"Where am I driving to?" Punk asked, driving along the dark narrow road with both hands on the steering wheel. Tate was long gone to sleep and was sleeping peacefully in the back with his little blanket tucked under his arms. AJ sat in the passengers side, still so terrified and on the edge, not knowing if she could ever feel relaxed anymore.
"I don't know." AJ shrugged, "Where do we go from here?" AJ shook her head to look at him as he kept glancing to face her, immediately turning his eyes back to the road.
"April… I don't have enough money to buy a house." Punk said in all honesty, not wanting to give AJ false hope of them running away into the sunset.
"We'll rent somewhere. I'll get a job. As long as we just go somewhere thats closed in where no one knows, we'll be fine." AJ said with a nod, trying to convince herself.
"What about your college?" Punk asked her.
"There should be colleges in every town. I can run the course from there." She said as he nodded. The last thing he wanted was for AJ's good, hard work to suffer from his mistakes. She was achieving so much and he didn't want to see her drop it all.
"I don't really know any places to go." Punk shrugged.
"Just keep driving, don't pay attention to the road signs. It'll bring us out somewhere." She smiled, resting her hand on his lap as he drove.
Punk turned and smiled to her sweetly, turning his eyes back to the road again before speaking up, "Get some sleep. You're safe here." Punk said in a soothing voice, although terrified himself he would not let his girlfriend get scared, not in a million years.
AJ smiled and lay her head back against the seat, shutting her eyes over and falling asleep to the sound of the car wheels rolling along the road smoothly.
Punk felt tremendously guilty for his girlfriends stress, for having to rip his son from his home that he was meant to grow up in. He felt so victimised, like he was running for his life, which he was, literally. But he couldn't let the cops take him. Maybe a few years ago, when AJ wasn't a known figure in his life and his son was nothing. But not now, when he had to take care of a family.
The next morning...
Being the troubled sleeper that he was, Punk had managed to drive through the full night while AJ and Tate slept fast asleep.
AJ awoke and was uncertain of her whereabouts, when suddenly she realised what was going on. They were running. That's what was happening.
"Morning." Punk smiled as he heard and seen AJ at the corner of his eye stirring around on her seat.
"Have you been driving all night?" AJ rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, not even beginning to guess where they were. Some back road, quiet and narrow with the fields on either side.
"Yeah." Punk said.
"You should sleep, Phil." AJ frowned, worried about Punk and his health, although… she did know he had a tendency to not sleep.
"I'm fine." Punk said, "I won't rest until we've found some place to stay at." Punk said, "We can stop by to a few motels. I want to get as far as possible." Punk said as AJ nodded.
"Good idea." She nodded, turning around and looking at Tate who began to get stressed, letting out a sharp cry, ready for his breakfast now.
"I think someones hungry." She said with a smile, her sons cuteness and little face giving her enough light to see through the end of these days.
A few weeks Later…
It had been a few weeks and the struggle of finding an apartment to rent out in the city of Philadelphia, particularly the quiet and less busy part of the city was challenging, but both Punk and AJ got there and found a rather spacious apartment, three bedrooms, kitchen, living room, all on the same level of course on the top floor of the apartment block, which was a nightmare when hauling Tate's stroller up the set of stairs.
AJ had already been and visited the college, which unfortunately didn't have the baby care unit which was very much a need for her, considering no one else could watch Tate unless it was Punk's day off. She had to choose from the options of working from home and on a laptop, or taking Tate into actual classes with her, which wasn't exactly ideal.
Punk had scouted around the city and looked at the different garages in walking distance, filling in job applications and awaiting a response.
It was a horrible, boring, waiting procedure, but if it was what she had to do to keep Punk by her side, then of course she would do it. The apartment was nice, homely and warm, the city was a little run down, unknown and quiet, but she supposed that was good for their condition, hiding.
It was extremely late one night, heading into early hours of the morning. AJ was sitting at the kitchen table, her laptop screen the only light in the room, her two boys sleeping in bed as she had subsequently left Punk asleep in their room to get out and do some college work she was falling behind on. With them moving and the stress of everything going on, her own thoughts taking over her for a few weeks, she was three essays behind everyone and was trying her best to do them when she had silence to herself.
She had also been skimming and scanning through job applications online, wondering if anyone would have her. They needed the money and it wasn't fair to put all the pressure on Punk. She did get college fees of course, but they went to Tate, whichever she decided to buy him with it, her son came first.
"What are you doing up so late?" Punk stumbled into their kitchen, rubbing his eyes and yawning, his boxer shorts just below his hip dents, the only thing covering him.
"I have to finish these essays." AJ said, not having even looked at him, concentrating on the laptop, the sound of her fingers tapping the keyboard filling the kitchen.
"Not at 3am you don't. Come back to bed." He moaned, leaning his side against the wall and staring at her.
"Phil. I really need to do this. It's the only time I get a chance." She moaned at him.
"So daytime doesn't exist to you?" Punk rolled his eyes as she looked at him over her glasses, glaring at him.
"No. Not when Tate is screaming all of the time and you're out looking for jobs. Just… go back to bed." She shook her head.
"Look, I get that all this moving stuff is hard on you. It's hard on me too, but we have each other. I mean… before we know it, I'll have a job, you'll be flying through college and Tate will nearly be one." Punk said.
AJ threw her pen down at the side of her laptop where she was jotting down notes and ran her hands through her face. The annoying thing was, she was completely exhausted, there was no way she was doing her best work while going on only four hours of sleep.
"I'm just so tired." AJ said, her voice breaking as she looked up at him.
Punk walked over to her and slowly shut the laptop down, grabbed her hand to help her stand up and lifted her up bridal style into his arms. He watched as she smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder as he carried her through the short journey to their room, laying her down on her side of the bed and joining her in the other side.
AJ smiled and turned on her side to face Punk, "Thank you." She whispered, "I think I'm losing my mind." She admitted.
"No. You aren't. You're just tired." Punk said, stroking her cheek, already seeing AJ's eyes flutter opened and closed, watching them dart fully open when Tate let out a cry from next door in his room.
He was now sleeping in his cot, having just gone onto seven months, getting a little too big for the crib.
AJ began to sit up to go feed Tate or change him, whatever the matter was when Punk pulled her back down forcefully.
"I've got him." He said, leaning over and pecking her cheek, pulling the covers back and standing out of bed and heading for his son.
AJ smiled, smiled even more when she heard silence again as Punk had clearly got Tate back to sleep. She didn't realise how tired she really was until she just conked out on her pillow. All of this moving and just the general thought every day of the cops out looking for Punk was putting her under so much stress, but with Punk and Tate, it made it that little bit better.
Punk walked back into their room with a sleeping Tate curled into his chest. He was still so mesmerised how big Tate had grown in such a small amount of time. One minute he was a tiny little baby and now he was a grown infant, still very small of course but able to smile, wave his arms and legs around, understand who his mother and father were. He just couldn't wait for him to start walking and talking.
Punk stared at AJ who was out cold sleeping, oblivious to everything else in the world right now. He was worried about her, extremely worried. She was doing too much, she was the one suffering from his doings. It scared him to think about what would happen to her if he did get taken to prison. She wouldn't cope, he knew she wouldn't.
"Mommy's tired… isn't she." Punk whispered to a sleeping Tate, "She's finding this hard. So we gotta keep making her smile and help her. She is the most important woman in our lives. We can't let her get sick again." Punk said, kissing Tate's soft, satin like head.
He was scared for AJ's health. Extremely scared. She was on a thin line. She looked like she was ready to break, like things were just too much. But how could that be, when it was him that was in danger of being caught. His doings and his consequences weren't only being paid by him, but by AJ too, scaring her and draining her completely. He couldn't be held responsible for AJ going off the deep end. Not again.
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