For Sale


"Mom said I should leave her alone." Punk nodded to himself, sitting with his brother in their apartment, sharing a pizza.

"You spoke to mom about your girl problems?" Dean asked, going in for another slice of pizza.

"Yeah and she… processed everything. Even smacked me with her book for going after an engaged woman." He chuckled to himself.

"Well, she always did get stressed with your reputation." Dean nodded.

"What reputation? I'm a good guy." Punk scoffed.

"You always go after women who have other guys. And you know it." Dean said, "Is it a thrill you get?"

"It's honestly not as intentional as you think." Punk assured him, "I don't deliberately go out my way to get with girls who are already… in a relationship." He said.

"Well then it must be a weird regular occurrence then." Dean scoffed, "It's like me with blondes." He shrugged.

"Yeah, have you ever dated a brunette before?" Punk wondered.

"Once. And she was a psycho. Slashed my tyres." Dean nodded.

"How has it been going with Renee? You guys seem pretty tight." Punk nodded.

"It's good. She's great to be around." Dean said, "Slow and steady, of course."

"Of course." Punk rolled his eyes.

"So mom told you to leave AJ alone? Does that mean you're gonna?" Dean asked, "Normally you do listen to her advice."

"I do." Punk nodded, "It's not my business. And I don't wanna be the guy who keeps popping up and causing problems, which I know I am for her." He said.

"It's probably for the best." Dean nodded, "I mean… it could get really ugly, a situation like. It's already ugly the fact you kissed."

"Do you think she'll tell him?" Punk wondered.

"I don't know her well enough to know that." Dean said, "A decent person would, but for your sake I hope she doesn't." He nodded.

"It just feels like she's settling. Like he's a safety net or something." Punk nodded.

"With all due respect, you don't really know her, do you?" Dean asked, "I mean, you've spent a couple nights talking to her, shoved your tongue down her throat… it's basically just a first name basis you know her on." He shrugged as Punk looked at him shoving pizza in his mouth.

"I think it's a little more than that." Punk shook his head, "But… I can respect her space and she can do what she wants." He nodded.


"Has the family of Lucas Marshall arrived yet?" AJ asked the nurses at the desk who shook their head, "When they do could you page? Their son has been taken into emergency surgery. He was scheduled to have it later on in the day but… the OR team thing his bleed on his brain is more severe than expected." AJ nodded to the nurse.

"I'll page you right away when they get here." The nurse nodded to her.

"Thank you." AJ said, turning around and bumping into Renee.

"Hey." Renee smiled.

"Hi." AJ said unenthusiastically, "Is it just me or… is everyone dying today?" She shook her head.

"You just think that cause there's been one death." Renee said.

"Two actually. And an emergency surgery that does not look good." AJ said, "I think I brought the grim reaper with me this morning."

"Stop." Renee scoffed, "How was your night? I half expected you to show up at Kat's."

"We went out." AJ smiled, "He took me to a great restaurant. We talked. It was great." AJ smiled.

"That's good." Renee nodded positively.

"Yeah, then we had sex and I… have never been more far away in my entire life." She shook her head.

"What do you mean?" Renee asked.

"I don't know." AJ sighed, too embarrassed to say it, "Then we spent the night talking and it was great. It felt like us again."

"Well that's all good." Renee nodded, "Right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's good." AJ gulped, "I'm going to look at wedding dresses next week." She said as Renee looked at her.

"You don't sound thrilled about it." Renee laughed a little.

"Because I'm going with my mother." AJ rolled her eyes, "And I don't know, recently it's all felt like it's going too fast. It's probably just in my head."

"You'll love it once you get there." Renee smiled, "And when you put on that perfect dress, it'll all come together." She nodded. She was only being a supportive friend, doing and saying what she thought was best.

"Yeah." AJ nodded along, "Yeah, of course. And hopefully we'll have a venue sorted."

"How exciting." Renee said, "I love a wedding."

"I can't tell him." AJ blurted, "I just can't."

"And I won't judge you for that." Renee assured her, "It's not right but… it would only cause more stress. As long as you know it was stupid and a mistake, I think it's best you just move forward."

"Yeah." AJ nodded.

"If you didn't think it was a mistake…"

"It was a mistake." AJ said immediately, "A huge one." She shook her head as Renee nodded, "You know I'm not like that."

"I know." Renee nodded, "When I was Kat's, Phil wanted to know if you were ok." She thought she'd let her know.

"I'm fine. I just need him to stay away." AJ said, "I know, it sounds ridiculous saying that when I was the one who kissed him."

"It doesn't sound ridiculous." Renee said, "I think he got the message." She nodded.

"He must think I'm a stupid bitch." AJ shook her head.

"He doesn't." Renee assured her, "To be honest, I just think the guy really likes you." She nodded as AJ looked at her.

"I'm gonna go do my rounds. We're busy today." AJ nodded, taking off down the hospital as Renee watched with a sigh.


"Dean!" Punk yelled through the fire station as the others turned around, taking notice of his anger, "Dean!" Punk yelled again.

"Dude, he's in the changing rooms." One of the guys told him as Punk stormed through to the changing rooms where Dean was sitting shirtless on the bench, texting.

"What are you yelling about?" Dean shook his head.

"Mom's house has been put up for sale." Punk said, unimpressed to say the least.

"What?" Dean stood up angrily.

"I went to it today, to check in, there's a for sale sign in the front yard." Punk said.

"The house is bought, though. How can someone put it up for sale?" Dean shook his head.

"The only way someone can put it up for sale is if they went to the care home and got her to sign it over. Which is illegal, because she's not in a position to do that. Which means it's our problem. And which means I'm gonna happily sue these fuckers." Punk nodded.

"Ok, calm down." Dean shook his head, "You think mom signed it over to lease?" He asked.

"No, she probably signed it over completely because she wouldn't have known what the hell she was signing." Punk said, "We were supposed to sell that house. Not anyone else."

"Maybe she got the money for it." Dean shrugged.

"Are you dumb? Her heads in the clouds. She knows nothing." Punk said.

"Well we can figure it out. You need to calm down." Dean advised.

"No, fuck this. I'm gonna tear these bastards apart." Punk spat, raging out of the changing room as Dean shook his head angrily, equally as pissed off.


AJ got home from work late on that night, dumping her bag and jacket when she got in the door, pausing suddenly when she heard his voice. Phil's voice, in her own kitchen.

Her heart began to beat out of its chest. Had he told Jason? Was he here to come clean to him on behalf of her? She couldn't think of any other reason why he would be here. Part of her wanted to just go running back out the door.

She slowly walked towards the kitchen, hearing the voices, the angry voices, going back and forth at each other.

She walked into the kitchen, watching them both go silent and look at her.

"W-What's going on?" AJ shook her head as Jason sighed to himself.

"You're a fucking crook." Punk nodded to Jason, "And if you don't get that sign down from my mother's house by tomorrow I'm gonna sue you and all the people you work for and with." Punk nodded seriously as AJ shook her head with confusion.

"Seriously, what's going on?" AJ shook her head, realising that they weren't discussing what she thought they were.

"His mother signed over her house to us and we've put it on the market." Jason shrugged.

"My mother didn't do shit." Punk spat, "My mother has dementia. She thinks she lives on the moon half the time. You don't speak with her about finances or the house. You speak with me or my brother." He made clear.

"She seemed perfectly fine to me and she signed over willingly-"

"No, his mother has dementia." AJ made clear, "Vascular dementia. It… It's bad." She nodded. She didn't realise she was being so quick to defend Punk.

"How the hell do you know?" Jason shook his head.

"I treated her at the hospital one day. She had a seizure." AJ nodded, "She lives in a care home. How did you… How did you even see her?" She shook her head.

"He thought she was just in a care home because of old age." Punk shook his head, "That house is my parents and then it belongs to me and my brother. And we'll decide whether we want to sell it or not when the time comes." He said, "So you take that sign down and take it off the market or I'll come shove it down your throat." He warned, leaving the kitchen as AJ watched.

She turned to Jason after Punk left, watching him stressfully run his hands over his face.

"You really went to the care home and made her sign over her house?" AJ asked with disbelief.

"She seemed fine. I had no idea she had dementia." Jason said innocently.

"But she's in a care home. Doesn't that indicate that she might not be able to make those kind of decisions for herself?" AJ asked.

"Oh, I really don't need this from you." Jason warned.

"You can't do that to people." AJ shook her head.

"It's a huge house and it's just sitting there. It's a gorgeous house. We'd sell up so quick." Jason shook his head, "She knew what I was asking her to sign and she signed it. That's not my problem-"

"Her finances, her mortgage, her everything… her son's control that now. So you take that up with them. It's the respectful thing to do." AJ said, "There's no way you didn't notice she had dementia."

"I swear I didn't." Jason insisted, "What do you even know? Sticking up for the guy who threw drink all over you?" He laughed a little.

"That was an accident." AJ shook her head, "And it's not about him. It's about his mother." She said, "You have to make this right."

"I've done nothing wrong, April." Jason shook his head.

"You have and you know it. I think it'd be wise to avoid getting sued." AJ nodded as Jason looked across at her.

"This has nothing to do with you." Jason nodded to her, walking past her out of the kitchen as AJ shook her head with shock.