What If? II

Punk finally made it to Lacy's place and parked the car. Zoe offered to help him bring the kids stuff and he nodded. He did need help. Zoe, got Brandon out of his car seat and grabbed his bags, waiting for Punk. Punk opened the door for Ally. "Come on, your precious Johnny is here."

Ally had already darted out of the car, lol... racing towards the front door, where Lacy was standing. She leapt into her arms. "Mommy!"

"Hi, Mommy's baby." Lacy laughed and kissed her cheek. "Did you have a good time with Daddy?"

"Nope," Ally said simply, and before Lacy could question it, she asked, "Is Johnny here?"

"Yeah, he just got here. He's in the living room." She set her down, and Allison was on the way to the living room. "JOHNNY!" she leapt towards him and gave him a big hug. Be jealous, Punk. lol.

Sad Punk was sad, lol. He let out a sigh and walked up with Zoe and Brandon, handing over the bags to Lacy. "Well...got them here early." he said.

Lacy took the bags and nodded, "Yeah real early, I wasn't expecting you until later." She looked at Zoe. "Who's this?"

"Yeah well, Ally wanted to see John so..." he shrugged. "Ah right, this is my friend, Zoe. Zoe, this is Lacy, my ex-wife." he introduced.

"It's nice to meet you, Lacy." she said as she stuck her hand out.

His friend? She didn't buy that for a second, and she wasn't sure if she liked that too much... Regardless, she didn't wanna seem rude and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you too, Zoe." She wouldn't press any further, it wasn't her business... they weren't married anymore, but a small part of her couldn't help but get a little jealous at the sight of them. "I'm sure you've gotta hit the road tonight, so I won't keep you... I know John has to be out on the road later tonight."

Zoe smiled as she shook her hand and then pulled it away after. He nodded. "I leave early in the morning actually. Hope you don't mind, but I wanted to go to the preschool in the morning. You know, to see Brandon off on his first day."

"I can't exactly say no." she chuckled. "Sure. He starts at 8, so I'll probably leave at around 7:30 to drop him off."

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning then." he said, then hugged Brandon and kissed the top of his head. "I'll see you tomorrow kiddo. I love you very much." he said.

"Bye Brandon. I hope you had fun with us this weekend." Zoe smiled.

"I love you too, Daddy." Brandon waved. "Bye Zoe," he said dreamily.

"Oh brother." Lacy snorted. Now she didn't like her, lol. "Bye, guys." she led Brandon inside.

"Bye." he chuckled. "Romeo likes you."

"He is too cute." Zoe chuckled as he kissed Punk's cheek and headed to the car.

As the weeks went on, Allison remained fairly unpleasant to Punk and Zoe, but was the perfect angel with her Mom and John. And Lacy saw for sure that Zoe and Punk were definitely more than just friends and for some reason or another, it really pissed her off. She was jealous, but there was no way in hell that she'd admit it. Since the divorce, Punk and Lacy had made it a point to have dinner with the kids at least once a month, so at least the kids could see that through all of the fighting and drama, Punk and Lacy were still "friends". That night, it was time for dinner at Lacy's house and she found out that Punk would be bringing Zoe. While Brandon was excited, Lacy wasn't. Punk, Zoe and the kids were in the living room talking and waiting for dinner and Lacy was in the kitchen,finishing up dinner rather roughly. John came in and saw her, putting her arms around her from behind, making her stop what she was doing.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I don't want her here," Lacy muttered. "If I wanted outside guests, I would have invited them. I didn't even invite -you- to have dinner with us. It's a family dinner, and even though she might be his new... play thing, she's not family."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous, Lace." John arched a brow.

"I'm not," Lacy said quickly. "I... just don't want the kids to be confused. I don't even kiss you in front of them, and Punk's flaunting her around them, I don't want them to think that she's replacing me. They're very impressionable, you know."

He bought that and nodded. "I guess. Well, you'll do fine, you always do. And when dinner's over, you can come up and we'll spend some time together before I have to hit the road." he leaned forward to kiss her jaw. "Sounds good?"

Lacy smiled and turned around to give him a small kiss. "Sounds great."

-

Outside in the living room, Brandon was holding conversation with Punk but staring at Zoe dreamily, lol. Ally was just twiddling her thumbs.

Punk happened to glance over at the kitchen, seeing Lacy and John. He couldn't lie, it did hurt...but they were over and that was that. He needed to get over it and he was with Zoe. He liked her a lot and enjoyed having her around. Zoe was talking to Brandon and Punk looked over at Ally. He knew that she was upset with him and that got to him. No matter how hard he tried to get her back...it just wasn't working. Seemed like John had replaced Punk and well...he couldn't do much about it. He decided to at least try to talk to her.

Zoe looked over at Punk. "I'm going to see if Lacy needs any help, I'll be back."

Punk nodded and watched as she walked off...and Brandon stared lol. "So guys, excited for dinner tonight?"

-

Zoe walked into the kitchen, knocking on the wall lightly. "Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to know if you needed help with anything."

"I hungry." Brandon said, rubbing his belly. "So yep!"

"Whatever," Allison muttered. That seemed to be her favorite word nowadays.

--

Lacy pulled away from John and looked at Zoe, trying her best not to seem annoyed. "No, dinner's just about ready. John will help me bring it out." That may have came out a little meaner than she wanted it to, but, *Kanye shrug*

He nodded. "Me too, kiddo." he chuckled, then looked at Ally. "Ally, why do you hate me so much?" he asked.

-

Zoe nodded a bit...sensing that she wasn't needed and well...that she wasn't wanted there. "Oh alright." she said with a small smile...then just headed back to the living room.

Allison just ignored him. Ouch.

--

"You could have been a little nicer." John told her as he helped her start to get the food to serve.

"Was I mean or is she just too sensitive?" Lacy shrugged and they both brought the food out, setting it up in the dining room. "Dinner's ready," Lacy called to everyone in the living room. Brandon darted out, lol, and Allison just jumped down from the couch, dragging her feet to go into the dining room.

Since Ally wasn't talking to him...he officially gave up, lol. He started to head to the living room. "Cheer up babe." Zoe told him as she kissed his cheek.

"Trying to, but it's hard to do when my own daughter hates me."

"I'm sure she doesn't. She's probably just starting to have a really hard time with the divorce and seeing you guys apart."

"I guess." he shrugged as they went into the living room. He pulled her chair out for her and once she sat down, he went to sit. "Food looks great, Lacy." he nodded.

"Thanks." Lacy said as she had a seat. "Dig in when you want. Sorry if the food comes up a little short, I wasn't expecting another guest." Zoe, lol.

Ally saw John and grinned. "Hi Johnny."

"Hey, Allison." John chuckled, picking her up to sit her in her chair.

"You eat with me, Johnny?"

"I wish I could, but I've gotta go upstairs and pack so I can go to work." he said.

"I don't waaant you to go to work," Allison pouted.

"I'll bring you back something nice," John chuckled. "And when I come back to see you, we'll play all the time. Deal?"

"Deal!" Ally grinned.

"See you later." he chuckled and ruffled her hair gently, making her giggle. He kissed the top of Lacy's head before going up stairs.

Punk didn't even bother reacting to how Ally and John were...but like I said...it did hurt him.

Zoe bit down on her lip, since she wasn't really welcome in Lacy's home...she felt awkward being there. She looked over at Punk. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.

"Uh...yeah sure." he said. "Excuse us." Punk said as they both stood up and went to talk among themselves in the living room.

"I'm just gonna get out of here." Zoe said.

"What? Why?"

"Because Phil, it's clear that I'm not exactly welcome here and this is a family thing. I don't want to ruin your dinner. This is something you guys do all the time."

"Babe..."

"No really." she said. "I'll just see you back at your place." she nodded.

Punk nodded a bit. "If you're sure."

"Positive." she nodded as she kissed him.

He returned her kiss and nodded. 'Well then...at least come say bye."

Zoe nodded and headed back to the dining room. "Sorry about this, but I'm gonna head on out. I have to finish up some things for work that are due soon. It was nice spending some time with you alll, I'll see you around." she said as she waved bye to Brandon, Lacy and Ally. "I'll see you later." she told Punk as she squeezed his shoulder gently and then headed out. Punk took his seat again and just started to serve himself.

And of course, Lacy saw that Punk's demeanor had changed. "It's a shame that she had to go so soon." Fake, lol.

"Yeah well, work calls." he nodded. "Let's just enjoy this dinner and the rest of the night." he said. "Brandon and I are hungry boys. Right, kiddo?"

"Hungry!" Brandon nodded and started to eat his food.

"Well you can eat up." Lacy chuckled as she made Allison's plate for her.

"Oh we will." he said as he started to eat.

They all had dinner and conversation... Ally ate, but only after Lacy glared at her, lol. Finally, they were done.

"That was good, Mommy." Brandon stretched and patted his stomach, lol.

"Thanks, Brandon." Lacy chuckled. "It's time for you guys to say bye to Daddy."

"See ya." Ally muttered and hopped down from her chair, going towards the stairs. "Johnny!" she ran up.

"See ya." he told Ally as he shook his head. He then crouched down to kiss the top of Brandon's head. "I'll see you around, kiddo."