4 weeks have flown by since the false alarm and now Kim is officially in nesting mode. We both are. Kevin, Jay and Antonio have come over multiple times to help me put the finishing touches on the nursery as well as help me do the most important thing, baby proof the house. While we have been in the nursery Erin and Sylvie have been helping Kim fold and put away baby clothes.
Crunch time is upon us, we have roughly 10 weeks to go before baby girl makes her entrance into this world. Surprisingly the more we get done the more excited I get to have our baby girl under our roof. Antonio has been giving me fatherly advice which calms my nerves and makes me feel even more ready for our girl.
We hear the girls laughing in the other room.
"You ladies are having way too much fun over there"
The laughter continues. I shake my head and smile. I'm glad Kim is having fun with the girls. We've been under so much stress lately between work and the baby we haven't had much time to breathe let alone to ourselves.
All the sudden I hear Erin
"Hey Adam I had no idea you kept your assless chaps from the undercover operation a few years back"
She giggled
I quickly walk into her bedroom and snatch them away from the girls
"Hey now! Talk about that operation was never supposed to leave the bullpen!"
Kim looked at me and she smiled. I walked by her and leaned down, capturing her lips with mine, that woman can change my mood always. God knows why she loves me, but I'm so incredibly grateful that she does.
"Come on baby don't act like you're shy,you love the attention from the ladies
"Correction I only love attention from one lady"
She blushes and I walk back into the other room. One of the guys is putting the light fixtures in and the caps over the sockets. Antonio pipes up
"What was all the giggling about?"
"Oh nothing, the girls just found my wardrobe from when you and I went undercover in that strip club"
He chuckled
"Rico Rodriguez and Sonny Samuels. May they Rest In Peace"
I nod
"Speaking of names, have you and Kim decided on a name yet?"
"We have it narrowed down to two but we haven't officially decided yet. It's either going to be Allison Olivia or Paige Alexis. We both wanted a name with the letter A to honor Al. Since he meant so much to both of us"
"Well if there is one thing I know, he is smiling down on both of you right now"
"Thanks man I hope so"
After we ordered pizza and everybody had left for the night Kim and I were curled up on the couch unwinding from the day. Kim had her head on my lap and I was running my fingers through her hair, with my hand protectively underneath her belly she looked up at me.
"So baby daddy, love of my life, what are we going to name our baby girl? Both names are great because they both honor Al. I'd really like to have a decision made before she gets here"
"Well i've kind of been leaning towards Paige Alexis lately because first of all you don't hear the name Paige being used very much anymore or even in the baby name books. They both roll off the tongue easily but I will let you be the tiebreaker darlin"
"Oh why thank you, you're so sweet"
She dramatically rolls her eyes but winks at me so I know she's Only kidding around
"Well I do agree with you Paige is not a name you hear very often, but it is strong yet feminine enough. She won't get teased for it. I think with both of us as parents she will be strong enough to carry the weight and the memory of the man she is named. So, Paige Alexis it is"
I lean down and kiss her lips then I lift her shirt and kiss her belly whispering,
"Paige Alexis, mommy and daddy cannot wait to meet you. I only wish your uncle Al was here to meet you too. Daddy loves you sweet girl."
I feel Kim wipe away a tear from my eye with her thumb. God how I missed that man. I could only hope he knew how much he meant to me and to Kim. I will make sure every day to tell our little girl stories about the amazing man she is named after, because he deserves to be remembered.
Today is Kim's first day at the dispatch center and I'm pretty sure I'm more nervous than she is. Of course my girl will be a rockstar at it, I'm just worried if she'll get bored. Plus I won't get to see her, which totally sucks.
"Morning babe." She says as she grabs the plate off eggs I made her off the counter.
"Morning gorgeous. How's my girls this morning?"
"I'm tired and she's not."
She takes my hand and places it on her stomach. I instantly feel something against it.
"That's daddy's hand you feel Paige."
"Oh my god! That's wild!!"
I kiss Kim with all I've got. I think I just fell even more in love with her. She's going to be the best mom to our baby.
"I'm off to the dispatch center. Wish me luck."
"You don't need luck, you got this darlin."
I kiss her and then her bell, "you girls have a good day!"
"You too babe."
Honestly I'm jealous that she gets a break from the unit. I love it, but it can be crazy. Plus I'm sure the dispatch center doesn't have nearly as much paperwork as we do. On top of that glorious detail, she gets to work 8 hour days. No overtime,has a set schedule 8am-430pm. Sometimes I wish we had normal hours.
I grab my coffee and head to the district. I get upstairs and as usual I'm the last one there.
"Must be Burgess' first day at the call center, Adam's back to being the last one here!" Antonio jokes.
"Yeah yeah. We all know she's the punctual one."
He slaps me on my back as I sit down.
"How is my favorite girl? Or should I say girl?" Erin asks as she walks over with a donut for me.
"She's tired but otherwise good. I think she's excited to have something to do but not as crazy as this place. OH MY GOSH! I almost forgot the best thing!"
Everyone jumps with my outbursts and makes their way to my desk.
"Don't leave us hanging man!" Kev half yells at me.
"I got to feel Paige move!! Kim placed my hand on her belly this morning and she was kicking away. It was the coolest thing ever!"
"I always loved when I got to feel my kids for the first time!" Antonio adds.
Everyone gives me a slap on the back or Erins case, an actual hug. Even boss came out to hear what I was yelling about. They all start to go back to their desks to work on paperwork when Erin suddenly stops,
"Wait! Wait! Did you say Paige? Does baby girl finally have a name?!"
"Oh shit. I'm not sure I was supposed to say that. We didn't really discuss telling people."
"Man, we shouldn't count. We're family!" Jay pipes in.
"True true. How mad can Kim be with me anyway? We all know she shouldn't have told me if she didn't want the world to know."
"Truest statement I've heard" Platt says as she comes up the stairs behind me. "What are you talking about Special Sauce?"
"We settled on a name. Paige Alexis. Kim and I wanted to honor Al and figured Paige Alvin wouldn't go well in school for her. Al meant so much to us and I just hope he's proud and would be okay with us naming her after him…" I look down at my shoes, unsure of how the team will take it.
"I think it's beautiful" Platt says.
I look up to see her and Erin wiping away their tears. The guys all have a smile on their face. Voight walks over and puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Al would give you so much crap for naming your baby after him. I know without a doubt that he's proud of the cop and the man you've become Adam. He loved Kim, liked how she policed."
We all chuckle, Voight is definitely right about Al giving me crap. He loved to bust my balls.
The rest of the day goes slow, just doing some paperwork and making sure all of our CIs are on the books and legit. I get home around six and find Kim making dinner.
"Honey I'm home!" I wrap my arms around her waist as she stirs something on the stove.
"Hey love! How was work?"
"Boring. This smells wonderful!"
"Thank you! It's chicken gnocchi soup!"
I walk to the other side of the counter and lean against it. I love just watching her.
"How was the dispatch center?"
"You think your day was boring, I'm sure I would win. Yeah it can be a little exciting with some of the 9-1-1 calls. Most of them turn out to be non-emergent and a waste of time. I also get to keep track of patrol officers and where they're holding down, basically where they're taking lunch."
"Sounds thrilling"
"Oh yeah. Please tell me something exciting. Anything. I'm begging."
"We really didn't do anything today. Just paperwork and CI books. I accidentally let our baby girl's name slip. I didn't mean too! I was telling them about feeling her kick and I used Paige and of course Erin picked up on it. They all loved the name. Voight too. I'm so sorry. You know I can't keep secrets!"
"Adam breathe. It's okay! They're family, I don't care if they know. I don't really care who knows."
She shrugs and goes back to cooking, I let out a breathe. Thankful she didn't get angry with me.
She pours the soup into bowls and we take a seat at the table. I start eating but quickly realize she isn't. She's just stirring it.
"Darlin you okay?"
"Yeah. I want to talk to you about something, I just don't know how you're gonna take it…"
"Out with it, you're scaring me."
"You know I'm not super close with my parents, they don't come around a lot. They aren't super happy with the pregnancy since we aren't married. It's really always been Nicole and I. I'm so thankful for that relationship with her. I'm a little sad that Paige won't know her grandparents on my side. I know you don't talk to your mom and things are complicated with your dad. I would like to try to build a better relationship with him. So Paige had at least one grandparent. I always loved my grandma growing up. I was hoping we could start doing family dinner, maybe every other week. You can say no of course."
I sit there for a minute processing everything. She's right, Paige should have all the family she can. Of course the unit is our family but it's not the same. I love my dad, we just see policing differently.
"I say let's try. At the least, we can say we made the effort to try to get him involved with Paige. At the most maybe we all end up with a good relationship. Plus he's always loved you so I'm sure he will be game. I'll call him tomorrow, he's on shift right now."
"Thank you baby." She gets up and kisses me. I can tell how much this means to her. I will do my best to make it happen.
I watched on as Adam paced back and forth with his phone in his hand, gripping it so tight that his knuckles were turning white. My heart broke for him. It has been almost 6 months since he has even talked to his dad after he confronted him in the hospital when Bob had asked him to just let the guy walk, after what he did to him and not letting it get out that his dad was a snitch tarnish their name and Adam being Adam, having a heart of gold that he does, went, against his better judgment and agreed to do what his father asked him to do.
I knew by the look on his face that he was struggling and I knew that making the phone call would be hard for him, but I knew he would do it for us. He would do it for his daughter; he would bite the bullet, put his feelings aside and talk to his father for me all he had to do now was make the call.
"Baby, the sooner you get it over with the sooner you will be able to breathe and move on."
"I know Darlin but what do I even say?"
"Well you could Rip the Band-Aid off right away and ask him if he would want to do family dinners for his granddaughters sake or you could make small talk." I shrug my shoulders, coaxing him to sit down running my hands through his hair I get him to look at me.
"It's up to you."
I kiss his temple and rub his back blowing out a breath. He begins to dial putting the phone up to his ear. After two rings, the other line picks up.
"Hey Pop it's me. Look, I know we have a lot of things to work out between the both of us but that's not the reason I called." He started in one long breath. "Well you know Kim doesn't have a whole lot of family around here and we both want to make sure that the baby grows up knowing her grandparents, knowing that she is loved and has people around her who will love her and protect her no matter what, so Kim and I were wondering if you would like to start coming over after we get settled for family dinners?"
There was silence on the end as i'm sure Bob was processing what Adam just said. I know that Adam was hesitant to say anything to him in the first place but he did it for me and I love him for that. After what seemed like an eternity, I heard Bob on the other end of the line
"Of course, anything for my future grandchild"
Adam blew out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and I could see the tension leave his body. He had never really had a good relationship with his dad but no matter what, he was still his father and he respected him in his own way.
"Thank you pop. You don't know how much this means to both of us."
"Oh I think I do son thank you for asking."
"You're welcome pop we will work out the details soon does that sound OK?"
"Sounds good to me."
"All right pop will talk to you later."
"All right."
Adam hangs up and flops down on the couch next to me careful of my belly with his head on my shoulder I run my fingers through his hair
"Now that wasn't so hard was it?"
"It wasn't my favourite thing in the world but it wasn't the death of me."
I chuckle a bit and kiss the top of his head
"Now that that is over with how are my girls today?"
"Exhausted but good. Dispatch is nothing like being out there on the streets with everyone but keeps me connected it to the team so I still feel like I'm a part of it even though I'm not there with you guys as for your daughter she is still kicking up a storm even though we had a lighter day today. I won't be surprised if I have sore ribs even after she is born because that seems to be her favourite spot to kick me in."
Adam chuckles. "Feisty just like your mother "He rubs his hand over my bump and smiles. He then lifts up my shirt slightly to kiss it and then he looked up at me.
"Hey darlin' can I ask you something?"
I look into his eyes. "Of course anything, you know that."
"What are we doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I know we agreed to date and to take things slow, but can we please not hide from what we've known has been in front of us this whole time I mean we practically live together we just need a few more boxes moved in, we choose to come home to each other every night, we go have dinner together, the only people we see are the team. We enjoy spending time together outside of work even though we already spend 10 hours a day together all I'm saying is we already act like a couple would it be so bad to make it official?" He breathed out. "What do you say darlin? Will you be my girl?"
I smile and blush. Lord knows this man in front of me has had my heart for a long time there is no denying that and I loved him for as long as I can remember I think I was kidding myself when I was trying to push him away knowing deep down in my soul that I will never truly get over him no matter how hard I tried and here we are in the middle of our second chance waiting for the arrival of our beautiful baby girl and here he was putting all his cards out on the table no tricks, no illusions, just us.
"Of course." She giggled. "But just for the record, I've always been yours dummy."
We both have these big smiles creeping across our faces and I put both my hands on the sides of his face and bring my lips to his and we both laugh blissfully into the kiss
