AN: Hello everyone! So the finale has happened and naturally I have plenty of ideas of how I think next season is going to go. This is not it. I came up with this idea after watching the Chicago Justice episode. It stuck with me and just would not go away. I'll see how you all like it and go from there. Big shout out to Romantic in Denial for the encouragement! It was desperately needed. This story breaks the cardinal rule of romance writing. Never show a member of your pairing being with someone else. Well, if you are a Burzek fan and can't stand the thought...sorry. However, still give it a chance. They are my favs and this is just one way I could see some character development. Consider this first chapter a prologue and now I will let Adam speak.
The Journey
They say that life is a journey. That you make right turns and wrong turns. You'll have peaks and valleys. Good days and bad days. Basically it's a fancy way of saying that you shouldn't focus on the destination. You should enjoy the moment. That's what all the new age feel your feelings types would say. Or that's what I use to think. I think the better way to think about it is that everything we do is a learning experience. An opportunity to learn. I don't like to think about things in the idea of right or wrong. Unless you are talking about murder, rape, or the numerous crimes I have to investigate with my team every day. That's different. I'm talking about that job offer or what major to declare in college. Those numerous decisions we agonize over every day that we think are going to make such a huge change in our life. Like who to date. Who to love. Who to forgive. Who to marry. Who to have children with. The stuff that I let scare me to the point of basically making no decision. That is till I learned life's most important lesson. It's better to live with purpose and to face your fear because nothing in life is certain. Tomorrow is not a given. Rachel taught me that. She taught me how to truly love. Love without fear and without expectation. To accept that I had the capacity to love more than I ever thought possible. Even possibly love more than one person. She led me back to Kim which I know makes no sense. How could one of the true loves of my life lead me back to the one I found first? I guess I'll have to tell you.
Looking back, the break up with Kim was one of the defining moments of my life. Sure at the time I thought I was just going through one hell of a heart break with a healthy dose of wounded pride. Nothing like hearing your ex has moved on while she is testifying on the stand in a highly publicized trial. That had done it. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was done. Done holding on to a dream that was never going to happen. That's what I told myself. I quit looking for Kim at work. I quit letting the mention of her name turn my head. I turned to my work and kept my head down. I gave myself permission to quit caring. I also took a break from the game. Mouse had the best of intentions when he tried to set me up with that girl at the bar, but a part of me knew that it was the worst of ideas. My heart was not ready to be messed with again and in the end I wasn't the type to use a woman that way either. My Aunts taught me better than that. Subconsciously, I knew that my heart would never be the same. That something had to change. She had broken me. Possibly, in a way that I needed to be broken. I was done with my pattern. If I had known how different things would be, I still wouldn't change a thing. The best part of my day currently is why I am standing in this doorway waiting. Waiting to see the most precious smile in the world. The whole reason I was still able to put one foot in front of the other after everything that happened. The reason that Kim ended up coming back into my life. I can hear Isabelle's light breathing and see her black hair that already completely covers her whole head. I can't see those stunning green eyes that she inherited from Rachel since she is still deep asleep. What I'm waiting for is what happens after those eyes open up. Her smile is what gives me hope. What makes me even think that I could love again, or open my heart to loving the one person that I never really stopped loving. That I could forgive her and myself.