Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.
A\N: Thanks to everyone who left a review on the last chapter. I didn't know where I wanted to bring this story but I decided to extend it a bit longer, hope you'll like it.
Adam walked up the stairs of the bullpen and found the place empty except for the fact that Kim's jacket was on her chair. He placed his on top of his desk and went to the only place he knew she'd be at this hour, the break room.
"Morning." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doorframe.
"Morning." She turned with a smile. "How was your night?"
"Good, good." He smiled at her. "Listen, I wanted to run something by you."
"Shoot." She handed him a cup.
"I want to take you out on a date." He took a sip of the coffee she gave him.
"A date?"
"Yeah." He shrugged. "The only time we had an actual date planned, Al crashed it with Michelle and It just never happened again after that."
"Point taken."
"How about tonight?"
"Yeah, sure, tonight is good." Kim's smile was wide and her insides were giddy at the thought. "Where are we going?"
"Not sure, dress nice, it'll be a surprise."
"Okay." She walked past him and came face to face with Hailey, the air in the bullpen becoming suddenly still. "Hey." Hailey gave her a nod but didn't answer her and went straight to the locker room.
"Everything okay?" Adam stopped at her level.
"Not sure but I doubt today will be pleasant." She walked to her desk and started working. Adam put his cup on his desk and went in the direction of the locker room too.
"Hailey?" He asked as he walked in but received no answer so he walked farther inside to where her locker was and found her putting her coat away. "Can we talk?"
"I think I said everything I had to say last night so let's just go back to being working partners." She slapped the door of her locker shut and looked him straight in the eye. She was angry for letting herself fall for someone else on the job and now she was paying for it. "This is the last conversation you and I are going to be having about it, are we clear?"
"Copy that." He let her walk around him and out of the locker room. Kim was right, today would be anything but pleasant. When he returned, the rest of the team had showed up and they were waiting for a new case to lift and Adam hoped that would be soon because he could feel the tension in the room mount.
"This day better get hopping because I'm about to go insane." Kevin leaned back on his chair and Voight stepped out of his office about an hour later.
"You shouldn't say that out loud Atwater, this one is hot." Voight gave them the case. "Upton, Burgess, you're partnered up today."
"Shit." Kim cursed under her breath but Voight caught it.
"Something you want to say Burgess?" He stuffed his hands in his pockets like he often did.
"No, nothing Sarge, all good." She stood and grabbed her coat.
"Good. The two of you are going to sit on the house."
"On it." Upton walked out ahead of Kim, not even looking at her and was down the stairs of the bullpen faster than she could move.
"Be safe out there." Adam whispered to her as she walked past him and out.
"Come on Ruz, you and I are on dead body duty, let's go."
"How charming." He grabbed his coat and the two of them rode towards the coroner's office.
"Alright Ruz, what's the deal with you, Upton and Burgess?"
"Nothing is going on." Talking about it would be no use at this point.
"Bullshit." Kevin gave Adam all his attention since he wasn't driving.
"Fine." Adam sighed. "Last night after I left Molly's, Kim came after me, confronted me about getting into William's face and I sort of told her that it was always her that I wanted and not Upton and I kissed her and Upton sort of saw it all."
"Damn brother, that's messed up."
"Tell me about it. I tried talking to Hailey but she yelled at me and slammed her front door in my face."
"You had that coming."
"I know that but Kim doesn't need to catch the heat for something I did."
"And where does she fit in all of there?"
"I went to her place after I left Hailey's and we talked late in the evening. She says we can't jump into a relationship."
"She's right brother. I love you both but you can't do the same mistakes you did before. You guys need to be on the same page and talk through your shit if you want it to work."
"Since when are you the relationship advice guy?"
"Since the two of you can't pull your heads out of your asses and get it right."
"Maybe this time we will." He mused.
"Fingers crossed." Adam parked in their usual spot and the discussion was tabled, the two of them needed to help solve the case.
The drive to the house was silent, awkwardly so. Kim wanted to talk to Hailey, explain herself but she didn't know how to broach the delicate subject and Hailey didn't seem to be in a listening mood but she just went for it anyways.
"Hailey." She asked.
"Now's not the time Burgess." She cut short to Kim's idea.
"Okay." She simply replied as Hailey parked in the alley two buildings across the street from the house. They spent most of the morning in that awkward silence but nothing was moving at the house and Hailey radioed it in, Voight telling them to hang tight a little longer. "Do we have any more info on the case?"
"Kevin says that's the victim was shot point blank twice and his name is Tyrell Jones." Kim pulled up his information on the screen. "He was last seen hanging out with the South Side Hustlers.
"Seventeen years old, one prior for possession but nothing that stands out."
"Something must have happened in the last weeks for them to go after him like that." Hailey kept eyes on the house while Kim relayed the information to her.
"He's got a fourteen-year-old little brother, Markus Jones. Do we have eyes on him?" Kim asked as Hailey radioed in Jay to give him the update.
Platt is sending patrol to check it out, hang tight, he might show up before the day is over. Came Jay's response.
"Let's sit tight and see if he comes back." They were waiting for Alphonso Drake to show up at his house to question him.
Adam and Kevin walked back up the stairs to the bullpen and Jay was the only one in sight.
"So, what do you have?"
"Two GSW to the chest at point blank range. This was pre-meditated." Kevin relayed.
"Where are the girls?" Adam asked.
"Still sitting on the house." Jay confirmed.
"Shit." Adam cursed under his breath.
"Something you want to share with the rest of the class?" Adam looked up from his phone, not having realized that he had said that out loud.
"Nope, nothing Halstead." He pressed send, wanting to make sure what the situation was in that car.
"Platt has patrol out trying to locate Tyrell's little brother Markus. The girls are our best shot right now.
"This is taking forever. I doubt we'll get anything here today." Kim said as another hour passer and no one had come in and out of the house. Her phone dinged and she sent Adam her curt reply, not giving Hailey an extra reason to be any more pissed at her than she already seemed to be.
"We have our orders." Hailey simply said and the two girls continued the tense stake out together. It took several hours before Alphonso showed up and he was looking quite jittery, looking around him, trying to figure out if he was being followed.
"Someone's nervous." Kim took pictures.
"What do you suppose he has in those bags?"
"There's only one way to find out." Kim set the camera aside and stepped out of the car, pulling her gun out and crossing the street." Hailey was right behind her and she went for the back while Kim took the front. "CHICAGO PD, open the door!" Kim banged on it loudly. When she got no answer, she tried again, still getting no answer. "Hailey, I'm going in." Kim lost no time in kicking the door down and immediately she drew her gun, clearing all the rooms while Hailey did the same from the back. They met in the center of the kitchen and found the basement door, locked.
"We don't know what's going on down there. We should wait for back-up." Hailey insisted.
"We wait for back-up and he has Marcus down there, who knows how much time we have left." Kim was in no way losing another kid today. She shot to rounds in the door and she was moving to the basement carefully but with purpose.
"Where the hell is my dope? He yelled at Markus as he beat him senseless.
"Alphonso Drake!" Hailey yelled as Kim charged him, wanting to stopping the beating he was inflicting on Marcus. She wrestled with him until Hailey pointed a gun to the back of his head.
"Back the hell up from my partner of I'm going to shoot you in the head and end you right there." She seethed. Alphonso Drake stepped away from Kim and Kim ran to Marcus, un-tying him from the chair he was bound to.
"Hey, it's going to be okay, we'll take good care of you." She undid the last rope and held him into her lap. "5021 Eddie." Kim keyed in her radio. "Requesting an ambo at our location." She relayed the address and she waited for the ambo to arrive, Hailey taking care of Drake, slipping him in the back of her car. As soon as the ambo arrived to take Markus to Med, Kim left with Hailey to bring Drake back to the district and booked in.
The whole team was picking their things up, calling it a night. They had agreed to meet up at Molly's except Adam and Kim, the two going on a date but the rest of the team didn't know that apart from Kevin.
"Come on Ruz, come with us." Kevin tried to coax him for at least one drink.
"I'm good Kev, thanks." He grabbed his coat after Hailey left for the locker room. He shared a glance with Kim before she went in Hailey's direction.
"Hailey, we need to talk." Kim walked through the lockers to the back where Hailey's was.
"Listen Kim. Today has been a really long day and I'm just ready to get out of this place."
"Look Hailey." Kim sighed. "I know that I'm the last person that you want to talk to right now but I need to explain myself."
"Five minutes and I don't want to talk about it again, just move on and get back to my life." She closed her locker and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I didn't intend for last night to happen. I was pissed at Adam for how he treated Blair and I finally blew up at Adam for everything our past has done to me and I finally put it out there and it made me realize that the feeling I had for him are still there but I didn't set out for it to play out like that."
"You know the hardest part in all of this?" Hailey questioned Kim. "Is that I allowed myself to feel something for him when he was obviously still in love with you. I set us to fail from the start and I'm the only one to blame for that so it's what it is."
"I'm sorry all the same. And I don't want things to be awkward for us because Adam and I are not a thing, at least not any time soon, maybe not for a long time, or even ever."
"Just do what you have to do Kim, that's your business but we're good."
"Okay. It means a lot that you say that."
"It's the truth. Have a good night Kim." Hailey grabbed her bag and was out of the locker room, heading to her car through the back. She went straight for Molly's and a glass of whiskey, ready to get the day behind her.
Kim sighed and returned to her locker, grabbing all of her things before she went down by the front, just needing to get out of there and ready for her date with Adam.
"Hey." Adam pulled Kim into the back entrance when he spotted her come down from the bullpen.
"Hey." She sighed.
"How did it go?"
"It went that I just want to sit at home with a whole bottle of wine and just do nothing." She pressed her forehead in his chest and a soft chuckle rumbled through his chest.
"How about you go back home and shower and I'll bring the wine and the food?" He kneaded her shoulders.
"That sounds like the best suggestion I've had all day."
"Good. Come on, let's get out of here."
"Night Sarge." Platt barely acknowledged them on their way out and they headed in a different direction, the two heading home.
Adam showered quickly and went back out, needing to make stops on his way to Kim's place. His first stop was to a liquor store for Kim's favourite wine and then he stopped at the small take-out place close to Kim's that served Italian and he grabbed her favourite things before heading her way.
Kim slipped into a shower as soon as she made it her place. She was exhausted from trying to avoid any tension with Hailey, she was tired from wrestling with the offender and her talk with Upton in the locker room depleted her of the rest of her energy. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball in the couch with a good glass of wine but she knew that Adam was on his way so she went for leggings and burgundy sweater. She padded out of her room just in time to hear the knock on the door.
"There better be some wine in this delivery." She opened the door and Adam raised the bottle.
"Your favourite." He smiled. "And I got us some food." He held the bag at his side.
"Come in." She went to grab two glasses while Adam emptied the bag, spreading everything on the living room table.
"How did It go with Hailey?"
"We're good. That's all I'm going to say." She took a sip of her glass, closing her eyes and enjoying the taste going down her throat.
"I'm okay to talk about something else." He dug in his food first.
"Yeah, I think we should talk Adam." Her talk with Hailey had given her some things to think about herself.
"That doesn't sound good for me."
"It's just, talking with Hailey in the locker room made me realize some things that I wasn't quite ready to face."
"Things like what? Me and you?" He put his plate down and gave her all of his attention.
"I realized that what we have, it's not as in the past as I thought and I need to go through some things for myself before I can even fit you in the equation."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that I need to be your friend before I can be your girl again." She admitted. "I need to look myself fin the mirror and re-evaluate things for myself before we can talk about us."
"You mean talk about us the first time around, the reason why we couldn't make it work."
"Yes."
"I'm ready to do anything for it to work this time." He took her hand in his. "So, if your friend is what you need me to be, that's what I'll be and if you want us to talk, I'll do my best to be as honest as I can."
"Thanks." She smiled at him. So, they spent another evening just talking, reclaiming the friendship they always had beyond their romantic relationship.
A/N: Alright so Kim decided she needed to find some clarity for herself before getting into anything with Adam. Will they be able to talk about their past in order to move forward? Please drop a review before you go, your thoughts are always important. - Sarra