Question Time


"Are you awake?" AJ whispered, lying in bed later that night, having not been able to sleep the entire time, wondering if her husband was awake so she could talk to him.

"Yeah." Punk nodded quietly, turning around from his back onto his side to face her as she turned her head.

"I can't sleep." She told him as Punk nodded.

"Me neither." He said, "I just can't stop thinking about Dean and Anna." He shook his head.

"Me neither." AJ said, "I just don't get it. I know that her reasons will never make sense for doing this, regardless, but why do this to your own daughter?"

"Because she's here. She's with Dean. She doesn't live in a fancy house with this great job like her mom probably expects her too. If my dad is telling the truth, it's why she stopped talking to my mom." Punk said.

"Or she stopped talking to them because your dad killed someone." AJ said.

"Well, that too." Punk nodded, "I would have done the same." He looked at her, "If you were in trouble, I would have helped you in any situation, and it's just unfortunate that it ended the way it did." He said, "But clearly it wasn't intentional." He said. He believed his father when he said that the death wasn't on purpose. He understood that things happened in the moment and that bad accidents like that can happen. He tried to put himself in his shoes and realised that he would have protected AJ the same way if it was him.

"At least… the only good thing we've got going right now is that she's safe." AJ nodded, "It's not like she's with a stranger."

"We don't know that." Punk said, "Nothing is gonna ease Anna and Dean right now. After all the shit they went through, and now this." He shook his head, "She's got a lot coming for her."

"Yeah." AJ nodded.

"And I don't want you to be hard on yourself with representing them." Punk told her, "If things don't go how it should go, that's not on you. Sometimes I think it'd be better if they got a different lawyer, because I don't want you to feel under any pressure, that's not fair." He said.

"I'm fine." AJ said, "I've been doing this for a lot of years. I've dealt with cases similar to this. She won't win." AJ nodded as Punk just smiled, "I never even got to see her." AJ sighed.

"I just got to see her for a second. She's really cute. Looks like Dean." Punk nodded as AJ smiled.

"Do you think she feels bad for how she treated your mom?" AJ asked, "I mean, she practically stopped behind friends with her because she was pregnant and with your dad."

"If she felt bad she wouldn't be taking her son's baby from him." Punk said, "I think she's still mad. If she's under this impression that my mom and dad ruined her life that night, and she's probably annoyed that my mom practically chose my dad over her-"

"It should never have to be a choice. Friends like that aren't friends." AJ said, "I wish your mom was here to give us her side of the story." She shook her head.

"Yeah, I wish she was here too." Punk sighed as AJ rubbed his arm, "I mean, it's clear though that she doesn't want Anna with Dean, so she certainly won't want her grandkid with him."

"So her solution is to just take the baby?" AJ said.

"Well it worked, didn't it?" Punk said, "Rich people like her, no one bats a fucking eye."

"They will when I call her out on the stand and make her feel an inch tall." She spat as Punk smiled.

"I've never saw you in court at work." Punk smiled, "Should I be scared?"

"Maybe." AJ nodded as he smiled.

"Did you look to see if Dean and Anna can visit Skyler?" He asked her.

"Yeah, well the problem is, they can only be granted a visit if… if Jean allows it." She shrugged, "So I'm gonna put in for it and see what happens. Maybe if she accepts then Anna could talk some sense into her, make her feel real bad. I'm sure whatever Dean has to say she won't care about but… Anna is still her daughter." AJ said.

"Her goal though is to have Anna move to New York with the baby and live with her parents. Anna won't go through with that obviously so it could be useless." Punk said, "What are you even gonna say in court? It's not like she's an evil woman, yes, she's evil in the sense she's taken a baby from her daughter but… she's not physically evil-"

"She is. She broke Anna's arm one time. I'm gonna throw that in there. I'm gonna throw the article that she wrote, proves that she never liked our family, never liked Dean, therefore she's doing this out of spite. I've got a lot to argue, don't you worry about that." AJ nodded.

"I just hope it doesn't drag out." Punk sighed, "I just couldn't imagine Keala or Frankie being taken from us like that."

"I know." AJ shook her head, it seemed like a literal nightmare happening, "Court will be in a few weeks. I'll press for a visit for now and see what they come back with." AJ nodded, listening as their bedroom slowly opened up as Punk sat up and turned the lamp on beside the bed, looking over at Keala standing with her glow bear.

"Hey." Punk shook his head, "What are you doing up?" He asked her as she walked into the room, shutting the door over and climbing up onto the bed, stepping on her father's leg accidentally in attempts to get in the middle of her parents, "That hurt." Punk moaned a little.

"Sorry." Keala said quietly, fixing a pillow in the centre as AJ watched her get under the covers.

"W-What are you doing?" AJ asked. She knew where her and Punk's late night conversation was heading, and she knew now that whatever they had planned wasn't going to happen with their daughter lying between them.

"I had a bad dream." She told them, lying down and tucking her glow bear under her arm.

"About what?" Punk asked her, sitting against the headboard whilst AJ lay beside Keala.

"Well a bad man came into our house and I was scared and couldn't find either of you." She told them.

"What bad man, baby?" AJ asked her, playing with her daughter's hair.

"I don't know. It was just a bad man. Like a monster." Keala said.

"Monsters aren't real." Punk told her as Keala looked up at him.

"This one was." Keala said, "I can't remember what happened after that." She admitted truthfully, "But it was still scary." She said.

"Well it's not gonna happen because monsters aren't real." Punk told her.

"Monsters are real, I think." Keala argued with him, "Like the monsters under the bed." She said, "I think they're real."

"Go look under our bed then." Punk said, "See if there's any monsters sitting around." He told her.

"No, I'm too scared." Keala shook her head as AJ smiled.

"Will I look?" Punk asked her.

"Yeah, you go." Keala pushed him off the bed a little as Punk got off the bed and crouched down, lifting up the sheet and sticking his head under the bed where ultimately, there was absolutely nothing there.

"Oh, hey." Punk said as Keala raised her eyebrows and immediately backed into her mother at the thought of her father talking to the monsters underneath, "You guys alright in here?" Punk spoke to nothing but the oxygen swarming around, "Yeah, well we might need you to move out, Keala is afraid of you guys under here."

"I told you." Keala whispered, knowing she was right all along as AJ just smiled and watched as her crazy husband pretended to talk to the monsters under the bed.

"You guys are friendly monsters, right?" Punk asked, of course getting no reply, "So you guys won't hurt Keala?" He asked as Keala watched closely, "Great. Have a nice sleep." He said, standing back up and getting into the bed as Keala looked at him.

"What did they look like?" Keala asked curiously.

"Ugly." Punk nodded, "They said you don't have to worry because they're moving out soon anyway." He shrugged.

"Why are they moving out?" Keala asked.

"Fed up, I guess." Punk shrugged, "They won't hurt you, though." He nodded as Keala folded her legs in a basket and put her glow bear in the middle, "When people die, where do they go?" Keala asked them as Punk turned to AJ and made a face. It wasn't the likeliest conversations with their daughter at such a late time of night, and it was a question that he didn't quite know how to answer. Similar to the 'where do babies come from' question, although that seemed more easy to bullshit around.

"Uh… when… when people die." Punk said, looking at AJ to help him out.

"They just get to chill out." AJ shrugged as Punk nodded.

"Chill out doing what?" Keala asked, "Is it true they go under the ground because that scares me? I don't want to chill down there." She told them as Punk smiled a little.

"Well, think of it like this, you're not really in your body anymore, so it doesn't matter where your body goes."

"So where am I?" Keala asked as Punk just narrowed his eyes at AJ.

"Well you can be a ghost." Punk shrugged, "Means you can just float about, see what's going on without anybody noticing you."

"Oh." Keala nodded, "Jackson told me that the bad people go under the ground into fire and the good people go up into the sky with the angels." She said, looking from her mother to her father.

"Everyone believes different things." AJ said, "It's up to you what you want to believe." She said, "And honestly, it's nothing for you to worry about right now." She nodded.

"Yeah." Punk agreed.

"Ok, now you need to tell me where babies come from." Keala said as Punk rolled his eyes.

"It's time you go back to bed." Punk said as AJ smiled.

"But Frankie was in mommy's tummy and then he was out just like that." Keala said, "It doesn't make sense." She huffed, "How was it in your tummy in the first place?" She asked AJ who just smiled.

"He just got there. I don't know." AJ shrugged.

"What if a baby just gets in my tummy?" Keala asked them.

"I can guarantee you that will not happen." Punk promised her.

"How do you know?" Keala asked.

"Trust me, I know." Punk said as Keala just nodded.

"The baby gets there when you're in love with someone." AJ told her.

"Not all the time." Punk disagreed as AJ turned to him and made a 'shut up' face, "No, you're right." Punk nodded, "Yes, you have to be in love and then the baby happens." Punk nodded, "What time is it?" He groaned, feeling like time had been standing still.

"So you had the baby because you love daddy." Keala said, "And if you didn't love daddy there'd be no Frankie?"

"Now we're getting somewhere." AJ nodded, "Yeah. There'd be no you either." She said.

"When can I have a boyfriend?" Keala asked them as Punk made a face and folded his arms.

"Never." Punk said as Keala gasped.

"Why not?" Keala asked, "I want one."

"Uh no you don't." Punk said, "Boys are disgusting and you should stay away from them." Punk nodded.

"You're a boy." Keala raised a brow.

"I'm a nice boy though." Punk smiled sweetly.

"You don't want a boyfriend until you're way older." AJ nodded.

"Preferably when I'm not around anymore." Punk said.

"Phil." AJ nipped him as Punk just shrugged.

"Can I have two boyfriends?" Keala asked as Punk looked at her and then turned to AJ.

"Can you stick something sharp into me?" Punk asked AJ who just smiled.

"Why would you want two boyfriends?" AJ laughed.

"I don't know." Keala shrugged.

"You're not having one boyfriend." Punk said, "Never mind two."

"Why can't I have a boyfriend?" Keala shook her head.

"You can. Just not any time soon." AJ said.

"May I remind you, you are seven." Punk nodded.

"I know what age I am." Keala said, "So I have to wait a while then?" She asked.

"A long while. Years and years actually." Punk emphasised as Keala just huffed, "I think it's time you get back to bed."

"Let me sleep in here." Keala said, climbing back under the covers in between them and lying down, hugging into her mother as Punk watched, "When can I really have a boyfriend?" Keala whispered to her mother.

"I heard that." Punk said as Keala kicked him under the covers with her little foot as he lay down.

"Don't you pay attention to boys, baby." AJ smiled, looking over to Punk who just shook his head and grumbled as he tried to close his eyes over. He knew what tonight's nightmare would be about anyway.