Good Intentions

"Come on, let's open up these presents." Joanne jumped on Rey in her bed the next morning as Rey groaned.

"My head hurts." Rey moaned, squishing her face into her pillow.

"It's 1pm. I've gave you enough time. I wanna see what people got you." Joanne clapped excitedly, getting off the bed and bringing all the gifts into the room as Rey sat up.

"When did we get home?" Rey asked.

"4am." Joanne said as Rey rolled her eyes, "You did sing karaoke in front of your parents and I refused to stop you." She let her know as Rey collapsed back down onto the bed, placing the covers over her face as Joanne chuckled.

"I don't even remember saying bye to them." Rey groaned, sitting back up.

"Neither do I, to be honest." Joanne admitted, bringing the gifts onto the bed and sitting beside her, "Ok, open them." She smiled.

"Where is the gift from my parents?" Rey asked her.

"Uh…" Joanne looked around, "Here." She noticed the tag, reaching for it and handing it over to Rey.

Rey untied the ribbon on the gift bag and opened it up, reaching for the box in it and taking it out. She opened it up and saw the letter R attached to a necklace, shiny and simple but so beautiful. She definitely liked meaningful gifts and this felt like one of them.

"Oh, that's pretty." Joanne looked over and smiled.

Rey smiled and nodded, taking the necklace out of the box and putting it on around her neck, "I love it." Rey nodded.

"There's something else in the bag." Joanne noticed as she was about to clear it off.

Rey dug further into the bag and pulled out a tape with confusion.

"Oh my god, did they accidentally give you a sex tape." Joanne tried to look for the label as Rey turned to her.

"You're disgusting." Rey nodded as Joanne shrugged, "No, it just has the date on it… a few months before I was born." She said with confusion.

"Should we watch it?" Joanne asked her as Rey looked at it.

"I'll uh… I'll watch it later." Rey nodded, sitting the tape over as Joanne nodded, "The weirdest thing happened last night." She admitted whilst opening up other cards and gifts from other people.

"What?" Joanne questioned.

"My dad's ex-wife came up to me when I was outside." Rey said, "She said that she and my dad have a kid but he's… he's never there." Rey shook her head, "A girl, she's just four." She nodded.

"Another sister?" Joanne smiled.

"Apparently." Rey nodded, "Would have been nice for my dad to let me know." She said, "She was warning me telling me that my dad isn't interested in me and he's only interested in my mom. And that he's a bad person." She rolled her eyes.

"Ok, let me remind you that this woman is your dad's ex-wife. Exes can be terrible people." Joanne nodded.

"Yeah, that's why I'm trying not to think into it too much but… I mean she's obviously not lying about the kid." Rey said, "Why wouldn't my dad be involved? Does he just hate his kids?" She shook her head.

"Hey, he doesn't hate you. From what I've saw so far, your mom and dad really care about you and love. I'm sure this little girl is the same. You don't know what's gone on. This woman is clearly bitter and jealous and she's trying to mess things up for him." Joanne nodded, "Talk to your dad about it before you make any assumptions." She said.

"Yeah, I will." Rey nodded, "Did you see the little card Amelia made me?" She asked, showing Joanne.

"Oh, that's sweet." Joanne smiled as Rey nodded, "And now you got another little sister."

"I do." Rey nodded, "It's crazy. I went from having no one to having… all of this family." She shook her head. My mom and dad. My uncle. Two little sisters." She shook her head, "It's crazy."

"It is." Joanne nodded, "But I'm happy for you. I think you're happy for you too." She smiled.

"Yeah, well at first I refused to let any of this happen. I thought I didn't need anyone. But I do. I like the idea of having little sisters and… and spending time with my parents." She said, "I guess now I know why they really gave me away, it makes sense and… I can tell when people genuinely care about me. I've had so many people pretend to care about me. Foster parents. Boyfriends. Friends. I know when people are faking it and they're not. They do actually care about me." Rey nodded, "And it's nice." She said as Joanne smiled.

"Yeah, it is. And it's what you deserve." Joanne nodded.

"Thank you for organising the party. It was nice." Rey nodded.

"Yeah and you looked gorgeous." Joanne smiled, "I'm sure you got a lot of numbers and a lot of free drinks from some guys across the bar."

"Numbers I won't be calling." Rey smiled, "I'll probably see my parents tomorrow, thank them for my gift and also ask my dad about his ex and what the hell she's doing." She shook her head, "I am kinda curious to know why he never told me about his other kid." She shrugged.

"I'm sure he'll explain it." Joanne nodded, "You should have a post-birthday relaxing day. Take a bath, order some pizza, watch some movies." She smiled.

"I think I will." Rey nodded, "I wish you could stay."

"I know me too." Joanne frowned, "But… I'm such a good friend that I'm covering your shift." She said.

"True, you are." Rey agreed, "Thank you."

"That's ok." Joanne nodded, "But I wanna see all the presents first so… keep opening." She said.

"This is nice." Punk hummed, lying in his bed with AJ which they'd had the luxury of having all night since Amelia was staying with Tom overnight.

"Yeah it is." AJ smiled, tangling her naked body against his, "I wonder if Reylissa liked her gift." She said.

"We gotta start calling her Rey." Punk laughed a little.

"I didn't name my daughter Rey." AJ shrugged.

"It's her thing." Punk nodded, "It's what she likes people calling her so… we should too." He said, "Hopefully she likes the gift. Bob wasn't very helpful when it came to asking for advice."

"I think he just wanted us to think of something on our own." AJ nodded, "I'm sure she'll love it." She said as Punk nodded.

"Hopefully." Punk nodded, "I'm seeing Lily tomorrow. I'm taking her out on my own and… well I thought maybe you could come and maybe bring Amelia." He said as AJ looked up at him.

"Are you sure?" AJ questioned.

"Yeah, to be honest I could do with the help and… I think they'll get along." Punk nodded, "I'm taking her to the park and then she's gonna come here for dinner." He said, "I just figured she might like playing with Amelia and… I could do with your support." He laughed a little as AJ smiled.

"Of course we'll come." AJ nodded, "I don't want your ex giving me into trouble or anything, though." AJ said as Punk just laughed a little.

"She'll stay out of it." Punk nodded.

"You shouldn't be nervous about this." AJ said, "You're a great dad. Lily loves you. The fact that you… you haven't been around as much but she still knows you and wants to see you has to mean something. Any other kid probably would probably zone out after a while but… she obviously loves seeing you." AJ nodded, "So don't doubt yourself, please." She said as Punk nodded.

"I just want to be there for her. I see what we missed with Rey and it sucks. We never got to see her grow up or become who she is today and I don't want that to happen with Lily either." Punk sighed.

"It won't." AJ nodded, "Rey was different. That was our decision and it was… we did the best we could." She said, "You have time with Lily. You can make it right. And she'll get old enough soon where she'll realise that her mother isn't being fair and she'll want to see you, and her mother won't get to decide yes or no. It'll be her decision." She said as Punk nodded.

"I hope so." Punk nodded.

"You'll be fine." AJ assured him, "I hope Amelia got on ok with Tom." She said, "When I dropped her off she didn't look like she wanted to be there." She admitted.

"I wouldn't either." Punk scoffed.

"I'm not gonna keep her from him. I'd just be as bad as Chrissy." AJ reminded him.

"Yeah, I know but I didn't do anything like Tom has." Punk said, "I never had an affair or slapped my wife." Punk made clear.

"I know." AJ said quietly, "But he's still her father and I'm not going to ruin that. Not unless he does anything to hurt her or make her upset." She nodded, "I just can't wait to be divorced and get this over with. Move into our new place and really start over." She said.

"Yeah, me too." Punk smirked, touching her under the sheets as she smiled up at him, leaning up and pressing her lips against his, rolling back over onto his body and deepening the kiss as they enjoyed some alone time.

Later that night after Rey had cleared up her apartment and put all her gifts away, she sat down on the sofa in front of the TV. She'd had a relaxing bath, washed her hair, ordered some take-out and was just about to put on a movie when she remembered she had a tape to watch.

She ran into her room and collected the tape, running back into the living room and crouching down to put it into the player. Luckily enough she had a combined tape and DVD player.

She stuck it on and changed the settings on the TV, collapsing back down onto the couch as she watched the tape begin to play.

"How does this thing work?" Punk questioned as he looked into the camera, lying on the bed in their room in Bob's apartment.

"You've got it round the wrong way." AJ said.

"Well I know that, I'm just trying to figure out which buttons I use." Punk said.

"No buttons, Phil. You just press the big red button and it records. You press it again to stop." AJ said.

"Yeah, ok. Don't get mad. Keep those hormones away from me." Punk warned as AJ just rolled her eyes, "How do I zoom in?" He turned the camera around, pointing it over at AJ who stood folding up some clothes.

"Why? So you can zoom in on inappropriate things?" AJ raised a brow.

"Uh… we're making this for our future kid. You think I'm gonna be putting the camera down my pants?" He questioned as AJ rolled her eyes, "No I wanna zoom in on the bump."

"Just move closer then." AJ rolled her eyes.

"Have you had your nap today?" Punk wondered, turning the camera back around to himself, "She needs two naps a day to be nice to me." He spoke to the camera, turning it back around.

"Well I haven't actually. I was at school."

"Ah ha, I knew it." Punk said, shuffling down the bed, "What's this you've been buying?" He zoomed in on the small baby grows.

"Some things for the baby." AJ smiled, "Like this. Get a close up of this." She held up a baby grow as Punk zoomed in, "I got it from my mama." AJ read the onesie as Punk rolled his eyes and laughed a little.

"You think that's a good thing?" Punk teased.

"Hey." AJ hissed, "Of course it is." She said, "Actually it was really embarrassing at the store." She said as Punk sat the recorder down, not realising he hadn't stop playing it, "I picked up a lot of these onesies and I didn't have enough money for all of them." AJ said as Punk looked across at her, "I literally had to go and put some back it was… so embarrassing." AJ rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure it happens all the time." Punk assured her, "How much stuff we got now?"

"Uh… Ok, so we got some of these onesies. Pacifiers. Bottles. I guess we're gonna just have to put the crib in here with us until… I don't know, until we figure something out with a place to stay." She sighed a little.

"Hey, we'll manage." Punk nodded, "We got time." He said, "You're… four months-"

"Almost five." AJ corrected.

"We've got time." Punk nodded slowly.

Rey watched the black screen, listening into their conversation sadly. The sad thing wasn't that she heard them struggle, but that she heard them have every intention to keep her and raise her.

"Get a shot of the scan picture." AJ said as Punk picked up the recorder again, "Four month scan." She said, sitting it down on the bed as Punk put the camera over to it, "Do you think they're gonna watch this when they're like fifteen or something?"

"Maybe." Punk nodded, pointing the camera up at her.

"Well if you are watching this." AJ smiled, "Mommy and daddy love you." She nodded, "And we can't wait to meet you." She smiled to the camera, "Look how tiny you are right now." She picked the picture up as Punk laughed a little, "Like a little peanut." She said.

"A peanut with arms and legs." Punk said.

"Yeah." AJ agreed, "A cute peanut." She nodded as Punk chuckled.

"Wait if the kid is watching it when they're fifteen shouldn't we be giving them advice?" Punk asked.

"I'm seventeen." AJ folded her arms, "What advice am I going to give it, I'm two years older." She scoffed as Punk laughed a little.

"I know but… we can give a little advice." Punk shrugged, turning the camera back to himself, "We'll always love you-"

"That's not advice, Phil." AJ scoffed.

"We're gonna be like best friends with it because we're the cool, young parents. Just watch." Punk smirked to himself as AJ rolled her eyes.

"I don't wanna be the cool parents." AJ said as Punk turned the camera back around to her, "Homework is always going to be finished in this house, whatever… house we end up in." She rolled her eyes, "No snacks before dinner either."

"Gosh, you're so boring." Punk yawned as AJ just smiled, "Ok, shot of the bump and then I'm turning this thing off for the day." He said, zooming in on AJ's small bump as she turned around for different angles, "This isn't a fashion show." He laughed.

Rey found herself laughing with them, getting a real sense of their friendship in the video.

"Hey, what you two wanting for dinner?" Bob walked into the room, "What are you doing?" He noticed the recorder.

"We're making little videos for the baby." Punk said, "We're gonna do it when it's born too. So we can look back on it." He said.

"I see." Bob smiled, "You bought some more stuff today?" He asked AJ.

"Just a couple of things." She nodded, disheartened.

"Hey, these will all add up." Bob nodded to her, "In no time."

"You think?" AJ sighed as Bob nodded.

"Of course." Bob smiled, "Now what do you want for dinner?"

"I'm craving pizza." AJ nodded.

"Well then I better go get some pizza." Bob nodded.

"Wait, say something to the camera." Punk nodded, zooming over onto Bob.

"You better not keep me awake with your crying." Bob pointed as Punk laughed a little.

"I think we can all agree on that." Punk added.

"Ok, I'm off out to get pizza." Bob nodded, leaving the room as Punk turned the camera back to AJ.

"Ok, we can shut the off now." AJ nodded to him, climbing over onto the bed, "We can't wait to meet you and we're so excited to see you." She smiled into the camera, "And we're always gonna love you the most." She said.

"Yeah and listen…" Punk turned the camera around to him, "This crying at 3am stuff that we keep hearing about… you don't really need to do that." Punk said as AJ laughed.

"Hey, if it wants to cry then we will be here." AJ worked her face into the camera, "We'll always be here." She nodded, "Because we love you so much." She smiled.

Rey smiled, brushing the tear rolling down her cheek from her face as she watched the tape cut out, drying her tears and holding the necklace around her neck.