Last Straw
"Get out of my house." AJ warned, standing in the corner of the room, as far away from him as she possibly could. She had no time to think about why or how he was here. She wondered if she was hallucinating. If she was in a nightmare.
"I just got here." Joey shrugged.
"How the hell are you here?" AJ spat, backing up against the closet as Joey stood up off the bed.
"I just wanted to come see you." Joey said.
"You were in police custody. You weren't getting out. How are you here?" AJ spat as Joey walked over to the dresser, picking up the picture frame of AJ and Punk which had sat there for years.
"High school sweethearts, huh?" Joey smiled as AJ watched him, scanning the room for anything she could grab to protect herself with, but her brain was fuzzy.
"Please just leave me alone." AJ shook her head, "What the hell do you want?" She cried desperately.
"What age were you here? Sixteen? Seventeen?" Joey asked her calmly, oblivious to her frantic state. Terrifying unbothered by the fear he put in her just by standing across the room from her. She knew that fuelled him. She knew her pleading, her begging fuelled him.
"The police are going to be looking for you." AJ nodded, "And… And they'll check here first. They will." She told herself.
"Well, that was their quick thinking. There's a cop out the front but I came in the back. Sorry in advance about the smashed kitchen window." He nodded, "If only you weren't sound asleep like a baby, you would have heard me." He shrugged, walking towards her.
"Get back." AJ warned, wishing the room was bigger so she could back away from him some more, but all she got was the wall against her back, "Haven't you done enough?"
"I've barely done anything, April." Joey laughed, "You've got me all wrong. You've got me locked up like an animal for things I… I never did. Kidnap? I don't think so. You walked into the car with me. Sexual assault? Barely. Assisted attempted murder? Well… I knew you'd be safe. I knew your noble husband would come save you." He shrugged, "I'm the victim here."
"Shut up." AJ spat, "You are not a victim. You're a sociopath!"
"They probably will find me." Joey shrugged, "That's a given. But I just wanted to have a big send off before I go."
"Well go have it somewhere else." AJ said, watching him come closer.
"Come on. We had fun together, didn't we?" He nodded, reaching out to stroke her cheek as AJ slapped him hard across the face, so hard that her hand stung so bad.
"You were a three month experiment for me." AJ spat as he rubbed his cheek, looking down at her, "Three months I wish I could get back."
"You just don't wanna admit you had fun. You don't want to hurt your husband's feelings and tell him that you had fun with me. Not that I'd be worrying about his feelings. He is a filthy cheater after all."
"How did you know? How did you know about Lucia?" AJ questioned.
"She showed up here one night when I was here." Joey said, "So… I was curious about it. Everyone knew Phil was in prison so why was this young girl coming round to ask for him." She said, "I did my digging and found out she was Marina's daughter. And after you telling me about you and Phil, the rocky start you both had, I put one and one together." He nodded.
"Why wouldn't you tell me? I would have thought that… that you would have loved to tell me something like that back then just to… to make me hate my husband."
"Come on. Even I know that you'll never hate him. The only thing that is wrong with you, April, is him. Everything else about you is… perfect." He looked her up and down as AJ glared at him, "Seems like he's been dragging you down his whole life-"
"Shut your mouth." AJ spat, "You don't know a damn thing."
"I know what we had." Joey nodded.
"We had nothing!" AJ yelled, "I remember nothing about those three months besides from the fact that when you fucked me, I did my damn best to pretend it was my husband. Not that you'd ever reach that standard." She spat, deliberately wanting to anger him, to hurt him and trigger him. Get under his skin.
"Is that so?" Joey smiled angrily, looking down at her as AJ gulped, "Well, why don't you just pretend it's him right now?" He nodded, grabbing her by the hair as AJ groaned, punching him and kicking at him, pushing her full weight against, trying to collapse on the floor so he couldn't grab her, but she was small and he was large.
"Let go of me!" AJ yelled as he dragged her over to the bed, throwing her down as AJ rolled onto her stomach, trying to grasp at the bed covers to get off the bed, crawling to the edge as she felt Joey grab her ankles, crying desperately as he pulled her down.
"Where you going?" Joey asked smugly, pressing his knee onto AJ's hip to keep her in place as AJ groaned in pain.
"Please don't." AJ shook her head, watching as he leaned down, kissing her neck as she cried, pushing her hands against his chest, trying so hard to push his weight off her but it was impossibly, she felt like her body was going dead against him, like it was giving up on her.
"Let's get these little shorts off." Joey whispered in her ear, holding her around the chin as AJ cried, trying to push her legs together, but his knee still pressed on her hip.
"Get off her!" Cassie screamed, bursting into the room and grabbing Joey back, pushing him into the dresser as AJ quickly got off the bed, noticing how badly bruised and busted up her daughter's face was.
Cassie tackled Joey further to the ground, punching him repeatedly on the face, reaching up for the vase type ornament on the dresser, smashing it over his head as AJ watched.
She turned his now weakened body around, pressing both her knees hard into the small of his back as Joey groaned in pain.
"Oh, you don't like that?" Cassie asked, pushing his head forward, getting her handcuffs out and cuffing him up. She had already called for back-up when she was at the bottom of the stairs and came in to the house to hear her mother's screams from upstairs.
It wasn't long until back-up came, two officers entering the bedroom as Cassie stood up from keeping Joey down.
"Get him out of my sight." Cassie said, watching as Joey was pulled out of the room, running her hand through her hair as she looked over at her mother who was still stood in the same place, "Are you ok?" Cassie sighed, walking over to her and wrapping her arms around her as AJ nodded, closing her eyes and hugging Cassie tightly.
"What happened to your face?" AJ had to know as Cassie chuckled lightly.
"That's what you're really worried about right now?" Cassie pulled back from the hug with a smile, "Are you hurt?" She asked her mother as AJ shook her head.
"N-No… no, I'm fine." AJ nodded, "H-How… how did he… how did he get here?" AJ shook her head as Cassie saw her hands were visibly shaking.
"Come sit down." Cassie guided her, sitting her down on the bed as she sat down with her, "He attacked me at the station. Me and Theo. He… got out." She shook her head as AJ gasped, looking at Cassie's face, "Thea says I look like terminator."
"He was in the bed." AJ whispered as Cassie looked at her.
"You're safe." Cassie assured her.
"Where's your dad?" AJ asked her in a trance.
"I-I don't know." Cassie shook her head, "Come on, let's… let's go downstairs just now." She nodded, guiding her mother out of the bedroom to get her downstairs.
Punk had spent the night at Dean's, venting to his brother about his situation, getting any advice he could from him before deciding to go back home. He never felt able to stay elsewhere from his wife. It wasn't them. He knew she was mad but he couldn't stay away.
He got home, his stomach dropping when he saw the two police cars sitting outside. He got out the car, running into the house.
"April." Punk called, walking into the living room where he saw AJ sitting with Cassie, a sweater over her shoulders and a cup of coffee in her hands, "What's going on?" Punk asked, noticing Cassie's face, "Jesus, what happened to your face?" Punk shook his head.
"Joey was here." Cassie said, "He attacked me and Theo and got out of custody. He came here. Attacked mom." She said as Punk raised his eyebrows, turning to AJ who was sitting in a trance.
"What?" Punk shook his head, walking over and crouching down in front of AJ, "What happened? Are you ok?" He asked her as AJ just nodded, her lip quivering as she realised her biggest comfort was here, his shoulder was there, ready for her to cry on.
Cassie got up and left the room, closing the door behind her as AJ leaned her head on Punk's shoulder, sobbing quietly as Punk hugged her tightly.
Cassie walked outside, talking to the police who had come to secure the area and check the house. She heard her phone ringing and picked up after seeing it was Jude.
"Hi." Cassie said.
"Hey, did you go see mom?" Jude asked, standing outside the hospital with Thea.
"Yeah." Cassie sighed, "Yeah, I saw her. There… There was a bit of an incident. Joey was here." She said.
"What?" Jude said.
"Mom is ok. She's safe. I went into the house and heard her screaming. He had her pinned to the bed upstairs." Cassie said.
"God." Jude closed her eyes as Thea looked on, "Is dad there?"
"He's just got here." Cassie nodded, "She's ok. She's shook up but… she's doing ok." She said, "And Joey's on his way to cook county." She shook her head.
"You got him?" Jude asked.
"Yeah. Thankfully." Cassie shook her head, "What if I… what if I didn't come here?" Cassie sighed stressfully.
"Well you did. Thank God." Jude said as Cassie nodded, rubbing her forehead.
"How is Theo? Is he ok?" Cassie nodded.
"Uh… well, yeah. He's ok." Jude nodded.
"Doesn't sound it." Cassie said suspiciously.
"He's tore the muscle completely off the bone." Jude said, "He's probably gonna need surgery in the next few weeks. And he's gonna be out of work for… a while." She nodded as Cassie shook her head.
"That's great." Cassie nodded sarcastically.
"He's doing ok, though." Jude assured her as Cassie nodded.
"Ok, just… tell him I'll see him later. I'm gonna stick around here for a little bit." Cassie said.
"Ok, give mom our love." Jude sighed, "We'll see her soon."
"I will." Cassie nodded, hanging up on the call, leaning against the cop car sitting outside the house, sighing to herself as she looked up at the sky. She was ready for this day and night to be over.
