded him with a laugh "You expected me to say yes?"

"I was always in-between girlfriends when I asked you out" Punk shot back "But your response was always 'people will think I'm using you' or 'everyone will think things are just being handed to me'" he said in a mocking voice "I had to wait until you were Diva's champion. That was a lot of time of turning me down. Hurt my ego a bit"

"Your ego is unbreakable" AJ smirked

"It hurt" Punk said feigning hurt placing his hand over his chest

"Well look where it got you" AJ said happily "Patience paid off"

"We could have been long married and retired if you had said yes the first time I asked you out" Punk reminded her as Cookie jumped back on the couch causing him to groan. The cat carefully crawled onto Punk's lap

"Leave her" AJ warned pointing at him "She should feel loved"

"I don't love her" Punk said to her

"She's me! You have to love her!" AJ shouted

"She is a cat AJ" Punk said to her slowly "She's not you"

"You just don't know what it's like to have been homeless" AJ said as she pulled more cat toys out of a bag "You always had a place to go. Whether it was your own home or Chez's"

"I suppose so" Punk said to her "You never talk about what it was like to be homeless"

"There's not much to say" AJ shrugged simply "Sleeping in a car with your brother and sister on top of you isn't all that bad. At least we were together it was food and clothing that was always rough but we weren't always homeless either. People get that mixed up"

"What got you through it?" Punk asked genuinely. He was very curious as to how someone so young as AJ dealt with that.

"It's silly but I always would dream of a Cinderella scenario" AJ admitted with a grin "My Prince Charming would come take me away and move me into his castle and provide me with endless video games and would spoil me by treating me like a princess" she said with a light giggle "Who would have thought that he really existed?"

"Me?" Punk asked with wide eyes

"Oh are you kidding me?" AJ asked "You are my definition of Price Charming. You bought me this house, you buy me anything I want, you spoil me like crazy and you gave me my own game room! Not even my fantasy Prince did that for me"

"You deserve it" Punk told her simply "But I'm sure your Prince Charming wasn't covered in tattoo's and basically an asshole"

"Oh he was" AJ said seriously "You are exactly what I always wanted. I wasn't like most girls"

"Oh I know that" Punk agreed with a grin "You certainly are different"

"Good different?" AJ questioned

"Very good different" Punk confirmed

"I would ask if I was what you always envisioned but we all know you saw yourself whoring around your entire life" AJ said causing him to laugh

"You were defiantly unexpected" Punk agreed "I just couldn't ever dream up a woman as a perfect as you"

"You are so smooth" AJ said with a sly smile standing up and walking over to him

"That's what all the women tell me" Punk teased lightly "I'd offer you a comfortable spot on my lap but as you can see…" he said gesturing towards Cookie who was laying comfortably on Punk "…I'm already occupied"

"That's a shame" AJ frowned lightly "I kind of wanted to break in our new couch" she said simply with a shrug "But you have fun with the cat, I'm sure she'll keep you warm at night"

"Get off Cookie!" Punk said shooing the cat off of him "I'm free!" he told her quickly as the cat ran off. "Come here" he said waving her over and she happily obliged "Hi" he said with his lips out of reach from hers by about half an inch

"Hi" she smiled back before leaning in and as always someone's phone went off "That's mine"

"Leave it" he said pulling her face towards his

"What if it's the lawyer?" she asked pulling away and standing up

"It better be" Punk muttered feeling frustrated

"It is" AJ said looking at her phone "You answer it" she said quickly passing her phone to him "I'm too nervous" he simply took the phone and answered

"Hello?" Punk answered "Yea that's me….ok…..how long? Really? That was the best that you could come up with?" he asked standing up and AJ could tell he was starting to get angry "…are you insane? What kind of distract attorney are you?"

"Punk?" she asked nervously but he just ignored her

"So because you want to save a few bucks this is the max amount of punishment you could think of?" Punk shouted into the phone "Oh wonderful well I'll tell that to my wife and hopefully that helps her sleep better" then hung up the phone

"Punk?" AJ asked again "What happened? What kind of deal did he get?"

"They dropped the attempted murder charge to avoid trial because he wouldn't plead guilty to it, so he pled guilty to aggravated battery" Punk informed her "You could imagine the sentencing is a lot lighter for him now"

"Ok so how long is he going to jail for?" AJ questioned nervously but saw how angry he was "He is going to jail right?" she questioned

"Yea he's going to jail for thirty days" Punk said to her "But with over crowding and such that will most likely be cut in half. He will be fined, and have to complete 400 hours worth of community service and attend counseling"

"Ok" AJ said to him slowly "That's not horrible"

"AJ the man tried to strangle you" Punk reminded her "But because there was no proof it was pre-meditated it was dropped down to a battery charge. We should have fought this and gone to trial" he said to her

"It's too late now" AJ said to him "We just have to make the best of it"

"I want to look into a restraining order" Punk told her handing her back her cell phone and pulling out his own

"Who are you calling?" AJ asked

"My lawyer" Punk said to her "See if he can make any sense of this injustice. This is what my tax dollars go to? Really?" he mocked as he sent a message on his phone

"It could be worse he could have never been caught" AJ said to him "And if he tries something again he'll definitely go back to jail"

"I don't want him to have the opportunity to try again!" Punk yelled "I want him rotting in a prison cell!"

"Well it's not going to happen" AJ said to him "You have to accept that. You can't control everything"

"AJ, do you think I'm overreacting?" he asked almost mocking her. How could she not be fuming herself?

"No but there's no point in upsetting yourself" AJ told him "It's done- it's over and he's getting his punishment so we all just need to move on"

"It's not a punishment!" Punk yelled but AJ didn't even flinch. This was way they were so perfect together. He'd get angry and throw a tantrum and she would talk him down and help him see the light.

"It's what the courts decided on and no amount of yelling is changing that" AJ told him firmly

"I can't just sit around" Punk told her honestly

"Well you can't change it either. You just have to face the fact that you can't control everything" AJ told him

"Why are you being so hard on me?" Punk groaned "I want you to be safe!"

"Are you moving out anytime soon?" AJ asked him

"Of course not" Punk sighed

"So I'll be safe" AJ said forcing a smile "We'll be fine. We have a lot going on. Wrestlemania in a few short weeks, our wedding- I don't want this hanging over our heads. It's done and over with let's just move on"

"I can't" Punk told her honestly

"You have to" she shot back quickly "I need you to be calm and sane for me" she told him "I need you to be my rock right now and I can't have you flying off the handle" when she put it like that how couldn't he give in? "Please?" she pleaded lightly

"I'll try" he offered and she replied by simply wrapping her arms around his waist and nuzzling her face into his chest

"We'll be ok" AJ assured him


The next morning Punk and AJ were packing up for their next tour. They had a house show to be at the next day and they were taking his bus, which meant they had to leave that night if they wanted to be on time.

"Please?" AJ pouted as she watched Punk throw some t-shirts into a bag

"No AJ" Punk said to her seriously shaking his head. She sat cross-legged on the bed and just pouted.

"Look at me" she demanded and he let out a laugh avoiding her face

"No" he said to her still smirking

"She's lonely" AJ said to him seriously as Cookie jumped on the bed "She should be with us"

"A bus is no place for a cat" Punk said to her

"Fine" AJ sighed petting the cat "Sorry that daddy hates you so much"

"I don't hate her" Punk said to her and caught AJ's dough eyes and she quickly stuck out her bottom lip and that's all it took "Fine" he muttered

"Thank you" AJ said happily "Do you want to go to work with us?" AJ asked Cookie happily picking her up

"She stays on the bus and you bring her carrier or something" Punk said to her

"We're not locking her up" AJ warned him

"Also if she runs off the bus I'm not chasing after her" he said firmly then headed into his closet to grab more clothes

"Don't listen to him Cookie, if I told him to chase after you he would" AJ assured the cat with a smile

"I heard that!" Punk shouted from the closet

"Are you going to argue it?" AJ challenged and there was silence

"No" he replied quietly. Of course he would run after the cat if AJ instructed him to.

"That's what I thought" AJ smiled kissing the top of the cat's head "Oh I forgot to tell you Stephanie loved my idea" she told Punk as he stepped out of the closet with some shorts folded up and placed them into his bag

"What idea?" Punk asked

"The Hayes one" AJ said to him

"She's going to let you wrestle him?" Punk asked stunned

"Why are you being so negative about this?" AJ asked

"I'm old fashioned AJ I don't like the idea of you getting in the ring with any male" Punk told her "Especially someone as slimy and disgusting as Michael Hayes"

"Well it's happening so get over it" she told him simply and he couldn't help but smile at her "You know you called me your wife earlier" she pointed out

"What?" he asked her

"When you were on the phone with the lawyer" AJ said to him simply "You said I was your wife"

"I guess I did" Punk shrugged "Did you like it?"

"Yes I did actually it felt good" AJ told him "I have to get used to it"

"I'm already used to it" Punk told her smugly

"Clearly" She teased "So how do you feel about me changing my last name?" she asked him

"I kind of assumed you would do that anyway" Punk laughed

"I mean professionally" AJ told him "Would you be ok with that? A lot of women keep their name for professional reasons"

"I want you to be April Jeanette Brooks, AJ Lee-Brooks, AJ Lee- Punk, AJ Punk, Mrs. CM Punk…I want you to shout it from the rooftops" he told her seriously

"April Brooks" AJ said to herself "It has a really great ring to it"

"I agree" Punk said firmly "I think you should tattoo right here" he said running his finger across her collar bone lightly

"Only if you get my face tattooed on you" AJ teased "If you can find a spot"

"My back is completely open" Punk reminded her "I will by the way. I was actually planning on it"

"Really?" AJ asked surprised

"Of course" Punk told her "I got your lips tattooed on me after our third date"

"Yea that was crazy" AJ said to him

"I knew we'd make it but even if we didn't you are a part of my life and I wanted a piece of you on me. Now I just want a bigger piece" Punk told her

"Ok so we have a deal" AJ said to him

"Seriously?" Punk asked surprised

"Well I'm not going to get my own named tattooed on myself" she laughed "I'll get yours, right here" she said running her finger across her collar bone seductively

"You know that's also one of my favorite spots on you" Punk said eyeing her collar bone biting on his lower lip

"Oh I know" she said to him with a grin

"Can you get property of tattooed above it?" Punk asked seriously causing her to roll her eyes

"I think the name is good enough" AJ replied rolling her eyes

"I don't know about that" Punk teased

"Oh it's good enough. Maybe next week?" AJ suggested "You can take me to a place you go to"

"Of course" Punk promised "I love the fact that you're practically a blank canvas" he said inching over to her

"You don't wish I was all tatted up?" she questioned

"No, no" Punk said running his finger across her collar bone slowly "You're perfect. But you could use a few"

"Well if I get it here it should be easy to cover after the divorce" AJ told him causing him to squint his face at her and frown "I'm kidding!" she laughed

"That was cruel" Punk said seriously

"Come on" She said laughing getting up on her knees and tugging him over to her "I would never get your name on if I didn't believe we'd be together forever"

"Yea, yea" he muttered as she kissed his lips

"Forgive me?" she questioned kissing him again

"Not yet" Punk said pulling away and that's when AJ lifted her top over her head and Punk eyed her fondly

"What about now?" she asked as he his hands ran over her torso

"You're getting there" he said as she started to kiss down his face then his neck "Closer" he said to her as he felt her reach for his belt buckle

"Better?" she asked as she pulled his belt out then ran her hands under his shirt

"Almost" Punk said as she lifted the shirt over his head and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him on top of her on the bed

"Now am I forgiven?" she asked as he started to kiss down her neck now

"I'll let you know in an hour" He replied against her skin