Distraction

Punk had gotten home later that night after spending the majority of his day with Thea. He'd heard everything he needed to know and was extremely concerned for the safety of his daughter and her family. Even more concerned when she began telling him everything.

He walked in the door, still in a lot of pain with his ribs and shoulder, walking down to the kitchen where AJ was sitting at the table. She had pretty much sat all day waiting on him, not knowing what to do with herself, too anxious to go busy herself with something.

"Hey." Punk said as AJ looked up at him.

"Hey." AJ nodded.

Punk knew she wasn't impressed by how he had spoken to her last night. He wasn't impressed by it either. He never meant to hurt her feelings and he certainly didn't mean anything he said. The truth was, he didn't know how difficult it was to watch Thea in the situation she was in back then. He didn't know what it was like to watch her spiral out of control like that, but his wife did, and he knew he had no right to criticise her for anything. She was the best mother in the entire world.

"You ok?" Punk asked her as she just nodded.

"How is Thea? Is she ok?" AJ asked him.

"Pretending she is." Punk nodded, pulling out the kitchen chair, sitting down across from her as he watched her, "Oh, God." Punk sighed to himself, placing his hands over his face, taking a deep breath, "I swear these girls are gonna give me a heart attack." He muffled through his hands.

"Is she in trouble?" AJ asked as he rubbed his hands over his face, looking across at AJ and nodding.

"Yeah." Punk nodded as AJ looked down, taking a fearful sigh, "Yeah, I think… she has her very own Rio on her case." He nodded as AJ sighed to herself.

"Please do not say that." AJ begged, placing her hand over her mouth, looking across at Punk, "Who are these people?"

"She knows them from years ago. When she was using." Punk said, "You won't be surprised to know that it was some of Jackson's friends. He introduced her to them." He said as AJ shook her head angrily, "She'd get… whatever she was using from them."

"I should have known." AJ shook her head.

"How were you to know?" Punk shook his head, "It's not your fault." He said as AJ sighed to herself, "She told me she went to them for about a year before the main guy, Austin, got busted and put in prison. She got clean, got better and… she never saw them again until about a year ago."

"A year ago?" AJ questioned.

"She was coming home from work and he appeared in the parking lot. Told her that she owed him money for all the stuff they gave her. And she gave the money to him. All of it." Punk nodded.

"There's never really a limit with these people, is there?" AJ nodded. They knew it all too well.

"Yeah, that's what I told her." Punk said, "She thought it'd be best to just skip town and disappear… but I think she realises after seeing my face, her solution might not work." He said.

"So these guys… or… this guy, Austin… he was just her dealer?" AJ asked.

"She said she used to go to their apartments for parties and stuff. I think… I think she was friends with them." He nodded, "All sounds familiar." He looked across at AJ who shook her head.

"I should have known. Why did I not know?" AJ questioned.

"April-"

"No… no, I should have been more strict. I… I let her go out and see these people?" AJ questioned, horrified. She never really knew the extent of her daughter's activities during that awful time. She was just more concerned about getting her clean and helping her into rehabs and therapy. Asking where she was started to become irrelevant.

"You didn't know what she was doing. How were you supposed to?" Punk asked.

"I'm her mother. I should have known." AJ said, "I let her go see these people, and get into the mess she was in-"

"No you didn't. She walked out that door every night. You were doing the right thing by putting your trust in her. She was eighteen. It's not like she was a kid." Punk said as AJ shook her head to herself, "April, look at me." He said as she turned to him, "Do not blame yourself. This isn't your fault. It's not Thea's either." He said, "It's people we know all too well, taking advantage of good people who made one mistake in their life. We've been there and we got out of it. We'll help Thea out of it too." He promised.

"Who are these people?" AJ asked angrily.

"They run trade in the southside." Punk said, "I'm gonna go to Dean's later and talk to him about it and then… drop by and see Vincent. He's go the scoop on everything so I can see what he knows about these guys." He nodded.

"And in the meantime?" AJ questioned, "Are we in danger? Is Thea in danger? The kids?"

"I told her to stay low to the ground for now. She hasn't even told Dominic." Punk said.

"Seriously?" AJ shook her head.

"She's worried he'll flip and then she was worried he would tell me." Punk said, "I think she was gonna tell him once I left. I think she gets that there's no running from shit like this." He said.

"Yeah… we know that." AJ nodded to him, "What do we even do here? You realise Cassie is gonna wanna do something about this-"

"Well she can't. Not right now anyway." Punk said, "And I don't want Jude finding out about this. You know how bad she worries. She doesn't need the stress right now." He shook his head stressfully.

"Phil, you know they're gonna all find out anyway. They're sisters. They talk." AJ said.

"Yeah well Thea hasn't been doing any talking about this for a year." Punk said.

"Why didn't she just tell us?" AJ sighed to herself.

"She thought it would go away." Punk said, "I get the impression there's more she isn't telling me. Especially about this Austin guy." He said.

"Part of me doesn't even want to know." AJ shook her head, "What do they want from her? Money?"

"Yeah." Punk nodded, "They probably thought she was an easy target. Once they got the first load from her, probably thought they could earn some more." He said.

"Yeah well that's what scum like that do." AJ shook her head as Punk nodded, "Cassie is right, Phil… we shouldn't handle this by ourselves. Only bad things will come of that. Think about James and Sofia. Jude and the baby. No one can be in danger right now. Or ever." She said, "This is our family. Ours. I'm not having a Jackson and Rio part two. We deal with this the right way." She looked across at him as he nodded.

"Yeah. Ok." Punk nodded to her, "Just let me suss these guys out first."

"Is Thea ok? She's not hurt, is she?" AJ asked.

"No, she's… she's ok." Punk nodded, "We'll figure this out." He said, sliding his hand across and taking hers with it, "I promise you." He said as she nodded to him with worry glistening in her eyes.

Cassie was trying to do everything and anything she could to distract herself from thinking about her older sister and what was happening, and that meant looking further into her possible grandfather, to the point where she had an address for him.

She was getting a hang of working the system at the station, and on her lunch break she left and drove to the address she'd gotten for Daniel. She wasn't sure if it was her stubbornness or the fact she wanted a distraction, but regardless, she wanted answers.

She pulled up at the address, looking at the small and broken down house, sighing to herself as she took a few minutes in the car to think about what she was doing, what she was possibly inviting into their lives. But all it would do was play on her mind for longer, so she got out of the car and walked down the path, opening up the front porch door and knocking on the main door.

She waited for an answer, eventually turning around when she heard the lock unlocking, watching an older man swing the door open as she looked across at him. He didn't look like a small, crippled old man like she thought he would. He looked pretty ok for having spent thirty years in prison.

"I don't want whatever you're selling." Daniel waved his hand, "Go, shoo." He waved at her.

"Uh… I'm… I'm not selling anything." Cassie said as Daniel noticed the cop car, looking back at her.

"I know you ain't a cop with that baby face." He chuckled to himself.

"I-I am." Cassie nodded, "Well, a rookie." She shrugged as he nodded.

"Well whatever it is… it wasn't me." Daniel assured her, "So you can go." He nodded, beginning to close the door over.

"My name is Cassie Brooks." Cassie blurted out, watching as he paused for a second, "My… My dad is Phil Brooks." She said as Daniel looked at her, "Your son." She nodded as he looked across at her, almost with confusion.

"I-I don't have a son." Daniel shook his head in denial as Cassie watched him.

"Yeah, you do. You have two, actually. Phil and Dean." Cassie nodded, "And you have five granddaughters." She smiled a little, "You even have great grandchildren." She smiled as Daniel looked at her, shaking his head.

"N-No… No I don't… I don't have any children." Daniel shook his head.

"You do." Cassie shook her head, confused as to why he didn't even want to acknowledge it, "You… You left when they were babies." She said.

"You need to go away. Get off my porch." Daniel shook his head.

"I just want to talk to you." Cassie said, "Do you… live with anyone?" Cassie wondered.

"No, I live on my own." Daniel said, "How did you find me?" He asked defensively.

"Well… I'm a cop." Cassie shrugged.

"What do you want? Are you after something?" Daniel wondered, not buying her reasons just yet.

"No, I just… I wanted to meet my grandfather." Cassie shook her head, "And I thought maybe… you'd be interested in finding out about your family." She said.

"You thought I'd want to know the sons I walked out on? After all this time?" Daniel looked at her as Cassie stared back at him, "I've lived my life with no children up until now. I'm afraid it's gonna stay like that-"

"It's not too late." Cassie said.

"Actually, I think it is." Daniel nodded, "I don't want you coming back here." He made clear, "Please leave me alone." He said as Cassie looked across at him. She was half expecting him to perhaps be a drunk or a crazy person, but he actually seemed like he had his wits about him. And he seemed very lonely.

"I'm on my lunch break… we could have coffee-" She couldn't really say much more as she watched him shut the door on her, locking it over as she sighed to herself, shoulders deflating as she folded her arms.

She shook her head and walked away, not really sure what to do next, perhaps accepting defeat as she got back into the car. Meanwhile Daniel stood at the corner of the window watching curiously with shock and awe.