Over
"I don't know what it is you… all want to get out of this. I think… you must be wired extremely wrong to… to live your lives the way you have." Punk said, looking across at the man still standing beside Dean, "Now either you're doing this because you know that your time running and hiding and getting away with the horrible things you all did, is over, or you are really that confident in your abilities to ruin another person's life and get away with it." Punk said, "But I can tell you right now, you won't." He said, "As long as you're here right now, you aren't walking away tonight."
Punk watched as the man lowered his gun back to Seth's neck as Seth turned his laptop around and started erasing files again like he had been threatened to do so.
"What is deleting things gonna do?" Dean asked, "We know what you did, we know it, just because it's not in a report anymore won't make a difference." He reminded them.
"I don't think they're planning on keeping us around." Punk mumbled to him as Dean looked from the two men and groaned to himself.
"We need to get back to my house." Dean said as Punk nodded. They knew they couldn't just be the cops who stood and watched with their guns in the air. They had to do something. Take that risk and jump.
Punk turned around back to Seth who was discretely looking up at him every few seconds, worry on his face. He wasn't a cop, he was just a tech guy and he really had no idea what he was supposed to do in the situation apart from do what he was told.
But Punk eyed him closely, nodding to the laptop, using his eyes and head to paint out a scenario for Seth to catch onto. It was extremely off-putting also to have these men more or less have no faces. It was nothing like they'd saw before.
Dean kept his eyes on the other man whilst Punk eye told Seth what to do. The next thing that happened, Seth jumped up, using his laptop as a weapon as he smacked it across the man's face and quickly grabbed the gun, throwing it over to Punk who caught it whilst Dean kept his gun on the other man.
"Go. Fix the alarms." Punk nodded to Seth who quickly ran down the rows of desks and out into the reception area.
"You put your fucking gun down." Dean told the second guy who kept his gun up, "You make a move and I will shoot you."
"Take off the hood." Punk said, stepping closer to the man whom was trying to recover from being hit by Seth, approaching him closely as the man stood up, revealing another gun from his back pocket and aiming it at Punk's leg, this time not hesitating to pull the trigger as Punk went down in pain.
The other man immediately went for Dean as a brawl began to take place whilst Seth called out for more people to get to the station.
Meanwhile back at Dean's house, AJ and Lia were sat on the floor with both their hands tied and their ankles. AJ felt like she had the privilege this time of having someone else with her. In her eyes, it was two against two, and she refused to be a victim yet again.
The men didn't speak, just like last time, and their faces were covered up. One had a black bag and she couldn't really see what was in it.
"Why are there only two of you?" AJ asked, doing everything she could to hear them talk or say something. She thought it was insane that they did everything silently and so invisibly, "What are you gonna do?" AJ said whilst Lia sat beside, more worried and scared.
AJ watched as one of the men took out a small tank of gasoline, raising her eyebrows as he pulled out another one.
"What? So you're gonna burn us alive?" AJ asked, "You're not following suit to how you killed my friend? No… raping and beating? You're just gonna burn us alive? In this house?" AJ asked whilst they took no notice of her and began to pour out the gasoline around them.
Lia tried to keep herself calm but was finding it extremely hard when she knew her baby daughter was upstairs. She wasn't sure how they were supposed to find themselves out of this situation, but they were sure as hell going to try.
"Why won't you speak?" AJ asked calmly, as she'd slowly began to shuffle unnoticedly towards the coffee table in the centre of the room, "C'mon, just say something." She said, "What difference does it make?" She asked, watching as they continued to pour gasoline over every visible part in the living room.
Meanwhile AJ was rubbing her tied hands up and down the coffee tables leg. It was sharp and thin enough to possibly break through the table, otherwise she wouldn't have bothered.
"Please just let us go." Lia begged, "You don't have to do this."
"You're pretty much dead meat anyway." AJ told them, "Those cops… they're onto you, and you're never gonna get away anymore." She said as Lia watched her. She didn't understand how she could be so brave. She knew it was a lot more personal for AJ, but she didn't know where she found the courage to say things to these very intimidating people, whom they couldn't even see the faces of.
AJ suddenly jumped as one of the men turned around and grabbed her by the throat, lowering his hooded face to hers as Lia gulped.
AJ looked into his eyes, which was the only think she could see, collected some saliva in her mouth and spat directly at him whilst his hand gripped her throat. She then lifted her tied together ankles up, kicking him right where it hurt between his legs as her hands broke free.
She stood up, grabbing a picture frame from the mantel and cracked it over the head of the second guy. She wasn't foreign to defending herself. She'd grew up in situations where it was essential to know how to defend herself. Her parents had always encouraged her to fight, it was part of growing up in her family, and at times like these, she was thankful for it.
She quickly rushed over to Lia after both men were doing, one knocked out and the other wincing over the hard kick AJ had gave him in his unmentionables.
"Oh my God." Lia shook her head, trembling as AJ undone the tape around her wrists and ankles.
"It's gonna be ok." AJ nodded to her, getting to their feet, not noticing the conscious man pulling out his lighter, simply flicking his thumb down and lowering it against the carpet as it suddenly burst into flames around them.
AJ pushed Lia back, but the flames progressed so quickly, spreading around the carpet and the living room that they barely had anywhere to stand. AJ couldn't understand the thought process, as these men were clearly happy with burning alive if it meant they did too, but she refused to let that happen.
"Put your cardigan over your mouth." AJ told Lia loudly over the cackling of the fire as Lia took her cardigan off and covered it over her mouth whilst AJ did the same with her sweater.
"There's no way out." Lia said loudly, "Eva is upstairs!" She yelled desperately as AJ nodded.
"Get this." AJ pointed to the coffee table. The flames were so hot, she felt like she was being burnt anyway without being touched, and the smoke was progressively getting worse, making it harder to see much.
Lia grabbed one end of the coffee table as they carried it over and threw it down past the doorway to clear an exit for them.
"Ok. You go outside, get help!" AJ said, "I'll get Eva." She nodded.
"No… I will, I need to-"
"Just do it!" AJ yelled, watching the fire began to seep out into the kitchen. She knew if Lia went upstairs to get the baby, she would be a shaking mess, "Go!" AJ nodded as Lia quickly rushed out of the door whilst AJ sprinted upstairs.
She burst into the nursery, closing the door behind her and walking over to the crib where the baby girl was asleep. She'd never so much as held a baby before, and she figured when she did it would be under calmer circumstances, but she had no time to not know what to do.
"Ok, I am so sorry." AJ hummed, picking Eva up from her crib and into her arms, wrapping her sweater around the infant to make sure she wouldn't inhale any smoke, "It's ok." AJ smiled as she watched the baby wake up.
She quickly left the nursery, holding the baby into her chest, approaching to the top of the stairs where she saw the flames had already spread to. She quickly left the top of the stairs and ran into the front bedroom, closing the door behind her and putting the baby on the bed.
"Ok, it's gonna be alright." AJ said as Eva began to cry and scream, "I know, it's ok." AJ shook her head, pushing furniture against the door as best she could.
She picked Eva back up into her arms, rushing over to the window and opening it up as she saw police had already gathered along with a fire engine and an ambulance.
"I can't get out!" AJ yelled out the window over Eva's crying.
Meanwhile Punk and Dean had arrived at the scene after they had thankfully gotten out of lockdown when more cops came to help them. Punk had a shot leg which he refused to get looked at. This was more important, even if he was hopping along everywhere.
"Can someone get a fucking ladder up there!" Dean yelled angrily whilst Lia stood beside crying with her hands over her mouth.
Punk could see AJ coughing, blackness over her face. She was keeping the sweater over the baby instead of her own mouth, and as much as he admired her selflessness, he knew that it didn't take long for smoke to kill, he'd been on the sight of many house fires and knew it to be true.
"Someone needs to get up there now." Punk nodded worriedly, "Like right fucking now!" He yelled whilst fire men headed back and forth with equipment, perching up a ladder against the house.
Meanwhile AJ backed herself into the corner of the bedroom, feeling the room start to fill with smoke, coughing continuously whilst she could hear the fire so close outside the door, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the whole place went up, and she was right, quickly turning into the wall as the door exploded open with pieces of furniture blowing everywhere.
"April!" Punk yelled, getting nervous as he couldn't see his girlfriend, watching the fire man walk up the ladders to the window.
Meanwhile Dean stood, never feeling so sick in his entire life whilst Lia stood beside shaking and crying.
AJ was feeling herself struggling to breathe slowly but surely, but was doing everything she could to hold onto the baby girl and keep her shielded from everything. She was barely conscious when she heard the fire man at the top of the window, but she somehow managed to pick up on it and moved closer to it.
"T-Take her." AJ nodded, passing over the baby first as the fire man nodded, carefully taking the baby girl whilst AJ stood at the window.
"Ok, I'm gonna take her down and come back, stay at the window, ok?" The fire man said as AJ nodded, watching as he began to climb down the steps quickly with Eva in his arms who was screaming and crying.
AJ stood at the window, coughing and longing for fresh air. She watched as the fire man came back up for her, helping her out of the window, moving down the ladders herself as he went down behind, supporting her as much as he could whilst she carefully moved down each step, eventually reaching the ground, EMTs rushing to her as she pushed through them and headed for Punk, wrapping her arms around him tightly as he grabbed onto her just as tight.
"Are you ok?" Punk sighed with so much relief as AJ nodded, gasping and wheezing.
"Yeah, I'm ok." AJ nodded, turning her head and looking over to Dean and Lia who were sitting at the back of the ambulance holding Eva who looked perfectly fine.
"This fucking thing is over." Punk told her, rubbing her back in circles, kissing her head as she held onto him for dear life, his leg wrapped up but still bleeding, not caring as he needed to hold her desperately.
"It's over." Punk nodded, watching as the fire men piled in to treat the fire carefully and put it out, holding AJ tightly. He didn't plan to lose her. Ever.