Apology


Punk knew he had work to do when he got home from work. He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said all day. He never would have wanted to hurt her like that, especially when he knew the situation with her parents was something she still struggled with, even as a grown adult. He never wanted her to feel like he was disrespecting her. He knew it was an ass thing to say, and he came home ready to apologise.

He'd picked up some donuts on the way home, knowing they were her favourite thing, making his way through to the kitchen where he saw her sitting with her books in front of her.

"Hey." Punk said as AJ looked up at him over her glasses.

"Hi." She said briefly, looking back to her books, writing down some notes for some patients she was currently treating.

"I brought you home some donuts." He nodded, "Got all your favourite ones." He told her, sitting the box down.

"That was nice of you." AJ said bluntly as Punk looked over at her. She was good at staying mad that was for sure.

"I want to apologise to you." Punk nodded, "There was no excuses for what I said. It was a dumb thing to say and… it's far from the truth."

"Then why did you say it?" AJ looked over at him, taking her glasses off, "That's obviously what you think."

"It's not what I think. I think I was just trying to explain to Dean your situation growing up and how your parents used you against each other." He said, "And it just came out along with that. I would never want to hurt you, you know that." He nodded as she folded her arms and looked across at him.

"That's the one thing about myself I can't stand." She told him, "And to hear that you think it too…" She said, upset to say the least, "That's horrible."

"I don't think it. And you shouldn't either." Punk sighed, "I've never met a stronger person than you. It just came out when I was talking about your parents and how they didn't treat you right, how your mom still doesn't treat you right. It was a wrong word to use and I'm sorry." He shook his head as AJ looked at him.

"I don't talk to anyone about my parents. I never spoke to Jason about them at all. He thought I had an amazing relationship with my mom. I barely talk about them with Renee." AJ said, "But I talk about it with you because I feel like I can. And I trust you." She nodded, "So please don't make me feel like I can't trust you. Like you'll make these judgements about it behind my back-"

"I'm not… I don't." Punk insisted, "I know you trust me and I love that you talk about it with me, cause you deserve to get it off your chest after years of not being able to say anything." He nodded, "I'm so sorry. I… I'd never want to hurt you." He assured her as she looked at him.

She could hear in his voice he was extremely sorry, and she was glad he wasn't someone who ran away from his own mistakes. He realised what he said was wrong and he was apologising. She was glad.

"How sorry?" She asked, folding her arms.

"Like… so sorry. Tell me what to do to make it right and I'll do it." He nodded to her sincerely as she looked over at him with a raised brow.

"You could get down on your knees." She looked over at him as he stared back at her, not sure if she was joking or not. He laughed nervously, noticing her facial expressions weren't shifting.

"Oh, ok." He realised she was being serious, "Both knees?" He made sure.

"Yeah." AJ nodded. If she was getting an apology out of him, she wanted to make sure she got a proper one.

"Ok." He nodded to himself as AJ watched him pace a little. She wanted to laugh so bad but she held it together.

He got onto his knees in front of her as she sat at the table, folding her arms as she looked down at him, "Looks like the manipulated becomes the manipulator." She smiled cockily as he laughed a little, glad to see she was finding humour in it.

"I am really sorry." He said as she nodded.

"I know." She said, "You can stand up now." She laughed a little.

"I don't know, I kinda like it down here." He nodded as she smiled, watching him shuffle closer towards her.

"Well if you really wanna be sorry…" She smiled, unbuttoning her jeans and shimmying them down past her thighs as he smirked, "I might be more inclined to forgive you with your head between my legs." She nodded.


"Fuck." AJ gasped breathlessly, collapsing onto her back in bed with Punk beside her, breathless, pulsating and sweaty to say the least.

"I gotta be forgiven after that." Punk said breathlessly as she smiled.

"Yeah, maybe." She nodded along, pulling the sheets over her body for comfort, "You and Dean must talk about everything… if you guys were talking about me." She figured.

"Not really. He just asked how you were and if you'd spoken to Jason yet, then he asked if you'd spoken to your mom and I guess that's when I told him just a little about how shitty your parents were." Punk nodded.

"Do you really think I'm easily manipulated?" AJ asked seriously.

"Hey, I told you… no, I don't. I just… I was a stupid idiot for saying that." He shook his head at himself.

"No, I'm not asking to make a point. I do really wanna know." AJ said, curling into him, "I know that when my mom says things it gets in my head and I end up believing everything she says. So… I guess I am easily manipulated-"

"You're not." Punk made clear. He didn't want her thinking that, "You have a shit mom who doesn't look out for your best interest, ever. But she's your mom and of course you're gonna listen to what she has to say. She's raised you." He nodded, "But you're not manipulated. You ran out of your wedding. You know what you want and you go for it. Like your mom told you not to be a doctor and you did. She told you not to leave Jason and you did." He said as she nodded, "You're not easily manipulated."

"Maybe not." She whispered.

"Dean was talking about the house again." He told her.

"What about it?" She asked.

"How it's too nice for us to sell it. That one of us should live it at some point." Punk said, "I couldn't go live in that house and have him start a mortgage from fresh. That's not fair at all." He shook his head.

"So… if he buys a house one day, you just split that mortgage with him." AJ suggested, "And then it's fair for everyone."

"I don't know. I wouldn't wanna keep the house just for the sake of it." Punk shrugged.

"It's a beautiful house." AJ thought to herself as Punk nodded, "If you go live in it can you… promise to take me with you?" She looked up at him with a smile.

"That's our deal from now on." He nodded, "Where I go, you go." He said as she smiled, "You really think we shouldn't sell it?" He asked her.

"It's entirely your decision but it does feel sort of wrong to sell a house so beautiful. Especially when you might then buy a house later in life that won't come close to how beautiful it was." She said.

"Something to think about, I guess." He nodded.

"Could you see yourself living there? I know it's different for you cause you grew up there." She said.

"I don't know. I can't really imagine it right now." He said, "I think when you move out of your childhood home you don't really expect to go back to it." He shrugged, "It's just a shame things worked out the way they are with my mom in the home."

"What do you think she'd want?" AJ asked.

"Oh, just for us to be happy. Whether that's staying in the house or selling it." Punk nodded.

"You guys can think about it. It's not a decision you gotta make right now anyway. This apartment is really nice." She nodded. She felt so at home with him in the apartment now. It felt like hers as much as it felt like his.

"Yeah, and Dean may as well move out of here. I can't remember the last time he was here." Punk shook his head. Dean, although technically still lived in the apartment, spent every night at Renee's place.

"Why'd you guys decide to live together anyway? Didn't you butt heads all the time?" AJ asked, wrapping her arm around his neck, huddled as close to him as possible. She enjoyed cuddling him. It was one of her favourite things.

"We didn't see each other much because we'd work different shifts, so it wasn't really a problem. We did it at first to save money and then… we just got comfortable with it." Punk shrugged.

"Do you think I should speak to Jason?" She asked him, "I mean I don't feel like I need to but maybe I should I don't know."

"If you don't want to or feel like you need to, then you probably don't." He said, "You said what you had to at the wedding. Maybe it's best just to leave him be, give him that space to move forward a little." He nodded.

"Yeah." AJ agreed, "And I think I've just accepted that my mom probably isn't going to talk to me again." She shrugged.

"Then that's her loss." Punk assured her, "She'll wake up one day and regret not doing better by you."

"The sad thing is, I don't think she will." AJ shook her head, "But for the first time in my life I just… I feel like I don't really need her at all. In fact, I probably do better without her in my life. She just constantly made me feel like I was a teenager that didn't know anything about anything." She said.

"You don't need that in your life." Punk agreed. He felt like he was watching her blossom into who she really was. Developing her voice and realising she was stronger than she thought. She was capable of more than she thought and she had already achieved so much in her life that she hadn't given herself proper credit for. It made him want to grow with her, and he figured that was what a true relationship was.


A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! Hope you're all enjoying it. Time jump coming ahead to push the story into the next part. Coming soon.