Mixed Signals

"Hi, I'm April Mendez." AJ smiled pleasantly, shaking a woman's hand after being let into her house, "I just… I want to say I'm terribly sorry for the loss of your daughter." AJ nodded. She knew there was a certain way to go about this, which is why she told Dean to stay back at the hotel whilst she spoke to one of the victims mother's. She didn't know if that would give her any hints or breakthroughs regarding Punk, but it certainly might have given her bearings as to why it was her daughter and another girl who were both taken and killed. Of course it was all a very hard subject.

"Please sit down." The woman, Andrea said as AJ smiled and took a seat on the couch, "I won't lie, when you called and you said you were the offences attorney, I was ready to pull the phone out of the socket." She said as AJ nodded, "But… you want answers just like everyone else does, and you're entitled to it." She nodded, a permanent box of tissues sitting beside her, "I just wish I was given the proper time to grieve now."

"I promise you, I won't take up much of your time." AJ nodded, "I just wanted to know about Ava. Her whereabouts before she'd gone missing, anything strange that you noticed about her, the people she was hanging around with… I know she was only eighteen but… that's normally age which kids hide a lot from their mother's."

"She was a normal kid." Andrea nodded, "She went to school, she had her friends, she even started working in a pet shop just down the road." She smiled to herself, "She said she wanted her own money. She was independent like that." She nodded as AJ smiled, "There was no change in her mood, or her attitude." She shook her head as AJ nodded.

"And the other girl who was killed, that was her best friend… so assuming they were both out together when they went missing or… they were taken?" AJ asked as Andrea nodded, wiping her tears.

"Yeah, that seems to be what happened." Andrea nodded, "The thing that confuses me is that… they had to have gone missing during the day because that's when Ava stopped answering my texts. And she always replied to me right away. Always. Her phone was glued to her hand." She laughed to herself.

"So you think maybe that Ava and her friend… they maybe walked into a trap of some sort? Thought thye were meeting someone that they thought they knew and it… it didn't turn out that way?" AJ asked her.

"I don't know what I think. There are many stories going around. In the papers, all over the news. People making up what happened to them… Some say they were raped, some say they were burned to death, some say they were cut up into pieces." Andrea shook her head, placing her hand on her forehead to cover her eyes as AJ sighed, "That's my daughter." She sobbed.

"I am so sorry." AJ sighed, "I know that doesn't mean anything to you, but I am." AJ said as Andrea tried to get herself together, "But I know that my client isn't guilty, and I don't want another innocent life to be killed." She said, "He did not touch your daughter."

"Then how come the blood was on his pants in his hotel room? That doesn't just appear." Andrea said, "You should be ashamed of yourself for… for representing such a monster." She shook her head as AJ sighed.

"He's being set up." AJ said, "We don't know how yet, but… he is not a killer. Wouldn't you want to find out who it really was? Instead of worrying that they have the wrong person?" She asked.

"I don't think they have the wrong person." Andrea said, "I think he's pleading ignorance and he's mentally insane." She said as AJ's nose twitched, "He'll get what he deserves." She said, wiping her tears with a tissue.

"I know it's probably a good peace of mind to have someone locked up for it, but… they have the wrong man. My client is innocent. I will prove it, I just wanted to know if… maybe you knew something you were holding back from the cops, or something that you noticed about Ava." She said as Andrea just shook her head.

"No, I know nothing." Andrea said, "She left the house to go out with her best friend Elizabeth, she stopped texting me around noon time, she was then missing for three days, and then her body was found." She said, "That's what I know." Andrea said as AJ just nodded and sighed.

"Ok." AJ said, standing up from the couch, "Again, I am… I am so sorry for your loss." She said as Andrea just nodded, "Thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I'll just show myself out." She said as Andrea nodded, grabbing another tissue as AJ left the house with the exact same thing she came with. Nothing.

"So she didn't say anything?" Dean asked, laying on AJ's hotel bed whilst AJ took her coat off and nodded.

"She doesn't know anything. I didn't expect her to. I thought maybe… she'd have something to say about Ava's friends, where she went, how she was before the murder but… she seemed like a pretty normal girl with good friends and… a good life." AJ sighed to herself, sitting down by the table as Dean looked over, "She thinks Phil did it like everyone else." She nodded.

"There's a surprise." Dean shook his head.

"She just wants someone to blame I think." AJ said, "She was emotional."

"Well, I assumed she'd be." Dean sighed, "So… we still have nothing?" Dean asked.

"Well we have the CCTV footage problem. If we can get another little breakthrough on that, it could be worth bringing up. I think we have to find out who was in the hotel that day, who could have gone into the back and got access to the cameras to delete the frame and temporarily erase the first frame of Phil getting bumped into." AJ nodded, "And I'm gonna call the number Pearce and Kane gave me for the guy who set them up with the job over here. Lorenzo Danes his name is. You know him?" AJ asked Dean.

"Never heard of the guy." Dean said cluelessly as AJ just nodded.

"Right now I need a coffee and a plan." AJ sighed.

"You're an organized worker." Dean nodded.

"I hate mess." AJ reminded him.

"Yeah, I remember." Dean said as AJ's phone began to ring from over on the desk table. She got up and walked over to it.

"It's Ben. Shh." She put her hand up to him as Dean just laughed and nodded, "Hey." AJ answered chirpily as Dean rolled his eyes a little, "I'm good. How are you?" She asked him, taking the phone call into the bathroom as Dean watched and listened. He for one didn't think it was all very legit that she was married. He knew she wasn't stupid to just settle for anyone to make herself look less alone, she had more pride than that, so he knew there was obviously some sort of love between them… but it just wouldn't compare, he knew it, and she knew it too. Which was sad in a way.

"Why did you do that?" AJ asked, the next morning walking into the kitchen where Punk was sitting having breakfast. Dean had gone out to the store for some things they needed and to no doubt ask someone to buy him cigarettes.

They never got the chance to talk about what had happened the previous night, but AJ wasn't holding back.

"Do what?" Punk asked her.

"Kiss me." AJ said, "You shouldn't have done that."

"In a way, I was actually helping you out, so that if someone comes along that you really like… you won't have to worry about if you did it right or not." He nodded to her, trying to hide the fact that he kissed her for the pure reason that he wanted to, and he didn't regret it.

"Cut the crap, Phil." AJ shook her head and folded her arms as he looked up at her.

"You kissed back." Punk shrugged as AJ just looked at him.

"Well I didn't wanna be rude, did I?" She covered.

"Bullshit." Punk smiled a little as AJ looked down at the ground, "I was just trying to help you out. Give you a little experience." He shrugged as AJ looked across at him. She was starting to feel like he really had just kissed her because he felt sorry for her, and not because he liked her the same way she felt.

"So that was it?" AJ asked him as he looked up at her. He felt too embarrassed to tell her that he kissed her because he liked her, because he didn't really know how she felt. Although he saw her staring from time to time, and he knew that she felt what he felt was going on between them, he didn't know if it was something she'd even want to entertain, so he didn't want to put himself through the embarrassment.

"Yeah." Punk shrugged as AJ just nodded to herself. Neither had the guts to say about what an amazing kiss it was, and had Dean not woke up, it probably would have continued on. They both wanted it to continue on. It was just a shame neither of them could find it in them to tell one another.

"Uh… Where is Dean?" AJ asked, running her hand through her hair, staring to feel nervous about the fact that the feelings she had might not have been mutual, and she might have just been a stupid little girl with a crush on a boy who didn't think twice about her.

"Store." Punk nodded, looking up at her and noticing how flustered and anxious she looked, "He said he'd buy some food in, cigarettes probably." He shook his head as AJ just nodded.

"I'm gonna go do homework." AJ pointed back.

"It's Saturday." Punk made a face.

"Yeah, so what?" AJ shrugged, "We're not all lazy like you." She said.

"That's true." Punk nodded, watching her as she walked away, his smile fading as he sighed to himself and placed his hand on his forehead. He didn't want to act like everything was a joke. He wanted to tell her that he kissed her because he liked her, not because he just felt like it or he was trying to do her a favour. He didn't want her to think of him like that.

The feelings had been there for long enough and there was only so much he could hide before it got in the way, and he had a hunch she felt the same, she was just too reserved to tell him. He saw the hurt look on her face when he said he had only kissed her to cancel out a dreaded first kiss with someone else.

He shook his head and got up from the kitchen table, walking out the hallway and heading upstairs where she had gone, heading through to her room as she turned around.

"What?" AJ shook her head, watching as he walked towards her, grabbing her face and pressing his lips back against hers as she stumbled back a little with shock. She thought she would only have last night to think about after thinking he really wasn't interested in her at all, but obviously it was just a big act.

She let the kiss deepen, running her hands through his streaky hair as he grabbed a hold of her waist. There was more force in the kiss than the previous night, with more feelings showing that this was what they both wanted, and suddenly kissing him had become her favourite thing ever.

"W-What are you doing?" AJ asked, once pulling back, confused with the mixed signals.

"Maybe I lied." He told her, "Maybe I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you." He nodded as she smiled at him. Her smile was even better up close and personal.

"I was hoping you would say that." AJ smiled quietly as he nodded, leaning back down and kissing her again. Everything just felt right with each other suddenly.

A/N: Let me know what you think!