Time To Think


AJ and Punk lay in the back of the fire truck on the floor beneath the seats, a blanket covering them which Punk had grabbed from the back storage, just lying with each other in the peace and quiet.

"What's your opinion on me right now?" AJ wondered, laying on her stomach beside him whilst he lay on his back, "You must be just as confused as I am." She nodded.

"You're asking me my opinion on you? After what we've just done?" He smiled a little.

"Stop." She chuckled, leaning her head on his arm, "I'm serious." She whispered.

"Ok." He nodded, "I don't think I've ever felt this way about someone before. This isn't a regular occurrence for me. And I know your situation is a little more tricky than mine." He said, "I don't know, I just… I think you're special and I don't like imagining any kind of future where we can't do more of this." He smiled as she looked up at him.

"You don't think I'm cheap?" She asked quietly.

"Why would I ever think that?" He questioned.

"I'm a cheat. Surely that's enough to judge someone on." AJ said.

"Well that's not how I see you." Punk nodded, "And it's not how you should see yourself. You're… smart, beautiful and kind." He said, "So you made a mistake… a lot of people make mistakes in life." He said as she sighed.

"This doesn't feel like a mistake." She whispered, "Maybe I'm struggling so much with all of this because I… part of me doesn't regret it." She shook her head, "I mean my fiancé tells me he wants me out the house and the wedding is off… I don't even fight for it. Instead I'm here with you." She said.

"You think there's maybe a reason for that?" He asked, shuffling over and sitting up against one of the seats as she sat beside him.

"I know I like you." She nodded, "I know I didn't sleep with you just because my relationship was struggling. Maybe the reason my relationship was struggling in the first place was because my head wasn't fully in it anymore. Cause I was thinking about someone else." She turned to him, "Thinking about you." She nodded.

"So… where does that leave us?" He asked curiously, "I know you got shit to figure out and it's complicated but… am I stupid for thinking this is going somewhere? I mean… you are broken up, right?"

"Right." AJ nodded along, "I don't wanna hurt Jason any more than I have. It's bad enough to cheat and sleep with someone else but then to fall in love with them it's just-"

"What?" Punk turned to her.

"What?" AJ shook her head.

"Falling in love?" He questioned as she nodded.

"Yeah." She whispered, "Big scary word, isn't it?" She laughed nervously, wishing she'd never said it. It had just come out. It was how she felt and it just came out.

"I do too." He assured her.

"Yeah?" She smiled.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Everything else just sort of feels uncertain." She said, "I need to talk with Jason, about everything going on, what it means… what he wants." She nodded.

"And if what he wants is to still marry you…" He looked at her curiously.

"I don't think he will." She shook her head, "I can't marry someone if I love someone else." She said, "That would just hurt for everyone involved."

"Yeah." He nodded, "Well maybe you just need a break from it all. Give yourself some time to think, give him some time to think." Punk said.

"Yeah." AJ nodded in agreement, "I was supposed to be meeting my mother this week to go wedding dress shopping." She laughed to herself, "She was excited for me to get married."

"Excited for you or excited for herself?" Punk scoffed.

"Yeah I know." AJ nodded, "I thought maybe she would actually understand, giving she was in such an unhappy relationship. But… she stayed so maybe she wouldn't have understood." She said.

"You can't trap yourself in something you're not happy in." He said as she nodded.

"I know." She nodded, "I know I'm happy right now." She smiled to him, climbing over him, sitting on his thighs as he placed his hands on her waist. She wasn't really sure of much right now, but she felt so sure of the happiness she felt when she was with him. Not just in intimate settings but just in his company, listening to his voice and chatting to him about anything.

"I don't have another condom." He whispered as she kissed his neck.

"I'll just have to play with you then." She whispered in his ear as he chuckled, tilting her face in line with his as he kissed her passionately.


"How was the pizza last night?" Renee asked, getting ready in the changing room with AJ for their shift at the hospital.

"It was good pizza." AJ nodded to herself.

"You got home late." Renee said, looking over at her, "How much pizza did you eat?" She asked curiously as AJ laughed a little, turning around to her.

"We just talked." AJ shrugged, "Got to know each other." She said, "Hey did you know they were adopted?"

"Yeah." Renee nodded, "Yeah Dean mentioned it. But he said they don't ever use that word cause… it's not how they feel."

"I guess they were just little kids, babies when it happened. They wouldn't have known any different." AJ shook her head, "Sounds like they had great parents."

"Jealous?" Renee laughed a little.

"Yeah." AJ nodded honestly, "It's just… hard to imagine growing up in a household with no yelling or screaming." She said.

"You're not the only one." Renee nodded, "So you're getting to know Phil?" She asked, leaving the changing room with her onto their wing of the hospital.

"Yeah." AJ shrugged. She didn't want to tell her what had really happened, because she wanted to keep it to herself until she figured it all out, although she was sure Renee would pull it from her eventually.

"And Jason?" Renee asked.

"I'm just gonna give him space, give him whatever time he needs to think about what he wants, and maybe in that time I can do some thinking of my own. Not that I think he's gonna want me back." AJ shook her head.

"If he did you'd go back to him?" Renee asked.

"I don't know." AJ shook her head as Renee nodded.

"Ok, you two this isn't high school gossip hour." Their attending, Shauna, approached them both, "April you're prepping two surgeries for this morning. Shake a leg." She nodded to AJ who headed down the corridor to get to work.

"I have a patient with COPD in room four seven two." Renee told Shauna.

"And you're standing here because?" Shauna looked at her.

"Oh, right." Renee nodded, about to walk away, "Oh wait…" She remembered why she was waiting around, "She recently had a triple heart bypass and I spoke with one of the surgeons, he is more inclined to think it may have something to do with that." She said as Shauna looked at her.

"Alright, Young. Figure out." Shauna shrugged, "You want me to hold your hand? This ain't med school."

"Ok." Renee nodded, quickly walking away before she got ridiculed any more, which wasn't uncommon.


"So this shit is all sorted?" Dean asked, standing outside their mother's house which no longer had a for sale sign outside it.

"Yeah. When I visited mom the other day there was paper work left for us with the carers. It's all signed back into mom's name. Well… our name strictly speaking." He said, "So that bastard must have took it back off the market."

"Well you did say you were gonna sue him." Dean said as Punk nodded.

"And I would have if he didn't fix it." Punk said, "I think he knew exactly what he was doing. You look at mom and you know she has dementia. You just know." He said, "And he for damn sure knew when he got her to sign it over."

"Well it's fixed now." Dean nodded, "Sounds morbid to say but… what do we do when mom… passes away?" He asked him, leaning against the car as they stood outside the house.

"What do you mean?" Punk turned to him.

"Look how beautiful this house is." Dean said, "What do we do with it when she's gone? Or… what do we do with it now?"

"We could live in it." Punk looked at him.

"No." Dean scoffed, "And then what happens when we start settling down?" He wondered as Punk smiled a little.

"I didn't know you thought about that stuff." He smiled.

"Well… I don't wanna be alone my whole life." Dean said, "And if you meet the right person…" He shrugged as Punk nodded.

"We could just sell it and split the money between us." Punk nodded to him.

"Or we could draw straws to see who gets to live in it." Dean smirked as Punk rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't sound very fair." Punk shook his head as Dean just laughed.

"I'm joking." Dean nodded, "Just weird to think that eventually one day there's gonna be a family in there making memories of their own." He shrugged.

"Well that's life. It moves on." Punk said.

"How was the pizza last night? You got home pretty late." Dean looked at him.

"The pizza was… good." He smiled to himself as Dean looked at him, "We talked a bunch, got to know each other a little more."

"And she's not got any skeletons in her closet?" Dean asked.

"Well none that she told me." Punk said, "Pretty shit home life growing up from what I gathered." He nodded, "She popped at you calling our biological parents the sperm guy and the surrogate." He said.

"Well… that's what they are." Dean shrugged, "So you two are getting to know each other?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think she just needs time to figure things out and she's giving her fiancé time to be on his own." Punk nodded, "I think it will be good for her. Might help her realise what she really wants."

"And I assume you're hoping that it's you." Dean said as Punk shrugged modestly, "Well as long as her prick fiancé doesn't go near our mother again." He nodded, glad to see the house with no for sale sign outside it.

"I think he knows not to." Punk nodded, "I made myself clear."

"Good." Dean nodded, "Alright, let's go to work." He said, getting back into the car as Punk followed.