Making Amends
"May I speak with your husband?" Punk asked, standing outside Dean and Renee's house where Renee had answered the door to him.
"Of course." Renee smiled a little, stepping aside as Punk walked into the house.
"On a scale of one to ten, how pissed do you think he is with me?" Punk wondered.
"So earlier on when he came home, I'd say a solid ten." Renee nodded to him, shutting the door over.
"And now?" Punk wondered.
"Eight, maybe?" Renee wondered as Punk groaned.
"If you hear me squealing, please come save me." Punk patted her on the shoulder as Renee chuckled and nodded.
"He's in the kitchen." Renee nodded as Punk headed down to the kitchen, looking over at his brother sitting at the table, smoking a cigarette with a stiff drink in front of him.
"You'd do good not to be here right now." Dean nodded, noticing him in the corner of his eye, refusing to look over.
"Dude, come on. I didn't… I didn't do anything." Punk said, "I just asked you. Isn't it better that I asked? I just wanted to see where your head was at."
"You're my brother. You know where my head is at. I've never had to… communicate with you about what's in my head. You know it." Dean turned to him as Punk nodded to himself, "I find it tough even knowing that you are giving dad a chance, never mind me giving him one." He shook his head, "Look like a damn clown playing happy families with him." He scoffed.
"That's not what I'm trying to do." Punk said, "But do I want to know who my dad is? Do I think that… nine year old Phil would really want to know who his dad is? Yeah, I do." He nodded, "He's not a bad guy-"
"He's not a good guy either." Dean looked at him, "He left us. We needed someone and he knew we did. He knew that mom was a liability, he knew she was in trouble with Janet and her clan, and he still split because it got too hard. As far as I'm concerned, what happened to us, that's on him." Dean shrugged.
"And I've had plenty of conversations with him about all of that. It's not something I've forgave him for but we've talked it out. I'm not saying you have to. I'm not saying you have to do anything. I just… don't want you to be mad at me." Punk shook his head.
"I just don't get you." Dean shook his head.
"What don't you get?" Punk questioned.
"You crucified mom for majority of our lives, I did too." Dean nodded, "It's like you forgave her in the end."
"I think we both agreed that mom was dealt a shitty hand in life. And from everything I've heard from Dan, she was capable of taking care of us, she just never got the chance." Punk said.
"She should have sent us away." Dean shook his head, swirling his drink in his glass, "I'm sure there was times she was conscious enough to make that sort of decision." He nodded.
"Selfishly she probably didn't want to." Punk said, "Believe it or not, I do think she loved us."
"I don't doubt she did." Dean agreed, "But I don't think I'm ever gonna be in a place where I forgive either of them for what we went through. We buried everything with mom when she was alive before she died, because she got clean and… we could see there was a person in there for the first time." He nodded, "But I can't go there with dad when he wasn't even there, at all."
"I'm not asking you to." Punk assured him.
"Then don't ask me if I'm ok with him being there at Christmas." Dean shook his head, "Are you stupid? Is April stupid?"
"Why do you always bring her into this?" Punk shook his head, "You've done it since we were kids."
"Cause I know whatever comes out of your mouth has already came out of hers five minutes earlier." Dean shook his head.
"Give her a break. She… gets along with Dan and between us we don't have many family members who are half decent." Punk shook his head.
"I just thought you'd be on my side for this one." Dean nodded.
"There's no sides." Punk shook his head, "I'm not choosing you or dad, and if you made me, of course it's you. You come before anything. It's always been that way." He nodded, "We grew up the same but we've… we've lived very different lives, Dean."
"No kidding." Dean grumbled.
"My life has taught me that… it goes by fast, and people come and go, and no one's really your friend." Punk nodded, "I don't wanna be on my death bed one day wishing that I just… had a conversation with my dad. I don't want that." He shook his head as Dean looked at him.
"Ain't no way we're all camping round your bed watching you die. You better kick the can quickly." Dean shook his head as Punk smiled.
"Do you know what I mean?" Punk asked as Dean looked over, "I've missed a lot in my life, I've lost so much. Time more than anything else. I don't wanna lose time with him whilst he's still here. That doesn't mean you gotta feel that way. We're two different people. But a couple months ago I still felt like how you feel. I just don't want you to close any doors and lock them really tight." He shook his head.
"I've lost shit too, man." Dean assured him, "I might not have gone to prison for eight years but instead I was here, taking care of my family and your family-"
"And you know I won't forget that." Punk assured him, "Neither will April."
"Yeah, I know." Dean nodded.
"This isn't something we need to agree on." Punk said, "But I'll be damned if it comes between us."
"It won't." Dean mumbled, "I'm just not ready-"
"I know." Punk nodded. He knew exactly why and what his brother was feeling, "And I understand." He said as Dean nodded.
"If you want him there at Christmas then me and Renee can just do something here with our girls. It's really not a big deal-"
"Shut up." Punk rolled his eyes, "Me and Ape will see him another day. You'll be there on Christmas with the girls and Renee." Punk nodded.
"Is that an order?" Dean asked.
"Yes." Punk nodded.
"Alright." Dean shrugged.
"We good?" Punk asked as Dean nodded.
"Yeah, we're good." Dean nodded to him.
"So when you gonna quit smoking?" Punk put his hands on his hips.
"Dude, shut up." Dean laughed a little as Punk smiled.
"Is everyone friends again?" Renee asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Yes, big happy family again." Punk nodded to her.
"Oh, yay." Renee smiled happily, "Phil, stay right there. I'm baking Christmas cookies and I want you to take some home with you." She said, heading to the oven as Dean smiled watching her.
"Why is he smoking, Renee?" Punk teased, smiling to his brother who chuckled.
"Oh, don't even get me started on that." Renee warned.
"I've had some lighters thrown at me the past few weeks." Dean confirmed, "You know when Sarah was a baby, I started smoking again and she kicked me out of the house." Dean told Punk who chuckled.
"I warned you and I warned you." Renee told him, taking her cookies out of the oven.
"I know." Dean smiled, tapping her butt as she stood behind him dusting the cookies with icing sugar.
"Ok, who wants a hot cookie?" Renee asked.
"I do." Dean nodded, putting his cigarette out.
"Go on then." Punk nodded.
"Thea, you've got a patient in three five seven." A nurse walked into the break room where Thea was sitting.
"I've literally just sat down." Thea sighed to herself, standing back up, "Nobody paged me."
"It's not an emergency." The nurse assured her, "But duty calls."
"Yeah yeah." Thea shook her head, "You got a file for me?" She asked, dusting her hands off from the one chip she had managed to put in her mouth.
"Here you go." The nurse handed her the file, leaving the break room with her and heading down the corridor, "So some things to know before you go in. He's been to eight different hospitals within four months. He's requesting dopamine or morphine-"
"Requesting?" Thea turned to her.
"Yeah." The nurse said, unimpressed, "He's refusing CT scans on his back. It's all about the drugs with him."
"And he's been to eight different hospitals for the same thing?" Thea raised a brow.
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Alright." Thea sighed, "His name?"
"Bryan Jennings." The nurse said, "He… also has visible track marks on his arms."
"Of course he does." Thea nodded, "Ok, thanks." She said, heading for the room, walking in where she saw the man lying on his side.
"My back is killing me. You gotta give me something. It's like… it's like knives sticking into it." He exaggerated as Thea nodded.
"Bryan, I'm doctor Castillo, I'm gonna have to take a look at your back." Thea nodded to him.
"It's my lower back. Lower back." He nodded.
"I would prefer to examine it and send you for a CT scan to see what's going on." Thea nodded, "I'm just going to take a look whilst you're lying on your side." She said, putting some gloves on and standing on one side of the bed, pressing down his spine, watching him yell out dramatically for her to stop.
"You're not helping!" He yelled as Thea rolled her eyes, watching another nurse come into the room.
"Alright, morphine." Thea nodded to the nurse who'd come in to help.
"Really?" The nurse asked quietly.
"Patient is in pain so… yeah, really." Thea nodded, "But I want a CT scan done."
"I don't need that." Bryan shook his head.
"I would advise it, strongly." Thea smiled to him politely, "Because it appears that the eight other hospitals you've checked into over the past four months, haven't followed up this mysterious pain in your back." She looked across at him as he realised she was onto him, "Slot him in for a scan." She nodded to the nurse.
"Of course." The nurse nodded as Thea filled in some paper work, slipping it into the bottom of the bed before leaving the room, heading down the corridor, happily surprised to see her husband waiting around at the desk.
"Hey." She smiled tiredly.
"Hey, I brought you your favourite." Dominic smiled, holding out a bag as she took it from him and looked inside.
"Oh, yeah." Thea smiled happily.
"Busy?" Dominic asked her.
"I have literally not stopped." Thea shook her head, "Just come from a patient who's after the drugs."
"What?" Dominic shook his head.
"We see quite a lot of actually. Addicts coming in pretending they got excruciating pain somewhere, gets us to fill them up with morphine or whatever, then they check themselves out and refuse any follow up treatment." Thea shook her head.
"Maybe they're really just in pain." Dominic said.
"No, trust me. You can tell." Thea nodded, "Thanks for bringing me this, though. Sweet." She smiled.
"Well I know you're working hard, and I know you're also very hungry these days." He said.
"I am." She smiled, leaning up and kissing him sweetly, "I'm also a lot of other things." She nodded, looking around as Dominic chuckled.
"Here?" Dominic laughed.
"There's a stock room over there that has a very good lock on it." She whispered.
"You're crazy." Dominic shook his head as she smiled, walking away from him as he swayed on his heels for a second, looking around before quickly following her into the stock room.