"It was when I came back to work. I remember, because it was just after my mom died. I'd taken a few weeks off, and I came back to pictures of you sitting on my desk." He said, still sitting on the steps at the backdoor, the freezing cold air nipping at them, but cooling them down completely, "My boss in Chicago had to go over it with me a few times, because even I found it hard to understand what my job was. Jamie supplied an over seas team with drugs and guns. Things they couldn't buy over there. But it was much more dangerous than that. Jamie knew by doing what he was doing, he was putting you in danger. If he couldn't get the instalments overseas in time, it was you who would get hurt. It's the way gangs work. They go after families and kids of those who do them wrong." He said, "So I was set out, to get you to safety."
"Why would Jamie never tell me?" She shook her head, "Do you know how long he'd been doing it for?" She asked him.
"As far as I know. Since he was young." Punk told her as she sighed, "I thought I'd be able to continue working from home. In Chicago. But for me to get you from him, I really had to give you a reason to leave him." Punk said, "I thought of different things. I thought about just grabbing you one morning and driving away." He laughed to himself, "I thought about asking your work to transfer you somewhere else. I don't know. The last thing I thought about, was sleeping with you." He admitted to her.
"But you did it anyway." She looked up at him, "Everything I know about you… is that true? Or did you have to make up a fake personality for me?" She asked.
"No. Which is why I knew that something more was going on with us. I was supposed to keep it from you that I was a cop. I was supposed to tell you I was from Boston, and that I have kids, but I didn't. I told you who I was." He told her as she nodded.
"So why did you have to have all my details before you came here anyway?" She asked.
"Because I had to know how to work with you. If I came here, not even knowing what you looked like, the job wouldn't have ran smoothly. I knew where I was headed, I knew who I was looking for." He said, "The couple that lived here were paid a lot of money to move out, so I could move in." He explained, "When I got here, I had no idea what I was meant to do. You looked so happy with Jamie. I didn't have a clue how I was meant to split you up." He said, "And then I got to know you. And the pictures, with your smile plastered all over them, made sense that there was a lot hidden beneath you." Punk said.
"And you used all of that, to just… do a job." She shrugged as he shook his head.
"I thought I was. But when we slept together. That first night. You done something to me. You left me wanting more, and I thought that would make my job much harder. But it actually made it easier." He said as he watched her just look down at the ground, a tear rolling down her cheek as she brushed it away quickly, "No one told me to fall in love with you, April." He said, "I done that on my own. No one told me that I had to come out here and sleep with you, and tell you things I'd never told anyone." He confessed, "I done that because I trusted you, and I'd fallen in love with you." He said.
"How am I meant to believe that? After you keeping this from me? How can I believe anything you say anymore?" She shook her head.
"Because it's over now." He told her, "Jamie wasn't my job. You were. Other guys are out making sure they take him down and all the guys involved. I only kept this from you, because I knew you would think that I just used you to get a job done." He said, "I didn't." He said bluntly, "I love being with you, living here with you, sharing a life with you. And I don't want any of that to come to an end." He told her, "I wouldn't still be sitting here with you if I didn't care about you."
"Here I was… thinking we had this, romantic love story." She laughed to herself.
"We do." He nodded, "I've been protecting you longer than you knew. You remember when you got a phone call, that you had a teachers meeting in the city? And you went and nothing was there? That was me, calling you, to get the hell away from your house. Or when you were heading out with your friends in a taxi, and the driver took you to the opposite side of the city. That was because where you were going, wasn't safe." He said as she smiled.
"That was you?" She asked as he nodded.
"I thought I just had to keep you safe until I got you from Jamie, but now, all I ever want to do with my life, is keep you safe." He said.
"Am I still in danger?" She asked hesitantly.
"Not under my roof." He shook his head, "We're hoping that word has got to over seas that Jamie is divorced, and that they keep you out of their eye level." He said as AJ nodded.
"So what now?" She asked him.
"We just carry on." He said, "I'm working on other cases now. You're safe. I love you. I think we'll be ok." He admitted as she smiled slightly.
"Do you ever regret coming..."
"I don't regret anything I do in life." He interrupted her before she finished her question, "And the last thing I could ever regret, is meeting you." He told her, "Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me." He told her truthfully.
She had listened to him, and although mad that she had just found out about all of this, and still in shock from how much of a lie her life had been with Jamie, she still felt safe with him, and wanted. He was here fighting for her, something Jamie would never do. He was here confessing to her how much he really loved her, even though he didn't plan to. In all honestly, she didn't plan to love him. But it just naturally happened. She knew they could get by this. She was just worried that was more that he wasn't telling her.
"C'mon." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "It's freezing out here, and we're working in the morning." He reminded her, since it was still the middle of the night.
He hoped this didn't knock her confidence in trusting him. He would never lie to her. Despite this lie, that he only told to keep her from hurting. She really was his everything. He couldn't imagine his life without her now. He didn't want this making them take a step back in their relationship.
"Why did you tell her?" Carl asked whilst in Punks office at the station the next day. Punk had told him that AJ knew about everything.
"She found the folder I have on her under my bed." He said, "But she's alright. I explained it all to her and she'll be fine." Punk said as Carl shook his head.
"You know she isn't out of the clear just yet. Don't you?" Carl said as Punk nodded.
"Well I wasn't going to tell her that." Punk said, "But yeah, I know. It eats at me every day." He confessed.
"We really need to get these fuckers across sea. Soon." Carl said, "Divorced or not, they'll still see her as a way of getting to Jamie." Carl said.
"I know." Punk nodded, "Let's just hope Jamie keeps doing his job right for the time it takes us to go over seas." Punk said, "She's in good hands anyway. I got her." Punk said as Carl nodded.
"Maybe discuss moving with her." Carl said as Punk shook his head with confusion.
"I've just moved out here. I've only been here for a year." Punk said.
"Yeah, Phil you weren't based here for a length of time. You were based here for the amount of time it took you to get April out of danger. Now you have, in the most extreme ways, might I add." Carl said, having a hard time still taking it in that Punk had actually fell in love with the girl he was meant to be protecting all this time. Typical.
"Where to?" Punk asked, "I don't know if she'd go. She has work here, and her family and friends." Punk said, "And I'm not telling her she's still in danger if that's what you're thinking." Punk warned.
"Just tell her you're being based back in Chicago. You still got your house there. And you can go back to the station there. I just think… moving could be the last thing you need to do that will help April." Carl said, "The team over seas still know she lives here."
"I'll talk to her." Punk sighed, "But I can't promise anything." He said as Carl nodded.
"Thank you." Carl smiled, walking out of the office as Punk sat down on the chair behind his desk, rolling his head back and sighing. He hated this. For the time it was going to take to take out this organization and trading system from New Jersey to over seas in Albania, he was still going to have to keep April safe, more so now than ever, since he did love her with all his heart now. She wasn't just a duty now. She was his girlfriend that he loved and cared about dearly, which made this even harder.
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