Parallel Lives


"Hey, mom." AJ smiled, meeting her mother in a restaurant for lunch the following week, hugging her at the table.

"Hi, baby." Her mother, Jeanette smiled, brushing her hands through her daughter's hair, looking her up and down as she always did when they saw each other, "Don't you look pretty." She said.

"Thanks." AJ smiled, sitting down at the table, "I'm starving. I deliberately didn't eat breakfast."

"Well that's not good for you." Jeanette said, "I was going to stay you're looking rather skinny."

"I know, I lost four pounds this week." AJ nodded, "Not deliberately, of course. I plan on putting it all back on with this lunch." She smiled.

"You know I do worry about you working at the hospital. Rushed off your feet like that. It's just so demanding." Jeanette shook her head.

"I know but I love it." AJ assured her, "You know I do. I can look after myself, I promise." She nodded. She had one of those mothers that didn't quite see her beyond the age of sixteen. Who wasn't quite sure she was ready for the big bad world, even though she'd been living in it on her own and thriving for quite some time.

"Oh, I know." Jeanette nodded to herself, "How is Jason? It's a shame he couldn't join us."

"I know. He's super busy with work." AJ nodded to her, "He sends his love as always."

"Sweet." Jeanette smiled, "Did you get those wedding brochures I sent through?" She wondered.

"I did. Honestly, none of it was my style." AJ shook her head. Although her mother was overbearing, she never kept her mouth shut or bowed down to her, that was for sure, even if it pissed her off.

"What do you mean? There was such a range of styles." Jeanette said.

"A lot of them were just really old fashioned and… and puffy." AJ shook her head, "Just not for me. I think I'm going to look at some charity shops first-"

"Charity shops?" Jeanette raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah. I know tons that do wedding dresses and-"

"You are not charity, though." Jeanette shook her head with confusion.

"I shop in charity shops all the time. I think I got this t-shirt from one, actually." She looked at her t-shirt, "It doesn't mean I'm the charity, it means when I buy from the shop it goes to charity. I'd do all my shopping like that if I could." AJ nodded as Jeanette looked at her.

"But your wedding dress? That's so special. You could at least go to a boutique somewhere." Jeanette said.

"I'm open to looking anywhere." AJ nodded, "Charity shops included." She made clear as Jeanette just nodded.

"So… how is your residency going? Tough?" Jeanette asked, looking at the menu.

"Yeah but that's expected." AJ said.

"I could have warned you how tough it is. I saw your dad go through it. Drove him to a couple of breakdowns, you know." Jeanette nodded to her.

"Well everybody is different, and dad isn't here." AJ said.

"He would be so proud of you." Jeanette smiled, "His little superstar. A doctor just like him."

"Well I didn't do it for him. I did it for me." AJ nodded.

"Of course. I know that." Jeanette said, "How has the living situation been for you and Jason?"

"What do you mean?" AJ shook her head.

"Well you only moved in with him a few months ago. Sometimes when couples move in together it gets a little tough." Jeanette shrugged. She sometimes liked to play counsellor when it wasn't even needed.

"We're doing fine." AJ nodded, "It's all good."

"Good." Jeanette smiled happily.


"You coming to Kat's later?" Dean asked, sitting in the fire station with his brother.

"No, I got a date." Punk told him.

"A date?" Dean laughed a little, "You're way too polite."

"No, I'm just not a bum like you." Punk shook his head, "I'm picking her up at 7."

"Cutting it about short, aren't we? We get off at 6." Dean said.

"Doesn't take me long to get showered." Punk shrugged, "I'll just shower here. Anything to save our water bill."

"Did you see our electricity bill for this month?" Dean asked him.

"Yeah, I did. Maybe you'll think twice about leaving the apartment with the tv still on now." Punk nodded to him.

"It's just habit." Dean groaned.

"Yeah and mom used to kill you for it." Punk said as he chuckled to himself.

"At least she's settling back into the home again." Dean nodded. Their mother was released from hospital and taken back to her care home, and was doing relatively well in the past week. She had recognised them a few times, but for the most part they were still strangers to her.

"Why do you think she thinks we're little kids and dad is still alive?" Punk asked him, "I mean why is it that time in her life that she thinks she's in?"

"Maybe she was happiest then." Dean thought to himself.

"Yeah, maybe." Punk nodded, "She wasn't the same after dad died."

"I know." Dean nodded, "Yeah, that was rough." He thought to himself, running his hands over his face as they suddenly heard the alarm bell going off in the station which alerted them right away.

Normally the alarm bell meant there was a code red fire they had to attend to, very quickly. They all got to their feet, getting into the truck within seconds of the bell going off. They'd been doing the job for so long, it was all just second hand nature to them.

They drove to the address they were given, pulling up to the large building which they could see was up in flames on the top floor.

"Oh, great." Dean groaned as they got out of the truck, getting everything they needed, working quickly, noticing several people hanging out the windows, no doubt to try and breathe clean air.

"Alright boys, you don't like heights then get a new job." Punk hummed to himself, setting the ladder up and climbing up in record time, meeting the woman at his window he'd covered.

"There's more people in here." She shrieked, "The… The building went into lockdown and we couldn't get out-"

"Ok, I'm gonna get you down." Punk nodded to her through his glass shield over his face, "Ok take my hand." He encouraged, "Nice and easy." He nodded along, "I'm not gonna let go of you, ok?" He assured her as she nodded along. His gentle voice was one she really needed whilst hanging out of a burning building.

"Ok." Punk nodded, lifting her up in one swift movement over his shoulder, making his way back down the ladder carefully.

He got her down safely on the ground, no time to stop as he sprinted back up the ladders, this time making his way into the building through the window, making sure his air mask was on properly and heading through the building.

It was extremely difficult to hear and locate people in the smoky building, but when he did, he realised not everyone was breathing, and there were a considerably large amount of people there.


"You good?" Dean asked tiredly, jumping off the truck, holding his helmet as Punk dumped his over by the table in the fire station, placing his hands on his hips and taking a deep breath.

He sat down on the ground, laying down on his back with exhaustion, "That was ridiculous." He shook his head as Dean nodded in agreement, taking his heavy protective jacket off whilst the others unloaded from the truck.

They were all worn out, sitting down on the ground in different parts of the station, downing bottles of water and taking a minute in their thoughts, thinking about those they couldn't save tonight.

"I think you're a little late for that date." Dean noticed, looking over at the clock as Punk looked over, noticing it was 11pm.

"I don't even care." Punk shook his head, "Such bullshit." He mumbled. No matter how much they knew it wasn't their fault they couldn't save all lives in instances like this, they still kicked themselves, it was only natural.

"Boys." The fire chief, John, walked into garage area of the station, "That was good going tonight." He assured them all, looking around at them scattered on the ground, looking disappointed, "Don't kick yourselves. You did everything." He assured them, not getting much response back from them.


"April, we had dinner plans." Jason shook his head, standing in the kitchen where AJ had just gotten home to.

"I'm sorry, I got paged in, there was a huge fire downtown and they needed me." AJ shook her head, "Come on, don't make me feel guilty about that."

"Yeah well this ain't the first time." Jason shook his head, "I was looking forward to having a quiet night in."

"So was I, but things can change." AJ said, "I can't refuse to work-"

"It was your day off and you got paged in at 7pm." Jason shook his head angrily.

"Jason, it is my job. I can't help it. There were so many people injured, I had to be there. I have to learn." AJ sighed, "Please don't make me feel bad for this."

"I'm not." He raised his voice a little as she looked at him, "I'm not." He said calmly, "I just don't want to be the couple that barely see one another. That's not us. I mean… is this what it's going to be like?" He asked.

"If you're asking will I ever get paged again on my day off then yeah, probably. It's probably gonna happen a lot more." She said truthfully, "It's just… my job. It's what I need to do." She said as Jason looked at her.

"Are you gonna end up down the same path your dad went down?" Jason questioned.

"Don't you dare." AJ folded her arms, "Don't talk to me about him-"

"Well look what happened there." Jason said.

"Just stop." AJ warned, "You don't get to do that. Just because you're upset we couldn't have dinner together doesn't mean you get to say things like that to me. We'll have more dinners, I'm sure." She said as Jason looked at her.

"I just… worry about you." He said.

"Well don't. I'm fine." AJ said, "But I need you to understand that this is my job and this is what is required of me. Just like I understand your job." She said, "Fighting is just… it's just stupid." She sighed, running her hand through her hair as he watched her, sighing to himself and nodding.

"Yeah… yeah, it is." Jason sighed, "You're right."

"And I don't like it." She sighed as he nodded.

"I know. I don't either." Jason sighed, making his way over to her, "I'm sorry."

"I think I just need to go to bed. It was a long night." AJ nodded to him.

"Ok." He said, kissing her head as she closed her eyes. Sometimes the person she thought she sought comfort in, forgot to give her at times, but she didn't pay too much attention to it.