Apology
"That was somehow even more awful than what I thought it'd be." Cassie admitted, walking into their hotel room later that night whilst Theo followed behind with Chase fast asleep in his arms.
"Well we can agree on that." Theo nodded, walking over to one of the beds, putting Chase down carefully and brushing his hand through his hair.
"What's his problem?" Cassie shook her head, closing the hotel door over, taking her coat off, "Never have I known someone who says the wrong things so many times." She said as Theo just nodded, throwing his jacket over on the couch.
"I think I'm gonna take a shower." Theo nodded.
"Hey." Cassie said as he looked at her, "We can talk about it."
"There's nothing to talk about." Theo shrugged, "It's just who he is."
"Well who he is, is a very bitter and twisted old man." Cassie nodded, "I mean would it kill him to even say he's proud of you? Or take interest in your job? Take interest in his own grandson?" She shook her head.
"That's just… not who he is. He's not sensitive and he doesn't show affection." Theo shook his head.
"Theo. He doesn't need to be affectionate to be a decent person and say decent things. I mean, did you hear what he was saying about Matthew? Saying he was a non-starter, couldn't hold down a job if he tried… that's not how a dad should speak about his son."
"I know, Cassie. I'm aware." Theo nodded to her.
"Well I want you to stop shrugging it off. Why can't you speak up to him?" She shook her head.
"I'm not doing this with you tonight." Theo shook his head tiredly, heading for the bathroom as Cassie followed.
"Doing what?" Cassie questioned, "What are you afraid of? Or… a better question, why are you afraid of him?" She asked.
"I'm not afraid of him." Theo shook his head.
"Well you're afraid of something. You never want to confront him." Cassie said, "You, this big, scary cop." She said.
"I just don't like confrontation." Theo said, "It doesn't seem worth my time, so I don't feed into it."
"He's your father. If my dad spoke to me the way yours does to you, I'd be… hurt." Cassie said quietly as Theo looked at her, "But I'd also confront him about it."
"Well, it's a good job your dad is perfect then." Theo nodded to her.
"Far from it." Cassie assured him, "Just talk to him-"
"That's the problem. I can't. I don't… I don't know how to." He shook his head, sitting down on the closed toilet seat, "I've never really had a relationship with him outside of just saying hello and how are you." He shook his head, "Even when we were kids. Mom did everything. Then when they got divorced we went to Chicago with he and we barely saw him." He said as Cassie sat down on the edge of the bath tub.
"That's not on you. It's not your fault. As your father he should have made the effort. He still should. Being a parent isn't about… biology or blood. It's showing up. Being there morning and night. Signing your name up to coach the soccer team. Take them to birthday parties. Help them with homework." Cassie said, "It's about being present."
"Well… he wasn't." Theo shrugged as Cassie looked over at him, "And yes, it does bother me." He nodded to her, "But like you said, he's impossible."
"It's still worth mentioning how you feel to him." Cassie nodded, "I just… I don't want you to ever feel like you have to put up with his bullshit. I know you're patient and sweet as all hell, but I know you have a confrontational side. I've seen it." She said.
"It's just different with him." Theo shrugged.
"I can imagine." Cassie nodded.
"I always come with an open mind and I know I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't expect anything different." He nodded.
"You should. You should expect better and if he won't give you it then he doesn't deserve to have our company this weekend." Cassie shook her head.
"We can get through tomorrow. It's one day." Theo nodded to her, "And then we can get the fuck out of here. I should probably take a page out of Matthew's book and just ignore him."
"Well there's ignoring him and then there's having an important conversation with him about how you feel, which it doesn't seem like you ever have." Cassie said, "I think that needs to happen before anything else."
"Yeah, I know." Theo nodded.
"This is a big bathroom." Cassie nodded, looking around, "Big shower." She looked over with a smile as he laughed a little.
"Oh, yeah? For what?" He chuckled.
"For taking a shower, of course." Cassie smirked as he nodded with a smile.
"Damn, she's nice." Dean nodded, walking down the boardwalk, taking a look at one of the new boats tied up which Punk climbed down from.
"You should see it inside." Punk said, followed by a whistle, "Apparently it belongs to a twenty-year old kid. Mommy and daddy must be rich." He nodded, dusting his hands off as he joined his brother on the boardwalk.
"Man… I think had like three dollars in my bank account when I was twenty." Dean thought to himself, "Actually, I don't even think I had a bank account." He realised as Punk nodded in agreement.
"Cash in hand, brother." Punk nodded, walking down the boardwalk with him, noticing him lighting up a cigarette, "Hey, when did you start doing this again?" He questioned.
"Oh, don't grill me on it. I get enough from Renee." Dean huffed, "Chrissy going through this divorce is getting me stressed, especially when she insists on handling everything by herself."
"How has it been going?" Punk asked him.
"What do you think?" Dean turned to him, "Not great."
"You seen him yet?" Punk questioned.
"No. No one will let me." Dean scoffed.
"Probably for the best." Punk nodded to him, "I know it's awful to hear about the divorce and what happened but… I'm glad she's away from him."
"Yeah, me too." Dean nodded, "You think you know someone. You think they're good enough for your daughter and then… this happens. Pisses me off, especially cause she… she didn't tell anyone for so long. He fucking manipulated her into thinking it was acceptable." He shook his head.
"That's what people like that to do. You and I were raised in a pretty scummy environment. Still knew never to raise a hand to a woman." Punk nodded.
"It's common decency that not a lot of people have." Dean shook his head as Punk nodded.
"How is Sarah? She must be ready to pop soon." Punk said as Dean nodded.
"Yeah she's due in three weeks." Dean said, "Come on, grandson." Dean hoped as Punk chuckled.
"Well, there's a fifty fifty chance, at least." Punk nodded, heading to their lockers to get their things before clocking out.
"You're not having any more wacky thoughts are you? About that prick in prison?" Dean wondered.
"Which one?" Punk raised a brow, followed by rolling his eyes.
"The recent one." Dean said.
"You don't need to know what's going on in my head." Punk assured him.
"I feel a lot better when I do." Dean nodded to him, "You don't need to see this guy. You really don't. Cause I guarantee you anything you say to him, he's not gonna give a damn. Just like Rio."
"I just wanna know why-"
"Well you're not gonna get that answer. Jude got her truth and she's… she's moving on now. Properly." Dean said, "So I think for her, you gotta move on too." He nodded.
"He acted like our friend this entire time and all along he…" Punk shook his head, looking down.
"I know." Dean nodded, "But he's not worth anyone's time. He's got his life sentence and he's gonna go out the same way that Rio and Jackson did. Alone, bitter and in denial."
"Were we the only ones who made it?" Punk asked him.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"I mean… got out of the cycle." Punk said, "Got out, got married, had kids, stayed out of trouble."
"I don't think we've stayed out of trouble, do you?" Dean asked.
"You know what I mean. We've not went out looking for it." Punk said.
"Then probably yeah, we are. It's not that surprising." Dean said, "I told you when we were like twenty-one, majority of those guys will either die before they see thirty or they'll be in and out of prison their whole lives."
"Yeah." Punk nodded in agreement.
"Hey, remember that woman I used to sleep with and she'd do my laundry?" Dean asked as Punk nodded, "Yeah, she died." He nodded.
"She was crazy." Punk nodded, "You still coming to our house for Christmas?"
"Are we still invited?" Dean smiled.
"Of course. The kids to adults ratio is getting a little scary now I have to admit." He nodded.
"Yeah, a lot of screaming." Dean said, "Kids at Christmas are insane. I remember Chrissy and Sarah woke me and Ney up one time at like 4am." He shook his head as Punk chuckled.
"It's a good crazy, though." Punk nodded, "Ok, let's clock out of here before boss man gets us to do anything else." He said, shutting the locker over and leaving the room as Dean followed.
"Jude!" Sean called upstairs as he got home from work.
"I'm up here!" Jude called from upstairs as Sean nodded, sitting down the bouquet of flowers and walking upstairs, finding Jude in the bathroom supervising the girls having their bath together. It was easier to bath them at the same time.
"Oh, hey. It's bath time." Sean smiled.
"Hi, daddy." Mirren smiled.
"Hi." Sean smiled sweetly, "You both behaving?" He smiled, watching as Leela looked up at him with a grin before going back to her bath toys.
"Daddy I wanted to bath Rex." Mirren told him as Jude shook her head with a smile.
"You can't bath Rex." Sean laughed.
"Why not? Doesn't… doesn't he need to get clean?" She questioned with confusion.
"He does but not in the same bath as you guys." Sean chuckled, "Did everyone eat their dinner?"
"Leela didn't!" Mirren pointed immediately as Leela looked across at her sister, unhappily.
"Lee." Sean hummed.
"Wasn't hungry." Leela mumbled as Jude smiled.
"You want me to take over?" Sean asked Jude.
"No, you go get something to eat." Jude nodded, "I can get them to bed."
"Ok." Sean smiled, leaning over and giving her a kiss, "Goodnight, monsters." He smiled, leaning over the bath tub and kissing the girls on the head.
He headed on downstairs whilst Jude got the girls out of the bath and into bed. Jude eventually followed and noticed the bouquet of flowers sitting by the door. She smiled to herself, only assuming Sean had brought them home, picking them up and noticing there was a card attached to it, which puzzled her.
"Sean?" Jude questioned, walking through to the kitchen.
"Yeah?" Sean turned around, "Oh, yeah they were sitting outside." He told her, fixing himself something to eat.
"I thought they were from you." Jude laughed to herself, sitting them down on the kitchen counter, taking the card and opening it up.
"Who are they from? Whose day did you make at work?" Sean smiled as Jude read the card. He could tell by the expression on her face that something wasn't right, "Jude."
"It's from Mark." Jude looked over at him.
"What?" Sean shook his head.
"It just says… I'm sorry for what you went through. From Mark." Jude shrugged, looking over at Sean who shook his head and turned away with anger.
"The fuck is wrong with him?" Sean shook his head as Jude looked over, "He thinks flowers are gonna make everything ok?"
"If he didn't come forward about Vincent-"
"No, you don't need to buy into his apology-"
"It's not buying into anything." Jude said, "He… He did do the right thing, Sean. I don't come across many people in my life who do the right thing-"
"He sent you those photographs. Did you forget that?" Sean shook his head.
"Did I forget it?" Jude laughed, "I wish, believe me." She nodded, "But he's apologising. And if he didn't come out with all this stuff he knew about Vincent we might never have found out that he… what he done." She said, "For me, I am grateful for that."
"It's what he should have done. You don't need to praise him for doing what any decent person would do. And believe me, he is not a decent person." Sean shook his head.
"Well I don't wanna be bitter about it." Jude said, "He clearly understood that what he done was wrong. So… he should be forgiven."
"You're insane." Sean shook his head.
"Why? Why am I insane?" Jude shook her head.
"Because this man broke into evidence storage, took photographs from your case file, photographs that no one ever needed to see, especially not you, and he sent them here." Sean said, "That's not something to be forgiven-"
"It's not for you to forgive him!" Jude yelled a little as Sean looked at her wearily, "God, you are… just like my dad sometimes." She shook her head with frustration.
"I just don't think flowers and a card say sorry for sending you photographs of you being raped, adding even more trauma to what you've been through, all that well." Sean nodded.
"Oh, just… go away." Jude shook her head, not in the mood to further the conversation as Sean left the kitchen whilst she looked at the flowers.