Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.
A/N: Happy New Year to all of my readers. I hope 2020 wil bring you health and happiness. As some of you that follow me on Twitter know, December 2019 hasn't been kind on my family so writing had to take a back burner but hopefully 2020 will be better and that I'll be able to get back to writing on a more regular basis. Enjoy chapter 6 until then.
Kim got out of the shower and pulled on an old pair of blue jeans and a yellow sweater before sweeping her hair up in a loose bun. She slipped her feet into flats and grabbed her purse on the way out, locking behind her. She knew she had to hurry up because Nicole was not a very patient person in these kinds of circumstances and she didn't want to get hounding phone calls from her. She found her sister easily in a booth by the window and as always, she didn't waste time.
"Who's the guy?" She was giddy with excitement and Kim couldn't help the smile on her lips.
"I met him on a flight to New York." She blushed at the thought.
"You're lying."
"No lie, promise."
"Show me a picture then."
"Come on Nicole, we literally met a couple months ago, I don't have pictures yet." Kim insister but Nicole stretched her palm out and after hesitating, she handed her sister her cell phone. "You won't find anything in there." She insisted but her sister only hummed in response and looked through her feed.
"Ah Ha!" I said triumphantly a little bit too loud for Kim's taste. "I knew there were pictures in there."
"What? Let me have a look." Kim had no memory of ever taking selfies of her and Adam or solely of Adam from their breakfast date in New York or the previous night at Molly's.
"Well someone took pictures." Nicole showed Kim the phone and Kim pulled it roughly out of her hands. It was a photo and her and Adam at Molly's the previous night, Kim sitting on his lap and laughing at something he had said, the grin equally big on Adam's face.
"Damn it Chloe." She cursed under her breath. It had to be her, no one else had the passcode to her phone but her best friend and her sister.
"I really love how she thinks." She chuckled as the waitress brought them some coffee and menus. "So does this guy have a name?"
"No, I'm not giving you that. I know that you are going to ask Mike to do a background check on him but he's legit, I promise."
"I promise I won't get a background check done, scouts honour."
"That doesn't count, you were never in the scouts." She growled, the waitress coming to take their order already. Once it was given and their coffee's refilled, Nicole continued her assault on her sister.
"Come on Kim, spill."
"Fine." She huffed in fake exasperation. "His name is Adam Ruzek and he is a detective in Homicide out of the *31st*
"Any siblings?"
"He has a sister in the burbs in New York with her husband and twin boys and his dad lives here and is a beat cop." She figured those were easy things to check out and maybe would give her sister enough to stop them from poking in Adam's life.
"Does he treat you good?" She asked with concern.
"Things are going great, we're taking it slow." She wrapped her fingers around her mug of coffee, bringing it to her lips to take a sip.
"It's nice to see you this happy." Nicole finally smiled tenderly at her little sister.
"Thanks."
"I'd like to meet him." She said casually.
"We are definitely not there yet." She mused as their food arrived. "So? How's Zoe?" Kim guided the conversation away form her relationship with Adam while they ate, wanting to keep some part of her love life a mystery to everyone but herself. They laughed together as Nicole told Kim what Zoe had been up to lately and after sending Adam the picture Chloe had taken of them, she spent the rest of the day with Nicole, her husband and Zoe before having to grab dinner with Chloe and getting a good night sleep, knowing that she had to pack a bit before having to leave on a flight to Paris next.
Adam slipped into his apartment and changed out of yesterday's clothes before he left again, heading to his father's house. He had a spring to his step and a constant grin on his face. Spending the night at Kim's and talking about family and where their relationship was going gave him hope. She was the first one in a long time to come into his life that he actually wanted to spend all of his time outside of work and he wasn't intending on screwing it up. He parked in front of his father's house and cut the engine, removing his shades. His dad's house was the same as when he was a kid and Adam had great memories there. His dad was most likely to be in the yard so he made his way around back and found his dad working on a new cabinet.
"Hey pop." He smiled when his dad noticed him.
"You made it son." He pulled Adam into a hug.
"I wasn't sure I'd make it this week." Adam admitted. "I've been busy."
"Well I know it wasn't on a case so who's the girl?" He set his tools aside and leaned against his work bench, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You got coffee in here?" He changed the subject.
"Oh no son." Robert Ruzek pushed himself off of the work bench. "You are not getting out of this discussion but we can have coffee while you tell me about that girl." He chuckled, pulling Adam inside of the house.
"Come on dad, can we not do this right now?"
"You don't to come in here with that grin on your usually broody face and expect me to believe it has nothing to do with a girl so you are going to sit your ass down and you are going to tell me all about her."
"Fine." He grumbled as he sat down and accepted the cup of coffee his father was offering him. "You remember that case I went to New York to help the SVU team solve?"
"Yeah and I heard great things from over there about you." He took a sip of the hot liquid and waited for Adam to continue.
"I met her on the flight there as it was delayed and then we talked." He smiled, taking his own sip of his coffee.
"Am I really going to need to pull the information out of you or are you going to spill the whole thing without me poking and prodding?"
"You know, I didn't even tell Liv what I'm about to tell you because I know she's patient, at least more patient than you." He grunted.
"I haven't seen you with that kind of smile in a long time and I just want to know more about the young woman, is that too much to ask?"
"Ok, I'll spill." He took another sip of his cup of coffee before continuing. "Her name is Kimberly and she hates that name so it's just Kim." He chuckled, remembering that first time at the bar in the airport. "She's smart and beautiful and it's easy with her." He shrugged. "She has an older sister and when she talks about her niece Zoe, her eyes light up and I can see that's what makes her the most happy on any given day."
"Does she live in Chicago?"
"She does actually but she's leaving town tomorrow."
"And how does that make you feel?" Robert saw the dark cloud cross his features.
"I already hate it but it's her job, I can't ask her to give that up. And she wouldn't expect me to stop doing what I do either."
"She sounds like a keeper." Adam didn't reply, the clogs in his head turning at the prospect. "When you're both ready, bring her over for dinner."
"Yeah, when we're ready." He looked back down in the cup he was now holding with both hands.
"Why do I have a feeling that one of you is already there and the other one isn't?"
"I'm not sure that either of us are ready but we were talking about Liv and the kids and she casually through in that she'd have to pick your brain about Jackson and I being so much alike, even as kids and I don'T know, I just froze."
"Let me tell you something son." Adam nodded, waiting for his father to continue. They rarely talked about emotional stuff so he was treating on new territory. "I know that your mother and I weren't the best example of a healthy relationship but you can't let that stop you from having something amazing with Kim."
"But what if I screw it up?"
"You love more fiercely than anyone I know and even though your mother and I probably shattered any hope you probably had to find someone good, there's no way in hell you can screw this up if there's honesty and I can already see it in your eyes even if you'll probably deny it, love."
"Pop, no, we're not there." He assured him
"YET." He smirked at his son. "You're not there yet but I know love when I see it and it's written all over your face."
"Fine, I'll bring her around when she's ready."
"And I promise to be on my best behaviour."
"Yo Ruzek, you in here?" Both Ruzek men turned as Atwater poked his head through the kitchen door.
"Kevin Atwater." Robert stood up. "Always good to see you in this neck of the woods." He extended his hand and Kevin shook it.
"Always a pleasure Sir."
"Come on son, what did I tell you?"
"To call you Bob." He said sheepishly. "You might have to tell me one more time." He chuckled this time.
"His mama raised him right." Adam pushed his cup away and stood.
"You ain't answering your phone, boss wants us to go in, we got a case."
"I'll catch you later pop. Thanks for the coffee."
"And remember what I said."
"I will. Come on, let's go." They walked out of the house and were about to get in their separate cars until Atwater stopped him.
"Leave it here, I'll drop you back off later." Adam pocketed his keys and he took shotgun in Kevin's car. "So, how'd your evening and morning go with Kim?"
"Nevermind Kim. How'd it go with Chloe?" Kevin wasn't going to poke through his relationship today.
"It went great." He smirked. "We spent the evening at Molly's and I dropped her off at her place."
"You're telling me that you didn't use the Atwater charm to find your way into her bed?"
"My mama raised me right." He threw his head back in laughter. "But I did use the charm at lunch and there was some kissing before we were so rudely interrupted."
"That's my man. Come on let's get this scene over with and grab some dinner later."
"Sounds like a plan. But you ain't getting out of giving your partner the goods on last night with your little lady." Kevin put the car to a full stop and got out.
"Good luck with that." He had spilled enough in one day.
"We'll see when you got a few drinks in ya." Kevin walked away from the car laughing as Adam took a few seconds to recover before following behind, ready to get this things over and done with.
Two months later.
"Calm down brother, you'll get to see her soon enough." Atwater was trying to calm down his best friend as they made it through the throngs of people at O'Hare.
"I haven't seen her in two months and we've barely talked either since we've been swamped." Adam grumbled.
"She'll be here soon enough." He said as they made it to the arrival screens. Adam's eyes scanned the different screens and couldn't find Kim's flight on any of them.
"What the hell?"
"I don't see their flight."
"Neither do I."
Attention passengers waiting to board flight AA-406 in destination of Paris. Due to some technical difficulties with the plane, your flight has been pushed by a few hours. Please present your boarding passes at gate number 5 for further instructions.
Adam and Kevin listened carefully to the message and as soon as they heard the flight number, Adam went in a pissy mode.
"God damn it." He pulled his phone out and tried texting Kim.
"I'm sure everything is alright." He clapped a hand on his shoulder in support, wishing time would hurry up.
A/N: So Adam and Kim seeing each other has been delayed a while longer. I wanted to show Disco Bob under another angle in this story so we'll see him a bit more down the line. I hope you guys liked it and please leave a review before you go, it always means the world to me - Sarra