Dancing Away With My Heart (#3 Burgstead Universe)
Kim was in a good mood. It was a beautiful day and she had enough time to get coffee and bagels for her, Jay, and Trudy. She was slowly recovering from her concussions, her headaches easing up more each and every day. She was in a serious relationship with Jay Halstead, and back at work. There was much for her to be grateful for.
"Good Morning Sarge!" chirped Kim with a cheerful grin, dropping off a bagel and coffee. Trudy still was amazed at how Kim stayed so grounded despite the reality of the job they all did. She admired her for that. Burgess had come a long way from her days on patrol. She wasn't cheerful because she wasn't aware of how dangerous their job was, she was cheerful despite how dangerous their job was.
"Good Morning Partner." She smiled delivering a coffee, bagel and a quick kiss to Jay, like she hadn't seen him an hour earlier. Like they hadn't gotten out of bed an hour earlier. Like they hadn't been enjoying each other's company in the shower an hour earlier. His hand reached out to linger on hers as she put the bagel down on his desk. She still felt the electricity whenever he touched her. Her brown eyes lit up and sent him a Burgess smile just for him. They both moved back into work mode smoothly as Hank came out of his office.
"Alright, we got a new case." Hank commanded attention as he briefed the team. He put a photograph on the board of a beautiful foreign woman and a young girl, probably her daughter. "An abduction from the ballet school downtown."
Kim gasped when she saw her face, she knew that face. "Mischa", she gasped softly. Jay looked at her surprised, wondering who this woman was and how did Kim know her. She seemed stunned and a little shocked, and he reached for her hand again to give her his support, although this time he held her hand under his desk.
They had been close, what seemed like a lifetime ago. She had been 20 and MIscha had been 21. Mischa had wanted to see life outside of Russia and Kim had been a sophomore at Northwestern. Both of them had been dancing since they were in preschool, both loved beer and coffee, and N'sync was their favorite boy band.
Her whole day and demeanor changed. She had a bad feeling about what she would be expected to do. She wanted to fade into the background. She had left that life behind for a reason. It had almost destroyed her.
"Anyone know somebody at the Chicago School of Ballet?" Hank asked seriously. "A cousin, niece, friend, neighbor, somebody?" He was grasping at straws. Kim had moved back to her desk by now, trying not to cling to Jay at work. She tried to hide behind her computer, tried to hide from the life she used to live.
Jay responded with a coy reply, "yeah, I know someone." he grabbed his phone and a few seconds later Kim's phone was ringing. And everyone was staring at her.
She ignored the curious looks and awkward silence. "Yeah, ok it's me." she admitted slowly, her past coming full steam into her present as she stopped her phone from ringing.
"You were a ballerina?" Voight asked as tactfully as he could. "Yeah, I got ten broken toes, shin splints, hip flexor issues, numerous sprained ankles, and one torn ACL to prove it too." she answered matter-of-factly. It was news to all of them except Jay.
Kim sighed, " Yeah I teach adult barre classes and kid ballet classes at the school." she admitted.
"Eighteen years of my life." she announced to the group reluctantly. Jay wasn't sure why she wasn't more proud of this accomplishment, he would have to find out for himself. Maybe because her family never celebrated her, she didn't feel that others would or should.
Kim tried to move on about her life and focus on the case as she approached the evidence board.
"The woman on the board is Mischa Fedorov. We studied ballet at the Chicago School of Ballet for 2 years together, but we met at ballet camp years before that." She remembered meeting the blonde Russian girl in her advanced ballet workshop at camp. Mischa was born to dance, she even looked like a ballerina who danced inside many little girls' music boxes.
"No offense Kim, but why would someone kidnap a ballerina?" Adam asked the question they all wanted to know as they gathered around the evidence board.
"It's not about a ballerina, its about that ballerina." Kim argued. "She's the prima donna ballerina in the Russian ballet. She is worth 20 million dollars."
"Not to mention, you never know what Russia could be up to." Rojas added matter of factly.
"What is she doing in Chicago?" Hailey wondered curiously. "After all these years in Russia, why come back?"
"Who would want to stay in Russia?" Kevin commented seriously. Jay had to admit he had a point.
"She was making her comeback after having her daughter three years prior. Ballet is a very unforgiving art when it comes to a person's body" Kim answered subtly. Jay wondered if there was more to that thought that Kim was not saying and it unnerved him. Kim was such a confident human being, to hear her doubt herself was surprising to him.
She continued, "She always liked Chicago. She was a huge star in the Chicago Ballet. She was such a beautiful dancer." She complimented her friend. "When did she come back?" Kim inquired of her boss.
"Three months ago, according to customs at O'hare International." Sgt. Voight answered the police officer.
"How did we get the case?" Vanessa Rojas inquired curiously. The rest of the team was interested in that answer as well.
"They need some undercover work done, so they put it out to all the specialized units in Chicago." Voight replied honestly.
"Kim, can you still do ballet, and do it undercover?" Hank asked, he wanted to be sure before he assigned tasks for the case. If they could get Kim into the ballet school, it could jumpstart their investigation.
Kim sat on Jay's desk and took off her boots. Adam blurted, "Oh so we're doing this now, ok" he cheered her on. He leaned back in his chair to watch the show. Kim mumbled to herself to erase the last 10 years to find herself in the mind space you need to do ballet.
"Sdelay eto kimberli, poprav nogi, poprav spinu, poprav litso." She took a deep breath, and went gracefully into first position, smoothly into second position, third position, fourth position, and fifth position. She jumped into a plie, and into a spin, then up en pointe tip toeing across the room and into leaps and landing very quietly. And then did a curtsy even in her skinny jeans.
"Damn girl, alright." Kevin praised his best friend. "You think you know someone." He teased her, giving her a high five. Hailey and Vanessa applauded in awe.
"Were you speaking Russian?" Adam wondered curiously, if so, she just got so much more intimidating.
Hailey needed to know, "What did you say?"
Reluctantly Kim told the team her chant. I used to say this before every performance. "You can do this Kimberly. Fix your feet. Fix your back. Fix your face." "It's the three key elements in performance." She informed them as she put her boots back on.
Hank smiled. He had to stop underestimating that one. "Well it looks like we got Kim and Jay going under cover."
Kim passed her bagel slowly over to Kevin. "Guess I won't be eating these for a while." she said resigned, with a sigh. Kevin, however, didn't mind eating Kim's leftovers like he used to when they are on patrol together.
Jay and Kim were the last ones in the bullpen. He was perched on her desk this time. They were working on their cover. "So what should my cover be? And no, I'm not going to be your brother." Kim laughed a full Burgess laugh at his seriousness.
"Yeah, it would be hard to explain kissing my brother." she teased.
"So you plan on kissing me?" He said with a smile, causing her to blush.
"You can be my very sexy, very personal bodyguard." Kim decided with a smile and flirting back. "But you also need a fake job." she added thoughtfully.
"How about we say I am a business owner." he suggested, stealing an identity he had used before undercover. "It will be vague enough to explain why I can be at rehearsals with you."
"Is it wrong that I was turned on when you were speaking Russian? Her boyfriend admitted, wrapping his arms around her, now that they were alone. Kim gave him a quick kiss. "Let's go home." He declared as they cleaned up their desks for the day.
"Can we make a quick stop first?" Kim asked sweetly, directing him to a storage unit that had been untouched for many years. To say he was stunned by the sheer amount of boxes and garment bags would be an understatement.
"What is in this trunk?" He wondered when she opened every other box looking for something but not this one. Like she knew what was in it, and didn't want to see it.
"Just some trophies and ribbons and stuff." Kim answered stiffly, making no move to open it now that Jay was curious.
"Can I open it?" He felt compelled to ask her permission to invade her personal space. There was a reason she didn't talk about her ballet life.
Kim nodded, she was grateful that he respected her space even if he wanted to know as she continued on looking for some costumes and rehearsal outfits. He was stunned at the collection of ribbons, awards, pictures, and trophies inside. Ballet was more than a hobby for Kim, he concluded, taking in the evidence. It did surprise him though, how closed she was to discussing this part of her life when she was pretty open about everything else.
"People get weird when you're a ballerina. They have opinions on your body and what you eat, what you wear, how much sleep you get. It's not your own life, you know?" Kim confessed quietly.
He learned a lot about tulle and silk, gauze and nylon. Lyrical and Classical costumes, tutus in a rainbow of colors, leg warmers, leggings, and boxes of ballet and pointe shoes.
"So you could really dance on your toes?" he wondered in shock, holding a pair of her pointe shoes in his hands, trying to visualize her doing so and bringing their conversation back to a more light hearted topic.
"Yes, I started when I was eleven, if you start too early you can damage the bones in your feet. There are many steps you must pass before you are allowed to start dancing en pointe." She explained with a smile, closing the lock on her storage unit.
To her credit, Kim only took out three costumes but didn't let Jay see any of them. She hoped and prayed they still fit.
Jay was mindlessly scrolling through his phone waiting for Kim to come to bed. "Kim" he whined, she never took this long to get ready for bed. "Relax!" she yelled through the door. "I haven't put this on in ages."
Jay looked up from his phone. Put what on? He was confused. "Oh, wow." he marveled, as she came out in a dark red ballerina leotard and tutu which stood out against her fair skin and dark hair.
"I needed to see if it fits." It pulled in her tiny waist and made it even smaller, and pushed up her breasts. Her dark brown hair was down over her shoulders in loose waves and it hit him in his gut how beautiful she was. She was a little sheepish now that she had his attention.
"Oh, it fits." Jay agreed with a smile, pulling her into his arms. "This thing is no joke." He remarked about all the laces tying up the back as she did a quick spin.
"Yeah, we can't break it Halstead." warned Kim. "This outfit alone is $3,000." Jay almost choked at the high number for such a small amount of clothing. Not that he was complaining about the small amount of clothing. This undercover assignment would be interesting for sure.
"I can do slow Burgess." He promised with heat in his voice. He gently brushed her hair to the side of her shoulder so he could start untying the ribbons that held the bodice up. His lips lightly touched the skin on her neck and followed his fingers as they slowly pulled the laces through each eyelet, revealing more and more of her golden skin. With nothing holding the bodice up he gently pulled it off and laid it on the chair.
Kim turned and waited for Jay so she could pull him closer to her, his eyes roaming his girlfriend's beautiful body. Kim kissed her way up his jawline to his ear.
"What was your ballerina fantasy?" she asked him seductively, remembering how he reacted when she told him she taught ballet when they were trapped in the van a few months ago.
He was more than eager to show her. He picked her up and walked her over to a wall where he could keep her in place with his hips, wrapping her long legs around his waist, and letting his hands roam up and down her back until she began to melt. His lips kissing her fast then slow, then changing pace, then setting her on fire until they crashed on the bed.