The Glue


"Dad?" Cassie walked into the hospital room where Punk was sitting by AJ's bed. She couldn't believe he had been awake all this time without even falling asleep on the chair. It broke her heart to see him sitting watching her mother.

"Yeah?" Punk turned around. His eyes were nipping. He felt delirious. The machinery bleeping in the room felt louder, and then it got quiet, and then it got extremely loud again. Sometimes he felt like his brain was sleeping whilst his eyes stayed open. He just couldn't bear to part with his wife. He couldn't face going home, going into their bed on his own.

"Jude and Sean are engaged." She let her father know as Punk raised his eyebrows.

"They are?" Punk asked as Cassie nodded.

"Yeah." Cassie smiled, "Yeah, he proposed not that long ago." She nodded.

"Oh, yeah… yeah, he asked me a couple weeks back. Well… he didn't ask, I guess. He told me he was proposing." Punk said, "Good. Good, I'm so happy for them." Punk nodded, "So happy for Jude." He shook his head.

"Yeah me too." Cassie smiled.

"How is the baby?" Punk asked.

"She's great. She's actually quiet. I think Jude is worried about the lack of noise she's making. She kept poking her." Cassie shook her head as Punk chuckled a little, "I think she's gonna be a worrying mom."

"Well… it's Jude. If she hasn't got anything to worry about, she'll go find something to worry about." Punk nodded, "But… she'll be fine." He said as Cassie nodded.

"Thea's gone home to see Dominic and the kids. She looks exhausted." Cassie said, "You look exhausted." She emphasised.

"I'm fine." Punk shook his head.

"Dad, you're not fine. You're… You're gonna make yourself sick like this. You're not eating or sleeping. You've been here for over two days now without leaving. It's time for you to go home." Cassie said. It was now past the point of them suggesting. They now decided, as sisters, that they had to tell their father to leave.

"I'm not leaving until she's awake. Then I'll… go home and sleep a little bit." Punk shrugged.

"No, you're going home tonight." Cassie said, "You'll be no use to mom if you can barely keep your eyes opened. She's gonna need us to take care of her for a while and you acting like this won't help." She said, "You need strength."

"I get my strength from her." Punk said.

"No, you get it from taking care of yourself. Sleeping and eating." Cassie said, "She's in a stable condition-"

"What if she has another seizure?" Punk asked, "And I'm not here."

"The doctor will control it." Cassie said, "Dad, she could be like this for a little while. What are you gonna do? Not sleep for days? Weeks?" She asked, "I'm taking you home tonight. I'm not asking, I'm telling. You're getting in the car and we're going home. We'll have dinner. Sofia and James are staying at the house so you can… play with them, and then you get a full night sleep. We'll come back in the morning." Cassie said.

She heard how it sounded, and it sounded cruel, but she knew what her mother would expect from her, and she knew her mother would want them all to be healthy, especially Punk who tended to make silly decisions. She knew her mother would expect them to look after him.

"No, I just… I just wanna stay with her." Punk insisted.

"I know you do." Cassie nodded, walking over to him and sitting down on the chair beside him, "I know you just wanna stay here and… that's not the issue. The issue is you're exhausted. She'd be real upset to see you like this." She said as Punk sighed to himself.

"Yeah, she would." He realised.

"Will you please just… come home?" Cassie asked softly as Punk looked at AJ, turning to Cassie and nodding slowly.

"Yeah… yeah, ok." Punk nodded.


"What is he doing?" Thea asked standing in her parent's kitchen with Cassie and Dominic whilst the kids had their dinner.

"He's taking a shower." Cassie said.

"How'd you get him to come home?" Thea asked.

"I just… talked to him. Said we were all concerned about him and that he's gonna end up sick." Cassie said as Thea nodded.

"Mommy." Sofia said, sitting at the table with her brother having some spaghetti for dinner which Thea had quickly made for them.

"What, baby?" Thea said.

"Did Auntie Jude have her baby?" Sofia asked curiously as James gasped beside her.

"She did?" James asked, "Was it a boy?"

"We all knew it was gonna be a girl." Cassie laughed a little.

"Oh." James said, "Why is there never any boys?" He huffed as Dominic chuckled.

"Do you guys wanna see a picture of the baby?" Thea asked, getting her phone from her purse. It had been difficult balancing being there for her mother, her sister and also coming back to help Dominic with the kids.

"What is her name?" Sofia asked as Thea crouched down between them at the table, showing them the pictures of Mirren.

"Her name is Mirren." Thea said, showing them some pictures of their baby cousin, "She's cute, right?"

"She's like my dollies." Sofia said sweetly, jumping off the chair and running out of the kitchen.

"She'll be away to get one of her dolls." Dominic nodded as Cassie smiled.

"Mommy, look. She's like my dolly." Sofia emerged back into the kitchen with her doll, holding it in her arms like a real baby, "Like this? This is my baby." Sofia told everyone, getting back up on the kitchen chair.

"But Aunt Jude's is real." James told his sister as Thea chuckled, kissing James on the head.

"I take care of my baby doll, though." Sofia said.

"Good job, baby." Thea smiled, "Are you practising for when you get to hold Mirren?"

"Yes." Sofia nodded as Thea smiled, looking up at Dominic who was equally smiling. The kids were definitely a bright spot in all of this sadness and worrying they were all doing. Their free spirit and bubbly personalities definitely helped.

Meanwhile Punk had gotten out of the shower, leaving the bathroom and walking over to the bed which he sat down on, running his hands over his wet hair.

Somehow the house felt different. Walking home tonight, pulling up outside, everything felt different. And all he could think about was the fact his wife had done this for eight years. She'd lived with this feeling for eight years before, and he was only getting a tiny glimpse into that life she lived.

He put on some shorts and t-shirt, tossing the used towel into the washing, looking on at the framed picture of he and his wife sitting on his wife's dresser. A picture of them when they were younger, a selfie before selfies were even a thing. He always teased her about it and told her that he could see both their pours, it was so close-up, but he knew how much she adored it.


2 years ago…

"You're not framing that, are you?" Punk scoffed, lying in bed one night reading a comic book, watching his wife sitting up a frame on her dresser, "It's bad enough I had to look at it on the fridge, now I gotta see it as the first thing I wake up to?"

"How do you not love this picture?" AJ asked him with confusion.

"Look at our big ass foreheads in it." Punk shook his head.

"It's just because it's a close-up. I think we look cute." AJ smiled, "You're just sad you don't have that gorgeous blonde hair anymore."

"That's exactly it." Punk agreed as she chuckled, "Most people put their wedding pictures up or something." He said.

"Baby, I'm not most people." She reminded him as he smiled to himself.

"That's true." Punk said, "I still think that picture is for your memory box, though. Seriously, look how big our foreheads are." He said.

"Well I like it." AJ smiled, not caring what he thought. It was one of her favourite pictures of them and it was staying up.

"Do you still have your memory box?" Punk wondered.

"Of course I do, it's under the bed." AJ said, walking around the bed, crouching down and bringing out a shoe box from under the bed.

"I never took you for a hoarder." Punk said.

"It's not hoarding." AJ laughed, sitting on the bed beside him, "It's… memories." She shrugged, "Good memories." She nodded. She kept pictures, keepsakes, small items which meant a lot to her or had a story to them in the box.

"Ok, explain how keeping a lock of hair from Thea's first haircut is good memories. That girl screamed that hairdressers down to the ground." He shook his head as AJ chuckled.

"She did." AJ remembered, "But it… it was my first baby's first haircut." AJ shrugged.

"I find it hilarious that you keep cute memories about our kids in here, with a naked picture of yourself." He nodded as AJ chuckled to herself.

"Well where else am I going to keep it?" AJ asked him, "I need this to show you when we're ninety in case you forget how I hot I was." She said as he scoffed.

"Please, you will always be hot to me." Punk assured her as she smiled.

"That's the right reply." She nodded, "I still remember taking these pictures." She laughed with slight embarrassment, passing some of them to him, "I bought the camera with the money I had… stolen." She said, "I thought I was so retro."

"Well you weren't, in case I didn't tell you back then." He said as she chuckled.

"Believe me, I know." AJ said, "I also remember this was the night I got rejected from another job interview I had gone for." She said as he nodded.

"Wait a second!" Punk gasped, "Is there a picture of my penis in here?" He leaned into the box worriedly as AJ chuckled, "There is." He noticed, "You're wrong for that." He couldn't help laugh as AJ smiled.

"What? That's for me to remember how hot you used to be when we're ninety." She grinned to him as he shook his head. Still crazy. Still that sixteen year old girl he fell deeply in love with. Still his April, the way only he knew her.


Punk made his way downstairs, walking down the hallway and into the kitchen where some of his family were.

"Hey." Cassie smiled.

"Papa!" Sofia gasped, "Papa, look I've got my baby dolly like aunt Jude." She said.

"But it's not real." James inserted as Punk smiled. They were hard characters not to smile at.

"Are you practising for when you meet Mirren?" Punk asked Sofia, walking over to them and giving them a double hug, one which he desperately needed.

"Yes." Sofia told him.

"Papa, I drew you a picture." James told him.

"Yeah?" Punk said, "Let me get eyes on it."

"It's on the fridge." Thea nodded as Punk stood up straight, walking over to the fridge and looking at the picture which appeared to be him and James with capes on.

"We're superheroes?" Punk asked.

"Yeah." James smiled, "I'm the main superhero and you're my helper." He clarified as Punk chuckled and nodded.

"Well obviously." Punk agreed.

"I made it because mommy said you're sad." James said.

"James." Thea shook her head, not expecting him to say that.

"Well this picture doesn't make me sad." Punk assured James, "I love it." He smiled.

"Papa, come sit with me and have dinner." Sofia demanded as Punk laughed a little. She really was just a miniature Thea. She acted just like Thea did at that age and that made Punk smile a lot.

"Yes, ma'am." Punk nodded, accepting that he had to do what he was told, sitting down at the table whilst Thea got them something for dinner.

"Who cooked up this?" Punk asked.

"Mommy." James said.

"So I should look out for burnt bits?" Punk asked the kids as James made an O with his mouth.

"I heard that." Thea hummed but with a smile.

"She heard you." Sofia whispered as Punk smiled. He was grateful for his family. For his girls, his grandkids, his brother and everyone who was keeping his head up. It reminded him that he needed to do better for them. And be better for them. But the main thing he was reminded of was that his wife was the biggest asset to this family. She was the glue that held them all together. This difficult time had made that more clearer than ever.

"Here you go. Dig in." Thea nodded, sitting down dinner for everyone.

"Thank you." Punk nodded to Thea as she smiled, rubbing his shoulder, heading over to the fridge to grab some drinks for them whilst there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." Cassie nodded, leaving the kitchen and walking down the hall, opening up the door and pausing with slight shock and confusion.

"Hi, Cassie." Daniel nodded nervously.