"What are you gonna do with your day then?" AJ asked Punk the next morning after waking up bright and early with Liesel. She figured she'd give Punk a lazy lie in considering he'd been doing all the work himself this past week. Not that any of that was her fault.
"I don't know." Punk groaned tiredly whilst hugging her pillow that still smelt of her body wash, perfume and shampoo, shutting his eyes whilst AJ rushed around the room frantically to get ready. She was going out with her sister. Punk suggested it may have been a little too soon. That she perhaps needed to stay at home and rest for a few days, her sister could always come round. But she insisted.
"Well you have the day to yourself. I'm gonna take Liesel with me. I love it when people walk by her in her stroller and smile." She said as Punk shook his head at her motherly ways.
"You don't have to take her. I can look after her. You should go out and have a good time with your sister." He said as she shook her head.
"No, she's coming. I've missed her too much." AJ said whilst shimmying her jeans on, "Plus, Kim will want to see her again. She couldn't get enough of her last night." She said.
"Have you taken your medication?" Punk opened his eyes, looking over at her as she nodded.
"It was the first thing I done when I woke up." She said, "Why don't you go out with Sami and Dean? You haven't been out with them in a while. Go take advantage of the free time, because before you know it, we're gonna be back and you're gonna be getting spit up on." She said as Punk laughed.
"I don't know if Dean is spending some time with Toni and Elise. I'll see what Sami is up to." Punk nodded as AJ smiled.
"Good." AJ said, "Be productive. I don't want to come home and see you still lying there like a lazy slob." She poked his side with her finger whilst walking by him back into the bathroom.
"Where has all your energy come from?" Punk asked, turning on his back and opening his eyes up fully, watching as AJ walked back into their room.
"This week just opened my eyes to how lucky I am to be healthy, and happy. I mean, I know I wasn't. But it's just made me grateful to be better now. It's still… so hard to understand and explain, but… I'm just so glad I'm home now." She admitted as he smiled.
"You mean, you're so grateful to have such an amazing boyfriend. That's why you're all energetic and stuff." He said as she laughed.
"Yeah, that's what I meant." AJ nodded sarcastically.
"When can we have sex?" Punk asked with defeat, kicking his legs under the cover, similar to a child, huffing loudly as AJ laughed.
"When I say we can." AJ said, "Trust me, baby. I miss it too." She nodded seriously, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed beside him, "But that's what happens when you have a baby. You gotta let me heal." She said as he smiled.
"I suppose I can wait a little while. Maybe we go away for the weekend. Our first weekend without Liesel. Have my sister watch her." Punk shrugged.
"That would be nice." She smiled, leaning down and pressing a kiss on his lips, standing up and getting organised to leave, "Ok, you be good." She said whilst lifting up Liesel from her crib into her arms.
"She always is."Punk smiled.
"I was talking to you." AJ looked across at him, "Maybe you could even do some spring cleaning." She suggested.
"It's not Spring." He raised his eyebrows.
"Then winter cleaning." AJ corrected herself as he just shook his head.
"Now you're getting annoying. Away you go and spend my money." He shoo'd her off with his hands as she chuckled, "Let me give my baby a kiss." He sat up as AJ passed Liesel to him whilst taking the free opportunity to put her coat on. The stroller and Liesel's bag was already downstairs waiting. She couldn't wait to get outside, especially since she'd spent the past week cooped up in a hospital room.
"You be good for mommy, baby." He pressed a kiss on her cheek, "I'll see you when you come home." He smiled as Liesel looked into his eyes, not yet aware of the love he quite had for her, but knowing it was a place of rest, a place of depending that she could always go to.
AJ scooped Liesel back into her arms, "We won't be late." AJ told him, "I'll see you later." She smiled, flicking under his chin as she left the room, letting him collapse back down on the bed to doze off for another hour or two. He was exhausted. This week of night feeds and early rises had done him in. He loved being a father, but man was it exhausting.
"So this… boyfriend of yours… I mean, I couldn't really get a good look at him last night from being so excited to see you, but… what's he like?" AJ's sister, Kim asked like a teenage girl.
They'd patrolled the mall for an hour, looking at different clothes, jewellery, make up and everything that screamed girly shopping. But they spent the majority of their time looking at clothes for Liesel, which AJ had picked up some items.
They were now having a pit stop for some coffee whilst AJ fed a hungry Liesel who was beginning to get grumpy.
"He's amazing." AJ smiled, "He's always there for me. And he's such an amazing father." AJ explained as Kim smiled.
"Where did you meet him?" Kim asked with excitement.
AJ paused, looking down at Liesel who she was feeding happily. She knew she couldn't tell her sister how her and Punk met. Saying that she first encountered him when he was killing someone down an alley way wasn't all that good. If she said that, no one would ever understand the real him. The man she fell in love with.
"Oh, you know. Just a bar. I was being harassed by men trying to buy me drinks and he shoo'd them off. We got talking and-"
"And now you have his baby." Kim summed up as AJ smiled.
"Yeah." AJ nodded.
"No ring though?" Kim asked.
"No… well, I don't know if marriage is something he wants to do. He never shuts it down or anything, but I don't think he believes that rings and signing a piece of paper is showing someone that you love them." AJ shrugged.
"Of course he thinks that. He's a man. Just tell him that the wedding day is your day, but the wedding night… is his." Kim smiled as AJ rolled her eyes.
"You never change." AJ laughed, "I'm not even fussed about marriage anyway. You know I never was. She's all I could have asked for." AJ smiled whilst looking down at Liesel.
"She is beautiful." Kim said, "I could fit her in my pocket." She said as AJ smiled.
"She came a month early." AJ said, "On the kitchen floor actually." AJ remembered as Kim chuckled.
"You didn't make it to hospital?" Kim asked.
"No. She was just desperate to come out into the world." AJ smiled.
"And this illness you had… you're ok now, right?" Kim asked curiously. Punk had explained to her over the phone that AJ had a mental illness, but it wasn't anything to worry about, it wasn't permanent.
"Yeah." AJ nodded, "It's an afterbirth illness. Mom had it, and it is genetic, so… just watch yourself." AJ said, "Apparently it happens with every pregnancy you have. But because I didn't know it was obviously worrying at first." AJ said, "But I'm ok… don't worry." AJ said. She appreciated everyone being worried about her health, but she was ok now, and she really just wanted to forget about her time in hospital and the things that went through her mind in that period.
"Well I'm glad." Kim smiled.
"So how are you… how is married life treating you?" AJ asked as Kim smiled.
"Good." Kim nodded, "Peter would have came but he couldn't get out of work." Kim said as AJ just shook her head.
"Tell him don't worry about it." AJ smiled as Kim looked on at her, watching as she nursed her daughter, smiling down at her as she finished off her bottle.
"So… how long were you gonna wait to tell me that you're sleeping with the man whose father killed our parents?" Kim spoke in a lower tone, looking across at AJ who looked up slowly.
"I didn't really want to come pick you up here." Punk admitted whilst standing Invictus, waiting for Sami to clear up so they could go out.
"I'll only be a few minutes. Calm down." Sami said whilst coming out from behind the bar as Punk stood with his hands in his jean pockets, looking on suddenly as the front door to Invictus opened, turning around and watching his father walk in.
"Changed your mind?" Jack laughed as Punk shook his head.
"Nope. Just here to pick up Sami." Punk replied casually as Jack nodded.
"How is April? Out of her white coat yet?"
"Shut up." Punk scoffed, turning away in digust.
"Well… is she?" Jack asked.
"She's out of hospital, yes. And she's feeling better. Not that it concerns you." He said as Jack laughed.
"So did she get the flowers I sent her?" Jack smiled.
"The only thing that got they flowers, was the trash." Punk said, "Just stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours. You leave Elise alone, but continue to want and force me into all of this." Punk said, "Not anymore. Alright." Punk made himself clear.
"I leave Elise alone, because she's my princess. I don't want her working here or anywhere near me and my guys." Jack said honestly.
"But it's ok for you to force me into it?" Punk said.
"You're a man. You can take this. It's in your blood. This was what you are meant to be doing." Jack said, "What would your poor uncle think if he seen you carrying on like this?" Jack said.
"I think he'd be pretty damn proud seeing me stand up to you." Punk said, "He'd want me to go make myself happy." Punk said.
Jack just shook his head, "I'm trying to make this easy for you." He hissed, "All you gotta do is come back." Jack said.
"Well that isn't happening." Punk laughed, "I'm happy with my life. I'm happy with April and Liesel. And it may be funny to you, but I am happy going to college." Punk spat, "I will never be your perfect son, that is going to carry on this business. The quicker you understand that, the better." Punk spat.
"Then you better watch your back-"
"Or what?" Punk tested, "What? Are you gonna kill me? You gonna rape my girlfriend? Take my daughter? Hurt them? Hurt me?" He said, "Because if that's what your plan is, to get me back here, then you're going about it in the wrong way." He said.
"Maybe it's not about getting you back here anymore." Jack shrugged, "Maybe it's just about getting revenge."
"I'm your son."
"I wish you weren't." Jack said, "I should have pulled out. You were the biggest mistake me and your mother ever made." He said as Punk looked down at the ground, "Your mom tried throwing herself downstairs to get rid of you but you-"
"Just shut up." Punk shook his head, not wishing to hear any more.
"You're not a Brooks." Jack said, "I couldn't care less if you worked for me or not. But I promise you, I am going to tear down everything in your world, until you have nothing. And then you're gonna be begging me to take you back in." Jack said, "Just you watch."