Names And Faces

"What do you mean it's gone?" Dean asked, walking towards her as she showed him where the recording had deleted from, "And you're sure you didn't delete it?" AJ asked.

"I'm sure." AJ said, "I couldn't have." She said, starting to second guess herself a little, thinking back in case she perhaps accidentally deleted it.

"It can't just delete itself." Ben hummed, walking over to them and looking at the phone.

"Well this is fucking great. Our guy is dead and now the only proof we had on him is dead with him. Great." Dean nodded, walking away, trying to stay calm as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Maybe there's a way to get it back." Ben wondered, taking the phone as AJ sighed.

"Maybe I done it accidentally. Maybe when it was in my pocket, I don't know." AJ worried, starting to feel guilty.

"No, this can't be your fault." Ben said, "Have you crossed any people since we got the recording. Anyone that could have hacked into your phone?" Ben asked.

"No. I only left this morning to go to the prison and I didn't see anyone or bump into anyone." AJ shook her head, "Maybe I just deleted it by accident." She shook her head, placing her hand on her forehead as Ben sighed.

"Look, it wasn't valuable to us anyway." Ben nodded, trying to make her feel better about it.

"It was the only thing we had!" Dean shouted.

"That's not true." Ben said, "We still got this guy in Chicago. He could be promising." Ben said.

"Or he could be a complete psychopath who kills us the minute he sees us." Dean said.

"I told you… we're hooked up in Chicago. We have protection." Ben said as Dean just grumbled, "And we'll go about it in the right way. If he's the one who sent that email, then he obviously knew about the set-up… ok? That's a big deal. Whether or not he's the one behind it or he's just another missing piece of the puzzle, we'll figure it out." Ben said, turning to AJ who looked slightly disheartened, blaming herself for losing the recording, "Hey, we've still got something here." He nodded to her, placing his hand on her shoulder as she just nodded and sighed, wrapping her arms around him as he hugged her back.

"When do we leave?" Dean asked.

"We'll come by your room and get you." Ben said, still embracing AJ as Dean just nodded.

"It better be worth our while." Dean said.

"Are you away again?" Punk groaned, coming home from work one night as he met with AJ in their bedroom who was packing her suitcase. He could have counted on one hand how many times he'd saw her in the past month. She was constantly on her placement, and he understand that was part of her process to getting her degree, but he didn't see it benefiting them very much.

"Yeah." AJ nodded, "Just for a few days." She told him, "I was gonna make dinner tonight." She smiled to him.

"I uh… I already ate." Punk said as AJ looked up at him, "Boys at work brought pizza in."

"Dinner for one then." AJ said coldly, continuing to pack. It wasn't hard to notice the increase in fights they'd had recently. They had both reached points in their life where, in terms of Punk, he was working all different hours, long hours, illegal hours no doubt, to make sure rent could be covered, bills could be paid, food could be bought, AJ also contributed of course, but she also had her classes to attend, and at the moment, was actually out of town every so often on her placement. They were tired fights. Fights out of nothing sometimes. And it wasn't who they were. Their love was still there, they knew it would never go away no matter what, but it was becoming a little hazy.

"If I knew you wanted to cook I wouldn't have eaten anything." He told her.

"It's fine." AJ shook her head , watching as he lay down on the bed. At times she did feel guilty for getting mad with him. He did work hard. Extremely hard. And for long hours too. But sometimes she got the impression that he believed he was the only one who was doing work, and that rubbed her the wrong way, "You have dirt on your nose." She told him as he rubbed his nose, 'Still there."

"Wanna have a shower?" Punk smiled to her.

"I already showered." AJ told him, "And I need to pack." She said as he looked over at her.

"What time do you leave tomorrow?" He asked her.

"7." AJ said.

"Are you going to the same firm as last week, yeah?" He asked her as she nodded, "So what do you do there?" He wondered.

"I hang out with lawyers, attorneys… take notes from them, help them out with little things here and there if I'm trusted enough." AJ nodded, "It's really good for experience." She nodded.

"Lots of guys in suits." Punk nodded.

"Lots of girls in dresses." AJ replied, "I find them more attractive." She said, deliberately to annoy him as he just nodded.

"I would too." Punk said as she glared across at him, "I'm going for a shower." He said, getting off the bed and walking on out of the bedroom as AJ continued to pack her things.

Later that night once AJ had packed and made herself dinner, she turned in for the night early due to being up so early in the morning. Punk stayed up a little longer with Dean watching the sports highlights until she finally heard him come to bed, listening to him trip over some things on his way in, stripping down to his boxers and getting into bed.

She felt like she was constantly leaving on bad terms and it annoyed her. Their fights were becoming meaningless and it hurt her because she loved him so much. He was everything to her, and she hated being this distant.

"Phil." AJ said quietly.

"Mhm?" Punk replied, their backs facing one another in bed but with their eyes wide opened.

"I don't want to feel guilty every time I leave." AJ said, listening as he turned around, which she then turned around too to face him.

"Why are you guilty?" He asked her.

"I know we hardly see one another. And I know it's because I'm away a lot but… I am in my third year, things are gonna get difficult now. Harder." She nodded, "And it's the career I wanna have-"

"April, I want you to do this. I want you to go after your dream job. You know I do." He said, "And I know how much you're enjoying your placements. I'm not taking that away from you." He said.

"I feel like you're mad at me." AJ whispered.

"I feel like you're mad at me." He replied as they looked one another in the eye.

"I'm not mad at you." AJ whispered, shuffling over to him and pressing her lips against his softly, "I love you." She whispered, "I know I've been up and down a lot recently, trying to sort out my meds… and we hardly see one another, and you're working… all hours under the sun… but I hate feeling like this with you." She shook her head.

"Like what?" Punk said.

"Distant." AJ said, "Like we're falling away from each other." She shook her head.

"We're not." Punk assured her, tucking her hair behind her ear, "It's just that little thing called life, right? It's not gonna be like this forever." He shook his head, "We've always got each other." He nodded as she smiled, pressing her lips back against his as he pulled her over on top of him.

"Since I won't see you for a few days…" She whispered, straddling his hips and lifting her t-shirt off, revealing no bra underneath as he smirked, "Let me make it special for you." She whispered, leaning back down and pressing her lips against his softly as he kissed back, caressing her neck.

The next day after they had touched back down in Chicago the previous night, AJ woke up and they were ready to set the wheels in motion. Ben had contacted their back-up, in other words, they're protection, and they headed out with a simple strategy, to ask simple questions and hope for truthful answers. They knew there was a good chance they wouldn't get truthful, if not any answers, but hey had to try.

They headed to the warehouse and walked on in where a lot of workers were operating, loading shelves, stacking, all kinds of manual labour in a busy environment. Of course it was all a massive cover up for a drug supplying business.

"What are you doing here?" A worker turned to them after spotting them.

"Looking for the boss." Ben answered, "Alberto?"

"Boss isn't here. Wife is though. In the office up the back." The worker said as AJ turned to Ben.

"She might know something." She whispered as Ben nodded.

"Alright, let's go." Ben nodded, leading the way down the warehouse to the back office, walking on in where a black haired woman sat behind a desk. She looked too young to be married, but that wasn't relevant to them either way.

"Who are you?" She asked, sitting up.

"We just wanna ask some questions." AJ said.

"Are you feds?" She tensed.

"No." AJ shook her head immediately, "We wanna ask you some questions about the Phil Brooks case."

"That man who tortured and killed those poor girls?" She asked, "Why?" She asked.

"He didn't." Dean gritted his teeth, "He's innocent."

"Ahh, so you're his attorneys." She smiled, "Beats me why you're wanting to ask me questions about it. The only information I get is from the news, like everyone else." She said, focusing on her computer screen.

"Well we know that isn't true." AJ said, "Your husband, Alberto… where is he?" She asked.

"Mexico. Visiting family." She said, "Why?"

"Well we know that he sent an email to a technician in Florida, to tamper with the CCTV footage in the hotel Phil was staying at. So we were just wondering… what he has against Phil, and why he's trying to frame him?" AJ asked, "What's your name?"

"Paige." Paige said as AJ nodded.

"Ok, Paige. I can see it in your eyes, you know something." AJ said, "So this is what's gonna happen, you're gonna tell us what you know… if you don't, we'll magically whip up a search warrant for the few squad cars waiting outside to search this place, turn it upside down." She said as Paige looked up at her, "If you tell us what you know, they'll drive off." She said as Paige gulped, looking up at her, "So… what's it gonna be?"

"Ok, alright." Paige nodded, "Alberto told me about this… off job he had to do. I remember hearing about Florida. One of his third cousins, Lorenzo… he normally gives jobs to him and his crew." Paige said, "So there was a building site in Florida that needed workers so Alberto called up Lorenzo, told him to take on some people, head on over to Florida." Paige said, "Then just a few days before they were flying out… this guy came to Alberto. I uh… I didn't hear anything, I swear. I was told to go wait outside." She said.

"Did you get a name?" AJ asked.

"Yeah. His name was Dennis something." Paige waved her hand, "I saw Alberto giving him a plane ticket and he gave Alberto a lot of money." Paige nodded, "He was in for quite a while." Paige said.

"But Phil wasn't apart of the job at this point." Ben said, "Didn't you say Pearce and Kane were the ones who… got him in on it."

"What were those names?" Paige asked.

"Pearce and Kane." AJ said.

"They were here." Paige nodded, "The same day that other guy. Alberto gave them some money. They weren't here for long."

"I'll kill the fuckers." Dean hissed.

"So Alberto gave this… random dude a plane ticket, the random dude gave Alberto money-"

"A lot of it." Paige nodded, "That's really all I know." She said truthfully, "Alberto will kill me if he finds out I spoke to you."

"You'll be anonymous for just now, don't worry." AJ nodded.

"Although your husband did clearly take part in setting my brother up." Dean hissed, glaring at her, "In fact, sounds like he set the whole thing up. What does he have against him?"

"Nothing as far as I know." Paige said.

"Sounds like this Dennis guy had a lot to talk about with him." AJ said.

"They were in there for a few hours." Paige nodded, "And I'd never saw him before."

"When will your husband be back?" Dean asked.

"A few weeks." Paige said.

"All very convenient isn't it?" Dean glared at her as she just glared back.

"I told you what you want. Now you can leave." Paige said, "And don't come back."

"Would you testify in court? Had this whole thing to be revisited?" AJ asked.

"My husband would go to prison." Paige said.

"Yeah and my brother is gonna die soon." Dean spat as AJ looked across at Paige.

"Can you give me your number, at least." AJ said.

"Yeah." Paige nodded, writing down her number and handing it to AJ.

"You sure you don't remember anything about this Dennis guy?" Ben asked.

"No." Paige said, "Looked like he and Alberto knew each other. But I heard nothing. I swear." She said.

"Ok." AJ nodded, getting way more information than she thought they would, "Thank you for your time."

"Yeah, just get out of here now." Paige said as they left the office.

"First things first…" AJ said as they walked out of the warehouse, "We're gonna go talk to Pearce and Kane."

"Talk?" Dean said, "Oh, we're gonna do more than talk."

A/N: A lot of names and people, I know, but it will all conclude to one person. Not as soon as you think, though! Let me know what you think!