The Difference

"Hey, I stole you both a brownie." AJ smiled, passing Punk and Dean over another helping of the schools famous brownies, knowing how much they both loved them as they smiled gratefully and took it from her.

It had been a few weeks since they had tragically lost their mom and AJ could see a change in both of them. They were still the same boys she loved and knew, but there was almost like a dullness in both of them. She didn't blame them after what had happened. The impact of their mother's death really was taking a toll on both of them. She could see that physically and knew it mentally.

"You didn't have to steal them." Punk reminded her, sitting next to her on their usual seats as AJ just shrugged.

"I don't like you both enough to buy them for you." She said, "And I hate this place. They don't deserve more money." She shrugged as Punk smiled and bit into the brownie, "How's it been with the new foster parents?" She asked them, almost a little scared to.

She had let them stay with her for the first few nights but her mother had expressed how much she didn't want two boys sleeping on their couch every night, so AJ had to tell them that they really would have to go to the social and figure something out from there, which they understood.

Punk thought because of his age, he would be able to get a place of his own and drop out of school to get a job and pay rent, but the social still regarded him as a kid and weren't happy about the set up of them living on their own, so had been transferring them around different foster parents. Some were nice. Some weren't.

"They're alright." Punk shrugged as Dean just grumbled.

"Well it won't be long until we get moved along to the next one." Dean took a dig and looked across at Punk, "If you keep getting sent to juvie." He shook his head as Punk looked across at him angrily.

"It's not my fault." Punk said.

"Then whose is its?" Dean asked angrily as AJ watched silently and awkwardly. She didn't like seeing them fighting.

"What do you want me to do? The first foster family we were with didn't give us food." He said, turning to AJ, "They locked their cupboards." He told her as AJ raised her eyebrows, "So I had to steal some food, alright?"

"You didn't have to get caught." Dean hissed back as Punk shook his head.

"I done it so you could have something to eat. You're welcome." He said loudly.

"Instead you were in juvie for a week and I was stock with those morons." Dean said, "Yeah, thanks very much."

"Can you guys…" AJ butted in loudly before Punk got the chance to respond to Dean, "Can you guys stop fighting?" She asked them, "What good is it going to do?" She said as they both just looked down, "There's weekends where… my mom isn't in. You know you can get away and stay with me." She told them.

"I'm just gonna leave school and get a job." Punk said, "Save up for our own place." He said.

"What about education?" AJ shook her head.

"I barely show up anyway." Punk shrugged.

"Your mom would want you to stay in school." AJ reminded him as he turned to her. He knew she was right on that note and sighed to himself.

"Why does your mom hate us?" Dean asked her, taking a bite of his brownie.

"She doesn't hate you." AJ shook her head, "She's… well she's not fun to be around, even for me." She informed them, "She's used to it just being me and her in the house."

"Can we come stay Saturday?" Dean asked her desperately.

"Dean." Punk shook his head, "Don't just invite yourself." He said, making his elderly brother status aware.

"I'm not. That's why I asked." Dean said.

"I'll see if my mom is going to be in." She smiled, "Honestly, most times you guys stay she thinks we're having a gang bang." She told them as they laughed, "No, I'm serious." She said as their smiles faded, "She's… paranoid." She just shook her head and looked down as Punk watched curiously.

"If you can't have us over it's fine." Punk nodded as she looked up and smiled.

"I'll try my best." AJ nodded to him, "Anything I can do to help."

"Thanks." Punk said as Dean nodded.

"Yeah, thanks." Dean smiled to her. She was good to them, almost like their very on stand in mother, well, to Dean anyway…

"So what did you find out from them?" Dean asked, sitting with AJ in the lounge of the hotel they were staying at where he had met her just after visiting Punk in prison and just after she had visited with Punk's friends who he had worked with whilst over there.

"So they took the job off some construction manager in Chicago. I got his name and phone number so I'm gonna check that out." AJ nodded, "Because it was pretty much just a scaffolding site there was obviously no CCTV cameras around but I'm wondering if the hotel that Phil stayed at will let me have a look at the tapes from the few nights he was staying there." AJ said.

"Don't you think the cops will have saw the tapes?" Dean asked.

"They had no reason to look at them. If those girls blood was on Phil's pants, they're gonna suspect that he killed them, right?" AJ said, "So they're not gonna have a reason to look at the cameras. Although they might have checked them out to see what Phil had been up to in the few days leading up to the murder, but… I guess they would have found that he was just… coming back and forth from his room." AJ shrugged, "Do you think there would be any way I could take a look at the building site where they found the girls?"

"If you go at the right time when there's no one around." Dean nodded.

"Then we'll go tonight." AJ nodded to him as Dean gulped, "So Kane and Pearce told me Phil was acting fine the entire time. He volunteered to go back for the tools and that's when he found the bodies… so… if that's the case, why couldn't the police realise that Phil couldn't have killed them if he was out that night."

"They'd been dead a few hours." Dean said, "And the last people saw of them was the night Phil arrived here."

"Do the cops know where they were held before the building site?" AJ asked him.

"No, I don't think so." Dean shook his head.

"Then we need to find out." AJ said, "I'm gonna talk to their parents if I can." AJ nodded to herself, "I wanna know as much as I can about these girls. What their hobbies were, who their friends were, where they were going when they disappeared-"

"You think that's a good idea?" Dean asked, "I mean… these girls were kidnapped, beaten severely… tortured… and then killed." He said, "And you're representing the supposed killer." He said, "You could get a slap in the face."

"Then I'll get a slap in the face." AJ said, "But they could tell us something-"

"Something they haven't already told the police?" Dean said, finding it unlikely.

"Look, this is what you do, Dean." AJ said, "You start small. You start somewhere and you try and make sense of something." She nodded, "I know it's like we've got nothing right now but… hopefully we can piece something together, even just a little bit for us to go on." She nodded, "I'm meeting with the investigator who lead the case tomorrow morning." She said, collating her papers together, "Remind me to call the guy who got Pearce and Kane the job over here in the first place.

"So this is what April looks like at work." Dean smiled to himself.

"Usually I'm not this stressed." AJ admitted truthfully.

"Hey, please don't make yourself ill." Dean shook his head, "Phil is real mad at me for… calling you and asking for your help. He didn't want you involved."

"Well, he doesn't like asking for help from anyone." AJ nodded, "Not even if he's sitting on death row." She shook her head, getting a jumping wave of anxiety in her stomach every time she said that out loud.

"He uh… he finds out how much time until… until it happens, tomorrow morning." Dean said, "It's probably gonna be a few months." He said as AJ nodded.

"Give me a few weeks with it." AJ nodded, "unless the real psychopath behind these killings is a complete genius, which I highly doubt, we'll get some sort of breakthrough that… that will at least make the cops question some things." She said as Dean nodded.

"You gonna go see him again?" Dean asked her.

"Not until I have to. I don't want him to get frustrated with me. I know he's been over the whole thing a dozen times. It's probably messing with his head." She shook her head as Dean nodded.

"You could always just… go see him just to see how he's doing." Dean suggested.

"I'll let him buy me a drink when he's released." AJ told him firmly, "Before we part ways and don't see one another until another 8 years." She said, "Do you want another drink?" She stood up. They still had a lot of things to go over.

"Uh yeah, go on." Dean nodded, watching as she walked off over to the bar area in the lounge.

"Go on. Try it." Dean smirked, holding out his cigarette to AJ as they sat in the living room of her house with the TV on and a pizza lying on the coffee table. AJ was sitting on the floor whilst Dean sat on the couch behind her and Punk sat over on the couch across.

Her mom worked at a care home for the elderly and normally at the weekend she worked night shift which meant Punk and Dean could stay the night sometimes, meaning they would sleep on the couch and she would sleep in her room upstairs of course. It was just her and her mom that lived in the house.

"I don't wanna try it." AJ waved her hand at Dean whilst Punk flicked through the TV channels.

"It's so good to actually see a TV again. Our stupid foster family right now don't have one. They only listen to their 1970s radio in the kitchen." Punk groaned as AJ laughed a little.

"Try it." Dean told her, "I see you look at me every time I light one." He said as AJ just shook her head and turned to Punk.

"I won't judge you if it turns into a filthy habit for you too." Punk teased.

"I just wanna know what it's like." AJ assured them, taking the cigarette from Dean as Punk watched her take a puff, laughing to himself as she then coughed dramatically and handed Dean the cigarette back to Dean, "That's horrible." She laughed a little as Dean smirked and took another puff.

"Thank God for that." Punk smiled to himself as AJ placed her hand on her chest.

"I'll stick with the pizza just now." AJ said, reaching over for another slice of the pizza as Dean just laughed.

Later that night, Dean ended up falling asleep on the couch due to not being interested in the horror movie that AJ and Punk had picked to watch. Sometimes if Dean wasn't in the conversation, she felt it a little awkward with Punk, and she knew that was only for one reason.

"He's worried about you, you know." AJ turned to Punk, still sitting on the floor in front of the couch Dean was asleep on whilst Punk sat on the other couch.

"I know." Punk nodded, looking on at the credits rolling from the movie they had just watched, "I'm not going anywhere though." He assured her quietly.

"You in and out of juvie really scares him. I can see it." AJ nodded, "I know things are tough right now but… it's not long until you're done with school. If you stick in and get good grades you could get a good job, get a place for the both of you." She said, "My advice would be to avoid a criminal record." She smiled to him as he nodded and laughed a little.

"I think when mom died her soul just made her way into your body." Punk said as AJ laughed a little.

"I'm not as nice as she was. Can't be possible." AJ shook her head as Punk smiled, "It's only been a few weeks. You guys need to grieve. No one is expecting you to be all macho and carry on." She said, "All these different foster families can't be easy." She shook her head.

"No, it's not." Punk said, "It's like we don't have a home anymore." He shook his head truthfully. He never got vulnerable with anyone or showed any sort of emotion. Not because he believed he was all tough but because most often that not, he was good at putting a smile on his face, but with AJ, he felt like he could talk to her and everything would be ok. She had that affect on him.

"You have a home. With one another." AJ nodded, "This won't be forever. You just gotta tell yourself that." She said as he smiled.

"Yeah." Punk nodded in agreement, "So what's the deal with your mom? I thought she was pretty cool." He said.

"She is to your face." AJ said, "She just has a different perspective on a lot of things. Blows a lot of things out of proportion." She nodded.

"And she thinks we're having a gang bang?" Punk nodded, "Even when she knows we're brothers."

"Yes, there is also that." AJ nodded and laughed as he smiled. He loved her laugh. He really loved it.

"You seem scared of her." Punk said truthfully as AJ looked over at him.

"I'm not scared of her." AJ shook her head bravely, "Why do you think that?"

"Just a feeling I get from you." He shrugged, "You shouldn't take her for granted, trust me." Punk said as AJ nodded, looking down at the ground.

"Uh… you wanna stick on another movie?" AJ asked, getting to her feet and closing the empty pizza box over, "I'll get more popcorn." She said as Punk watched her. He did feel like on some level it was wrong to be looking at her differently from the way Dean did. They had come into her life like older brothers, but it never felt legit between them both. He always caught her staring, and he also caught his own self staring back. There was something there and both were doing a lot to avoid it.

"Yeah, I'll find something." Punk nodded as AJ just smiled and nodded, heading out of the living room when Punk stopped her.

"AJ." He said.

"Yeah?" AJ turned around.

"Thanks for letting us stay tonight." Punk nodded, "He's a lot happier here." He nodded over to Dean who was in a peacefully high sleep, "We both are." Punk said as AJ just smiled.

"It's the least I can do." AJ said as Punk just smiled, looking up at her as she gazed back. She was extremely scared of how out of control she felt when she looked at him. He was rough around the edges. Bleach blonde hair that was usually tied back with a bandana or a cap on top, and although not seeing it often, he had the most insane smile that caused her to melt into herself. She just didn't know what to do about how she felt, especially when she knew fine well that he felt the same, otherwise he wouldn't entertain the long gazed they would share every now and then, and how when it was just the two of them they would enjoy deep and meaningful conversations.

"Ok, popcorn." AJ nodded to herself, walking back out of the living room as Punk smiled watching her. One day, he knew those feelings were going to become a problem, or perhaps the best thing to happen to him.

A/N: Let me know what you think!