Hey guys! Here's the next chapter.

Hope you like it!

Xoxo,

Nina

What the hell was all that about?

That last part of her conversation with Adam was playing in her head, plastering a goofy smile on her face. She was happy to be alone at her apartment right now, had Sylvie been there she would be mocking her non stop.

Kim had just left the shower, she was brushing her hair, ready to curl up on her couch with a cup of tea. Her mind was going wild, and in addition to the couch and her cup of tea, she also included Adam in that picture. She took a glimpse of herself in the mirror and she truly looked like an idiot. So what? She was having fun. Wasn't that what everyone wanted from her?

When she finally made it to the living room with her tea, she texted him. She would have done it before but didn't want to seem so desperate.

Just as I promised…

Video file sent

Hahaha she's the best!

I think you promised something else if I'm not mistaken.

True. I won't be able to make it for dinner this week. I'm not really sure how your schedule works, but I'm free the following Wednesday if that works for you guys.

To be honest I don't really know how my schedule works either

Lol

But I think I can manage to make it for dinner on Wed

Great!

How's Grace?

Knocked out in bed. She told me everything you guys did on the way home and fell asleep in the car a few blocks away. She didn't even want dinner, just shower and bed.

I'm glad she had a good time.

Me too. I wish I was there. Having a good time with you too.

Yeah, me too.

They texted for a while longer, neither of them wanted to stop and deep down they both knew that they didn't want to wait until the other Wednesday to see each other again.

Kim and Sylvie were on their lunch break and they decided to go out so they could take a real break. Sometimes the school dynamics were really exhausting and they just needed to step away from the building for a while, especially if someone had gossip to share.

"Are you ever going to tell me? Or do I have to keep begging?" Sylvie really wanted to know, but she was also getting exasperated.

"Umm… I did something kind of crazy."

"Did you go skinny dipping?"

"No. And I did that already with you in Cabo."

"I know." Sylvie smiled with her whole face to that memory. "We should definitely go to Cabo again. Anyway, what did you do?"

"I sort of asked Adam out."

"Really?! Adam, CPD Adam?"

"Yeah, the only Adam I'm talking to."

"I think what you wanted to say was, the only guy that you are talking to. Or better yet, the only guy that you've talked to in like a million years."

"Oh, give me a break. You're totally exaggerating."

"Am I, now?" Kim rolled her eyes, but she knew that her friend had a fair point. "And what did he say?"

"He said yes. But then him and Gracie invited me over for dinner."

"I like how things are flowing. When is that going to be?"

"Um, next Wednesday."

"Kim, it's Thursday. Why so long?"

"Because, you know… I have some things I need to sort out this week and…" Kim was going to continue, she was going to provide a proper explanation but Sylvie didn't need to hear it. She knew exactly what it was.

"You know what? I'm proud of you. Pushing yourself out there and having fun. Plus, he looks like a really nice guy."

"Yeah, I think he is.'' The goofy smile was full on and Sylvie found it super cute. "We've been texting almost every day. I like talking to him." The blonde raised her eyebrows.

"Only talking?"

"That is the only thing we've been doing."

"Is that the only thing you want to do?" The look on Brett's face was hilarious. She totally knew the answer, but she wanted Kim to say it out loud. The brunette blushed and covered her face with her hands in a completely failed attempt to hide the truth from her friend. They both just started laughing.

"No. I look at him and I really wanna kiss him like the night we met."

"What's stopping you?"

"Ha! How about the bagful of issues I have?"

"Well sister, I think it's time to sort them out. I think life wants you to sort them out once and for all. And I also think you should totally sleep with the guy."

"I'm not gonna comment on that last part." She took another drink from her plastic cup. "… yet." Sylvie clapped enthusiastically.

"That's my girl talking, right there!"

"Enough about me. How are things with Matt?"

"Great. He's great. Just when I was about to give up on finding someone worth it, he appeared and boom! I really really like him."

"I know you do, and you've been glowing ever since you started dating him. So, I just know that he's good for you."

"He is." Now it was Sylvie the one with the goofy grin. "We're having dinner tomorrow with his family."

"That's big." The blonde nodded.

"I'm nervous."

"Why? You're kind, funny, incredibly charming. They're going to love you." She squeezed her friend's hand over the table.

"Awww. What would I do without you?"

"Lucky for us, we don't need to think about that. Cus we have each other for life."

At the bullpen everyone had something to do. Hank Voight was in his office desperately trying to find the address he needed, while his team was searching for more leads on their current case.

Adam Ruzek was going through financials and phone records, but every now and then his phone took all his attention.

"What's so funny?" Upton moved her chair over to her friend's desk. The smirk on his face every time he looked at the screen was giving him away.

"Nothing, it's just Kim."

"Just Kim, huh?"

"What?" He stopped scrolling through his computer and looked at Hailey for a second. "She's really funny."

"What's up with you two?"

"Nothing much. She's coming over for dinner next week"

"Adam, are you sure about that?"

"I am. I mean sometimes I stress over the fact that she might not be that into me, but I still wanna see what happens. Why?"

"I'm not so sure that this is a good idea."

Voight completely interrupted that chat when he came out of his office and sent Kevin and Adam out to check with him that address that he finally found, leaving Jay and Hailey alone.

"What was that all about?" Jay asked from his chair.

"What was what?"

"That whole conversation with Ruzek. It's not the first time you comment about him and this girl." This wasn't like him at all, so Hailey was having a hard time thinking that her fiancé was jealous.

She furrowed her brow as she directed her sight at him. "Jay, are you jealous?"

"Well you two used to date and you've been talking about this Kim person even at dinner with me. So yeah, maybe I am a bit jealous."

"First of all, you said it, we used to go out, past tense, not any more, and there is a reason for that, we just didn't work out like that. Now, I am engaged to you, because I love you and there's no one else in the world I'd rather be with. And us two, we work on every level.

That being said, you should know that I care about Adam, he's my friend and I want only the best for him. You know what he's going through and we both know how crappy his relationship decisions are."

"We'll but that's something that he needs to figure out."

"I know, but I will help him if I can." She sighed. "I just don't want to see him with a broken heart."

"That's sweet of you. But you should really let him see what happens, just like he said he wanted to do, and then if he ends up broken-hearted we'll be there to have his back."

"So I can't run a background check on her?"

"I don't think you should."

"Damn it! Why do you have to be my voice of reason?" She stood up and went to hug Jay and peck his lips. "I still want to meet her."

"We all do."

"Jay?"

"What?"

"I can't wait to be married to you."

"Neither can I."

"And we're all hoot to Molly's tonight."

"What for?"

"We're celebrating a new milestone in our relationship." Jay looked at her like he had no clue what she was talking about. "This was our first jealousy sort of fight thing." He rolled his eyes.

"I was not jealous. I said maybe I was." He tried to explain but he knew she was right.

"Ok tough guy, whatever you say."

Just as Hailey suggested they all went to Molly's that night, although Kevin and Adam had no clue the real reason for their outing. Come to think of it, they really didn't need to have a reason to unwind at the bar.

Once there, they all went to a table and in a matter of seconds Kevin was already making a move on Rojas, an officer from the district that he liked and had gone on a few dates with, while Jay and Hailey were kind of lost in their own world. They did their best to keep Adam included, but as soon as he saw the chance to go over to Hermann to get a refill he jumped at it.

"Ruzek! The man I wanted to see." It wasn't Hermann's voice that called him, but it was still familiar.

"Casey. What's up man?" He went over to Matt and fist bumped him.

"I was telling the guys about that call we had the other day, and they don't believe I helped you catch the guy that was running away."

"Your squad didn't believe you?" Adam teased.

"Most of the squad did. It's Cruz, Severide and especially this young lady here that are asking for evidence." He said as he pointed to the blonde next to him. "This is Sylvie, my girlfriend. Hun, this is Adam Ruzek from the CPD."

"Oh. You're Gracie's uncle." She perfectly knew who he was. But any further comment could eventually sell out her friend and she was not going to do that. Not in such an obvious manner anyway.

"I am. And you must be Kim's best friend." He answered as he extended his hand to greet her. She took it and nodded with a smile.

"That's me."

"Let me tell you something, as much as I would like to take all the credit for that arrest, I couldn't have done it without Matt." He said while looking attentively at her. "And you two shouldn't be doubting your captain like that." He looked at Cruz and Severide and they all shared a laugh.

They hung out together for a few more minutes, Adam telling them the rest of the story and the rest of them laughing and drinking, until Kelly and Joe went for a refill leaving Adam alone with Sylvie and Matt. He realized that Kim was totally right, Brett seemed a great girl and she was mad funny. It wasn't hard to picture both woman being best friends, but having Sylvie there just made him think about Kim and absentmindedly started to look for her in the crowd. He knew she wasn't there. At least he liked to believe that if she was in fact there he would have known or he would have seen her sooner.

"She's not here." The blonde interrupted his thoughts, confusing Matt a little.

"Who?" The detective asked playing dumb.

"Kim. That's who you're looking for, right?"

He was perplexed. Was he that obvious? "Umm. Have you ever considered being a detective?" All three of them laughed.

"We teachers develop our observation skills every single day my friend. Anyway, she didn't come tonight." Sylvie was gonna stop right there. Until she decided she wasn't. Maybe these two just needed a little, tiny push and she definitely volunteered to do it. "She's on a date." Adam lost the grin on his face immediately. Exactly what the blonde was expecting.

"Oh." He took the last pull from his beer bottle that was already warm and disgusting, but that felt way better than what he had just heard. "That's cool." The enthusiasm in his tone of voice had dropped to zero.

"Oh, I don't know. She wasn't that thrilled." The shine on his eyes was slowly coming back and Sylvie knew she had him right where she wanted him. "I kind of pushed her to do it."

He opened his eyes wide. "Really?"

"Yeah." He took a sip of her drink because she didn't want to say too much and spil everything she had accomplished so far.

"Maybe next time you can help me to get her to agree to go on a date with me." It took a lot of gut and the alcohol kicking in for him to admit that, let anole in front of Casey.

Sylvie looked at him with an accomplice smile. "I don't know, I'm gonna have to ask Matt to give me some references about you. I can't go around hooking my friend up with random guys." She said in a half joking half serious tone.

"Oh yeah, he's great. I think he's definitely Kim material." Casey finally intervened in his girlfriend's conversation.

"Well, then maybe I could consider helping you next time." She high fived Adam and then left a soft peck on her boyfriend's lips.

"I'm counting on you." Adam joked. "I'm gonna get another beer and head back with the guys." He nudged with his head over to the table where his friends were. "Great seeing you." He one arm hugged both of them

and headed over to get his drink.

"I thought you said Kim went to visit her sister." Casey asked still a bit confused about everything that had just happened.

"She did, but he didn't need to know that." Her mischievous eyes were glittering even in the dark lighting on the bar.

"What are you planning Syl?"

"I'm not sure yet. But this turned out to be good. Don't you think?"

"You're crazy and you are right." He closed the distance between them and caught her lips on his. "Wanna go home?"

"Yeah."