"You're going to ask Kim to marry you?" Kevin stares at Adam, with shock and disbelief. Adam likes to think he can read his best friend's face expertly—maybe not as well as Kim, who has known Kev for longer, but well enough—and if Adam knows Kev, then he knows there is also amazement and love in his expression as well.

Adam hopes there is, at least. He hasn't been with Kim long, just a year, as of last week. This is fast, Adam knows that. But it's real, and he knows more than he's ever known anything else that Kim is his future, his 'One'. And Kevin's their mutual best friend, his approval means more than anyone else's to Adam and Kim, and Adam knows an engagement wouldn't feel right to either of them if Kevin had problems with it.

"I love her, man. She's it." Adam says simply, hoping to infuse the words with all his love, respect and care for Kim.

"I know you do, bro. The two of you together... You know you two are my family and I couldn't be happier," Kevin is a man of little words, but every one is from the heart, and Adam knows how earnest he is.

"I'd say congratulations but that'd involve Kim having said yes, so I know you're not just telling me this." No one could say Kevin Atwater is not a smart man, or a quick minded one.

"I need you to help me pick out a ring." Adam tells him.

"Me?" Kevin blinks.

"Yeah. I don't, this ring stuff is confusing. And you know Kim, you'll know what she likes." Ensuring that Kim gets the ring she deserves, the ring she'll wear for years to come, the ring she'll love, is something that is important to Adam, is needed. And so much jewellery looks the same to him, but he knows, knows, that Kevin has more of an eye for this stuff.

"We did used to window shop, on our slower patrol days," Kevin muses. His words rings a bell inside his mind, a vague recollection of Kim telling him that when she was talking about stories from patrol. He had forgotten all about that, but now he feels even more confident in his decision to ask Kevin for his help.

"So you'll help me?" Adam smiles hopefully at his friend. Kevin grins back, pulling him into a hug.

"Yeah, of course I'll help you! Let's go pick out a ring for our girl."

The ring shop feels daunting, glass cabinets everywhere, jewellery of all kinds inside, and well dressed employees standing, waiting. The store feels delicate, and Adam feels way too out of place. Too tall, too broad, to masculine.

Deciding to go on a quiet day that they're on call feels like a mistake now, Adam being way too aware of his gun on him, and how clunky it makes him feel. The only times Adam's, really, been in a jewellery shop has been after a robbery, and without glass broken everywhere and no cops swarming the place, he feels like an imposter, like he doesn't belong.

Of course, he's been in shops like this before not related to work. The times he's gone to buy his sister, or mom jewellery, and of course when Wendy's best friend, Sara, dragged him to the store to point out which ring Wendy wanted. Those times didn't feel as tense, as suffocating, as if everyone is staring at him like this does, and Adam can only attribute that to being because this is so much more important than those times, that he's aware this could put a spanner into an otherwise good relationship, that he has so much more to loose.

Kevin is beside him, and Adam's glad once more that he invited Kev to come along with him as his presence is calming. Logically, it feels like he shouldn't, Kevin is taller and broader than Adam, and his presence also feels too big and clunky for this delicate store. But Kevin doesn't seem the slightest bit fazed, and that calms Adam's nerves.

"Here," Kev leads him to a counter with rings on display underneath. Adam tries not to focus on the worker giving them a look.

Kevin had picked out what store to look at, saying of course they could look at several, but that Kim has mentioned she'd want a ring from a smaller, more ethical shop. Adam recalls conversations like that as well.

Adam looks down at all the different rings, feeling overwhelmed by it all. He has a roundabout idea of what to get, nothing too big or flashy—that's not Kim's style, especially in their line of work, you don't want something like that while interacting with criminals—but something simple in its beauty. Like Kim, Adam thinks. To him she's flawless, effortlessly, and so, so beautiful.

"This is so hard," Adam groans to Kev, running a hand through his hair.

"Take your time, bro. It's a process, just don't stress." Kevin calmly says back. Adam looks at his friend, speaking again as he remembers the whole purpose of him inviting him along.

"You seen anything?"

"I'm here to help you. And I will. But you know her better than anyone, even me, so just look yourself first. We have time. We can come back." Kevin reasons.

"Right, right. I don't know, man, it was easier with Wendy. She had already picked out the ring herself, and her friend told me which one. But this? Kim deserves the best, I just don't want to get it wrong." He laments.

The experience of picking out the ring for Wendy wasn't exactly a magical experience or anything particular special. He showed up, rung his card, and that was that. And at the time he was grateful for the simplicity of the whole matter, and although right now a part of him wishes this was that easy, Adam knows, deep down, that as stressful as this is, he prefers this experience more. That he's involved, that he's excited, that he knows beyond everything that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Kim. This is everything that experience wasn't, and Adam knows he would take on all this stress a million times over for Kim.

"Nikki was even easier. I mean, 40 dollar ring, impulse proposal? Guess though, this just says I'm getting it right this time." Adam continues to muse out loud. Kevin gives him a strange look.

"Nikki? Were you engaged to another girl?" He questions and Adam is reminded that although it feels like he's known his best friend forever, they haven't even known each other two years yet, that there's things he wasn't around for. Adam's social circles up until he was pulled from the academy was the same he had for years, and Kev's met a few of his mates, so Adam forgets that Kevin and his friendship is still so recent.

"Yeah, I was. When I was like twenty, for like three months. It was a train wreck. A drunken thought took seriously," Adam explains.

"I get you, bro." Kevin says, but still, he's looking at him curiously, a thought clearly on his mind. "Does Kim know?"

Adam raises an eyebrow at him. "Uh, I don't think so? We don't really talk about that stuff."

"Do you think you should?" Kevin asks pointedly. Adam frowns.

"It was years ago, why should I? There's no point just randomly bringing exes up," he dismisses.

"Bro." Kevin gets in front of him now, redirecting his attention from the rings. "You're picking out an engagement ring for her. She needs to know you've been engaged twice before you propose. Because it will not go well if you don't, trust me. I know you don't mean anything by it, but this can quickly become a big deal." Kevin's tone is loving, caring, but firm.

"Just think about it. You were engaged when you met. You propose after a year. She finds out you had another fiancée. I know you love her, I know you're meant to be, but just think about it from how it could look from her perspective."

Oh.

Kevin's words are wise, and realisation, and understanding of what Kev's getting at, dawns on Adam.

"Yeah. Yeah, good point. I'll tell her tonight." Adam immediately agrees. "Just need to make sure not to tip her off to why I was thinking about my exes," he grins at him.

"That's a difficult task. She's a quick one, Burgess is." Kev replies, grinning himself. "But I'm sure you'll find a no doubt disgustingly cute way to distract her."

As his best friend, Kevin has unfortunately heard way too much about the inner details of their lives, details that since Kim is basically like his sister he'd have rather not known. But Adam can only focus on feeling sorry for him for a second, as he's distracted, his eye catching sight of a ring in another counter.

"Kev. Look. This one." Adam points it out to him, knowing, feeling, deep in his heart, that he had found The Ring, the one perfect for Kim. And by the looks at Kevin's expression, his awe and smile, Adam thinks his friend agrees with that.

"That's perfect." Kevin grins at him.

"So, movie or tv?" Kim asks him as she adjusts the temperature on the oven. It's the evening, and they're at home—at his place, technically speaking, but he's here and she's here, which makes it home.

Kim had beat him home as usual, had let herself into his apartment like she always does, like they always plan, like they do automatically now without so much of a thought as their lives become more and more entangled with each other. She had already showered and gotten out of her work clothes by the time he had gotten home himself.

Kim's dressed casually, lazily, only in some of her leggings and one of his old shirts with her hair tied up in a bun that's coming undone. It's a simple look, a no thought look, a behind the scenes, after look, a look for when Kim just wants to relax, to not be officer Burgess or even really a person, just Kim. A look for when she's just her, unwinding from the day—a look only he is privy to.

Intimacy isn't just knowing what the other likes in bed, how to make them blush, or what their favourite colour is. It's this. It's how they are with you in down time, the simple and unguarded way they are around you, how you're not really no longer another person but almost an extension of themselves, that they can be who they are with no doubts or anything needing to be held up or any illusions to be set. Just them.

Adam wouldn't exactly class himself as a romantic, far from it. And before Kim, he had seldom noticed these thing, not taking much note of the significance of it. It wasn't important before, now it is. Maybe perhaps because Adam's a cop now, he sees such things and it's given him an appreciation for these sorts of things. Maybe because Kim was shot, Kim was kept captive and beaten, and being with her as she healed gave him a whole new look on what intimacy and love truly meant. And maybe it's because Kim is his one, his reason for being, the beat of his heart.

Kim is an over thinker, in the most adorable of ways, and Adam thinks that if she was in his mind right now, her thoughts would be churning, trying to pinpoint the exact moment he started to appreciate things like this, because that's who she is. Adam, he's an over thinker in his own, different kind of way, but not this, this, Adam spares no real thought on it.

He doesn't care about the whys, just what is, and he's just grateful that whatever the reason is that these are things he notes now because getting to embed this memory into his mind, embed how his heart flutters at the thought of their causal intimacy with one another forever into his memories, is something he's so, so appreciative of.

"Adam?" Kim calls to him, bringing him out of his mind, and to where she stands, still in the kitchen, waiting expectantly. "Movie or tv? And don't think you're going to be able to pull the tired card, you know the rules. One of us picks movie or tv, the other picks what it'll be. Not one of us deciding both."

This is how their evenings go now. When Adam was in his early twenties, the thought of having such a routine, of staying in most nights, of this normality, would be a suffocating one, but now the thought of spending his days like how he did is the suffocating one. That the thought of spending the rest of his days like this, with Kim, eating their dinner together and just cuddling, is one that fills him with content and his mind how back to the purchase made earlier, of the ring they picked for her, of how he imagines it'll look on her finger.

"I'm not trying anything," Adam replies, smiling at her. Anyone else, perhaps, that would make them let it go, but Kim narrows her eyes at him, questioningly, as if trying to suss him out.

"But darlin', today, I was thinking," he begins, his heart beating quickly as he hopes this will come across as casual as it's meant to be. Hoping that she won't realise there's a deeper reason behind his sudden curiosity, of him bringing this up.

"That's dangerous," Kim has a glint in her eye. And Adam, despite himself, despite how she's teasing him, smiles at that because goddamn, he loves this woman.

"Ha ha," he replies dryly, before adjusting himself as he prepares to say his next sentence. He's sitting on the sofa, but facing backwards, leaning his arms of the top of it so he can look at her as he speaks.

"I was thinking, with how we got together and all, you know we didn't exactly go through the typical new relationship stuff. Like the ex talk and whatnot," Adam hopes, prays, that his tone remains stable, casual, that he hasn't activated that excellent cop instinct of hers and that she'll sense there's something deeper driving this conversation.

He wants to halt, to stop this, to not go near any topics that will tip her off to him having brought a ring, but Kev's words echo in his mind and he knows he has to. Has to, if he wants to make sure that when he puts that ring on her finger, it stays on. Kevin is her best friend, the man Adam went to for help with the ring because no one else knows her this well, and so Adam takes what he says, his advice, very seriously.

"Hm. I guess we haven't." Kim says. There's a slight guardedness to her tone and Adam wonders if there's perhaps a deeper reason behind them not having this conversation before, besides them beginning the relationship in the way they did.

There's a part of him that's curious, that needs to know everything about this incredible woman, but there's also a part that hurts, aches, at the thought of what possible bad experiences she could've had with exes, that has made her tense slightly in such a way. A part of him that wants to just reassure her that his bringing this up is not to dig into her past, but for him to share his, so that they can build a future.

"Well, you know about Wendy, obviously." Adam cringes at having to mention his most recent ex, at the memory that he was in a relationship when he first got into her. Wendy is seldom mentioned, a part both of them would prefer to forget about, him particularly, with his assholeish behaviour—not his finest moments, that's for sure. But he has to, has to start the conversation so casually like this is just what he thought while at work.

"Hm. Yeah." Kim is just mindlessly reorganising things in the kitchen now, a tale-tail sign that she does not appreciate the reminder. Adam focuses on keeping himself calm, casual, so that he doesn't accidentally start an argument.

"What about you? Did you date when in the academy?" Adam asks.

"I was busy. I'm a woman and all, I had to be the best." Kim replies and he almost flinches at the edged tone to her words. Adam wonders if it's still because him bringing up Wendy, or something else, and everything in him screams abort mission but he needs to, needs to, tell her about Nicole.

"What about when you were a flight attendant? Did you date much?" Trying to keep his tone light and not too curious, too pressing is proving hard, especially when this has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with him.

"A little." She's reorganising the cabinets now. Her tone is guarded, cool, and Adam's split between whether to continue from where he is or if he should go hug her. Not wanting to make her think that he's wondering about her clipped responses—knowing Kim, that's even more dangerous territory—Adam decides to stay put, no matter how much his arms ache to have her in them.

"What about high school? At work, seeing all these teenagers insist their adults just remind me of my own teenage antics," Adam offers up his own past a little, putting the attention back on him. There's a lot of 'teenage antics' in his history, not much of which he'd particularly like to get into, but if Kim asks, he will. Because she's clearly uncomfortable, and he's doing that, and so he'll be uncomfortable instead. He'll do anything for her.

"I bet, canaryville," Kim turns to look at him, smiling, her tone light for the first time in this whole conversation. Adam seizes the opportunity.

"God, the things I got up to. I wanted to be a cop, even back then, although I didn't think it was in the cards. But you wouldn't think it. I was canaryville through and through." He reminisces. "The Beverly in me came out in my twenties, although canaryville, I'll always be a canaryville boy. Got me the job, so there's that. There was a time though that I really could've became very canaryville." This is all stuff he's touched on before with Kim, but she's listening, intently, to him, because she always regards as whatever he says as important, just another reason he so desperately wants her to be his wife.

"I was even engaged at one point. Not Wendy, to this girl when I was twenty. You know, real puppy dog love. But marrying young isn't uncommon in canaryville and well, I was young." Adam casually drops. Kim was leaning against the counter, just listening, but at that, she pushes herself to stand up straight, staring at him.

"You were engaged? Before you were engaged?" She stares at him, shocked.

"Yeah, for like three months. Got engaged in the summer, we'd called it off by Halloween. We were young, thought we were in love, her mom was pushing her to move to Canada with her and wasn't taking our relationship 'seriously' so we thought hey. I proposed with a 40 dollar ring," He keeps his tone casual, even still, making sure to avoid details like they had only dated a year. Kim needs to know this, but she's an over thinker, and if he tells her that and then proposes after they've been together only a year themselves, she'll go into overdrive. That is not what he wants.

"I can't believe you've been engaged not once, but twice," Kim, thankfully, sees the humour in all this, all her defences dropping again. Adam feels a weight lifted off his shoulders that this went well, that she's not mad at him.

"Third time's the charm, hey?" Kim then says, grinning at him. Only for a second, before what she said registers and the grin has gone, replaced with a deep blush and wide eyes. "I mean, I didn't mean, like us, not that I, uh—" Kim stumbles over her words, her adorably anxious mind in overdrive.

"Darlin'. Relax. I know what you meant," Adam reassures her, standing up now to go to her. He kisses the top of her forehead, calming her thoughts, and smiling into her, allowing himself to feel happy that it appears that Kim's at least briefly imagined them getting married, and that she seems open. His heart feels a little lighter, less nervous and more excited, and more confident in his decision to buy the ring.

"Now, is our food nearly done? Because we've got to choose; a movie or tv," Adam diverts the conversation back, needing Kim to not focus on the thought of marriage too much, not when they're a few weeks away from the surprise.

A surprise that Adam cannot wait for, which he notes as he watches Kim, smiling at her as she moves and talks to him, feeling more and more in love with her with every passing second.