Back To Work


"Hi Mister Walsh, I'm Doctor Mendez, I'm going to be-" AJ paused as she walked towards one of her patients who was sitting in bed, realising she wasn't Doctor Mendez anymore, "Actually… I'm Doctor Brooks." She smiled, feeling good to finally say that.

"What kind of doctor forgets her own name?" The patient, Jacob Walsh, chuckled.

"Well I've just gotten married." AJ nodded.

"Well, that's a good explanation." He nodded, "You can call me Jacob. No mister." He waved his hand.

"Alright." AJ smiled, "I'm going to be prepping you for surgery today, ok? I'm just going to run some labs with your blood work, get another up to date MRI and then I'll take you to the OR." She nodded.

"Ok." He nodded to her, watching her filling in his chart at the bottom of his bed, "Big day." He nodded nervously.

"It is." AJ said, "It's completely normal to feel nervous before surgery but we have some of the best surgeons here, you're in good hands." She assured him as he nodded.

"I think it's just because it's my brain." He admitted to her, "Brain and heart surgery are the most difficult, right?" He asked her as she looked across at him.

"They can be a little more complex, yeah." She said, "But any surgery is difficult. And this surgery is very much necessary, wouldn't you agree?" She asked.

"Of course." He agreed, "Yeah, I want to see my daughter graduate college." He thought to himself, "Can't do it with cancer spreading around my brain."

"You're gonna get the best treatment there is. Surgery is the biggest challenge, and you're almost past it." She nodded.

"Almost." He said, "Will you be in there? When it's going on?" He wondered.

"No, I'm just your doctor. You'll get to see me when you come out of surgery, don't worry." She smiled as he nodded.

"You know they thought it was migraines." He told her as she put on some gloves and prepped to take his blood, "When I came here for my first consult." He said, "You were the first doctor I seen who really dug deeper."

"Well it's for instances like this that we should be super thorough." AJ nodded, "The thing about cancer, it can go unnoticed for so long until the damage is too much. Catching it early really is life or death." She said as he nodded.

"I just wanted to thank you." He said as she smiled.

"You don't have to thank me." AJ shook her head, "I'm just doing my job."

"Yeah, that's what they all say." Jacob waved his hand, "Well, you're doing your job well then." He corrected as she smiled.

"I appreciate that." She nodded, "Ok, I'm gonna get these labs done and someone will be round shortly to take you for another MRI." She said.

"Ok." He nodded as AJ left the room, putting her gloves in the trash and getting hold of a nurse to take the bloods to be run.

She then made her way over to the desk on the wing to fill in some more charts, watching as Renee appeared beside her.

"So, is the work fear still there?" Renee asked her.

"No, it's gone." AJ nodded, "In fact, it feels great to be back. And I get to call myself Doctor Brooks now." She smirked, "I think it has a nice ring."

"I thought you were going with Mendez Brooks?" Renee asked.

"I decided that's just a mouthful and Brooks is cute. I like it." AJ shrugged, "You busy?" She asked.

"I've been on walk ins all day. There was a huge car crash earlier this morning. I had to fight radiology to get me emergency MRI's." Renee shook her head, "They always wanna fight with me." She huffed as AJ chuckled.

"They do." AJ nodded, "You must annoy them."

"Uh… I'm just trying to make sure these people aren't bleeding in their brain. I had a little girl who was seven, trauma to the head, I mean… come on." Renee shook her head.

"Where's Shauna? She's always conveniently not around when there's an incident." AJ scoffed.

"She's right here." Shauna nodded, standing behind AJ who slowly turned around, "Welcome back, Mendez. Nice to see you-"

"Actually it's Brooks now but-"

"I don't care." Shauna nodded, "Are you prepping Jacob Walsh for his surgery?" She questioned.

"Yes, I've just got his blood work taken away and he's scheduled for an MRI." AJ nodded.

"You can't take him for the MRI?" Shauna asked as AJ looked at her, turning to Renee, "Nuh uh.. you two are on the residency program, that means you do the work."

"I have more patients to see." AJ explained, "I mean, it's just more efficient this way-"

"Do you run the hospital?" Shauna asked as AJ shook her head.

"No." AJ said.

"Am I your attending?" Shauna nodded.

"Y-Yeah." AJ nodded.

"Ok so I say you go take him for the MRI and you go over the results and get them to his consultant before the surgery. Ok?" Shauna nodded to her as AJ nodded.

"Ok." AJ nodded, watching her walk off as she turned back round to Renee.

"Welcome back." Renee chuckled as AJ just shook her head.


"Welcome back, Phil." The chief of the fire department, John, walked into the garage where Punk was getting out of one of the trucks tiredly.

"Yeah, thanks." Punk laughed, limping a little.

"You ok?" John asked, noticing Punk was limping a little.

"Yeah, I just landed on my hip during a backdraft." Punk waved his hand, "I'll whack some ice on it when I get home. It'll be fine." He nodded.

"How was the honeymoon?" John asked him as Punk took his protective jacket off, dumping it on the ground. It always felt great to get the weight off after wearing it for so long.

"Yeah it was great." Punk nodded. They weren't close with the chief. He mostly stayed in his office and only really appeared if something really big was happening. So Punk appreciated him coming out to welcome him back.

"Bet you wished you'd gone for three weeks now." John chuckled.

"It wouldn't have been the worst thing." Punk agreed, "But I like getting back to work."

"Well it's good to have you back." John patted him on the shoulder, "Good work out there, boys." He told them all before heading back into the offices.

"Kicks you in the nuts when you first get back, huh?" Dean walked over to Punk.

"Yeah but it doesn't take long to get back into the swing of things." Punk nodded, "I didn't miss those backdrafts, that's for damn sure." Punk said, "I'm gonna need to ice when I get home."

"Well at least no one died." Dean shrugged, sitting down on the chair beside the desk, "What is it with office workers having faulty fuses around them? And then using them anyway?" He shook his head.

"Hey I was thinking about going to see mom tomorrow after work. Has she been doing ok?" Punk asked.

"Uh… I mean, as well as ok can be I guess." Dean nodded, "Last week she had a couple rough days. She wasn't eating. The care workers think she's forgetting how to chew sometimes." He said as Punk sighed, "It's passed but they said it could start getting worse like that pretty quickly."

"Well we knew that was going to happen." Punk nodded, "She had no idea what was going on when we got married."

"Well, it wasn't a traditional wedding so that probably didn't help." Dean nodded.

"I know but she didn't know who any of us were. I… part of me feels bad for even having her there. It was selfish and she was probably better off at the home." He shook his head.

"No, you wanted her to be there and… mom in her right state of mind would have wanted to be there." Dean said as Punk nodded.

"April will wanna go see her soon anyway." Punk nodded.

"Well just be prepared." Dean advised as Punk nodded.

"Alright, I'm gonna hit the shower." Punk said, grabbing his things and heading to the changing rooms to go take a shower after a tough but exciting day back.


"Hey!" Punk called, getting home later on.

"Hey!" AJ called back from the kitchen.

His favourite part about living with her was just getting to come home after a long day and see her face. When they were moving into the house, something about it just felt all the more special. It truly felt like it was their place. Their home. A safe domain for them to unwind in.

"How was your first day back?" He smiled, walking into the kitchen where she was cooking dinner, feeling him kiss her cheek and wrap his arms around her from behind as she smiled.

"It was fine." She smiled as he rested his chin on her shoulder, "Had to keep remembering I'm Doctor Brooks now."

"Oh, yeah." Punk smiled, kissing her cheek again.

"Shauna gave me a nice welcome back with some yelling and telling off." AJ nodded.

"I can't tell if she likes you or not." Punk chuckled, pulling back and walking over to the dining table.

"I think it's a love hate relationship." AJ nodded, looking over to him as she noticed he was limping.

"Why are you limping?" She observed worriedly, "What happened to you?" She asked.

"I just busted my hip in a backdraft. It's fine." He shook his head, "I just need to ice it later."

"You're not usually clumsy." AJ pouted.

"It wasn't cause I was clumsy." Punk chuckled, "When an explosion sends you on your ass, sometimes you don't get time to choose how you land." He said as she nodded.

"That's true." AJ said, "Well gosh, talk about breaking you back in gently." She frowned, walking over to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, "I'll rub it later." She smiled.

"I was hoping you would." He smirked, leaning down and kissing her softly, pulling back and smiling down at her, "I thought you were doing Mendez Brooks?" He asked her.

"I was going to but then… having to say that all the time just sounded like such an effort." She rolled her eyes as he chuckled, "Plus I think it has a nice ring to it. I like saying it." She smiled.

"Well that's good." Punk smiled, "You make my name sound a whole lot smarter than I ever could." He nodded as she chuckled.

"I hope your hip will be ok." She frowned, "That's kinda a body part I need for you to function." She teased as he smiled.

"It'll be fine." He chuckled, "It's happened before with different injuries. You just wreck your body when you land hard on the ground. Some ice and rehab, it'll be fine by the end of the week." He nodded to her.

"So what was the big call out?" She asked, walking back over to the stove to check on dinner.

"It was an office. Faulty fuses everywhere when we did the fire report after." Punk shook his head, "We got everyone out pretty quickly but it took a while to put the fire out." He said, sitting down at the table slowly to be careful with his hip.

"Well, as long as everyone was safe." AJ nodded. His job did give her a lot of anxiety at times. She worried about the severity of some of the call outs he got. She knew he had the skills and the knowledge and of course experience to be absolutely fine, but there was still a risk and that scared her.

"I was thinking we could go see my mom tomorrow." He said.

"Yeah I was thinking the same." AJ nodded.

"Dean says she's not been great. Last week she wasn't eating, forgot how to." He said as AJ frowned, "Probably gonna get a lot worse a lot quicker now."

"You don't know that." AJ shook her head, "Unfortunately with an illness like hers, it's so unpredictable. And that's the tough part." She said as he nodded, "You just gotta remember her how she was before all of this. Cause that's who she truly was." She said as Punk nodded.

"Yeah, I know." He said, "It just sucks." He nodded.

"I know." She said, walking over to him, wrapping her arms around him from behind as he placed his hand on her arm, "I didn't burn dinner." She kissed the side of his head as he chuckled.

"Well that's rare." He said as she smiled. They had each other and that was always enough to get through anyting.