The Moment

6 months later…

"Dad, I'm having a disaster!" Thea yelled from the kitchen as she heard her father come in the door.

"What's wrong?" Punk asked, walking through to her kitchen.

"They sent me the wrong birthday cake for James." Thea said, "Look." She opened up the white box sitting on the kitchen table.

"Hey, it's a monkey." Punk smiled, "Aww." He smiled, turning to Thea who was glaring at him, "What? That seems pretty first birthday esque to me." He said.

"No, no no… I ordered a white sponge, yellow icing with a giraffe." Thea said, "Because he loves giraffes." She said as Punk looked at her.

"You do know he isn't gonna remember this, right?" Punk nodded.

"Yes, I do know that, but I'll remember it." Thea said, "I have two days to get this changed for the one I ordered. I'm gonna need your big bad mean voice for this-"

"Oh, because you don't have one of them anyway?" Punk scoffed, "Thea, the cake looks fine. The monkey is cute."

"James likes giraffes so his birthday cake will have giraffes on it." Thea made clear.

"Ok, well I picked up the catering for you. It's in the car so I'm gonna start bringing it in. You made room in your fridge?" Punk asked, watching her dialling a number on her phone, "Thea." Punk hummed, getting her attention.

"Yes, what?" Thea looked up.

"You made room in your fridge for the food?" Punk asked, walking over to the fridge, which was full and had no space, "Thea, I told you to-"

"Shh, I'm on the phone!" Thea hissed, holding her phone to her ear as Punk rolled his eyes, beginning to rearrange her fridge so he could fit in the party food he had picked up, "Hi, I would like to speak to whoever is in charge of your store." Thea said as Punk rolled his eyes, "Yes, I ordered a cake for Castillo. I picked it up this morning, drove all the way into town, it's raining by the way…" Thea said as Punk turned around and looked at her, "I get home and there is a monkey on the cake. I ordered a giraffe."

"You're insane." Punk whispered, walking out of the kitchen and heading outside to collect the things for James' first birthday party in a couple of days.

It warmed his heart to see his daughter planning her son's first birthday party. It brought him back to when he and AJ were younger, many moons ago, when they planned the girls birthday part. He could see Thea took the trait of wanting everything to be perfect from her mother.

The past six months had definitely been challenging for all of them, Jude in particular obviously. She had stayed at Punk and AJ's house for a month before moving back in with Kirsty. She had set backs. She went back to college too soon, she suffered panic attacks when she left the house, she found it hard to sleep at night, she'd broke down and picked herself up countless times. Nothing had really changed. Nothing had been fixed. And that was ok. One thing she had learned was that it was a process.

Thea had returned to full-time work again, picking up twelve hour shifts at the ER, channelling he everything into her job and home life with her son. She too had her struggles, her down moments, her flashbacks to all that happened, but she was getting by.

"Dad." Thea called, walking outside with the birthday cake as he looked up from the trunk.

"What?" Punk shook his head.

"I'm taking this cake back to get exchanged for the giraffe one." Thea said, "Would you be a life saver and call the face painter, tell him to come at 1pm instead of 2?" She said.

"You got a face painter?" Punk shook his head.

"Yeah." Thea nodded, "Why? Is that too much?"

"Well ninety five percent of the people at this party are above the age of 20." Punk reminded her.

"Yeah? And?" Thea scoffed, putting the cake into the trunk of her own car, looking over at him, "Do you think I'm being too crazy with this?" She asked him as he looked across at her, "I just… I want it all to be perfect. I know he won't remember it but I will and… it's his first birthday." She shrugged, "I went into this year not even knowing if I would see him on his first birthday." She said, "I just want it to be special." She shrugged as Punk smiled.

"I know you do." Punk smiled, "I think it's gonna be great. I'll take care of the face painter and I'll start blowing up the balloons." He said as she nodded.

"Oh, have you heard from Jude today? I text her this morning but I got nothing back." Thea said.

"No, well she said she was doing the hike today, wasn't she?" Punk said.

"Oh, yeah." Thea nodded, "I hope she's having fun." She said as Punk nodded.

"She sounds like she is." Punk smiled as Thea nodded.

"Ok, I'm gonna go kick some bakers asses." Thea said as Punk chuckled.

"Have fun." Punk nodded, watching her get into her car and drive off, smiling to himself as he headed back into her house.

"My legs are gonna hurt like a bitch tomorrow." Jude nodded, holding onto the straps of her backpack, heading uphill as Sean joined beside her.

"Yeah, maybe not best idea to do this during peak Summer either." Sean laughed a little as Jude nodded.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Jude shook her head, wiping her sweaty forehead, "I swear I've lost half my weight in sweat." She said as Sean smiled, "You should be used to stuff like this, shouldn't you? Don't you have to do stuff like this if you wanna be a cop?" Jude asked him, minding her steps as they walked up the rocky pathway.

"You know, hiking the Grand Canyon isn't really part of cop training." He chuckled a little as she shoved him.

"Jerk." Jude shook her head as he smiled, "Let's just pretend to Cassie it is."

"She still wants to be a cop?" Sean asked.

"She's still talking about it, yeah." Jude nodded, "And my parents are behind her. I think it'd be badass."

"Well I could definitely help her out." Sean said as Jude nodded.

"She's still young, though. She might end up doing something completely different. I swore she was just gonna be a soccer player her entire life. She was that good." Jude nodded.

"Why'd she give it up?" Sean asked.

"I don't know, I guess she got sick of it. Too much of something can make you fall out of love, I guess." Jude said.

"I disagree." Sean turned to her with a smile.

"I'm too sweaty to hit you back with something charming." Jude shook her head as Sean chuckled.

"I think we're almost there." Sean nodded, looking ahead uphill as Jude nodded.

"Yeah and then we gotta make our way back down." Jude chuckled.

"It's always better downhill." Sean nodded.

"Yeah, sometimes." Jude nodded, "So I was texting Thea last night, she told me she's got a face painter for James' birthday."

"He's one." Sean chuckled.

"Yeah, I think she wants it to be like the parties we used to have." Jude said, "Mom and dad always did our birthday parties big."

"I'm gonna get bullied into getting my face painted, aren't I?" Sean scoffed as Jude smiled, linking her arm through his.

"I'll do it if you do it." Jude smiled.

"That's a very dangerous phrase, you know." Sean said as Jude chuckled, "Which you've been using a lot lately."

"Well it's always better doing things with other people, right?" Jude shrugged.

"Yeah, it is." Sean agreed.

There were times she seriously doubted her self-worth over the past six months. Times she wondered why her boyfriend was even sticking around, wondering why he'd want to spend time with her after what happened, but then she started to realise he wanted to spend time with her for her. That her attack wasn't anything to do with how he saw her. It was taking a while for her to realise that, but with the help of her family and friends, and therapy, she was getting there, slowly but surely.

They had taken a weekend trip away together for the first time. It was a result of the small goals Jude was setting herself, turning into bigger goals. Goals like wanting to hike the Grand Canyon. Getting to share it with someone she was in love with was even better.

"I think… we made it." Sean said, starting to notice the ground was levelling out, reaching the top and walking over closer to the edge as Jude looked out into the open.

"Wow." Jude raised her eyebrows, looking out at the view, sitting her backpack down for a second.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Sean nodded, looking out at the rocky, dessert view, the sun shining bright over them with nothing but blue skies.

"It's beautiful." Jude nodded, slightly taken back by the view right in front of her eyes, right there in front of her. It wasn't something that a kid from Chicago was used to.

"You ok?" Sean turned to her as Jude nodded.

"Yeah, it's amazing." Jude shook her head. As she reached those bigger goals she was setting herself, she was reminded of where she started. Washing her hair and aiming to get out of bed. Looking out onto the view in front of her was a reflection of how far she'd come.

"You sure you're ok?" Sean watched her as she stared out at the view.

"I am ok." Jude turned to him, really feeling it within her for the first time, "I'm ok." She nodded to herself. A moment of realising she was going to keep living her life, and maybe sometimes it would be difficult, but she was stronger for it.

"I'm ok." She whispered to herself with a smile, taking a deep breath as she looked out at the view.

"God, I'm gonna end up with my face painted, aren't I?" AJ chuckled, walking into the living room as Punk smiled.

"If I have to then you do too." Punk said as she smiled, sitting down beside him on the couch comfortably. She too had returned to work after some well needed time off to be there for her daughter.

"Did Thea get the cake sorted?" AJ asked him.

"I think so. I thought the monkey was fine." Punk shrugged.

"I told you both, she's high-maintenance." Cassie said, sitting over on the other couch, playing on her phone.

"She just wants it to be special." Punk said, "This is James' first birthday." He said, "I think she's trying to outdo us with the parties." Punk nodded to AJ.

"You think?" AJ wondered, "Maybe it's time we pass on our best party planners throne to her." She shrugged.

"She's never outdoing us." Punk scoffed competitively as AJ smiled.

"I think I heard your phone bleeping out in the kitchen." AJ told him.

"Oh, it might be Jude." Punk said, getting up from the couch, heading through to the kitchen and picking his phone up, noticing he had a message from Jude, making his way back into the living room.

"Is it her?" AJ asked.

"Yeah." Punk nodded, sitting back down on the couch, opening up the message which had a picture attached to it.

"So I think I had 'the' moment." AJ read the message, looking on at the picture of Jude standing with the view behind her.

Punk smiled to himself so big as he saw how happy his daughter looked.

"She looks so happy." AJ said, "What's the moment?" She asked, leaning her head against Punk's arm, staring at the picture with a never ending smile.

"Just… something we talked about." Punk smiled to himself, "Looks like she's having a good time."

A/N: Two more chapters to go! Don't miss them.