A/N: Hello Again…okay. This story has been something that I have been kicking around for awhile. Sadly this season has not given me an inspiration so far for Burzek stories yet so this is not really a PD story as such although it is set in the realm of Burzek, it's a little AU. Basically it is a follow on from Darkness on the Edge of Town, a previous story I wrote about Burzek's teenager children. You may also want to read The Ties That Bind, which is really going right back to the beginning. This checks back in a few years down the track. I was encouraged to post it, so we will see how it goes, but it is not really about Adam and Kim as such, although they obviously play a role, so if that's not your cup of tea I won't be offended.

In the interest of understanding where this is set, I guess it's in the future except my imagination is not that far ahead of myself so it is more or less in this time frame currently, but with older adult children – if you catch my drift. Anyway, let me know what you think. Good, bad or ugly.

Adam smiled as he felt the arms snake around his waist. "Good Morning." He squeezed the hands clasped against his chest. "Tea for you?"

"Yes please." She let go and sat down at the table and waited, twisting her hair up into a loose bun as she did so.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Adam turned around and leant back against the counter as he waited for the kettle to boil. It was way too early to be up considering the time he actually got into bed and he'd already made himself a strong black coffee, the stronger the better to try and get his brain into some sort of functioning order.

"I stayed here last night."

"I know, your Mom told me."

"Of course she did." He didn't miss the eye roll, nor did he miss the slightly distracted tracing of the wood grain on the table with her finger.

"Well she was worried that I'd be wandering around the house naked and I am sure you don't want to see that."

"Do you want me to spend my life in therapy?" She laughed as she covered her eyes. "Why would you do that anyway?"

"Because it's my house and I can do what I want and your Mom loves me naked."

"Just stop please."

Adam had crawled into bed around 4am, absolutely shattered after being at work since 7am that morning. He crashed and only woke when Kim's alarm went off and she snuggled into him for a few minutes. Eventually he pushed her out of bed the second time her snooze alarm went off and Kim reluctantly hauled herself into the shower.

Coming back into their bedroom she sat on the edge of the bed as she buttoned up her shirt. "Polly's here."

"Again?" Adam opened one eye.

"Yep."

He sighed as he closed his eye again. "That's becoming a habit. Why this time?"

"Apparently they had a fight."

"Gee, there is a surprise. Fuck I wish she'd wake up and give him the flick. What'd he do this time?"

"They were supposed to go to Chloe's birthday lunch and he bailed at the last moment because one of his mates called and wanted to come over and watch the Cubs game." It seemed yet another lame excuse, the list wasn't a short one either.

He didn't even have the energy to be surprised, not any more. Nothing about this was a surprise and he hated that. "Sounds about right."

"She had some work to do when she got home and he was drunk so she came over." Kim tried to make it sound less of an issue than it was clearly becoming but it was pointless. "Try and be nice."

"Fuck that. Did you talk to her?"

"Ah….she's your daughter, how well do you think that went?"

"So, it's up to me right?"

Kim leant down and kissed her half asleep husband. "Do your best Baby, but don't make her cry. Hey, I missed you last night."

"You want a quickie before you go?" The speed at which he managed to snake one hand out and grabbed her leg was of little surprise. Age and almost thirty years of marriage had not lessened Adam's appetite for his wife.

"No."

"You break my heart every day." Adam rolled over and tried to get another few hours sleep before he had to go back into work but he heard Polly up and moving around and in the shower so he headed downstairs to make a coffee. You'd think that having adult children meant that you didn't have to drag your sorry ass out of bed early in the morning to deal with their shit anymore. They'd always wanted their kids to come and go as they pleased and talk to them and apart from the odd period when they were teenagers they were pretty proud with the relationships they'd forged with their two kids. He talked to Gus almost everyday and Polly was always around and still used him as a sounding board regularly.

Polly's current relationship however had given Adam more headaches than the previous three combined, even more than the last one, which left her utterly heartbroken. So rather than get her heart broken again she chose to just exist in this one and he wasn't sure what was worse.

"You still haven't answered my question?" Adam poured the water into her cup and jiggled the teabag. "I'm surprised you are here again?"

"Don't start Dad."

"What? Polly what?" He was frustrated and while Kim would be tiptoeing around her Adam refused to mollycoddle her. "You seem to be staying here more than your own house. Why don't you just move back in?"

"Dad, it's fine. He had some friends over yesterday and I needed to get some work done. It was quieter here."

"Before or after he blew off the lunch with Chloe?" He plonked the cup down in front of her and turned back to his coffee machine to make another cup and she knew that he was pissed.

The thing was that Polly wasn't even surprised. When she told Chloe that she was flying solo again her friend just laughed, hugged Polly and told her that she hadn't counted him in the numbers anyway because he was always a no show. And it was true, she was sick of making excuses for him and it had been a while since people believed her anyway.

"Mom's been talking to you."

"Mom always talks to me." Had they not learnt that there were no secrets between their parents? No matter the topic Kim and Adam always talked about their kids, because despite them being adults, in adult relationships they were still their kids. Adam hadn't always enjoyed the conversations, particularly when it involved the female side of the bargain but that didn't stop them. He was mortified when Kim talked to him about Polly getting her first period and years later the thought of it still made him shiver.

"He just wasn't really interested in the lunch, I had more fun without him anyway."

"You always have more fun without him, doesn't that tell you something Sweet Pea?"

"Sure." The shrug pissed him off. "That you can do different things and still be in a relationship. You don't always do things with Mom."

"No, but I don't actively avoid doing things with her either and both of us will go to things we don't want too because its what you do."

Polly sighed; it was a never-ending battle. Her parents didn't like him and they made it perfectly clear that they wanted Polly to end it. The easy thing about it though was he was too busy doing his own thing with either his mates or working that she barely saw him and on the odd occasion they did go out together they usually had a pretty good time. "Really? I don't see you rushing to do Yoga?"

"I've done Yoga. Your Mom banned me from going again. The downward dog seems to affect my ability to keep my abundant gas inside."

"You are fucking feral." Polly poured herself some cereal that Adam had pulled out of the cupboard. "Anyway, I've got this dinner in a few weeks, I need to focus on that."

Adam sat down at the table and grabbed the cereal box to pour himself a bowl. He actually hated this cardboard tasting shit that Polly insisted they keep in the cupboard for her but he couldn't be assed getting up from the table again. "So you can't be bothered breaking up with the idiot because you are too busy?"

"I am not breaking up with him because I don't want too." Polly snapped. "And don't call him an idiot."

"Why not?"

"He's not an idiot."

'No, he's an asshole.' he muttered under his breath. As far as Adam was concerned both his kids deserved someone who loved them as much as he loved their mother. "Promise me Baby Girl, once this dinner is done you will seriously look at what's going on. I want you to feel special. You should be treated like a queen, why aren't you?"

"Guess I am not as lucky as Mom."

"You should be."

Polly left her bowl on the sink and disappeared upstairs to finish getting ready for work. Adam was annoyed. He hated this for Polly and he hated being disappointed in her for putting up with it. This was not how they raised her, they raised her and Gus to believe that you deserved to be happy, that if you treated people right you'd get that in return and if you didn't you need to say so.

He knew how much her previous boyfriend hurt her and broke her heart. They'd picked up the pieces and they hated how much it knocked her on her ass and made her settle now for someone safe, despite the lack of obvious love in the relationship, they had no doubt there was some love there but they weren't in love with each other.

It didn't start out that way; Polly was reluctant to get involved with anyone and just decided to spend some time hanging out with her girlfriends. She had only been single for a couple of months but she always had guys chasing her and he had chased her pretty hard and Polly eventually relented and agreed to go out with him. Did he sweep her off her feet? Not even close but he was persistent and not overly romantic and Polly seemed to like that.

Kim and Adam were disillusioned that Polly was not even 30 and already jaded in love and willing to settle for less than she deserved.

Adam said nothing else once Polly came back down dressed for work, she kissed her Dad goodbye and after a couple of hours sleep Adam was called back into work so he spoke to Kim on the way. "Did you talk to Polly?"

"Yep." He muttered as he shoved half a banana in his mouth. He was hoping to still be asleep but they got a tip off from one of his team's CI's about a bust which meant that they needed to move quick. "She's so stubborn."

"Wonder where she gets that from?"

"You?" Kim didn't laugh so Adam continued. "You keep saying she's a Ruzek, but jeez that was all Burgess this morning. Apparently she's too busy with the dinner."

"She is worried about that. You know how personally she takes it and how emotionally crippled she is when she breaks up with someone."

"Emotionally crippled?" Adam snorted. "She's a freakin' nightmare."

"Well I guess that means we need to be prepared for Polly dropping in more often."

"Best I keep my clothes on then."

"I really wish you would."

"No you don't."

Polly's mood was no better by the time she got home and found all the empty beer bottles piled up on the kitchen bench and empty pizza boxes still on the coffee table so she quickly cleaned up and made sure she was in bed an at least gave the impression that she was asleep when he came in.

Something needed to change, just not right now. Right now she had bigger fish to fry.