"I really don't want them to sleep by themselves tonight." AJ frowned as she looked upon her son's sleeping on the couch in the living room, Punk standing behind her just at the door.
"They can sleep in beside us." Punk said, doing and saying anything to keep AJ happy and less worried, which was totally impossible. She was always going to be terrified now and that annoyed the hell out of him.
"Really?" AJ smiled up at him with tired eyes.
"Yeah. Just for tonight though." He said, not wanting it to become a habit. He just wanted AJ to feel less frightened than what she did, and if having the kids sleeping beside her made her feel better then that's what would happen.
Punk watched as AJ went and sat down on the other couch to which the boys were sleeping on, taking a seat with a contented sigh, so glad to be back home. He joined her in the midst, sitting beside her and resting his hand on her lap.
"Why didn't you tell me about the baby?" Punk asked her.
"I thought you'd be mad. We agreed we wouldn't have another one until another few years. So I… I thought that if, I asked you first and it looked like we were trying to have a baby, you wouldn't have been shocked or mad when I told you." She shrugged.
"I wouldn't have been mad. Sure, I would have been shocked. But I wouldn't have been mad." He said as she turned her head to face him, watching her smile lightly.
"I'm sorry." AJ apologised, watching him just nod and wave his hand like it didn't matter anymore, which it didn't. He had to worry about other things now.
"Your mom thinks I'm not going to be able to handle it all. You, three kids… she has her doubts." Punk said with a sigh.
"She had her doubts about us having Tate at first. Look how we managed him." AJ smiled.
"Yeah, but back then it was only him. We could concentrate more on loving him and taking care of him." Punk said, "What if I… what if I can't look after all of you? I mean, that's my job isn't it? To look after you all." He said.
"One other son or daughter isn't going to weigh you down, Phil. I know it's scary. Three sounds a lot more scarier than two. But two also sounded way more scarier than one when we were having Thomas." AJ reminded him.
"I know. It's just a lot to take in." Punk said.
"I know." AJ understood, "I just don't have a good feeling in my stomach." AJ admitted, "The way I was just… taken… how they, set you up on this hunt for me to then just tell you where I was so easily. It just doesn't seem right." AJ shook her head.
"I know." Punk nodded, "But I promise, he won't come near this house again, and if he does… he won't live to talk about." Punk gritted his teeth. He would do anything to protect his family, his now large family that started off incredibly small. Whatever mind games Tim was playing with him, he wouldn't tolerate it. He wasn't a child. He wasn't playing games.
"When did we even forget to use protection?" Punk asked randomly, trying to rack his brain into himself for the past few minutes, completely lost, knowing they were always careful now.
"When my mom had the boys overnight. We ate a full gallon of ice cream and insisted we work it off." She chuckled remembering, watching as Punk smiled.
"Ahh, the ice cream night." Punk recalled, "That was a nice night." He smiled.
"It was." AJ agreed with him, leaning her head down on his beating chest, "I know you… doubt yourself a lot, which bugs me. I hate that you don't see yourself the way I see you." She said.
"And how do you see me?" Punk chuckled.
"I see you as the greatest husband, the greatest father, the greatest friend a girl could ask for in a guy. The boys love you to death, they'd lost without you… this baby is going to love you. He, she, it… whatever it may be." She said.
"An it?" Punk chuckled, "I know we got freaky that night, but we didn't get that freaky." He said as she felt him slap his chest, "Keep doing that." Punk said out of the blue as she looked up at him.
"Doing what?" AJ shook her head.
"Laughing… smiling." Punk smiled, "It makes me feel like I'm doing my job right." He smiled.
"You're always doing your job right." AJ whispered, "Let's go to bed." She suggested after getting a glimpse of the clock, approaching her sons, lifting Thomas up into her arms, holding his clinging little body tightly as he rested his head on her shoulder, leaving Punk to get Tate.
The next morning…
"Dad…" Punk began to hear faint whispers from beside him, "Dad, wake up." Thomas shook his father as lightly as he could, until Tate stood up and began hitting his father with a cushion, no remorse for his sleepy parents whatsoever, unlike Thomas who folded his legs in a basket and watched his elder brother hit the cushion left to right, bouncing in the middle between Punk and AJ.
"Alright… alright." Punk grabbed the cushion from Tate and threw it across the room out of sight, "Five more minutes, yeah?" Punk said, his eyes still shut as Tate kneeled down and opened them up with his little fingers.
"Hello." Tate laughed, emphasizing on the o part, putting his eye against Punks forced opened one, doing almost everything he could to annoy his father.
"Punk… go get them their breakfast." AJ moaned at all the noise, having enjoyed her safe sleep with her family close by.
Punk moaned to himself, but nevertheless got out of his warm bed, putting his basketball shorts on with last nights t-shirt, lifting Tate and Thomas, one after the other off the bed, watching them run ahead downstairs as he lay a kiss on his wife's head whilst walking by her bedside, watching her smile with her eyes still closed, leaving her to sleep these past traumatic days off, closing the room door behind him.
Once he got downstairs, he made the boys their breakfast with tired eyes, yawning every now and then whilst doing so, sitting at the table with them like every morning to strike up conversation, not much to say since they were both always busy eating their breakfast. But something sprung to his mind this morning.
"Hey… you know how you two, are brothers." Punk pointed back and forth to them as they nodded, uninterested in what their father had to say, concentrating more on their cereal and orange juice.
"I'm the big brother." Tate said, pointing to himself, knowing he was right in saying that. He loved being the big brother. He felt so big, evidently. Even though he was only a year older than Thomas.
"Yeah, that's right." Punk nodded, "But, in a few months… very soon, mom is going to have another baby." Punk told them as Tate looked completely unimpressed.
"Why?" Tate asked, like he was the father out of the relationship.
Punk was about to explain in child language when Thomas spoke up.
"I want a baby sister." Thomas smiled, "Can I have a baby sister?" He asked.
"You don't really have a choice, son." Punk chuckled.
"You don't want a sister." Tate told his brother.
"Yes I do." Thomas nodded.
"No you don't." Tate shook his head.
"I do." Thomas retorted.
"No you…" Tate was about to take some cereal from the bowl to throw at his brother.
"Hey!" Punk yelled as they both turned to him, "It's really early and you two are like little birds chirping in my ear. You don't want to wake mom up, do you?" He said as they both shook their head, "Well you don't have to shout." He said.
"Thomas doesn't want a sister. I don't want a sister." Tate said, in other words, anything he didn't want, his brother and everyone else in the world automatically didn't want.
"I think Thomas does want a sister." Punk chuckled as Thomas seemed uninterested in the subject again.
"Well I don't." Tate said, turning away from his father abruptly as if mad with him that they had to have a new addition to their family.
Punk knew Tate was just being a typical little boy, not wanting any attention on anyone but him. He knew Tate would love the new baby when it was here.
Once clearing the plates from breakfast, Punk let the boys go into the living room to watch their awful morning kids programmes, hearing them shout at the TV while he done the dishes. He couldn't imagine having another child to look after, including the hassel Tate and Thomas caused. A part of him, like AJ… was hoping it was a girl, for the sake of not having three boys fighting at the dinner table every night. Maybe a baby girl would mature Tate and Thomas. He knew they would take great care of a sister, as much as Tate refused to believe it. But then again, it would be nice and easy he might add, to have three boys to play in the back garden with, wrestle and swing around. He was afraid that if it was a girl that he would break her since he was so used to playing rough with the boys.
He was just headed into the living room to join the boys and tell them to keep it down, when the door knocked on his way into the living room. He cut his journey long ways and walked straight past the living room and to the front door, opening it and getting ready to attack.
"What do you want?" Punk said, stepping outside of the house, closing the door shut behind him tightly, watching Tim put his hands up in defence.
"Woah. It's ok. I'm not here to attack or come for you or your family. I promised remember." Tim said as Punk began to unclench his fists softly, "I just came to say it was wrong for me to do what I done. I shouldn't have done what I done to your family. It was childish and I just… I was just frustrated with you being out of prison before me and having this perfect life." Tim said with fake sincerity, "I promise, it won't happen again." He said.
"Well, good. I'm glad you came to me like a man and apologised for being so sick and twisted." Punk said, "Now if you excuse me, I have a frightened family to be getting back to." Punk said, feeling like he'd been given Tim's word officially now, really believing Tim which was stupid of him. Believing that his apology was nothing but sincere, walking back into his house and feeling a little bit of weight being lifted from his shoulders.
Later on…
"Did he buy it?" Jenny asked, clasping her hands as Tim walked into the motel they were temporarily living at.
"I think so." Tim nodded, "I promise sweetheart, that baby is all ours. I'm going to get you what you want." Tim promised his girlfriend, not even possibly thinking about how cruel it was to be thinking and planning in this way.
"If it's a boy I want to call him Tim." Jenny smiled with glee, "Where will we go?" She asked.
"Somewhere far away. Where no one will find us. We'll wait until the night the baby has been born, when the girl is sleeping and dear old Phil has went home to shower. I'll just scoop our baby up without anyone noticing, and we can go… wherever you want." Tim said.
"I don't care. As long as I have my baby." Jenny placed her clasped hands near her heart, really carrying on like this baby that was all AJ and Punks, was part of her too.
"You'll have your baby. I promise." Tim promised, a smile appearing on Jenny's face as she knew Tim's promises… were never broken.
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