Reality
"You're the sweetest little baby ever." AJ said softly, looking down at Thea in her crib which was in her own bedroom. The apartment was a one-bedroom apartment, so she and Thea were sharing the room with her crib at the bottom of the bed.
"I love it when you don't cry." AJ smiled, stroking her cheek softly as the baby girl lay in her crib, looking up at her. Despite it being the toughest thing she'd ever done, she loved her daughter so much. She was the most important thing in her life and every day she just tried to do right by her, "Are you gonna sleep for mommy?" She whispered, watching Thea's little eyes close.
She was a lot like her, even the nurses said it when she had just given birth. She had the same soft, caramel skin, the same dark hair and eyes, but whenever she smiled, she could see her ex for sure.
"Yeah, close your eyes." AJ whispered, watching as she fell asleep, pulling the blanket up a little before leaving the room. Just as she was leaving the bedroom, she heard a knock at the door.
She tiptoed over to the door, leaning up and looking through he peep hole as she saw Dean standing, sighing to herself and groaning.
She opened up the door to him, looking across as he nodded to her, "Hey." Dean said.
"What?" AJ said, "If you're here on behalf of him, just… just please leave me alone." AJ nodded.
"No, no I'm here for me. Maybe a little him but… I want to talk to you." He said as AJ sighed.
"You need to be quiet." AJ nodded, letting him into the apartment as Dean walked in quietly, "Go to the kitchen." She told him as Dean nodded, walking down the apartment and into the kitchen as AJ followed.
"Renovating?" Dean asked, looking at the kitchen sink pulled out from the wall.
"No. The water isn't working." AJ said, "Someone is coming to fix it tomorrow." She nodded as Dean sat down at the kitchen table, making himself comfortable, "What are you doing here?"
"Phil told me he bumped into you." Dean said.
"He didn't bump into me." AJ shook her head, "He was waiting on me coming out of the apartment. It's harassment."
"No, it's your ex who still loves you, trying his hardest to convince you that he's changed." Dean said.
"I don't care if he's changed." AJ shrugged, "I don't. What he did, he did… he can live with that now. I'm moving on."
"Moving on to what, exactly?" Dean asked, "This place is falling apart. You don't speak to any of your friends. You don't come out of here. You don't got a job-"
"Because I have a three month old baby." AJ spat.
"Yeah, who Phil deserves to see." Dean said, "He's not a bad guy and you know that. He wouldn't hurt you or Thea." He said.
"He did hurt me so that theory doesn't mean shit to me." AJ said, "Do you know what it feels like to have someone? To love someone and them be the only person in your life that you trust? The only person that gets you… and then they hurt you, they leave you, they cheat on you… that's what he did." AJ nodded as Dean looked across at her.
"It wasn't cheating. You were broken up-"
"Oh, just get out." AJ said, trying to keep calm, "Get out."
"No, I'm staying and I'm talking to you." Dean said as AJ looked at him, "He just wants a chance to explain, to talk it out with you. He made some mistakes. And so did you-"
"My mistakes never got anyone hurt." AJ reminded him, "I was a dumb, high school kid seeking some sort of cheap thrill… he carried it on into a lifestyle." She said, "So don't try and bring me down with him."
"I'm not." Dean said, "I'm just saying, you probably know how easy it is to get carried away." Dean said, "He did his time and there's no one that hates him more than he does. He knows what he lost and he's a damn mess. I've never saw him like this." He said, "He misses you. He hates himself for what he did."
"Good. He should." AJ said bluntly.
"Come on. You know Phil. He's not a bad guy." Dean said as AJ looked over at him.
"I don't want him in my life. I don't trust him." AJ said.
"So you're gonna take Thea's chance to get to know her dad away too? Because you're bitter?" Dean asked.
"Like he would be any sort of a father to her." AJ rolled her eyes.
"How dare you say that." Dean hissed, "He hasn't even saw what she looks like. He's not had a chance-"
"He knew I was pregnant and he carried on working for Rio, and then he got sent to prison. He didn't have mine or my baby's interest at heart. And then… then he cheated on me, whilst I was pregnant." AJ said, "So forgive me if I don't imagine him as the best father in the world."
"You gotta talk to him. You gotta let him explain-"
"There's nothing to explain, Dean! I was there. I know what happened. He doesn't have to reveal anything to me." AJ said.
"Then just let him apologise, and hear him out." Dean said, "He loves you. He never stopped loving you."
"You don't hurt the people you love." AJ said, "The choices he made got him here. No one else."
"Come on, you know Rio. Once you work for him, you're in-"
"And I got him out." AJ reminded him, "I spoke to my brother, he spoke to Rio… Phil was out, he wasn't gonna be bothered and he still went back." AJ said, "I tried to help him-"
"And don't you think Phil knows that? He's kicking himself for everything." Dean said.
"Well it's not my problem anymore." AJ said.
"Who the hell are you trying to fool?" Dean asked, "I know you still love him. I see the pictures on the fridge. You're not fooling me." He said as AJ folded her arms, "I'm not telling you to give him a chance, to take him back or whatever… just hear him out."
"No." AJ said as Dean stood up from the table.
"Fine." Dean nodded, "Fine, but this… pushing every single person away, trapping yourself in this place… you're gonna end up insane and you know it." He pointed as AJ glared across at him, not having anything else to say, "I'll see myself out."
"What'd she say?" Punk asked, standing in the kitchen in Dean's apartment after he returned back from AJ's. He had no clue he was even going to talk to her.
"Well she's still pissed, let's put it that way." Dean nodded, "Surprised she opened up the door to me, though. That's progress." Dean said.
"You should have just left it. Like you said, just give her space." Punk shrugged.
"She's gonna end up sick." Dean shook his head, "Trapping herself in that apartment. Which by the way, is a damn mess." He said as Punk looked across at him, "She can't live so isolated like that."
"Well what am I supposed to do? She doesn't wanna see me." Punk said, "She has a right to be pissed. I don't expect forgiveness."
"Yeah, I know… and I know what I said about giving her space but… your kid is there. You have a right to see her. She thinks you're gonna be a terrible dad and that there's no point in you being there."
"She said that?" Punk asked, feeling hurt of course.
"Yeah. Without flinching." Dean nodded, "She needs to hear you out. Screw what I said about waiting. She needs to hear what you have to say. Maybe she'll feel different when she sees you."
"Well she didn't feel different the other day." Punk said, "Why the sudden change of mind?" He wondered. He knew his brother was always honest, and he thought he'd given pretty good advice about giving AJ space, but it appeared he had changed his mind.
"I don't know, I was thinking about it and… you guys had something good. Something rare. She needs you, whether she wants to admit it or not." Dean said, "And you need her. You guys can start fresh-"
"That's what I want but I can't do that with her if she doesn't trust me. And… And you know, I don't expect her to after what I did." Punk sighed to himself.
"I miss it when things were good." Dean admitted, "I miss having fun. Now everyone has just gone into hiding." He shook his head as Punk nodded.
"I'm gonna go talk to her." Punk said.
"What?" Dean shook his head.
"Well, you're right. She's gotta hear me out. She's gotta hear everything I have to say and then… then she can decide what she wants. All I can do is be honest and tell the truth. Tell her how I feel." He said.
"She's not the same April that she was back then. She's went through shit."
"Yeah and I was the one who was supposed to be there for her." Punk said, "I gotta start somewhere." He shrugged, leaving the apartment as Dean scoffed.
"Yeah, good luck with that." Dean said.
"That'll be one hundred bucks."
"Excuse me?" AJ looked on at the handy man who had come to fix the water in her apartment. After speaking to the landlord, she was told there would be a handy man coming to fix it for her and that it would be free.
"One hundred." The man nodded as AJ looked at him.
"I… my landlord told me it would be free." AJ said, "It's not like I broke it." AJ laughed a little as the man looked at her, placing his hand on the kitchen counter.
"It's not free of charge." He made clear, "One hundred bucks."
"I… I don't have money in my purse." AJ said, lying of course. She didn't have one hundred dollars in her bank, never mind with her in the apartment, "I was told this is free. I shouldn't have to pay." She shook her head as he looked at her.
She suddenly watched as he looked her up and down, getting chills up her spine as she took a step back and folded her arms over herself. She knew that look. She'd gotten that look many, many times.
"I…" AJ gulped, not knowing what to say, "Please, I have a baby. I need the water back on for her at least. For her bottles." She nodded as the man looked at her.
"I can do you a deal." The man shrugged as AJ looked across at him.
"I have no money here at all." AJ made clear, suddenly watching him playing with the belt on his pants as she looked down at the ground.
"That's ok." The man said, "Why don't you come over here?" He asked as AJ looked over at him. If this was a year ago, she would have ran. She was good at running. But it was now, and now she had someone else to think about. Her daughter. Who needed her bottle and who needed baths.
"I can get the money to you by the end of the week." AJ nodded. If there was one thing she'd learned over the past year, living on her own, it was that there was so many cruel, awful people in the world.
"No, I need it now." He assured her as AJ looked at him, "Come here, sweetheart." He said as AJ looked at him. She really couldn't see where her choice was in all of this. She had no choice, "I said come here." He spat, grabbing her over and bending her over the kitchen table as AJ froze, "Yeah, just you stay right there." He nodded as AJ listened to his zip going down.
She shut her eyes and leaned her head against the kitchen table, telling herself it would be over soon, blocking the whole room out, when suddenly she no longer felt the man gripping her by the waist, looking up as she saw Punk choking him out of the kitchen.
She rushed out of the kitchen, watching as Punk threw the man against the wall back and forth, kicking him so hard on the face that she heard a loud crunch, watching the man crawling painfully out of the apartment as Punk kicked him out.
"Phil." AJ hissed, running to the door and watching as Punk kicked him down the stairs, "Stop it." AJ warned him as Punk turned to her, a little out of breath from all the fighting.
"Are you ok?" Punk asked her, walking back into the apartment as AJ looked at him, "Who the hell is that?" He spat, desperately wanting to go back out and do more damage to that man's face.
"He… he was…" AJ didn't know what to say, suddenly listening as Thea began to cry from the bedroom. AJ immediately walked away and into the bedroom, closing the door behind her as Punk shook his head, running his hand through his hair as he looked at the apartment.
He walked down the hall and back into the kitchen. He'd never saw a sight that angered him so much. He wasn't a fool. He could see nothing consensual was happening.
He looked around the kitchen and noticed the kitchen sink was pulled out, putting one and one together and realising the man was probably there to fix something. He then saw the pictures on the fridge which he remembered putting up himself.
There were a few. A photobooth strip of them when they were younger, a few others that they'd taken of each other. When things were easy and exciting, when he knew he'd found his one. It was sad to see how things had worked out for them… or not worked out.
He listened to his baby daughter crying from the bedroom, running his hand through his blonde hair and making his way out of the kitchen and over to the bedroom.
He opened up the door slowly and saw AJ standing in the cluttered room, holding the baby girl in her arms, swaying her back and forth softly whilst whispering soothing words to her.
"April." Punk said quietly as AJ ignored him. He could see, looking closely, that she was crying.
She wasn't crying over what happened, she was crying because he had saw her reality. It was easier to keep that to herself.
"Please go away." AJ said, keeping her back to him.
"You need to talk to me." Punk said, "Please." He said desperately.
"Please just leave." AJ said over Thea's cries, under her own cries.
Punk sighed to himself, watching her keep her back to him. He couldn't force her to talk to him, but knowing that she was struggling this much, knowing she was this alone and isolated, it broke his heart.
AJ listened as he closed the bedroom door over, walking off as she heard the apartment door close over. She took a deep breath and sighed, walking out of the bedroom, opening up the door and stepping out, gasping a little when she saw he was still standing, having just shut the door over.
"I'm not leaving you after that." He made clear, looking over as he got a glimpse of his baby girl, raising his eyebrows as he could see how much she looked like AJ, how sweet and beautiful she was. He was taken back.
AJ watched as he looked on at Thea, not taking his eyes from her, already seeing his eyes full of love.
"She's… she's beautiful." Punk shook his head, walking a little closer as AJ watched him, stepping back a little as he paused, "We… We have to talk." Punk said as she looked up at him.
