"What was that all about?" Punk asked his wife once she had dried her tears and wriggled out of his embrace.
"I hate her." AJ cursed with hatred.
"Come on, you don't mean that." Punk told his wife, running his hands through her soft hair. Tate and Thomas were still in the kitchen having their dinner while Punk and AJ stood out in the hallway.
"I do." AJ promised, "She always has to put a damper on everything. She has no confidence in us whatsoever and I'm fed up of having to persuade her that I'm a good mom." AJ sighed, putting her hand on her forehead, having had such a long day, being on her feet for the majority of it, her head pounding with so much ache.
"Hey, listen to me…" Punk cupped her cheeks, "The only people that need to know you're a good mother, are me and our kids, and you are… one hundred percent. Just ignore her, she just loves to start shit for no reason." Punk said, pulling AJ back into his chest as she hugged her arms around his body.
It just made her feel so low when her mother spoke to her like she couldn't handle herself. Like she wasn't capable of looking after her own children, which she totally was, no doubt about it.
"I'm going to go run you a bath, scented candles and that bubbly shit you like, and I want you to just relax. Today has been a long day." Punk said, stroking her tear stained cheek as AJ smiled weakly.
"Thank you." AJ smiled up to him, not knowing where she would be without him.
"Keep an eye on the boys while I go sort the bath. I won't be long." Punk said, kissing AJ's head sweetly and heading upstairs to go run her a bath. She was stressed and tired enough as it was without Fiona shouting the odds to her. If her mother was going to behave this way, Punk would just tell her to not come visit anymore and vanish her right to see her grandchildren, and her new granddaughter in hospital.
AJ went back into the kitchen while she heard the bath running upstairs, taking long deep breaths to control her anger, smiling as her children sat with empty plates, having ate all their dinner like good boys, ready to go back out and play in the garden with Tate's new birthday toys.
"Can we go back out?" Tate asked his mother.
"Yeah." AJ smiled, running her hands through his soft hair, watching him and Thomas run out the back door and back into the garden. She loved that they were adventurous kids, always out in the garden exploring and getting the fresh air. She couldn't wait until they both went to school and got little friends who they could play with together.
"Alright…" Punk entered the kitchen, "Bath is ran, candles are lit, I've left you pyjamas in the bathroom to put on when you get out, and I'll have your dinner waiting on you when you come out. Ok?" Punk smiled, pressing a kiss against his wife's cheek as she smiled up at him.
"See, this is why I married you." She wrapped her arms around his neck, watching him chuckle, "Thank you, baby." She smiled, reaching up on her tip toes to press a soft kiss on his lips, pulling back and leaving the kitchen with a tired sigh, getting ready to climb the stairs slowly as she kept her hand placed on her large stomach.
Later on…
AJ crept downstairs later on after at least an hour of soaking in her warm bath, walking into the dimly lit, cosy and warm living room. Her sons were asleep on one couch, leaning against one another, while Punk sat on the other couch, slouched down with his eyes closed over. She knew he wasn't sleeping. She could see his foot tapping along with his fingers, he was no doubt just resting his eyes.
"Hey." AJ smiled with a whisper, watching Punk open his eyes and sit up.
"How was your bath?" Punk asked his wife, coming back to the world after shutting off for a few minutes, finding peace and quiet with his sons asleep on the other couch.
"It was amazing." AJ smiled, taking a seat beside her husband, "You look tired." AJ admitted, looking at Punk and stroking his stubbly cheek, his hair fallen out of its slicked ways, little strands hanging down low and over his eyes.
"I am tired." Punk told her with a smile, "But I'm fine." He said, "I know you're stressed, and tired, and upset with your mother. But you've only got another month to go until we have our baby girl. Just keep that in your mind." Punk said, his arm wrapped around his wife as she nodded, leaning her head in against his chest.
"I'm just so uncomfy." AJ moaned, "I can barely sleep at night, and then why I see patients I'm either yawning in their face or excusing myself to go pee." AJ sighed as Punk chuckled slightly.
"C'mon… you've only got one more month to go. I know you can do this. Think about how great it's going to be when she's here, all wrapped up in a pink blanket, her skin so soft and her little fingers and toes so tiny." Punk said, watching AJ smile dreamily.
"I've been thinking about names these past few days, but I just can't decide on one. I think I'm going to get the boys to pick one, unless you have any suggestions?" AJ looked up at her husband.
"I'm all out." Punk shrugged, not having any girl names up his sleeve, "You're really going to leave it down to a five year old and a three year old?" Punk asked curiously with frightment.
"Yeah… how bad could it be…" AJ shrugged.
The next day…
"Tate, we are not calling her Ice cream." AJ put washing into the washing machine as the boys sat eating their breakfast, Punk gone off to work earlier this morning.
"What about chocolate?" Thomas asked.
"Stop being ridiculous." AJ moaned at them, shutting the washing machine door over and putting a load of washing on for a spin, turning around at watching them as they ate their cereal.
"Don't you both have any actual real names you can suggest?" AJ asked them, surely they must have had some sort of idea about a few girls names.
"Jessie." Tate said without thought, raising the cereal on his spoon to his mouth and crunching on the morning snack.
"Jessie…" AJ repeated after him, "What… what made you say that?" AJ shook her head, the name seeming to be ringing in her ear, opening up some sort of light when she heard it.
"Me and Thomas watched Toy Story last night with dad… while you were in the bath." Tate explained to his mother, having thought about the character Jessie from the movie he watched, knowing that in the movie, the character Jessie was a girl, otherwise he wouldn't have known the difference between Jessie being a boy or a girls name.
"Jessie." AJ smiled, putting her hand on her tummy, looking down as she rubbed it gently. It never felt more right.
Later on…
"April… I'm home." Punk stumbled in the front door late on after a hard shift at work, but a good hard. He unzipped his sweater and kicked his trainers off at the front door, yawning loudly as he walked in through the hall.
"Up here." AJ exclaimed from up in the baby's room.
Punk trailed upstairs slowly to find his wife. He'd had a long day of writing. His hands were incredibly sore from typing so much on the computer. He'd just finished writing up for this weeks column about Tate's birthday, leading on to the prices of toys these days. It was his job to still symbolise a topic in the world, since it was a newspaper, but Mr Jones asked him to include examples with his family, to which he could every single time. Like last week, he wrote about AJ's hormones being all over the place, which led him to write about women's hormones in general. Not his first go to subject to write about, but he got great feedback. The public seemed to love how honest and how much they could relate to his own family life. He was just glad he was making people smile, including his boss.
"What are you doing in here?" Punk asked, walking into their daughter's room as AJ was standing leaning over the crib.
"The boys picked a name today." AJ smiled, "And then we went out shopping." She held the pink fluffy blanket in her hand, unfolding it and passing it to him as he read the name at the corner of the soft blanket, specially made with the chosen name for her daughter on it.
"Jessie." Punk read the blanket and looked up at AJ, "Jessie?" He looked at his wife with a smile, "I didn't think the boys were capable of coming up with an actual name." Punk chuckled, "Jessie." He said again to himself, liking the ring that the name had to it.
"They told me they were watching Toy Story with you last night and… it just came to them." AJ shrugged, "I love it. I think it's a perfect name." AJ smiled.
"I love it too." Punk nodded, "And it's even more perfect that the boys picked it." Punk said, liking the fact that it was his sons who were held responsible for the name of their little sister. He loved the name, he really did. He could imagine calling his daughter Jessie.
"Tate… Thomas and Jessie…" AJ smiled, wrapping her arms around her husband's body, leaning her head on his chest with a smile.
Now they had a name, all that was left was for little Jessie to make her way into the world in a few short weeks.
Thanks for all the REVIEWS! Glad you are enjoying the story. Keep them coming, I appreciate them a lot.
10 REVIEWS = New Chapter.