Family

"Finn, Mayor." Punk remarked sarcastically. "It's awfully late for a visit."

"We just got into town." Finn sighed. "I wanted to come by in the morning."

"I wanted to get this out of the way now." Bret countered. "May we come in?"

"No." Punk replied glaring at him.

"Phil." AJ said off to the side and stepped aside and reluctantly let them in.

"Miss. Mendez." Bret greeted politely. "What a cute little room you live in."

"Are you here to insult our home?" Punk questioned.

"Not at all. It's spacious." Bret forced out.

"What are you doing here?" AJ asked folding her arms.

"We're here about Richard McCall." Finn told her.

"I hope you came by this late to say he's been found." Punk said to them.

"No." Finn said to him. "We met with the Agent on the case the other day and he mentioned meeting with you two as well."

"Yea, what of it?" Punk asked growing more annoyed by the moment.

"We know his face might have changed. We think he's been in New Jersey." Finn said passing Punk a sketch and AJ looked over.

"Why do you think this is him?" Punk asked studying the sketch of the man.

"He matches the height and made it into the employee living quarters which need a security code." Bret explained.

"You didn't change your security codes?" Punk asked him as if he was stupid.

"I was in the process of doing these things. The point, Detective, is that there were high clearance documents missing and other items." Bret told him. "When we pulled up the footage the cameras were shut off only someone who worked them would know where they were and how to turn them off."

"Gardener saw a man leaving at the time the cameras were off, he assumed he was staff and this was the best description he could give." Finn told them.

"I mean, I can't tell anything form this." AJ said to Punk.

"We don't need you to ID it with him having plastic surgery it would be impossible to ID him. But the features and height matched so we wanted to make sure you had a copy of this." Finn told them.

"This is me, being nice." Bret added.

"What a prince." Punk mocked dramatically. "Did that FBI agent call you and tell you that he popped up in New Jersey possibly?" he asked AJ now.

"No. But I also had my phone off most of the day since I was working." AJ noted.

"We just thought it was important you got a look at a possible ID." Finn told them.

"Yea, it would have been nice if we were told right away." Punk said annoyed. "It's not like he's going to target you, he'll go for-" He stopped when he saw AJ watching him and listening and didn't want to scare her.

"We only just finalized the sketch." Bret told him calmly. "And you're welcome by the way."

"Oh, gee thanks for unleashing this guy into everyone's life." Punk retorted.

"He wasn't my hire." Bret reminded him.

"Oh, sorry he was your wife's guy." Punk retorted.

"I didn't know." Bret said to him then looked at AJ. "I truly didn't."

"I know." AJ said to him quietly.

"We didn't want either of you to be blindsided." Finn told them.

"Great." Punk remarked sarcastically.

"It's really late." AJ said to them.

"Right, we'll go." Bret said to her. "How is your father?" he asked before leaving and AJ glared at him.

"Is that a threat?" She asked.

"No." Bret laughed a bit. "I heard he had a heart attack, we have mutual friends in New Jersey."

"He'll live." AJ replied.

Bret just nodded and Punk opened the door and nodded for them to leave.

"Take care." Finn said to them and then followed the Mayor out.

"Well this is interesting." She said taking the sketch from Punk.

"You see a guy like this around at all?" Punk asked.

"No." She said shaking her head. "If I saw someone his height it would have set off a red flag."

"Keep your eyes open." Punk instructed her. "I'm going to make copies and post them in this building and where your office is."

"Thank you." AJ said to him.

"No more about this." Punk said putting the sketch down. "Pancake time."

"Yum." She grinned.

When Saturday rolled around Punk was on the roof of their building with the key thanks to his buddy owning the building. He was setting up a table and lights with Dean's help.

"I wish you would have told me you were using me as an excuse to work." Dean said to him.

"AJ questioned you?" Punk asked amused.

"Of course she did." Dean said to him. "I tried to cover but she sensed I was lying my ass off."

"She's so adorable when she's working." Punk teased.

"Yea, you get the third degree from her and tell me how cute it is. I felt like I was being interrogated by an army general." Dean told him seriously. "It's very uncomfortable and scary."

"I'm not good at lying to her." Punk admitted. "I just made it up as I went."

"Well you gotta work on that." Dean said to him.

"I don't want to be good at lying to her." Punk scoffed.

"You gotta be." Dean said to him seriously. "And I don't mean lying about bad things but you'll never be able to surprise her if you don't get good at it. Her sixteenth birthday Daria and I worked so hard to plan her a surprise party and she not only figured it out without telling us but she changed her cake and decorations we ordered to something she'd like better. The surprise was to me and Daria when everything we planned was backwards."

"That's….classic April." Punk had to grin.

"You'll never get one over on her." Dean warned. "Shes so onto you tonight. She knows you were lying, she knows I was lying."

"I really don't think she knows." Punk said to him.

"You may suck at lying but she's a private eye, lying is her second nature." Dean warned.

"Comforting." Punk forced out.

"I mean, she is." Dean said to him. "I hope you're prepared for this."

"I'll never be bored." Punk said happily.

"You get the ring?" Dean asked.

"Yea." Punk said fishing it out of his pocket and opening the box.

"Holy crap." Dean said snatching the box. "Is it real?"

"Of course it is." Punk scoffed.

"How could you afford this?" Dean asked him.

"I'm a saver." Punk shrugged. "I also got a deal from the jeweler, friend of my moms." Punk told him.

"This is going to weigh more than her." Dean said eyeing the ring.

"Better than anything Elliot would have given her." Punk said taking the ring back.

"You gotta let the Elliot thing go." Dean said to him. "If she wanted to be with Elliot she would be. The guy was a total tool. He didn't know how to handle her he hated the fact that she wanted to work and make a name for herself. You support her, that's all she's ever wanted from Elliot and never got."

"She's good at what she does, how can you not support her?" Punk said to him.

"She deserves this ring and this over the top engagement." Dean said to him.

"It's not over the top, it's just going to be me and her." Punk said to him as the roof door opened up.

"I told you she'd figure it out!" Dean hissed as a woman walked onto the roof. "Oh, it's just you." He said spotting Renee with a box.

"Thanks." She laughed at the greeting as Dean took the box from her.

"What's all this crap?" Dean questioned.

"More candles." She told him.

"How many fucking candles?" Dean asked Punk dramatically.

"More. She loves candles." Punk said taking the box from him now. "Thank you." He said to Renee.

"I must warn you that AJ was questioning me about why Dean needed off tonight and you had to cover." Renee told Punk.

"Told you." Dean hummed to himself as he went back to stringing the lights.

"I think I got her off my scent but she's tough. She should be a cop." Renee said to Punk.

"Scary thought." Punk cringed. "We only have a few more hours before she gets here."

"You think." Dean mumbled under his breath.

"Trust me, I think I know her games and how to keep her occupied." Punk said to him. "Plus she thinks we're having dinner with my mom so she'll make good timing"

"We'll see." Dean scoffed.

AJ was at her office looking over potential cases and trying to decide what to take next when Peyton walked in.

"Hey." Peyton greeted.

"Hi." AJ smiled closing her laptop. "How's it going?"

"It's going." Peyton said to her. "I met Jack."

"That's great." AJ said happily.

"Yea, Jason's parents have no interest in raising a teenager and were testing the waters of him with me." Peyton said sitting down.

"And?" AJ asked.

"And I think it went well." Peyton admitted. "I don't want to jinx it but I think he'd want to come live with me. He hates living in Union and misses Chicago so much. He's going to visit tomorrow and meet my parents."

"Do you have a second bedroom in your apartment for him?" AJ asked her.

"I do." Peyton told her. "And it's been empty and I don't want to get my hopes up but it looks good."

"I'm happy for you." AJ said to her. "What about Jason?"

"He's out but he can't come near me or Jason." Peyton told her and she nodded. "He's in enough trouble."

"I hope so." AJ said to her. "What are you doing here? You should be home prepping you didn't have to come in."

"Please I need the distraction." Peyton said to her. "I've cleaned so much my fingers started bleeding. I baked like 80 cookies because I'm not sure which ones he likes. It's weird right? He's my son and he's already this established young man and I'm just getting to know him."

"I think it's incredible." AJ corrected. "He might not show it because this is all new to him but as someone who had a parent who didn't want to be involved I could tell you it means a lot when a parent tries."

"I'm not sure I even know how to be a mother." Peyton confided.

"Well I can't give you advice there." AJ laughed. "But from what I've heard it's a trial by error gig. You'll get the hang of it. I mean you risked your life to protect him and that's a parents instinct. You knew he was in trouble when no one else did. You're a parent, Peyton."

"I hope so." She sighed. "I thought you were going to be gone this weekend."

"So did I." AJ said to her. "Phil lied to me. He didn't want to go away."

"Huh." Peyton said confused. "He must have a good reason."

"He wants to have dinner with his mother." She said to her.

"Well they are close." Peyton reasoned.

"Why wouldn't he want to go away?" AJ asked. "I feel like he's mad at me."

"For what?" Peyton asked.

"I don't know." AJ said thinking about it. "Work? But he seems to be so understanding."

"Punk doesn't normally hide his emotions so if he was mad you would know it." Peyton laughed.

"Maybe this was all too much too fast." AJ said shaking her head.

"Didn't he ask you to move to Chicago?" Peyton asked.

"He did." AJ confirmed.

"Do you know we were together a little over a year and he never once told me he loved me." Peyton told her. "Never wanted to live together, never wanted me to say I love you, he kept me at arms length. He's not like that with you. I don't think he's mad maybe he really just had something to take care of."

"I don't know." AJ said to her. "Normally I'm really good at reading people but not him. He's like a brick wall."

"It's annoying." Peyton agreed. "But like I've said, I've never seen him so happy. I'm sure he's got something up his sleeve."

"Maybe." AJ said to her.

"Why don't you head out and spy on him or something?" Peyton suggested. "I assume that's just what you do."

"I try not to do that with men I'm seeing." AJ laughed a bit. "I wouldn't want him doing it to me."

"Fair." Peyton agreed. "So, what's the next case?"

"Nothing all that exciting sadly." AJ frowned. "But that' show it is, we're busy then we die down."

"I for one will be happy with a little less excitement." Peyton said honestly.

"Me too." AJ agreed.

AJ made it to the apartment after six and got changed since Punk said it was a fancy steak restaurant they were going to. She wasn't sure where it was so she was waiting for Punk and kept tying his cellphone but it was off. She'd look at the time as it passed and got more and more nervous. She finally called Dean but his phone went right to voicemail as well and now her mind was running. She also tried Pam but she wasn't answering either. Finally her phone pinged with a text from Punk that he was up on the roof taking care of something and there was no way she wasn't going to not go investigate.

She was fully dressed in her nice dress as she stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button to the roof. The hallway was damp when she made it to the top floor and headed to the door with roof access. Climbing the stairs in her heels was a challenge but she was going to figure out what he was hiding for once and for all. She pushed the door open to the roof that was unlocked and felt the cold breeze hit her and she shivered and wish she bought her jacket.

"What in the world." She gasped seeing the roof fully decorated.

"You should have bought your jacket." Punk said standing in front of the flowers and candles dressed in a suit.

"I didn't think I'd be up here long." She said walking slowly towards him but looking at all the decorations. "It's so beautiful, you did this?" She asked wrapping her arms around herself to stay warm.

"Not all by myself. But it was my idea." Punk said taking his suit jacket off and wrapping it around her shoulders.

"You're going to be cold." She frowned.

"I'm too nervous to be cold." He remarked.

"Nervous?" She questioned.

"You snoop and piece everything together and you can't pick up on what's about to happen?" He asked her amused and she had a blank face.

"I really don't know what's happening." She said almost fearfully.

"Ape." He said in a sweet voice and watched him carefully as she slowly fell to one knee and her mouth gaped open. "I love you. I want to be with you eternity. There is no one on this planet that can set me on fire like you do. The day I met you in New Jersey I knew you were going to change my whole world I just didn't realize how much so. I want to wake up next to you every morning even though you snore." He began and she smiled. "I want to introduce you as my wife to everyone I meet, I want to worry about you on your cases and be here when you get home, I want to have children with you, I want to dance with you at our child's wedding, I want to grow old with you. Will you marry me?" He asked as he opened the ring box and her eyes widened in shock at the ring. Punk was nervous as she kept her eyes on the ring and not answering. "Ape?" he asked.

"Of course, yes!" She cheered as he slipped the ring on her finger. "Holy-" She began looking at the ring but he cupped and kissed her face. "How did you pull this off?" She asked stunned.

"You really had no idea?" He asked impressed with himself.

"No! Why would you want to marry me?" She teased a bit. "I had no idea."

"You really think you don't deserve all this goodness and it's maddening." He said brushing her hair out of her face gently.

"I thought you were mad at me." She admitted.

"Why would I be mad at you?" He asked.

"I don't know." She told him honestly. "No one has ever….you're amazing." She said grabbing his face and kissing him again. "I'm going to have to marry you quick before you realize what you're getting yourself into and bail." She teased.

"Never." He said holding her close since it was extra chilly. "Besides, I know what I'm getting myself into and want this anyway."

"I did the lights!" Dean announced stepping onto the rough. "That's why I lied to you, he made me and I was in charge of the lights." he said walking over to her with Renee.

"You're the worst liar." AJ smiled wrapping her arms around him.

"Congratulations." Dean said holding her tightly. "No one deserves a happy ending more than you." He whispered into her ear and kissed her cheek.

"Congratulations." Renee repeated giving AJ a hug next.

"I can't believe you all lied to me so badly and I still didn't figure this out." AJ said to them.

"Let's see the ring." Renee said grabbing her hand. "Woah!"

"Right!" AJ grinned.

"It fits?" Punk asked.

"Perfectly." She confirmed. "And it's gorgeous."

"It really is." Renee agreed examining the ring. "You have exquisite taste." She said to Punk.

"His mommy picked out the ring." Dean informed Renee.

"She helped." Punk defended. "She gave final approval."

"We have to call her!" AJ said to Punk.

"We're still going to dinner." Punk told her and her eyes lit up. "I thought you'd want to celebrate with family."

"Family." She smiled to herself and felt her eyes water up.

"Why are you crying?" Punk asked running his thumb over her tear stained cheek.

"I didn't think I'd have a family." She admitted.

"Well now you're inheriting my mom and sister." He warned. "And they're very anxious to see us tonight."

"I'm anxious for the steak dinner on Punk." Dean informed them.

"This is the best day of my life, you get that?" She asked Punk seriously.

"This is only the start you're going to have a lot of these days." Punk assured her.

"I'm really hungry." Dean pipped up.

"Let's go." Punk said wrapping his arm around her to keep her warm.

A/N: I appreciate the reviews and views, thank you all! Don't worry the fluffy stuff is about to end and the drama is going to pick up!