Dropping Bombs

"I didn't know you were coming." Thea said, hugging Sam who arrived at her parents for dinner on Sunday.

"Well I am always last invited, as usual." Sam nodded.

"Yeah we forget about you." Punk nodded truthfully as Sam rolled her eyes.

"Well I don't." Thea smiled, hugging Sam tightly, "And you brought wine… that's not tormenting at all." She said sarcastically as Sam nodded.

"Just pretend it's grape soda, you'll be fine." Sam patted Thea's arm who nodded to herself, sitting back down at the table with the rest of her family in the kitchen, "April, shove that in the fridge for me." She said, extending over the wine to AJ.

"Ok." AJ nodded, taking the wine and sitting it in the fridge whilst Sam took a seat at the table.

"So what's the big occasion?" Sam asked.

"Nothing. We just wanted to have dinner." AJ said, "Me and Phil were talking and we think it's something we should start doing every week. Every Sunday everyone will come here for dinner." She ordered as Thea turned to Dominic nervously, "It's hard getting everyone in the one place at the one time."

"Sounds great, mom." Jude smiled, sitting next to Sean and Cassie.

"Mommy, where is my furby?" Sofia asked Thea.

"In the living room." Thea said, "You can get him after you finish your dinner." She nodded.

"Oh." Sofia said, "Papa!" Sofia yelled, even though Punk wasn't that far away.

"Yes?" Punk said.

"Don't give me the vegetables. I'm allergic." Sofia said, thinking she had her plan all figured out.

"Uh… I don't think so, ma'am." Thea said, "You'll be eating your veg." She nodded as Punk chuckled to himself.

"But mommy I don't like them." Sofia frowned sadly.

"Well you need to get used to them." Thea said, "You like carrots."

"No." Sofia huffed.

"Sofia never eats her dinner." James teased from across the table, sitting with Cassie whom he was showing her his games console he was playing.

"Yes I do!" Sofia yelled.

"No you don't." James smirked, "And then you cry because you don't get ice-cream." He teased as Sofia folded her arms unhappily. She didn't like being exposed in front of her family like this.

AJ couldn't help smile as she watched. She'd never gotten to experience having children close in age. There was all pretty large age gaps between the girls, but the small age gap between Sofia and James made family dinners a lot more comedic for sure.

"Sofia is gonna eat all her dinner. I know she is." Punk nodded confidently as Sofia looked over.

"Boy, if only I was that hopeful." Thea said as Punk sat dinner down for everyone.

"Papa Punk, you have to sit beside me." Sofia declared as Punk nodded.

"Ok." Punk smiled, sitting down next to Sofia, "Now I can make sure you eat all your dinner." He looked down at her as she grinned cheekily.

"Cass you look tired." Thea noticed, passing the mash potatoes over to her.

"That's because I am." Cassie said, "I've been working night shift all week."

"Oh, bummer." Thea said, "Are you working tonight?"

"Yeah." Cassie said unenthusiastically, "Can't wait." She said sarcastically.

"You went through this when you were a rookie, right?" Jude turned to Sean, trying to help her sister feel better.

"Yeah, of course." Sean nodded, "Yeah, it feels like you're at the bottom of the food chain."

"No, it feels like there's the bottom of the food chain, garbage, shit and then… me somewhere down below." Cassie nodded.

"That's your fault for wanting to be a cop." Sam scoffed.

"Shut up, Sam." Cassie hissed.

"Yeah, shut up." Punk nodded to his mother in a more serious tone, "She's doing more than you ever did. You've never worked a day in your life." He said as Sam nodded, raising her glass of wine to him as he scoffed.

"It'll die down, Cass." Sean assured her, "I wanted to give up too but once you get past this part it's great." He nodded.

"Yeah well that's the only thing that's keeping me going on." Cassie said.

"You're doing so good, babe. We're so proud of you." AJ smiled. They were very proud of all their daughters for achieving very good and successful careers that they enjoyed. They knew Cassie just had to stick at it.

Dominic began nudging Thea, noticing a quiet moment which seemed appropriate to tell everyone their news.

"Uh… we have some news." Thea nodded as AJ looked up immediately.

"God, you're not pregnant again, are you?" Cassie groaned.

"No." Thea said, looking over at Jude who was playing with her food, "I'm not pregnant."

"Then what?" Punk asked her.

"We're moving." Thea nodded as AJ raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, that's nice." AJ smiled, "You guys have always wanted to move out of that house." She said.

"That's good, have you found a place yet?" Punk asked as Thea looked at Dominic. Her parents obviously assumed they were just moving locally.

"Uh… we're moving to Milwaukee." Thea said as AJ and Punk both looked at her.

"What?" AJ shook her head.

"My work are laying people off. I managed to keep my job but… it means moving to Milwaukee." Thea nodded, "So we've… we've got a house there and we move in three weeks." She said as Punk put his fork down, looking over to AJ who was frowning.

"We know that you're main concern is probably the kids." Dominic jumped in, "And how you might not get to see them as much but we're just two hours away, less than that without traffic." He said as Thea nodded, "We'll come visit all the time." He made clear, trying to say anything that would make them feel better.

"And Jude has something to say too!" Thea blurted out quickly as Jude groaned.

"Are you moving away too?" Punk scoffed sadly as Jude looked over at Thea who nodded.

"No, uh… I…" She paused. She had no idea why she was so scared to tell her parents she was having a baby. Perhaps it made it feel more real.

"She's pregnant." Sam scoffed, sipping on her wine as Punk turned to her.

"What?" AJ shook her head.

"Oh, come on. Look at her puffy face. She's been wearing baggy t-shirts for weeks." Sam shook her head as AJ looked over at Jude.

"Are you?" AJ raised her eyebrows as Punk looked over.

"Yeah, maybe." Jude shrugged nervously.

"Maybe?" Punk questioned.

"It's not maybe. She is." Thea butted in, "In fact she's fourteen weeks."

"Do you ever just be quiet?" Jude looked across at her sister who shrugged.

"Oh my God, really?" AJ smiled, "You're really pregnant?"

"Yeah." Jude nodded.

"Oh, that's so great." AJ said, "I need to hug you both." She smiled, getting up from the table and rushing around, giving Jude a tight squeeze from behind, as well as Sean, "You don't get to hide things like that from me." AJ tutted.

"We just didn't really know when to tell you." Jude said as AJ made her way back over to her seat whilst Jude looked over at her father, "Dad?" She said.

"Huh? Yeah?" Punk looked up in a daze. Even after two grandchildren, news like this still came as a shock.

"Are you ok?" Jude laughed a little.

"Y-Yeah." Punk nodded.

"I'm pregnant too." Cassie nodded to him as Punk turned to her in a flash.

"What?" Punk almost cried.

"Just kidding." Cassie smiled, chuckling to herself as Punk pulled out his t-shit from his neck, feeling extremely warm.

"Is it warm in here?" He asked AJ who smiled sweetly.

"I see what you two have done here." AJ folded her arms, "You dropping your rubbish news and you dropping your good news to balance things out." She pointed to Thea and Jude, "Imagine thinking I don't know how you both think."

"Yeah, you got us." Thea nodded, "But we're really not gonna be that far away. You'll still see us." She said, "Jude's news is way more exciting than ours." She smiled over to her sister.

"You both have my options all over the place." AJ shook her head, feeling a mixed range of emotions, turning to her husband who wasn't saying much of anything.

"Dad, are you ok?" Jude asked, wishing for her father to say something. Anything.

"Mhm… yeah, I uh… I'll be back in a minute." He stood up, leaving the kitchen as Jude watched.

"What's wrong with him?" Thea asked.

"He's probably just shocked." AJ shook her head.

"You'd think he'd get used to it." Thea scoffed.

"I'll go check on him." Jude said, standing up from the table and leaving the kitchen.

She walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where her father was sitting.

"Hey." She said as he looked up.

"Hey." Punk nodded to her as she came and sat down beside him.

"You ok?" She asked him as he nodded.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine." Punk assured her, "That's just a lot of information to take in." He admitted as Jude nodded.

"Thea's right… she's really not gonna be that far away. We can visit them any time. It's not like she's a flight away." Jude said as Punk nodded, "You'll probably see her just as much as you do now." She chuckled.

"You do have a puffy face." Punk noticed as Jude scoffed.

"I wish people would stop subtly calling me fat to my face." Jude scoffed.

"No, you look good." Punk said, "You… look happy." He nodded.

"I am happy." Jude nodded to him, "Terrified but… happy." She smiled, "And I know me and Sean aren't married yet but-"

"Oh, yeah… cause I'm the parent who expects his daughters to get married before they have kids." Punk said, "Get out of here." He joked as she smiled.

"Why are you going all quiet and weird on me then?" Jude shoved him as he smiled.

"I don't know, I just… I still haven't really gotten used to the fact that you girls aren't… little girls anymore." He said, "You're not even close. You're out there. Grown ass woman." He nodded, "Having your own families."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Jude asked.

"Of course. It's a great thing." Punk said, "I'm so happy for you and for Sean." He nodded, "I just can't believe two of my kids are now… having kids of their own." He said. He was overjoyed by Jude's news, but it did overwhelm him a little. At times he felt like was running on borrowed time. Losing so much time with Jude and Thea particularly when they were growing up, really made him feel like time was going by too quickly. Like they had become adults overnight.

"We're just taking it all as it comes." Jude said, "Little bit bummed that Thea isn't gonna be around as much to help me but… I know I got you and mom." She nodded as he smiled.

"How you feeling about it? You know… mentally?" Punk asked her.

"Good. I mean, I was shocked but… I feel good about it. I'm gonna paint the nursery." She said as Punk smiled.

"Yeah?" He asked as she nodded.

"Yeah, I already got ideas." Jude nodded, "And names." She added as Punk raised his eyebrows, "I know I still have my fair share of… issues." She said, "But I work on them. I learn to live with them." She said, "Ever since I found out about this… those issues haven't felt as big as they normally do." She admitted, "And I know that a baby isn't the answer to any of my problems but… it's the first time I've felt excited about something in a long time. Legit excited." She said as he smiled.

"I'm so happy for you." Punk shook his head as she smiled, hugging into him as he wrapped his arm around her.

He'd saw Jude go through her fair share of troubles over the years. He knew she hadn't recovered from anything, and he realised that she may never recover from what happened to her, but she didn't shy away from it. She worked at it every day, and seeing this new sort of happiness about her was absolutely the best feeling in the world.