Adam had his feet up on his desk. Jay was sitting on the edge of it and they were laughing at Kevin's description of Hudson's latest attempt at Basketball, he was small for his age, surprisingly for one of Kevin's boys but he had all the attitude of his father and that more than made up for his lack of height. Kevin's arms were flailing all over the place and both Adam and Jay were highly amused. The day had a definite Friday feel for the first time in weeks because they had no active case and no matter what happened in the next few hours he had the weekend off.
Kim and Polly had left early and their road trip and he was waiting to hear that they had made it and then it was going to be a complete girl free weekend and he never thought he'd be happy about that. Being away from his girls was not something he usually enjoyed.
Adam had lingered over his goodbye that morning. He'd held Kim a little closer last night, made love to her before they went to sleep and then again when they woke up. It had been a rough few weeks for them, their relationship was never in doubt, it wasn't even on shaky ground but they had put each other through the wringer.
Adam did what he always did, he withdrew from Kim and she clawed at him to let her in. It never worked well for them. Not only did they have Polly and Angus to worry about but they had Abbey and Sam both circling around. Abbey was demanding more and more of Polly and Sam was desperate for anything. Once Abbey had left and Sam had suddenly found his spot again the boat stopped rocking and they felt they didn't need to hang on quite so tight.
They weren't good to each other but then when the tide started to turn the first thing they did was start loving each other again.
A planned night out with Kevin, Bess, Jay and Kate had been their turning point. Adam looked at Kim in the car beside him, dressed up and looking as beautiful as she always did but ultimately sad. Angus was at a party and Polly was with Sam at a family function so there was no reason not to go out with their friends and enjoy themselves and it had been a while since they'd had the chance to do that, they'd kept a pretty tight circle around their kids and their family for the past few weeks.
He hit the screen in the car and pulled up Jay's number. "Hey Jay, something's come up and we aren't going to make it."
"Anything wrong?"
"Nah, all good. Sorry, I'll see you at work on Monday. Have a good night." Kim eyed him suspiciously while he was talking to Jay. He was concentrating on the traffic and didn't even look at her but he had a slight smile on his face. Adam still took her breath away, he had a white collared shit and dark jeans on and his hair was a short but it had just a sprinkle of grey at the temples and she loved it. His slight stubble was very sexy and suddenly Kim felt the need to feel it beneath her fingers.
She ran a hand over his cheek and she wondered if he felt the same little tingle that she did. "What's come up?"
Adam turned the car around and headed in the opposite direction. "I don't want to spend the next few hours talking to anyone but you."
"That's sweet." They had dinner together in a small restaurant they found, held hands, shared their food, talked, laughed and then went home and just loved each other. They didn't talk about Polly or Angus in any great detail because that was all they had done lately. While the night hadn't started out like this and it would have been fun to spend it with their friends it was perfect anyway, sometimes it was the unplanned moments that meant the most.
So now while the weekend would be good for Polly and Angus to spend some time with their Mom and Dad individually and without distraction they would hate being away from each other. Now they had got back on track things had been a little intense lately and they couldn't keep their hands off each other.
Kim and Polly were meeting Nicole and Zoe at the health retreat. Zoe was pregnant with her first baby and Nicole was beyond excited, as was Kim. She couldn't wait to be a great aunt and spoil the crap out of this baby. It was a high risk pregnancy because of Zoe's liver transplant and she was closely monitored but so far everything was going well and this weekend was probably the last chance they had to get away as she reached the last trimester. Zoe had been ultra healthy during the pregnancy, driving them all to distraction with her constant lectures about diet, clean eating and getting everything back in balance so this was right up her alley.
He didn't envy them, Kim hadn't been excited when Zoe found the place and had to be convinced that paying $2000 for the privilege of eating what she sarcastically labelled compost, doing yoga and meditating would be good for Polly. They also made a pact to turn their phones off and talk to each other rather than stare at a screen waiting for the outside world to tell them they weren't missing a damn thing. Adam had laughed when she told him but he was happy to pay for them to go. He wasn't sure Polly was all that excited about the location and a weekend without being able to talk to Sam would test her, she'd only just let him back in and they were certainly making up for lost time. They'd all seen what happened when Polly's phone didn't work, it was like the world had ended but a weekend away with her Mom, Aunt and cousin would make up for it hopefully. "She better bloody enjoy it." Adam moaned when he finally saw the cost hit his credit card.
The silver lining for Adam was a weekend with Gus. They were going to knock the 'boy shit' out of the park.
So when his phone buzzed on his desk he was expecting it to be from Kim letting him know that they had arrived. "Son of a bitch." He growled, instantly hitting speed dial. He drummed his fingers on his desk impatiently while he waited for him to answer.
"Please tell me you are just running late?" he barked into the phone. "Gus, you need to call me back."
"What's up?" Halstead nodded his head at the phone in his hand.
"Gus is not at school." He hoped like hell that Kim was already out of range because the last thing he wanted was for her to worry about where Gus was if she got the message from the school asking them to confirm his absence. This weekend was supposed to be about Kim getting away from everything and spending time with Polly and not freaking out about Angus and Adam's inability to manage even the simplest task of getting him to school.
"Where is he?"
"That's what I'd like to know." Adam was furious. He'd gone from laughing and looking forward to the weekend to pissed off in a matter of seconds. He called him again and still got no answer. Gus had promised him that he was quite capable of getting to school by himself. Adam had wanted to go in early and make a start on his mountain of reports so that he could get home early and start their weekend together so as soon as the girls left he took off into work.
"You want to ping his phone?"
"Sure." They did that and it showed that he was still at home. "Fuck." He threw his phone on the desk, gripped the back of his head and leant on his elbows and rubbed his head angrily.
"What are you going to do?"
"Wring his neck." He grabbed his jacket. "I'm going to go and haul him into school. He is not Ferris Buellering me, not today."
"Angus." He roared as he came through the door. "What the hell are you doing?" The house was deathly quiet as he stormed upstairs.
Adam's anger dissipated the moment he opened Gus's door and found him literally passed out on his bed in his school uniform. He was as white as a ghost and the room had a distinct aroma of vomit. "Holy crap." He gagged a little before shaking Gus awake. "Bud, wake up."
"Dad." He muttered weakly. "I can't stop spewing."
"Okay." This was the last thing he wanted to be doing. He hated it when people spewed; it was quite frankly the worst thing about having kids, having to clean up after them when they were sick. And by the looks of it he had quite some cleaning up to do and it was far from over judging by look of Angus. He looked green. "When did it start?"
"I had breakfast." He started to gag and Adam looked around quickly for something to use and grabbed a towel from the floor, grateful that for once his son was a slob and caught most of his spew.
"Alright." Adam groaned. "Let's get you in the shower." He helped him out of bed and into the shower, getting him to sit down and just let the water wash over him while he cleaned up his bed, stopping only when he heard him vomiting in the shower again. He found Gus on his hands and knees heaving repeatedly and Adam ended up half in the shower trying to help him sit up when he was done and grabbed the showerhead to rinse him off and the remnants down the drain.
He called Halstead. "Umm, I found Gus, heaving his guts up all over his bedroom. So I am elbow deep in vomit, best you sign me out for the day."
"And you are completely on your own brother."
"Figured as much."
He changed the sheets, grabbed some towels and buckets and then went and helped him out of the shower and held him up while he got some clothes on him, unfortunately getting him moving again wasn't a great idea and Adam helped him stay upright and facing the shower stall as he spewed again. "Buddy, this is not good." He grabbed a facecloth and washed his face.
"Sorry Dad."
"Hey, it's okay." Adam got him back into bed just as his phone rang. He wasn't at all surprised to see Kim's name flashing on his phone, honestly he was surprised it took this long.
"What the hell Adam?" He did not even get the chance to speak.
"Hold on. He's crook."
"He was fine when I left."
"Well judging by the amount of vomit I have just seen come out of him and the amount of washing and cleaning that is now waiting for me I can safely say he's not faking it or if he is it's an Oscar worthy performance." He flicked his phone around and switched on the camera to show Kim her very unwell son curled up in fetal position on his bed. At least she could see that he was in fact sick and that Adam had it somewhat under control.
"Do you want me to come home?"
"No I don't want you to come home." It would have been so easy to say yes and he knew she would turn the car around in a second. It was the last thing he wanted to be doing this weekend but that wasn't fair to Kim who really was looking forward to the whole weekend and especially not to Polly. Apart from the whole not being able to contact Sam thing he knew Polly was really looking forward to it, it was the first time she had done something like this with her mother and Adam was still on shaky ground with her so he would hate to think what it would do to their fragile relationship if he ruined it for her. "I want you to not worry about Gus and enjoy the fact that you don't have to be here to deal with this crime scene, because Darlin' it's nasty."
"Are you sure?"
"I've paid $2000 for you to spend this weekend with Polly. Look at it this way, both our kids need some TLC and we've got one each. Teamwork Baby." They were concerned about Polly's mental health although nothing specifically worried them but this had been really rough on her and they worried about how much more she could take. They wanted her to know that they would do anything for her, that they cared about her physically and emotionally and more than anything they wanted both their kids to know that they were in their corner and would fight for them.
"You had such a good weekend planned."
"Yes I did, but we can do it later. I am still here with Gus and that's all that matters right? Hey Kim…." He could hear Gus spewing again. "I've gotta go. Mt Vesuvius is erupting again." and he promised to keep her in the loop.
Kim rattled off a quick list of things for him to get to help Gus so he rang his Mom and asked her to bring them over. She offered to stay and help but he was pretty sure he could manage, this weekend was about him and Gus and despite him being sick he still wanted it to be just them. He did have this nagging thought in the back of his head that he might need her later on and he'd save his Mom for that. One thing they had learnt very quickly is that a bout of stomach flu could rip through a house in a heartbeat. He certainly did hope like hell that this wasn't the case and that Kim and Polly didn't fall ill while they were away. If it was contagious perhaps them being away would mean they could avoid it completely.
By early afternoon he could at least have more than a three word conversation with Gus. He was starting to hold down some fluids although he still looked pretty green. From what Adam could gather Gus had eaten some left over pizza at his mate's place last night and he thought it tasted a bit dodgy so the likelihood it was food poisoning was filling him with some hope that it would be over soon and unlikely to take him down also.
'We seemed to have turned a corner. He ate rancid pizza last night at Elliot's. No spew for two hours and he's had something to drink.' Adam finally answered one of Kim's many messages and he told her to stop worrying and focus on Polly.
Gus crawled out of bed and onto the couch by the evening and watched some of a movie with his Dad. He rested his head on a cushion in Adam's lap, it wasn't often that he wanted that kind of contact with either of his parents but when you felt as crap as he did it was comforting. "Is Mom freaking out?" Adam had covered him with a blanket and was absentmindedly stroking his head. Angus wasn't as touchy feely as Polly was, he never had been. As a baby he loved to snuggle but once he hit those terrible twos he fought his parents at every opportunity when they tried to cuddle him. He was a little better now and didn't baulk but he rarely sought them out either and apart from always kissing his mother goodnight and occasionally Adam he was not overly affectionate.
"No, she's strangely grateful that while her and Polly are indulging in a massage and eating compost I am here cleaning up after you."
"I don't think I'll be eating pizza for a while."
"Here's a tip for nothing, if it smells bad and tastes bad, for the love of god don't eat it." He caught the weakest of smiles.
"I guess I ruined our weekend?"
"We'll see how you feel tomorrow. A weekend bumming around the house is a pretty sweet deal too. A chick free few days at home, Gus this could be heaven. No one to nag us about watching sport all weekend, eating crappy food and slobbing around in sweats." Gus had been keen to try playing golf. Adam didn't love it, he preferred his sports to be a bit more active but had agreed to get him some lessons and they planned to have his first lesson together tomorrow. They also hoped to catch a movie and Adam had tickets to a Cubs game on Sunday. He guessed pizza was off the menu for the weekend but whatever happened, Adam wasn't cooking. For dinner he'd found some soup in the freezer because Angus was happy with just dry toast and they both seemed a little on edge when he ate it waiting to see if it reappeared.
Kim did freak out initially but once she knew that he was okay it was Polly who eventually convinced her to relax and put her phone away. "Dad said Gus is fine so why are you still messaging him?"
"Because it's your Dad."
"You know Mom, he's pretty good. You should trust him." Of course Polly was right, she'd lucked out with Adam. He was more than pretty good, he was a great Dad and he was adamant that he was quite capable of looking after Angus, it wasn't his first trip to the rodeo. Kim left him in charge of both of them one weekend a year when she went away with her sister and he had always managed to keep them alive.
"I do trust him. I am just worried about Angus."
"I thought this was about us." This meant a lot to Polly, Kim could see that so she put her phone away and focussed on their girl's weekend. "Dad will let you know if anything is really wrong."
"Can I ask how things are with Sam?" They had dinner with Nicole and Zoe before deciding to relax in the hot tub on the veranda of their cabin. The weather wasn't exactly warm but the water more than made up for it and the view out towards the mountains was pretty spectacular. The sky was clear and full of stars and Kim remembered back when they used to get the kids out of the city and into the country so they could experience things like this. It was nature in its purest form and she thought it was perhaps something they should consider doing more often, at the very least it was something that her and Adam should think about doing again.
They both had certainly noticed that Sam was well and truly back in the good books lately and they seemed a lot happier and probably a lot closer than they had ever been. That had given Adam a few more grey hairs.
"Good."
"Good?"
"Yes Mom, things are good." Polly was staring at her hands swirling under the water. "What do you want to know? Are we having sex? No we are not."
"Okay." It was a little more than Kim was expecting. "I wasn't asking about that."
"But you wanted to know."
"I want to know that you are okay Polly."
"I am, we are."
Kim just dived into the conversation since Polly had already bought it up. "I'm glad. You know I would really like to make sure you are ready for whenever you decide to sleep with Sam and make you an appointment to see a Doctor to talk about some birth control."
"What makes you think I am going to have sex with Sam?"
"Oh Sweetheart." Kim grabbed Polly, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her towards her so that she could kiss her cheek playfully. "Because I see the way you look at each other."
"I'm not ready yet."
"Is Sam?"
"He's male and according to Dad he's been ready since the day he was born."
"Your Dad is an idiot sometimes."
"Mom, Dad is an idiot most of the time, but he's our idiot." Polly laughed. "And we are stuck with him and I love him."
"Me too Baby, Me too."
"How did you know you loved Dad?"
"It kind of crept up on me. I think I realised when I wanted to go home with him everyday, I wanted to always be around him. I'd look forward to the end of shift just so that we could be together."
"Like sleep with him?"
"No, not always. We spent a lot of time just together, watching TV, cooking for each other, talking to each other, when we had a day off we'd go out bike riding or swimming or hiking. He would even take me to the art institute or a play." Polly snorted; she couldn't imagine her Dad doing half that stuff. "It's not always about sex, it can't be. If that's all it is, if that's all you have in a relationship then it is never going to last. You need to be friends too and your Dad is my best friend, always has been."
"We are friends. I really like just hanging out with Sam and we have fun. He makes me laugh a lot and we like the same things, like movies and TV and stuff. I like talking to him; we talk about anything and everything. That's good right?" For some reason Polly didn't tell her Mom what Sam had told her recently and she didn't really know why, it just didn't feel like the right time.
"That's great Sweetie, it really is. You know we like Sam too."
"Are you sure? Dad always tells me that he hates him." Polly was smiling because she knew her Dad was joking, but she just thought she'd check.
"That's because, as we established earlier, your Dad is an idiot." Kim was loving every minute of this and by the look on Polly's face so was she. This was exactly what she hoped for when they came up here, a relaxed and happy Polly and a chance to talk to her about where her head was at. "He's just hardwired to hate any boy who comes within spiting distance of you, he's been waiting for this for years. If he really did hate him the poor boy wouldn't get past the front door."
"Sam really loves hanging around home."
"We like having him around because we love how happy he makes you." Kim wanted Polly to feel comfortable about talking to her about anything, they'd always been able to do that but lately she could tell that Polly had been a little more reluctant to share. "You know we've always tried to make our house fun to be around because that's what worked best for us when we first got together we just had fun together all the time."
"It is. Sam thinks it's insane sometimes and he really missed being around when we split up."
"We weren't sure what was happening?"
"I don't know; it was so confusing." Polly sank lower in the water and stared out at the distant mountains for a few moments. "I just didn't know how to talk to him and thought that he'd be better off not dealing with me. I didn't mean to shut him out it just happened and then I wanted to help Abbey and Sam just got lost a little bit."
"It was a little surprisingly how you shut him out and your Dad too." That may have been pushing it a little too far and she waited to see which way Polly was going to go.
"I know. I hate that I did that."
Kim pulled her into her arms. "Look, I am not going to lie to you that really hurt your Dad but he never stopped believing in you or being worried about you or loving you."
"I know." She was really enjoying just being with her Mom. "I think deep down I knew that we'd be okay."
"So did he, still hurt him though. Your Dad loves you so much Pol. From the moment you were born, actually from the moment we found out I was pregnant he was so in love with you. He was so happy when you were a girl and he was just amazing with you and you know what Polly?" Kim's voice trembled just a little bit. "I love watching your two together, I always have. He would race home from work just so that he could give you a bath and I could hear him singing to you and even if I'd had a shitty day and you were grumpy the moment he got home scooped you up everything was okay. It makes me love your Dad even more when I see how much he loves you and Angus."
"I know how lucky I am."
"Not as lucky as your Dad and I are. We will fight for you Polly, for you and Angus. We will fight tooth and nail to make sure you and Angus are okay and have everything you need."
"Do you think Dad will forgive me?"
"Oh Polly, there is nothing to forgive, nothing at all. Just tell him you love him; you know he likes that. That's all he wants to hear." She asked her Mom when they were getting ready for bed if she could send her Dad a message.
'I love you Dad.'
'To the moon Sweet pea, to the moon.'
Adam was surprised, not that he said anything when he woke up and found Angus crawling into bed beside him. It was very rare thing for Angus to do and it had been a long time since he'd crawled into his parent's bed in the middle of the night. Adam just smiled to himself and went back to sleep feeling like his world was wasn't spinning quite so fast anymore. As much as he moaned when the kids were little and they were always in their bed, spreading themselves out and leaving Adam and Kim perched on the edge for half the night, he missed it when it stopped.
Despite the fact he'd spent most of the day cleaning up Angus's vomit he had a feeling that this weekend was looking up. Gus was his main man and Polly had told him that she loved him. The only thing that would have made this better was if they were all together.
"Hey Dad." Gus sleepily rolled over when his Dad's alarm went off. They were booked in for their golf lesson at 10am, it was now 8am and Adam had planned that they would go out for breakfast before the lesson.
"Gus, morning. You feel okay?" He ran his hand through his slightly wild looking hair. Kim thought he was overdue for a haircut and had suggested Adam sort it out this weekend but for some reason Gus decided he wanted to grow it out a bit and Adam didn't really care, whatever Gus wanted to do he was fine with. God knows he'd gone through various different hairstyles and lengths over the years.
"Yeah." He didn't sound a hundred precent convincing but he really wanted to go to the lesson so would push through. "Can we still go?"
"If you are sure you are alright we will definitely go. I'd like to see you eat something this morning though, think you can do that? You keep that down and we will go." Again he had some toast and Adam made him eat a banana and drink some more of the ORS that Kim had recommended. It wasn't the greatest but he hadn't had much else to drink so forced it down and it stayed down.
Adam could tell he wasn't feeling the greatest but loved that he was so desperate to do all the things they'd planned to do together that he just kept going. Adam slowed it down a little though and instead of going out to the movies they decided to stream one at home, they picked up burgers from their favourite burger joint, had more fries than was humanly possible and turned the sound up really loud and watch the mayhem unfold on the screen. Adam didn't know if Gus was happy with staying in but he seemed perfectly content. They were wearing sweats, their feet were on the table and they didn't have any of the women folk nagging them about anything. What was not to like?
By the time Sunday rolled around Gus was feeling pretty good again so they went out for breakfast and went indoor rock climbing before lunch and then headed to the game. The smile of Gus's face was priceless when they got the game and Adam had pulled in a favour and got them seats on the first base line. They were wicked seats, or so Gus had told him.
They then met Kim and Polly at their favourite restaurant for dinner and it felt a little like old times. The kids didn't even mind their parents PDA's, the way Adam greeted Kim by dipping her backwards and kissing her hard, and when he let it go on for more than a few seconds it had them cheering and laughing. They didn't care that they cuddled up to each other while they waited for their food. Polly was happy to tell her Dad all about the weekend, show off her manicure and her enthusiastic description of how terrible the food was; well that was all Ruzek. He did frown a little at how excited she sounded about Zoe and being able to feel the baby moving and how beautiful she looked but Kim squeezed his thigh and shook her head when Adam looked at her, eyebrows raised and stopped him from making some comment about the perils of teenage pregnancy. As that conversation suddenly veered into Sam, Adam did think he was going to have a heart attack.
Gus had his own stories to tell and not that his food poisoning experience was particularly appropriate dinner conversation but rest of the weekend certainly made up for it. He loved the golf lesson and while as parents they wanted them to do and try anything that took their fancy they were really hoping that he wouldn't love this.
Adam and Kim loved that they were all together, just the four of them and enjoyed sitting back and listening to every single word that came out of their mouths. It was as close to perfect as they'd had in a long time. It felt good and he knew that this weekend was the best thing they could have done for their kids right now, they were finally sailing in calm waters.
Adam finished off his whiskey and was just about to turn off the light and go to bed. It had been a good weekend; it started off a little rocky but ended on a high with the family dinner. All he wanted was one more thing, so he waited and he got it.
He heard that sweet voice.
"Dad."