Truth Comes Out

"Hey, where were you?" Punk asked as he heard Janine coming home.

"Hey, I'll come see you in a minute." Janine called as she went upstairs whilst Punk sat in the kitchen, waiting. He heard her upstairs for a little while before coming down.

"Hey." Punk said.

"Hi, baby." Janine smiled.

"What were you doing?" He asked her.

"Just putting the toothpaste and stuff I got the store upstairs." She said, "Got us some stuff to make dinner." She nodded, sitting her grocery bag on the kitchen counter, "Babe, have you gotten any sleep?" She worried.

"Uh… yeah, I got a couple hours." Punk said, "Where were you?"

"Just running some errands." Janine said, "How come you had to work until later?" She asked, putting the groceries away.

"I just had a ton of reports due that I hadn't finished." Punk said as Janine nodded.

"Is someone not keeping up with their work?" Janine smiled over her shoulder at him as Punk smiled.

"Well there's a lot of it. Sometimes I can't keep up." Punk nodded.

"Hey, if you're stressed you should talk to your boss. Maybe cut down your shifts?" Janine suggested.

"I can't afford to cut down shifts." Punk shook his head, "I'll be fine. Sometimes it just builds up." He said.

"Well don't stress in silence, babe. Talk to someone." Janine nodded as Punk looked on at her unpacking the groceries.

Sometimes he wanted to just say it. He wanted to just blurt out that he was in love with someone else and that he wished for a divorce. But he knew he couldn't.

"How you been feeling?" Punk asked her.

"I've been fine." Janine nodded with a smile, "No morning sickness. Apparently if you don't have morning sickness it means you're having a boy." She smiled, "I mean… how cute? A little mini you." She smiled to him as Punk smiled, his heart racing on the inside.

"You got a preference?" Punk asked her.

"Oh, you know I want a girl. I won't lie." Janine smiled, "But… healthy is the main concern, right?" She said as Punk nodded.

"Yeah, of course." He said. Every time he thought about telling her, it just became too much, especially as he heard her talking about their baby. He wasn't completely emotionless towards her. He didn't want to make any female cry, certainly not one he once loved very much.

"What about you?" Janine smiled, "Boy or a girl?" She asked, "Be honest."

"I… honestly don't mind." Punk nodded, "A healthy one is good enough for me." He said as Janine smiled.

"Ok. I am going to make a start on dinner." She announced as Punk nodded, watching her singing to herself in her own world, happy and oblivious to what was going on with him. It hurt him to be so cruel…

"Janine." Punk gulped.

"Yeah?" Janine turned around, "Oh, babe you have a nosebleed." Janine panicked as Punk felt under his nose, looking at the blood on his fingers as he rolled his eyes.

"It's ok. It's fine." Punk stood up, grabbing a towel and tilting his head up.

"Are you feeling ok?" Janine asked with concern.

"Yeah, I don't know why this has happened." Punk shook his head, sitting back down at the kitchen table.

"Just keep your head back and let it pass." Janine said as Punk nodded. It wasn't like he could tell her now with his head pointed to the ceiling.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Dean asked, walking outside of the station where AJ was waiting to speak to him.

"Hey." AJ said anxiously.

"What's up? You ok?" Dean asked as AJ nodded.

"Y-Yeah. Yeah, I'm ok." AJ nodded as Dean folded his arms.

"Did you come here to bring some milk?" Dean asked, noticing the carton of milk in her hand.

"Oh… no." AJ shook her head, "You know what, I shouldn't have come here." She realised. She wanted to tell someone, but then she realised she was involving herself too much.

"Hey, no… what's going on? You're obviously bothered about something." Dean said as AJ looked across at him.

"Please don't tell Phil." AJ said, "Because I don't really know what this means yet but… I mean, I'm… I'm sure I know what's going on-"

"Ok, April you're talking riddles here. Speed me up." Dean nodded.

"I bumped into Janine at the store." AJ said as Dean groaned.

"Oh, God. What happened?" Dean dreaded.

"Nothing happened. It was fine." AJ said, "We had small talk and then she walked away." She nodded.

"Ok." Dean said suspiciously, "So what's the problem?"

"She had tampons on her basket." AJ said as Dean looked at her, wondering why that was a problem, "Tampons." AJ nodded.

"Yeah? So? Don't women need those… things?" Dean asked awkwardly, not thinking clearly to put the dots together.

"Yeah but pregnant women definitely don't need tampons." AJ made clear as Dean looked at her.

"So… maybe she's just stocking up?" Dean shrugged, "What are you saying right now?"

"I don't think she's pregnant." AJ shook her head as Dean folded his arms, "I mean look at the facts. Phil was bringing up divorce to her and that's when she told him she was pregnant. Maybe she panicked and thought if she told him she was pregnant, he'd stay."

"Or you're just… making this up?" Dean said as politely as he could.

"What?" AJ shook her head, "I'm not making this up." She made clear, "Who is stocking up on tampons when they're pregnant? No one." She said, "It makes sense."

"You think she's faking a pregnancy?" Dean asked.

"I do now." AJ nodded, "Is it so surprising that she would do something like that? Especially when she heard Phil talking about divorce. She probably never expected him to leave her and panicked about it." She said.

"Janine is smart. This sounds like a dumb desperate plan. I mean… he'd notice that she wasn't pregnant after a month or two. There's no way she's faking this." Dean shook his head. It was way too scandalous and shocking to believe. Not only was it shocking, but slightly sick and twisted.

"You don't believe she's faking it?" AJ asked.

"I don't see how she could." Dean said, "It's not exactly a long term plan to keep Phil with her. I think he'd start to notice when there was no baby anywhere." He said.

"Well she's obviously desperate." AJ shook her head.

"No… she wouldn't… she wouldn't do that to him." Dean shook his head to himself as he started to think about it. It was troubling to think it was actually a possibility.

"Maybe she would if she thought he was about to divorce her." AJ said as Dean looked across at her worriedly.

"We gotta tell Phil." Dean said, "Oh my God."

"No, we can't." AJ shook her head, "I can't at least." She said.

"She's treating him like a fool. Getting inside his head. Playing with his emotions. And… And she doesn't even know about you two yet. She's doing this without even knowing he cheated." Dean said, "Oh my God." He said, horrified by this possibility.

"How you feeling?" Janine asked, walking into the living room later on where Punk was sitting.

"I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me." Punk shook his head, "It was just a nosebleed." He insisted.

"Nosebleeds don't happen for no reason." Janine said, "Maybe you should see a doctor. It could be stress from work." She said, sitting down beside him on the couch and rubbing his arm softly.

"I'm fine." Punk shook his head as Janine frowned.

"I'm gonna go upstairs and get you a blanket." She said, kissing his cheek and rushing off upstairs as Punk sighed to himself.

He sat in a daydream when he suddenly noticed Janine's phone lighting up on the coffee table. He picked it up to give to her when she came back downstairs, and noticed the message was from one of her friends, reading the following:

So good to see you this afternoon. Any excuse to do some day-drinking. Catch up soon.

Punk read it at first and it barely registered, then he read it again, and again, growing more concerned.

"Here you go." Janine smiled, walking back into the living room with a blanket for him.

"Were you drinking today?" Punk asked as she looked at him nervously, "Your phone flashed up. From Emily. Any excuse to do some day-drinking?" Punk questioned, handing her the phone as Janine looked at it and gulped.

"It was… it was one glass." Janine shook her head, "It's fine. Won't hurt the baby." She smiled.

"Are you serious?" Punk screwed his face up, "You shouldn't be drinking. Period." He said, "Why would you risk it?"

"Phil, it was just one glass. Not even a full one." Janine said, "It's fine. Tons of women drink at the start of their pregnancy because they don't even know they're pregnant-"

"Well you do." Punk said fiercely as she looked across at him.

"Yeah and I know what I'm doing." Janine spat, "You don't need to freak out. Are you gonna be one of those nervous parents?" She smiled, trying to lighten the mood up a little.

"No, I just don't want my kid to be born with any sort of problem. Healthy baby, right? This isn't very healthy of you." He said.

"Oh, Phil stop being so dramatic. It was one glass of wine." Janine rolled her eyes, "It's not gonna kill it." She spat as Punk looked across at her.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Punk shook his head as she looked at him, "I'm going to lie down. I've barely slept all day and I… I have a splitting headache." He said.

"Yeah you sound like you need a lie down." Janine agreed as Punk stood up, walking by her and heading upstairs as she collapsed down on the couch, biting her nails worriedly.

She heard a knock at the door and got up to go answer it, walking out from the living room and into the hallway, opening up the door where she saw Dean standing.

"Hey." Janine said, "Phil is lying down. He's got a headache." She said as Dean nodded, looking across at her.

"Then I guess you and I can just have a chat." Dean said, walking into the house and into the living room as Janine closed the door over, following him into the living room. She wasn't shy about the fact she didn't get on with Dean, so she wondered what he possibly had to say to her.

"What? What do you want? Money?" Janine chuckled as Dean stared across at her.

"No." Dean shook his head, "I want to know why you, a pregnant woman, was buying tampons at the store today?" He said as Janine looked across at him, folding her arms and looking down, not expecting him to say that.

"What are you talking about?" Janine shook her head, "Who-Who told you I was pregnant?"

"I saw you. I was gonna come say hi and then I watched you put the tampons in your basket." Dean said, something he had discussed he was going to say with AJ earlier.

"Are you stalking me?" Janine shook her head, "What the hell is up with you boys today? Step off a girls neck here." She spat.

"Answer the question? Why?" Dean spat.

"Because… they were half off and I'm not gonna be pregnant forever, am I?" Janine hissed, "You wanna know why I bought everything else too? Do you need the details?"

"Are you really pregnant?" Dean asked. He had the luxury of her not knowing he knew about everything, which he could see had caught her off guard, which was already off to a bad start.

"When did he tell you?" Janine asked angrily.

"Answer the question." Dean said, "Are you really pregnant? Or did you hear the word divorce and panic?" He spat as Janine looked across at him.

"He tells you everything." Janine whispered to herself, "God it's like being in a permanent three-way." She spat angrily.

"You fucking wish, sweetheart." Dean nodded, "Are you pregnant? Yes or no?" He questioned as Janine looked at him.

"We're… we're trying to… we're trying to have a baby." She nodded, desperately hanging onto anything she could to make this work.

"Are you pregnant? Yes or no?" Dean spat, wanting her to say it, watching Punk walk into the living room quietly by the door.

"No I'm not pregnant!" Janine hissed, "I'm not pregnant."

"What?" Punk shook his head as Janine turned around, gasping a little as she saw him standing whilst Dean ran his hand over his hair, "You're not pregnant?" He questioned with shock.