Waiting It Out

"What are you doing here?" Eve shook her head, walking into Punk's office which AJ was sitting in on the computer. She quickly shut down everything she was looking at and looked up.

"Uh… I was looking at something for Phil." AJ said casually, "You're normally not here that late." She pointed out.

"I forgot some work." Eve shook her head, "Isn't Phil in Saudi Arabia?" She questioned.

"He is. He called me to ask me to check some things for him. I also had a translation for him I had to hand in." She said. She'd moved on from her past life, but she still knew how to lie and manipulate people into believing everything that came out of her mouth.

"AJ to the rescue, huh?" Eve smiled.

"Something like that." AJ nodded, "I left the girls with Coleen so I guess I should probably get back. I don't want to say she's a bad influence on them but… she's a bad influence on them." AJ said as Eve smiled.

"How you been doing?" Eve asked her, "How is the company going?" She asked as AJ nodded.

"It's going good. The more support we get, the more we can do to help and… we're getting a lot more support from the right people. It just means we can get better resources to help girls, but also keep young girls aware of the signs that they might be getting loured in." AJ nodded.

"Well it's amazing. Phil comes in here every morning and he's… he's beaming with pride over it. It's a really good thing you're doing." Eve smiled.

"It's the least I can do." AJ nodded.

"Well we miss you here. You were always a great help." Eve smiled.

Truth be told, AJ saw very little of Punk's friends. Of course they saw one another at special occasions. Birthdays and Christmases. But since AJ had left the CIA, she rarely saw them. She did owe a lot to them because regardless of how they felt at the time, they had given her a chance when no one else would have. They had kept her secrets and her wrongdoings to give her a better life and she was always thankful for that. For crying out loud, she had stabbed Eve during one of their first encounters.

"I liked working here it just… it started to feel too similar to the life I was running from." AJ nodded.

"Of course." Eve nodded, "How are the girls? How did Raimy do at her talent show?" She asked.

"She was great." AJ nodded, "It was hard not to just… burst into tears." She laughed a little, "They're both fine." AJ smiled, shutting down Punk's computer as Eve just nodded.

"That's great. Well I better get going. I'll see you soon. Hopefully Phil and Dean get on ok in Saudi." She said as AJ smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, hopefully." AJ smiled, watching as Eve left the office.

Her smile faded out as she turned the computer back on, resuming the pages and the tracking software she had been using, printing some things off whilst she kept her eyes on the door. Lucky for her, she knew how to use all the software from her previous life of doing other people's dirty work.

It was in her past, but it never left her.

"I want to speak to daddy." Vivian sighed, lying on the floor on her stomach in front of the TV, resting her chin in her hands as she looked up at the screen.

"Well you can't." Raimy told her, watching the TV, sitting beside her aunt.

"I want to." Vivian said childishly.

"He'll be home soon." Coleen assured them.

"Let me see him on the phone." Vivian sat up impatiently.

"He's working, babe. You can't." Coleen shook her head, "We're watching your favourite movie." She nodded.

"I watch this with daddy." Vivian sighed. She was young and a little more clingier towards her father. She didn't understand why he had to be gone for so long and she missed the little things like lying with him on the couch and playing with his hair or painting his nails which she enjoyed.

"Stop talking." Raimy told her sister, "We're trying to watch this." She scolded her sister as Vivian frowned.

"I'm going to play with my toys." Vivian mumbled, slipping out of the living room and into the kitchen without her aunt or sister noticing much. They were too busy tiredly watching the movie on TV.

Vivian climbed up onto the chair, digging into her aunt's purse as she found her phone and grinned happily, "Daddy." She said deviously, jumping back down from the chair and into the living room.

"Auntie Coleen." Vivian said, "I'd like to play some games on your phone." She said innocently and sweetly.

Coleen took the phone from her and punched in her password, not thinking much of it as she rushed back into the kitchen, closing the door behind her and hopping up onto the chair.

She went into the phone book and even though she was three, she knew exactly how to facetime someone as she'd done it so much with her father.

She scrolled through the names, trying to find her father's name, suddenly noticing that there was a contact saved under daddy. Her eyes lit up and she smiled, clicking on the name and lifting the phone to her face.

"Daddy." Vivian smiled as the call picked up, "Hello." She said loudly, holding the phone close to her face, watching the person, which was not her father, move around.

"Who is this?" The man questioned as Vivian looked closely.

"Uh… do you have my daddy there?" Vivian wondered, "I'm looking for my daddy. His name is Phil and he's got um… colourful arms." She nodded, "And he wears a hat sometimes."

The man chuckled a little and smiled, "You must be Vivian, right?" He asked her.

"How do you know?" Vivian asked curiously, "Hey mister, put my daddy on." She said, getting agitated and frustrated just as Coleen came into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Coleen questioned, walking closer as she saw that her niece was on facetime to her late night friend with benefits, "Vivian!" Coleen squealed, snatching the phone up as she looked on at her friend, Patrick, who was laughing, "Oh my God."

"It said daddy." Vivian shrugged as Patrick laughed even more so.

"I will... call you back." Coleen spoke to the phone as Patrick saluted and hung up, "What are you doing? I told you your dad is working, Vivian." She shook her head, "I thought you were playing a game."

"I just wanted to say hi." Vivian sighed.

"Babe, he's gonna be home so soon and you can see him in person. He's busy and he's working, ok?" Coleen nodded, "Please don't use my facetime ever again. Just use mommy's, ok?" She asked as Vivian just nodded.

"Was that your friend?" Vivian asked her.

"Yes, just a friend." Coleen said, "Go… go watch the rest of the film and I'll bring you in a snack." She said as Vivian hopped off the chair and headed back into the living room as Coleen placed her hand on her forehead and shook her head.

"Did you find anything?" Coleen asked, later that nice once AJ had returned home. The girls were in bed which gave them a chance to speak in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I did." AJ said, "Teresa is living in Virginia right now." She shook her head, "We should have… we should have been checking on this." She sighed to herself, "She moved about nine months ago." She nodded, "She's starting the business up here."

"Well then maybe… maybe they've just moved for the business." Coleen nodded.

"Come on. You really believe that?" AJ shook her head, "No, she sent me that bottle to… to warn me. To make her presence known. For what reason I don't know." AJ sighed.

"What are you gonna do?" Coleen asked.

"I'm gonna wait until Phil gets home and talk it out with him." AJ sighed, "I feel like I'm back to looking over my shoulder again." AJ shook her head, running her hands through her hair.

"I can stay here with you if you want? Until Phil gets home." Coleen suggested.

"No… no, it's fine. I can… I can protect myself and the girls if it comes to it." AJ nodded, "I just thought this had all disappeared forever." She shook her head, "I never gave it a second thought."

"Why have they waited all this time?" Coleen asked, "All that shit went down years ago. Why now?"

"I have no idea." AJ shook her head and sighed, "I can't even imagine what it is they want. If it's me? If it's revenge? Do they want to hurt me? Phil? I… I don't know. I hate not knowing." AJ shook her head.

"Try not let your mind go there. When Phil gets home you tell him and you guys come up with something. Maybe you guys could get them done for something. They operate illegally I take it?"

"Oh, yeah. So illegal." AJ nodded, "But they could bring me down with them."

"There'd be no evidence against you." Coleen said.

"There might be. They might have something against me. We gotta play our cards right." AJ shook her head, "I really just thought this was behind us." She sighed.

"It might be. Try not let it get to you so much. I know it's easier said than done." Coleen nodded, "It's obvious she wants to play games, right? So she's not gonna come in all guns blazing. Groups and gangs like that never do. Which gives you time to figure things out and tell Phil." She said as AJ nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right." AJ nodded, "Thanks for watching the girls tonight." She shook her head, "Life saver."

"About that." Coleen said as AJ looked up at her, "Vivian might have… called my… late night fuck buddy." She said as AJ shook her head with confusion.

"What?" AJ shook her head, not even sure what to think about that statement.

"She kept saying she wanted to call Phil and see him on facetime and I said no cause he was probably working. She got onto my phone, I thought she was gonna play games on it. I have this guy saved on my phone as daddy." She shook her head, embarrassed as AJ chuckled to herself.

"Really?" AJ laughed.

"And she must have thought it was Phil." Coleen laughed a little, "And he answered." She rolled her eyes.

"My poor baby." AJ shook her head, "I didn't know you had those kind of friends."

"Friend. I'm not that bad." Coleen said, "The secret is, I actually kinda like him." She shook her head, "But I don't know how to go about that so… it's easier just… keeping it the way it is."

"I thought that about Phil and look at me." AJ said, "If you like him then you should be honest with him about it. He might just feel the same." She smiled, "And maybe change his name to something else instead of daddy." She shook her head.

"What? You don't have weird names for Phil?" Coleen asked as AJ scoffed dramatically.

"No." She laughed and turned away as Coleen took AJ's phone from the table, "What are you doing?" AJ shook her head.

Coleen unlocked the phone, knowing her password was Raimy's birthday, going into the contacts as AJ tried to get it from her.

"Stop it." AJ laughed.

"No, I wanna see." Coleen sniggered, holding the phone back as AJ shook her head, "Papi!" Coleen exclaimed and chuckled, "Are you serious?"

"What?" AJ shrugged, snatching the phone from her as Coleen just chuckled.

"Hey, you do you." Coleen nodded.

"What is this guy's name then?" AJ smiled.

"Patrick." Coleen said, "He's nice but he doesn't know… about, you know… the tragic childhood."

"Hey, take your time. If you do like this guy and he likes you and he respects you most importantly, things will just fall into place and you'll feel ready to talk to him." She nodded.

She'd watched her sister come along way and she'd turned into a very strong, bright and tough young woman. She was glad she never gave up on her and was there to help her, because it made them all the more stronger.

"We'll see." Coleen nodded, "You sure you don't want me to stay?" She asked.

"No, I'll be fine." AJ assured her, "You get home safe." She said as Coleen smiled and nodded, eventually leaving the house as AJ sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table, her stomach full of knots and nerves.