Less Time

"You took money off of that Mexican drug leader, to make sure Phil went with you to Florida!" Dean yelled with his hands wrapped around Pearce's neck, having went to his house. They were friends of both Punk and Dean's. At a time they worked with Punk in the garage he used to work in.

"Alright, let him speak." AJ said, pulling Dean back before he choked him to death, "Let him tell us what happened." She said as Pearce placed his hand on his neck, sitting on the floor as he slid away from them.

"Lorenzo told us that he… that he wanted to talk to us… Alberto." Pearce said, "So… we went to the warehouse and he gave us money to make sure Phil came on the job with us." Pearce said, "We didn't ask questions, alright! We didn't know what was gonna happen."

"Did Phil have a problem with Alberto? Have they ever ran into each other?" AJ asked him.

"Hey, I don't know this Alberto guy." Pearce said.

"But you took his money, didn't you? Fucking cunt." Dean kicked him over.

"Alright, stop it." AJ warned Dean, "So Alberto wanted you two to make sure Phil was on the job, and he also sent some strange guy out to Florida too… maybe he's our killer? This Dennis guy?" AJ wondered.

"Either way, Alberto goes to prison for this. He's participated in the set-up." Ben said.

"Participated? He set the full thing up!" Dean said.

"For who, though?" AJ asked, "If he had no issues with Phil, then why would he put this much time and effort into making sure he was framed and put in prison on death row?" AJ asked.

"I need air." Dean shook his head, leaving the room and walking out of the house whilst AJ and Ben stayed and spoke to Pearce some more.

Dean sat down on the front step, running his hands through his hair and sighing to himself. Nothing could ever be easy. There was a time when things were easy, and it was just the three of them, but now… so many things were wrong. His brother being on death row for a crime he didn't commit being at the top of the list. He couldn't lose his brother. Not after all he'd done for him. Not when he was the only thing he had left in the world.

He looked up as he watched the train go by, racketing along the line loudly as he sighed to himself.

"Which… Which one of you fucking shits did it?"

Eighteen year old Punk looked up, sitting beside his little brother as they looked up at one of their many foster fathers they'd gotten.

"Well don't just look at me." The slightly drunk man hissed.

"Done what?" Punk asked.

"Stole money from my wallet and stole my cigarettes?" He spat as Punk sighed to himself. He knew it wasn't him, and he could already feel the guilt coming from his little brother beside him, "Someone is looking awful guilty." He looked at Dean, grabbing him up by the t-shirt.

"Hey!" Punk yelled, standing up and grabbing the older man by the throat, "You touch my little brother again I will bottle your neck." Punk hissed as Dean looked over, "I took your fucking money and cigarettes, alright?" He spat, "It was me." He said as Dean gulped and looked over. It wasn't the first time his brother had to take blame for something stupid he had done. It probably wouldn't be the last either.

"I should cut your hands off." The man grunted, turning the tables and grabbing Punk by the throat, "Your mother obviously didn't raise you right." He spat, hitting a switch in Punk that should never have been turned on, ever.

4 hours later…

"Are you going back to juvie?" Dean asked, sitting in the police station with Punk who was holding a bag of ice to his cheek.

"Probably." Punk told him.

"You should have just let me say it was me." Dean said.

"What? And then he beats you up and I get done for murder? No thanks." Punk said, sitting in the reception area with him, "Just stay with AJ as much as you can. I shouldn't be in for long." He told him.

"I just stole the money cause he wasn't feeding us." Dean grumbled, "And… he's a prick."

"Yeah." Punk nodded, "He seemed like a bad character. I read his text messages when he was in the shower the other day." He said as Dean shook his head, "A lot of people texting him saying, I owe you one." He rolled his eyes.

"Why did you read his messages?" Dean asked.

"Why not?" Punk said, "You stole his money."

"For survival reasons." Dean exaggerated as Punk just rolled his eyes.

"Phil." A social worker walked over to Punk, the normal social worker they spoke to, "One week in a detention centre." She nodded as Dean sighed to himself, "Dean, a new foster family will come around to pick you up. Phil, you need to come with me." She said, knowing them both by name from their regular visits.

"Alright." Punk nodded, turning to Dean, "It's just a week." He said casually, embracing his brother, messing his hair up and standing up from the chair.

"See you in a week." Dean nodded, watching as he was taken away through the station, sighing to himself. Hadn't he had his older brother, the odds are he wouldn't have been as protected and unharmed as he was.

"Hey." AJ sighed, walking out of the house and seeing Dean sat on the step, "You alright?" She asked, sitting down beside him.

"When's it gonna end, AJ?" Dean asked, "When?" He asked.

"Soon, hopefully." AJ nodded, "We've got our layout. We know who is the puppet master behind it all. We just gotta find out what the reasons were, who actually committed the murder, and… and we've got it." AJ said as Dean sighed.

"It's my fault." Dean nodded.

"What is?" AJ asked.

"Everything. Phil in prison." He said, "It's always me." He shook his head.

"Dean, you didn't do this." AJ shook her head.

"I always got on at him… when he lost his job I would fight with him, tell him he was a mess, that he needed to get a job, get his life together." Dean said, "And the job he takes he gets set up and put on death row." Dean shook his head, "And all those times in juvie… he was there because of me, because I'd done something stupid and he didn't want me to be punished for it."

"He's a good brother." AJ nodded.

"Yeah, and I'm a terrible one." Dean said as AJ shook her head.

"No, you're not. You're not a terrible brother, Dean. You two have a bond that… I don't know if any other siblings in the world have it." She smiled, "It's more than just brothers for you two." She said, "We're all blaming ourselves right now. He's on death row. We're worried. Don't you think I've thought the same? I thought… what if we were still together? Would this have happened?" AJ said, "We can't blame ourselves for this. We blame the people who have set it all up." She nodded.

"Feels like we're still not getting anywhere." Dean said.

"We are." AJ nodded, "We've got more than I ever imagined us to get. We need to find out who this guy was who got the plane ticket from Alberto. He could be our killer. And then we take what we have to the cops in Florida, present it to them and… they'll have to pause the execution, and once they realise that they got the wrong guy, Phil will be exonerated and he'll be out." AJ said, "Ok?" She rubbed his back as he nodded.

"How do we find this guy… Dennis?" Dean questioned.

"We're gonna go to the airport, check the flights to Florida leading up to the murder, look at the passengers, see if we can find a full name. Start from there." AJ said.

"Ok." Dean nodded.

"Don't give up." She shook her head, rubbing his shoulder as he just nodded.

"April." Ben said, walking out of the house as AJ stood up and looked across at Ben, "Uh… on the news…"

"What?" AJ shook her head, grabbing the phone from his hand as she looked on with horror.

"They're moving the execution date forward." Ben said, "To next week." He said as Dean stood up.

"Why am I the one in the wrong here?" AJ asked, walking by Punk in the kitchen, "I stayed an extra night so I could spend another day working on placement. I didn't stay away to avoid you." She said.

"We had plans." Punk said, "And you knew we did." He nodded.

"Doesn't feel nice, does it? Planning something and… and work coming in the way, does it?" AJ hissed.

"Oh, oh… so this is you getting back at me… for what? For all the times I had to work late? Not because of choice but because I need the money?" He said, "Is that what you're saying."

"No, I'm not that immature." AJ said.

"Are you seeing someone else?" Punk asked as AJ turned to him, a look of sheer anger on her face, which told him his answer and how pissed she was that he even uttered those words to her.

"I'm gonna pretend you never said that." AJ laughed it off and shook her head.

"Well you're never home, April!" Punk shouted, "I can't be in a relationship with someone that I never see. It's impossible. And I know you're probably out there having a good time with all your.. lawyer friends… how do I not know someone else is catching your attention, you probably see those people more than you see me." He said as AJ shook her head, turning and looking across at him.

"It's like you want me to say yes." AJ looked into his eyes, "Is that what you want? Is that what'd make you feel better? Yeah, Phil. I've been sleeping with someone else all this time. That's why I just loathe coming home to you. I wanna be out there getting fucked by my bit on the side." She said, "Is that what you want to hear?" She asked, "Idiot." She shook her head.

"You're ridiculous." Punk shook his head.

"No… no, what's ridiculous is that I can't remember the last time we've had a conversation with one another without it turning to a fight. I can't remember the last time that we had sex, not because we needed to make up with one another but because we wanted to." She said.

"To have sex, the other person has to be there, April." Punk hissed, "You're never here."

"Because I'm trying to do something with my life, Phil. I thought you got that." She said.

"I do, and I want you to follow your dreams, whatever it is, you know I support whatever it is you want to do… but you're overstaying at your placement when you could be here with me. You're making that choice." He said, "This is… it's getting too hard." He shook his head.

"You're making it too hard." AJ said.

"I am?" Punk asked, "Well fuck me for wanting to spend time with my girlfriend." Punk said as AJ just shook her head.

"You're not here all the time either, Phil. Sometimes you get home at 11… 12 at night. I could get mad at you for that, but I don't, because I know it's a job." She said, "We're not eighteen. We have things to do. We have bills to pay. If we want any sort of future together then… we have to make these sacrafices right now-"

"Right now, I don't think we'll have a future." Punk told her truthfully as AJ closed her mouth, looking across at him as he stared back, "Because I can't do this anymore."

"What?" AJ shook her head.

"Maybe we just… we take a break or something, I don't know." Punk rubbed his forehead.

"Are you kidding me?" AJ screwed her eyes up at him, "A break from what? Seeing each other too much?" AJ spat sarcastically.

"A break from this. Fighting. Getting mad with each other. How many episodes have you had in the last month?" He asked her.

"What's that got to do with anything?" AJ said.

"Because you're stressed out, and it's affecting your health, and the last thing I wanna do is keep fighting with you." He said.

"So you wanna break up instead?" AJ asked, "Just flush almost six years down the toilet and move on? Pretend we don't exist to each other?"

"No, I didn't say that." Punk said, "I just don't think this is helping. I think we need time apart. You need to focus on your classes, your placements. I need to focus on my work. And we need to… we just need a break, April." He waved his hand. He didn't want to fight with her anymore. He couldn't. And if it meant they had to separate, to keep their sanity, then he was willing to do that.

"So you wanna break up?" AJ asked, not believing what he was actually suggesting.

"I don't want to." Punk said, "But this isn't gonna work." He told her.

"So what… you want me to move out?" AJ asked him.

"I can move-"

"Your brother stays here." AJ narrowed her eyes at him, "I'd have to move."

"Well, I can sleep on the couch and we can-"

"I can't believe you're actually saying this." AJ shook her head.

"April, we've been fighting non-stop for months. Is it really hard to believe?" He asked her.

"I love you." AJ shook her head.

"Yeah, I love you too. That's why I think we need time apart-"

"By time apart… you mean break up and never speak again?" AJ asked him as he looked across at her, "You're the only family I have." AJ said, "Now you just don't want me anymore?" She asked him.

"I want you, April. Believe me. But what I don't want is to see you unhealthy, and to see us tear each other apart until we can't even love one another." He said, "This can't keep going on."

"So we just pretend that everything that happened… never happened?" She asked him, "Pretend that you're not the only person I will ever love… pretend that I wasn't there for you when your mom died, or when you were in and out of juvie. Pretend that you weren't there for me when I wanted to die. Pretend that you didn't stick your fingers down my throat after finding me on the bathroom floor… and… save my life." AJ said, "You think we can just break up and go our separate ways and all of that disappears?"

"No, I don't." Punk said, "But I think this is only gonna get worse." He told her as she looked across at him, hurt and confused, even though she did understand why he wanted this, she just couldn't believe it.

They stood looking across at one another, not saying much else as Punk watched tears well in her eyes, watching her look down at the ground and wipe them as they stayed silent. It was hard, trying to do something for the best when it seemed far from it. He just didn't want to fight anymore, and he didn't want to feel guilty, and he didn't want to watch her feel guilty. All he wanted was for her to be happy… but he never really figured that it was him who made her happy in the first place.

One Week Later…

"Hey, man… what are you doing?" Dean asked, walking out of his bedroom during the night as he looked over at Punk sitting on the couch with Hooch lying beside him.

"Can't sleep." Punk told him, "Uh… tomorrow when AJ comes over, I'll be at work. She's gonna get the last of her things." He said as Dean sighed and nodded.

"She found a place?" Dean asked.

"She's staying with a girl from her class until she gets somewhere. I told her she could still stay here until she got a place but… she didn't want to. Well actually, her reply was that she didn't want to see my face." Punk said as Dean sighed.

"Maybe you should be here tomorrow… talk to her." Dean said, "This doesn't feel right."

"No. It'll only make things worse." Punk said.

"Is that what you want?" Dean asked him.

"Of course it's not." Punk said, "But it's not working out."

"Sounds like you're giving up." Dean said as Punk looked over to him.

"Yeah, and what would you know? You date a different girl every week." He spat as Dean looked across at him and nodded.

"Alright, man. I'm going back to bed." Dean said, sensing that a lot of hurtful things could come out of his brothers mouth, being in the emotional and angry state that he was in. The whole thing just didn't feel right at all.

A/N: Let me know what you think!