April


"What happened?" Punk asked, standing beside the hospital bed in shock, not taking his eyes from his wife.

"It was a… car accident." Thea said, "The person in the other car didn't make it." She gulped as Punk closed his eyes, "They suspect she… has trauma to her head." She said, "Possible brain damage." She whispered as Punk ran his hands through his hair.

"Can everyone get out?" Punk asked.

"Dad." Cassie sighed.

"Please." Punk asked seriously as Thea looked over to Cassie, nodding to her.

"We'll be outside." Thea told him, taking Cassie and leaving the hospital room as Punk stood looking on at AJ who had an oxygen tube in her mouth.

"April." Punk sighed desperately, sitting down on the chair beside the bed, taking her hand in his, "Come on, don't… don't be doing this to me." He begged quietly, holding her hand with both of his, looking on at her lying peacefully still.

He'd never saw her in a vulnerable state like this. His mind couldn't quite comprehend that she was actually lying in front of him like this. It was like his mind refused to digest what he was seeing.

He'd never wanted more to see her huge brown eyes than he did right now. The desperation was unreal. He was in complete shock and disbelief.

He listened as the hospital door opened up, turning around as he saw a doctor walking in.

"Mr Brooks?" The doctor, Paul asked.

"Yeah." Punk nodded to him.

"I'm Doctor Burns. Or… just call me Paul." He said softly as Punk nodded to her, "I've been talking to your oldest daughter about your wife's condition but she… she asked if I would come in and talk to you about it too."

"What happened?" Punk whispered, looking on at AJ, feeling like he couldn't take his eyes from her.

"Your wife was in a car accident tonight. A bad collision at a crossroads. Unfortunately we lost the other person in the other car." He said, "Your wife suffered tremendous impact to her head. So much so that she stopped receiving oxygen to the brain for… quite some time. We've managed to stabilise her for now. We'll be doing scans over the course of the next few days-"

"When can she wake up?" Punk asked desperately as the doctor looked across at him.

"Sir, your wife is in a medically induced coma." He clarified as Punk turned to him, "For her own safety to prevent any more swelling on the brain. We don't want the blood flow to the brain to be constricted right now." He said.

"But she'll wake up soon, right?" Punk nodded as the doctor looked at him.

"She's in the best place right now to be treated and helped." Paul said, "But the brain can be unpredictable."

"The fuck does that mean?" Punk stood up. Sometimes the teenage boy who wasn't raised properly just came out, especially in instances like this.

"It means we don't know for sure when she'll wake up." Paul made clear.

"So like… sometime tonight?" Punk nodded. He needed that assurance. He needed it desperately.

"Sir, would you like me to get one of your daughters?" Paul asked him as Punk shook his head.

"No." Punk said, sitting back down, pulling his chair in as close to the bed as possible, taking AJ's hand back in his, "No, just leave me alone with her." He shook his head. He was no fool. He knew what he was hearing. He could hear the concern and passiveness in the doctor's voice. He knew this wasn't good. Of course it wasn't. His wife was barely breathing on her own. It was just hard to accept it.

"If you have any questions for me please don't be afraid to ask." Paul nodded, "I'd like to talk further with you about April's injuries she's sustained." He said as Punk just looked at AJ. He'd heard enough to know it wasn't good, "I'll leave you alone for now." He said, slipping out of the hospital room.

Punk took a deep breath, looking down as he held AJ's hand clasped in his against his mouth, praying to a God he didn't believe in. Having been with his wife for almost forty years, this was his ultimate fear, something he really couldn't describe to anyone. A nightmare. Worse than a nightmare.

"I think your father needs some time on his own right now. I doubt he'll take in much information from me." Paul spoke to Thea who nodded.

"Yeah, just give him a bit of time." Thea nodded whilst Cassie and Jude sat on the chairs outside with Sean standing by.

"We'll be monitoring your mother very closely over the course of the next few days. The swelling on her brain has actually gone down a little but… not enough to show any dramatic change." He said as Thea nodded, trying to be the one who took all the information in.

"Uh… do you… do you have any idea when she could wake up?" Thea asked.

"I don't have a definite answer for you." Paul said as Thea just nodded, "She's in good hands, I promise you." He said before walking off.

"Why do I feel like they're not telling us things?" Cassie asked.

"Because they're probably not." Thea shook her head, "She's in coma. I don't think there's much they can tell us, to be fair." She said as Jude leaned her head back against the wall, all of their eyes puffy and red from the initial tears of shock and sadness upon seeing their mother in such a bad condition.

"You're a nurse. You know all about this stuff, don't you?" Jude asked Thea.

"I don't specialise in neurology." Thea shook her head, "I just know they only put people in medically induced comas when it's bad." She said, "When they're close to…" She paused, realising she didn't need to tell her sisters that sort of information. But there wasn't much she could say to make this better. They were all in shock and disbelief in their own ways.

Their mother was one of the most important people in their lives. When no one else was there for them, she was. It had always been the one constant thing in all of their lives, and that was no dig upon their father, it was just the way it had been.

"Someone should see if your dad is ok." Sean sighed to himself.

"I'll go." Thea nodded, walking back into the hospital room, looking over at her father sitting at the edge of her mother's bed, holding her hand tightly, "Dad." She said softly.

"Can you just… tell me I'm dreaming? I'm just… I'm hoping I wake up soon." Punk nodded to himself as Thea looked over at him.

"Dad." She sighed, walking over to him, wrapping her arms around him from the side as he leaned against his daughter's arm and cried.


"Mom?" Sixteen year old AJ walked into her house after getting home from school, "Mom, are you home?" She asked, walking through to the living room, looking over at the guns and money on the coffee table. It wasn't a sight that scared her. It was normal. Her life.

"Kitchen, April." Janet called as AJ walked out of the living room, walking down the hallway and into the kitchen where her mother was cooking dinner. Her home life was very confused. On the one hand, it was chaos, criminal and completely unsafe. But then there was also the homely parts to it, like her mother cooking dinner pretending everything was normal.

"Hey." AJ said.

"Hi, sweetheart." Janet nodded, "God, you went to school looking like that?" She laughed a little.

"What's wrong with this?" AJ questioned, looking at her denim overalls.

"What are you? Five?" Janet scoffed, "And you gotta wash that hair, April. It looks greasy."

"I washed it last night." AJ narrowed her brows at her mother, dumping her school bag on the kitchen table.

"How was school?" Janet asked her.

"Well I'm failing biology." AJ shook her head.

"Oh, well we can't be good at everything." Janet said, unbothered.

"Do you know there's guns just sitting on the table in the living room?" AJ questioned.

"Oh, yeah your dad is dealing with it." Janet nodded.

"Dealing with what?" AJ shook her head.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about." Janet assured her as AJ shook her head. Her family like to pretend they were protecting her from things, but in reality, they exposed all of it to her right in front of her eyes, and as a young girl growing up, it was hard not to take notice and let that affect her.

"Well I kinda do when they're just sitting around like that." AJ shook her head, "Hey do you have money I could have to get the bus tonight?"

"The bus where?" Janet asked.

"Just… to see a friend." AJ shrugged.

"A boy friend?" Janet smiled.

"It's none of your business." AJ said.

"Yeah whatever, take it from my purse." Janet said.

"I'll be home by 11." AJ assured her.

"I don't care when you come home." Janet laughed a little, walking out of the kitchen as AJ paused. She often wondered if her mother really didn't care about her safety and whereabouts. It was hard to feel loved and cared about in an environment like the one she was raised in.

She neglected her homework and went into her mother's purse, opening up her wallet and pausing when she saw no money in it. She sighed to herself and put the wallet back into the purse. She knew better than to take the money from the coffee table, so she figured it was up to herself to get the money somehow.

She left the house, heading down the street and waiting at the bus stop, looking beside her at the older lady standing, "Excuse me? Could you tell me when the next bus is?" She asked, moving closer to the lady, close enough to stick her hand in her pocket without her noticing.

"In five minutes." The lady smiled politely as AJ nodded, managing to take money from her pocket.

"Thank you." AJ smiled politely, stuffing the money into her own pocket.

The bus eventually came as AJ got onto the bus, paying for her ticket and taking a seat, watching with shame as she saw the older lady looking in her pockets for her money, having to step off the bus as she couldn't pay for her ticket.

She looked the other way, putting her hood up and slouching down on the bus seat. Sometimes shame was all she felt that she started to block it out, which put her in a very dangerous and confident state of mind, where she felt like she could do and get away with anything, just to survive and do what she had to do.

She got off the bus after a few stops, walking down the street with her hood up, making her way down the hill into a motel block. She climbed up the stairs and walked along the strip of room doors, eventually coming to one and knocking on it.

She watched as the room door opened up, smiling as she felt him pull her into the room by the hand.

"Hi." AJ laughed a little.

"Hi." Punk smiled happily, leaning down and kissing her as he kicked the door closed.

She no longer felt sad about her parents not caring about her coming home, because that no longer felt like her home anyway. He was her home.