One Call Away

"I mean… can you even believe it?" AJ shook her head, standing in her hotel room with Ben. Her and Dean had left the station and decided they'd try and at least get a few hours of sleep.

She'd informed Ben of everything that had actually happened. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. About Del Rio and Dennis' business, about one of the victims fathers selling them out, encouraging the murder itself, about Dennis being the walking, breathing scum bag he is… there was so much to cover yet all the parts glued together perfectly.

"Sounds complicated." Ben nodded, sitting on the end of the bed as AJ nodded.

"Yeah." AJ gasped to herself, "Michael reckons that… although they can't exactly release Phil right at this minute… he'll still go free soon, once they get everything officiated and they get word on where Del Rio and Dennis are."

"They'll just let him go like that?" Ben asked her as AJ looked over at him.

"Well he's innocent." AJ said, "If they've found who really killed those poor girls then… Phil will be released, immediately." AJ said as Ben just nodded.

"Sounds like they got him in time. How bad would it have been if they discovered all of that after putting him to death?" Ben asked her as she nodded.

"I know." AJ said, still not believing it, "I can't believe it. I think Michael feels bad now for not taking us very seriously." She said.

"Yeah, I bet." Ben smiled, "So are you gonna go see him?" He asked her.

"Hopefully tomorrow at some point. Given what he's just been through, literally being seconds away from death… he's gonna be pretty shaken up, probably won't have a clue what's going on… it's best he has a little bit of space before we bombard him with all of this stuff that's came out." AJ said as Ben nodded.

"Well, I… I gotta go back to Chicago, April." Ben nodded as AJ turned to him, "I… well I got work to do." He smiled a little, "And we've been out here for a while. Don't you think now that the truth is out… you should come home with me? Try and get back to our lives again after all this madness." He laughed a little as AJ looked across at him.

"I need to be here for him getting out." AJ said calmly.

"Do you?" Ben questioned as AJ folded her arms and looked across at him, "He has his brother. You've done your part. Don't you think we should go back to living our lives now?" He asked her.

"I wanna see him get out." AJ said, "And make sure he's ok." She told him as Ben just nodded and put his hands up.

"Ok, whatever you want." Ben smiled as AJ looked across at him and sighed to herself.

"There's… there's something I need to tell you." She said, grabbing the chair from behind the desk and sitting it in front of him as she sat down on it, watching as he looked across at her wearily, "At the final visitation last night… when… when they were taking him away…" She said, "We kissed." She nodded, watching as his nostrils widened a little, "I kissed him, ok. I made the move." She told him honestly. She was an honest person. She'd always been that way.

"You kissed him?" Ben spat angrily.

"Ben, I thought they were going to kill him." AJ said, "I thought that was the last time I'd see him. I was upset and so was he… it just happened." She nodded, "You know that a part of me will always care about him, I've always told you that."

"Doesn't mean you need to kiss him." Ben said bluntly.

"No, it doesn't. But I thought he was going to die." She said, "I know that doesn't make me a very good wife, kissing another person, but I think under these circumstances… it's a little different." She nodded.

"Do you still love him?" Ben asked her, looking into her eyes. He had always gotten rubbed the wrong way by the fact he knew that his wife still shared feelings for another man. It angered him and it annoyed him, even though he knew what they had was always great and had also been special. He'd done everything he could to eliminate those feelings from her. He thought marriage would be the deal breaker, but it wasn't, and he felt like he needed to take drastic measures into his own hands these past few months…

"No." AJ said, after a long awaited pause. What scared her, was that she knew fine well that she did still love Punk. Not even just a little. She well and truly loved him, and still thought about that kiss they shared. She realised in a life or death situation, it was him who she'd want by her side, to kiss and hold, not her husband… and that was starting to alarm her a little.

"You're sure about that?" Ben asked her.

"Yeah." AJ nodded, breaking that honesty she was so well known for, just because she didn't want to hurt him. He was a good man. He was good to her…

"Then just come home with me then? We were living good before all this craziness." He smiled.

"I want to be here to really make sure it's over." AJ nodded, "I'll be alright on my own. You go back. I won't be that long behind you. I promise." She smiled as he looked into her eyes and nodded.

"Ok." Ben nodded, "Ok, I'll… I'll get on a flight tomorrow morning." He told her, "Are you sure you'll be alright here?"

"Yeah." AJ nodded, "Yeah, I have Dean, and this… well I don't think this will take long to be over now anyway." She said, "You're right… when I get back we will resume right where we left off." She smiled to him as he nodded with slight hope.

"Yeah, I like that." Ben smiled as she nodded, leaning forward and pressing a kiss on his lips as he kissed back. It just wasn't the same.

The next day, Ben had gone off for his flight back to Chicago whilst AJ and Dean headed back to the station to get the latest on what was going on. Due to having her experience in law, AJ was appreciative of how well she was being treated at the station. They weren't being shut out from anything. She supposed they wanted the truth just like she and Dean did.

"So have you got anything else to tell us?" AJ asked, sitting in a boardroom type room with Michael and Dean.

"No, not since last night." Michael said, "Paige told us everything she knew. We're keeping her close by. She's afraid Alberto is gonna come find her if he finds out she came to us." He nodded, "We've got cops looking out for her." He said, "We're trying our best to track down Del Rio and Dennis but… I think when they found out you two were snooping around, they must have split quickly." He nodded as AJ sighed.

"But you still can't keep my brother in prison if you know that he didn't do this." Dean said, "Just because you don't have the guys doesn't mean he still has to stay in prison. It's not one in one out type deal." Dean said.

"Yeah, we know that, Dean." Michael said, "But we wanna get this right. Officially right. There's still a lot of blank spaces." He said.

"Like what?" AJ asked.

"Well first of all we still have no idea who made the phone call that night." Michael said, "We know it was a male, but that was it, no one had time to analyse the call because we were so spooked by the murders." He said, "But now that we've looked into it…" Michael paused, looking at both of them, "The call was made from Chicago."

"That's impossible." Dean shook his head with confusion.

"So there's someone else?" AJ asked, "Someone made that phone call when they weren't even in the same state?" AJ asked, "How can you even keep Phil in prison at this point? You know he's totally innocent."

"I do know." Michael said, "I'm working on a way to realise him where it's easy for him, for you guys and for the public. You gotta understand that… if people see Phil realeased, they're gonna know that the real killer is still out there." He said, "That scares people believe it or not."

"That's not my brothers problem. You know damn well he's innocent and you can't keep him in prison for no reason."

"No, we can't." Michael agreed, "I'm working around the clock to figure out his exoneration." He nodded to them as AJ and Dean looked up at him, they didn't think they'd hear that word, "Yeah, it's… well, it's completely clear that Phil has been set up here. By men who know what they're doing. By men who had a motive."

"And you think that Dennis wanted to frame Phil because of how he acted back when he lived with him?" AJ asked.

"It's possible. Dennis is a psychopath among many other things. He's also a paedophile who has supposedly sexually abused kids. Most of the reports were from young boys." He nodded, "That's probably why his name was on the social system." He shook his head at how much of an evil man they were dealing with, "Odds are, you and your brother pissed him off." He looked at Dean, "You weren't easily manipulated, you stole from him, you stood up to him, and I quite believe that if he touched either one of you he would have lost a hand… that probably angered him… and in a psychopaths mind, that's gonna stick." Michael said, "We still need to go talk to Phil about what he remembers about Dennis."

"Combine that with the motive to get back at that girl's father after he sold him and Del Rio out, left them in the shit… that gives him a motive and it also gives him a cover-up too." AJ nodded.

"Yeah." Michael said, "It's uh… this is nothing like I've dealt with before. I'm sure it's the same for you." He nodded.

"I've never had a client on death row." AJ shook her head.

"Yeah, well he won't be on death row for much longer." Michael nodded to her as Dean sighed to himself with relief. No one had any idea how good it was to hear that. To hear that his brother was going to get out of prison and his life wasn't on the line.

"But who made that phone call then?" AJ asked him, "Do you think it was Del Rio maybe?"

"Yeah, that's what we're thinking." Michael said, "We'll figure it out. In the meantime I'm gonna go visit Phil. After that, you guys could probably see him tonight. He's probably still in the dark about all of this and… well I'd like to apologise to him after… well after looking down on him as murderer." Michael nodded, "You guys just stay low to the ground, ok? Lots of press floating around."

"Yeah." AJ nodded.

A few months earlier…

"Hey, baby. I'm home." AJ said as she got through the door of the house she shared with her husband, dumping her bag down and unbuttoning her coat after a long day with a client in court. She couldn't wait to collapse on the couch and put her feet up whilst eating some pasta. She was trying desperately hard to be good at this adult thing and it seemed to be failing.

"Hey, in here." Ben called to her from the living room as she walked on in, smiling upon seeing him.

"You bet me home." AJ smiled, leaning over and kissing his lips a few times, standing back up straight as he nodded.

"I got lucky with a new witness coming forward. Case is gonna resume in a few days." He smiled to her, cracking a can of beer open. He didn't drink a lot but he had the odd beer here and there.

"I feel like mines is never gonna end." She sighed tiredly. Both of them working in the same line of work made it easy to strike up conversations. Obviously they didn't just talk about work, but it was something they definitely bonded over.

"You just think that because you're in the moment." Ben told her, "Go get yourself some food and come in, tell me all about it." He said, taking her hand and kissing it as she smiled.

"I will." AJ smiled to him, walking out of the living room and into the kitchen to get herself some dinner as he waited. They had built a home together, and she was very happy with her life. Although a certain someone always crept up in her mind from time to time, she was still very content with her life she lived with Ben. So she thought.

"Is that a new dress?" Ben smiled as she walked back into the living room with a bowl of pasta, sitting down beside him on the couch and placing her feet up on the foot rest, watching as Hooch, the five year old dog ran up and jumped up beside her, having missed her all day. She liked to say that she got the custody over Hooch after her and Punk's break-up. She really didn't want to part with him and although she knew Punk loved him, he was strong and gentleman enough to let her take him.

"It is." AJ said, "I got fed up of wearing the same ones." AJ sighed, wearing a tight grey, long sleeved dress that showed off all her curves, "Why? Do you like it?" She smiled to him, twirling the pasta around on her fork.

"Yeah, I do." Ben smiled, kissing her cheek as she smiled to herself, looking over to the TV, talking to Ben about each of their days until he got a text on his phone. She didn't pay much attention. Not any attention actually, "Uh…" Ben looked at his phone, "I think I'm gonna go get changed. Put something more comfortable on." He told her.

"Oh, alright." AJ smirked, "Don't tease me." She laughed to herself as he smiled.

"I'll be back in a minute." He told her, standing up and leaving the living room to go upstairs whilst AJ sat finishing her dinner in the living room.

Ben got upstairs and walked into he and AJ's bedroom, closing the door over tight and reading the text message.

'He's left the bar. Make the call now.'

Ben dialled 911, waiting as it rang for a short amount of time as the operator picked up immediately.

"911, what's your emergency?"

A/N: Let me know what you think!