Aftermath


"How many hours of sleep did you get?" AJ wondered, lying in bed with Punk the next morning as the sun began to sneak under the bottom of the drapes.

"In total? Two maybe." Punk said as AJ nodded.

"Yeah, me too." AJ said, "Last night feels like a blur." She admitted as Punk nodded, his arm wrapped around her, holding her in close to him.

"Yeah, it does." Punk nodded, "I'm probably gonna with the cops all day." He said as AJ nodded.

"We'll probably all get pulled in for a statement." AJ nodded, "It's still hard to wrap my head around it all. Even knowing all this time about my parents being involved with yours… I think I kinda just buried it to the back of my head. I had to. You weren't here and… by the time you got out all I wanted to do was move on." She said, "I never thought one day it… it would end like this."

"Why'd you think they waited until now? To come back." Punk said.

"I don't know. I don't know what goes on in their world." AJ shook her head, "My mom just said that my dad had been really sick for the past few years. Consumed by a lot of stuff. She suspected he was taking drugs too. Paranoid all the time." She said.

"He just kept saying that things were my fault." Punk shook his head, "That I was the reason you got in trouble as a kid. That he was trying to keep you away from that life and I wound up bringing you into it." He said as AJ shook her head.

"It's delusional." AJ said, "Rio probably filled his head with all kinds of crap when we were younger." She said.

"But for him to sit on all of that for so long." Punk shook his head with confusion.

"You know all the stories I told you about them. How bad they really were." AJ said as Punk nodded, "They were in deep and… clearly so was your mom and dad. Just… on opposite sides, I guess." She said.

"Where do you think your mom is?" Punk asked her.

"I have no idea. She just appeared last night. Told me that my dad had gone out on a rampage and then I got nervous cause I knew the girls went out looking for you. Me and Dean just split up and started looking-"

"You should be taking it easy." Punk sighed, kissing her forehead, "You're literally just out of hospital." He said unhappily. He was concerned for his wife's well-being. She'd had such a terrible accident and all he wanted was for her to rest herself and relax, but it was hard to do that with so much going on.

"I thought you'd be so mad with me." AJ admitted as he looked down at her, "For not telling you."

"Well I'm not thrilled about it." Punk said, "But… I don't know about you, I'm just sick of all of this. My life is my life because of the things that happened in it, not because of the people who were behind it all." He said, "The important thing to me is that you and the girls and the kids are all ok." He nodded as she kissed his chest. His calmness was keeping her calm.

"What even happened? In the water?" AJ asked him.

"I was just doing everything I could to keep the gun away from me. I didn't take it from him and shoot him. It was bent inwards and the trigger just got pulled." He said.

"Do you think the cops are gonna make it difficult?" AJ asked him.

"I have no idea. I hope not." Punk said, "What else was I supposed to do? He was trying to shoot me." Punk said as AJ nodded.

"You did what anyone would." AJ said, "And I want you to know I don't… I don't hold anything against you. Just because he was my dad. That doesn't matter to me. He never acted like a dad." She said as he nodded.

"I want you to rest all day." Punk said, getting out of bed as AJ watched him, "I'm gonna go make you some breakfast and then I'll head to the station to see what's up." He said, putting on some shorts and t-shirt.

"I can come with you if you want." AJ said.

"No, please… for my sanity. Rest." Punk said, leaning over the bed and kissing her on the lips as she kissed back, "I'm the nurse, remember." He told her as she smiled a little, cupping his face and nodded.

"Ok." She said as he smiled, kissing her again before leaving their bedroom and walking down the hallway.

He paused outside the spare room, opening it up slowly and quietly as he saw Thea lying fast asleep, hugging into James and Sofia who were lying beside her. He smiled to himself, grateful to wake up this morning and seeing her face after the scare they'd gotten last night.

He walked further down the upstairs area, knocking on Cassie's room door, slowly opening it up and noticing she wasn't there. He figured she'd already woken up and headed downstairs.

He made his way down into the kitchen where he only found Dominic.

"Hey." Punk said.

"Morning." Dominic nodded, making breakfast.

"How'd you sleep?" Punk asked him, pouring himself some coffee.

"I didn't." Dominic laughed a little, "Thea didn't fall asleep until like… 6am. She was really shook up." He said as Punk nodded.

"Yeah it was a brutal night." Punk understood.

"Thea filled me in." Dominic nodded.

"Do you know where Cassie is?" Punk asked him.

"Yeah she went to the station at like 5am." Dominic nodded, "I think she wanted to check in on what was going on."

"I thought she might have." Punk said, "I'm gonna take some breakfast up to April and then head there myself." He nodded.

"Well here, I've made plenty to feed the five thousand." Dominic said.

"Yeah, no kidding." Punk chuckled, noticing how much breakfast Dominic had made.

"You think you're in trouble?" Dominic asked him as Punk began plating up some breakfast for AJ.

"I should be ok." Punk nodded, "I… didn't really have a choice, I guess."

"It boggles my mind how anyone could have the ability to set out to kill someone. Especially over something ridiculous as this. It's not even over anything." Dominic shook his head.

"I think the guy was suffering a lot more on the inside than the outside." Punk said, "When you live in that world, it starts taking over you. I've been there. It controls you in every part of your life." Punk nodded. He could still remember the way he lost himself when he was nineteen, "Plus, he was friends with Rio, and on top of that some history with my parents… I don't know, maybe I was just an easy target. Maybe it just comes down to that." Punk shrugged.

"I'm glad you're ok." Dominic nodded sincerely.

"Yeah, me too." Punk sighed to himself.

"How is April?" Dominic asked.

"She's ok. I think she's kinda confused, shocked by it all. And she really needs to take it easy." Punk said as Dominic nodded.

"We're not going anywhere today so I'm sure Thea will make sure she's doing as she's told." Dominic smiled as Punk nodded.


Punk soon left the house and headed to the station, walking on in where he met Cassie at the front desk.

"Hey, I was just gonna call you." Cassie said, "Jake wants to take your statement." She said.

"Have you been here all morning?" Punk asked her as Cassie nodded.

"I couldn't sleep so I figured I'd just come here. I'm supposed to officially start duty tomorrow but… why not break me in early?" She shrugged as Punk smiled, rubbing her shoulder softly, "How's mom and Thea?" She asked.

"Mom is under strict rules of resting." Punk said, "She's doing ok. Still shocked, I guess." He said, "I haven't spoken to Thea yet but Dominic said she was shook up." He said as Cassie nodded, "I called Jude but she never answered."

"Yeah, I tried calling her this morning but I got nothing." Cassie said, noticing her father's eyes were going beyond her, turning around and watching as AJ's mother came out from one of the side doors, spotting Punk and immediately running towards him.

"You bastard!" Janet screamed, slapping Punk across the face, grabbing at his t-shirt hysterically as Cassie grabbed her back.

"Ok ok." Cassie nodded, "Just back up." She warned, holding Janet back.

"You killed my husband!" Janet yelled as Punk looked across at her, rubbing his cheek, choosing not to say anything.

Cassie got help from a few other cops to calm Janet down and escort her into a different part of the building, returning back to the front desk where her father was.

"You ok?" Cassie asked him as Punk nodded.

"Yeah, fine." Punk nodded, "Who am I speaking to?" He asked.

"Jake. I spoke to him this morning, broke things down for him the best I could and… you should be ok." Cassie said as Punk nodded, "You got any idea what happens next? Do you talk to Sam and Daniel? What about Hamilton?" Cassie asked.

"He's not here, is he?" Punk asked.

"No, I don't think so." Cassie said.

"I'll need to talk to Dean about it. Right now I just want to get this cleared up and… I wanna be there for your mom, Cass. That's all I wanted to do. I wanted to take her home and look after her." He shook his head, feeling hard on himself due to not being able to care for AJ as much as he wanted to, especially last night on her homecoming.

"Don't be hard on yourself, dad. This isn't your fault. I mean it sounds more like these issues are between… were between your parents and mom's parents. Just… we all got dragged into it, like usual." Cassie said, "This isn't anyone's fault. It's actually kinda sad what happened last night. I can't imagine how mom feels about it." She shook her head.

"Yeah, she's still pretty shaken up." Punk nodded, "I just wanna get this over with and go be there for her." He said as Cassie nodded.

"It shouldn't take too long." Cassie assured him, "Come on, I'll take you to one of the rooms." She said as Punk nodded with a small smile.

"Look at you, going all cop on me." He smiled, nudging her as she walked in front of him with a small smile.


"Hey, Jude." Sean hummed, "You fancy going out for some breakfast?" Sean asked from the bathroom in their bedroom, walking out with a towel wrapped around his waist, pausing as he saw Jude fast asleep in their bed with Mirren asleep beside her amongst a makeshift pillow fort.

He walked over to the side of the bed, smiling softly as he tucked a strand of hair away from Jude's face. He knew she'd had a chaotic night last night, but since coming home from having Mirren, he felt like he'd only really seen her sleeping or sitting with Mirren in her arms. He was extremely concerned for her.

He looked over at Mirren who was fast asleep in all her tiny glory, the most precious thing to come into both of their lives, and yet he couldn't settle knowing the way Jude had been the past week.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching over for his phone and looking up postpartum depression.


A/N: Lots more to come guys! Thanks for being awesome and supporting!