Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who left a review or a follow on the last chapter, it's really appreciated. I'm baffled by the reception of this story and I hope you keep loving it. Kim is finally introduced a bit more in this chapter, enjoy.

"Boss?" Adam wasn't sure why he was the one that had to take the lead on this particular case. He hadn't been close to the CPD in months and didn't know what kind of lead he could offer.

"The Aruzzo case was yours so I think that you should be the one to run point with Detective Burgess from Vice." Air left Adam's lungs and he took a step back.

"But I haven't been in the loop in a long time Sarge, I don't see how much help I can be." Adam was aware of all of the eyes that were on him, including the newcomer.

"Come on." Adam followed Voight to his office, the Vice Detective joining them. "You're the most qualified person to lead this investigation Adam." Voight said as he closed the door behind the three of them.

"And Sargent Voight has given me all your notes about the case, and I think that with your knowledge, we can finally bring the whole operation down." Adam looked at the female Detective and ran his hands through his hair, taking a deep breath.

"You have to give me some time to take care of a few things for Kenzie before I do this."

"Do what you have to do but make it quick." Adam gave Voight a nod and headed out, walking straight to the locker room for some privacy.

When Kevin and Jim found him, he slipped his phone back in his pocket and took to pacing, running his hands though his hair in a nervous gesture.

"Talk to me brother." Kevin certainly didn't want to lose him down the rabbit hole again.

"I thought I was done with this case; we had no other lead." Kevin knew that behind all that, he was thinking about what the case had done to his family life back then.

"Looks like Vice got a hit on it. This is our chance to take them down."

"But at what cost?" Adam exploded, Jim flinching at the outburst. He was nowhere near knowing anything about his partner's personal life but seeing him so out of sorts was just another insight into the kind of damage this job could inflict on a man.

"We've got your back Ruzek, no matter what." Jim assured him. "Whatever you need, we've got you."

"Thanks." He sighed. "My mom will pick Mackenzie up from school and keep her until it's all over."

"Come on. How about you bring us up to speed?" Clearly, he was the only one who didn't know anything about the case and if they wanted to catch the bad guys, everyone had to be on the same page. They watched him leave the breakroom and Kevin punched the row of lockers he was leaning against.

"Look Barnes, I don't know you but this case, it fucked him up the first time around. It can't happen again, we clear?"

"Copy that."

"Let's go." Kevin let him walk past him and the met back in the bullpen with the rest of the team for the lowdown on the case from the Vice Detective.

"So, this is what we have so far." Detective Burgess finished giving them everything she had on their end.

"So, you still don't have eyes on Aruzzo." Adam's thumb was absentmindedly running against his beard as his eyes scanned the board now full of information.

"We have eyes on all of his lieutenants but one, Vincent Ricci." She pointed to his picture on the board.

"He's going to be hard to put eyes on." Adam pushed himself away from his desk and walked towards the board. "When the case was still hot, we had been close to tracking his exact location, but trail went cold fast. He moves quickly and acts like a ghost. We lost the trail before we could properly pursue it." He pulled the picture off and looked at it, a memory invading his senses again.

"Come on babe, come to bed." Rebecca ran her hands against Adam's shoulders, trying to coax him to bed with her.

"I need to solve this case honey." He ran his hand against hers and took in a ragged breath.

"You've been working this case for weeks now." She was growing slightly frustrated at him for being such a ghost in the past weeks.

"Hey Ruzek! You with us?" Adam snapped out of the memory at the sound of Barnes' voice.

"Yeah, right here." He put the picture back on the board and looked back at the team. "We get him with have Aruzzo's whole operation." Adam looked at the whole team and he knew he had to keep his head in the game, his focus nowhere else. "I need you to reach to your CI's, see if anything jumps out." Everybody scattered and made calls, Adam retreating to the break room for a few minutes of quiet.

The case had tested his marriage to Rebecca and taken him hours away from his family and for what? They had nothing to show for it, the case having turned cold and they had to shelve it. They were now back to square one and the repercussions on his already broken family would be disastrous if they failed again.

"Hey." His thoughts were interrupted by a less familiar voice. "I'm sorry this is difficult on you."

"It's fine." He turned and gave Detective Burgess a less than convincing smile.

"I really believe that we can catch him this time."

"Let's just hope that you're right." He walked past her without further acknowledgement, and he gave Barnes his desk while he went through his files at the board. The day turned into the evening and Voight sent everyone home.

"You want me to swing by your mom's to check on miss Kenzie Joy?" Kevin inquired as he stopped at Adam's desk before heading home to his own family.

"I'd really appreciate that, thanks Kev." He gave his best friend and grateful smile before it was Barnes' turn.

"I can stay with you and comb through those for you." He offered.

"Nah, go spend some time with your son while you can." Adam eyed the hand Jim had clapped on his shoulder.

"Call me if you need help with anything." He slid his cell phone number across Adam's desk. "Anytime." Adam was happy that their new partnership was already strong even if they had been riding together for only a week.

"Thanks." When everyone finally filed out, it left Adam and Kim alone in the bullpen. Adam pulled his phone out of the top drawer of his desk and dialed his mom. He watched Detective Burgess move around the bullpen as if she had always been there, but he turned his attention back to his phone when his mother picked up. "Hey Ma. How is she?" He smiled when his mother told him about the Mc Donald's and ice cream they had gotten for dinner and how his daughter had told her off for lying about where daddy was. "I really appreciate what you and pops are doing for me right now. Can I talk to her real quick?" His smile faded when she told him that she had crashed for the night already. "Tell her, I love her, and I'll swing by in the morning before you guys leave to drop her off at school. Thanks again for doing this Ma. I love you too." He hung up and shoved his phone hard on his desk, sighing.

"If you need to go home, we can come back tomorrow and continue where we are now."

"It's fine Detective, my kid understands my job and my parents have her so it's all good."

"You know." She smiled at him. "If we're going to this, you should call me Kim."

"Thanks Kim. Everything is okay, I just want to catch that son of a bitch and put him away for good."

"Then we're on the same page Ruzek."

"Adam." He chuckled. "Adam is fine."

"Alright Adam, what do we have?" She removed her jacket and rolled her sleeves high above her elbows. He moved around and grabbed the file that had Vincent Ricci's info in it.

"Prostitution and drugs, I get but there has never been a body that dropped before." Adam closed the file containing the coroner's report and dropped it on his desk, pushing himself away from it.

"That's what gained our attention to begin with." She confirmed. "We had eyes on Aruzzo and his crew for a prostitution and distribution ring but manslaughter, that's a new one for them."

"We must have missed something." He started moving around the bullpen at a more frantic pace, running through all the files one at a time.

"Listen Adam." Adam didn't even acknowledge her, he just kept on going through the files. "Maybe we should just call it a night, grab some sleep and some fresh perspective in the morning." She suggested but he just jumped.

"You know I can't do that Becca." He yelled, turning around to face a very surprised Kim. When he realized his outburst, he was quick to mumble an apology and he dashed towards the locker room. He took a few shaky breaths and he closed his eyes, trying to regulate his breathing and his emotions. He turned the cold water on and splashed himself a few times in the face before looking at his reflection in the mirror, his earlier memory coming back to haunt him.

"It's been weeks Adam, weeks." Rebecca pressed as Adam looked through the files, he had taken back home, trying to solve this case quickly before more girls disappeared only to be prostituted to the highest bidder. "You're barely there, Mackenzie misses her daddy, I miss my husband." She pressed him harder.

"And what am I supposed to tell those families huh? That I didn't work hard enough to bring their daughter's back home? That I didn't do everything in my power to stop these animals from going after their daughter's?" He barked.

"What about your daughter? And your family? When are you going to take care of us?"

Adam took deep breaths. It was one of the last fights they had before she died and being at the 21st so late, not having tucked his daughter in bed for the first time since she was gone, he wondered if catching that guy was really worth it.

"Hey." He was pulled out of his thoughts by Kim's soft voice and his eyes met hers through the mirror.

"Listen." He turned to face her. "I'm sorry about what just happened."

"It's okay." She assured him. "Voight filled me in on a few blanks about what went down when you guys were after him before. It's a tough case and that shit tends to bleed into our homes whether we like it or not."

"And sometimes the ones we love have to live with those consequences." He bit bitterly. "I just want to solve this case and go back to my daughter, the beat and a more normal life." He was trying to put his old life behind him and give his daughter a better quality of life and this case was standing in the way of that.

"Alright then. Let's go crack it wide open." She smiled at him and turned out of the locker room, giving him a few more minutes to compose himself and get his head back in the game. They spent another couple hour, before they were forced to call it a night, Kim literally falling asleep in front of the computer. They parted with a promise from Kim to bring coffee to the whole unit and Adam returned to his empty house for a few hours of restless sleep before he had to go back and get those bastards behind bars.

A/N: So this case brings back old demon's back to Adam. Will they be able to catch that guy before Adam loses his sanity and his little family with his daughter? Please take a few seconds to review before you go, your thoughts mean the world to me. - Sarra