First Impressions


"I've arranged for the adoption agency people to meet us at work." Cassie announced at breakfast, coming into the kitchen where Theo was getting Chase ready for school, making sure he was eating his breakfast and his lunch was packed.

"Why?" Theo shook his head with confusion.

"Because they want to look around anyway and I thought it'd be good. See what important figures we are." She smirked cockily as Theo rolled his eyes, "I see that." She made clear.

"You were meant to." Theo nodded, "You need to calm down." He said.

"C'mon, everyone knows first impressions are everything." Cassie said nervously, scratching her palms as she headed for the coffee pot.

"Oh, really?" Theo scoffed, "What was your first impression of me?" He asked.

"Jackass." Cassie mumbled whilst pouring her coffee, "Egotistical." She turned around to look at him, "Self-centred. Cocky. Arrogant." She listed, "Silly tattoos. Bully. Annoying. Selfish. Hot." She figured as he nodded, folding his arms.

"And your ass still married me. First impressions aren't everything." Theo winked.

"Ok but that's different. These are the people giving us the green light to adopt a baby. Of course they're going to be judging us right away. Looking for any cracks that might put us at a disadvantage." She said.

"And what the hell would those cracks be?" Theo said, "We're nice people. You need to stop worrying." He said seriously as she sighed, "Look at him." He said quietly, pointing to Chase who was eating a slice of toast, "He is a product of our good parenting." He smiled as Cassie looked at Chase, watching him dip his toast into his orange juice as she tilted her head, turning to Theo, "Ok, so we all have our habits." He shrugged.

"We can show them around the station and then I said we'd take them to the coffee shop across the road to talk." Cassie nodded.

"Ok." Theo said, "Everything will be fine." He told her, leaning over and kissing her sweetly as she kissed back, "Did you buy a new suit?" He whispered, noticing her suit was new.

"Yeah." She nodded nervously, "You didn't." She pointed out.

"A suit won't get me a baby." He said, "Just be yourself. Please." He nodded.

"Ok." She smiled.


"Don't get me wrong, I love being grandma A, but I am exhausted." AJ admitted, walking into the kitchen where Punk was sitting after Jude had just arrived from her flight to pick the girls up.

"Yeah, no kidding." Punk laughed a little.

"She looks different." AJ said, sitting down at the table across from her husband, "Jude."

"Like how?" He asked, filling in his morning crossword.

"I don't know. Phil, the older I get, the harder I find to read them." She admitted sadly.

"Isn't it because they're getting older?" Punk asked her.

"Maybe." She nodded, "I was so good at it when they were growing up. Not really with Cassie but… Jude and Thea. Now I look at them both and I just… I have no idea what they're thinking or what's going on with them." She shook her head, "And then I think is it because they've both been through a lot. Is that why?"

"Maybe." Punk nodded, looking across at her, "Or they think they've troubled you enough over the years and they're big enough girls now to deal with life on their own?" He nodded.

"Don't put it like that." She scoffed, "As if they're a burden to me." She scolded.

"I don't mean it like that." He said.

"I mean… is Jude getting a divorce? She hasn't said anything. I asked how things were with Sean and all she said was that nothing had really changed. That was it." AJ shrugged.

"Read the room, April. She doesn't want to get a divorce. It's very obvious. But she doesn't want to be the woman who takes her cheating husband back." Punk said as AJ folded her arms.

"Well you've always been able to read her better than I can." AJ said.

"I was actually talking with Thea last night. She was down at the docks." Punk told her, "I never got to tell you last night cause… well, I guess I forgot." He realised.

"She alright?" AJ asked.

"Yeah, well I think so." He nodded, "She was talking to me about our dealing days."

"Great." AJ nodded.

"And then she was talking about Jackson." He said as AJ nodded, "I think… I think she finds it hard to accept that she… she had this relationship with him and clearly loved him. Cared about him." He nodded, "I think him turning out to be who he became… she feels guilty and ashamed of it." He said.

"I can see why it'd be difficult for her." AJ nodded, "She was young. That's why my role should have taken over." She shook her head.

"No. You're not to blame either." Punk shook his head, "He wasn't a bad kid back then-"

"He wasn't a good one either." AJ made clear, "He was gaslighting her the entire time. It was obvious. And I did nothing." She shook her head.

"You had a lot going on. And he… you said he made her happy sometimes so." He shrugged.

"If only I could go back." AJ shook her head.

"Well you can't." Punk nodded, "Believe me, I say that to myself a lot about certain things in my life. If only I could go back and change this, change that." He said, "It doesn't get you anywhere."

"I just didn't see it coming. I didn't even see it coming when he attacked Thea. I knew he was troubled but… not like that." She shook her head.

"I know exactly how you felt about him." Punk assured her, "The letters."

"You're still reading them?" AJ scoffed.

"April, there's hundreds." He laughed a little as she smiled.


"Thank you for this." AJ nodded, finding Sam in the kitchen after she got home from the hospital. She'd put her mother-in-law in charge of her two youngest children whilst she went to and from the hospital, "You're not supposed to drink on the job." She noticed the bottle of wine sitting on the table.

"Makes it easier to tolerate your kids." Sam nodded.

"Nice." AJ nodded, not even phased by her personality anymore.

"They had chicken dinosaur and potato waffles for dinner." Sam said, "And Cassie got ketchup on her t-shirt so I threw that in the wash." She nodded, "Homework got done when they got in from school." She explained, "I cleaned your upstairs bathroom too." She said as AJ looked over at her, "Changed your bed sheets too." She nodded.

"Thank you." AJ nodded sincerely, looking over at Sam, "Seriously." She said as Sam nodded.

"How is she?" Sam asked, sitting her magazine over, sitting up straight as AJ leaned against the kitchen counter, looking up at the ceiling to keep her tears in her eyes.

"She keeps telling everyone she didn't OD." AJ shook her head, blinking her tears, "She didn't OD, she just took too much?" AJ threw her hands up, not knowing what else to say, "I mean…" She shrugged.

"She's just a little girl." Sam shook her head, "I don't think she knows what she's feeling. Maybe that's the problem."

"Jackson finally showed his face tonight." AJ told her.

"Only took him what? Five days?" Sam shook her head, "You know I could find people to keep him away-"

"No." AJ scoffed, "I could find people to." She assured Sam coldly, "I have more of those people at my disposable than you do, believe me." She shook her head.

"They broken up? What's the situation?" Sam asked.

"Before she went into hospital, as far as I knew, they'd broken up." AJ nodded, "But they'd been breaking up a lot over the past couple months."

"Right." Sam nodded slowly. She desperately wanted to tell AJ that Thea had come to her just a month ago, to tell her she was pregnant, and that she had gotten an abortion. But she promised Thea she wouldn't tell a single soul. And she kept her promises to her granddaughter.

"I'm taking time off work." AJ nodded, "And I'm taking the three of them away for a little while."

"That'd be good." Sam said as AJ nodded, "And him?"

"He's not invited." AJ said, "Girls trip only." She said smugly.

"I'm not talking about Jackson." Sam said, "You going to tell him about Thea?" She asked.

"I'm not visiting him again." AJ shook her head, "He told me how he really feels last time I visited him. I want nothing to do with him." She said. Her husband's last words to her had cut deep. Deeper than his words had ever cut her. To the point where she had gone into complete focus on her daughters and only her daughters.

"Maybe you just need to cool off." Sam shrugged.

"No. He has no idea what's going on-"

"Exactly?" Sam shook her head, "He has no idea. So you're gonna hold it against him-"

"He thinks we're here living our best lives. That we're free." AJ laughed, "That he's the only one suffering." She shook her head.

"So tell him he's not the only one." Sam said.

"No." AJ said coldly without saying anything else.

"What about Jude?" Sam asked.

"I will… drop Jude off to see him if that's what she wants." AJ nodded, "Right now all I'm focusing on is the girls. Getting Thea better." She said, "Nothing else."

"It's your life." Sam nodded, "And I won't judge you for it. I just hope you won't regret it." Sam said.


"What the hell are you talking about?" Jackson shook his head, standing up from the seat beside Thea's bed.

"I didn't want to say anything to anyone." Thea shook her head tearfully, "I had to." She nodded.

"You didn't think to tell me?" Jackson questioned.

"Well we'd… we'd broken up a few times and I didn't know if…" She looked at him, looking down quickly.

"If what?" Jackson shook his head.

"If it was yours." She mumbled, "We'd broken up and I was with someone else so-"

"So what? You still didn't think I'd want to know?" He shook his head as she looked across at him, "That's a real good look, Thea. Pregnant at seventeen and no clue who the father is." He paced as Thea watched him.

"I wasn't having it anyway. Even if it was yours." She said as he looked at her with confusion, "I'm seventeen. I'm not giving my entire life to a baby." She shook her head, "I don't care how selfish that sounds."

"We could have had a baby." Jackson nodded, "I would have been there for you."

"I want to go to college." Thea shook her head.

"You just tried to kill yourself five days ago!" He yelled, "You don't know what the fuck you want." He shook his head, "I mean, Jesus Christ, Thea… I thought I was messed up and you were the straight and narrow one." He shook his head as Thea nodded to herself, "So it's dead?" He figured.

"You don't have to say it like that." Thea sighed at the harshness.

"Well what the hell do you want me to say?" Jackson questioned, "It's in heaven? In a better place?"

"It was a clump of cells." Thea nodded, "And I had the right to get it out of my body. Regardless of what you felt about it." She made clear.

"I'm not saying you didn't. But I would have shown up for you." He said.

"Well it's dealt with now." Thea shook her head, "Don't tell anyone. Seriously. Only Sam knows."

"You're not telling your mom?" He asked.

"No. I'm not telling anyone. So keep your mouth shut." She said.

"We could have made it work." He nodded, running his hand over his face.

"You break up with me every few weeks now. Why would it have worked out?" She shook her head, "Don't make me feel guilty. I'm a kid. I still want to do kid things-"

"Kid things? Are you kidding me? You spend your free time snorting lines, getting drunk and sucking me off. Kid things?" Jackson questioned, "You know what… you did the right thing. I'm not saying you didn't. Poor thing would have died in there anyway." He nodded as Thea looked over at him.

"Are you finished?" She asked, lump in her throat as he nodded, standing at the end of her bed.

"You're a fucking mess." He shook his head.

"I think you should go now." Thea nodded.

"You're a fucking mess and I wish to God I could walk away from you." He said.

"Get out." Dean spat, standing at the room door, having just opened it on Jackson's last sentence, "Now." He made clear.

"I'm going." Jackson said, leaving the room, walking past Dean who walked further into the room once he'd gone.

He looked over at Thea who was sat up in the bed, crying now, "Hey, it's ok." Dean sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed, wrapping his arm around her as she leaned into him and cried, "It's alright." He kissed her head.


"Just this way." Cassie smiled, walking into the police station after meeting with Sandra Mullen from the adoption agency outside, introducing herself and leading her into the station.

"You know, I've never noticed how big this place actually is." Sandra admitted, "I suppose I've never been in it. Thank God." She added as Cassie smiled.

"Yeah, it's not somewhere a lot of people enjoy coming to." Cassie laughed a little.

"How long have you been working here?" Sandra questioned.

"Coming up for eight years." Cassie nodded, "Theo has been here longer, though."

"How long has he been here?" Sandra asked, "Sorry, these aren't any questions I need answers to, I'm just being nosey." She laughed a little as Cassie smiled.

"That's alright. He's been here about fourteen years now." Cassie nodded.

"Plenty miles on the both of you then. I don't imagine it's an easy job." Sandra said as Cassie guided her through the station.

"No, but we both love what we do." Cassie smiled, "I'll show you my office it's just up here, and Theo's is just a little along if we just-" She paused when they suddenly watched Theo's office door fly open, Theo and Mark falling onto the ground in a fist fight, rolling around.

Cassie looked on, horrified, watching as Theo got on top of Mark, punching him over and over. She turned to Sandra who watched in horror, stepping back a little as other police officers began to intervene, rushing to the scene and separating the two from one another.

"You stay the fuck away from this place!" Theo yelled, being dragged up from the ground as Mark was pulled in the opposite direction, "Alright. Alright." Theo nodded to the officers who had a hold on him, turning around and looking at Cassie who was standing with a woman who he didn't recognise.

"Theo, this is Sandra Mullen." Cassie nodded in a trance, "She's from the adoption agency." She explained, turning to Sandra who looked at Theo with concern, watching as he ran his hand through his hair, "This is my husband." Cassie nodded to her.