Kim did return to work the next day, somewhat reluctantly. Adam was still in bed when she left and promised to behave himself. They did enjoy a few minutes of just being together and he told her he was going to hang onto the feeling of her kisses until she got home and could kiss him again. It would be hard not to contact her during the day. They knew how easily and often someone else picked up your phone or could see who was calling and they didn't want to blow their cover right now. They were still coming to terms with it themselves.
That was going to be tough on Kim though, the mother hen in her would want to check in every hour to see if he'd eaten, taken his pain meds, been to the bathroom or been resting.
"Well well, I thought you and Ruze had done a runner." Atwater caught up with her in the parking lot. They'd just happened to arrive at the same time. Kim had tried to talk to Adam about letting Kevin know but understood that until he knew exactly what was going on he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't have any answers at the moment.
"The only running I did was from my bedroom to the bathroom to hug my toilet bowl."
"You okay?" He side eyed her and she did look a little pale and drawn. "You ready to be back?"
"I am."
"So it's not…."
"No it's not. Just good old fashioned stomach flu. Nasty but fortunately short lived."
Kevin held the back door open for her. "You heard from Ruze?"
"Nope. He just said he was going UC and that was it. Do you know what he's working on?" Kim lied smoothly. She did hate lying to Kevin of all people but she had no choice. This was Adam's news to tell and all he had asked was that she get Voight up to speed. He'd talk to him in a couple of days once he had a bit more of a timeline and some clarity about what was happening.
"Nah, he was cagey but that's Ruze isn't it?" Atwater shook his head. "He does love a UC assignment."
"That he does. He loves being a man of mystery." Despite knowing what she did Kim laughed. Adam was almost giddy with excitement every time he was tasked to go Undercover. He threw his heart and soul into it every single time.
Even more than that he loved a dress-up party. She had never seen anyone spend quite so much time and energy into finding the perfect outfit. He had a box under his bed that contained a wide variety of costumes.
Voight welcomed her back and told Halstead to get her up to speed on their current case and she had to admit that it was good to think about something else for a few hours. It was easy to focus because the case was full on.
Kim hung back and waited for everyone else to leave before she approached Voight's office. Knocking lightly on the doorframe he told her to come in. "How's Adam?"
"He's recovering as well as you would expect. A little whiny." She joked, although nothing about this was funny. "Anyway, the pathology wasn't as good as we hoped and he needs to see an Oncologist. The type of cancer he has is very treatable and well over 90% of men recover." They'd learned a lot about Seminoma's in the past twenty-four hours and Kim felt like she was just reading a pamphlet to their boss. "He's a little shocked but determined to beat it. At this stage we don't know what treatment will be required, it may be nothing at all or Radiation or Chemo. He as an appointment tomorrow for a full body scan to see if it has spread and then the Oncologist is next week."
"Do you need to go with him tomorrow?"
"No, I mean I'd like too but Adam doesn't want anyone else to know and if I keep calling out they will get suss." Kim clasped her hands tightly in front of her. "I'll drop him off on the way in tomorrow and he'll catch an Uber home."
Voight instantly decided that he would pick him up and take him home after his scan. He completely understood why he wanted to keep this to himself, he'd be exactly the same and there was a lot of him in Ruzek. When Camille was sick he kept it from everyone, he didn't want any pity or special treatment.
He wanted him to know that he didn't have to worry about his spot in Intelligence and if he needed help all he had to do was ask. Or if he felt Kim needed help then he could call him because it was unlikely that she would voluntarily put her hand up if she was drowning. They also needed to get their stories straight.
Kim pressed the heel of her hands to her eyes, it was starting to overwhelm her a little. Voight jumped up from his desk and embraced his Officer and said nothing. Life had been tough for her lately and being the strong woman that she was she never faltered. He had held her back from Intelligence because he wanted to make sure she had the fortitude for the worst Chicago had to offer and he never regretted bringing her up.
The hug was just what she needed though, so far all she had was Adam's arms which was great but that was her supporting him so it was nice to have someone comforting her.
As soon as Kim got in her car she called Adam to check what he wanted for dinner. She needed to go home first and grab some more clothes. They had decided that she was going to stay with him for the next few weeks at least until they figured out what they wanted to do next. They didn't want to make too many decisions all at once.
He promised that he'd been the perfect patient all day and he was desperate to see her and talk to someone. Even on the phone he didn't shut up, he wanted to know everything about her day, what he was missing and how things went with Voight. The way he was going by the time Kim arrived they'd have nothing left to talk about.
She had also called her sister and told her that she wasn't able to come up to see her for a while. It hadn't gone down well and she was left feeling battered and full of doubts when Nicole told her that Adam was just using her and would blow her off again as soon as he could. He was like all men, all they did was use and abuse and Nicole told her not to come crying to her when Adam let her down again, like he always did.
It gave Adam something else to focus on when Kim told him of their conversation. He finally let it all out, exactly what he thought about Nicole and her treatment of Kim when all she had ever done was try and help Nicole. She had no idea he felt that way and he was sick of listening to Nicole put her down and he was also pissed off that she constantly put him down. Even when she found out Kim lost the baby she politely informed Kim that it was probably for the best as she would have been a single mother and there'd only be one more kid in the world with a deadbeat Dad.
Kim kept cutting her slack because of what she'd been through but this, her disparaging comments about Adam's health and that he was using her was the straw that broke the camel's back. At least for Adam anyway. He was done with her.
It took her a couple of hours to get him to calm down but it had taken him mind off his own predicament.
By the time Kim dropped him off in the morning he was like a bear with a sore head. He hadn't been allowed to have coffee since the previous morning and again had to fast from midnight apart from water. He did notice the quiver in her lip when he kissed her goodbye. "It's just a scan Kim, it's not exciting. I'll see you tonight. Catch bad guys."
Adam tried to focus on the process rather than the outcome, he had his injection and then popped his headphones on and zoned out and drifted off to sleep. When he was woken by the nurse he got the shock of his life to see his Boss sitting beside his bed. "What are you doing here? Give a man a heart attack."
"Well Burgess is busy and she said you'd need a lift home."
"She put you up to this?"
Voight's face almost twitched into a smile. "Nope, all me. How are you?"
"Well it's not great Boss."
"But curable?" He scratched his chin. "I did some reading. You know I've been here before, not exactly here but you know what I mean."
Adam just couldn't imagine Voight sitting beside anyone's bed when they were sick. "Camille?"
"Yeah, I don't know what it's like to be on your side of the story, but I know what it's like to be sitting where Kim is. I love that girl.." Voight paused for a moment. "…and I know you do as well. I'll look out for her and you get better. Okay."
On the trip home they talked about how they were going to manage it. Voight had no issue extending Adam's undercover job. Undercover gigs were never set in stone so they could fudge it until Adam decided what to do. Hopefully the scan would come back clear and he wouldn't need any further treatment so once he'd recovered from the operation he could come back to work and nobody would be the wiser.
The other bridge they'd cross when they came to it.
Apart from Adam not working things did settle down over the next few days and Kim even agreed to go out for drinks after work at the end of the week. Adam had promised to cook dinner now that he was feeling better so it would be ready when she got home.
Halstead ordered her a beer. "Have you heard from Ruzek?"
"Nope, not sure we will. I tried to ask Voight about it. Bet you can guess how that went."
"Yeah. We tried to look into it, asked around and got nothing."
Kim swallowed hard. This was the last thing they needed, neither of them expected anyone to be snooping around. It was just an UC op, something they'd all done. "His cover must be working then." She tried to sound normal. "Hopefully he'll be back soon. The bullpen is a little quiet and boring without him."
"Yeah." Halstead nodded as they were joined by Atwater, Rojas and Upton. "We were just saying how much we miss Ruze." He enlightened them.
"Like a hole in the head." Atwater scoffed. "There is actually coffee in the pot and enough donuts to go around."
Kim finished her beer and then called it a night. As far as they were concerned she was heading out to see her sister for the weekend.
Adam was furious when she got home and told him that Halstead had been snooping around. He knew exactly who was behind it, it was obvious. He'd also told Kim that she'd been seen coming out of Voight office in tears and they were worried it had something to do with Adam. Kim had brushed it off and told Jay she was just struggling with her sister and that she felt stupid crying to Voight.
The lack of trust that seemed to be seeping into the Unit was getting really old and he did realise the irony in ranting about a lack of trust when they were flat out lying to everyone right now but that didn't matter. According to him his reason was valid, Adam was dealing with a health crisis and deserved privacy. If there was any chance they could just ask for privacy and get it they would've chosen that path, but this just proved that they couldn't and they'd made the right choice. This had nothing to do with his ability to do his job and he would never snoop around another cop's 'undercover' job unless things had gone sideways.
Kim let him rant, it wasn't quite as amusing as it usually was, it was way more bitter and angry but she came to the conclusion that he was letting off some steam. He was a little bit of a pressure cooker at the moment, at some point he'd have to let the steam out.
She also wanted him to get it out before they went away for the weekend. Adam had found some little cabin in the woods to rent and insisted that they go. He had far too much time on his hands and had all these crazy ideas and he wanted to cram as much in as possible. He'd been saying he wanted to go to this place for years and now was his chance.
It was amazing what you learned about someone when you couldn't do what you usually did. Spending a weekend in a cabin in the woods and not have sex would not have been something either of them thought they would enjoy, but they did. They covered a lot of ground, both the painful mistakes of the past, their hopes for the future and made plans.
And then reality smacked them hard.