Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and left a review on the last chapter. Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me while I work to get back on track with my writing after these pas few difficult months concerning some family problems.

Adam was hunched over the toilet, his insides on fire and his skin clammy. He had thrown up for the fifth time and Kim was snickering behind him.

"This isn't funny." He grumbled.

"It sort of kind of is." She laughed loudly this time.

"I hate alcohol."

"I told you to stop drinking it but your ass refused to stop so here we are." She turned around to get him a glass of water and some Ibuprofen. "You better hope to God we don't have a case that pops up otherwise your ass is fried."

"From your lips to God's ears." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand when he was sure to be safe from puking another time and he stood taking the glass Kim was handing him and he swallowed the pills in one go.

"What do you want to do today?" Her voice was muffled by the fact that she was now in the kitchen making them something quick to eat that Adam could keep down.

"Sleep." He grumbled. "And then start working on the house, our room to be more precise."

"Are you sure that you'll be up for that?" She turned to see how he was doing but he was already in the kitchen with her.

"Yeah. The sooner we start the sooner we can get moved in." He had a clear idea of what he needed to get done for them to move in while still fixing it up the way they would both want it.

"Ok. Eat up and then it's bed for the two of us, morning is almost here." They had managed to stay up until closing time so the night would probably end up being a short one. Adam ate in record time and they were both in bed and asleep in minutes, exhausted.

Kim was the first up and she changed quickly, grabbing an apple and making herself a cup of coffee before leaving a note for Adam to meet her at the house. She wanted to get a start on the yard as soon as possible because it was a total mess. She stood in front of the said mess twenty minutes later and sighed. Adam had kept the appearance as clean as he could while they decided what to do with the house but there was still so much to go. She opened the shed and started cleaning in there to know what they had going. She ended up throwing a few things to the side to be taken out knowing they wouldn't need them and started cleaning it up. The yard was a good size and she wanted to clear it of all form of clutter so they could make a space to entertain people. She knew Adam would love to have their friends over in the summer after long days on the job and since no one had actual houses, Molly's was always the meet-up point for the unit. Kim wanted something easy to maintain due to the fact that they had busy lives so she started pulling out all forms of plants and flowers, only leaving the tree that was at the very end of the yard.

"You're here early darling." Kim was startled out of her focus by Adam's voice.

"Yeah, I wanted to get a jump on the yard." She leaned up and kissed him. "How'd you sleep?"

"Great up to the point I realized my girl wasn't in bed with me."

"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks for breakfast and coffee."

"Anytime." She smiled at him. "So, when is Kev showing up?"

"He said he'd be there as soon as Jordan and Vinessa were enrolled into school, they would start next week."

"That'll be good for them, see the friends they had before they left."

"Yeah, life's good." He kissed her again. "Are you good here or do I need to call reinforcements to help you out?"

"I'm good until Vinessa shows up. I promised her we'd see together what could be done with the kitchen, bring it up to date."

"Maybe Kevin has a point about you breaking the bank." He chuckled, prompting her to chuck her glove at him.

"That's what happens when you bring a woman in the mix, we have expensive taste." She winked at him. But it was just banter really because they had already talked about what they wanted to do with the kitchen.

"Adam." Kim called from her perch on the kitchen counter. "Did you ever get a thought about what you wanted to do with the kitchen?"

"I don't need much, you have something in mind?" He leaned against the door frame and looked at her, a pensive look on her face.

"Well I figured we could simply paint the cabinets and I'd really like to look into a much larger sink with an industrial dish hose." She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, something else on her mind but she didn't want to over step it by wanting to change too much to the house Adam had grown up in.

"You don't even need to convince me about what you're thinking. We are definitely getting rid of this ugly ass flooring and putting in some ceramic flooring in here." Kim let out a breath at Adam's spat.

"Ok." She let go of the breath she was holding in. "I was scared that you'd think I was trying to change everything."

"You know I value your opinion Kim." He walked in and settled himself between her legs, running his hands against them.

"I know it's just that you grew up in this house and sometimes I'm scared of erasing good memories with my ideas and I don't want that." She ran her right hand through his hair, her left hand slowly working the knot in his shoulder.

"I know my dad did his best but this house is filled with good and shitty memories. I want to make new ones with you so if that means gutting every single room of this house then so be it."

"Ok." She smiled at him.

"Alright so if you don't need me, I'll go start emptying the master bedroom as much as I can until Atwater gets here."

"Alright. I'll come get you when it's lunch time." She kissed him before he disappeared into the house, leaving her to the yard again.

Adam went up the flight of stairs and leaned against the door jamb, his arms crossed over his chest. They had given up most of his father's clothes when they had done the first clean-up but now Adam had to decide what to do with the furniture. He wanted to give or sell as much as he could but his dad was a creature of habit and this furniture set was stuck somewhere in the 90's so the decision to just throw it out was an easy one to make and would make Kim's life easier in the remodeling if it wasn't in the way. He grabbed the tool belt he had left in there the last time and started working on the furniture. He set the mattress aside to move outside when Kevin would get there, not wanting to hurt himself from bringing it down on his own. The night tables were easy enough to bring down alone and he put those on the side of the road with a free sign and he returned to what he was doing. Once he was done there, he decided on working on getting the bathroom undone but Adam realized quickly that he needed Kevin to finish the job. He decided to try heading into his father's office, hoping today might be a good decision day for him. He opened the door and took a seat at his father's desk. He just sat there, the same way he did each time that he set foot inside the room. He decided to open the main drawer, pushing things around, finding an envelope at the very bottom of it. He pulled some pictures of him growing up. One taken when he was a young boy, his dad's bulletproof vest on him, a large smile on his face.

"You never told me about the first time you wanted to be a cop." Adam smiled at the sound of Kim's voice, turning to find her leaning against the door frame.

"I think that the first time I ever wore his vest, I knew." He chuckled. "It was a fight every time he had to go to work. But it was really when I did that ride along with him that the idea was cemented in my mind."

"You look happy." She walked inside the small space and took a seat on his lap.

"That was a good day." He admitted.

"Tell me more about those good days." She ran her fingers through his hair.

"This." He pulled another picture from the stack. "Is from the final football game of the season, I think it was about 2000." Adam has taken a knee and the ball was tucked against his chest.

"I didn't even know you played football."

"There's so much stuff we don't know about each other." Pictures were an odd occurrence in Adam's apartment so it's not something they had shared together and sitting here with her, it was something he knew they had to change. "I want to fix you some dinner tonight, here."

"Adam, we don't have to do that."

"We do." He sighed. "I realize that we barely know anything about each other except from what we know since we met and I want to tell you more about my childhood and to get this right this time, we need to do it."

"Okay." She smiled at him. "Dinner would be nice." She kissed him.

"Yo Ruzek, Burgess, you in here?" Kevin showed up with a large box of pizza in hands.

"Yeah, in the office." Adam called out to Kevin.

"There you are. I tried calling your cells." He walked in with Vinessa in tow. "Wasn't sure what you wanted so I took our usual." He told in reference to his and Adam's favorite pie.

"We've been going through some pictures." Kim smiled at him. "Are you ready to help me out in the kitchen Vinessa?" Kim pushed herself off Adam's lap, his hand gliding against her outer thigh as she did.

"Yeah but Kevin says I have to keep an eye on you so you don't spend all of Adam's money."

"Ha ha, very funny Kev." She deadpanned.

"Just keeping it real with you." He shrugged with a chuckle.

"I'm the only one that's keeping Adam from spending all of his money is me." She patted his cheek. "So, I am going to take this." She pulled the box out of his hands. "And I'm going to talk paint and ceramic with Vinessa and leave you men and your muscles to take care of the master bathroom." She pulled Vinessa with her and they went to the kitchen.

"I'm coming for that pie Burgess." He called over his shoulder as Adam chuckled.

"So, what you doing in here?" It wasn't a secret to Kevin was struggling with what he was going to do with his dad's office but seeing him in there with Burgess was hopefully a good sign.

"Going through his desk. Found a stack of pictures and decided that I was going to make dinner for Kim here tonight, thought we could reconnect." He put the envelope back where it was and closed the drawer.

"Good to know. Ready to get the demolition going up there?"

"Yeah, let's do this." The two grabbed a slice of pizza and shoveled it down before they spent the next couple of hours in the bathroom upstairs while the girls were looking at samples for the kitchen. When they parted, it was around four and both Adam and Kim went to shower before heading back to the house. He dropped Kim off before heading to the store to get the food he would cook, wanting it to be a special, quiet evening for the two, giving Kim a break from everything. He had found a new recipe online that he'd been meaning to try and figured now was the perfect time for it.

"So, what are you up to tonight?" Kim asked as she hopped on the counter while Adam pulled the food out of the bag.

"Red Wine Beef Ragu with some wine and some overdue background check." He smiled at her.

"Sounds perfect." She leaned to her side and kissed him. She watched him cook while sipping on the glass of red wine Adam had handed her, looking forward to find out more about what made him the man that she loved so much.

A/N: Okay so I know that this chapter doesn't have a huge impact but I wanted to set the next chapter where Adam is going to go through his dad's office, which is the room that gives him a higher level of anxiety. I hope you guys liked it and please take a few seconds to review before you go, your thoughts mean a lot to me - Sarra