Alone


"Did they go to sleep ok?" AJ asked, sitting in the kitchen which Punk had just entered, coming back from putting Mirren and Leela to sleep in one of their spare bedrooms. Jude was asleep in one of the others.

"Yeah. Not until I read a story, though." He smiled.

"Little angels." AJ smiled as Punk nodded, pouring some of the ready-made coffee AJ had brewed.

"Need a top up?" He asked her.

"No, I'm fine." AJ said as he nodded, joining her at the table, sitting down across from her as she looked over at him.

"Were they that nasty to each other when they were growing up?" Punk questioned as AJ shook her head.

"No." AJ said, "I fear one day one of them is gonna go too far, say something that they just can't take back… and that'll be it." She shook her head.

"We'd never let them stay mad at each other." Punk said.

"They're grown women." AJ reminded him, "They're gonna make decisions for themselves."

"It's just siblings being siblings. Me and Dean have said some pretty awful things to each other in the past." He confirmed, "Still love him to death. Still forgave each other and moved past it." He nodded.

"She thinks I'm responsible for Jackson being in their lives." AJ nodded, "Well, I pretty much am." She said.

"You're not." Punk shook his head, "April, she's upset. She's about to divorce Sean. She just got her house broken into. She feels alone. She's just lashing out." He nodded.

"I could have warned him off." AJ nodded, "I could have told him to stay away from Thea. To never come near this house again." She said, "It's what I should have done. It's what you would have done if our roles were reversed." She nodded.

"He was just a kid." Punk shook his head.

"He put you in prison. I should have known from that minute he was bad news. But I let him into our lives. I… I sat at this table and gave him dinner." She shook her head, disgusted with herself.

"You saw that he was there for Thea when she was hard to reach." Punk said, "He was her only friend. She'd been through enough." He nodded, "He was just a kid, mad at the world when he put me in prison. I would have gotten caught anyway, probably." He nodded, trying to make her feel better.

"I have no idea what she said to Thea but I don't think I've ever saw her look like that." AJ shook her head, "Thea, I mean. You know she's never normally speechless." She said, "I should call her." She thought about it.

"It's late. Call tomorrow." Punk nodded, "They'll work through whatever it is that was said. All three of them." He said confidently.

"She hates it here." AJ nodded, "Jude. She really hates it here." She shook her head, "I always kinda thought she did, at the back of my head, but… hearing her say it out loud…" She shook her head.

"She's just struggling. We need to be there for her." He said as AJ nodded.

"Do you think Thea really did love him?" AJ asked him, "Jackson?"

"Yeah." He nodded, "She told me." He said as AJ looked at him, not remembering this conversation, "It was when she was at the rehab facility. I don't know why you weren't there but I was visiting her on my own one night." He nodded, "It wasn't until then where I realised that she really did love him, and that we'd all pretty much ignored the fact that she had to watch someone she loved turn into this monster who abused her, who sexually assaulted her sister…" He shook his head, "Wasn't until then that I realised how awful all of this was on her too. What that must have felt like when he visited her that night he died." He said, "Can't imagine it."

"The whole thing is just… the worst thing on earth." She shook her head, "For both of them." She said as Punk nodded.

"Yeah." Punk nodded in agreement, "And I guess Jude has always had Sean as her safety blanket. Her person to fall back on when it's getting a bit much. Him and only him." He said, "So what happens when that breaks apart? She thinks she has no one because for so long she's only had him." He said as AJ shook her head, running her hand through her hair.

"What's your strategy then? As parents? As the parents who are apparently both as screwed up as they are?" She shook her head, still hearing Jude's words replaying over and over again in her head.

"This whole family is screwed up." Punk shrugged as AJ looked at him, "I could lie to you and tell you we're all perfect, if you'd prefer that." He looked at her as she sighed, "We do the only thing we can do… be there." He nodded, "Support her if she wants to move back here. Support her if she doesn't." He said, "Make sure all three of them make amends." He nodded, taking a sip of his coffee.

"You make it sound easy." AJ smiled a little as Punk nodded, "They are without a doubt the best women I will ever know." She nodded, "But… they have to be the most challenging women, too." She sighed exhaustedly as Punk laughed a little, nodding in agreement.

"They'll be fine." He nodded confidently, "They're always fine, in the end." He said.

"How are you ageing with more maturity and I'm ageing with more worries?" She shook her head, "We've completely switched around in the last ten years, don't you think?" She asked him.

"I still got my worries, believe me." He nodded, "I don't mind being the one who has to reassure you now. God knows you did enough reassuring to last a lifetime when I wasn't here." He said as she smiled.

"I love you." She said, tapping his foot under the table as he tapped hers back.

"I love you." He replied.


"Why are you still awake?" Dominic asked sleepily, turning around in bed through the night where he saw Thea lying wide awake on her bed, looking up at the ceiling.

"I can't sleep. Obviously." Thea stated the obvious.

"Because of what Jude said?" He figured. When he'd gotten home from work earlier and the kids were out of sight, she had told him everything that had happened, the conversation which had went down between her and sister, the pain and sadness it had woken up inside her.

"Yeah." Thea said quietly, "We've had our fights here and there, said some things we shouldn't have to one another, but this… this wasn't even a fight." She said, "This was my sister making me feel uncomfortable, deliberately." She shook her head, "It was worse than a fight. It felt like…" She paused, shaking her head as he turned on his side to look at her.

"Felt like what?" He asked.

"It felt like he was in the room." Thea nodded, "Is that how she feels all the time?" She turned to him.

"I'm… I'm not sure." He said truthfully, "She's going through a difficult time. It's no excuse to treat you or anyone like that, but you know she's not like that. It's Jude. She doesn't like confrontation." He shook his head. He couldn't even imagine Jude saying the things his wife had told him she had said tonight, "It's just testament to how much she's hurting I suppose."

"Well she certainly took me down with her." Thea nodded, "Normally I'd start yelling back at her but I don't know… I couldn't find the words."

"You've grown up." Dominic whispered as she turned to him with a small smile, "You were the bigger person. And you can talk it out with her, I'm sure she'll apologise."

"She also said that out of all of us she expected us to get a divorce. I forgot to tell you that." Thea told him as Dominic scoffed.

"Well that's nice." Dominic shook his head, "Why would she say that?"

"Cause it's what she thinks?" Thea turned to him.

"You couldn't leave me if you tried." He scoffed as she smiled, watching as he rolled on top of her as she placed her hands on his torso.

"You have to be up for work in an hour." She smirked as he nodded, leaning down and kissing her neck.

"So I got an hour." He said as she smiled, closing her eyes in bliss as she ran her hand up his back, cupping the back of his head whilst his hand busied itself inside her shorts, eventually slipping them down and putting himself inside her, both of them moaning in sync as she pulled the hair at the back of his head.

"Fuck." She moaned, rolling her head back as he kissed her exposed throat, thrusting into her with the tempo he knew she liked whilst she gripped her hips, pulling his body as close to hers as possible. A necessary method to successfully divert her mind from the altercation with Jude.


Punk woke up the next morning, showering before making his way downstairs, stopping a little further back from the kitchen door where he could see Jude moving around, back and forth from the fridge, in her gym clothes.

He walked into the kitchen slowly, so not to give her a fright.

"Morning." Jude said first, looking over at him for a brief second before looking back at the bagel she was preparing.

"Morning." Punk nodded, "You at the gym?" He asked her.

"No, I went for a run." She nodded, "Been a while since I've ran here." She realised.

"You get lost?" He asked her.

"No, the route still feels pretty familiar." She nodded, "There's some coffee in the pot. Do you want some breakfast?" She asked him.

"No thanks." He shook his head, "I'll wait out for your mom." He nodded, helping himself to coffee whilst Jude sat down, "Sore head?" He wondered.

"I ran it off." She nodded, figuring he'd ask eventually, "Plus I was passed out at like eight o'clock." She shook her head, "Thank you for putting the girls to sleep." She remembered to say as Punk nodded, sitting down across from her.

"That's alright." Punk nodded, "It's great getting to spend more time with them, more than we usually get." He said as Jude nodded.

"Yeah, it's nice to see you guys with them." Jude smiled, taking a bite of her bagel as Punk watched her, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Heard from Sean?" He asked briefly.

"I notice I have a missed call from him from last night." She said, "I'll call him after I've ate this." She nodded.

"I'm sure everything is fine at the house." He nodded.

"Hopefully." She said, silence filling the kitchen as Jude looked at her barely eaten bagel, not being able to stomach much more without saying anything about her behaviour last night, "I will go see Thea today." She nodded quietly.

"I think that's a good idea." Punk nodded.

"And Cassie." Jude said, "Whether they want to listen to me is another story. I wouldn't blame them if they just slammed the door in my face, actually." She nodded, resting her cheek on her hand.

"We've all had our fair share of arguments." Punk nodded.

"It wasn't even an argument." Jude said, "I don't know what it was." She shook her head, "I wasn't… I wasn't trying to hurt her." She sighed, "Or you or mom." She looked across at him.

"We know that." He nodded, "The wine probably didn't help." He said with a small smile.

"It never does." Jude rolled her eyes, "I'm making all my problems, everyone's problems." She shook her head, "And it's not intentional." She promised, "I just…" She placed her hands over her face as Punk sighed, sitting his coffee down, "I just feel so alone right now and I don't know how to get through it." She cried as Punk stood up, making his way around the table, sitting down beside her and wrapping his arm around her as she leaned into him.


"This is a lot of information." Cassie nodded, sitting in the kitchen with the laptop in front of her whilst Theo sat doing some of his physio exercises.

"I figured it would be." Theo nodded.

"We have to take part in a home study." Cassie raised her eyebrows, "Oh, God." She read on.

"What?" Theo looked at her worriedly.

"Our families have to be interviewed." She looked at him over the laptop, "Not very good timing for that." She shook her head, "But I think we have to get picked by a pregnant lady first." She said, taking notes on a notepad by the laptop, "No… we do the home study first." She shook her head, scribbling more notes down.

"So we have to wait for someone to pick us? We can't pick them?" Theo clarified.

"No." Cassie shook her head, "No, they have to pick us. What if no one wants to pick us?" She asked worriedly, "Oh my God, no one is going to pick us." She convinced herself, "We'll be waiting for years."

"Why would no one pick us?" Theo shook his head with confusion, "We're nice people. We got good jobs. We already have a son so there's proof that we know what we're doing… most of the time." He nodded, "Someone will pick us." He nodded as she looked across at him worriedly.

"This is a lot to take in." She sighed, "I mean… it could be another year-"

"So we'll wait another year." He nodded, "Once we get the ball rolling, it'll fly in, and someone will pick us." He said, "And I'm pretty sure our families will have good things to say about us." He nodded as Cassie smiled.

"Says here we need to ask someone for a reference too." Cassie nodded, trying her best to wrap her head around the adoption process which they were committing themselves to.

"I'd go with your dad." Theo shrugged as Cassie nodded.

"Yeah… I kinda bit his head off last night." Cassie said, "I should probably apologise before I ask him to say nice things about us." She sighed, still deflated from the events of last night with her sister and parents.

"I'm sure that will all blow over." He nodded.

"So pregnant lady picks us, we get her details, us the adoptive parents then decide if we want to proceed." She read to herself from the laptop screen as Theo smiled, "What if it's like a sixteen year old or something?" She raised her eyebrows.

"It's still a baby, right?" Theo shrugged, "And a brave sixteen year old."

"Yeah, that's true." Cassie nodded, "I can't believe we're actually going to do this. We're actually going to have another baby." She shook her head. Although it was a different circumstance to wrap their heads around, it still created the same nervous butterflies she got in her stomach when she found out they were having Chase, and she figured that was a really good sign.

"I know." He smiled, leaning over and kissing her softly, "You got a soccer game to get ready to coach at." He reminded her as she smiled, pecking his lips a few more times.

"I know." She smiled excitedly as he chuckled.