Clashed Heads

"Where are you taking me?" Lily questioned, holding Punk's hand after he had picked her up from Chrissy's and had left pretty much immediately. He just wanted to see his daughter without Chrissy anywhere near him. Every time she came to supervise over him he felt like he was being tested and it sucked.

"We're gonna go to the park because I know you love it so much and then we're gonna go back to my place for some pizza." Punk said.

"I love pizza." Lily smiled, "I could eat it every day."

"You could?" Punk questioned, "That's a lot of pizza."

"Well maybe not every day." Lily shrugged, "How come you never came to my birthday party? I had balloons and a cake." She told him.

"Well I thought we could have our own little birthday party." Punk said, "So technically you're getting two birthday parties. That's pretty cool." He said.

"That is cool." Lily agreed, "Mommy told me you didn't come because you just didn't feel like it." She said, "That made me sad." She told him as Punk paused for a second. It did always scare him to realise that Chrissy was no doubt saying things to Lily which weren't true.

"Hey, you listen to me." Punk crouched down in front of her as she looked at him, wrapped up in her hat and scarf, her sweet little face staring at him.

"What?" Lily said.

"I wanted nothing more than to see you on your birthday, ok?" Punk nodded, "But mommy's and daddy's sometimes… can't be together, so they have to do things at different times. So whilst mommy saw you on your birthday, I… I have to see you after." He said, "But that doesn't mean I didn't want to be there." He said, "We're gonna have our own special birthday, ok?" He said as she smiled and nodded.

"Ok." Lily smiled, "I knew you'd come see me." She nodded to him, taking his hand again as they continued to walk down the sidewalk, "I'm excited to go on the swings." She told him, "And daddy I got a bike for my birthday from my gran and grandpa." She told him, "And I said no, I don't want anyone teaching me because I want you to teach me how to ride my bike." She told him as Punk smiled, looking down to her as she skipped beside him.

"Hey, of course. I'll teach you how to ride it, I bet you'll get the hang of it in no time." Punk nodded.

"It's got a bell on it." She smirked, "I'm gonna press it all the time." She said as Punk laughed a little, walking into the park where he saw AJ sitting with a cup of coffee with Amelia sitting beside her

"Hey, Lil… so, daddy brought one of his friends to the park with us and she's got a kid just like you, I thought maybe you'd like to play with her." Punk said as Lily looked up at him.

"Where?" Lily wondered.

"They're over here." Punk nodded, walking over to the bench as AJ looked on and smiled.

"Hey." AJ smiled, watching as Lily looked over at her, "You must be Lily, right?" She nodded whilst Amelia looked over.

"Yeah." Lily nodded, staying close to Punk.

"I'm April. I'm a friend of your dad's." AJ nodded, "I love your hat." She smiled as Lily touched her hat.

"It's unicorns." Lily told her as AJ nodded and smiled.

"I love unicorns." AJ smiled, looking up at Punk with a smile, "This is Amelia." AJ turned to Amelia who sat looking over at Lily, "Why don't you go play?" She nodded to Amelia who got off the bench.

"I just turned four." Lily told Amelia.

"I'm six." Amelia said as Lily looked at her.

"Well I'm almost five." Lily shrugged.

"I'll be seven soon." Amelia said as AJ looked on with confusion.

"Ok, good… you both know your numbers." Punk nodded, "Look, there's nobody on the swings, why don't you go have a shot?" He asked them as Lily ran off ahead whilst Amelia followed behind.

"They're just getting to know one another." AJ nodded as Punk sat down across from her on the bench, "What is it with you and making cute kids?" She smiled, "She's adorable."

"Thanks. I think." Punk laughed to himself, "Yeah, she's a sweetheart." Punk smiled, "I'm just glad I can see her without Chrissy being anywhere near me." He shook his head.

"Yeah, it's gotta feel good." AJ smiled, "She actually looks a lot like you. Across the eyes." She nodded, looking over at Lily.

"You think?" Punk asked.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." AJ nodded, "You know, I think if you're gonna be seeing her more, you need to let Rey know about her. She's keen to know Amelia so… I doubt it'd be any different with Lily, and she deserves to know her little sisters." She said as Punk nodded.

"Oh, yeah. I'll tell her definitely. I was just waiting to see if Chrissy was being sincere or not." Punk nodded.

"Don't think about Chrissy. I know it's hard but just forget about her. Put all your focus on Lily and whatever time you get with her. I'm finding it hard to accept that… some nights I might not see Amelia because she's gonna be with Tom. Cons of failed marriages, huh?" She said. It was good that they could both now relate to going through this single separation and single parenting, even though they were starting something new with one another.

"You're right. It's just all about them. Putting them first." Punk nodded.

"Yeah." AJ nodded, "I've almost finished moving my things into the new house." AJ smiled, "I really can't thank you enough for letting us stay with you. I think those few weeks were really crucial for me to be around familiar faces and… you really helped me with all of this." She smiled, "And I'm not just meaning the obvious stuff but… just being there to talk to me." She said, "It really helped."

"Well our lives are sort of running in parallel it seems." Punk smiled, "And I'll always be there for you." He reminded her, "Maybe we do have our twenty year old daughter to thank for getting us back together." He smiled.

"Yeah, maybe we do." AJ smiled to him. She felt like a nervous teen again with all of the excitement and butterflies of a new relationship. She couldn't help feel like this was meant to happen, they were meant to find their way back to each other, and although they had other things going on in their lives and they were really taking things slow, they both knew that their happy place was always with each other.

Meanwhile over on the swings, Lily was struggling to swing as high as Amelia was, and was getting a little agitated, jumping on and off the swing whilst trying to push it.

"You're going to fall." Amelia told her whilst watching her.

"No I'm not." Lily batted back.

"You'll get higher one day." Amelia shrugged as Lily turned to her.

"You're not any better because you can swing higher." Lily made clear.

"I know." Amelia said, "I can get off and push you if you like."

"No." Lily said immediately, "I don't need your help." She made clear as Amelia rolled her eyes, looking across where her mother and Punk were sat.

"You're lucky your daddy is Phil." Amelia nodded as Lily turned to her, her scarf getting caught in the swing handles as she scoffed and pulled it out. She was a little bit of a clutz.

"Why?" Lily questioned.

"Because he's nice, I like him." Amelia smiled.

"Well he's my daddy. Not yours." Lily made clear with a raised brow as Amelia turned to her and nodded.

"I know." Amelia nodded, "Me and my mommy have been staying with him but now we have our own house."

"Your mommy is pretty." Lily said, looking over at AJ, "My mommy never takes me to the park." She admitted.

"My mommy always takes me to the park." Amelia smirked as Lily frowned, "And we have a dog too. He's my dog. Spike."

"No fair." Lily huffed, jumping off the swing and wandering away to play on her own as Amelia watched her.

"What's going on?" AJ shook her head, watching as Lily ran off to the chute whilst Amelia stayed on the swings.

"Probably just wanna play on different things." Punk shrugged as AJ nodded.

Amelia then got up from the swing, wandering on over to the jungle gym and chute where Lily was playing, "Let's see who can go down the fastest." Amelia smiled, climbing up the jungle gym where Lily was just sitting.

"Why don't you leave me alone." Lily told her as Amelia sat with confusion, "Go away." She said, getting on the chute and sliding down as she ran back over to the swings whilst Amelia climbed back down the jungle gym and headed over to her mother.

"Hey, baby. What's up?" AJ asked.

"Lily doesn't want to play with me. She told me to go away." Amelia shrugged as AJ looked over to Punk.

"Why'd she say that?" Punk shook his head, looking over to Lily who was trying to swing herself on the swings.

"I don't know. She's not very nice." Amelia admitted.

"Hey, don't say that." AJ said as Punk looked over to Lily, "What were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing really. She told me to leave her alone." Amelia shrugged as AJ frowned, cupping her daughter's cheek softly.

"I uh… maybe we'll go." AJ turned to Punk who sighed to himself and nodded, "Maybe you should talk to her." She said.

"Yep." Punk sighed, "Sorry Amelia, she's not normally like that. I'll see what's wrong with her." He nodded to her.

"Ok." Amelia shrugged as AJ stood up.

"I'll see you around." AJ nodded to Punk, placing her hand on his shoulder on the way by as he nodded and smiled, watching as she left the park with Amelia before standing up and heading on down to the swings.

"Hey, kiddo." Punk nodded, "You struggling there?" He smiled, noticing her trying to swing herself. She was small for her age and definitely had his bad temper for sure.

"Can you push me?" Lily sighed with frustration, collapsing down on the swing seat as Punk smiled and nodded.

"Yeah." Punk nodded, standing behind her and giving her a push before sitting down on the swing beside, "Hey, why did you tell Amelia to go away? That wasn't very nice of you." He said as Lily turned to him.

"Because she gets to see you all the time and I don't. That's what mommy told me. She said you spend your time with Amelia and not me." Lily said as Punk shook his head and sighed.

"Amelia… stayed with me for a little bit but… baby, I get to see you when your mommy lets me. She-she is in charge so… when you wanna see me you gotta let her know because… she doesn't listen to me, unfortunately." Punk nodded, "You didn't have to be mean to Amelia. She's really sweet and she really wanted to play with you."

"She's got a nice mommy." Lily said, "And a dog." She turned to Punk, "And she gets to see you more than me." She frowned as Punk sighed.

"You have a nice mommy too." Punk nodded, as much as he disagreed, "And… you never know, maybe a dog will appear in the future, and I promise me and you are gonna see more of each other." He said.

"She could swing higher than me too." Lily said dramatically as Punk smiled a little.

"I know but… you're little. It doesn't matter what, you shouldn't be mean to people. Ok?" He said as Lily nodded.

"Sorry." Lily mumbled, "I didn't mean to be mean." Lily said, swinging back and forth.

"It's ok but… you gotta apologise." Punk said, "You shouldn't worry about what other people are thinking. Me and you, I know we don't see each other as much as we'd like but… we can still have fun." He said as she smiled and nodded.

"Yeah." Lily smiled.

"Ok, I'll push you some more and then we can get some pizza." Punk said as Lily smiled and nodded.