Space
"Are you ok?" Punk sighed, sitting outside in AJ's car, looking on at AJ who sat, barely moving and not saying much of anything.
"She hates us." AJ nodded, "She actually, hates our guts." She turned to him as Punk sighed.
"She doesn't know us." Punk reminded her, "And to be honest, we know nothing about her. We're strangers." He nodded, "So things aren't gonna be perfect."
"She wants nothing to do with us." AJ shook her head, "I mean I don't blame her. Us just showing up here like this all of a sudden, why would she care to listen to what we have to say?"
"Hey, I know it's easy for us to blame ourselves in this situation right now but… this isn't our fault. Whether she wants to admit it or not, we put her before ourselves, we wanted what was best for her-"
"She is our child, we should have loved her and raised her and never… never gave her away." AJ shook her head.
"Yeah, you think that now but our heads were in different places back then." Punk said, "This shouldn't be about blaming anyone. We weren't ready for it and there's no shame in that." He said, "I'm not gonna bow down to her just because she thinks she can play the victim card on us-"
"She's your daughter." AJ shook her head, "We should be asking her to forgive us."
"No, April. We shouldn't. To an extent, yeah maybe we talk, maybe we apologise for not being stable enough to look after her, but we don't apologise for the decision we made because it was always for her. It was for her to get more love, more stability, people who were ready to be parents." Punk said.
He knew why she was trying to seek forgiveness. Rey definitely had an intimidating presence and she'd done a good job of making them feel like terrible people, but he didn't want AJ to feel like what they did was wrong.
"I should never have come here." AJ shook her head, placing her hands on the steering wheel and taking a deep breath, "It's like I'm back there again and I don't know what to do or say to make it better for her." She shook her head tearfully as Punk looked at her.
"Please don't get upset." Punk sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder as she turned to him. She'd miss his comfort. His touch. It had been too long and she couldn't believe they were really in this position, after all these years.
"I always thought that she would have a family. A mom and dad so that she wouldn't have to think about hating us." AJ shook her head as Punk nodded.
"I know. I know it's… it's not how we wanted it. I'm sure it's not how she wanted it either." Punk nodded.
"She's not even gonna give us a chance." AJ shook her head.
"Maybe it's been too long." Punk nodded, "She's not a little girl. She's a woman and she has her own opinions and her own say in things." He said, "We're not gonna convince her of anything in just one conversation." He said.
"I can't even talk to Tom about this." She shook her head, placing her hand over her eyes as Punk looked at her, "And I gotta get home to my daughter and-"
"Hey, why can't you talk to Tom about it?" Punk asked her, taking his hand from her shoulder.
"He… He doesn't like talking about it." AJ shrugged as Punk looked at her, nodding slowly, "I just think he doesn't know what to say. He definitely won't know what to say to all of this." She shook her head.
"Hey, if you need to talk, you're an hour away, just jump in the car and… and come talk to me." He nodded as she turned to him, "I'm open all hours." He smiled as she smiled softly, drying her eyes.
"Thank you." AJ nodded. She was grateful for his understanding always. All it did was make her miss him even more. She missed being with him, all the good times they had, and he really was the only one she felt like she could talk to, "I mean what will she think of me?" AJ asked, "Once she realises I've just gone back home-"
"Hey, you have another kid, she needs you too and right now… that girl in there needs space more than she needs us begging her to talk to us." Punk nodded, "This is just as big for her as it is for us. We're the parents she always thought about and wondered about. She's gonna need some time and maybe then… maybe she'll be ready to talk to us." Punk said as AJ nodded, trying so hard to believe his soft words.
"Yeah, maybe." AJ nodded, "I think I need to go home now." AJ said as Punk nodded. He only wished he could beg her not to. He'd missed her incredibly. They still shared such a strong bond from everything they had gone through.
"You do what's best for you right now." Punk nodded.
"I just feel like a terrible person." AJ shook her head.
"You're not a terrible person." Punk sighed, "Not even close." He said as she looked at him, sighing to herself, watching as he reached his hand over, tucking her hair behind her ear as she gulped. She just lost herself in his eyes. He wasn't that teen boy anymore with the peroxide hair, the bandanas or the band shirts. That was her Punk. Yet, she still felt like he was hers.
She felt his thumb dry her tears, smudging them over her cheek as she looked at him, not taking her eyes from him. She couldn't help it, she leaned in towards him, pressing her lips against his softly as he kissed back.
He'd missed kissing her so much. It had been too long yet it was all he ever seemed to think about. He kissed back a little deeper, caressing the back of her head as she cupped his cheeks, climbing herself over onto him, straddling his lap as he ran his hands up and down her back.
She hadn't felt as wanted as she did in that moment in so long. She always knew her worth when she was with him, but she was married.
"N-No." She took her lips from him, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking at him, "No, it's… it's not right." She shook her head, even though she hadn't felt something so right in so long.
"Y-Yeah." Punk gulped, nodding to himself as he watched her climb back over to her seat, fixing her hair as he looked at her, "Sorry, I-"
"No." AJ shook her head, "No that was all me. I'm sorry. I'm the married one." She shook her head with disappointment as Punk looked at her. He could already tell she wasn't getting the treatment she deserved from her husband, and it killed him, because she deserved the world.
"You won't be a bad person if you go home." Punk nodded, watching her as she dried her eyes. It was a difficult situation for all of them to be in but she had a family, she couldn't just put everything on hold.
"Yeah I think I need to go." AJ nodded. Kissing him and jumping onto him like that told her she really needed to go home. The more she stayed the more she missed him and she wasn't sure what she could do or say to Rey to make things better.
"Ok." Punk nodded, "It's gonna be ok somehow." He assured her as she nodded.
She didn't realise how lost she was without him until seeing him again.
The next day, whilst AJ had gone to the hospital to visit Bob for the last time, Punk had gone on a detour himself, making his way to Hooters and walking on in. It wasn't busy at all and he could see that Rey wasn't working, but he wasn't looking for her.
He walked up to the bar, taking a seat on the stool as he watched the blonde girl walk down the bar.
"What you having?" Joanne smiled as Punk discreetly read the name on her badge. He'd heard Bob talking about Rey's friend and he figured if there was someone who knew his daughter on a close basis, it would be this girl.
"You're Reylissa's friend, right?" Punk nodded as Joanne looked at him with confusion.
"Reylissa? Who the hell are you?" Joanne laughed. No one called her that, which made her confused.
"Her dad." Punk said as Joanne's mouth opened.
"Shit." Joanne widened her eyes as Punk nodded, "Holy shit. Hi." She nodded, "I'm Joanne." She extended her hand to him as Punk tilted his head a little with confusion. It wasn't exactly the response he thought he'd get.
"Hi." Punk nodded, shaking her hand.
"Rey isn't in right now. She's on a 5 start." Joanne nodded.
"I'm not here to talk to her, I was actually hoping I could talk to you." Punk nodded.
"Me?" Joanne questioned.
"I'm assuming you know what's been going on, you and Reylissa are close, right?" He asked as Joanne nodded.
"Yeah, hey man… just call her Rey." Joanne advised, "Ain't no one calls her Reylissa."
"Well I do." Punk nodded, "The truth is, I don't know anything about my daughter. At the time we really thought we were doing the right think, you know? We thought she'd be adopted to a family who would look after her." Punk said, "But now I know what I know… I can't just walk away from that." He said as Joanne nodded, "But she's not exactly cooperating with us."
"Yeah, well that's Rey." Joanne scoffed.
"You clearly know her the best and I just… I wanna know what I can do, if there's anything I can do?" He questioned. He figured there was no one who knew her more than her best friend, and he really couldn't just ignore the fact his daughter was now living five minutes away from him. He couldn't walk away from that and he knew how much it would mean to AJ if he could somehow get through to Rey.
"Well I mean it's Rey, she's tough to crack at the best of times." Joanne shrugged, "She has trouble trusting people so I imagine the parents who gave her away when she was a baby, isn't gonna be people she's gonna jump to trust, is it?" Joanne asked him as he nodded.
"Yeah I get it." Punk nodded, "Is there any way I could get through to her?"
Joanne could already tell that what her dad was, wasn't a terrible person, he was trying, he was desperate almost. She knew it was easy to say because they weren't her parents, they didn't give her away, but she knew this was really all her friend ever wanted. Her parents.
"Give her time to think about all of this." Joanne suggested, "If there's something going on she… she plays around with it for days, she'll be on the phone to me one minute telling me one thing and then the next day she'll be telling me her feelings have changed to the complete opposite." She nodded.
"We really were doing what was best for her at the time." Punk said as Joanne nodded.
"Hey, I get it." Joanne assured him, "Rey gets to be upset about this, though. She's not had it easy." She nodded to him, "And I know her meeting you guys hasn't been easy."
"I don't think it has been for any of us." Punk nodded.
"Just give her space. A few days. She might be ready to listen more then." Joanne nodded as Punk sighed and nodded.
"Yeah." Punk nodded, "Well thanks. You could have been a bitch to me so… that's a plus." He nodded.
"Oh, honey… if you hurt my Rey I'll hurt you." She warned him as his smile faded, "She's an amazing person. A strong person. She deserves nothing but love." Joanne nodded as Punk smiled.
"Sounds like she has a really good friend." Punk nodded to her.
"She's like a sister." Joanne nodded, "If you ask me, I think something like this, you all need a little bit of space and time. It's a big deal. Hell I'm stressed about it and it's not really anything to do with me." She said as Punk just nodded.
"Yeah, I get it." Punk nodded. He thought perhaps her friend would be able to give her some help with getting through to her but it was just that, they did need time to get themselves together. AJ certainly did and he was still trying to figure this all out. Maybe a few days of space wasn't such a bad idea.
"Here, for troubling you." Punk sat down some money on the counter as he stood up.
"No, you're fine." Joanne shook her head, "Use it to buy your daughter something." She smiled, walking on down the bar as Punk eventually left the bar.