Hey guys, I hope you're all doing great!
Here's the next chapter of this story. Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy week.
Hope you like it and thanks for reading.
Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.
I got home and took a shower, I needed to cool down.
In nothing but my pajama pants I walked towards the fridge to finally throw myself on the couch with a cold beer in my hand.
I could literally feel my cheek muscles hurt from the permanent grin I had on my face.
Did tonight really happen? Did she really kiss me back?
I didn't want to overthink things and potentially ruin whatever this was, I was going to do my best to go with the flow. One thing I was sure about though, now that I've had a taste of this, I knew that this was real, I knew I wanted more, I knew I wanted to be with her.
I got to the bullpen excited and looking forward to seeing her.
"Well look who's here, if it isn't boy wonder. It's too early for that smile, you're annoying me already." Platt didn't miss a thing.
"Good morning, Sarge! I'll be heading upstairs so I don't annoy you then." She did have a point, the grin on my face was still there since last night and I intended to keep it that way.
"You do that, detective."
I got to the bullpen and headed for my desk. "Good morning guys."
"Morning Ruze" Lindsay greeted me with a hug, whereas I got a fist bump from Atwater.
"Where's Halstead and Burgess?" It was strange that the two most responsible people weren't around.
"Jay is in the roll up with Voight, and I have no idea about Burgess" Lindsay replied.
"No idea bro. She wasn't here when I came in." I nodded at his answer.
"Listen up" I lifted my head in alert as I heard Voight's voice. I looked up and saw him and Jay walking in, each of them holding a folder in their hands. Jay grabbed the board and moved it to the middle of the bullpen, starting to stick some pictures and scribbling some words that so far made no sense to me. "Something pretty big popped up last night. There's a drug trafficking ring, we have reasons to believe they're linked to the Latin Kings, the prime suspect is Joe Mendez."
Jay interrupted and began to speak "The product they're putting out in the streets is bad. I talked to Will, so far there are 14 ODs and I'm sure they'll keep coming."
"So what's the plan?" I asked, I was sure there was some big move in Voight's head already.
"I have two agents UC right now." We all started to look at each other knowing exactly who he was talking about. "They're probably going to be working on this for a few more days until we have all that we need to dismantle these sons of a bitch."
"Is there anything we can do? I mean the amount of victims is insane, there must be something we can do to help." I could hear concern in Lindsay's voice.
"The only thing you can do right now is to have your eyes and ears wide open. A wrong move and we can blow Burgess' and Rojas' cover, so we lay low. Am I clear?" He asked, staring at all of us, but I knew for a fact that the next part was intended for me. "No one is playing hero, not with this one. Do you understand?"
"Yes boss." That's all I said, there wasn't anything else I could do either. I trusted Voight's choices and I trusted her and her abilities as a cop, but if given a choice, I would've liked to be there to back her up, to cover her, to make sure she was ok at all times.
That was not gonna happen though.
The following four days sucked. The number of victims was going up like crazy and none of us had found anything remotely useful for the case, we were only relying on the intel provided by Kim and Vanessa, which was brilliant by the way. I had no idea how they were pulling this off so fast and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out either.
So far they have managed to get us names, stash houses, the most detailed description of the product anyone could have asked for, we had so many threads to pull from I could tell we were getting closer to the end.
Voight was assigning me to all the other cases that popped up, trying to keep me away from this one. I guess his gut was telling him something and he didn't trust my hot head. I can't blame him really, but this was irritating me.
I wanted to get this case over with, to put these guys away for good, I wanted to see Kim.
"Gather up" his peculiar voice echoed through the bullpen as he walked out of his office. "Our contact with Burgess just called. The girls managed to get us time and place for the next exchange. It's going to be big, I need all of you to be ready. This ends tonight."
We spent the whole day preparing for this moment. We were all in position, eyes and ears everywhere.
Voight was not lying, this shit was big. There was a lot of product and a ridiculous amount of money involved, but there were also more people which meant that if we weren't careful things could get dirty, fast. We couldn't afford that, so Platt had sent some of her officers to work with us.
"50-21 alpha, anyone got eyes on Mendez, Burgess or Rojas?" Voight asked through the radio.
"Negative boss, we do have a black truck coming in. It matches the description we have of Mendez's vehicle." Atwater replied instantly. I think he was as eager as me to get this done with and take Vanessa out of here.
"Copy that. Keep me posted." That was the last thing Voight said, before the truck parked and the door from the back seat opened. Mendez got off.
"Boss I got eyes on Mendez." I said as soon as I saw him. The door stayed open and off got Kim. She had these super short denim shorts, a black top with long sleeves, her hair in a high ponytail braid, two gigantic gold hoops hanging from her ears and red lips. She looked steaming hot and that Joe guy wrapped an arm around her waist leaving one of his disgusting hands on her ass.
I felt the fury run through my body, but I had to keep myself aligned. "Burgess is with him too." I informed the sergeant and waited on instructions as to how proceed.
"I need eyes on Rojas, before we can do anything else." Voight sounded worried, he wasn't going to jeopardize the safety of the unit by any means.
"Sarge, I got eyes on her." Lindsay's voice was loud and clear through the radio. "She's in the white Audi coming in through the west wing of the hangar. I'll advise as soon as the vehicle stops." There were a few minutes of silence. Maybe they were seconds, but they lasted forever. "She's out. Rick Sena, Mendez' partner, is with her." This was like music to all of our ears.
"Listen to me. You wait for the exchange before doing the bust. You guys get the big fish, patrol is taking Burgess and Rojas." His orders were loud and clear and although I wanted to get Kim myself, I knew I couldn't do that. My thoughts were interrupted by his voice one more time. "It's time."
"Chicago PD, hands up!" I could hear all of our screams at the same time as we walked in and surrounded all of them. There were so many of them, I was thankful we had patrol backing us up, this was insane.
We got all of them, cuffed them and sent them in.
"Amazing job team" I could see the look of pride and joy in our sergeant's eyes. "Rojas and Burgess are heading to the district in one of the patrol cars, we needed to make it realistic. As for us, let's go back to the district and debrief before we can officially call it a night."
When we got to the district, Erin convinced Voight to debrief tomorrow since all of us were extremely tired. He nodded at her request and was probably one of the firsts to leave, before stepping into the roll up and talking to Kim and Rojas.
Jay, Erin, Kevin and I went to our lockers first, before actually leaving the place.
We got to the roll up and both girls were sitting on a bench talking. To say they looked exhausted was an understatement. I saw from a distance how Erin and Jay hugged them and I began to think about what I was going to do. I knew the answer to that question was to act normal, the only problem was that I'm not sure what normal is anymore.
"You ok, dawg?" Apparently my attempt to hide the worry in my face was useless.
"Yeah, bro. Just tired." Kev nodded before he continued.
"I need to ask you for a favor." I just looked him straight in the eye waiting for what he would say next. "I was hoping I could take Rojas, so maybe you could be so kind and offer to take Kim."
"Of course, man." We did our little hand shake and walked towards the girls greeting them with a hug. Jay and Erin had already stepped out of the door.
"You homies did one hell of a job this week." I let Kevin speak, he had game and I knew I would screw everything up if I opened my mouth again.
"We're glad it's over with." Vanessa spoke and Kim nodded.
"We're glad too. We missed you guys around here." That was the only thing I felt was safe enough to say.
"We missed being here too. The gangster lifestyle sucks, I have no idea how they can keep up with it for so long."
"That'd be because they're high as fuck like 90% of the time, Burgess."
"Oooh, good point Kev." She said with a tired smirk on her face. She grabbed her duffel bag, the one she usually keeps in her locker and started to pat all the pockets. "Crap, I left my keys in my locker. I'm gonna go get them and when I come back can any of you please take me home?" She pleaded as she stood up and basically dragged herself to the locker room.
Kev took that as his cue and offered Rojas to take her home.
"You guys go, I'll drive Burgess." I fist bumped both of them and sat on the bench the girls were on just a few minutes ago. I was fiddling with my keys and looking down, until I heard the clicking of her heels walking my way. I slightly moved my head and locked my eyes on her, my face must have done something because her eyes narrowed as she noticed my staring.
"What?" She asked.
I shook my head and looked at my keys again. "I'm probably an ass for saying this." My eyes shifted back to her, "But you look so hot right now." she smiled.
"You are an ass. Thank you, though." Although the smile was still there, she was obviously tired, emotionally worn out and freezing cold, but she was never going to admit that. She loved showing that she was a strong independent woman too much to show any vulnerability at all. I got up and got her bag from the floor, before taking off my jacket and handing it over to her.
"Here, put this on. You must be freezing." She didn't refuse it, which surprised me a bit. She was putting it on when she started to speak.
"So… you got stuck with taking me home?"
"I think you mean I was granted the pleasure to take you home." I chuckled as I walked her to my truck.
"You never stop flirting, do you?"
"I'm not flirting, I'm just stating a fact." We both laughed and climbed into the car. "How was it?" I asked with a more serious tone.
"Intense. When Rojas said earlier that we were glad this was over, it was no joke. I feel like I need to sleep for three days straight." She talked but she wouldn't look at me and I didn't like that one bit.
"I know that feeling." I paused "Listen, I'm really happy that you guys are ok and here. I missed you." She looked at me for the first time since she got in the car and put on a little smirk on her face but said nothing.
Was I pushing too hard? Not having had a chance to talk to her after the night at the gym left a big grey area in our relationship, and this moment right now was plain awkward. This wasn't the moment to bring it up though, so I just veered the subject another way.
"Let's get going so you can rest properly tonight." Again, silence.
The drive to her place was just as quiet, I parked in front of her apartment building and turned off the engine. "Do you need me to get you anything?"
"Nah, I don't think so. I'll just take a shower and crash in my bed." She unbuckled her seatbelt and got her bag.
"Ok, call me if anything pops up." She nodded. "Do you want me to pick you up tomorrow? Maybe get some coffee before hitting the district?"
"I'm not going tomorrow. Voight cleared Rojas and I for the day."
"Good. I'll see you around then." I moved in to hug her goodbye. It was a quick one, not how I had imagined it to be honest. I moved away from the hug and instinctively leaned in to kiss her.
No doubt that my head was not working properly anymore, my brain ignored all the warnings and I just let my instincts take the lead.
Bad call. Shouldn't have done that.
She moved her face away avoiding the contact of my lips with hers.
In the past I've been punched, kicked, hit by a car during on foot pursuit, but having her dodge away from me was by far the most painful one of them all.
She took my hand between hers and looked at them before she looked back at me. "I'm sorry, Adam. I can't do this right now."
She opened the door and left.
Great.
That night I tried to fight the thoughts in my head but I couldn't. What was that about? Was it the stress of being under cover? That was probably the best option, because the other one I could think of sucked.
Maybe I was wrong in kissing her in the first place, maybe she thought I took advantage of her feeling bad about her break up with Roman. Did she still have feelings for him?
I wanted to sort all of this out but I couldn't. I guess I just had to wait for all of this to go away.
The following days weren't much better. My theory that Kim was still affected by the UC assignment was fading away quickly and the only thought in my mind was that we were in completely different places.
Our interactions have been completely professional at work and barely existent outside the district. She was hanging out with Lindsay and Rojas a lot more than she used to, even Halstead was getting more attention than me, so that really said everything there was to say.
At the beginning I tried talking to her, but after the second text with no reply I gave up. I wasn't going to force her to do anything, but it was disappointing. I wish I had had a chance to tell her what was going on in my head, to try to prevent things between us getting this bad, to try to stay friends. I don't know anything but this.
It was Thursday already, one week away from Thanksgiving to be exact. We had all agreed to hit Molly's, we had a tough case and the distraction was welcomed and much needed. Of course, Kim didn't go.
It was around nine when I was sitting on a stool by the counter taking a pull of my beer, everyone had left and I was alone with my thoughts, at least that was what I thought.
"Hey Hermann, can you give me what he's having?" hearing Kevin's voice was comforting.
"I thought you had left with Rojas." I said as he took the stool right next to me.
"No, I just walked her to her car." His smile was impossible to hide.
"You guys are really hitting it off, huh?"
"We are. I guess you could say we're officially dating."
"That's great, bro!" I carefully bumped my beer bottle with his brand new one to cheer him on.
"Thanks dawg." He stopped for a second and then just shot his question. "What's up with you and Burgess? She's been a bit distant lately."
"A bit? She acts as if I'm not even there."
"Oh, she knows you're there. She keeps glancing over at you every time you're not looking." If that was true, then maybe not everything was lost.
I shook my head "I don't know, maybe I was the one to screw everything up."
"Why would this be on you, man? I think she just had too much on her plate."
I was beginning to feel bad about not telling every part of the story to Kevin and having his point of view was going to be helpful, so I just went for it. "I kissed her."
"What? When?" He was surprised, but not as shocked as I expected.
"The night before she went undercover."
"And? What happened?"
I sighed at the question. "Nothing, we each went home and then I didn't see her until we closed the case and now this. Do you think she feels like I took advantage of her low guard or something? I really don't know what to think."
"Burgess? No way, if she didn't want that to happen she would've probably punched you in the face." We both laughed, that was definitely something Kim would do. "I think you should focus on what you need to do, rather than what's going on in her head. What do you want to do?" He asked as his index finger nearly pierced my chest.
"I wanna talk to her. I can't have things end like this. I swear man, when I kissed her… it felt right. Everything about it felt right."
"Then go talk to her. What's stopping you?"
"She is."
"And since when do you give up just like that? That's not the Ruzek I know. Just give it one more shot brother, and if that doesn't work then let it go."
He patted my shoulder as he got up from the stool. "I gotta go, I promised Jordan I would check his math homework before he went to bed."
"Of course, go. I'll finish my beer and do the same. Thanks Kev, I appreciate you."
"No prob, dawg. See you tomorrow."
He left me alone with the few sips my beer had left. The man had a point, maybe I should try at least one more time.
